There's one ingredient missing from that genre stew you cooked up: horror. The novels (especially the first and second) have an element of eerie-and-eventually-unsettling horror that takes a while to get established. I've watched the pilot, which barely hints at it, but it's there.

I do love the cooperative aspect. The trend kind of got started in the early 2000s (I think?) with Knizia's Lord of the Rings board game, and it's snowballed since. There are actually *many* co-op games out there these days. It's worth checking some other ones out.

As Erik said, it comes down to finding the right people. "People" in general are really different, and I'm thankful to have found scores of game nerds over the past few years who are willing to play *anything.*

The one bit of future casting that I'm having a hard time with is Chad Coleman as Fred. I imagined someone significantly older and wiry. So, to use another Wire actor, Clarke Peters. Coleman is awesome, though, so I'm sure my concern isn't valid.

I was surprised with how much I liked the casting, for the most part. Alex looks *exactly* like I pictured him, as does Naomi. Amos, as noted below, lacks the bulk he has from the book, but there's something…haunting, I guess?…about how they're made him on the show that hints at how dangerous the character is.

I'll second all of the praise of the album, but I also wanted to say it's great to see Leo DeLuca's name on the byline. He did a fine job running Misra Records (past tense, I think?) and was killer as the drummer for Southeast Engine. He's also been touring with Kelly Deal's band R. Ring on percussion of late. Plus,…

God's Not Dead and Loving It.

Totally agree. From his letters that I read, though, his racism/xenophobia started softening a bit before he died. I wonder what he would've been like had he lived to an old age.

Well, he basically hated *everyone* who wasn't him. He also hated eastern and southern Europeans, people with any religious beliefs, and the poor.

I'll check it out, Cliffy. Thanks!

I love hard-boiled fiction, so that initially drew me in. But Butcher's worldbuilding is keeping me here. I'm really captivated by the series's mythology and characters (especially minor characters).

I'm about to finish Dead Beat, the seventh (I think?) book in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. I've liked each book in this series a bit more than the previous—I really dug this book, in other words. I also recently started Scott Smith's The Ruins, and I have Walter Mosley's Blue Light and Steven Berlin Johnson's…

As soon as I saw that Albini was talking about "Believe," I thought, "Oh no, he's going to touch on the Bedhead/Macha version, isn't he?" And he did not let me down.

As soon as I saw that Albini was talking about "Believe," I thought, "Oh no, he's going to touch on the Bedhead/Macha version, isn't he?" And he did not let me down.