BOOKS

• Singing In The Forest by Jimmy Liao

Its taken months since I started up Singing In The Forest but I finally found the book again and finished it up. In reality, its a bit of a short poetry sort of deal but sets it in a whimsical world of fairy tales and magical creatures of sorts while also having a little poems about the discoveries in the world sometimes commenting on the mundanities and oddities. Its an odd book to dive into at first but as the little poems and scenarios build up along with the charming illustrations, it does have a deeper message in each one that makes you think a little. It is very much in the same concept as Jimmy Liao’s other books like Pourquoi.

MOVIES

• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
• Pee-wee As Himself (2025)
• Les Affamés (Ravenous, 2017)
• Jagged (2021)
• Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (2025)
• Companion (2025)
• The Last Showgirl (2024)
• Until Dawn (2025)
• Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
• Heathers (1989)
• Dumplin’ (rewatch 2018)
• Imaginary (2024)
• Death Of A Unicorn (2025)
• Casa Bonita Mi Amor (2024)
• A Minecraft Movie (2025)
• Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)
• Weathering With You (2019)
• Jumanji: The Next Level (2019 rewatch, Review)
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
• Winter Spring Summer Or Fall (2024)
• Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

I’d say that September was a pretty colorful month. There’s a bunch of awesome viewings, mostly recommendations from my podcast co-host and the Oh My Horror picks have also been incredibly good as well. While I worked through some Crave and Paramount Plus titles as their subs came to an end, it was full of surprises. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was a film that felt like it kept turning up the story that it was more captivating as it went along. Pee-Wee As Himself was surprisingly enlightening even for myself who didn’t grow up watching Pee-Wee Herman. Paul Reubens is fascinating person to watch on screen. Same goes for Jagged which dove into Alanis Morrisette’s way to fame. The Last Showgirl had a wonderful cast and the entire cast and the story itself really delivered even down to a supporting role for Dave Bautista which I thought was brilliant.

Of course, there’s also Final Destination Bloodlines that I would’ve got to eventually since I like the franchise and while I didn’t watch the one before it, this one really did bring it home as it gave a final explanation of why all this stuff is happening and why its happening to all those people in the previous films and why they got chosen. Companion was probably the standout recommendation even though I figured out what the deal of the film was, there were so many great moments and shock elements that pulls the film together to be a wonderful horror film experience. Finally, we have Casa Bonita Mi Amor which was a fun documentary as you watched the South Park creators go a little crazy as they realized the ditch they dug themselves into by taking on what was supposed to be easy fix-up of Casa Bonita but turned out to be a huge financial undertaking.

Oh My Horror has some great categories and I was able to finally watch Les Affamés, a French-Canadian zombie film which was really good and had some effective horror scenes. Last year’s Phantom of the Opera made me quite hopeful for this year’s pick for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from 1920 and a German silent film which I have to say has some incredible visuals and so much fun to watch. I might try to squeeze a few more of these 1920s films. Much like Dark Night of the Scarecrow which we went in picking it randomly and it turned out to be an amazing 1980s horror film, which says a lot because I’m not a huge fan of the 80s horrors for the most part (not the main classics but in general they don’t quite get me in the horror department). There is one more horror film here in this month for the challenge but I’m only halfway done but its a good one so far.

I’m not going to go through the whole list but some other titles which were random solo viewings that I thought was pretty fun and worth a mention is Death of a Unicorn, Heathers (yes, its my first time watching it), and Winter Spring Summer or Fall which had some great romance chemistry going on there.

TV

• Twisted Metal (Season 2, 2025 Podcast Discussion)
• The Chinese Restaurant (Season 9, 2025)
• Wednesday (Season 2, 2025)
• When The Phone Rings (2024)
• Amy Bradley Is Missing (2025)
• The Residence (2025)

Currently watching: Great Escape S7, The Singer 2025, Run For Time 2025, Deep Affection Eyes, Sullivan’s Crossing S2, My Life With The Walter Boys S2, Mobius, Call Me By Fire

September was a decent TV watching month with some great discoveries. Twisted Metal Season 2 was a great follow-up to Season 1 and still shows how it was incorporated really great with the premise of the video game but still keeping it a good balance between action and comedy. While the Season 2 of Wednesday had its second part to wrap up the season and it took some pretty wild directions like the body swap episode but while it was entertaining for the most part, it felt like it didn’t have as good of direction and pacing than the first season, probably because the focus flies a little all over the place with more characters to manage and multiple subplots to work through even if the last few episodes do pull it together.

The Chinese Restaurant Season 9 being the first season that I saw of this show had an ensemble that I liked plus it was set in Morocco which made it a pretty neat viewing experience as a whole. Maybe I might even go back and check out some of the previous seasons. As we step away from the Chinese series, I’m trying to focus a little attention all those documentaries and Korean series which brings me to first When The Phone Rings which is a decent series even if a lot of times it feels like a big budget short drama type of content. It does have a good pacing with its reveals although the ending feels a little underwhelming. For documentaries, I watched Amy Bradley Is Missing which is an interesting case to say the least and as I go from Poop Cruise last month to this documentary this month, it doesn’t making going for a southern cruise very appealing.

Finally, the big discovery of this month was The Residence which I absolutely loved. There’s so much potential to build on the Cordelia Cupp character like what Rian Johnson has done for Benoit Blanc but from what I’ve read, its a limited series so probably no more follow-up. Either way, it was such a great cast and some fantastic little twists. Uzo Aduba does such a quirky and fun take on this character especially when paired with Randall Park.

GAMES

• Strange Horticulture
• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery

Currently playing: Hidden Folks (replay), Monument Valley (replay)

I’ve been having a really fun time diving into all the free games I’ve picked up on Epic Games. Strange Horticulture really lived up to expectation and possibly exceeded it being a much deeper experience in both story and game mechanics. I won’t talk too much about it but it’ll be in an upcoming episode of Game Warp. Next game I played was Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery which I’ve heard really great things especially for its feeling of playing a Studio Ghibli movie and it absolutely lives up to the feeling. The game itself isn’t very long at around 2 hours of play time but it incorporates a lot of art puzzles focusing on colors and such. Its a charming story overall and the soundtrack is absolutely wonderful. Below is a song preview that I love the most: