House Wars V: The Flood

After so many years of everything going ok (well, other than a few trees growing from my rooftop gutter) this was a new one for me. My wife woke me up an hour or so after we went to bed because "it's flooding" and sure enough, a hose under one of the sinks had corroded to the point that (hot) water was gushing out and had reached at least half of our house, including some bits with carpet!

Had to turn off the water main to the house then spent that night mopping and toweling everything off, followed by spreading boxes and boxes of Bi-carb over the wet carpet, having fans going and putting dehumidifiers everywhere. It's all back to normal now and hopefully we caught that in time to prevent mold. Not sure how we'd be able to tell, (I'm guessing there'd be a mold smell?) but whatever.

However we've just undertaken a project that's revealed a second flood, not of water but of stuff that we've just accumulated over the years. Going through a major de-cluttering exercise now and I'm surprised at the amount of junk coming out that we can donate and/or throw. Apparently I am a hoarder of papers which is annoying because they are the least satisfying to clean out. On the positive side, I've been getting rid of clothes that are too big for me now because for a change I've lost weight (around 16 kg). Amazing what cutting down on carbs can do.

Zero Day and Paradise

Series that involve presidential action.

Zero Day

After a cyber attack causes chaos and disaster all across the USA, former president Mullen (played by Robert De Niro) is made lead investigator and put in charge of a newly formed goverment group that can freely trample the people's freedoms to find the culprit. It's certainly an interesting chase, made more challenging given Mullen's slowly losing his mind. With only six episodes it's worth a watch, but man do I hate that "Who killed Bambi" song that keeps playing in every episode.

Paradise

This so far one season series follows a lead secret service security agent (played by Sterling K. Brown) whose life gets much more complicated when the president he's supposed to protect is murdered! With powerful people pulling the strings he's not sure who to trust. Good story with interesting hooks per episode that will make you want to watch the next one. Especially as there's only eight episodes currently its a recommended one to binge watch. :)

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and Bogota: City of the Lost

Movies with ... colons in the title?

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep

This animated film follows everyone's favorite Witcher, Geralt as he gets embroiled in basically a much darker version of the Little Mermaid. Sorry, the parallels are just too obvious! That said it has a good deal of violence, adult themes and an important Witcher spin on the whole thing that keeps it interesting. While the animation is ok, too much spinning can be found in Geralt's depicted combat style. Not bad but I'd recommend this only to Witcher fans, especially the game version of the Witcher since its the same voice actor.

Bogota: City of the Lost

En route to the USA, a Korean family is robbed of their money and travel documents in Bogota and they are forced to live there. Wishing for a better life the son decides to get involved with petty smuggling and working his way up the crime chain because this is one of those movies where crime pays. Outside the interesting Colombian environment this is a pretty stock standard and mostly predictable crime flick with backstabbing aplenty. Not terrible but not great either.

Silo and 3%

TV Series set after a cataclysm.

Silo

Ten thousand people live in an underground silo and they don't know why, or for how long, or much of anything really - and that is the main initial hook of this sci-fi show: watching how these micro-managed citizens deal with finding out truths of their existence. Very cool ideas, setting, world building and story but for some viewers (like myself) there might be a few "supply" issues that may never be addressed. Still one I'm a fan of and am eagerly awaiting season 3!

3%

In this four season Brazilian series everyone lives in a literal hole of poverty but every year, all 20 year olds have an opportunity to take "the Process" to prove they are the best of the crop and the top 3% will be taken away to live on an island paradise. This way of life has both made a church that worships the 3% "gods" and a rebellion that feels it isn't fair to everyone else for so few to have so much. A very cool idea with excellent characters and character growth only marred by clear budget constraints on their CGI effects (oh, and a few very silly scenes that need to be viewed for best "enjoyment"). If you can look past those, then this is a very entertaining series to watch.

Cobra Kai and Golden Kamuy 2

TV series that follow movies.

Cobra Kai

Set around thirty years after The Karate Kid, this show follows depressed alcoholic Johnny Lawrence (again played by William Zabka, antagonist from the film) as he tries start up Cobra Kai again, much to the dismay of his rival Daniel LaRusso (again played by Ralph Macchio) of Miyagi-do. While a lot of time is spent on the teen students of the various dojos the main heart of this series is the dynamic between this pair which makes for some excellent TV. As a bonus - yeah, the karate is ok too. 

My wife and I don't really remember the movies much but all the cameos and quick flash backs to them are super cool. Best of all, the story is completely wrapped up in Season Six which makes this a very binge worthy candidate if you haven't already seen it (and you don't need to have seen any of the movies to understand it). Big thumbs up, recommended!

Golden Kamuy 2

I ended my review Golden Kamuy by saying "Don't bother watching it until there's a Golden Kamuy 2", and lo and behold - here it is: a series directly taking place after the movie where our protagonists race to get all the pieces of a treasure map that's tattooed ON people! There are still some nice action sequences and a high frequency of bears but its like the writer gets distracted a lot and goes on tangents about cooking and the life style in that period (which for me is fascinating) but if you aren't a fan of Japanese style comedy this might be lost on you. 

For example, there's a killer who always gets a hard on after killing and they make sure the viewer knows about it in hilarious ways. Let's just say if you managed to make it through the movie then maybe this one is for you. We'll be waiting for season 2!

Behind the Frame and Them's Fightin' Herds

Games with excellent animation.

Behind the Frame

This very short and relaxed game is all about painting and puzzle solving. Despite the "painting by numbers" portions that let you brush paint everywhere, the art is really good with its anime style. Thankfully the puzzles are pretty easy to let you focus on the excellent story which will put a knife in your feels I enjoyed very much. Highly recommended, if you enjoy something that is more of a narrative than mechanics.

Them's Fightin' Herds

It's is like Streetfighter for My Little Pony, but the smooth animation and cute critters are very well done! There's also a story mode that plays a bit like an RPG Maker game interspersed with both jumping puzzle and (many) combat segments which is pretty cool, but the difficulty ramps up rather quickly and boss fights become a chore. It's a different one, that's for sure.

Annihilation and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Movies about getting wiped out.

Annihilation

In this sci-fi horror, a biology professor (Natalie Portman) volunteers to be part of a team of scientists (who apparently are also all firearms trained) to investigate an alien shimmering zone that is slowly expanding from a meteor crash site. Inside is much prettier than Stalker's zone of exclusion, but pretty much just as bad. Big thumbs up to the set design and digital stage creators for making an awesome visual display, but the actors rarely were looking at the right thing and the plot is predictable. I thought these people were meant to be smart? Only recommended for Natalie Portman fans.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Talking about predictable plots... LOL. Prior to most of the other Transformer movies, a plot device was hidden away on Earth by time traveling giant robotic animals (Maximals) but of course bad robots are after said key and this gets Optimus Prime and his crew involved. As well as some broke dude who decides a life of crime is the only way to get money because there needed to be some human involved right? Alas outside of the impressive CGI, there's nothing really new here outside of adding more characters that the writers are generally too afraid to kill ("someone needs to think of the -children- fans!"). Would it be a better movie with a higher death count? Yes. All of them would be. Recommended only for Transformers fans.