Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: I read the novel only once, when it first came out, and only roughly remember the plot, so I am not very emotionally invested, but so far, so good for a first episode. I'm charmed (again) by the Georgian plus magic England.

Mad Max: Fury Road: is all that. Like, I imagine, a lot of viewers by now, I'm not not familiar with the previous Mad Max movies beyond knowing they existed and that Tina Turner's We don't need another hero was originally written for No.3 (which also has Tina Turner herself in it). Oh, and the Buffy fan in me knows that season 7's Showtime was a Mad Max homage, thanks to Andrew pointing that out in the episode itself. And that's it. Which is fine because this nominally fourth movie in the series is standing on its own, telling its own tale, and you don't need to know more. I had no intention of watching it before a) the MRA complained about it being feminist indoctrination, and b) the internet buzz about it being actually really good started, and yes. Great action movie, and Charlize Theron's Furiosa hopefully will join Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor as a female cinematic icon. Which reminds me: before the movie started, there was a trailer for the weirdly spelled latest Terminator installment, featuring teenage Sarah and grizzled Schwarzenator, and just, no. I'm sticking with my "no Terminator movies beyond the first two and The Sarah Connor Chronicles" canon in this 'verse, thanks, and thankfully The Sarah Connor Chronicles establishing this is a multiverse with mulitple timelines makes this exceptionally easy.