Tell Us About Your Pop Culture Month: August 2022

Our month-to-month query concerning the stuff you watched, learn, or performed continues with the ultimate month of the summer time earlier than faculty stars and the vacation season will get able to rear its head.

Played: In addition to grinding and having fun with my manner by Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I made a decision to replay a number of the Saints Row video games forward of the then-incoming reboot. A couple of hours with Saints Row 3 and 4 had been some welcome returns to nostalgia; I beloved each of these video games again within the PS3 and 360 days, they usually stay delightfully bizarre as ever. But I additionally dipped again into Agents of Mayhem, the opposite Saints Row reboot from again in 2017. The fight and three-person character swapping stays as enjoyable as ever, as do the RPG mechanics. It’s clear that Volition needed to minimize some corners, although, and it makes me want that it had the Hitman 2016 launch mannequin of a brand new location each few months that additionally included three new Agents, so it could possibly be because the globetrotting romp that it very a lot wished to be.

As for Saints Row 2022 (or Saints Row: Self Made, as I’m mentally calling it)…it’s Totally Fine. Self Made doesn’t gentle the world on hearth or go for broke with its wackiness like Saints Row 3 did, nevertheless it manages to carve an id all its personal by the tip. For these break up on the departure to lifelike crime after Saints 2, the reboot seems like an ideal bridge between that and Volition’s a lot odder sequels. The bugs are gonna be the principle sticking level, although; through the ultimate showdown, my nemesis moved about 5 toes to the suitable offscreen whereas the digital camera remained mounted on the place he ought to’ve been.

But however, Insurance Fraud remains to be a blast, I loved the forged, and wingsuits are cool, so would nonetheless advocate.

Watched: Lately, I’ve been watching A League of Their Own over on Amazon, which I’ve been having fun with much more than I anticipated. It’s simply very charming in an old-fashioned, honest form of manner, the sports activities scenes are all nice, and the forged is enjoyable from prime to backside. There’s been a number of consideration given to Abbi Jacobson and D’Arcy Carden because the leads, however Chanté Adams is principally working away with the present from the beginning.

Like everybody else, I’ve additionally been watching She-Hulk. I believe it could’ve been in Marvel’s greatest curiosity to launch the primary two episodes collectively, for the reason that second provides a greater thought of what this present really is, however I prefer it. The comedy works for me right here greater than different Marvel tasks, Tatiana Maslany is endearing as Jennifer Walters, and the rotating forged of visitor stars provides the present some chaotic power it in any other case would possibly’ve lacked. Megan Thee Stallion’s current cameo is understandably getting talked about probably the most not too long ago, however Benedict Wong’s look in that very same episode is an efficient reminder of how he, like Don Cheadle, has develop into one of many MCU’s most dependable character actors. Even the fourth wall breaks have a sure allure to them, so I’d say it’s price a watch, if solely to find out for your self if it’s definitely worth the tradition battle it’s been pressured into. (That’s a trick query, no piece of media ever is.)

Meanwhile, fellow io9 author Linda Codega discovered themselves captivated by the not too long ago launched Inu-Oh. “Masaaki Yuasa’s newest film is captivating, energetic and full of live-wire music that resists genre conventions as intensely as the film does,” they wrote. “It’s not wrong to call Inu-Oh an anachronistic, a-historical musical, but that downplays the sheer artistry of the animation, the ambition of the themes, and the expansiveness of the inspiration. From Noh theater to Iggy Pop, Inu-Oh takes creativity from whatever font suits the story, and is better for the unique blend of storytelling and storytellers.”

Listened: Other than telling myself that no actually, I ought to stop listening to “Renaissance” earlier than doing it once more, August was a podcast heavy month for me. Loads of it was A More Civilized Age, a rewatch podcast for the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars sequence. For these into media criticism and evaluation, listening to the hosts—Ali Acampora, Austin Walker, Rob Zacny, and Natalie Watson—dissect the sequence and work out what does and doesn’t work for them is fascinating. A easy episode-by-episode rewatch this isn’t; the hosts routinely speak concerning the episodes and arcs within the context of politics (each now and for the time), and routinely replay behind the scenes footage that includes supervising producer Dave Filoni to discover the context beneath which the present was made. Really fascinating stuff, and in the event you’re a fan of lengthy podcasts, they’re lengthy, so go forward and luxuriate in.

Finally, I began and caught up on Malevolent, a horror audio drama by Harlan Guthrie. The pitch is personal investigator Arthur Lester finds himself connected to some…factor that speaks in his head, always berating him and getting him to do its bidding. Think Venom within the Thirties, if Eddie Brock had been helpless, however not within the comedic sense.

Since it’s a podcast, the gimmick right here is that the entity has management of Arthur’s eyes, which means that the entity has to explain what he sees for Arthur and the viewers. Like Guthrie voicing all of the characters, it’ll really feel unusual at first, however turns into charming over time. When the horror components of the present are available, they actually hook you, and the episodes are quick sufficient that they will binged for fairly a while.

Let us know within the feedback under the way you spent the month of August.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the most recent Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and the whole lot that you must find out about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.