July 2026 Check-In

This is so late. I'm so behind. June didn't have a check-in. Yikes.

Sometimes the world shifts around and it takes a while to catch back up. With the school year ending and the summer starting, my job has really picked up in the last month and a half and it's thrown my schedule, media consumption, and digestion/output (this) into a massive whirlwind of "where does the time go". It's one of those shifts that's probably permanent and requires a reprioritization of where my time is going, especially considering there are a few things that will continue from sheer habit making (like going on runs) while others (video games, which have never been a top priority so much as a compulsion drug) need to take a backseat (or at least stay there).

Even with all of that, it's hard to not look at everything I want to get done and think about what needs to happen. My partner and I never finished watching this season of Survivor (with three episodes left no less, though I know who wins). Haven't started Widow's Bay. Haven't touched Margo's Got Money Troubles. Thank god I'm not watching Game of Thrones stuff anymore or that would be on there too.

Behind on movies. Didn't get a chance to see I Love Boosters and still need to get out to see Supergirl and Toy Story 5. Still managed to see some really great older movies as part of my Criterion Challenge, though. And in a theater too. Caught Malcolm X as part of American Cinematheque's annual 70 Fest and went to see a screening of Harakiri. Two more to check off my list but... I've watched barely a third of my challenge and we're now halfway through the year. Never ever been this far behind the eight ball, but my current goal is to finish by August.

And I am planning for a check-in on that, but was waiting for the halfway mark. Hopefully I'm there within the next week or so. Hopefully.

I am back on the Doctor Who wagon, though. Which feels nice considering the show is on an indefinite hiatus for the first time since its cancellation. (More on this in a minute...)

So... enough lollygagging. Time to clear out the backrooms.

On the recent Doctor Who news...

There's been tons of news lately, but the big one (for me anyways) is the bombshell that the BBC parted ways with Russell T Davies and his production company Bad Wolf, leaving Doctor Who in limbo and on indefinite hiatus. A year ago, Ncuti Gatwa's second (and final) season wrapped and I spent a time musing about the implications of his abrupt departure, regeneration, and what the hell could possibly come next especially because the final minutes (in which Ncuti Gatwa appears to regenerate into Billie Piper) absolutely reeked of desperation. What could it all mean?

The answer, it turns out, is nothing. RTD claiming there would be a 2026 Christmas Special this year was just him talking about a thing he wanted. There was never a script, never a story (at least nothing written down; based on his process there's no way he wasn't working on it in his head). Rumors have flown around about the status of the writing and I even saw one post from a quasi-reliable source that they even filmed something in secret and/or a secretly cast Doctor. Meanwhile, others claimed that there truly was nothing and the BBC was in the market for a new showrunner.

Turns out the latter part was true.

As for RTD, he was doing his standard bombast and salesmanship to cover up the fact that Disney+ did significant heavy lifting on Doctor Who's production budget. Losing that partnership leaves a now-extraordinarily expensive genre show at the mercy of the BBC's limited resources (which continue to shrink as the British government slowly dismantles its more socialist aspects) and means Doctor Who's future is as dire right now as it's been in my entire lifetime.

It's weird.

That weird is mostly because I find myself at odd peace with it. Out of pure random happenstance, I happened to restart Doctor Who over a few months ago and am slowly working my way through it with a friend. Now through season two, it's remarkable to look at the show in such a nascent state and think about how remarkable it is that we have sixty years of this wonderful program. More than that, I fell back into the audioplays and I'm trying to burn through some of the books because they've been on the list forever. It's been extremely comforting over the past few months, though I admit it has cut into that aforementioned time budgeting.

Mostly, though I'm doing that thing where I'm applying past narratives to modern events. I applied this a bit to RTD2, and that incorrect reading marked the Chibnall era as the nadir of the show much like Colin Baker was the nadir in the original run. In that world, Gatwa would be that great "we survived cancellation, everything else is gravy" that helped the 7th Doctor's run be a flat-out golden age.

I was wrong. The Classic Series ran 26 seasons, came out like clockwork, and basically bottomed out around season 22/23 as the show functionally ripped itself apart as all of the cancerous, unattended rot finally overtook the show and put it on life support.

Meanwhile, the New Series might have only done fifteen seasons, but in terms of time on the air, that's 22nd year in its current form. Weirder still, the Classic series ran ~160 stories (math here is rough) while the New Era is (again, math is weird) right around the 160 stories mark as well.

Looking at the flow of the Classic series, I keep mapping those original Doctors to the New Era, and seeing just how poetic all of this is and how much history seems to rhyme.

To put it very briefly...

• 1st Doctor/Eccleston - show premieres, styles establish. Creative team establishes a clear vision of what the show should be but it mostly appeals as a foundational layer for what comes next. People really love the stories, but they're also the sort that are hard to criticize given the limitations of the show's nascency compared to what comes next. Also the Daleks are a big recurring villain.
• 2nd Doctor/Tennant (I) - New guy comes in who completely changes the way the show works. A great actor gives a definitional performance that will inform the series for a generation. There's great stories (with some clunkers), where stories can feel consistent, but they're mostly notable for when they stray from rote formulas. And (without spoiling either), both regeneration stories feature a similar surprise threat while their final companions' end (Jamie & Zoe v Donna) are all bleak in the same ways.
• 3rd Doctor/Smith - A solid run, but hard to see the performance without conflating it with the actor. While the writing can be insanely solid, it's extremely pitchy. This TARDIS team (with its extensions past the standard female star) feels like a family more than any other (from premiere to cancellation anyways). The actor himself definitely goes on like a season too long and for all that there are odd pockets of brilliance, the show can't seem to escape following up truly fabulous stories with some absolute turkeys. Also features a multi-Doctor crossover for the big intersecting anniversary.
• 4th Doctor/Capaldi - Golden fucking era Doctor Who. Incredible writing. One of the great performances of the role. And something that real ones enjoyed at the time but has only grown and grown in estimation with time/distance. Unfortunately, for all that it rides off that initial excitement, it feels like somewhere in here the show inflects towards decline. Like it stops being a show for everyone and starts to turn inwards towards its more insular fans.
• 5th Doctor/Whittaker - This is a radical Doctor casting unlike anything they'd previously done and they come with a TARDIS team that's way too big to service everyone well. This stunt casting boosts ratings initially but they quickly fall off as it becomes clear that writing is generally bad: good stories feel like mistakes and bad stories are the absolute pits. The incoming production team jettisons old institutional knowledge in the name of building something so the old guard can’t challenge the new orthodoxy's insecurity. For all that some of it feels fresh, the show is actually quite regressive, with an emphasis on regurgitating old continuity and pretending that makes for good stories. Again, The Doctor is a great all-time performance but the writing almost never served it. By the time it's over, it feels like a waste of a great talent actor because production couldn't get its shit together. Oh and there's an over-reliance on The Master, an anniversary special featuring other Doctors, and the return of the Sea Devils for some reason. Best story is probably their regen, and that... sucks.
• 6th Doctor/Tennant (II) & Gatwa - Doctor Who tries to be good but can’t escape the calcified plaque of everything that’s come before. While the central performer is quite good, they never really get the chance to find their footing and get to what they believed themselves capable of. That actor wants a nice long run but only makes it two seasons before an unceremonial departure because of the show's complete mismanagement fucking it up. The topline creatives can't seem to recapture the magic because all of the old problems that were once charming now feel stale and like the show has not functionally evolved. At times it feels like the show is literally ripping itself apart because no one can make it work. While it seemed like it might have had cultural relevance, there's no point pretending like it's culturally relevant at all anymore, and it's impossible to pretend like the series matters because everyone who was once in the party have gone on to other things. Between the drop in quality, collapsing ratings, and extended hiatuses, the BBC functionally cancels Doctor Who such that the future feels in doubt. Shame.
• 7th Doctor/???? - Because the show has essentially already had its cancellation, everything is now on borrowed time. Because of that, it frees Doctor Who to do an insane victory lap with what limited time remains before it goes into its inevitable cancellation. While up to this point, most of the show's writers were those who worked when the show started, a whole new writing team means ardent fan writers who grew up with the show try new things. This radical change in understanding of Doctor Who as an aspect of their childhood turns out a parade of bangers that's got maybe the highest batting average in series history. It’s one of the best runs of all time and an undeniable golden era for the show. And then the show finally gets cancelled because no except the die hards believed the show could ever be good again.

All of this is that classic case of imposing/retrofitting a narrative onto reality. And yet, this wishcasting is all because I love the show so deeply and don't want the Gatwa era to be the end of this particular run. RTD had to go, no doubt, but it sucks that the dude who arrived as a singular hero two decades ago leaves the show as the guy who probably ended up killing it. No one is looking at his return and thinking that it's some great pillar of success. There are so many rough things about it, and it ending the way that it did has really made it difficult to look on it with fondness for even the stuff I really liked (which there was a good amount!). But bad choices behind the scenes that seemed good (and ambitious) at the time ended up tremendously foolish in retrospect.

Worse, Disney+'s role as a major production partner means that (for the states, at least) the Gatwa run lives in its own pocket universe separate and distinct from where the rest of the New Era will live. All of New Who recently landed at AMC+, but Gatwa (and the Tennant specials) are going to live on Disney+ indefinitely. Maybe that will change someday but........... I can't imagine the company that literally built a metaphorical vault for its library will be too eager to farm it out.

And this might seem minor, but RTD's decision to not put Gatwa up against the Daleks (because Davies had massively overused him during his era) adds an insane diegetic asterisk to his entire tenure. It's not that Gatwa lacking a televised Dalek story is bad (though it is unique within the history of the series; even the Daleks have a cameo at the beginning of the McGann movie), but it further adds to this era's lack of legitimacy. Dalek stories help define the eras in which occur and validate the existence and performance of any given incarnation of the Doctor. That the Daleks don't exist for Gatwa's Doctor only contributes to the idea that Gatwa's era is a weird span of time that functionally doesn't exist.

But god what a run it's been. We're almost 20 years since my introduction to what is my absolute favorite television program and I can't understate the impact it's had on my life and how thoroughly watching it (and reading about it) has rewired my brain. If this is what we've gotten, we're so lucky to have gotten it.

Doctor Who got cancelled before. They tried to revive it. It died immediately. And then it regenerated into something staggeringly good.

There's no reason it can't happen again.

... And hey. Maybe this cancellation will spur another great music video like the one above. I could use another good laugh that gets me so good I literally fall out of my chair.

Roar

At the end of May, my partner and I rented out a theater to watch Roar with some friends. There's a whole history to this weird Swiss Family Robinson-esque story, but it's a great example of why going to the theater can be such a singular experience. Because the filmmakers used dozens of real lions and a smattering of other fauna, it's impossible to not watch the entire movie on edge. Like... even though you hear that no one died while making this movie, there's a fear that someone truly might die at any moment because that's a real lion really tackling a real actor (not a stunt guy). And yes that is a lion gnawing on that dude's hand. Affectionately. But also he's drawing blood. Like... quite a bit of blood. All in the name of production value!

This was my second time watching it, and it's a mark of the movie's quality that it's only on rewatch I noticed a bunch of tricks that filmmaking strategies covered up in the moment.

Like... for example. There's lots of moments in the movie that capture the wildlife doing wildlife things. And yes, there's many, many shots of these actors acting opposite the real animals and being less than a foot away from their faces. That really is Tippi Hedren poking her head out of the busted lockers with two lions sparring just above her. Those really are giant cats jumping into and sinking those little speedboats. But there's also lots of shots of people without the animals present. They all act scared because there's lions everywhere.

Yet... tons of shots don't involve lions. The reason the experience feels so harrowing is because the brain connects two separate images into one seamless experience.

And yes it helps that we've already seen lions tackle people and sink boats and chase them around. We know the danger is real. But take the lion-less shots out of the movie and show them to people without context and they won't feel nearly the same thing.

Roar is not a good movie. Not even close. But it's wildly entertaining and a reminder that even within bad movies there can be filmmaking lessons. Even more valuably, a reminder of the tremendous immersion that comes from movie magic.

Hacks s5

One of the great comedies of the decade, Hacks wrapped up its final season last month. I'm not sure I have more to say about this that I didn't say last year. What comes up a lot in the season (especially in the post-episode featurettes) is this idea of legacy and what artists leave behind.

That clear vision really helps Hacks land a fabulous final season. Sure the show has always been a lot of inside baseball talk about the industry and comedy and agents and more. But by telling a story about something, that's felt comfortable circling back to its origins, it builds this sense of growth and progress and evolution. The tracking shot of Ava in the finale echoes the tracking shot of Deborah in the pilot. And the finale bringing back Deborah topping her own joke to impress Ava was a lovely way of bringing their relationship full circle.

It's hard to know what else to say about the show beyond that I will miss it very much. I know people who didn't always respond to the Jimmy/Kayla storylines. Their stories were usually broad and optimistic in ways that lacked the nuance of Ava/Deborah, but allowing that to derail a show this wonderful is a shame. And Megan Stalter is so freaking funny all the time...

Regardless, I'm sad it's over, but as one of the banner shows for HBO Max (where the show survived the streaming service's initial branding, rebranding, and then the retrobranding), it really is one of the great success stories of the streaming era. Yes, I wish there were more episodes. But it was a tremendous role for Jean Smart and a fabulous introduction for Hannah Einbinder. Female led comedy is exceedingly rare, especially at this scale, and with a lead as old as Smart too. Getting to make exactly the show they wanted, at this consistent a schedule, and with this specific ending cements its legacy. Now if only other streamers could make shit like this...

The World Cup

Yes, there's lots of complaints about my watching going down the tubes, but partially that's my own damn fault. Because it's World Cup season.

We're in the Round of 16 now and favorites are already falling. Germany, The Netherlands, and Japan fell in the first round. Canada went out yesterday. And the U.S. plays tomorrow in a game where... well. We'll see.

It's been a wonderful cup so far and there's so much to talk about. Great stories both on the pitch and off. I'm not the first to say this, but having the United States as one of the host nations has been a tremendous boon for this country's standing in the world, and it says a lot that this international celebration has me feeling more patriotic than the nonsense the Trump administration cooked up for this weekend's 250th birthday celebrations. Stories of international travelers finding out about how great Waffle House is, or what it takes to tailgate, or how utterly magical a trip to Costco can be.

But the story that's impossible to ignore was Friday's match between Argentina and Cape Verde. The reigning champs beat the newcomers 3-2, but... well. It was one of the great football matches of all time. No one expected Cape Verde (ranked 67th in the world) to win. Certainly not against a team led by the most World Cup-goal-scoringest player of all time.

But it was remarkable that they tied every group match game and went into the knockouts by keeping Spain to a 0-0 draw, and holding Uruguay to 2-2 one the second day.

In the game, they fell behind to Argentina twice, once in regulation, once in extra time. They came back both times. That last goal was just a bit too late and too much for them to overcome, but... It was an absolutely religious experience. Everyone I have talked to about it found it utterly rapturous to see those two goals happen, to watch a slugfest that's as close to experiencing real life Rocky we might ever see. I took Instagram off my phone, but I spent an hour just scrolling through on my phone, getting served take after take and celebration after celebration for a game that should have felt like a crushing defeat. Or a mercy killing. Or a slaughter.

This, though, is sports. It's real life. And for all that I love a well-crafted narrative, it's a great reminder that life as it is can be truly wondrous if we let it play out. That people will surprise you. And step up. And be utterly, fabulously miraculous.

This World Cup has been an absolute blessing. What a time to be alive.

Coming soon...

The Odyssey is out in less than two weeks. And I am so way behind on these Nolan reviews. Quixotic to think I can't finish them? Ha! I laugh in the face of danger.

So that'll probably be a lot of what comes out. I'm trying to be less precious about the lengths of these posts (I say, with this one at almost 4k words). It's okay for me to do something that's just a thousand words. I keep telling myself that anyways.

Stuff will come up. I know The Bear dropped its final season. There's the aforementioned Widow's Bay, and... another Spider-man is coming out. And I am going to read The Odyssey too.

Plenty. I've got plenty going on.

Thanks for sticking around!