Blog 4.0

I remember being somewhat into the Eurovision Song Contest for a while in my teens. Love Shine A Light (the 1997 winning song from the UK) was played on Austrian radio for ages, and I was fourteen at the time. In 2000, I distinctly remember watching the event with the TV muted and the radio tuned in to a sarcy commentary show that was just making fun of everything. It already seemed like a crazy over-the-top show back then, though the winning song that year, Fly On The Wings Of Love , was just two middle-aged Danish dudes playing their guitars. The next time I remember paying attention to the event wasn't until 2014, when I had just started my job at my current employer, and Austria won the competition with a drag queen performing what sounded like a song straight out of a James Bond movie . Being the only Austrian in the office, I was naturally congratulated on "my" victory. When I looked up the song to know what everyone was talking about, I was mostly baffled.  Fast f...

I saw this show get mentioned in a few places and was intrigued by the art style I saw in the screenshots. On investigating a bit more, I learned that it contained a lot of swearing, cartoon violence and was generally very hyper, none of which are usually things I particularly like. But then I heard that it was also a musical , with two proper songs per episode? Finally, I came across a review that basically spoiled the entire plot, but weirdly that only made me want to watch it more, as it sounded really cool and I wanted to see how it all played out in the show. And oh my god, I absolutely loved it! So much that I immediately had to watch it a second time after finishing. Plus I've been listening to a bunch of the songs pretty much on repeat since then, particularly Hell Is Forever , Stayed Gone , Respectless and Hell's Greatest Dad . Seriously, how did I not find out about this any earlier, considering the pilot's been around for years? It also cracks me up that I ended...

Just taking some notes on a few more shows that I watched on Netflix. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power A friend made me watch the first three seasons of this show a few years ago when I was visiting her. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, but of course I then went back home, which meant no more Netflix. It made sense to now rewatch what I'd seen before and then find out how the story wrapped up. I'd say the animation is only mid-tier, but the music is great and it's a lovely story overall - primarily aimed at a young audience for sure with how cheerful and full of rainbows it is, but still not without depth either. For example it probably has the biggest raising of stakes I've ever seen in a kid's show, going from "just fighting some bad guys here in this fantasy land" to dealing with a galactic emperor looking to wipe out whole civilizations in the space of only a few episodes. Catra's characterisation in particular was surprisingly deep, sho...

After years of seemingly being the only person in the office who didn't have Netflix, I finally caved and subscribed for a month. The thing that unexpectedly ended up pushing me over the line was a glowing review for the animated film Nimona . Long story short, I didn't feel as strongly about it as the reviewer, but I did enjoy it. Of course, I was then left with the question of which of the many shows on Netflix that I'd previously missed out on to watch next, and I ended up picking Bojack Horseman , since I'd heard many good things about it. The first episode was... okay , but didn't exactly blow me away. It had some decent gags, but I mostly came away from it wondering whether this was going to be another one of those "edgy" shows where we're supposed to root for a protagonist who's a complete asshole. I'm glad I continued watching! I can't remember the last time I ended up being this engrossed by a television show. I laughed, I cried, a...