The Gaffer

Exposed was class! I feared it might have just be an excuse to get Ade on the couch with little else going for it but there was plenty of fun insight and - what I never grow tired of - behind the scenes, bloopers and corpsing. As usual Bottom keeps revealing new deliveries and idiosyncrasies that I always knew were there but now note as being completely hilarious. "Get two." "Two? Wow man!"

He's back and he looks like Phil and Grant's long lost, twice-as-hard-as-fuck brother! A fit, healthy looking Mox should be a lucky rabbit foot in AEW's back pocket. Fully agreed seeing him storm out by himself with a title just feels great. He can keep his BCC membership card in his Bad Motherfucker wallet because honestly I'm not sure what much else there is to get out of the faction. They were always a bit naff, watered down Mox and Danielson, and only really helped the personality challenged Claudio.

I can't imagine the awkward tension Bethesda (hopefully) had in the months and even years leading up to Starfield's release. It's so anachronistic, clunky and dated in so many parts of its design that it's almost like the whole game was baked into code pre this age of neverending memes and YouTube analysis on how dog eared Bethesda's open world game model has become, but it was just too late to go back and change any of it. I realise it'll have made its money back and then some, which is the bottom line for publishers, I don't think a triple A title has ever arrived so cold and antiquated once the initial glossy friends-with-the-publishers reviews were barged pass. And I say that as someone who still loves their open world design. But that game was a complete wet fart.

Choom! Yeah I'm a sucker for it. I'd go so far as to say I'd struggle with thinking it's anything less than simply good - post bug fixes - once all the hype and expectation is removed. I think if it was somehow a sleeper hit, I don't think it'd get the same kind of backlash. I absolutely wish it was deeper, but that's because I think the superficial world they've build is so enticing. Night City does have an extremely strong culture to it - on the surface - it's juts that it's all aesthetic. I'm definitely guilty of tying that into commentaries on the superficiality of the future it depicts admittedly, but I do think it's there. The ceaseless background noise of NPCs and traffic, the constant adverts for legalised amphetamines and clean water, the whole tech jungle feel of it all. It's got some really neat presentation. And the sound design is some of the best in the industry ever, period.

I'd be fine with just Wikipedia and UKFF content creators to be honest! The whole internet/social media thing is another reason the psychological need to get into QAnon and stuff is senseless and just obfuscates actual issues. The truth is more out of control and out to get you than the fiction.

I know it wasn't your intention - but just to pick up on this phrase in general terms - I think it's an oversimplification that would promote some unhealthy dialogue if it were used in a more politicised environment. A lot of the outrage we've seen over the last few years has been for issues that - though they've never not been contentious - actually went through somewhat of a purple patch of relative calm and acceptance compared to what it's like now. I should clarify that I am not giving genuinely horrible fuckers with genuinely problematic views a pass but how many of us have parents or older relatives who have shared something suspect? Again and again we see that with otherwise decent, ordinary people it's because their hopes and fears are being siphoned off by some rage-for-clicks algorithm. That is modernity. And it sucks. So in that sense, I guess I'm in on the backlash against modernity as well. It's pretty much evil in plain sight - normalised horror - that tech companies poach neuroscientists and put them to task with how best to keep young kids addicted to their products. The modern world is more of a petri dish for psychological issues now than it's ever been and that's not just because they're simply surfacing more. Modernity has many, many problems right on its surface, and a lot of them are breeding the kind of backlash you're referring to. Full clarification: I'm running from anything solution based, comparisons to the past (we've always had adverts on TV aimed at children), personal responsibility etc. There's a lot of potentially endless debates here I don't want to get stuck in, that phrasing just struck me. You might have another intention with it I've failed to read into so if so, apologies! tl;dr a lot of the shit we see is a manifestation of growing pains and psychological dislocation due directly to modernity moreso than a conscious rejection of it.

Yeah awful kitchen sink clash vibes off that. The Joe/Swerve one is class.

I can see the films becoming the 'main' medium of the whole thing over time, if they haven't already, which is probably for the best because the universe undoubtedly has some fun elements to it and a whole load of stuff that's just seeped into the public conscious now but it all works better in some goofy films with a load of esteemed stage actors having a ball pretending to be wizard satanists rather than the books which are more up against their rapid-ageing pitfalls of being poorly written, badly edited dirges of tokenism and nostalgia for shit things.

2024 is the year of ICOPRO.

It's not like they didn't do brawls all over the buildings during the Dunn era of production but I love the subtle differences in the spontaneity now, exemplified in that Sami entrance. The area's not been preset with those queue belts cordoning the fans off to the sides, you're not getting cuts to hide the actual movement through a bland hall that connects that presentable TV set concourse to the presentable TV set 'arena'. You've got wrestlers literally batting through crowds and the building Raw takes place in is an actual environment, not that weeks shell that a TV set is made inside. Love that shit.

Yeah, not a "That's it! World War 3!" person but this doesn't feel good at all.

Could do this all day but here's a few favourites. Have tried to stick with imagery I find genuinely impressive or weirdly evocative other than just "Here's the albums I like...:

Hap births!

I've not looked up any of the reception it has been getting so I'm glad I've not just gone mad in my high opinion of it, because lord knows I don't watch a lot of TV. Minor punchline spoiler but episode 4's...