Netflix is also simply in a different frame now. I don't think fans get that the wheels were probably turning on all these projects for at least a couple of years before they even release, and now they don't have to pay a premium to get people to work for streaming products. They may end up with a premium for being…

I'm certainly glad the fans are getting more, but it was never critically acclaimed. Its earnestness and uniqueness always appealed, and as a show found its legs, but by the second season the amount of pop that a premiere gets is gone, and the second season reviews are more recap/fans. I'm not actually sure how to get…

I only read the manga—and then only a few volumes of it—and it seemed to whipsaw between that's a great idea to that's terrible with very little in between.

Almost random: You know what's a good korean movie about food? Le Grand Chef. The Japanese stole the royal chef's knife and are now returning it. The only way to do so is through a national cooking competition.

And given the flashback, is it muddling that Oscar was always a conniving asshole? That kind of it's escalated dickishness and took a little of the nuance of doing "nice things" for bad reasons away. I gave the glimpse of home more leeway since it looked like his version of a home destroyed via alcoholism, but the…

So I'm the one who didn't like Colossal, huh? Good performances, stylish, and original, but a narrative crammed into a metaphor that didn't fit. I don't know that the toxic masculinity topic wasn't obvious—that might be a thing you see or don't, but the details I didn't buy were in the premise and escalation, which…

I remember that the movie was about the yakuza kidnapping the mafia's kids—maybe?—and the Punisher is rescuing them. And at the end Dolph tells the don's kid that if he turns to crime, he's going to come back and kill him. I think that's the kind of stick-to-it-ness that we can all admire.

Ha, I always read that phrase (in isolation) as a gentle way of saying "I'm not interested." People who say that can definitely be pretentious, but Harry Potter fans are quite…enthusiastic. As much reading as the series has inspired, many are fans of Harry Potter are fans, and maybe not readers too.

Hmm, I think you underestimate kids and books and maybe parents who will force kids into bathrooms with books and lock them in. That last part I don't endorse.

Because it was conceived and initially executed as a kid's series without much thought given to the wider world beyond the school, intimations as to otherwise being false, but while Rowling's skill and scope, and the kids evolved, the initial base conception of the world did not. I think you'd have to reboot it to get…

Hey, thanks for sharing. My mom died a few years ago, and grief being what it is, it's taken work and time to get to where I feel alright, but reading the books again for you sounds like some of the things I've reached for as well. Hard and sad, but full of them at the same time. Anyway, be well.

Sounds like she was shopping for the Eragon series possibly. My understanding is that you came out ahead on that.

Hufflepuff.

As an adult in my twenties when these books came out, I think I've worked out my enthusiasm (and lack thereof) to it's appropriate level, which is that to me a good series with a good writer who's best work is in the charaters, and who grew, but is interminably saddled with a lot of bad ideas that couldn't be/weren't…

That's a good one! The pizza delivery is the only one that's left a bad taste.

Not this year at all, but purchased this year on sale: I just picked up season 3 of The Walking Dead Telltale games and played through the first episode. The sophistication seems to keep developing, and in general the narratives have been getting stronger I think—but man, way to wipe out "my game." I realize each…

Absolutely, it has the same level of enthusiasm about everything it shows you, which is 100%. And even when Kiryu reflects on something silly, the most negative reaction he (and the game) has is "well, that's not my thing, but if it makes you happy, okay."

I've been playing HZD and enjoying it a lot. I mean, I knew I would, Far Cry being my favorite flavor of this sort of gameplay, but it is pared down in the bloat (except whatever data collection things are that I apparently don't see), and honestly just so refreshing in it's general optimism. It helps that the…

I'm halfway with you, but there's also the equal possibility of Disney/Marvel offering to loosen up, and not doing it, if only not to degree either group found satisfying. Particularly if they courted him, which happens to have been the case.

The original was an oddity, and in that sense I get it. I have the same question, though from a different angle. Her movies are about women in gilded cages, and it's odd that she picks things where she has to consciously excise anything other from her white women focus. I see her talent, even if I've kinda been mildly…