What to listen to, watch, read, and play this weekend
The album to listen to
The War On Drugs, A Deeper Understanding
“The alchemical combination The War On Drugs perfected with Lost In The Dream is still the template, but that last record sounds restrained and lean by comparison, even if their difference in runtime is just a few measly minutes. Understanding’s songs are so towering and dense they threaten to topple over into soupy monotony, but what’s most impressive about these 10 tracks is the way frontman Adam Granduciel and his bandmates prop them up with an endless supply of electrifying, ear-catching details. As big as the sum of its songs’ parts get, this is a band that never fails to remember there’s just as much awesome power in the little things.”
Read the rest of our review here.
The show to watch
The Tick
“It seems like TV might have finally caught up with The Tick, because Amazon’s new take on the character—forgoing bad-guy-of-the-week battles in favor of serialized storytelling, and happily pitting its heroes against self-doubt and family expectations as often as rampaging supervillains—is the closest Ben Edlund’s superhero parody has ever come to fitting in with the tastes of the present day.”
Read the rest of our review here.
The podcast to listen to
Turner Masters Memory Hospital
Turner Masters Memory Hospital is the new scripted satire from the Forever Dog Podcast Network, which is quickly emerging as the home of some of the most exciting and fresh voices in comedy. It’s the story of the death of Turner Masters: captain of the football team, celebrated date rapist, and truly despicable teen who was the pride of Riverwater, a vile town full of vile people. Across the scathing satirical series’ six episodes, every character is grotesque in their own unique and surprising ways. It takes some very smart people to write characters this dumb.
Read about the rest of the week’s best podcasts here.
The comic to read
Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle
“It would have been easy for a book about Scott Free to turn into a campy, over-the-top cape-and-cowl story: He’s an escape artist and messiah-slash-heir to the throne of another planet who spends his time fighting an evil alien dictator that wants to destroy Earth. That’s exactly the sort of backstory that lends itself to camp, but [Tom] King and [Mitch] Gerads turn away from that temptation on the very first page […] Mister Miracle is a mental breakdown in print form, both frightening and irresistible as Scott Free spirals rapidly out of control and drags readers along with him.”
Read the rest of our review here.
The movie to watch
Marjorie Prime
“Marjorie Prime […] isn’t interested in futuristic, high-tech backdrops, even though it seems to be set sometime in the 2040s. The most stylish thing about it is the eerie original music by Mica Levi, the art-damaged noise-popster-turned-composer who previously scored Under The Skin and Jackie. But aside from that, the movie lacks ostentation; it appears so simple and unworldly and unhip that one wants to protect it. This is business as usual for [writer-director Michael] Almereyda (Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story, Hamlet), a brainy misfit kind of filmmaker who works with that mostly forgotten credo that indie films owe viewers something that doesn’t look like it was made with any commercial considerations.”
Read the rest of our review here.
The video game to play
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
“The Lost Legacy’s early weaknesses are slowly overcome, and the game builds momentum as it goes along, finally culminating in a train-set climax that’s breakneck and thrilling. If it feels more predictable than past iterations, it also delivers jolts of adventure as reliably as a metronome. This isn’t the best Uncharted, not by a long shot, but it’s a worthy entry and hopefully the building block for more rewarding adventures with Chloe and Nadine to come.”
Read the rest of our review here.