The White Lotus (Season 3)

 

We're back for a week long stay at The White Lotus! This time we're at their resort in Thailand. Season 3 of the show follows the same format as seasons 1 & 2. A group of tourists arrive at the hotel, each with different agendas for their vacation, and chaos occurs over the course of the week. This season is probably more serious and less comedic than previous seasons. You know something bad is going to happen, as the beginning of the season actually starts at the end, with bullets flying throughout the hotel common ground. But you don't know specifically who is involved with the bullets flying. There's something about this season that is a bit unsettling, a feeling that lasts throughout its duration. Once again, the music is phenomenal, and does a great job of highlighting the anxiety that hangs around the hotel. The main storylines, as summarized by ChatGTP:

The Ratliff Family

A wealthy Southern family arrives seeking spiritual renewal:

• Tim Ratliff, a powerful businessman, is hiding serious legal and financial trouble.

• Victoria, his wife, clings to appearances and denial.

• Their children struggle with entitlement, repression, and emotional detachment.

Rick & Chelsea

• Rick, a bitter, emotionally closed man, arrives with his younger, free-spirited girlfriend Chelsea.

• Rick is on a personal mission tied to unresolved trauma and revenge.

• Chelsea searches for meaning and connection but slowly realizes Rick’s darkness may consume them both.

The Women’s Friend Group

Three longtime friends reunite:

• Their surface-level harmony masks resentment, competition, and judgment.

• Conversations about wellness, relationships, and success gradually turn cruel.

• Old wounds reopen, revealing how time hasn’t healed their insecurities—only buried them.

These characters also interact with staff members, including Belinda, a spa worker from The White Lotus Hawaii, a character who has been in all 3 seasons, and security guard Gaitok and spa worker Mook. Gaitok has a crush on Mook, and I was convinced the entire season that Gaitok was going to be killed. Luckily he wasn't, and their relationship appeared to be progressing forward, which is nice! Belinda runs into Greg, a character who was in season 2 and killed Belida's friend Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge). Greg happens to be living near the hotel in Thailand, evading authorities. Belinda is suspicious of Greg, and ends up getting $5 million of hush money from Greg. I have a feeling this isn't the last time we're going to hear about their stories.

The women's friend group, featuring characters played by Leslie Bibb & Michelle Monaghan, were the least interesting characters, so I won't spend any time on them. I do want to focus on the Ratliff family, however. They're a family who on the surface seem to be perfect - degrees from Duke, wealthy, successful, etc. Things rapidly fall apart for them when Tim (Jason Isaacs) finds out he has been named as part of an FBI investigation for embezzlement. He spends the entire vacation trying to hide this from his family and keep cool, while becoming addicted to his wife's anxiety medicine and contemplating suicide and killing his family. It's super dark and unsettling, and reminds me of the plot of several 48 Hours mysteries I've seen. His wife (played by Parker Posey), clings hard to appearances and materialistic items, and is in complete denial about what is going on with her husband and kids. Their oldest son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is a complete douche, while their daughter Piper (Sarah Hook) is the black sheep of the family, completely uninterested in materialistic items and wants to live in a monetary. The middle child Lochlan (Sam Nivola) is stuck somewhere in the middle, being pulled towards acting like Saxon at times and like Piper at other times. The Ratliff family has the most complex story, and the entire time I thought one (or all) of them were not going to leave Thailand alive. While this came very close to being true, they all end up surviving.

This leaves us with Rick and Chelsea. Rick's (Walton Goggins) purpose for being in Thailand is to confront the owner of the hotel, who he thinks killed his father. Rick appears to be a burned out middle-aged man, always smoking and drinking and he just generally looks like he has lived a rough life. I was hoping they would get a bit into his back story, but unfortunately they didn't. He's paired with Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), a much younger and much more outgoing person. They are polar opposites on the personality spectrum, which makes them as a couple interesting to watch. Rick eventually confronts the hotel owner and kills him, just before learning that he actually is his father (a bit of a Star Wars moment). A chase occurs, resulting in Rick and Chelsea being shot and killed by security guard Gaitok, resulting in his raise. I felt bad for Chelsea, because she seemed like a good person, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time just because Rick was a jerk. And that is how the season ends. Although Walton Goggins is great, I wasn't sad to see his character Rick die. 

House of the Dragon (Season 2)

 

One of the challenges of watching modern TV series is the duration between seasons. House of the Dragon season 1 came out in 2022, and season 2 came out in 2024. I didn't watch season 2 until 2025, however, making a full 3 years in between seasons.  Subsequently, I remember very little from season 1 in terms of the details. I did remember that the king dies, setting off a race for the Iron Throne. I also remember that the timeline of season 1 was rapid, with some of the main characters starting off as kids and transitioning to adults, all within the same season. I also remember there being a lot of childbirth scenes, which is odd. I also remember thinking season 1 was good, but not as good as Game of Thrones.

I was able to read a summary of season 1 and got caught up quickly. I must say, I enjoyed season 2 more than I remember enjoying season 1. This show is like a light version of Game of Thrones. The concept is the same - houses fighting for the Iron Throne. The main difference is that the number of houses fighting for the throne are much smaller on The House of the Dragon than on Game of Thrones. In The House of the Dragon, only two houses are involved: Team Green and Team Black. Westeros is such a great setting for a show. Having just re-watched Game of Thrones, I enjoyed being back in the Red Keep, Dragonstone, Harrenhal, etc. With that being said, one of the most challenging aspects of this show is learning the characters. You get so used to Cersei, the Kingslayer, and all of the other characters in Westeros in Game of Thrones that it takes a bit of an adjustment period to acclimate to the characters in The House of the Dragon. Secondly, there are several Targaryen characters in this show, all of which have very similar names, and it takes a bit of time to learn which character is which. This is one reason why I'm not giving a recap of the season. The characters can be very confusing. But once I learned them, I started to really enjoy the show. I'm a sucker for Westeros, the Iron Throne, and dragons. This show is maybe not quite as good or grand as Game of Thrones, but it is quite good overall. I'm looking forward to season 3.

Clarkson's Farm (Season 4)

 

I've enjoyed watching Clarkson's Farm. When I initially started watching season 1, I thought the show was going to be a bit staged. I quickly learned that this wasn't the case, however. The show highlights the struggles of the everyday British farmer - the red tape, politics, weather, etc. - while highlighting the buffoonery of Jeremy Clarkson, which is always amusing. Despite such buffoonery, he genuinely seems to care about the farm and its success. I've come to enjoy the cast of characters on the show over the years as well. Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie, Gerald, etc. are always entertaining as well. Since Kaleb has become famous for being on the TV show, he was briefly replaced by a new farmhand named Harriet, who fit in nicely as well. Season 4 is mostly the same as the previous seasons. The big differences are the brief appearances from Harriet when Kaleb was gone, and this year Jeremy decided to open a pub. A lot of the season takes a break from the farm work to focus on the work needed to find a pub location and subsequently get it ready to open. This seems like an incredible amount of work, with a lot of opportunity to fail and much less opportunity to succeed. By the final episode of the season, however, they have the pub up and running, though it got off to a rocky start. It's interesting to me that a man his age would want to do all of this. If I were his age and with his wealth, I would most definitely not be working on a farm and opening my own restaurant and pub. His efforts benefit our entertainment, however, and overall the show has been enjoyable. As long as they keep coming out with seasons, I'll plan to continue to watch. 

Nintendo Switch 2

 

I purchased a Switch 2. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. The interesting thing is that when details of the Switch 2 were first revealed, there wasn't anything coming out with it that I thought was exciting enough to immediately purchase one. That hasn't changed. To this day, the 20+ year old The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap are still the most exciting games on the system to play that I didn't otherwise have access to. Both games are in the Legend of Zelda series, and I haven't played either one previously. Because of this situation, I balked at immediately purchasing a Switch 2. Plus, the last games I played on the Switch were Echoes of Wisdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, both around a year ago.  However, after getting the Portal, with its bigger screen, the Switch was really starting to feel long in the tooth. Plus, my kids still play games on the Switch on a weekly basis. What triggered me to make the purchase now was reading about a major update coming to the Switch 2 for Animal Crossing, a game my kids play regularly. I thought that if I'm going to upgrade to it eventually, I might as well do it now so that everyone can benefit from the upgrade instead of arbitrarily waiting. 

The larger screen is a much welcomed upgrade, though the ergonomics of the Switch 2 aren't any better than the original Switch. The Playstation Dualsense and the Portal that it's designed after remain top of the market in terms of comfort in my opinion. The OS looks the same and I haven't been able to tell much of a difference in graphics, though all the games I've played on it are Switch 1 games. The load times are noticeably faster, however.

There are several game ports available on the Switch 2, and the reviews I've read state that most of these ports are much better than the ports on the first Switch, which was severely underpowered for most of the port games. If there were games that I absolutely wanted to play in handheld mode or on the go, these games would be intriguing for me. As it stands, most of these games I've either already played or have access to on the Playstation or through Playstation Plus, so this hasn't been a huge selling point for me thus far. But it is nice to have the option, at least until Sony has its own dedicated handheld device. I'm interested in Nintendo hardware almost entirely because of their exclusive games. I'll almost always lean towards the Playstation for non-Nintendo games. For me, this upgrade wasn't a necessity at the current moment, but eventually Nintendo will come out with a Zelda game or a Mario game for the Switch 2 that I won't want to pass up. Because of this, I decided to just go ahead and upgrade so that I can enjoy other perks in the meantime, even if the biggest perk for me thus far is the ability to play two 20+ year old games. 

Daredevil: Born Again (Season 1)

 

Charlie Cox's Daredevil character is my favorite Marvel Defenders character and show. The original Netflix series has been one of my favorite Marvel series or movies in the entire MCU, actually. With that being said, I was super excited when Daredevil: Born Again was announced, complete with the entire cast of main characters, including Cox's Matt Murdock, Foggy, Karen, and Kingpin. The show got good reviews, and I've been looking forward to watching it since it was released about 6 months ago.

The season starts with Matt's friend and co-working lawyer Foggy being shot and killed by season 3 villain Bullseye. Fast forward one year, and Karen has left New York for San Francisco and Matt, devastated that he couldn't protect his friends, has left Daredevil behind. Meanwhile, longtime Daredevil nemesis Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, is elected mayor of NYC. Similar to how Matt has left Daredevil behind, Wilson is trying to leave Kingpin behind. Or at least he says he is trying. As predicted, things don't stay calm in NYC for long, as crime becomes rampant and Wilson vows to control the vigilantes. Wilson becomes increasingly unstable with his power as mayor, even introducing his own police force to deal with vigilantes, a force that doesn't necessarily have to play by the rules. Things boil over when Matt's client, who happens to be the masked vigilante the White Tiger, is killed by the police.

Overall, I enjoyed season 1 of Born Again. Anytime Charlie Cox or Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) are on the screen, they demand your attention. They are both very good at playing their respective characters. I will admit, Fisk's rise to political power as a known criminal and his willingness to push the boundaries of his power and the police force hit a little too close to home for me in today's political climate. Fisk does become mayor in the comics, but I do not know if his actions are similar there, or if his character for the show was written to reflect the parlance of our times. Additionally, there were a few episodes in a row earlier in the season where Daredevil doesn't make an appearance at all. This was a bit of a disappointment, given that he is the main star of the show. All of this is done to set up a complex situation where Daredevil comes out of retirement to protect Hell's Kitchen and NYC again. I anticipate season 2 will be a bit more faster paced and avoid this issue. Muse is a villain that appears this season, but he and Fisk villain Adam are both under developed and not that interesting, honestly. This show is about Kingpin and Daredevil, and that is a good thing, given how good those characters and actors are. There were a couple of scenes featuring The Punisher as well, which I liked. When the season ended, the Punisher was locked in a cage but was in the process of escaping. The season overall was quite enjoyable, despite Daredevil missing in a couple of episodes. I anticipate season 2 will be even better, and thus am looking forward to it when it releases next spring. 

My State of Mobile Gaming: Part 11 - Further Emphasis On Streaming (Part 2)

It's as if Sony read my mind when they expanded streaming on the Playstation Portal. I just recently said that until Playstation makes a portable device that can play games on the device itself, streaming was likely the best way to play games on the Portal given the reliability issues of remote play on the PS5. In the somewhat recent past, Sony introduced streaming for select games on the PS5. Where this gets a bit odd is that there were two groups of game libraries for streaming. One group of games was on Playstation Plus, a library of around 400+ games. The second group was from your own personal library, where select games have the option to stream. For the Playstation Plus streaming library, the only use I found for this was if there was a game you wanted to try before committing to downloading the full game on your console. Otherwise, there was no real advantage to streaming the game unless you wanted to play it quickly or save hard drive space. This changed when you could stream the games on the Portal, however. Now you had access to Sony's large streaming library on the Portal, which is a huge advantage given the aforementioned reliability issues with remote play. 

Having the ability to stream games from your own personal library was a bit difficult to understand. Your always going to get better performance running the game on the Playstation itself vs on the cloud, so why this would be a needed option was a bit confusing. That is, until Sony expanded the streaming capability of the Portal to include games from your own personal library. This is a huge upgrade, as obviously having the ability to stream the games from your library that you are wanting to play is better than being limited to an arbitrary library on Playstation Plus. This also expands the number of games available to stream to over 2,000+ games I've read. It's not perfect, as 4 out of the 5 games I'm playing right now don't offer streaming. I'm sure this will expand as time progresses, however. Last night I was able to play Forza: Horizon 5 for over an hour on my Portal via stream without a single disruption. Previously, I would have never tried to play a game like this on the Portal with remote play. Overall, I'd like to see Sony make a dedicated portable device that integrates with the PS6. I hope those rumors are true. In the meantime, the expansion of features and ways to play games on the the current Portal have been encouraging. 

Assassins Creed III

 

After playing Fallout 4 last year, I got into a Boston kick. We were able to visit Boston earlier this year and went on the Freedom Trail tour. Ever since, I've been on a revolutionary war kick. Assassin's Creed (AC): Valhalla was the first AC game I've played, and enjoyed it, and thus I've been interested in playing other AC games. AC III takes the franchise to the 1770s during the time of the American Revolutionary War, and thus was the perfect blending of recent interests.

AC III is a Playstation 3 era game, and was remastered for the Playstation 4. The remastered PS4 game is what I played, and initially it looked terrible. It looked like I was playing the game through a bad Instagram filter. A quick Google search took me to a Reddit thread which explained that this was an issue with HDR, and turning off HDR in the Playstation options would fix the problem. Sure enough, turning off HDR did fix the issue. In the grand scheme of things it was a minor issue. I only bring it up because of how strange of an issue it was. Now, onto the game. Below is a summary of the historical timeline, from ChatGTP:

1. Haytham Kenway (1754)
• The game begins with Haytham Kenway, an Englishman & Templar who appears to be an Assassin, sent to the American Colonies to locate a mysterious First Civilization temple.
• During his travels, Haytham meets and falls in love with a Native American woman named Kaniehtí:io (Ziio).

1. Ratonhnhaké:ton / Connor (1760s–1783)

• The story shifts to their son, Ratonhnhaké:ton, who grows up in his mother’s Mohawk village.
• When the village is attacked by colonists led by Charles Lee (a Templar), Connor vows revenge and joins the Assassin Brotherhood under mentor Achilles Davenport.
• Taking the name Connor, he fights against the Templars’ influence in the colonies, believing they threaten liberty.

1. The American Revolution

• Connor becomes embroiled in key historical events, including The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s ride, Battles at Lexington and Concord, And George Washington’s campaign.
• He works with figures like Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and George Washington, while trying to protect his people and stop the Templars’ manipulation of the revolution.

1. Father vs. Son

• Connor eventually learns that his father, Haytham Kenway, is a high-ranking Templar.
• They briefly work together against a common threat but ultimately clash over ideology — freedom vs. order.
• Connor kills Haytham in their final confrontation.

1. The End of Charles Lee

• Connor hunts down and kills Charles Lee, the man responsible for his mother’s death, bringing an end to the Templar plot in the colonies.
• He secures the land for his people, but the encroachment of settlers continues — symbolizing the bittersweet cost of freedom.

It is really cool to see historical Boston and play through some of the major revolutionary war events listed above. It was by far the best part of the game, and to be fair, the majority of the game focused on the historical events. The AC games always have an underlying Assassins vs Templars theme, incorporating modern day events with the historical story using the Animus device. For me, these modern day events missed the mark. First of all, I didn't really understand what was going on. I think it was a continuation of a storyline from the first two games, maybe? It never really explained it, and every time the game jumped to modern day, I immediately wanted it to go back to revolutionary Boston. There were a couple of other gameplay issues that I had (the map was confusing, the gameplay was a bit simple), but in general I really enjoyed the historical timeline aspect of this game. It was fun playing through the historical events and learning about some of the historical figures. AC Odyssey was a miss for me. I'm glad I enjoyed AC 3. It restored my faith in the series, and I plan to play other AC games again because of it.