Look, I wanted to love ROP so badly, I’m a huge fan of the books and movies, I’ve read the Silmarillion, etc., but I just wasn’t convinced by the production of the show, regardless of how money Bezos poured into it. I wasn’t immersed. I kept getting pulled out of it by little nagging details, unlike Fallout, which…

Trying to excuse terrible writing as “character flaws” is a terrible argument. People have no problem recognizing create writing for flawed characters. Just go watch the Fallout show. Rings of Power was terribly written on a number of levels.

We will probably watch this; the first season was stupid, but at least it was pretty.

We just need Yellowstone 2165 to establish the cyberpunk side of the Sheridanverse, and then we can go full steam ahead for the long awaited crossover series where they fight a time travelling banker who hates ranches.

Property Appraiser of Kingstown

Yeah, well, I’ll make my own Western! With blackjack! And hookers!

The Africa cover was the epitome of inessential.

I agree with all of that and I’ll add that something I really enjoy about the film is that *although* The Dude is an unwitting and reluctant PI character who constantly gets distracted, his motivations STILL drive the plot forward. Like... I didn’t want to push back too hard on the idea that he’s shuffled through the…

“This is far too straight-forward and passe”

The Big Lebowski really is a unicorn of a movie. You’re right, the first time through it seems like a mess. Speaking for myself, what brought me back were two things: the jokes (my friends and I incessantly quoted that movie) and the fact that I appreciated that this whole story happens around Lebowski, who has no…

The movie seems more The Big Lebowski than Chinatown — a mystery story where the detective is a bedraggled, amiable loser in LA.  And The Big Lebowski is also a meandering movie that tends to elicit a “WTF am I watching” reaction on first viewing. But it grows on you in a way that The Poolman seems unlikely to do. 

It really is.

Already knew Seinfeld was an asshole, but... wow.

Mulaney not being funny might have something to do with it.  Dude isn't likable.  Maybe he should stick to writing?

Holy shit. Isolated, that reads like a Dennis Miller bit.

you know, music is my radar.

The fact that it’s rated so high but they didn’t bother to just put it at number 2 slightly annoys me.

Found the American.

If you like that sort of thing, also read Michael Seller’s John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood (about the making of the flop John Carter movie) and Glen Berger’s The Song of Spiderman (about the fiasco that was Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark).

CANYONERRROOOO