I’m not sure the old generation of writers had much idea of how to construct 20 episode seasons either. Very few seemed to have any shape beyond “let’s have a big/arc moment every 6-8 episodes” and “it’s the finale, we have to end on a frustrating cliffhanger, even though we’re not actually renewed yet and may never…

The 7.6 is low for a Doctor Who episode.

It wasn’t especially subtle. It wasn’t like she announced it, but you didn’t need to be paying that much attention either:

I’m going to regret this but...

Dune’s overseas box office numbers were stronger than the middling domestic numbers (which would’ve been depressed by the HBO Max release, but it’s difficult to know by how much), but they weren’t especially strong in and of themselves. It probably just about broke even during the theatrical run*. That was during…

one of this year’s big sequels—maybe Dune, maybe Alien, maybe Joker, maybe Gladiator, maybe Furiosa—will be a huge hit

The strikes. Of course.

There is. It was reportedly ordered to series last April, unless it’s fallen into development hell since.

Citadel’s poor writing is one thing, but worse is that the sets look like sets, the action is poorly choreographed and full of mediocre CGI work, the cast is decent, but there are no superstars likely to command crazy fees. So where the hell did the money go? How could they spend $300m and have it look so cheap?

CGI is not cheap. Godzilla Minus One is not a Hollywood production. Spy Kids is not a blockbuster.

The seeding of Bad Wolf/Torchwood was bullshit and the missing planets thing wasn’t much better, but I thought season 3’s arc was pretty solid. Less repetition of a meaningless “arc word” and more actually establishing plot elements ahead of their use in the finale.

Let’s be fair, $166m to produce two big effects-driven extravaganzas stopped being obscene a very long time ago. Setting aside the quality of the resulting film, that’s an absolute bargain by today’s budgets. It’s less than half the cost of Fast X, for example, to produce three-to-four times the content (depending on…

I will forever maintain that Broadchurch is massively overrated, and what it did have going for it was in spite of Chibnall, not because of him.

Fair enough, I’ll put that one down to pointlessly contrived writing then.

The directing and editing seemed kind of rough.

It was definitely being made at the time. It’s just that when the film came out, most of its supporters would refuse to engage with any criticism, no matter how mild or nuanced, preferring instead to work under the assumption that it was all bad faith bullshit being spewed by incels, misogynists, and racists (of…

Gatwa was great.

Samurai 7 is giving them far too much credit. More likely, the closest they’ve come to Kurosawa is The Magnificent Seven. Not the original though, the remake — where else would they have gotten the idea to cast a token Korean star for cool points?

You are warned. They make a fuss about Maruki leaving the school on a certain date, which is the only one that has a meaningful effect on the endings.

My favourite thing about Rebel Moon so far (I’ve not yet put myself through the torture of actually watching it) was coming across an interview with Kurt Johnstad, one of the writers, in which he says that Seven Samurai is his favourite science fiction movie.