Current reads

After two incredible seasons, the series Invincible (based on the comic of the same name) has become a staple of the animated superhero genre. The story follows the titular hero Invincible, or Mark Grayson, as he grapples with the struggles of becoming a superhero. While the show was great with its high quality of animation and great voice acting, it takes a long time for new seasons to be produced. However, I started reading the comic book recently and it is honestly incredible. Creator Robert Kirkman makes Invincible stand out from the norm by basing the plot in an extremely grounded reality. In most of the modern, big budget superhero movies and publications, the protagonist is rarely faced with consequences for their actions. When Iron Man throws an enemy through a building, everyone is fine and goes home to see another day. However, in Invincible, such is not the case. The damage that superheroes would do to society were they to exist is a main feature of the books. Not only that, but the strain put on the personal lives of superheroes is also fleshed out. Mark experiences a lot of difficulty relating to people and living outside of his alter-ego, something which other comics I’ve read have covered but never as fully as Kirkman does here. In an era of oversaturation and almost mindless blockbusters, Invincible is a breath of fresh air that I can’t recommend enough. You may not have time for all 144 issues, but give it a read! CS

Listen to this

Vulfmon is back with an inexplicably more intense (than his last) type of high-texture low-clutter funk, complete with sax ambush and non-conforming percussions. The album is called Dot and appears to still be inbound from deep space, but parts of it have been transmitted already. Check out “Tokyo Nights” and “Letting Things Go”: music to your gut. JP

Go on, crack the shell and see what’s inside. Oh, it’s gooey. Eggy are a four-piece jam band from Connecticut who come in the tradition of (obligatory mention) Phish but, in their relative youth, are already cohering nice-and-weirdly into something else. The recordings tend to be sort of mid-tone heavy, the intentionality of which is unclear, but the emergent drone forms a base around which the rhythmic lines form and the effect is very good at making the brain forget that it’s a brain. JP

Essential viewing

I caught the first couple seasons of  on Netflix, which follows Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident at a mythical teaching hospital in Silicon Valley, as he pursues his career and love life. His dream is to be “a good doctor”. The hook is that Dr Murphy has autism and savant syndrome (and survived a traumatic childhood). In many ways it’s a typical TV hospital drama; nearly every patient seems to experience cardiac arrest in the operating room and you’ll have to actively suspend disbelief about some of the patient backstories. However the show does ask good questions about perception, perspective and fairness. ’s Shaun is endearing and his performance shows depth. And who doesn’t like medical mysteries and office romance? AG

If you’re looking for outrageous scenarios, side-splitting laughter, and a young Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, then has all that and more. Based on the short stories by PG Wodehouse, the series follows the wealthy, naive yet kindhearted Bertie Wooster as he dodges his aunts’ (numerous) attempts to marry him off to various women, meddles in his friends’ love lives and participates in the schemes set up by his extraordinarily competent valet Jeeves to extricate him from all manner of sticky situations. A small selection of delightful character names to whet your appetite: Tuppy Glossop, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Lord “Chuffy” Chuffnel, D’Arcy “Stilton” Cheesewright and Harold “Stinker” Pinker. LL

Set in the same weird and outlandish universe as the video games it's based on, the new Amazon series Fallout provides its viewers with a wacky romp through a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. I am a huge fan of the games and was happily surprised by the quality of the show. While there is a lot of exposition to provide the audience with the lore necessary to understand the plot, Fallout delivers a fun plot filled with dark humour, interesting characters and gory (sometimes zany) special effects. All actors in the show deliver strong performances, but the clear star of the show is Walton Goggins, who plays a cowboyish bounty hunter who has been mutated by radiation. If you’re looking for an offbeat and far out TV show, I strongly recommend Fallout. CS