Media diet for September 2026

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I watched 3h 33m of movies and 43h 3m of TV shows, a total of 46h 36m:

🎬 Movies

  • Toy Story 5 (2026) – ⭐️ 5/10
    • I forgot where I read it, but someone said “Cute, I hope they never make another one.” and that sums it up nicely. The biggest flaw of this installment for me was Jessie’s voice – Joan Cusack sounds too old. I get that part of the story is that the toys themselves are getting old, but this was too much compared to everyone else and really took me out of it. I also find it a bit rich to get a lesson on screen time and device usage from freaking Disney.
  • Backrooms (2026) – ⭐️ 3/10
    • I don’t know what the hell this was supposed to be, but it sure wasn’t for me.

📺 TV Shows

  • Wonder Man – Miniseries (8 episodes with 4h 27m)
    • That was a neat introduction, I wonder what will happen in the actual show! Oh wait. Snark aside, “neat” was meant in earnest – I liked it, but didn’t love it. While the ending certainly would work well as the starting point for a couple of seasons of more typical Marvel-slop, it also very much works to bookend this glimpse of a “could basically also not be Marvel/superhero-related at all” story. Great use of Phantom Planet’s California, now I feel like rewatching The O.C..
  • Conan O’Brien Must Go – S03 (4 episodes with 2h 54m)
    • I found this to be the weakest season of the show by a wide margin – it often felt too forced, like having to do it rather than wanting to do it. He even explicitly called out the third-season curse in the finale, but naming it doesn’t make it go away. The best parts were all Sona in the third episode. However, the intro alone still is good enough to keep me watching for as long as they make more of it.
  • Vigil – S03 (6 episodes with 5h 45m)
    • Pretty good. Or maybe rather: “entertaining”. The larger plot of this season was probably the most ridiculous yet, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless thanks to the strong leads and their dynamic. I didn’t even know that there’d be another season of this, so I was just pleasantly surprised when it popped up.
  • Colin from Accounts – All 3 seasons (24 episodes with 11h 28m)
    • I forgot where I heard about this Australian gem, but it was one of my favorite things I watched this year. Adorable, funny, positive (despite some dark themes), and really good cringe. Within the first couple of episodes there already were several laugh out loud moments for me – I wish there was more new comedies on that level. The final season just finished airing this month and gave the show a nice conclusion. Kudos to the two leads, who are not only the creators/writers of the show as well, but also married in real life.
  • Spider-Noir – Miniseries (8 episodes with 5h 53m)
    • Meh. After seeing so much hype beforehand, I was rather underwhelmed. It was okay; having grown up with The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off etc. I will probably always dig Nicolas Cage doing his thing – this show being no exception. I watched the (originally unplanned!) True-Hue version, but in hindsight I wish I had gone for the Black & White instead. The best scene was undoubtedly the bar fight accompanied by “Sway” – unfortunately this exact remix doesn’t seem to have been published. The closest available version I could find is Rosemary Clooney’s version on her 1960 album A Touch Of Tabasco.
  • Watchmen – Miniseries (9 episodes with 8h 50m)
    • I needed some more Lindelof after LOST and The Leftovers. I couldn’t believe it had already been significantly more than five years since his Watchmen mini-series originally aired – long enough ago to allow for a rewatch. I did mention the show briefly back in March 2025 when writing about the animated two-parter movie from 2024. I greatly enjoyed the show this time around again. It’s incredibly weird (and I mean more so than this universe is in itself already), but I personally found it rewarding to just go with the weirdness. While I understand and respect Alan Moore’s stance on adaptations of his work, I’m terribly glad they exist. Some day I’ll want to 🇩🇪 re-read the graphic novel – don’t have the iPad anymore, though (partly because this was the only good use-case).

💬 Late Night & Talk Shows

  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
    • September 20, 2026: UnitedHealth Group
    • September 27, 2026: Brazil’s Presidential Election
  • The Daily Show
    • September 8, 2026 - Gov. Spencer Cox
    • September 21, 2026 - Ari Emanuel
    • September 28, 2026 - Evan Gershkovich

🎧 Music

I scrobbled 629 tracks on 30 days in September 2026:

🎶 Top 10 Tracks

  1. Blond – Es könnte grad nicht schöner sein (16 plays)
  2. DXWILLX – Montagem Coral 1.0 (14 plays)
  3. Fatoni – Nachos (10 plays)
  4. Fatoni – Beste Kombi (10 plays)
  5. Kraftklub – Halts Maul und spiel (10 plays)
  6. juse ju – Untergrund Kingz (9 plays)
  7. juse ju – BAWRS (6 plays)
  8. Kraftklub – Kippenautomat (6 plays)
  9. Rosemary Clooney – Sway (6 plays)
  10. Juse Ju, Fatoni & Edgar Wasser – Nein! Doch! Ohh! (6 plays)

🧑‍🎤 Top 10 Artists

  1. ABBA (77 plays)
  2. juse ju (68 plays)
  3. Kraftklub (63 plays)
  4. Max Richter (50 plays)
  5. Fatoni (34 plays)
  6. Blond (31 plays)
  7. Blumentopf (29 plays)
  8. Tape (24 plays)
  9. Queens of the Stone Age (23 plays)
  10. DXWILLX (14 plays)

📚 Books

  • 📘 The Leftovers – ⭐️ 4/5

    • I had completely forgotten that the show was actually based on a book. It’s pretty wild how much of an avid reader I’ve become in the last decade. Finding out about this book logically meant that I’d just go right ahead and read it!
      I really liked it, but it’s very hard to know how much I’d have liked it without the show. There were many moments in the book that I could see before my inner eye as if I was remembering actual scenes from an episode – not because they were exact copies, but because the show did such a great job of capturing the essence of the characters as they’re written in the book. There are some interesting differences, like Kevin being the mayor instead of police chief, Nora’s job from the show not being a thing, and some relationships changing around a bit. But all in all the show was an impressively faithful adaptation – not surprising considering the author was involved throughout the entire run.

      I also discovered the coolest thing – total coincidence, I don’t even remember why I was trying out for a new alarm sound: The Unfold ringtone on iOS sounds like it’s straight up taken from Max Richter’s amazing soundtrack. As seen above, I’ve been listening to that quite a bit at work this month. I couldn’t find definitive proof, but there’s no way the ringtone isn’t from him. (Update: Heck yeah, confirmed in this podcast episode at 23:11.)

🎙️ Podcasts

I listened to 18 episodes across 5 podcasts in September 2026:

🎮 Games

I played 5 different games for a total of 14.3 hours in September 2026.

  • Is This Seat Taken?
    • 🏆 Began and finished the entire game this month, unlocking all 26 achievements in 7.1 hours across 4 days. Wrote a 👍 review (168 words) on 2026-09-27.
  • Spelunky
    • Played for 2.7 hours across 3 days. Unlocked no new achievements, still at 7/20 total. Wrote a 👎 review (367 words) on 2026-09-27.
  • Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
    • 🏆 Began and finished the entire game this month, unlocking all 37 achievements in 2.5 hours across 3 days. Wrote a 👍 review (195 words) on 2026-09-24.
  • HITMAN World of Assassination
    • Played 1.0 more hours, already unlocked all 83 achievements in the past. I had already written my 👍 review (438 words) back on 2023-11-27.
  • Rocket League
    • Played 1.0 more hours, already unlocked all 88 achievements in the past. I had already written my 👍 review (21 words) back on 2022-09-03.