Can we just talk real quick about how this season is more confident in leaning into moments of levity and comedy? I don't need the show to go full-slapstick, but there's something balancing and endearing about characters (from the sensoriums on through to the people surrounding them) recognizing and going with the…

It's SNL's fortuitous timing more than mine, really. Now that weekend receipts are in, it's clear Guardians 2 succeeds by leaning into the things that distinguish it, within the loose confines of the MCU umbrella. Its colorful, gonzo wackiness hopefully signals to future entries that the strength of the shared…

You see why it's been so difficult trying to pull allegory and comparison with other large franchises - even the most successful among these, Star Wars, by my reckoning - comes closest by virtue of George's vaunted 9-chapter outline from the 70's. Although it's clear, even before Disney got involved, that whole…

Since you bring up Doctor Strange above, I'm certainly in agreement that no small part of the disappointment of that entry being that it stood the most to break the existing formula - instead leaning into it quite heavily, and letting the gorgeously realized eye-popping visuals do the heavy lifting. One hopes that…

I get really tired of people loving the MCU like it's objectively great, when it isn't.

Yes.

Happy to agree to disagree. The plot, I think you're giving too much weight in how overriding it is for developing character, relationship, and theme. I can envision that deep genre probably has much more stringent standards for the kinds of narrative rehash that Marvel is certainly guilty of - but this is also a…

Sure, there's the story-archetype thing, but it's not necessarily what I'd intend to generalize to. There's some degree of specificity to the Marvel format that distinguishes it. The thing that I'm pointing to being that the shared features across the MCU features still allow for a great deal of wiggle room for…

Y'know - there's probably a certain guaranteed audience if Ragnarok turns out to just consist of 90 minutes of Hemsworth hot tubbin'.

I don't fault you for deriding the formulaicism of the MCU house style, at all. Even those of us who are general fans of the franchise-at-large certainly cop to it.

This is how you can tell this particular subset of shipping fandom consists of straight girls.

Xanadu soundtrack or GTFO.

This is why I avoid other realms of fandom.

They might be getting there. Of all the remaining queens, they're certainly the closest. But I don't see their star status as especially unequivocal, at least at this point in the competition. At equivalent points in prior seasons, I can envision there being at least a few instances of queens who had already broken…

…now and forever?

We've been talking 'bout the show elevating expectations over the course of ten seasons. I'm just not sure this season has any singular, clear breakout stars in the manner of a Jinkx, Bianca, or a Bob. I suppose there's something to be said for judging individual queens on their own merits, rather than the…

(…because you've never seen one of the bots in these threads?)

It occurs to me that the track captures a kind of fascinating moment of early-90's house music, where there's an undeniable dance energy to the song - but it also provides an almost torchey diva moment in CeCe Peniston's performance, where there's an emotional arc that arises from a starting point of loneliness and…

The runaway was the strongest so far.

Ladies and Gentlemen, now bringing to the stage - Miss Landrover Rangerover.