Sure, but that’s a bit of the “here’s how filmmaking works”. Sending an email to the contact information you find on them isn’t particularly cinematic. Then following up, on Facebook, because you know email gets buried and vanishes, still isn’t particularly cinematic. But it remains- that wasn’t the Doctor’s…

Ncuti Gatwa is a fantastic Doctor. Millie Gibson was a fine companion, if unremarkable. The increased production value thanks to Disney and the basically competent direction that was lacking under Chibnall’s era were nice (more the direction than the money, if I’m being honest).

It means a lot of running up and down corridors, waving a sonic screwdriver around, some mumbly technobabble that means nothing, and a happy ending that makes no sense at all. 

Gatwa is the high point of the season, by far.

This episode definitely couldn’t find its focus, and splitting its attention across 400 different threads while Morris kept nattering was annoying. Of the random interesting folks that UNIT has brought into things, Morris was not one of their best. Wesley Crusher but more annoying and less useful. In an episode…

It was a fun bit of fluff, and I feel like Groff was bringing an energy that made him feel like he wasn’t even in the same show as anybody else. I mean that in a positive way, I think.

There are two problems with this episode, and the first is with the messaging: Gatwa is also in his 30s, and they make a big point of the planet being populated by the young- IIRC, it’s no one over 27. So it gets muddied as a potentially ageist statement too. That’s fairly minor, sure, but I wasn’t left with a…

A charming ghost story that landed with a dull thud. 

“Banger” is strong. For a bottle episode of a script, the script was incredibly unfocused, and by the end it was mumbling through its points, because it wanted to Say Something™ but kinda forgot what it was by the end.

It’s better, but still a little wobbly in the direction and the script. Performances are great.

Mugatu is a good analog, lol. And yeah, the moment where all the sound is off and we see the Maestro being cunning and thoughtful about their circumstances- that was probably the best scene in the episode.

The biggest shift since the Chibnall era is that these episodes were competent on a technical level. The scripts were definitely the worst aspects of the last RTD era turned up to eleven- nothing really is motivated, the stakes are never really meaningful, everything wraps up with a conclusion that vaguely maybe sorta…

Honestly, I feel like they both were about 40 minutes of nothing happening. Or, a lot of things happening, but none of it mattering. Very floaty and meaningless puff. Which, I’m not arguing that we need deep meaning or anything, it’s Doctor Who after all, but anything to latch on to that gives me any sense of stakes,…

Jurassic Park works because the spectacle is rooted in clear character stories and each important plot beat is rooted in character. Like, I wouldn’t even compare the two- Avengers is the worst kind of “blockbuster” which eschews any sort of interesting narrative in favor of spectacle, but good blockbusters do both.…

Scavenger’s Reign was great, but it also feels very complete as is.

I’m a huge fan of action movies, and I think that’s the problem: the action was bad. They weren’t a “bit” indulgent- they were masturbatory. If we grant that they were a comic book splash page brought to life: this isn’t a comic book, it’s a film. As a different medium, I’d expect the creators to be respectful of my…

It’s not just the length, it’s also the boring. The Helicarrier fight, for example, just stops the movie for like 20 minutes for some of the most tedious action in any MCU movie.

As someone who doesn’t suffer from generational ADHD, I still have to say: Marvel movies are hard watching because of their length and their lack of narrative focus. Each one exists to support all the others, they get stuffed with characters because you’ve just got to throw Captain Marvel into this one to set up the…

Nobody watches the Extraction movies because of the depth and nuance in the characterization. They’re batshit insane action movies that always include one amazing set-piece action sequence that pretends to be a oner that keeps you riveted. Yes, yes, he’s a very sad mass murderer, fine, if that makes your writers feel…

If only we had some sort of medium that allowed us to converse asynchronously. Some sort of media where a user could *post*, and other users could *reply*, and be social with each other over days or weeks. A “social medium”, if you will.