final verdict on TRUE DETECTIVE S4: just ok, a bit clunky, and the reveal doesn't work on a character level (ie, motivations don't make sense bc ppl's actions require access to information they have no reason to be privy to)

so it got me thinking: what makes TRUE DETECTIVE work? on my recent TRUE DETECTIVE rewatch I started making notes about what I felt the essence of TRUE DETECTIVE was and what made it work

not a formula, but a vibe and ground rules that I would look to if for some reason HBO asked me of all people to create a season of TRUE DETECTIVE

Suggestion for Republicans: subpoena Jake Novak.
politico.com/news/2021/09/2…

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1756030312327365114

reminder that when the Gaetz venmo scandal was wall to wall journos were swearing the guy who got arrested would imminently drop indisputable proof that Gaetz was banging a minor

that dude never dropped it, couldn’t deliver Gaetz to prosecutors, and went to prison

here is an amazing anecdote I heard from somebody who has been in Cameroon

it is about money

or rather, the lack of it petty corruption is *extremely* common in Cameroon; if you are a foreigner (or of a different local ethnicity than the officer) cops will straight-up demand a bribe to let you move on

in US currency:
typical sidewalk bribe: $3.50
typical speeding ticket bribe: $20

yes, I know, it's deeply annoying that that the most dedicated people reporting on the white nationalist scene aren't honest brokers

but this flip side take is pure cope, folks

I wasn't going to do a thread on these guys, but fine, here we go

https://twitter.com/Stephen19718352/status/1698174744728576039

the media using these goons as a club to hammer normal righties does not mean that that is their most important function as far as they (the goons) are concerned

do not mistake what concerns you for the function; this ain't about you

My brain has needed a break lately so my bedtime reading book of the last couple of nights was Peter Benchley's JAWS and it made me realize some new things about movie adaptations of books

I better understand Benchley's grumbles about the changes and why they were made there are some famous changes made from book to screen in JAWS but the root of them is a change nobody talks about: genre

probably because JAWS (the novel) is a genre that really doesn't exist anymore; I'm not sure it was even named but I call it "the way-it-works novel"

My favorite horror movie is David Cronenberg’s version of THE FLY (1986), about which I could talk for weeks.

One of the most striking features of the film is how it perfectly paces its escalation. Tracking down the script made me realize just how carefully this was dialled in. For those who haven’t seen: teleporter inventor Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) falls in love w/ Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), journalist documenting his work — but unknowingly teleports himself at the same time as a housefly, beginning a terrifying physical & mental metamorphosis.

caught Jake Kasdan’s THE TV SET (2006), a simultaneously dated and not dated in the slightest cri de coeur about tv network pilot development

beloved by TV writers, slighter than Kasdan’s great debut ZERO EFFECT (1998), which he remade in 2002 as (you’ll be shocked) a tv pilot I guess Jake Kasdan wound up with a career as TV producer/director and occasional feature director, mostly in comedy, but it’s wild that he only has five writing credits on stuff that got made given that two of them (ZERO EFFECT and WALK HARD) are brilliant.

so I have mentioned before that I enjoy reading books on magic (it is more of an interest than a hobby), and sometimes I see suggestions that apply to writing

because in some ways magicians and writers are trying to do the same thing: lead, control, and surprise an audience most writers don't need or want to buy books on magic, which (being trade books) are often pricey, so I figure every so often I will post about writing-applicable lessons that don't give away mechanics but do highlight the magician's insights

it’s kind of a crime that Lucy Liu’s only two big headlining star pushes outside of the CHARLIE’S ANGELS flicks were both turds RISE: BLOOD HUNTER is just a terrible waste of Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis (who then was in the last bit of being revered by the press for his role in THE SHIELD, in the way Bryan Cranston was for BREAKING BAD)

this trailer, like the film, is incoherent

thought it would be fun to look at a few thriller novels from various decades and see how they compare, structure-wise

example: looking at stuff from the 90s on I see a lot of 400-600 page paperbacks; the first Travis McGee paperback was 144 pages (1985 edition) to 240 (2013 ed) haven't drilled down at the structural beat level yet, but there's interesting variety in chapter count and average word count per chapter

few chapters (14) vs middle (30) vs lots (50-60)
short chapters (1800 words) vs middle (3000-4500) vs long (8000)

Background movie to tonight’s late-night work is Alan Alda’s THE FOUR SEASONS (1981), which he wrote, directed, and starred in

it is one of four movies Alan Alda wrote, directed, and starred in (the other three were in 1986, 1988, and 1990)

it is *extremely* middle-aged You’re middle-aged when you acknowledge you are a little boring and comfortable being so.

THE FOUR SEASONS is that.

It is about several couples who are longtime friends & vacation together and then one of them gets divorced and gets with a younger woman & it’s a little weird.

Who wants a ginormous thread comparing the pilot episodes of private eye shows STUMPTOWN (2019) and THE ROCKFORD FILES (1974-80)?

(I do, so you’re getting one) STUMPTOWN was a good one-season wonder, renewed but than unrenewed due to COVID and couldn’t land anywhere (not its fault).

Jason Richman (BANGKOK DANGEROUS, DETROIT 1-8-7) adapted the Greg Rucka-written comic (drawn in turns by Matthew Southworth and Justin Greenwood).

this is the legendary TV producer Stephen J. Cannell (1941-2010), who created or co-created a staggering number of TV hits

people who know his work: without checking, which of his many television series do you think ran for the longest number of episodes? it wasn’t THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO (1981-1983) (44 episodes)

or HARDCASTLE AND MCCORMICK (1983-86) (67 episodes)

or WISEGUY (1987-1990) (74 episodes)

or BARETTA (1975-78) (82 episodes)

CONAN THE BARBARIAN is my go-to Christmas movie, and some new things really stood out to me at this year's viewing.

I want to talk about THIS moment and THIS guy.

This is the story of Red Hair. Red Hair isn't much present -- and that, quite different -- in the latest script draft I can find, which is the John Milius third (this page links both it and the Oliver Stone first draft
cinephiliabeyond.org/want-live-fore… ).

The final film is another story: he's HUGE.

Heavy is still the best news outlet for details about perpetrators like the Col. Springs guy: his grandfather was a CA state rep of the pugnacious righty sort, his mom mentioned the perp having PTSD/trauma (unknown from what) and charges from his arrest were mysteriously dropped. Link here; “he’s 6’6 and hits like a freight train” is 😬😬😬
heavy.com/news/anderson-…

Something unspecified happened at the Eradicate Hate conference this week and nobody who’s upset is saying what but they definitely are upset and want to change things by taking power.

https://twitter.com/vidhya_ra/status/1573859958537453568

fascinating dynamic where a) even some very prominent people in the sphere don’t know what they’re supposed to be upset about b) some other people are being proactive and announcing they don’t know what happened but they’re denouncing it anyway

So I was thinking about my ridiculous pitch for MAN-BAT: PI and was wondering how you would make it

because there are a couple of obvious problems with doing MAN-BAT: PI

https://twitter.com/hradzka/status/1571940787956641792

there are two options for MAN-BAT:P.I.

it's either a family show (making it LETHAL WEAPON with Man-Bat, who has a wife and kids, as the Murtaugh), or an old-school two-hander

I'm leaning old-school two-hander bc I like a small cast

problem: THESE GUYS ARE BOTH UNINTERESTING

funny fact about this story: LAT grudgingly concedes American journos are in way less danger than their Mexican colleagues, who have lost more colleagues to murder in the past year than American journos have in THIRTY

do you notice the lack of blue hyperlink on that concessjon

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1568355167355179008

it looks remarkably like the LA Times, paper of record for a city with a large Mexican population that is less than five hours by car from the Mexican border, HAS APPARENTLY NOT WRITTEN STORY ONE ABOUT A DOZEN MEXICAN JOURNALISTS GETTING MURDERED

aw shit it’s Morbin’ time

https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1567482946721923073

it has been a Day so all I have the strength for is lying on the couch to watch MORBIUS and maybe get up partway through to make myself a tiki cocktail

I hear this movie sucks and I *know* Jared Leto does so this should be fun

reading Donald A. Ritchie’s biography of Drew Pearson and my jaw just keeps dropping with the little nuggets from his professional and personal life, which are casually *insane* Pearson’s dad ran a chataqua (basically intellectual traveling carnivals for nerds and hippies), and after college he spent a few years doing Peace Corps type stuff with the American Friends Service Committee

then decided on freelance journalism

here is how he broke in

So one of the things that struck me about the Altman/Gross oral history of STAR TREK was in their discussion of VOYAGER where a big takeaway was that the show had a good cast but the real problem was the whole premise was screwed up

I have been ruminating about that ever since One of the big foundation problems on VOYAGER was that they had a divided Starfleet/Maquis crew but smoothed over that super quickly when it could have been an ongoing challenge for the characters.

So I thought: how would I reconfigure the series to expand that conflict?