Wondering what to do with your upcoming free time? Good thing we have some suggestions for what you should be watching, playing, reading, listening to, etc.
Lauren’s Comic Pick: Harley Quinn: The Animated Series – The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour – Though I’m not sure why they wouldn’t want to save this story for season 3 of the show as it picks up right from the S2 finale with Harley and Poison Ivy on the run post the disaster wedding that has Commissioner Gordon hot on their tail, I can’t say I’m mad at getting a handful of issues to tide me over until whenever the next season’s premiere date will be. Especially because this short run introduced me to Max Sarin’s art, which I immediately fell in love with because of how expressive the characters are as their emotional responses often overwhelm the panels. The explosive shenanigans abound for sure, but it was also really informative to get somewhat psychoanalytical with Ivy as we explore the emotional undercurrent rippling beneath the surface as she deals with the ramifications and emotional destruction she’s left in her wake thanks to the the walls she’s built up over the years. Hopefully this gets further explored in the show, but if they also just want to move straight into Harley and Ivy being the happiest, top 2 power couple in Gotham then I’m all for that as well.
Ben’s Movie Pick: Lake Placid – It had been quite some time since I last watched this killer crocodile creature feature, and I was over the moon to find out that it’s still just as great as I had remembered it. The extremely talented cast (which includes Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Brendan Gleeson, Oliver Platt, and Betty White) embraces and leans into the film’s inherently campy tone, resulting in more than a few laugh out loud moments – particularly Gleeson. Seriously, this might be the funniest role he’s had outside of a McDonagh movie, and his performance alone would make Lake Placid a worthwhile watch. And just as they are with the comedic beats, the cast is more than capable of selling the terror and tension whenever they need to. Not many horror comedy films are able to get as much mileage out of both of the subgenre’s halves as Lake Placid, nor are most as consistently entertaining.
Ben’s TV Pick: Justified – As I was making my way through my first rewatch of Justified, it was as clear to me as it ever was that this modern western is easily one of the best TV shows of all time. Series protagonist Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is as charming and clever as he is stubborn and deadly, and his fight against the cavalcade of criminals raising Hell in his childhood home of Harlan, Kentucky is about the wildest and most entertaining six-season story you can find on television. Almost always stirring up that criminal underworld or manipulating it to his advantage is Walton Goggins’ Boyd Crowder, a villain so dastardly, crafty, and unforgettable that I’d put him among the likes of Walter White and Hannibal Lecter. The Givens/Crowder dynamic is undoubtedly Justified’s strongest element, but the supporting cast of law enforcement officers and constantly-shifting players on the less-than-lawful side all bring something different and special to the show as well. It had been much too long since my last viewing of Justified, so I was all too glad to revisit it.
Hopefully the upcoming revival lives up to the awesomeness that came before!
Lauren’s Web Series Pick: RWBY – In this round of “the fan art made me watch it” thanks to Lesly O. (the previous entry being Tangled: The Series because of Lesly’s and denimcatfish’s work, a show I have capital T Thoughts about), we’ve got a Rooster Teeth animated series following a group of high school age kids as they train to become huntsman and huntresses capable of fighting back the monsters terrorizing their world. Season 1 gets by largely on the humor and charm of its characters, as well as the inventive, transforming weaponry that allows for rather unexpected combat styles unique to this show, but each new season brings new depth to the world and the characters that fill it as the story and mythology expands far past the school grounds. Characters I didn’t originally care for have become favorites thanks to the careful development that has formed who they are, those who felt more “peripheral” to our core team have been given arcs to further round them out in ways that take them out of the “supporting” category and move them deeply into the “integral to the show’s success” grouping, villains have become tragic and understandable in their motives even if I still love to hate them (except for the dude whose defining character trait is the Joker’s out of control laughter; him I just hate hate), and, more on the obvious side of things, the animation and musical scoring have continued to improve with each season. Now if only a certain fan favorite ship could develop as quickly as the rest of these aspects of the show… I can subsist on these crumbs they’re feeding us for only so long!
So what do you think about these picks? What content did we miss over the past two weeks while we were spending time with these? Be sure to leave a comment below letting us know about everything (both current and simply new to you) you’ve been consuming lately!
And while you’re here, be sure to check some of the site’s other recent content:
- Ben’s review of Destiny 2’s latest expansion, The Witch Queen.
Middle of the Row 