Oh, my impression was that he was looking for another actor and it may take a little while but the film is still going to happen. Not sure though.

Oh definitely. I know he's working on the Ferrari film, but I think that whenever that's finished it would be amazing if he made a really balls-out, unencumbered TV series (maybe just a miniseries) with a receptive network like HBO. Because I actually feel like long-form storytelling in the modern, post-Sopranos mold…

Law & Order: The SUV

I'm tired of cliche'd anti-hero stuff, too. When it's done well, though, it transcends that category. Is Rectify a drama about a middle-aged white male anti-hero? Technically yes, but it feels like nothing else on television, now or before. It's all personal preference though, and personally I'm just not a fan of…

I'll see this, but Refn needs to lay off the neon/LA-set stuff for a while; it's getting a bit tiring and there are already enough sub-Mulholland Drive/Sunset Blvd movies out there. I actually liked Only God Forgives more than Drive, though, so I'm weird.

It would do them some good to look at a show like that, with authentic depictions of real people with real emotions instead of all this high-concept fantasy stuff.

I like Artie's story and some of the jokes in the Hollywood plotline are funny, but overall it just… I dunno. Just feels like filler to me. Which of course could easily be said of some of my favorite episodes, like The Ride or whatever.

Luck was unique even among Milch shows. Probably because it also had that shimmering, ephemeral Michael Mann cinematography. I was, and continue to be, so fascinated by the relationships between those characters — Ace and Gus especially, they had such a great rapport which was never played up too much. I understand…

I like most of them to some degree — certainly Mayham is very good and Chasing It is underrated, but I don't think the others stack up to the show at its best. Luxury Lounge and Moe n Joe are pretty much filler, I have to say; without them 6A would be nearly on par with 6B. Sentimental Education is way too ham-fisted…

Yup. Terence Winter was easily the best writer on The Sopranos besides Chase himself — his scripts were consistently witty, introspective, profound… Meanwhile, I've always thought that all the Sopranos episodes solo-penned by Matthew Weiner were the weakest of the last couple seasons — blunt, lacking subtlety, tonally…

As someone who thought Boardwalk only really got great with Season 4, the time-skip and loss of Rothstein afterwards was extra annoying (I still like Season 5 a lot but it was clearly rushed and there was so much wasted potential). Winter showed so much talent in his writing on The Sopranos, I have to wonder what's…

That's what I'm afraid of: that TV execs, even at HBO, have stopped taking chances and are now just seeking out another big money-machine like Game of Thrones, with most successful shows now being either super-expensive blockbusters (GoT) or generic, soulless focus-tested pap (take your pick).

All this, along with what I've read about HBO execs being way more hands-on and less accepting of challenging material recently makes it seem like the network's glory days pretty much ended with The Sopranos (or maybe Luck).

Rectify's first season is definitely its best, unless the final one this fall manages to beat it. Twin Peaks for sure. Carnivale's first season is at least as good as the second — it's less fast-paced/exciting, but more mysterious and atmospheric.

Strangely, I thought the imaginary friend episode was one of the few pretty good ones. Yeah, the gimmick is overplayed but it was still powerful I thought.

A truly great show that ended so strongly it just leaves you wanting more. Hell, I even like John From Cincinnati. Milch is a genius.

I couldn't have put it better. I'm also not big on these bands because, as a guitarist, I find the guitar work is often terribly boring and unimaginative. I don't mean they didn't have enough solos or whatever, just that the kind of "angular" sound you describe gets pretty dull after the 30th time. Just a lot of…

Hmm, well for stuff in a somewhat similar vein around that time, I'm a big fan of Fugazi - The Argument and Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You. In general, though, psych like Dead Meadow - Feathers, Acid Mothers Temple, Dungen, etc. as well as drone like Belong - October Language or Tim Hecker. Also, Boards of Canada. I…

I'm kind of glad this fad is gone, to be honest. Most of those bands are either boring or flat-out annoying (The Killers worst of all). It's probably better than the more tepid, bland variety of indie dance-pop that was popular in the late 00's/early 10's though (Phoenix et al).

Passion isn't one of his best, but it's a good little film. You seriously would rank it below Bonfire of the Vanities, Mission to Mars, and The Untouchables? (Yes I know I'm in the minority on that last one but man, what an overpraised piece of fluff).