Without getting into book spoilers, all of the gods exist because people believe in them, and with Mr. World the thing they believe in seems to be that there's some insidious global power structure that lurks behind the mundane world and bends us all to its will. So if Media is responsible for promoting conspiracy…

Yep. I think one of the major reasons Marilyn is different is that Media is embodying the faded, reimagined memory of the once-ubiquitous icon. She's Marilyn biopics and trashy documentaries about how ooh, did you hear that she was murdered by the CIA?

Sure, this particular case is more complex, and I don't know enough about either the screening or the relevant laws to draw any conclusion about what would and wouldn't be permitted. I was just wary of the implications of the more general "The Alamo Drafthouse can hold a screening for whomever they want" argument.

One has to be careful with that argument, though. This was something that was litigated extensively during the civil rights era: Can the law prohibit a private individual from running, say, a whites-only business, if the individual argues that said discrimination is an expression of his/her freedom of speech,…

They've known all along that the Americans have the Morozovs under observation; they talk about the surveillance routine in earlier episodes. Tuan reminds Philip of this fact as he charges over to save Pasha, but Philip is too agitated to care. Tuan is smiling weirdly because he's trying to "act normal" despite the…

Another Bill Clinton commencement here. I don't recall his speech at all; the main things I remember are 1) the insane security, by which the Secret Service locked down basically the entire quad, 2) my school had a rule that only faculty members could give the official commencement, so some poor academic had to…

"Bayer is funny as the flighty, constantly complaining, self-centered woman, but the whole thing hinged on the idea that there’s enough widespread need for this shiny distraction, which came off a little sour."

Sure, I'm aware of what happened in the literal plot of the movie. I'm talking about the larger horrors and anxieties that plot explored. If I said, for instance, that the Babadook was an embodiment of the rage and guilt that sometimes accompanies deep grief, would you argue, "But the Babadook is clearly a real…

Aside from the fact that it's both too obvious and a downer, another reason why I think this ending doesn't work as well as the real one is that it doesn't touch on one of the major horrors the movie explores. The film isn't just about the obvious horror of "What if a bunch of supposedly liberal white folks were…

The larger drawer below was locked, but it was just filled with things coworkers might swipe like booze. The ledger was in the drawer above, which Oleg's partner opened without any additional lock-picking.

Yep, she was definitely guilty — hence her agonized cry, "He thinks I'm wonderful!" (Which may be the fucking saddest thing I've ever heard.) Given how completely horrified she was about her husband thinking less of her, there's no way she would've told him that story unless it was true and she was unburdening herself.

Ooh, good thought. It was also a mark the show had to hit to remain consistent with Breaking Bad. Per Hank in his DEA briefing on Tuco: "We're pretty sure he knifed a Mexican national in '03."

So it turns out I somewhat misremembered; per the actual quote, which I reposted elsewhere in the thread, he was merely slated to become a "great philanthropist and feminist," not the first one. Though, yeah, it still seems like a super heavy lift for the character.

Okay, I found the passage: "There are little moments when the reality that women are human beings comes home to the men who are determined not to recognize their humanity. It's why Tolliver, who is the most oppressive person in the world, will wind up becoming, over the course of five seasons, the great philanthropist…

Years ago I bought a coffee table book called Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills by David Milch, which is like half typical series tie-in (lots of photos, character profiles, an episode guide, etc.), and half Milch's stream-of-consciousness ruminations on the series. Somewhere in the midst of the latter, Milch…

Dangit, see, that would've been perfect. You get a great old building like Thalia Hall that looks good in the rain, and you're all set.

I agree with the general consensus that this was a fantastic episode, and a distinct step up from the premiere. Loved all the new characters, the mood is exquisitely tuned, etc., etc. But there's one thing that doesn't quite feel right to me: the sense of place is a little off. This story is in many ways a travelogue,…

That joke totally baffled me on first viewing, because both the messed-up on-screen punctuation and something about Beck's delivery led me to interpret it as "See Netflix. We have one too!" I was trying to figure out why there was a joke about Netflix inserting a pirated plug for itself into the end of a Hulu…

Yep. Even at the time, it felt to me like it was just on the verge of something really interesting — playing with the notion that the each mutant's powers is the physical eruption of some deep psychological need in a pivotal moment, which then locks them into that need going forward. For instance, how young Magneto's…

Batman's a scientist!