Another day, another edition of the It’s A Stampede! newsletter. And today I’m pulling back the curtain once again to take you behind the scenes at It’s A Stampede! HQ.
Or more specifically to discuss what I’ve been up to as of late.
Why? Because you demanded it! Probably.
Also because when I’m not writing for the blog or watching movies I do other things. Some of which you may be interested in, beginning with streaming…
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Stream if you want to go faster
I recently published a post about streaming hopping. If you’ve yet to read it, give it a whirl.
But put simply, this is where you jump from one streaming service to the next, to binge watch movies and TV shows in order to maximise viewing and minimise spend. Rather than paying a monthly fee for every streaming service under the sun, you write a list of what you want to watch, sign up for a service for a short period of time, work your way through your list, cancel the subscription, then move on.
Well, with this in mind I’ve been working through my own list in recent weeks, with a specific focus on watching or completing TV shows. I constantly fall behind on shows (I’m terrible for it), so I’ve been playing catch up.
So what have I watched? Well, recently I subbed to HBO Max and worked my way through five seasons of animated comedy, Harley Quinn, as well as all five seasons of classic Genndy Tartakovsky cartoon, Samurai Jack.
I should add, I started watching Samurai Jack back in the ‘00s, but life got in the way and I didn’t get very far. I finally took the opportunity to rectify this oversight, which of course I’m glad I did.
Samurai Jack is truly excellent and one of the greatest animated shows of all time. Harley Quinn is very entertaining too.
Continuing the DC theme, I also watched The Penguin (Colin Farrell is marvellous) and recently finished Peacemaker and Creature Commandos. Once again, all entertaining – especially Peacemaker.
From here it was over to Netflix for all three seasons of Aussie teen drama, Heartbreak High which is thoroughly enjoyable and a brilliant update of the ‘90s series. This was then followed by a couple of seasons of another teen drama, My Life with the Walter Boys, and then the excellent British drama, Adolescence.
It has taken me far too long to get to Adolescence, but boy, it was worth the wait. Easily one of the most powerful dramas in recent years – outstanding!
Outside of the above I also started the horror miniseries, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, but I found myself rapidly losing interest and ditched it after three episodes. I have a general rule with TV shows, whereby I give new series three episodes to keep me engaged and if I’m not interested I pull the plug, so this one had to go.
Next I jumped to Shudder where I utilised a seven day trial to watch the first season of classic horror anthology series, Tales from the Crypt. This show is an old favourite rather than a newbie, but because it has recently been added to Shudder I figured it was time for a quick blast from the past.
From here it was over to Apple TV to make use of a three-month subscription that came free with a recent phone upgrade. There’s not much on Apple I am all that interested in but I wanted to check out Pluribus, which it turns out is as good as I had hoped.
Created by Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, The X-Files), Pluribus is easily one of my favourite new shows. It hooked me from episode one, and I loved it so much I eked out the episodes over a week, so not to rush the enjoyment.
From here it was over to Disney+ for Wonder Man, as well as the third season of The Mandalorian (I fell behind a while ago). I have a few more shows on Disney+ to complete before I then move over to Prime Video for one or two series I’ve had my eye on.
I’m also making use of YouTube to watch a few shows. In recent weeks I’ve revisited classic British dramas and sci-fi shows from yesteryear, including Chimera, The Uninvited, Crime Traveller, The Sculptress, and the excellent survivalist drama, Day of the Triffids.
The beauty of YouTube is the ability to watch a bunch of stuff for free. I’ve still got a number of series on my list that I want to revisit, or in some cases watch for the first time, but I’ll get to them in due course because it isn’t costing a penny.
So, yeah, streaming hopping is rather good. Highly recommended to be honest.
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Well read
Outside of streaming I’ve been playing catch up on some comic book reading, which is another thing I’ve fallen behind on. I’ve started with Absolute Batman, which I’m enjoying very much.
I’m only about five or six issues in, but I like what I’m reading so far. This is an alternate take on the Batman mythology, which feels familiar yet different, and it’s proving to be a good divergence from the current Matt Fraction Batman comic (which I am up to date with).
In addition to this, I recently read issue #1 of Civil War: Unmasked. I didn’t have high hopes for this comic, because I feel the Civil War well has already been drained, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The first issue of this five-part miniseries explored a key reason as to why Tony Stark took the stance he did during the Superhero Registration Act, and I bought what writer Christos Gage was selling. At this point, I’m more than happy to keep reading.
And speaking of reading, I’m trucking along with my print magazine subscriptions to Empire and SFX. As discussed in a previous edition of the Newsletter, I’m all about print mags these days, which are helping me combat the complete mind-drain that is social media and AI codswallop.
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Toy story
Now, when I’m not streaming a gazillion hours of TV or trying to catch up on a stack of comics, I have a penchant for buying toys. I don’t talk much about toys on It’s A Stampede! – maybe I need to start? – but I do love me some toys.
Anyway, in recent weeks I picked up the George Clooney Lego Batmobile, which I spent a fun couple of hours building, and I snagged one of Mattel’s new, Nicholas Galitzine He-Man figures from the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie. I regularly dip in and out of the Masters figure lines, usually opting for the Origins figures, but this He-Man figure was from the standard movie collection.
It was a bit cheaper in price, and I preferred it over some of the other figures. It’s probably the last figure I’ll buy for a while.
I can’t say there are many upcoming figures I’m all that fussed about at the moment, which is a shame. Either this is due to the industry not producing action figures I’m all that bothered about at the moment (quite possibly), or I’m just failing to see what’s on the horizon (more likely).
If someone would like to revive ToyFare magazine to help me out, that would be great. Man, I miss that mag so damn much.
Anyway, toys were bought, endorphins were released, enjoyment was had. A good job all round.
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OK, I think I’ve filled you in on some of the things which occupy my time when I’m not putting together posts for It’s A Stampede!. It’s a wonder I have time for anything else.
Alex
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