PicoBlog

The first two episodes of The Idol were characterized by a pretty clear split: half an hour devoted to Jocelyn and her main team, and half an hour devoted to her queasy romance with Tedros Tedros. The difference in quality between those two halves was stark, but their separation made it somewhat easier to enjoy the parts that did work. Hate Tedros? Just watch the first half-hour, then tune out once he arrives at Joss’s house.

Like you, I am too often on my phone. Engrossed in unimportant but captivating bullshit, I find myself reflexively eschewing real-life human contact. WHAT? WHAT DO YOU WANT? This is the internal monologue whenever I feel another human’s presence encroaching on my phone’s glow. In any given moment, my phone is more interesting than you. Smarter than you. Funnier than you. Sexier than you. This is by design. I’m reminded of a Disney marketer’s recorded comments at the annual “Kid Power” conference:

The Gemstones’ default problem-solving strategy is violence. We’ve seen murder, pitched battles, and preemptive strikes in every season. How can Christians, with their message of peace and love, promote and embrace violence? My students often tell me that this baffles them. Watching the entirety of The Righteous Gemstones would make for a long answer to their questions, but a very good one. Failing that, maybe they could just watch this episode for a précis, as BJ gets his second baptism—this one in blood.

Welcome to Episodic Medium’s coverage of HBO’s latest limited series—albeit one that they could continue—The Sympathizer, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen. As always, the first review is free for all, but subsequent reviews will be exclusive to paid subscribers. To read more about what we’re covering in the months ahead, check out our spring schedule. “I was cursed to see every issue from both sides.”

When the first season of The Ultimatum debuted in 2022, critics and viewers shredded the series. The Netflix reality show introduced viewers to six straight-presenting couples. In each, one partner issues an ultimatum of marriage: Either we leave here engaged, or we break up. Then — rather than bringing in licensed therapists to help the participants work through their issues — the show turns into a modern-day Wife Swap. The Ultimatum shuffles the existing couples into new pairs, hoping they’ll either form new connections or realize they miss their original partners and commit to marriage.

Let’s start by talking about press photos for a moment. For those who don’t know, the photos that accompany just about any review you read of a series are supplied by the press site of that particular channel or streaming service. They usually have a fairly limited supply—I would say seven or eight pictures is common, sometimes a lot more, sometimes less—which is why, if you’re the type of person who likes to check out multiple reviews of something you’ve watched or are going to watch, you’ll often see the same images over and over.

Wrath of the Wendigo is the more story focused debut of Clay Martin, a Marine Recon and Army 3rd Special Forces Group veteran. He has previously written more prepper centric books, such as Concrete Jungle and Prairie Fire, guidebooks on survival and the conducting of operations in urban and rural terrain respectively. You can find Clay on Twitter at @wayofftheres. Wendigo invites us to a North America in the not so distant future, where a large chunk of the pacific northwest and mountain west has seceded successfully from the United States.

I’ve been wanting to revisit David Fincher's fifth feature, Panic Room (which, besides Alien 3, might be his least beloved film) for quite a while now. As I wrote in my review of The Killer, Fincher’s latest bravura, which somewhat divided his fan base, also shares many similarities with the Jodie Foster-led thriller in terms of direction, style, and technicalities. They might be very different flicks theme-wise, yet their cores are built on a high-concept premise that provides ground for utilizing and exploring the slightest technical aspects to a great extent.

I have a weird relationship to the movie 25th Hour (2002). I think a lot of people do. I wanted to watch it again because I wasn’t sure what my opinion of it was. I know I saw it like 15 years ago and I don’t really remember anything about it. Periodically I’ve thought about the movie and about how it’s generally regarded as being pretty high up in the pantheon of Edward Norton movies, and Spike Lee movies—and how if you ever talk movies with people and it comes up they’ll be like “oh yeah, great movie,” but they never really say why.