This Island Earth- Cult Film Review

LINK- Children of the Stones: Cult TV Series Review

LINK- What Comics Have Taught Me

LINK- Nintendo: My One Constant in My Gaming Life

Man of Medan- Video Games As Art

September 7, 2020

Supermassive Games impressed me a few years ago with its narrative driven horror tropes game, Until Dawn. So when I heard that they’d started work on an anthology series and the first part, Man of Medan, was out I was interested.

You play as a group of friends who are kidnapped by pirates but escape onto a seemingly haunted World War II ship. Over the course of 3 to 4 hours you investigate the spooky goings on. It’s alright overall but falls short of its previous work as the characters aren’t very likable or relatable but that’s alright.

I played the game solo as I couldn’t find a pal to play on networked play but I don’t think it hindered the appeal of the game as an awkward game is an awkward game, but I do like the idea and hope they iterate on it for their next work, Little Hope. In the meantime, here’s screenshots from my playthrough.

LINK- Video Games As Art Series on YouTube

The Wonder of Walking Simulators

September 3, 2020

The term 'walking simulator' is used to describe a genre of games where a person is asked to explore a setting but there are little to no action buttons to press. As a result many gamers speak of 'Walking Simulators' in a derogatory way claiming that they are not in fact ‘games.’ It may seem like semantics but how we label the genre implies that all you do is walk from one side to the other in a guided tour fashion. However there is more to these types of games than belies the title assigned to them.

Walking simulators have gone through a bit of a journey themselves, gaining prominence with Dear Esther and Proteus, which initiated the debate on whether they were games or not. The games did well, but some people asked for a refund from Steam, an online gaming marketplace, claiming there was nothing to do and that these were not ‘real’ games. Since then, games like Firewatch, Edith Finch, Gone Home and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter have raised the profile and respectability of the genre amongst many ‘hardcore’ gamers but there is still a stigma attached to this genre for many.

In these games, the story is told by journeying through the world and finding elements within the world rather than through traditional storytelling narrative and the players input is often minimal. However I find that they are incredible experiences that reward exploration and discovery to understand the bigger narrative. Often by finding diary entries, audio files and environmental clues you get to understand the mystery box structure of the narrative, told slowly and carefully throughout the game.

This genres provides immersive worlds to engage and interact with. In the same way that art has many different forms so do computer games. I recently played through Control, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Call of Cthulhu and whilst I loved those games sometimes it is great to try something more calm, cerebral and emotional.

During the first few weeks of Covid lockdown I recently revisited The Chinese Room’s ‘Everybody's Gone To The Rapture’ and it struck me again how wonderful and immersive this ‘walking simulator’ is yet also prescient. I won't spoil it for people who haven't played it but the game sets you in an English village where some catastrophe has occurred and you are the lone survivor. You spend the 4 or so hours of the game exploring the silent and empty village finding orbs of light that relay events which occurred in the village, like some voyeur. It feels almost like survivor’s remorse in that you hear peoples pains, anguish and worries. There are some profound moments in the game that will stick with me forever, more deeply embedded than some forms of media because I was the active agent that made these things occur. The way the narrative is presented eschews the typical linear chronological route and instead you have to piece things together, almost like a David Mitchell or Haruki Murakami novel, which is quite an achievement.

During the weirdness that is Covid, the sight of an isolated empty English village took on a bigger significance as I had experienced it virtually first. The connection between myself and the game were even more deeply bound than when i played the game initially as I had the ludonarrative connection… something similar was happening around me. Okay, not the rapture but lockdown when streets were empty, shops were shut and people were just not around. This game, and many others like it, are examples of how an interactive narrative can deliver an emotional pay-off like no other medium.

'Walking simulators' are a wonderful genre of video games and they encourage us to immerse ourselves in new worlds and scenarios. They are rather passive and sometimes that is what I look for in gaming, it’s a bit of a change from the norm. Along with much of the world I was inside but with video games I went on some incredible journeys.

LINK- An English Geek in Saudi

LINK- Streets of Rage 2 on Vinyl Review

LINK- Battle Angel Alita: And So It Ends

LINK- From Bedrooms to Billions

High Score- Series Review

August 21, 2020

High Score is a recently released 6 part series on Netflix looking at the origins and evolution of the video games industry. It's a great idea and a subject that definitely needed to be covered, especially as it is the most profitable entertainment industry in the world. So, is High Score a worthy series to discuss the cultural impact of video games whilst looking through its history?

Well, the first thing to note is that it is not a blow by blow chronological history of the medium and as such doesn't go into granular detail. In fact, it leaves the true origins of video games like the mainframe systems that networked universities and led to the creation of text based games like Colossal Cave Adventure and Space War until later episodes. I think they thought it would be a bit dry for the first episode so they went for the headline acts- Space Invaders and Pacman. So don't go into this expecting a detailed history of the medium. It is no Sagan's Cosmos, BBC Civilisations (or like any detailed BBC documentary series) but that's okay. What you have is baby's first video game documentary but that's not a slight against it, it's just very informal and relaxed in the way it decides to share its research but it's not as dismissive or as annoying as 'Enter the Anime', which treated that subject matter with arrogance and contempt.

High Score is a 6-part series on Netflix looking at the history and evolution of video games.

The series episodes can be broken down into the following:

Episode 1- Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pacman, Atari, ET and the Video Game Crash of '83.

Episode 2- Nintendo, Donkey Kong, the NES, Video Game Composer Tanaka, Mario, Gameboy, Tetris, Nintendo Game Counselors, Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo vs. Universal, Kirby, Nintendo World Championship 1990, Nintendo Power,

Episode 3- Adventure Games, Roberta and Ken Williams (Founders of Sierra, creators of King's Quest, Richard Garriot (Creator of Ultima), Dungeons and Dragons, Yoshitaka Amano, Final Fantasy and Gayblade.

Episode 4- Sega vs. Nintendo console war, Sonic the Hedgehog, Trip Hawkins and EA, John Madden (American) Football, Sega's Rock the Rock Tournament and the 'SEGA does what Nintendon't advertising campaign'

Episode 5- Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Video game violence, Night Trap, the Street Fighter 2 Turbo Tournament in Japan, esports,

Episode 6- Doom, Super FX chip, Star Fox, Wolfenstein 3D and Online multi-player.

Let’s starts with the positives; the whole production of the show is impressive as in places the cinematography is stunning, like when they are showing the neon-lit streets of Tokyo or the sun bleached beaches of California, or video game system porn where there are slow-mos of the systems spinning and slowly coming into focus.

The music is all 80s synth but more new wave 'Stranger Things' rather than OMD or Eurythmics, which is no bad thing as it compliments the feel of the series.

The footage of old adverts, vox pop and city scrapes offered a glimpse into the past which seems quaint in this pandemic ridden world of ours. The communal aspect of game tournaments is great as it offers a personal story about the impact the games have had on these players. The interviews with the creators is informative but not anything new for anyone who's even done some cursory reading or watching of any shows.

Whilst enjoying the series I thought that some areas needed development; in places it came across as heavy- handed and cringy, especially with the roleplaying with the older luminary figures portraying themselves as they were in the past. I know it was played for humour but it’s like when a dodgy uncle tells an inappropriate joke, you kinda die a little inside. Also, the content, whilst good, is very Japan and America-centric. It's all '1983 games crash' rather than thriving micro computer market in much of Europe where the game crash just wasn't a thing or in countries like USSR and Brazil where modding existing hardware and software and piracy were huge. I know it isn’t the focus of the series but I thought they missed a trick here.

Lastly, the overly dynamic constantly moving cameras, extraneous CGI and dramatic music drops all comes across as very ADHD. It’s as if the programme is scared to calm down, but maybe that's my age as I am someone who prefers calmer rather than bombastic documentaries. But having said that, I loved the pixel art interstitials as they were obviously made with love and added a riot of colour to break things up.

As an introduction to video gaming origins and history, this documentary series is great. For many older fans, who know a lot of the information through listening to retro gaming podcasts, reading gaming magazines for most of their lives or watching other shows or YouTube videos, nothing here is really revelatory but it's a nice addition which adds to video gaming's role as an art form.

LINK- Get Lamp Review

LINK- An English Geek in Saudi

LINK- Streets of Rage 2 on Vinyl Review

LINK- Battle Angel Alita: And So It Ends

The Sandman Vol. 1- Audible Review

August 18, 2020

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman is a critically acclaimed original comic series which ran for 75 issues from 1989 to 1996. Over the years the DC Vertigo won 26 Eisner Awards, topped various ‘Best Comic Series’ lists and has been called the 'Shakespeare of comics,' due to its lyric wordplay, sophisticated storytelling arcs and dramatic characterizations (including, funnily enough Shakespeare himself)-not due to its love of iambic pentameter. Guess who studied Shakespeare in Secondary... this guy.

There have been many spin-offs, side projects and divergent series since the original run but rumours of a Sandman movie or TV series have been swirling since time immemorial without success. That is, until now. Audible have released The Sandman series as audio books, however this is not a simple retelling of the comics but a more complex affair with full orchestration, a complete cast and narration by Gaiman himself.

The first part of the audio book released mid-July 2020 and over the course of a few days I have been listening to it intently. The audio drama covers the first three volumes of the graphic novel collections- Preludes and Nocturnes, The Dolls House and Dream Country and is very faithful to this source material, with just a few tweaks and additions to help the flow in the audio format.

The epic saga begins with Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, captured by occultists and kept imprisoned for many years. When he breaks free he realises that his objects of power have been taken and he journeys across different realms to reclaim them. Along the way he meets various characters from the DC universe including Batman, The Martian Manhunter, John Constantine and more niche characters.

The next story arc concerns the Dream Vortex and a young lady called Rose Walker, who threatens the very existence of the Dreaming, the 'land' where Morpheus' kingdom exists.

The Audible ends with the anthology tales from Dream Country. There are 4 different stories including a really uncomfortable tale about the muse Calliope being imprisoned by a writer. This is followed by the award winning single comic story of Shakespeare creating a play for an extraordinary audience, unlike any he has met before. I remember reading this about 20 years ago and thinking how this graphic novel was peculiar as there wasn't a single story arc but rather, characters and themes that would pervade the rest of the series.

The whole Audible experience is expertly crafted as the cast, including including James McAvoy (playing as Morpheus), Michael Sheen (Lucifer) , Taron Egerton (a haunted John Constantine here but also excellent as Moomin Troll in the brilliant Moominvalley), Kat Dennings (Death) and Riz Ahmed (The Corinthian) all bring their A-game to lend proceedings an air of authenticity and gravitas. The music is suitably brooding but there are moments of crescendo, where the organs go full throttle, the choirs voice rises and the trumpets blare, it's moody and unsettling stuff which adds weight to the whole affair.

The Sandman stories themselves are intriguing and soulful, with a particular favorite of mine being chapter 8 when Dream travels with Death as she does her work. It is very philosophical yet also deeply sad. I also loved chapter 10, in which Dream meets at the same inn every 100 years with Hob Gadling, who Death has granted an extention to his life, to see how he fares through the centuries. The music and sounds of the times brings the centuries to life.

I disliked '24 hours' in which Dream tracks down rogue dreams and horrific nightmares created by John Dee, a psychopath who has escaped from Arkham Asylum. The story is an interesting one of depravity and uncontrolled desire let loose but it all made for uncomfortable listening and the grotesque sounds made me uneasy, and I'm no shrinking violet.

Overall, when I read these stories in comic form years ago, I was taken with them but hearing them performed aloud added further depth. The Sandman is a masterclass in audio storytelling and is well worth the 10 + hours of engagement required. It isn't always easy listening with some vividly voice-acted scenes of horror and terror but then, that's what The Sandman does best... haunt your dreams.

LINK- Children of the Dogstar: Cult TV Series Review

LINK- Comics in the Classroom

The Woman In Black (BBC 1989)- Cult TV Review

August 14, 2020

I recently watched the 1989 BBC production of The Woman on Black as it has only just been released on blu-ray by Network after many years. I loved the theater production in London and watched it twice, once with some East End youth from the centre I worked at who acted with bravado but became scared, and once with a couple of friends over Christmas. I was terrified both times. I thought a TV production wouldn't be able to reproduce the ambience and effect of the live performance, but then when I heard that one of my favorite screenwriters, Nigel Kneale (of Quatermass, The Stone Tapes and errr Halloween III: Season of the Witch fame) had worked on it I knew it would be in a safe pair of hands.

So, how is it and is it worth a watch?

The tale is the quintessential English ghost story; a young solicitor, from 1920s London, is sent to a rural coastal community to settle the estate of a recently deceased old widow, who lived in a large, isolated house. Whilst there he experiences unnatural goings on which builds up in a crescendo of scares. The story keeps building and ratcheting up the tension until it reaches nerve shredding.

The way the story is structured is intelligent as it starts with a busy London, busy market town of Crythin Gifford and then moves slowly to Eel Marsh House where things are isolated, desolate and bleak. The juxtaposition of busy city life with isolated manor is marked and it creates a tension which is palpable. The location shoots are impressive and, with the BBC being no stranger to costume drama, the attention to detail regarding clothes, transportation and other paraphernalia from the period are all top notch.

I watched the more modern 2012 remake, made by Hammer films who came out of hibernation to produce it, and I have to say that I prefer this adaptation to the more recent Daniel Radcliffe affair. Don't get me wrong, the newer version was good but I found that the economy of design and budgetary constraints added a slightly unsettling feel to the older production. That's not to say that it is a cheap production in any way but it's not a big budget Hollywood production with all the sheen and polish that implies. Adrian Rawlings in his role as Arthur Kipps oozes conviction as a man slowly unraveling with all the supernatural elements swirling around him. The standout shock moment, if you know you’ll know the bit I mean, positively pops in this stunning Blu-ray transfer.

The Woman in Black is essential viewing and in my opinion this is the best on-screen version of the story I have seen. It is beautifully shot, wonderfully acted and the script is tight and tense without relying on jump scares or other common tropes. Check it out, it’s a *sigh* scream… I’ll get me coat…

LINK- Children of the Dogstar: Cult TV Series Review

The Returned Season 1 and 2- Complete Series Review

August 5, 2020

‘The Returned’ is a 2 season French television series with a deceptively simple premise; a coach load of children and several adults die during an accident when their bus falls off a cliff. 4 years later, some of the dead start to return, not aging a day and also not having any recollection of what has occurred in the time since the fatal crash. This rocks the community who are unsure as to whether this is a blessing or a curse.

Over the course of season 1 we start to gain insight into each of the families and how the return of their loved ones (and sometimes unloved) affects their life and mental wellbeing. The first season garnered much praise upon its 2012 release and won many awards.

Season 2, followed 3 years later and had a 6 months time jump after the cliffhanger of season. A pregnant woman gives birth to her baby which she had with her returned ex-fiancee, but is the baby totally human? Also, some more people from the bus accident and from further back in time start to return at a faster rate but no-one is quite sure why. They live in an abandoned estate and are swelling in number but what is the endgame?

Both seasons are gorgeously shot with neutral colors and shades of grey, white, blue and blackness. The scenery is spectacular and the cinematography is gorgeous with lots of shots of the woods and mountains. It's all very moody and eerie but it's more than a pretty show, it throws up lots of existential questions like:

What would be the reaction if the dead did return?

What happens after we die?

Is a chance to speak to the deceased a good or a bad thing?

The feel of the show is slow and meditative. It is purposely slow paced so you invest in the characters. It is a complex show which has a lot going on but it slowly reveals itself, it truly is French in that there is a slow burn pace that it languishes in; it revels in the story and atmosphere, where the rush?

The Returned is a beautifully shot show.

It makes me uneasy and uncomfortable and there is a sense of dread permeating the whole show. There is no humour and there are no jokes, the dialogue and acting is played straight and is all the more gripping for it. In places, the show has a feel of ‘Twin Peaks’ as the mythology is the central mystery, however rather than a white or black lodge strangeness, ‘The Returned’ is more character focussed and we get an intense look at each of the people who have returned. The haunting music by Mogwai compliments the mood and intensity of the show and gets under your skin.

‘The Returned’ runs at 16 episodes and is well worth the time investment if you like slow, meditative shows.

Control- Video Games As Art

August 1, 2020

Control is an intriguing game in which you play as the Director of a secretive New York agency tasked with keeping a supernatural force at bay. So far so videogamey, but what seperates this game from others is the strange dynamic Old House, the building that changes, grows and moves. This makes the play space intriguing and constantly in a state of flux, adding to the sense of confusion. It reminded me of Mark. Z. Danielewski’s stunning ‘House of Leaves’ with hints of ‘Twin Peaks’. The game is stunning and on my playthrough I took some great shots.

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On, And On And Colston (or, 'How We Learned To Talk About The Legacy Of Colonialism In GB')

July 27, 2020

*This is an almost stream of consciousness blog post about the ‘state of the world’. I worked on it over a few days, editing bits over a few weeks with the changing situation as I wanted to create an opportunity for dialogue. If you disagree with some, all or none of what I say, that’s fine as we are all entitled to our opinions. Let’s be civil and not resort to any uncouth comments, fisticuffs or other such hijinks- Thanks go out to Liz Barrett, Cassius Kingsley, Firoza Choudhury and Frances for their advice and feedback*

In the words of the great Tintin cartoon from the 90s….’It all started…’ with a text message:

"They've thrown old Edward Colston in the river.”

I didn't know who he was and had images of some poor bloke being dunked into a river before my friend clarified in another text message, "His statue is in the River Avon.”

Somewhat relieved that no-one had been assaulted, I started to Google on my phone who this Edward Colston was and what he has done to warrant such an unceremonious knocking off his pedestal. Bristolian merchant, businessman, philanthropist, wow this guy seemed like a right renaissance man, and then.... slave trader. Hmmm, so there's the rub and what a rub indeed! Over the course of 16 years, it was estimated that the man had shipped over 80,000 Africans to America during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and of those 20,000 slaves had been thrown overboard as they either died or were declared too ill during the dreadful journey. It seemed almost symbolically fitting for Colston, to be thrown into the water too.

The Colston plinth- sans plinth. Photo credit: Eiizabeth Barrett

I’d no doubt the 24 our news cycle would be in a frenzy about this incident and that evening, when I settled down with my wife, it was all over Channel 4 News. There were the vox pop section of the news where a variety of reactions were shared. Many thought that having a statue of a slaver with a pandering message; “Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city” was insensitive to many people within a city that prided itself on its multi-cultural credentials. However, many thought that the removal of the statue was sacrilege as it erased the history--even if it wasn't always illustrious or glorious.

Looking at the talking heads on the news I empathised with both sides of the argument. Those who eloquently spoke about why the Colston statue had to go said how it was an open sore in the city of Bristol; one which successive council leaderships had declined to amend or address. On the other side of this argument some stated that, ‘You can't judge people from the past based on today's moral code’ and that by removing the statue you ‘erased the history.’

Hmm, I was in a moral quandary. I wasn't sure that throwing the statue into the river was right but then again, leaving the fawning message tantamount to declaring him to be the ‘first son of the city’ was a bit much as it white-washed his horrible behavior, at least on the plaque. However, was this really ‘erasing history’ as some claimed?

When it was stated that numerous council applications for the removal of the statue to a museum or proposals for amendments to be added to the plaque to provide a more balanced account of Colston’s history had been declined, I could understand why so many people were frustrated and angry. However throwing the statue into the river wouldn’t get you very far in my opinion as it would anger those in the middle of the political spectrum who were looking for a more nuanced and balanced conversation but hey, life is complex and maybe this was a bit of a wake-up call to those in authority that things needed to change. However, during a pandemic, where the civic duty of staying at home to protect each other was at the forefront of most people’s mind, I waited to see what the general reaction would be.

It seemed to me that Britain was having a bit of an existential crisis of sorts and with the toxic Brexit campaign, with the ridiculous canvassing and nasty politics by the left and right, and the killing of George Floyd in America it all acted as catalysts for what we were seeing occurring here.

The Times, They Are A-Changin’

The prevailing thought in Britain has been that we are further along the road that the US as concern race, and in many ways we are, but there are many who believe that the type of racism here is more subtle and is ingrained in our systems and institutions. Those who aren’t even open to this suggestion think that the Black Lives Matter movement is just an excuse for people to loot and cause damage to property, even though the vast majority of the marches and demonstrations have been peaceful. However, looking at data (supplied by the BBC) tells a different story:

If you’re black in the UK you’re twice as likely to die in police custody compared to someone who’s white
You’re 9 times more likely to be stopped and searched compare to someone who’s white,
You’re 3 times more likely to be arrested compared to someone who’s white,
If you’re BAME you’re more likely to die from Covid-19, not due to the color of your skin but because of social inequality around jobs, housing, health and wealth,
If your black and aged 16-24 the unemployment rate is 26% compared to 11% for white,
The Rowntree Foundations research into poverty level found 26% for white, 48% for Black and 60% for Bangladeshi
1.5% of Britain’s top bosses are Black. (Source: BBC Radio 5)

This data is shocking but it does show some of the deep level of inequality that exists in the current system in the UK. Now there’s a lot of data and fake news bandied around so I went to the original source of data at gov.uk website and did some research about the crime stats for England (from 2017) and it made for some pretty sober reading:

Black people had the highest stop and search rates in every police force area for which there was data,
the 3 Black ethnic groups had the highest rates of stop and search out of all 16 individual ethnic groups
there were 51 stop and searches for every 1,000 Black people in London, compared with 19 per 1,000 Black people in the rest of England and Wales
between April 2018 and March 2019, there were 4 stop and searches for every 1,000 white people, compared with 38 for every 1,000 Black people,
Black people had the highest arrest rates per 1,000 people in every police force area for which there was data
In 2017, the conviction ratios for Black and Mixed ethnic groups were lowest at 78.7% and 79% whilst the conviction ratio was highest for defendants in the white ethnic group, at 85.3%
The conviction ratio for the white ethnic group was highest in all age groups in 2017
In 2017, the Black and Mixed ethnic groups had the lowest conviction ratios for male defendants ( at 79.2% and 79.3%), and the Black and Asian ethnic group had the lowest for female defendants (at 74% and 73.8% respectively)
Behind this data lies real world implications which informs life choices and life chances. More Black people were stopped and searched and arrested, however the conviction rate for Black people was lower than for white people. The part I found very interesting was when the gov.uk report stated:

differences in the rate of arrests in England and Wales are likely, in part, to reflect population differences in those areas (with many more people from the Asian, Black, Mixed and Other ethnic groups living in London than in North Wales, for example)

Based on this, why is so much of the media making it seem like there was a black criminality problem across the country? The report stated:

the Black African, Black Caribbean and Other Black groups consistently had the highest rates section 60 stop and searches involved Black people, the highest number out of all ethnic groups for this legislation with 4,858 (compared to 1,827 for Asians)
I didn’t understand why this would be but maybe it is due to the fact that the news often focusses on ‘high-profile’ crimes or picks on a trend like in 2019 when knife crime hit London. More often than not, knife crime is blamed on Black youth but in England and Wales 38% of knife possession offenders under 25s were non-white in 2017. This rose to two thirds in London but, as the report states, this is likely due to population differences across the country. The murder victim and suspect figures are more or less proportionate to the makeup of the population. Up until very recently, the stabbing capital of Britain was Glasgow, which has a 95% white population so why wasn’t knife crime seen as a ‘white problem?’ The fact is that crime is most prevalent in poorer areas and since most Black people are disproportionately poor, they are the ones that are disproportionately affected as victims and perpetrators. In fact, Akala brought up this very point on ‘Good Morning Britain’ with Piers Morgan.

So, this is a class issue and not one of race or culture so why the heightened fear of Black youth? Maybe it due to the ‘Blue Dot Effect’; this is the experiment where people were asked to identify blue dots amongst groups of a range of colors, this was then moved onto aggressive and non aggressive faces. What researchers found was that, after being made highly suggestible for a while, people identified purple dots and blue and, more worryingly for the real world, neutral faces as ‘threatening’.

Maybe the identifier of Black youths and knife crime in London has been extrapolated to across the country?

Reading through all this data and information it may seem surprising and even shocking yet there are many who say, ”I don't see color”, which is great but the systems and institutions that rule our lives often do see colour and these have real world impact and implications. That's what people are saying with Black Lives Matter; they don't matter more than any other lives but they are worthy of recognition because often it is these communities that are victimized and marginalized and the data supports this. This has been highlighted particularly in America where abuses against the Black community have been going on for many years (and is referred to as ‘Black Witnessing’) but the access of cameras on mobiles has meant that only now are incidences being recorded and shared. So where does this profiling come from, because that is what this is?

A Personal Journey

I studied history for GCSE and A-Levels and from what I remember we covered the Roman, the War of the Roses, the Tudors, the Industrial Revolution and World War 1 and 2. I may be misremembering or forgetting a unit here or there, as it was nearly 25 years ago, but these units were definitely covered with a British idyllic sheen. I remember at the time thinking how jingoistic and jolly hockey stick the content was, ‘plucky Britain surviving and thriving against the odds’, ‘Britain the island fortress’ etc etc etc. Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson wrote in his book ‘Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World’, that the Empire created the first global economy through a process of 'Anglobalisation'. He then praises how, having disseminated the benefits of the free market and parliamentary democracy, it then discreetly faded away. This glorification of the British Empire as a sort of a benign master has been what has been taught to us for many years and this has been the prevailing thoughts amongst educationalists and much of the British population, however even in secondary school in the late 90s, I remember thinking, "Why haven't we looked at the cost and legacy of Empire on the lands that were conquered and taken?"

My parents are second generation British-Pakistanis and I remember being told of the various atrocities and crimes committed by the British Empire to India during the rule there but also through partition. Being an arrogant teen, I remember of numerous occasions telling them to calm down as without Britain we wouldn't have trains, an efficient bureaucratic system, fish and chips etc; they were too old, too entrenched in their old views from Pakistan... Weren't they?

It was only when I studied Anthropology at University that I started to find books and lectures critical of colonialism and imperialism. Since then, when the issue of race has come up and I’ve thrown some interesting and accurate facts about some lesser known aspects of empire, imperialism and colonialism which challenge the popular narrative, I’ve heard the following:

Why can't you get over it? It's all in the past.
If we don't talk about it (racism) it will go away.
Stop playing the race card.
You have a chip on your shoulder.
Why don't you just go back to where you came from?
You should be grateful that you have free speech.
You just hate Britain, you are anti-British.
But what about (insert any injustice here)
You are trying to blame me for what my ancestors did.
You just blame the West for all of the world's problems.
I don't see colour.
It's not about race.

I wonder if people would say these same arguments to me if I were white? I honestly don't know. Maybe if I were white I'd be accused of being a 'woke libtard' or something of the like. We live in a very weirdly stratified society, where even though we are more connected more than ever before in many ways, we also seem to be separated.

Whatever the case, there does seem to be a cognitive dissonance between the history that is taught and celebrated and what actually happened. Our values are narratives that are constructed by our experiences, either personal, shared or learned. The British Empire narrative we've been told for years are that it was amazing and contributed much positively to the world. Our British identities are built on this narrative and thus, people are protective of it. However, in this case when the positive colonialism narrative has been challenged, many people have reacted in extreme ways, not understanding why so many BAME people are so angry at the lionisation of people who did pretty reprehensible things in their time. Whenever the history and legacy of the British Empire has presented in England, it has usually been through the rose tinted lens of innovation, commerce and industry. This imbalance needs be redressed through educational reform and updating the curriculum as I believe that only by educating people can we learn from the past and move forward with clarity.

The excuse of, "It was years ago" doesn't fly as after hundreds of years of rule where the societies were upended, controlled through hierarchical systems and subjugated according to these systems, to resolve all these in the short time span is a ridiculous expectation. However, it behooves us to clean up the mess left and assist in bettering the lives of those our empire has negatively impacted as until then, lots of legacy issues will remain unresolved; like the recent unresolved border issues between China and India, the ongoing Kashmir and Israel-Palestine question and the myriad of other borders which were hastily drawn up with no real forethought given after World War 2 and the crumbling empire. These have led to ongoing tension in those regions. In Africa, the line drawing meant tribes and ancestral lands were ignored and so much of the current fighting there is the legacy of this. There are plentiful more examples I could give but for those who are interested in understanding the past there are lots of good books and resources available to do this. The problem is finding reputable sources as in this age there is a lot of fake news and alt-left or alt-right agenda driven media so choose your poison carefully. A good rule of thumb is that when shape-shifting lizards, 5G or Bill Gates are mentioned you may need to back away and look again.

Of course a country would want to celebrate its glorious past and paper over the less than fabulous bits but to say in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter movement, that the past had no or little repercussions on the current status quo and that ‘All Lives Matter’ is either to gaslight millions of people who are actually living with the legacy of empire or to be naive in the extreme. We must own the fact that things that occurred in the past still have an effect today, and as Brits today we must understand that the legacy of Empire wasn’t always a positive one for many.

White Privilege and ‘White Lives Matter’

White people often don't like talking about ‘white privilege’ as many believe it’s reductive and apportions blame for simply being white. However, white privilege is different from that in that it states that systems and structures are in place that hinder Black lives, and as such not every white person is racist, but they do need to recognize that the systems in place are set for the norm to be ‘white’.

This concept of 'white privilege' is a contentious one as people who are white don't see it but people who are BAME see it and experience it all the time. It's difficult to explain as unless you walk in someone else's shoes for a while you may not ever see the micro-aggressions or normalized racism that happens daily. You could always do black face like Justin Trudeau did 20 years ago but boy do people *not* like that. When 'white privilege' comes up some people will frequently cite poor white working class people and say, "Look, they are white and they don't get special treatment" except they do without even realizing it. White working class people have a lot of the same issues as their Black working class counterparts but are less likely to suffer from issues surrounding the hostile environment policy, the policing of Stop and Search or being blamed (alongside whichever peoples are The Mails ‘bogeymen of the week’- Romanians, Poles, Lithuanians etc) for the wage stagnation and a ‘race to the bottom’ whenever there is an economic downturn

A vey popular video that went viral last year was of the ‘racist soap dispenser’ where the machine dispensed soap for the white person but not the Black person. The machine itself obviously wasn’t racist, it’s just that the technician who programmed it maybe didn’t think of a different skin tone, and this is just an example of how the norm for the world is often ‘white’, often subconsciously.

White privilege does exist but blaming all white people does not help. In the same way that we wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) blame all Jews for the Israel/ Palestine conflict, all Muslims for the 9/11 terror attacks, or all white people for the white supremacist shootings that have occurred in America and other places. We shouldn’t assume all white people are aware of this bias that exists, why would they? After all, the last 600 years of history have been predominantly written by the victor's and as a result this is the legacy of empire that exists and the impact still reverberates in the world to this very day.

We are family

Now I can't look down from my BAME tower and smugly act holier than thou. If white privilege is a tough pill to swallow for many, being southern Asian in heritage doesn’t mean that I can stand on the moral high-ground either as sometimes my community does help perpetuate the system too. People often lump the BAME together but we are not one homogenous amorphous blob, there are real differences within this group.

I don't claim to speak for all south Asians in East London as these are my personal experiences but I've seen how some of my community speak about the Black community, it's often racist and dehumanizing. Sometimes, the community even do it without realizing, like when a kid is born one of the first questions asked after gender is, "Is it fair?" If the kid is light-skinned, it's considered beautiful, if it's dark skinned it's often considered less desirable and joked about, later bantered as 'Kaalu' (A pejorative term meaning ‘dark skinned’ but in much less polite terms)

Recently, I got annoyed when I saw Bollywood stars backing the movement after shilling whitening creams for years. It is a common trope in the industry that the comedic bit-part 'character' actors are usually played by the darker skinned actors. There has been a caste system that's been around for millennia and the British Empire leant heavily into this as it justified many heinous acts as people of color were 'lesser' through the tripartite system where there were Whites, Colored and Blacks- carried through with dreadful consequences in South Africa and much of colonial Africa.

Casual racism exists, typically in the older Asian community but amongst the younger generation too. I've been to family and friends’ houses where people have spoken about ‘kaales’ and Jamicki’s (Jamaicans) lumping them all together. Now, it could be grandfathered in, saying “Well, they’re old so maybe they have some old-fashioned view” but it has happened with my peers too, people of the same age as me. I met an old Indian school friend I hadn’t seen in about 15 years in Barking a few years ago and he said, “Barking’s changing man, these kaale are coming here, taking our jobs and houses, stealing and robbing. The areas going downhill” It's all nonsense but this truthiness gets a lot of people's anxieties going and people make silly choices or poorer decisions when they are emotional. My old friend didn’t see the irony behind this, nor did he realize that many people would have said similar things about our parents when they moved into the country in the 60s and 70s.

Whilst it's true, post-Olympics Barking has changed quite a bit as it has turned into a commuter town this is to be expected when one looks at the cost of housing in East London post 2012. I worked in the youth services as a youth worker for 10 years, from 2000 to 2010 and that was in predominantly BAME communities in Beckton and East Ham in East London. I saw the changes that were occurring in the area and it was exciting and a chance for regeneration but the 2008 economic crisis affected the area hugely and the social, economic and health disparities started to rise again, bringing class tensions to the fore which some groups sought to change into racial tension; a tale as old as time. When the situation goes south, look for someone to blame and usually it is those lowest in the pecking order.

Fear of Change and Changing the Narrative

Lecturer, Jane Elliot spoke about how people were complicit in the subjugation of Blacks in America by asking an audience, “Who would be happy to be treated as this society in general treats our Black citizens?”

If we were all being honest we know that being Black affects life choices and chances in many ways and the anger felt is palpable, which is why there has been so many protests and calls for change. We know that civil disobedience (like the many marches of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and the women of Liberia), getting Marcus Rashford (or any other sport star or celebrity) to call out the government or changes to the educational system have great results but often they take a looooong time to have an effect, often with the issues being kicked into the long-grass. However, taking matters into your own hands seems to be a recurring theme throughout history, sometimes radical protest- like the suffragette movement, which eventually resorted to violence to get attention, led to real change. I’m not advocating for violence and destruction but it's just what happens when people feel that they are continually being ignored or people in authority and power are too slow to take note.

The anger felt by this community is real and probably justified but I am not one for cancel culture. Let’s not knock down statues or shout down any dissenter as racist but rather have a callout culture. If things are no longer appropriate then by all means call it out, calmly and sensibly, and ask for change.

In my opinion, cancel culture can be toxic as it doesn’t allow people to learn and grow and there are no teachable moments, however callout culture requires you to point out mistakes and get people to think about their actions or mistakes and ask them to do better. Learning and growing sometimes means that you simply read, listen and be open to different opinions and viewpoints with respect and maturity.

Make no mistake, even though I’m talking about a wider malaise this post is primary about Black Lives Matter as it is this community which is being victimized, marginalized and killed at an alarming rate by the police, institutions and systems that supposedly exist to protect them in America. Yes, ‘All Lives Matter’ but we can’t just stand by and let more Black people die on our watch, and we may not have the sheer numbers or shocking video footage in Britain but a lot of the issues that Black people face in America are also felt here by the Black community and we need to make things better.

I hope that as we move forward there is an appetite for real change to occur and things aren’t just kicked into the long grass.

More people seem to be realizing that the world has been built on a flimsy foundation of sand; the 2008 financial crash and the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the inequalities that exists in our system. Many people are starting to see that they have nothing left to lose and are driven in creating a New World Order (no, not the Illuminati one) but one where equity exists for all. So what to do, well you could:

Read up on history and consider what the effects and legacy of empire, colonialism and imperialism has been,
Push for a more honest and accurate account of history. This is starting already starting to happen with the curriculum being adapted in Bristol to look at Colston’s actions, both positive and negative. It will hopefully lead to more reflective conversations about how the state of the world currently may have something to do with what occurred before,
Listen to people when they tell you what they are experiencing. You may not see it or understand it but listening is important,
Be reflective and consider our role as part of the system. Are we building people up, tearing them down or, most probably, perpetuating a system because ‘it’s always been like that’ and it suits us just fine? It may be difficult to speak to your own communities and challenge perceived wisdoms but only by doing this can we move the conversation forward,
Consider the reasons why some people may not be pleased with having certain figures from the colonial past praised and exalted. When applications for altering plaques to be more honest and requests for removal to a museum come, don’t think of it as erasing history but rather re-contextualising and providing a more nuanced look at history. Don’t worry, no-one is going to remove Churchill’s statue, he is a war hero and even though he made some dubious policy decisions (including one that led to millions of Bengal Indian losing their lives due to a famine as a consequence of his policies) and had some morally questionable opinions (he had some interesting views on the hierarchy of race) he deserves his place in the pantheon of British legend,
If you are in a position of power, influence or privilege use that position to amplify the voices of the Black Lives Matter movement,
Join movements, organisation and protests that you feel best share your vision and help out. Being seen and heard does have real-life consequences, no-matter what the naysayers may claim. It was only after Colston’s statue fell that the conversation around education and telling the more nuanced ‘truth’ about history came into focus, however this is not to say that breaking stuff will help carry your argument forward as often it will only alienate people from you and may confuse your message.

I'm a kitchen sink thinker in that I'm not the most educated, profound, insightful or deepest guy out there but I'm willing to reflect on my background and privileges I've had to consider my position in the world today. I'm just doing the best I can given my circumstances and hope to provide for my daughters and give them a better world than the one I emerged in. I believe the Black Lives Matter movement is a part of that and irrespective of a few groups trying to derail it through violence, the central message is of peace, growth and transcendence. I believe that people of all colours must come together as there is an intersectionality where the betterment of the state of the world is for the benefit of everyone and not just the few. Boomers, Gen X, Millenials, Gen Z or however people choose to classify themselves (or are labelled) need to come together to push for real-world change. Gen Z are vocal but may not necessarily be in positions of power, Gen X and Millennials have struggled with some tough anchor points but need to put into practice all the forwarding and thumbs-upping they do on Facebook and Boomers may be in positions where they can actualise real change but need to get on with it. Only by working as a societal Voltron can things get better in my opinion, so let’s all form to create something awesome and build a better future.

LINK- ‘Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire’

LINK: Let’s All Create a ‘New Normal’.

LINK- Ms Marvel Can Change the World

Breathing Machine: A Memoir of Computers- Book Review

July 23, 2020

I have been a fan of Leigh Alexander's work for quite some time. I discovered her writing in a variety of video game magazines and on websites like Kotaku and often found her think pieces about diversity, LGBTQ rights and representation refreshing against the often toxic bro video gamer commentators online.

The book is slight in size but very personal and informative.

’Breathing Machine’ is a slim memoir/ state of the online nation discourse and follows the evolution of video games through the lens of Alexander's own life. For those not interested in gaming, the book also looks at the evolution of the internet as it is a candid look at 'growing up internet'. It is an honest and remarkably frank look back at how this disruptive technology affected the formative years of Alexander but also, in the wider context, the world. It had me searching my memories for this period of my life and I found myself having some nostalgic recollections of these halcyon simpler times. The myriad of search engines, horribly pixelated images, annoying propriety video plug-ins, poorly created websites with badly optimised wallpaper and the sound of the dial-up-modem still haunt my dreams, but were a very real part of my youth.

I like how Alexander talks about the onset of the internet as a mystery box, full of wonder and seemingly secret content that just seemed out of reach. Her recollection about typing in hell.com and finding an abstract art installation is wonderful as I'm sure we all have a few moments like that that we can recount where we came across a website that was at once unsettling yet intriguing. The ‘Donnie Darko’ website was my version of this and even now, the mystery of how to access all its contents still remains in memory.

Alexander also looks at the negative side of this digital revolution, where often the ignored and under-appreciated nerds from school grew up to be worse than the jocks that often bullied them. The geeks shall indeed inherit the earth. This is a broad sweep but I definitely recognise this in some people I still know from my time at Secondary school. Even now, though they have grown up and have jobs, families etc they still command a presence in the online world but not always in a conducive or practical way. I know Alexander has faced much vitriol and criticism for her work and nearly all of it is unwarranted in my opinion. In the shadow of #Gamergate, we know that there is a small contingent who are angry at multiculturalism, representation and anything else that challenges their homogenous world view. Indeed, Alexander was ahead of the curve when she wrote this book in 2014, seeming almost prescient on her view of how this toxic online marketplace would lead to wider social issues.

This book is a must read for those seeking to look back at the formative years of the internet in the 90s and early 2000s, and for those interested in how Alexander grew up surrounded by video games.

For further reading I'd also like suggest offworld.com or the hardback book, ‘The Offworld Collection’ which was co-authored by Alexander. It is required reading for anyone who wants to have a deeper and more meaningful understanding on what video games can mean. It is a fine anthology book and the variety and depth of essays is remarkable. It looks at how games can deliver ethical social and political commentary.

Alexander understands that many game makers are acutely aware that in these increasingly complex times games have the power to open a new world to us, to introduce us to new ideas, cultures and experiences that we would maybe never otherwise encountered.

LINK: My One True Gaming Constant in My Life- Nintendo

LINK: The Offworld Collection- Book Review

LINK- Our ‘New Normal’ v1.0

Carry On Caravanning

July 21, 2020

We've been in Devon for just over 2 months now, initially staying at a B & B for 14 days to quarantine after our return from Saudi, and the subsequent time in a granny flat down at the bottom of the garden (like the Poddington Peas). And whilst it's been wonderful to have the beach on our doorstep and the moors nearby, it has getting a bit stale; a first world problem if ever there was one I know, however there is no denying that the routine has been getting to us. But, with my wife Jeannie’s birthday upcoming I thought the chance had finally presented itself for us to shake things up; have a champagne breakfast with fresh croissants from the local baker, a picnic in the moors and then top it off with a fish supper on the beach before retiring to a birthday blingtastic bedecked beach front hut for the night. I'd definitely get some Brownie points for that and wipe the slate clean of other, less ostentatious, displays of occasion from days of yore. Then a couple of days before all this, my wife said her parents were going to get their caravan set up near Bude and we should go for her birthday. Hmmmmm... out went the plans (for now at least) but I've stored them for a later date. Now some of you might think I've given the game away by writing it on this blog post but my wife doesn't really read my blog so that's okay, although also quite sad.

Now my wife has a rose tinted nostalgia attached to camping as in her childhood her family would travel around Europe in their car and camp at sites. It was a formative part of her youth and she fondly recalls the many (mis) adventures with her nearest and dearest with dewy wistfulness.

For me however, camping and caravanning never appealed and it might be in part due to my childhood. Growing up, I remember my dad saying he just didn't get camping, "I left Pakistan for running water which didn't come from a standpipe and a comfortable bed, why would I want to go back to that?" Fair play I thought but during my formative years I did go camping and caravanning as my friends liked it as a cheap break away. Also, I’d also wanted to give it a go as I liked to experience different things myself before forming an opinion.

My first experience was as a 16 year old with the Youth Achievement Award Scheme, where my friends and I worked with underprivileged kids at a John Bosco camp where they did lots of fun activities to give them a break away from their parents. I liked the kids and enjoyed the rewarding week but I hated the cold tent, creaky camp beds, cold showers, the general feeling of griminess and the fact that, as a Muslim who could only eat halal food, my meals mostly consisted of salad in a bun as most of the meals were very meatastic and very pork-biased. Coming from Barking I had a certain level of refinement, £1 grade F halal chicken and chips if you please.

This was followed by a camping trip to Snowden with work colleagues at the age of 18. We failed to plan adequately and arrived on an evening during a Bank Holiday weekend, only to find most of the facilities were closed and so we had to share a KitKat Chunky and a small packet of dry roasted nuts (as this was what we had buried in our bags) between the 4 of us whilst it chucked it down with rain in our 4 man tent. We did climb Mount Snowden in our inadequate equipment, so I'm proud of that, but I do remember praying so hard for warmth and a burger that I almost gave myself a hernia.

As a 19 year old I'd gone to a static caravan in Cornwall and, later that same year, a canal boat in the south of France and found that those were actually pretty good. However pumping the water for the toilet and seeing your own poo floating in a flood of water before going down the toilet scarred me for life. I left it another 10 years and tried the static caravan experience again but didn't like it when my friends and I went to Cromer, a short distance from Norwich.

Since then, I've had the privilege of traveling around the world, staying in many different qualities and quantities of accommodation. So, when my wife suggested the caravan near Bude I girded my loins and thought I'd give it another crack! What could go wrong? I'd matured and maybe I'd like it now, like how I now actually like mushrooms and porridge after years of disliking them.

The journey was just over an hour, 30 minutes of which were through lush green fields on either side as we drove through windy roads and lanes.

When we arrived at the farm camp site in Devon but near the outskirts of Cornwall on July 15th, we saw that the surrounding area consisted of beautiful verdant hills. The sky was cloudy but it was a pleasant 20 degrees and hope and optimism filled our hearts. We drove past the main field, which had a dozen or so caravans with epic aspirational sounding names like ‘Explorer,’ ‘Wanderer,’ ‘Buccaneer,’ ‘Conqueror,’ ‘Sardine Tin’... Okay, I kid about the last one but you almost believed me right? We drove on to the back field which had just one caravan, our caravan--the ‘Sterling Continental,’ a real beaut she was. She sat at the top of a hill and overlooked quiet lanes and gentle rolling hills. My in-laws were really taking social distancing to heart by perching the caravan here!

The view from the caravan park was stunning, gentle rolling hills and blue skies.

Once we'd alighted from the car my father in-law greeted us and explained the various systems to me; the water, electrics, gas and... the sewage. It was all pretty straightforward as the caravan was only a couple of years old and very modern, so a lot of the things were intuitive or automatic, or so he reassured me. That made me happy as I'm used to quite a sedentary lifestyle, for better or for worse, and I'm not used to manual labour so if a machine did it for me... great! I welcome our artificial intelligence overlords, especially if it helps keep my peachy, sensitive hands clean and soft.

The thing I dreaded the most was cleaning the waste water and the sewage box each morning but apart from that I thought it should be alright. I'd have to take the two storage boxes to the waste area, empty them and clean the area with the standpipe. Gosh my dad was right all those years ago!

My family and I established a rule of pooing only in the site facility toilets and peeing in the caravan toilet as I didn't want to empty out poos each morning. My old nightmares of pumping the toilet to see floating spinning poos wasn't going to emerge again after 12 years of laying dormant. Now we haven't been using public facilities during this scare for obvious reasons but I'm not gonna lie, the facilities were actually too notch. The caravan park we stayed at was very well maintained and due to the Covid-19 pandemic, immaculately cleaned and maintained. It only allowed one person in and when the person exited, one of the site workers would go in and clean it up. I didn't know how they did it but they were like ninjas, swooping in after we'd gone to the toilet. We saw them a lot as my youngest daughter is being trained to come out of nappies so we had a lot of phantom poos but it was all part of the process.

For the first night we stayed on the campsite and played football and bat and ball. The girls enjoyed being able to run around, gamboling carefree on the grassy field whilst we sat in the 'grandad chairs' (sun loungers), drinking a lovely cold drink and admiring the wonderful view whilst enjoying the peace. The hours passed by pleasantly and as the time hit 7 pm, we all showered, had our dinner and got the girls ready for bed. We transformed the interior, changing the two seating areas into the 'master bed' and bunk beds. The girls didn't settle and as the time hit 11pm we knew it was going to be a long night, and it was.

The next day was my wife’s birthday and for this momentous occasion we put up a 'Happy birthday' banner, blew balloons and had a delicious handmade (not by me, I can't bake for toffee) buttercream and jam cake for breakfast. It's very hard to maintain an element of surprise in a tiny caravan but it was a sweet celebration with Jeannie assisting in putting up the decorations for her own birthday. We then completed our morning ablutions and I went about completing the tasks of fetching fresh water, getting rid of the waste water and toilet tray unit. I was nervous as it was the first time I'd ever done it and didn't want to do it wrong and end up in poop creek but luckily, it went alright and no-one was harmed. We then went to Widemouth Beach, which was very wavy, so there were lots of surfers and body boarders. It was a gloriously sunny day and we had a picnic on the beach. The girls loved running around on what was a pretty quiet beach.

After that initial day, the holiday became easier as we got into a routine. Over the next few days we went to a few different beaches including Sandymouth and Summerleaze, ate ice cream and caught up with some old friends. Having a child of their own meant our kids were entertaining each other and catching up whilst we adults discussed the pains of the pandemic, future prospects and possibilities- all pretty heady stuff but the delicious vegan BBQ helped though. On our final day, we were able to have a socially distanced reunion as two of our friends from Cambodia lived nearby and we sat and had tea, discussing how much things had changed over the past 8 years or so whilst reminiscing.

Widemouth had stunning views on the coastal walks.

And so it was that after 6 days we departed for home, happy with our break away. I had a great time and have a new found appreciation of the wonderful British countryside and coasts. I'd overcome my fear of chemical toilets and enjoyed the simpler life and it was sweet, for a while at least. I think we’ll be back soon but not I’m not sure I’ll be rushing out to get a caravan anytime soon though, no matter what Jeannie says.

LINK- Let’s All Create A ‘New Normal’

LINK- Straight Outta Quarantine: 14 Days in Blighty

Armored Warriors- Video Games As Art

July 12, 2020

Armored Warriors is a Capcom video game where you play as a mech, a giant robot with switchable arms, legs and weaponry. The game came out in 1994 and one its big brags was allowing up to 3 players to play at once. The game is gorgeous to look at fun to play and can be completed in under an hour. I played it by myself as my wife isn’t a gamer but I still enjoyed in solo play. Check out the gorgeous graphics below.

Lost Girls: The Invention of the Flapper- Book Review

July 9, 2020

Ever since watching the silent movies of the 1920s and 30s during my university years in the 90s and 00s, I've been fascinated with the image of the flapper. I was enthralled by Louise Brooks in the seminal 'Pandora's Box' as she played carefree Lulu, moving through high society until it all comes tumbling down.

The image of the confident, fast talking young women draped in stylish dresses, who wore their hair short and bobbed and danced with abandon, surrounded by art deco glory fascinated me.

This book by Linda Simon looks at the evolution as well as the cultural and social history of the flapper and their impact on fashion, media, politics, LGBTQ+ and feminist rights. It is a meticulously researched journey through the chronological evolution of the flapper. After the stuffiness of the pre-war era, how do this massive cultural shift occur and why? It is all covered here in this fascinating book.

The book is a fascinating look at the mergence of the flapper.

I had always thought that the flapper came about after the first World War, as the lack of men and rights afforded to women through suffrage created confident young women. However, this books reveals that the term flapper was used as far back as London in the 1890s to describe thin, adolescent girls with long legs who were said to be 'flapping their butterfly wings.'

With time, this morphed into the flapper we associate with many Hollywood films of the time from the Roaring 20’s and Fitzgerald. Clara Bow, Colleen Moore and, of course, Louise Brooks all played silent movie sirens, flappers of dubious character who rebelled against the societal 'norms' and partook in hedonistic individualism and rampant consumerism. However, what we uncover is that flapper-dom was much more complex that this reductionist retelling.

It was a combination of Peter Pan (no, really), the Suffragettes, the freedom afforded by lack of men due to the tragedy of the Great War and the rise of dance halls mixed with the popularity of strong female leads in books that moulded the flapper as we see her today. The rise of fashion houses and makeup added to the sense of liberation and freedom these young women were seeking, against a backdrop of organised staid life and expectations set by society that didn’t provide them with agency.

Reading through the book I was taken by how familiar the struggles and concerns sound after more than 100 years. Simon discusses the concerns that swept through the society such as the fear of declining morals, and the erosion of the family, the worry that the 'degenerates' were reproducing at a faster rate and would lead to white 'race suicide', how by providing rights to other people you would somehow dilute or erode democracy. All these concerns have been around for a long time. And be around for a long time to come.

The book is fascinating as it looks at how the flappers won a hard fought battle for some semblance of equality and agency and how they were initially derided, then accepted and finally aspired towards.

LINK- Children of the Stones: Cult TV Series Review

Taverner- The Lamb- Kings College

Our 'New Normal' v1.0

July 3, 2020

So, tomorrow marks the day that pubs open in England which is a good a marker of any that 'normality' has arrived in Blighty. When they've dubbed it 'Super Saturday' and the HM Treasury tweets 'Raise a glass' you know that social distancing may be difficult to maintain but we’ll see. I hope people are sensible and do the right thing whilst grabbing a pint.

You'd think that the 4th July reopening of pubs, restaurants and bars means that the British government have nailed the virus here in England but with at least 44,000 deaths and the R Number (reinfection rate) oscillating close to or above 1 is some places, we are most definitely not out of the woods yet. I'm remaining cautiously pessimistic as our nation has not covered itself with glory through this pandemic but I hope I'm pleasantly surprised. No amount of jingoistic nonsense, harkening back to past glories or Latin gobbledygook from our fearless leader is going to take the tragic number of lives lost away.

However, before we tentatively move into 'new normal' v1.0, I want to reflect on what I've been doing with my time in lockdown, to save it for digital posterity.

I've caught up on most of my cult DVD sets and series. I'd built up quite a collection of rarities, oddities and just strange DVDs from my many visits to Computer Exchange and now I've seen most of them, which is nice. There's been some great pleasures such as BBCs ‘Day of the Triffids’ but also great WTF moments (but in an awesome way) with ‘The Singing Ringing Tree’ .

I've finish many video games from my pile of shame including Spiderman, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Call of Cthulhu, Panzer Dragoon and A Plague Tale: Innocence . I'm now working through Skyrim (still after a year) and Control but still have God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn to start.

I've read loads of books, especially on social issues like the rise of suffragettes, flappers, the creator of the monster fromCreature from the Black Lagoon and issues of race and Black identity. I feel that I've grown and matured, but to balance this I've also read some tween graphic novels so that's equilibrium achieved. I've liked holding actual books in my hand as it's been a comfort to snuggle up in bed and immerse myself in the writing.

When I can't sit and read, due to having two kids running around, I have been listening to Audible as I have had a digital pile of shame in my library, about 15 books of varying length for over a year. I find 1.3x a good speed to listen to things generally, as I'm a fast reader and this pace suits me as it makes me chuckle as some narrators start to sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks. I've been able to work my way through several books this way.

I've been trying to improve my posture as I have looked like Mr. Burns and had the makings of "A mighty fine hump". So, between my sleep apnea machine, my octogenarian Floridian walking shoes and my posture fixing I'm an old man in a (nearly) middle aged man's body.

I've worked extra hard to create lots of articles *sigh* 'content' for the website and it's been a joy to do. I love getting my thoughts and feeling out on this website and even though I don't get all that many hits, I find it therapeutic, like knitting, whale song or matcha for the soul.

I've been watching a sheesh tonne of Netflix, where we've binged Dead Like Me and Awkward, as well as watching Disney + and the straight to DVD sequels that the company plopped out in the late 90s/early 00s like Mogli's Revenge, Aladdin 4: Rub Me the Right Way or 102 Dalmatians: Doggy Style. Okay, I kid about the titles but there are some horrendous Disney sequels out there. I've not been the biggest fan of them but my girls like them just fine.

I've been listening to lots of classical and instrumental music as I find it sublime and majestic; it enraptures my soul. The music transports me with its ethereal notes to another times, place, realm. Much of the music moves me and of particular note are:

Vaughan Williams-Fantasia on a Theme of John Tallis

And whilst not classical, I've been listening to these stunning tracks on loop:

Olafur Arnauds- Nyepi (Voce8 version)

Jon Hopkins- Scene Suspended

Pauline Oliveros- The Last Time

Much time has been spent working out the most efficient way to sleep on a sofa bed as my wife and daughters share the one actual bed in the bedroom. I haven't minded as I've had a couple of hours to myself to play games, read, listen to music or whatever I like as long as I remain quiet so as not to wake them. Neck ache and a curvature of the spine are a small price to pay for quiet time as a parent.

I've been listening to podcasts, especially Desert Island Discs, Louis Theroux's Grounded and Dermot O'Leary's People, Just People. I've rediscovered that I actually like people, but only from afar so social distancing works in my favour.

Oh, and in between doing all this I've been spending, at the time of writing, 6 weeks (since we arrived in England) day and night with my lovely family where we've:

Climbed Haytor in Dartmoor,
Going to the beach when very few people are there,
Decorated, grown grass and maintained ‘My Fairy Garden' with my daughters,
Spent an indecent amount in Hobby Craft to keep our kids busy with paint your own pottery kits, glitter, stickers, water colors and markers,
Cooking and baking as a family (Jeannie insists I talk about her cookies, which were in all honesty amazing.... I'm not just saying that as there'll be some repercussions otherwise, honest)

Teignmouth Beach has been a bit of life saver for us and it has rarely been busy.

So, all in all, whilst it's been a challenging few weeks in England, time has passed by quite quickly and I've actually had a pretty enjoyable time of it. I have some trepidation with the opening up but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Stay safe and my the odd be ever in your favour.

LINK- Let’s All Create A ‘New Normal’

LINK- Straight Outta Quarantine: 14 Days in Blighty

LINK- Flying Home From Coronavirus

LINK- One Month on From Social Distancing in Saudi

LINK- Life in Coronavirus Lockdown Saudi

LINK- Life in the Times of the Coronavirus

LINK- Bahrain II: The Revenge

LINK- The Further Adventures of Anjum of Arabia in Saudi

LINK- High Tea and High Times in the Riyadh Globe

LINK- Reflecting on Life in Saudi Arabia After 5 Months

LINK- Life in Saudi Arabia 3 Month On

LINK- An English Geek in Saudi Arabia

LINK- Video Gaming In Saudi Arabia

Blood, Sweat and Pixels- Book Review

July 2, 2020

Whilst flicking through Audible, I came across ‘Blood, Sweat and Pixel’, a book looking at the process of video game creation. The topic obviously appealed to me but what really sold me was that it looked at many games I had played. So, alongside looking at Naughty Dog, creators of blockbusters like the Uncharted series and CD Projeck Red, who created the Witcher series, you had solo developers or smaller teams who created Shovel Knight and Stardew Valley.

I purchased the Audible version of the book and enjoyed my time with it.

I knew the author, Jason Schreier, from his long form investigative games journalist work from sites like Kotaku and magazine like Edge. He is a video game fan but was also not afraid to research where there were problems or issues in the industry. He was the writer who uncovered the unhealthy attitude to crunch at Naughty Dog, the mismanagement at Bioware with Anthem and the inappropriate behaviour of management of several high ups in big gaming companies. Using my backlog of Audible credits I bought the audio books and dived in.

Each chapter of the book focussed on the story of a particular game and they were all engaging, entertaining, emotional and enlightening in equal measure as we hear of teams and solo developers overcoming (for the most part) some extreme adversity.

It kicks off with Obsidian's last ditch effort to save itself when it pitched Pillars of Eternity pitch on crowd funding site Kickstarter. This story was inspirational as it showed how to adapt, play to your strengths and use your moxie to forge your own path.

The Uncharted 4 chapter deals with the issue of expectations and what happens when a project becomes unwieldy, struggling to find a way forward. In the case of Naughty Dog's highly anticipated Uncharted finale, it required firm hands at the tiller and thousands of hours of crunch to achieve. Unfortunately this took a huge mental, emotional and physical toll on many of the people behind the games creation... because, making games is hard.

In Stardew Valley we learn how the game was made by sole creator Eric Barone and how the internet has democratised publishing and creation of video game creation. This democratisation of creativity was last seen in the micro computer era of the 80s where lone bedroom coders could create a game and become legends. This gentle simulator game, where you play a desk jockey who gives up the rat race to become a farmer, took 5 years to complete but was a labour of love.

The Diablo 3 chapter is a look at how a much lauded series can carry a heavy weight as expectations are high. When a day 1 network issue rendered this game unplayable for most players due to an overloaded online server, it looked like the writing was on the wall as this was not a good way to endear yourselves to fans. When this was followed by days of players not being able to play the game they had paid for the situation seemed to escalate, and once they were on the grindy gameplay and online auction further compounded issues against the game. However, in a mea culpa the game underwent a transformation and with patches aplenty arose to become a much loved addition to the series.

The Halo Wars chapter looks at how Ensemble Studio, the creators of RTS Age of Empire, turned a classic PC genre stalwart into a console RTS, something thought impossible at the time. It's a heartening tale of trial and error and years of research and development.

The chapter on Dragon Age: Inquisition looks at how Bethesda created a redemptive game after the flawed Dragon Age 2 received a critical battering from reviewers and fans alike. The creative process was chaotic but by being focussed and inventive the game came out to much fanfare, gently massaging the poor profile of its parent company EA, who had won 'Worst Company in the US' 2 years in a row.

The Shovel Knight section is the tale of 3 creators leaving job security to build a passion project based on the nostalgia of 8bit NES games. Their story of risks and the rewards they reaped are heartening to hear.

In the Destiny chapter we learn how Bungie broke free of their Microsoft overlords and were able to stretch their creativity away from Halo to create a... FPS! But, they do say be careful of what what you wish for. They planned the game to run for 10 years. And to be made independently of all other big conglomerate company interference. This looks at what worked and what went wrong.

The Witcher 3 chapter looks at how a Polish company worked closely together with the author of the books and across the team to create an inspired RPG that is seen by many as the highlight of this gaming generation, even though it was released way back in 2015.

Schreier shows that all these games went through a baptism of fire to get made. It wasn't easy but the games were released. However, he ends with a cancelled game to show how fraught the game creating process can be. With Star Wars 1313, he looks at how Lucas Arts, underwent a tailspin burning through 4 Presidents within 10 years, which resulted in confusion and lack of vision from a studio that had built a reputation of excellence. When momentum finally built with Star Wars 1313, Disney purchased the studio and shuttered it after a short time.

Over the course of the 10 games we see tales of crunch, iterations, scrapping hundreds of hours of work and burnout because making games is hard, the creative process is hard. This peek behind the curtain is a great look at the video games industry as a whole and is an excellent and compelling read. Schreier writes with passion and a clear knowledge of the subject matter and it is refreshing to see an honest insight into the creative process of the biggest entertainment industry in the world.

LINK- The Offworld Collection- Book Review

LINK- Uncharted 4- Video Games As Art

LINK- Oxenfree- Video Game As Art

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy- Video Games As Art

June 29, 2020

The Uncharted series were the perfect blockbuster video games. Once I’d completed all 4 of the games (I haven’t played the portable one) it felt sad to be saying goodbye to Nathan Drake but also the right time for the series to be put to pasture to age gracefully. Uncharted 4 was epic but also felt overlong, especially during the looooong final act. However, having created a wonderful troupe of friends and enemies, the Uncharted franchise didn’t have to be shouldered by Drake anymore. The Lost Legacy builds on this premise by casting you as Chloe as you go on yet another treasure hunt. At about 12 hours completion time, this is more concise and I feel better paced than some of the bloated AAA games out there. Miss it at your peril. Just check out the gorgeous shots from my playthrough.

LINK- Japan: My Journey to the East

LINK- Mysterious Cities of Gold Season 3 (English Dub) - Complete Series Review

LINK- The Midnight Library and the Idea That You Can’t Go Home Again

LINK- Manga Exhibition at the British Museum

LINK- The Golden Voyage of Sinbad- Cult Movie Review

LINK- The Transportive Nature of Objects (And the Power of Mini Consoles)

LINK- My One True Gaming Constant in Life- Nintendo

Grenade Genie- Book Review

June 27, 2020

*Full disclosure- I am good friends with the author of the book, however I purchased the book myself and the review of this poetry collection is based on my real thoughts and opinions*

I'm not one for poetry. There, I've said it! It feels like such a relief getting it our there. I can't deny it. I love the flights of fancy and evocative use of language but I don't always 'get' poetry. I find that it often doesn't speak to me, typically being florid flights of fancy or obscure verbose language that I don't always understand. I suppose the last time I really looked at poetry was in secondary school and the intense study and dissecting of poetry for essay writing killed any enthusiasm I once might have had for it.

My favorite poets are Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephenaiah and Spike Milligan because they write with such joie de vivre and a love of the absurd. I've never had to look at the deep and meaningful purpose behind 'Ning Nang Nong', 'Talking Turkey' or 'Chocolate Cake' and I suppose the rose-tinted nostalgia attached to these from my childhood plays a part too.

There's no profundity or deepness to these, but in my maturity I've started to develop a deeper appreciation of the arts; I like ballet (very occasionally, about once every 10 years is great, as it lasts a loooong time), opera (the music at least as the performances last longer than the extended 'Lord of the Rings' cuts), classical music (my favorite at the moment being Vaughn Williams 'Fantasia on a theme for John Tallis' and Arvo Part’s 'Spiegel I'm Spiegel') and pop philosophy (I like Kant- I am going to avoid the low hanging fruit there).

Having said all that, when Tom told me that he was publishing a new poetry collection I was enthused as he often writes about themes that I can relate to; the ennui of kebab joints, girls in headscarves and life in urban spaces. However, when I read the blurb of his latest collection, 'Grenade Genie' I was hooked; a series of political poems broken down into 4 segments- cursed, coerced, combative and corrupted? Yes please! This appealed to me in these challenging and uncertain times as the themes covered seemed prescient of the current unstable situation the world finds itself in. During this time of introspection and reflection, these poems really get to the heart of the matter and are vital.

The 25 poems vary in tone but all are different shades of dark. I read them all but a few very much resonated with me and left a lingering after-taste that I cannot shake, much like after watching a David Lynch film where you know you've experienced something strange yet beautiful that says much about the hidden facade of the world.

The poem named after the book, ‘Grenade Genie’, talks about the creation process, of making something and letting it fly into the wild:

Pull out the pin to release the genie
And therefore be
On the receiving end of the huge explosion

And I believe that this gets to the crux of this collection; putting a mirror up to the world through the lens of poetry and seeing the reaction you get.

‘Security Pass’ considers the way that we are all cogs in a machine with our security passes that gain us access to a small part of a whole capitalist industrial complex:

The system recognises-
That the thin row of binary
Will always trump any last shred of humanity

‘Jackpot’, meanwhile, is a great look at the pointlessness of capitalism and consumer culture. Considering the unedifying scenes of queues around the block of Nike Town, Primark and Marks & Spencer's after lockdown easing a few days ago, I found this verse interesting:

What else can we do at this stop
When we've all been programmed since birth
To have nothing else but shopping in the brain?

That's what the finest poetry can do, offer us an insight into the human condition. It lets us peer deep into the soul and look at the wonders and the darkness and the futility and the hope of it all and dream of what could be.

I'm not being a shill here but this collection of poetry is timely and essential at what is a pretty interesting time to be alive. It is challenging, uncomfortable in place but mostly it is true. What a time to be alive! During this time of reflection and introspection you cant do better than looking at this book as a manifesto of the 'state of the nation'.

LINK- Grenade Genie Purchase Page

LINK- The Offworld Collection- Book Review

LINK- Comics in the Classroom (article)

LINK- What Comics Have Taught Me

Ghost in the Water- Cult TV Review

June 25, 2020

The BBC used to have long running tradition of showing slightly spooky or unnerving films during the festive period, these were called 'Ghost Stories for Christmas' series and were extremely popular. In 1982 the BBC adapted the Edward Chitham book 'Ghost in the Water' into a 50 minute short film aimed at spooking teens.

The story centres around two students, Tess and David, who are investigating the gravestones of the local church for a History project. When they find that their research overlaps on one Abigail Parkes who "Died without harm" they team up together to find out what happened to her. Along the way they find that this 19th century death seems to be linked to Tess's family in some way. When she has visions of the past and finds a tapestry in her house connects her to Abigail the mystery deepens and becomes personal...

The acting by the young cast is earnest and a bit hammy in places but it's pretty good and consistent overall. The cinematography is basic but the atmosphere created during the dark, winters evening in the graveyard does create an effective mood in the Black Country.

‘Ghost in the Water’ is a good quick watch and whilst it won't linger long in the memory, it's a pleasant way to while away an hour and admire the fashion and hair styles of the time. It's an intriguing premise and there are twists and turns aplenty to keep you engaged right up to the end.

LINK- The Owl Service- Cult TV Review

LINK- The Singing Ringing Tree: Cult TV Review

LINK- Jim Henson’s The Storyteller

LINK- The Secret Garden (BBC)- Cult TV Review

LINK- Children of the Stones: Cult TV Series Review

LINK- Children of the Dogstar: Cult TV Series Review

LINK- Day of the Triffids (1981 BBC): Cult TV Series Review

Why I No Longer Talk To White People About Race- Book Review

June 20, 2020

With all that is going on in the world with the Black Lives Matter movement, I thought I'd continue to educate myself about race, racism, colonialism and its legacy and the idea that many current systems perpetuate the status quo.

The movement has been triggered in large part due to the death of George Floyd at the hand of a white policeman in America, but this is only part of the larger problem of police brutality and race relations across much of the world. I'd already read Akala's book ‘Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire’ and found it candid and informative but when a friend recommended I read 'Why I No Longer Talk To White People About Race' by Reni Eddo- Lodge I thought I'd give it a whirl.

The book is short but essential reading.

The author starts by sharing the blog post that the she wrote several years ago which started the whole process, whereby she discusses that white people are often not aware or do not see the injustice, suffering and discrimination that black people often face.

The book is part autobiographical with personal events that have informed Eddo-Lodge about racism she has suffered alongside key historical facts and data to provide context. This was a key motivation behind the writing of this book Eddo- Lodge says, rather than just a polemic she sought to create a call to arms for everyone to get knowledgeable about key issues that the black community face.

Eddo- Lodge believes that due to the fact that white people come to discussions about race and legacies of colonialism from an unequal place they are unaware of many of the issues and discrimination that black people face daily in all walks of life. Many people are unaware of their history, and not simply the jingoistic idyll of the British Empire but the pains caused and the legacy of empire, there cannot be an open discussion of racism which still affects black people today through systemic and structural racism. These are all pretty valid points I think and are respectfully shared.

Eddo- Lodge asserts that the American Civil Rights Movement brought race and race-relations to the fore, but in the UK this has not happened and the only coverage and discussions we’ve had are based on the race riots, injustice, and activist movements which have not been given coverage or have been disingenuous covered or spun.

Of particular interest to me was feminism and specifically how black women are portrayed within this lens. Eddo- Lodge discusses how, even within this movement there are hierarchies. When she aired these views on ‘Women’s Hour’ she faced a backlash and was attacked on social media and faced an onslaught from people to say she was ‘playing the race card’ or ‘being the victim’.

I found the book to be very interesting as I'm of Pakistani heritage but was born in Barking, England in 1981 to second generation parents who came over in the 1970s. I cannot always comprehend what it would be like to live through segregation, race riots and various police investigations. I have been picked on on occasion, especially in my youth, but rarely have I felt as ostracised and demonized as Eddo- Lodge mentions. However, that's the whole point of this book. There are hierarchies of racism and unfortunately, historically black people have been at the nadir of this pyramid, no matter how much Home Secretary Priti Patel tries to gaslight it.

The book is incisive in its scrutiny of the history and evolution of racism and is essential reading for all who want to be armed with facts. I’ve read certain reviews where some people have criticised Eddo- Lodge of not being critical of the actions (or inactions) of the black community but I believe she discussed the structural and institutional inequalities that made it difficult for many black people and people of colour to move through life as simply as many of their white counterparts quite clearly and fairly. Many may disagree and that is their wont but this will open your eyes to many things we have become ‘normalised’ to. I do wish that the title was different though as I can see that it comes across as quite antagonistic and provocative, enough to get the back up of the audience you are purportedly trying to reach.

That said, Eddo- Lodge delivers a searing indictment of the state of play and I hope that by having this book gain prominence during this turbulent but interesting time, we can finally start to move the race conversation forward and see real change happen for the betterment of everyone, irrespective of race, colour or creed.

LINK- On And On And Colston ( Or, How We Kinda Sort of Learned to Talk About the Legacy of Colonialism and the British Empire)

LINK- ‘Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire’

LINK: Let’s All Create a ‘New Normal’.

LINK- Ms Marvel Can Change the World

The Hollow- Complete Season 2 Review

June 18, 2020

Season 1 of ‘The Hollow’ was a pleasantly surprising animated series which kept me hooked for the entire 10 episode run. When the series concluded, I was intrigued to see how they would continue the show as it ended it a very interesting way which mixed media.

In season 2, Adam, Mira and Kai find themselves in ‘The Hollow’ again but this time the rules seem to be different. There seems to have been a glitch in which our leads beat the game but didn't end up going home, they go 'home' but it is a glitched out approximation of home, with digital parents and NPC who are walking into lampposts etc. So over the course of 10 episodes our trio face the dangers of other teams who are playing the game to win but our three just want to go back to their real home. It's an interesting premise; what happens if you win a game but it glitches and traps you inside?

Season 2 of ‘The Hollow’ builds on the excellent first season but raises the stakes and places more focus on the interplay and relationship dynamics between the characters. They argue, fight, make up and act irrationally, all very human traits in a crazy digital online world as well as the real one. We get to understand the complex dynamic between Adam and Reeve, Kai and Vanessa, Skeet and Mira and understand why their game glitched.

The message is very clear, beware mega corporations who harvest your Big Data; giving away your information comes at a price, nothing is for free so read the terms and conditions. Post Cambridge Analytica, the world has seen that data is power which leads to influence and this show deals with that in its own clever way. The show is also a meditation on what it means to be alive and Artificial Intelligence, it reminded me of the premise of the video game 'Thomas Was Alone'.

The show moves at a cracking pace but highlights includes Wierdy's upbeat version of ‘Creep’ by ‘Radiohead’ and seeing Kai grow into his relationships with his peers. I won't spoil it but the final boss battle is pretty epic too.

The animation style is the same as the first, which is fine but to think with the ending that they did it would have been bold to go with a new art style and keep the show original and unique. However, Flash style animation it is but again this is not the selling point of the series, the story is top notch and the characterisation is very good.

With the ending of this series there is a possibility of season 3. Overall, this series is an under-appreciated gem and is well worth a watch. Look past the divisive art style and you will find a deep series with much to appreciate and admire.

LINK- The Hollow- Complete Season 1 Review

LINK- Disenchantment- Complete Series 1 Review

LINK- Gravity Falls Complete Series Review

LINK- Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated Complete Series 1 Review