Monthly Media Recap - September 2026

 Happy October Eve!

This month's Media Recap is going up a day early because tomorrow starts the post-a-day Countdown to Halloween! Every year, many bloggers and I Countdown the most wonderful time of the year with daily posts about all things Halloween, horror, spooky, kooky, you name it!

 

Not a lot of movies this month as I spent around 5 movies worth of time catching up on American Horror Story. Title links will take you to a trailer. 

Roll it!

 

Series

 

Spider-Noir (2026, Prime)
Why can't Sony deliver Spider-adjacent movies that are this good?! Cage is at his Cage-iest and that's exactly what the role needs. You can watch it even if you barely know anything about Spider-Man but fans will catch a lot more. Highly recommend watching the B&W version for maximum noir pulpiness. The camera angles and shot compositions are a love letter to classic Hollywood.

American Horror Story Season 10 (Hulu)
Usually my biggest issue with any season of AHS is that it falls off the path somewhere after the mid way point. Here, you get two mini seasons of 6 and 4 episodes. I think they both really shine due to their shorter runs time making their stories tighter. Who knew aliens were behind Marilyn Monroe's death?

 

Gatchaman Progress

Only 3 this month, but there's only 13 more to go! Currently up to 93.

 

Movies

 

Strange Darling (2023, Shudder)
At first I didn't like this one. It has 6 chapters and they're shown out of order. But as I stuck with it, I really began to enjoy the non-linear story telling and putting the pieces together of what was going on. They definitely made the right choice for how to spoon out the story and keep it interesting. Strongly recommend going in cold on this one and enjoy the ride. The trailer is well done in that it doesn't give anything away.

Rating: 7/10

 

Penny Lane is Dead (2025, Shudder)
A modern day Ozploitation revenge thriller that takes place in 1986. It's an odd blend of home invasion, great practical gore effects, and punk vibes. The bad guys have a wicked mean streak which makes it all the more satisfying when they get what's coming to them. Still debating if I like the ending or not.

Rating: 7/10

Enola Holmes 3 (2026, Netflix)
As much as I've enjoyed the series so far, I think this is the low point for me. The mystery didn't quite grab me and while Cavill is back (still needing a spinoff!) he spends a lot of the movie being the MacGuffin and not having as much to do. MBB is still a delight to watch even as her character continues to mature.

Rating: 6.5/10

Borderlands (2024, Apple TV)
How do you turn a beloved video game franchise into a movie that sucks the soul out of what makes the game so much fun? Easy, blend Temu Mad Max and wannabe Guardians of the Galaxy. If I didn't know anything about the game, this would be an ok sci-fi action flick that would get me to check out the game. The characters just felt kind of flat compared to their digital counterparts. Cate Blanchett is as good as you'd expect her to be. A lot of the supporting characters and stuff about the world, they nailed...just not the important stuff. And I don't care what you do, you can't make me believe Kevin Hart is any kind of action hero. 

Rating: 5/10

 

 

Backrooms (2026, HBO Max)

This was so good! The pervasive feeling of dread while navigating a liminal space that feels like it was filmed from a bad dream is fantastic. I can't say enough about how perfect the set design is. It just captures the wrongness of a familiar nightmare. Be sure to stick around after the credits.

 

Rating: 8/10

 

This Month

New: 5  Rewatch: 0

 

Year to Date

New: 61  Rewatch: 2

Monthly Media Recap - August 2026

 It's been a rough couple weeks for losing beloved entertainers: Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen all left us last week. If you don't know Cullen, you've at least heard him as Optimus Prime and dozens of other iconic cartoon characters.

 

 With the blog rolling into September, regular posts will go on hiatus while I prep for the annual Countdown to Halloween with a post every day in October. Every year I think I don't have it in me and struggle to find things to talk about but every year I pull it off.

 

Anyway, let's get this recap on the road!

 

 

Series

 

The Righteous Gemstones (HBO Max)

More like Riotous Gemstones! I've been binging the series over the summer and just wrapped it up. If Danny McBride knows how to do one thing, it's create people you wouldn't go near in real life but find some way to make you root for them.

 

Shrinking (Apple)

Another summer binge. This one took me by surprise. Not only is everyone great in it but this is probably Harrison Ford's best role (sorry Han and Indy!). It's good to see him get into something with real depth and also show that he can be funny! This show alone is worth getting AppleTV for.

 

Gatchaman Progress

Knocked out 5! Currently up to 89 

 

Movies

 

 

The Devil's Mouth (2026, Prime)
One final shark movie for the summer. It started off pretty good but once the shark gets going, it basically turns into a slasher. For some reason, the shark has it out for this tour group beyond just needing to eat, or maybe he's really hungry. I don't know a lot about shark eating habits. The ending goes a little too far into action movie territory antics where the rest was pretty grounded.

Rating: 5/10

Dungeons and Dragons Questers by Basic Fun

 I'm a little late on posting these. I picked them up maybe a month or so ago and just never got around to opening them. Questers is a line of collectible, build-able D&D figures aimed at a younger audience.

 

 The line debuted with 12 figures featuring some of the most iconic monsters from D&D's long history. The monsters are "blind" packed in these large plastic d20s. If you click to enlarge, you'll see under the 1 on the top die there's a code indicating what's inside. These capsules snap together really well so if you wanted to, you could roll them if you've got a big enough table.

 

 Each one comes with an easy to put together (mostly) figure, an actual d20, a creature card, a quest starter/checklist, and a mini sheet with five stickers. One of the stickers is made to go on your checklist so you can keep track of the monsters you've wrangled. 

 

The checklist also shows the other figures in the line: eight adventurers and three larger dragons. The dragons look cool but being larger, don't interest me. I may pick up one or two of the adventurers but I'm still on the fence. It looks like you can mix and match outfits and accessories so that could be fun.

  

 

Yes, I did "cheat" and use the codes you can find online to get the ones I want! First up is that hard to see geometric goo with the caustic personality: the Gelatinous Cube! I don't know if it's just my Cube, but the pieces don't sit together just right. I do like that they have something inside it so it's not just a translucent block sitting there.

 Next is the frightful feline that puts Schroedinger's Cat to shame: the dastardly Displacer Beast. It's kind of fun to see a kid-ified version that you might actually want as a pet...assuming you can get past the twin tentacles on its back. This one's the Ultra Rare of the set so it took a bit of digging to locate him.

 

 For those that may not be familiar with a standard d20, here they are with a LEGO minifig for scale.

 

There's still a a couple classics I need to get: the mimic and the owlbear. I think I need the homunculus owl too because it kind of looks like Bubo from Clash of the Titans.

 

If you want to see all the figures in the line, head over to Basic Fun's Questers page. I hope this line does well, there's still plenty of monsters out there I'd love to see get this treatment.