rodo's journal

► I absolutely loved the first season of the Murderbot TV series! If you haven’t watched it yet, I can only recommend it, because all the characters are varying levels of adorable, but especially Murderbot itself is just wonderful and Alexander Skarsgård does a great job. Also, it’s very relatable. I too would rather spend my time watching trashy TV shows instead of being a Productive Member of Society™. I’ll stay out of the fandom, though. That way lies madness.

► I’ve also played Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, and honestly, worst game of the series I’ve played so far. It’s just so long, and such a slog. After sixty hours I was still stuck in the middle somewhere, doing repetitive tasks. Plus, the ahistoricity really weighed on me, even though I have no idea about the time period – if even I can tell, how bad is it really? Also, I hate Sigurd. Like, why is he the boss to begin with, with everybody seemingly being all into it? All he does is swan around sprouting great ideas while everyone else does all the work. I’ve met too many people like that in real life to find it charming – and it wouldn’t even have been that bad if only they’d made him actually do significant stuff off-screen. But no, this is a video game, and the PC has to do everything… also, one of the most annoyingly buggy games I’ve ever played. Twice, I accidentally skipped over half a quest… and that was just the worst of a very buggy experience.

► I binged The Assassin recently, an Amazon Prime mini-series with 6 episodes, and I loved it! For those who might be interested, here’s what it’s about: Middle-aged retired assassin Julie (Keeley Hawes) is not enjoying her retirement on a quiet Greek island when her estranged son Edward (Freddie Highmore) visits with news about his impending marriage and questions about his father. Then, someone tries to draw her back into the job – only for things to take a catastrophic turn almost immediately. Along for the ride are rich siblings Kayla and Ezra and innocent bystander Luka, as well as an assortment of Julie’s former associates and a mysterious MILF who’s really into anime.

( Captivating the King, House of the Owl, Knight Flower, My Man Is Cupid, A Shop for Killers )



Also, in hedgehog news: Zumi finally woke up and is currently adjusting to the great outdoors in a larger pen underneath the apple tree.

Because RL kind of got in the way a lot this week, here’s two for one!

( Challenge #9: Rec Us Your Newest Thing. - My Man Is Cupid )



( Challenge #10 – five actors/actresses I’ll watch a lot of dramas I wouldn’t usually watch for )

So, in between weird health problems that the doctors can’t figure out, I’ve recently become completely obsessed with a new (older) TV show, because of course my brain picks this moment in time for it. Anyway, the series is ten years old by now, and there’s barely any fic, but I absolutely loved Banshee.

Banshee focusses on a character only known as Lucas Hood, an ex-con who assumes the identity of a dead sheriff when he enters the small town of Banshee, looking for his ex-girlfriend and the diamonds he went to prison for fifteen years ago, only to discover that she’s married with two children. While he tries to keep undercover in his new identity, he has to content with a suspicious deputy, an ex-Amish gangster and his niece, as well as an assortment of criminals and, most importantly, his ex-girlfriend’s mobster father, who has a score to settle with both of them…

So, I absolutely love this series because of the main character, since Lucas Hood is almost exactly my kind of woobie (the only complaint I have is that they could have gone a little lighter on the PTSD) – an asshole woobie who gets beaten up constantly (not an exaggeration), who has a very tragic and shady past and who can be kind of unhinged and self-destructive. I also love a lot of the other characters, though. I initially picked up the series because I was interested in Job, the fabulous cross-dressing hacker who is one of Hood’s best friends/accomplices, and he’s wonderful too. Other things I loved are: Hood’s and Ana/Carrie’s complicated relationship and deep love for each other even when they’re with other people, Hood/Carrie/Job/Sugar working together on jobs. Hood being kind of a terrible sheriff even though it’s obvious he loves the job, and the deputies we meet throughout the series (the last one to appear – an ex-nazi played by the guy who played Ward in Iron Fist – being the fan favourite).

You should watch this series if you like: woobies getting whumped (there’s a lot of that to go around), Antony Starr (Homelander from The Boys), characters who try their best but don’t necessarily do the right thing, extremely shady morals, us-against-the-world relationships

You should not watch this series if you don’t like: violence (including torture, sexual violence, racialized violence, protagonists being violent, police violence, very graphic violence), lots of on-screen sex, cheating/promiscuity

This time, a little more varied in terms of origins.

( Business Proposal, First Love, Little Women, My Roommate is a Gumiho, The Rise of Phoenixes )

AKA what I've been doing lately instead of being productive like I wanted to:

( One Spring Night, Save Me, Tale of the Nine Tailed, W - Two Worlds Apart, When the Camellia Blooms )

This is me, procrastinating on finally starting my Yuletide fic. If I don't get that done soon, finding a beta will be a bitch.

( Arang and the Magistrate, A Gentleman's Diary, Nice Guy, Queen In Hyun's Man and To the Beautiful You )

I still haven’t finished my current dorama binge (hey, I haven’t even worked my way up to the Chinese and Japanese doramas), so I decided to do a recs post every time I have five series to recommend. I have a type when it comes to series that I do watch, so some elements are bound to repeat themselves. So here are two historical dramas, one about conmen, one about revenge and one about an unlikely couple. Not in that order.

( City Hunter, Iljimae, Oh! My Lady, The Return of Iljimae, Tazza )