Gabriel tells me that "Orange is the New Black" is very good, but he doesn't know exactly why. The reason he gives each time is a little different. Like happens so often with shows, hearing about it mostly makes me want to read the book.

The Wolf Among Us is executed to an incredibly high degree. I was snared by Telltale's The Walking Dead - the first time the "episodic" thing truly fired on all cylinders for me, each episode compounding the previous ones in a progressively addictive revelation. It was weird sometimes, though, as a technical achievement: the nature of episodic development and its soaring ambition in every other department meant that something had to give on occasion. I play Telltale games on computers, where it seems like they work better than elsewhere, but I don't know. I like jacking up the resolution and staring straight forward at the screen, strapping on the ocular feedbag in earnest.

TWAU, which I assume is the agreed upon truncation ("tuat"), was a much smoother ride than I'd been taught to expect. Again, on PC. And it's ensconced in such delicious fucking art that you hardly know what to do about it. It wants to play around with light, and the engine lets them. I know their deal, now; The Walking Dead made the "Adventure Game" a more aerodynamic creature than it had been in the past. It's not a puzzle heavy episode. They have a lot of ground to lay here, and proper to the "mystery" genre I suspect puzzles will often have to do with interpreting evidence, and I'm down for that.

I only read a couple trades of Fables, and they were enjoyable, but did not become a part of my core identity like Locke & Key or Y: The Last Man or Ex Machina or Powers or any number of other comics. A pulpy, noir whodunnit in a fantastic setting (definitions one and three) delivered in monthly episodes is an incredibly natural fit, the sort of thing that creates a feedback loop that involves me going to comic shops. Thus is their grisly intention laid bare.

(CW)TB out.