Very true, and the first season of Veronica Mars is one of my favorite seasons of anything ever (I have not gotten around to seeing Twin Peaks, but it's on my list). Maybe it's more that the tone of the two books is very similar? I'm not sure, because you're right— it definitely is a plot point that's been used before.

I think you're totally right.

It was definitely fun (I used it as a gym read) and it's a lot better written than some generic thriller type books, I think it's just that it came out around the same time as Gone Girl, or got popular shortly thereafter, so it's hard not to make the comparison.

Which is a bummer. I actually felt like Sharp Objects was better than Gone Girl in terms of potential film adaptability (though I liked Gone Girl better as a book) but the movie felt a little like no one wanted to put that much effort or money into it. I think they sold it short.

It basically is. The book is Gillian Flynn lite in terms of plot, twists, and characters, and while I'm excited for this adaption just because of the people involved (I have found I will watch pretty much anything Justin Theroux is in) it has the potential to wind up being kind of a shallower Gone Girl.

Monkeys seem harmless enough from a distance, but then yes, the face ripping.

You're probably right, but in an ideal, perfect world scenario (which is ridiculous, I know), it'd be better if we just embraced the fact that we're all human and thus we're all pretty stupid at some things.

We don't have a single Dunkin Donuts. ;( Which is probably for the best.

Our weather is great, be excited for that. And depending on where you go, we don't have the earthquakes. Yet. Just the impending doom of the big one hanging over our heads which, hey, we all have to go somehow eventually.

Good! Caught up on laundry (which desperately needed to be done) and binged the entire first season of Stranger Things, then went to a barbecue with some old friends I haven't seen around lately. Played some multiplayer Civ, which was fun, and took the dog on a few long walks, which he really enjoyed though it's…

How dare you. That's unbelievably offensive to ogres.

I agree, but I think the really problem is that when a logical, sane person realizes they don't understand everything, they don't pretend that they do and then move to make huge policy changes over their strong, but misguided and ill-informed, convictions.

That's fair, I can't disagree with any of that.

I agree— those two are even more expendable than Barb is. I think I'm just fatigued with this trope of introducing friends in a show or movie just long enough that another character (usually the better looking, more typically leading person type) can feel bad about them going missing. And maybe if she was the titular…

I don't want to get spoiler-y (especially because I'm not sure how far you've gotten and I would hate to ruin anything), but I feel like this is a theme in the show (Eleven being weird and 'other' and alien) that starts out interesting but gets progressively more squiggy until by the end it left me feeling pretty…

Which I don't understand, because in my opinion The Leftovers is a far superior show to this in just about every single possible way. I wonder if because I didn't grow up in the '80s, the nostalgia that seems to be making it so impactful to some people just doesn't work for me the same way?

Agreed. They have their setting locked down tight, but the show itself is insanely predictable and it hits a point later on (without getting spoilery) where I got so frustrated because without even trying to get ahead of the show I knew exactly where they were going and what would happen next. I would have taken any…

YES. When it comes up again later, it's so obvious that the whole scene existed solely for plot purposes that it made it really hard for me to like Jonathan's character (who I was on board with at the beginning). That creeping Tom thing is not flattering, has never been flattering, and needs to stop being used in…

Which seems kind of crappy for Barb. I get the thematic implications of the plot point, but it feels a little like the character gets thrown under the bus so Nancy can 'feel things' and I liked Barb, so that was kind of a bummer.

Eleven is probably the very best part of the show, in my opinion, both the actress playing her and the character herself.