Retrospective is a monthly post to rewind all of the happenings, thoughts, and discussions here at thoughts and afterthoughts.
A Rewind Of:
Oct // 2015
Reviews:
Pending reviews: Ruin & Rising, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Half a King
Think Aloud:
#23 – Supporting Characters Are Protagonists Too
Alternatives:
Movie Review – The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials
Memes (Top Ten Tuesday):
Oh my god the comment replies on these are so backlogged. I am so, so sorry :(!
#78 – Book Blogger Habits That Are Embraced Despite Reasons
#79 – Author & Blogger Dream Teams
#80 – Dear Book Genie…
#81 – YA Antagonists You Shouldn’t Trick-or-Treat From
Miscellaneous:
Tags: Nostalgic Book Review Tag (Ayn Rand – Anthem)
Tags: The Villain Squad Book Tag
Tags: Fall Time Cozy Book Tag
Book Haul: Early Fall Book Haul – Oct 2015
Events: Fierce Reads Tour – Toronto 2015
Featured:
[Hogwarts School of Blogcraft and Bookistry] – Intro/Syllabus
[Hogwarts School of Blogcraft and Bookistry] – Transfigurations
[Beta Bloggers Project] – An Open Call To Bloggers
Other Feels:
Television (Not a full list of what I watch):
(If you love to talk television, hit me up on Twitter and we can share feels together!)
Arrow S4: This show continues to truck along, as it does.
Awkward S5: This show is almost over. It is bittersweet.
Blindspot S1: I’m…4 weeks behind. Ugh.
Code Black S1: This show makes me squirmy with the “blood”.
Criminal Minds S11: Criminal Minds being Criminal minds.
Faking It S2: Not speaking to its representation: good on MTV for expanding their social narratives.
Fresh Off The Boat S2: Watching this on/off at the moment.
Grandfathered S1: It is what it is.
How To Get Away With Murder S2: My head hurts. It hurts so much.
iZombie S2: This is probably my favourite CW Show in the lineup.
Limitless S1: Jake McDorman is such a stud that I feel like he’s dragged down by other casts. Still, it’s a police procedural that makes me laugh — and that’s an hour I’ll give.
Marvel’s Agent of SHIELD S3: WHAT THE FUCK FITZSIMMONS. NO, SERIOUSLY. DID YOU SEE THAT GEMMA-ONLY EPISODE? OH MY GOD.
Minority Report S1: This show is probably dropped. I haven’t had interest in really picking it back up after episode 2.
Quantico S1: This show grows on you, keeps the hype up with questions, and is another show that’s amazingly fun to theorize. I’ll forever appreciate non-linear storytelling.
Reign S3: Did anyone else notice how they crammed a half-seasons worth of content into the first episode? No wonder this show is likely getting canned — the writing is blerghusdasudhas.
Scream Queens S1: I lack care to continue watching this show.
The Blacklist S3: Spader’s killing it. Tom is killing it. Liz is there.
The Flash S2: I’ve only watched the first episode of this season but I was so teary in one scene. Holy shit.
The Mindy Project S4: I am sadly two episodes behind but what’s not to love about it–it’s Mindy Kaling.
The Vampire Diaries S7: I didn’t know how this show will do without one of it’s leads…but it’s still hanging on, sort of.
Released Shows Still Requiring Consideration:
Blood & Oil, Heroes: Reborn, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Survivor (I’ve followed the Wikipedia though…)
Films:
Circles: It’s about 50 people in a room and they have to decide who lives/dies by a vote. — SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE FUN, RIGHT? No, it wasn’t.
Music:
(Maroon bolded names link to the track for easy peasy listening)
Illenium – Only One (feat. Nina Sung): This is some chill melodic dubstep.
Justin Bieber – Sorry: Don’t look at me like that.
Pentatonix – Water: Dat Kirstie tho.
Pentatonix – New Years Day: OKAY BYE HALLOWEEN, TIME TO BLAST THIS FOR CHRISTMAS/NEW YEARS.
Nor’easters – What Now (opb. Rihanna): It’s dope. I’ll just leave this here…
Afterthoughts:
So Oct was a pretty solid blogging/reading month with great company at events and stuff of the like.
The only thing that’s rather shitty on my end is that my commenting-back presence on other blogs has been pretty mediocre. Not gonna lie: it’s daunting to open WP and see that there are like 21973217321 new posts every day. And I’m just thinking “omgbyebacktotvbingeing”. Plus, I’ve got some posts I need to reply back to so don’t mind me if you see comments on threads 3+ weeks old LOL.
Lettuce hope things go back to normal.
Cheers,
Joey
connect: afterthoughtAn // twitter | anotherafterthought // goodreads
(disclaimer: retrospective banner textures from topwalls)
thoughts and afterthoughts. 
I think ” Spader’s killing it. Tom is killing it. Liz is there.” is my favourite recap of the Blacklist ever!
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I’m still waiting for my Tom/Liz ship to set sail. I’ll be pissed if it’s Ressler/Keen instead…UGH MUST NOT THINK ABOUT IT.
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ME TOOOOO!!! I’m totally shipping them as well. I once thought I saw something between Ressler and Keen but it all vanished in Season 2.
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I was about to go to sleep because 2am and all that… but I was like why not give Joey another comment to reply to 3+ weeks later?
Okay your wrap ups every month just remind me what a terrible TV-show-watcher I am. I guess I just need to get myself into a binge-watching mood. Sometime at the end of the year I will have caught up on Suits. I PROMISE. And I’m happy that you like Quantico because I was thinking about starting it. I mean, it’s the first season so I won’t have much to catch up on. Nek minit, seasons 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… rolls around.
>_>
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I REFUSE. REPLIED. HA.
I’ve been slacking with tv-watching but made it up in reading — so it’s definitely a give and take with how you spend your downtime. I’VE GIVEN UP ON YOUR EMPTY PROMISES OF SUITS; DARVEY HAS GIVEN UP ON YOU TOO. AND LITT, TOO.
Quantico is fun. If you watched and enjoyed HTGAWM, surely you’ll enjoy Quantico. Otherwise, watch both. Okay byeeeee.
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LBR Litt has too few friends to give up on me. I watched a couple of episodes of HTGAWM but then I got lazy with following it each week… 😀 I’ll make it my mission to watch Quantico and catch up on Darvey time this Christmas break. Once I reach my 200 book goal, I can watch TV again 🙂
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I just started reading Shadow and Bone (almost done already haha) and really like it so far. Glad I’m not the only one who procrastinated on reading this series. Ps I really like iZombie as well. 🙂 Have you ever seen The 100?
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I hope you have Siege and Storm ready for the continued binge reading! I’ve definitely seen The 100 (I’m pretty sure I watch like 90% of the shows CW offers LOL) but it was disappointing when they pushed back the air-date of season 3 into 2016 :(!
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I can whole heatedly agree with the injustice of pushing back the air date. It’s killing me! But they want to make sure there is a big enough fan base so hopefully it never gets cancelled. I need to pick up Siege and Storm asap I wasn’t sure if I would like it so I just bought the first book. That was a stupid mistake
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I hope that The 100 is like… a 5-6 season show in solid content/writing so it doesn’t feel like it drags pointlessly like so many other shows that loses focus and throws in random narratives just to keep the money churning (but I won’t name any names just because their fanbases are rather big LOL).
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(*Cough* supernatural *cough*) Lol I can see the appeal but yea hasn’t stuff like that technically ended two or three times?
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I love the Pentatonix tracks you picked! Those two and Misbehavin’ are my favorites on the new album. I totally agree with your Blacklist notes. I love
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and Tom! I’m so glad they didn’t get rid of him.
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Ahoy to another Pentatonix listener! And they cannot get rid of Tom. I refuse to let my ship sink. REFUSEEEE.
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Yes, I love them! I was able to see them 4 times in concert before they got really big:) Except I don’t know who Tom is?!?! Are you talking about Tom Hanks?
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You left an additional comment “and Tom! I’m so glad they didn’t get rid of him.” (re: Blacklist) so I just replied once instead of to both — unless you didn’t mean that comment at all then I don’t know what to tell you LOL.
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LOL. I’m just confusing myself! It’s been a long day. 😉 Had I read back over my comment I would have got it but I was lazy. Sorry about that.
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Wish I have the time to watch the tube. But hey, thanks for this ‘dope’ What Now accapella. Love it!
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JOY LIKES SOME OF THE MUSIC I LISTEN TO??! *Dies*
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Your T.V. commentary is so on point!
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Gotta give credit where it’s due I guess haha.
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Shield=brilliant especially last week. I am still on the face whether to watch How to Get Away
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Fitz always gets shafted oh my lanta. I HOPE THIS JUST MEANS IT’S A SLOW BURN TO THE FITZSIMMONS, OKAY, I REFUSE TO LET THIS NEW KID ON THE BLOCK RUIN THAT SHIP — THEY’RE ONE KEY DYNAMIC THAT’S KEEPING ME LOCKED TO THE SHOW.
Caps caps caps.
And yes, I’d recommend just trying out the pilot to any show you have interest in! It basically displays the entire first season in a nutshell and you can gauge whether or not you want to uncover the questions or not.
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Oh I watched the pilot to that one. Not super sparking but not hating it. Need extra input 🙂
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Ohhh. Well, all I can say is to watch ep. 2? LOL. What I can say for the first 4-5 episodes is that the narrative focuses on each of the students timeline as it reflects what you learn in the pilot (I think, I could be wrong though–it’s been a while!). So, yes, it might be daunting in the fact that it feels repetitive in viewing but it surely brings questions to the forefront (i.e. motives) and keeps you guessing — which I guess is the strength of this show. Plus, Viola Davis is impeccable.
Have you seen Quantico? It has a similar vibe to HTGAWM (arguably this years HTGAWM in terms of presentation and diversity)
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I watched the pilot for Quantico but it felt insanely cheesy so I am not sure how I feel about it.
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Geeeeez — just chirping every tidbit of comment I have LOL. Have you seen Mr. Robot? Probably my favourite new 2015 debut though.
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I seriously love the way you do your monthy wrap ups.
I realised I watch like no TV shows.
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Happy to hear the setup of these recaps is enjoyable!
It’s certainly a trade-off to spend free time either watching tv or reading (and the former usually takes precedence for me) but in the end, if you’re doing what you want then that’s all that matters.
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I need to ‘hit you up’ on Twitter cos I’m always watching HTGAWM and iZombie from this season. I haven’t started this season’s Awkward yet, I’m already watching too many weekly shosws.
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Omg how are you watching SO MANY TV SHOWS? I am watching like two and I already struggle to keep up. I confess I can’t watch TV unless I have roped someone into sitting there and watching it with me because my mind just wanders… and then I attempt to multitask and read a book at the same time instead. Which basically NEVER ends well.
How MESSY is HTGAWM though? I don’t even know where they are going with this? With the show’s track record I will not even be surprised if they pulled the rug out from under our feet and tell us Asher is the criminal mastermind tbh.
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