Out of frame, now within
A couple of handy recommendations from your good friends at re:frame.
by Rollin Bishop, Toussaint Egan
Oh, hey, how's it going? Good, good. Anyway, we'd lined something up for today that didn't quite come together in time — look forward to that next Friday — but we've also not yet missed a send. In an effort to pull something together while that cooks a little longer and with Kam in Japan, here's a couple of more thorough recommendations from us to keep you busy this weekend.
Think of it like our "out of frame" signoffs on Tuesdays, but expanded. Like some kind of curatorial collection. Without further delay, here's what re:frame recommends:
SOLAR OPPOSITES
The sci-fi comedy animated series Solar Opposites from Justin Roiland (who left after Season 3) and Mike McMahan has concluded after six seasons on Hulu, but it's maybe the best time ever to watch — which is exactly what I did — now that five of those (with the sixth still to come) have landed on Netflix at the end of September.
Because now that it's on Netflix, Solar Opposites is unintentionally the best it's ever been. That's not to say it's been bad; watching a bunch of aliens trying to live on Earth together after the destruction of their world is good Rick and Morty-flavored fun with a bit more space on its own. Thomas Middleditch, who voices the humanity-pilled lazy alien and ostensible pupa specialist Terry, is at the top of his game here and kills it with every line read. That's not even getting into the storylines explored in, for example, the people that have been shrunk and trapped in a wall within the aliens' home. (Genuinely, truly? Maybe one of my favorite serial narratives I've seen this year.)
The reason Solar Opposites is now in its best possible form is because it's been a consistent running gag from the very beginning that the show was aware of and regularly commented on the fact that it was airing on Hulu. From intro skits to in-fiction fourth-wall-breaking acknowledgement of being a streaming show to visiting Hululand with Hulu-themed rides and activities, Solar Opposites made the most of just about every opportunity to take the piss out of its original streaming home, and the move to Netflix has frankly increased the hilarity of each sequence by a factor of five at least.
The show might be done for now, but at least it's gone out on a high note… that it could not have possibly predicted.
WEIRD PS1 GAME I FOUND
Veyreth The Curious. The Shard of Vystareth. The fearful King Velgararth. Castle Valdthsythe. We all know that everyone knows these names about as well as they know the English alphabet spelled backwards, but it never hurts to have a helpful refresher every now and then.
Dominik Johann, the Berlin-based visual artist and animator best known for his work on such games as The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe and Minit, released a new animated short on his YouTube channel in late October that I only just discovered. A parody of PlayStation-era opening cutscenes, "weird ps1 game i found" opens with obligatory exposition, weaving together a vast mythology out of nonsensical proper nouns and stuttering narration before swiftly pivoting to talk about a phenomenon that we've all encountered at one point or another in our lives that's not so much important as it is kind of just weird and annoying and and becomes the sole focus of all your attention when you think about it too much.
Anyway, I love Johann's sense of humor and his masterful animated recreations of fifth generation graphics. If you enjoy the divisive 2022 cult horror film Skinamarink, I highly recommend you check out his "deleted scene" parody.