TV #24 of 2018: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 5 It’s been a whirlwind time to be a Brooklyn Nine-Nine fan, with the show getting canceled by Fox and then saved by NBC in roughly the span of a day. I’m super glad that show isn’t ending now, but if it had, it would have absolutely gone …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
TV Review: Saturday Night Live, season 43
TV #23 of 2018: Saturday Night Live, season 43 We started watching SNL regularly sometime last year, making this the first season of the long-running sketch comedy show that I’ve actually seen in its entirety. Taken as a whole it’s understandably not as great as the isolated bits that go viral, and its present iteration …
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Book Review: Native Son by Richard Wright
Book #95 of 2018: Native Son by Richard Wright This 1940 classic feels astonishingly modern — which is a sad commentary on the slow progress in American race relations over the decades since. Author Richard Wright pens a blistering look at privilege and marginalization, as embodied in the life of a young black criminal. Yet …
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Book Review: Blindness by José Saramago
Book #94 of 2018: Blindness by José Saramago This novel about an epidemic of sudden contagious blindness has a strong start of creeping desperation and a ruthless military quarantine, but it loses me in the back half of the story when society has effectively crumbled due to everyone losing their sight. There’s so much ableism …
Movie Review: Doctor Strange (2016)
Movie #8 of 2018: Doctor Strange (2016) I watched and reviewed this movie last year, and my thoughts are about the same: I’m still happy with my decision to wait until Doctor Strange was on Netflix to watch it (so as to hurt box office returns in protest of the casting). But having now finally …
Book Review: A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas
Book #93 of 2018: A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock #2) Although I really like the character of Charlotte Holmes, she’s yet to have a truly engaging novel built around her. This second adventure at least centers the clever detective more than the first, but it relies far too heavily on coincidence …
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Book Review: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Book #92 of 2018: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #1) A gloriously uplifting space opera, featuring a diverse crew of interstellar travelers who are fascinatingly drawn and who all care deeply for one another. The setting is sort of like Firefly amid a Star Trek or Mass Effect-like …
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TV Review: ReBoot: The Guardian Code, season 1
TV #22 of 2018: ReBoot: The Guardian Code, season 1 I have so many mixed feelings about this — apologies in advance — reboot. I loved the original show and have been longing for a revival ever since it went off the air back in 2001, but this new version is pretty different… and pretty …
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TV Review: Bosch, season 4
TV #21 of 2018: Bosch, season 4 Of all the shows I watch, Bosch is usually the one I have the least feels about. The first season was a little hokey, and after that it’s generally been this quietly competent urban crime drama that I mostly watch so that I can talk about it with …
Book Review: Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
Book #91 of 2018: Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce (Protector of the Small #4) A solid but kind of unremarkable Tortall adventure. The Protector of the Small series is generally marketed as a quartet, but it honestly feels more like a cohesive trilogy followed by this somewhat vestigial afterthought. I’m not trying to be too …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 