The White Lotus (Season 1)

 

The White Lotus is a show about a resort hotel chain of the same name, its employees, and the guests who vacation there. Season 2 just finished and people were talking about it on Twitter, so I decided to give it a watch. Otherwise I had never heard of the show and had no idea what to expect. It's a dark comedy and drama, where each episode follows the day in the lives of the guests and hotel workers. The first season is only 6 episodes, so the events on the show last a week. One of the interesting parts of this show is that most of the characters are generally unlikeable. As tensions rise throughout the week, it is difficult to know who to root for, creating at times some awkward scenarios. 

Armond and Belinda are the two hotel employees worth mentioning. Belinda is the spa manager, and she is the most likable person on the show. Surrounded by privileged white people, she gets excited when Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge - "The core of the onion!") begins discussing plans for Belinda to open her own spa. Of course, Tanya reneges on her offer in the end.  Armond is the hotel manager, who puts up with all the crazy guests, doing so with a smile. He's one of my favorite characters on the show. He is a recovering addict, however, and in a few short days the guests drive him off the wagon, where he becomes self-destructive. 

The Mossbacher family is an interesting dynamic. Mom is a powerful tech CEO, who can't let go of her job and hovers around the hotel rearranging furniture so that the background looks good on her conference calls. Dad (Steve Zahn) goes through two crisis on the trip. First, he was worried when his "balls swelled" that he had testicular cancer, then relieved when he found out he didn't have cancer. Secondly, he thought his dad died of cancer, only to learn he died from AIDS which he got from a homosexual relationship. This knowledge causes him to spiral, even admitting to his son that he had an affair and bought his mom $75k bracelets as a make-up gift. Daughter Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) isn't overly likable, but does provide some of the best comedic relief on the show ("Grandpa could've been butch" she says). Her friend Paula, who is on the trip with them, becomes increasingly frustrated with the Mossbacher family, and their privileged ways. So much so that she convinces one of the hotel employees to steal the mom's $75k bracelets. The poor son, Quinn (who is the third most likable person on the show), is forced to sleep on a lounge chair on the beach because Olivia and Paula won't let him sleep in the living room of their hotel suite with them. He becomes fascinated by the island life, and at the last minute bolts from the airport, deciding to stay in Hawaii. 

Finally, we have the Patton family, newlyweds on their honeymoon. Shane is wealthy and privileged, and he is the least unlikeable of all the characters in my book. They booked the Pineapple Room, but when they were placed in a different room, he converts his trip from a honeymoon to mission "Get the Pineapple Room". This causes him to tangle with hotel manager Armond, contributing to Armond's relapse and the eventual tragic ending of the week-long trip. Throughout Shane's obsession with Armond and the Pineapple Room, not only does he ignore his wife Rachel (Alexandra Daddario, the second most likable character on the show), he criticizes her lack of success as a writer and is clueless to her wants, treating her like a trophy wife. As if this weren't bad enough, at one point his mom shows up (on their honeymoon!!), doubling down on her misery. She begins having serious doubts about their new marriage, and I thought she was going to leave him. Sadly, at the end of the season she is still with him.

I'd like to take a moment to discuss the music. It is awesomely intense and does a great job expressing the mood of the show. The general appearance of the show, along with the music, is great. The show does a good job expressing the beauty of the area surrounding the tension of the hotel guests.

Guardians Of The Galaxy (Game)

 

Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun game, and I'd recommend it IF you are a fan of the Guardians. The best part of the game is the banter between the characters. I find Rocket, Drax, and the whole group of characters to be amusing, and the conversation between them is entertaining and hilarious at times. Visually the game looks good, though it took me a bit of time to get used to how the characters look, especially Quill. He looks nothing like Chris Pratt or Peter Quill from the comics.

The story is just as good as any of the stories in the movies. Briefly, the Guardians get picked up by the Nova Corps for trespassing. They meet Ko-Rel, Peter's former lover, and her daughter Nikki, who Peter thinks may be his daughter. The Guardians are allowed to leave in order to make money to pay their trespassing fine. They scam a powerful character named Lady Hellbender, and when they return to pay their fine, they discover that several Nova Corp officers are possessed by the "Promise". Lady Hellbender's goons chase after them, and the Guardians flee to Knowhere where they ask Cosmo for help. They figure out that the possessed Nova Corp officers are under the power of the Universal Church of Truth, who use the power of the Promise to harness Faith Energy and power their ships and weapons. Both Peter and Drax are tempted by the Promise, and have to fight off the temptation. Along the way they meet up with Adam Warlock, and discover that Warlock's evil alter ego Magus is manipulating the church for its power. The Guardians eventually defeat the church and Magus to save the galaxy. 

It took me a while to get used to the team based gameplay. You play as Quill, but during battles you have to instruct the other Guardians on who to fight and what to do. Also, at times you have to use the other character's skills to move objects, open doors, etc. to proceed. Once I got used to the gameplay it wasn't a big deal, but wasn't initially intuitive. The bigger deal is that during several points throughout the game, I got stuck and couldn't figure out what to do next. Usually there was a small gap in a wall that I needed to squeeze through and couldn't see, but sometimes it was because I wasn't picking the "correct" sequence of dialogue responses. This seemed to me to be a bit arbitrary, and was annoying to have to resort to a YouTube video to watch a tutorial to figure out how to get the game to advance. Despite this annoyance, overall the game was fun, and I think would be liked by Guardians fans.

Welcome to Wrexham

 

I've been a fan of Rob McElhenney from his days on It's Always Sunny, and I've become a Ryan Reynolds fan after seeing Deadpool and after people have said I look a bit like him. When I heard the two of them bought a soccer club in Wales, I was intrigued. Welcome to Wrexham is a documentary about them buying the team and the challenges that come along with ownership.

Wrexham is a city in eastern Wales near the English border. It has a population of roughly 60,000 and is home to Wrexham A.F.C., the oldest football club in Wales. The city and people of Wrexham are portrayed as being down on their luck, and the football club is portrayed as a source of hope for the community. One of the coolest aspects of football in the UK is this concept of promotion and relegation. Teams that perform poorly are sent to the league below (think going from the MLB to triple A), and teams that perform well are promoted to the league above. Wrexham A.F.C. is in the lowest tier, and Ryan and Rob want to improve the team to get promoted to a higher league and rally the community of Wrexham in the process.

The people of Wrexham eat and breath Wrexham football. They are hard core. They take hours long bus rides to away games and seem to focus their entire outlook on life on Wrexham's success or failure. It's possible the show featured a biased group of Wrexhamonians, I suppose. The best sports analogy I can think of in the United States is high school sports. There could be some college programs that have similar support as well. I don't think professional sports rally a community in quite the same way. Plus in high school sports, you can get "promoted" or relegated to different leagues based on your performance. Wrexham is relatively close to both Liverpool and Manchester. If this were occurring in the United States, the people of Wrexham would be fans of one of the nearby Premiere League teams. And maybe they are fans of those larger and more famous teams. But no question they support their local, lowest tier team.

I bring all of this up because it makes buying this type of team even more random than it seems on the surface. They are not just buying a team in Wales, they're buying into a culture and identity of a community. Of course there is a mix of excitement and skepticism amongst the fans. They are excited to have celebrities own the team, as their is a feeling that they will be able to inject some excitement and desirability into the team. There is skepticism because, if we're honest, what does an American and Canadian know about Welsh football? 

By the end of the season featured in the show, the team has improved and it seems as if the community has bought in to Rob and Ryan owning the team. One of the most interesting aspects to me of this entire story is that apparently Rob and Ryan didn't even know each other prior to owning the team. Rob needed a co-owner and randomly decided to ask Ryan. In general, I think this is a fantastically unique and interesting sports story. The show does a good job discussing how this team affects numerous individuals as well as the larger community. I hope they have a second season and continue to have success with the team and promotion.

Gran Turismo 7 - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

 

I've been hacking away at this game since it was released in March. I have had two main objectives: (1) Finish all of the events with at least a bronze trophy, and (2) complete time trials with all of the cool cars on the game. I have come pretty close to achieving objective number one. There are a few races and a few missions left where I have not completed my goal. The ones remaining have proven to be challenging, and there is a decent chance I won't complete most of them unless I dedicate a lot of extra time. Furthermore, most of the races remaining I am so slow and non-competitive, I honestly don't know if I can get the bronze trophy. We shall see, as I plan to challenge at least a few of them again.

For objective 2, I am nearing the end of cool cars to race in my time trials, sort of. The new cars are divided into North America, Europe, and Asia sections. I've finished the new cars that I want to race for the time trials in the North American and European sections, meaning I've only got Asia left. There is the used car market as well, and I plan on looking at it periodically for "new" cars to race. But the list seems to be dwindling.

Currently I play Gran Turismo every Sunday evening, with periodic check-ins throughout the week. With my objectives nearing the end (especially objective #1), I have been thinking about scaling back on play time, only playing periodically when I come across a good used car for my time trial. However, just when I start to feel this way, the game releases one of its monthly updates. This typically involves new cars, new races, a new track, or some combination of the three. Last month we got Road Atlanta, with three new races. This month we got the C8 Corvette (see above, and finally!), along with new races. Every month I have new objectives for #1 or #2, or sometimes both. About the time I start feeling like I can scale back on the game, an update arrives fresh with new objectives. This month I was greeted by Christmas music on the main menu. These updates really are great, and keep the game fresh and keep me coming back for more. Otherwise I probably would've had the game take a back seat to other games a while ago.

Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon

 

The events on House of the Dragon take place several hundred years prior to the events of Game of Thrones. The current king who sits on the Iron Throne doesn't have a male son, and thus no direct heir to the throne. His wife dies during labor (lots of labor scenes in this show, by the way) and he subsequently names his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra, the heir to the throne. This of course causes some resistance, being that she is a woman. King Viserys subsequently gets remarried and has 3 additional kids, two of which are male. The oldest male technically becomes the direct heir to the throne, challenging the King's previous announcement that Princess Rhaenyra would become Queen and sit on the Iron Throne.

One of the interesting aspects of this show is the way in which time flows. Sometimes several years pass in between episodes. Time flows so fast that some of the actors changes as they grow from kids to adults. It's a risky decision, but the show pulls it off well in order to tell a story that spans a few decades in just 10 episodes. As time progresses, the King's health declines until he eventually dies. As you can imagine, who is to become his successor becomes debated between his princess daughter and eldest son. Everyone has something to gain and lose, and the game of thrones begins.

It's been several years since I've seen Game of Thrones. Watching House of the Dragon took me back to King's Landing and Flea Bottom. Those locations, along with other Westerosi spots, are super cool. I will say that I forgot how violent this show can be. As I've grown older, I tend to like the extreme violence less and less. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever really liked it. I'm completely fine with implied, off screen violence.

One of the other aspects of this show that I liked was the score. I don't recall thinking much about the music in Game of Thrones. Apparently the same composer was used for both shows. The music is really good in this show, accurately capturing the mood and ambience of the scene.

Overall this show is just really good in all departments - the acting, visuals, sound, and script are all great. It tells a very complicated story that I think would be difficult to pull off well, but it accomplishes this feat. While not as good as Game of Thrones, it is an enjoyable fantasy soap opera.

HBO Max

 

There are a handful of shows that interest me on HBO Max, but had held off on subscribing to the service because honestly my TV-watching queue is full. However, when they had a 3 month deal for $6 for black Friday I decided to jump on the deal. So far we've started watching Curb Your Enthusiasm (again) and House of the Dragon (more to come on that soon). There are a couple of others on the list as well. I'm bringing this situation up specifically for the 3 month for $6 black Friday deal. This service is typically $15 per month ad-free, and I believe $10 per month with ads. The black Friday deal was the with ads. Despite watching 4 episodes of Curb and the entire season of House of the Dragon, I've only seen two ads. Both were for other HBO Max shows and neither interrupted the program I was watching, having occurred at the very beginning. This entire experience has made me change my thought process on adding streaming services with ad tiers, such as Netflix or even Disney+ these days. I assumed the ads would interrupt the show, but thus far not on HBO Max. Although apparently Peacock premium does have ads that interrupt, so it may be a trial and error situation. When you look at the quality of a show like House of the Dragon, it is hard to believe they are making any money when giving away their service for $2 per month. You hear about a lot of these services losing money, and this is likely why (this plus password sharing). I suppose that is an entirely different topic. Regardless, I've enjoyed this nearly ad-free streaming service thus far.

Virtual Marathons

 

I would never claim to have run a marathon. I've certainly never attempted one in person, and I have never run anywhere near a marathon distance at one time on a treadmill. However, I have virtually ran the Boston and London marathons on iFit. It's really cool to be able to run these marathons virtually, as it is something I doubt I will ever do in person. To get to experience the route and the energy around the marathon is neat. The program breaks up the marathon in stages, typically around 5 miles per stage. I usually do 1-2 stages per week, so it takes me a few weeks to finish the marathon. Even at this pace, however, it feels like an accomplishment to finish the course. I'm planning on doing the Chicago marathon next, and then I'll have finished 3 of the 6 major worldwide marathons (Berlin, New York, and Tokyo being the other three).

Holiday Specials

 

'Tis the season for holiday specials. We watched a couple this weekend. Spirited is a comedy musical with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. It's a modern version of A Christmas Carol. Both Ferrell and Reynolds are good in the film, and there's plenty of funny moments mixed in with the singing. Overall it was good.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are some of my favorite characters and movies in the MCU. Their holiday special has Drax and Mantis teaming up to abduct Kevin Bacon as a Christmas gift for Quill.  Apparently Peter talks about Kevin Bacon a lot. Drax and Mantis are funny together, as usual, and are the main stars of the show. It was good entertainment as well.

Star Wars: Andor

 

Andor gives us the best reason to date as to why the rebellion exists. Sure, having a crazy Emperor and a force sensitive Sith in charge of the galaxy is bad, but the stories have always been about Darth and Luke. We've never really seen how the Empire's influence affects the daily lives of regular people. Andor explores this concept, and in the process shows the origin of the rebellion.

Andor is unlike any other Star Wars show we've seen before. There are few pew-pew battles, few Stormtroopers, and no one is using the Force. What we get instead is a display of the increasingly powerful Empire and its Imperial Security Bureau (ISB). You see the Empire expand its reach, invading planets and affecting the daily lives of people. It feels less like Star Wars and more like something that could occur today in a communist society. 

Cassian Andor is looking for his sister when two private sector security guards start bothering him. He ends up killing them. The Empire becomes aware of the situation, and an overly-aggressive ISB agent suspects this could be more than a random crime. Andor becomes an Imperial target, and while trying to hide he becomes involved in a small rebellious gang who plots to rob an Imperial armory. They are successful, but in doing so set up a chain of events where the Empire becomes overly aggressive in their attempt to keep galactic order.

After the robbery, Andor is hiding at a beach-side vacation spot when he is arrested randomly (an example of the Empire's anger and stupidity, as they don't realize they have the man they are looking for under arrest). The prison scenes are some of the finest episodes of Star Wars content ever created. The psychological terror the Empire is able to provide feels real, and it is here where Andor learns he can lead a Rebellion against the Empire.

This show feels less like science fiction and more like a cold-war era spy thriller. It relies less on action and more on dialogue. Tatooine isn't even mentioned, which is a good thing. Instead, we're introduced to a new planet called Ferrix, which is refreshing. This is the best looking version of Coruscant I've seen. The music is super cool too, with an 80's horror vibe.

I really can't say enough good things about this show. In an era where Disney is churning out Star Wars shows left and right, a lot of them feel a bit recycled. Andor, however, is different. It is gritty and has a more "real" feel to it. It does away with a lot of the things that Star Wars relies on for stories - the Force, lightsabers, Jedi, etc., and instead tells a story about real people trying to survive the terrible regime that is the Empire.  I'm already looking forward to season 2.

Is Mesh the Answer?

 When I bought my previous router in 2019, Mesh and Wi-Fi 6 were all the rage. I got a router with neither technology. I wasn't sure if any of my peripheral devices supported Wi-Fi 6, and I had previously done fine with traditional routers, so didn't think Mesh was needed. Plus routers with these technologies cost more. I went with the traditional wi-fi router and it has worked fine until a few months ago, when it did what routers tend to do - drop signal. I typically get 4-5 years out my routers before signals start to drop. This time it happened before 3 years had gone by. Streaming issues in the basement is what we experienced this time. I'm using a range extender because of previous issues in the basement, which seemed to help temporarily. But it got to the point where we were rebooting the range extender, then rebooting the router, and trying to connect to one of the 6 networks that now existed in our house, that I thought it was time to upgrade our router.

In this age of wireless devices and streaming, the home router is one of the most important pieces of tech in your home. With this being said, you want to get a good one. However, they are very difficult to research. Despite being somewhat intelligent about home tech, even I have a hard time understanding the difference between them. Reviews can be deceiving because someone can give a router a bad review simply because they couldn't get it hooked up, which may or may not be the routers fault. 

With all of this confusion surrounding routers, I did what I typically do in these situations. I bought one that was middle of the road on price, and one that generally got favorable reviews. I decided to get a Mesh system this time. Our house isn't huge, but it is spread over 3 levels and the basement is a common struggle for consistent streaming. Our main router is on the main level, so I was thinking that routers aren't great at broadcasting below their location. I don't actually know that for sure, but it makes sense to have a device broadcasting the network as close as possible to where it is needed. The system I got has three nodes, one for each level of the house. It was simple to set up and I like that I only have one network to connect to now, instead of multiple that existed with my previous router which caused confusion, mostly for the internet of things.

It's impossible to judge how well a router is working after only a few days of use, because all new routers are going to work well. I can say that I have fiber optic and pay for 100 Mbps down. Previously when doing internet speed tests on my PS4 & 5, I would get around 30 Mbps. When I tested this with my new Mesh system, I got 85 Mbps. Quite an improvement! The real judge of success will be how the system performs over the long haul, however. I'm hoping to get more than 3 years out of this system.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (& Seasons)

 

Despite declaring the 3DS dead in 2020 (which it was), I found myself playing the system yet again this past month. After playing Oracle of Seasons (OoS) back in 2018, I wanted to play Oracle of Ages (OoA) but never got around to doing so. When news came that they were shutting down the eShop on the 3DS, I went ahead and bought OoA so that I would have a copy of the game to play at some point in the future. I haven't played a game on the Switch since finishing Skyward Sword HD last year. With a week-long trip scheduled for fall break, I thought now was an opportune time to play OoA. My post on OoS from 2018 mostly discussed Nintendo's Virtual Console (which is great), so I wanted to include OoS in my discussion on OoA as well, because both are great games that deserve discussion.

OoA & OoS came out on the Game Boy Color (GBC) back in 2001, so a little over 20 years ago. To put that in perspective, these games were released after the Playstation 2 debuted. Despite that, they look like Link's Awakening (Game Boy, 1993) and A Link To The Past (SNES, 1992). I actually think A Link To The Past looks better graphically, despite being 10 years older. The Game Boy Color was the successor to the original Game Boy. I never owned one so I don't have any game to compare to these two, but I find it interesting how these games look graphically in 2001, when 3D graphics were well established. I don't know if it was a design decision made by Capcom, or if the Game Boy Color was that limited in the graphics department. Either way I like the retro look of the game.

Speaking of retro, the sound on this game is fantastic 8-Bit midi. Again, I don't know if that was a limitation of the Game Boy Color, or if it was a design decision by Capcom. It makes the game feel older than what it really is, but overall I enjoy the music and sound effects.

The gameplay is classic Zelda as well. You have to defeat a series of temples or stages, acquiring items as you go along. It includes one of my favorite aspects of older Zelda gameplay - areas that you can see but cannot access until you gain the correct item. Adding to this, changing the time period in OoA or the season in OoS changes the map in ways that allow you to access other areas. It's an intriguing idea that is unique and works well. It really adds to the gameplay.

Unlike most posts I publish on games, I actually haven't finished either one of these games. I'm stuck on the final boss on OoS, and I've played through about 25% of OoA. I'm saving OoA as a travel game, so that I have a game to play while I'm on the road. With that being said, I plan to finish it but don't know when. However, I feel like I've played enough of the game to get an idea of the look and feel of it. These games are quite fun and are great additions to the Zelda lineup of games. I feel like they fly under the radar a bit since they were on a handheld system (as opposed to a main console). They have classic Zelda gameplay with a retro look that I appreciate, regardless if this was an intentional design or a limitation of the GBC. I'm looking forward to continuing to play OoA and hopefully finishing OoS.

So Cold The River (Movie)

 

It is often said that movies are never as good as the books they are based on. This is the case for So Cold The River. The movie received poor reviews, and I knew that before I watched it. However, I rather enjoyed the book, and since it takes place in southern Indiana at the intriguing West Baden Springs Hotel, I wanted to watch it anyway. 

The movie does a decent enough job of telling the general plot of the book. It was made by a small, independent film company and had actors I had never heard of before. With that being said, I thought the acting was pretty good, and the film looked good in terms of how it portrayed the hotel. The main character and his sidekick were males in the book. In the movie they were females. I was waiting throughout the movie for an explanation for this (in terms of why they needed to be female) but it never came. Not that it matters, but it seems odd to arbitrarily switch the genders unless there was a reason. Additionally, the final scene in the book involves a massive storm with tornadoes. As I was reading the book I assumed they would switch the ending, which they did. I thought it would simply be too difficult to shoot a scene involving a storm with tornadoes. It kept the same general theme, until the part where the sidekick killed the main character. This is completely different than how the book ended.

The problem with movies based on books is that there simply isn't enough time to get to the level of detail in the movie that the book can provide. This is the trap this movie falls into. The book spends quite a bit of time discussing how the Pluto Water is consuming Eric by giving him visions and even having withdrawal effects. In the book, the main antagonist Josiah goes through a transformation because of the water, eventually becoming the spirit of Campbell Bradford. He starts as a down-on-his-luck local hotel worker to someone who is consumed with the idea that the town "owes him his due" because of his family connection with Campbell Bradford. There are other plot points where corners are cut, but these two examples are big ones and the story the movie tells suffers because of this lack of detail. The power the Pluto Water has on the characters is massively important in terms of explaining Eric and Josiah's actions, and I feel like the movie skipped over this entire part of the story, making the plot feel pretty shallow. 

Horizon Zero Dawn

 

I had no idea what to expect with this game. It's referenced a lot and generally in a favorable manner, so I decided to play it essentially based on my Twitter timeline. Additionally, it was available at no cost as part of my Playstation Plus subscription as well, which helped with my decision. The first few times I played the game I wasn't sure if I liked it. It had a post-apocalyptic vibe, which I generally don't like. It took some time to get familiar with the names of the tribes and the nomenclature used to describe the machines. However, once I overcame this initial hesitation (essentially past the introductory tutorial and the Proving), I began to really enjoy this game. It has become one of my favorite Playstation series, right up there with Uncharted.

The game takes place in a world where people live in tribes. You play as Aloy, an outcast girl. Aloy trains to win a competition called the Proving, which would allow her to join one of the tribes and learn about her past. The world seems like it is set in the past, except there are machines roaming and Aloy finds an augmented reality device she wears to learn about the machines. At the Proving, Aloy is the target of an unsuccessful murder attempt, setting her on a journey to not only discover her past, but to discover how the world became as it is and the origin of the machines. It's an engaging story that keeps you guessing until the very end.

I thought almost every aspect of this game was good. I had some minor complaints about portions of the dialogue and facial animation, but otherwise I have nothing but praise for the game. The world & environment where the game takes place is visually stunning, with day/night transitions and a mix of technologically advanced settings and wilderness. It is a fun world to explore. The action is a mix of stealth, melee, platforming, and some puzzle solving. Aloy is a likable main character. I found her witty personality to be quite entertaining. As mentioned above, the plot is great as well.

I want to spend the last paragraph discussing the audio of the game. Unlike many other games I play, this game did not have a map visible on screen. So the only way to see enemies and machines was to visualize them. However, the sound in this game is great, and with a surround system, you could actually hear the machines roaming, especially if they were attacking. The mechanical whir the machines make is incredibly eerie when attacking, which greatly adds to the experience. This game not only looked great, it sounded great as well. My argument against setting up a surround system in the past was that I didn't watch many movies. That has changed, which encouraged me to setup and update my surround system. I did not anticipate that having surround would impact games as much as it has. Horizon is a good example of how having expanded sound can improve the gaming experience. 

Better Call Saul - Final Season

 

I almost didn't watch the final season of Better Call Saul. It had been two years since the previous season and I didn't remember anything that had occurred previously. I read a season 5 recap and decided to watch the 6th and final season of the show, and I am glad that I made that decision. I honestly forgot just how good this show is. Everything about it, from the famous cold open scenes to the writing to the acting is top notch. The writing and acting is especially good. All of the main actors in this show are fantastic. 

The series chronicles Jimmy McGill's transformation into Saul Goodman, a lawyer of questionable morals and con-artist. Saul contributed heavily to Walter White's rise in power in Breaking Bad. This included money laundering and other crimes. It has been nearly 10 years since Breaking Bad and I was admittedly a little fuzzy on the details. I had to read a summary of that show as well to remind myself of the details. I forgot how bad of a dude Walter White was. 

While the first 5 and a half seasons chronicle Jimmy's transformation to Saul right up to the point of the Breaking Bad timeline, the final half of the last season focuses on what occurs after Breaking Bad and the fallout from everything surrounding Walter White. This part of the season was shot in black and white, a nice touch to separate the pre-Breaking Bad and prosperous times from the post-Breaking Bad times, where Saul was in hiding from the feds. Overall this show does a great job of making a slime ball lawyer likable, and at times relatable. It also puts together a story where, for the most part, we don't know what is going to happen next. This is a challenge in a prequel scenario, but Saul does well with this aspect. Overall the show was quite enjoyable. I'm glad I decided to watch the final season. I'm going to miss it a bit, honestly.

So Cold The River (Book)

 

Author Michael Koryta said the inspiration for this book came from the location itself: West Baden Springs, IN. Before discussing the book, I want to take a moment to discuss the location. West Baden Springs (WBS) is best known for two things: Larry Bird and their hotel. I grew up close to the area, which is what piqued my interest in the book. When I was a kid the hotel was in ruins, abandoned long ago. It was difficult to imagine that it was once a prosperous, a destination for the rich & famous. The history of the hotel is well documented, and involves competition between the WBS Hotel and French Lick Hotel, unfound promises of the health benefits of mineral water, booze & gambling, and the rich & famous. Following the Great Depression, the guests and money disappeared, and the hotel shut down in 1932.

In 2006, the hotel received funding to be restored and reopen. In 2007, 75 years after it closed, the hotel reopened. By this time I was living in Pennsylvania, and so the news of the reopening was off my radar. Since moving back to Indiana, I have visited the hotels a few times, but it wasn't until a conference this previous spring that I actually stayed overnight as a guest. There is something special about this place, something that is difficult to explain in words. I think a lot of it has to do with how well they restored the hotel and surrounding grounds to look like they originally looked. It is such a unique hotel, and has such a rich history, that traveling through the arches and down the long brick driveway feels like passing through a time warp to the 1920s. I completely understand how the hotel could inspire a story such as So Cold The River.

Much like how the reopening of the hotel was off my radar in 2007, so was Michael Koryta's fictional book. After staying at the hotel this past spring I became aware of the book. I found staying at the hotel so intriguing I decided to read the book, despite not knowing anything about the plot. It's a supernatural mystery & thriller, about a guy from Chicago named Eric who unknowingly transports the spirit of a former resident back to "the valley" (the area around French Lick and West Baden Springs is called Springs Valley because of the mineral springs). The spirit consumes the man, until it is transported to another man named Josiah, who is a relative of the spirit. As Eric is haunted by the spirit and trying to figure out what is going on, Josiah becomes unstable as he is transformed into a living version of the spirit's personality. It's an interesting story that leaves you guessing until the very end on how the book will conclude. It's neat how the author uses French Lick's Pluto Water as the vessel for transporting the spirit, and how he incorporates the hotels and surrounding areas of Springs Valley into the story. They have since made the book into a movie which got terrible reviews, but I plan on watching it to at least see how the hotels and Springs Valley look on TV. Reading this book was a nice departure from all the Star Wars books that I had been reading. I needed a break from that genre, and this was a nice opportunity to read something new.

Thor: Love and Thunder

 

Ragnarok is one of my favorite movies in the MCU and Thor one of my favorite characters. Thus, I had high expectations for this movie. When I read it received somewhat mediocre reviews, I lowered my expectations a bit. This movie has all the big characters, including a pretty good villain in Gorr the God Butcher, and Natalie Portman as The Mighty Thor. Can't forget Korg. There was even a guest appearance from the Guardians of the Galaxy at the beginning of the movie. The '80s rock theme was fun and unique. There were a handful of laugh out loud moments, but generally the movie felt a bit shallow and wasn't all that memorable. Roy Kent from Ted Lasso was shown as Hercules in the credits scene so it will be interesting to see his character in upcoming MCU projects. Additionally, Jane succumbs to her illness so we likely won't be seeing her in future movies, unless it is in the form of flashbacks.

The Grand Tour: A Scandi Flick

 

Continuing their tradition of periodic specials versus regularly scheduled episodes, The Grand Tour released A Scandi Flick last week. Apparently this is the first special in a few years, which is kind of hard to believe. This special has the group traveling across northern Scandinavia in 90s rally cars. Hammond picks the most obvious car: The Subaru Impreza WRX. May picks a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO. Clarkson, being Clarkson, picked an Audi RS4, which in no way is a rally car (it's an executive saloon, as May called it). The other hosts constantly point this out, stating that the RS4 isn't a Quattro. The Audi Quattro Sport was a dominant rally car in the 1980s, and made the Audi brand famous. Interestingly, the challenge called for 4-door cars, and the Quattro Sport was a 2-door car. Also, while the RS4 isn't called Quattro, almost all modern Audi's utilize Quattro all-wheel drive technology. I'm biased, but the RS4 is easily my favorite car of the group. Clarkson calls its naturally aspirated V8 one of the best engines ever made.

In the grand scheme of Grand Tour specials, this one is just OK. I find the landscape interesting, as Scandinavia is not a part of the world I get to see often on TV. Some of the locations were absolutely stunning, like something from a James Bond flick. Reminded me a bit of Siberia, though not nearly as rugged. The talking point of this show will be James' horrific crash in the tunnel. While drag racing in a tunnel, James doesn't get stopped in time, slamming into the wall at the end of the tunnel. It was a bad crash, one that left him sidelined for a couple of days but could've been a lot worse. The rest of the episode was filled with typical Grand Tour shenanigans, though some of them seem a bit scripted.

I did go down a bit of a rabbit hole while researching this blog post in terms of the Audi Quattro Sport and Group B rally racing. I have seen the ridiculous clips of this category of rally racing, the ones where the cars are flying through the air at ridiculous speeds with spectators within a few feet of the car. Visually spectacular, but incredibly dangerous. Being a fan of Audi, I was well aware of the Quattro Sport and its importance to both rally racing and the Audi brand. However, I had no idea Group B was the name of the rally league that made it famous. I had never heard of Group B until I saw it on Gran Turismo 7. To participate in Group B, only 200 production models of the car had to exist, which is how the Quattro Sport was born. Despite being 40 years old, the car today is still visually appealing. Audi made just a touch over 200 cars, sold 164, and sold only 10 in the United States. Motortrend has an interesting article discussing the creation of the Quattro Sport and what made it so unique. "A car that shouldn't exist" they call it, which makes it even that more awesome.

Baseball History

I like sports quite a bit, but rarely discuss them on this blog. There is just so much to discuss when it comes to sports, and the pace is so rapid, that it would be impossible to keep up. With that being said, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge how awesome baseball has been in the month of September. Let's start with Albert Pujols.

When Albert signed a one year contract with St. Louis at the beginning of the season, I didn't think much of it honestly. I figured it would be a final swan song to cap off a hall of fame career in the city where it all started. Albert has been great this season, anything but an aged veteran on a publicity tour. Watching him climb the all-time home run leaders list has been pure entertainment. As he approached and passed A-Rod for fourth all-time, and then last night hitting career home run 700, it has been awesome to watch. He joined Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and the Babe as only the fourth person in MLB history to hit 700 or more home runs.  Adding fuel to this fire is Aaron Judge's chase of Roger Maris' AL home run record of 61 homers. As of today, Judge has 60 home runs this season, just one shy of Roger's record. Not since the Sosa & McGwire season in '98 have I went out of my way to watch people bat in anticipation of a home run. It is fantastic sports drama.

Providing less drama but possibly more impressive is the record set by Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina for 325 career starts as a battery. The duo they passed set the record of 324 in 1975, and no other battery has even come close since. Think about all the variables and perfect circumstances of events that have to take place to make this happen. First of all, you have to have two players who are good enough to stick around the big leagues that long. Second of all, you have to have said players play together essentially for the duration of their career. In the era of free agency and trades, accomplishing this task will be exceedingly rare. Additionally, the game is different today in terms of how pitchers are utilized, with less frequent starts and larger rotations. They say records are meant to be broken, but I honestly think this record will never fall. It has been an amazing month of baseball and an absolute joy to watch.

Nintendo Direct - September 2022

 

I bought the Switch back in 2017 exclusively to play Breath of the Wild (BotW). The game was also released on the older Wii U system, and I thought about buying it instead of the Switch because it had Twilight Princess HD, a Zelda game that is on my podium of favorite Zelda games, and The Wind Waker HD. I've never played The Wind Waker so I was interested in giving that game a play. Despite being an older system, the Wii U at the time cost as much as the Switch, and in some instances up to twice as much as a Switch. With that being said, I got the newer Switch, which turned out to be the right decision as I have played and enjoyed that system far more than I ever would've imagined.

Rumors of Switch ports of Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker have been around for years at this point. They gained some steam prior to this week's Nintendo Direct. The event came and left without an announcement of the games. I was a bit disappointed, but I didn't have my hopes too high. Plus, I have a pretty full game queue with all of the games from Playstation Plus. I would enjoy playing the games in HD, so hopefully they will get rereleased at some point.

The highlight of the event for me (and many others) was the announcement of Tears of the Kingdom, fka BotW 2. BotW is also on my Zelda podium, and is one of my favorite games of all time. Despite finishing the game in 2018, I still periodically play the game to find Korok seeds and experience Hyrule. I just recently found the final Shrine. It is exceedingly rare for me to revisit games like this after I finish the main story. It is a testimony to how much I like the game. Suffice it to say that I am really looking forward to Tears of the Kingdom. We also got a release date for the game - May, 2023. I will have the game preordered and downloaded so that I can play it as soon as possible.

Why the Playstation 5 is the Best Playstation Yet

 

The Playstation 2 will always be my favorite version of the Playstation, as it is deeply rooted in personal nostalgia. After waiting over a year to get my hands on a Playstation 5, and after owning one for only a few months, I am ready to proclaim that this is the best version of the Playstation to date. It has nothing to do with the graphics or performance of the games. Advancements in these categories are expected with each new version of a console. In the past, huge jumps in graphics and gameplay came with each console upgrade. I'm thinking about the differences between the SNES and Nintendo 64, or the Playstation 1 and Playstation 2, for instance. Newer consoles have less advancement in graphics and gameplay compared to the previous version, though I will say the Playstation 5's ability to feature background and lighting details clearly outshine the PS 4. Most of what I think makes the Playstation 5 so great isn't even new or unique to the PS5. But the sum of these features is higher than the expected outcome when put together. Let me explain, and the below topics are in no particular order.

• Backwards compatibility. I have always found this to be a much discussed console feature that was completely overrated. Why would I want to play games that were SNES quality when I can now play games in 3D on my 64? As I said above, graphics and gameplay change less and less with each new console version. This means that games from the PS4 era still have meaning, even on the PS5. Case in point. I was in the middle of my career mode on F1 2020 when I got my PS5. I didn't want to quit, but I also didn't want to delay playing the PS5. I was able to load the game onto the PS5 and continue playing without missing a beat. This backwards compatibility also means the PS5 has a huge gaming library out of the box. Additionally, some games from the PS4 era have been remade for the PS5. When I put the disc for Jedi: Fallen Order into my PS5, it asked if I wanted to upgrade to the PS5 version of the game for free. That is pretty awesome.
• Digital downloads. This is a feature on both the PS4 and Switch, but I admittedly was a late adopter to digital games. Up until 2020 I still bought the discs. What makes digital games so great is that you can jump between games very quickly without having to get up and swap discs. The PS5 is powerful enough that most games have no or minimal load times. I frequently pop into Gran Turismo 7 after playing another game just to check my wishlist to see what car is next for my time trials. It would be much more cumbersome with discs and load times. Of course, to do this you need a big hard drive. The PS5 comes with a decent sized drive, but I was able to add an internal 2 TB SSD to allow for more games to be stored on the system.
• Playstation Plus isn't new, but it is newly released. I've already posted on my thoughts on the new Playstation Plus, but in summary, I like it a lot. It gives you access to 100s of games. Of course, I will download and play games that I am really interested in. But bigger than that, it allows for game experimentation. For instance, I am currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn, a game that I have heard of and knew it got good ratings, but likely would have never played it otherwise. Since it comes with Playstation Plus, however, there is no risk at all to download the game and try it out. This opens an entire realm of possibilities, as the system seems to overflow with gaming options. I don't know how to adequately explain this in words, but when I turn the system on I literally get the sense that I am entering the world of Playstation, where one minute I am racing cars, the next I am swinging on buildings through New York City as Spider-Man, and the next I am hunting machines in the fantastic open-world environment that is Horizon. It is fantastic how quickly you can jump from game to game.
• Playing games with surround sound is awesome. I recently became interested in surround sound when I started watching all of these Marvel movies. Previously I wasn't as interested because I don't think it adds much to the experience with TV. I never thought about using it for video games. Now that I use it for the PS5, however, it adds a lot to the experience. Cars in your blind spot on Gran Turismo are heard in the appropriate speaker. Crowd conversation in games can be heard behind you and off to the side based on their location. I will have a dedicated post on Horizon Zero Dawn, but the sound in that game is downright eerie, and it adds a lot to the experience. I never used surround for the PS4, so it could be a similar experience, but on the PS5, it definitely adds to the Playstation experience I was describing above.

The Chosen 12

 

In this book, a group of 20 or so "kids" are stranded on a post-apocalyptic planet, competing for a chance to escape to a new planet and allow the human race to survive. I say kids in quotes, because they are actually adults in terms of age, but are stuck in a kids body due to a serum that keeps them young. The book doesn't give any details about how they got into this situation, but they live in the ruins of a former base with machines/robots of various types. Apparently this group of people are the only known humans to survive the unexplained event, and thus the human race surviving relies on them getting to this new planet. The kicker is that the ship taking the kids to the new planet only holds 12 people. Oh, and the robots are in charge.

The group practices their strategy for survival on the new planet by running simulations programed by the lead robot. The simulations also serve as a type of tryout, with presumably the top 12 performing students being the ones chosen to land on the new planet. Naturally, this creates a division within the group of people, as some believe the robots are misleading them and want to break free from their control, while others want to stick with the robots. Additionally, the competition makes some of the participants enemies. This creates an interesting and complex sociologic situation. 

Overall the book is enjoyable and is an easy read. My only complaint is that there isn't much character development, leaving the reader somewhat disconnected to the consequences of the difficult choices they have to make. Otherwise, it is a fun read and leaves you guessing up to the final chapters.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

 

When I first heard of this game I had no idea who Miles Morales was. I have since seen Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and am now familiar with the alternate Spider-Man character. This game had been on my radar as it was applauded for showcasing the PS5's visual abilities (ray tracing, high 4K frame rate, etc.). After learning about the Miles Morales character and watching the MCU Spider-Man movies, I was motivated even more to play the game.

I have nothing but good things to say about this game. All aspects of the game are excellent. Visually, snowy New York in the winter looks amazing, and it is super fun to fly through the city like Spider-Man can. My only small complaint is that you seem to skip over a lot of the city when traveling by web, but I suppose that is what the side quests are for. 

The game sounds amazing too. I set up my surround sound for movies, but the PS5 really takes advantage of it as well. The subwoofer booms with explosions, and you can hear enemies from all directions based on their location relative to yours. It actually helps you find enemies at times. 

Despite the difficulty of quickly traveling through a complex city by web, the controls are spot-on, only rarely getting clunky as you unexpectedly slam into a building. For the most part, they just work, and make movements seem quite natural. Some of the combat sequences can be complex, but luckily the game flashes the button combo on screen when things like your Venom punch are ready to deploy. I rely on that a lot, and it makes me feel old.

The story is vintage Spider-Man, with villains and main characters being people who are close to Miles. Rhino is in the game, but otherwise the main antagonist The Tinkerer is new to me. Roxxon and Osbourne corporations are in the game, and there is even a Norman Osbourne appearance in the credits, so I'm hoping for an appearance by him in a subsequent game. The gameplay is a mix of combat, puzzle-solving, platforming, and story progression side quests. This mix makes gameplay move along at a fast pace and not feel stale, although at times the combat can feel repetitive when numerous Underground thugs are attacking you. On a side note, the Iron Man-like Spider suit is awesome. I especially like how podcasts from The Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson are utilized.

This game is excellent and is worth the play, even if you're not a Spider-Man fan (who isn't?). The visuals, sound, and story telling in the game are excellent, especially in the final scene against The Tinkerer. This game has one of my favorite endings in recent memory. It makes me excited to play the earlier released Spider-Man game, which is in my queue.

Daredevil: Season 2

 

Season 2 of Daredevil improved on Season 1 in numerous ways. Instead of having one main antagonist in Wilson Fisk, this season starts with the Punisher as the main antagonist and transitions to the ancient ninja group the Hand as Elektra shows up in Matt's life again. In season 1 there was a general sense of what was going to happen to Fisk - he was going to be imprisoned, killed, etc. In season 2, there was the same sense with the Punisher. He is an ex-military vigilante who goes on a mass killing spree to get revenge for the murder of his family. The audience pretty much knows this is going to end poorly for the Punisher. However, this time there is a bit of a curveball thrown in that the Punisher meets Fisk in prison, who orchestrates his escape. There may be more to come on that relationship in season 3, who knows? All of this occurred in the first 4-5 episodes, then out of nowhere Matt's former girlfriend Elektra shows up. I had no idea her character was going to be in this season, and I am glad she was, because she is a major character in the Marvel universe and I was hoping I wasn't going to have to watch the movie to learn about her.

Daredevil was trained by the blind sensei Stick, which was revealed in season 1. It is revealed in season 2 that Elektra was also trained by Stick, who is creating an army to fight the ancient and mystical ninja group the Hand. The Hand thinks Elektra is a powerful Black Sky and wants her to join their group. This shifts the focus from the Punisher to Elektra and the new antagonist the Hand and Nobu. Both the Punisher and Elektra are strong anti-heroes, and learning about them was the best part of season 2 for me. This is especially true for Elektra, who has a complicated relationship with Daredevil given their mutual relationship with Stick and the fact that she is willing to kill whereas Daredevil is not. The Punisher has the same philosophy as Elektra in terms of killing, and there are scenes where Daredevil questions his methods and seems almost depressed by his lack of ability to stop violence in Hell's Kitchen.

I've already discussed how dark and violent this show is, and season 2 continues that trend. I don't want to spend any more time discussing this, beyond saying this: On the one hand, the martial arts fighting choreography is really cool in this show. On the other hand, there were several fighting scenes where I felt like pressing the fast forward button, and a couple of times I actually did so. I can only watch Daredevil and Elektra fight the Hand ninjas so many times before I get bored.

Foggy and Karen remain great supporting cast members, although I sometimes struggle to understand Karen's motivation to put herself continuously in dangerous situations. Despite this struggle, I find myself caring for their characters which means they are doing a good job. Foggy seems to be the only person on this show who has any common sense. The scenes with Karen and her new boss at the newspaper, though short, are always good and entertaining. As the season ends, Elektra is killed and her body is retrieved by the Hand. I hope she survives to be included in future Marvel content.

Indycar on Peacock

 

When NBC shut down NBC Sports at the end of 2021, they shifted qualifying for IndyCar races on to Peacock, requiring a paid subscription. I typically watched qualifying and so was a bit bummed by this decision. I decided not to get the $5 subscription initially. This decision was less about the money and more about the principal of having to pay for something that used to come with my YouTube TV subscription.  I thought I might pick it up for the month of May, as there is a lot of Indy 500 content that is broadcast on the channel, but I didn't. Turns out I was too busy to watch it anyway. The season prior to the 500 is pretty sparse, commonly going 2-3 weeks in between races. Once the 500 hits, however, the rest of the season throughout the summer is pretty busy with weekly races. All of the races except one are on NBC or USA, which I get through YouTube TV. The race in Toronto, however, was exclusively on Peacock. That weekend I didn't have much going on, so I decided to go ahead and subscribe to the service to see what it was like. I must say that I enjoyed the experience more than I expected.

One of my buddies who went through this experience last year complained a lot about the app. He said you couldn't pause/rewind live TV, it took a long time for recordings to reappear on the app, etc. I think they've improved their app since last year. You can pause and rewind live TV, recordings appear on the app as soon (or shortly after) they finish live. The headlines do not contain spoilers. It is overall a nice presentation and app experience. One of the fears of removing content from a more traditional provider is that you loose DVR functionality, and I'll say that for the most part this app does a good job of replacing what you would get on a DVR. My only small complaint is that if you watch the race on Peacock, you don't get side-by-side coverage for commercials like you do on NBC. This is at least true for the $5 tier, I'm not sure if this is true for the $10 tier. Overall, the app experience is nice.

There is no question that racing is a niche sport. The obvious negative to this whole setup is that you have to pay $5 a month. There are positives, however, and if you are a big fan (which let's be honest, if you're looking into getting this for racing, you're a big fan), I think the positives easily outweigh the $5 per month fee. In addition to qualifying, you also get the practice sessions and Indy Lights content, none of which was previously available on NBC Sports. Keep in mind, too, that Peacock isn't a racing app. In addition to the racing content, you get other sports content, including English Premiere League soccer, as well as a lot of NBC content as well.

Despite the annoyance of having to pay for what was previously "free" on my main TV service, I think the amount of content and delivery through the Peacock app is worth the price of admission. We were reluctant to cut the cord from our satellite initially because of fear of losing live sports content. YouTube TV has been an excellent substitute for cable/satellite TV. However, at this point in time I feel as if we are very close to being able to eliminate the traditional cable service. Most of the sports we watch we can access through individual apps, and most shows we watch are the same way. More to come on this topic, but I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future we migrate to a more individual app experience. 

New Sound System - Part 5: New Sound Bar

When we moved into our house in 2013, I wanted an option to listen to music and enhance sound from the television. I also wanted to keep the setup simple, which meant no large speakers and receiver. Our living room is somewhat small, and doesn't have a lot of extra room for large speakers. I ended up buying a Sony sound bar. At the time, the sound bar I purchased was advertised as one of the better entry level sound bars with a price of $350. For the first several years the sound bar was mostly used to stream music from the adjacent Alexa device. However, in the past few years when I started watching more movies and streaming shows, I would use it for television and movie sound. The majority of the time when watching TV it sat unused, blocking the remote censor and requiring awkward arm angulation to adjust the volume. Additionally, the Sony did not have HDMI connections, meaning I was limited by lack of HDMI linking and what type of audio I could send to the sound bar from the TV. Because of these reasons, I decided to upgrade to a newer sound bar. It wasn't that the sound from the Sony bar was bad. It was more that it was limited in its daily functionality due to its lack of modern connections. My new sound bar fixed these concerns, kind of.

I didn't do a ton of research on what sound bar I wanted. I knew I wanted to spend around $500, so that was my starting point. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Klipsch, and my brother has a Klipsch sound bar that he likes quite a bit, so the Klipsch Cinema 600 became the top candidate. I looked at some other sound bars in the price range on Crutchfield, but nothing really jumped out at me, and the Cinema 600 had decent ratings, so I went ahead and got it when it went on sale on Prime Days for $400 (usually $550). The only thing I considered doing was getting a bar with Atmos. The Cinema 800 has Atmos, and there was a JBL bar that got good ratings with Atmos too. Both cost around $1,000, however, and neither was on sale. These bars don't go on sale often, so I decided to skip Atmos and get the 600 on sale. We mostly watch sports (and QVC) and stream music from Alexa on this bar, so I think I'm fine skipping Atmos. I'll reserve it for the basement theater.

I was able to get the sound bar to integrate with my TV so that when the TV turns on, the bar does as well, and the remote controls sound through the bar. This allows for improved sound on a daily basis while getting rid of the arm angulation previously required to adjust volume. The TV I am using in this setup is from 2008, and I learned that while it supports HDMI linking (to allow the bar to turn on when the TV turns on), it does not support HDMI ARC. This means I don't get any sound from the TV using HDMI. I have to use HDMI linking to get the bar to turn on, but audio comes from an optical audio cable. Probably a good thing I didn't get the Atmos bar, as I would need HDMI to support that format. My TV needs to be upgraded in this equation to get everything to work seamlessly, but otherwise it works fine and the picture still looks good, so I'm having a harder time justifying that upgrade at the moment. At some point that will be needed as the technology leaves it behind.

As for the sound quality, it is good as expected from Klipsch. The volume levels are kind of weird. It seems to go from 0 to 4-5 on TV, making it difficult to listen to shows on quiet levels. It is easier to hear dialogue which is nice. Streaming from bluetooth has the opposite problem. You have to have the bar turned up halfway to get good volume levels. Neither is a big deal, just kind of strange. I will say that for as much as I like Klipsch speakers, I have had some interesting interactions with their products that involve electronics. My biggest complaint with this bar is that the sub seems to be overactive for certain programs, specifically live broadcasts. I don't know if it is wind on the mic or background crowd noises, but it commonly lightly thumps in the background. It's as if the crossover frequency needs to be lowered. Sadly I don't think this can be done. I have kind of gotten used to it, and you can turn the sub off if it becomes too annoying, but I find it odd that it does this and was surprised when I didn't see anyone in the comments mentioning this.

Overall I think this sound bar upgrade was a success, though not a home run. It allowed for easy integration of the bar for daily use, as well as volume adjustment without throwing out your rotator cuff. I wish the sub was a little less frantic, but otherwise it sounds good and is definitely an upgrade from TV speakers.