Not gonna lie. Things have been a blur since the election. I’ve put myself on a news diet and have dug into magical realism. I mean I’ve always been into magical realism but this (and Stardew Valley on Switch) have been my escape. So here’s the high notes.
Watching
Agatha All Along S1 (Disney+). WandaVision was phenomenal so I had high hopes for Agatha because really were they going to give her a whole show based on a catchy theme song? Yes. But it delivered. Women. Witches. I know Marvel has a broad range of tales but I’m glad they put this one out. Do you need to watch WandaVision before? You should. You don’t need to watch Dr. Strange 2 but it would help.
The Perfect Couple (Netflix). Boring pretty rich people betraying each other and a murder. It’s Netflix’s version of White Lotus which is to say you get fully sucked into it and the dad is hot and you watch the whole thing and only vaguely remember it later when you try to give a summary.
Preacher S1 (AMC via Netflix). I had a hole in my TV heart when I finished The Umbrella Academy and figured Preacher could fill that hole. There’s a preacher in Texas who gets possessed by this entity that makes people obey his command. And his bank robbing ex and a vampire have to help him fight some angels trying to get the entity back. Sounds right up my alley. Supernatural minutia! Except now I’m almost done with S2 and I don’t care to finish it out. It’s a comic book series that Seth Rogen produced before he did The Boys.
Kaos S1 (Netflix). The pinnacle of supernatural minutia is Jeff Goldblum as a tracksuit wearing Zeus trying to get the humans to care about him again. Janet McTear delivers the only iteration of Hera I have ever cared for. EVER. Except it ends before the story ends and Netflix has reportedly canceled it? Like why are we accepting 8 episodes as a TV season these days? They could have done 12 solid episodes and been done with the story. But I would watch Goldblum play Zeus for 4 seasons. Solid. Watch it anyway.
Gladiator 2 (2024). We saw this on the big screen and I’m glad I did. Denzel Washington in Gladiator 2 is my Roman Empire. It’s fine but not better than Dune 2.
Reading.
The Husbands – Holly Gramazio. It started off cute. This woman comes home to find a husband emerging from her attic. Except, she’s not married. She learns that when she sends him back into the attic, he’s replaced by another husband. And so on. But I didn’t like the book.
Part of Your World – Abby Jimenez. There’s this thing with romance novels where it’s never just a one-off. There’s always a friend group and 3 books that go together. Well I bought the 3rd book in this series cause it was $1.99 on Kindle then I had to wait for the first one to come through on Libby. But I’m glad I waited. This was a good ol regular romance book. He falls hard and she’s skeptical (the way books should be) and blah blah blah happy ever after. I read it over Thanksgiving. Like 24 hours.
Shark Heart : A Love Story – Emily Habeck. Okay. Stay with me. This book is about a newlywed couple dealing with the Husband’s diagnosis that he is mutating into a great white shark. STAY WITH ME. It is maybe the best book I’ve read this year. It’s either that or Whoever You Are, Honey (except I’m in the middle of Martyr! right now and I might be a toss up). Anyway this book deals with mother/daughter relationships, commitment, loss, chosen family. Like I was crying in the cafe over my salmon toast and kept reading. I’m not big on pushing books on people but I am pushing this one. HARD.
Other than that, with the Houston Journal Society we did a monthly journal challenge to journal every day in November and I did that. I don’t know if it helped me reckon with the election (I doubt it) but at least it filled up a lot of pages in my notebook.
I felt bad about not finishing the last couple episodes of Kaos (I liked it a lot—but I have to be in a binging mood to spend hours on my couch). If it doesn’t bother to finish itself, I feel less bad.
Speaking of magical realism, I recently read “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig. Either PMS or life experience had me weeping through the final chapters. Either way, it’s my read of the year.