The scene where the Joker takes Harley Quinn to a Swedish porno and she storms out, and then reveals to him that she already has Steve Martin: A Wild and Crazy Guy on vinyl, is a real soul-crusher.

“I’d like to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Lionsgate.”

I think the first issue is probably that the vast majority of Americans who heard the line in the film’s advertising, or heard it repeated, didn’t know (or didn’t clock in) that it was depicting a real-life event (unlike in Australia and I think New Zealand, where the case was major news for years). By the time it…

When Michael Chamberlain died the New York Times mentioned Meryl Streep in the first sentence of his obituary, and devoted a paragraph to how Americans turned the movie’s dingo line into a punchline: 

I pretty much figured.  Might just read a plot summary first to see where I should be ready to duck.

I’m intrigued by it but I don’t have a very high tolerance for sudden and disgusting violence/injury, so I’m not sure I’m going to be able to see it.

You think that “most people” will assume that a cartoon of a fictional character’s fan fiction is a depiction of “real events”?

“it’s pretty clearly meant as a parody. Nobody watching the scene is going to think it’s real, since it is a cartoon”

Neville Neville, you tore your dress

I’m most intrigued by exactly what Renata and Gordon do for a living. With everyone else (with the exception of Perry and Celeste) I’ve just concluded that the money is coming either from some past lucky strike in the tech industry or from parents, exes, etc. But Renata seems to be a high-powered corporate honcho who…

Did you know that Eminem gave himself that nickname after claiming to have run the Marine Corps Marathon in under 3 hours?

Bay of Puigs? Weren’t they the team that drafted Fidel Astro?

I was wondering about this. I don’t know how family court works in California, or in general. How much latitude do judges in these cases have to suggest/require ad hoc remedies? E.g., just as an equitable matter I could easily see the judge who gets this case saying, “Okay, grandma’s hyperbole aside, the only…

Does the show (or the book?) provide any explanation of where Nathan’s money comes from? My total speculation is that he might have struck it rich in his early 20's as a glib early hire at a tech start-up, which would explain why he has the money to bum around Monterey without, as far as I can tell, having any…

I guess I should clarify that very successful people are (usually) capable of controlling themselves when necessary. I just find it very easy to believe that someone like Renata (who’s supposed to be an extremely aggressive and successful business executive) would (a) have a temper she’s not shy about expressing; (b)…

I’m holding out hope that the Ed-Nathan antagonism is building towards an unlikely alliance that helps them both, and helps them get their wives out of a jam. Between Ed’s powers of observation (held back by his near-total inability to assert himself in constructive ways) and Nathan’s penchant for bold action…

I’ve never noticed much correlation between “at the top of his/her field” and “has the capability to calm down in high-charged moments.”

I completely buy what’s going on with the character, I’m just wary of them using it against her in this custody story line in a way that feels too pat. To be clear, I buy Mary Louise wanting to use all of those things against her, and I like the tension between Mary Louise and the other characters. But they’re walking…

One thing they could do is actually make Celeste an unfit parent, at least temporarily (as a result of grief, remorse, etc.).  But since they don’t want to go down that road the subplot here is inevitably going to feel contrived, with Streep as an obvious black hat instead of a more nuanced character.  Even Perry was…

As far as I can remember there hasn’t been a single instance on the show of Celeste abusing, neglecting, mistreating, etc., her children. They’re clearly writing Celeste’s character so that Mary Louise can bring up a lot of superficial “she’s not a good mother” examples. But it basically boils down to, “she had a man…