So Easily Distractable

Every so often I run into one of those things that just grabs hold of me and won’t let me do anything else until I’ve exhausted its entertainment potential. Typically it’s a new webcomic, or kick-ass blog, the archives of which I need to read in their entirety. You know. Right now. No sense stretching out all that yummy entertainment, after all. Better to gorge.

Anyway, this weekend it was Red Vs. Blue, which I discovered years ago, but on the occasion of their 100th and last episode (in this series), I decided to track down the videos and watch them again. For those not in the know, the series consists of movies made by a bunch of guys staging, recording, editing, and providing voice-overs to a bunch of players in Halo and Halo 2. The original premise, which was genius, involved the basic idiocy and angst over the classic Capture The Flag scenario in Halo’s multiplayer environment, and a story of sorts built up from there. (And no, I know CTF did not originate with Halo.)

100 episodes runs about eight-ten hours or so, so it was a hefty investment in time, but I’m glad I did, because when I first watched it, I got through the first three seasons and just sort of faded away, thinking they had sort of lost their way. But I was glad I went back for the final two seasons. Hilarious. And rewatching the first season, especially, is classic. Eminently quotable.

I plan to pick up the DVDs someday, and aside from trying to wrangle copies of the videos online (since they only offer a “rolling archive” of the first four seasons on the site and, you know, I need it now), which can be fraught with mis-labeled porn, that’s the only way to see these seasons in their entirety, all at once.

Anyway, funny stuff there, and good if you need a distraction.

Oh, and to hark back to the “Blog Like It’s The End Of The World” stuff I did last month, there’s a bonus video on the site called “Planning to Fail” that features some of the characters’ zombie survival plans.