TV #22 of 2023: Star Wars: Visions, season 2 I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I like this second year of the experimental Star Wars anthology, given how lukewarm I felt towards the first season. As before, these episodes are short anime films, each from a different production studio, handed free reign to remix and …
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Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Movie #4 of 2023: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) Another rollicking cosmic thrill ride, and one that doubles as an apparent farewell to this creative corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Never say never where comic book characters are concerned, but with visionary director James Gunn now working for the DC competition, this …
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Book Review: The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
Book #68 of 2023: The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers (Zamonia #1) [Updated version of my review from 4/23/2020] I absolutely adore this wild and whimsical adventure novel, detailing the tall-tale nautical escapades of a talking blue bear. (Life inside a stable tornado! The famous dueling liars of Atlantis! Impressment on the …
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Book Review: Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories by Garth Nix
Book #67 of 2023: Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories by Garth Nix Overall I would say that this book of short fiction — most but not all of it situated in either fantasy or an adjacent genre — is a success. The strongest piece is probably the novella that …
TV Review: Gilmore Girls, season 4
TV #21 of 2023: Gilmore Girls, season 4 I think this is where Gilmore Girls turns a corner for me in terms of my appreciation versus enjoyment of the characters and the ongoing slice-of-life narrative around them. It remains a strong series, and this year in particular does a fine job of navigating two big …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 6
TV #20 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 6 The end of an era for the show, in several different ways. This 1968-1969 run is the final year to be aired in black-and-white, and from a modern perspective, it contains the last episodes that are missing from the BBC archives, with only the audio recordings …
Book Review: The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
Book #66 of 2023: The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie Early on, this novel carries some of the wistfully philosophical vibes of author Agatha Christie’s pseudonymous Mary Westmacott books, and although that tone is dropped as the story goes along, I think it still might have worked better if it had been published under a …
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Book Review: Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders
Book #65 of 2023: Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders This short story collection feels less uneven than many of its ilk, but unfortunately, that’s because I’ve tended to respond to each entry with the same disappointed half-sigh. Most of them show an interesting spark, either of character, premise, or background worldbuilding! I especially …
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Book Review: Pines by Blake Crouch
Book #64 of 2023: Pines by Blake Crouch (Wayward Pines #1) I picked up this 2012 novel on the strength of author Blake Crouch’s later sci-fi thrillers like Dark Matter and Recursion, but this earlier effort isn’t really in the same league. It’s long on vibes but short on story, and although I haven’t seen …
TV Review: Six Feet Under, season 4
TV #19 of 2023: Six Feet Under, season 4 For most of this season, I expected I would give it the same three-star rating that I’ve assigned to its previous runs, reflecting a series that is deeply uneven: an engaging family drama with some individual scenes that are affecting and periodically profound meditations on death …
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 