Welcome to My Favorite Things, a weekly column where we gab about the greatest in geek. This week highlights a new song from one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, a mythic television series that is probably airing on the wrong network, and a blood soaked noir/vampire show. Neat!
Nicole’s Favorite Thing is…. “Heathens” by Twenty-one Pilots!
I’m a soundtrack junkie, which means I own more soundtracks than I can count and can identify composers just by their style within a movie. Most of the time I go for instrumental scores – but every now and again a lyric song will appear that will hit me just right. So it is for the song “Heathens” by Twenty-one Pilots for the new Suicide Squad soundtrack. I instantly fell in love with it on the radio and bought it the second I got home. The entire soundtrack wasn’t even available yet! It’s a simple enough song, but I love the dark undertones and weird design it’s got going on. And even though it’s supposed to be for the Suicide Squad movie (which I’ll definitely be seeing), I knew that if all of my book characters were to suddenly come to life, “Heathens” would be their theme song.
JL Gribble’s Favorite Thing is… The Shannara Chronicles!
As usual, I’m late to the game with the cool TV shows. But considering I just binge-watched the first half of The Shannara Chronicles, it’s easy enough to say what my current favorite thing is! Though I had it recommended to me while the first season was on air, I blew it off because I didn’t understand why such a show was on MTV. I still don’t understand why this show is on MTV, actually, but it’s got all the pertinent tropes I crave from my fantasy television: mythical creatures, beautiful landscapes, absurd quests to go to the place to find the thing, a person who is The Chosen One, and ridiculously impractical costumes. (Honestly, why isn’t this on the CW instead?) I have never read any of the Terry Brooks novels that the show is based on, so I can’t comment on the adaptation. But if anything, I’m seriously considering picking up the books to learn more.
Nu’s Favorite Thing is…. From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series!
My favorite thing this month is From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series. This TV series, which airs on El Rey Network, takes the original 1996 horror movie and expands it. As a big fan of the movie, it was awesome to see director Robert Rodriguez breathe new life into this franchise. What’s interesting is that the TV show is able to take the vampire mythology a step further and create its own monster: the culebras (snake vampires). The TV show has everything that genre lovers will enjoy: crime, noir, badass characters, vampires, and blood! Seasons 1 and 2 is on Netflix and season 3 will be out this fall!
What geeky property have you fallen in love with lately? Any thoughts on the favorites above? Jut let us know in the comments.
I’m so glad to see SHANNARA getting some love! I read the books back in college, and I always considered The Elfstones of Shannara to be one of Brooks’ best. It’s a fun a show, a gateway show into fantasy I think, and once I got used to how YOUNG the main three looked, I got hooked really fast. I was also surprised that the wizard was, well, good looking. I’m too used to Gandalfs and Dumbledores on the screen!
I think it’s encouraging to see any traditional fantasy TV show succeed. It lets the world know that Game of Thrones isn’t a one time thing.
That, and that fantasy doesn’t have to be so dark and violent all the time either. People might know that from movies, of course: The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the Narnia films, but I love seeing those big worlds on the small screen!
Oooh, I didn’t even know From Dusk Till Dawn existed as a series. One more reason to cave and pick up a netflix subscription, I guess