Stages of Grief: "Difficult People"

By Spencer Coile 

After three hilarious seasons, Hulu has cancelled Difficult People.

The show starred Julie Klausner (also its creator) and Billy Eichner as best friends who will stop at nothing to become famous. We covered the show's third season -- the non-stop jokes, the banter, and the beating heart underneath all of the cynicism. Needless to say, this news has been shocking for many of us here and will continue to sting months after...

Click to read more ...

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Won't Be Ignored, Dan

by Dancin' Dan

The posters for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's third season warned us. In them, Rachel Bloom spoofed iconic imagery from Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Basic Instinct, sending a clear message: Bloom's Rebecca Bunch is one of our great anti-heroes, and she's about to go full-tilt crazy. And those posters didn't even tell the half of it. We're only four episodes into the new season, and already Rebecca's life in West Covina appears to have reached the end of the line. Things are moving so fast that each episode so far has left me breathless, perpetually on the edge of my seat wating for the next installment.

It's the best, most daring show on air right now, and it's even more jam-packed with film references than before. BUT BE WARNED. Lots of spoilers after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Blueprints: "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

This week on Blueprints, Jorge Molina takes a drive to the pride of the inland empire to talk about musical numbers in screenplays, only two hours from the beach. 

Fundamentally, scripts serve as a blueprint for what has to appear on screen, hence the name of this series. A blueprint that some people choose to follow more closely than others. However, there are instances where following a script meticulously is vital not only for the benefit of the story, but for the costs and efficiency of an entire production. There are times when a script is a literal choreographed dance, gigantic pretzel and all.

So let’s take a look into the idyllic suburban fantasy of the The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, where if every location, note, and twirl hadn’t been precisely mentioned in the script, there may have never been a show...

Click to read more ...

Mindhunter (4-7)

by Nathaniel R

Continuing our look at Mindhunter. Let's discuss the middle bulk of the first season, shall we?

How would most men feel if they were being intimate with a woman and they sensed that she wasn't enjoying herself... [no response] Come on, be scientists.

Click to read more ...

Are you watching "Mindhunter"? (Episodes 1-3)

by Nathaniel R

an FBI hostage negotiation class in "Mindhunter"'s first episode

One of the underdiscussed perks of this era of way too much to watch with thousands of cable channels, dozens of streaming services bankrolling their own content, and hundreds of movies a year is that it's easy to forget what your favorite directors are working on! Gone are the days, essentially, when you had to pine away waiting for so-and-so to return. Take the case of David Fincher. I've literally been a fan since he won "Best Direction" at the MTV Video Music Awards for Madonna's "Express Yourself" and I went to Alien³ on opening weekend so I was there at ground zero. Despite my love of all most things Fincher, it was easy to forget that he'd vanished since his excellent intensely rewatchable Gone Girl (2014) which we really should have had on our top ten list that year -- oops.

The director is back trying his hand at streaming series direction with the new serial killer drama "Mindhunter." At first I groaned when I heard the news because Fincher has made more than his share of serial killer dramas. But then I heard dreamy Jonathan Gr♥︎ff and Fincher-regular Holt McCallany were the leads and remembered that Fincher does serial killer dramas better than anyone (see Se7en and Zodiac) and I succumbed...

So let's talk about the first three episodes.

Click to read more ...