I think it goes without saying that this show is an expression of opinion about what works and what doesn't in a movie, and what a movie should or should not do in reference to whether we find it satisfying. In fact while I think it goes without saying we have nonetheless taken care to say so on quite a few occasions. You are welcome to disagree but I don't much care for being told how or whether we should express our tastes on our show.

I want to -- I dunno, apologize? Acknowledge? -- my total failure to respect the moment of silence for Mr. Ramis' cameo. After five years doing the show it was an automatic response to dead air to QUICK SAY SOMETHING

For a show whose apologists have decided was "never interested" in being a procedural/mystery, it sure spent a goddamn lot of time focusing on the procedure and mystery.

I like how everyone's (not just here) wondering why the internet decided there must be some significance to the clues, as if every episode they didn't keep harping on the clues, adding a new one, stepping back and inviting us to try to suss out the big picture with them. Still, I wonder how much it sucked to be the filmmakers and see the internet hyping themselves up in a way you knew you weren't going to pay off.

At any rate, I thought it was fine since it did lead to a solved case, albeit an ultimately fairly straightforward one. I'm a little disappointed they didn't push the weird tales aspect more (and/or that they introduced it at all if they didn't care to actually do it), but maybe the next season will explore that more. And maybe not. I thought it was well made and I liked the performances and their relationship, and I didn't really think about it in the intervening weeks so I hadn't built up too much expectation, so, meh. I'll watch season two.

EDIT: Honestly, it's the Yellow King business that screwed things up. Take that out and you've got a show that lives up to its title -- true detective work is messy, can take decades to solve a case if you manage to solve it at all, and it often doesn't give all the answers or give you what you need to take down all the bad guys. On that level, I like it a lot. It was just the ill-advised introduction of a very particular type of occultism that confused the issue, and got the audience thinking (and excited) about what else the show could be doing instead of enjoying it for what it was.

There've been a couple of occasions in interviews and those HBO GO featurettes that have me half convinced he listens to WAYDM.

Now that I've seen 12YAS, I hope it wins BP. As much as I loved GRAVITY, it already has a place secured in cinema history. Best Picture also-rans are usually forgotten to the ages and 12YAS deserves (needs, IMO) to be remembered.

Some of the shots in there, particularly the ones of Godzilla underwater and such, are...kinda bad, VFX-wise.

Unless this is still Gareth doing shit in his bedroom all alone, in which case I quit.

I was a Cinefantastique baby myself, but I was aware of Starlog -- not sure how, I must have tracked down back issues for movies I enjoyed. I think it came up a lot as reference material in the replica props community too. Definitely plan to check this out -- thanks also for the Cinefantastique podcast heads up!

The only reason I don't hate ELYSIUM is that it's more effort than the stupid thing is worth. I hated it for the two hours I was subjected to it and I'm cutting my losses.