Signs always gets crapped on, but one of the things I thought it did really well was the footage of some kids birthday party with the blurred-out alien that just lopes by in the background.

Oooh The Twisted Ones legit freaked me out. 

I’m the opposite - I’m much more likely to go see PG13 horror, particularly PG13 horror comedy. R movies can get away with relying on gore and shock value, while a PG13 rating forces the film to be clever and funny with their violence.

Sure, the one or two roles Colin’s last name may have won him might have gone to some breakout star - on the other hand, it really does seem to be ‘one or two roles.’ He’s mostly famous for being Colin Hanks, not for being a big acting star. I’m sure his dad gets him the occasional audition / his last name puts a…

Ehhh. The people are just as terrible, but they meet their ends in more entertaining ways. And while Squid Game went from “I want to win” to “I want to survive,” Alice sort of headed the other way, which felt less depressing. 

I had to explain this to my mother (medical background), whose only gripe with Doctor Who was that the Doctor had two hearts. “There’s no way a cardiovascular system could work like that!” (Oddly, she had no trouble with the physics-defying Tardis.)

They totally did reference it later, it was so cathartic!

That’s a really good way of putting it. ‘Post-getting-together will they / won’t they’ is generally a problem in TV, almost no one knows how to write interesting but stable marriages that aren’t constantly on the verge of collapsing. 

Patty and Barry made each other happy, while Iris and Barry constantly made each other miserable. I like Barry, why would I want to root for a relationship that’s clearly no good for him?

...and stealing Barry and Iris’ wedding. And the fact that for about three seasons, basically every male character was in love with her (which admittedly is more of a personal pet peeve).

In addition to the character issues, it went down the tubes artistically. Seasons 1 and 2 were legitimately beautiful and visually interesting in the service of the story - by season 3, he desperately needed an editor willing to tell him ‘no.’ No, Brian Fuller, watching a drop of water for 5 minutes is not good TV. …

Just providing anecdotal data that, yes, this straight woman would totally go see a gay rom-com starring Wentworth Miller.

Just to throw in a complicating factor, it is entirely possible to be genderfluid but heterosexual. The fact that he seems to date exclusively women / hasn’t explicitly said anything about his sexuality doesn’t necessarily mean the genderfluidity stuff is just a publicity stunt or a lack of awareness. Though that’s…

I suppose I can see the logic in that - i.e., the modern setting makes it feel like it’s glossing over real current issues that need to be addressed.

It’s like people complaining about the idealism in Star Trek because it’s ‘unrealistic.’  Just give me an hour a week where I can imagine that humanity sorted its shit and became the good guys, ok? There’s value in aspirational storytelling.

My mother’s (vaguely agnostic) church is full of retirees who were fervent Republicans in College and became Democrats somewhere in their 40-60s

“infamously never lost a battle” - insert Three Amigos reference -

Conversely, the first few seasons of Game of Thrones were fantastic. Problem is, political infighting (in any genre) is only fun to watch if the writing and acting are up to it, whereas action-adventure has a lot more leeway. I guess we’ll see...

I think your “more heart to the characters” actually hints at the key gripe. (I’m talking about legitimate gripes here, not nitpicky and/or incel stuff). In the books, the characters are intentionally somewhat archetypal- they’re written like the heroes and paladins of older literature. The movies are much more…

This is a fantastic (and significantly higher caliber) cast, to be sure, but cast for The Fall was pretty darn great too - that little kid was a jewel, and it’s some of Lee Pace’s best (most natural) work.