POKER FACE, s1 (2023)

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Took our time savoring each and every episode of this bit of throwback magic and antidote to standard streaming doldrums. Lyonne finally – along with RUSSIAN DOLL – gets the vehicle and the credit she's long-deserved for her talents; that she also directed one of the best episodes of the season, a welcome screen return for Nick Nolte (which, coupled with my recent BAY OF ANGELS viewing really made me want to watch Neil Jordan's Nolte-starring BOB LE FLAMBEUR remake, THE GOOD THIEF), makes her triumph here all the more satisfying.

Highlight remains the Judith Light guest-starring senior living episode: that was amazing. My only gripe – other than a tepid boredom with the Tim Meadows / Ellen Barkin episode (which may be a result of it coming after my favorite episode and my aversion to dinner theatre) – being the wrap-up of the season finale: enjoyed 90% of the episode, but a fork that should, IMO, have been taken, one that would have infused the second season and the show's formula with even more-heightened stakes (instead of the same stakes with a different voice(s) on the phone), wasn't taken, an opportunity lost, in favor of more cut-and-dry off-screen one. Maybe Johnson, et al, weren't sure that a second season was in the cards when that was written? Quite possibly: finale did feel like it could be a season or series finale. Relief that it's only a season finale – though I do wish they had taken the more challenging path.

That being said, count me in for whatever path Johnson, Lyonne, and company choose to take: what a great show – and what a joy to see Lyonne finally get the quality of role and the accolades she's so long-deserved.

links/2023w10.2

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stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck

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OK that didn't last long: now it's irritating. But now I know I can, if necessary, move over to something else for a couple of days or a week. Not sure it will help, though – this thing's been like this for awhile now. Last time I let this happen, it took me seven years to realize it wasn't a novella but a paragraph. Won't let it subsume me that much again.

(Unlike then, not afraid of running out of ideas if I give up on one: those things are a dime a dozen. What takes doing is finding the rhythm that both satisfies the present moment (got that part) and provides a means of continuance to the next (that's the tricky part).)

At the point of using Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies (which are very cool and helpful in getting me to think outside my normal thought patterns)

Might be doing two daily text things here (depending on the number of workblocks in the day), just to give me something to jump to if I get stuck like I am now. PARASITE post-script in afternoon, probably. Already on my favorite films list. So good.

Also: POKER FACE is brilliant.