To spoil the Mad Magazine parody, I seem to recall the joke was that the Big Con was so insanely elaborate with so many elements and players that when they had finally paid everyone their share, they went broke.

I thought this episode was great, and it had to do with Rock as Loy working through the puzzle of who he was going to be and what he was going to do. When he was whipping Leon and asking him if he just wanted to kill Gaetano, go to war, and do... what, exactly, he was establishing that he was at a loss himself about…

I think this is all happening within 24 hours of the order to kill Satchel. Josto is trying to get Gaetano killed before Loy finds out Rabbi has his son alive.

I agree that the Fadda organization is overly sketchy but the Cannon one is reasonably drawn. I think a fault of this season is not establishing early on what Gaetano was even doing there or how he fit in to the Fadda operations. His motivation would be a lot less puzzling if we knew more about the specific things he…

Also loansharking, which is how he took over the funeral home.

I think that’s right — it’s like looking for a reason why Odis has to have a perfectly orderly collection of figurines.

General Garcia of Tijada was an outstanding amateur puppeteer. His art collection was also remarkable.

You can tell that John Huston knew exactly what he was doing with those two.

Everyone knows better than to mention League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

“Connery spent twelve years battling the effects of that incident but ultimately succumbed.”

To be fair, it didn’t come out that long after Born on the Fourth of July.

The scene where the Americans were gunning down unarmed, surrendered Germans was pretty contoversial at the time. One scene that struck me wasn’t even violent, it was when the squad was rudely sorting through the dog tags of the dead looking for a Ryan.

I just looked him up, and I knew he had worked steadily but I hadn’t realized how many roles he has played since Bosom Bodies. He won an Emmy for Girls, I assume as Lena Dunham’s boyfriend (I’ve never watched Girls).

I’m not sure Something About Mary wouldn’t be a hit today. It’s true a lot of it is still hilarious, and Knives Out shows there is still an audience for moderate budget non-spectacle movies. But the thinking at studios has definitely shifted a lot since then.

Upham seemed like Spielberg was doing his version of the NY Times diner safari, winking to a bunch of elites that they are in the know that cultured weaklings are stealing the valor of the real heroes. Yes sir, they are the savvy ones. Better repeat it a few more times to make sure everyone knows they get it.

It’s not just the last ten minutes that should have been cut — the opening is part of the same piece. The framing is not only cheap syrup, it’s forgettable. I think the bit in this piece about Spielberg threatening to block late arrivals is telling — he may not have been worried about people missing the D Day landing,…

The chances that he was tucking in his shirt on the bed hoping it was right before getting some action are as low as the odds of him getting a shoe shine a minute before marching in a St. Patrick’s Day parade on a slushy day behind a pack of police horses .

The really creepy bit was Pence saying at the conservative convention about how there were only 15 cases in the US and how his government was completely prepared.

The really creepy bit was Pence saying at the conservative convention about how there were only 15 cases in the US and how his government was completely prepared.

I think there is a need to link the monologues more effectively to the action. Loy telling the story of Odis in the war was effective and worked within the scene, but Loy talking to Odis about the dolls rising up to take over the apartment felt like mediocre theater. And since Loy was definitely mourning the death of…