Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Toni wanted to watch this because he has read the books. I wanted to watch this because it seemed the right level of crazy.

Right off the bat we both got insane Doctor Who vibes from the intro and actually from the show in general. Samuel Barnett could make a really fun Doctor.

The first season was a crazy introduction with timetravel, soul-swapping, and paradoxes stretching almost 200 years back. I loved watching Todd grow from "I don't want anything to do with this" to "Alright I'll just go with it."

The second season was even more crazy, but probably an accurate description of how people would react when thrown into a fantasy world and being the subject of a prophecy. Especially when that fantasy world leaks out into the real world. The solution to this season was really, really good. I loved watching Amanda grow over the course of these two seasons.

The second season ended with them all talking about something big that was coming, and I really want more of the show. But it was cancelled after the second season.

Lordi Scream Stream 2020

I assume that nobody missed the fact that 2020 is cancelled, right? When Lordi's 2020 tour was cancelled and postponed until 2021 they decided to do a three-hour live stream with a Q&A and concert available for a small fee. They would answer questions from the fans and play songs requested by the fans along with songs that they hadn't played in ages.

I was really excited when they announced this for Friday May 22nd and then I was totally bummed out when I realised that I worked Friday evening and Saturday morning. The stream would start at 9pm my time and continue three hours, which meant it would still be on-going when it was my bedtime (gotta get up at 5.30am for the morning shift). I was so bummed that I wouldn't be able to watch it and said as much on the band's Facebook page, where the band (or probably the page mod) got back to me and said that the stream would be available for watching up to seven days after original streaming.

Sold.

I bought a ticket and got the show going on my phone (with headphones) while also keeping an eye on things at work. This wasn't difficult as unfortunately the first 30 minutes suffered from severe lagging and then the streaming site suffered a DoS attack and the stream was unavailable for about 30 minutes while this was resolved. But when it came back up it worked absolutely perfectly for the rest of the evening, which meant I could watch a portion of the show lag free on my way home from work. Because the stream was unavailable for 30 minutes they decided to prolong the show for 30 minutes and thus ended up playing for 3½ hours. They also extended the availability of the stream to 14 days.

After dinner tonight I watched the entirety of the stream, which ends up at almost 4 hours. The setting was a lot more cosy than a regular gig and so it quickly became apparent what a group of adorable dorks the band is. Since Kalma (bassist) left the group, my favourite member simply became Mr. Lordi himself, and while he's still adorable (that's not a word you expect in relation to this band, is it?), Mana (drummer) really really grew on me over the course of this stream.

In-between songs there were short clips featuring various people important to the band behind the scenes. And because of those videos I now know a hell of a lot about Rovaniemi (Mr. Lordi's hometown) that I'm not sure I needed to know xD

The stream was amazing. I loved it. I have now officially seen Lordi live four times. Even if this time suffered from a deplorable lack of pyrotechnics ;)

I made a playlist from the setlist of the show on Spotify :)

Dealing with backlog: Dead Space

Back when I worked at my very first part time job after moving up here there was a guy who raved about the Dead Space lore and recommended me that I played through the series. I didn't get around to it until now ^^;

The first game is 12 years old, if you can believe it. Twelve!! And unfortunately it hasn't aged well. There was severe mouse lag in the game, which meant that the camera moved as if in slow motion and it really made it hard to play. I also hated the POV. Felt like I was staring more at the back of the guy's head than I was looking for monsters. I played around with the in-game sensitivity but it didn't help. Every guide I found online that claimed to solve the issue said to disable V-sync in-game and enable it through the GPU control panel, which admittedly made it smoother but it was still moving in slow-motion. Playing with it felt like my eyes were drunk but my head wasn't. It was just really uncomfortable and was the reason why I could only handle 45-60 minutes per session.

Because every single guide I could find claimed the v-sync solution as the golden solution and no other alternatives were given and I couldn't figure it out myself, I finally decided to give up. I couldn't play the game when it was like that. However, from the little I played I got interested in the story and the lore and I was already planning on playing the second and third games in the series. 

So in the end I watched a playthrough to see what happened and where the game led. Disappointingly, the ending to Dead Space 1 was very obvious. I hope it gets better in two and three (whenever I get around to them).

Dealing with backlog: Tales from the Borderlands

Immediately after we were done with Borderlands 2, I started playing Tales from the Borderlands.

Theis is easily one of Telltale's best, if not the best.

I really liked both Rhys and Fiona, which is cool because a lot of things usually have a side character or two that I care about more than the main character(s).

The story was exciting, engaging and so funny, and despite being done in Telltale's classic point-and-click style there was a surprising amount of action.

Telltale's comic style works very very very well with Borderlands' cartoony style.

If you can get your hands on this game - play it.

The ending is a great big mystery.

The Alienist

I heard about this show a couple years ago when it was brand new, but only recently did I see that it was available on Netflix and so ofrc I had to watch it.

Costume drama, Victorian era (but in New York), the very beginnings of psychoanalysis and forensics, and a serial killer (possibly inspired by Jack the Ripper). What's not to love?

There's an interesting perspective of homosexuality, budding transexuality, and what they, in the 19th century, called sodomy. There's corruption in the police force. Theodore Roosevelt is in the show. And it shows the stark contrasts between the wealthy New York and the poor New York.

I absolutely adored the series and I was so happy when I saw that they had made an adaptation of the next book too. Because this is originally a book (that I haven't read, but is definitely on my tbr now).

If Sara ends up with John over Laszlo I'mma riot.

Dealing with backlog: Borderlands 2

Well, that just took an embarrassing amount of time. We started playing Borderlands 2 just after we finished Borderlands 1 back in 2018, but life and work happened in-between and somehow, here we are. One and a half years later.

I understand now why people say that Borderlands 2 is the best game of the series. Like wow this was a ride. The base game was amazing, and unlike with the original Borderlands I can actually remember the whole story with Angel, Jack and Hyperion despite the disjointed play times.

I played Maya and Toni was Axton, but it was so great to see our old Vault Hunters come back in Borderlands. I played Mordecai in the original and I was so sad by what happened to Bloodwing in 2. Way sadder than I expected to be. I was more sad about Bloodwing than I was about Roland xD

We can all agree that Tiny Tina is the best thing about the game, right? Good. This is all the introduction she needs:

Borderlands 2 was an amazing ride that somehow took only 100 hours but spread out over 1½ years. How did that happen? Adulting got in the way.

So many laughs were had while playing this and we both agree that Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is our favourite DLC.

Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary was the DLC released last year and in hindsight it probably would've made more sense to play through the Pre-Sequel and Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands before we played this DLC. But I only figured that out after I had played Tales and we started on the Pre-Sequel :P