Severance Season 2, Episode 2 Just Confirmed a Major Theory For Me |
You guys do realize that Severance season 2 is ten episodes long, right? After I rewatched this Friday's episode (I'm thorough, okay?), I took a long dive into the winding hallways of r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus. And you all have been absolutely going at it. Lumon would certainly not approve of you writing essay-length fan theories on company hours. (Even if they are very, very good.) Save your energy! We have a long way to go. Case in point: Season 2, episode 2, "Goodbye Mrs. Selvig." The season 1 finale was so explosive that series creator Dan Erickson and co. had to spend two episodes dealing with the aftermath. This episode almost entirely takes place outside of the severed floor; we catch up with MDR's Outies and find out exactly what happened after Lumon enacted the Overtime Contingency. It probably won't surprise you to learn that nearly everything Mr. Milchick fed MDR about their efforts leading to improved conditions for severed employees was total bullshit. |
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The First Thing You Should Do When You Buy a New Coat |
There is a scourge upon this land. OK, not really. But, seriously, there is one persistent issue that I see all the damn time when it comes to men's overcoats, and considering how easy it is to remedy, it's time we band together and fix it once and for all. What is this fiendish problem? Head outside on a cold day and you'll almost certainly notice it. Train you're eyes and you won't just notice it but become completely overwhelmed by it. Guys aren't removing the "X"-shaped tacking stitch holding the coat's vent together. You know the one I'm talking about. It serves a purpose, but only for a time. Brands, especially bigger ones, know better than anyone how important presentation is. Something like a crease in the fabric may be eminently fixable, but when you're in a store looking at dozens of similar coats, a negative first impression might be all that's needed to send you on to the next option. |
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How Close Are We to the Third Reich? |
It is common to describe the Third Reich as the nefandum—the unspeakable evil—to avoid mentioning the Nazis' mass malevolence alongside anything else. But what of the paradox that Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, and Finland of the EU have swung to hard-right governance, that for those intent on dismantling a liberal democracy, Nazi Germany is an exemplar? And what of Hitler praising America's westward Native-annihilating expansion? Of the Jim Crow South and American eugenics inspiring the Reich's Nuremberg Race Laws? While wholesale comparisons between the United States and Nazi Germany have often been dismissed as hasty and/or hyperbolic, rather comparing MAGA to the Third Reich ain't overblown or premature or alarmist—it is stock that beseeches: Just how close to them are we, really? |
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How to Read All the Cosmere Books in Order |
Over the last two decades, while working from his supervillain lair beneath the surface of Utah, Brandon Sanderson has published the largest interconnected fantasy universe in literary history: the Cosmere. "No one else is doing a project at this scale, ambition, quality—and most of all, pace," says Sam Winkler, the narrative director of the video game Borderlands 4 and a huge Sanderson fan. "Where other connected universes might seem smaller for their nods and cameos, Sanderson only indulges when the connection ends up begging more questions, rather than answering them conveniently." Now spanning dozens of bestselling novels, novellas, and short stories, most books in the Cosmere fall into one of three franchises: the high fantasy Elantris stories set on the planet Sel, the pulp fantasy Mistborn series set on the planet Scadrial, and the epic fantasy Stormlight Archive set on the planet Roshar. With the publication of Wind and Truth in late 2024, Sanderson ostensibly reached the midpoint of the Cosmere's overall story. But where to begin? |
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Presence Sabotages Its Own Gimmick |
If Presence isn't the worst movie of the year so far, it's easily the most disappointing, especially considering its source. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the restless Oscar-winning auteur who's spent the past four decades ping-ponging between splashy, major-studio crowd-pleasers (Ocean's 11, Magic Mike) and shoestring indie experiments (Full Frontal, Kimi), this howler of a ghost story wants to be an arthouse Poltergeist, but it can't even be bothered to deliver either suspense or scares. It's a haunted house movie that's sabotaged by its own tedious minimalism. Set entirely within the walls of a tastefully renovated, hundred-year-old suburban home, the film is told from the voyeuristic perspective of an invisible spirit that seems to have an unfortunate fondness for ugly fisheye lenses and queasy Steadicam shots. As the movie kicks off, this hot MLS listing is being shown to a middle-aged couple (Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan) and their two high school-aged children (Callina Liang and Eddy Maday), who are looking to turn the page from a recent tragedy. With its charming vintage touches (antique mirrors, bay windows, hardwood floors), the house seems like a slice of suburban heaven cribbed from a Chip and Joanna Gaines vision board. |
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Who's Laughing at Donald Trump Now? |
In 2017, I sat with a few journo pals below the podium on the west front of the Capitol and watched Donald Trump be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. After taking the oath of office, which he took approximately as seriously as he did contracts he'd signed with workmen in Atlantic City, he delivered what is unquestionably the weirdest inaugural address in American history—the now infamous "American Carnage" speech. Former President George W. Bush, seated nearby, reputedly called Trump's remarks "some weird shit," which I believe he actually did say because that's what all of us in my little slice of the audience said, too. In retrospect, I have come to believe that this bit of comic-opera boogedy-boogedy gave a lot of people permission to treat the first Trump administration as a kind of burlesque of government, which is what it was, but the speech allowed us to dispense with the Respect the Office nonsense that attends the presidency. In 1970, my friend the late George Reedy wrote an indispensable book called The Twilight of the Presidency, in which he described the office as the center of a kind of cult, what he called "the American monarchy," an appellation that many of the Founders feared would apply when the Constitution was first established. |
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