Now, this is tasteless, speculative, reductive and I’m going to frame it as a question so as to avoid also rendering it libellous but: does anyone know what the odds are on Kanye being found out as a sexual abuser of some sort, just in case I wanted to take that bet?

I never actually saw the Jackie one, but I always thought he was a weird casting choice for the simple fact of his nationality. I guess I’d assumed he’d be doing karate on-screen (he’s trained in it a little bit) and that they’d somewhat insensitively cast him as a Japanese guy. I didn’t realise till I googled it just…

If you're a fan of 90s UK comedy double acts I would go for a "Blue Lee".

My favourite bit about this whole thing, besides it being absolutely totally invented, is that nobody has stopped to consider the, um, prostate-stimulatory, ejaculatory risks involved in transmitting signals via that, ahem, channel.

I mean it’ll obviously just be another reboot, c’mon.

It was me.  I’m Ellie Conway.  AMA

I remember thinking that the twist in the original was so obvious that the filmmakers were deliberately telegraphing in order to do a misdirect. The hints were so obvious and consistent that we were going “well clearly they won’t do that”.

Oooh that's an interesting take!  Not my reading at all but I very much love the range of readings.  Hadn't thought of it that way!

Ah we’re just back at those media analysis 101 questions now. Death of the author, extratextual sources, etc etc. I really don’t find these questions as thought-provoking as my lecturers insisted they were so I’ll instead say:

What’s really odd though is that the show *doesn’t* depict the justice system working. I cannot admit to having watched every episode, but I also cannot admit to ever having seen one where the courtroom portion of the episode depicts a trial which is won or lost according to evidence and legal arguments.

Yeah.  I mean, anyone who is in denial about this is, uh, well, in denial.

Oh I'm aware it's sensible financially, it's just weird to have a very specific idiosyncratic director on board for projects shorn of idiosyncrasy like superhero projects etc

I don’t really want to get into arguing over who has decoded the episode “correctly”. I don’t really think that it’s about extracting the hidden hard-coded meaning, I think it’s about constructing an interpretation of events and then drawing out which point might be made from that interpretation.

I think he means “trusted directors” as in “trusted by the people who are funding the film”. ie he’s probably less likely to take the risk of working with a director who has a big studio budget behind them, but not enough clout to ensure the film’s completion or release. Which is uh, sort of fine since that model of…

Do you think? How interesting. I rather think that the point of the final scene was to end on a cliffhanger: will she drink it or won’t she?

I didn’t read it that way at all. You saw Rhaenyra getting into it, and Daemon encountering arousal problems as a result. I saw Daemon teaching Rhaenyra that taking power and subjugating your sexual partner can be arousing. I think when he tells her that sex is can be about female pleasure as much as male pleasure,…

It seems to me that Rhaenyra is learning new and exciting (terrifying) things about power, and what it really is. She’s a quick learner and a quick thinker.

Bailey*.  That was autocorrect I promise.

It would be funny if they CGI’d loads and loads of bubbles coming out of everyone’s mouths whenever they spoke or sang, until you couldn’t see their faces anymore.  And there was no actual proof that it was Halle Berry whose face they were using.

Haha for what it's worth I actually regret saying that.  Not because Ted Lasso doesn't suck (it does) but because it's the kind of irritating trolling comment that amuses you in the moment when writing it but actually is bullshit in the cold light of day.