Maybe it’s seeing him in a commercial where the “joke” is that it’s not clear if he’s invited his much younger Peloton instructor over for a wholesome bike ride or for sex...

Probably bad headline writing, although it’s possible that there’s a policy not to use “rape” unless criminal charges or a law suit have been filed that call it rape, because the definition of rape can be very narrow in some jurisdictions (for example, forced oral is a separate crime from rape in many jurisdictions).…

Zero tolerance is the guy goes to jail, which everyone agrees he should. He shouldn’t ever drive a truck again, and regardless of the length of his sentence, I’m pretty sure no would ever allow him to. Real zero tolerance would have at least one exec from the company who sent a green trucker on a tough route with…

Victims impact statements aren’t the problem. Any justice system that works has to include the victims and allow them to be heard. I’ve seen a lot of arguments that impact statements encourage emotional sentencing, but I’ve never heard of them requiring it. If a judge sentences poorly due to an impact statement, the…

Yeah, but if what you just wrote was the review of a movie, would you think it’s a good review? That’d be like a review of West Side Story being “It sucks, it’s a musical.” Some folks don’t like musicals, and find it an annoying and repetitive genre, but even if you’re one of those people, that isn’t a good review.

If your theory were correct, you’d think that the most prominent of the “strings” in this movie—Dr. Strange—would merit more than two cursory mentions in the review. I honestly don’t think the reason that the recent reviews read as if the movie being reviewed was incidental is because of concerns about the…

You’re forgetting the subplot where the accountant guy figures out his identity.

Yeah, it’s one of the things that’s awkward about the Holland version of Spider-Man is that the MCU has largely sidestepped the issue of secret identities. From Day 1, with Tony Stark announcing to the world that he was Iron Man, it was something that differentiated the MCU from most of the superhero stuff that came…

Well, let’s just say that Sorkin’s a fan of talking. Lots and lots of talking. On his TV shows, he had a thing where his characters would have long discussions while walking from one place to another, just to make all the talking more visually interesting.

You’ve seen an Aaron Sorkin movie or show, right? Could you imagine the amount of walking and talking to which that dude would be willing to subject Kidman and Bardem? He probably had assistants bring them changes of shoes as needed.

Well, it’s not what I call myself or what I invite anyone to call me. I’m happy to respect other people’s wishes on what they want to be called, but at this point, I don’t invite English speakers to use any Spanish language term to describe me anymore. I think the future of the language belongs in the hands of people…

Got a strong feeling here the “colonial narrative” has never called anyone “latinx.” 

Well, this review would be a lot cooler if at the end there was a stinger where Ignatiy showed up to talk to Dowd about the Inventory Initiative...

No mention of the big question: did they actually get their hands on an unadulterated copy of the 1983 movie, or is the actual movie they’re archiving an Extended Edition? Is it Hayden Christensen next to Alec Guiness, or is it the guy who was actually in the movie?

Exactly this, nicely delivered in a proper parenthetical.

Despite all of the rumors that they’d snuck him onto the set to film a cameo, Floating Trash Ring is retired, living comfortably in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just as his posts on social media said.

The wording worked, and it’s kind of the way the Aes Sedai function, even in the books. She said something true—she does have people watching out at every entrance, they would tell her if they saw Rand or Mat—but just failed to mention that those watchers would have to tell her if they saw Rand or Mat leave, because…

On one of the Ringer podcasts, the showrunner said that the original plan was a 10-episode season, but Amazon shortened it to 8 early in development. There was also talk that Amazon execs gave him 11,000 notes on the pilot. So maybe the big hope should be that this season is enough of a success that they given him…

It kinda works. Egwene steps up first because she’s Egwene, the character who’s probably most true to the books, and who Madden plays perfectly as the star pupil who’s constantly trying to live up to everybody’s expectations. That was set up in the Amerlyn’s office. Rand goes because Egwene goes, and that’s the only ch…

Aside from the Trolloc attack, Rutherford’s had two modes: gentle big man mode, and a kind of mouth-breathing nausea face that’s supposed to stand in for all the negative emotions: “I’m guilty about killing my wife,” “I’m tired and hungry,” “I don’t quite trust that witch,” “I’m wounded and wondering why those wolves…