So I completely agree this show is not going to satisfy my desire that the consequences of Russell’s business practices for ordinary people be laid bare. But for the record, “robber baron” monopolists like Russell’s character were in fact particularly bad. Not that other wealthy elites at the time were innocents. But…

Definitely a slow burn so far, but Peggy’s wanting to consult with an attorney, her pursuing a professional writing career, her strained relationship with her family, all suggest to me that the show has a lot of long-term plans for the character.

Have you ever ordered a ludicrously extravagant dessert at a fancy restaurant, despite knowing it is unhealthy, and might not even taste as good in the end as something more simple but common like a nice cup of gelato?

It is all ridiculous, but there has long been a strain of American families a couple generations in looking down on relative newcomers. That was the basic sentiment of the anti-immigrant Native American Party (aka Know Nothings) of the early 19th Century (and yes, the ironies abound, and still do). And that was the…

Interesting. Although no longer an official Downton prequel, that could at least echo the background story of the Crawley family being on the verge of financial ruin before Robert Crawley married American Cora Levinson for her money. Oscar van Rhijn would then be trying to be the Robert to Gladys Russell’s Cora.

The only thing I will suggest, as I did in another post, is that MAYBE this portrayal of the elites is a little more satirical and a little less straightforwardly sympathetic as compared to Downton Abbey.

There are some really excellent performances going on. Coon has been pretty good, but she isn’t even close to my favorite (so far). Baranski, for example, is killing it, and so for that matter is Morgan Spector as George Russell.

I’d still prefer it to be a lot more Succession than Downton Abbey. And I continue to be particularly disturbed about the heroic portrayal of George Russell, given the harm his type of business man caused for ordinary people in this age (all those hundred dollar bills basically come from anti-competitively low wages…

Hah, I also compared this to Bosch in my comment in the last thread on Reacher.

I think the problem with that explanation is that they are still all sentient humanoids, and in fact are sometimes portrayed as capable of interbreeding (lots of half-whatevers in D&D). Interbreeding would typically mean they were in fact the same species.

I’d nominate Mazes and Monsters (1982) as a watershed moment. For those who haven’t seen it, it portrays fantasy RPGs as being for damaged losers who get obsessive about their favorite game, and then it destroys their lives. It is based on a rushed novel which was based on inaccurate sensationalist newspaper articles…

So I think of Thurber as an OK comedy director. Red Notice was awful, but movies like Dodgeball, We’re the Millers, and Central Intelligence were basically competent, albeit not exactly special. Skyscraper was a little more action and less comedy . . . and not that good. Mysteries of Pittsburgh was by far his most…

I never got past designing a spaceship, and yet that was a very enjoyable summer!

I sang Prince Ali to both of my kids when they were young. So good (not my version, but the song itself).

Yeah, it is a classic exposition song (the sort of song that makes me not too keen on musicals generally), and to me a mediocre version of one at that.

Truly the herpes of movies.

Bel-Air, Joe vs. Carole, Marry Me . . . .

The gist of the cases cited by the judge is that while authors might find value in mixing real figures, and real fact about those figures, into their works, they then have to be careful about how they treat those figures. And the basic question is whether in context, the people reading or watching the content would…

Because it deserves better than a premature release?

We’ll always have the pantless duck.