Sick Stuff: September 7, 2022
This is Sick Stuff, a newsletter about sick stuff to watch, play, read, or listen to from your favorite sick girl.
Watching
This week I’ve got two shows for you, an HBOmax original and an AppleTV+ original, both starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and both slow burn thrillers. The Girl Before came out last year on HBOmax and is set in London, in a very strange modern house that comes with a set of rules to live in. The stories of the current resident and the last residents journeys unfold side by side through flashbacks. Apple TV’s new original Surface is set in San Francisco and begins while main character, Sophie, is in treatment after losing all her memory following a traumatic event. Was it a suicide attempt as she has been told? Or, as she starts to expect, was there someone else involved? Neither of these shows are total standout hits, but I will basically never say no to a moody thriller, so if that’s you too, I suggest checking them out. If nothing else, they both build suspenseful worlds you can get sucked into for a little while.
If you’ve been seeing me around corners of the internet for awhile, you may have heard me recommend Mina Le before. Mina’s is one of my favorite YouTube channels (maybe my favorite). She makes incredibly well researched videos about fashion, culture and trends. Unlike so many out there, they are not just basic round ups of these topics, but true analysis, always presented with nuance and an exploration of multiple points of view. And what’s more she actually cites her sources *swoon*. If you are interested in fashion and youth culture but want to explore it from a critical lens, Mina is my go to source. Enjoy!
Listening
I just finished listening to Seqouia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark, and despite a bit of a book rut this summer that has me shying away from any topics that are “too real” I surprisingly couldn’t stop listening. This is a surprise because this novel is a collection of interconnected stories that take place starting ten years in our near future and span out over team, dealing with a world in the midst of climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic so bad it is actually called a plague. It kind of doesn’t get more real than that, so… what about this book drew me in when so many others have caused near panic lately? Nagamatsu’s unique storytelling was definitely a factor, and his world building was another. The way he envisions earth and it’s human residents as they develop over the next hundred years or so is all at once believable, compelling, shocking, bizarre, and hopeful, even at times farcical. Comparisons have been made to David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and I get why, but I think what stands out about How High is comparisons to Cloud Atlas is Nagamatsu’s specific ability to both tie us to our own reality and transport us to a version of it that is only somewhat recognizable. If the premise doesn’t have you immediately running for the hills, I definitely recommend checking this one out.
Playing
Ooblets has been out on PC for a couple of years but finally just got released on the Switch Sept 1. I’ve been waiting for the Switch release to play this one because I know this is the kind of game I love to play on that platform. Ooblets is an indie developed game that is a mishmash of genres, monster collector meets farming sim with a little chill RPG vibe mixed in. It’s got the classic farming sim mechanics but you also are collecting local monsters and battling them, as well as aiding the town’s mayor in various town rebuilding tasks. The turn based card battles you participate in are dance battles where your monsters, called “ooblets”, face off against wild ooblets or other competitors and their ooblets. Admittedly the first hour or so of game play is a little hard to wrap your head around, it feels at first like there is A LOT going on. But once you come to terms with the ways the developers have married these genres and their mechanics together, it all clicks into place and the addiction sets in. Ok maybe just for me. I’ve been playing almost non stop since release last week.
The art style is charming, with bright colors and simple forms. The names and language are cutesy and quirky, maybe too much so for some, but I’m loving it. For example every time you have to confirm a menu choice instead of the standard “yes” or “no” options, your options are “yuh” and “nuh”. Fishing is called “sea dangling”. It definitely creates a vibe. It’s very silly and lighthearted and sometimes that’s just what you need. If you like Pokémon and Animal Crossing and you want to play a mashup of the two with some extra indie game character, check out Ooblets.
That’s all I’ve got for you today, so I hope you enjoy until the next time I bring you more Sick Stuff.