My Favorite Things This Week #103

The Friday High 5: The joy of revisiting the past and the wonders of this future

HBO

Every Friday I share 5 things I enjoyed this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High 5. 🙏🏻

A little bit of business before we dip into the High 5.

I’ve found a not inconsiderate amount of time spent running a site/newsletter is wondering wtf you’re doing. Like: Is this useful? Is it an effective use of my time? What should I be writing? Is that what I’m actually writing? Does anybody care?

You don’t start something like this without some idea of what you’re going to write about. Over time, it’s easy to stray from those ideals. You see what other people are doing and wonder if you should be doing something similar. Especially if they’re more successful.

I took a 2-week break at the end of 2024 because life was getting hectic with holiday activities. The time away gave me the space to reconsider my focus here. And I’ve come to a couple conclusions.

1. I have zero interest in writing reviews. You might get a mini review in a High 5 but otherwise, meh. It’s not my bag, baby.

2. I don’t want to be on the content treadmill, as a consumer or creator. I will never see all the shows and movies I should see. Trying to keep up is kinda exhausting. I’d rather follow my instincts on what’s interesting than cover something just because it’s new. Most of the time, what I find interesting is stuff I’ve seen a dozen times already.

There’s real utility in telling people what's worth watching. Time is our most valuable resource. If someone can help you avoid wasting it on something crappy, that’s great. I’ve provided a list of reviewers below, people I trust because they have a good track record of sorting good from bad and are also great writers. If you are here because you’re interested in such a service, follow them. You won’t be disappointed.

The logical question: What are you going to write?

Because I’m inherently lazy, I’m pasting content from my newly-reworked About page:

All the Fanfare is an irreverent celebration of pop culture.

This is not a serious publication. I’m not an academic. I never took a course on filmmaking. I don’t write reviews.

I write think pieces, personal essays, and ridiculous stuff. Everything through a pop culture lens.

I mainly cover movies and TV shows, video games and Dungeons & Dragons. My focus is mostly on 1980s - 2000s. Expect some Star Wars.

AI is theft. Everything here is 100% hand-crafted.

I think that’s a pretty good mission statement.

You can expect 2 posts every week, in various configurations. You might get an essay and a podcast one week, a funny post and a High 5 the next. Variety is good for the gander, too. One of the weekly posts will be for paid supporters.

Hopefully that sounds good to you! Thanks for being here, and for trusting me with your inbox.

Reviewers I Trust

These are arranged in order of how long I’ve been reading them. I’ve only listed writers who frequently review films or TV; scroll my profile for a full list of banging writers covering pop culture.

• Simon Dillon
  (film)

• John DeVore
  (film)

• Nikki Davis
  (film)

• Akos Peterbencze
  (TV, film)

• Beth Lisogorsky
  (TV, film)

Onto the High 5.

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Deadwood

A few months ago I loaned my copy of Deadwood to a friend with the quiet excitement of one conferring a great honor on another. Deadwood is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and I’m always happy to evangelize it.

He recently returned it, having petered out during season 2. In the wake of this development, I’ve been forced to reconsider everything I know about him, and left to wonder about the longevity of our friendship. Also, what other gruesome skeletons is he hiding? What's his persuasion on Han Solo? Does he hate grilled cheese? Is he a fan of getting kicked in the nuts?

I’m obviously being flippant for dramatic purposes (I am a self-professed Oliver Putnum fan). But also, his birthday is tomorrow and I need to maintain the friendship at least that long—he's having a D&D birthday party and I would like to attend. Come Monday, all bets are off.

No question, Deadwood is not for everyone. It’s violent, often ugly. It’s easily the most foul-mouthed show I’ve ever seen, and I've seen some shit. But it’s also a brilliant marriage of character and setting, with the most inventive dialogue. It’s Shakespearean.

“You can't cut the throat of every cocksucker whose character it would improve.” ~ Al Swearengen

I felt inclined to rewatch the first episode, I think to prove to myself that, no, this show is awesome and my friend is cray. And now I’m seriously considering an episode-by-episode exploration of the show for paid supporters. It’s your fault, Chad.

Deadwood — Making Of Materials

I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole after stumbling across a playlist of Deadwood behind-the-scenes material. Listening to showrunner David Milch talk about Deadwood is an experience in coming face-to-face with your own limitations. I feel pretty good about my intellect on a usual basis, but there’s no way to listen to Milch without realizing that geniuses walk amongst us and I am not them. Milch operates on another, higher plane of existence.

The fact that this Deadwood deep dive started because I was working on a dice & elves game set in a Deadwood analogue does not do wonders for my psyche.

Milch also wrote a book about Deadwood, which I’ve started reading. The insight and commentary is fascinating, both for the history of the town and its presentation on the show. Here’s a quick nugget.

Milch originally came to HBO with a pitch for a show about Rome during the reign of Nero, through the PoV of cops trying to maintain order while the emperor operated without respect to laws or morals. But HBO already had a Rome show in the works. Milch took the basic premise—lawlessness, and how humans self-organize specifically because of a vacuum of order—and moved it to the 1800s American frontier. And Deadwood was born.

Minimalism Documentary

I’m not technically a minimalist. I have minimalist tendencies, or perhaps ideals is a better word. Whatever you call it, periodically I retract my head from my own behind and think about where this is all going.

I blame this documentary, which I first saw years ago. I’ve now watched it probably 5 or 6 times. I’ve also periodically listened to the accompanying podcast, and read a few of their books.

You can get very pseudo spiritual about this kind of thing, which is where I peace out. What I dig is the minimalist aesthetic. Clean surfaces, no clutter, plenty of space to think.

Unrelated: I cleaned out my office this week.

Oppenheimer

I’m probably the last pop culture writer to see this movie. But as I said at the top, I’m purposefully trying not to be like anyone else. I get to new releases when I get to them. Often when they can't qualify as new in even the most generous of interpretations.

The movie is as advertised. It’s brilliant. Even at 3 hours of runtime, I was riveted. Exceptional storytelling and craft. Having the benefit—or curse—of foreknowledge, I kept waiting for RDJ to show something special, for which he won an Oscar. It eventually comes, but the first 2 hours he’s just playing a diplomat, nothing you haven't seen in any other historical biopic.

I feel like I need to see it again. The film hops around in space and time, and casually name drops people like we’re supposed to know who these guys are. We should know their names, but time is an indiscriminate eraser, and education is not prized in America.

In the aftermath, I was amazed at what I’d witnessed but also had the sense some percentage of the payload had been wasted on my ignorance. Like the movie would hit even harder now that I could distinguish the knights from the pawns, and had a better idea of the timeline.

Streaming on Prime Video

Mac Mini

Because I am first and foremost a nerd, I custom built my own PC about 12 years ago. It was the first, last, and only time I ever did it. Not because I hated it. I just did a good enough job that the PC lasted. Pretty remarkable considering my budget was just north of $500 (not including peripherals).

I gifted it to my son 3 years ago when he started getting into League of Legends. Last Christmas I bought him new internals—everything except a new GPU—to bring it up to modern specs. We did the install together.

Great for him, but I was suddenly without a desktop. I got by with a laptop I shared with my wife.

She surprised me with a Mac Mini for Christmas. Possibly because she was tired of fighting me for the laptop? I didn’t scrutinize her motives too closely because I’ve been wanting one of these for years.

It was backordered and didn’t arrive until several days after Christmas. While waiting, I started lurking around the /macmini subreddit, which it turns out is 99% desk porn. Didn’t hate it, tho it made me feel a bit bad about my pedestrian monitors and lack of aesthetic lighting.

Baby Yoda absolutely dwarfs the Mac Mini.

I’ve been using the Mac Mini for several weeks now. It’s easily the best computer I’ve ever used. Whisper quiet, super fast, and just so itty-bitty. It’s a marvel of modern design, a marriage of form and function that harkens back to the Steve Jobs era.

It’s the new M4 model. Base specs, but there’s nothing basic about it. Super affordable though!

I’ve never seen Her because falling in love with a computer is stupid, but now I get it.

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Your Turn!

• Do you love Deadwood or have you never seen it? Favorite character?

• Have you ever tried minimalism? How’d it go? What about maximalism?

• Do you think Christoper Nolan is contractually required to confuse audiences, or is that just a kink?