[Theater] Waitress (Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group) Review

We had actually watched the local staging of Waitress during its opening weekend thanks to an ARC promo but I guess things got way busier than expected since I somehow forgot to write about the experience. And given recent plans to cut down on my Geeky Guide blogging time I guess it's a good thing that I've been able to squeeze this review in.

It's interesting how this musical has gained such a strong following since its release given it's based on a movie that may not be all that well-known even for a movie junkie like me. But stranger things have happened - just look at the likes of Hairspray, which was also based on a rather obscure cult classic film and yet became a Broadway success.

This local production was definitely a lot of fun to watch and made for a lovely evening for me and Tobie. By the time this review comes out the show will be on its closing weekend and I can only hope that enough people got to enjoy the show when they had the chance.

[Books] Paddle Your Own Canoe Audible Review

It's far too easy to associate actors with the characters they portray on TV or in movies. It's not always logical nor is it necessarily fair to who they really are outside of their entertainment work. But it's pretty natural for the lines between reality and fiction to blur.

Paddle Your Own Canoe is a quirky little book that is part instruction manual and part memoir. But what it does end up showing is how Nick Offerman is very different from the character that he plays on Parks and Recreation, but at the same time he has a lot in common with him.

I'm glad that I went for the Audible version of this title since it meant hearing his distinct voice reading the book aloud. It's hard not to think of Nick as Ron Swanson, but both men are totally worth getting to know better.

[Geeky Guide] Taking A Breather

So I've been steadily writing reviews and other posts for The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything for over 9 years now and I'm starting to wonder if it's all still worth it. Blogging seems to be a bit of a more archaic web medium with more comment discussions happening on social media or more engagement with more dynamic content like podcasts and videos.

I don't think I'm quite done with the Geeky Guide just yet - I've poured too much time and effort into this blog over the years to just drop it so quickly. But I do recognize I need to reconsider how I want to utilize this site moving forward and whether or not I want to shift to other formats like podcasting or vlogging.

I'm also going to experiment with shifting my book reviews to places like Amazon or Goodreads, as they may have more value to independent authors there versus here on this site. We'll see how things go come 2019,  but for now expect more sporadic/infrequent updates starting December 2018.

[Books] Battletech: Shadows of War (Twilight of the Clans - Book 6) Review

Nipping at the heels of Sword and Fire comes Shadows of War that continues the story of Task Force Serpent in taking the Clan Smoke Jaguar homeworld of Huntress. The last book covered the final leg of the journey and their initial assault on the planet. This next book covers how hard it is to occupy a world, especially one belonging to the Smoke Jaguars.

This book is pretty brutal and continues singing from the song sheet that reinforces that war is terrible and is not a thing to be celebrated. And this book really goes out of its way to send this message along in almost every chapter as things seem to get worse and worse for everyone quite frankly - no one is spared.

So in some ways the book certainly fulfilled its goals in that regard, even if it felt a little heavy-handed in its approach. And it's not like the last book was all that triumphant in tone nor did it leave me with a lighter feeling of victory at the end. And that darker tone seems to permeate through this follow-up novel.

[TV] Homeland: Season 3 Review

It's been some time since we had watched the first two season of Homeland and for one reason or another we had tapered off watching during the third season. And it's not like the show was terrible enough to merit stopping but it can be a little tiring since it tends to weave narratives that rely on a lot of tension keeping you on edge over the course of the season.

This third season of Homeland felt like an odd little duck since we really threw some of the characters into very strange situations only to have things come together for a rather unusual climatic turn of events. I guess it sort of makes sense as a setup for the season that follows it but on its own the story ends up being a little odd.

Or maybe I'm getting a little tired of some of the drama that keeps happening over and over again. Sure it shows consistency in these matters in terms of how they respond to bad situations but at the same time it's also a little lazy. We can do better.

[Movies] Sicario (2015) Review

Tobie watches a bunch of movies without me and from time to time he recommends some of them for me in turn. Sicario was one of those movies but the title just seemed so alien to me and thus I never got around to it. To be fair, it wasn't a high priority thing to watch either - just something that he felt was worth watching should I find the time for it.

And so it was on another flight between home and Singapore that I was fortunate enough to encounter it in the plane's in-flight movie library along with the sequel that this movie had apparently merited. I needed to kill time with something and I wasn't too keen on watching a newer movie without Tobie around so this is the route I took.

The movie was surprisingly intense and the main limitation for me was how clear my airplane monitor was as it certainly blurred out some of the finer details of some of the scenes. Still, the movie made for an interesting narrative to get lost in for this particular journey.

[Videos] Aquaman Movie Trailers

It feels like there's been a distinct shift in tone between the first trailer for DC's Aquaman movie and its most recent one released over the weekend. The first one had already been pretty promising but on the whole it felt largely in tune with the Justice League movie in terms of tone and even overall (literal) color.


Aquaman - Official Trailer 1
The latest trailer is so much brighter and feels more like how Thor Ragnarok felt when it came out given it's modern adaptation of the classic Kirby style that had defined that comic book back in the day. They even included the often ridiculed orange Aquaman costume, albeit with a modern update to make it feel more awesome.


AQUAMAN - Final Trailer - in theaters December 21
Sure, part of the differences probably involve how more post production work has been completed and thus some of the more visually impressive scenes are now included as part of the trailer. Beyond that, it certainly feels that DC is really trying to pivot how their movies are represented and may just shake off the dark and gloomy tone that Zack Snyder had imposed on the earlier movies, much to their detriment.

Basically I'm saying that the trailers look great and very un-DC movie-like and that may be a great thing when the movie finally hits theaters in December. Of course for us in the Philippines it means that we'll probably see it in January given the theater lockdown that is the Metro Manila Film Festival.

[TV] She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Season 1 Review

It's pretty disappointing how just about any reboot or remake these days is almost automatically met with negative feedback on the internet mainly because it's different from what had come before. And to be fair, I was pretty skeptical of reboots as well when they first started coming out more frequently. but the fact that there are quite a number of great ones out there just tells you it's not all bad. A reboot can do a lot to refresh an older franchise in the same way that we accept when a comic book character comes back from the dead or has their history reset as part of a major crossover event.

So when I saw the first looks for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, I was actually pretty excited because I was liking the new spin on the character's look and feel and the overall tone of the show had a lot of potential. And things were even better than I had imagined once we actually started watching the show and got to experience the unique story that they had prepared for this show.

It's really a lot of fun.

[Books] Battletech: Sword and Fire (Twilight of the Clans - Book 5) Review

After the rather climactic events of The Hunters, the story of Task Force Serpent and their long range strike against the Smoke Jaguar homeworld of Huntress continues in Battletech: Sword and Fire. And yes, this is when the actual battles really happen versus the maneuvering and intrigue that defined the prior book in this part of the larger story.

But to be fair, if the story had just been about the battle for Huntress itself, then it wouldn't have been quite as intriguing. The complications introduced in the third book certain add more flavor to things here and provide additional challenges for the task force. Thus they enter battle with a few things already not in their favor with more threats on the horizon.

I had imagined that the battle for the homeworld would be quite the slugfest and I guess in a way I was both surprised and not at all disappointed in terms of how the book met those expectations. Clearly it was never meant to be an easy battle and this particular description of events really reminds everyone that war is not a good thing for anyone.

[Movies] Ocean's Eleven (2001) Review

My recent flights to Singapore helped me watch Ocean's 8, but of course that just reminded me that I had never watched the movie they kicked off this particular movie franchise. But we can't cover everything all at once and so I accepted watching the newer movie out of sequence and promised to double back when I had the chance.

So funnily it was during a subsequent flight that allowed me to finally watch the 2001 Ocean's Eleven to scratch that itch and to help me to better underhand all the references that the spinoff movie had been trying to hit. And man it's quite a list when you get down to it.

It was rather impressive how well the movie holds up despite the years as the heist itself was pretty solid. And they really did gather quite the interesting team to bring this movie to life and still juggled all these big name stars sufficiently well in order to still tell a good story.

[TV] Voltron: Legendary Defender - Season 6 Review

Over time I've grown to better appreciate the Netflix Voltron reboot series given it's many familiar aspects but also surprising narrative divergences. But I guess some of the best parts of the show involve old story concepts from the original show presented in surprising new ways that end up truly elevating the narrative. And I think we got to see some of that in this season of Voltron: Legendary Defender more than any other.

I'm still annoyed at the largely piecemeal fashion that the show had been released but it was driven by an honest desire to release Voltron content sooner rather than later. This season is pretty much the last of the half seasons that have resulted in pretty staggered storytelling before the big push to the end of the show as a whole.

[Books] Star Trek: Discovery - Desperate Hours Audible Review

I've been more cautious about purchasing the books associated with the various Star Trek shows mainly because they tend to play fast and loose with an overall continuity. In distinct contrast the Star Wars books have largely been in a fairly organized larger story that started the Expanded Universe and is now known as the Legends continuity.

But yet another Audible member sale came along and I ended up securing a copy of Star Trek: Discovery - After Hours, which is my first venture into written fiction based on the most recent Star Trek show. I wasn't sure what to expect and I didn't even bother to read the synopsis. I just got it since it was on sale.

And while it wasn't a bad story on its own, but how it factors into the larger continuity is a little tricky. It's positioned as a prequel but a key aspect of the story may not work well with the coming second season of the show. But who cares, it's just a book, right?

[Movies] Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Review

Netflix's content curation efforts does result in some odd movies showing up in the library. I've noticed an uptick of interesting award-winning features from a while back now being available for viewing. And so I find myself finally getting around to movies that I've been intending to see but have not made much effort into seeing for one reason or another.

Enter Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie that has a lot of good reviews but one that I've never really been all that eager to queue up for watching because I have very mixed feelings about the works of Jim Carrey. He's not a bad actor but he does end up in very odd projects (mainly his earlier comedic work) so that has dissuaded me from jumping at the bit to see any movie featuring him.

But this turned out to be a more interesting effort even if it wasn't quite something I'd say that I totally loved or overly enjoyed. But I am happy to have finally seen it.

[Books] Battletech: Freebirth (Twilight of the Clans - Book 4) Review

The Jade Phoenix Trilogy was an odd series of Battletech novels that focus on the triumphant rise of Aidan Pryde who died as a hero for Clan Jade Falcon despite his rather complicated journey to becoming a warrior. The key aspect of that story was how he had to masquerade as a freeborn warrior after circumstances had conspired against his perceived destiny with the clans.

What I had not been expecting to encounter the characters from those books in latter Battletech novels, but that is exactly what happened. And even with a lengthy event such as the Twilight of the Clans story arc, having different authors write different parts of the story also opened the door for their personal creations to join the story.

And that is how Star Captain Horse became a part of this larger story telling of the end of Clan Smoke Jaguar at the hands of the Inner Sphere. But as Horse is of Clan Jade Falcon, how his story ends up intersecting that of Clan Smoke Jaguar does make for a rather interesting diversion from things that was pretty intense.

[TV] Making a Murderer Review

Crime documentaries are a mixed bag and a lot of times they can feel a little sensationalist in terms of what they choose to emphasize. The worst ones have the overly elaborate reenactments that work to up the scare factor and make things more real somehow.

I wasn't sure what to make of Making a Murderer when I noticed it was being heavily promoted on Netflix. Admittedly I tend to focus on lighter documentary fare as end-of-work-day viewing and murder stories aren't quite as easy to get into. But I figured I might as well give this a go and was rather surprised at the story that they presented.

[TV] Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Season 1 Review

Tobie and I have yet to even try to get into the recent Riverdale TV series mainly because it's really not the genre of show that we'd appreciate. It's for similar reasons we stopped watching How to Get Away With Murder among other shows as we tend to favor stories of a different genre flavor.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was a not a show we expected to try watching but initial social media reactions were pretty strong and so we eventually checked it out. I suppose the old ABC TV show Sabrina the Teenage Witch also plays a factor in terms of potential expectation the light comedic tone of that show is worlds away from what this show endeavored to do.

[TV] Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Review

With documentary shows like Chef's Table and even copies of The Mind of a Chef in their content library, Netflix certainly helps scratch the food-related documentary itch. When I don't feel like diving into some highly involved drama series, I can trust Netflix to come up with delicious shots of food to celebrate and drool over.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is definitely more instructional and informative versus some of the other documentary shows on the platform and one of their original creations as well. More than just being about the celebration of food, this show is really an exploration of flavors and what makes our favorite dishes so delicious.

I appreciated the general mindset and approach in this series and what they tried to achieve. You can feel the literary drive behind it and how it influenced the narrations for the show. But there was also something somewhat lacking in the actual performance, that made the show fall just a wee bit flat.

[Books] Alien: Out of the Shadows Audible Review

My initial Audible focus on biographies has slowly shifted over their works of fiction with mixed results. But I will admit that I do enjoy the most are the Audible Originals that involve full cast productions that really take a story to the next level.

Alien: Out of the Shadows turned out to be a book that I had previously purchased as a Kindle title but had yet to get around to reading given my significant reading queue. But I'm still glad that I got this Audible title since it was quite the fun ride.

For the most part I had accepted that great audio dramas were the domain of Big Finish Production, whose works seem to costs an arm and a leg. But Audible is not only getting access to some of their titles but they've also been securing exclusive deals for their own original content with diverse talent.

[TV] Castlevania: Season 2 Review

I was not a big  Castlevania fan growing up. I knew of the game franchise and I had played one or two of them here and there but I never got all that invested in the franchise and its story. Despite that I got through the first season of Netflix's Castlevania animated series generally happy and now better informed of what makes the series so great.

This second season proved to be a lot harder to keep up with given the greater diversity of characters who just appear and don't exactly get properly introduced or fully explained, if you catch my meaning. A lot of stuff felt more like it relied on knowledge of the series to just keep up with the plot and that's not a great way to continue to draw in new fans to the franchise through a different medium like this.

Don't get me wrong, it still had its fun moments. But at the same time this franchise does bear a rather heavy weight because of all of its lore and backstory that has been developed in one way or another across the different games and other expanded media. It's a bit of a mess.

[Movies] Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Review

Biographical movies tend to be quite a mixed bag as there will always be a lot that can go wrong with such ventures. People will expect the movie to be accurate to history in many aspects and everyone will expect this or that part of the subject's life to get into the film, but you'll never make everyone happy. And there will always be more controversial parts to anyone's story that may or may not get "sufficient" coverage, whatever that may mean.

So Bohemian Rhapsody worried me given Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury is definitely a candidate for a celebrity who has been both celebrated and vilified by different people. And to have him as the subject of a movie was certainly inviting controversy and criticism.

Early press and initial reviews stressed that this is movie is about Queen as a band and not just Freddie Mercury. And in many ways, this made sense was totally a good way to go in telling this story. Sure a lot of Queen's story is inevitably Freddie's story, but as the movie stresses there's a lot more to their music than just one man.

[TV] The Punisher: Season 1 Review

The Netflix side of the Marvel Universe is a rather interesting one that has been slowing making efforts of fleshing out more of what we know to be the Marvel Knights - the heroes focused on street-level crime (mostly) in New York City. It makes for content that doesn't rely on heavy special effects and yet still loaded with very rich stories.

The Punisher was a sort of expected spin-off given his appearance in the second season of Daredevil as a sort of antagonist but later they had to work together in the end. Clearly reception to the character was strong enough to merit a series of his own despite his lack of involvement in the then-in-planning Defenders TV show.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this season as the Punisher hasn't exactly been the most fascinating Marvel character out there. He's definitely one of the comics I haven't read much of and thus I entered this series without a firm idea of which iteration of the character would appear here.

[TV] Stranger Things: Season 2 Review

I somehow missed out on writing a proper review for the second season of Stranger Things for one reason, but here we are more than a year later trying to catch up. It's with some regret that we haven't had a new season of the show just yet given the recent conclusion of Halloween for the year, but we haven't heard the last of our friends from Hawkins, Indiana.

This second season remains tied quite tightly to the first season in terms of its narrative and tries to answer a good number of questions we all had at the end of the first season. The larger problem of the Upside Down is one that wasn't exactly "solved" in the first season - it was merely something that our protagonists were able to stall and later escape. Not everyone survived the experience.

[Movies] Ocean's 8 (2018) Review

When you rely more on streaming services like Netflix for casual entertainment, that often means watching movies several years after their initial release. It's even slower than had we had access to the likes of HBO and other cable television providers who have better content deals for their creations.

But I got lucky with in-flight movie service lately since they also seem to have highly competitive movie deals given their very recent content library. But that also means ending up watching things that I wouldn't normally try to watch if only because it was there and what else is there to do on a regional flight, right?

And so we have Ocean's 8, the all-female cast sequel / soft reboot movie for a franchise I haven't really bothered to watch. But hey I was curious and I wanted to see what they would do with things. Plus isn't what these efforts supposed to be for? They're a way to get new viewers curious enough to look into the franchise as well.

[Books] The X-Files: Stolen Lives Audible Review

Continuing the story from The X-Files: Cold Cases, The X-Files: Stolen Lives has also received the full Audible full-cast audiobook treatment thus giving us a new venue for following the adventures of FBI agents Mulder and Scully.

These books continue to impress me since it takes a lot of work to put together a typical audiobook, what more a full cast reading that plays out more like a radio play. But it really does a lot for the overall experience and it certainly ups the quality level as well.

And once you go through of these typical narrator-driven audio books tend to pale in comparison. Especially for a book based on a popular TV franchise like this, you'll naturally want to hear all those familiar voices in order to really drive things home.