The Suggestion Box #122: Pantheons, and Bungles, and Absurdism, Oh My!

Posted on by Lauren

Lauren here. Listen— sometimes life gets in the way. A rambunctious, untrustworthy puppy that needs constant attention, Covid Returns (guest starring an ear infection), a week of house sitting while dodging a skunk with a dog that refuses to be told what to do (even when it’s for their safety), the general malaise of existence… All of this to say, my bad. Please do not check the date of the last time I posted a Suggestion Box.

To help stick to the planned every-other-week posting schedule — again, all my fault, Ben has always been a champ about finding things to add to this — we’re adding a new contributor! Everyone say hi to Paul!

Now on to our regular copy/pasted intro.

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 TV Pick: Police Squad! – This six episode series from comedy legends Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers (Airplane!, Top Secret!) is truly something. Leslie Nielsen’s exceptional deadpan delivery makes Frank Drebin one of the funniest fictional characters ever created. Watching him fumble his way through cases in a near perfect blend of cop noir and slapstick humor had me laughing out loud at least every few minutes. From hilarious wordplay to elaborate sight gags, unbelievably dumb car chases and gunfights, Police Squad’s rapid fire, brilliantly stupid comedy hits the target almost every time (though a few jokes definitely didn’t age). From the opening credits (featuring Abraham Lincoln and one guest star who’s only in one quick scene) to the “freeze” frame closing credits, there are at least a dozen jokes that would rank amongst most comedy series’ best. I’m stunned that this only lasted a single season, but it’s not surprising that it had enough fans to spawn a successor in the equally funny Naked Gun movies.

Ben’s Video Game WARNING: Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate – As someone who has loved Destiny since 2014, it brings me no joy to say that I may be done with it forever thanks to the abominable direction the game has taken. The latest expansion, Edge of Fate, was meant to be a reinvention of Destiny, but instead highlights all of the game’s worst aspects while removing its best. The revamped weapon system all but forces you — and sometimes actually does force you — to exclusively use new gear, making the last seven years of looting pointless, and you can’t even start earning “good” versions of that new gear without upwards of 60 hours of investment! The armor system is in the same boat too: the rework of player stat rolls on armor means only some of your abilities will be anywhere near efficient for the vast majority of the sixth month season. The grind (which I’ve rarely had any major problems with) is also the worst it’s ever been. Aside from replaying the boring campaign on difficulties that turn all enemies into damage sponges, or the new raid (that only drops the best gear after beating it 25 times?!), you’ll be running recycled content from years past. Throw in a tremendous amount of bugs and, for the first time ever in the franchise’s history, Destiny feels bad to play, devolving into a joyless slog that feels like it was made to keep players trapped in the grind rather than engaging with it.

Lauren’s Video Game Pick: Hades 2 – Thanks to the aforementioned untrustworthy puppy mentioned in the intro, it’s been a minute since I’ve gotten to sit down and game at all. That said, there was no way in Hades I was going to miss out on the official launch of the sequel to the game that finally broke through my “roguelikes are too frustrating to be for me” stance thanks to a structure that has the player getting stronger with each failed run. Pulling the Uno Reverse card, Hades 2 follows the princess of the underworld as she fights her way down through the levels of hell to confront the titan who has imprisoned her family, changing the course of her life for all time. Raised by the witch Hecate, Melinoë follows Zagreus’ example by taking advantage of a wide range of weapons and boons gifted by the gods to seek her vengeance. The gameplay is comfortably familiar as this sequel doesn’t break the mold of its perfect predecessor, but the scale has more than doubled, with more figures from Greek mythology to stumble across along the new route (my favorite being Scylla and her sweet, sweet siren song. No really, the setlist from the second boss battle has been stuck in my head since the first time I encountered this frontwoman). Oh! I can’t believe I almost forget the best upgrade in this game: animal familiars! This doesn’t make up for Cerberus not allowing me to pet him, but taking one of 5 best buddies out on my journey sure helped. Nocturnal arms and magic are great and all, but no one stands a change against my cat’s claws.

One last thing, when you get to the final boss battle in the underworld, be sure to pause the game for a little treat.

Paul’s Foreign Flick Pick: It Was Just An Accident ( یک تصادف ساده) – This film is nothing short of a master class in information control: you only know what you need to know when you need to know it. Director Jafar Panahi throws so many curves at you from start to finish that somewhere along the way you stop trying to predict what’s coming next because you already know you’re wrong. I love that in a movie. But what I find even more remarkable is that Panahi was able to create a context so absurd and whimsical that the real underlying subject matter, which is quite the opposite, becomes not only digestible but enjoyable and compelling. In fact, it’s so compelling that learning the answer to the film’s central question quickly becomes as important to you as it is to the people in the film itself. 

For anyone unfamiliar with Iran’s strict content restrictions, it’s a miracle that this film exists at all. Director Jafar Panahi famously made This Is Not a Film (2011) while under house arrest and, so the story goes, had to smuggle it out of the country on a thumb drive hidden inside a cake. Now, with It Was Just An Accident, he’s once again taking aim at the system that tried to silence him. And his voice is making rounds.

Make no mistake, this film is a masterpiece. But not in a grandiose kind of way where everything is high end and spectacular like a michelin star 5-course meal. No, this film is very much like your grandmother’s chicken noodle soup (or fesenjan) on a cold day: deceptively complex with its layers of flavor. Delicious, filling, healing.

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:

Have Something to Say?