You’re right of course. Always appreciate your insights.
A more nuanced story could have been for Charlie to be sympathetic toward the women because their cause had been just (with a different background story). This one feeds the myth that extreme direct action AGAINST totalitarianism is just as evil as totalitarianism.
Related to Dear Edward , Stephen Colbert had Connie Britton on last night . Stephen’s father and siblings had died in a plane crash in the 70s . I wonder if he knew the subject of the show before she was booked. Was Connie Britton aware of Stephen’s history. Would have been interesting to hear his thoughts, especially since Alan says they went overboard on the topic.
Your "Bear" reason for dropping the entire season answers my question of why Hulu gave us all 8 eps at once of the new "Extraordinary" (very good) but is only giving us one ep of the familiar "How I Met Your Father" (not very good) per week.
There were two episodes of TV that come to mind that gave me that immediate feeling of, 'what did I just watch-- and I wonder if everyone feels the same?'
First time seeing Mad Men's "The Suitcase" and Westworld's "Kiksuya" episodes. I was floored.
Re: Poker Face episode 5 - Why did progressives like Johnson, Lyonne, et al, choose to frame a story with “the left is just as bad as the right” message. Many who planned direct actions in the 60s and 70s were principled and often misguided and most if not all have expressed tremendous regret for any lives lost or harmed. To create 2 colorful monsters with no consciences left a very bad taste.
Process question: Can you pick up the phone and interview Offerman about his performance in this epi, or does protocol require you to go through producers/studio/HBO?
Now that I'm all caught up on Poker Face I can finally go back and read some of the stuff you wrote about it.
Also, yeah, I agree that binging can totally feel like homework. But I also find it sad that what it does is to give every show such a short shelf-life. To produce a whole season of a show, to then have it seen by someone in two days and no longer talk about it a few weeks down the line is so heartbreaking.
We used to long for new seasons of our favorite shows. Now, when a new season of a favorite show starts, I don't even feel like it was gone for this long because there were so many stops along the way. So many "TV one night stands" or whatever. And while it's nice that there's always something a click away, it also does kill some of the magic.
No word from Gunn and co. about the future of Harley Quinn, right? Its 4th season is a sure thing at this point, but I wonder what comes after.
As a DC person before Spiderman existed, I enjoyed Batman:The Animated Series universe of shows and watched them with my son who then turned to X-Men comics in the 1990s. He told me to watch what became my favorite episode in that extended universe: "The Greatest Story Never Told" in the Justice League Unlimited series and it featured Booster Gold. As you said, he was used as comic relief with the premise being that he was on crowd control as Batman and the Justice League A-Team fought the big bad off screen. My guess would be that that might be the template for a Booster Gold project.
As to departure episodes, always liked the Doctor Who reference to Doctor-lite episodes like one of the best in the series, Blink. The rationale was that given the CGI and pyrotechnics in the big splashy episodes they'd save money on the departure episodes. The constraints often brought out the best in the writers.
That episode was stunning stuff. I didn't know Nick was going to be in Last of Us, so that was a delightful surprise. I couldn't have imagined how beautifully his story played out. What a love story
Having not watched The White Lotus, I'm unfamiliar with Murray Bartlett. I hope when he writes his autobiography, he calls it "Let Bartlett be Bartlett".
It was a great episode. But how soon is too soon for a Departure episode? If it introduced Desmond Hume as a new recurring character, that's one thing. But to spend most of the time introducing and then saying goodbye to two new characters in Episode 3 seems a little premature.
It was a...fine, but flawed episode? I feel like there's no in between about it. I can't say I had some problems with it without being labeled a homophobe.
I suspect that some of the rapturous reception it got was a preemptive response to anticipated attacks by reactionary critics.
Question for Alan or anyone who's seen Last of Us: I don't have much interest in watching an apocalyptic zombie (or zombie-adjacent) show, and my wife has even less interest. But is it worth watching this episode as a standalone just to experience what might be the best episode of the decade?? I guess if it's truly a "departure" not having watched the first two episodes wouldn't be that big of a deal?
Best “departure” episode for me, outside Leftovers, was “LCD Soundsystem” in season two of the sadly forgotten/underrated “You’re the Worst”
https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/review-youre-the-worst-lcd-soundsystem-meet-the-neighbors/
You’re right of course. Always appreciate your insights.
A more nuanced story could have been for Charlie to be sympathetic toward the women because their cause had been just (with a different background story). This one feeds the myth that extreme direct action AGAINST totalitarianism is just as evil as totalitarianism.
Related to Dear Edward , Stephen Colbert had Connie Britton on last night . Stephen’s father and siblings had died in a plane crash in the 70s . I wonder if he knew the subject of the show before she was booked. Was Connie Britton aware of Stephen’s history. Would have been interesting to hear his thoughts, especially since Alan says they went overboard on the topic.
Your "Bear" reason for dropping the entire season answers my question of why Hulu gave us all 8 eps at once of the new "Extraordinary" (very good) but is only giving us one ep of the familiar "How I Met Your Father" (not very good) per week.
I just noticed for this last week's recap of "The Last of Us", curious why you're not starting them off with your signature 'as soon as'?
There were two episodes of TV that come to mind that gave me that immediate feeling of, 'what did I just watch-- and I wonder if everyone feels the same?'
First time seeing Mad Men's "The Suitcase" and Westworld's "Kiksuya" episodes. I was floored.
Re: Poker Face episode 5 - Why did progressives like Johnson, Lyonne, et al, choose to frame a story with “the left is just as bad as the right” message. Many who planned direct actions in the 60s and 70s were principled and often misguided and most if not all have expressed tremendous regret for any lives lost or harmed. To create 2 colorful monsters with no consciences left a very bad taste.
Process question: Can you pick up the phone and interview Offerman about his performance in this epi, or does protocol require you to go through producers/studio/HBO?
Now that I'm all caught up on Poker Face I can finally go back and read some of the stuff you wrote about it.
Also, yeah, I agree that binging can totally feel like homework. But I also find it sad that what it does is to give every show such a short shelf-life. To produce a whole season of a show, to then have it seen by someone in two days and no longer talk about it a few weeks down the line is so heartbreaking.
We used to long for new seasons of our favorite shows. Now, when a new season of a favorite show starts, I don't even feel like it was gone for this long because there were so many stops along the way. So many "TV one night stands" or whatever. And while it's nice that there's always something a click away, it also does kill some of the magic.
No word from Gunn and co. about the future of Harley Quinn, right? Its 4th season is a sure thing at this point, but I wonder what comes after.
As a DC person before Spiderman existed, I enjoyed Batman:The Animated Series universe of shows and watched them with my son who then turned to X-Men comics in the 1990s. He told me to watch what became my favorite episode in that extended universe: "The Greatest Story Never Told" in the Justice League Unlimited series and it featured Booster Gold. As you said, he was used as comic relief with the premise being that he was on crowd control as Batman and the Justice League A-Team fought the big bad off screen. My guess would be that that might be the template for a Booster Gold project.
As to departure episodes, always liked the Doctor Who reference to Doctor-lite episodes like one of the best in the series, Blink. The rationale was that given the CGI and pyrotechnics in the big splashy episodes they'd save money on the departure episodes. The constraints often brought out the best in the writers.
Viva Offerman and Bartlett! Indeed
That episode was stunning stuff. I didn't know Nick was going to be in Last of Us, so that was a delightful surprise. I couldn't have imagined how beautifully his story played out. What a love story
Having not watched The White Lotus, I'm unfamiliar with Murray Bartlett. I hope when he writes his autobiography, he calls it "Let Bartlett be Bartlett".
It was a great episode. But how soon is too soon for a Departure episode? If it introduced Desmond Hume as a new recurring character, that's one thing. But to spend most of the time introducing and then saying goodbye to two new characters in Episode 3 seems a little premature.
It was a...fine, but flawed episode? I feel like there's no in between about it. I can't say I had some problems with it without being labeled a homophobe.
I suspect that some of the rapturous reception it got was a preemptive response to anticipated attacks by reactionary critics.
Hope this makes sense...
Question for Alan or anyone who's seen Last of Us: I don't have much interest in watching an apocalyptic zombie (or zombie-adjacent) show, and my wife has even less interest. But is it worth watching this episode as a standalone just to experience what might be the best episode of the decade?? I guess if it's truly a "departure" not having watched the first two episodes wouldn't be that big of a deal?
When you need to soundtrack beautiful emotional/heartbreaking stuff, it's Max Richter time.