Jacob Elordi is SHAFT

• Dig it, 2026

I… ugh. I want to enjoy Invincible, but the show is soooo flat. I don’t know if it’s an art style thing, or narrative, or voice work, but I’ve got zero emotional connection to any of these characters. I think it’s the direction, specifically the storyboarding and pacing. You don’t get quiet moments with the characters feeling feelings. Every little bit you get is just enough to drive the plot forward, and it’s over as quickly as possible to jump back to plot, exposition and action. Jason Mantzoukas has a terrific voice and outstanding comic timing, so I feel like he has the chops to pull off a good redemption arc (like they tried to this season), but the character never felt endearing, ever. He never got a chance to make that character feel truly lived-in. Maybe it’s the demonstration of struggling with consequences that’s missing.

Compare all this to Bojack Horseman. That show has no shortage of plot, but you FEEL everything those characters are going through. And it’s rough. When good things and bad things happen to those characters, you feel it. Elation for small victories, churning guts for unearned evasion of consequences.

I haven’t read the Kirkman books, but I know how he likes to play with plot vs audience expectations, and Walking Dead was 100% about “and now what…?” consequences. Are the vibes that the show is serving just not pulling off something subtle that the comic manages to achieve?

👩‍🍳💋🤌

Solid article. I imagine the folks at the cyberwire podcast will be doing more digging over the weekend for a solid summary come Monday.

Usually frowned upon.

The Dark Tower (2017, dir Nikolaj Arcel)

• https://distiller.com/lists/our-favorite-whiskeys-from-the-rocky-mountain-state
• https://distiller.com/lists/our-favorite-washington-state-whiskeys
• https://distiller.com/lists/the-top-whiskeys-from-oregon

Director of Longlegs, The Monkey and Gretel & Hansel. Son of Oscar-nominated actor Anthony Perkns (the original Norman Bates).

https://www.themoviedb.org/person/90609-osgood-perkins

I’m going to keep coming back with this until some-habs takes me up on it.

Here’s a non-paywalled article about this story not from a piece of shit news source:

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-san-francisco-water-pollution-6874dc505a394d9181b17a0aef41406f

As a gigantic fan of animation as an artform, I don’t think I would have picked Flow as the best animated feature. The film’s third act never really congeals and the movie just ends abruptly. I’m not the kind of narrative purist that insists on bulletproof storytelling, but when a film is in the running against multiple strong contenders that tell a solid story (Memoir of a Snail was my favorite this year), it’s hard to justify the win.

But I think I know what the Academy is doing. They’re eager to put this award into the hands of ANYBODY churning out animated fare that’s different from the same old Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks products year after year.

The potatoes…!