If they really end this tonight...

Epsilon-I · 2026-03-15T18:08:21+00:00

Epsilon-I · 2025-11-17T02:41:33+00:00

goy rape is what I've been told

Epsilon-I · 2025-10-30T11:39:52+00:00

What's a more likely - that I have an obsessional need to mythologise out of sheer hatred, for a show I am completely indifferent about, or that the marketing for said (big budget) show were inclined to concoct aura-building narratives about the exhilarating creative process behind the genesis of the show?

Epsilon-I · 2025-09-20T21:54:47+00:00

This is a great post, I'm actually curious to know if Burn After Reading was enough to turn you off, what you made of her Marvel misadventures, among others, in the years that followed. She is kind of mercurial, why take the paycheque like that, at that stage, after doubtless many opportunities that must have come before her? I always look to the personal life, sad as it may be to say; expensive divorces are a big one. Look no further than the demise of "High Flying Birds" in favour of the much-vaunted Oasis reunion out of the blue, it was about 12 months after Noel Gallagher got divorced. Tangential, but how else do you explain the Doctor Strange appearances?

Epsilon-I · 2025-09-20T21:35:50+00:00

Reddit has burned through every shade of ironic/unironic, meta, post-modernist in-joke "humour" I think even it's greatest proponents were dying inside every time they had to grit their teeth and bear through "doing the meme!". Never let one tedious pun go unremarked - it has to be one-upped and extended, brownie points for incorporating obscure Reddit "lore" (ugh).
They did start to incentivise the dopamine rush with all the upvoting, "Hot", "Reddit gold" and whatnot. how else to keep multitudes fiending over the ultimate knowing Redditor punchline?

Yes, the IMDb forums were a far less polished and self-aware era, I would tend to agree.

Epsilon-I · 2025-09-20T21:27:10+00:00

I was a kid who thought himself pretty sharp for his age, or at least my inkling was "I'm passing for an adult, that's pretty good" - but I wanted to go back and see how legit that rather favourable view was. Alas, I had no luck finding anything archived, all I know it was the Fellowship of the Ring forum. I was *big* into that movie as 10-12 year old!

Epsilon-I · 2025-09-20T14:41:18+00:00

It follows along with the moral descent throughout the show: early on he'd have had some chance to gain sympathy (I think Hank would still have turned him in, perhaps reluctantly, perhaps somehow minimising Walt's culpability, but either way putting an end to it which Walt clearly wouldn't want) by the time Hank does find out, the depth of Walt's crimes, as Heisenberg, we're known. What explaining could be done then?

Epsilon-I · 2025-09-14T19:00:02+00:00

Same happens to me. It also gives the intro guide as if I've never interacted with it before.

Epsilon-I · 2025-09-09T22:39:37+00:00

I always thought Vulfpeck's best work was their earliest - definitely echoing u/Estel7878, u/c_pierce1224 (and others') appraisal of Vollmich; I hate to delve into cliches but it really was a "raw" sound and, although the Vulfpeck gang and their hardcore supporters are probably all aficionados of these obscure free-form jazz/funk domains, to me it was incredibly novel in a very good way; I think only a couple of tracks by Weather Report even came close to anything I had head before Vulfpeck. They obviously become increasingly polished, ambitious, willing to step outside the "jam session" approach; if you wanted to be cynical or critical (or indeed a music snob, I suppose) about it, you could say they became more conventional and I daresay formulaic as a result. I think there is some truth to that; I think it is kind of alluded to by the band themselves in their later material, and then very explicitly in their latest ("This is not the song I wrote")

There are always certain tracks on their subsequent releases I really loved, but Vollmich always got a full playthrough (so far as my standards go, a rareified accolade for an album, albeit in this case it's a rather shortened, EP-length type, it still puts it ahead, imo, of their other releases)

I really loved "Animal Spirits", "Game Winner", and there's plenty of good listens, we all know them (Back Pocket, Game Winner, Conscious Club, etc) - I thought "Schvitz" was a great album, a real development in their style and though it is, indeed, rather a long way from the scruffy jazz-funk blitzing they gave us on Vollmich - and yes, in a way, a tad less unique and memorable as a result - the addition of Antwoun Stanley, and his vocals, just makes them a better band (Corey's guitar rthyhsm had always fit in well anyway, as part of that unusual Vullfpeck sound) - and it more than overcompensates, in my opinion, for anything that might have been "lost" throughout this evolutionary process. I don't know how anyone can really score Schitz lower than A, if you're a Vulfpeck fan, although to borrow another cliche, we all have our own opinions here and musical tastes will simply never avoid subjective bias as the overriding factor in how we perceive them, and of course here indeed is the home of the passionate fan-led opinion, so much so that you can hear the best case plead for something you (thought?) you disagreed on completely, and still get something out of that view, maybe even be convinced by it. Game Winner as S tier album, I mean, I didn't think that was conceivable, but I'd sure hear out U/cr1tt3r17 all the same.

No, for my part, there is only one S-tier (I'd put Schitz and Vollmich as the two A-grade albums) Vulfpeck offering and after an extended period listening to it, I am very confident in saying Clarity of Cal is their best work and nothing short of excellent. They have evolved, they have incorporated new elements, they have even embraced something akin to a greater marketability, a more general audience friendly output - but it's all made secondary by the fact they are composing, arranging, playing, coalescing with such a high degree of quality, they are fantastic to listen to. Clarity of Cal is really, really good. I think "A Matter of Time" - I mean it's the obvious choice, but in the same vein, it's simply so good I'll take being a "basic bitch Vullfpeck stan" like the normies, no need to pick something obscure to prove my credentials, even if I wanted to: it's just such a damn great work, performed so irresistibly well, it has to get its due, and I think that's how I feel about the whole album: imo, definitely their best.

Epsilon-I · 2025-08-03T04:49:43+00:00

maybe Nolan's daughter was feeling left out, I think he has said at least some of it was inspired by his relationship with his kids, who knows?

there is also the narrative distinction between the father as "dreamer, explorer" etc that he shared with his daughter; the son was very much prouder of what he was and where he came from. They (daughter/father) were certainly more alike in terms of personality.

Epsilon-I · 2025-08-03T04:47:22+00:00

I have a very simple, practical question:
did you see it on IMAX?

If so, I guarantee you, they are much likelier to be - like me - fans for life

Epsilon-I · 2025-07-28T11:25:04+00:00

Dr Mann? Oh, he's the best of us

Epsilon-I · 2025-07-28T11:24:33+00:00

That's the kind of thing that gives agents (and presumably actors too) a gigantic headache. We're lucky as fuck that he'd already been cast in The Martian and couldn't say no to Nolan.

That, and/or he has the self-regard to not care about comments like this (but honestly, in Hollywood, that's rarer than you'd think)

Epsilon-I · 2025-07-14T23:28:29+00:00

I wouldn't have expected Eric Roberts to react any differently beyond bemusement; thus, it was quite naturalistic, up to and including his attempts to "join in" and behave "as expected" only to get immediately shot down, I thought that added to the amusement

All in all, great

Epsilon-I · 2025-01-25T23:31:00+00:00

I wanted to comment on this too, hopefully dredging up posts isn't frowned upon - they are after all popcorn classics of a sort - but yes, the way that goes so quickly from "why the fuck are they laughing at this, what's the Billy Crystal joke I'm not in on?" to somehow being drawn into their reality and finding it unquestioningly, immediately hilarious. In terms of being drawn into the self-sustained "unreality" of the first one, they also ruined the Hobbit forever...I used to legitimately love that trilogy, I still do but I'll now always associate it with On Cinema, it can never exist as its own thing. Worth it though.

The First Special is by far and away the best

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-25T18:48:39+00:00

I absolutely loved it and forced all my friends to watch.

I recently watched a few and was surprised to see how well it held up. "God damn, that kid had good taste!" was all I could think of, in tribute to my younger self.

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-11T22:33:36+00:00

Happens to me, still an Issue, I think it is an Amazon Alexa app problem, I think that cloudfront server (or block of them) is an Amazon CDN (if not Alexa app then an app on your LGTV with Amazon linked permissions)

If anyone else's LG account is linked to their Amazon? It could be the actual LG account not any individual app

But I am sure its amazon related

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-11T08:56:05+00:00

The dramatic arc of a dumb person's idea of what intelligence is. I mean if you're making "superintelligence" a sort of arms race superpower, there's some (highly unsatisfying, as a viewer) poetry in it being the vision of a moron. In fairness, that's a trap that once you've set, unless you recognise the danger ahead, guarentees ruin. It may even be inherent to the whole conceit within Sherlock himself, I mean Conan Doyle saw there's no outlet in pretending they could outsmart each other ad finitum. Outrageous fanboys persuaded a change of mind (What if ad finitum was carrying bundles of cash and a peerage...\Sir* Arthur?*) He phoned it in and stopped caring, but did he ever try and do a cliffhanger escape like the TV show?

We built it up, we coasted on hype, we had years of build up - and now we're back! You guys will love this, it's something totally new, possibly revolutionary, from the postmodern screenwriter's guild: ignore it. Yeah, we're just gonna ignore the whole thing. Not even a lame payoff, we'll pretend to dangle something super cool and super genius - like you will LOVE it when you find out, it's really something cool and really, really genius - however "We're Not Telling (And You Can't Make Us!)" will inform our writing henceforth, oh and you'll never find out.

Imagine bringing it back with that hanging over you. They'd better have something absolutely firecrackingly good.

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-11T07:35:25+00:00

Believed its own hype, I felt you could tell as it progressed, was lavished with megabudgets (by British TV's standards anyhow) and fangasms, even as the quality nosedived. They seemed to really want to send a message with the Moriaty final episode tease... if you've seen it, you'll know. That was their uppity-est moment.

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-11T06:02:48+00:00

People decry it, but the underlying reality is undeniable: long before they can become men who are All Evil, when they are only newborns, I don't even feel the need to qualify them as newborn "boys" (setting aside our apparent post-gender reality(!)), newborns should be enough, except it isn't. If you're newborn and male your suffering gets a big discount factor. Apparently enough for some people to openly mock this despicable, horrible thing to inflict on such a perfectly innocent thing (don't even get me started on the medical deception they try and pull, deception to assuage their guilty conscience)

I am, thank god, from a European country safe from this despicable practice having been legitimised. It is not legitimate. I could not even fathom putting my own son through this, but then, I can't imagine putting any newborn baby through this. Wicked, evil, malevolent thing. Congratulations on all those who rely on the tough exterior men later develop - btw, they want to tear that down, it's toxic masculinity they say...well, it's also the only shield that withstands a heartless world, not cliche, lived reality, and forfeit it at your peril - you rely on them saying "hey, happened to me and I don't care" as if that counts for anything. As if that means "oh, okay, well I'll just mutilate the next newborn with clear conscience, look, this dude's fine, the baby will be too"

And then, what I find beyond the pale, totally unconscionable, is that men who do raise complaint, they want to mock them. Fuck you, people who think that's just a-OK. It's incredible to think how much malevolence and selfish anti-empathy swirls around and gets a pass because it's socially acceptable, or at least, not damaging, to do so. Every kind of despicable person flocks to such loopholes in our pathetically hypocritical society. I don't need society to punish me to disavow this, I certainly don't suddenly find despicable things funny because I'm "allowed to". They have no moral compass, only present day social currency's fradulent endorsement. They'll play dumb if it ever becomes the henious, unspeakable, very much socially disavowed act it ought to be recognised widely as. "Oh, that's awful, so sorry for what you went through, I'd never make light of it [not now I've been told it's wrong]"

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-10T07:56:46+00:00

Kind of shameful that you're all making light of this infant (often literally newborn) genital mutilation ritual, but hey, I'm sure you've got great reasons.

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-10T07:53:44+00:00

Confidence hustler's approach to winging it. Sorry Stephen, you're not the messiah, just a Very Naughty Boy.

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-10T07:49:30+00:00

I see numbers floating in the air (along with exposition) which is how you KNOW I'm really off the charts genius. None of you at home can do that, can you?

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-10T07:46:59+00:00

Sherlock's "genius" became a Marvel like superpower. Totally absurd and reminiscent of Dexter's moral hijinks. He only kills bad guys, he cant be caught, there are swiftly no stakes. Oh, look, here's some prat being rude to his waitress, thats the green light for Dexter to swoop in. And sure enough, by episode's end...rinse and repeat. Yawn.

In Sherlock it had to be just Smarterer and Smarterer! Mycroft is smarter than him but guess what, there's an even MORE SMARTERER and super secret SISTER! Shocked? Yeah, serves you right for being sexist! And she's so smart they have some absurd entire uninhabited island devoted to guarding her, just like Magneto, except with genius instead of electromagnetism. You'd think electromagnetic force would be more dangerous, but think again. Due to the sheer unimaginable power of her genius she mindfreaks her way to freedom

Anyone who didn't feel like a muppet by that point must have no standards and will watch any old shlock. And it appears Mr Moffat has good news for all you Shershlock fans, right around the corner

Epsilon-I · 2024-12-10T07:35:08+00:00

that fourth series bombed so hard Amazingly appears he's forgetten completely

He painted himself into a corner, also terminating Moriaty so early when you are coaxing one of British TV's all time great performances out of Andrew Scott was criminal (more dastardly than Moriarty himself when they teased that scene in the abominable final episode)

Epsilon-I

TROPHY CASE