My Favorite Things This Week #112
🖐 The Friday High 5: Quirky Murders, Graphic Self-Help, and Tolkien-Themed Adventures
No Good Deed
Vibe: PTSD Phoebe putting the fun back in murder.
Deets: A quirky murder mystery from the creator of Dead to Me. No Good Deed plays like a far more serious version of Only Murders In the Building. It’s a legit drama with teeth. It’s a murder mystery that actually mysteries.
We need to cast Lisa Kudrow in everything. She’s casually hilarious. The laughs sneak up on you. Strong supporting cast. Bit of a slow burn but by episode 3 I was all in.
Streaming on Netflix.
The Boys: Season 2
Vibe: Psychotic Superman angrily masturbates from the top of a skyscraper.
Deets: It’s so good! (Not necessarily the masturbation, tho it is hilarious. Is that a bird? A plane? Nah, bro—Superman is depressed again. Better grab an umbrella. Btw, what kind of velocity damage does super sperm do? Can you shoot through a brick wall? Imagining a scene where the heroes need to blow out somebody’s tires…)
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to The Boys’ over-the-top goriness. But it's balanced by intriguing character growth, twisty plots, and delicious social commentary. Season 2 picks up where the first season leaves off, and like all good second stanzas, deepens our understanding of the world and the characters.
Still don’t know why I waited so long to watch this show, but I’ve already started season 3.
Streaming on Prime Video.
The One Ring RPG
Vibe: D&D by way of Tolkien, instead of D&D via Monty Python.
Deets: That meme is 100% true.
Every D&D game I’ve ever played in has sought to evoke the gravitas of Lord of the Rings but quickly and decisively embraced shenanigans instead. It’s the best thing, but this past weekend we decided to play an actual LotR RPG. Turns out you can play D&D without dick jokes.
The One Ring evokes the spirit of the books (and to a lesser extent, the films). This means the heroes are assumed to be Good Guys and can fall to the Shadow if they do bad things, or even just proximity to horror. The game ends if the characters are driven mad. Fun!
The Lord of the Rings
Vibe: History and poetry make a baby that’s horny for Hobbits.
Deets: This is actually the third time I’ve tried reading LotR. I’ve never fully read it. I know! It’s only the foundation of the fantasy genre as we know it and also much of my life. The farthest I’ve ever gotten is where the Hobbits meet Tom Bombadil. I’m determined to push through this time. Currently still in the Shire.
Boy, that Tolkien really loves talking about Hobbits and their holes.
Skyrim
Vibe: A cozy game where you casually kill everything.
Deets: I’ve been playing Skyrim since 2011. Not continuously. That would be weird. I maintain a healthy obsession with a rotating list of stuff. Once or twice a year, Skyrim briefly seizes the pole position.
There’s something endlessly freeing about exploring an enormous world without an agenda other than to explore. I wish I was so mindful in real life.
Good Links
You’re Not a Criminal, But You’re Going to Jail: My ICE Detention Story as a Canadian Citizen: harrowing account of this woman’s experience. WTF happened to this country?
Amy Poehler has a podcast: two of her first guests are Tina Fey and Rashida Jones. Maybe weird but it makes me happy that they’re friends in real life.
The final trailer for Andor: as if I my hype wasn’t already dangerously out of control, they gotta go and do this.
Over 5 hours of Marvel announcing their Avengers: Doomsday cast in the most boring way possible. I cover the salient points in 30 minutes.
The Signal group chat memes are straight fire. Here’s a few favorites.
The High 5: Extended Edition
This week ended up very Tolkien-heavy. Not a bad place to be. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was long ago promoted from great movies to personal soul food, joining classics like Back to the Future (just the first one, which is perfect) and, of course, the original Star Wars trilogy.
There’s a joke in one of Kevin Smith’s movies about how The Trilogy used to mean only one thing: Star Wars. This held true even after the Prequels meant there were technically two Star Wars trilogies; there was only one that counted.
But The Lord of the Rings gradually seized the title. I have a few theories about why this is.