Show: In The Flesh
Creator: Dominic Mitchell
Completed: March

Thoughts: A rewatch of one of my favorite shows which was sadly never completed. Rewatching it made me remember how sad I was when I first found out it was not continuing. I can only hope Amy magically came back and made it out okay.

Show: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (Season 1)
Creator: David Zabel
Completed: March
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨

Thoughts: I never finished the walking dead. To be honest, I dont even remember where I stopped watching, but it was definitely in the later parts of the show. But, I decided to watch this one because I've been on a zombie mood lately.

The show was good. I did not remember daryl speaking this much. I was looking forward to Daryl going back home but it looks like he stays at least for a while. I also have the suspicion that the kid is going to end up being immune to the zombie bite or something. Hopefully all the "he's special" ends up mattering. When watching I did not realized at all this had a second season, I will likely be wathing but I honestly don't know if I care about any of the characters enough to watch another season.

Movie: Snowpiercer
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Completed: March
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thoughts: Surprisingly enough, this is my first time watching this decade old movie. I was not familiar with Bong Joon Ho other than Okja which I watched a while ago when it first came out.

I found the concept pretty interesting and unique and was honestly very willing to ignore the logistics of how long it must have taken to build railroad tracks around the whole world and over oceans before the cold came (and how possible an eternal engine truly is).

I know the main point is the portrayal of classes and the train as the system and I think it worked pretty well in that sense. I've been watching the TV show also tittled Snowpiercer and I feel like in some ways (at least the first season- the later seasons deviate too much for it to matter) the show makes better use of the concept. Initially while watching the movie I had thought, maybe incorrectly, that the tailies were supposed to represent the poor, the working man who maybe did not have enough to buy their ticket into the train. But the show in the first and second seasons, at least to me, made it clear that the tailies were more like the homeless people, people who did not have a job and/or were more disadvantaged. It becomes interesting then, to watch the third class(the working class) go along with their regular lives while the tailies suffered, starved or were tortured. Some of the third class people were willing to fight, some were afraid the tailies would take what little they had instead of looking at first class and their excessive amount of resources, and some only fought when they were directly impacted. Some did not care if the tailies suffered if there was order (as they perceived it.) In the movie, the tailies even though they apparently do not work, are revealed to have a function. I think even if they didn't, they might as well have been kept alive because they, like in real life, can be used to distract those who have something, as little as that might be, from the real problem. I think the first season of the show did a better job at portraying this.

Movie: The old Guard
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Completed: March
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thoughts: Fun movie. I was actually rewatching it since I really like the concept and a second movie will be coming out I believe in July.

Manga: Yokohama Station (Vol 1-3)
Author(s): Yuba Isukari and Gonbe Shinkawa (Art)
Completed: March 15, 2025
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Thoughts: The story only had 3 volumes and is based on a book. I really liked the concept and the art but I think this story would’ve benefited from being longer.
What I liked: the concept was really interesting, I also liked the idea of the young ai robots as a way to get around the station rules.
What I disliked: Although the two most relevant characters intersect at one point, the two storylines shown feel really disconnected from each other which is worsened in my opinion by the length of the story.

Book: Merciless Waters
Author: Rae Knowles
Completed: March 5, 2025
Rating: ⭐⭐✨

Thoughts: The story takes place aboard the ship Scylla, where there is no future or past. The all female crew exists in an endless present. Jaq is in love with Lily, her fickle lover, and wants to keep her by her side. I got this book from the library due primarily to the pretty cover and the premise. I ended up not liking the book as much as I expected, mainly due to the nature of the one sided relationship between Jaq and Lily. It seemed to me that from beginning to end the relationship remained one sided. Lily always had some sort of priority or something she just wanted more. Towards the end of the book, as a response to Lily’s words, Jaq thinks,

“Perhaps Lily is right. As wise Yinka once said, all good things die. Only poison is forever. And there is always a chance that our rest might include one another. Thus far naught has had the strength to separate us. So why might one final death?”

To me their relationship, and more specifically Jaq’s inability to let go, at the end seems to be more like poison than anything else.

Movie: The Gorge (2025)

Director: Scott Derrickson

Watched: February 26, 2025

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨

Thoughts: Fun Sci-fi romance movie.
What I liked: I liked how self-contained it was. The ending felt complete. I found it satisfying.
What I disliked: At some point they were trying to get up the gorge by using the walls and I wondered why they were not attacked by the machinery.

Movie: Companion (2025)

Director: Drew Hancock

Watched: February 21, 2025

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Thoughts: Oh, the horror of being tied to a chair and told you are but a robot. Everything about you, your emotions, your memories, is nothing more than programming. I decided to watch this movie because I saw a clip of the beginning scene where Iris says her two brief transcendent moments were when she met Josh and when she killed him.
What I liked: The movie was fun. I really liked Sophie Tatcher’s acting. She sold that subtle uncanny valley feeling from her sometimes monotone voice and sometimes sort of awkward movements.
What I disliked: I think if giving this sort of robots full autonomy was that easy and quick this would be a totally different movie. It felt too convenient.