This article contains spoilers for both John Carpenter’s 1984 film The Thing and the final scene of “Made In America”, the series finale of The Sopranos.
The big mystery hanging over John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing is ‘who is a Thing?’. More specifically, is either MacReady (Kurt Russel) or Childs (Keith David) a Thing, or are both of them? Unfortunately, this is one of those mysteries that strikes me as definitively solved; it’s been pointed out to me (and sadly the video I saw a few years ago no longer exists) that someone being Thinged is indicated by a change in clothes (because a Thing rips them up as it assimilates someone) and that there is a long shot of the facility towards the end that shows Childs’s jacket is missing from where he hung it up. There’s also the less-convincing but extremely cool note that MacReady has very visible cold breath in the final scene whereas Childs does not – because the Thing doesn’t have cold breath, perhaps? This is, more than likely, a continuity error, but it works with this interpretation of the scene.
Now, I find this disappointing, because my preferred interpretation until I learned this information was that neither man is a Thing, and paranoia has simply reduced them to a complete inability to trust each other, and they’d be totally fine if they just worked together to survive. But I simply can’t bring myself to fly in the face of objective reality, even in the subjective context of a film. I’ve noted a few times that I’m more of an analytical fan than a creative one, and this is where I hit into genuine conflict with other people over it.
I do not see the point in flying in the face of the text, and I get extremely frustrated with people who won’t at least admit that that’s what they’re doing. The second story structure I ever learned was the scientific method – you have a hypothesis, you test it, you see the results. Often, rinse and repeat. I am not a scientist, nor do I have any desire to be one, but this is an attitude I’ve brought to many things, especially art and especially in the form of criticism.
Now, to be clear, I don’t think this makes me smarter than other people, I don’t think it makes me always right, and I definitely know it doesn’t make me immune to pseudoscience or silly beliefs. With art specifically, I fully believe that it presents subjective perspectives that inspire equally subjective responses. That said… working against the text goes against the whole fun of criticism for me. Criticism is the pursuit of truth and the most accurate explanation for what we’re looking at here.
A useful example – the one that infuriates me the most – is the ‘Tony lives vs Tony dies’ argument for the ending of The Sopranos. “Master of Sopranos” is one of the most spectacular examples of criticism I’ve ever read, elegantly laying out a precise, step-by-step explanation for why the final scene is communicating the idea that Tony is about to be murdered and doesn’t realise, with the emotional underpinning that life is short and precious (and that Tony has wasted it). This is good criticism that has heightened what was already a powerful emotional experience for me; I love rewatching the scene and soaking up the technique, feeling both dread and the pleasure that comes from losing myself in a well-constructed piece of art.
By comparison, ‘Tony lives’ arguments are not nearly as elegant or convincing; if I’m feeling mean, and I often am, they often seem to come down to “Aw, come ooooooon. It would be cool. Come oooooooon!” When I ask for an explanation for the same information “MoS” presents, I usually get deflections and rambling descriptions*. I’m genuinely not trying to tie this into either character assassination or politics – perfectly intelligent people have pitched ‘Tony lives’ to me – but it reminds me so much of woo-woo pseudoscience and mysticism.
(*”Imagine Tony living out the rest of his life like a lame dog, pathetically wandering about waiting for death to come.” I don’t have to imagine that! I’ve seen it! That’s the show! A big part of my objection is that Tony dying is so much cooler on top of being much more likely to be correct – if nothing else, it’s a novel moment that feels like a good full stop at the end of a sentence. You act evil, then you die and go to Hell.)
I think what bothers me as well is that it feels like a misuse of the creative instinct. I love this aspect of fandom – fanart, fanfic, cosplay, etc. The creation of something out of nothing is delightful and what we’re put on this planet for; even the stuff that seems vapid and stupid, like shipping, is an expression of the human instinct to create. There’s something very human to me, as well, about taking the most disposable of human detritus and making something crude and sincere out of it; I’ve spent over a decade trying to tap into this in a meaningful way.
The pursuit of creative expression is different from the pursuit of good criticism. Creativity asks ‘what if?’, and criticism asks ‘what is?’. Criticism is the sorting of facts (even if those facts are fictional); once you start ignoring those facts or, god forbid, making them up, you lose all sight of what makes criticism worthwhile and enjoyable. Not to sound like a cliche atheist, but once you start making up justifications for your take, where does it end? Saying there were faeries floating behind Tony just offscreen at all times?
About the writer
Tristan J. Nankervis
Tristan J Nankervis (aka Drunk Napoleon) has been a writer, pop culture critic, dishwasher, standup comedian, waiter, potato cake factory worker, gamer, TV worker, and various other things. You can find him in Hobart, Tasmania.
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Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Red vs Blue, Season Two, Episode Two
“What’s that guy babbling about down there? I thought Tucker was annoying.”
“Sorry I thought you blew me up all this time.”
“That’s okay. I’m sorry for enjoying blowing you up so much.”
“Yeah, I don’t think it was necessary for you to tell me that.”
This cleans up the Church time-travel arc; in the original run, it was three episodes, but they’re spread out across three episodes here. There’s some good time travel jokes, where Church becomes the him that did the thing he saw before, repeatedly. More importantly, the story is elaborating further in the sense that the lore is expanding; this is clearly part of the playful attitude of the show and attempting to expand upon gameplay details that are available, such as being able to play as an alien, or the bomb in one multiplayer mode. I think it’s also just a natural creative instinct; I don’t think it works at all as a story to actually care about, and in fact it undermines the comedy a little.
“You want the long version or the short version?”
“I will take the easy version.”
Great gag where Tex won’t stop staring at the sword. “I’ve already seen you. Not too impressed.”
It’s becoming slightly too much about the Lore as opposed to, you know, the characters. I think of the few times where I’ve genuinely cared about the lore of a story; Neon Genesis Evangelion is a major one, because not only is the lore creative and bizarre, and not only is it layers and layers of metaphors for the basic idea of depression – a major example being the AT field, which is simultaneously a bit of technobabble and a metaphor for the emotional walls between us all – but it also pushes the story forward and limits the characters to a few actions in different situations. There’s also Twin Peaks, where the lore is incredibly, bizarrely specific. It’s actually usually a scifi story where I get into it; Mass Effect is my favourite, though I also appreciate Stargate and Star Trek, with Deep Space Nine making some good story lore.
“Time isn’t made out of lines. It is made out of circles. That is why clocks are round.” Caboose inadvertently predicting “Time is a flat circle.”
“Hmm, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that some of that is wrong.”
Overall, though, lore is maybe fifth or sixth down the line when it comes to me enjoying a story (though oddly enough, it’s a main priority for me when writing a story, so I can keep the situation plausible in my head). And especially in a goofy comedy, where the whole appeal is watching a situation that does not fucking matter, it needs to be as dumb and silly as possible; indeed, as I noted, this has been part of the fun for me. Now it’s starting to take itself seriously, which goes from fun and dumb to just dumb. I do not care about the prophecy of The Great Destroyer.
Great, classic gag where Church discovers Tucker’s first name is Lavernius, and wonders if he’s black (“I dunno, it just seems like something I should have picked up on after all these years.” / “You know what else you should have picked up on? My fucking first name!”).
Been rewatching Letterkenny Season 2 and while the Shark Tank gag of “Uncle Ernie’s Trust” is obvious, it is very funny to hear a description of The Bachelor and see someone visibly recoil in horror at the deranged premise. (“So you’re saying that the man has sex with all three of these women before he decides which one he’ll marry?” “And the families know he’ll have sex with all three of these women before he marries one?”) My friend had never seen the show and finds Glen delightful.
Mild rant here: some incel on YouTube posted a scene of Wayne on a date with a feminist and psychologist out of context with the title “This is how you talk to FEMINISTS”. But this chud cut the scene before Wayne says that if feminism means men and women are equal, sure, he believes in that. (The joke is about Wayne, being a taciturn farmer, finding a woman who likes to interrogate and verbally play around hard to deal with.) Much as the show deliberately plays with stereotypes, it has a good heart.
They’re so right about The Bachelor, haha. Glen took a while to grow on me but he really is fun. Aside from how jarring it is to hear Jacob Tierney’s real voice in interviews, now, haha.
Amazing how some people can watch the show but not really watch the show.
Too Late for Tears – The other movie based on a Roy Huggins story (and scripted by him), and it only really gets going when Lizabeth Scott is revealed to be the most fatal of femme fatales, a performance I rank only behind Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction. The rest is pretty good but as if often the case, the good guys just are not as interesting as the bad guys.
Flash Gordon – Adult me all too easily finds the yellowface and other racist and sexist elements, the vast levels of nonsense in the plot, the bland acting of the leads. But kid me would have eaten this with a spoon, and adult me really does like the supporting cast (Timothy Dalton is so much more interesting in this sort of thing that, say, James Bond, and Brian Blessed is a better Hawkman than any actual DC Comics Hawkman has been), the practical effects that are cheesy but surprisingly effective, and that Queen score. Plus where the hell did the touching scene of Zarkov’s memories as a Jew and a Holocaust survivor come from in this? Kudos to Mike Hodges (who has directed much better movies) for somehow making this work at all.
The Practice, “”Friends and Ex-Lovers”/”An Early Frost” – More of William Hinks, who may or may not have impersonated a cabbie to stalk Lindsey, killed the new dog at the office, and killed his shrink. (I am not sure David E.
Kelley knew.) The end at last of the endless cases with Bruce Davison, with Jimmy testifying for the prosecution. And finally we maybe see what the plan has been: break Bobby Donnell. Between his pregnant wife being stalked and his friend committing a murder in their offices, Bobby is far gone enough to ask a criminal friend of his to put the fear of God into Hinks. Instead, Hinks endless up dead. The melodrama is done well but it’s still melodrama and spiraling away from reality. Plus in the former episode, a much more interesting case where a defendant goes behind his lawyer’s back to plea bargain since his lawyer is actually hired by an anonymous drug boss. Helen and Judge Kittelson balance one set of ethics against another, and drag Eugene in, which he hates. Fuzzy legal ethics are just more fun now than Bobby going nuts.
Frasier, “Room Full of Heroes” – Frasier’s Halloween party with the theme of “come as your hero” fails to draw any guests but the core cast, maybe because he has a themed game of questions planned. And things get messy when Roz is embarrassed to admit Wonder Woman is her hero, when Frasier flounces out, and when Niles dressed as his dad and utterly drunk dunks on himself. In the end, things work out okay. Except that the kids in the building are more convinced than ever that Frasier eats brains. A lot of fun bits here, mainly Roz rocking the Lynda Carter costume and David Hyde Pierce’s really good impression of Martin. I have a soft spot for this one because the underlying idea is very clever, but it sort of sputters as it goes along.
MASH, “Hawkeye” – Fighting off sleep because he has a concussion – and to Hawkeye’s credit he admits that it is probably safe to sleep with a concussion but why take chances – Hawkeye monologues in the home of a Korean family that speaks no English. If you like Alan Alda mugging for the camera, waxing rhapsodic about the human thumb and herring, remembering his med school days in NYC and his practice in Boston, and juggling, you will like this. I enjoyed this a lot and remembering most of the best bits. But I can see how it could be tiring.
Sherlock Holmes, “The Empty House” – Three years after his seeming death, Holmes returns to arrest the one associate of Moriarty who still poses a threat to him. Jeremy Brett has too much fun doing the big reveal to Watson, and Edward Hardwicke replaces David Burke as Watson without missing a beat.
“Hawkeye” was my dad’s least favorite episode of M*A*S*H – he found it boring to just watch Hawkeye talk to himself.
Catching up:
Metropolitan — rewatch of a holiday classic. Stillman is so elegant here, the editing frequently fades out/blacks out from scene to scene in a larger sequence (from a conversation in one room at a party to a different and later conversation at the same party, for example) and this feels very literary but also very condensed, nothing here is of consequence outside a very limited upper-class world but everything we are seeing is of consequence within it. Austen is name-dropped (in one of the many hilarious conversations about art that overcompensating young people have) and she is a clear model here; what Austen did not have in her time was Chris Eigeman, arrogant and open-hearted, the movie loses some juice when he exits (to be potentially murdered by his mother) but his exit is what forces the two suitors for Carolyn Farina to figure out how to act on their own. Farina, the not-so-secret protagonist here, has already acted and her response to rescue is great. Stillman’s contemporary Noah Baumbach ended his debut Kicking and Screaming with his lead wishing he could be old and looking back; Stillman ends on a comic uncertainty that clearly will be looked back on with love. A truly generous film.
Bad Santa — rewatch of a holiday classic! On a crime level the dark turn toward the end is pretty poorly-thought-out, how were you going to get away with these bodies Tony Cox. But this is minor stuff, the point of the movie is being as profane as possible while also not really being anti-Christmas at all, both Lauren Graham and the incredible Brett Kelly believe in Santa for their own reasons and see no problem with this, and Thornton comes to accept that belief. This feels like an older movie in a lot of ways, a charismatic con is redeemed after doing a lot of hilarious bad shit, but the filthy dialogue and Thornton’s magnificent debauchery bring it into the present in an unforced way. A film perhaps more generous than it appears (and any film placing John Ritter and Bernie Mac on opposite sides of a scene is generous already, the Coens absolutely got involved on their dialogue as a warmup for Burn After Reading).
The Escapist — Brian Cox is is prison and wants to escape, perhaps with a ragtag crew? This uses a structural split of the preparation and complications leading up to the escape being intercut with the actual escape (through increasingly surreal sewers and subways), it’s an interesting technique and it becomes clear why it is being used at the end, when a different dramatic conceit is revealed (one from a very famous short story) and rejiggers things. I’m not entirely sure about this, I think the thematic turn is sort of slotted in at the end and gets too soft-hearted, but it does explain some odder things in the film. The performances are very good too, Cox of course but Damian Lewis as the evil prisoner who is in charge of everything, Liam Cunningham as a fellow escapee and a surprisingly jacked Joseph Fiennes as another escapee are also strong.
Live music — went to New York City and got into a small jazz club in the Village, a basement with seats for maybe 60 people and somehow a grand piano on the stage (I really have no idea how it got down there). The Steve Ash trio played, with Ash on that piano, excellent hard bop with a waiter and fellow musician joining on trumpet for one song, although the highlight was the slower and dreamier “In The Mood For Love.” Already want to go back and hit up more clubs, but this place (Mezzrow) is now on the list of places to check out if I’m in town.
Bernie Mac is visibly having such a great time with endless ways of delivering the phrase “Half.” It’s very Coens that he knows he’s got these guys over a barrel but this only goes so far for him. (Also Willie and Marcus’ scheme is pretty good, I could see it working for at least a few years.)
Willie and Marcus’ scheme is great! It’s everything after Mac starts extorting them that gets weird — why the convoluted way to ice Mac, you have a gun dude. And then why shoot Willie in the store? Who do you think the obvious suspect will be when the drunk Santa who is always hanging out with his dwarf co-worker is found dead? None of this stuff is breaking the deal but it’s not exactly well-thought-out.
Big holiday catchup…
Vaguely festive stuff:
Christmas Ghost Stories – local cinema did a screening of Whistle and I’ll Come To You (technically not part of the Christmas Ghost Stories but the ancestor that led to their production) and A Warning to the Curious with a live reading of another MR James story by a local actor and I loved all of it. Whistle is so strange and funny, but still delivers the scary moments. Warning to the Curious from a few years later moves into full colour but still feels chilly and unsettling, brilliant stuff. Also checked out a couple of the modern Mark Gatiss ones – Ghost Story-expert friend recommended The Mezzotint which was very good indeed, Woman of Stone was fairly solid but I was a little disappointed with this year’s effort – The Room in the Tower – which fell into “show too much rather than trusting the imagination” at the end.
The Holdovers – festive rewatch, still really like this and it feels good to have finally addressed the annoyance of it being a January UK release by watching it during the festive season.
Babette’s Feast – Christmas Day viewing in between a hell of a lot of fancy eating. This wasn’t my favourite of the food-related movies I’ve been watching my girlfriend (I think The Taste of Things is going to be hard to beat) but it wasn’t too far off either. The food in this one maybe goes a little far into “I wouldn’t even consider trying that” territory (turtle soup etc) but the story is a sweet low-key one and it has a lovely deadpan wit.
When Harry Met Sally – post-festive sick-day rewatch, I’ve only seen this three times but it grows on me a little more each time. I found Harry just a little TOO annoying the first couple of viewings but I’m warming to him a little.
Rocky Horror Picture Show – another sick-day rewatch although I’m not sure I can spin this one as festive. I’ve only seen it once before, in my teens, with flu. I’m not sure why I have to be unwell to watch it. I enjoyed it more this time around but it’s not something I feel like I ever would have fully joined the cult for – I prefer my musicals with a LITTLE more plot, this is almost in Cats territory where most of the songs are just introducing a new zany character. The performances are a lot of fun though and at least a couple of the songs are bangers.
2025-catchup stuff:
Train Dreams – I sometimes bounce off this kind of film with a literary voiceover but I thought this one was rather lovely, definitely a little Malick-esque but more direct. Excellent performance from Joel Edgerton in the lead, gorgeous cinematography, big emotional payoff. Definitely up there with my favourites from the year.
Vermiglio – friend saw this back in February and kept mentioning it as one of his favourites, having finally followed his recommendation I have to agree. It’s an Italian film set in a small village during the dying days of World War II, and they’re sheltering a man who fled from the war. He falls in love with the daughter of the village’s largest family and it leads to events that shake up the whole population. Gorgeous snowy vibes and some nice low-key humour, really good stuff.
The Last Showgirl – another kinda slow hang-out pick although with a very different feel to it. Some of the writing here feels a little blunt and clunky but I liked the melancholy vibe and enjoyed the performances – definitely great to see Pamela Anderson given more of a dramatic showcase later in her career and she does a fine job.
Live Music:
Local venue Christmas party – four bands in the classic “great live, probably won’t ever listen to them on record” genre that sums this venue up well. Shouty female-fronted hardcore punk, noisy post-punk, angular art-pop etc. Good times, and I won a record in the raffle.
Christmas Covers party – 23rd year for this local tradition but only the second time I’ve been. They asked me to play this year but I chickened out because it feels daunting as a relatively newcomer – maybe next year. Anyway it was great fun again – some bands with strong concepts (a bunch of young punks doing a great 00s emo anthems set bookended by My Chemical Romance guilty pleasures, a post-punk band with a long history doing a full Devo set in costume), others just playing a bunch of songs that they loved. A folk-rock band that I like very much did a surprisingly compelling version of “Regulate” by Warren G. The promising youngsters who sound a bit like Arcade Fire without the baggage did a surprising segue from Silver Jews into “Girl From Ipanema”. It’s genuinely one of the best nights out of the year and I wish I hadn’t taken so long to get into it.
Oh and a bunch of Seinfeld and a Twin Peaks or two but I don’t think I have many insightful thoughts on either.
Woo, live music! Sounds fun. And Christmas ghost stories are such a cool British tradition that hasn’t really carried over here.
Yeah it’s a fun tradition! One I haven’t really gotten into before this year, but I’m definitely keen to make it part of my festive routine in future – the local screening was a big success (they moved it up into a larger room!) so hopefully that’ll come back next year too.
Woooo live music! Yeah, sometimes you won’t get the album but it hits in the moment, that’s all you need. And that Christmas cover show sounds great.
Mad Men
Season 6, Episode 12. “The Quality of Mercy”. First time.
Continued the Mad Men S6 watch today with “The Quality of Mercy”. Love how you can tell exactly what movie Don and Megan were watching before we’re told just by how freaked out they were. It also makes sense that Megan was still aroused by it after.
Didn’t have Bob Benson pegged as a Dick Withman.
Two great slimy Pete moments here: him having to eat shit in front of all the bosses, then turning the tables on Bob.
Man, Glen is such a weird dude. He and Sally are great TV.
The suspense at the Sunkist meeting was intense, and I would never have guessed what Don was going to come up with. Vicious and selfish, but not entirely wrong.
What did we play?
Minecraft
Reading The Power Broker and its description of architecture have me a hankering for spilling the natural beauty of a place in arrogance. I’ve already built a bridge!
Tetris
I already knew this game is apparently a good thing to play after a traumatic event – it rewrites the brain in a positive way – but I recently learned it apparently also improves concentration and reduces cravings, so I decided to give it a shot in the old daily routine, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s like night and day. Improves the concentration enormously.
Nobody Wants to Die – a cyberpunk detective story, set in a future where people can transfer their consciousness into new bodies to attain effective immortality. But there are ways to commit murder that make this impossible (a “final death”) which provides a slightly different kind of murder mystery. This is good-looking and atmospheric with some solid voice acting but it’s one of those games with several different endings – decided in a fairly arbitrary fashion – and if you get the shit one (as I did) the only way to see more interesting plot conclusions is to start again, which isn’t very appealing in a very linear story.
Viewfinder – a mind-bending puzzle adventure game in the vein of The Witness, Talos Principle etc. In this one, you’re exploring a simulated world where photographs become three-dimensional when placed into the world. Sometimes these are found while wandering around, other times you are given a camera to take your own. The puzzle design is superb so far, I’m finding the difficulty curve just right and some of the solutions have made me feel very smart. The amount of backstory is also just right – I found the amount of stuff to read / see / hear in the other two games I mentioned slightly overwhelming but here there’s an intriguing, melancholy-but-hopeful story about climate change and I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends.
If any of you have an Epic Games account, Viewfinder is free there today.
Thanks, passed on this info to some friends!
Batman: The Video Game on Nintendo Entertainment System
I put a pin on Bionic Commando because I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to make a deep run on it last week, so I decided to try and beat this one for the first time (my best ever run ended at the penultimate boss, years ago). My first run ended on the second level due to a neighborhood-wide blackout, and the second ended on the third level because the NES glitched out, so I guess my feeling turn out right. Anyway, I was getting some good momentum on both runs, and this is a great action platformer with gameplay and aesthetics up there with the NES Castlevania games, so I’m definitely going to finish it eventually, probably sooner rather than later.
Choice of Games: Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names. Slowly working my way through this. It’s a purely text-based game, basically an interactive novel, nice and nostalgic if you remember World of Darkness. So far I have successfully killed a bunch of monsters and Nazi werewolves, but failed to save the nonbinary journalist from a magical plague and failed to successfully romance my ecoterrorist werewolf roommate.
Well, I’m sold.
It’s The Dawning, so I gave Destiny a spin. The new power scaling it just as confusing as the old system…yay? Anyway, I’ll make some cookies and see how I feel.
I also played a bunch of Marvel Snap. Kind of glad I skipped the season pass, even though I have a destroy deck as one of my go-tos.
“Criticism is the sorting of facts (even if those facts are fictional)”
You note how the breath, which I have seen cited a lot, is most likely a continuity error. It can be used to bolster a case, but it isn’t a definitive thing. The facts of a work aren’t always the work itself — the reductio ad absurdum of this would be postulating the existence of shitty coffee shops in Westeros because someone left a Dunkin Donuts cup in the scene and no one realized until they released an episode. The cup is there! But perhaps there is another explanation. I think the bit about the clothes is a hypothesis, and certainly one with past evidence behind it. I don’t believe at all that it is definitive, and that thinking that the movie is open-ended is refusing to engage with the text. The film as a whole is about paranoia and an open ending is in line with that — it’s made up of facts that create this larger mood (and this is the argument for “Tony dies,” right?). Choosing one fact to extrapolate a specific ending is fine, but it’s not the final word.
It might speak to The Sopranos lowering in critical hindsight for me that my answer to “Does Tony die or not?” is typically “I don’t know if I care either way.” Talk about depressive.
Year of the Month update!
Here’s the movies, albums, books, TV, and games from 1985 for you to write about next January.
TBD: Ruck Cohlchez: Tim and/or Fables of the Reconstruction
Jan. 2nd: Gillian Nelson: Return to Oz
Jan. 5th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Rambo: First Blood Part II
Jan. 9th: Gillian Nelson: Advice on Lice
Jan. 16th: Gillian Nelson: The Wuzzles/The Gummi Bears
Jan. 19th: Tristan J. Nankervis: The Breakfast Club
Jan. 23rd: Gillian Nelson: The Golden Girls
Here’s how we’re wrapping up December:
Dec. 20th: Lauren James: The Lottery
And coming February 2026, we’ll be looking at 1957, including all these movies, albums, books, TV. yadda yadda.
Feb. 6th: Gillianren: The Story of Anyburg, USA
Feb. 13th: Gillianren: The Truth About Mother Goose
Feb. 20th: Gillianren: Our Friend the Atom
Feb. 27th: Gillianren: Sleeping Beauty’s Castles
I watched that episode live at a friend’s house, with a bunch of friends over. When the screen went to black every single one of us thought the cable had gone out and madly rushed the TV to fix it.
I feel like ‘Tony dying is cooler” is almost an argument against Tony dying, though, right? “Actually, being in the mob is not as cool and sexy as the movies tell you” is part of the series’ whole thesis, I think.
I’m going to put my marker on ‘it’s fine, actually, if some questions don’t have answers,’ I think. I don’t actually care what Bill Murray whispered to ScarJo; what matters is the whisper.