Television Favorites!

[Rusty]

13 - Gen V Season 1 (2023) - This spinoff of The Boys is a lot of fun. It starts with a young girl named Marie whose life is upended when her powers over blood manifest. Years later, she ends up at a a college for people with super powers, but there is a dark underbelly to the school that soon becomes apparent. The show is violent and funny and pretty entertaining.

[Rusty]

14 - Ahsoka Season 1 (2023) - This was a very nice series and definitely sets things up for upcoming confrontations with Thrawn.

[Rusty]

15 - Secret Invasion (2023) - This was okay, but too often felt sluggish and boring.

[Rusty]

16 - Loki Season 2 (2023) - I liked the first season quite a bit and I ended up liking the second season just a bit more. It was a little slower at first, but had a better ending. Very entertaining.

[Rusty]

17 - Foundation Season 2 (2023) - This series picks up where the first one left off and is pretty good. One focus is on Gaal, Salvor, and Hari while another focus is on Day and the shenanigans around him. A third focus is on a few new characters, including Hober Mallow. We get a glimpse of The Mule, who I imagine will be the main antagonist in the third season. I enjoyed the season and am looking forward to the next one, though it will be a while before it arrives.

[Rusty]

18 - Halo Season 1 (2022) - I went into this only being minimally familiar with the series and not having played any of the games. There are a few plot lines here, including aliens who went to destroy humanity, super soldiers who have been brainwashed as part of their training, and a girl who is the only survivor of her rebel settlement on the planet Madrigal. Overall, the series seemed occasionally interesting, but fairly mediocre. I didn't care for Burn Gorman's character and was underwhelmed by the character of Makee. I'll probably watch the second season some day after its eventual dvd release, but will be in no rush.

19 - The Last of Us Season 1 (2023) - This is another series where I've never played the games, but I had a little more familiarity with the premise going in. Most of the series takes place around 20 years after a world wide pandemic that turns those infected into zombie-like creatures. What's left of society is generally penned up in quarantine zones under strict control, though there are survivalist enclaves and rebel groups, too. Pedro Pascal plays Joel, a man who escorts a teenage girl (Bella Ramsey) on a cross country journey. Their relationship is antagonistic at the start, though it changes over the course of the journey. The series certainly didn't disappoint and I enjoyed the performances by Pascal, Ramsey, and the supporting cast. I'll be looking forward to season 2 when it eventually arrives,

[Rusty]

20 - Ways of Seeing (1972) - John Berger serves as host for this series which looks at art and how its meaning and uses have changed in an era where photographs can copy art and easily so that it reaches a wider audience. Gender roles also serve as a prime topic for discussion. It was very interesting.

[Rusty]

21 - Silo Season 1 (2023) - An immense underground tower known as the Silo is home to approximately 10,000 residents centuries after some sort of catastrophe made the outside toxic. There was a rebellion 140 years earlier and in the aftermath, relics from before the rebellion are heavily restricted and knowledge of life before that time has mostly been forgotten. There are many secrets in the Silo and one individual sets out to uncover them while trying to solve a murder. This was very entertaining.

[Rusty]

22 - Severance Season 1 (2022) - A company has come up with a procedure where people have a microchip implanted in their brain which separates their work self from their regular self. When they are at work, they have no knowledge of their life outside and vice-versa. The show focuses on one employee named Mark along with the people he works with inside the company and his life outside. Work at the company is very strange with all sorts of odd things going on. This is a slow burn series that took me a little while to get hooked, but it definitely picks up steam toward the end of the season.

[Rusty]

23 - Star Trek Lower Decks Season 3 (2022) - This continues to be a fun series. Season 4 comes out on BD/dvd next month, though I don't know when I'll get around to watching it.

24 - Star Trek Prodigy Season 1 (2021) - A group of teenage aliens live at a prison colony far from Federation space. Most are prisoners/slaves who have to work in the facility. They escape by stealing an abandoned prototype Starfleet ship that is parked at the prison. The ship has a Janeway hologram who helps them as they try to make their way to Starfleet. It's plenty of fun. Season 2 is due on Netflix later this year.

[Rusty]

25 - Ronja the Robber's Daughter (2014) - Mattis is the leader of a successful band of robbers. The group lives in an old damaged, but functional, castle along with Mattis's wife, Lovis. In the first episode, Lovis gives birth to Ronja and the girl grows up in the castle, doted on by the entire group. One day, she meets a boy her own age named Birk who is the son of a rival gang of robbers that has set up camp in a separate part of the castle. This is a very nice series from Studio Ghibli.

26 - Bob's Burgers Season 1 (2011) - I liked the movie so I thought it was time to check out the tv series. It was a lot of fun with plenty of good gags.

27 - Bob's Burgers Season 2 (2012) - Just as much fun as the first season.

[Rusty]

28 - Snoopy In Space Season 1 (2019) - Snoopy and Woodstock become astronauts and travel to the ISS and the moon. The rest of the Peanuts gang act as mission controllers. It was fun.

29 - Snoopy in Space Season 2 (2021) - The Peanuts crew uses the facilities at NASA to explore the possibility of life on other planets/moons in the Solar System as well as looking into planets in other solar systems. I liked the first season a bit more, but this was good

Lucy's School (2022) (38 minutes)

[Rusty]

30 - Mech Cadets (2023) - Earth in the late 21st Century is the subject of giant crab like aliens known as the Sharg. Earth is protected by a defense grid and by alien robots with human pilots. Stanford dreams of being a mech pilot and has put in hundreds of hours in simulators, but wasn't accepted for the cadet program and works on the base as part of the custodial staff along with his mother. This is a pretty decent adaptation of the comic book series from 2017/2018. Hopefully the show gets a second season. There is a sequel comic book series that came out recently, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

[Rusty]

Welcome Home, Franklin (2024) (39 minutes)
For Auld Lang Syne (2021) (38 minutes)
It’s the Small Things (2022) (38 minutes)
To Mom (and Dad), with Love (2022) (38 minutes)

[Rusty]

31 - The Snoopy Show Season 1 (2021) - I like the format for this show with 3 short stories in each episode. It was pretty entertaining.