smilebackwards

Hockey season. I do watch actual hockey as one of the only sports I don't find unforgivably boring but this month has also been hockey media.

Half my tumblr dashboard became obsessed with the new gay hockey show Heated Rivalry so I was like 'okay, I will try it' and yeah, it gave me feelings. I am, however, like the 1% of fandom that cares way more about Scott and Kip than Shane and Ilya. I've watched episodes 3 and 5 multiple times. After episode 3 I also decided I was going to read the Scott/Kip book so:

Game Changers by Rachel Reid. This reads like what I imagine hockey RPF fic to be like. Book Kip is annoying to me but I love show Kip. Overall I think the show hugely elevated the source material.

I will now begin my annual Christmas to New Year's vegetating phase :)

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. Adventures in the Scottish Highlands.

Queen Demon by Martha Wells. Always love Martha Wells' emotionally repressed protagonist voice. Is it wrong that my favorite part of this was the feral, claw-hooved omnivorous Arike horses? <3

In TV, I re-watched Arrow (season 1) and yes it is a silly show but I do really enjoy season 1 where Oliver is just going around shooting people with arrows and we get the Slade and Oliver relationship before everything goes fully insane. I watched the show for them and then season 2 betrayed me so bad! Literally considering a sequel to my now 8-year-old season 1 AU fic where everyone lives and stays friends. Also, shout out to Chris GM51 who collected the flashback scenes into a YouTube playlist so I can just watch the backstory.

Accidentally in my mob media era.

Only Murders in the Building (season 3). This season had a mob angle and there were references to The Godfather so I was like okay, I will finally watch The Godfather for the first time. (I do think it was good although I don't think I'll watch the sequels.) I continue to enjoy this show for the Charles/Oliver/Mabel shenanigans.

The Penguin (limited series). Vaguely references The Batman so you know it's in continuity and then is essentially a Gotham mob series. Generally good but not groundbreaking IMO. I do enjoy Sofia being hot and unhinged and Colin Farrell being basically unrecognizable. The ending of this should not have been surprising to me in any way because it is very narratively logical and yet ( spoilers ) Also good soundtrack.

X-Men Remix continued this year and while I now mostly avoid exchanges there was also a no pressure Madness collection so I looked through the prompts and got very sucked into a Cherik Mob AU--The Associates by ikeracity and Pangea--and wrote a quick remix for that. My writing output this year has been so low. I haven't even hit 10k. Need to open my WIPs again and get to work.

I was considering watching Daredevil: Born Again despite poor reviews but I think I'm tapped out on mob related stuff for awhile.

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler. Sequel to Parable of the Sower that I read last month. Even more gripping and brutal than the first book. Some of it is really like reading an analysis of the current state of America and it (in 1998) literally predicted the 'make America great again' slogan. Interesting use of diary/journal format and the main character's daughter's commentary on the journals.

In TV, I watched Careme which is kind of like The Bear but they're sexy spies in Napoleonic France. I enjoyed the spy shenanigans but I don't think I care enough about food to appreciate a lot of these food-focused shows.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Wow, this is one of the classics that did not disappoint me. I feel the rage over how capitalism and the quest for profits, by people and organizations who frankly do not need them, destroy the lives and dignity of ordinary people. This was written in 1939 and the fact that it's still so relevant is gutting. Not a fast-paced book by any means but overall just really well written details and emotional impact. East of Eden on my list for more Steinbeck later.

In TV, I watched The Undeclared War (season 1). Another show specifically watched due to my random sudden attachment to Simon Pegg and discovered through a tumblr post by someone else going through Simon Pegg obsession. This is a British show about cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns and while it was somewhat slow because it really does focus on the cyber stuff and doesn't just use that as a backdrop for more exciting spy things like a lot of shows would, it got pretty real. I was like, okay, this is indeed a political thriller and hits really close to some serious anxiety areas. That said, I will watch season 2 when it comes out. I like the way they visualized analyzing code as like an escape room type mystery and I find Saara to be an interesting and messy protagonist.

And movies! I went to see the new Superman which I thought was good and the new Fantastic Four which was fine but mostly just reminded me that no matter how good the cast is I unfortunately find Fantastic Four to be hopelessly boring.

Put down my book list for a hot second to finish watching some things.

Ghosts (US) (season 5) - This is such a silly fun show! I know like 1 person that watches it and yet to have been going for five seasons it must have some popularity somewhere.

Doctor Who (season ?? - this 2025 one) - I didn't even know this season was airing until I saw a random news article. Finale was recent so ( spoilers )

Leverage Redemption (season 3) - My comforting revenge show.

Mission: Impossible - I'm having such an unexpected moment with the Mission: Impossible franchise? I wasn't even going to go see the new movie but then I did and I enjoyed it a lot which reminded me that I enjoyed the other movies so I rewatched them all and they're ridiculously fun. I love Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation best but watching all of them is so interesting because it's like okay the first movie is much more of a spy movie, the second movie is I don't even know, like I would love to know what direction John Woo was giving to Dougray Scott because he was fully insane in it, then we get JJ Abrams MI3, and then Ghost Protocol with the Russian prison escape and the Burj Khalifa, Rogue Nation gives us Ilsa, honestly they're all fun to me. I spent the last like 2 weeks watching these and reading fic and here's a fic rec list if anyone's interested.

Also a couple weeks ago was vidukon_cardiff (Bristol)! As always, live-watching and Discord commenting on hundreds of vids with other vid-loving people was great and I've got a whole new docket of shows and movies I'd never heard of to add to my watch list. I didn't make a vid for Premieres this year which was a little sad but someday I will vid again!

The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard. Solar flares cause the ice caps to melt and the world is flooded and reverts to Triassic-era climate and reptile supremacy. People go out to study and salvage what's left of the previous cities. This book has so many good building blocks and yet unfortunately I found it quite boring. I would almost never say this about a book but I think I'd have liked it better as a movie. There's a lot of psychological aspects happening which is cool, but could benefit from the visuals and soundtrack a movie provides. (Just looked up on Google and apparently WB was was working on a adaptation in 2013 but then radio silence so guess it never got made.)

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Re-read this because The Drowned World made me crave the action-adventure of it. One of my favorite books but there is a lot of 'oof, product of its time' bits.

In TV, I finished:

Wheel of Time (season 3): This was a great season. The Rhuidean episode was extremely cool and all the Aes Sedai politics and upheaval was intense.

Slow Horses (seasons 1 - 4): NEW SPY SHOW! I mean, it has been on since 2022 but new to me. I love spy media and typically the appeal for me is extreme competence but these are like the reject fuck-up spies and I find them so endearing oh my God. I might just rewatch this series again while I wait for season 5 in September. Anyone getting Apple TV short term for Murderbot reasons, I recommend watching this show too!

And I did just go see The Accountant 2 and it had a lot of extremely funny sibling behavior between Chris and Braxton which is exactly what I wanted. Obsessed with Jon Bernthal in this. I'll probably go see it again.

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. What it says on the tin. Bleak, pointed contemplation of death after a life that was perhaps not as well-lived as originally thought. I love the combination of bluntness and reflection in Russian stuff. Need to add some more novels to my TBR list.

Flowers for Algernon by by Daniel Keyes. Heartbreaker of a novel about intellectual disability and personhood.

While reading these pretty heavy books, I was watching ridiculous but enjoyable television:

Cobra Kai (season 6): Another final season! I do think they stuck the landing because the last set of episodes that just got released were very fun although during the earlier parts of the season I was kind of like wow, this should have ended in season 5. It is a dumb show about teenagers and old men having karate wars but I love Johnny Lawrence and some of the comedy is gold. Watch a gateway vid: St. Elmo's Fire by lilly_the_kid.

And, speaking of vids, I got a new vid_bingo card and we'll see if I manage a premiere for vidukon_cardiff. April 6th deadline seems very close to me for any of my current ideas.( bingo card )

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery. Woman is given one year to live and proceeds to make choices that horrify her stuffy society family! This was fun and cleverly written and I feel a strong need to write a Star Wars fic inspired by it which is maybe mildly insane of me--the vibes are very different--but also is just life in fandom. Will see if the muse holds.

Speaking of Star Wars, I watched Skeleton Crew and it was very cute! I feel like I heard almost nothing about it and I wasn't going to watch it but I'm glad I decided to. Space kids accidentally going off on space pirate adventures! I'd be interested to see a season 2 because they left several things half open but the season also worked as a good stand-alone.

Come Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan. Travelogue of Agatha Christie's time on an archeological dig in Syria with her second husband. It was interesting to see her writing style in something other than a murder mystery and the kind of everyday travel and life disasters in this were amusing.

TV I've been watching: Great British Bake Off (season 15). The Dragon Prince/Mystery of Aaravos (season 7). Flashpoint (seasons 1 - 3 rewatch). Not much to say about any of these. They're pretty undemanding watches and I'm in end-of-year couch mode.