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The tiger narration was actually Jason Schwartzman, following the tradition of using actors from earlier seasons sneakily.
posted to FanFare by mmoncur at 5:13 AM on December 15, 2023

Liked this episode, possibly because no Munch.

I like Juno Temple a lot, but Jennifer Jason Leigh is one of my all-time favorite actors, and this movie was so heavy on them that it was delightful. The baby line is incredible.

I hoped JJL's character was about to have some realization that Dot is actually someone she should befriend and harness; a great addition her family, a wonderful wife for her boy. Not that that leads anywhere narratively... [more]
posted to FanFare by fleacircus at 5:39 PM on December 14, 2023

Until Dot tells him it's safe.

That might be a while.
posted to FanFare by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:14 PM on December 14, 2023

Stellar writing in this episode. Every line Dave Foley had was on point.
The suspense of Nadine's ride into the mental ward and the would-she won't-she be the lioness the narration is describing followed by her many-layered escape. so good.
The return of the FBI duo!
How long will Wayne remain in the bathroom?
posted to FanFare by OHenryPacey at 3:13 PM on December 14, 2023

I thought this episode reclaimed the vibe that got a bit lost in the previous one.

I particularly liked the scene between competing but wildly different villains Lorraine Lyon and Sheriff Tillman, where she lays the smack down on his Libertarian-ism nonsense. "You want freedom without any of the responsibility. In other words, you want to be a baby" So good.
posted to FanFare by mcstayinskool at 9:42 AM on December 14, 2023

Oh yeah, there's a bunch of weird supernatural stuff in the Fargo TV series, not the movie, though. Man, this question just makes me want to rewatch the entire series again.

Season 1: The rain of fish, the main villain might literally be the Devil ("I haven't had a piece of pie like that since the Garden of Eden") who's manifesting the plagues of Egypt and mysteriously escaping from a basement

Season 2: The UFO sub-plot, and I think... [more]
posted to FanFare by ssmith at 1:55 PM on December 1, 2023

The confrontation I'm most eager to see is when Deputy Witt Farr, currently on crutches, gets a shot at Gator Tillman (played so well by Joe Keery that is took me until this episode to realize he's the kid from Stranger Things). Twice Farr's been on the short end simply by being guileless about how shitty Gator is, but I think his eyes are open now.
I hope it's satisfying, though i do realize Dot is going to get a shot at him first. Maybe she'll put him on crutches too so it's a fair fight.
posted to FanFare by OHenryPacey at 1:23 PM on December 1, 2023

hopefully someone else has the season 3 and 4 examples

In season 3, Ray Wise seems like he is an angel or an avatar of God or something. He offers up a kitten that is supposed to be reincarnation of one of one of the deceased characters.
posted to FanFare by paper chromatographologist at 11:09 AM on December 1, 2023

Can you give me some examples (beyond "the universe is random and cruel and horrible shit happens by accident or freaky coincidence all the time", which is definitely part of the show's world) of mystical elements I'm forgetting about?

This is one of my favorite parts of the show, how they are just there, very subtle, and the characters never really talk about them. The rain of fish from season 1 and the UFOs from season 2 are the examples... [more]
posted to FanFare by odd ghost at 10:44 AM on December 1, 2023

This damn show!! It has the ability to make me forget about the passage of time and then BAM! it ends. I literally said, "Oh HELL NO!" when the episode ended.

Poor Douglas! I hate Duffy.
posted to FanFare by cooker girl at 9:18 AM on December 21, 2023

>> I vastly prefer my British spy HQs to be in the wood-paneled, smoke-saturated, bureaucratic viciousness lurking underneath polite smiles and understatement mode.

I'd prefer my British spy HQs not to be places I've previously worked at dressed up as British spy HQs. Those walkways River jumped from in episode 2 are the refurbished foyer of 2 Television Center in White City, and it's really distracting considering I've wondered about making that jump in the past.
posted to FanFare by Molesome at 4:37 AM on December 18, 2023

Look, any SecUnit that appreciates the true functionality of good pockets is coded female, sorry!
posted to MetaFilter by MonkeyToes at 12:42 PM on December 15, 2023

This thread demonstrates just how well Martha Wells has create a very flexible world and character with a ton of reads to it!

Me, I don't think I've ever explicitly thought about gender with MurderBot (other than maybe leaning male because of listening to Kevin Free's narration). My primary impression of MB has always been a lithe speed. MB should be terrifyingly fast - enough to make you wet your pants.

MB's primary emotional read to me has... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by drewbage1847 at 11:49 AM on December 15, 2023

I did a search on my name on Google Groups and found this post from alt.fan.momus of a transcription of a recording of Momus writing a song about me live on stage circa 1999.
posted to MetaFilter by larrybob at 12:03 PM on December 15, 2023

If you want to revisit some really old Usenet, the UTZOO archive has 1982 through 1991. It's fascinating that the entire decade is only 1.9 GB, but was stored on such ancient media that it required 141 tapes. I recently hacked together a database loader so that I could grep it for interesting things and found this query from a young student asking for help:


Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Good PC/AT-hardware books around?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by autopilot at 10:40 AM on December 15, 2023

So many wasted hours browsing comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.

Not too long before Starfield released, someone had found a usenet post (probably from c.s.i.pc.g.rpg) from the mid-90s where someone had asked about ideas for new rpgs or something like that. And Todd Howard, only recently employed at Bethesda, chimed in to say a space rpg would be neat and mentioned some sources to draw from.

I was amused to find that I was also a participant in that thread.
posted to MetaFilter by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:51 AM on December 15, 2023

Speaking of The Expanse, I think Frankie Adams (actress who played Bobbie) would have been a bomb Murderbot: solid physicality, good at dry sarcastic effect.
posted to MetaFilter by foxfirefey at 11:28 AM on December 15, 2023

I'm a cishet male elder millennial here and I interpreted Murderbot as physically femme-leaning androgynous, based on other characters' reactions to it during the "passing as a security consultant" sections that have already been mentioned. Then again, Wells' whole universe is less heavily gendered than our own, so maybe the alias isn't actually femme-coded, and "Mom" is not intended to imply a gender. I do wonder what this interpretation reveals about my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Alterscape at 10:07 AM on December 15, 2023

Funny, in my head I always heard Murderbot's voice as queer male, mostly because of the excellent audiobook performances by Kevin R. Free who has a lovely gravelly style that conveys just the right amount of exasperation at absolutely everything.
posted to MetaFilter by xthlc at 9:57 AM on December 15, 2023

I'm an old Gen-X too, and Murderbot seemed female-androgynous to me. perhaps that is just part of the brilliance's of Well's character, a mirror in which we all see so many possibilities.
posted to MetaFilter by supermedusa at 9:43 AM on December 15, 2023

The Murderbot Diaries, brought to you by Barish-Estranza!

I expect that to be just as bad as Timestream Defenders Orion.
posted to MetaFilter by Quasirandom at 8:53 AM on December 15, 2023

On the one hand, yes, better casting would have been nice.

On the other hand, Apple's poor casting is probably equivalent to the bad choices the corporate engineers would make.

The Murderbot Diaries, brought to you by Barish-Estranza!
posted to MetaFilter by kaibutsu at 8:50 AM on December 15, 2023

I skimmed through the text to see if Murderbot is ever referred to a male or female by any of the characters who think it is human

In a memorable moment a character addresses it as "Mom" (sarcastically, but in a society that has a varied amount of terms for parents, including non gendered ones). And amusingly the one person who genders Murderbot is itself, once - when it's pretending to be a SecUnit under the control of its offstage human... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by I claim sanctuary at 8:02 AM on December 15, 2023

It would be highly amusing were the show to make one of Murderbot's shows (that it hatewatches) a lurid drama about "a SecBot who falls in love".
posted to MetaFilter by outgrown_hobnail at 6:51 AM on December 15, 2023

I pictured a Det. Rosa Diaz type. Not burly but a complete badass, and always a little exasperated with having to interact with anybody.
posted to MetaFilter by whuppy at 5:49 AM on December 15, 2023

Y'all, this is a perfect wild swing. We know that SecUnits on shows don't look or act anything like real SecUnits. Apple has performed a delightful meta commentary on its own actions.

(this is some BS casting for reals, tho)
posted to MetaFilter by curious nu at 5:42 AM on December 15, 2023

“I'm left as fuck, but there have been a few times, on Metafilter and elsewhere, when I said something that really, really pissed off my fellow lefties, and it is not fun to wake up one morning and find yourself being called names by a lot of people you thought were on your side.”

But that's the problem. If you (generic you, not you in particular) can't take criticism about your positions and actions with regard to the very... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:00 PM on December 13, 2023

If there is any take away at all I’d say that it’s dismissing red flags with a “but they’re OUR asshole” is a terrible idea and will always bite you in the ass eventually, and particular red flags to pay attention to are unrepentant misogyny/racism, fraudulant behavior/fact bending to fit narratives, and credible accounts of sexual assault.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 8:54 AM on December 13, 2023

I think that here, as in so many places, the left (and the marginalized constituencies it's trying to represent/fight for) is in a double bind. Like, don't stand up for yourself and you'll keep being treated like a doormat. Stand up for yourself and you'll be attacked for being uppity/a bitch/a SJW gone maaaad/the intolerant left.

So that's happening. And other things are happening too! I agree that leftists turning right (and the more general fascist cultural momentum)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by overglow at 8:47 AM on December 13, 2023

Naomi Klein (the good one) had this equation, though she's backed away from it lately:

a kind of equation for leftists and liberals crossing over to the authoritarian right that goes something like this: Narcissism (Grandiosity) + Social media addiction + Midlife crisis ÷ Public shaming = Right wing meltdown.

posted to MetaFilter by TheophileEscargot at 8:28 AM on December 13, 2023

Or is the only purpose of politics to mobilize your base without trying to build coalitions?

It is precisely because I want to build coalitions that I am anti-asshole - because it turns out that assholes push people out, and that it turns out that you can be effective without being an asshole.
posted to MetaFilter by NoxAeternum at 8:23 AM on December 13, 2023

I'll have to agree with Eoin Higgins who is quoted here that there is no One Simple Reason why someone "on the left" makes a heel turn:

"There are financial incentives, there are attention incentives, there are culture war differences as people are becoming more conservative on culture; there’s a sense of being betrayed by progressives and the Left. There are so many different reasons that reducing this to people going too far [left] and going to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by windbox at 7:57 AM on December 13, 2023

Matt Taibbi has always been a brodude provocateur who (even in my short engagement with his works) came across as entertaining but hella misogynistic.
Years back, a colleague who'd been at the center of some fairly shitty harassment campaigns told me that one of the most dangerous mistakes a vulnerable person can make is assuming that an individual is their ally simply because they hate the correct people. I read a couple of Taibbi's books years back, and thought they were bracing,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by verb at 7:50 AM on December 13, 2023

The thing about the power of addition, it’s not like the Republican Party just harnessed the fringe they swallowed, they were changed by it, into it. That’s cool if you don’t have values aside from power, but if you do, you need remember that you are what you eat.
posted to MetaFilter by rodlymight at 7:49 AM on December 13, 2023

Are we really going with "If we had just not been so mean, they'd not have gone fascist?"
posted to MetaFilter by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:37 AM on December 13, 2023

We really lost something great when we lost Douglas Adams.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 7:19 AM on December 13, 2023

It's the result of the left's circular firing squad. The circular firing squad doesn't always kill the people it shoots at, sometimes it blows some of them right.

I do not think this is the case. I have been involved in various capacities in activist-y stuff since my teens and I am mumble-mumble-Old now.

What happens when good people feel that the left is categorically dumb is that they drop out. They vote... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 7:11 AM on December 13, 2023

Really looking forward to the scenes of people standing around silently while they communicate back and forth on the feed, followed by scenes of murderbot mysteriously being admitted into high-security areas because it has already hacked the system in a few milliseconds.
posted to MetaFilter by The Tensor at 11:39 PM on December 14, 2023

> It's what happens when the person who's an activist for Cause A gets "cancelled" because of a couple of 7-year-old tweets with an ignorant joke about Cause B, and people stop listening to them about Cause A altogether. It's what happens when someone has been fighting for a particular cause and has finally achieved a hard-fought and real victory against the GOP gets criticized for not having achieved even more, including some things that were never within their power to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiraK at 6:47 AM on December 13, 2023

Geez, some of the comments on this thread are as illuminating as the article. That article is not at all a circular firing squad.

One of the biggest problems with all of the people mentioned in the article, beyond the seduction of ego and a pulpit, is that most of them are contrarian first and foremost. Each of them had the seeds of these, surprising for some, turns early on in their writing. Come on, Tulsi Gabbard! What a fitting dance partner for Matt Taibbi. They are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Conrad-Casserole at 6:44 AM on December 13, 2023

Shit, I am guilty of confusing Naomi Klein and Naomi Wolf

Oh, buddy, oof.
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 6:37 AM on December 13, 2023

Came here to see if the ‘intolerant left’ would be blamed for ‘forcing’ the Greenwalds of the world to become fascists and I see that angle was covered immediately.
posted to MetaFilter by chronkite at 6:36 AM on December 13, 2023

It's what happens when the person who's an activist for Cause A gets "cancelled" because of a couple of 7-year-old tweets with an ignorant joke about Cause B, and people stop listening to them about Cause A altogether.

But isn't it usually the selfish, non-apology for past transgressions/offenses that gets people to stop taking someone seriously? There's a lot of people cited in the article who were called out for something and instead of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by RonButNotStupid at 6:32 AM on December 13, 2023

I really do not have any patience for the idea that pointing out people's racism and sexism forces them to become more racist and sexist. Serious people learn from their mistakes and rectify their areas of ignorance. Narcissists look for somewhere they can go unchallenged.
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 6:28 AM on December 13, 2023

> “Edgelords” who’d once used ​“strategic irony” to challenge the status quo ​“began to believe their own rhetoric.”

I had (past tense) two friends who fit this description, and even before the pandemic and everything that has followed in its wake they had already made it clear to me that their "ironic" stances on race relations and misogyny were never really ironic, they were masks of plausible deniability and (in hindsight) probably a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Card Cheat at 6:27 AM on December 13, 2023

I would have been happy with Tig Notaro.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it.
posted to MetaFilter by Avelwood at 8:27 PM on December 14, 2023

Aubrey Plaza.
posted to MetaFilter by Halloween Jack at 8:19 PM on December 14, 2023

For me, Murderbot was always 1980s Grace Jones.
posted to MetaFilter by MrVisible at 7:27 PM on December 14, 2023

I always pictured Murderbot as Gwendoline Christie with a shaved head and masculine chest, so I can’t say this particularly works for me but we’ll see what the trailer’s like.

On preview: lol, yep
posted to MetaFilter by Ryvar at 7:17 PM on December 14, 2023

Gwendoline Christie might have been another interesting choice, though she deserves to not have to deal with wearing armored suits yet again after playing Brienne and Captain Phasma. I am interested to see Skarsgård's take on it though, if they do stay true to Muderbot.
posted to MetaFilter by Pryde at 7:15 PM on December 14, 2023