Person of Interest

Butlerian Jihad: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."

AV Club reviews Person Of Interest: “The Cold War”

Person of Interest

AV Club reviews Person Of Interest: “Prophets”

Manhattan

AV Club reviews Manhattan: “Perestroika”

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: “Crutchfield”

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: “Working Late A Lot”

Person of Interest

AV Club reviews Person Of Interest: “Nautilus”

JFK and Masters of Sex

Masters Of Sex: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

They show part of JFK's 1961 inaugaration speech and he goes on about how prosperity doesn't depend on the generosity of the state but come from God. It didn't start with Ronnie Raygun. Reminded me about the hopefulness about Obama and how it's been a disappointment. SNL's new News Update segment ended with a joke about a street named after Obama and how parents would warn their kids not to travel north of that street.

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: “Get The Rope”

Sarah Silverman

AV Club interview: Sarah Silverman talks boobs, and answers our 11 questions

SS: I did this interview for various reasons. One: I’m a fan of The A.V. Club. That’s always who I look up to look at television reviews. Two: I have a love-hate withThe A.V. Club because they broke my heart many times reviewing my show. And three: I’ve got a record coming out! Come on! The We Are Miracles album comes out September 22. September 23 worldwide.

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: “Start Calling Me Dad”

You're the Worst

AV Club reviews You’re The Worst: “Fists And Feet And Stuff”

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: “They Capture The Heat”

Steampunk - The Knick and You're the Worst

AV Club reviews The Knick: “Where’s The Dignity”

AV Club reviews  You’re The Worst: “Finish Your Milk”

Whit Stillman

Stillman has a new show on Amazon called The Cosmopolitans. He was on Charlie Rose last night and I share his sensibility very much. Metropolitan is about how not all of the one percent are assholes. Barcelona was a plea for foreigner to treat Americans in their countries better. Not all Americans are assholes. His father worked for Kennedy and FDR Jr.  He's a romantic but like Salinger and Woody Allen brings some humor to the romanticism.

The Cosmopolitans is set in Paris and about bringing romanticism and nostalgia to the present day, very much like Midnight in Paris. By the way, Corey Stoll who played Hemingway in that is on The Strain.

AV Club gives it a B+.

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: “The Busy Flea”

The Leftovers

AV Club reviews The Leftovers: “Cairo”

So Jill has joined the Guilty Remnant. As an AV Clubber writes, she may just miss her mom. The review links to a Vanity Fair writer's tweet about how the show is about depression.

What’s interesting is that the statement has some bias built in: It implies that depression offers clarity into the human condition—something more real, more reliable, more logical.

There’s a term for this: depressive realism, a psychological hypothesis introduced in 1979 that suggested that maybe the reason certain people suffer from depression is because they’re able to see the world more clearly, without the bias of optimism. It’s a dark interpretation of the disease—and one that has been challenged quite a bit in the psychological community. But its particular insidious appeal, I think, is that depressive realism follows the logic of depression itself—this pessimism is the only sensible way to look at the world.

A few weeks ago, Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson introduced the idea that The Leftovers serves, at least in part, as an examination of depression. That seems more relevant than ever in tonight’s episode, “Cairo,” which tells the story of how Jill Garvey, a teenage girl like Hazel, ends up joining the Guilty Remnant. There’s other stuff happening in this episode, but “Cairo” feels like Jill’s episode. This is the first time her struggle has felt important and real. And what it feels like is a struggle with depression.

With what's going on in Ferguson I think of Cornel West. A main distinction he would make was between optimism and hope. Things might not get better, but you hope they will. Being optimistic is unrealistic but being hopeful wards off despair.

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: "Mr. Paris Shoes"

Pitchfork streams Cliff Martinez's soundtrack

My dream project is a steampunk "prestige drama" about Ada Lovelace along the lines of The Knick.

Bono's daughter plays nurse Lucy Elkins.

Steampunk - The Knick

AV Club reviews The Knick: “Method And Madness”

You're The Worst

AV Club reviews You’re The Worst: “What Normal People Do”

I love that Sam is an architecture nerd: ““The Craftsmen movement was a protest against the dehumanizing aspects of the Industrial Revolution. Irony is, building these shits was so expensive couldn’t no laborers dream of living in one.”

The Bridge

"The government couldn't win the war on drugs — so they're using it to fund the war on terror."

-- Reese from Person of Interest

AV Club reviews The Bridge: "Eye of the Deep"