Introduction

This blog post is an indirect follow-up to a blog post I made back in December 2025 about the “artistic objects” I enjoyed in 2025.

This blog post is gonna be about various “artistic objects” I’ve enjoyed from January 2026 to June 2026 (included).

Spoilers will be minimal.

Some important context

I’ve watched far less movies and played far less video games in the last few months, the reason is that I had a complete and massive fallout with my (at the time) best (online) friends with who I was watching most things.

Due to this fact, what I’ve enjoyed the last few months has been mostly “light” or “comedic” stuff, because that’s what I’ve needed since it happened.

Some recommendations are from before the fallout happened.

Movies

12:01 (1993)

(TV movie)

This TV movie is an adaptation of a short of the same name (but with “PM” added), which was by itself an adaptation of a short story. I wasn’t a fan of the short and expected to also not be a fan of this movie, but it ended up being probably one of the best things I’ve ever seen. It is a TV movie, yet it is more impressive and more polished than a lot of actual “cinema movies”.

The story of the movie is basically the same as Groundhog Day (1993) (so much so that the author of the short story tried to sue the producer of Groundhog Day), except, unlike Groundhog Day, it’s actually good since they did the idea properly.

9/10 - Recommended

Turbo Kid (2015)

(Proper indie movie)

This movie is a low-budget post-apocalyptic movie set in a world where everything is gone, society has collapsed and water is rare. We follow a young guy living in this world who at some point finds a weird, quirky girl that ends up following him… and they get in trouble. It’s a pretty light movie, it’s flawed in some ways, but great in others.

It looks amazing. Yes, the script is imperfect and the movie goes from hyper-serious to slapstick comedy, which isn’t always fitting, but when watching it, the only thing I thought of was: “Wow! This is made with so much care!”

In the same vein, I can also recommend PG: Psycho Goreman (2020) which in some way is tonally similar (it’s, however, not post-apocalyptic) but more successful in its writing. It’s technically a better movie, but unlike “Turbo Kid”, it’s a bit closer to a “normal” studio movie, which made its impact on me lower than “Turbo Kid”.

Turbo Kid (2015): 9/10 - Recommended

PG: Psycho Goreman (2020): 10/10 - Recommended

Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)

I have always liked the work of the Aardman studio, mainly “Wallace & Gromit”. I have, however, never really watched “Shaun the Sheep” because it always seemed too kiddy for me.

I did watch this movie with a friend at a time when my mood was really bad, and I expected to not necessarily like it, it was just something light to watch but I was fine with that at the time. I expected something really mediocre and really dumb. In the end, what I got surprised me so much, I decided to recommend it, because what I got was art. This surprised me so much that I still can’t believe a franchise that seemed so stupid made something where my only thought when I was done watching it was: “Wow! This is actual art! WTF?!”.

08/10 - Recommended

TV Shows

Cobra Kai (2018–2025 - Finished)

This show is technically a follow-up to The Karate Kid (1984) a movie that I’m not even sure I’ve watched from a franchise I never cared about. I have only watched season 1 of the show so my review is gonna be purely based on this season. I have heard that the show gets a bit worse after that (which is basically when Netflix bought it, coincidence…).

This show takes place after the movie, in current time, as if the movie happened back when they came out. They follow the “bad guy” of the movie and is failure of a life since the movie happened, trying to get back to “living” by going back to Karate. It is dumb in some ways, but unlike a lot of dumb things, it’s self-aware and doesn’t take itself seriously. Even so it is derivative, what it ended up being is something really sweet and really nice.

7/10 - Recommended

Justin Spitzer (1977-Present - Ongoing)

For once I am gonna recommend a specific artist. This artist is Justin Spitzer. He is the creator of various TV shows and the reason why I decided to recommend his work instead of specific TV shows he made is that the way he’s making TV shows is effectively to do the same “core idea” in slightly different ways.

He started by being a writer on “The Office (2005)” and when it finished, he moved to creating Superstore.

Superstore (2015-2021)

Superstore is The Office (2005), but not a mockumentary and in a supermaket.

It sadly got cancelled early and ended in a weird way mainly because one of the main actresses decided to leave the show - but not really - because it happened during Covid so she ended up coming back for the show to conclude.

The show isn’t bad, per se. It has amazing characters, amazing character relationships, and, in some ways, has better ideas than The Office (2005). The problem with the show is that any time I think about it. The only thing I can think of is “what a wasted potential” It could and should have been great, it sometimes is great, but it never is fully successful and none of the plots actually develop in a way that is really satisfying.

The way it ends honestly makes the show a lot worse (then again, the way The Office (2005) ends is awful). I did read at some point (because it took me almost the whole of season 1 to get into it, I really didn’t like it at first, so I wanted to know if it gets better) that the show gets worse when the romance “succeeds”, and I don’t necessarily disagree.

All in all, a good show that missed the mark but as I said at the beginning, this guy is making multiple TV shows with the same core idea, and he is coming back.

7/10 - Recommended

American Auto (2021–2023)

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11717610/

What he cam back with is “American Auto”.

When I started this show, I was a bit scared. I was scared because, unlike Superstore, which follows “normal” people, this one is effectively following the upper management class (which is far harder to relate to and care about). In a (car) company where big money is involved.

Also, I have to admit, the show’s name didn’t help to make me interested in it.

However, the show was really successful at making us care about the characters because even though they are, in a way, part of the “evil” class (so to speak), they remained human. The show is also really critical about shareholders and stock market related things. And it’s critical for companies’ executives to effectively “promote” people to higher-up positions so that they don’t get sued for a mistake they made, which from what I know is mostly a problem in the USA.

All this to say that in the end I ended up preferring this to Superstore. I ended up preferring it so much more that it is probably one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen.

It is clever, REALLY political (and not in a bad way, which is surprising for something coming from modern USA), funny, it has great characters, great character relationships, and great “drama”.

Overall, it is really good. The fact that it got cancelled after two seasons is actually a benefit (even if I would have liked to see more) because the show ends up being really tight and even if some things, especially near the end, feel a bit rushed, the end result is a show that is, even if imperfect, far better than the vast majority of comedic shows.

8/10 - Recommended

St. Denis Medical (2024–Ongoing)

This is a show taking the presentation of The Office (2005) by going full-on mockumentary and focusing (mostly) on a “single small room” (with some external “views” of the world when needed)… except in a hospital, where effectively people come and go and it’s always different, this benefits the show in the sense that nothing is ever stale, since it is purely character-driven and situations arise from new characters all the time.

It is currently still ongoing (only season 1 and 2 are out at the time of writing), and it is probably one of the best, if not the best comedy shows that is still ongoing. A lot of it is not even necessarily that funny but everything the show does is successful: the characters are great and actually relatable; none of them are really cartoonish in the sense that you could literally meet any of them in the real world and you wouldn’t be surprised.

8/10 - Recommended

Games

For whatever reason, I’m guessing mostly related to my mental state. I have been mostly playing light puzzle games (mainly Match-3 or Peggle-style games).

Atlantis - Pearls of the Deep (2012)

This is a game I probably “played” for an hour 10+ years ago. I vaguely remember playing something with this gameplay, maybe on console, maybe a demo… I’m honestly not sure. It is a match-3 puzzle game where you drop colored balls on stacks of other balls in a “map” that usually doesn’t make it easy for you to drop them where you want. The reason I enjoyed/enjoy it a lot is that everything is physicsy, so you end up with a puzzle game that isn’t as static as most other puzzle games without going “hyper active” (like Zuma/Luxor/Tetris…). Things happen at your rhythm; you can play fast or slow, you can be overly precise or “spam balls” without much downside, it ends up being a really unique and satisfying experience.

A remake of it exists, but from what I read and saw, it is basically the same gameplay, except pay to win. I am probably gonna try it, but honestly “Perls of the Deep” is nearly flawless and outside of some specific maps being frustrating. I have had, overall, a great time playing it

9/10 - Recommended

Piffle (2018)

This game is taking the idea of arcanoid (or any kind of brick breaker game) and making it into something far more interesting by making the “bricks” have different effect and different behavior depending on what happens (either you hit them or didn’t hit them) - some will move, some will duplicates, some can only be hit on one side…

It is also taking the idea of a lot of Japanese puzzle games, mainly Puzzle Bobble, by making the bricks fall toward the player and killing you if you’re not playing “good” enough.

It is, like the previous game, really dynamics and physicsy, which ends up making it really satisfying.

Having played the Apple Arcade version, I didn’t encounter any of the toxic things of usual mobile games (P2W, predatory things…), so I can’t comment on them, but the only thing my version had which, I’m guessing, was mostly made for the free-to-play version is the fact that you can customize your “bullets” (which are cats), by changing their appearance (you can give them clothes… or make them dogs), which has literally no effect on gameplay.. I purely played the game as a “actual game” and this is part of the reason why I’m using Apple Arcade.

This was, surprisingly to me, made by the developers who made Crossy Road, a game which I find to be really bad (and a bad copy of Frogger). I played it without knowing that fact was surprised to see that when they have their own idea, they can make something really good.

9/10 - Recommended

Garden Tails (2022)

This game is, from afar, a pretty basic match-three game. It is themed around garden and wildlife related things. One of the main things making it different from other match-3 games is the fact that on the “board,” animal “tiles” will spawn and those animals will have different effects: Rabbits will destroy everything in a straight line, birds will fly away and destroy a tile (that you need for your objective) farther away, butterflies will destroy all tiles of the same color… The game also is framed as “you need to make the best gardens” which is a purely optional mechanics that just make the “game menu” different gardens with running animals.

All in all, this is a really nice and enjoyable “basic” match-3-game-with-a-twist. It is really polished and seems made with passion, so much so that when I first played it, one of my first reactions was “wow, the people making it really cared”…

…Which is a bit sad when you discover the fact that the studio making it was bought out by Take-Two in 2020 (for 250 million dollars, which is a good amount to exit the industry I guess) and that it ended up being completely shut down in 2023 (management at its finest), the people working for the studio were invited to be transferred to Zynga, a Take-Two studio making highly predatory and low-quality games… What a waste of talent.

8/10 - Recommended

Music

No music recommendation this time, what I recommended last time is roughly what I’d still recommend now (I actually started writing a recommendation for El Tigr3 but realized that I recommended his music last time, so I just decided not to).

I guess I can recommend the Starbound soundtrack, but I don’t have much to say about it.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoy some of those recommendations, and may good art remain good.

PS: This blog post took me far too long to write, probably 6-8 hours total, so I hope you enjoyed reading it