Spot Reviews 06/05/26
Jun 05 2026
Imagine Me & You (2005) [+] British rom-com. As she's walking down the aisle on her wedding day Rachel (Piper Perabo) sees florist Luce (Lena Headey) and there is an immediate attraction but now she's married to good guy Heck (Matthew Goode)... I've watched this movie at least three times now and still a nice lesbian romantic story. Anthony Head is kind of amazing playing Rachel's dad. I also forgot that Rachel and Luce only kiss like once in this movie.
BEAST: Bio exo Arena Suit Team (2024) [/] PvP 2v2 3rd person view arena battle game where if you get enough energy you can transform into a mecha for like 30 seconds. There are various game modes and you can play with your friends or solo. Nicely executed design.
Game Room (2024) [-] A rather generic old board/family games app with Mahjong (the tile matching version not the 4-player game), Word Wright (guess 25 words using 7 given letters), Solitaire (cards), Chess, Yacht (Yahtzee), Sea Battle (Battleship), Checkers, Backgammon, Hearts, Flip It (Reversi/Othello). You can play vs AI or your contacts. Overall looks nice but unremarkable. I'd rather have individual games which would probably mean each game is better developed. But I guess this is an app for old people.
Trader Joe's Indian Fare Tikka Vegetables [/] "potatoes, carrots, peas and onions with a satisfying Tikka Masala-style tomato and cream sauce" 10 oz bag (2 servings) for $3. Was not as tasty as I'd hoped so may skip next time. TJ's has other Indian Fare bags to try.
BEAST: Bio exo Arena Suit Team (2024) [/] PvP 2v2 3rd person view arena battle game where if you get enough energy you can transform into a mecha for like 30 seconds. There are various game modes and you can play with your friends or solo. Nicely executed design.
Game Room (2024) [-] A rather generic old board/family games app with Mahjong (the tile matching version not the 4-player game), Word Wright (guess 25 words using 7 given letters), Solitaire (cards), Chess, Yacht (Yahtzee), Sea Battle (Battleship), Checkers, Backgammon, Hearts, Flip It (Reversi/Othello). You can play vs AI or your contacts. Overall looks nice but unremarkable. I'd rather have individual games which would probably mean each game is better developed. But I guess this is an app for old people.
Trader Joe's Indian Fare Tikka Vegetables [/] "potatoes, carrots, peas and onions with a satisfying Tikka Masala-style tomato and cream sauce" 10 oz bag (2 servings) for $3. Was not as tasty as I'd hoped so may skip next time. TJ's has other Indian Fare bags to try.
Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table (2026) [/]
Jun 03 2026
Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table is an 11-episode anime. Yuki (Chiyuki Miura) is a teen who participates in Death Games where contestants (in this series they're all girls and women) are put in a scenario and have to survive while being monitored on cameras for the viewing audience (there's always a number like 10/21 where the 10 goes up and down -- feels like maximum 21 viewers and but most don't really watch until it gets exciting and I think the highest max is 30-something; small viewing audience implies elites implies the games are very illegal rather than a reflection of a dystopian society a la Running Man).
Survivors get paid very well so most only do it once but Yuki wants to survive 99 times (we kind of learn why in the last episode) and there are many girls who play multiple even dozens of games (though there is a psychological 30-game barrier that many expert players can't get past). The games are varied: the first one is like a series of escape rooms; there's a game where it's war between two sides; there's a hunting game where half hunt the other half and then in phase 2 the tables turn; and another game where the girls try to get to the bottom floor of a trapped abandoned building. Each game lasts from 1 to 3 episodes so I think I listed them all.
The games are not told in order. Episode 1 is game 10 for Yuki where she is experienced but still fairly new. One game is Yuki doing her 30th game, I think another is when she was kind of starting, and the final one she's very experienced but up against someone who wants to kill her.
One thing is that the girls have their blood and organs replaced with magic stuffing and I guess the process is reversed when they come out. But that means they can be shot and lose limbs without bleeding everywhere -- it's just stuffing flying everywhere. It's so that the viewers don't get sickened by all the blood and I guess a really bloody anime would change the tone.
Besides the games there's a fair amount of psychology. Why is Yuki playing these games and what does she hope to accomplish. We get a bit of this about other girls. There are also girls breaking down because life and death situations are stressful. There's often a cooperative aspect in that at least at the beginning working together increases survival chances but often in the end someone has to die and then some girls turn on each other. There are also girls who love killing or love winning or love being in charge.
Animation is pretty nice. About half is rather detailed and the girls are often wearing elaborate Lolita or maid costumes. The other half of the time the animation is more stylized, often wider and farther away shots and in a water-color style so not very detailed. Does it make it seem a bit fairy tale like at times.
I did like the series but it is fairly dark. There is no resolution to whether or not Yuki makes it all the way to 99 games or not. Perhaps that's not the point and Yuki is stuck in a world of vibrant Death Games while her real life between games is rather drab and lifeless.
Survivors get paid very well so most only do it once but Yuki wants to survive 99 times (we kind of learn why in the last episode) and there are many girls who play multiple even dozens of games (though there is a psychological 30-game barrier that many expert players can't get past). The games are varied: the first one is like a series of escape rooms; there's a game where it's war between two sides; there's a hunting game where half hunt the other half and then in phase 2 the tables turn; and another game where the girls try to get to the bottom floor of a trapped abandoned building. Each game lasts from 1 to 3 episodes so I think I listed them all.
The games are not told in order. Episode 1 is game 10 for Yuki where she is experienced but still fairly new. One game is Yuki doing her 30th game, I think another is when she was kind of starting, and the final one she's very experienced but up against someone who wants to kill her.
One thing is that the girls have their blood and organs replaced with magic stuffing and I guess the process is reversed when they come out. But that means they can be shot and lose limbs without bleeding everywhere -- it's just stuffing flying everywhere. It's so that the viewers don't get sickened by all the blood and I guess a really bloody anime would change the tone.
Besides the games there's a fair amount of psychology. Why is Yuki playing these games and what does she hope to accomplish. We get a bit of this about other girls. There are also girls breaking down because life and death situations are stressful. There's often a cooperative aspect in that at least at the beginning working together increases survival chances but often in the end someone has to die and then some girls turn on each other. There are also girls who love killing or love winning or love being in charge.
Animation is pretty nice. About half is rather detailed and the girls are often wearing elaborate Lolita or maid costumes. The other half of the time the animation is more stylized, often wider and farther away shots and in a water-color style so not very detailed. Does it make it seem a bit fairy tale like at times.
I did like the series but it is fairly dark. There is no resolution to whether or not Yuki makes it all the way to 99 games or not. Perhaps that's not the point and Yuki is stuck in a world of vibrant Death Games while her real life between games is rather drab and lifeless.
Viki Standard Subscription [+]
Jun 01 2026
Viki is a streaming service for Asian dramas - Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand. Unless you're looking for something specific there's enough free ad-supported content (even good content) to be satisfied especially if you view other streaming services.
One of the key things is that nothing is dubbed (because that's expensive) but everything has fairly good crowd-sourced subtitling in several languages. I've never found the subtitling to be bad and often they add subtitles for written words on screen (Netflix rarely does) or add a quick explanation for a term (especially for Chinese terms that can mean two things they'll point out which one is meant). So in general it's the best subtitling of any streaming service.
Standard is $8 per month (or $80 per year). Listed benefits:
Another benefit of Standard is P-in-P which isn't enabled in Free tier.
Avoiding ads is kind of nice. Viki has many ad breaks, each 5-ads long (though you can skip an ad after a few seconds), and there is no time limit for an ad (I've seen ads that are 20-minute informercials). Since I mostly watch on my desktop the 720p videos are nice -- 480p definitely has artifacts on a desktop monitor.
I hate the Viki on desktop. It's like a really bad and laggy version of the mobile app and doesn't even support keyboard shortcuts (i.e. space to pause/play or left and right to skip 10s). But I found that Viki on a desktop browser is actually quite nice. UI is responsive. it does auto-start next video unless you click on X (and you have like three seconds to do so). It also shows you which shows require a subscription which the mobile/desktop apps do not show.
So at this point I think Viki Standard + Desktop Browser is a good experience. Right now $120 per year for Plus doesn't seem worth the upgrade (if I had a family then it would be a must for simultaneous viewing).
One of the key things is that nothing is dubbed (because that's expensive) but everything has fairly good crowd-sourced subtitling in several languages. I've never found the subtitling to be bad and often they add subtitles for written words on screen (Netflix rarely does) or add a quick explanation for a term (especially for Chinese terms that can mean two things they'll point out which one is meant). So in general it's the best subtitling of any streaming service.
Standard is $8 per month (or $80 per year). Listed benefits:
- No ads
- Access to full library (Plus tier used to say you get some Kocowa shows too but doesn't say that anymore)
- 720p videos (Free is 480p which is fine one a phone or tablet, Plus is 1080p)
- Stream to televisions (I don't need it since I don't have a television)
- Play on one device at a time (Plus is four devices)
- (Plus also allows you to download videos to watch offline)
Another benefit of Standard is P-in-P which isn't enabled in Free tier.
Avoiding ads is kind of nice. Viki has many ad breaks, each 5-ads long (though you can skip an ad after a few seconds), and there is no time limit for an ad (I've seen ads that are 20-minute informercials). Since I mostly watch on my desktop the 720p videos are nice -- 480p definitely has artifacts on a desktop monitor.
I hate the Viki on desktop. It's like a really bad and laggy version of the mobile app and doesn't even support keyboard shortcuts (i.e. space to pause/play or left and right to skip 10s). But I found that Viki on a desktop browser is actually quite nice. UI is responsive. it does auto-start next video unless you click on X (and you have like three seconds to do so). It also shows you which shows require a subscription which the mobile/desktop apps do not show.
So at this point I think Viki Standard + Desktop Browser is a good experience. Right now $120 per year for Plus doesn't seem worth the upgrade (if I had a family then it would be a must for simultaneous viewing).