What’s Up – April 2024

As the end of May quickly approaches, its hitting me how falling behind is almost impossible to catch up when real life takes a wild turn and adds a lot of extra tasks into the little time I normally have to do my own things. However, here we are in an attempt to catch up with the What’s Up for April 2024 wrap-up!

BOOKS

• The Berenstain Bears Collection
• Disney Bedtime Stories Collection

Reading has definitely started again and things are going to look much better next month (since this post is coming so late again) but I added a couple of books to the collection to expand the bedtime reading and this is where we’re at. A little bit of my childhood and a little bit of something new for him. Both were pretty fun to read. Most of The Berenstain Bears Collection stories I had read when I was a child but the Disney Bedtime Stories Collection are completely new with a bunch of stories inspired from the films but designed around bedtime and nighttime themes.

MOVIES

• Tusk (2014)
• Ratatouille (2007 rewatch)
• The Aristocats (1970 rewatch)
• 101 Dalmatians (1961 rewatch)
• Mary Poppins Returns (2018 rewatch Review)
• What Jennifer Did (2024)
• Zootopia (2016 rewatch Review)
• Sting (2024 Review)
• The God of Cookery (1996 rewatch Review)
• The Night Eats The World (2018)
• Mary Poppins (1964 rewatch)
• Impetigore (2019)
• Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
• The Sound of Music (1965 rewatch)
• Inferno (1980)
• No Exit (2022)

I’m not sure rewatching Disney Animated films is a great use of a discounted Disney Plus subscription but that’s what I’ve decided to do. Mostly, its a mild introduction to a little more screentime for my little one with some cute animal animated films which basically failed as it did not hold his attention at all except for the opening credits and music which tends to be the case with most shows. All for the better I guess as he doesn’t fuss about screen time. However, I did have a great time rewatching Disney films and musicals.

For the most part, April was wildly busy with work hence the falling behind so rewatching films made sense. Other than that, I carved out time for new movies mostly for the Oh My Horror Challenge although I can’t say anything truly stood out. Tusk was really weird and disturbing but had a unrecognizable performance by Johnny Depp while The Night Eats The World took a different angle on the zombie apocalypse and ended up being a little bit of a snoozefest while Impetigore and Inferno both were average with some good and bad elements.

To be fair, my spontaneous watches with Where the Crawdads Sing and No Exit ended up being surprisingly great watches. Much like the screener for spider creature feature Sting also worked on a great many levels. It had some issues but for the most part had a decent angle for a spider creature feature.

TV

• Is It Cake? (Season 3, 2024)
• 19th Floor (19层, 2024)
• Physical:100 (Season 2, 2024)
• Only For Love (以爱为营, 2023)
• Hard to Find (难寻, 2024)

Currently watching: Run On Time 2024, Come Sing With Me S5, Amidst the Snowstorm of Love, Sister Who Makes Waves S5, The Circle S6, Sunrise on the River

When I started the year, it really felt like the variety and reality shows had nothing going on but the moment we hit April, it seems things are starting to look up as a bunch of shows that I normally watched had follow-up seasons and as I got back into the MangoTV subscription, I also discovered some great series as well. I do have to say, all the shows listed were pretty fun.

While Is It Cake Season 3 does feel like its starting to lose its steam as there isn’t enough twists to keep it entertaining, it is a show that is more interactive as the audience also gets to try to find which one is cake. I’m a big fan of these sports competition reality shows like Physical:100 so we really love watching it especially as the new obstacles and challenges are pretty fun to watch.

The three series I watched are on MangoTV app. The first was a spontaneous pick mostly because I like the two leads and the plot sounded really fun and not the typical romance stuff and while there were some silly plot points and some of the execution felt like it started to fall apart a little by the end, 19th Floor was a fantastic series and probably really underrated because not a lot of people watch these types of shows. Of course, I also did catch Only For Love which had a lot of talk last year when it aired and while I do like the main leads here, all four of them, this one had a little silliness that worked and sometimes felt like it was going a little over into extra-cringe territory.

The surprise this month is definitely short drama Hard To Find, mostly because short dramas have a bad reputation of being low budget, predictable and super cringey but this one isn’t like that. It does hit the tortured romance plot point really well but both the acting and the world building is done well. It does help that the two main leads are decent casting choices.

GAMES

Currently playing: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

Suffice to say that gaming took a hard hit this month as I tried to move along with the first game replay for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for a Game Warp recording and just didn’t have time to wrap up the last episode. This entire trilogy is a replay and not my first time doing it so I’m a big fan. If you haven’t tried out Phoenix Wright, you really should.