Our latest episode of the Pubcast was about The Sandman:
https://www.scifipubcast.space/netflixs-the-sandman-neil-gaiman
Sadly I was the wet blanket of the group. I have zero history with the comic. I only started reading it a week before this came out. I certainly understand the intellectual quality of the comic/series, but it’s not really for me. I rarely enjoy anthology formats and I find Morpheus/Dream to be an inherently unlikable and uninteresting lead character. I did enjoy the Death episode a lot, but the final three about the dream vortex and the Corinthian were just deeply unpleasant to watch because of the subject matter. I will keep watching though!
SOLAR OPPOSITES S3: Love this show. It’s hilarious!
HARLEY QUINN S3: Hilarious as always thus far!
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS S4: I don’t think this season’s story (vampire bar!) is as interesting as last year (Nadia and Nandor lead the Vampiric Council!). I also think the gag of Colin dying and being reborn as a child was a one note joke that is being painfully dragged across an entire season. It’s still funny though! And I did enjoy Nandor dealing with his exasperated djinn with limited wishes.
WEST WORLD S4: I preferred the previous season but it was an interesting mystery box story line and I still find this more interesting than the first two seasons in the theme park.
PAPER GIRLS: I started reading this comic and it was very interesting. Sadly, the television series (well, the four I’ve seen so far) appears to have bled out everything imaginative and cool about the comic to create a generic streaming show focused on character melodrama.
THE ORVILLE S3: Making every episode 90 minutes long was a disastrous decision in my opinion. The stories are just too long. It doesn’t hold my interest. That being said, I did appreciate that this season was about a prolonged war with the Kaylon and the big final battle episode was AMAZING.
THE GREY MAN: The Russo Brothers return! The story and characters were extremely run of the mill, but this movie was chock full of truly thrilling action sequences with amazing camera and stunt work.
PREY: I enjoyed it for what it was, but I definitely preferred the other movies. Seeing humans with no technological capabilities in the ancient past going up against a Predator just isn’t as interesting to me.
DAY SHIFT: This was a moderately entertaining vampire action movie with some surprisingly good stunt work in the fight scenes.
On the theatrical front, I saw BULLET TRAIN and absolutely loved it! It certainly helps this was my first ever 4DX theater, where the seat acts like a simulator ride. I knew nothing about the movie going in, hadn’t even seen a trailer, and this was a huge surprise. It was truly hilarious but also told a great action story as well. Brad Pitt was so funny in this!
On the comic book front, I got a free month’s trial for Comixology Unlimited and I am shocked how many comics I have to pour through now! There’s a ton of great Scott Snyder originals. This is almost ten years old but I’m currently reading LETTER 44 by Charles Soule and really enjoying it. It’s a combination of Independence Day and House of Cards. Really intriguing!
Derek Beebe 