I haven’t been reading as many new books as I’d like. Mostly just making my way through Richard Stark’s Parker novels and rereading Miracleman, before diving into Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham’s continuation of the series. But I have been watching a decent chunk of stuff on streaming.
Atlanta’s new season is great, though season three remains my favourite so far, and What We Do in the Shadows’ fourth season was good fun, maintaining the standard set by its predecessors.
Reservation Dogs’ second season, however, is leaps and bounds better than its first – and that first season was already excellent. I really enjoyed the further exploration of the four main characters, but the stand-out for me was the episode that focused on Cheese and the reason behind his efforts to bring more empathy to the people around him. That season finale was beautiful too and, of course, left me in tears.
My biggest surprise though has to be Andor. I’ve tried to steer clear of talking about television shows and movies from bigger franchises because they get enough attention as it is, but this show balances aspects of the universe in which it’s set with its own identity so perfectly, that I had to at least acknowledge it. It’s very much a Tony Gilroy show – at least the Tony Gilroy I know from the Bourne series – from the exploration of the grey areas on every side of a war to the juggling of multiple characters’ stories and motivations within that war. Also, holy shit, as solid as Diego Luna is, Andy Serkis and Stellan Skarsgård’s performances in episode ten were goddamn phenomenal.
(I’ll be getting to Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities next.)
Wayne Rée 