Dev dropping that line to Ed’s face to DMX had me legitimately CACKLING on my couch. Absolutely incredible. What maniacs the people that make this show are. They know how to properly escalate a season.
Completely agree on A Murder at the End of the World. The creators' strength clearly doesn't lie in crafting a murder mystery, but the central relationship and character journey for Darby was so good, I didn't care at all. It's so unusual for me to enjoy the journey despite an eh ending, but this show just nailed it. Kudos to them.
Gotta say, I’m the exact opposite of you on FAM. Absolutely none of the Mars stuff is working for me. They’re treating it like it’s a nearby colony instead of 100s of millions of miles away. And the incident there this week was so poorly directed and telegraphed, you knew it was going to happen from the minute the mission started. The resolution suggested in the meeting at NASA plays like a 70s Wonder Woman episode. The Margo stuff on earth is far more interesting than the stuff on Mars, and it’s really only semi interesting. Someone on that staff needs to read Arthur C Clark’s Rendezvous with Rama and 2061 and see a logical case of what competing interests would do when they are so far from the controlling parties and with a global economic game changer on the board.
Hi, I wanted to start off by saying I really appreciate the effort you put into these pieces and reading them is one of the highlights of my mornings when there’s a new issue. That being said, however, Substack has publicly come out and said they will not be removing the Nazis that have proliferated on their platform. That they believe it would do more harm than good to silence them. I cannot in good conscience, especially as a Jew, continue to support a platform like this. I would hope that you feel the same. I was curious if you had any plans on moving you out of know of Substack because I would really hate to have to stop reading. I have linked pertinent articles in case you hadn’t heard the news.
Completely disagree about A Murder at the End of the World. Both the journey and destination were superb! Although the whodunnit was predictable, it also felt very satisfying it was not the main security guy or Andy (Clive Owen). Bill & Darby story was very emotional, put together Zoomer in the middle of it and it was all a huge tearjerker. I did my personal list of best TV shows of 2023 before this finale, I had to edit it and include AMATEOTW. Amazing series and I hope to see more stuff from Brit & Batman soon.
Enjoyed Murder at the End of the World similarly for the "fun" of hanging out with the characters. More often I enjoy this kind of mystery in the British 1.5 hour format (viz Vera, e.g.) and for longer series like this one wait until they are all out and watch the first and last. In this one the folks were great to hang out with over the full run. (Slow Horses is similar but better overall. I'd be happy if they had double the episodes per installment. Fortunately the underlying books are so well written they can provide the longer experience.)
Thanks for the Percy Jackson discussion. Will try it on my 10-year-old grandson. Happy holidays!
I finally finished Loki S2 last night and I actually enjoyed Jonathan Majors in S2 much more than I did S1 or in the abysmal Quantumania. With how S2 of Loki ended, they could easily just write Kang out of whatever "phase" of the MCU we're in, and I'd prefer that to just recasting the character. It will be annoying for someone else to take this role and try to replicate Majors' odd, somewhat inconsistent delivery. Loki as a character ends up in a very, very odd place and his entire arch this season doesn't completely make sense but this show was so wrapped up in plot that Loki, Sylvie, Mobius and everyone else just felt like they were along for the ride.
FX has really been solid competition for HBO again these last two years with Reservation Dogs and The Bear but maybe the biggest surprise for me of 2023 is how good Netflix has been (often in spite of itself). In addition to the shows you ranked, The Diplomat, Bodies, Fall of the House of Usher, and Scott Pilgrim were all solid entertainment and I'm sure there's some entries I've missed. I wonder how long that will last though? The indicators are Netflix will likely let the algorithm drive its future, which likely means lots more reality TV and meh shows like The Night Agent (supposedly their most watched scripted show of 2023).
Dev dropping that line to Ed’s face to DMX had me legitimately CACKLING on my couch. Absolutely incredible. What maniacs the people that make this show are. They know how to properly escalate a season.
The Poscast draft episode is finally live! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-poscast-with-joe-posnanski-michael-schur/id1595575940?i=1000639469165
Oh, and here's yet another podcast appearance: me and The Ringer's great Joanna Robinson talking about "The Best Chrismukkah" ever episode of The O.C.: https://www.theringer.com/2023/12/22/24011602/the-best-chrismukkah-ever-from-the-o-c-alan-sepinwall-guilty-pleasures
Completely agree on A Murder at the End of the World. The creators' strength clearly doesn't lie in crafting a murder mystery, but the central relationship and character journey for Darby was so good, I didn't care at all. It's so unusual for me to enjoy the journey despite an eh ending, but this show just nailed it. Kudos to them.
Gotta say, I’m the exact opposite of you on FAM. Absolutely none of the Mars stuff is working for me. They’re treating it like it’s a nearby colony instead of 100s of millions of miles away. And the incident there this week was so poorly directed and telegraphed, you knew it was going to happen from the minute the mission started. The resolution suggested in the meeting at NASA plays like a 70s Wonder Woman episode. The Margo stuff on earth is far more interesting than the stuff on Mars, and it’s really only semi interesting. Someone on that staff needs to read Arthur C Clark’s Rendezvous with Rama and 2061 and see a logical case of what competing interests would do when they are so far from the controlling parties and with a global economic game changer on the board.
I enjoyed Murder at the End of the World,, but mainly for the performances. Ray seemed more like Siri with a hologram than a terrifying AI.
Hi, I wanted to start off by saying I really appreciate the effort you put into these pieces and reading them is one of the highlights of my mornings when there’s a new issue. That being said, however, Substack has publicly come out and said they will not be removing the Nazis that have proliferated on their platform. That they believe it would do more harm than good to silence them. I cannot in good conscience, especially as a Jew, continue to support a platform like this. I would hope that you feel the same. I was curious if you had any plans on moving you out of know of Substack because I would really hate to have to stop reading. I have linked pertinent articles in case you hadn’t heard the news.
https://www.businessinsider.com/substack-nazi-problem-free-speech-money-analysis-2023-12?amp
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/business/substack-nazis-content-moderation.html
--Lynsey
Completely disagree about A Murder at the End of the World. Both the journey and destination were superb! Although the whodunnit was predictable, it also felt very satisfying it was not the main security guy or Andy (Clive Owen). Bill & Darby story was very emotional, put together Zoomer in the middle of it and it was all a huge tearjerker. I did my personal list of best TV shows of 2023 before this finale, I had to edit it and include AMATEOTW. Amazing series and I hope to see more stuff from Brit & Batman soon.
Enjoyed Murder at the End of the World similarly for the "fun" of hanging out with the characters. More often I enjoy this kind of mystery in the British 1.5 hour format (viz Vera, e.g.) and for longer series like this one wait until they are all out and watch the first and last. In this one the folks were great to hang out with over the full run. (Slow Horses is similar but better overall. I'd be happy if they had double the episodes per installment. Fortunately the underlying books are so well written they can provide the longer experience.)
Thanks for the Percy Jackson discussion. Will try it on my 10-year-old grandson. Happy holidays!
I finally finished Loki S2 last night and I actually enjoyed Jonathan Majors in S2 much more than I did S1 or in the abysmal Quantumania. With how S2 of Loki ended, they could easily just write Kang out of whatever "phase" of the MCU we're in, and I'd prefer that to just recasting the character. It will be annoying for someone else to take this role and try to replicate Majors' odd, somewhat inconsistent delivery. Loki as a character ends up in a very, very odd place and his entire arch this season doesn't completely make sense but this show was so wrapped up in plot that Loki, Sylvie, Mobius and everyone else just felt like they were along for the ride.
The FaMK writers and directors really do an amazing job of laying all the groundwork throughout the first 2/3 of the season.
FX has really been solid competition for HBO again these last two years with Reservation Dogs and The Bear but maybe the biggest surprise for me of 2023 is how good Netflix has been (often in spite of itself). In addition to the shows you ranked, The Diplomat, Bodies, Fall of the House of Usher, and Scott Pilgrim were all solid entertainment and I'm sure there's some entries I've missed. I wonder how long that will last though? The indicators are Netflix will likely let the algorithm drive its future, which likely means lots more reality TV and meh shows like The Night Agent (supposedly their most watched scripted show of 2023).
I guess I have to give Beef another try. I couldn’t get through the second episode because they both just seem like such awful people.
Alan please tell me you at least picked "Valentine" as the best holiday gift