Best Things March 2018

Can I just include Persona 5 again? Cause that took up the better half of the month yet again. No? Okay.

The Good Place
The Good Place is an American sitcom following Eleanor Shellstrop, a woman who dies and goes to 'The Good Place' even though she's actually a terrible person and was meant to go to The Bad Place. I binged watched the first 2 seasons on Netflix and I very much enjoyed it. The series was created by Michael Shur, the creator of Parks & Recreations and it definitely has that same style of humour. It's a very non-offensive series with a diverse cast that could appeal to everyone, but they still get a lot of great jokes out of the creative setting, as well as giving the actors plenty of room to improvise-in particular D'Arcy Carden who plays Janet, someone with godlike powers, the personality of a robot servant and is the funniest character in the show (In my opinion). While the series isn't necessarily laugh out loud, and I find some of the character development to be forced, it is very much the type of enjoyable show that you can have on after a long day and just want to unwind.


The Unbelievable Gwenpool
Alright, this isn't really something new I experienced in March, and the series technically ended on 28th February, but I saw someone on Twitter insult Gwenpool just because of the concept, so I just wanted an excuse to talk about why Gwenpool is amazing. The Unbelievable Gwenpool is a 25 issue comic series following a character named Gwen Poole, a teenage girl from our universe who somehow gets transported to the Marvel Universe, being a huge fan of Marvel comics means she knows the basics of how everything works, knows everyone's identities and is capable of breaking the fourth wall. At first she tries to become a hero (Because if you wanna survive in the Marvel world, ya gotta be in a costume) but through a series of wacky hi-jinx she ends up a villain. Throughout the 25 issues we see her bounce back and forth between multiple heroes and villains, and unlike a lot of Marvel comic series, we actually get to see proper character development for both her and her supporting cast, as she becomes more accustomed to the ways of living in a world of superheroes, eventually reaching a lot of inner conflict between her place both in the real world vs the Marvel world, and her place as a hero or a villain. The book is hilarious and isn't over the top with its 4th wall breaking like something like Deadpool, which even the book describes as being a little too "lol memes". The artwork by Gurihiru gives it a manga style, making it cute while not taking away from the action. Unlike most Marvel books this one actually got a satisfactory conclusion and made me hope the character actually stays gone, because in the hands of any writer apart from Christopher Hastings, I worry if it'll even be the same character. So to that one rando on Twitter and anyone who judged Gwenpool based on her name (Even though she has nothing to do with Gwen Stacy or Deadpool), just know you're missing out on a really excellent book here.

Paddington 2
Again, I'm cheating with this one, as I saw Paddington 2 in cinemas back in November, but I didn't get a chance to talk about it, now that it's out on blu-ray here in the UK, I think it's a good enough reason to put it in here. Paddington 2 is a perfect family film; it's absurdly precious, has plenty of humour and is visually creative. It's able to subtly establish elements in its first act, passing them off as charming character quirks that then pay off in the third act without feeling forced or obvious, the humour is mature yet simple, never downgrading itself to pander to its audience, but most of all what makes this film as good as it is, is it's heart. Paddington 2 is as sweet and honest as a film can be, it wears its emotions on its sleeves, never compromising or feeling embarrassed to be genuine, the film's main thought "If we're kind and polite the world will be right" is told with such affection that even the biggest sour puss won't be able to help but be charmed by the film's message and characters. There's far too many things about the film to compliment, I didn't even get a chance to discuss the cast, the action, the music, etc. Just know that this is a film that I feel comfortable recommending to everyone of any age, and should be viewed by everyone if they wish to see what pure joy is like when placed on screen (Also see the first one if you haven't, it's really good).