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.
Ben’s Anime Pick: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End stands out from other fantasy adventures by beginning where most would end: instead of retelling a story we’ve heard before, the Madhouse adaptation focuses on the mage from the party of heroes who defeated the demon king decades ago. As a nearly immortal elf, Frieren struggles to understand the feelings and desires of the humans, dwarves and other people she meets. After centuries of life, Frieren finally begins to understand the importance of the time she has with her allies. Shortly after gaining a disciple in Fern, a soft-spoken human with tremendous magical potential, Frieren embarks upon a new expedition: one where the stakes are far lower (but is all the better for it). The action takes a backseat throughout the majority of the 28-episode season — but it is phenomenal when it pops up — because Beyond Journey’s End prioritizes the little things instead. Whenever Frieren learns something about a comrade, someone she encounters along her new quest, or anytime one of her new compatriots is able to grow and change, the show gives us breathing room to celebrate. Sure, there’s no world-ending threat on the horizon, but who needs one when you have such great characters. I’d gladly watch Frieren, Fern and the kind-hearted but powerful warrior Stark run more side quests or go shopping instead. It’s a relaxed, beautiful, and often emotional show that I hope hasn’t run its course quite yet.
Ben’s Movie Pick: The Beekeeper – I’m honestly kind of shocked by how much I enjoyed Jason Statham’s latest action flick. The trailers made it out as a semi-serious John Wick rip-off, and while the John Wick comparisons still stand, The Beekeeper works because it is keenly aware of what it is (and how dumb it is). Statham’s reading of lines about “protecting the hive” and the outlandish dick-headery of Josh Hutcherson’s tech-bro villain are so stupid, yet they deliver their performances with such self-aware sincerity that I couldn’t help but smile throughout most of the movie. The action itself is also way better than anyone could have reasonably expected, with plenty of guffaw and/or grimace-inducing takedowns sprinkled throughout the admittedly low-stakes fights. And the plot just keeps building in ridiculousness to a hilariously stupid reveal before the final act that had me simultaneously smiling and shaking my head. The Beekeeper is that dumb as Hell, junk food kind of action flick that we rarely see nowadays, and I hope we get at least one more of them.
Lauren’s TV Pick: Fallout – Frick people, let the dogs inherit the Earth. It’s been a while since I’ve played a Fallout game — Fallout 4 is almost a decade old!? — so I’d forgotten just how horrifying the people of the post apocalyptic Wasteland (and those bunkering down below) can be when American idealism loses the plot and devolves into chaos; when (little) push comes to (barely perceptible) shove catalyzes a quick loss of dignity and humanity as the need to survive wins out. And then there’s the rest of the inhabitants, who are just horrifying for the fun of it. These themes are nothing new for a world like this, but Fallout has always stood out thanks to its vibes. The old time earworm jukebox tunes, the 1950s meets the future aesthetic in the worldbuilding (ok maybe Bioshock has this too but whatever it’s different!), the color grading of the bright and shiny perfect world bunkers vs the poisonous mutant filled wilds vs the militant restrictiveness religiosity of the Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout definitely adapts the game world perfectly. No, seriously, if you’d heard just how many times I’d mentioned the vibes while explaining to my husband just how much I was enjoying the show so far, you’d have started a drinking game. And that’s not even considering the little details that will make fans of the games giddily excited: V.A.T.S. enhanced exploding limbs, finding a dog at a Red Rocket gas station, how obnoxious relying on fusion cores can be, the Pip-Boy screens (my personal favorite being the hacking screen)… So much to Leonardo DiCaprio point at. And for all those who are unaware of all of these references, well you still have phenomenal performances from the cast to help make surviving the Wasteland a breeze.
Ben’s Video Game Pick: Destiny 2: Into the Light – While I felt that this past year in Destiny and the Lightfall expansion were decent overall, the delay of Bungie’s next big add-on, The Final Shape, certainly left us with a bit of a content drought these last few months. Bungie’s plan to fix that and help new players get caught up before the end of Destiny’s Light and Darkness Saga is the completely free Into the Light update. Into the Light includes a staggering amount of content to grind through in the next 8 weeks and change. There are two reprised exotic missions that reward craftable/stronger variants of the weapons that were previously awarded from completing the challenging levels. There’s also the BRAVE arsenal, which features twelve reworked legendary weapons that are near and dear to longtime fans’ hearts, and will give newbies some seriously strong starting firepower. And yes, you could argue bringing back vaulted content isn’t as awesome as something completely new, but there is something completely new and is all kinds of awesome: Onslaught, a horde mode that increases in difficulty and intensity as it progresses. There’s a casual 10-wave level, a 50-wave challenge level that I’m still working on surviving the entirety of, and a 50-wave legend level that sounds equal parts exciting and daunting. It’s also worth noting that Onslaught is extremely generous with its loot pool, and that loot pool is exclusively those top-tier BRAVE weapons. Even after I finish The Final Shape I’m all but positive that I will be using some of those BRAVE guns and revisiting the phenomenal Onslaught mode. Until then, I’ll be playing it almost non-stop because of the timed, golden BRAVE weapons that are only obtainable until June 4th. Bungie’s had an exceptionally rough year, but Into the Light shows why you should never bet against the storied developer.
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!
Middle of the Row 