A Descent into Dullness

the Punisher s.1:  Not perfect, but thanks to Berenthal's Frank Castle and a strong supporting cast one of the better Marvel Netflix shows.  Though it doesn't have much connection to them.
the Many Faces of Ito:  Dull and slow moving with fairly unlikable leads.
Easy s.1:  Comedic anthology series set around various intertwined couples.  Low-key humor with a lot of talented character actors.

Boss Baby:  Maybe this movie is meant for young kids who identify with the lead character, who is a seven-year old who is jealous of a new baby brother.  Possibly slightly stupid younger kids, 'cause man is this movie dumb.  I regret every minute I wasted on this animated diaper load.

8/28-9/4
Swiss Army Man:  Started this very odd movie, but when Paul Dano started using his corpse buddy as a waterskin, I kind of had to tap out.

Arrow s.4: Neal McDonough's Demien Darhk is pure villainous joy.  Also John has a lousy brother, Felicity has a super-villain dad and Oliver has a son.  Plus John Constantine and Vixen.  Evil Magic Merc isn't the best flashback story, but its better than Hong Kong.


9/4-9/11
Bojack Horseman s.4: For Bojack this season has the most hopeful ending of the series.  I mean there are several romantic relationships that collapse, a drug overdose and some senior dementia.  And yet still the most upbeat ending in awhile.  Bonus: Potential new character that lets people type asexual axolotl.
Arrow s.5:  Prometheus isn't as fun as Dahrk was, but he is even more Evil Geniuser than previous main villains.  And a finale that brings back Nyssa, Merlyn, Slade AND Captain Boomerang.  And Laurel's Evil Twin!  And lastly Russian Bratva flashbacks with Dolph Londgren.

20th Century Women - good cast, barely there story, mildly funny, touching ending with a Where Did Everyone End Up.
Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust - best bit was probably the one involving puppy crucifixion.

Mr. Robot s.2 - less of a total head fuck than the first season (even with the reveal as to where Elliot actually was for half the season) but darker in some ways.  Grace Gummer was a great addition as FBI agent Dom.  Also more B.D. Wong as Whiterose.
Little Witch Academia s.1 - cute bit of anime fluff.

Fleabag s.1.  Phoebe Waller-Bridge's lead veers along from sympathetically tragic to frustratingly self-destructive.  And Waller-Bridge is charming enough to keep things just teetering on the more positive take.

F is For Family. s.2.  Opens with Frank still unemployed and the family dependent on wife Sue's not-Tupperware sales job.  Bill Burr and Laura Dern really sell the anger and love of the married couple and their hopes and crushing disappointments.  The characters and story arcs of the kids are good, but not as great.  As for the supporting cast stand-outs are Sam Rockwell as coked-up radio station manager Vic, T.J Miller's newspaper delivery middleman Randy and David Koechner adding more depth to the previous season's airline middle management Bob Pogo.

So missed a week due to being unable to actually find the comics shop's new location the first time. But made sure to bring the written down address the next time. So big pull of comics.

Paper Girls #13: Writer Brian K. Vaughn, Artist Cliff Chiang, Colors Matt Wilson, Letters + Design Jared K. Fletcher & Color flats Dee Cunniffe. Still more variations of time travel shenanigans.
Mighty Man #1: Story Erik Larsen, Art and colors Nikos Koutsis & Letters Ferran Delgado. Did not know anything about a new Dragon tie-in until seeing it at the store. Though it seems like another attempt at a Freak Force book, with new Mighty Man IV, Rapture II and Dart III to go with Super-Patriot, Barbaric, Horridus & Richochet.

ROM #8: Plot & script by Christos Gage & Chris Ryall, Pencils & inks by Paolo Villanelli, Colors by ALessandra Alexakis & Letters by Shawn Lee. G.I.Joe's Beachhead is still a doofus. Oh and Space Knight Orphion still just wants to cleanse the Earth and Space Knight Livia is torn between loyalty to her old boyfriend ROM and her Cleanse-the-Earth boss.
Jem and the Holograms #24 & #25: Written by Kelly Thompson, Art by Gisele Lagace, Colors by M. Victoria Robado & Letters by Shawn Lee. So the whole new drummer Raya vs. old drummer returning Shana is solved by just having Shana switch to playing bass in the band. So no drama there. Is drama from Jerrica letting her boyfriend know about Jem sorta being fake and about Synergy. Plus the reality crew trailing around for a scoop on Stormer (because the Misfits are doing a reality show in their mini-series). Oh and drama from the Stingers who are vacationing right next to the Holograms in Hawai'i. Such drama!

the Flintstones #10: Writer Mark Russell, Artist Steve Pugh, Colorist Chris Chuckry & Letterer Dave Sharpe. Vacuum Cleaner NOOOOOO! Truly he was the best of us.
Future Quest #11: Story Jeff Parker, Art Evan "Doc" Shaner, Colors Veronica Gandini & Letters ALW Studios' Dave Lanphear. Everyone teams-up to fight Omnikron. Space-Ghost & crew, the Herculoids, the Quests, Mightor, Frankenstein Jr, Birdman, the Impossibles, Deva, evil Dr. Zin. Everybody. FINALLY.

Lobster Johnson & the Pirate's Ghost #1: Story by Mike Mignola & John Arcudi, Art by Tonci Zonjic & Letters by Clem Robins. Man, I hadn't realized the ol' Lobster still hadn't finished off Boss Wald or his Henchman In White.

Giant Days #25: Created & written by John Allison, Pencils by Max Sarin, Inks by Liz Fleming, Colors by Whitney Cogar & Letters by Jim Campbell. Christmas with Susan's demi-seperated parents and her many, many older sisters.

This movie was a delight.  A beautiful stopmotion fairy tale.  Young story-teller Kubo ends up on a quest for magic mcguffins joined by Monkey the monkey and Beetle the cursed samurai.  Its also very melancholy despite a somewhat uplifting final battle solution.  A+ voice work.  I avoid 3d though so I don't know how much better or worse that version is.

How to Train Your Dragon 2:  More cool dragons and giant dragon fights and a sad death, but still not quite as good as the first.  But only by a little bit...

Blackthorn:  Nice little Western set in Bolivia, where a semi-retired Butch Cassidy lives and runs a ranch after letting the world thinks he died.  With Sam Shepard playing the older Cassidy and Jamie Lannister as flash back Cassidy...

Crows: Episode Zero:  I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I could barely tell the various characters apart in this.  Mostly because they had like three outfits and two haircuts spread between a dozen named roles.  Anyway the movie is about a "bad" high school where the students battle it out to determine who will be, basically, King of the Hill.  With the two main contenders being the rich son of a gangster and the poor but super-tough kid.  Good fight scenes, confusing story arcs...

I haven't done one of these in a while.  Which explains why so many movies.  Caught Million Dollar Arm in the theaters way back at the start of Summer.  Cute, formulaic Disney movie.  John Hamm is charming even when being a jack-ass.  And I like that they go looking for Indian cricket players to try and convert to baseball and get a pair of more general track and field types...

Also from the actual theater was the recent Dwayne Johnson Hercules.  Which reminded me more than a bit of his Scorpion King movie.  Together they make me wonder, if like Vin Diesel, Johnson also has an Awesome D&D Campaign I Really Want to Tell Everyone About...

Inside Llewyn Davis was wonderfully made, has some great folk music, great acting all round and a lead character I wanted to see die in an alley.  Fucking cat abandoner...

Blue is the Warmest Color is probably the first lesbian-centric romantic, coming-of-age movie that really earned its NC-17 rating.  I mean those were some seriously graphic and lengthy sex scenes.  Also looooooong movie...

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 wasn't as cute or charming as the original.  Still plenty of cuteness and food gags and charm.  Just not as much.  Also an actual villain rather than a more Person vs. Enviroment theme...

Earnest and Celestine is an adorabley sweet movie about a bear who wants to be a musician and not a lawyer and a mouse who wants to be an artist and not a lackey of the rodent dental industry.  And how they become best friends forever and ever...

Finally we've got the Lego Movie.  Which was not quite as Totally, Perfectlly Awesome as it was hyped.  But it comes dang close...

Mud: Matthew McConnaughey really excells at playing Southern weirdos.  Here he's an on-the-run dude living on a sandbar after killing the son of a local Big Shot.  And gets two teens to help him restore a boat and play messenger to his girlfriend.  Lot of good work from the whole cast outside of McConnaughey actually...

In a World:  Can the daughter of one of Voice Over's great voices break thru the Boy's Club of voice over-ing and bring back the "In a World" for movie trailers?  A cute and amusing relationship comedy, lifted a bit above the run of the mill by its gimmick...

Frozen:  An enjoyable, if middle of the pack, Disney movie.  Only two really memorable songs, "Let It Go" and the Troll-matchmaking song.  Though both those were very good.  Good voice-acting all around though the story was a bit thin.  Plus the whole "You, new boyfriend!  Be in charge while I go get my sister back" bit was just so dumb.  Yes it furthers the story for whats his face.  But Queen Elsa has been Queen for like a couple hours.  And their parents had died three years earlier.  Which means their regent had to have been standing like right fucking there.  Enh, that part just really bugs me...