Milburn Stone

Just finished Series 3 of Unforgotten. Alex Jennings is amazing in it.

Oh yeah, I forgot about those. Then I guess the problem was they were people nobody cares that much about anymore!

It had the feel of bragging. "Look how good I am at impressions!" Her impressions used to be hilarious/adorable. There was a whiff of desperation this time. Maybe the difference was those impressions had a point of view. These were just...impressions. Or--simpler explanation--I had no idea who any of those actual people were. Maybe the downstairs audience of first responders felt the same.

Assuming your question is not rhetorical, I'll answer it. Mrs. Stone has always liked the show more than me, and I enjoy sitting alongside her as she watches.

So far I have loved Jeremy Strong in everything he's been in that I've seen. I met Jerry Rubin once, back in my college days. Hung out with him for about an hour in a friend's apartment with a few other friends as he held court. "Holding court" was pretty much what it was like. We literally sat at his feet, in a circle on the rug, with him as the focal point of the circle, sitting on a chair. Based on that hour, I think Strong's portrayal missed some of Rubin's batshit craziness and borderline malevolence. Strong played him as a lovable stoner. But I don't care. I liked Strong's Rubin more than Rubin's Rubin.

I could draw my copy of the book down from the shelf, but then I'd have to get up. :) Who is the person she gives token acknowledgment to, who deserved much more? Flaws and all (and I don't think you or Charlie would disagree with what I'm about to say), in the "cultural moment" that Kael's book came out, it pretty much changed the cinema world's perception that Welles was the singular auteur of the film. HM's name is on the film as co-scenarist, but I'd wager that most film buffs figured him to be a guy who wrote a first draft or an outline that Welles then transformed beyond recognition with his magic typewriter. It's doubtful that Mank would be made today, even despite his nephew's prominence, if Kael's book hadn't set the stage for it fifty years ago. That's why I thought Fincher might jigsaw the timeline a bit to 1971 to bring in Kael briefly as a progenitor.

Does anyone happen to know if there's a flash forward in the film to Pauline Kael, and if so, who plays her?

I did the same, except watching it via AppleTV. It's been a while, but I think it was even cheaper. Like $18 or something.

The related thing that annoys me (and hosts and panelists can be guilty of it) is the refusal to bring a question or answer to a logical end. There always seems to be one more clause, one more clause. No breath taken to allow the perception of completion. It could be a millennial thing, although I've assumed it's more a matter of "I'M GOING TO CLAIM ALL THE REAL ESTATE I CAN, DAMMIT."

You have company in me. I can tolerate boredom more than stupidity.

The not-promising is not the issue. The internal contradiction is. "Up to" means the figure being provided is the maximum. "Or more" says exactly the opposite. As far as promising goes, even if it simply said "up to" $1400, without the contradiction, it could mean $0, because $0 is less than $1400. The only way to promise some amount would be to say, for example, "you can save anywhere from $500 to $1400." Even then, the "can" gives them an out.

Yeah. Misjudged would be one word! But I felt the show recovered from that (thank God) and went on to be one of the more consistently good ones. Burr as an actor was funnier than as a standup. Go figure. P.S. I do not believe that Burr was unaware of what Pride Month celebrates. Comedy is based in truth. When you start from a premise that's an obvious lie, comedy dies.

It reminded me a lot of the Kristen Wiig movie Welcome to Me.

I don't think the writing was the problem. The problem was the actors kept waiting for the camera to be on them before they'd say their lines. That's idiotic. The pace of the sketch should be the pace that makes it feel real, because that's what makes it feel funny. Once a sketch is rehearsed and ready to go, it's up to the director to follow the actors, not the other way around.

That makes for publicly-encouraged illiteracy.