Hurmm

First there was jumping the shark. 
 
Then came nuking the fridge. 
 
We now have fissuring the time. 

Has anyone seen Beef, on Netflix? It's released last week. I saw that Steve Yuen (one of the best actors around currently) is in it and decided to check it out. 
 
It's very, very good. The down-trodden vs the one-percenters. It starts off jovial in tone but gets progressively more serious with heightened stakes. Some whiff of Parasite but spread across 10 eps.
 
I'm still unsure about the last episode, but overall I wholeheartedly recommend this. It's not often that gets said about a new Netflix series. 

Yes that's probably the best of the series. 
 
I also get that the episodes with the travelling troupe may seem to be the weakest, but I think it ties it up quite nicely, particularly with Kirsten in the mix. Without her, yes the troupe would be much more of a slog. Also, David Cross appears in one or two of the eps and he's always just so watchable. 
 
Many of the episodes have a standalone-ish quality to it while also tying into the overarching story, and it's done in a very subtle and classy manner. 
 
It's a series that deserves to be seen by many more. 

If you have really truly, deeply loved a person, you'd come to understand what Joel did. 

If you have really truly, deeply loved a person, you'd come to understand what Joel did. 

As someone who's never played the game, the series comes across as extremely episodic, with many episodes having settings and characters that never appear again beyond that episode. 
 
There is character development and progression, to be sure. Joel and Ellie's bonding does feel earned and real, so props to that. But narratively speaking this hasn't been going anywhere for ages. It takes a certain dare and panache to even consider having this many episodes of a zombie series with nary a zombie in sight, but after awhile it does get to a point where I begin to wonder "where is all this going?". 
 
Ep 3 is the best episode by far, so far. 

Yeah all three of the original POTC movies are fantastic in their own rights. I thought so when I first watched it and was perplexed as to how bad the reception was to the sequels. 
 
Fantastic special effects to this day, great performances, tonally fun and irreverent, and with some of the best action staging in recent memory (Verbinski is excellent in this – even the Lone Ranger has terrific action). 
 
Anything after At World's End is forgettable. 

It's really good so far without having to lean too much into GoT lore, in the sense that I think anyone can enjoy this without having seen GoT. The wedding scene was great, and it was obviously hinting at something explosively sinister happening, but the eventual bloodshed felt a little anti-climatic to me – it was between two bit characters that personally did not evoke from care from me at this point (one was a boring Jon Snow-ish character, the other just a new character that wasn't developed yet). 
 
And with the next episode probably taking from years from now it will be jarring. I wanted to see more of the current bunch of actors. 

I think I just decided how to put into words what rubs me the wrong way the most about these final 4 episodes we're getting - or at least, the first 2 of them, and what it looks like we're getting more of in at least one more.
 
It's that so much of their time is spent on brand new characters that have nothing to do with the main BCS storyline or the BB storyline at all.  Jeff, Marion, Buddy, and the guys Jimmy scams get all the screentime in these episodes and it's just jarring and unsatisfying the longer they go for and the further we get from spending any time with characters from the previous 120 episodes of this world.

There's lots of BCS characters still living where that story ended, including ones still alive during interesting parts of Jimmy's life as Saul.  Primarily Kim, of course, but also Mike, Gus, Hector, Huell, Kuby, Badger, Skinny Pete, Walt, Jesse.  Instead of choosing to spend time focusing on any combination of these guys, we only get a tiny bit of Walt, Jesse, and Mike, and zero of everyone else so far. 
 
I wonder if tonight or next week will change any of that.  Obviously we're in for more Kim, but nothing else is guaranteed.

Personally I think there's a lot of weird structural choices at play here, but the character leaps from Jimmy to Saul to Gene are hurting the most.
 
At times it felt like Jimmy's heart wasn't really in the Howard scam, unlike Kim (compare their body language in the S5 finale when the idea was first hatched). Jimmy clearly felt remorse after Howard's death, and was taken aback by Kim's cold conversation with Howard's widow.
 
Yet at the height of their relationship's devastating climax, we take a colossal leap forward to Saul in his element. And after expecting the show to settle in that timeline for an episode or two and fill in some narrative gaps, we instead leap forward yet again to the Gene timeline.
 
Now did we need to see more of the BB-era Saul, considering the entirety of Breaking Bad? Probably not. But to me something feels missing from that section between Jimmy's marriage collapsing and BB-era Saul.
 
Something also isn't working with the Gene timeline now it's transformed from tense annual teasers into (seemingly) a 4-episode epilogue. Given everything left unresolved in the Jimmy/BCS timeline, paired with everything unresolved in the Saul/post-BB timeline, spending half those episodes on Jimmy hatching/executing scams with characters we don't know (disorienting recasting notwithstanding) is underwhelming.
 
Where Gene's scenes were once anxiety-inducing due to the fear of being caught, Jimmy seemingly no longer cares and is self-sabotaging. Thematically I get what the writers are doing but it's a surprisingly anticlimactic way to end the series. Especially when these final episodes are so reliant on new characters we don't care about, while deliberately withholding characters we do care about, in a series highly regarded for deliberate narrative development.

Sure he could, they would just have to write it that way. And before Vince Gilligan went all star wars prequels on the BB-verse, that's what many fans imagined. Saying "it couldn't be any other way because this is what they went with" is circular logic.

Damn, last week's episode was bad. But this week's was quite excruciating to sit through. It's a dreadful episode, with nary an interesting scene or idea. All the BB stuff comes across as VERY fan service, something I never thought would happen on this show.
 
Really hope they wrap this up much better in the last 2 eps. 

Everything Everywhere All At Once
 
What a joyride! Just one of the most fun experiences I've had in the cinema in such a long time. It's an absolutely bonkers film that never eases up on its strangeness (unlike many lesser films that promise "weirdness"). And yet, it's quite emotional too. Michelle Yeoh is an absolute revelation and has such fantastic comedic timing. A career best performance, really highlighting her strength as an all-rounder. Hope she gets much deserved awards attention for this. 
 
Overall, it can be a lot, and the third act climax could probably shave off a good 10 minutes, but it holds together and strangely works really well. Easily the best film of 2022 so far.
 
Also, plenty of thoughtful, super clever references and easter eggs in there that are ripe for re-watching. 

I'm rewatching BCS again and into season 2 now. It has some of the best written characters, even the smaller characters. More so than BB, I think. Both are terrific in their own rights. 
 
The highs in BB are higher, but beyond that pound-for-pound I think they are both equals. 

I watched it over the weekend and yeah, the hype is real. It starts off as a frenetically paced family drama before it becomes utterly unhinged, and yet miraculously coherent with a very strong emotional core that powers through it.
 
It's totally bonkers, with both infantile and high concept humour, broad multiverse scope and intimate family drama, laughs and tears, all in one. 
 
I was reminded of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind here – both emotional stories about love and family told through a heavily sci-fi-tinged lens, where weird, funky stuff happens that threaten to disintegrate any focus but yet somehow manages to not just work, but refine and concentrate the emotional theme that courses through their veins. This has more wacky stuff that's probably more mainstream though, and has a lighter tone overall... except in parts where the emotions really kick in.
 
Time will tell if it is as good as ESOTSM, but I certainly can't remember being that elated by a movie at the cinema for a long, long time.
 
PS: if anything, this movie shows that however decent Marvel makes their movies and multiverses, it's still very much confined by its comic book trappings. This on the other hand, is totally unencumbered by anything and flourishes from start to end.
 
PPS: I was deeply unsettled by the familiarity of Waymond in the first 20 minutes before coming to the suspicion that HE MUST BE SHORT ROUND FROM TEMPLE OF DOOM. It was the first thing I googled after the movie ended. Unbelievable. His voice has barely changed.

Everything Everywhere All At Once
 
One of the most bizarre, hilarious and wonderful films I think I’ve ever seen. I need some time to process it but I think it’s one of the best of the last 10 years. Michelle Yeoh is phenomenal in it, as is Jonathan Ke Quan (aka Short Round from ToD, in his first major role in decades). Jamie Lee Curtis is also very well cast.  Absurd to the most exquisite degree, and frequently very very funny.
 
It’s very hard to describe, and I went in knowing next to nothing (which I recommend because it’s full of many surprises). But if I had to pinpoint it, it’s like a bunch of kung-fu movies smashed into an episode of Rick and Morty (but nowhere near as insufferable). It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I absolutely loved it and can’t recommend it more. You’ll also never hear Debussy’s ‘Claire de Lune’ quite the same ever again after watching it.
 
 

I watched it over the weekend and yeah, the hype is real. It starts off as a frenetically paced family drama before it becomes utterly unhinged, and yet miraculously coherent with a very strong emotional core that powers through it.
 
It's totally bonkers, with both infantile and high concept humour, broad multiverse scope and intimate family drama, laughs and tears, all in one. 
 
I was reminded of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind here – both emotional stories about love and family told through a heavily sci-fi-tinged lens, where weird, funky stuff happens that threaten to disintegrate any focus but yet somehow manages to not just work, but refine and concentrate the emotional theme that courses through their veins. This has more wacky stuff that's probably more mainstream though, and has a lighter tone overall... except in parts where the emotions really kick in.
 
Time will tell if it is as good as ESOTSM, but I certainly can't remember being that elated by a movie at the cinema for a long, long time.
 
PS: if anything, this movie shows that however decent Marvel makes their movies and multiverses, it's still very much confined by its comic book trappings. This on the other hand, is totally unencumbered by anything and flourishes from start to end.
 
PPS: I was deeply unsettled by the familiarity of Waymond in the first 20 minutes before coming to the suspicion that HE MUST BE SHORT ROUND FROM TEMPLE OF DOOM. It was the first thing I googled after the movie ended. Unbelievable. His voice has barely changed.

The realization of this version of Gotham and this version of Batman on a large screen is still something I applaud though. The look of Gotham is incredible – a cross of the Seven and Blade Runner. For all the praised heaped on Nolan's movies, his Gotham looked no different from a generic and sterile city. 

Ironically the narration by Batman at the start and end sounded almost exactly like something that Rorschach would narrate. Specifically it sounded so much like Jackie Earle Haley from Snyder's movie and took me very much out of the film. 
 
I liked the film overall, and it started off really strong with a dark, brooding murder mystery that was closer to Seven than a superhero movie. But as it developed I found that the central plotline about informants in crime syndicates and corrupt politicians to be quite...boring. The mystery itself just didn't amount to much, to me anyway. 
 
The protracted climax was the worst part, and tonally it felt very similar to Nolan's TDK climax as well. TDK's climax was already the worst part of that movie, but to tack this on for a 3hour movie here felt like a grind for me. 
 
The one good action sequence involved the batmobile – I would say it was framed in an ostentatious but extremely cool manner, but the sense of geography and continuity was lacking. Perhaps that was part of Reeves' intended aesthetic. 
 
Score sounded fine in the movie but probably not worth a standalone listen. 

Midway through season 3 of Ozark. 
 
It got better towards the end of season 2 and that has carried over to season 3. The first 1 and 2/3 of the first two seasons were okay, but filled with too many characters that were not just unlikeable, but resulted in too many plotlines that crowded the whole story and made the suspension of disbelief just too hard to swallow at times. 
 
 

Indeed. The White Lotus has been surprisingly great. I started the first episode to kill some time off while doing other stuff, thinking it was a run-of-the-mill family dramedy but it turned out to be so much more than that. It's over-the-top in parts, but always delightfully uncomfortable and entertaining with its dynamic interaction between characters. A real hoot. 
 
I also tried watching Ash Vs. Evil Dead on Netflix. I'm finding it a real slog and don't think I'll continue any further. The campy gorefest format works best as a short movie, but dragging out over 3 seasons... Apart from a few great practical effects splatter scenes, this show is pretty terrible. 

TFA had the whole BRAND NEW STAR WARS IN AGES thing going for it, which made the first watch acceptable. But I could not finish watching it a second time. Dreadfully boring. 
 
TLJ was uneven, exciting, fun, with some tremendous sequences. It's also very rewatchable. 
 
TROS is TFA all over again, except that it closes a saga and thus is doubly disappointing. You could not imagine a more listless and limp way to end a 9-movie saga. The PT at the very least served some form of (self-fulfiling) purpose, but how this newest trilogy ends makes the last three movies pointless. It is the most charmless and witless of all SW movies, and that includes the PT movies. 
 
 

TFA had the whole BRAND NEW STAR WARS IN AGES thing going for it, which made the first watch acceptable. But I could not finish watching it a second time. Dreadfully boring. 
 
TLJ was uneven, exciting, fun, with some tremendous sequences. It's also very rewatchable. 
 
TROS is TFA all over again, except that it closes a saga and thus is doubly disappointing. You could not imagine a more listless and limp way to end a 9-movie saga. The PT at the very least served some form of (self-fulfiling) purpose, but how this newest trilogy ends makes the last three movies pointless. It is the most charmless and witless of all SW movies, and that includes the PT movies. 
 
 

Their appeal and impact is wide, but I don't think it is especially deep.  We've been inundated with them.  Flood waters often run off. 

Ok I finally watched the last season over the last few days. Some thoughts (may well have been covered in these few pages here too):
 
- after all the furore surrounding episode 3 onwards, I actually did not think ep 3 to 5 were bad. They were problematic, to be sure, but to my mind the show had been tapering off in quality ever since somewhere in season 4 or 5. The problems of the last season mostly stemmed from an acceleration toward the finale, without sufficient breathing space, coupled with some annoyingly unrefined writing. Examples of the latter have probably been discussed to death: the dragon being killed so easily in ep 4, Dany and Tyrion walking up to Cersei's army unguarded and coming out unscathed, etc. Annoying yes, but not season destroying. 
 
- Most of the character arcs were fine -- the series always hinted at Dany's tyranny. It was fated to be, really. The only other choice was to have her killed before she went mad. That kind of decision (to kill her off) would have been quite the norm in the first 4-5 seasons, but not in the last stretch. The one thing that defined GoT at the start was how no one was safe, how you could never guess where the characters headed to. It felt organic, as characters grew out naturally, whether it be life or death. The series could afford that back then, and it was all the better for it. But as it draws towards the conclusion, it becomes extremely challenging to continue that trend, as that kind of chaos means character arcs can't be completed and loose ends remain loose. The writing begins to take sides and homes into the eventual fate of each character. With more time and episodes the writing could have been refined but with just a measly six episodes events begin to feel unnatural or unearned. 
 
- I feel the quality of the series started declining with the added emphasis on the white walkers. Before that it was glorious politics and backstabbing. But when the white walkers became a focal point the series lost steam. The white walkers and the night king are terrifying, of course, but they are also soulless and empty when compared to any of the other layered characters. To have the focus shifted to them really took away a lot from the show. At the same time, everyone knew that the white walkers were almost certainly only part of the agenda; the other was the tussle for the iron throne. So the last season had a lot to contend with -- dealing with the night king, and concluding, you know, the game of throne. The writers dealt with it by placing the battle with the dead early into the season. And while many found it underwhelming, I thought the conclusion to that story was fine -- having Arya deal the killing blow made sense to her arc, and the fashion in which it happened was cool as fuck. I think people bemoaned the fact that the night king fell so easily, with nary a sword fight, but honestly, another sword fight...? That would have been boring. And more zombies? Boring. The whole white walker stuff was misguided from the start to my mind, so I'm glad that was out of the way. 
 
- Once the night king was defeated, the show had to revert to its original charms of politics, allegiances, and backstabbing. And yet, because the show devoted so much time to the white walkers, much of the momentum was lost. When the show suddenly shifted gears in ep 4, it almost felt like a retread of the earlier, superior seasons. There was a sense of "we're back to this again?" to the proceedings. It was still entertaining, but the magic was lost. And compounding the problem was the scarcity of airtime left, which made the writing hurried. 
 
- Cersei's demise was very weak. After all that pouting and show of might, to just utterly fail at doing anything during the battle was underwhelming. Dany's demise too was underwhelming. Again the arcs were fine. I don't think anyone expected any less than deaths for these characters. But because of how hurried the writing was, it neither felt earned or satisfying. Then again, the show had written itself into a corner by this point. You could prolong the number of episodes, but the unfolding drama would feel repetitive and pale in comparison to earlier seasons. Essentially, the drama and characters expanded so wonderfully and organically early on that bringing all them to a close was always going to be in one way or another disappointing. 
 
- But all that stuff after Dany's death? Holy shit that was utterly horrendous. Nothing could excuse that.