Spot Reviews 05/22/26
May 22 2026
Running Point s1 (2025) [/] Half hour sitcom on Netflix. Party girl Isla Gordon (Kate Hudson) has to take over as President of the Los Angeles Waves basketball team (no NBA references in this series) when her eldest brother has to go into rehab. She has her love of basketball (she knows about the game itself and the players than her three brothers) and her plucky Chief of Staff Ali Lee (Brenda Song and just hilarious in this role) and maybe nothing else as even her other two brothers don't think she can do this job
It's a fairly funny series more about behind the scenes than basketball action. On Netflix ad-tier it's kind of unwatchable because there are a lot of commercials (and there lots of product placement in the series). The series is not good enough to stomach five minutes of commercials in a 30-minute show.
A Girl Who Sees Smells (2015) [-] Korean romance-comedy-drama. Oh Cho-rim (Shin Se-kyung, Run On, 2020; Captivating the King, 2024) had an almost fatal accident three years ago, lost her memories, but gained the ability to see smells -- not like the medical condition but literally she can see smells in an airtight room if there's a window to see through. Detective Choi Moo-gak (Park Yoo-chun) can't feel pain since his younger sister was murdered three years ago by a serial killer. Together they end up teaming up to solve crimes (well, one or two crimes) not knowing that the serial killer mistakenly killed Moo-gak's sister when he was trying to kill Cho-rim and the killer is much closer to them both than any of the three realize.
This was a slog to finish because I feel it's badly written. For a police detective Choi Moo-gak breaks too many rules that would get cases thrown out of court. Also he's impulsively angry so even when he knows who the serial murderer is he confronts him and gives him too much information and he does it multiple times. Oh Cho-rim also makes bad choices at times which I find frustrating as the killer should probably have been caught half way through the series instead of prolonging it another 8 episodes.
One cool part though is that the killer has face blindness so him using various ways to try to identify Oh Chorim is kind of neat and it's kind of neat how the face blindness is turned against him a couple of times by the protagonists knowing that if they don't talk he can't tell who they are except by clothes.
Blackjack by MobilityWare+ (2024) [-] It's a functionally ok Blackjack game by a company that puts out a lot of games that are not very distinctive. Strangely no rules settings so you can't change the default "dealer must draw on 16 and soft 17" and you can double-down on anything. It's also just you vs dealer -- it'd be more interesting with some NPCs that chit chat.
Trader Joe's Veggie & Flaxseed Corn Tortilla Chips [/] $3 for 12 oz bag (same ratio as Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips at $4 for 16 oz bag). Ground white corn, brown flaxseed, and a bunch of vegetable powders so you end up with three different colored chips for Carrot+Tomato, Spinach+Garlic, and Red Beet+Onion. I would not say it tastes good enough to eat by itself but with some Manchego Cheese it tasted just fine. Flaxseed is theoretically good for you though I'm a bit suspicious that turning vegetables into powder to make chips or pasta you lose all the benefits.
It's a fairly funny series more about behind the scenes than basketball action. On Netflix ad-tier it's kind of unwatchable because there are a lot of commercials (and there lots of product placement in the series). The series is not good enough to stomach five minutes of commercials in a 30-minute show.
A Girl Who Sees Smells (2015) [-] Korean romance-comedy-drama. Oh Cho-rim (Shin Se-kyung, Run On, 2020; Captivating the King, 2024) had an almost fatal accident three years ago, lost her memories, but gained the ability to see smells -- not like the medical condition but literally she can see smells in an airtight room if there's a window to see through. Detective Choi Moo-gak (Park Yoo-chun) can't feel pain since his younger sister was murdered three years ago by a serial killer. Together they end up teaming up to solve crimes (well, one or two crimes) not knowing that the serial killer mistakenly killed Moo-gak's sister when he was trying to kill Cho-rim and the killer is much closer to them both than any of the three realize.
This was a slog to finish because I feel it's badly written. For a police detective Choi Moo-gak breaks too many rules that would get cases thrown out of court. Also he's impulsively angry so even when he knows who the serial murderer is he confronts him and gives him too much information and he does it multiple times. Oh Cho-rim also makes bad choices at times which I find frustrating as the killer should probably have been caught half way through the series instead of prolonging it another 8 episodes.
One cool part though is that the killer has face blindness so him using various ways to try to identify Oh Chorim is kind of neat and it's kind of neat how the face blindness is turned against him a couple of times by the protagonists knowing that if they don't talk he can't tell who they are except by clothes.
Blackjack by MobilityWare+ (2024) [-] It's a functionally ok Blackjack game by a company that puts out a lot of games that are not very distinctive. Strangely no rules settings so you can't change the default "dealer must draw on 16 and soft 17" and you can double-down on anything. It's also just you vs dealer -- it'd be more interesting with some NPCs that chit chat.
Trader Joe's Veggie & Flaxseed Corn Tortilla Chips [/] $3 for 12 oz bag (same ratio as Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips at $4 for 16 oz bag). Ground white corn, brown flaxseed, and a bunch of vegetable powders so you end up with three different colored chips for Carrot+Tomato, Spinach+Garlic, and Red Beet+Onion. I would not say it tastes good enough to eat by itself but with some Manchego Cheese it tasted just fine. Flaxseed is theoretically good for you though I'm a bit suspicious that turning vegetables into powder to make chips or pasta you lose all the benefits.