Overwatch: The League

I don't know just how plugged into video games you are but this last weekend was Blizzcon, the yearly event where Blizzard gets you hyped about World of Warcraft expansions and I don't know... something for Diablo? Anyway this year Blizzard has a fresh new property to promote in Overwatch and did they ever. First off they had a big "Overwatch World Cup" tournament (spoilers, the South Koreans won), then they announced a new character and some new modes of play.

Their biggest news however was pretty gosh darn big. They announced that they were starting a professional Overwatch League. The league will be comprised of city based teams any joe-roadhog can qualify for, with players earning actual money for their play. We've been living in a world of professional video gamers for a while but this isn't really like anything I've seen before. It's not really comparable to the NFL but it's like the MLS or some other communist based sports league where the league owns all the teams. By no means do I have any delusion into thinking that I could qualify for a professional video game team (my player ranking puts me in the 19th percentile at Overwatch) but I'll sure as heck watch me some professional Overwatch games. Especially if they can dial in the format a bit. As it is most broadcasts I've seen jump from player to player so quickly it's hard to tell what's going on.

What a crazy world we're living in, right? Maybe I should make my kid play more video games? Did you hear that Logan? Put down those books and start working on your twitch reflexes. The only math I want you to practice are dps calculations.

Jet City Comic Show is Definitely a Thing I Went To

This last weekend my son and I went to Tacoma's biggest comic book convention, making it something like the 156th biggest in the nation, the Jet City Comic Show. This was my first small comic book convention. I couldn't find an exact number on-line but I'd be surprised if they cracked the 10,000 mark. I went on Sunday afternoon just for a few hours and I'll bet there were probably 1,500 attendees in the building. There were about 200 tables with just a couple celebrity guests, who all fell into that "person who was on a show you've heard of but wasn't the main star of that show". There were plenty of local artists and independent publishers, a couple comic pros that have had work published by the big two and a few authors, local and national, that I hadn't hear of.

It seems like this was a good show to actually pick up comic books. There were about a dozen large vendors and then a few more that had assorted tables of geeky stuff, many of which included at least a couple boxes of comics. I took my son which wasn't ideal for spending an afternoon digging through long boxes but I still walked away with about a dozen old X-Men comics to fill gaps in my collection. We also picked up a TMNT Lego Set that was retired a couple years ago, they were asking retail price so that was a nice find. They had a couple older Star Wars sets that were calling my name but I had already set my son's budget at $20, which was already WAY too high considering it was just his birthday.

Anyway, it was a nice little show. There wasn't a ton of stuff there and it wasn't an experience to itself in the way that ECCC is but it was well worth the $10. Also the Tacoma Convention center is really nice in fact the entire downtown Tacoma corridor is cool. Free parking, free right on the light rail, it didn't smell, what more could you ask for? Next year I might leave the boy at home so I have more time to dig around, maybe I'll try and get there on Saturday to see if there's more hustle and bustle. I'm definitely headed back to Tacoma next summer when they have the Pinball and Arcade Expo. There were a couple guys at Jet City with a couple cabinets hyping the event and it sounds awesome. Hundreds of pinball and old Arcade machines set of free play? Yeah, that sounds like a show I could get into.

Lego Batman, Trailer #4

It doesn't seem like there have been 3 previous trailers for the Lego Batman movie but that's what YouTube says and when has YouTube ever been wrong? I'm a bit torn on this movie, like I'm sure it's going to be hilarious and all but there already is a series of direct to video Lego Batman movies that are pretty good. The animation style is way different but the voice acting is really top notch. I wish they had used some of those voice actors, they might not be big name real actors like Michael Cera or Zach Galifianakis but being a good regular actor doesn't always translate into being a good voice actor.

Shut up Kevin you big nerd, this movie is still going to be great. Hopefully there's a good video game to go with it. I thought the Lego Movie videogame was one of the better ones in the series. Also if we don't get a cool Lego set with Robin in the short shorts and goggles what's the point of all of this? Someone get me that mini-fig!

7 shows Netflix should bring back/reboot

I just got done reading a Cracked list of 5 Ridiculous TV Remakes We Wish Netflix Would Tackle Next and it was fine I guess. I mean it was mostly just an excuse to tell jokes about how bad How I Met Your Mother was, which is fine, that show really was awful near the end. It however had me asking, what shows would I like Netflix to bring back? So here we go...

It should be noted that I've put zero thought into this and I'm just winging it, I might not ever get to 7!

Better Off Ted.
This show was hilarious and it was only canceled a few years ago and I can't think of anything big any of the actors from it are doing, so logistically it should be pretty feasible. Also it's a sitcom that takes place in an office, it probably costs 20 bucks to make. It would also make a nice companion piece to The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Battlestar Galactica
CBS is bringing back Star Trek for their stupid CBS subscription service, why not bring back Battlestar Galactica to Netflix? You could do one of two things: Retcon away the ending no one really liked where they're stranded on earth a hundred thousand years ago or make another prequel but this time make it closer to the SyFy series than Caprica was.

Sliders
Hey kids remember Sliders? Yeah, I don't either but from everything I've read it was a cool concept for a show. Just keep Jerry O'Connell and his weird twin like brother away from it.

Law & Order
Bum Bum!

Tour Of Duty
Man I loved this show as a kid, which is weird because looking back on it I was way to young to be watching a show about Vietnam. Scary thought, we're as far from Desert Storm now as we were from the Vietnam War when Tour of Duty first aired. Maybe they could make a new show and set it during Desert Storm. Considering the mess going on the region now you'd have timely allegories for days!

The Avengers
Ok, you might need to change the name with this one cause I'm not talking about Thor and Iron Man, I'm talking about British Spies John Steed and Emma Peel. Forget that the movie reboot ever existed, set the whole thing in the 60s during the cold war, find a foxy gal to wear Emma Peel's catsuit and you're golden.

Night Court
Dude, Night Court was so rad. I've been catching reruns on one of those TV channels between 20 and 100 that does nothing but play shows from the 70s and 80s and I am telling that ish was a thousand years ahead of its time. Bring back Night Court.

New Wonder Woman Trailer

Hey kids, check out this new Wonder Woman trailer. I don't know it has the same impact as the first teaser they released but it still looks pretty cool. I think that first teaser benefited from how godawful Batman v Superman was, by comparison it looked like Citizen Kane. Also there's still pesky rumors that this movie was sort of a disaster to film and no one at DC/WB is happy with the end result. Of course given how happy they seemed to be with BvS maybe that's a good thing.

I'm going to keep being cautiously optimistic, maybe dial down my expectations to really really low. Worked for Suicide Squad!

Whatcha Thinking About?

Doctor Strange, chase scene clip thingy

I like how this two and a half minute scene from Doctor Strange has a thing at the beginning telling you it's "exclusive". Exclusive to anyone with an internet connection... It's really the most exclusive club.

Anyhoo, Doctor Strange comes out soon (this weekend maybe? I don't know who has the time to keep track of these things?) and all I've heard are positive reviews. Of course those positive reviews have all come from people that work for Marvel Comics so maybe they're not the most neutral reviewers. I don't really have plans to go see it, my wife isn't that impressed with Doctor Strange in the comics so she's kind of meh about it. This might be one that I catch on DVD, sort of like Ant-Man or Thor 2. Jet City Comic Con is this weekend so who has time to go see a movie? Also my son just got a couple Pokemon decks for his birthday, I've heard we have to catch them all.

Fuller House Season 2 is a thing

Now lets get one thing straight. I loved me some ABC TGIF when I was 12 or whatever. Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, that show where there were like 10 kids and two of the older girls were really cute. I couldn't get enough of that crap when I was a kid. However, I was a kid so all I liked was crap. Liking crap is one of the things that defines being a kid. Have you watched an episode of Full House recently? or worse, have you watched an episode of Fuller House? Holly cow. Terrible doesn't even come close to defining it. How the Olsen twins turned that show into a money printing factory I'll never know, they were legitimately terrible on that show. Just horrible. The fact that they turned that thing into like a billion dollar empire is AMAZING. When we're all dead and gone Aliens will view it as one of the great mysteries of Earth.

So here's a trailer for Season 2 of Fuller House. I guess if this helps Netflix pay for actual good shows like Jessica Jones and Stranger things its fine.. everything's fine.