Sitemap - 2024 - Writing Without Rules: Deep Dives
‘The Substance’ Undermines Itself
Great Scenes in Not-Great Shows: “True Detective Season 2”
‘Alien: Romulus’ Chooses Mediocrity
‘Heretic’ Only Works Because of One Weird Trick
‘Maxxxine’ Accepts a Life It Doesn’t Deserve
“Woman of the Hour” Buries the Lede
“Caddo Lake” Vs. “Primer”: Two Levels of Puzzle Box
‘It’s What’s Inside’ and The Unstressed Detail
‘Civil War’: Too Smart for Its Own Good
‘I Saw the TV Glow’ is All FOFU
‘Rebel Ridge’ and Narrative Trickery
‘Industry’: One of Us! One of Us!
‘The Watchers’ and Thematic Lard
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ and Veering Into Unexpected Horror
‘My Lady Jane’: Reveal Fatigue
The Eternal Awkwardness of the Writing Career: ‘The Third Man’
‘Furiosa’ and Furious Competence
‘Twisters’: A Refreshing Lack of Villains
‘Hundreds of Beavers’ and What Even Is Reality, Anyway
The ‘Kingsman’ Free Bird Scene
‘In a Violent Nature’ and Committing to The Bit
‘The Boys’: The Exhaustion of Possibilities
No Problem Too Small: ‘The Gentlemen’ and Just-in-Time Plotting
‘Dune Part 2’: How to Gesture Vaguely at Everything
You Are There: Subtle Fourth Wall Breaks
‘Under the Skin’ and a Perfect Scene
‘Madame Web’ and The Lazy Writer’s Guide to Bad Stories
‘Talk To Me’: The Cruelty Is the Point
‘Late Night with the Devil’ and One Weird Trick
Isolate, Gaslight, Abuse: ‘Baby Reindeer’ Works the POV
‘Fallout’ and Making Serial Structures Work
Rhyme the Rhyme Well: ‘Red Rocket’
‘The Good Place’ and Weaponizing Tropes
‘Elsbeth’: Everyone Old is New-ish Again
‘The Tourist’ and The Ethan Problem
‘The Regime’ Goes Zero to Ridiculous Way Too Fast
The New ‘Very Special Episode’ and ‘Expats’
‘Project Hail Mary’: Know When to Fold ‘Em
‘It Happened One Night’ and the Case of the Curiously Modern Old Movies
‘The Crown’ and Diminishing Returns
‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’: Comically Bad (at Their Jobs)
‘Anatomy of a Fall’ and Excruciating Ambiguity
‘True Detective: Night Country’ and Slippery Authority
‘Loudermilk’: Making an Unlikable Character Work
‘Aftersun’: Telling a Story in Details
'A Murder at The End of The World': Signals
‘The Killer’ and Vacuous Competence
‘Indiana Jones’ and the Proper Use of Handwaves