The reason I now subscribe to your Substack, and have followed your writing for years, is because of the reviews you used to write in the print edition of the Star Ledger when I was a teenager. Growing up in Morris County we received the paper every day, and I remember many afternoons sitting at the kitchen table after school to look for what you had written. Even though I wasn’t any more interested in TV than the average teen, I remember thinking your writing was so smart and that it made the points I would’ve made about the shows I’d watched. You were the first newspaper journalist whose writing stood out and resonated, and I’m so grateful you’re still writing here, if not at the Ledger. RIP, Star Ledger, Long Live Sepinwall!
Your last point about how a reintegrated Mark would agree to ORTBO is one I hadn’t thought of and a good one… also hadn’t considered that the Glasgow block seems incongruous with what we think we know about the Severance mechanics. Maybe the brains default state is actually as an Innie? Which is even more horrifying.
Just like a highlight of the previous week for me was Milchick and Natalie’s wordless eye locking - I think the same of Irving’s steely stare back at Milchick at the end.
The reminders of Lumon / corporate fallibility in this show are both often funny, but also lightens the story - it reinforces the sense that despite all the cards stacked against the heroes, they are dealing with an ultimately inferior opponent.
Maybe a million years ago, but I don't know how interesting I would find doing it now, especially since David Milch is dealing with dementia. (And he's already written eloquently about the show in multiple books.) I'm also not sure how much of an audience there would be for it. It's not a forgotten show, but it feels like its legacy is more about the other shows it helped make possible than it is people remembering NYPD Blue itself.
So sorry for the loss of print Star Ledger. The list grows and grows. Thank you for continuing this newsletter and congrats on the Better Call Saul v Jimmy book.
I love your recap of this week's Severance, which was truly so great.
I was screaming at the TV for the whole second half of the episode, once Irving fell asleep outside, don't you dare kill Irving!! I would turn deeply against the show if it had written off Turturro completely. I was convinced he would freeze to death in his sleep (think Yellowjackets). And then that Milchick or someone else was actually going to shoot and kill him so he couldn't spill the beans about Helena. I'm very relieved we'll still be seeing outie Irving.
Question about the "Glasgow block" - can you explain what you think it is? I thought it was the thing that blocks Helena from turning from outie to innie in the elevator - so that she can be Helena down there. but your footnote made me doubt that.
I wasn’t fully convinced they were actually in the outtie world. For the innies to ‘wake up’ in that forest (because we hear the ding at the beginning with Irving indicating he’s switched), that means the outties had to all put on those specific outfits, drive out to the lake area, and go onto the ice or up on the cliff, and then just be left there until someone at Lumon turned on the Overtime Contigency. That just seems…odd to me and not something all 3 outtie guys would agree to.
I had a similar reaction. How did a TV and DVD player work without an electricity source? How did Irving not freeze to death asleep in the woods? Were those actually people posing as the doppelgängers, or some visual trickery? How is Milchick seemingly appearing and disappearing? What was that dead seal-looking creature? I was thinking we were in some sort of VR scenario. But then, how could Irving’s threat to drown Helena have any effect? Something seems off.
I spent the first half of the episode assuming this was a delusion happening in Mark's fractured psyche (given how the prior episode ended), but too many important things were happening for it not to be real.
ok now I get your question. Maybe it was like a failsafe - like some way Milchick could control Helena in case she did something subversive. But also - are they fully outside?? The presence of the clones helping them get to Woe's Hollow made it seem like some type of grand simulation. Don't know how they'd simulate the cold or the freezing water, etc. But there were def some weird things about that park that didn't seem like the nature we know. Maybe adds to the theorizing that both innie and outie worlds are Lumon-controlled?
I know I wouldn't want to wait ages again for season 3, but if the time taken to get season 2 out, is needed to make season 3 just as great, than so be it.
In this Severance episode, did anyone else feel echoes and inversions of John Turturro's memorable one-way trip into the woods in Miller's Crossing? I sure did.
So strange to mostly be bored by an episode being celebrated. Still love the show. The scene of Helena sleeping with Mark really bothered me since I’d decided she was lying to him and it’s essentially a rape.
That said I was glad to learn about the Paley event! I just happen to be in the city on Wednesday and I’m glad I can go. I treasure my sopranos tome you signed in jersey city.
The reason I now subscribe to your Substack, and have followed your writing for years, is because of the reviews you used to write in the print edition of the Star Ledger when I was a teenager. Growing up in Morris County we received the paper every day, and I remember many afternoons sitting at the kitchen table after school to look for what you had written. Even though I wasn’t any more interested in TV than the average teen, I remember thinking your writing was so smart and that it made the points I would’ve made about the shows I’d watched. You were the first newspaper journalist whose writing stood out and resonated, and I’m so grateful you’re still writing here, if not at the Ledger. RIP, Star Ledger, Long Live Sepinwall!
Your last point about how a reintegrated Mark would agree to ORTBO is one I hadn’t thought of and a good one… also hadn’t considered that the Glasgow block seems incongruous with what we think we know about the Severance mechanics. Maybe the brains default state is actually as an Innie? Which is even more horrifying.
Just like a highlight of the previous week for me was Milchick and Natalie’s wordless eye locking - I think the same of Irving’s steely stare back at Milchick at the end.
The reminders of Lumon / corporate fallibility in this show are both often funny, but also lightens the story - it reinforces the sense that despite all the cards stacked against the heroes, they are dealing with an ultimately inferior opponent.
I’ve been enjoying the BCS book, Alan. Looking forward to Rod Serling book in a few years.
As you’ve spoken over the years about its importance to your career, did you ever want to or had plans to write a book about NYPD Blue?
Maybe a million years ago, but I don't know how interesting I would find doing it now, especially since David Milch is dealing with dementia. (And he's already written eloquently about the show in multiple books.) I'm also not sure how much of an audience there would be for it. It's not a forgotten show, but it feels like its legacy is more about the other shows it helped make possible than it is people remembering NYPD Blue itself.
So sorry for the loss of print Star Ledger. The list grows and grows. Thank you for continuing this newsletter and congrats on the Better Call Saul v Jimmy book.
I love your recap of this week's Severance, which was truly so great.
I was screaming at the TV for the whole second half of the episode, once Irving fell asleep outside, don't you dare kill Irving!! I would turn deeply against the show if it had written off Turturro completely. I was convinced he would freeze to death in his sleep (think Yellowjackets). And then that Milchick or someone else was actually going to shoot and kill him so he couldn't spill the beans about Helena. I'm very relieved we'll still be seeing outie Irving.
Question about the "Glasgow block" - can you explain what you think it is? I thought it was the thing that blocks Helena from turning from outie to innie in the elevator - so that she can be Helena down there. but your footnote made me doubt that.
I assume that's what the block is. But then why would you need to use that in an outdoor setting?
I wasn’t fully convinced they were actually in the outtie world. For the innies to ‘wake up’ in that forest (because we hear the ding at the beginning with Irving indicating he’s switched), that means the outties had to all put on those specific outfits, drive out to the lake area, and go onto the ice or up on the cliff, and then just be left there until someone at Lumon turned on the Overtime Contigency. That just seems…odd to me and not something all 3 outtie guys would agree to.
I had a similar reaction. How did a TV and DVD player work without an electricity source? How did Irving not freeze to death asleep in the woods? Were those actually people posing as the doppelgängers, or some visual trickery? How is Milchick seemingly appearing and disappearing? What was that dead seal-looking creature? I was thinking we were in some sort of VR scenario. But then, how could Irving’s threat to drown Helena have any effect? Something seems off.
I spent the first half of the episode assuming this was a delusion happening in Mark's fractured psyche (given how the prior episode ended), but too many important things were happening for it not to be real.
ok now I get your question. Maybe it was like a failsafe - like some way Milchick could control Helena in case she did something subversive. But also - are they fully outside?? The presence of the clones helping them get to Woe's Hollow made it seem like some type of grand simulation. Don't know how they'd simulate the cold or the freezing water, etc. But there were def some weird things about that park that didn't seem like the nature we know. Maybe adds to the theorizing that both innie and outie worlds are Lumon-controlled?
I know I wouldn't want to wait ages again for season 3, but if the time taken to get season 2 out, is needed to make season 3 just as great, than so be it.
At least part of the delay was the strikes, so at minimum one would hope for a two-year delay instead of three.
In this Severance episode, did anyone else feel echoes and inversions of John Turturro's memorable one-way trip into the woods in Miller's Crossing? I sure did.
I’m guessing Helena also slept with Mark to distract him from finding his wife.
And maybe also to get pregnant with the next generation of the Eagan dynasty.
So strange to mostly be bored by an episode being celebrated. Still love the show. The scene of Helena sleeping with Mark really bothered me since I’d decided she was lying to him and it’s essentially a rape.
That said I was glad to learn about the Paley event! I just happen to be in the city on Wednesday and I’m glad I can go. I treasure my sopranos tome you signed in jersey city.