#first viewing

Noah Wyle shares the very first time he and castmates watched the ER pilot. 🩺✨

1_ Being the image of a literal sheriff wearing a cowboy hat, Dougie gets reminded of Harry which brings him happiness like it happened with the coffee and the cherry pie.

2_ The cowboy points a gun at an office building. The modern usamerican society is built on a path of violence, a path that involved the killing and exploitation of native americans. Dougie is (to my understanding as currently being in part 14) an artificial being that Mr C created in the black lodge for his own benefit, so basically a white man used a place important to native americans so he can commit terrible acts for his own convenience. Also Cooper may not always follow the fbi rules, but at the end of the day being an fbi agent involves being extremely reactive, Cooper deep down likes that he and the rest of his country are following a path and maintaining a status quo premeditated centuries ago even if it's corrupt and built on the blood of the innocent, maybe he is ignorant to history and is living the dream or maybe he just doesn't care all that much.

This is a vibe-focused analysis of privilege. Though the book is from 1991 so that terminology wasn't available at the time.

...Or in 2000, when they made the movie.

Bateman is an avatar of control. Everything he does is a hyper-expression of controlling everything. And he demands such a total control of everything, coming out of his privilege, that murder is just a natural extension of that. He kills, because ending life is the ultimate control. Control is the fetish. Of money, of his body, of everyone around him. And any time that breaks, so does he.

But this might all be a homeless grifter's fantasy about what he can do, and what he wants to be able to do. It's so theatrical and simplistic that it's impossible to tell what is real and what is fantasy. So it becomes an analysis of delusional white male American power fantasies.

If Bateman is real, but not really doing serial murder, he's fantasizing about doing them. If he isn't real, if Bateman himself is a lie, people aren't really dying, and he isn't exploding cop cars. Either way, none of what we see is really happening.

Back to delusion. Crazy people don't know they're crazy. What is real, and what is madness? If a person is mad, they don't know. So maybe the murders ARE real! But the guy doing them doesn't know. Or, to him, they are as real as the other fantasies. It's all equally real and not-real. Only the potentially real victims and police can sort out the truth, from this perspective.

The movie would seem to be a critique of 1980s Wall Street. But that only plays if Bateman is a real person there. If he isn't, then this is merely what a madman thinks that was all about. It's the culmination of all his crazy fantasies, that he has unlimited money and everyone is just a prop, and he can do Great Justice on rich boys and "whores". He's a killer Batman! ...Named Bateman. MASTUR-Bateman. Masturbating to porn is the ultimate personal control of sex, and Bateman is shown to LOVE porn, even with his easy access to real sex (purchased with either money or social capital). Master Bateman.

Maybe the book is more specific about which possibility is true. The movie is not. Bateman might not even exist, besides as the creation of a lunatic. We could be watching a crazy person's fantasies, made into a movie.

This is a very good movie, because it doesn't commit. It just slaps you in the face with this story about a chaotic person trying to exert control, and leaves you there.

Now why toxic dudebros like it, I don't know, other than them completely missing the point and taking it all literally, yeah I'm a white guy with money who dreams of doing violence all the time too, this movie gets me. That's probably all they get out of it.

The Wolf Man (2025)

Dir. Leigh Whannell // ☆☆☆ 1/2

First viewing!

And the first episode is, 'Twice Upon a Time'? That was a surprise to see as I double-checked and it's also in the Capaldi Box Set. I'm just confused because my other Box Sets for Doctor Runs don't have this. The Eccleston and Tennant Box Set (They were both put in the same one) doesn't have the TV movie, Matt Smith doesn't have Tennant's last episode two-parter and Capaldi's doesn't have Matt Smith's last episode. Since it's in the set I'm going to talk about it quickly since it isn't a Jodie Whittaker Episode.

I enjoyed this episode. I don't know if it's that I've stopped watching creators who are always negative about things. But I've been enjoying media more. You can talk about how the First Doctor makes comments we don't say anymore because they're misogynistic and such, but that stops about halfway through the episode, and with my first viewing of the First Doctor, he does say a bunch of them. He is there to show how much not only the character has changed but the show and society have changed.

It was a fun episode to watch and if you poke at it too much it falls apart a bit, but the places they and how they're connected is fun. I'd say this episode is very much Doctor Who, the characters, settings, and dynamics are great but not always the plot. And that's ok. The worst Doctor Who episodes are usually the ones with bad characterization and relationships.

So on to 'The Woman Who Fell To Earth'.

I really don't like how they are trying to make Billy sympathetic in the last minute because I assume at minute 8 that he will be dead before minute 40, or at the end of the season.

Steve on the other hand, has evolved fully into babysitter mode. Congratulations kids, your pokemon has evolved and I can't wait what's his next stage.

Oh, Bob is so going to die isn't he? and in this episode. Because he's a nerd and he knows BASIC. He doesn't know how to use a gun and as always, in fiction they make it sound as if it's as easy as "safety off, safety on, point at the thing you want to shoot" and nope, not that easy.

Rest in Peace, Mikey from the Goonies, you deserved a lot better.

Interesting how Steve was with the kids, while Jonathan and Nancy stayed together when they got to Jonathan's house. As I said, Steve has gone through quite an evolution. Bully to Good Boyfriend to Babysitter to... what will be next? Dunno, but right now I feel like if anyone touches a hair on Dustin? Steve will meet them with a bat.

There's also the fact that of the "grown ups" he's the only one who is willing to go with Dustin's analogy of the Mind Flayer with respect, even if his grasp on DnD is non existent and his grasp on history is... not passing grade. But he tries, while the Sheriff just is annoyed and Nancy... is dismissive. When she KNOWS these kids have been right before.

Max has the patience of a saint, I swear. I'd have ditched these guys a long time ago the way they treat her.

Will is SO gay for Mike. I mean, I know enough to know this is canon, but this is the first time I actually see it in the show.

Wow. Eleven knows how to make an entrance. I will give her that.

1) Andy arriving at the hotel and getting hugs: Oh. I'm very bisexual. 

2) Nile trying to run away from Andy: What is she DOING? Like... Charlize could kidnap me LITERALLY Any day. Ma'am, throw me over your shoulder and carry me. Away. I do admire Freeman's determination though.

3) Andy refuses to tell Nile how old she is: OKAY BUT HOW OLD THOUGH? I know we've moved on but like... WHICH eldrich goddess WERE you Charlize? 

4) The story of Quynh: Okay but...Wouldn't it rust?? I feel like... it would have rusted. But also what an excellent villain origin story? For a sequel perhaps?

5) The van scene: OH GOD OH GOD I AM NOT. OH GOD Oh fuck.

6) Booker shooting Andy: BOOOOOOOKER NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOKER YOU FUCK YOU FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKING FUCK

7) Booker tells Merrick to let Andy go: AWWW Now your ethics pop up? Get fucked asshole.

8) Joe kills Keane: Oh that was. Yes. "Should not have done that." Neck snap. Yes very sexy.

9) The Quynh reveal: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THE CAGE ROTTED YESSSSSSSSSSS I WAS CORREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECT