Severance is actually pretty good. Pirate that shit and go in knowing nothing.
I recently watched all of The Bear and was blown away by how good it was. The writing, acting and directing are all on another level. It's a very intense show at times, partially because of how it depicts the chaos and stress of a restaurant kitchen and also because of its heavy subject matter (generational trauma, drug abuse, mental illness, other themes that would need CWs), but its also extremely funny when it wants to be, so much so that its categorized as a comedy at the Emmys which I only somewhat agree with. An emotional roller coaster for sure but its phenomenally well made.
For some reason I just couldn't continue watching it. It was so boring for me. The acting is good, but the story was just not doing it for me.
I think you gotta be at least a little bit into mumblecore to be into the Bear. It's mostly just characters living their lives with some loose plotlines to keep it moving.
I really liked The Wild Robot
It might be a little cliche in terms of it being about a robot that learns to love, but it's beautiful and has some of the best voice acting in an animated movie
I actually cried a couple of times watching it
I saw that on Hextube! Good animation, solid story even if I complained about the law of the jungle stuff
I'm actually enjoying The Penguin well enough. I know it's technically capeshit, but it's really more just a fun gangster story that happens to be set in the Batman world.
Watching Scavengers' Reign, and I think it's one of the best animated series ever made, particularly in the west. I love all the creatures.
I've enjoyed Penguin too, despite some hammy genre tropes and going into it prepared for disappointment. I keep forgetting that it's Colin Farrell under prosthetics. I just watched him in Sugar recently and still had to double check he was actually in the role when the first ep started. Anyway, I decided I was sold on it when
music spoiler
"Me and the Devil"
played during the outro of this week's episode, what a banger. Same as the episode of Sugar that played
music spoiler
"Da Funk" lol
The new Batman cartoon is pretty good too, but honestly I still think the 90s one is better. Dunno if it's just nostalgia, because that has plenty of dud episodes, but the whole aesthetic is better to me.
So far The Penguin has just made me want to rewatch The Sopranos
I can understand that. At best, The Penguin is just a crowd pleasing example of the kind of story that The Sopranos deconstructed, or the show that some of the dumber Sopranos watchers hoped it was going to be.
It's six years old, but The Haunting of Hill House is great. It's good horror in its own right, but also uses horror to explore family and childhood in an interesting way.
Because of the alliterative name, I kept getting the nouns in this show mixed up. It is very spooky though.
I liked White Lotus, S1&S2, good stories. Six one hour episodes per season. Interesting because the two seasons were shot in different, but both beautiful locations and with mostly different casts. I got it from the library on DVD. HBO production.
S3 is in production now I understand.
White Lotus is such a cool show, can't wait for season 3
I enjoyed Chicken Run Dawn of the Nugget, that was pretty recent. Not as good as the first, but few things are. Alien: Romulus too. Third best Alien movie imo
Omg yes I totally forgot about Alien: Romulus! I think it does the Alien formula very well, although it was a bit derivative at times. The final act was the best part and totally SCUM coded. I've seen Alien 1 & 2 and I think it had the strongest or at least most interesting feminist message.
I enjoyed most of Alien: Romulus. The fanservice was often annoying, and the low points aren't amazing, but the high points are so so high.
I'm looking forward to watching again sometime, I think it'll be a movie I enjoy more the second time.
Reservation Dogs
Metallic Rouge
Its politics are a solid B so for anime that's basically a once in a decade gem.
Bocchi the Rock is a fun anime that I like but I think it's like 2 years old so maybe not recent enough.
Also liked Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. Gay, dramatic, kind of libbed up.
The Substance is still in theaters. Would recommend it if you can handle body horror. The third act is especially hard to watch. It's about a lot of things (aging, capitalism, patriarchy, plurality, etc.). Hexbears should enjoy it.
Look Back is a really sad and really good anime film that got a limited release in NA theaters recently.
People's Joker is kind of new? Most trans people seem to like it.
Sorry, I don't watch much live action TV.
These are all good picks
The Substance is still in theaters. Would recommend it if you can handle body horror. The third act is especially hard to watch. It's about a lot of things (aging, capitalism, patriarchy, plurality, etc.). Hexbears should enjoy it.
This is one I really want to see but I know will upset me too much if I watch it.
I Saw The TV Glow is excellent if you haven't seen it yet, but it's emotionally a bit heavy just to warn.
The People's Joker was another great recent trans themed movie that was pretty fun.
I'm also not big on superhero films, but I thought both of the Spiderverse films that came out were surprisingly good.
Also for a very recent show, I watched the first two episodes of Uzumaki (the new version) this weekend and it was VERY well done in my opinion, especially compared to other Junji Ito adaptations which are all pretty meh. Only watch if you're into horror though, because this is pretty creepy.
And speaking of anime, Sonny Boy isn't too old and I really liked that. It's very surreal and maybe a little hard to follow at times but it's good overall.
Also you should absolutely watch Bocchi the Rock if you somehow haven't seen that yet.
EDIT: I almost forgot, I thought Godzilla Minus One was pretty great. I suspect you've seen it already but if not, you should watch it.
I'm sure the resident big monster movie enjoyer has already seen the Godzilla
Hell yeah Minus One is fantastic
Star Trek Lower Decks is about to start its fifth and final season in a couple weeks and it's a strong contender for best Trek series of all time.
The Bear is dynamite, and Slow Horses is great! Though Slow Horses has been giving me weird dreams all week, so maybe don’t binge it
I was surprised at how much I liked Transformers One, and Cobra Kai has been one of my favorite shows of the last few years despite its problematic elements (it helps that it doesn't take itself too seriously).
They may be slop but I enjoy them
Cobra Kai is so much better than it deserves to be lmao
KAOS was very good. Really solid cast - Jeff Goldblum as a paranoid tyrannical Zeus, Suzy Izzard as one of the Fates (who are all great).
...however, it's yet another Netflix cancellation after 1 season.
I'm a Virgo is fire.
Seconding Reservation Dogs.
Damnation if you can find a copy.
If you're an
fan, the Max specials and the Fiona And Cake series are amazeballs.If you like sillyness. Check out Taskmaster. It's a UK show where comedians make asses out of themselves doing silly tasks. There's a bunch of international versions too. Don't watch the US one. It's a huge disappointment.
Bob's Burgers is great!
Helluva Boss/ Hazbin Hotel, both awesome.
Our Flag Means Death was enjoyable.
Good Lord Bird isn't the greatest depiction of John Brown but it's the only one on TV.
The Expanse was great. Anarcho polycules was my jam.
idk, I've only seen bad ones :(
Not that new but there’s a weird French sci fi starring Lea Seydoux called The Beast that was released last year which is pretty good. In an AI controlled future it’s discovered that karma/re-incarnation is basically real and you can experience your past lives and thus free yourself of present trauma, but the ‘operation’ results in people that are rebotic and emotionless themselves. It’s a kind of strange love story.
I did enjoy Carnival Row, grimdark old timey fantasy show. Just as long as you ignore the "communism bad" that's leveraged in at a couple of point apropos of nothing.
