Stanley Kubrick, call your ghost lawyers looks like this season they're "borrowing" Clockwork Orange instead of Twin Peaks and the David Fincher back catalog.

He was already doing an infodump to let us know about TK, why not just tack on a "it was most likely caused by ..."

I think the only problem with the TK thing is that it wasn't explained, just quickly glossed over in the 10% of the population, blah blah

I was taught that dramatic writing typically gets one big "buy," meaning that if there's a fantastical element in your story, you can only get one.

Well, let's forget Old Joe's Chinese wife shall we? :) Then again, you really want to see more people of colour playing hookers, junkies and gun-toting thugs?

Well, I think the marketing for Looper just steered well clear (and deliberately so) of where the film ended up going. Which is a smart move. Compare and contrast The Island which pretty much blew what should have been a brain-melting reveal ('everything our protagonists think they know about their world is bullshit!…

What lessons from Looper do you wish other genre storytellers would take on board?

Seriously, I'm happy to do this chapter, verse and page reference but am hard on a paying deadline. I'll get back to you in twelve hours or so.

I'll certainly give Martin (a lot of) credit where it's due, for yes being aware of sexist/misogynist genre tropes, and critiquing/subverting them in so many ways. Cersei & Catelyn, in their own ways, are fascinating (and sometimes unexpectedly moving) case studies in what life would be like as women in that kind of…

So you think GRRM Martin is wrong to use rape, and that he only uses it to punish bad girls?

Yeah, Charlie Jane's good like that. And frankly, that wasn't a totally unreasonable initial reading when body-shaming and unhealthy/unattainable images presented as "normal" is so damn pervasive in our culture.

If you're writing a story that involves/includes adult violence (as opposed to the high-kicking Buffy/YA style), then ALL violence should be on the table. Removing any form of violence from your (dare I say) pallet instantly makes the story less realistic. It's like saying no one will be murdered.

If I thought Charlie Jane was being a fat-phobic shame monster, I'd call her out on it. I thought the description (which I assumed was from the source, given the quote marks) was an occasion for a depressingly routine LOL-cry. YMMV, but the model wearing that costume didn't look at all "plus-sized"/chubby/fat. If…

Which rape scene.

Why it's so assumed that I'm being "unrealistic" when I say that none of my female characters are going to be raped. Why this "takes the tension out of the story." There is plenty of tension without me having to write about something that upsets both me and many of my readers, thanks.

Call me an old crank, but I kind of like narrative fiction to have a story that doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty tea spoon. YMMV. Slick production values are all very nice, but they're means to an end not an end in itself.

I'm still trying to figure out what kind of demented frak would let their kids dress up as a child-molesting serial killer. http://www.costumecraze.com/FRED05.html (Link SFW but seriously creepy, the more you think about it.) Seriously, folks - What. The. Fuck.

"Really bad?" Did you completely miss the expert camerawork, incredible atmosphere, and beautiful cinematic presentation?

Why? Serious question - because I don't think anyone is particularly well-served by seriously wonky characterization and plotting a roster of Emmy-winning geniuses could get the stink off of. In a weird way, Revolution NOT being wretchedly, WTF-worthy Event-level bad makes it all even worse. There's evidence the…

I know people are ragging on this show but for fuck's sake, "Haven" is still on the air, and that show has blown since day one.