I thought “Avengers... assemble!” was the absolute stupidest moment of not just Endgame, but the entire MCU franchise, because even if it is total tentpole fanservice, they’re already there and assembled.

Yeah. If Johnson said, “This doesn’t matter,” then J.J. is the one saying, “I BET YOU CAN’T FIGURE OUT WHAT MATTERS, AND I’M NOT GONNA TELL YOU UNTIL I FIGURE IT OUT IN A COUPLE MORE EPISODES!” and “You know what matters? My better version of someone else’s creative vision!”

I hadn’t read any Ted Chiang prose until I discovered that Arrival was based on one of his short stories. After buying that first collection, I unabashedly grabbed Exhalation as soon as it was released, and I will immediately purchase anything else he does in perpetuity.

I don’t think it’s character assassination. I think it’s providing depth to three people - Pink, Rose, and Steven - individually, while also providing some deeper insight into them as reflections of a single person. The callous disregard that Pink showed to Volleyball was still present in Rose Quartz, albeit…

That and the ice skater falling on their head during the opening credits are so wildly, wonderfully non-sequitur that to this day I’m not sure if they were scripted or not.

Agreed. This movie and Passengers are great examples of how a potentially creepy premise can be turned, one way or the other, based on characterization. WYWS definitely softened it up, while Passengers went 100% the other direction, and not even another heart-tugging score by Thomas Newman or the star power of Chris…

The thing about it is that the creepiness has been a late-era thing to talk about with this movie. In the moment, when it first came out, Bullock’s natural charm and the fact that the deception is depicted as basically a snowball rolling down the hill despite her best efforts to get away from it did a lot to take the…

I love watching the reax videos on YouTube.

You expected anything out of JJ Abrams other than mildly revising Lando’s wardrobe? That’s not how he rolls.

*the Schwartz

Gary Mandalorian, Assistant to the Regional Bounty Hunter

SSSHHHHHH don’t give them any ideas. Otherwise, Michael Bay or Dinesh D’Souza will option “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” from James Hornfischer and make Roland Emmerich look like frickin’ Scorcese.

The actual story of the Battle of Midway is absolutely tailor-made for a Hollywood movie - or even a short-run miniseries, to be honest, given all of the twists and turns of the story.

Apparently, we’re living in South Detroit.

Except Michael Schur as a producer has not only created great art (like Shonda has), he has also revolutionized the behind-the-scenes atmosphere, creating balanced and diverse writing rooms, encouraging promotion-from-within initiatives where PAs can end up writing and directing episodes, etc.

We’ve become herbs - totally #OnBrand for G/O Media!

So now you’re a criticizer criticizing a criticizer of a criticizer criticizing criticizers of a critic.

Like criticizing comment sections, right?

Or Michael Schur?

Sigh. Guess it’s time for me to lean all the way into my age and prep myself for a flood of “ok boomer” replies, to wit: