Media Consumption and Q&A on Saturday at 2pm PST!

Hiya guys!

Before we get rolling into the blog proper, I just wanted to remind everyone pledged at No Chump Zone and above that we are having our live Q&A tomorrow at 2pm! Hope to see you there~

BUT that is for later. For now, here's a look at what we've been playing, watching, and thinking about this week!

True Detective

After watching the excellent Comrade Detective earlier this year, we were hungry for more detective comedy drama! For some reason, this led us to watching True Detective Season 1. For the record, this was my (Grace) second time watching the show and Derek’s first. Now, you may have heard this isn’t a funny show. And it isn’t a funny show. But man, does Woody Harrelson have an amazing mean mug that he can turn on with hilarious precision!

It was interesting re-watching this show, which has a penchant for pessimistic philosophizing and self-serious mumbo jumbo, today versus three years ago. A younger Grace felt comfortable marinating in Rust’s (played by Matthew McConaughey) douchiness, but now I find myself instead laughing at him and sympathizing with the philandering Marty (Woody Harrelson). This is a decent show for various reasons (like THAT SCENE), but I find myself burnt out on its serial killer premise and refusal to take on the power players in that whole serial killer plot thingamajig. Oh well, maybe I’ll rewatch Starsky and Hutch instead. 

Dusk

We will be doing a review on this later this month but I wanted to give you all a heads up that if you follow our channel and support us here, you’ll probably really really like Dusk. Watch the trailer below but just know that it’s not a bombastic, ultra-fast-paced frag fest. I mean it is in spots, but what really seals the deal for me is how successfully spooky it is. Amazing sound design, enemy design, and level design. Can’t recommend it enough!

Little Evil

A netflix-exclusive movie starring Adam Scott (Parks & Rec, Torque), Little Evil is a comedy horror with a neat premise: what if your step-son was actually the spawn of satan? Few things in the world I love more than a great parody and satire, and I thought this couldn’t have be more up my alley. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the premise. The main problem is something we recently talked about with Agents of Mayhem, which is tone. Little Evil is just all over the place. One moment parodying a classic horror movie, the next attempting genuine horror, and then suddenly an Apatow-esque improv-fest with rapid-fire jokes that are maybe funny but don’t fit. Character motivations shift wildly, the whole this is a mess. There’s brief ray of hope in an amazing twist about ⅔’s in, but a weak ending does nothing to really pay it off. I recommend it on the basis that it’s a great bad example of bad tone. It is shocking, SHOCKING, this was the same write/director of Tucker and Dale vs Evil. Basically the same type of horror/comedy as Little Evil, but absolutely pitch perfect. We watched that immediately after, for fuck sake people if you have not see Tucker and Dale vs Evil you need to get busy living!!

Infamous Second Son

It’s a new month, which means there are new free PS+ games! I decided to try out Infamous Second Son since it is trying to rep my adopted hometown. 

Loving this faux Pho pun. 

This game came out in 2014, and there are some spots that definitely reveal its status as an early PS4 game, such as its emphasis on the PS4 controller touchpad. Oh, the Dualshock 4 Pad. I haven’t had to deal with using the touch pad for gameplay in a loooong time, not since Saints Row 4 and Until Dawn. Funny how the pad has been abandoned in recent years. I smell a video topic..

Anyway so far I am enjoying it (I am about 5 hours in), but with some reservations. So far the representation of Seattle is a laughable hodgepodge, but what do you expect from a video game?? I am having so much fun traveling to various landmarks, like the Pacific Science Center. Yup, they included the dinosaurs.

Movement throughout the game is a blast. Right now I am having a hard time justifying moving around the city, ie, there doesn’t seem to be a lot to do, but for right now I am down for the ride. Definitely a good deal if you have PS+.