I feel like 1/3 of the reason film noir exists is because directors discovered it looks really cool to have characters blow smoke against a strong background or overhead light. 

Look, everyone knows that the only true movies are single silent shots of trains pulling into French railway stations. But if you want to embrace gimmicks like editing go right ahead.

Is there a working actress better than Williams at conveying vulnerability under a tough surface? She's just astounding. But sweet lord this show underlines and circles and put exclamation points next to anything traumatic. We get it, show. 

The original had to make changes from the book to deal with the Production Code but Power is terrific in it.

You know, I don't think of Reeves as an actor I particularly like but there's a lot of movies on that list I love. 

The first time I took a boyfriend to a faculty party he confessed he listened to NPR in preparation, then got annoyed when we mostly talked about The Walking Dead. Holt would explode. 

That beard is perfect for him. 

Machado is an inspired choice.

I've taught his work, too, and really grew to appreciate how underrated and sneakily innovative he was as a storyteller.

No, Joan was his second wife. He had a short marriage to another dancer first. 

I mean, in Apocalypse Rose Byrne looks awfully mid-30s for someone living in 1983 who was an adult government agent during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I think the X-men franchise has rejected the concept of linear time.  

I think Sophie Turner has her strengths as an actress but being intimidating is not one of them. She was such a weird casting choice if they planned to (re)do this story all along.  Now, Jessica Chastain, there’s someone who can be menacing even while perfectly still.  

I like Stephen King a lot but could not finish this book.  The premise didn’t really seem to be going anywhere interesting and if they were trying to say anything coherent about gender it really didn’t come across to me.  Did anyone finish it? Did it get better? 

Misner was terrific in the scene where Joan is essentially telling Gwen that she knows exactly what’s happening by recounting her own courtship. (It also has a foreshadowing of his relationship with Reinking.) I didn’t read the death title card as callous, though I get how you might. To me it was just a reminder that…

 Incredibles, Incredibles 2, and Lego Incredibles. Didn’t mean to make it a marathon but I got sick and stuck inside. Lego Incredibles is, well, just like any other Lego game - simple puzzles, simple action, playful retellings of the source material. Some of the level designs are more clever than in recent games. The…

This is one of the few B99 episodes I have ever really disliked. Of course it's possible for people to get married without having this conversation but it is wildly out of character for Amy to do it, as is almost instantly jumping to thoughts of divorce. Jake's final decision seemed to come out of nowhere. There…

I realize that marriage proposals, pregnancy, and weddings have to be a pain for sitcom writers - pretty much every sitcom does them and it’s hard to get away from cliches - but I didn’t really enjoy much of this. Hey, I like Thomas Lennon but they clearly hired him with the expectation that he would do his fussy…

I saw those two trailers before another cute animal movie: Pet Sematary.  I was more traumatized by the trailer for the Elton John biopic, which is like an explosion in the Biopic Cliche Factory. 

If Eternal Sunshine style memory removal technology existed you would NOT want Hallmark in charge of it.

I liked S1 a lot - funny, raunchy, creative, weirdly touching.  s2 was hard to get into with the central trio split up and the story not seeming to move much for the first three episodes or so.  I’m hoping S3 is a return to the better version of the show.