Web Summit 2022 | BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER | MYTHIC QUEST Season 3
Pop Culture Weekly Round-Up 11/11/2022
Hello, everyone I’m back! I hope you guys missed me. Anyway, in this week’s newsletter, I talk about my experience at the Web Summit 2022, which was the reason why I did not publish a newsletter last week. I also share my thoughts on the new Marvel movie BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER and one of my favorite shows at the moment, MYTHIC QUEST. And as always there is a playlist of five songs I enjoyed last week.
Web Summit 2022
Hello to everyone who is reading this newsletter for the first time. We have probably connected at the Web Summit and I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Gilby and I give the nice people that are subscribed to the Pop Culture Round-up some recommendations of films, TV shows, and music every Friday. And for those who have been here for a while and may not be too familiar with the conference, the Web Summit is an annual technology conference that has been hosted in Lisbon since 2016. This year's event was unprecedented in its scope and drew 71,033 attendees from 160 countries, 42% of whom were women. There were more people, companies, presenters, and investors than ever before, and the event facility is at capacity.
Overall, my time at Web Summit was great. I really enjoyed meeting some interesting and talented people. I made some great connections and I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with all the people I met there. I was at the conference taking photos and videos and I’m also planning to write an article about some cool companies that I found there.
This year the gathering has been monopolized by discussions about web3, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and the Metaverse. It was very interesting to me to know that my skepticism about these topics is also shared by a lot of people that I met at the conference. I think that crypto and NFTs are great ideas but both are dominated by grifters at the moment and that is a massive turn-off to me. Web3 may be the future but it faces a lot of challenges and I’m not seeing anyone addressing them. All I hear are buzzwords put together to create some marketing hype. Maybe I’m wrong but the Web3 right now feels like a pipe dream. Also, I heard the " We’re going to take our power back” before when the internet started to become a reality and I’m not falling for it again. The Metaverse is just a big joke right now. I think VR has great potential and can be used for very interesting things in the health field. However, I don’t think we will be living in a virtual world anytime soon. But I’m looking forward to witnessing Mark Zuckerberg destroying his precious company trying to convince us to move to his lame version of the Playstation Home.
Anyway, you guys can check some photos I took at the Web Summit here and I will hopefully see some of you again at the conference next year!
QUICK THOUGHTS
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER is the latest addition to the apparently endless stream of superhero content. As some of you guys already know, I’m not really invested in the MCU and I did not enjoy any of the ‘phase 4” movies. But I was very curious to see what writer/director Ryan Coogler would do with this movie. And I have to say, he has accomplished something rare. A sequel to a great movie that doesn’t suck. The movie is not perfect, it has its flaws. But it is a meaningful and emotive sequel despite the bad position he was put in the wake of Chadwick Boseman's heartbreaking loss. Coogler is so talented and skilled. And he shows that by making a good job balancing intimate moments with huge blockbuster elements. Everything—including the cinematography, score, and most of the CGI are well done. Probably the best craftsmanship in any superhero flick in a long time. Wakanda Forever is far from a flop, but Marvel's insistence on constantly pushing their shared universe is once again a problem here. It is so annoying to me that the Iron Heart subplot was just a pretty embarrassing excuse to kickstart another terrible Disney+ series. It is pathetic and hard to believe that people keep falling for this. But despite everything that seemed to be working against this movie (there were extensive reshoots and other complications with Letitia Wright) I must admit that I was impressed with the film's overall quality. The departure of Boseman is certainly felt, but Coogler seems to have succeeded in creating a good sequel to BLACK PANTHER. For me, this is just further proof that he is an outstanding filmmaker. I hope he is done with the Marvel phase of his carrier and moves on to more interesting projects.
MYTHIC QUEST is back and I’m super happy about it! There are many workplace comedies out there, however, MYTHIC QUEST has been successfully doing something unique. I think that setting its premise in a video game studio and following individuals as they develop a massively multiplayer online game, was a brilliant idea. In its third season, MYTHIC QUEST is equally as gratifying and fun as before. The show keeps the standards high with clever, well-written storylines and you can also expect many jokes about NFTs and the Metaverse. Season 2 ended with Poppy and Ian leaving their positions as co-creative directors of the game and bidding farewell to their colleagues and the office they had shared since the start of the show. The third season begins sometime after the duo established their own studio, GrimPop. That radically changed the dynamic of the show by offering fresh character perspectives that highlight their flaws and virtues as well as some amusing and unexpected twists. Famously, every season of the series has featured a stand-alone episode that is unrelated to the central story. I’m not going to spoil anything but I can say that this year’s “flashback episode” revisit the formative years of two of its main characters in great depth. The episode is divided into parallel arcs as two characters from different parts of the globe learn they share a passion for video games. It is very well executed and one of the best episodes of the whole season. I really enjoyed all three seasons of this show so far and I highly recommend it. If you’re looking for a comedy that is a bit spicier than TED LASSO, MYTHIC QUEST is a great option. You won't be let down.
The first 2 episodes of MYTHIC QUEST will be made available for viewing today, November 11. Followed by one every Friday until the tenth and last episode debuts on Apple TV+ on January 6, 2023.
TOP 5 SONGS
These were the 5 songs on heavy rotation in my house last week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube.
New Phoenix record is (*chef's kiss).