Current Media: December 2013 Edition

Watching

Almost Human – Sci-fi show on Fox, so the odds are against it getting even a complete first season, but I’m loving it so far. I could watch Karl Urban all day in anything, and he has great chemistry with the actor playing his robot partner. It draws from a lot of different sources, but mostly it plays out as if someone made a procedural cop show in the world of Blade Runner. The first episode introduces a mystery involving the ex-girlfriend of Urban’s character that I imagine will tie the season together, but they’ve only gone back to it in passing references so far. Rudy, the police technical guy, is fast becoming my favorite character.

Chaos;Head – The predecessor to Steins;Gate. Not grabbing me quite the same way. On the surface, I like the idea of an unreliable narrator main character who is aware of his problem. The series has utterly failed to do anything interesting with it in the four episodes I’ve watched. I think I’m done.

RWBY – Original online fantasy series from Rooster Teeth (of Red vs. Blue fame). It’s about a group of students at an academy for folks who fight monsters and other such threats. The writing and dialogue aren’t particularly interesting (though they aren’t awful by any means), but the visuals and music are fantastic. And the show has some of the best fight choreography I’ve ever seen in an animated series.

Playing

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Second only to Assassin’s Creed II in my mind. While I don’t care about any of the out-of-Animus events, I’m enjoying the open-world pirate shenanigans a great deal. Plus it’s interesting experiencing the Templar/Assassin conflict from the perspective of someone who starts out with no stake in the fight. You could argue Ezio started out the same way, but Edward Kenway doesn’t even have familial ties to either group to justify him getting drawn into the fight. He ultimately chooses to get involved on his own with no external pressures.