First, I hope everyone is safe and doing well. Life doesn’t get easier the longer this pandemic goes on. We’re all in this together.
One thing a lot of us have in common right now though is free time on our hands. If you’re looking for some inspiration for how to spend that time, here’s what got me through the second week without sports:
Fantasy Life
I am both making a fiscally responsible move and committing to social distancing by not buying a Nintendo Switch and also Animal Crossing: New Horizons last week. But watching everyone playing a game that I would very much like to be playing right now was kind of a bummer and the only video game systems in my apartment consist of a Sega Genesis, a PlayStation 3, a Steam account I have ignored for years and my Nintendo 3DS.
Enter my favorite 3DS game of all-time: Fantasy Life. I have logged hundreds upon hundreds of hours into this game, going back to it maybe once a year since its release, just to try to find new secrets in the world. The game is a standard and simple RPG that allows you to choose your character’s “Life,” which could be a Mercenary, a Hunter, a Paladin … or a Tailor, Cook, or Miner, etc.
The story and the art are both adorable and the ability to switch your Life at any point (as well as downloadable content that expands the world and requires tons of hours of grinding) means the game never gets old.
No, I will not be disclosing the number of hours I logged this week.
Futurama
I’m a sports writer: my sleep schedule doesn’t want to be much of a “schedule” by any definition. I work late at night because, well, that’s when sports happen. I’m used to being up late and self-isolation isn’t going to change that.
At 1 a.m. Eastern on weeknights, the SyFy Channel plays re-runs of Futurama and most nights, I’m there, working on another piece with my favorite background noise show on. This week started back over with season one and you know? It still holds up.
Also they ran the Seymour episode and yeah, I cried.
X-Men: First Class
Like most people now, I’m a huge Marvel fan, but for me, it started back in the early 90s thanks entirely to X-Men: The Animated Series. A lot of my comfort media comes back to X-Men and this is no exception. First Class might be my personal favorite X-Men film (though I will concede that Logan is pretty objectively the best x-Men film). More importantly, it’s one of my go-to comfort films.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Speaking of comfort films, I re-watched one of the best young adult movie adaptations because I needed to watch something soul-cleansing (I had just watched the Netflix docuseries Don’t F**k With Cats and I honestly wish I could return to the person I was before I learned any details about that case). I went for a movie that is delightful in its willingness to lean into the tropes it embodies and that I knew I enjoyed already.
I then got to watch the sequel for the first time, an experience I was saving for when I truly needed it (and trust me, that time had come) and I wasn’t disappointed. I will say it wasn’t necessarily any better than the first one, and it ran probably ten minutes too long, but I enjoyed it regardless. Sequels are usually the worst in the trilogy, anyway.
iZombie
I didn’t want to mention something from last week, but I figured I might as well give my final analysis of the series. The first two seasons were very good. Season three didn’t necessarily get worse, but you could tell the direction was getting too big. Season four was just okay. Season five was bad, until you’re able to accept that the plot is nonsense and enjoy powerhouse acting performances from everyone except for the main character.
Oh, and the ending kinda sucks, but how do you put a neat little bow on a world with zombies out in the open, y’know?
What got you through this week? Let’s share ways to pass the time in the comments!