Ben Blacker

FEBRUARY 2026 DOUBLE A SIDE, by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists 2 track album

🚨BREAKING: Late night decision leads to late night posting of new double A-side single for #bandcampfriday!

tedleo.bandcamp.com/album/februa...

1. It was not an accident.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert "The Obvious Child" - I'm With Her (LIVE on The Late Show)

Want to feel good for a few minutes tonight? Watch this.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8XF...

Thanks for reading. We’re proud of the book! No plans for more since DC owns it and shut down that iteration of the label. The new Vertigo books look great though! Check those out.

In today's Re:Writing, THE CONJURING writers The Hayes Brothers answer my 6 Questions about research, not making a plan B, their new writer-friendly evaluation tool, what they're suckers for in a script +more.
Ask your Qs this Sunday in our live Zoom Q&A!
benblacker.substack.com/p/6-question...

A good one in today's Writers Panel pod. PONIES creators @davidiserson.bsky.social & Susanna Fogel on going from The Spy Who Dumped Me eight years ago to Ponies, comedy with stakes, American culture through a funhouse mirror, why pitching is a scam + more.
Listen: benblacker.substack.com/p/ponies

Hahahaha

You have to block them immediately. The full nuclear. They are only here to make folks angry, and that can’t happen if we lock them out.

Hahahaha My wife watches with an apparatus she calls her “Pitt paper,” which is just a sheet of paper held up during most scenes.

In today's Writers Panel pod, I talk to PLURIBUS writer/director/EP Gordon Smith about the origins of the show, what gives it legs, story as algorithm, a non-mystery mystery, parsing notes, getting sand in your eyes + lots more.
Listen: benblacker.substack.com/p/gordon-smi...

In today's Re:Writing newsletter, I wrote a post about goals (for your characters, but maybe they apply to you too?). Used three of my 2025 favorites by way of example, and there's some good advice in here too from David Goyer, @malcolmspellman.bsky.social + more.
benblacker.substack.com/p/goal-post

Big fan

And of course the conclusion to the romantic story that was bobbing throughout this episode is completely sold by the look SMG gives in the very last moment. The degree to which SMG is smitten with Buffy being smitten with Angel almost sells me on Angel as a character.
Almost.

Jonathan being threatened by the Inca Mummy Girl

Also! They're starting to populate the world a bit, which is really fun. We see Danny Strong's Jonathan for the second time in this episode, being a today for Cordelia. And we got Oz in the previous episode. When the producers fall in love with an actor, they really let them play.

Small character moments in this one really shine. Willow getting flustered about Buffy lying to Giles, and later dressing down both Giles + Angel, is excellent. There's a killer line read from Charisma Carpenter that follows this gif. When Buffy replies w reticence, she replies, "Me too. Let's go!"

Brooding Angel telling Buffy he can't get a coffee with her.

The strongest episodes are the ones in which the emotional story's climax coincides with the plot climax. That doesn't happen here. Character story culminates with Angel showing up to rescue Buffy- going into vampface; after that it's just (anti-climactically) fighting frat boys and a lizard guy.

Buffy and Xander on the bed behind Willow. They're all watching a movie and doing Willow's hair. It's a sleep over.

205 "Reptile Boy" is a strong episode. Writer/director David Greenwalt spends a lot of time with the characters while the plot inches along, which makes it all bit plodding, but Greenwalt's strength is in the group and their dynamics.

And SMG is truly excellent in both of these episodes, even in more of a supporting role in “Mummy Girl.” The moments she has shine. She hears the music, delivers every line with intention. And Buffy and Giles together are always brilliant scenes. The two strongest actors in the show, at this point.

The “World Costume Dance” is WILDLY problematic. But Willow in her Inuit parka is absolutely perfect for her character. And the introduction of Oz, playing different rhythms to the rest of the cast in the best way, noticing “that girl” in her costume is adorable.

The ep has a lot of interesting story + thematic strands. Buffy + Empata both being denied normal lives is great. Willow working out her Xander crush is charming (“I haven’t picked one yet” is both hilarious and so real). But the plotting is dodgy. Feels like a LOT of ADR + too much air in general.

Xander dressed as Clint Eastwood and the mummy girl dressed as herself at the costume party

I’ve got a lot of time for 204 “Inca Mummy Girl.” I liked when the show tried “their take” on classic monsters. They did Frankenstein (“Some Assembly Required”), Invisible Man (“Out of Sight…”); this is their go at The Mummy. Making her a teen, having her fall for Xander, are good ways in.

It had not occurred to me until THIS MINUTE that the title is meant to evoke “Die Hard.” Because that last third takes place entirely in the school. I guess that’s funny?

Spike in vamp-face smoking a cigarette. Because he can. He’s a vampire. And it’s cool.

And of course Spike is a perfect villain for the series. While the Master had an element of camp, Spike is funny and scary and chaotic and, well, cool. Young. (For a vampire) And the series was always about youth.

Xander, Buffy, and Willow try to study at the Bronze.

203 “School Hard” is the first A+ ep of the series. The disparate elements click in unison. The writers start hitting “Buffy just wants to be normal” hard this season, firmly defining the character’s ultimate (relatable) goal. Jokes are sharp. Parent-teacher night a perfect thematic horror backdrop

50 wonderful things from 2025 Each year, critic Linda Holmes looks back on the year and compiles a list of the things that brought her joy.

It’s one of my favorite days of the year! Here are my 50 Wonderful Things From 2025.

Thanks as always to the editors who help wrangle this bear.

I met R2D2 on the street and he was not gracious at all. C3PO had to apologize for him like, he hasn’t had his crystals today. The crystals that he eats. He has to eat these it’s like cereal to him. He offered to take a pic w/me but I was like lol you are like the Ringo of this. You are below Wicket

I wonder if the fall of Rome was this goddamn stupid. Were Romans just walking around, gesturing wildly, 'can you believe this?'

We used to be a country.

Just a few days until the new year begins and movie releases suddenly collapse into the official two genres of January: “Horror” and “Whoops”.