Tag: television

LoL: Arcane – almost makes me want to get back into League

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Being an out-of-touch dad these days, a lot goes over my head as far as things coming and going in popular culture.  As big of a League of Legends fan I was back in the day, you’d have thought that I might’ve been more aware of the Netflix series LoL: Arcane coming out but nope, after hearing some mumbles about League and Netflix, I didn’t hear nor pay any further attention, thinking that it was just ear candy since these days, just about every popular IP ends up going into the rumor mill with a project with Netflix.

Plus, as I grew out of League, and then all the allegations of sexist bro-culture over at Riot Games began emerging as if such weren’t already the case at likely every single gaming company in the world, I kind of just stopped caring.  As much enjoyment I got out of the game, it really was the epitome of an abusive relationship, seeing as how players get their ass kicked at probably a 60% clip even if they’re “good” at the game, and they come back for more, over and over again.

That, and one of those don’t meet your heroes kind of mentalities, I remembered and realized all the interactions and impressions I had of those of Riot Games personalities I’ve ever met, and kind of felt there was a degree of smarmy arrogance, that they were all a little too self-aware of their contributions towards the production of League, and then all the allegations of the toxic corporate culture seem all too relatable.

Regardless, when watching LoL: Arcane, all of the critical thoughts and opinions I might have about Rito and the actual game are all kind of washed away while I’m watching the show, and in its place is just simple enjoyment for a clever, beautifully executed series in my opinion.

Jinx (along with Miss Fortune) was easily one of my favorite and most-played champions, so a series revolving primarily around her, along with the general Piltover/Zaun setting was easy for me to be interested in.  And the mass edits to the lore all seemed to come into play, seeing as how I was pretty intrigued to see that the re-imagining of origins have now placed Jinx and Vi as sisters, which can explain a lot of the original animosity between the characters in-game.

I won’t analyze or spoil any of the plot, but I just want to sing the praises of LoL: Arcane, because I thought it was a very well done series.  The brushed painting style of the animation is refreshing and perfectly executed, and the plot is gritty and very much R-rated, which is interesting given how cartoony and lighter-plot the game is.  

There are easter eggs galore throughout the series, and those familiar with the game will probably have a fun time picking them out and then hypothesizing on plot points, potential future arcs and most importantly, how they tie into future appearances of recognizable champions.

The first six episodes were so well done, it almost makes me want to get back into the game, as abusive of a relationship it really is.  Then I realize that I’m a dad with no time on my hands anymore, and ponder how I even had as much time as I did in the past to play as fervently and obsessively as I used to.  So instead, I’ll just patiently wait for the rest of the series to pan out, and hope that Rito and Netflix can agree to produce more Arcane in the future, because I think there’s still a ton of lore that could make for entertaining television.

Gaming 90 Day Fiancé?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Catching up on this season of 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way, I had a thought that I’ve had multiple times but never really brogged about: what’s the possibility that there are some people on the show who are deliberately doing things knowing that it’s juicy television and will ensure their continued participation on the show?

Now I could be like 50 years late to the party and everyone else in 90 Day Nation is already aware that this is going on, or it can be more of a real question, in the sense that I’m watching the show, and I’m suspecting that some of the people or couples, are deliberately manipulating their storylines in order to remain on the show, where they can continue to hoover in participation money, get television exposure, and stay (in)famous and fresh in the eyes of viewers.

Case in point: Ariela, the girl from New Jersey who got knocked up by an Ethiopian guy, and moved to Ethiopia to have the baby and live there, hoping to actually grow and marry a relationship with the baby daddy, Biniam.  Her original tour of the show was pretty straight forward, dealing with the culture shock, Bini’s family, her family’s resistance to moving, and then the eventual arrival of the baby.

But with this recent season, she brings her ex-husband to come and visit, insinuates all sorts of unfinished business with him, and then goes back to America for a routine medical procedure for her son, and then supposedly goes full dark side, gets a bunch of laughably gross plastic surgery, and refuses to return to Ethiopia, which is actually something that had happened to Bini in the past, where a former baby mama abandoned him.

Like, these are all things that I can’t help but feel are a little too orchestrated, too conveniently inflammatory for the show to exploit, and all the reasons in the world to keep Ariela on the show.  She seems fairly bright and cunning, and I wouldn’t put it past her to do it, in order to keep TLC money coming in, and to potentially springboard all this cable tv exposure into something in the future, or to become a mainstay in the 90 Day Universe and get tapped all the time for spinoffs or specials.

I think Corey and Evelin, or the cuck and the bitch in Ecuador, are also gaming the show as well, because they need the money, and as doomed as their relationship is, I think they’re smart enough to realize that they need to keep the cameras rolling long enough to bilk as much money from TLC as they can before they can have the break up they’re destined to have.

However, this doesn’t apply to all cast members of the show; like the case of Jenny and Sumit, both of them are dumb as rocks, and Jenny can’t seem to understand that Sumit will never marry her, as he has an endless bag of excuses and reasons to never move forward.  I never laughed harder than when he has suggested traveling to Nepal to circumvent Jenny’s visa issues, because his own passport was absconded by his ex-in-laws and he doesn’t seem to understand he’s a grown adult and can get a replacement.

Kenny and Armando are the layup of the season, Steven and Alina are too young and stupid to game the show, and Ellie and Victor are living too real of a situation, dealing with hurricane cleanup to be in a position to be gaming the show.

The point is, I’m just not coming to the realization, that there are clearly a lot of participants in the show’s history, where they’re gaming the system and artificially injecting plot lines and twists in order to remain on the show.  Some more obvious than others, but there are obviously sometimes gamers amidst those seeking foreign love.

Appreciation for Letterkenny

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I think it’s funny how much Canadian comedy shows are finding so much success in America over the last few years.  Of course Schitt’s Creek really gets a lot of credit as far as Canadian shows go, but I was surprised that stuff like Corner Gas made its way stateside, and actually did fairly decently, in spite of its very local, very Canadian subject matter.

Canada seems to have this formula of small town, encapsulated universe comedies down, and over the last week or so, I’ve been making my way through pretty much, all of Letterkenny.  Prior to going all-in and just plowing through the series, I’d only seen clips or heard references of it, and of course there was that month where Hulu got the rights to the show, and they blasted the ever living shit out of advertising the show on just about every site that could support banners and video ads.

But either way, I’ve been going through the series, and I’m wrapping up season 8 right now, and before long, I’ll be done with season 9 and be awaiting alongside all other fans of the show for future seasons in real-time.

The show is witty, clever, and easily digestible, and the fact that they’re all like 22 minute episodes make them the perfect things to watch in tiny chunks, where I can sneak in an episode while feeding #2, while #1 is still napping and we never have any televisions on when she’s awake.  I can watch 1-2 episodes in the evening when I don’t want to commit to a plot-heavy thriller or a film or some episodic series drama, so as I’ve often said, as I get older and my plate tends to get heavier, the lower the run time gets, the more I favor it.

I love that the show itself are fans of Howard Stern and professional wrestling, and it feels like if there were ever a show that was like a Canadian version of my persona, this was kind of it.  Although I think he’s kind of a Marty Stu in how he’s the penultimate alpha who’s the toughest, most woke, most enlightened and the center of everyone’s universe, Wayne is still a likable character and kind of embodies the persona that lots of guys want to have: tough, intelligent, honorable, and of course, the object of pretty much every woman’s attraction, but really I get the most enjoyment from the show whenever characters just erupt into one of the numerous fights, because that’s the kind of shit I’d fantasize about participating in, but don’t have the guts to really get into.

Overall, it’s another quality Canadian comedy, that has a surprising amount of heart in it, in spite of how crude and low-hanging fruit the comedy can get, and I just wanted to share a few words of appreciation I had for the series, because during a period where I have so little time to indulge in small pleasures, Letterkenny has brought me a little bit of much needed enjoyment throughout the last few days, and I can say that I’m a fan of the show.

China and Japan being jealous fatties over Squid Game makes me smile

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I’m not sure how theFacebook algorithms got me so good, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see that there was a site actually called Koreaboo and it wasn’t just a slang term that I used amongst my friends.  And obviously a site with such a name would have an obvious bias, but there were some interesting articles that piqued my interest and served as a little bit of fuel for some words to be spit up.

Obviously, when something becomes white hot popular as Netflix’s Squid Game has been, there are all sorts of detractors that come out of the woodwork or go out of their way to go all contrarian on it; I’d be the first to admit that I’ve most definitely done that on all sorts of things that I was late to the party on, so I just decided to shun it instead of embrace it late.

Naturally, since Squid Game game to the world courtesy the entertainment kings of Asia in South Korea, this would draw the skepticism, ire and jealousy from those in other, lesser Asian countries.

China, in spite of their general fear of Korean media, and even going so far as to basically ban K-Pop, citing that Chinese men needed to be more masculine and not as seemingly as fluffy as K-Pop boy band stars, responds to Squid Game, by basically ripping the whole fucking show off in order to create a variety show.

I mean, this was about the least surprising thing in the world as China as a country gives absolutely no fucks when it comes to copyrights and intellectual properties, and counterfeits anything and everything at all, without any shame.  It’s like that internet rule where if it’s ever existed, there’s porn of it on the internet, but if there’s anything that’s ever existed, it has most definitely been ripped off in China.

Titled literally “Squid’s Victory,” it will be something of a variety show or a game show, where people will play kids games for cash prizes.  So unfortunately, there will be no people killing themselves for money, but as the above title card shows, there’s literally zero shame by the Chinese company of ripping off the title card of the Korean Squid Game.  Little else is known yet of Squid’s Victory, but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that whatever set the show will take place on will have all sorts of maze-like colorful doors and stairs that is a completely original idea.

And then we have the Japanese, who are of course jealous over the juggernaut that Squid Game, going as far as to proclaim it’s position on Netflix rankings had to be due to some sort of cheating manipulation, and then proclaiming that Japan had the OG lock on the death game genre, which they’re not entirely wrong with, seeing as how Battle Royale came out two decades prior.

The real salt emerges when pondering why Squid Game is so popular globally, while films like Battle Royale really only won over weebs and convention nerds, which is a pretty easy question to answer, because the quality of the writing, the acting, and simply the plot itself was just far superior when comparing the two stories.  Firstly, live-action Japanese actors can’t act for shit, and as entertaining of a film Battle Royale was, the acting is pretty terrible save for Takeshi Kitano himself.  Then the fleshed out plot of Squid Game, centralized around the despair people feel when they’re economically facing drowning in poverty is something that people can relate to a whole lot better than getting randomly selected in a government lottery to have to fight to their death without any choice.  And of course, there’s the obvious medium, where just everyone can access Squid Game, and unless you purchased a VCD or a region-free DVD on eBay, there was no real way to watch Battle Royale.

Regardless, seeing the jealousy bubble up from entire countries over the success of Squid Game is very amusing to me, and now that Korea has set the bar so high, it’s going to be amusing to see what all these lesser countries do to try and get a piece of the yellow fever for Asian media that the rest of the world is starting to get, thanks to Korea.

You’re welcome, China, Japan and all you other 개새끼 countries.

I don’t even know how to start writing again or where to even begin

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Like the title to this post says, I’m just like, have no idea on what to do in front of a blank document anymore.  I feel like a stereotypical author character in a story who’s got writer’s block, and is staring at a blank word document, with the cursor blinking over and over again, before they resort to more coffee and/or more alcohol, sometimes both.  Most recently demonstrated by Finn Wittrock in the most recent season of American Horror Story.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to write about, quite the contrary, it’s just that I have so many things I’d like to write about, somewhere around 15-16 notes that I took as things I’d like to write about, but it’s been so long since I did any sort of writing or had any modicum of time to do any writing, that I’m just in this state of disbelief and paralysis of not knowing what to do, which is why I’m ironically writing nonsense to try and get myself in the mood to write the usual array of niche-topic bullshit that I tend to write about in my blog outside of bitching about how hard parenting can be sometimes.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that as long as #2 has no set schedule or routine as she is still but an infant under three months old and cannot be set to such just yet, that I will have no time or no capacity for anything really self-serving or hobbies like writing, that require some time, silence and setting, because I’m really that much of a head case that likes to have such just to write about professional wrestling, baseball, veiled social commentary or any of the rando crap that I write about.  

But now that I’m on official paternity leave, I feel that it is important to try and carve out a sliver of time here and there to try and give myself a little bit of reprieve from dad mode, because I know I’m getting short with life in general because I’ve been going too hard too long and without any substantial breaks, and it’s going to do nobody any good if I continue to go on like this without any bit of self-care periodically.

So, I’m going to try and shoe-horn in some writing time in the coming weeks, on top of all of the other things I’d like to accomplish while I’m on leave, like yard work, refinancing my house, possibly researching a bigger car while my current one still has a lot of value, casual job searching, and occasionally getting in a run periodically so my physical being doesn’t deteriorate like Sim City roads and rails when you have to take too much tax dollars away from their budgets.

I will probably sticky this post and supplant the very deliberate sticky of the tragic passing of Sonny Chiba post I made that I’m still upset over, and probably retroactively back-post all the writing of things that I wanted to write about that might still warrant some writing about, and that is if it’s not too late to write about some of the things that might’ve been a little on the more time sensitive spectrum.  

Which are always fun-not-fun to write about, because there’s very little chance that I’ll be in the same mental states to write about things when the impetus to want to write about them in the first place might be as much as 3-4 weeks old, or if I already know what fallout/aftermath of particular events might have been.

But that’s the kind of person I am, where I’m staunch and stubborn and if I wanted to write about it at some point, there’s high chance that I’m going to write about it now, and either pretend like it was done live, or hope nobody notices, but most likely the latter since I have zero readers in the first place and I probably don’t need to disclaim this anyway but whatever.

Has there been a more legendary of a power move than this?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Obviously, there are probably several comparable examples floating out there in the world, but I’m a dad with an extremely small world these days, so bear with me here.

But I recently saw that Katey Segal has apparently showed up in the ashes of what used to be Roseanne and is now The Connors, seemingly as the love interest of Dan Connor, Roseanne’s widowed husband after her character died of cancellation.  But for lack of better term, Peg Bundy has shown up and completely usurped the role of Roseanne out from Roseanne herself, and I’m left here flabbergasted, wondering if there’s ever been more of a legendary power move in history?

It goes back to the 80’s when not necessarily direct rivals, but definitely there were comparisons between the two actresses, playing similar characters of no-bullshit, smart talking moms between Roseanne and Married… With Children.  To the point where it’s even acknowledge in the roast of Roseanne by Katey Segal herself, and if people didn’t put one and one together before seeing that clips, it’s easy to see the correlations between the two.

And then Roseanne had to go and get herself cancel culture’d, putting the whole reboot of the Roseanne show into a tailspin, but ABC and Disney are clever, and have the financial means to throw infinite money at a problem until it goes away, and it appears that even the social cancellation of the titular Roseanne is not insurmountable.  Killing her name from the series, and renaming it The Connors is one thing, but to more or less flip all of Roseanne’s role and probably future storylines onto Peg Bundy is pretty incredible no matter what way you look at it.

It’s kind of like whenever Ric Flair would get himself in hot water with whatever legal, drugs or one of this 13 ex-wives, and WCW would always have this sudden power vacuum in the main event.  But then they’d poach some WWF main eventer, be it Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart or whomever, and they’d instantly step in and bring a modicum of low-adapting stability to the scene and things would resume business as usual until the company imploded in 2001.

Katey Segal stepping in to fill the shoes vacated by Roseanne’s social indiscretions all but solidifies who really was the queen of the old school sitcom moms’ roost, and now not only did she dominated MWC through her original time, she’s dominating someone else’s original IP in the modern age.  If that’s not a power move on the legendary level, then I don’t know what else is. 

Squid Game: of course Korea can make the battle royale genre better

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I think I only needed like 30 seconds of the trailer to determine that Squid Game was probably something that I was going to really like.  Even before the trailer reveals that the games were deadly for those who couldn’t compete, it seemed fairly obvious that such was going to be the case but all the same I was all-in for such a concept, because I was a fan of such battle royale notions like Lord of the Flies as well as Battle Royale.

The thing is, despite the fact that the general concept of Squid Game is kind of lifted from numerous predecessors, it still in my opinion, ended up being a better execution than all of them, mostly because the long-form format of being a Netflix series gave the story a tremendous amount of room to breathe, develop its characters, and tell the more comprehensive story about just how desperate people can be when facing the weight of mass economic despair in their lives, that somehow become determined to become expendable at the potential reward of sudden generational wealth.

Needless to say, the show as a whole was about as easy of a layup to love as I thought it would be.  It’s lock on the top rankings of Netflix since it’s drop date goes to show that I’m not the only one who feels as fondly to the series, but since it’s made in Korea, I can take just a little bit more ownership to it than all other non-Koreans, and everyone else can kiss my ass and continue to overanalyze and pretend to be experts on Korean dramas suddenly because they watched Squid Game.

Frankly, after watching through the series, it’s actually an unfair comp to put it in the same breath as stuff like Battle Royale.  Squid Game is far more nefarious and thought-provoking due to the fact that all participants of the entire thing are basically voluntary, and there’s few things as jarring as the thought of people willingly putting their lives on the line for a very minute chance at winning a large pot of money.

I won’t go into too much analysis because I don’t want to give away any spoilers to zero readers, plus the imaginary weight of my writing queue is probably about as heavy as the economic hardships all 456 participants of Squid Game feel, but it really all boils down to the fact that Squid Game most definitely delivers on the massive amounts of hype and mania as people are rightfully giving it, in my opinion.

Leave it to Koreans to make a better battle royale story than all of its predecessors, and it makes me happy that shit like this continues to further the obvious narrative of just how high quality and good at telling stories and making media that Koreans are capable of.  I enjoyed the show immensely, and I look forward to what comes next from the Motherland as far as future projects are concerned.