The costuming is deliberately *not quite* medieval, as are a few other anachronisms that show up. I’m 99% sure it’s intentional because *SPOILER DELETED*

The Ways had more of a Moria feeling than they did in the books, with Moiraine playing the Gandalf “shut up and don’t touch anything” role. The same abandoned creepy stillness, and the same “danger only shows up when you make your presence known” thing.

So it worked for me as a decaying setting corrupted by evil the…

I can’t help but wonder if they’re going to lean into The Dragon as much as a force of nature as a character of himself. So much of Rand’s conflict is internal, and while we can externalize by casting a Lews Therin for him to hallucinate it’s still a lot of on screen lifting for what amounts to a pretty basic “chosen…

I think one issue is the books never made that big a production out of hiding who the Dragon was. Yeah, it wasn’t outright confirmed for a while but we also weren’t really given any alternatives and the narrative POV made it pretty clear. The show, on the other hand, has worked hard on making “Who Is The Dragon” a…

I don’t understand everyone’s desire to see Clint punished for his time as Ronin. He should take responsibility for it emotionally and in his self image, and he seems to have done that.

It can’t be one of the normal batkids (and PLEASE no Damien, he’s the worst idea to happen to Batman since the phrase “Director Joel Schumacher”). It’s Old Bruce’s story just like it’s Terry’s story.

Ah yes, more edgelord nonsense.

That would actually suggest money ISN’T involved. A coordinated PR campaign isn’t going to be like “Hey, let’s get reviewers and pop culture sites on this for the anniversary!”
“Cool, I’ll line up some...”
“No no, just The AVClub. No one else. I really want our campaign to reach only a specific niche audience that’s…

It also asks less of an audience because it’s clear Rowling herself isn’t that strongly influenced by the evolution of fantasy as a genre from Tolkien/Lewis through Jordan and LeGuin and into its more modern form with authors like Sanderson and GRRM.

Characterization is generally Rowling’s strength more than is fantasy worldbuilding (the world is fun, but does not stand up to close scrutiny of its internal logic the way Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, or any Brandon Sanderson books do).

If anything I thought the review undersold the obvious.

Corden shouldn’t be in musicals, period. He was a subpar Baker in Into the Woods, though to be fair Kendrick aside that was a subpar production all around and included a career worst Streep performance. (Yes, the whole thing suffers next to the masterclass that is the recorded stage production starring Bernadette…

If Eternals didn’t work (I’ll decide when I see it) the culprit is more likely Marvel having chosen the property for adaptation as it is the director’s style or the boundaries the MCU places on directors. Plenty of directors with distinctive styles have done good work within the MCU. (Gunn, Waititi, the Russos,…

I reacted to that episode very differently in my 20's than I do now in my 40's. I was much more impatient with it (and with Kira in general) then.

To put that paragraph another way in terms of the episode, as appealing as it may be one cannot wash one’s hands of Tuvok’s and Neelix’s nonexistence due to inaction merely by the fact that it is inaction that leads to it. That inaction still a moral/ethical choice and as a choice is not privileged over any other…

That’s an interesting counterfactual I hadn’t considered, because I’m sure I’ve already displayed my bias that Star Trek specifically (though science fiction generally) really is at its best when its using its tools to approach real world issues from a different perspective. I think Tuvix fails as an episode (I…

Let me explicate a little further as I realize that my previous almost certainly comes across as extremely harsh.

I’m sorry, I just fundamentally disagree as to what the episode means and is about. If it’s trying to be about identity or the metaphysics/epistemology of Self it’s even a worse episode than I thought it was in terms of failing to explore it’s supposed subject. I will admit, though, that interpretation is absolutely…

Not only that, but we’re willing to plunge everyone else into interstellar war where millions will die because “we built this, dammit!” There’s a reason TNG tokenized Native Americans in order to give the Maquis some emotional heft with U.S. audiences. They knew they needed that guilt feeling of “oh no, not again!” to…

Nah, I’m sorry, I think that’s a lot of semantics to get to a place to emotionally avoid Tuvix’s anguish, which is understandable. The emotional appeal isn’t nothing. I haven’t actually discussed this episode in years because I generally think it’s bottom 5 across all series, but as a healthcare attorney and bodily…