lately i got quite hooked on films of Piotr Szulkin as well as Nikos Nikolaidis, plus starting to dabble in Harun Farocki…i also want to go on an overdue trip further down the Gakuryu Ishii rabbithole tho

i am trying to get back into drawing so i sat in the park for a bit and did some quick doodles (was quite frustrating because i kept getting interrupted but i’m glad i did it anyway)

also i went swimming, which was very nice :)

nothing fancy & i only started this hobby this year but why not :D

thank you! i do have a v cheap drawing tablet that i fiddle around with occasionally but honestly i vibe better with pen & paper so far. i would like to get more comfortable with digital eventually, i just want to focus on traditional first

i mainly just use letterboxd, and the way i use it is more like a casual journal rather than something that would be useful for other people to read (and i state on my profile there that i’m not trying to give objective critique at all)

the other place i talk about what i watch would be in chat servers and even then i don’t like to get into the weeds with discussion too much, if someone asks i will give them my opinion and maybe if i am interested we might talk about why we disagree on certain things but it isn’t something i want to spend a lot of energy on

Sauron ate, it was a great final scene with Celebrimbor. i did not particularly dig the actor for Celebrimbor at first but towards the end of the season i could see it better. Gil-Galad grew on me by the end of this season too, he got slightly more to do other than just look grumpy & beefy. Arondir seemed to get almost nothing to do until the last minute? i quite liked him in s1 but it felt like they didn’t know what to do with his character after that so he just sorta ran around being awkward.

i am hoping never to see the Harfoots again after this, i tried to like them but i find them so painfully twee & boring, i would rather focus on the Dwarves than spend any more time on Harfoot meanderings. the Dwarves can be a bit twee too but at least they have more edge to them and some politics in there too so they are much more interesting to me, and i enjoy the relationship between Durin & Disa a lot, they are the heart of the show for me.

mainly i feel so sad not to have Adar anymore, he was my favourite by a long way. also i feel like his was the only actor in the show to have any chemistry with Morfydd Clark. so i really would have liked more Adar time across the season.

overall i dont exactly regret staying on board the RoP train because i did find some things to enjoy, but it is still so patchy in its quality. it also felt like the season was maybe 1-2 episodes too short (or, that they could have spared us from the Harfoots and spent more time fleshing out the other stories 😇).

yet i still find it hard to get excited about a third season, especially being Adarless, i feel like there aren’t any characters left besides Durin & Disa that i feel any emotional attachment to. i suppose i will still watch it but i will be keeping my expectations low in the hopes of being pleasantly surprised as that worked ok for me this season, heh.

edit: i forgot to add, imo the rings themselves look heinous, like the type of jewelry you get for $15 at the local witchy/hippie shop. i know they probably wanted designs that significantly differed from the movies, but the chunkiness makes them look really cheap :( i would never get trapped by those rings of power simply because i would not wear a ring that fugly.

this week i have been going through the 1970s Christmastime BBC ghost stories, mostly adaptations of MR James stories but a couple of originals in there too, mostly very enjoyable and a lot of them have some truly wtf moments. great for spooky season and they are nice & short too.

as for newer stuff, Teacup & The Penguin are the only weekly tv watches i am really hanging out for right now. also i keep trying to watch Ludwig but although i enjoy it, i inevitably fall asleep around halfway through each episode, just too cosy i guess? 😅

for movies i watched The Substance & Alien: Romulus, i liked the latter a lot more than the former but i’m glad lots of people seem to be enjoying body horror lately.

Teacup - i have gripes about it but it’s fulfilling my horror/scifi cravings well enough, i think it is based on a book but i haven’t read it (yet) so i have no idea how it compares. also a bit worried that maybe this won’t all wrap up tidily by the end of season and might get the axe so i will have to pick up the book if i want a conclusion anyway.

The Penguin - worth watching just for the performances alone tbh, quality entertainment.

Ludwig - i am liking it so far but it makes me very sleepy so each episode takes me about 3 days to get through.

The Devil’s Hour - just started the new season of this (which i had no idea was even coming). i still don’t know if i like it but i do keep watching it so i must like something about it. maybe it’s just Peter Capaldi luring me in. won’t say too much about it because spoilers but if you like twisty-turny stuff maybe give it a go.

Abigail, M3GAN, Orphan & Orphan: First Kill, Trap, The Popes Exorcist, Renfield
if those are too “big name”: Lair of the White Worm, Totally Killer, Glorious, Vicious Fun, Discopath, Suitable Flesh, Dracula AD 1972, Night of the Demons, TerrorVision, Blood Diner, Office Killer

bought a permanent marker and tried drawing with that instead of my usuals (pencil or fineliner), haven’t quite got the hang of its quirks yet but it is fun for me to try a different medium and i love the bold look of the resulting doodles.