Top 15 Board Games I’m Waiting On

15: Critter Kitchen

Based off of Flamecraft I am excited for Critter Kitchen. It is a very different game, but still it looks amazing. And I like the food theme, the idea that you’re basically chefs trying to impress critics is a fun theme. I feel like there is a bit more going on in this game than Flamecraft, so what is keeping it lower on the list is I want to know the weight and accessibility of it, because the artwork is amazing and very welcoming.

14. The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game

This one is very new to the list as in that I preordered it this week. But it’s Lord of the Rings, a theme that I love. But there is way more that I love about this game than just that, or at least the theory of it. It sounds like you play cooperatively through The Fellowship of the Ring in various missions. So cooperative, trick-taking, and scenarios with a theme I love, I’m all in.

13. Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders

Now one that I’ve been waiting on for quite a while. Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders is why I got Tidal Blades, a game that I still need to play. The first one interests me a fair amount, I like the idea of leveling up and improving your dice. But the second one, well, it’s a dungeon crawler and we know I love dungeon crawlers. Plus scenario/campaign based and some interesting sounding mechanisms. Especially around turns where you slowly build up what you can do, then after a real powerful turn it resets and you repeat the process.

12. Marvel United: Multiverse

Next up is just more Marvel United. I love all the stuff for the Marvel United board games. Multiverse is going to give me more stuff. So why wouldn’t I want to play with more stuff for the game. Especially since it’s so easy to get to the table.

11. Wandering Galaxy: A Crossroads Game

I need to play the other board games in this line. They are all really different themes, but they all sound like a ton of fun. this one is going to be about space explorers, mercenaries, whatever it might be. And you play them along missions and scenarios in a big adventure. I just like the fact that it’s this crossroads system, the best part of Dead of Winter. I like making choices and maybe not them impacting the whole game, but being meaningful in terms of flavor.

10. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – RETALIATION

This one is on the list because I’m enjoying Vampire the Masquerade: Chapters a lot. Yes, they are different games, but both promise narrative and living in the Edge of Darkness world. So I want to experience more of that. And while there is a ton of stuff about vampires, I feel like werewolves need more, so the theme is even better for me.

9. Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men

Much like Marvel United, Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men is just more stuff. It’s been a bit since I played Dice Throne, but I’m ready to battle it out again in this dice chucking battle yahtzee with unique powers.

8. Stonesaga

Stonesaga is high on the list as a persistent game that sounds really fun to me. And I know that I like the start of it. Though, I’ve done the tutorial enough times that I’m ready to see more. But I like everything going on in the game and the fun minigames within the bigger game. And it’s set well before technology really of any sort, so I love the discovery aspect and process to the game.

7. Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game

Another one that I’ve played, this one I’m still waiting patiently for after playing it about a year ago at CMON Expo. I love this game, I love that it’s a combat game, but not always a combat game. Sometimes you just want to sneak around because when the guards know where you are at they’ll all rush you. And I got to play it in the standalone mode, but I want to try the short campaign in it as well.

6. Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

A big campaign game, and there are a few on the list at this point and a few more to come. I love my big campaign board games. Arydia though sounds so interesting to me. Mainly because it plays over three different levels. There is this largest level that is the world, well not full world but let’s say lands that you traverse over. Then you go down to a more focused area, maybe a big camp or a town. Then you can get down to tactical dungeon crawl as you go. The whole idea just sounds amazing and I want to see how it executes.

5. Castle Combo

Another one that hit the list a couple of days ago. Castle Combo is one that I’m playing on BGA (Board Game Arena) right now and I really love it. It’s a simple game where you build out a three by three grid of cards. You spend coins to buy the cards which give you an immediate bonus, probably more coins and then a scoring. And you just want to get the best scoring from the cards you can buy. Simple but a ton of fun.

4. The Witcher: Path of Destiny

I need to play my other Witcher game, but The Witcher: Path of Destiny is still really exciting for me. I like The Witcher a lot as a setting. This is one that I kind of wish was cooperative, but also I get it, all the characters really have their own thing that they are doing. But it’s about building your most iconic and exciting story in the Witcher world, and that sounds like fun. But it’s not really a storytelling game, it’s more about completing challenges to gain those stories.

3. Witchbound

Witchbound is one that I stumbled across two years ago and I’m excited for when it will be coming. The hope is that it would be really fast turn around, it wasn’t. But that is because it needed to be translated into other languages. But it’s basically a point and click adventure as a board game. I find that fun and the artwork is great and the story is great. Solo only game and one that I’m excited to show off when it comes in.

2. Mistborn Deckbuilding Game

Another one that I’ve played, Mistborn Deckbuilding Game is one that I got to play at Gen Con and it’s great. I love the ramping nature of the game, I love the thematic nature of the game. And the game play is so fast. It’s not that the game is too short, it’s more that the game moves along quickly and you feel like you do something each turn. And burning the metals is a great thematic element that works well to separate it from other deckbuilding games.

1. Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

My number one for anticipated board games, as it has been for a while, is Rogue Angels. I’m still so excited for this game, and I’m tempted to reset my prototype copy and play it again. The story is a blast, the game play is easy to follow. And I really like the cooldown system for actions and the flow that everything moves with. The late pledges are still open on this one so if you’re looking for a cooperative campaign game, I highly recommend this one.

Which Is Most Interesting To You?

Let me know which of these board games you are excited in, if you’ve backed or preordered any of them. There are so many good games coming out, it’s hard to keep up on playing everything. So like I said, I’m taking a hiatus from buying just so that I can play more of the games that I already have. Because there are a lot of games that I want to play more or ones that I want to get to the table for the first time.

And when these games come in, I’m going to want to get them to the table as quickly as I can. Though, some of them being bigger games or campaign games, those might take longer to hit the table. But when Witchbound comes in, as long as I’m not streaming another cooperative/solo campaign, it’d going to get started because of how simple it is to get to the table. But now just to wait on those board games and play the ones that I have.

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The Witcher: Old World – Crowdfunding

So let’s start out why I didn’t back this one at first. There were two things that stood out to me, the first being that it is not a cooperative game. You play as Witchers who are learning and fighting over bounties, feuding with each other, basically trying to get to be the most famous Witcher of all time, or at least until Geralt comes around.

The other reason is that I knew someone else who backed the game. But I try not to let that influence my backing decisions too much. Game groups shift over time, I’ve found historically. And while some gamers stick around throughout it all (I suspect this one will continue to), it is a question mark. Plus, a game owned by more means that it’s more likely to get played because it doesn’t need to be lugged around to get played.

The Prototype

But let’s give you an idea as to how this is played. Because I don’t believe the game has changed a ton since the original game plays were done. There is just a lot of content to the game with stretch goals and expansions, so it took a while for a new company to get it out.

But as you can see, it’s a pretty big and sprawling experience. And I think it’s worth noting that a thee player game on camera took almost two hours. Which I expect for a larger epic game. But let’s talk about that because on camera, games like this take longer. They say the camera adds 10 pounds, well in an game play, the camera adds probably 10-15% to game length.

Competitive and Maybe Confrontational

Let’s talk about what I mean by this. There are elements of the game that can be confrontational. You are able to fight another Witcher and knock someone down a peg while raising yourself up. At least in the original game play. But is that the best plan of attack? From what I remember the rewards for that were less than you’d likely run into by doing other things.

So instead, let’s talk about the competitive nature of the game. Because you are still competing over monsters and who can defeat them first. So there will be those moments there when you race, do a riskier battle, and all to defeat a monster that someone else is going for. That’s an element that I don’t mind in games. And with The Witcher: Old World, thematically it makes sense. And a new monster will pop up on the board fast, so the prep to fight a monster likely won’t go to waste.

In fact, this reminds me of another game that I need to play again: Zona: Secrets of Chernobyl. Again you can mess with a player, but it’s really about doing that to slow them down so you can get to the secret first. But also, if you spend too much time on that, the game is counting down to a radiation blast that will take you out, so it can’t just be your focus. It’s about the opportunity and the cost.

The Setting

The setting is one of the biggest draws to the game. Yes, you aren’t playing as Geralt. But the world of The Witcher is a fascinating one filled with a ton of lore. And to see that brough into a board game is cool. While they don’t bring the setting through a ton of story, they do bring it through the monsters and the world itself. Which, I like as a nice balance.

Kind of as a subtopic on the setting, this type of story, I like to call an emergent story. I tell the story of my Witcher as I go out and learn and adventure. At the end, I’ll have a pretty epic tale. To me that’s the big part of a game like this. Developing my epic tale as I go along because I do want a story in a game, but I don’t need that game to always tell me a story. Some great experiences are the players telling a story through the game.

Final Thoughts on The Witcher: Old World

I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t matter too much if you missed the Kickstarter campaign. This is a game that I think should come to retail and retailers would be glad to have on their shelves.

But more so than that, the theme is one that will bring in a lot of people who might not game otherwise. They see the Witcher, they are curious, they buy it. It might not work for them. And it’ll bring in a lot of people who are speculating on scarcity, so they buy more to resell. So I don’t think this will be the strongest secondary market. But it’s hard to know because of the IP.

I am really excited to get my hands on the game though. And I haven’t gone over player count, but it is a 1-4 player game. So I can decide to play it solo. I wonder how well that will work, right now most people like it at 2-3 probably because of length at 4 players. But to be able to try it solo, I am always down for that.

So did the world of The Witcher draw you into this game? Are you awaiting a copy like I am?

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Top 5 Most Anticipated Television Shows of 2023

5. The Witcher Season 3

It’ll be Henry Cavill’s last season but that’s fine, I still expect to enjoy it a lot. I’ve enjoyed both seasons and while they aren’t the most consistent, I love the lore of the world. Season 2 gave us a good tease of something big at the end and now I’m curious to see how they’ll pay it off.

4. Fallout

I don’t know much about this show. In fact, I’m not 100% certain it’ll come out in 2023. But if it does from Amazon Prime, I’ll be curious about it. The world is interesting and I don’t have that much exposure to it. It’s probably a video game that I should checkout. But I think something like this with a big would could translate well to a television series.

3. Shadow and Bone Season 2

I really loved the first season, so to get a 2^nd, I’m excited to see what is going to happen. The characters are interesting, the world is interesting and generally, I didn’t have any real qualms with the show, the only thing, and this isn’t a bad thing, I might want to rewatch season 1. It’s been just long enough that I’ll want to know what happened and relive it again.

2. Star Wars Shows

We should be getting the Mandalorian Season 3, which I’m so excited for. Plus the Ahsoka show, also really excited for that one. I know I need to catch up on stuff like Andor, Kenobi and finally finish Book of Boba Fett, but none of them really excited me. Mandalorian Season 3 is must watch the week that it comes out for me. And I hope that Ahsoka will be the same. Oh, and I almost forgot Skeleton Crew which sounds like a lot of fun as well and isn’t tied into Star Wars cannon seemingly as much. So I’m more interested in it.

1. Marvel Shows

Obviously, and there might be a number of them with Secret Invasion, Loki Season 2, Echo, Agatha Coven of Chaos, Ironheart, and maybe What If Season 2 as well in the mix. If you want to know my favorites or most anticipated in that and see how they rank against the movies, check out the January 3^rd episode of 10 Minute Marvel.

Honorable Mentions

Of course I have some of those as well.

• But the first one is Anasi Boys an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman book but one that I thought was just alright. It’s certainly one I’d checkout, if it sounds interesting enough once some reviews start coming in.
• Extinction, on TNT not a streaming show, also sounds interesting, a software engineer who gets stuck in a time loop where the world keeps ending in different ways, that sounds entertaining. I believe it’s already been out in the UK, it’s coming to the US in 2023.
• Probably should be on the list already, but The Continental coming to Starz, which means it might be a bit until I see it. But this one I do want to see, a prequel series to the John Wick films about the Continental Hotel from that series, set in the late 1970’s.
• Dune Sisterhood because it is a Dune show, don’t know too much about it, but I’m curious. It’s on HBO Max, and still alive, so it’s lower on the list because who knows when I’d see it.
• And I’m not seeing it for this year, but if Wheel of Time Season 2 comes out, that’ll be towards the top of the list.
• Also, Stranger Things season 5. But that is supposed to start filming this year, so unlikely to come out.

What shows are you looking forward to?

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Top 5 TV Shows from 2022

5. Wheel of Time

I know that there are going to be some people who disagree with this one. It isn’t enough like the books, and I agree with that, but I still had a ton of fun with it. I thought that they got a lot of the characters right. And I want to see what is going to happen next. This was never going to be a 14 season series with teenagers, and I don’t think I’d ever have wanted that. But it gave me a look into Robert Jordan’s world and the magic and the turning of the world just maybe from a slightly different universe than the one that he wrote.

And I keep on coming back to it when I talk about it, the casting is really good. The characters are so much fun, and the experience of watching the show, it was almost much watch TV for me. Which, besides Marvel, it’s hard for a show to do that. I still have stuff like Andor, Book of Boba Fett, and Rings of Power on the too catch-up on list.

4. The Witcher

It’s a shame that Henry Cavill is leaving and that like The Wheel of Time, this isn’t closer to the source material. But I am having fun with this series. Henry Cavill is great as Geralt. And while I didn’t like Yeniffer’s storyline at all or her character at all in the 1^st season, she’s a little bit better. I’m still the least interested in what she is doing, but she’s tolerable now. And with where season 2 ended, I want to know what is going to happen next. Even if this is the last season that I watch, I want to know where it is going to go.

3. Locke & Key

Locke & Key is a rare show that got a chance to wrap up on it’s own terms. But I’m so glad that it did, maybe it could have been longer and more keys could have been found. But they did a really good job of wrapping up the story and creating memorable moments. That family has been through so much, and it just worked so well with how the story ended. It makes me want to find another story in that crazy world or something, but also so satisfied with how everything ended.

2. The Dragon Prince

This one might be higher because it was more recent, but I really love The Dragon Prince. And it also might be higher because we watched through the whole series again. This newest season, not a ton happens, really in it, but there is enough fun that it just works. And it had been a while, both in the show and in real life, so it was nice to get to enjoy seeing characters that I love on the screen again. And then of course they are going to have their own dramas as well, but that’s part of the show. And again, they handle some difficult topics very well.

1. Stranger Things

Finally, Stranger Things. I don’t think it’s a surprise. Stranger Things Season 4 was amazing. I’d put it neck and neck with Season 1. The new characters introduced were great. And they really upped the stakes in this season. Not so much in people dying, I won’t spoil who does or doesn’t make it, but just in the level of threat. Which, I must say, is impressive, because they had some massive threats before.

And it was interesting how the three different storylines were really so different this season. Previous seasons they exist but are also closer together. Now they were really spread apart and where it ended, I can’t wait to see how they’ll wrap up the series. Plus they are working on more stuff for Netflix, including in the world of Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers that is, so I want to know what will happen that way as well.

What was your Favorite Show of 2022?

Let me know that down in the comments. I will finish up Book of Boba Fett sometime and I do want to watch Rings of Power, Andor, 1899, Wednesday, and more. Which would you start with to catch up? And then I also know there are new shows coming out, that list coming soon, that I’m excited for.

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The $1 Crowdfunding Pledge

Let’s talk about the $1 pledge level. Why do I pledge at that level sometimes, and how often do I get more?

So what is a $1 pledge? It is basically a cheap way to get the updates on a Kickstarter campaign. With Gamefound you can follow along if you subscribe to it. But Kickstarter, is is $1 and often times it gives you access to the pledge manager as well.

The nice thing about a $1 pledge is that you don’t need all the money at once. If both Final Girl and Marvel Zombies run at the same time – they did – then you don’t need to give both of them a couple hundred dollars right at the same time. You back $1 now you can get one now and save up for the other one later.

But how often do I back for $1, once in a while, and I’d say maybe 2 out of the 6-7 that I did that with, I ended up adding in the pledge manager. One, for sure, that I did was The Witcher: Old World. And I believe there was another that I added. I don’t care enough, most of the time, to do $1 and get the updates.

The Drink

A Negroni again. It’s such a good drink, again a warm day and one that is nice to have on a day like that. But a good drink to have stuff around for. It is really one that I like to sip while grilling as well. On a hot summer day it is refreshing and with some ice in there, it doesn’t feel water down when the ice melts.

Upcoming Streams

Tomorrow I’ll be streaming, I think my plan is more Paper Dungeons. So join for some fun to play along. I’m still working my way through that campaign.

I talked about this on the stream, and maybe I’ll talk about it more tomorrow. But I am getting a gaming table with a topper. That will allow for me to leave a bigger campaign game set-up on the lower level and put the top on when I want to play something else. So once that comes, I am going to be getting back to streaming a larger game.

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Marvel Television Series

So we don’t know all of what is coming out. The fact that we have Ms Marvel, She Hulk, and Moon Knight all with footage, I think it’s safe to so we’ll be getting those series. Plus an animated Captain Carter series coming March. I’m assuming this is picking up with where What If left off. But since we haven’t heard anything, I’m guessing no live action before that, which means we have some time between shows.

The Lord of the Rings

This I think was on the list last year, and I’m still interested in it. I do not know what the show is going to be about or how it is going to go, but I think that it could be cool to see what they do with it. I know it’s going to be characters that are old and new, which I kind of just wish it was new. I know it’s not super related but the Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth board game, I wish that had been only new characters. Don’t try and jam in more history. But I will watch this when it comes out.

The Witcher: Blood Origin

It’s a live action spin-off, I think there is an animated show as well. This one is going to be from before the events of the Witcher. I’m guessing it’ll deal some with the rise of the Witchers and that lore. I don’t know much else beyond that. But I really like the lore of The Witcher series and video games, and I still need to read the books. The fact that it’s a show runner who is tied to the main Witcher series. This also sounds like a one season show, just to explore some history, which could be good.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

So while I am looking forward to this show, it is a Star Wars character that we already know about. So I think it will be a lot of fun, but I don’t know what I need a show about him between everything. But then again, it could be cool. I’m more ready for more new Star Wars shows to come out. Book of Boba Fett even is more interesting and he’s a character I like less. But we know less about what became of him with Obi-Wan there is a clear spot he needs to end up, which makes it way less interesting.

Ahsoka (Star Wars Shows)

Another Star Wars show, and really I wanted to talk about Obi-Wan Kenobi separately because I had more to say on it. But any of the Star Wars shows, I’m going to watch. And Ahsoka was a fun character to see on the Mandalorian. I do want to see further away from the main Star Wars storyline as well. I still need to wrap up Visions but was really enjoying that thus far.

Halo

I don’t know how I’m going to watch this one this year, but it’s a big show. And while Halo isn’t a video game that I’ve played that much of, just a little bit of the first one in college, the lore and the world are interesting to me. I’m curious to see what they can do with it, because there was talk of a Halo movie, but a show based off of it is actually more interesting to me because it might be given a chance to grow and shine.

Supernatural Academy

If you read my Top 5 Television Shows and Top 5 Books, You’ll know that I like stories where it’s someone going to a supernatural academy. This looks like a young adult or middle grade fantasy book series that is being adapted as an animated show. Will it be good, who knows, but it is the type of show that I’m going to watch to checkout. And from what I can tell of the animation style, it looks good. Plus I get Peacock with my cable, might as well use it more.

Around the World in 80 Days

This is a classic Jules Verne novel, and while I won’t likely be watching this immediately when it comes out, I do want to watch it. Add in that it’s David Tennant who I really liked from Doctor Who, I’m more likely to watch it. I think this might be one that my wife, Kristen, will be even more excited about. It’s coming to BBC One/PBS, so it might be one of those that I need it come to streaming so I can watch it.

Stranger Things Season 4

Hopper has been in Russia for a long time, so long he even became the Red Guardian, oh, wait, didn’t world. But I’m excited to see what happens next. I won’t lie, I think this maybe should be the last season of Stranger Things, or maybe one more to wrap up loose ends. The kids are getting older and the show feels like it’s best when you have younger kids, older, and adults. Though maybe a new generation is brought it, but we’ll have to see. I’m still really excited to see what happens.

That’s my full list, and honestly, that’s a very full list. Plus I have shows to catch up on like Locke & Key which I’m still going through season two and might have season 3 coming out next year. Arcane is one that I want to watch and let’s not even start talking about anime because, well, I’ll be doing that soon.

What show(s) are you excited to see?

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Why Do People Expect It?

I think before we talk about how you can keep up, we need to talk about why there is a pressure to keep up. And, honestly, if this pressure is even a good thing. I’ll answer the second question first. No, it is not a good thing. But let’s talk about why there is pressure.

People Want You To Like What They Like

This one generally is pretty harmless, though, it can be twisted. People often want you to know what is coming up and be involved in it because they are. They want to be able to talk about it with you, and, at it’s purest form, they want you to have the same joy that they are feeling.

It can be twisted into an expectation, though. Often people will use this as an expectation that you will like what they like. All of these things are very subjective. I might not like The Witcher not because it’s bad but because I don’t like fantasy. Now, we know that to be a lie, I do like fantasy, but as an example.

To Show You’re Cool

This one is never a good reason, liking something doesn’t make you cool. And expecting someone to like someone, or pressuring them to watch something and like something, also doesn’t make you cool. This comes from social media and the expectation that you can post about stuff and that will show a cool credibility. But there are plenty of people who will put on pressure and expectations that you need to keep up, or I need to keep up.

Why Should You Be Keeping Up?

There’s very few good reasons to be keeping up on everything. In fact, I don’t think there is a good reason to keep up on everything. Instead, I think that you can and should keep up on what you really love. But don’t give yourself the expectation that you need to.

Alex Radcliffe from BoardGameCo talked about this a bit with board games and board game reviews in particular. And it makes me think of a review that No Pun Included did on Tainted Grail. They powered through the whole game in a span or a week or two and did not like the game. And you can equate this to a Netflix show where everything drops at once. When you create an expectation for yourself that you need to watch something or play all of something immediately to be first, to be able to talk about it best, it loses it’s fun.

So you should be keeping up with stuff you love at a pace that is reasonable for it. For me, this can look like board games I don’t need to back on Kickstarter. For example, I talked about Mythwind today. This game is on Kickstarter currently and it looks really interesting. It is supposed to be like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing where there is no win condition. I want to play it. But I do not need to back it right now, I can buy it later if I really want to.

How Do You Keep Up?

The answer, to me, is you don’t. Not because it’s bad to keep up, but because you literally can’t. For board games, thousands come out a year, anime episodes, thousands a year, movies, most years thousands a year, comics, thousands a year. I could go on to drive home this point, but the point is that even if you have a very focused hobby, there’s probably more than enough to keep you busy for more than a year.

So I think the question is less how do you keep up, but how to be at peace with not keeping up?

Keeping Up Doesn’t Make You Cool

The first piece is that you aren’t cool by keeping up. Sacrificing sleep to watch a show doesn’t make you cool. Spending lots of money on action figures doesn’t make you cool. And it’s a bit harsh for me to put it that way. But let’s turn it into a positive, you don’t need to feel the pressure of this. It can be a load off of your shoulders as you remember that being the first to something doesn’t make it your life more enjoyable. Instead go at a pace that brings you joy.

Not Keeping Up Means You Can Delve Into Stuff Deeper

For a lot of people keeping up means diving into something 100% for a week and then moving onto the next thing. Netflix seemingly drops a new show ever week, add in Amazon Prime, Disney+, Funimation, CrunchyRoll, Apple TV and more how many things can you keep up on. The speed you’d need to dive into the new favorite thing is going from weeks to a week to eventually days before you need to move onto the next cool thing.

I actually really like that the Marvel shows come out one at a time. Because I get to sit with and think about the show more. I can go into the breakdowns that New Rockstars, ScreenCrush, and Mr Sunday Movies are doing. I can chat about it every week with a coworker who loves Marvel as well. If Disney+ dropped them all at once it’d be a one and done experience.

Relieves The Pressure of Having to Love the Right Things

When you stop trying to keep up, you don’t need to love everything. Or at least seem like you love everything. You now no longer need to think about something that doesn’t interest you. When I stopped watching Game of Thrones it was nice. I always knew I wasn’t that interested in it but it was a group activity, and that group was fun to be around. When that group stopped meeting, I watched some more on my own because I felt like I should.

It was only when I stopped watching it did I realize how much I didn’t care about Game of Thrones. And I was happier for not watching it because it’s a depressing and frustrating show. Now you might love the first seven seasons of Game of Thrones (or even eight) and that’s great, but for me, it was nice not to feel like I should be watching it.

And you can do that with anything. Whether it’s the newest hottest board game, the video game that drops on next week, whatever it might be. And it leads into the last thing.

It’ll Be As Good One Month or One Year Later

If it is something that is great, you can find it later. So going back to Mythwind, if that is a game I want, I can find it later. It might cost a bit more on the secondary market, but that’s okay, it’s not taking up space now. And as much as physical space, it’s not taking up head space. If a game isn’t on my shelf, I won’t see it and think about playing it. Same goes for Netflix or a book. Don’t add a show to your queue, if it’s worth your time you’ll find it again. If a book is really good, they’ll show up at book stores for a long time.

Will you miss out on the initial hype, on that moment in time when to be cool you Tweeted about it? Sure. But will you have the bandwidth to get in on that anyways? The more you have to try and keep track of and keep up with at once the less you can dive into it and enjoy it.

So Don’t Even Try?

There are some things that are worth keeping up with. So it’s not that you don’t try, it’s that you find what is worth keeping up with for you. What do you care about knowing about? What do you want to dive into deeply and get immersed in? That’s up to you, not what is popular at the moment, not the newest hottest thing that is coming out. It’s not that you don’t try, it is that you get to choose what you really care about, which is way more fun. And if something is great, you can always come back to it later.

What is the thing that you dive the most into?

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5 – Umbrella Academy Season 2

This is a really good show. I have liked both seasons quite well, I think that the second season is the better season of the two as it is more consistent across the board. All of the stories work well for the characters and it goes deep on issues during the time period they were in and that still linger today. However, it isn’t higher on my list, because I feel like season 1 has higher highs, more memorable moments. In season 2, it is more consistent and good across the board, but the standout moments feel like they are are lacking to me. With that said, I’m ready for Season 3 to come out because it’s a really good show.

4 – Ragnarok

This one was kind of a surprise for me. I thought that the premise looked interesting, kind of a Norse mythology set in modern times and I’ve had solid luck with the European shows on Netflix like The Rain and Dark. This was a very good show. The plot line was interesting throughout all of it, and while not all of the twists were shocking, some of them were very well done. And the story just felt like it had a lot of heart to it that you don’t always get in shows. It’s a short series but it leaves you feeling like they’ve wrapped it up in a solid spot, but also that you could see more story ready to be told.

3 – The Order Season 2

The Order was one of my favorite shows from 2019, so I was glad that it was getting a second season. I will say, I’m not sure that the second season quite lives up to the first season. I think that the plot doesn’t have as focused a bad guy as the first one does. But you still get all sorts of good moments and funny moments in it. Jack Morton is still somehow likeable and unlikeable all that the same time, and the Knights of St Christopher are still a lot of fun in this season. I think that it gets bogged down in trying to play too much with a middle ground and too much with Jack and Alyssa when it would have been better served keeping some of it’s wonder. Overall, really fun still and really such a B movie style for the plot still.

2 – Lucifer

A show that’s been around for a while, but Netflix kept recommending that we check it out, and clearly, I’m glad that I did. Tom Ellis is amazing in this show as Lucifer, and while the theology is all over the place, no one is watching it for that. They are watching it for a snarky Lucifer and his long suffering partner as they solve crimes. There is so much going on throughout the seasons, and all of them are really good. And there’s more of it coming, which is nice. Netflix got this after Fox dropped it, so there is still fun story to tell with a lot of really good characters in it. This would be just another procedural show if it wasn’t for how good the characters are in the show.

1 – Locke & Key

Finally, we have Locke & Key, and I feel like I’m about ready for a rewatch of this. This is one of my favorite shows of all time. It is a young adult show, kind of, but it is more than that, as it delves into a really weird and unique world where there is a magical door and magical keys that can do all sorts of crazy things, however, not everyone wants to use them for good, nor is everything around them good. I feel like they did a very good job of adapting what isn’t a YA comic book into a YA show while still keeping a lot of the sense of whimsy, almost, that comes from the keys in the show and still even keeping some of the horror along with it, it is just tamed down a little bit. Again, a show that really gets it’s casting right and the character development right.

So yes, I was able to come up with five shows, and I realize there are even more. The second season of Disenchanted came out this year, and I watched The Dragon Prince, plus shows like Another Life, Nightflyers, The Witcher, Agents of SHIELD, and Into The Badlands were ones that I watched this year as well, so I had plenty to choose from, could have even done a top 10. But I really like those top 5 and would highly recommend all of them.

What are some of the best new to you shows from 2020 (doesn’t have to be released in 2020, just that you’ve watched for the first time this year)?

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10 – Ultraman

One of the two animated shows on the list, this one was just a lot of fun to watch with good voice acting as well. It’s fairly typical in how it works, someone becomes a hero who wasn’t always planning on it but they end up being Ultraman and they have to figure out how to deal with that power and how to save the world. A good fun romp with only one season thus far, but it has been renwed for another. I like the blend of 2d and 3d animation in it that works very well. The voice acting is really good in it. It’s not a heavy show, but it’s a lot of fun.

9 – Umbrella Academy

This one, had the first season started out more consistently would have been much higher. I really like the absurdity of the show, and I like how it’s a group of super heroes, but they are basically failures at what they do and completely dysfunctional. The question, always, is can they figure it out to stop the end of the world by working together in time. What makes this show so good though is the characters. Number 5 is amazing, and Hazel was a great character in season one and Klaus is just amazing all around. And in season two they really develop the rest of the characters in great ways and it really tackles a lot of big issues and interesting dynamics. If you can power few the first few episodes of the first season it is very much worth it.

8 – Lucifer

One of the interesting ones on the list because this is only half Netflix. They picked it up from Fox, I believe, and kept it running. The show is just a lot of fun, it’s a procedural show based off of a comic, but not super hero or as completely absurd. It is really absurd because the Devil has come to Los Angeles and he meets and intriguing Detective who doesn’t really fall for his charms, and he wants to know why. So he joins the police as a consultant after helping her with a case, and it’s about the adventures and misadventures of the two of them. It is procedural, which isn’t always my cup of tea but it works in this case because it is fairly absurd.

7 – Dragon Prince

Another animated show for the list and the highest one on the list, but this is a really good show. Technically it’s a kids show, but I think it does a great job of being what a family show should be. It doesn’t shy away from emotions and some big questions, but it doesn’t fill itself with needless violence, sex, etc. that permeates most shows that target adults at all. In this show it’s about what happens with two sides won’t work together and are butting heads and how people can fall from grace and rise to power and what all that means, and what emotions people have when the world around them is very tough or unexpected. Overall, this is an extremely well done show with a ton of interesting things in it, and I’m excited for more of it to come out.

6 – Ragnarok

One of the first of a few foreign language shows that will show up on the list. Not out of where you’d get most of those shows, Ragnarok takes place in Norway and is about a family that is returning to their home town and the things that are off about their home town. Something is happening to the water and there are some people who might not be who they seem to be. It is kind of a teen drama, but it does more than that tying itself interesting into Norse mythology and developing a really fun story. One season thus far, so it’s easy to binge, and it has been renwed for another. I’ll be curious to see where this show builds to into the second season.

5 – The Order

I really like this show because it’s just cheesy schlock, and it’s amazing. It’s about a college age kid, Jack Morton, who is trying to get into a secret society at the local college, because something happened to his mother, and he blames the head of this secret order for what happens. Along the way he stumbles into a world of magic and werewolves, falls in love, and generally everything completely absurd that you’d expect happens. Jack is one of those characters that has a punchable charisma to him and he just kind of makes the show, plus he’s surrounded generally be a really good cast of characters and the use and abuse of magic in this show is really enjoyable. The second season takes a little step down but still really binge worthy.

4 – The Rain

Now, I will say with this, I haven’t seen the latest seasons of the show, so I’m only going off of the first, but this show was amazing. I like survival shows that really pull at your emotions, and this one does that. Something has happened to the rain and turned it deadly. Simone and Rasmus are brought into a shelter that was created maybe for this happening and then left their by their father, and they grow up in there. But when the bunker starts to malfunction, they have to leave and join up with a group who are trying to survive. What has caused the rain and can they find their way back to their father who is somehow connected to the rain? It is a good adventure, but like a lot of these shows, it’s about the dynamics of those who are surviving and how they can work together.

3 – Dark

I love time travel, but rarely is time travel done all that well. In Dark, they nail it. This is a topsy turvy show that takes you through a few different times as you try and figure out everything that is going on and if the cycle can be broken. A German show, it is probably worth watching subtitled in German, though the English dub isn’t bad, it is just noticeable. The feel of the show is very much dark, but it works really well and it is highly atmospheric. Definitely one to checkout if you like shows with a bit of mystery and horror to them. I’m not fully caught up, so it’s one of those shows that I’m going to have to dive back into again soon.

2 – Stranger Things

This is what most people would have pegged for the top of my list, it has monsters, it has adventure, it has humor, it has kids on bikes. And I love it. But there is one show that beats it out for me. This is what really brought the original and variety of Netflix shows to the map, and I love all the characters, I love the campy nature and I like that they’ve been able to keep the show fresh and interesting. The first season had so much interest and intrigue to it, and the second season, while it had an episode that was a complete miss, was really good, but then they came back with a third season that was maybe even better than the first season. I like how you get different group dynamics of over and younger characters and how the adults never treat the kids just as dumb kids. I need to go back and watch through it all again because I just love this show.

1 – Locke & Key

So, the show that beat out Stranger Things only has a single season thus far, and that’s Locke & Key. If you want to say I should wait for season two, I can see that, but I love this show. I love how they manage to take what is a fairly rough comic and something that probably wouldn’t have been as successful if they hadn’t turned it into something more young adult, but still manage to make a great show out of it. I like the acting a lot in it, especially from Kinsey who has an amazing moment and change in her acting in the show. And I like the world that is being built with the keys. The idea of these keys that can do magical things is just really cool and feels like there is so much that can built out around that. I’m extremely excited for a second season and this is a show that I am going to go back and watch again soon.

So for you, what are some of your favorite shows on Netflix, there are so many out there that could be considered. I know with my tastes that The Witcher could have been one considered, but for me that was just okay. Plus there are shows like Ozark and many more that I haven’t even checked out yet because they just aren’t quite my type of show that I know other people love. Let me know in the comments below.

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The Witcher is the story of three different characters, you have Yennefer the witch who can harness chaos to perform amazing acts of magic. You have Ciri the princess who has her own powers. And you have Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher. The show is about how they got to where they are in the present and how their stories intertwine. This is done through vignettes. For Geralt, it is about how he has to take responsibility and how while Witcher’s are monster hunters, he wants to be more than that. For Yennefer, it’s about what she’ll do for power and if it was worth it. And Ciri, it’s about staying alive.

I’m not going to go more into what the plot is, because, firstly, it’s a lot of vignettes that are working around the main points for the main characters and how it brings them all together. I’m also not going to do it, because it’s not a cohesive story. That’s one of my biggest knocks against the show is that for basically every character but Ciri, the vignettes jump all over the place and because of that you don’t get much payoff for the story. And even the vignettes are inconsistent. Some of them are told extremely well with a deft touch, and some of them beat you over the head with foreshadowing very obvious things. And even with the characters, Geralt’s stories are generally pretty good and they do come together with a solid payoff. Geralt is also tied to Ciri, and while her story wanders a little bit, there is more of a point to it. Yennefer, on the other hand, has her story wander a lot, and they try and make her a pretty sympathetic character, but really fail at it in my opinion.

The acting in the show is inconsistent as well. Henry Cavill is very enjoyable as Geralt. And there are other portrayals that work well, I think that Ciri is solid. But again, Yennefer’s acting, Anya Chalotra, is just lacking for me. And I put that more on the story than Anya’s actual skill as an actor, but she is given a story that is extremely unfocused and just ends up not having enough to work with in it. For me, a lot of acting issues can probably come down to the writing, but it was a shame because Cavill really does do a good job as Geralt and he makes the show watchable, otherwise, I don’t think anyone else would have been able to carry it.

The same for the world building in the show, it’s just inconsistent. The world itself is extremely interesting, the monsters who show up and things like that are different and really cool. But, you get bits and pieces of the world and how it works given to you generally not in the right order and not at the right speed. I don’t want an information dump, which they don’t do, but they mainly just pull things out of thin air with little to not explanation in the middle of episodes. It’s something, like the acting and the writing, that I hope they can clean up in season two. It goes too much between trying to have some Game of Thrones feel to it and epic monster hunting and back again without explaining why or how things are working.

And really, the same again for the effects in the show. Some of the things looked really cool. I know that the dragons weren’t the favorite for a lot of people, but I liked the design used there. But the opening scene is horrible. It’s such a bad use of green screen, Geralt feels like he’s on a sound stage maybe with the monster there, but there’s nothing else that he can interact with. The trees in the shot are horrible and static and just look so obviously fake. I think that it does get better and maybe a little more consistent throughout the show, or at least after that first scene, but it’s the first thing people see and it looks so bad.

Overall, this is a show that I generally did enjoy. I thought that once it get going, about episode four, it was interesting, because they created a more cohesive story for Geralt. But then they’d keep through Yennefer’s story in as well and that would mess things up for me. From what I’ve heard, this first season was based off of a series of short stories, and it feels like that, but that’s not a good thing, it doesn’t feel like a good episodic show, it feels, too often, like the worst part of episodic shows. There’s also the timeline piece. They are extremely subtle about it, and that’s something that they needed to be more obvious about, and then there were things that they could have and should have been subtle about because it would have been a good payoff. I’ll watch the next season when it comes out, but I’d say, if it’s just kind of interesting, probably skip it.

Did you enjoy The Witcher? Is it on the list of shows to watch for you if you haven’t seen it? Should I play any of the games/pen and paper RPG?

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