I liked the Amy/Rosa plot. That was some quality physical comedy and the end was a solid twist on the "learn to ask for help" cliche. The Boyle/Holt plot irritated me with how much of a jerk Holt was to him, though I think some of that was residual irritation from the boss/subordinate plot on Superstore (Amy should…

The idea of Octavia Spencer in Ma is intriguing - take her innate likability as an actress and curdle it into something more sinister - and the supporting adult cast is a weird grab-bag of actors I enjoy (Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans, Missi Pyle). But the trailer is ludicrously bad. 

The “that’s a lot of deaths for one year” made me laugh. Actually, I found most of Cam’s acting principal power trip/meltdown plotline pretty funny. Vergara seemed weirdly bored in the van scene. Gloria gets some silly subplots but she usually at least tries to bring some energy to it. 

Clearly this is begging for a wry pre-credits Law & Order line. “It ain’t gonna be a sunny day for him,” etc.

Elmo Escapes from New York

I feel like this moves us one step closer to a Krull continuation (and, for the record, that's something I would sincerely love as a fan of that glorious mess of a movie). 

I suspect, depending on your age, Professor Flitwick might now be his most iconic role. 

I really hate Pippin, which I’ve always thought was a smug show about a smug jerk, but this did at least make a case for the way Fosse turned everything into semi-autobiography. I loved the way the actress let Joan’s playful snarkiness drop in favor of complete sincerity when she started talking about Nicole. It was…

Having just read the article itself, I really think peer reviewers should have pushed harder on the disconnect between the narrow results of the study (essentially an unexplained short term spike in incidence rates in only one demographic group - adolescent males who may or may not have been exposed to the program)…

Finally saw Shazam! Enjoyed it a lot. “Heartwarming and goofy” is not a phrase I associate with DC movies but this one certainly was. My only real complaint: Levi and Angel don’t really feel like they’re playing the same character. It makes you appreciate how hard what Curtis does in Freaky Friday or what Hanks does…

I've had a large number of writing students over the years talk about how important Poetic Justice was to them in terms of making them think their viewpoint as a poet mattered. I can only imagine the number of young directors who felt the same way about Singleton himself.

I realize that they probably feel a debt to Favreau for his role in getting the MCU on its feet but there was really no reason to give Happy of all people a scene to himself. 

That whole “great Americans” dream/vision/whatever was so lazy and unfunny. They might as well have just left her in Canada at the end. It's not like anybody would question her being back in Springfield in the next episode. 

Paxton is funny in True Lies, though I think he’s in a much goofier movie than anybody else.

Saw Endgame. It was epic, touching, inspiring, and satisfying (though, somewhat unusually for an MCU movie, I don’t think a lot of the comic bits land very well). I wouldn’t put it at the very top of the Marvel movies with The Winter Soldier but it sticks the landing on the whole narrative arc since the original Iron…

Of all the big tearjerker moments - most of which were really effective - the moment that actually made me cry was Black Widow trying to hold it together after ending the video conference with what's left of the team. When the world’s most stoic badass spy is clearly just barely functioning because she’s trying to…

I love that they've written Thor as such an open hearted lug that when the Cap/Mjolnir thing finally pays off he's not jealous - he's elated.

I feel like Gillan is the most underrated performer in the MCU and has maybe the most moving arc. 

The villain performances were always the best part of this gloriously silly mess of a show and at least this episode got that right. Otherwise this was all over the place and so unsatisfying. The time jump was probably inevitable but such a bad choice in basically requiring endless exposition and no Bruce. 

“Now, for this scene in Jackie 2, you're meeting Mr. Onassis, who is going to look very thunder god-like."