The pangolin wasn’t a random choice of animal. Back in the very early days of the virus, when everyone was zeroing in on bats, there were some stories on other weird and wild animals in china that are used as food and could also, someday, be our undoing. The pangolin had it’s long 15 minutes back then. Kinda the star…

NO. They definitely came down on the side of masks here. You’d have to work to will a different read into that. But...y’know.

Ummm... that’s not how product placement works (I mean, the Reese’s Pieces, yes, ok). If it were, the whole show could be considered product placement. Everyone knows it’s based on a book of the same title. The book showing up has narrative significance, clearly. That is the opposite of product placement. If he came…

Apparently not. Nor are we going to discuss Hippolyta’s decision to return to Dee, who, as she said, needs her. Orphan?

I agree. This is not about things like intersexed v transwomen and killing v living...that’s a very anachronistic take, and glosses over the differences between trans and drag and how it all mixes up with the 1950's setting here. And anyway, I don’t think Montrose cares he killed Yamina. He believes it the right thing…

For me, much of the issue with season one (and two if I’m being honest) had everything to do with Chloe Bennett’s Skye and Brett Dalton’s Ward being the emotional center of the show. Neither was experienced enough to do that kind of lifting. Man, she was downright bad. Go back and read the recaps from this site and…

Except for the original series ep and MAYBE one or two of the later DS9 eps, I’ve never liked the mirror universe stuff. I was especially put out when Discovery went there. I was having a hard enough time trying to like that hot mess without it. 

I had a goatee in 1999. It all fits!

Again (I think I’ve alluded to this three times in these reviews), in 100 yrs, when people want to know if we were really as incompetent as our early 21st century record suggests, this show will stand in for as good a primer as you can find. This IS us, tragically. Look at the efforts of our leaders in battle with the…

I was possibly five yrs old when my parents took us to the local drive-in to see Billy Jack. The should have been first clue I wasn’t dealing with model parents, looking back. Over time, I forgot the whole thing, but watching these clips made clear that I stored every frame of it somewhere in my tiny head.

I know the shift in tone is all over the place, but it’s the tone they wanted. If it were an accident or the result of editorial incompetence, I’d be more unforgiving. And I think I’m really starting to understand this show. Maybe. But poor leadership and poor decision-making born of magical thinking are how we here…

Zack, while I agree fully that this group of amateur 9/11 truthers at CBS wouldn’t know character development if it smacked them in the face with a cold mackerel - I mean, just LOOK at the forced effort to make us care about that bridge full of shadows in Discovery - and while I further agree that community theater…

Essentially, you’re saying the character work (as far as the writers’ input goes) is rote, blandly archetypal, and lacking specificity of purpose except to move the plot along.

It took me a few episodes, but now I get the target this show is aiming for. It’s the elevation of general ignorance; this is the logical end-point of our collective distrust of expertise. The only experts in the world are hidden away in sub-basements and ignored for shinier things. The loudest, flashiest, and frankly…

I don’t know how you think acting works, but no director can tell an actor any kind of thing about cheeks and noses. That there’s what ya call an acting choice. That’s all Jodie.

Honestly, yes. I’ve known my share. NYC is like that. There are infinite ways to survive the lows in an artistic life, and some of those definitely involve close proximity to billionaires and their (most often truly horrible) children.

Go spend some time, in any capacity, among the children of billionaires. “He goes from self involved egomaniac doofus to borderline sociopath to sad sack neurotic." Yes. Exactly. Nailed it. Judd isn't even a spoof. 

The Wayne Gretzky of American actresses under 35, then.

Sure, maybe. But “New Tilly” is played by the Babe Ruth of American actresses under 35. Allison Pill didn't need this job. They clearly needed her. Maybe we'll find out why. 

Yeah, right? But every copycat has missed the point of it all. Cerci and Jamie LOVED each other. She was ready to burn the world down for him. Well, for him and to excise her own deep-seated insecurities. And they took the time to world build. Now we're just expected to care about these two exhausting, preening,…