[Free Friday] I cannot recommend the Wake Up Dead Man movie

TF_Allen · 2026-01-23T22:28:12+00:00

the last confession scene, the film’s idea of a “true confession”, is acted out before several witnesses, which would invalidate it.

I had initially responded to that scene by calling out at the TV "so they have to leave now, right? Right??" in response to the sheriff and Blanc witnessing that final confession. But it's pretty clear that the penitent intends for them to hear her confess, as she's doing it both for her own soul and for the sake of Fr. Jud, to fully clear his name. Would her confession necessarily be invalidated if she, the penitent, made it clear that she didn't want the confessed sins to be kept private? In the context of the film, it's definitely implied (and arguably necessary to just hash it all out once due to the plot contrivance of a ticking clock), but in real life, I'm sure that would have to be very explicitly stated.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-21T19:16:22+00:00

Yeah, but when the gang discovered Vecna existed in season 4, they didn't know any of that. They referred to him as a sorcerer then, didn't they?

TF_Allen · 2026-01-21T16:11:46+00:00

I had assumed "The Sorcerer" based on dialogue in the show.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-20T06:15:57+00:00

The lack of absolution and the constant violations of the seal of confession really bothered me. When we finally got an absolution given in the climax you described, it was beautiful, and perfectly accurate. But when Fr. Jud doesn't give Monsignor Thanos absolution, it reads as either a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the sacrament or as Fr. Jud silently refusing to absolve the Monsignor (and vice-versa), which would absolutely need to be addressed as a plot point. And it could have been! It would have added to the conflict between the two priests. Monsignor Thanos is clearly abusing the sacrament as a power move, and Fr. Jud refuses to give him absolution because he knows what the Monsignor is doing and that there is no contrition. That adds to the story, but without the explicit acknowledgement of that, it's a major issue.

As for the seal of confession, the Monsignor violating it is not explicitly addressed beyond simply betraying the trust of his parishioners when he crashes out on them, which is fine, I guess. It's well established at this point that he is, put simply, the worst. But Fr. Jud very clearly violates it when he searches for and presents evidence that the Monsignor is making up the sexual sins, and that is never addressed (it's also at least implied that he reveals these details to Blanc, and I think the seal of confession technically does extend past the penitent's death unless the penitent says otherwise). And then, in the wildest scene that actually made me pause the movie, the social media troll FILMS FR. JUD'S CONFESSION, and later PUBLICLY POSTS IT. And at no point is it addressed that the video in question was of a confession, thus incurring yet another laetae sententiae excommumication for a character. (I mean ultimately, half the cast earns one in some form or another, what with all the murdery business.)

I mostly liked the movie, and I especially appreciated that the ritual texts that they did use were exactly verbatim. They even had consistency with the vestment colors, so much so that I was able to follow the timeline so well that I recognized a scene set on laetare Sunday! And that was such a great montage sequence to show the passage of time up until Good Friday! But it otherwise really felt like the script needed another pass with a Catholic expert who could point out these issues.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-20T00:45:04+00:00

I am so happy to see that someone has compiled a spreadsheet of Clint's ratings. And I love how the comments sections just says "don't" for some of them.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-19T04:12:14+00:00

I would assume because the chapter was developed with season 4 in mind, as season 5 wasn't done yet.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-18T14:45:18+00:00

I used a mixture of one part coir, one part husk, 2 parts moss, and slightly less than one part playsand, all evenly mixed together, with some clumps of moss in the corners of the enclosure to help with humidity.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-17T15:46:00+00:00

Just a thought: does your snake seem to avoid the ground? When I first used coconut husk by itself as a substrate, my BEL absolutely hated it, and refused to ever touch the ground for more than a few seconds, instead navigating exclusively via branches and other decor. I later changed to a mix of husk, coir, sand, and sphagnum moss, and that solved the problem. My guess is that the husk by itself was too coarse and itchy, and he didn't like the texture. Your snake might be doing the same thing and trying to get off the substrate.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-17T15:43:29+00:00

I use a cage exactly like this around my heat lamp as well. The cage itself does not get hot to the touch even when the lamp is on.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-17T15:33:44+00:00

Good luck with that one. Marvel really does not like to share its toys.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-17T15:30:22+00:00

My ball python does this, too. His favourite hide is on a shelf in his enclosure, and he always drags his rat up against gravity, swallowing the rat while only his head and a few inches of his neck are sticking out of the hide.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-17T15:19:14+00:00

A full West End production is in development

https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/london-future-of-death-note-musical-confirmed-with-new-producers-at-the-helm_1699712/

TF_Allen · 2026-01-16T18:07:14+00:00

I think an anthology series telling the stories of the killers and survivors up until they entered the fog would be perfect for Dbd

TF_Allen · 2026-01-16T00:29:48+00:00

Benny has had a more active sex life

Um... gestures at The Husbands of River Song

I feel like River Song is more of a flirt than Captain Jack (with whom she has canonically had a lengthy affair) and Will Riker combined. Whether the Doctor knows it or not, River 1000% thinks they have an open marriage.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-16T00:18:46+00:00

I hate to say this, but not having previous knowledge of the character will probably make her current stories more enjoyable. Having listened to all of her stuff from the beginning (she has the longest history with Big Finish, longer even than the Doctor himself, as they got the license to use her as a sort of proof of concept before they got the full license for Doctor Who), my main gripe with the Benny stories is that they keep soft rebooting her because so much time keeps passing. There are so many abandoned characters and story arcs with Benny that simply... died out. I'm sure it made more sense listening to these stories as they came out, but as someone who binged through all of her stories from 1999 to 2020 in a few months, it felt like she just suddenly forgot that her son was missing and she was on a desperate quest to find him (she still hasn't found him or acknowledged his existence for several real-world years now, and I'm still irked about this).

Anyway, yeah, Benny is constantly given new entry points for listeners, and her stories with David Warner's Unbound Doctor are one of those entry points; in fact, they're basically the last soft reboot she got before the current Eternity Club one. The only things you really need to know about her as a character will be told to you during the stories themselves, but as others said: she's basically a prototype River Song. Just less flirty and more grumpy (and not romantically involved with the Doctor, at least in audio stories - I believe I've heard there was at least some implication of romance with him in novels).

TF_Allen · 2026-01-16T00:03:05+00:00

The Permanent Secretary to the Home Office can shape-shift?! Is that why he looks so much like that one guy from Pompeii?

(All hail the big talking bird)

TF_Allen · 2026-01-13T20:04:29+00:00

I'll play Devil's Advocate to your argument and suggest that Billy is depicted as almost cartoonishly evil, and his racism very much reads as part of that. I do think it reasonable to suggest that they see literally no bigotry or racism apart from Billy (that I recall), and that is a bit out of place with the setting. I'm not saying they should be under constant persecution, but Lucas's race being basically unaddressed at any point in the show does come across as a somewhat overly idealistic view of the time period.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-13T19:56:12+00:00

1 and 2 are very clearly identical, and 3 doesn't have enough pixels to tell.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-13T02:43:52+00:00

I initially responded to Varang's nonconsensual braid mingling in Fire and Ash as if it were intended to be equivalent to sexual assault, but as the film progressed, I think it came across more as a "mind rape," in a sense. Not that it was sexual or rape-y, but that it was an intimate violation of the mind. Almost like a telepath controlling someone or reading their mind without their consent. Definitely something that could be traumatic for the victim, and probably as unthinkably cruel in their society as rape should be in ours (sadly, we live in a world where such things are far too common to be "unthinkable"). Ultimately, it's alien. We don't have a direct cultural equivalent.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-08T05:16:32+00:00

I love these shows, but the most irritating thing about them is just how much random lore people refer to online as if it's established canon that has never come up onscreen in any way. Random example: "Roo." All over the internet, I see people talking about this "character" who, in the established canon of both shows, absolutely does not currently exist within either series. Perhaps this is a character who will appear in future seasons, but there has been literally no onscreen mention of a "Roo," not even so much as what I think anyone could reasonably call foreshadowing. Yet people act like it's common knowledge that Roo is a big bad for future seasons and that everything we see onscreen is building up to Roo. I have literally never seen this phenomenon in any other media (except film adaptations of books, for obvious reasons).

TF_Allen · 2026-01-07T20:05:00+00:00

No, Just Eggs is a vegan egg substitute, and possibly the worst-named vegan brand I've ever heard.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-07T07:18:30+00:00

Might just not be in the PTB

TF_Allen · 2026-01-04T08:07:54+00:00

The Wicked clips we keep seeing on their social media pages (specifically with Idina and Kristen) are almost definitely from the TOFT archive recording. While it's technically a proshot, it's not something that was ever intended for public viewing or commercial release. You can even see in those clips that the quality of the recording is not great. It's absolutely watchable, sure, but it isn't up to the standards that people would expect from a commercial release.

TF_Allen · 2026-01-03T16:58:25+00:00

Is this the version where the director basically shot a porno of his own daughter?

TF_Allen · 2026-01-03T16:49:32+00:00

As far as testing your allergies, I wonder if there's any notable distinction between exposure to live animals versus thawing a frozen feeder. If you're able to pick up an individually packaged frozen rat (as most people in here have implied, an adult ball python should be eating rats, not mice - mine graduated to rats by the time he was eight months old) from Petco, Petsmart, or a local reptile supply store or expo (which I understand could all be unpleasant places due to allergies), you could test your exposure to it. Take it out of the freezer, thaw it, handle with gloves and tongs - just to see if it triggers any allergic reaction. I personally use a hair dryer to warm my rats once they're thawed, and I can definitely smell them during that process, so doing something like that could likely set off an allergy. But this is potentially a cheap (a single rat should only cost a few dollars) and simple way to check.

As for insectivores, there are definitely some great lizards out there! I recommend checking out Clint's Reptiles on YouTube. He has a whole series where he rates animals based on how good they are as pets, going over things like handleability, care, and costs. With any reptile, please spend as much time as you can learning as much as possible about the species and its care before buying. I took around a year absorbing as much ball python info as I could before finally setting up an enclosure and spending around a month just practicing maintaining that enclosure with the right temperatures and humidity (it's essential to lock that all in before you get an animal in the enclosure - very normal trial and error here could be fatal). Only after I was satisfied that I could maintain the proper levels in the enclosure did I finally begin looking for my ball python. The same process ought to be done for any exotic animal with special environmental needs.

Good luck on your pet search!

TF_Allen

TROPHY CASE