Author: Bryan Beardo

Bryan is an Army veteran that originally hails from Boston, but currently lives in Los Angeles with his new wife and their three year old Black Lab, Autumn. He holds Master’s in Homeland Security, and is finishing his second in Geospatial Intelligence. During his free time, he founded the veteran-based charity, Team Push Up, and also serves as a board member and the Public Safety Committee Chairman for the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council.

Almost eleven years ago, BioWare had us make a few choices. Were we a Sole Survivor, a War Hero, or Ruthless? We picked our skill specialty and face, threw on some N7 gear and got to meet Joker. We were Shepard, soon to be hero of the galaxy. What came next helped define gaming for years to come. If all you ever played was Call of Duty, one might assume that the life of someone in the military is a run and gun adventure. Excitement! First Aid kits! Snarky British SAS guys! That’s awesome! But also, unrealistic. Welcome to the…

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Two months ago, four seasons of Star Wars: Rebels came to a conclusion on a two-episode finale, A Fool’s Hope and Family Reunion – and Farewell. The finale, and the show, like the animated series before it (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), held up well to fans and critics. In a world of borderline Star Wars saturation, where even a Han Solo movie is getting panned before a release, Rebels brought excellent story and character development. Never mind that it aired on a Disney young adult channel; it was great and welcoming story on any channel. A Familiar Start For…

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Fellow nerds, I’d like to tell you a story about a guy named Thrawn. A long time ago, in a home far, far away from my current one… I got my mother to buy me a Star Wars audio-book box set. I was a fan of the movies, but don’t think I ever owned an audio-book in my entire life. Why I was dead set on this set is a mystery. No, no, that is a complete lie, and the answer is obvious…. THE BOX WAS THE FRIGGING MILLENIUM FALCON, AND HELL IF I CARED WHAT THE CONTENTS WERE. But…

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Star Trek: Discovery Spoilers live beyond these doors. CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery has pushed an entire storyline – three episodes, plus at least part of next week’s fourth – into the franchises Mirror Universe, a place usually kept to single or double episode stretches. In this universe, Spock has an infamous goatee, the Federation is unheard of, and the operations of ships like the ISS Enterprise (or ISS Discovery here), are run by totalitarian rule of an emperor. Screw something up, and they’ll beam you into outer space. Though, when I saw that on the January 14th Discovery episode,…

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Yes, there are Doctor Who Christmas Special spoilers. You have been warned. It wouldn’t be a Doctor Who Christmas Special without a good cry. I gets even better when it happens because of a real-life event, apparently, influenced by the Doctor’s timey-whimey influence. This time, it was jumping back 100 years ago for the Christmas Truce of 1914. It was a rare instance, at this age of human history, where a war – The Great War – came to a halt. In real life, on the night of Christmas Eve, German Soldiers sat in their trenches opposite British Soldiers. The…

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The Punisher has been out for about a month now, but still spoilers a plenty follow. If you strip aside all that is typical Punisher – that is, if you remove the vengeance and violence – Netflix’s latest Marvel series is about the struggle of veterans coming home and finding their place. It was encouraging to see at first, things like the support group sessions are practical events in a number of ways. One, it was started by a veteran, Jason Moore’s portrayal of Curtis Hoyle, a former “co-worker” of Frank Castle’s. Curtis has a day job working in the…

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