99% Geek: 2021

Friday, December 31, 2021

Battlefield Online 43 (99geek.ca)

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Saturday, December 25, 2021

Geekly Weekly 130 (Saturday, December 25th) Your Weekly Cure For Pop Culture FOMO

Geekly Highlight or Reviews of the Week:
(Reviewing something new, or highlighting something cool for the week)

➤ Locke and Key Season 2 ****
This show is great, as a fan of the comic I enjoy this show a lot. Though they have definitely deviated from things in the comics, it's almost more enjoyable as I never quite know what will happen next. It's not perfect, season 1 wasn't, and neither was season 2, but for the most part it was fun watching the characters continue to navigate the different keys and their powers, and come up with novel ways to bend the rules. I was disappointed they wrote off the villain at the end, the actress who played Dodge was only in the finale, and then was killed off so we probably wont see her again. I supposed the actress just wanted to move on. Which is too bad cause she was great.

➤ The Witcher Season 2 *****
For the record, unlike other lists here this list isn't in order of best to worst. It's in order of what I watched -- because while Locke and Key was good, bordering on great at points (especially if you love the characters as I do) this show is on another level. This might be one of the greatest shows of all time.

I've read that some people were disappointed, but fuck em. What do they know? This show was SO good, this second season was incredible. I love Ciri, I like Yenn more than before even after what she did to Ciri. I love Geralt, I love Jaskier. I love all the characters, and the world is just so awesome. And learning about other worlds is amazing too. All the stuff was the elves was so good.

This season was great.

➤ The Matrix Ressurections **1/2

That was -- not great. It wasn't awful. In fact, I enjoyed the first act. The first half hour or so. It was really clever and meta, and I dug the hand that this movie dealt... and then it just played a couple sloppy hands, through the rules out the window, and ended suddenly.

The plot needed another layer. Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolution are 2 parts of what could be considered one movie... and yet they are more movie individually than this movie is. Nothing really happens here, and what feels like should be the big set up for the climax... is suddenly the climax... and then the movie just ends and you're left like "What? That's it?" And by the second half, this movie does drag so I don't even know if another 20 minutes would help. I think this movie needs another act at the end, and then to have the middle acts get restructured some. This movie isn't unsave-able. But its rough.

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Geekly Weekly TV Rankings
(Ranking of all the shows I watch, so you can know how best to use your TV watching time. Did I miss something? Suggest it below int he comments!)

(Just because a show might not get 5 stars, doesn't mean it doesn't still have plenty of value. There is a large distance between perfection and failure and a lot of great things live in that expanse. All my writing would probably only average less than 3 stars on here.)

➤ Hawkeye *****
This episode was amazing, so much hype. So much fun. I was sure this was going to be in the top spot, an absolutely perfect episode... for like the first half -- and then I think it stumbled a little. I found Kate's fight with Kingpin awesome until it wasn't. I feel like he should have won that more. I though Clint's fight with Yelena was kinda ridiculous and ended not too different than the Batman v Superman fight. "You know our secret whistle? And your mom's name was Martha?" like, that was the most generic whistle too. He could have been passing gas. All that said, I still think this gets five stars and the top spot... just barely ... when it could have been a much easier choice. The highest highs of this episode are better than Dexter below gave, even though Dexter might have been more flawless. The scene where Kate jumps out of the window is the highlight for me. That scene was amazing. There were also just some great heartwarming moments make this a fantastic and fun Christmas finale.
➤ Dexter *****
Another fucking perfect episode of Dexter, this season has been so amazing, and this episode was good from beginning to end. I loved everything with his cop girlfriend and her crusade for justice. I liked Dexter being put into the roll of protector. I'd say the weakest aspect of this has been the distance growing between Harrison and Dexter involving Clancy Brown. I don't like the way Clancy Brown has gotten between them. It's frustrating, and I hope for a cathartic finale next week.
➤ Family Guy ***
This week's family guy was fine but not great. There were some pretty good jokes around Brian's hate of Christmas, but the surrounding story with him breaking the nativity scene and then going to prison didn't really amount to much, and besides the few laughs and an eye roll I didn't get much from this. It was a fine average Christmas episode.
➤ The Wheel of Time ***
This wasn't the worst episode of the show. it was, and I think I've used this before in description of this show, it was aggressively fine. There were shots that looked decent and shots that looked awful. There were aspects of the story this episode that worked alright (Such as the woman with visions seeing everyone dying) and aspects of this story that really didn't. The dark one's actor was fine but not exceptional. This whole show feels fine but not exceptional... except it seems to really think its exceptional and take itself way to seriously. And to rush through its story, this show really yadda yadda's through a lot, a lot fo which would probably be more interesting than the moments we DO get on camera. This show isn't without value. But it IS quite rough. A middling first season. If they had killed off Nynaeve, I probably wouldn't even come back next season. So bullet dodged there.
➤ Star Trek Discovery **1/2
That was rough. What did I like about it though? Well. I liked the concept. Being in a void and not knowing how to get out is distressing. Intense. it was a good concept. And certain parts of the problem solving were engaging. But only some. For all the interesting choices this episode made, it made twice as many god awful ones. So many choices and problem solving in this episode seemed flaky -- oh, and all the therapy was just shoe-horned in and was so eye-roll inducing. So much of this episode was dumb eye-roll inducing nonsense.
➤ Saturday Night Live **
Saturday Night Live got smurfed this weekend, shutting down for the pandemic just before it was supposed to air, and instead doing a low key clip show with a couple pre-filmed digital sketches. I think that was the right choice, but there wasn't much here to tune in for. They aired a couple classic sketches, and a couple less classic ones (I'm looking at you Carl Sagan sketch), the Christmas song they made with Charlie XCX was good for a chuckle but was pretty dumb. All in all an underwhelming night. But congrats to Paul Rudd for his 5 time hosting award.

Honourable Mentions: (Didn't make the ranking)

I've dropped all CW and DC shows from the list, after they gaslighted and victim blamed Ruby Rose and tried to smear her after she came forward about toxic behaviour. People have made such a huge deal about the #MeToo movement and believing victims, and yet when actors from Batwoman come out and called Ruby Rose Deluded, and revising history, when the company comes forward and says they support those responses and then tries to push damaging narratives about her being difficult on set which have been disproved through emails she's released.

So then, when she showed evidence, WB pivoted to announcing all these new projects and crossover and Dune 2, and ANYTHING they can to distract... AND IT WORKED. Anyone who's not furious can just take back their cred as giving a shit about women and victims rights, you can take back giving a shit about the MeToo movement, because when it really mattered, no one stood up or did SHIT. Actors across all of CWs DC shows should have come forward codemning the response. Melissa Benoist doesn't even have a job to protect, this is her last year. As far as I'm concerned they are all to blame for victimizing Ruby Rose.

And people should be as angry as I am, but people just forgot and moved on. But I wont. They practically acted like Trump, completely out in the open, and everyone rewarded them for it, and cheered for Dune 2. This is why horrible Toxic behaviour continues and never ends. Because people pretend to wake up for about a month and then go back to what they were doing like Goldfish.

(Get my instant reactions to these shows and more by following me @AndrewGeczy)

(Also remember that I never miss an episode of Vice News Tonight, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show with James Corden, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and neither should you)

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Geekly Predictions:
(New releases people will be talking about around the water cooler over the next week)

➤ Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett [Disney+] Wednesday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOJ1cw6mohw
Yes please. So pumped for this. All these Disney Plus shows are amazing.
➤ Cobra Kai Season 4 [Netflix] Friday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3uX4uwrAaY
I have heard that this show is worthy of the old movies. I've also never loved the old movies. I've found them boring, to be honest... so I never gave this show a chance (I figured one day I'd give the movies another chance first then catch up on the show) But I was impressed how kinda silly and bonkers this looked. I laughed more than I expected. It felt a little like Karate Kid meets all the best parts of Glee.
➤ Hilda and the Mountain King [Netflix] Thursday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MnjzxvsBNM
It's certainly a choice to make your main character a nude little girl, but this looks artsy and creative. The art style is basic put striking in a way, the story seems fairy tale-esque. It even seems to have some Disney charm. Possibly an adorable all ages animated movie.
➤ LetterKenny season 10 [Hulu] Sunday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGxYBiuvkUw
I know absolutely nothing about this show, I've never watched it I've... heard of it... but watching that trailer it wasn't like what I was expecting. I guess this is a less annoying trailer park boys? ish?
➤ Seal Team [Netflix] Friday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT6k3HoS_F8
It's an animated movie, ala Finding Nemo, about anthropomorphized seals that decide to train an elite squad of shark killers to fight back against the sharks. It is exactly what you're imagining.
➤ A Journal For Jordan [Theaters] Saturday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOzrXqf5pvE
You know, after so many people talked about "Streaming movies feel different than theater movies" well between this and Underdogs... now Theater movies are just starting to look like streaming movies. Because this is another movie I don't understand who would go to the theater to see. It's basically The Notebook but he's in the military, writing a journal for his kid... and the twist is he's dead. Spoiler... except the trailer spoils it with the kid literally asking "Why don't you talk about him anymore"
➤ Stay Close [Netflix] Friday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nonC9TyX9hM
A woman with a secret past who has special skills... blah blah blah this one was more whatever than all the others of the same premise I've seen... but it's also possibly the trailer tried to hide too many of its secrets because what we're left with is a nothing burger. Who was the woman? They didn't actually get to that, they trailer made it seem like she was just a stripper based on the editing. Whatever this trailer did to hide its secrets, it forgot to give us enough to make us actually wanna watch.
➤ The Tragedy of Macbeth [Theaters] Saturday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4QuYWz84Ck
Looks artsy. But I've never been a fan of Shakespeare.
➤ American Underdog [Theaters] Saturday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6rn-6lKBJ8
Zachary Levi! NO! Bad! This looks like the most generic movie ever, the scenes of him playing in the NFL look super fake, and I have no idea who the person is that exists that would go to the theater to see this. People who really love sports underdog formula movies, and people who REALLY love Zachary Levi. Both these people exist... so this movie knows it has an audience, and that's why movies like these keep getting made.
➤ Memoria [Theaters] Sunday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyVe11x5y9o
... oookay

Honourable Mentions:
(Things that don't make this list, like continuing shows of quality, or non-fiction content)

You have your choice of New Years Eve shows to throw on this year. There's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC or if you don't wanna watch what your parents are watching apparently Miley Cyrus decided to try her own thing with Pete Davidson on NBC.

(If I missed anything, feel free to point it out in the comments so others can know to check it out) (Release Dates taken from Metacritic.com)

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Geekly News Headlines:
(News from the past week you need to know, so you won't be as ignorant as a Qanon loser)

➤ Details released on the Trump administration’s pandemic chaos

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1821931

➤This Surprise Super Typhoon Is Further Proof the Climate Crisis Is Here

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epxvam/super-typhoon-rai-climate-crisis-philippines

➤Myanmar army airstrikes send hundreds fleeing into Thailand

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/12/24/myanmar-army-airstrikes-send-hundreds-fleeing-into-thailand/

(Get instant reactions to the news and articles that don't make the cut at @AndrewGeczy)

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Geekly Blog:
(Everything going on in my personal life, my writing dreams, and for the brand)

This has been a really shitty week. My TV glitched out. Now anything I watch has a big ol' line through it... so thats fun. Two days after the warranty ended, I'm not even kidding. So being broke can't do anything about that. One of my external hard drives where I store my digital media broke down. a 16 Terabyte drive refuses to mount after 5 different scans and software repairs... so there went that. Oh And my razor broke.

And of course I don't have the money to fix any of it. My life is just slowly falling apart and there's nothing I can do about it.

I was scared about how I was going to pay my internet bill this January... thankfully I was complaining about my life on Twitter... and the creator of Wynnona Earp took pity on me. Out of nowhere, she messaged me... sent me 100 bucks to my paypal... and I think regrets it because in return I gave her my life's story as thanks and she promptly seemed to be quite done with me... which... fair... now I feel bad.

I'm really not good at taking charity from people. I'm not good at asking for money. I wish people would just pay me money for services rendered and because they want to. I want to earn my way doing the things I can do... but instead I'm stuck starving and begging and alienating people from me with my desperation and I hate it.

I hate what my life has become... it's not at all the world I hoped it would be.

Anyway Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sorry I'm only ever a buzz kill. A Debbie Downer.

Sorry I'm not the person I thought I could be.

Turns out I'm many degrees more pathetic.

Live Long and Prosper and May the Force be With You.

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My name is Andrew Geczy and my brand is 99% Geek found at 99geek.ca

I'm a writer, writing monthly chapters of novels like episodes of TV shows, releasing them in 4 weekly segments (a teaser and three acts) on Mondays at noonish on my Patreon page. Every month it's a different book, over a range of genres, and they sometimes even crossover and connect. At the end of the month the finished chapter is added to the PDFs attached at the bottom of every post. Finally, the finished books are self-published on Amazon.

There's a Dark Fantasy story about a post-apocalyptic world where powerful royals rule and enslave the remaining peoples struggling to survive on the last remaining land mass. There's also a sci-fi story about a people on a dying world who have built a ship to a new one, but their project is almost brought down by a terrorist organization within their own ranks. Finally there's a crossover story where characters from my other books are brought into the distant future where the princess of a far advanced civilization, one that lives in a solar system sized mega-structure around a Dyson Sphere, needs help defeating her twisted power-hungry brother. And all these stories will be outside the paywall for all to enjoy as new episodes release weekly, and the finished chapters will be attached to the bottom of every post on the site in convenient PDF format readable on computers, tablets, ebook readers, and phones at the end of the month.

But that's not all my stories. There's also Urban Fantasy tales about a teenage girl turned into a vampire against her will, or a scorned lover investigating paranormal phenomena, or a journalist covering news and politics in the Middle East. And there's a fantasy story about a fallen angel trying to stop the end of the world. All these stories are published and available on Amazon, and are also safe and sound behind the paywall in PDF format attached to an archive at the top of my Patreon page. Only viewable by subscribers, my entire library of work, thousands of pages worth, is easily accessible to every subscriber at any level. (The paywall is down, as my library is being refreshed. Find all finished content attached below)

There's even a "Geekly Weekly" blog which covers all the news you may have missed over the week, as well as ranks the week's worth of television, and makes predictions on what new pop culture things might be in the public consciousness for the next week. It releases every Saturday.(Somewhat inconsistent since October, as my life has been focused on saving myself from poverty, starvation and homelessness)

Finally I do Video Game streams both multiplayer matchmaking as well as single player campaign playthroughs. You can see me play games like Final Fantasy, Call of Duty, Hitman, and more. Watch them as they happen at twitch.tv/wingcommanderIV or wait till I release the recorded videos on days when I have nothing else to release.

And you can see it all in one place.

So stay tuned, and maybe subscribe. It's only a dollar and the support you show will go a very long way, I promise. There are also higher tiers. Give 5 dollars one month and you can name a character, or location, or suggest a thing you might want to see. Basically you get to give a noun, and then I promise to incorporate that noun into one of my stories somehow. Maybe not the same month you give the suggestion, but within three months guaranteed. No matter how crazy, you can't sabotage me. I promise. Think of it like a fun improv game. And you can keep giving nouns, for every month you pay at the 5 dollar tier. Or if you give 10 dollars, you don't get two nouns, but you can give a description to go with your noun. Describe the personality of your character, or the look of your location, or the importance of your item. For 10 dollars you get a noun and a description. You can also give a dollar towards supporting my efforts at Video Game streaming, or my weekly blog if that's more where your interests lie. And all subscribers at every tier will get early access to my writing, unedited but released a week early if you finish the current week and feel excited to find out what happens next. (You can also give at paypal.me/99geek if you just wanna support me in this tough time without a subscription)

I'm as poor as it gets, living pay check to pay check (and sometimes starving) (Recently especially. Things have never been worse and my life is on the verge of complete collapse). So I understand if you are too. I don't wanna take food out of your mouths. Your attention is enough. Say something, comment here or at the very least, follow me on Twitter @AndrewGeczy or Instagram @WingcommanderIV Remember to leave a review if you read one of my books, any reviews on Amazon/Goodreads or subscriptions here or comments on social media will just encourage more people to check out my work and allow me to grow. I can't do it without your efforts. That's three different ways you can help. Write reviews on any site that lets you, subscribe here for as low as a dollar, or at the very least use your voice to let me and the world know you like what you read here.

Live Long and Prosper, May the Force Be With You, Long Live Marceline the Vampire Queen, remember that Kong bows to no one, but Godzilla is King of all Monsters. We are the 99% geek.