Every once in a while, I’ll stumble upon a piece of media that I’m in awe of. This episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz is a masterful telling of a touching, heartbreaking, and heroic story about two young men and their love of video games.

But it could have been a lot better.

A Star Wars show set in the High Republic era that stars not only strong female leads, but a Dark Side Force user? Sign me up! Sadly, The Acolyte ended up with a lot of wasted potential.

Let's get some of my favorite points out of the way.

• The strong female leads and emphasis on people of color are both great assets to the franchise.
• The witch coven is freaking cool, and I'd love to see a lot more about their crazy force magic, their origins, etc. Are they what eventually become the Nightsisters?
• Manny Jacinto absolutely slaying every scene he's in.
• The lightsaber-whip that Master Vernestra uses for about three seconds.
• Wookie Jedi!
• Kylo Ren wishes his helmet was half as cool as Qimir's.
• Actual stakes! Characters you like are going to die.

Some really great casting and acting held up by above-average (for Star Wars, at least) writing makes for something that puts the most thought into the nature of the Force since The Last Jedi. However, this show does absolutely nothing with the High Republic era, squandering a huge amount of potential.

Wacky locales, cities the size of planets, massive spaceships, the overwhelming sense of scale — these are what has always made Star Wars unique. This franchise is at its best when its teeming with life and new ideas. George Lucas understood this, creating Mos Eisley Cantina, Jabba's wacky cast of underlings, and countless other iconic weirdos. The Acolyte pushes for a darker tone and more real stakes, but it loses sight of what makes the world of Star Wars feel lived in.

The B-plot of Master Vernestra tying to thwart a plan to create more government oversight of the Jedi could have been the secret ingredient. But, much like the Master herself, the show stubbornly plows through all the inherent intricacies and fails to create a compelling story out of it. This plot needed a lot more screen time to work, and I would have been so here for it. Learning more about the political machinations of Master Vernestra's position could have been an excellent foil to our merry band of consistently overreacting Jedi, and it could have given The Acolyte the special sauce it sorely needed.

Two or three more episodes would have done a lot of good here. We could have witnessed more of the awesome space witches, had a coherent political plot, and given Manny Jacinto some more screen time. Instead, despite being set in a universe that has always strived to feel expansive, The Acolyte ends up feeling small and limited.

I recently acquired one of the most advanced pieces of modern gaming technology^[1], and what was the first thing I did with it? Play a nearly 30-year old game. Hell yeah.

Much like with Shōgun, I don't have the depth of understanding, nor the force of will, to commit myself to having useful, novel thoughts about the game that defined a generation. But again, like Shōgun, I can simply strongly recommend Final Fantasy VII.

Personally, I've been playing through the original in preparation for the current-generation remakes. Games that I think might define this generation, if the general sentiment around Rebirth is anything to go by.

What an experience it must have been to play this game in your formative years. I was barely crawling in 1997, so I never had that experience, but I can confirm that there is something special here that far exceeds nostalgia.

I can't pretend to fully grasp all the machinations and mysteries within this show — my general ignorance of Japanese culture surely contributing — but I do know that I enjoyed every second of it. I haven't had my eyes glued to a TV like this since The Expanse.

I'll spare you what would surely be a clumsy attempt at a review and simply strongly recommend Shōgun. It's not only one of the most visually stunning pieces of cinema I've seen, but it's also a spectacle for the mind. Once you're done, I'd point you to this interview in Slate to gain a deeper understanding.

The narrative follows Valere and Zale, two Solstice Warriors with a special affinity with lunar and solar magic, respectively. They are among generations of warriors trained form birth to cleanse the world of the evil Feshmancer's (gross) minions. It's a straightforward story with just enough world building and unexpected turns to keep things interesting, but where Sea of Stars really shines is in its characters.

I was fully invested in the merry band of travelers that Valere and Zale amassed, caring enough about each of them to fully experience the few gut-punches that the narrative had in store. With such rich characters and a genuinely interesting world, I was disappointed that the ending fell a bit flat. It just... ended. There wasn't much fanfare beyond the final boss fight, and then I was dropped back at the pre-boss save point^[1].

The turn-based combat remained engaging throughout my 20 hours with the game. Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of character progression or any customization to speak of, so I wouldn't want to spend too much more time with this combat system, but it services just fine for the game's runtime.

The stunningly beautiful pixel art feels special, set against a backdrop of memorable music. Each frame is intricately designed and bursting with color in a way that feels uncommon today. There are plenty of quirky locations to explore (the swamp with singing mushrooms being a real standout) and funky characters to meet, each rendered with apparent care.

Sea of Stars is also uncommon in that it simply gets to the point. Each location is relatively bite-sized, making hour-ish long play sessions feel great, and the story doesn't suffer from added bloat or filler. This game knows what's important to it and doesn't waste much time on much else.

I've started to truly appreciate media that has a narrow scope. Put another way, media that has a certain economy to it, presenting only what is strictly necessary. As a younger person, I hungered for an all-consuming world that I could sink countless hours into. While that's still a real treat, more often I find myself taking joy in smaller experiences such as Sea of Stars.

But not for the reason you might think.

Matt Birchler: Browse for me gets a big 🤨 from me (birchtree. Me)

Since receiving my iPhone 15 Pro, by Action Button has pretty much been only one thing: open the Google app. I like to keep the dozens of disposable Google searches I do every day separate from the Safari tabs I keep open to annoy myself into getting things done. Having that functionality conveniently tucked away in the action button has been surprisingly useful.

After downloading Arc Search, I immediately swapped my Action Button to open it. Now, to be clear, I don't make regular use of the Browse for Me button. In fact, I've only used it once or twice. The reason I use Arc Search on my action button is because it has cleared the very low bar of being better than the Google app^[1].

It opens the keyboard automatically, keeps old tabs easily accessible, looks nice, and breaks webpages far less often than Google's app. I've ended up with a common workflow of searching in Google and then having to open the link in Safari because the Google app can't display the page properly, or some functionality breaks. Arc Search, so far, has necessitated this workflow far less.

In the beginning, I experimented with using the Action Button to open Safari or use a shortcut to automatically search Google, but those solutions were always slow and clunky, and I always ended up with a bunch of useless Safari tabs open. It's unfortunate since Safari is by far the best way to browse the web on iOS. Arc Search has solidifed itself as second best in my book.

The Browser Company continues to inject some intrigue into a market that's been stale for more than 15 years, and I have to applaud them for that. However, I'm not the first to point out that the Browse for Me button is probably an existential crisis for the internet as we know it. Given the current state of AI, it's currently little more than a fun novelty to mess with, but I expect it to advance rapidly.

This leaves Arc Search is a weird spot. For me, it's a more pleasant way to do Google searches. But that isn't going to bring many others to the app, and it certainly won't make The Browser Company any money. Its hard to figure out what the endgame is here. The Browser Company makes a product for browsing the web (Arc), and then made another product that lets an AI do all the browsing for you. I'm interested to see how they reconcile this space.

All that said, just over the horizon is a wild new frontier of browser apps, after Apple opens up iOS to non-WebKit browsers. A new frontier that those of us who do not live in the EU will sadly only get to salivate over.