For half a season in 2023 we had a Flip the Bird in Salem (at a convenient walking location too), but that closed down.  Boooo! Oh well. Looking forward to the Birdie Mac this year.

There's a lot of hate about this film online, even before it dropped on Paramount+.  The familiar chorus of "It's not Star Trek" or "This isn't Star Trek, where's the optimism" was audible through the comments...which I have started to ignore anyway.  Listen, the film does have some issues, but it's a good first attempt at this concept. I don't buy the argument that because the federation was built on optimism and idealistic values that it negates the existence (or even the need?) for three-letter agencies like Section 31. As misguided as some of the things done by three-letter agencies are, the broader population is largely ignorant of them.

Section 31 also brings to life Tim Russ' concept that is presented in Star Trek: Renegades, in its own way, so it's interesting to see a FanFilm concept given space on the big (and official) screen.

Anyway - about this film.  When we last saw Emperor Georgiou, she was leaving Discovery to join up with Section 31.  At the beginning of this film, we see that Section 31 is hunting her (ha!) because she escaped, presumably because she was bored. The core idea is that an ion disturbance is bringing mirror universe people over to the prime universe, with the intent of conquering and pillaging things here because the mirror universe is f*cked. I saw this as an allegory for climate change and the pillaging of nature more broadly.  Anyway, a figure from Georgiou's past shows up, and this is a useful mechanism to explore a bit of Georgiou's f*cked up upbringing and how she evolved as an emperor of the Terran empire.

All this is perfectly fine and it would make an awesome season of Star Trek. I think the overall problem with this movie is the pacing. They took a story that needed a season's worth of raw materials and story, placed it in a 10-episode crockpot and left to simmer and develop its flavor. By compacting it into 90 minutes you really didn't get any of the spice and seasoning to seep in. You got a slightly overcooked burger and fries.  Now, I did enjoy the Mission: Impossible (or Suicide Squad) vibe of the movie, but I think the characters really needed more room to breathe and be explored (like, why tf did that microscopic alien choose an Irish accent? for a Vulcan body!).

The movie is worth a watch, but I think it needed more.

 And...here's my TVTime Year In Review, which they call a Rewind (do people get the reference anymore? 😅).

I am not surprised that my first tracked viewing was Googlebox UK, there is usually some Christmas or New Year's special that's available on Channel 4.  I am also not surprised at the "Drama Devotee" style of watching because last year I spent a lot of time binging all the various CSIs from the past decade. I am only 4-5 more episodes short of CSI: Miami to have watched all of the shows.   The final season is really off the rails.

I am surprised that May had more viewings that usual, but I think I skewed my stats by marking a number  of shows viewed in total (like Beetlejuice the animated series).  I wish the app had a "watched it just now" (or re-watched it just now), and "marked as watched" without time stamping it as watched now.  I mark some shows as watched even though I watched them ages ago (before there was an app for that).

Another quick binge near the end of 2024. This one is Agatha All Along, on Disney+. The idea behind this series is that three years after being trapped under a magical spell in the town of Westview, New Jersey (at the end of WandaVision), the witch Agatha Harkness escapes with the help of a mysterious teenager who wishes to face the trials of the legendary Witches' Road. Without her magical powers, Agatha and the teen form a new coven of witches to face the trials while contending with some of Agatha's old enemies.

Throughout the trials (four of them?) we get to know a bit more about the background of Agatha. And, if the trials weren't enough, the Salem Seven are one step behind this new coven.

I guess I should have watched this in October as part of my Witchy Binge, but oh well, December was OK too ;-). I feel like I need to rewatch this series when I am a bit more awake.  Watching this when I am about ready to go to bed, I feel like I missed a lot of plot points. I got the general gist of things, but I probably dozed off near the end (sort of like I have multiple times with the original Beetlejuice).

I gotta say, I like the idea of a self-contained mini-series. I like getting more in-universe lore without the expectation that there will be subsequent seasons with filler materials.

2024 saw the final hoorah for the Arrowverse with the end of Superman & Lois. With this finale, we ended the10 year arc of the Arrowverse, or 23 years of broadcast TV DC Universe if you count Smallville since Superman & Lois is a bookend to the Smallville series which started in 2001.

Anywho... Superman & Lois is actually one of those parallel universe shows which was initiated by the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event in the Arrowverse.  It follows Clark and Lois, and their two boys, who move back to Smallville. Clark loses his job at the Daily Planet, due to mergers and consolidations in the paper industry. His mother also dies, so while back in Smallville for the funeral they decide to stay and make that their new home.

The series seems to be all about discovery.  The kids discover that their dad is Superman, and then they discover that they also have powers, so Clark needs to train them. It's about discovering the humanity (even in the series baddies), and also letting the world know who you really are (spoiler alert: Superman tells the world he's Clark). It's also about dealing with life's ups and down, and stuff that you really can't use any superpower against (like personal illness, which I think comes in for season 2). I liked  Chad L. Coleman and Michael Cudlitz as two major bad guys in the series, and I think that Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch did a fantastic job as Clark and Lois.

Without spoiling the end, the last 10 minutes gave all the feels...you have been forewarned. Easily a 9/10.  It could have had more seasons, but it went out with a good finale.

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Anyway, I started playing the New Colossus, when I realized that it was a sequel to The New Order, so I went back to this, only to realize that I had played it back in the XBOX 360 era... Since I was about a third of the way through the game, I thought I would just finish it so I could get the entire story fresh in my mind before I switched gears to play The New Order.

Plot summary from Wikipedia:

In July 1946, Blazkowicz and his comrades take part in an air raid against a fortress and weapons laboratory run by Deathshead but are captured and brought to a human experimentation laboratory. Blazkowicz escapes from the laboratory's emergency incinerator, although he is severely injured. He is admitted to a Polish psychiatric asylum where he remains in a catatonic state. In 1960, the Nazi regime orders the asylum to be "shut down" and executes Anya's parents when they resist. Blazkowicz awakens from his vegetative state and eliminates the extermination squad before escaping with Anya. Blazkowicz and Anya drive to her grandparents' farm, where they inform him that the Nazis had defeated the United States in 1948 and that the members of the ensuing anti-Nazi Resistance have been captured. Blazkowicz interrogates a captured officer from the asylum, learning that the top members of the Resistance are imprisoned in Berlin's Eisenwald Prison. Anya's grandparents smuggle her and Blazkowicz through a checkpoint in Stettin before they travel to Berlin. During the train ride, Blazkowicz encounters Frau Engel for the first time. When they arrive, Anya helps Blazkowicz break into Eisenwald Prison, where he rescues the person he spared fourteen years prior (Fergus or Wyatt) and finds that the Resistance movement is led by Caroline, who was left paralyzed due to an incident at Isenstadt in 2009's Wolfenstein.

The Resistance executes an attack on a Nazi research facility in London, bombing their operations base, and stealing secret documents and prototype stealth helicopters. The documents reveal the Nazis are relying on reverse-engineered technology derived from the Da'at Yichud, which created such inventions as energy weapons, computer artificial intelligence, and super concrete; however, it is revealed that someone is tampering with the super concrete's formula, making it susceptible to mold deterioration. The Resistance discovers a match with Set, who is imprisoned in Camp Belica. Blazkowicz agrees to go undercover inside Camp Belica and meets Set, who tells him that the Nazis have co-opted Da'at Yichud technology to mass-produce and control robots, and offers to help the Resistance in return for the destruction of the camp. Blazkowicz finds a battery for a device that controls Camp Belica's robots, which he and Set then use to incapacitate Engel, destroy the camp, and liberate its prisoners.

Set reveals that the Nazis' discovery of one of the Da'at Yichud caches, which included advanced technology centuries ahead of its time, allowed Germany to surpass the Allies in military might. Set agrees to assist the Resistance by revealing the location of one such cache but states that the Resistance requires a U-boat to access it.[19] Blazkowicz obtains a U-boat but discovers that it is the flagship of the Nazis' submarine fleet, and is equipped with a cannon designed to fire nuclear warheads, which requires keycodes from the Nazi lunar research facility to operate.[20] Blazkowicz uses the Spindly Torque—a Da'at Yichud spherical device capable of destroying super concrete—to steal the identity of a Nazi lunar scientist and infiltrate the Lunar Base. He succeeds at obtaining the keycodes, but upon returning to Earth, he discovers that Engel has mounted an assault on the Resistance base, capturing some of its members on behalf of Deathshead.

The Resistance use the Spindly Torque to break open Deathshead's compound. After liberating the compound's captives, Blazkowicz travels to the top of the tower, where Deathshead's workshop is located. Inside, Deathshead reveals to Blazkowicz that he possesses the preserved brain of the soldier Blazkowicz chose to die, putting it in a robot. The robot comes alive and assaults Blazkowicz, who defeats it, destroys the brain, and puts his friend to rest. Commandeering a larger robot mecha, Deathshead attacks Blazkowicz, who gets the upper hand and destroys the robot. He drags Deathshead out of the wreckage and attacks him, who pulls out and arms a grenade which kills himself and gravely wounds Blazkowicz. As he crawls towards a window, Blazkowicz mentally recites "The New Colossus" as he watches the Resistance survivors board a helicopter. Believing they have reached safety, Blazkowicz gives instructions to fire the nuclear cannon. After the credits, a helicopter is heard approaching.

Overall thoughts:

Obviously, I'd play this again...because I did! I really like this game and the story didn't feel repetitive. I had obviously forgotten some bits and pieces of the story over the years, and I feel like, from a story-telling perspective, that it was worth the replay. I wish I had remembered to take a nap every time I went to the safehouse because that seems to be the way to permanently incrementally increase your overall health.  The choice of who to save (Fergus or Wyatt) was the same across both attempts: Fergus.  I wonder what my choice would have been had I not associated Fergus with Simon Pegg😹 (the actual voice actor for Fergus is Gideon Emery).  As much as I liked the replay, I would not keep playing to unlock all the combat options.  I eventually got tired of trying to get the various dual-wield, slide, headshot kills (etc.), and opted for a straight up "don't disturb the horner's nest" approach (aka stealth), but if push comes to shove blow it all up.

My big "aha!" while playing this game is that my gaming style has changed a lot over the years.  I used to hate stealth games. I remember playing Splinter Cell and not liking having to sneak around (preferring a "blast everything" approach), but in this game I saw that my gaming style had totally shifted. Better to work in the shadows than be out in the open.

Overall Stats from the Xbox dashboard:

• Gamerscore: 400/1000
• Achievements: 19/50
• Commander kills: 43
• Steal Kills: 60
• Dual-Wielding Kills: 64
• Total Kills: 929
• Hours played: 16

Trailer