2023 – Page 9 – PopCult Reviews

TV Review – The Bear Season One

The Bear Season One (FX)
Written by Christopher Storer, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Karen Joseph Adcock, Catherine Schetina & Rene Gube
Directed by Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo

I felt obligated to watch this one, but I knew it would be good. I can’t say The Bear was what I expected. I knew it was about a restaurant and starred Jeremy Allen White, but I was under the impression it was set at an upscale restaurant. Definitely not. And the first half of season one didn’t stand out as anything overly special. Ariana & I talked about how much the show used a premise akin to something like Cheers. If this had been made in the 1980s or 90s, it would have been a three-camera comedy-drama, probably with a “will they, won’t they” plot stringing the audience along for multiple seasons. We even have a Carla in the form of Tina, but even that character conflict is resolved relatively quickly, and the show moves on.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Fiasco + Mythic Part Two

Read Part One where I explain what parts of Mythic I’ll be using as well as the character set-up for this game.

The heat beats down on Ginette LaFever as she sits in the pitiful shade of the dugout, shadows but not much cooler than the sun-blazed field she watches her players on. Her eye is on one particular player at the moment, Yu Kim. The girl has only been in Poppleton for about six months, and Ginette doesn’t like her attitude. If you were to ask Ginette to articulate what she didn’t like about Yu, the softball coach would probably stammer and search for the words, likely dropping the phrase, “I’m not racist, but…” The girl just “has a bad vibe” is Ginette’s go-to when she tries to justify the disdain in her own head.

PopCult Podcast – RMN/Past Lives

Two more new releases take the spotlight this week. In one we journey to Transylvania, but there’s no vampires here. Instead, it’s a tense & moody exploration of various ethnic groups at each other’s throat. In our second film, we span 24 years as a Korean woman retains thoughts of her childhood crush while moving on with her life and changing in so many ways.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Mork Borg: Solitary Confinement Part 4

Mork Borg: Solitary Defilement (10d+5)
Written & Designed by…? (no specific names on the document)

Read Part One, where I explain the rules/tone of Mork Borg and this solo supplement.

You can get this set of solo rules here.

This playthrough also uses the Mork Borg Core Rules as well as the Feretory supplement.

Instead of using the core book & its included classes, I used a third-party class I’d found on itch.io. Let me introduce you to the Murderous Marionette.

I rolled through some of the Mork Borg core book tables to flesh out my character and his adventure. His name is Träpojke, a puppet made by a disturbed hermit in the mountains of a distant land. The hermit had initially intended to use Träpojke to lure children into his lair, where he would feast on them. However, the spirits of the children who had already been killed by this monster prayed, and these prayers were heard by the Fae who lived in the misty mountains. They woke the wood sprite that slept within the wood Träpojke was made of, and he went on a murderous rampage, bludgeoning his creator to death with the very mallet used in his creation.

PopCult Podcast – Cobweb/Talk To Me

It’s a horror double feature this week on the podcast. In one film, a little boy tries to figure out what secret hiding the walls has his parents acting so strangely. Then, it’s down to Australia where a group of teenagers play around with contacting the dead only to have something horrible find its way to the land of the living.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Fiasco + Mythic GM Emulator Part One

Fiasco 2nd Edition (Bully Pulpit Games)
Designed & Written by Jason Morningstar

Mythic GM Emulator 2nd Edition (Word Mill Games)
Designed & Written by Tana Pigeon

You can purchase Fiasco here
You can purchase Mythic GM Emulator here

As I’ve mentioned, my first foray into tabletop gaming didn’t happen until I was in my late 20s. Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition had just come out, and I was curious. I found pdf scans of the three core books online and tried DMing as my first outing. I never really liked how many rules there were, and I found they got in the way of trying to tell stories. I still wanted to roleplay, but it would have to be with a different game. This is around the time I stumbled across Fiasco on r/rpg. It seemed like the perfect fit, and I had a lot of fun in multiple sessions of this game. I was all-in when the Kickstarter came along in 2019 for a 2nd card-based edition. Due to COVID-19, I never played it with anyone until the previous weekend, from when I wrote this. I brought it over for dinner at a friend’s house in the Netherlands. Fun was had by all. But I was wondering if Fiasco could be done single-player. It would not be the same game, but it could be a robust storytelling tool.

Solo Tabletop RPG – Mork Borg: Solitary Defilement Part Three

Mork Borg: Solitary Defilement (10d+5)
Written & Designed by…? (no specific names on the document)

Read Part One, where I explain the rules/tone of Mork Borg and this solo supplement.

You can get this set of solo rules here.
This playthrough also uses the Mork Borg Core Rules and the Feretory supplement.
Our next player character is Von the Fanged Deserter. Here is the description I was given when I generated them in Esoteric Hermit.

Your earliest memories are of following an arm in eastern Wästland.

You have thirty or so friends who never let you down: YOUR TEETH. Disloyal, deranged, or simply uncontrollable, any group that didn’t boot you out, you left anyway. But your parliament of teeth — enormous, protruding, thick, and sharp — have always been your allies.

Nihilistic and suspicious. Starved: gaunt and pale. Permanent phlegm deposit in throat. Continuous cough, snort, spit, and swallow. Banished and disowned for unspecified deeds. Can never go home.

TV Review – Beef

Beef (Netflix)
Written by Lee Sung Jin, Alice Ju, Carrie Kemper, Alex Russell, Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen & Niko Gutierrez-Kovner, Joanna Calo, Kevin Rosen, Jean Kyoung Frazier
Directed by Hikari, Jake Schreier, and Lee Sung Jin

Even though we’re attempting to make a permanent life in the Netherlands, I still keep tabs on what is happening back in the States. There are people I love back there, so it’s important to know if violence escalates, the food supply chain is deteriorating, etc. One thing I’ve noted in the last year is a rapid increase in random violent acts, especially on the roadways. Driving in America has always been a particularly hazardous venture, but it appears things have gotten worse? In states where open carry laws have been relaxed, you can’t go a day without hearing about multiple road rage incidents that end in gunfire. The series Beef presented itself in its trailers and marketing as a show about how one of these conflicts escalates wildly out of control, and that was a pretty intriguing premise.

PopCult Podcast – A Thousand and One/Return to Seoul

Two women adrift in the world try and make sense of what is happening around them. One is an ex-convict trying to bring order to her life, while the other finds she has a desire to foment chaos as she struggles to reconnect with her roots.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Fake Guru, Real Vice

Fake Guru, Real Vice (Sealed Library)
Written & Designed by Sealed Library

You can purchase this game here.

Based on Chris Bissette’s The Wretched, Fake Guru, Real Vice asks the player to imagine they are someone who has influenced the thoughts & behaviors of the masses. You may be a famous self-help figure, a tech billionaire turned motivational speaker, or an influential megachurch preacher in my game. You’ve accrued a lot of material wealth and skeletons in your closet. Those skeletons are about to break out, starting with a popular gossip magazine’s story exposing just some of them. Your PR team has assured you they are taking legal action and that nothing more will come out. However, when you are honest with yourself, you admit much more is about to explode.