A quick sum-up of the series I've watched recently

I would really like to write a proper full review for most of those titles but I know I won't so I decided to share some general thoughts at least. Totally spoiler-free. So without further ado, this is what I've managed to watch this year, courtesy of the New Year's holidays (well, in many cases I just finished them this year but that's what counts, isn't it?):

Babylon Berlin

I absolutely love this show. It has a good engaging story, nice pacing and realistic characters but most of all it does all the things I really want from period dramas but which so many titles in the genre fail to deliver: it never neglects properly picturing the era it is set in, in this case, the final breath of the roaring twenties. Costumes and scenography are not over the top which is a plus for me. I mean over the top is good in a posh club but not in the office and in the streets. Not everyone is stylish and clad in latest fashion. There are plenty scenes which don't serve the plot very much but just show how everyday life looked like and I really enjoyed that. I'm eagerly waiting for more seasons. Oh, and the opening is like one of the best ever in my humble opinion.

Black Mirror season 4

I'm a great fan of the show and I was very excited for the new episodes. I think it was a really solid season even though I still believe that when the show moved across the ocean it got watered down a bit. Just like it was the case with season 3, I had few moments where I regretted that showmakers didn't take things further, spearing audience's feeling unnecessarily (after all weren't we all attracted to the Black Mirror by its darkness?) but on the other hand even the episode I liked the least (Crocodile) wasn't really meh like some in previous seasons were. I only say I liked it least because it was least Black Mirror-like in my opinion, not because it was weaker on its own. And so the show remains to be one of the best and most significant ones of the last years. 

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency season 2

I've seen few shows in my life that managed to balance on the line between delightfully weird and utterly ridiculous like this one does. I still cannot tell if it's good or just stupid and it's even more the case for this season than it was for the previous one. One thing I am certain of is that I was entertained at least as long as I was watching it. So it's all cool. If wacky is for you, give it a try.

The End of the F***ing World

This one-evening show (it consists of 8 episodes 20 minutes each) was a very pleasant surprise (it just appeared one day and I had no idea what it is). It's a mix of teenage drama, black comedy, road movie, and crime drama, and probably several other things and it works really well. Its biggest forte is the mood, mixing very serious and the exact opposite in a way probably unique to the Brits. It allows it to take advantage of teen protagonists being dramatic for comical purposes without actually belittling their problems and that was certainly refreshing.

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju
I really enjoy anime that go out of their way to actually teach me something about proper Japanese culture and there are few that do it as well as this one. That something is rakugo, a form of theatrical storytelling dating back several centuries. But fear not, there is a solid story there too and it's actually one of the best dramas I've seen in recent anime. At some point, it may seem a little fragmentary, with several years skipped between episodes but with a story that spans over almost a century, I guess there was no other choice.

Boku dake ga inai machi (Erased)
This might have been a really great show if it wasn't so predictable. I was constantly one step ahead of the story, guessing where it will go next with some crazy accuracy. I don't remember this ever happening on such a scale and since this show is supposed to be a mystery, it's quite a serious drawback. Still, I have to say it clearly that it was engaging and I enjoyed it while I was watching it. It touched some important themes in a reasonably sensitive way and the story was good overall.

Shimoneta

Normally I see ecchi and fan service as things that ruin anime. It's an evil I learned to put up with to a certain degree but still, my tolerance is pretty low. But, for several reasons, I decided to give this show a try and I'm glad I did. It was fun to watch. I'm not a prude, you see, it's just that most ecchi is genuinely not funny and forced into places it doesn't fit. Shimoneta, in stark contrast to what I've seen so far, is consistent, well written and while it spectacularly holds no punches it manages to maintain healthy distance to the whole thing too.

And I'm still watching:

Start Trek - the original series

This classic is something I remembered sometimes seeing on TV as a kid and its imagery had quite a strong impact on me and yet I never properly watched it. And I actually think of myself as a nerd... So I decided to finally fix that. Well, I'm not going to lie, the beginnings were really hard. Several first episodes of the first season are so bad it's really a challenging experience to watch them. You just ask yourself two questions: how did that ever got popular and who lets such idiots into space? But it gets better with time. Well, at the end of season 1 it still feels like it was created by people who know very little about how real world works but ideas got better and hence it's became easy and actually entertaining to watch despite all the shortcomings. So I'm hopeful it will continue to improve.
P.S. And I also found out that the show wasn't popular at all at first which is a relief.

Steins;Gate

I sometimes watch things I know I won't enjoy and force myself to watch it all nevertheless and this is one of them. It's as if a 7-year-old kid was trying to write an adult story not bothered by the fact they know nothing about anything including how normal people interact with each other. There's not a single good thing to say about this show so I won't waste my virtual breath. OK, the story has some potential and after the general redo, it could amount to something, but I guess it would become completely unrecognisable in the process with so much stupid to remove.