September 17th, 2024: Media Recap for the Month

Welcome back to “Pieces Of Media I’ve Consumed Recently” (or otherwise known as POMICR for short). I did a blog post called TTGMTTM or “Things That Got Me Through The Month” back in April, so here’s a follow-up! I wanted to highlight specifically, pieces of media (TV, Movies, Music, Games, etc.) that either helped me face unemployment, or things I couldn’t stand to watch, and everything in between. So here, I present, POMICR for the month’s of August and September. (THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING HERE!)

Game Of Thrones + House Of The Dragon

After a lot of pressure, I succumbed to watching the HBO fantasy show, GoT. I had done extremely well by avoiding spoilers for the last couple of years, and never heard anything about the ending or character’s survival/death. I began watching GoT over the summer but quickly stopped due to the move and how busy I would be. Once settled, I started watching again from close to the end of S1.

I watched Jon get kidnapped by the free folk/wildlings, Oberin facing the Mountain, and Tywin’s hysterical death on the toilet. I sat in one place and watched the entire siege of The Wall, watched Ygritte die, watched Jon die. Everything was new, and I grinded the show like I’ve never done with any show before. This could be, of course, because I had nothing else to do but job search. Now that I’ve seen it, I have a lot to say, but will do my best to limit thoughts.

Friends told me that S8 was a severe downgrade from the former seasons. That was the one spoiler I was told, and just to be aware of the downgrade. I am glad that I was told that, because it turned arguably the best show into a still very good show, but nothing near a unanimous choice. Season eight is honestly its own beast, so my criticism will not include that for now on.

Seasons 4-7 were some of the best television in history. Let’s recap through those seasons and the big points. Season 4 includes Joffrey’s wedding (and death!), Tyrion’s unfair trial against Cersei and Tywin, Arya’s journey with the Hound, the battle at Castle Black, Oberin being greedy and gets killed, and Tyrion killing Tywin and Shae. In my opinion, S4 has the best character development, the best story, and the best action. S6 may come close in some regards, but S4 is a 10/10 masterpiece.

After watching GoT, I needed to keep up with the other show that recently wrapped up the second season on streaming, House of the Dragon. I did know and come to understand HotD would NOT come to GoT standards, especially after two seasons. Even with this expectation, I wasn’t very thrilled watching the show.

The characters, aside from two, are boring and uninteresting and make stupid decisions. The Targaryen family themselves are a sex-filled family which often includes dating and having complicated relationships with family members. If you thought Cersei and Jaime Lannister was too much, then I’d argue you should put this series down right away.

There’s six different people named Aegon, I believe, which is five too many for a normal viewer to keep count. I do think HotD has its own special twist that viewers enjoy, and I saw glimpses of it. But for me, Game of Thrones stands at a 9.2/10 and HotD at a 7.1/10.

Civil War (2024)

A movie completely unlike the trailer that advertises it, Civil War was an interesting take on a political landscape. The premise is that the country has split into two sides, with more radical and less radical viewpoints. The radicals want to take over, thanks to the President (portrayed by Nick Offerman) and the other side wants to restore America. War reporters, played by Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura, are making their way to photograph the president.

Enough general overview, let’s start talking about the nitty gritty here. I wanted to love this movie, I truly did. However, I did not like the way it was written. I think the general idea of following war reporters around should be more widely used in media, but Civil War wasn’t the right piece. I strongly think this movie could’ve benefitted from perspective on both sides, to make it truly feel less hero-villian. A good example of war reporting media is “Live from Baghdad” or “Welcome to Savajevo”.

My biggest gripe with the film, and it might be smaller than everything else, was the sound design. It seriously sounded like a teenager was in charge of controlling the audio. During conversations, I would turn the volume up to actually hear was was being said (I wouldn’t know if they were even talking without subtitles), then bullets would be firing and I’m about to go deaf.

Let’s get this one big ending point over with too. Lee did NOT have to die. She practically died because of Jessie’s pure greed on getting a good shot. I think the writers behind Civil War expected this to be the big turning point, a crazy ending, but it drew no emotion from me. Even if Jessie died, I wouldn’t have had any emotion. One large problem writers can have is making characters you care for that aren’t perfect. By no means were Jessie or Lee perfect, but I didn’t care for them.

Civil War was mostly forgettable, and I just finished watching it about thirty minutes before writing this. As much as I wanted to like it, there wasn’t much there to force a smile or reaction during any moment of seriousness. In my opinion, Civil War gets a 4.8/10. I liked the concept, I liked the setting, but the characters and the overall plot/story dragged it down.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions

For the last piece of media, I wanted to include a video game. I was skeptical at first about Quidditch, as I never was into Harry Potter as a kid. After watching a couple of friends play the game, and seeing they needed a third friend for a team, I bit the bullet.

As my friend Taylor likes to describe it, Quidditch is Rocket League but Harry Potter. While I might disagree slightly, it makes a little bit of sense. For non-Harry Potter fans, Quidditch is a 6v6 game that involves three chasers, a beater, a keeper, and a seeker. The chasers main goal is to score through the rings, beaters are to attack opposing players, keepers are to defend the goal rings, and seeker is to chase the golden snitch.

It’s extremely complicated to explain the rules of quidditch to those who have never read or watched Harry Potter. When on the playing field, things start to make a lot more sense. I thoroughly enjoy Quidditch, but I’ve only played for a few hours so my review can’t be fully genuine. Every time we play multiplayer, we get destroyed by high level players, and the bot games are too easy.

I don’t have much more to say other than so far I’m enjoying it. It makes for a lot of excitement catching the golden snitch, or scoring the game-winning goal. I’d give Quidditch an 8.2/10, as I think customization and more modes will make the game more playable in the future.

Today’s cover image is a me and Samantha from a while ago, not taken on September 17th. For some reason, I can’t upload new images today.