Severance
I hadn't watched Severance (Apple TV), even though it's science fiction and has gotten rave reviews.
C had watched the first season and said she'd watch it again, so we started last week, and I'm stunned by its quality. The story is excellent and so is the acting. Plus, the pacing is fantastic. It's not overstuffed and bombastic like so many new shows now. Instead, it's deeply thoughtful with lots of breathing room to assess what's happening.
We're almost through season one and I have a hard time thinking of another science fiction show with this kind of quality in its first season.
I give Apple shit all the time (deservedly) for their octopus ecosystem, but they're still trying to make memorable TV shows instead of mass algorithm-driven filler. Full credit to them.
Friday Links!
Leading off this week, a fascinating read: Humphrey’s world: how the Samuel Smith beer baron built Britain’s strangest pub chain.
Here's a fantastic profile of one of the most prolific groups in Hollywood in the 1980s (and beyond): the Pad O' Guys. including DQ reader James Cappe.
From C. Lee (more later), and it's a tremendous read: The CRPG Renaissance, Part 2: Might and Magic VI.
From Rob, and it's a nightmare coming true: 'This isn't your granddad's KKK.' Inside the influential hate group that's expanding in Tennessee.
From Eric Higgins-Freese, and it's useful: How Many Episodes Should You Watch Before Quitting a TV Show? A Statistical Analysis. This is a great read: Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not).
From Wally, and what a trip down memory lane: Typewriters, stinky carpets and crazy press trips: what it was like working on video game mags in the 1980s.
From C. Lee, and it's a massive, exploitable market inefficiency: Why Don’t Running Backs Get Paid Anymore? I guess they didn't charge enough to make sure the quality was high /s: Nvidia says around 1 in 200 of its new Series 50 GPUs are missing some render units. Gee, what a surprise: They voted for Trump, but now they're losing their U.S. government jobs. Bad judgment in so many ways: California couple confided about stuffed mountain lion to fellow fliers, authorities say. They were in for a shock. This is both ridiculous and unsurprising: Apartment buildings broken into with phone in minutes — IoT-connected intercoms using default creds vulnerable to anyone with Google. This is fabulous: Amazing Photos That Showcase Early ’30s Bathroom Designs. An excellent read: The Story of the Future Batmobile, the 1955 Lincoln Futura in the 1959 Movie “It Started with a Kiss”. This is fantastic! Every Gamer Should Explore This Archive of Video Game Magazines. Very, very true: ‘One More Turn’ Doesn’t Always Mean A Game Is Good.
The Challenge Matrix
I was thinking about life on the way to the gym.
I'm vaguely dissatisfied with the pace of my life. There are gaps in productivity as I age that bother me.
It particularly bothers me when I see Eli 23.6 motoring through the world at record speed (Oxford notified him this week that he'd been accepted into the doctoral program, and he'll be working with the professor he most wanted). What about his life is different?
I realized, after some consideration, that Eli's life is a daily challenge matrix. Almost everything he does has a level of challenge that makes him stretch and grow.
I have that challenge, up until about 1 p.m. Writing and working out, basically. Then there's a big gap. I told myself I don't need a challenge after that--writing is hard--but it's not true. I do need another few hours of challenge, and without it, the dissatisfaction isn't going to go away.
This is all tied up with spending too much time scrolling through Reddit and other websites. Scrolling through websites is fun. It's entertaining. When I'm consuming non-targeted content, though, it lacks challenge. It's passive. Micro-content isn't good.
How do I change that?
My initial plan is to incorporate an hour of Spanish and an hour of using AI video tools on a daily basis, when I can. Those are both challenging and have future utility. It also reduces the amount of time I have to consume micro-content.
I'm also adding a second session of writing (again, when it's possible). I'm in a good position with the book, and I'd like to increase the rate of progress while I have a handle on things.
I'll let you know how this goes, in case any of you are in a similar position.
Coming Like a Freight Train
Ars Technica published an article this morning with AI voice demos from Sesame. It's here: Eerily realistic AI voice demo sparks amazement and discomfort online.
If you can tell the voices in the two samples aren't human, I'd be surprised. I can't. The second example is two persons conversing, one of which is AI. I couldn't tell them apart.
I discussed this with DQ Film Advisor and Greatest Guy in the World Ben Ormand, and he agrees that the samples are incredible. He sees all of this coming to Hollywood, along with AI video creation, but when he tries to explain, no one is listening.
It's coming very, very quickly.
The example he used was a group of outsiders making a film with a 500k budget that looks like it cost 150M to make. When that happens, people will finally understand, he said.
If what he mentioned sounds impossible, maybe it is, at least today. But fully creating a feature-length film with AI In 2-3 years? Maybe. In 5 years? Almost certainly.
One of my challenges this year is to stay briefed on what's happening in this field and to become proficient with the tools. It all sounds arcane, at first, but it's going to a primary driver of creativity going forward, whether we want it to or not, and I don't want to get behind.
Book Update
I'm now about 2/3 of the way through the second section of the book. The writing isn't final, but it's within one or two drafts, so it's well along. I'm more efficient this time.
The last third of this section, plus the last section, are going to require a bit of rewriting to fill in holes in the narrative. It's all problem-solving at this point, though, and I understand what needs to be done.
I'm becoming more confident that this will be ready by the end of 2026. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think.
Best Picture Nominees 2025
We've seen four of them so far, and here are some thoughts.
The Nickel Boys is so brilliant and transcendent that of course it didn't win. A staggering adaptation of an equally brilliant book. It manages to be both lyrical and incredibly uncomfortable at the same time. When has anyone ever managed to do that? Also, if you haven't read the book, please do. Colson Whitehead is a ridiculous, fantastic writer.
Anora was a worthy Best Picture winner (if the Nickel Boys couldn't win), and Mikey Madison was an even more deserving Best Actress winner. She was riveting. This movie is so darkly funny that it can be a bit of an adjustment, at first, but it was a brilliant script.
Emilia Perez is a level below the previous two, but still very, very good. It's a musical, but the film itself tells a story that might have been better served without the musical numbers (even though they're very clever).
The Substance is a campy B-movie with no original ideas whatsoever and it's a crime it was nominated instead of far more deserving movies (like A Real Pain). This movie is two hours and twenty minutes of cymbals clashing together. It's a quilt of ideas taken from far better films with body horror thrown in. The entire script reads like it was written by AI after feeding in every cynical popularity algorithm currently existing in cinema.
Not that I have a strong opinion about it or anything.
