Media Diary

March 2026

March 18th

Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (2005)
Bunked off school today because I binged a lot of TV late yesterday and I have some work to catch up on. I decided to start my day by finally firing up AC5 on the emulator I got working recently. This is maybe THE PS2 game for me, I've played this one countless times back as a kid. The story and characters of this game have stuck in my head for decades at this point, although revisiting it now as an adult the English written by Japanese writers is somewhat apparant with some stiffer dialogue alongside some stilted sounding VA in the cutscenes. That all very quickly fades away as soon as you hop into a mission, with the drama and intensity as high as ever. I love how mission briefings are actually needed to understand what's going on, and on hard mode you need to keep up with the comms to better follow what you're supposed to be doing. I remember playing this on normal as a kid and not really being punished too much for just flying and shooting the green squares, so maybe it may just be my roleplay of following the script that's making it feel that way.

I can tell I'm gonna enjoy this playthrough a lot. I'm planning on following it up with AC0: The Belkan War, the prequel I never played. While a lot of AC takes place in it's own little altered realities of Strangereal, it's easy to see how they struck gold with the world occupied by Eusea, Yuktobania and Belka. They used it again for AC7, and are going to use it again for AC8. Figured it's about time I totally catch up with that part of the franchise. I do want to play all the games if I get a chance. I've beaten AC4 and AC7, but I'll probably go back and give AC1-3 a shot. Apparently 3 has an insane anime style for its cutscenes I'm very keen to see.

March 17th

The Twilight Zone (1959) S03E22 - "A Piano in the House"
I like when characters figure out the Twilight Zone premise quickly and use it to their advantage only to be foiled. Feels like the show is already subverting its own tropes, felt similarly about a previous episode where someone makes a bomb shelter to trick the occupants into thinking nukes had dropped but it all falls apart for him quickly.

The Pitt (2025) S01E09 - "3:00pm"

The Pitt (2025) S01E10 - "4:00pm"
"This is a teaching hospital," love that everyone is learning, even doctors who have been there for a while. The characterisation of people willing to learn from mistakes is so good, especially in a setting where mistakes cost lives. Also love how well written this is and how patients who bring out the most interesting parts of characters are regularly being admitted. ALSO LANGDON WAS ACTUALLY STEALING DRUGS??

The Pitt (2025) S01E11 - "5:00pm"
Never thought I'd see a baby's head crown through their mother's vulva on TV but here we are.

The Pitt (2025) S01E12 - "6:00pm"
Insane escalation of tension through the mass shooting, and the fact that Jake was at Pittfest is so haunting.

The Pitt (2025) S01E13 - "7:00pm"
Robbie's breakdown, don't even know what to say. I was sobbing with him.

The Pitt (2025) S01E14 - "8:00pm"
Even when the worst of it is all over, the ER keeps being an ER. No rest for the weary, and measles of all things. Also, obvious to say, the anti-vaxx mom sucks.

The Pitt (2025) S01E15 - "9:00pm"
And it all just goes on and on and on. Rooftop scene with Robbie and Abbot was great. Abbot is such a great source of stability and I wish he was in the season more, but I think him showing up for the mass casualty event makes his appearance far more impactful. Hell of a first day. Genuinely love all these characters (especially Mel). Excited to watch season 2 when it's fully out (my friend Honor told me it's currently airing, and while I do love a weekly show I think I wouldn't be able to handle the wait for this one). This seems like such a perfect 1 season show that I am curious where it goes from here. I wouldn't necessarily want it to try and top its self in the severity of the day, unless its with different characters.

I would die for her

March 16th

The Pitt (2025) S01E05 - "11:00am"
Binge watched today, really loving the show.

The Pitt (2025) S01E06 - "12:00pm"
The constant changing of scrubs gag is really good.

The Pitt (2025) S01E07 - "1:00pm"
Dr. Santos pissing me off a bit but in a way that's compelling. Her character is extremely reactive and also has strong convictions, so I know it's the point. Curious how she will develop over the course of the day.

The Pitt (2025) S01E08 - "2:00pm"
The stuff about the Freedom House Ambulance Service was super cool, love how this show is organically exploring social issues and services.

March 15th

The Pitt (2025) S01E03 - "9:00am"
The real time story structure is becoming very apparent now in how episodes both just start and end in the middle of the action, often leaving it unresolved. I think in a weekly series this would bother me but this makes this show extremely bingeable in a way that I think actually serves the premise of an ER room with something always happening really well.

The Pitt (2025) S01E04 - "10:00am"
Couple of things hit me since this episode followed the intubated father a bit more. The daughter saying "I'm curious now" in regards to having been embarassed and distant from her father as a kid hit me pretty strongly. Felt very similarly about being an extremely moody and distant teenage son growing up, and right when I feel like my dad and I were starting to get along he was suddenly gone. Timing can be cruel. I'm glad these characters got to say their goodbyes. Their dad passing away as the son started a conversation about taking the boat out for the weekend was also very real. I was in a group chat with my Dad and sister, and my sister and I were having some casual stupid conversation in some attempt to normalise things when my Dad just interjected with some info about how he would be put into a medically induced coma. That was the last time I spoke to him while he was concious. I don't remember our last verbal conversation.

March 14th

The Pitt (2025) S01E02 - "8:00am"
Been slow to watch this, mostly because hospital gore makes me wince in a way a horror movie never could. The main character's slow uncovering of his COVID trauma weirdly parallels my own here. There was a point in the episode where 2 adult siblings had to decide whether or not to intubate their father as he suffered from pneumonia, and I thought about what I would do if I was in that situation. Then I realised I absolutely was in that situation when my sister and I went forward with a DNR for my intubated father when he was dying of COVID. Having been half a world when it happened (he was living in Qatar while we were at uni in Canada), I think I've been extraordinarily detached from the reality of the decisions I made and trauma I experienced. For all the good that most people find in this show, for me it is very specifically helping my to visualise what my father went through and identify my trauma with some more precision, a trauma I thought I had worked through but the tears in my eyes during this episode would suggest otherwise. I'm wondering where I'll be mentally once I get through this season, but so far it's been really good at uncovering things to process a bit more intentionally.

March 11th

Twilight Zone (1959) S03E21 - "Kick the Can"
Perfectly quaint little episode about staying a kid, with a very Twilight Zone bittersweet ending. I usually start my day with these while cooking. This one was a servicable episode but not the most captivating since the Twilight Zone patented moral was a bit on the basic side.

Absolute Batman (2025) #6-8
Loving everything about this so far! Scott Snyder truly gets what makes Batman Batman. Every core detail is kept the same while the world around Batman is totally changed, every single change making for a more interesting character and world. Love the switch of Bruce's parents now being a teacher and social worker, with Bruce himself being a construction engineer with hideouts in abandoned skyscrapers across the city. The whole series seems way more on the pulse of social issues, with Bruce using his planning to make up for the removal of money as a superpower. Really excited to keep reading this, although after #6 the art style has changed to something I feel is a bit too soft for the story being told. Hope it goes back to the style of the first few issues soon.