Starting Over

Back in May, I hit a low point. For personal reasons I will not discuss what exactly was making me low, but in order for me to give this blog some meaning, I just needed to point that out. Anyway, I got low, one day I was really, really down, ended up wasting the whole day, not accomplishing or doing anything. There were games on my Laptop that I just did not want to play. There was some writing I just did not want to write, and on TV, there was nothing I wanted to watch. I had a whole load of shows to watch on catch-up, but just did not want to watch anything, even the shows I was really enjoying. Since then I have managed to reach up and get out of my low point, but one consistency remained; that of me not wanting to watch anything I had recorded on TV.

I have come to the point that currently, there is nothing worth watching on TV. I have sort of grown out of Holby City, I am several seasons behind Arrow, The Strain is not back until roughly September, Top Gear is Dead!, and Robot Wars has no start date yet (at time of writing). Even though there are still shows on that I enjoy such as Castle, and a little bit of Quantico, I just have no interest in watching anything on TV at the moment. Basically I am bored and disinterested. I suppose I could watch Game of Thrones but first I need to get permission off my Dad to watch them.

I do not know if it’s just that time of year or something, but right now, there just appears to be nothing on TV. Perhaps it’s my mood or disinterest, but right now TV just feels empty, if it wasn’t for Rizzoli and Isles repeats, new episodes of Bob’s Burgers and new episodes of The Big Bang Theory (and apparently New Girl is to return soon too). A few weeks backs though I got some help from a new friend at church. I told him all about the above, and he told me what I needed to do. That was to find something new. Well, I think I have found it, but I wouldn’t exactly call it new.

A few weeks ago, I took some old DVD’s and games into CEX in Lancaster and got some stuff in return. My plan there was to look out for something in particular. I got some Bill Bailey Stand up DVD’s, some PS3 Games, a copy of the fifth season of Breaking Bad (having trading in the previous 4), but most of all, I got he first season of Arrow. Arrow is not exactly new to me, I have in fact been something of a fan of the show since it first started, but there was a complication. You see, when it first started I did manage to watch the first whole series and I really enjoyed it. So, I waited for and watched the first few episodes of season 2, then something bad happened. I don’t remember the full way round of the details, but the episodes were recorded on a machine, but then I think the machine got corrupted (possibly thanks to some episodes of The Tudors), and the machine was swapped, therefore I lost all the episodes of Arrow season 2 I had not watched yet. I put on a record for the other episodes, but after a while it became obvious I was not going to catch up effectively. So I deleted them and instead planned to purchase season 2 when it got released on DVD. Then however, when it did get released, it was pretty expensive, so I decided to wait until it dropped in price. Meanwhile season 3 had begun, and by the time that I did get a copy of Season 2 (nearly a year ago now), Season 3 was done with 4 on the way. As you can see I have fallen really far behind. In the meantime, season 2 on DVD has remained unwatched while over the last few weeks I have gazed too and throw at season 4’s episodes.

It’s always been a plan of mine to get back into it, but I never could work out how, until I came up with a plan. The plan was to start from the beginning. Get a copy of Season 1 on DVD, watch that, then Season 2 and beyond. And so far (at time of writing), it appears to be working. I have watched the first episodes of season 1 and am able just to sit down and enjoy them one after another, no worrying about what will happen or anything like that, just plain old enjoyment of a TV program. Currently I do not know if it will last, if I will be able to enjoy Arrow to the full, or if I will hit another low point and not want to watch it anymore. But, I may as well enjoy it while it lasts, and then find something else to watch when it is all over.

GENEPOOL (suppose it will keep me going until the rumoured X-Men TV Series comes along, not unless it turns out to be like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Uninteresting).

I Need A Second Season

During Christmas 2014 (or possibly 2013), I was given a copy of The Wolf Among Us by my brother on Steam. I had no real idea what it was or what it involved. At first, I thought it was possibly something to do with the social activity known as Werewolf, but no idea other than that until I decided to install it. I was amazed, it wasn’t that. What it was, was a story driven game made to look like an American TV Drama Series and set in the world of the Fables Comics by Bill Willingham and published by Vertigo (the comics, not the game; that was published by Telltale Games).

For those of you who are unaware, Fables is a comic series about the characters and creatures from Fables and Folklore who have been pushed into our world after being forced out of theirs. I have not read the comics myself. The first time I had heard of them was in an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Since then I have tried to read them, but was not spurred on until I played this game. I have since bought a copy of the first few in a volume collection, but have not got round to reading it yet, my reading schedule has been busy with me reading several un-interesting books that I was far too into that I could not simply stop reading. Anyway, that’s what the Fables Comics are.

The game mentioned above is set in the above mentioned comic series and soon after receiving it from my brother, I played it; and couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted to keep on going, and when I was not at my computer, there was nowhere I would rather have been than behind my computer playing another episode. I liked everything about it; the ideas, the characters, the setting, the actions, the story, the themes, even the opening sequence (which at times I still cannot get out of my head). I absolutely positively enjoyed and loved every minute of it. I was at the time positively certain that I had found my new favourite game.

Since then though, there has been a problem. You see, despite classing it as my favourite game (quite possibly); I almost could never play it again. For a game where your decisions affect play and what happens within the story, it still felt like I had already watched it (sorry, played it) and that because it was story driven that if I played it again, it would still be the same no matter what I did. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I threw caution to the wind and decided to play it again, and you know what, it feels the same even if I do things differently. I know what is going to happen, it’s like reading a book again, and I just don’t think I will be able to continue with it. I could still play it, but I may have to wait a long time (I don’t know, maybe 5 years) before I can, just so I can properly experience it again, like I had before.

What this really all comes down to is this; I need a second season. The internet is awash with other people who think so, and there are constant rumors that one might be coming, but given Telltale’s current schedule, it looks more and more like if it is to come out, it won’t be for a long while, that is also, if at all. I want another season, why wouldn’t I want to play more and discover more of what is possibly my favourite game of all video games.

Now, I know this won’t spur Telltale on to make another one, or at least I don’t think so, what with them already making loads of new seasons and shows of some other story based games and franchises like Game of Thrones, Borderlands and of course The Walking Dead, however, with some time and patience (most of which is being used to wait for Godzilla 2018), I am sure that the overall popularity of the game and pressure from fans may force Telltale’s hand in the right direction. In the meanwhile, I do have a copy of Tales from Borderlands I can get into, and see what that is like, I might enjoy it more than The Wolf Among Us, maybe not, but if it’s as engrossing, at least it will be able to fill some time of mine, and once that is done, I suppose I can play another game of theirs……….for the time being.

GENEPOOL (I sometimes imagine myself as Bigby in the Opening Titles, walking alone through the streets).

Breaking Bad Is Awesome

You may remember several weeks ago I did a post on me not seeing Game of Thrones yet, and I still haven’t. Well since then I have got round to seeing another show that I hadn’t seen yet. That show is Breaking Bad, and I Love It. Now for those of you who have failed to notice this show, which does seem extremely unlikely as it has been talked about more than any show on TV at the moment, here is a brief explanation of what the show created by Vince Gilligan is about.

Basically this bloke called Walter White played by Bryan Cranston is struggling chemistry teacher who is finding it hard to support his pregnant wife Skylar played by Anna Gunn and physically challenged son Walter Jr. played by RJ Mitte. Then when he gets a diagnosis confirming he has terminal lung cancer he decides to go to extremes to provide money for his family after he dies. He does so by cooking Crystal Meth with his former student Jesse Pinkman played by Aaron Paul. Simple? No! You see, Walters brother-in-law Hank played by Dean Norris is a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Agent who is slowly on the pursuit of some new players in town, but has no idea that they are Walt and Jesse. And in turn he is held back by his seemingly stupid and more selfish wife Marie played by Betsy Brandt. So with the stage now set, it is up to Walter under the pseudonym Heisenberg to cook and sell crystal meth while not only trying to evade the law and other dangerous people in the criminal underworld, but also hide the truth from his suspecting family. Will he succeed, who knows (apart from everyone who worked on and everyone who has already seen the show)?

With that out of the way, let’s move on. Yes, it did take me some time to watch the show as it wasn’t really on TV but on the computer instead, and as Netflix sounds like too much a commitment to just watch one show, I decided to watch the show via the amazing world of DVD’s. So I took the gamble of watching a show that I had known about for some years. I first heard about the show back when it first appeared on Five US in the UK with an advert, but I didn’t really watch it. But over the years I have been interested in reading the backs of the dvd’s to see what it is like, but it was not until very recently that I decided to give it a go. So I ordered the first season on DVD from Amazon (who do own Netflix) and sat down to watch it.

I was pleasantly surprised. It’s unlike other TV shows as it really does solve every question. You begin with the first episode but instead of Walt’s idea just happening, his partner really does question him about why he wants to do it. Then when things heat up and cause more stuff to happen, the characters go round to solve it, things aren’t just swept under the carpet, they remain and the characters do have to live with the consequences of their actions as well as deal with them. It is through this that the show gets you gripped; so much so that you have no idea how long things have been going on for until you take a glance at the time. It’s almost impossible to take your eyes off the screen. This human nature side is not just related to the drugs side of the show though, but to the family and friends aspect also with issues in the family arising all the time from things like keeping secrets to money problems as well as the odd subject here and there.

But there are also elements of comedy too as well as moments where generally nice moments happen as well as the in deep interesting parts, like the chemistry and money-making moments to the comedic but stressed relationship between Walt and Jesse as well as Hank and Marie, and Skylar…..and Marie. Then there are moments of violence, a lot of violence but it is a violent criminal world. So while both violent and dangerous there is a lighter side to all this but it is the human side of the show where the real action takes place. It also has a great opening title sequence.

At the time of writing this I have only reached midway or so of the second series, But I am enjoying it, a lot and aim to continue watching it until either it ends, or it starts getting boring. I like the character Jane played by Krysten Ritter, she has only appeared briefly but already appears to be a strong character and look forward to more appearances from her, and there is also the constant appearance from a Pink Teddy Bear. As for those who have yet to see it as well, I really do recommend it, At the moment I would say it’s quite easily one of my top 5 Favourite American TV Series, at around about the second, possibly first mark, but it has to compete with 24, which is also another Awesome TV Show.

GENEPOOL

I Haven’t Seen Game Of Thrones, Is It Any Good?

 

It’s one of the biggest shows on Television at the moment. I say one of the biggest as most people say the biggest for any number of shows at any one moment in time, such as Breaking Bad (another show I have not seen due to it not actually being on TV in the UK), but seemingly it is only me that is talking about the Awesome Rookie Blue, I also like Falling Skies and Arrow. But yes, it’s one of the biggest shows on Television, and I have not seen it. I know about it, but I don’t know much about it except for what people have been telling me such as who dies in what series, so if I do watch it one day, there won’t be many surprises for me. Apart from all that though, I have wondered time and again, if it is any good or not?

The first time I heard the words Game of Thrones was when I was playing a nice little card game at Teesside University called A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (release before the TV Series). It was a nice little card game that consisted of battle card games such as Magic: the Gathering with a more political element to it as well as money and roles like in Citadels. I did not know of the existence of the TV Series until a few months later when I saw the famous poster of Sean Bean on the silver chair. I saw more pictures here and there but still did not hear much about it. I didn’t hear about the books until about 2012 when I bought The Hunger Games from Waterstones and noticed an interesting looking book called A Dance with Dragons (Part 1 or two I can’t remember) by George R. R. Martin (whom I have heard about previously for writing a book that would be adapted for an episode of The Outer Limits) and almost bought it until I looked at the back and it said Game of Thrones on the back. I even had a shot of watching the first series when it was repeated on Sky 1 but didn’t really get round to it even though it was sort of hoarded onto the playback facility before they were eventually deleted.

After some time had passed, I was in That’s Entertainment and saw some copies of the First and Second series combined DVD set and thought about picking up the first series and have a go. This was when I found out that I could only get the combined DVD set and not just the first series, which sounds more like a commitment than getting something out of interest. So I let the idea pass, but kept in my head. More recently I played the A Game Of Thrones: The Board Game at a board game day in Morecambe which was quite fun, but quite flawed as the game required a minimum of six players in order to actually play it to the full. an interesting set of mechanics but quite flawed really, but still fun. But it was not until a bout 2 months ago that the idea of watching Game of Thrones resurfaced after I bought the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (the book series real name), A Game Of Thrones. I bought it for him because of the references to The War of the Roses, and my dad is a fan of English History, so I thought it would be a good idea to buy the first book. Right now he is onto the third book, part 1.

While I could go into what else I know as I have done my research, (I do like how Charles Dance is in it, he was really good as Lord Havelock Vetinari in Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal) but the real question that needs to be answered is, is it any good, as in is it worth my bothering to have a look at it, and would I enjoy it, and seeing as I don’t like The Lord of the Rings, does that mean I won’t. Anyway most of that doesn’t matter, because I don’t have Sky Atlantic and so really the big question is, is it value for money, and where can I get a copy of the first series on DVD and only the first series? So the above paragraphs really are a question for those who have seen it. I did watch the opening credits of the show on YouTube and thought it looked quite fun, but seeing as the setting is not really all that’s steam punk, I don’t really understand why they did it like that. So taking all of the above into account, would you recommend it?

GENEPOOL (I might give the books a try but I might wait eight years for the final two to be released, unless of course Martin decides to extend the series again?)