I’ve been looking forward to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD for months now, and once I actually started playing, this game hasn’t disappointed. It’s darker than I expected, but the plot is so interesting that every time I set it down, I keep thinking about it until I come back. Midna is probably my favorite character so far in the game: she’s kind of an asshole, but she says things that the gamer is probably thinking whenever they play a game. (At least, she says some stuff that I’ve thought while playing a Legend of Zelda game before.) It’s too early to say whether or not this will end up one of my favorites in the franchise, but based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s probably going to be up there.
– Feliza Casano, Editor
I just started reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and so far I’m really into it. I’m not good at video games, but the dystopian future Cline has created is compelling even if you don’t know the difference between Space Invaders and Galaga. As a lover of fantasy and sci-fi, I’m a sucker for a good quest plot, and I’m very excited to see how the story unfolds. A Huffington Post review on the back of the book touts it as “the grown-up’s Harry Potter.” Um, excuse me, Huffington Post, Harry Potter is for everyone. But I’m hopeful that the novel will live up to this very high praise
– Laura Jewell, Staff Writer
It’s kind of random, but I’ve been really interested in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood lately, although I’m actually more interested in the lives of the women painted by the Brotherhood than the artists themselves. In my free-time, I’ve found myself reading as many posts as I can on the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood blog. Ars Longa Vita Brevis—Art is long, life is short. Now I really want to get some books on the subject, including Pre-Raphaelite SisterhoodJan Marsh.
This past weekend, I binge-watched Desperate Romantics, a six-part BBC Two series on the Brotherhood starring Aidan Turner (aka my favorite dwarf Kíli in The Hobbit) as Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The series is not entirely historically accurate, and I found myself referring to the Wikipedia page to learn about these inaccuracies. But I really enjoyed seeing and then looking up the paintings that were shown and discussed in the series, including John Everett Millais’ Ophelia, Rossetti’s Bocca Baciata, and The Awakening Conscience by William Holman Hunt. I think I fell in love with the Pre-Raphaelites from a print hanging in my parents’ home of La Belle Dame sans Merci by the quasi-Pre-Raphaelite Sir Frank Dicksee. The film An Education and seeing John William Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott in person at the Tate Britain in London also helped to solidify my fascination with these artists. The Lady of Shalott is my favorite Pre-Raphaelite inspired painting and my favorite Tennyson poem, probably thanks to Anne of Green Gables.
– Rine Karr, Staff Writer
Last Friday, I saw Zootopia in theaters. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while (especially after the trailers featuring that sloth-and that joke didn’t stale when I finally saw it). The movie follows Judy, a young female bunny with dreams of being a cop. After her training and passing at the top of her class, she sets out for the city, Zootopia. Once she begins working at Zootopia’s police department, she sees that things aren’t going to be easy.
Before seeing the movie, I was expecting a cute and funny buddy comedy. I did get that — Judy and Nick’s (a fox who’s a con artist) chemistry is hilarious and heartwarming and there are great jokes in this movie. Also, being the film nerd that I am, I appreciate The Godfather homage in the movie. Then it gets deep. By the end of the movie, I thought, “I just watched a Disney crime drama dealing with prejudice.” I won’t get into any spoiler territory, but I’m impressed that a movie (with talking animals) touched on serious topics without sounding too preachy. Let’s just say that it wouldn’t be a surprise if I check it out again before it comes out on Blu-ray.
– Janelle Smith, Staff Writer
As a friend of mine recently pointed out to me, I am in the habit of binge-watching TV shows that are wildly out of date, and this month is no exception. I just started on the surreal Scrubs, which I’ve been meaning to watch for years but never got around to it. I’m nearly halfway through the first season and I can see why so many people love it. I’m already totally smitten with the style, which mixes the main character J.D.’s reality of working in a hospital with his fantastical daydreams. It’s hilarious and moving and populated with real people that we see through J.D.’s perspective. With its first season, it’s all fun and games until they come out of nowhere with some very real shit in the fourth episode, “My Old Lady,” in which the four main characters each deal with the death of one of their patients. The show weaves together the ridiculous and the serious through a comedic lens, which is probably the best way to temper the lifestyle of someone with a stressful and difficult job like the staff at Sacred Heart Hospital.
– Christina Casano, Assistant Editor
