As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

After reserving a Steam Deck twice, and letting it drop, trying to get FTL running acceptably with touch controls on my old generic Windows Tablet, and doing the bulk of gaming and leisure time with my phone, I wonder if the best solution to my varied tech needs might be just to bite the bullet, turn in my Android cred and take a walk on the iPad side. I haven't used an Apple device regularly since my iPod touch from ten years ago and ever since that was stolen, I was all Android, all the time. But if I want a device to read comics (PDFs, Kindle/Comixology, Hoopla), watch streaming (Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube), try out games (Apple Arcade, Xcloud Web) but have the option to go back to my old reliables (FTL, Binding of Isaac), should I consider dropping $200 on an older iPad and see if it fits my needs? Should I do it now, or wait on rumors of new ones in October? I know they're supported for longer then the average Android, but at the same time, I don't want to pick one up just in time for it to be a security risk either.

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

The academy expanded the line-up after snubbing The Dark Knight in Picture in favor of Oscar bait The Reader. They received so much backlash that they reverted to nominating 10 nominees each year, something that hadn’t been done since the 40s.

While there are now multiple Best Picture nominees each year, each year there are a designated “Top 5.” As in the films that would have made the cut pre-expansion. Here’s a list of possible Top 5 movies, there’s a lot of argument about which movie was which but this is generally what is accepted/kind of what I think.

2009: The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, Up in the Air

All 5 movies were nominated for Director. 4 of the 5 were nominated for Film Editing (another mark of a top 5 film) and all except Avatar were nominated for Acting and Screenplay. Avatar got nominated in almost all the technical categories.

2010: The King’s Speech, The Social Network, The Fighter, Black Swan, True Grit

Barely misses the cut: Inception

Inception, unfortunately, undeperformed with nominations missing both Directing and Film Editing, and was never in contention for acting nominations. It misses in favor of True Grit which was a late-breaker and over-performed in nominations.

2011: The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, The Help

Barely misses: Moneyball

The Help arguably underperformed with nominations but it was such a big hit that I’d imagine it would still make Best Picture.

2012: Argo, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, D’jango Unchained

Misses: Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables

Zero Dark Thirty started dying out throughout the season, and Les Mis was more of a British thing. D’jango had a lot of passion and ended up becoming the front-runner in Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor.

2013: 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club

Misses: Nebraska, Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club over-performed and got nominated for Film Editing and Original Screenplay when it wasn’t expected to.

2014: Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, American Sniper

Misses: The Theory of Everything

Similar thing with Les Mis where Theory of Everything was more of a British thing.

2015: Spotlight, The Revenant, The Big Short, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian

Misses: Room

The Martian missed director but it had more nominations and it was a hit at the box office. Although Room probably was pretty close.

2016: Moonlight, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge

Misses: Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures maybe would have made the line-up considering it was such a big hit. But Hacksaw won too much stuff and Mel Gibson had a strong comeback narrative. Gross.

2017: The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird

There is no real alternative to these five.

2018: Green Book, Roma, The Favourite, Blackkklansman, Bohemian Rhapsody

Misses: Vice, A Star is Born

Bohemian Rhapsody was a phenomenon and won four Oscars. It would have gotten a Best Picture nomination easily.

2019: Parasite, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman, Joker

Jojo Rabbit was close. But four of these got 10 nominations and Parasite won Best Picture.

2020: Nomadland, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman, Minari, Mank

Misses: The Father

2021: The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Dune, West Side Story, King Richard

Misses: Licorice Pizza

At the time of nominations CODA would not have made the cut. It is the first Best Picture winner to be bottom 5.

This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!