Our Stranger Things rewatch reminded me that one of the main character’s sexual orientation has been telegraphed since the very first episode, and in seasons 4 and 5 we learned that it is in fact crucial to the whole story. I have bones to pick with those two seasons, but having a main character who is gay is not one of them. Those Internet trolls who are giving the penultimate episode one-star reviews because of a very plot-appropriate if not very believable coming out scene are way out of line, so I dusted off my IMDB login to give the episode 10 stars, even though it is at most an 8.5.

I praised the acting and cinematography of Pluribus, but should not have left out the music! There are long stretches without dialogue that could have gone terribly wrong, but are instead on my re-re-rewatch list. At the top is Manousos’s drive up South America towards the Darién Gap to the tune of Esperanza (and the extended version on Apple Music), which led me to the Tiny Desk Concert by Hermanos Gutiérrez of whom I am now a faithful listener.

📺 Pluribus (2025) was a perfectly paced masterpiece of cinematography and acting that raised questions which were at once urgent and eternal. Would it surprise anyone that so many people online identified with the hive mind and thought Rhea Seehorn’s character was the villain?

Season 2 coming 2027!

HBO not renewing Scavengers Reign was bad enough, but I recently learned that the news was even worse. Netflix, too, had passed on the opportunity even with the Season 2 teaser being everything I could have hoped for.

Time for Apple TV to pick it up! How do we make it happen?

📺 It breaks my heart that Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building immediately descended into toilet humor and pointless self-parody. Five episodes in and we are out — life is too short to spend it on drivel.

• Michael DePeau-Wilson for Asimov Press: Why the FDA Is Slow to Remove Drugs. And more importantly, why this is bad. You can’t accelerate drug approvals without also doing more culling on the back end. Symmetry, please.
• James L. Olds: Why Transformational Science Can’t Get Funded: The Einstein Problem. I disagree with most of it, but it is in fact the institutional point of view.
• Anonymous for the Good Science Project: A Top Scientist’s Ideas as to NIH. Did AI write this? Not great, but again, an institutional point of view masquerading as call to reform.
• Bryan Vartabedian: Physician authority and influence. An important distinction, and kudos to Dr. Vartabedian for coping that he has more influence than authority. I, on the other hand, have neither.
• Joe Boudreau: On 10 Years of Writing a Blog Nobody Reads. I have been doing it for at least 15 (13 of those in English) and it is in fact wonderful.
• Todd Vaziri: The “Mad Men” in 4K on HBO Max Debacle. The best and most concise review of this royal screwup of one of my favorite shows.

📺 Notes from re-watching the first two seasons of Stranger Things with my 13-year-old:

• Wow, it really took a while for Steve and Dustin to meet.
• I underrated Season 2 in my memory, I suspect because of the poorly timed and too on-the-nose episode 7.
• Will this be their generation’s Harry Potter?

📺 Common Side Effects (2025) worked for me on at least three levels: as a Mike Judge satire (and I love Mike Judge), as the spiritual successor to Scavengers Reign (ditto), and as a true-in-spirit if not in fact look at the American pharmaceutical industry (and here I could link to half of this blog). With 10 episodes of about 20 minutes each — the runtime of approximately one Irishman — it is well worth seeing at a single go.

📺 The Great British Baking Show Series 16 had fewer anxiety attacks and temper tantrums, and was more enjoyable to watch than last year’s. Still, the sheen is beginning to wear off, the artifice of it is becoming more and more apparent, and am I being a horrible person just for liking that a contestant doesn’t get all teary-eyed when kicked out?

Want to introduce some drama? Have people make madelains — a desert that needs at least four hours for the batter to chill to achieve its characteristic “hump” — in 2 hours 15 minutes total and then stress about not doing it correctly. Or, come judging time, be a bit more circumspect about the clear favorite and heap praise on the also-rans so that you can hem and haw about your very difficult choice. Also, is it just my middle age performing mind tricks or are the contestants getting ever-younger? Will there be a point in a decade’s time when Junior Bakeoff and the main attraction meld?

It is still by far the best “reality TV” one would come across, and following it from beginning does make one more interested in baking. As its cultural relevance grows, however, so does the amount of pressure it puts on the bakers, to the point of unpleasantness. Luckily, the finalists this year were wise beyond their years, but how many more people are left in Britain with that kind of mental fortitude?

🎃 At a friend’s recommendation, our trio of children dressed up as Greg, Wirt and the frog from Over the Garden Wall, a family favorite for over a decade now. To our surprise and delight, they kept being recognized. A group of millennials handing out candy even broke out into song (To Adelaide, then Potatoes and Molasses). “Greg” had some candy in her pockets to throw out each time people guessed, but soon ran out and had to recycle the hard-earned treats from her bag. So, I’d call this Halloween a great success.