A lot of people were lukewarm on Power of the Dog.  It definitely is not a popular favorite, though I wouldn’t cry if it got Picture and/or Director.  Frankly, I think its themes of masculine/homosexual repression in the West are not nearly as fresh as some seem to think they are.

Yes, it is an attempt to diversify a very white sub-genre of romance (Regency) but they don’t want to put in the effort of making a real alternate history beyond a few side remarks like the king marrying a black woman solving racism in England. That said, it mostly worked as a romantic fantasy, though the first season…

I teach at a community college like school.  My class is World Religions, perhaps the easiest class at that school.  The only students who ever fail my class are those who stop doing the work, but there are always too many of those.  The ones who tell me why they stop working often give reasons like COVID, crises with…

Besides general inconsistencies with characterization (Miranda’s career journey could have been compelling if the writers really went into the subject), some of this disconnect with fans and Nixon is due to genre expectations. A lot of fans saw the SATC franchise as about romance, while she clearly doesn’t. You don’t…

I thought the first two books for adults by Souke and Cavan Scott were quite good. I agree the comics weren’t so hot and I am not bothering with the kids books but the story of those two books was easy to understand without the other stuff.

Except (moderate spoilers for The Fallen Star here) that the end of the latest book does not at all have the Nihil destroyed and it doesn’t seem like there’s another adult book set for release until the next Phase.  Are they going to end the Nihil, a villain group that I really like, in one of the kids books or comics…

It definitely wasn’t as bad as a dud like Invasion but given Marvel’s resources and the high quality of the other three live-action shows, I think it at least counts as a disappointment. It was the only one that I didn’t bother to finish.

She got off pretty darn well given that there was a prenup agreement, which didn’t prove to be that binding evidently.

Besides Tattoine, there are a ton of barren crappy desert plants in the SW universe. But given that most planets scientists have come across are lifeless, I suppose lousy desert worlds (I unapologetically hate deserts in general) are more common. Are lush nice worlds like Naboo too expensive and off-limits to the…

This excerpt is a good example of why I both like and kind of dislike the whole High Republic effort at the same time. There’s lots of action and interesting threats (the Nihil should totally appear in live action or animation) and there are some interesting characters. But every idealistic endeavor of these Jedi,…

I agree and I’m glad the film is coming out. Anyhow, Hammer’s character is a jerk in the book/presumably film so people can see him punished through the character.  I also suspect this film is getting a release to ride the coattails of Branagh’s likely Oscar nominations for Belfast.

Filip has to be one of my least favorite kid characters in genre media.  He makes his mother, Naomi, a worse character too because she really did mess up with him.  I assume they are going somewhere with his story (this plot point isn’t in the books totally) but it likely won’t be worth putting up with him.

This sounds pretty interesting but Dinklage’s role here has a similar issue with his Game of Thrones part in that the audience must buy that his dwarfism renders him hideous in the society in which he lives. And that’s logical enough in those fictional worlds but Dinklage must be one of the sexiest little people of…

Yes, One Piece is the adaptation that particularly seems doomed. Is there any way to imitate its look in live action without being super weird? Just shut it down.

Corey Stoll as Yellowjacket-turned-MODOK doesn’t exactly fill me with anticipation given that Yellowjacket is near the bottom of my Marvel villains ranking. I can sort of see how this could make sense in the third film’s story, but can a blah villain suddenly become awesome with a change of identity (and MODOK should…

I have enjoyed the adult books and comics (no real desire to read the kids stuff) but there is a depressing air about the series. It is about a bunch of unity-minded good guys who keep getting stomped on by terror gangs and killer plants. It is obvious their plans, which dont read as imperialistic as much as…

I see virtually no path in which this film’s potential audience would justify the huge budget del Toro wants. But bless whatever streaming service is throwing ridiculous money at projects that approves this.

Ford knew the Gucci family pretty well from their business dealings so he is well-qualified to say, for instance, that Jared Leto overdoes it as Paolo Gucci.

There’s no way to determine the truth but I think it is important to say that even if he was planning to steal from the site (and he may have been), it doesn’t justify what happened. Fortunately their level of insane vigilantism wasn’t brushed aside.

I’m afraid that my Florida-based mom is responsible for Starburst’s popularity in that state. She persists in the misguided belief that my adult sister and I want a big bag of Starburst candies every holiday.