Checkpoint is still alive!

It has been a while so apologies for that but I have found some time courtesy of the Bank Holiday and I am back and hoping to begin posting again. Its been a whirlwind few months and I will be honest it has simultaneously felt longer than two months since I last posted and also like I only posted last week. I wanted to give you a quick ‘check in‘ to make sure you all know that Checkpoint is very much alive and that, although delayed, my plans are still very much on the table.

In my last post (Checkpoint’s Checkpoint) I had mentioned that I was hoping to keep up the weekly blogs, especially with Wandavision wrapping up and The Falcon and the Winter Solider coming and going during my period of silence, but I underestimated the drain that my new role would take on me mentally and physically in the early weeks. It has been exhausting going from doing ‘nothing’ to the breakneck speed I am currently working at, however as I enter month three I am getting a handle on the routine with the support of my team and colleagues as well as my own discipline to ensure I make sure I make time for myself as well. As such, we should see more posts from me appearing again and I am looking at writing some up in advance and scheduling them to make sure the flow of content remains regular… Lets look forward to the next Checkpoint!

Despite work dominating a lot of my time, it hasn’t meant I haven’t been doing anything though. I’ve found that most of my downtime of late (outside of family time) has been spent playing games (of course) and watching various series (more on that in a bit) – anything that offers that brief respite from the manic world around me. As much as I have wanted to write about these things however, I have been creatively and mentally exhausted to do it justice so I opted to take a bit of a hiatus to recharge the batteries and although I wouldn’t say I am at 100% I do find myself encouraged to pick up the digital pen and write again. And boy do I have a lot to write about! I currently have five drafts that I will be moving onto after this post and hoping to get scheduled over the next week or so… So you can see below what I will be writing about as well as a bit of a TL:DR…

• Wandavision: 2 Months Later – still love it and think it has absolutely set the bar for Marvel Studio’s series going forward and an encouraging step in tackling a genre/approach that isn’t ‘quintessentially Marvel’.
• The Falcon and Winter Solider: A Full Review & Future – to a certain extent it was a victim of Wandavision’s out-of-the-box approach and actually could have benefitted from coming first and also having an extra episode… but that isn’t to say I didn’t love it!
• Invincible: The Saturday Morning Cartoon for the Adult who used to watch Saturday Morning Cartoons – such an under-rated series with a stellar cast, emotional and poignant story and some incredible sequences that made me audibly gasp, laugh or wince… If you love the Boys and love animation this is for you…
• Pokémon Snap: A Snapshot into the Pokémon World that could be… – what a way to bookend the pandemic, by launching with a chill game like Animal Crossing and ending with a mellow game like Pokémon Snap. An enjoyable and addictive virtual tour of the Pokémon world that doesn’t just make me want to play Snap but the Pokémon series more.
• A Fantastic Fase Four – We have the slate up to the very heavily suggested Fantastic Four film and it looks incredibly exciting…

I am hoping to get these all written in the next few days and scheduled out so these will be dropping throughout the coming week or so… I also want to revisit some of my other plans like the streaming, the charity work and other tie ins to begin creating and growing this little community around these things we all love!

So here we go, this isn’t a reboot but the next steps into Phase 2 of Checkpoint… see you all soon!