What’s Up 2019 – Week 35

READING

• Twisted Pines by Lane Baker

Currently reading: The Moonlight Pegasus

It sure feels good to be back to doing some reading especially when I took the long weekend to sit back and just do that for a little while. It also helps that Twisted Pines got pretty intriguing. YA and Sci Fi seem to be the combo that is my main 2019 genre grouping. Its pretty good so far but I will be moving away from it gradually especially as I started reading The Moonlight Pegasus to do some turbo reading and get a review out for the upcoming blog tour.

PLAYING

Currently playing: Injustice: Gods Among Us

Injustice: Gods Among Us has been in the backlog for a long time, lining up to be played. This weekend, I needed to get back to gaming and decided on an early Sunday morning to start it up. I’m done the story mode but just taking a few sittings more to explore what other modes and stuff are available before probably getting back to some game reviews over on Game Warp.  We are slowly getting things back in operation over there.

WATCHING

• Aquaman (2018)
• The Bling Ring (2013)
• IT: Chapter One (2017) rewatch (Review)

Not a ton of movie watching going on still but we are gradually catching up with the DC movies, luckily they don’t seem to rely too much on any order or else Aquaman would have been a much less enjoyable bit. I’ll talk about my issue with DC films soon when I review Aquaman but there were some okay moments and Jason Momoa as Aquaman is decent. I can’t say that Aquaman is my favorite watch out of the movies this week but its the newer selection and not a rewatch. IT: Chapter 2 is around the corner and we’re going to be seeing it opening weekend if everything pans out so with Chapter 1 hitting Netflix, we decided to give it a watch to refresh our memories a little and it still holds up pretty well. As for The Bling Ring, its for Movies and Tea’s current season and the podcast should be up in a few weeks so I won’t talk too much about it.

BINGING

• The Coming One 3 (2019)
• Hyperdrive (Season 1, 2019) REVIEW

Currently binging: The King’s Avatar, Love is Deep, Super Vocal 2

I’ve already shared a ton of love for Hyperdrive right now. Its a great competition series and so much fun to binge. Fast cars, adrenaline and obstacles plus some fun competitors to know more about. It was a blast. You can check out the review linked above.

I’ve pretty much wrapped up most of my Chinese reality/variety shows now and only have Super Vocal 2 still high on my radar while I forgot about Dream Space 2 which might say a little about how I feel about the participants of that show. I’ll get back to it soon since its still not even halfway through. For currently watching though, strongly urge you all to check out The King’s Avatar currently updated 10 episodes weekly on Netflix because its a lot of fun especially for gamers as its a TV series about professional e-sports and such. Its the rare story that doesn’t have a love story and completely about teams and gaming and the pursuit of success and of course, friendship.

That’s it for this week’s What’s Up!
What have you been reading/playing/watching/binging?

TV Binge: Hyperdrive (Season 1, 2019)

Hyperdrive (Season 1, 2019)

Hosts: Mike Hill, Michael Bisping, Rutledge Wood, Lindsay Czarniak

Tournament series where drivers from around the world compete on one of the largest automotive obstacle courses ever made. – IMDB

I’ve talked about it over and over again that Netflix really is starting to build itself an empire out of international competition series and I’m loving every bit of it whether its professional cooking like The Final Table or their version of American Ninja Warrior in Ultimate Beastmaster, the next one to join the ranks is a precision driving obstacle course racing competition which was bound to happen at some point and here we are, looking at Hyperdrive. I don’t know a ton about what goes on under the hood of the car but I do love racing video games a ton and this one is like Need For Speed or The Fast and the Furious come to life. The reason why it wasn’t first on my radar until it actually launched was simply that the trailer itself wasn’t that appealing. Fortunately, it fulfilled all my adrenaline boost desires as well as being very entertaining to watch. There are some little issues with it but there’s a lot that is done on point as well.

As always, I want to talk a bit about the structure of the competition before diving into what works and doesn’t. Hyperdrive is a 10 episode competition series. The first 4 episodes are the Qualifiers where 12 competitors run the course set for that qualifier. Bottom 3 are eliminated from the competition, Top 3 go straight to the Knockout rounds and the middle 6 move onto the next qualifier to join 6 new competitors to fight for the Top 3 spot to advance. Next 4 episodes are the Knockout rounds where the lucky 12 who made it through from the qualifiers now have to battle it out. The lowest in each knockout round is eliminated right away and the 2nd and 3rd last have to compete against each other to see who stays in for the next round. Each episode has modifications to the previous tracks to make it more and more challenging. It tests speed, precision, skills as well as focus and patience, more and more so as it approaches the finals and the obstacle course increases the amount of obstacles to conquer.

Whether we are talking about the international element and the fantastic industrial location that they choose and the structure of the course as well as being able to increase the difficulty every course as the competition moves ahead and even the fairly forgiving structure of the competition, Hyperdrive really does get all those elements right. Every competitor also has their spotlight and their background story of why they are there and how they started driving or drifiting or whatever they are passionate about. As with most car racing and obstacles, the unexpected is the key element here and it lies in every turn (literally and figuratively). Accidents happen and cars break down because the race is done night after night and it strains both the driver and the cars and yet, the anticipation of whether the driver behind the wheel makes it or not is the real adrenaline rush here. Plus some of these obstacles are quite wild and a wild card that can make or break the run. With that said, my issues with Hyperdrive are not huge. Its more on the element that the obstacles probably need to be tested out just a tad more to prevent accidents to happen, luckily things didn’t go too horribly wrong and danger seems to be expected with this sport.

Hyperdrive is a win for me. I’m definitely looking forward to a next season to see some new race cars on the track and some new drivers out there. There’s a lot of hidden talent out there and I’m sure its a competition thats a ton of fun to watch.

 

What’s Up 2019 – Week 34

Another week has passed by. As always with weekends away, its a bit slower. If you missed yesterday’s post on Fan Expo Canada, we headed down there and met up with a fellow blogging friend. First time there and not as media so it was relaxing and just did a ton of stuff that I enjoyed although would have wanted to check out all the South Building stuff but didn’t have time. Either way, things moved along a little but some things that happened over the weekend that I was away in Toronto obviously didn’t end up wrapping up.

READING

• Wild Dark Times by  Austin Case (Review)

Currently reading: Twisted Pines by Lane Baker (9% done)

Wrapped up Wild Dark Times last week right in time for the blog tour. The review is up already and linked above so I won’t talk too much about it but it was a really fun read and lived up to the premise when I read the synopsis and decided to check it out. That’s always a plus. I like books that play up on real things and add the urban fantasy element to it and shows off the author’s creativity. However, I started up Twisted Pines now. Thanks to the author Lane Baker reaching out to me years after his previous one that I also reviewed HERE. I literally just started up the book and its a converted version so its tough on the Kindle so might switch back to reading on the PC to make life a little easier for my eyes sake.

PLAYING

NOTHING! I played nothing this week. I was away and didn’t play anything on my phone. During the week, I was getting the weekend chores done before leaving for the weekend away so took up most of the evening time. Nothing is all I got here.

WATCHING

• A Home With A View (2018)
• Split (2016)
• The Fanatic (2019, Advanced screening)

Less about how I’m recommending this film but rather the fact that I saw the advanced screening for The Fanatic at Fan Expo despite some issues that occurred but was eventually fixed and we did get to see the rest of the movie. Most of the movies that I saw this week was middle of the way. Probably I’d recommend A Home With A View the most because Split was alright but not great and The Fanatic was alright and not great for probably the same reasons where the actor showcased did a good job but it thought it was being more clever than it actually did in execution. It sounds mean but they really aren’t bad films and I’ll talk about it more in the upcoming reviews.

BINGING

• We Grew Up (Season 1, 2019)
• Heart Signal (Season 2, 2019)

Currently binging: Super Vocal (Season 2), The King’s Avatar, Hyperdrive, The Coming One 3

I wrapped up the finale for both of the Tencent reality shows that I was watching last week as they aired their last episode. Both of them were pretty good. I’ll do a big post comparison on the concept for the romance/relationship thing for Heart Signal and other shows that I’ve seen before because I think its a good one to talk about and a nice little concept and they each have pros and cons. The show that just pulled at my heartstrings even though I’m not a parent is We Grew Up. I was a bit conflicted with the concept of a reality show focused on some really young kids learning to be independent despite them making all kinds of safety precautions that’s also apparent in the show. However, in the end, it does highlight a lot about the whole growing up in China and just in general parenting and young kids and how they adapt. Its pretty neat and honestly, there are some heartbreaking moments between the siblings but at the same time, there are also some funny moments as kids will have.

As for the currently binging stuff, I’m absolutely enamored with The King’s Avatar currently updated weekly on Netflix. My husband and I are watching Hyperdrive together and well, Super Vocal 2 is the competition show on my radar that I’ve generally caught up with to their latest episode.

That’s it for this What’s Up!
What have you been playing/reading/watching/binging?