Don't you think the real problem is the attention-hog in the audience who keeps throwing boomerang-fish around? He's bad at catching them, and one of them nearly hit me.

When she said what she said that changed the conversation completely, I literally gasped in the theater, not in an "I'm shocked" way, but in an "all the air just abruptly left my body and I need new air now" way. It was SUCH a great tonal pivot, and it was immediately obvious how it fit the big pic.

You and me both. That moment with Father Jud on the phone hit me like a landslide — the moment when I realized this wasn't a movie sneering at religion, just challenging people who practice it wrong.

I did definitely get GOOD PLACE vibes at various points, and I was absolutely waiting for the GOOD PLACE twist. But nope, that's really not what the movie is about at all.

It makes sense (and likely explains why virtually everyone in government died) but it doesn't explain Helen, who demonstrably could deal with conflict and negativity with kindness and tolerance.

I'm VERY curious whether we'll ever learn more about what caused certain people to die during the joining. My original theory was that the hivemind consciously killed certain kinds of toxic people, but given its pacifism (unless it's lying) it's harder to believe that now.

It's the kind of thing that wouldn't necessarily make good TV if she did it a bunch. It'd lessen the impact. But it'll certainly make a lot of viewers think about what they'd do under those circumstances. The idea of hearing what my (theoretical) dead husband REALLY thought about me is horrific.

Yeah, almost an element of "We knew this was coming at some point." It's a great, subtle performance throughout that scene.

Larry isn't — she doesn't want to talk to the real mayor, that guy's still outside — but yeah, putting him in that role is HILARIOUS. "Thank you for your vote."

Anyway, I love PLURIBUS. It's really well written, acted, directed, you name it. And at times, it's excruciating, in a good way.

If anything, it's crueler that the hivemind doesn't realize how that statement lands. "Here's just one example of something we know about your partner, your lover, that you don't. You're an outsider in your own relationship now. But we hold everything about her that you don't have access to. Oops."

Larry's little laugh and the "Oh yeah, you weren't there" line is the kind of thing a junior-high Mean Girl would stick into a hallway exchange with an unpopular kid who wasn't invited to the party everyone else attended. Except in this case, I don't think it's intended as cruel. Just oblivious.

It's striking that we don't see Carol's reaction to that statement. Her back is to the camera. Her body language doesn't change. But she's being told that this alien life form has more access to her partner than she ever did — or now, ever will. It knows Helen intimately and thoroughly.

Unfortunately I didn't come in second in the big sales competition.

I can only hear that in Edna Mode "NO CAPES!" voice.

Strong recommend! thedevilspanties.com/archives/16823