I just read your review of it and it’s definitely possible I’m underselling the potency of its observations on aging and intergenerational relationships.

I’ve actually been looking for more Nicholson content to watch. I haven’t seen her in much but she’s been grinding the indie movie scene for 20 years now. Will keep Dope Girls in mind even though I don’t do too much TV these days.

There is a weird and satisfying modulation of the tension of having Kendrick escape by the skin of her teeth rather than become a final girl. It’s a little more realistic, I suppose. And the pretense of having it be on live TV definitely adds a built-in layer of commentary on how we as a culture gawk at victims. Glad this one worked for you!

Why should this be funny? Why because the show is called DOPE GIRLS (and the show almost certainly lives up to the mental image that name likely gives you, so long as it’s a rather brutally Pulp crime drama set in London’s underworld just after the First World War).

Think about it: think about just how many versions of this story would feed yet another young woman to the ******* who had the sheer nerve to approach her on Live TV, whether for that little extra thrill of satire, in the interests of black comedy or just because the mental image occurred to someone.

This is, admittedly, looking at things on a rather meta level – put another way, the core story drives home the tragedy and horror of all those other scenes by making it painfully clear that, with a little luck, those other girls might have survived their brush with a killer (and the killer himself might have been brought to book far earlier).

Futurama is probably pound-for-pound better than The Simpsons by now, and I would accept the opinion that it was even in 20XX, though I don’t think I share it.

Futurama was remarkably resilient to going on extended hiatuses until the latest revival, which has some high points, but it’s a bad sign for a pair of seasons that like 90% of the actual bad episodes of a show reside there.

I see your point re: People’s Joker leveraging the big brand both for buzz and self-inflicted victimhood when it didn’t strictly need to, but I also think the project is so centrally about rebellion against the status quo (and how that rebellion ties to Drew’s self-perception) that I don’t see how it could work with characters like The Jester and her diminutive criminal friend The Sparrow.

Re: Woman of the Hour, I realize my positive mini-review is mostly complaints, but it speaks to how the craft is just unremarkably (and therefore, given context, surprisingly) solid. There’s one scene at a bar and parking lot that’s so good, Netflix just used the scene as its teaser. But I can see you or anyone being much higher or lower than me depending on how much the script bugs you.

I have a confession which is that I’ve only seen a smattering of Futurama despite my adoration of golden age Simpsons. Part of my resistance is that my friends in college very aggressively took the corner of “Futurama > Simpsons” which I got very defensive about even though I haven’t seen the show. (I also am suspicious of any show that gets a cancellation revival, though that shouldn’t stop me from at least watching the original run.)

I’m glad you reminded me of Woman of the Hour. I guess it’s not a glowing recommendation, but the logline is good.

So It’s What’s Inside is just… that Futurama episode, but four times as long? Though the Futurama episode is more about the joy of solving a math problem, and being funny. Reminds me to hector you about never having seen Your Name.