Agreed on both. Especially the mainstream, corporate media. They're investigating him now, to a certain degree, but not nearly enough on TV as they should. His base doesn't read the New Yorker—where his ghostwriter called him a sociopath. One of the big lessons after Trump is going to have to be major reforms of…

I liked that final jab at the Democrats. My energy force was inspired by the show Preacher, a good show. No spoilers, that ball of force is in the pilot, something completely different than Republican ideas and actions.

True. I was envisioning someone clearly mentally ill enough that he could not function in society, never mind the high-stakes reality of a presidential campaign. Trump has been a terrible real estate developer and overall businessman but he's made some money, more money that the rest of us have made. I was thinking…

Okay, I'll take that back. I had a more expansive definition of "regular guy." They could be egomaniacs, narcissists, pathological liars. I was using the term more for someone who has more common characteristics found in society than the uncommon ones found in presidential candidates, based on the absurd, very…

Spielberg loves Henry James? Who knew? Or, and this more likely, he is like everybody else and has read that short story but nothing else by James, whom Eric Idle in a New Yorker humor piece said of: "Henry James did write all of his own works, because nobody else could be that boring, and, more significant, no one…

Simpson/Flanders 2020!

I always do the best, the greatest jobs. I make the best, greatest jobs and give them to the best people. That's just the kind of amazing, but humble guy I am.

Right. Their ideas are just as terrible, but at least they have some government experience and more tempered and measured, in their public speaking anyway. Trump was the logical conclusion of Republican ideas and vote pandering, but as the village idiot, a cruder, crueler, more bigoted and dangerous, stupider Chauncy…

Spoke too soon! Glad you didn't go nuts. And, hey, we thought the same thing.

Uh-Oh, Velociraptor finally went insane. Bound to happen, really. I will try to continue in his brave, foolish tradition. Very half-assly. Trump doubled down on his "Obama and Hillary founded ISIS" which confirms for me that he's really trying to lose the presidency. It's too hard; maybe he never wanted it at all in…

I mentioned this the other day, on her birthday, so for those who missed it: Dustin Hoffman on the set of Kramer v. Kramer bullied Meryl Streep by bringing up Cazale, her boyfriend who had just died, so that he could get her emotional scenes the way he felt they should have been. Hoffman was a bit of a jerk! I hope he…

Honestly, Hillary killing cats would be much more imaginative and interesting than killing the latest person who displeases her—this time a DNC staffer. Come on, people, a presidential candidate who is an inexplicable animal serial killer is something new. I'd vote for her. Sorry, cats, I love you guys, but I want to…

Agreed. What I like about sitcoms outside any artistic merit, and inside too because producing that feeling successfully is hard, is the comfort it brings to people. We don't need to disdain trying to make people happy. And it's not a false comfort based on characters acting like they're not in the real world. All the…

What's up, Bitches! Who's that dog?!

One thing I'm very impressed by is that premium, great TV uses all the parts of what they previously made. Nothing is overlooked for future plotlines. It's like they go dig through previous episodes to find a story strand and always hit gold. I remember noticing this during Breaking Bad. I like that they create such…

I want to say that the TGIF shows, which may or may not have included Full House, this show's direct saccharine descendant it's responding to, did not really say any problems could be solved in 22 minutes. Their characters were regular, well-adjusted people who all had healthy egos and relationships. They could give…

Found this the other day. As a mood counterbalance to this great episode, here is Lisa Hanawalt at last year's XOXO Festival giving an adorable talk. She speaks about her insecurities, anxieties, agoraphobia driving her work and the need to create it; she speaks about her previous jobs in comics and podcasting; and…

True. You may be too close to something to see it rationally and whether it's having the effect you wanted. Then I would say the great directors like Spielberg and Scorsese, and countless others, are great because they are perfectionists who can be ruthless about their work to recognize when things are going wrong…

I totally agree that critics are more knowledgeable about films, and so can tell you why a film is good. Critics are more in line with the artist who is also also informed by film history and is making his part have echoes of classic films. So critics in that respect can do what they're best and what they should do:…

Well, Ebert was beloved because he was sympathetic and generous to the film makers, rating their films on what they were trying to achieve instead of personal taste (which the film maker is not responsible for and can't take into account for because he's not making the movie for that one person—how could he when he…