discobala: July 2016

recycling this meme, though my post has arrived so late after that season ended

this post was supposed to be titled something along the lines of "Game of Thrones Withdrawal Remedy : a Top 5 shows to watch currently" or something of the sort, did a few drafts to my OneNote that comes with Win10, but of course, knowing Win10 and its' updates, I had a sneaky feeling my notes are someday going to be missing (in which it happened, once and this other time missed a few files as well but that's another story for another day) in which yes, it happened when I kinda need it today for this post.
No, I am a fan of Windows 10, but if I'd be held at gun-point, I'd only blurt that yeah, this Microsoft has its dark side in the latest OS where it ain't so cloud-friendly as it should be eh?

Fiend.

Anyway, as I'm supposed to turn in early tonight, I'll just re-title this list to "Kevin's 5 Shows That's Quite Worthwhile To Watch During These Dry Spell Til Year-End (Something Like That)"

As I've been following some of these faithfully, some has been /or relegated to those episodic(s)-that-I-accumulate-on-the-days-after-to-watch-when-I-really-have-time-to-spare ; phew! anyway, will add a few lines and at the moment as they are nearing their season finales' by this week and the next.

Oh, I've a few extras to the list added at the end. So here we go, by rank:

no caption for this one

5. Wayward Pines (2nd Season)

my 5 words or less : Child Pregnancy!

Fox's Wayward Pines was pretty much a runaway hit of 2015; thanks to the relatively fresh source material from the books of the same name (kinda, at least the first book eh?, which yeah, mental note to hunt the novels down as my Goodreads book challenge)

The first season had a great premise, a great hook halfway through the season (presented so well in that episode, though the uncanny feeling was already riding on from the end of the 1st episode anyway) right up til the end for that good twist in the end which had me looking forward for how the kids / 1st Generations would fare, etc

Of course, all we got from this season's get-go was a curve-ball that we are getting another protagonist that isn't Ben Burke; which is fine by me. However it gets, well, somewhat very predictable, and as much I tried to watch it somehow without nitpickin', and hoping for those good twist of yester-season; it's an okay piece of drama mostly, perhaps had too much expectation somehow?

No big twist in the middle of the season, as in no big surprise really, you kinda suspect it all along, but a point to note: last week's 9th episode was great, especially the story of Djimon Hounsou's CJ and his 'work' throughout the years. That was creepy similar to an idea/nightmare I had some months ago.

The season finale comes this Thursday

my IMDB score if I were to vote: 6.5/10

summary: for the fans of the series

*4. Marco Polo (Season 2) ~ binge

my 5 words or less: Malaysia (properly) Represented

This 2nd season is so much better than the first, imho, though at the time of writing, it feels, quite forgettable once you finished binge-ing on it. Fair to say, it is a nice series to binge on, and certainly not as loosely based on as the first season,(mayhap the 1 year hiatus kept the post-production in a better shape somehow?) as most scenes were much fluid and direction is pretty clear and well presented, of course the strength of Benedict Wong's Kublai Khan & Joan Chen's Chabi performances carried this series so well.
Well, the cast is pretty awesome as it had an ensemble of Asian actors (with some Chinese lineage) from different countries and imho doing great work in this; Brits Benedict Wong & Tom Wu, China's Joan Chen(i suppose she's American years ago?) & Zhu Zhu, Canada's Olivia Cheng, Singaporean Chin Han from Season 1, Aussie's Remy Hii & Uli L.... my favorite character the bastard Byamba, Korean Claudia Kim, American Rick Yune and of course, Michelle Yeoh
Added an asterisk as I decided to add binge-worthy series from Netflix to this list as extras; and I am too lazy to separate Marco Polo out of my initial top 5 list, so....
my IMDB score if I were to vote: 7.5/10
summary: much improved 2nd season, and do check out 2015's 1-shot episode "Hundred Eyes"

3. Feed The Beast (new)

my 5 words or less: Secret Sauce! & Pi-lar

Adapted from a Danish series, the pilot got me hooked as the quirky combo of David Schwimmer's (wow I spelled his name right on the first go) Tommy and Jim Sturgess' Dion as 2 best friend's and their supposed struggles to open an upscale restaurant in the Bronx (only read of the place, didn't know it is that ghetto of a place to not have a nice restaurant, poor Taskmaster, no place to wine and dine)

I've always liked watching Jim Sturgess, and combined it with some nice looking culinary bits it is a very entertaining show/ I remember a month or so ago I was looking forward to Wednesday's for a new episode, with its many restaurant opening 'struggles' which incidentally wasn't much portrayed as almost all of their problems are self-made and self-induced drama tbh. Cute and/or funny bits thrown in, but somehow it gets repetitive with the 2 main casts' clash in personality, priorities and trust. Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to tomorrow's (er 9th?) episode as it sets in motion of what could probable happen to the mobster and detective with Dion (and most definitely involves Tommy) caught in the middle

my IMDB score if I were to vote: 8/10

summary: enjoyable, great supporting act from Carmine Falcone from Gotham as Tommy's dad, and Mrs Eli Roth as Tommy's love interest/restaurant manager Pilar

2. Braindead (new)

my 5 words or less: Bug man, bug people
New series starring ~~Ramona Flowers~~ Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Tony Shalhoub which caught me by surprise as I look forward to Mondays these 1-2 months (since both my #1 & #2 are aired on Sundays)

I've never been that keen on political shows (well, maybe there's this other more famous one with Kevin Spacey) and about politics of another country even; but Braindead is an enjoyable 45mins as its' satirical take on US politics combined with comedic sci-fi drama strikes a good balance in a show; or at least to my liking.

my IMDB score if I were to vote: 9/10

summary: instead of the usual "PREVIOUSLY, on **** ****"; its opening recap is done as a song, quirky song.

1. Preacher (new)

my 5 words or less: bloody gruesome murder joyride

Adapted from Garth Ennis' popular comicbook series, Preacher has been a must-watch these 2 months. I've only read a few issues here and there in the past and that totally felt like another lifetime indeed in a small town, and watching this adaptation is practically a new experience. I suppose some elements aren't exactly the same as the source material, but this is a fun series to wait for come Monday. Great performance from the cast; Ruth Negga as Tulip is brilliant as always no harm done in changing the character's ethnicity, of course Dominic Cooper, and Joseph Gilgun as Irish vampire Cassidy, with the occasional appearance of Jackie Earle Haley as Mr Quincannon. I've since developed a liking to the 2 (idiotic) Adephi angels. I am sure we are in for something in the season finale with the probable introduction of The Saint of Killers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BONUS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bonus list of series to binge on (plus 1 returning weekly series, not ranked as I have yet to watch it)

*Stranger Things (new)

Netflix' latest offering is a sci-fi mystery set in the 80s about some disappearance or some sort, the trailer looks dead good, and yeah, will most definitely watch it when time permits.

*Mr.Robot (2nd Season)

I missed the first season and it was on my to-watch-when-I-do-remember-to-look-for-it-list/folder since; but I suppose with a few recommendations and rave reviews that I gathered, I should really watch it, no? Maybe when I could find my 25th hour?

no pic of Mr.Robot, so here's Earl of Lemongrab in The Lemon Shriek/Scream

*Voltron: Legendary Defender (new)

New Voltron animated series from Netflix the previous month. I've only watched the 1st Generation of said series when I was little, and watching this new one, well yeah it was pretty good I suppose, it was a swell feeling when the lions finally form-up. It is also a nice to hear ~~Finn~~ Jeremy Shada voice work here, as is it was hard to discern Steven Yeun's Glenn Rhee too.

Well, October is just another 2 months or so to go for the likes of CW's DC superheroes to return, (and Marvel's Luke Cage on Netflix wooo!) but I suppose as replacement we are drawing closer to the final 2 superhero movie of 2016 first.

Besides, we can always read Marvel's comic event of the year (which is building up goddam awesome!) Civil War II

16 days since the last post, oh my, time does not wait for weblog posts, eh?
Aside from being busy prepping Dad's sermon slides next week; I certainly can't figure out what was I up to in these 2 weeks at this recalling moment in the dead of the night. I know I did compose a few posts in my mind's eye; and even a few new snippets lying about in the Drafts folder; oh yes, Mom's birthday I suppose I spent about 2 days (3 days now that I remembered) conceptualizing and picking and editing the final birthday e-card for her. Yes, it is somewhat strange since I am currently back home living with them now and I am still doing a card, electronic or otherwise., but I reason I wanted to showcase my other skillset anyhow, in short. Yeah, got a pretty good response luckily; I reckon, since I did another card on her behalf to thank her handful of well-wishers on the fly (me, doing the latter e-card on the fly, not the former)
Oh yes, since it also encompassed Hari Raya, I used another day or half on creating my series of facebook images for my fb pages. Well, this round was a bit of a cheat on my part, I kinda recycled the same image though with different messages to differing audiences/pages. Yeah, didn't get much sleep during the final few games of Euro 2016 anyway, with the 3am kick-off; (and virtually tip-toeing back home by 5ish hoping to not bump into Dad; both jobless sons scurrying back in the wee of the morning)

no rendangs for me this year, yet again / somehow Portugal won, as if I predicted it, I mean I was cheering them on the final match anyway....

but it didn't end there though, somehow along the lines last weekend; I had the brilliant idea to decide to binge on the 2nd season of Marco Polo; of course, with 10 episodes; I had to search for Season 1 again (yeah that old season which I didn't manage to watch was unfortunately in the other notebook...which, what was its' name again?) and quasi-binge on it.

Hmm, this post was supposed to be about Game of Thrones Withdrawal Syndrome & Remedy,