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Let’s start with the quotidian: I listened to the Rewatchables episode about Ocean’s Twelve and what a missed opportunity it was. The Rewatchables is a podcast from the folks over at the Ringer about ‘rewatchable’ films—movies that you find yourself watching again and again. The episode on Ocean’s Twelve was supposed to be an episode about a flawed rewatchable and yet the Ringer assembled a trio of hosts who all agreed the film was essentially perfect. It caused me to actually rewatch the film and I remain decidedly of the opposite view. My central issue is not the narrative inconsistency of the Tess-looks-like-Julia-Roberts plot device, it’s simply that it’s not a good heist movie.
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Sticking to things I watched, this week was the premiere of season three of Westworld and it was a cracker of an opening. The writers are (so far) avoiding the two aspects I tired of last season: non-linear storytelling and Delores-as-indiscriminate-murder-machine. I tried watching it with Eri but I don’t think it’s really her cup of tea.
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I also squeezed in episodes of Devs and Star Trek: Picard. Devs looks interesting enough and Picard I find myself liking in spite of its flaws.
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It feels like it was all TV all the time because, prompted by the angry Red Letter Media recaps of Picard, I restarted my journey through all of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I’d made it midway through season three when I took my last break and I picked things up again with the episode ‘Prophet Motive’. It’s been a lot of fun and I don’t remember now why I stopped. The show is almost refreshingly uncomplicated compared to what we have today. While there is an overarching story of sorts, most episodes stand entirely on their own. I’m particularly enjoying the amount of science fiction they cram into each episode (which might sound strange to say about a science fiction show but, well, see Picard).
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In non-television news, our microwave gave up the ghost after 15 years of faithful service. We bought a cheapish replacement on Friday and I was disappointed it has no clock (!).
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Eri and I walked past this tiny Thai restaurant on Sunday that’s near our house and I couldn’t resist checking whether they made pad ki mao. They did and I used it as an opportunity to try one of those food delivery services that are ubiquitous nowadays. I’m sad to report that I think they used fettuccine (!!). That might sound insane but it’s a little easier to accept if you know how difficult it is to buy rice noodles in Japan (which might also sound insane). I will not be ordering more.
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I’ve spent so much of my free time programming over the past couple of weeks that I’ve fallen horribly far behind in my reading list. I did make time for Scott Alexander’s review of Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. Be warned: it’s very long.
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OK, OK—I couldn’t avoid it forever. So despite the rest of the world increasingly self-isolating, we sent Emma to preschool for the first time in two weeks on Thursday. We’re also planning to send John to his preschool at the start of next month. This is consistent with the approach in Japan (where cases continue to be low) but it feels like it may be a horrible mistake. Based on everything in my Twitter feed, it almost certainly is. We shall see.
