Gretchen McSomething

The talk to your friends app and the witness the horrors app being the same app is not great for the mental health is it

Digital drawing of a stylized orchid mantis holding a green candy heart that says “BITE U”.

happy valentines day to the lovers and the biters 💗

Anyway, I wrote all this while watching the final episode which was annoying, predictable, and full of strained symbolism.

*mobster
Damn you autocarrot

I mean, there's also genre issues.

S2 is trying to be LA hardboiled and fails, whereas S1 succeeds at being southern gothic.

But maybe that's a rant for another time.

So I have to conclude that because Pizzolatto was the sole writer and the show runner, there was no one on set who could tell him it wasn't working.

And like I said before, their voices are almost indistinguishable. There might be minor differences in diction to tell us that this character is a cop, this one a monster, this one a sex worker, but they all talk as if what they are saying is super significant even while it's riddled with cliches.

So I come back to the writing, because it's not just that we have a bunch of characters whose personalities are almost indistinguishable, it's because when they aren't shooting some one, they're nearly always sitting somewhere in pairs, providing exposition or telling us about their tragic past.

But then I looked at the credits, and S2 had 6 directors over 8 episodes. But the issues with the performances are consistent across the season.

Because regardless of whether or not we personally like the main cast members, I think we can agree that all of them have delivered better performances before and since.

At first I thought it was the direction. Like, the actors were constantly being told, "Let's do it one more time, but with less feeling this time."

Because even when the actors do show an emotion, it's over in seconds and they're back to flat affect and monotone again before the scene ends.

My theory is that we are dealing with a showrunner who,on a high with all the (well deserved) praise of S1, is so enamoured of his own writing that he doesn't let the directors direct or the actors act. Because what he really cares about is the words.

So I'm at least 10 years late to the Wow Season 2 of True Detective Really Sucks party... But I have a theory.

All bar staff need to read it!

AI destroying entry level jobs in disciplines with an extended progression from basic competence to mastery feels like eating our seed corn

For me it was Will, partly because the kid they cast as young Will looked so much like he did in S1.

Yeah, I nearly added that.

I think Nancy, Steve, and Robin's casting worked because they were probably 20 something when cast, but Jonathan looks a lot older.

In the show timeline it's been about 4 years, but the young actors are all 10 years older, and it's hard to believe that the main kids are meant to be 15 or 16.

Okay. That wins .

Quote with a GIF that depicts the energy you're going into 2026 with.

My rule of thumb for new year's resolutions/yearly goals is that they should improve your quality of life and be fun.

This person's soup quest meets all the criteria and the photos of soup are beautiful.

Remember, kids, Y2K turned out to be a nothingburger only because thousands of people worked their asses off to make sure it didn't happen (just like the hole in the ozone layer)

Happy 25th Anniversary to those who remember...

Remember kids, the Romans couldn't say UwU, they had to say VvV

He’s out fighting Skynet while everyone around him are like “I know Skynet is bad, but I only use it to do all my tasks so that I have more time to consume other Skynet-manufactured media.”

Some are suggesting you deliberately write inaccurate or confusing alt text, because they say this confuses AI scrapers that are analyzing images.

The purpose of alt text is to help people who cannot see the image. Deliberately misrepresenting the image is a gross misuse of alt text. Don't do it.

I have nearly tried on shirts I donated. I think of it as a sign that I know what I like.

[update] In Progress: #AO3 maintenance has begun! We expect to be down for about 20 hours, but we’ll keep you updated on any changes.

Let's try a variation on a meme.

10 living authors who I own 5 or more books by:

Ben Aaronovitch
Lois McMaster Bujold
James Ellroy
Frances Hardinge
N.K. Jemison
Ann Leckie
Nick Mamatas
Silvia Moreno Garcia
Jeff VanderMeer
Martha Wells