Wojo

He was accused of sexual misconduct, and JJ Rowling is openly transphobic. This is a toxic marriage made in heaven. 

Finished the Queen's Gambit. After quickly binging the main brunt of the series, we slowed down almost to a halt for the last couple: once you've seen five chess match montages you've sort of seen them all, and the novelty of the elegantly stimulative though decidedly one note underscore begins to wear off. 
 
Still, the score and the handsome filming works hard to make an otherwise boring game seem quite exciting and even a little glamorous, and I think that's actually the biggest most impressive accomplishment of this show. 
 
The actor who plays older Beth is obviously the other big main draw (not to play down the earlier scenes of the terrific younger Beth), and she is excellent in this major breakout role; but also, at least for me, a little bit too distracting. See, this girl is beyond strikingly beautiful to look at (doesn't this show's director know it), and in the end I just don't buy it - that a chess prodigy could ever be as impossibly gorgeous and glam as the character depicted in the Queen's Gambit. One could probably build a decent argument that says the whole thing is fantasy drivel based solely on that aspect, but it'd take a real misery guts to do that. 
 
It was Madonna who said Rita Hayworth gave good face, but in the later episodes Anya Taylor-Joy takes that concept to a level where every single shot of her could be a Vogue cover, and it actually begins to erode my immersion in the story a little. I've never had my suspension of disbelief broken by outright sheer beauty before, so this was a bizarre first, and I think this somewhat minor misgiving wouldn't have presented itself had they cast a more "convincing" face in the role. This is chess - where the absolute masters have the appearance of serial killers! 
 
People no doubt would consider this a strange criticism to make, but I've personally always had this meta problem with small-town America serials whereby the cast look like models. For eg, I couldn't get into The Leftovers for the same reason.
 
With all that said, Anya Taylor-Joy does flex her considerable personal acting talents (including her beneficial aesthetic attributes) to great effect in this series, and she deserves the plaudits for going all in on the role. The climatic shot of her, staring mesmerisingly into the camera as she achieved the clarity she sought, the unrelenting swirl of the music reaching its crescendo, was a wonderful and legitimately cinematic moment. A satisfying end to the grand chess master storyline that would have Rocky Balboa punching the air. 
 
But then it carried on after that, the story of Beth's success doubling down, almost to the point of narrative betrayal, on its desire to leave audiences with a sugary sweet aftertaste in their mouths. All her problems apparently just washing away. It seemed a bit odd to abandon those mechanically high effort threads so casually. Ultimately, it was a bit off. 
 
Nevertheless, Queen's Gambit is a semi great Netflix effort, one that is very easy to recommend. Because the good parts are as good as anything in seen in TVs best. 
 

Uncool, bro. I don't wish death on anybody.

Wow.

Little thing I did with the help of a few friends
 
 

Because that's what the news does. They report on what people Tweet. 

Speaking of Star Wars, Battlefront 2 is now free on Epic Store.

I bought this album. I rewatched most of the movie yesterday, and the music is very pleasant. 

CONAN. Forever and ever.

If anybody cares, Jurassic Park Evolution is free at Epic Games until January 7.
 
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/free-games

No.
 
"Dark troopers" were first introduced -- and named as such -- in the 1995 LucasArts PC game "Dark Forces."
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_trooper
 
While old EU material is now "Legends," the Disney team can pick and choose what they want to bring into new canon.  Moff Gideon is playing the part of General Rom Mohc from the game, and Gideon's giant cruiser may as well be the Arc Hammer.
 
As a longtime fan of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight game franchise, this episode had me extremely giddy for the direction of the show.
 
I know a lot of us spent big money on therapy to forget about this, but let's all remember together:   midichlorians.

No.
 
"Dark troopers" were first introduced -- and named as such -- in the 1995 LucasArts PC game "Dark Forces."
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_trooper
 
While old EU material is now "Legends," the Disney team can pick and choose what they want to bring into new canon.  Moff Gideon is playing the part of General Rom Mohc from the game, and Gideon's giant cruiser may as well be the Arc Hammer.
 
As a longtime fan of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight game franchise, this episode had me extremely giddy for the direction of the show.
 
I know a lot of us spent big money on therapy to forget about this, but let's all remember together:   midichlorians.

No.
 
"Dark troopers" were first introduced -- and named as such -- in the 1995 LucasArts PC game "Dark Forces."
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_trooper
 
While old EU material is now "Legends," the Disney team can pick and choose what they want to bring into new canon.  Moff Gideon is playing the part of General Rom Mohc from the game, and Gideon's giant cruiser may as well be the Arc Hammer.
 
As a longtime fan of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight game franchise, this episode had me extremely giddy for the direction of the show.
 
I know a lot of us spent big money on therapy to forget about this, but let's all remember together:   midichlorians.

Whether you want to kiss the sky or kiss this guy, that's your own choice.

Whether you want to kiss the sky or kiss this guy, that's your own choice.

Whether you want to kiss the sky or kiss this guy, that's your own choice.

What a perfectly cromulent thing to observe. 

The trailer dropped the word jihad in favor of the tamer crusade. 
 
I'm over this movie. It can suck my sandworm. 

The rest of the Harry Potters getting LLL treatment would be good.

I was obviously referring to Wojo and Jurassic Shark's posts, not your post

Jeez guys no politics I don't know how many times I have to ask, and leave all the coronavirus and vaccine talk for the thread about that.  Let people speculate about LLL Black Friday in peace!

If you don't bottom out, it laughs at you because it does judge by your size. 

This is why this board is stagnating. As soon as someone new shows up they're scared off immediately.