The Power of Entertainment

What a fine half term break that was! From Wednesday to Sunday, I was not at work, and it was glorious -the break is never long enough, but it was better than naught.

But, what was so good, mind you? Shalk I talk of the time and memories made with my family, resting up and doing much about nothing?

Of course not! I shall instead speak of the brilliant entertainment I was privy to digest! For film, game and series were all exquisite.

Film, was without a doubt Bad Guys: what a gem! Top notch animation, good mix of action and lull, good songs, ok to good story and message, undoubtedly a top tier film.

The mixture of action and lull, I find is so important in films, especially nowadays with their bloated run times: if it's an action film, give me some action right off the bat, before moving onto the story aspects, then gimme more action in the very near future, and keep mixing it up to keep my interest wetted.

A mention is made of Deadpool and Wolverine -sadly, only to mention how it was not enjoyed that much. Sure, there was action -indeed, a lengthy opening credit scene with it, but even that one's pace was off, what with trying so hard to be as over the top ridiculous as possible, that it lost a lot of its umpf.

An issue which we felt plagued the film like a bad case of the bubonics: every snippet of humour was needlessly shoved in our faces with incessant fourth-wall exposition, so much so that the humour became bland. Nevermind the over long lulls between action scenes, and the many, many tropes the film was guilty of, even as it took the mickey of Fox and Disney and whatnot for those same tropes.

But, I digress: game, I got pleasantly entangled with Frostpunk, a post-apocalyptic city-building survival game.

Winter has come in style worldwide due to volcanic eruptions and other climate/world/solar system changes, with civilisation getting decimated as a result, so what does our London crew do? Why, go further north! That's because these massive, skyscraper generators called, aptly, Generators, have been erected close to endless (for gaming purposes) supplies of coal, and since it's already bone-cold everywhere, here is where the final city on Earth shall be erected!

You then shepherd the struggles of your 80-ish crew as they gather supplies, switch the generator on, and go through all sorts of physical and social hardships to survive, along with lots of tough decisions.

It makes for a very compelling narrative, and I was aptly rapt -especially when I reached the "end boss", and had to restart the game, since it required ample preparation right from the bat: I had to respect a game which asked its players to likely re-start from scratch right towards the end, just to beat it. Had it been a long game, that respect would have likely turned to resentment, but the length was just right to make it a digestible defeat, and spur me to overcome the challenge.

True, once you know what to do, it's fairly straightforward (at least on normal difficulty, but I can't imagine the pattern would change on harder ones), and even doing another scenario it was rinse and repeat...still, eminently enjoyable blast of cold air.

And now, the series: The Booth At The End. We'd watched it ages ago, but somehow we thought about it and wanted to taste it anew: looks like it's also a film, what do you know...but, the series was alas in a poor quality, constantly stopped youtube format.

And, it was still so good! Very compelling story and watch.

What did I gain from all this entertainment, may I reflect? Surely inspiration, and lots of food for thought: satisfaction at having consumed some refined dreams, and them having fed my imagination well.

But, most of all, I think being able to share it with the ones I love: to be able to sit through it, to laugh and gasp and whatnot, was the greatest reward there could be.

Your entertainment saturated watcher,

Stefano Ronchi