Originally published on 8 June 2024.
Last updated on 22 August 2026.
By now, this should be familiar to most of my readers. If you’re new here, don’t worry. It’s very straightforward: every three months I briefly discuss all the movies and TV series I have watched in that trimester. It’s all very subjective and while I try to give a bit of context, background and reasoning, I didn’t do any film studies. The length of each entry doesn’t reflect my esteem for it: just the fact that some movies or series are easier to say something about.
If you’re looking for recommendations: the entries with a poster next to them are topping my “you should watch this (for various reasons)” list.
The complete list of all the movies, series and documentaries I have seen is here.
Re-watch: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith: After a moody Anakin we now get an emo Anakin. In theory, his character arc could be interesting, but with this actor and this directing it’s just annoying. I’m imagining what it could’ve been instead and now I’m sad.
Re-watch: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope: It’s almost 50 years old and it still holds up. Sure, some of the dialogue is stilted and the acting wooden. But it’s a great adventure story, the special effects are still good, the soundtrack is of course amazing. They (literally) don’t make them like this anymore.
A Thousand Blows, Season 2:
There’s boxing, there’s a heist, there is our dependable trio of great actors (Erin Doherty, Malachi Kirby, Stephen Graham), there’s Victorian London. If you liked the first season, you’ll probably like the second, even though it is a little bit predictable in places.
Downton Abbey, Season 3:
Not all of the storylines work well, but the photography and production is a joy to look at and most of the actors do a great job. We’re out of the First World War so it’s more or less business as usual at the Abbey, but more soapy. We have a welcome addition to the regulars: Rose, the rebellious young niece.
Upgrade (2018) on Upgrade: This movie was recommended to me by the internet as preparation for Shadowrun role-playing campaign, focusing on near-future transhumanism. While the plot is a bit predictable, there’s solid world-building. The fight scenes are truly great (and shot in inventive ways), and with a runtime of 100 minutes, there’s no fat on the bones.
Wonder Man:
A new Marvel series, in which the superheroics are almost accidental. Sir Ben Kingsley reprises his role of Trevor Slattery and continues to steal scenes and hearts, just like he did in Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi. He has excellent chemistry with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, the titular Wonder Man. (No relation to Wonder Woman.)
Elysium:
(Another movie I watched as preparation for Shadowrun.) From Neill Blomkamp, the writer / director of the excellent District 9, comes this average scifi blockbuster. Elysium shows an earth that is sick and exhausted. The haves moved to Elysium, a utopian space station in Earth’s orbit, while the have-nots suffer below. The first act has excellent worldbuilding. The middle act is a bit unfocused and the plot already shows signs of magical coincidences to make things work. And then the third part made me snap my suspenders of disbelief and left me with a sour taste in my mouth.
Lie To Me (2009) on
Re-watch: Lie To Me, Season 1:
I’ve come to realise that I like police procedurals. There’s something very comforting in watching skilled professionals solve mysteries and crimes through expertise and teamwork. In this particular version, we have Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) working together with Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams). He’s an unorthodox British expert on micro-expressions, she’s a psychologist. They’re assisted by a hot-blooded Latina, a White nerdy guy and a Black, no-nonsense FBI agent. Together, they fight crime!
Microexpressions are actually a real thing. To quote Wikipedia: “A microexpression is a facial expression with very short duration. It is the innate result of a voluntary and an involuntary emotional response occurring simultaneously and conflicting with one another. (...) This results in briefly displaying their true emotions followed by a false emotional reaction.” Obviously, the TV series pushes this further and lets our protagonists be walking lie detectors. However, in this first season, there are limits to its accuracy and usefulness. It’s fun to see that even though you can (reasonably accurately) detect lies, you can’t convict people based on just that. You have to be creative to produce evidence.
2026 Q2
Daredevil: Born Again (2025, Season 2)
Downton Abbey (2010, Season 4-5)
The Punisher: One Last Kill (2026)
Downton Abbey, Season 4 & 5:
Not everything works well and there are serious pacing issues, but I’m still invested, and wondering where all the characters’ storylines are going. The theme of “the old days are fading fast, but we’re not sure we’re entirely on board with the new times” is a compelling one.
Re-watch: Lie To Me, Season 2:
The sophomore season of this procedural is unfortunately less consistent, which is probably also a result of the higher number of episodes. As is often the case with these, the protagonist’s “superpower” gets increased to a rather unbelievable (well, more unbelievable) level. I also noticed that it’s very firmly set in the post-9/11 United States, with some episodes involving the War on Terror.
Daredevil: Born Again (2025) on Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2:
The second season of the reborn Daredevil brings a welcome return of most of the regulars, plus Jessica Jones (Kirsten Ritter) in a supporting role. After the first season, in which the villain has gone legit as the mayor of New York, he now declares martial law and hunts down his critics without regard for the law. If this reminds you of certain aspects of contemporary American politics, it is because it should (and the show isn’t subtle about it). Unfortunately Daredevil doesn’t really commit to exploring the full ramifications of this.
All in all, it’s a solid season, but the final episode jumps the shark for fear of changing the status quo that is required of most superhero comics: you can play with the toys, but you always have to put them back in the box.
Fisk is wearing out his welcome, can we please get some other antagonists? No, not you, Dr. Glenn…
The Punisher: One Last Kill:
I’m not really sure why this exists. Is it needed for the upcoming Spider-Man movie? Was leading man Jon Bernthal bored? Is it a reboot / pilot for a new season of The Punisher after Daredevil was rebooted? Most likely, it’s necessary table-setting for the latest Spider-Man movie.
Whatever the case may be, the result is an action-packed 50 minutes where the Punisher does Punisher things: lament his past choices, and efficiently murder thugs by the dozens. Without an overarching storyline, it feels rather empty. Still worth your time, if only to see Bernthal in action again, and Andre Royo (“Bubbles” in The Wire) too.
2026 Q3
Downton Abbey (2010, Season 6)
Heavy Metal (1981)
Lie To Me (2009, Season 3)
Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston (2026, Season 1)
The Bear (2022, Season 5, plus special episode "Gary")
The Odyssey (2026)
The Worst of Evil (2023, Season 1)
X-Men '97 (2024, Season 2)
Lie To Me, season 3:
An interesting season in that on one hand it’s running out of steam. The cases are getting far-fetched, we’re digging into the notion that the male protagonist has more than just platonic feelings towards the female lead, while she gets less character development. On the other hand, the show is teasing some new secondary characters that could change the old relationships. I wonder what it could’ve done in a fourth season (Michael B. Jordan in a supporting role sure is interesting!) but it was cancelled due to declining viewer numbers.
Downton Abbey, Season 6:
It feels as if creator and writer Julian Fellowes suddenly realised that this would be the final season for the show. Unexpectedly, a lot of things happen which is a sharp contrast to the usual, meandering pace of the show. Many storylines abruptly progress, a lot of the challenges to the characters are resolved quickly. It’s a surprise, but a welcome one.
By the final few episodes, I realised how much I’d come to care for all these characters over 50+ episodes, and this season wraps most things up very tidily.
The Bear (2022) on The Bear, Season 5 and “Gary”:
In the previous entry I mentioned how much I’d come to care for the characters in Downton Abbey. This goes even more so for the characters in The Bear. This final season tracks them during a single harrowing, make-or-break work day where Murphy’s law is in full effect.
In it, The Bear does The Bear things: if you didn’t like the previous seasons, you won’t suddenly like it. It has pulled back on the amount of Famous Cameos, and there are less of the annoying secondary characters, so that’s a relief.
There are still a lot of Extreme Close-ups (of both food and characters), and Lens Flares. Moreover, it’s very obvious we’re targeted right in the feelings. There’s very little subtle about this naked manipulation of emotions by music, acting, framing, writing. It’s similar to an Aaron Sorkin show or movie, and like with Sorkin, I’m OK with it.
These characters were all broken, but they tried their best. Even if they messed up (and oh boy, did they mess up), they did it for the best of intentions. Over almost 50 episodes I’ve become fully invested in these fictional people.
Meanwhile, “Gary” is a flashback episode outside of the regular season. Co-written by and carried entirely by Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal, it’s a bit of a slog and can be skipped.
Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston: Actor Tom Hiddleston (Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is apparently an amateur classicist. Tapped by National Geographic, he now hosts and narrates this 3-episode documentary about the fall of Pompeii. It alternates between Hiddleston talking with experts (among them a professional classicist, an archeologist and a survival psychologist) and reenactments of the final day of 3 Romans in Pompeii.
The interweaving makes both threads lose momentum a bit, and although a fine, charismatic thespian, Hiddleston is unfortunately forced to utter rather dreadful lines.
X-Men ’97, Season 2: The second season of this animated series continues to speedrun through entire story arcs of the original comics. It’s very episodic and the focus is on the villain Apocalypse and his time-traveling foe Cable. Unfortunately, this leaves little time to give the ever-expanding cast more character depth. Somehow, it still hits a lot of emotional beats.
The Odyssey (2026) on The Odyssey: This was the big release for this summer, the latest from a blockbuster auteur, using an all-star ensemble cast. Director Christopher Nolan creates a mostly faithful adaptation of Homer’s epic for modern sensibilities.
Obviously, it looks great and although it’s almost 3 hours long, it keeps your attention.
There’s a cunning addition which I rather not spoil, so go see the movie and then see how MovieBob explains it.
And yet, for all its grandeur, sheer scale and technical expertise, I felt little emotional attachment to the expertly-acted characters — a not uncommon failing for Nolan’s films. For more emotional engagement, I recommend watching Uberto Pasolini’s The Return (read my review here). More than a year later, that version lingers in my mind, something I don’t expect Nolan’s version to do.
The Worst of Evil: A South-Korean police thriller in which an underachieving cop (Ji Chang-wook) goes undercover in a Gangnam-based gang during the 1990s to catch up to the career his elite officer wife (Im Se-mi) has. The other main character is the gang’s leader (Wi Ha-joon), an ambitious and charismatic man. The Worst of Evil (2023) on
The series is stylish, beautifully shot, and the acting by the leads is excellent. The story brings all the necessary elements: undercover cop slowly being worn by the job, the cat and mouse play between the cops and the crooks, the ambitious gangster and his untrustworthy henchmen, and adds a love triangle. Trigger warning: the action scenes are brutally violent.
Heavy Metal: Some background is needed here: The French comic magazine Métal Hurlant was very influential in the ‘70s and ‘80s for pushing the boundaries of comics, delivering adult, complex and highly imaginative stories. In it, you would find stories by Mœbius (Jean Gireaud), Enki Bilal and Alejandro Jodorowsky. It and some of its creators would influence Alien, Blade Runner, Star Wars, and The Fifth Element — which in turn would influence untold successors.
The contents of Métal Hurlant were translated and published from 1977 on in the United States in Heavy Metalmagazine.
Then, in 1981 Heavy Metal was released, a “Canadian adult animated science fantasy anthology film”. It’s a weird mix of 8 stories, tied together by the loosest of framing stories. As it was created by different writers and animation studios, it makes sense that it is all over the place in terms of quality and tone. It delivers slices of horror, science fiction, fantasy, humor and erotica — much like the original comics did. A lot of the backgrounds are beautiful, but the animation is crude. It has a pretty good soundtrack of, fittingly, heavy metal music.
If I’d been a teenager in 1981, this probably would’ve been my favourite movie.
