Solo got very meh audience reaction scores, and is by far the least successful Star Wars movie in terms of inflation-adjusted box office. The way these things work, that is indicative of a lack of repeat viewings and weak word of mouth.

So I think Rogue One was a success because it was also a pretty faithful adaptation of a classic type of movie, the “rag-tag group goes on a suicide mission” war movie. Interestingly, that was a popular type of movie in the same period as the Westerns that inspired a lot of other Star Wars content were at their peak…

I think Solo is a good illustration of why it is easier (albeit not infallible) to do a decent TV series than a movie in a context like this.

I thought things like how Han got his last name were just flat out dumb. Offensively dumb in that I thought the movie makers had to have an incredibly low opinion of those of us in the audience to think that we would think that was cool.

I mean, we know The Mandalorian was already a big hit long before anyone knew Luke was going to be in the show.

I don’t think Grogu was a hit because of nostalgia. I think Grogu was a hit because he is freakin’ adorable.

Bang on.

I wonder about the future of the “downstairs” part of the show (again, not including Peggy Scott). It almost feels to me like all that is a holdover from when this was supposed to be more of a direct Downton prequel. And now they have come around to a different show such that the downstairs characters/plots feel…

I’ll admit I was not expecting to get the origin story for The Wicked Witch of the West.

Yeah, it has been pretty historically accurate in the sense of portraying typical robber baron tactics (less so in terms of portraying the real world consequences of those tactics, but oh well).

I had a similar moment when Bertha tossed her breakfast tray over being snubbed for the charity ball.  It established for me there is at least some amount of satire going on in this show, even if not a particularly biting version.

So the only prominent woman in the story is reduced to a symbolic presence in the men’s stories, and this is a good thing for women in film?

Yeah, I found it pretty gripping, but I also agree the basic subject matter does not seem particularly groundbreaking. It just made me feel everything so particularly, including the double standards for mothers and fathers, which are seen repeating themselves with the younger couple in the “present” timeline. Kinda…

The theory I heard is that by 1925, and given Phil’s own personal background (education and such), Cumberbatch is basically playing a person playing at being a cowboy. So all that overblown fakey feeling is intentional.

I think you are right that Peggy sees merely being her father’s daughter, despite her father being a successful member of the black upper-middle class, as an unfulfilling prospect. Indeed, I think we are meant to understand that from the way she reacts to her father’s suggestion that she can fall back on working in…

So the idea of doing things which seem contrary to your own interests in the short term, but can ruin or subjugate your competitors and therefore benefit you in the long run once you can operate free from their competition, is fundamental to the sort of predatory capitalism practiced by robber barons like George…

Interestingly, I do think Coon is accurately capturing the attitudes of the self-made “robber barons.” It is of course not possible for the few robber barons to be spectacular winners in that way without the vast majority of ordinary people supplying the basis of those winnings out of their pockets in the form of…

Going in I was hoping it would be something like Succession, where it is clear the building of the family fortune has required terrible practices that inevitably corrupt anyone who participates. And yet Succession is also a funny, entertaining show.

Exactly.  I actually cringed when Bertha was supporting George by saying if he loses this fortune, he can always make another.  Not said is that would all involve climbing up another big pile of ordinary victims we shall never see.

It was very well done, though. Jessie Buckley’s scenes with her children in particular brought back my own former-parent-of-young-children PTSD. Call it the Saving Private Ryan of parenthood.