TV Binge: Riverdale (Season 2, 2017)

Riverdale (Season 2, 2017)

Creator: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Cast: K.J. Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Casey Cott, Madchen Amick, Vanessa Morgan, Mark Consuelos, Charles Melton, Marisol Nichols, Skeet Ulrich, Martin Cummins, Luke Perry

While navigating the troubled waters of romance, school and family, Archie and his gang become entangled in dark Riverdale mysteries. – IMDB

Picking up from the events of Season 1, Riverdale which was already a darker version of its original comics takes a step further into the darkness. Everyone finds themselves faced with the aftermaths of the previous season’s events and having to step up to take some dire measures. Archie faces his own inner struggles as he tries to make a stand against the Black Hood and the havoc wreaked, while wrestling with feeling like a coward for how he couldn’t protect his dad. Betty is faced with both family issues as it falls apart while she has to isolate herself due to Black Hood approaching her to pull out her darkness. Veronica gets more involved into Lodge Industries operations while struggling with how much she wants Archie involved. Jughead is dealing with joining the Serpents and standing up for his Southside family but being judged for growing up in the Northside alliances with his friends and Betty. Between the Riverdale mayoral elections in the horizon and Lodge Industries having some mysterious plans as they buy up a lot of the key locations and the Southside High’s merge with Riverdale High, more characters get involved and more issues get caught up in the mix.

Its been a while since I’ve watched Riverdale Season one but the feelings that I initially had with it were decent. The tone and atmosphere being the main thing that stands out especially since it is based on the graphic novels and not the comics, which already explains the dark tone. At the same time, my biggest criticism for the first season was Archie’s character really not quite hitting the mark and in turn, Betty and Jughead seemed to stand out a lot more. With the second season, a lot of that still applies. Riverdale takes a much darker tone this time around as it involves a lot of other elements with politics and isn’t just about the high school crew. Its about gangs, the underworld, the politics, etc. All this actually builds up pretty well for the Riverdale world as it gives the town even more life and draws a clearer picture of the nitty gritty elements of Riverdale and its division between the Northside and Southside as well as some of the deeper secrets of the key families. Having just finished Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, its also pretty nice to see constant nod to Greendale even if its not actively involving any of the characters there, mostly due to the different networks that the series have been released on albeit being created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

When you dial it down, Season 2 is about two big plot points that trigger all these other little bits. The first is the whole Black Hood situation especially as it involves Betty directly since it almost seems like the Black Hood wants to use this to fully bring out her dark side so that she will do his bidding. Of course, its also once of the big twists as to who the Black Hood is. With that said, Lili Reinhart does Betty so much justice and truly captures that role so well that she’s definitely one of my favorite characters in the series.

On the other side, its all about what the Lodge Industries scheme is as they start buying up a lot of the Southside real locations with his shady connections coming into town, the conflicts between Veronica and her family’s choices as well as Archie’s gradual involvement into this which also puts a strain on his side. The upside is that Archie’s character does get a little more development since he is one of the titular characters and while Archie making dumb choices is all part of the character design in the comics and graphic novel, it gets frustrating to see him constantly be manipulated. It does match with the characters as well as Veronica and Archie as an item also seem to live in a rather shallow relationship in comparison to Betty and Jughead that seem to be more intellectual since they team together to solve mysteries, which is one of the very fun parts of the series itself.

Of course, Jughead has his own involvement here as he gets darker and more dangerously proactive as he joins the Southside Serpents and finds his place there. On that front, Season 2 did a good job of building up the characters further with these events and its not only the main characters but also expanding to the parent characters as well.

Season 2 was definitely a step in the right direction. Its a little dark and dramatic overall which is one of the reasons that I had stopped watching it in the first place since it just wasn’t the vibe I was looking for but they do capture the whole thing really well. Riverdale as a fictional town and the society comes to life just as much as the characters in it do as well. Not to mention, Season 2 had a cameo role with Tony Todd. With Season 2 done and dusted, it time to step into Season 3. There’s 6 seasons as this goes live so I have a bit of catching up to do especially with the final Season 7 set to premiere in 2023.

Archie, Vol. 5 by Mark Waid

Check out the reviews for the previous volumes below:

Archie Vol.1
Archie Vol.2
Archie Vol.3
Archie Vol.4

Archie, Vol. 5
by: Mark Waid & Audrey Mok (Illustrator)

The fallout from OVER THE EDGE is here! One life has been destroyed, another family has been torn apart–and only the kids of Riverdale High can save their town from imploding! – Goodreads

Volume 4 ended with quite the bomb as we realize that Betty has lost the feeling in her legs after the accident. A honest tragic turn in events and a particularly darker moment because Betty is one of the nice girl next door characters and while enduring losing her best friend and having that whole breakup situation, she has lost even more now.

Volume 5 takes a dramatic turn of events. Its not so much comedic in this one even if it tries to inject some moments with the Classic Archie screw-ups and Jughead intervening with Betty’s parents at one point with his clever ways. However, at some point it felt like it was meant to go in this direction and that change of pace continuing from the previous volume really helped continue making this even more thrilling because we can see Betty’s strength and also see Betty and Archie face their feelings between them and have to make some choices. In that sense, all the characters are developing and growing with this one big event that happened. Its a heartbreaking experience but also one that sees her parents putting in extra effort to protect her. It also throws everyone’s life off balance but also appreciate the good that we the readers don’t see especially when the characters take up all the work that Betty is involved in Riverdale.

I’ve always been a fan of Betty because she is a beautiful girl next door that kind of never really follows the norm of how girls are and its especially true with this revamped version. As much as I loved the original Archie Comics, I only read a few volumes in the ton that has been released so its hard to be fully aware of how she was. This modernized Archie Comics makes Betty in a character that I love even more so this volume really hit me a hard especially as she struggles to be positive through this situation. Its nice to see the shift in tone as well in these versions which gives a good focus on each of these characters and giving them their own spotlight. I gave this one full points for being brave enough to take these daring paths into darker and more serious territory while giving the characters a lot of room to develop as they go through their different situations as well as bringing forward some of the more supporting characters and giving them their own story highlight as well. I loved this volume a lot!

Goodreads: 5/5

Sunday Lists: TV Ships I Love!

A new segment, folks! Hard to imagine how I still want to do these things, right? Sundays are laid back days to just relax so I figured we’ll do some list posts. Most of these posts will be ongoing and added upon if new choices come in. Some will be Best to Worst countdown, others will just be like a little archive for my faves. Kicking it off is the latter as I share some TV Ships I Love. We’re starting on a small scale but TV shows keep happening so the list will expand (as long as I remember to update it).

These aren’t in any particular order…

November 11, 2017: First Five to Kick Off the List

Jess Mariano & Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)

For fans of Gilmore Girls, the debate of who Rory should be with is endless. Dean, Jess or Logan: Who is the best fit for Rory? We’ve had seven seasons plus a Netflix mini-series to think about this. After rewatching the series two times in 2017, my idea of Jess being the best for Rory is solidified completely. Why? Because Jess and Rory together make each other better. In Seasons 2 and 3, they were too young and not able to express themselves too well. However, at the point of the Season 7 and the 10 years gap to the mini-series, its obvious that they are made for each other. Jess knows Rory and knows how to motivate her while Rory inspires Jess and believes in him more than he believes in himself.

 Elena Gilbert & Damon Salvatore (The Vampire Diaries)

I think that quote best shows the relationship of Damon and Elena and why it works. Stefan and Elena was vanilla. It wasn’t exciting but it was stable. Damon might not be the perfect guy and always makes bad decisions but together, they are good for each other and pushing Elena to be stronger and facing herself more than running away.

Killian Jones & Emma Swann (Once Upon a Time)

It sure seems like the reformed bad boy is something I love. Killian Jones aka Hook is awesome. Him with Emma is one relationship that has so many obstacles but it keeps them on their toes and in the end, strengthens them. Especially since they both have their love burdens that stops them to commit so much.

Betty Cooper & Jughead Jones (Riverdale)

Its probably a little early to put this here. If Betty and Jughead disappoint me later on in the series, I’ll probably remove it but for the first season and so far the second one, they are a fantastic couple. It just feels so perfect and one of my favorite pairings which makes sure that you know Riverdale is really only based on the Archie Comics characters and gives it a different twist. Betty and Jughead feel so natural to be together.

Hanna Marin & Caleb Rivers (Pretty Little Liars)

Pretty Little Liars lasted for seven seasons and for a lot of those seasons, even with some exceptions here and there was Hanna and Caleb. Now, these two are such opposites and yet they both work so well together because they gave each other courage and was supportive. They learned to be honest and Caleb ended up helping them out a lot in many of the A situations with his exceptional tech skills. Hanna and Caleb are just so sweet together that its hard to really hate them despite some iffy decisions.

Lorelai Gilmore & Luke Danes (Gilmore Girls)

Gilmore Girls has a ton of great ships. Lorelai and Luke was one that no doubt a lot of people hoped to happen right from the beginning. In many ways they grew to be as solid as they were by the time we saw them in the A Year in Life mini series. They had their bumps and their bad timings but its nice to see that they finally found each other.

Here are the ones to start and will be updated regularly!
Which TV ships do you like? Share them in the comments!

What’s Up Thursday #6: A Little Update!

Its been almost 3 months since the last What’s Up segment! To be honest, its been really busy trying to stay on top with the blog and Game Warp and the Youtube channel. However, we’ve had a sudden surge of one sort of posts lately, and I figured I’d at least do a little post of What’s Up and segway into that. If you don’t really care for what I’m watching and just want to get surprised as the reviews happen over here, That Moment In or Game Warp, then scroll down to the last section of the post.

Let’s not ramble and jump right in!

WATCHING

To be honest, I’m actually not watching anything right now. We started an episode of Mindhunter right before Stranger Things 2 aired so then it was onto a TV binge of Stranger Things 2 and then I got caught up with The Big Family Cooking Showdown which I just finished yesterday.

Oh right, and then there’s Riverdale which is released weekly so thats also there. My guess is we’ll get back to watching Mindhunter soon. It seems like there’s a lot of cool upcoming TV for Netflix so it should be fun although I have a million shows I want to catch up on.

As a side thing, I’m trying to get through some Netflix films since my list is getting ridiculously out of hand and I keep losing films that I’ve waited to long to see. In the next set of double features, you’ll start seeing that I’m choosing films in a fun little way and not alphabetically. Hopefully, it works out as I’d like.

READING

Still reading IT, my friends. Its haunting me in my dreams. I mean the literal task of finishing this book. I keep saying that the end is near and I promise you I’m progressing. I should have like 400 pages left or something which just needs like one or two sittings of not getting sidetracked. On that note, reading IT has put my entire Goodreads challenge behind. Anyways, its my motivation to finish it up quickly.

PLAYING

SNES Classic Edition coming into our existence has given me some opportunities to go play little doses of it here and there. Yoshi’s Island was the one I started. I remember playing the port to Nintendo DS which was a lot of fun but pretty difficult. Its hard to imagine that the controls here are actually even a little harder so I had some struggles. On the Youtube channel, you can see mostly what I’m playing since I record most of the shorter games as full playthroughs. I’ll probably start streaming the longer ones such as Evil Genome and some 2017 titles that I need to wrap up. As from that, its the final episode of Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series Episode 5 that just got released on November 7th. I have a few games in progress but I’m stuck on a few of them as if I’ve plateaued and just can’t seem to get past that point so I put it aside like Crash Bandicoot (which I’m thinking of starting the second one if I can’t get past the level in the first I’m stuck at).

I go through mobile games quite frequently. Be it for Game Warp or not (since I really only review a fraction of the ones worth my time), I’m on the move a lot so when I need to change the pace from reading, I play games on my phone. The latest one I’ve been playing is Once Upon a Tower. Its pretty fun although I always have the same issues with touch controls being not as sensitive as time resulting in my dying. I’ll do a review on it over for Game Warp soon.

And NOW! For the Update!

As you saw in the Watching section of this post, I’m really behind in a ton of stuff. I was looking through the tentative schedule (yes, I do that now to try to be organized), I have a lot of outstanding stuff unwritten and just sitting there nagging me everyday. Since Tranquil Dreams is a fairly versatile blog, I don’t want to shock you with the sudden overload of movie and TV binges but I have to do it. I promise you to stay diverse at the minimum with Goodfoods and some baking stuff I have coming up as well as book reviews here and there but for the most part, I’ll have to get this movie and TV posts out of the way before 2017 ends. Overall, thats the general goal for all things to really get a lot of catch up done to not have anything backlogged hop into 2018 so we can start fresh with possibly a brand new schedule or set-up (that is something I’m thinking about depending on whether I can get the discipline for fixed segments which I’m not completely confident about).

Its not a huge update but I just don’t want you lovely people who don’t care for the TV and movies to feel like I’ve abandoned it all and just changed to a movies and TV blog entirely which I haven’t. If I make any big moves, I will always post about it.

That’s it for today! With that said, I have a movie review coming up later today!
What have you been watching, reading or playing?

TV Binge: Riverdale (Season 1, 2017)

Finally! Its time for another TV binge and we are finally getting to Riverdale. It feels like I finished the series forever. However, don’t you worry about my memory because I remember a good bit of it still… Thats got to be a sign of a great show, right?

Riverdale (Season 1, 2017)

Creator: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Cast: K.J. Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Marisol Nichols, Luke Perry, Casey Cott, Madelaine Petsch, Madchen Amick, Ashleigh Murray, Skeet Ulrich, Lochlyn Munro

As some of you already know, I’ve beem catching up with the comic reboot onto its new graphic novel style and it goes perfectly with the series. Story wise it stays fairly separate although I have read that the issues are considered bridges but I disagree because just take how they make Ms. Grundy a young teacher in the series instead of an older lady in the Archie comics. That may be a point where die hard fans might disagree. However, I’m not one to hate on adaptation material to switch up details to make it more dramatic. And the Ms. Grundy plot works for the most part and as one of the big situations that start off the first season, it truly shows how the show is willing to take risks and turn into a much darker tone than its original source material and in fact just bring the location Riverdale and its colorful characters to life.

Season 1 of Riverdale starts with the disappearance and soon realized death of Jason Blossom, the son of one of the wealthiest families in the small town of Riverdale. Aside from the death, we also see the beautiful and rich Veronica move in town as her appearance captivates Archie, a teenage boy who is best friends with his next door neighbor, Betty and aspires to be a musician while being on the football team. His best friend is Jughead who is best described as a loner because he chooses to be that and also happens to be the narrator of this series as he investigates to put together his novel. In fact that is how the series starts and they try to figure out what happened on July the 4th when Jason Blossom was allegedly murdered and its a series long investigation on who was where and why they were there and all the dark secrets that everyone is hiding.

Spoilers ahead!!!

What I like:

• Betty & Veronica

I’ve always been a fan of these two ladies. They have a much more different vibe here as they work more on their friendship together than being rivals over Archie. In fact, these ladies aren’t about Archie so much as they care about each other and are different in their own ways. Betty is nice on the outside but has an odd dark side that is hidden most of the time whereas Ronnie tries her best to change her old ways and be nicer to everyone even if she sometimes takes the wrong approach.

• Betty & Jughead

Rumors had it when the show started that Jughead had a possibility of being asexual and that would be a meaningful character so when he turned out to have a romantic arc with Betty, there was some backlash. However, the best part of the show and my most favorite bits are with Jughead and Betty together or separately. They are close and understand each other and have so many great moments where they support each other. Most importantly, they are both nice people who are unique from their group and in many ways, also each have their darker side and their secrets and together they make each other stronger.

• Jughead

Jughead is possibly the most complex character on Riverdale. Along with Betty… However, he has hidden facts and family ties and all sort of things along with his lack of connection with his emotions and his tendency to build a wall from other people except a trusted few. Plus, he also is the narrator of the show and the going-ons. Season 1 in reality was about him. He has so much more in here than in the comics as he now has a girlfriend and while he does love his burgers, he still has other things to deal with. So much to learn and uncover especially with way Season 1 ended. Its going to be an exciting ride into Season 2, or at least I can only hope.

• Cheryl Blossom

Another complex character here is Cheryl Blossom. She wants to be loved. This is one of those turning points in the show for her character that I honestly loved. It showed a side of her that was strong and would resist the power her parents had over her especially to please them and be who they wanted her to be no matter how wrong it was. Although, the way she grew up does implicate that she’s going to be doing some more drastic things and who knows what else she’ll be up to.

What I didn’t like/needs more work

• Archie

Thank goodness that this show is called Riverdale and not named after the comics and called Archie. While we’d expect it to still be called Archie in our minds, especially for fans of the old comics. This show’s weakness for about 70% of it was Archie. He actually might be the one person exactly like the comics. Maybe just a little less clumsy but he’s pretty lost and indecisive in what he wants so he never knows when to chase after what he desires. There just seems to lack depth in his character and hopefully in Season 2, it will be something of a Vampire Diaries situation where he will have his stage and character development after the first season’s foundation has been put down. I didn’t not like Archie, just thought he was a little boring, even with all his drama and his family and all that stuff.

Overall…

Riverdale is a really great show. I liked a lot of the components. Up there is what I honestly loved for the show and the one thing I hope they’d improve on. However, the mystery of the show works really well as they follow the trail of Jason Blossom’s death. There are some fantastic moments. The supporting cast was also in the parents’ roles. It was a little more messy on that front possibly intentionally however, it was more soap drama than anything else although, another thing worth mentioning is the bromance between Jughead and Archie as well as the Riverdale High crew. There was a cameo that last one or two episodes with Molly Ringwald as Archie’s mom which was nice to see as well as some familiar faces. There is no doubt that my favorite characters are Betty and Jughead together and separate but usually what starts together won’t last so I’m trying to keep my expectations low so it doesn’t break my heart if and when something happens.

Riverdale is incredibly well done. The tone change and the characters really come to life in this show. There’s some bits and pieces that need some polish but I’m more than confident that by Season 2, they will get everything together and it’ll be an even crazier ride.

What’s Up…#2: One of Those Days…

It has been a while since one of these What’s Up things. Actually, I had been putting them off as a buffer thinking that it had been so recent. Apparently, I was wrong. Either way, I was supposed to have a double feature go up today for Violet & Daisy and The Gift but it isn’t done. This week has been odd. Busy and crazy and yet not really  motivated to do much when I get home especially after working on my family’s income tax since I’m the numbers person in the house. It isn’t particularly complicated, just time consuming, especially when my real life job is of the number-crunching variety and it has been super busy as well.

Aside from that, this morning has been just really ridiculous. I don’t want to complain but its one of those, “Can I just crawl back into bed?” days. However, I do have one other post that needs to get up in a timely fashion for Game Warp stuff. If only Google Drive app didn’t want to be stupid this morning, it probably would have been fine. Okay, I’ll stop now.

Anyways, not really sure what to do for this What’s Up segment but let’s give it a go!

Watching & Binging

My Neighborhood

Riverdale

Riverdale is in its last few episodes before Season 1 ends. I’m really looking forward to writing up that post, while I have a feeling, I need to rewatch Season 4 of Gilmore Girls at this point. I’m getting all the seasons mixed up together and its why those recaps aren’t up yet. The Client List is still happening but I took a break because I need to write Season 1 recap and Season 2 is having a pretty slow start. For something more light and fluffy, I’m watchingt his Hong Kong series called The Neighborhood. Its not great but it is a ton of fun to watch and a change in pace from the norm. Especially as I wait to go home and watch the next episode of Riverdale tonight. Actually, I haven’t finished Gotham Season 1 yet but I haven’t watched that for over a month, not sure it still applies as binging it 😉

Reading

Freshly started reading this graphic novel this morning! Titan: An Alternate History from AH Comics and also one that I picked up at Toronto ComiCon. So far, I’m about halfway through and it is pretty good. Very creative and the art is fantastic. There’s this really cool contrast. Anyways, not reviewing it now. I’ll do it soon once I’m done. It has been quiet on the reading front mostly because I’m waiting for my f-ing books to arrive and its one of the reasons that has me a little down. Although I’m a little better now. #firstworldproblems, am I right? 😉 Anyways, the resolution now is a replacement order which I’m going to pick up at an Indigo store myself because apparently our postal service can’t get these orders to me without any hiccups.

No complaints…I’m taking a deep breath…let’s continue! I am thinking of starting Ready Player One and Cinder now. However, there are 3 books that take priority to it because some of our darling bloggers and writers were kind enough to send them to me to review so I’m stoked about that.

See, I told you this would get positive. 😉

Playing
(and the list is so much longer…)

I’ve been absolutely obsessed with PinOut which is a mobile pinball game on a time limit. I actually beat it just the other day and went into overtime, which I have no idea what that means but I’ve been jumping back into it and trying to unlock a few more achievements plus its just a really nice game to pass short bits of time. On the other hand, I’ve been spending lots of time on Steam. April’s Game Warp featured game is Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition and I only have just a bit left. Battleblock Theater is one I finished Chapter 1. I don’t think I can do chapter by chapter playthroughs as it gets harder but the first chapter was decently fun and simple.

However, I did get a stream for Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 1 which was released on Tuesday. I actually posted up the playthrough. I had to remove songs because it turned on copyright claims so I’m sorry if its boring and if you sometimes hear me snickering in the background. It was the footage from the stream.

I’ll be doing an overview and quick review of Episode 1 over at That Moment In soon. Its been a tad busy and a few things to roll out before.

Listening

I’m still following The Voice Season 12. There’s some pretty good talent although a good part of the ones I like are gone. My fave is Johnny Hayes who unfortunately got cut. How I stay positive is that even though he is cut at least I now know of his existence and that he actually is in a band and I’ll be following that. His voice and style is awesome. Seriously love it! 🙂

That’s it for today!
Writing this up has been fun and honestly, I’m feeling a lot better. But its time for a little chill session.
One of the reasons for some structural change here is to make it stay fresh and fun.
I’ll make up for the missing segments in the next weekend. Gotta get some of the backlog out.

What have you been watching, reading, playing and/or listening?

What’s Up…Wednesday

I’m sure someone has thought about this title before for a Wednesday segment. However, its not going to be a fixed segment unless you all love it! I’m just really exhausted from work and can’t seem to find the energy to wrap up a TV Binge post that I’m working on so wanted to do something quick and fun. There will be a reblog later today for the Ultimate 90’s blogathon’s next review by a lovely lady blogger. You can head over to Drew’s Movie Reviews to read it sooner.

What’s up with everyone? What have you been watching, reading, binging, loving, listening and playing?

Watching & Binging

Cardinal (TV Series)

Chef’s Table (Season 3)

Riverdale

I’m not exactly binging any of these mostly because Riverdale and Cardinal are both going on right now and only updated weekly. Cardinal is a six part mini series (or eight, I can’t remember) so its about to end soon and we’re one part behind. Like it a lot! Riverdale was something I didn’t know was going on. I had thought it was a Netflix Originals which it isn’t so I need to wait for it to be updated weekly and I know myself that eventually I’ll fall behind, no matter how much I like it. Riverdale’s first 1.5 episode was really not doing it for me but in the second half of the second episode, I do say that I like it a lot more now. The twist on these Archie comics characters is very awesome. And well, I love Chef’s Table so I didn’t want to wait to watch the new season.

Watching/Binging Next: Ultimate Beastmaster

Did you see this trailer? Its starting this Friday and I’m excited!

Reading

Not my original intention to read two books at the same time but I just happened to remember that I had bought A Good Marriage on a good deal and it was on my phone the day I forgot my Kindle so started it. So far, I’m enjoying it. It also breaks the order of how I originally wanted to experience Stephen King’s novels. We’ll get back on track and pretend we didn’t skip ahead. What Maisie Knew feels heavy and no, I haven’t watched the movie but will.

Reading next:
The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

I’ve started this one over two years ago. Its time to finish it and put it away.

Playing

Mobile game

Early Access Steam

Playstation 4

In between games right now after a blitz run of Game Warp’s February featured game so just playing some puzzle games. I do have some unfinished games or game in progress but here’s what I’m playing in the background. The Early Access Steam one is a recent start this weekend and only a little over a week old in Early Access.

Playing next: Child of Light/Three-Fourth’s Home/World of Goo, etc
& March’s featured game for Game Warp: Batman – The Telltale Series

And finally, listening or more somehow stuck in my head…

That’s it for what I’ve been doing. Behind the scenes things like this seem a little silly to do to me. However, they are fun!
If you do like it, maybe I’ll make it into a segment.

Hope you enjoyed it!
What are you doing behind the scenes? TV, Music, Books, Movie franchises, Video games?