I thought that there were two things the episode could have done to elevate itself a bit more. The first would have been lingering on Kathleen’s death a little bit more, sort of like how the camera did on Bob Newby in Stranger Things when the demodogs get him. Second, I would have accompanied the ending shots of Joel…

Re: Point #2: I don’t know why, but the timeline in my head did not have the FEDRA v. rebels battle as being recent. In episode 4, it felt to me like the rebels had been in control for a while. But I suppose that was my assumption and not anything really telegraphed in the screenplay. The rebels seemed a bit too…

Pascal’s work while Joel is in the sniper’s nest is just incredible. The desperation with which he wants the old man to surrender, the pain at having to shoot him, felt so real. And then every time the camera turns to him taking a shot to protect Ellie you see him fighting the battle between panic and determination.…

I’ve had the same semantic quibble re: “tragic” for the last two weeks regarding the third episode of The Last of Us. So many reviews characterize it as tragic, and I just don’t see it. It’s triumphant. Those two characters win. And they win on their terms. In the circumstances, it’s a huge victory and I don’t…

Oh, I think we’re on the same page—I didn’t phrase my initial post very well. I thought it was icky of the priest to do to Fleabag. He invited her into the confessional and asked her to open herself up, and she finally does that in a way that is, for once, non-sexual. And he takes advantage of that. He manipulates…

Oh great! I’m glad to have helped.

It’s funny how similar in circumstance but different in tone the Fleabag/Priest and Alexis/Ted romances are. I have a hard time seeing either as tragic, because in the end the characters learned what they needed and found that in themselves. They left the relationships more complete people, better for having been with…

Yep. That’s pretty much where I got to, ethically speaking. It’s indefensible. 

It had a ton of potential and some moments where it really leaned into its own silliness in good ways. But yeah, I wanted more than I got out of it. Laurie was great, as always. Gad was surprisingly not annoying at times. But mostly the show felt like it was always *just about* to turn the corner and become a tight,…

We’ve come pretty close, though, on more than a few occasions.

Admire? I probably wouldn’t go that far. But some are less problematic than others. The NBA/WNBA have decent track records on race and allowing their players to champion social causes. MLB held its ground on Trevor Bauer’s lengthy suspension despite the cops not going forward with the very credible case against him.…

Mixon also got into an argument with a woman in 2014 and punched her so hard that he broke four bones in her face. She was hospitalized and needed surgery to repair the damage. So yeah, he’s a real piece of shit and has been for a long time.

I’m sure you know this, but if you to go Netflix’s website and go to your account, click on your profile, and then click on viewing history, you can delete things from your viewing history. That will take them off of the “continue watching” queue on Netflix. If you’re irrationally annoyed by things hanging around on…

The Ghirardelli brownies really are the best. Hands down. We don’t get them often because they are more expensive and the kids can’t appreciate the difference between them and Duncan Hines. But Ghirardelli is far superior.

You can be as curmudgeonly as you want, but that grammatical ship has sailed on prepositions at the end of a sentence. They are completely, 100% A-OK there.

I didn’t know that hand sanitizer doesn’t work well for norovirus, so thanks for that! I’m smarter today than I was yesterday.

We have this in the queen size and it is a legitimately good air mattress. It’s obviously not like sleeping on a real mattress, but it’s the first air mattress that I’ve ever got quality sleep on. It went three days before I had to add air to it. It inflates and deflates in under a minute. I’ve recommended it to…

We have this in the queen size and it is a legitimately good air mattress. It’s obviously not like sleeping on a…

I worked at a Ponderosa that was a “home” restaurant for one of the corporate big wigs. While the buffet food could be generic, we always had excellent cuts of meat. Really, really good. When I ate at other Pondos, it was never as good. I always suspected (and still do) that we got the good stuff because it was very…

That’s pretty much how it went (except in my case it would be daughter instead of son).

Southwest exists in this weird in-between place where it’s not one of the legacy carries like Delta or United, but it’s definitely not a budget airline like Spirit/Allegiant. I’d say Southwest is much closer to the legacy airlines than budget. This recent and massive fuckup aside, I’ve always found flying Southwest to…