MIRROR MIRROR II now back in stock

I’m happy to report that Julia Gfrörer and I once again have copies of our horror/erotic/gothic comics and art anthology Mirror Mirror II available for sale at her Etsy shop. It’s an absolute murderer’s row of artists; if you like our sensibilities at all, you’ll like this book. 

With work by:

Lala Albert

Clive Barker

Heather Benjamin

Apolo Cacho

Trung Lê Capecchi-Nguyễn

Sean Christensen

Nicole Claveloux

Sean T. Collins

Al Columbia

Dame Darcy

Gretchen Felker-Martin

Noel Freibert

Renee French

Meaghan Garvey

Julia Gfrörer

Simon Hanselmann

Aidan Koch

Laura Lannes

Céline Loup

Uno Moralez

Jonny Negron

V.A.L.I.S. Ortiz

Claude Paradin

Chloe Piene

Josh Simmons

Carol Swain

“The Penguin” thoughts, Season One, Episode Seven: “Top Hat”

Top hats, tuxedos, umbrellas — there’s even a bit in Astaire’s dance where he mimes machine-gunning the other dancers with his cane…it’s as though The Penguin went out of its way to include everything that traditionally makes the Penguin the Penguin and then said “eh, none of that really registered with him, I guess.” Would a top-hat wearing machine-gun-umbrella toting Oz Cobb really be so terrible to show us?

I reviewed this week’s episode of The Penguin for Decider.

“Tulsa King” thoughts, Season Two, Episode Eight: “Under New Management”

But I said there’s good stuff in this episode, and I mean it. For instance, the story of Armand, the accidental turncoat semi-ex-mafia guy played by Max Casella, could easily have come from either of the crime masterpieces Winter worked on. One by one, everyone Armand counts on to help him dodge the inevitable wrath of Dwight: The boss knows Armand’s the one who fed key intel to his rival, Cal Thresher, and payback is just a matter of time.

Armand calls his ex, but when she sees that he’s half in the bag at 9 a.m. and wants her to join witness protection with him, she tells him to lose her number. Enraged, he blows up at Spencer, his underling at the ranch, leading to an argument with his boss, Margaret, that ends in his firing. He turns to his erstwhile benefactor, Thresher, who pretty much laughs in his face; if Dwight’s onto him, he’s no longer useful.

Casella packs a wallop in his final pair of scenes. First, in an underpass, he leaves a tearful, uncomfortably candid message for one of his sons, in which the pain of life as a perpetual fuckup is etched into his face. Then, with desperation visible in his eyes and his pained grimace, he sticks up Tulsa’s consigliere, Goodie, and makes off with a sack of the outfit’s cash. His bluster on the way out the door seems like a cover-up for the knowledge he’s a dead man walking.

I reviewed this weeks’ Tulsa King for Vulture.

“Disclaimer” thoughts, Episode Six

Her son is on death’s door. Her husband won’t spend more than two seconds in her company and refuses to listen to a word he says. The man who’s ruined her life has more access to her child than she does. But Catherine Ravenstock is a storyteller by trade, and her story is going to get told, one way or the other.

So she flips the script on Stephen. She breaks into his house, violating his personal space, to let him know what really happened. (The rattling we keep hearing in the background of her flashbacks is actually his malfunctioning freezer, which has been on the fritz since before Jonathan’s death.) Writer-director-creator Alfonso Cuarón shoots her in blazing white light, like an alien visitation. I think that’s a key visual indicator, personally. I think she’s an avatar of the truth.

I reviewed this week’s Disclaimer for Decider.

“Before” thoughts, Episode Three: “The Liar”

One thing I’m realizing is that keeping us guessing like this is an artifact of the show’s running time. An unusual half-hour drama — I don’t think Apple TV+ will be submitting this one for Best Comedy, The Bear–style — it’s also an even more unusual half-hour supernatural mystery thriller. What this means is every thirty minutes or so, it’s got to end on a cliffhanger that raises more questions than it answers to keep us moving through all ten episodes, instead of doing so every sixty minutes or so to move us through the same number of episodes or fewer. 

In other words, writer-creator Sarah Thorp all but designed Before to deny us answers. The mysteries add up one on top of the other until it’s tune in next week, same Before-time, same Before-channel. For a while, anyway, we’re gonna be as in the dark as Eli. 

I reviewed this week’s episode of Before for Decider.

“Before” thoughts, Episode Two: “The Imposter”

In the meantime, the show is most artistically successful in Eli’s dreams. Whatever else you think of what is going on, and whatever you think of Crystal’s performance (I like it but I don’t feel he’s had the chance to do much nuanced work with this material yet), the man repeatedly dreams of being maimed and killed — by Noah, by Lynn, by himself. That’s the depth of desperation and darkness beneath the surface-level warmth everyone seems drawn to in Eli. I wonder how much Noah and the phenomena surrounding him will drag up to the light.

I reviewed the second episode of Before for Decider.

“Before” thoughts, Episode Two: “The Scientist”

But the focal point of the episode remains Eli’s attempts to figure out what’s going on with his patient. A harrowing MRI goes awry when the boy hallucinates one of those black-goop tentacle-worm things, a tiny one this time, extruding from the top of the chamber and slithering into his IV wound. I so wish they’d taken the time to use practical effects for an image that inherently squirmy and uncomfortable; the CGI just doesn’t feel viscerally frightening and gross the way it needs to. (Being more creepy than actually scary is a consistent problem for the show.)

I reviewed the second episode of Before for Decider.

“Before” thoughts, Episode One: “The Imposter”

Weird kid. Dead wife. Bloody bathtub. Black goop. Creepy tentacles. Recurring nightmares. Scary drawings. Cursed cabin. The series premiere of Before, the new psychological-supernatural thriller from writer-creator Sarah Thorp, feels a little like it went into the horror store and said “I’ll take one of everything.” With nine half-hour-or-so episodes to go after this one, there’s only one question to ask: Will the whole add up to more than the some of its parts?

I reviewed the first episode of the new Billy Crystal/Judith Light supernatural/psychological thriller Before for Decider.

“The Penguin” thoughts, Season One, Episode Six: “The Gold Summit

With a fun script by Nick Towne, and a distinct lack of the orange that has often overwhelmed the image on this show — kudos to director Kevin Bray and cinematographer David Franco for making the night scenes look like they were shot in the night air of a big cold city, just for starters — this episode makes it seem like The Penguin has truly gotten its sea legs. I’m still crossing my fingers it get its (bat-)wings eventually too, that’s all. 

I reviewed this week’s episode of The Penguin for Decider.

“Tulsa King” thoughts, Season Two, Episode Seven: “Life Support”

Now, this is a Tulsa King worth bending the knee for. With refreshingly nuanced, twisty plotting and sharp dialogue courtesy of writer David Flebotte, the somewhat misleadingly titled “Life Support” (more on that in a second) is, appropriately, the first time in a long time that this show has shown signs of real, creative life.

I reviewed this week’s Tulsa King for Vulture.

“Disclaimer” thoughts, Episode Five

Now please forgive me as I say something corny: The real star of the show is the camera. Disclaimer is stupidly lovely to look at, a rejoinder to anyone who says all TV is color-graded digital shit. Watch how the light shifts from grey to gold when Nicholas receives the DM that proves his new friend Jonathan died years ago, echoed several scenes later as Stephen stands in his house pondering what he’s done to the young man. Look at the bright grey rainy afternoon light seeping into Stephen’s house when Catherine comes calling, demanding for him to listen to her side of the story. (For our sake I hope he acquiesces!) For crying out loud, look at how well-lit the dinner scene is. It’s not a big orange glow, there are actual light sources, there’s contrast, there’s shadow…this is basic stuff, but it’s worth calling out. 

I reviewed this week’s Disclaimer for Decider. Maybe next week I’ll review Decider for Disclaimer.

“The Old Man” thoughts, Season Two, Episode Eight: “XV”

Friends, I flapped my arms like an excited goose when I saw Dan and Emily reunite. This despite the fact that I already knew she was alive — they revealed it at the end of last episode and spent the first third of this one explaining how she pulled it off by killing all her Pavlovich-hired captors, duh — and that their reunion was almost certainly inevitable. I’m just that invested by this point in how much these two characters love each other. 

And why wouldn’t I be? The whole point of the show is about how their love for one another persists despite all the madness and misery. It’s the only constant in either of their lives, through multiple identities and countries and continents and allegiances. You can question whether their love for each other is healthy, you can question whether professional killers feel love the way you and I do, but you can’t question that connection between them, flawed and befouled though it may be. 

I reviewed the strong season finale of The Old Man for Decider.

“Disclaimer” thoughts, Episode Four

All of this is set against some of the most astonishing gorgeous ocean cinematography I’ve seen in my life. From Children of Men to Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón has long been a “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” director, pushing the envelope of everything from long takes to IMAX. What I don’t know about how he does what he does could fill a book. But man, all that time with the cameras in the water, lit so brightly by the sun that you want to squint just from looking at it on your television, capturing actual nuanced human expression at the same time as conveying the backbreaking, breath-shortening labor of bringing even a child back to shore through rough seas…it’s a technological marvel is what it is, grim though what it’s showing us may be.

I reviewed episode four of Disclaimer for Decider.

“The Penguin” thoughts, Season One, Episode Five: “Homecoming”

Is Sofia Gigante sexy? Oh, you better believe it. Her huge dark eyes perpetually accentuated with thick black eyeliner, she adopts a dress code of low-cut off-the-shoulder numbers to show off not just her skin, but the countless scars that criss-cross it, some of them fresh. And in an inversion of the Joker/Harley Quinn origin story, she effortlessly — and I mean no effort at all, this was not something she was even thinking about trying to do on purpose — secures a submissive sycophant in the form of Dr. Julian Rush, who abandons his career to serve by her side. (It’s a bit like how Victor became the Penguin’s sidekick the same way the second Robin, Jason Todd, became Batman’s: by trying to steal the rims from his ride.) When he begs to join her, she’s not even wearing pants. 

I reviewed this week’s episode of The Penguin for Decider.

“Tulsa King” thoughts, Season Two, Episode Six: “Navigator”

How big will the battle for Tulsa be? Dwight, Cal, Bill, Chickie, Jackie, and Vince all have competing interests they seem willing to achieve through violence. Winter’s skill in building Boardwalk Empire’s sprawling seasons toward stunning, violent season finales was legendary, the kind of thing even the show’s detractors gave him credit for. (It’s one of the best shows ever made, just to be clear.) Here’s hoping moving the action from New Jersey to Oklahoma won’t damage the bloody goods.

I reviewed this week’s episode of Tulsa King for Vulture.

“Disclaimer” thoughts, Episode Three

Disclaimer does two very worthwhile things here: It finds the big red button marked SEXUAL AROUSAL and the big black button labeled GRIEF and leans on both of them as hard as it possibly can. This is almost certainly bound to displease the segment of the audience that can handle the tearjerking but not the regular jerking, and vice versa. It’s a big risk, in short. Why else watch television? Why else make television?

I reviewed episode three of Disclaimer for Decider.

“Disclaimer” thoughts, Episode Two

I’m sitting here trying to collect my thoughts on the sexual confidence of Catherine Ravenscroft. Young Catherine Ravenscroft, that is, the one played by Leila George on the Italian seaside on a fateful day years ago. I’m trying to capture the confidence with which she approaches, discomfits, flirts with, and effectively seduces smitten young amateur photographer Jonathan Brigstocke before so much as touching him. The best I can come up with is this:

She approaches this young man from the sea with the towering swagger of the invincible.

I reviewed the second episode of Disclaimer for Decider.

“The Old Man” thoughts, Season Two, Episode Seven: “XIV”

It’s a grimy little circle, isn’t it? The best hope any of these people having of leading functional lives is, what, lying forever, after killing enough people to get set up safe somewhere to begin with? So that, what, someone can come crawling out of the past 40 years later to kill you or your loved ones anyway? When does it end? Sooner for some than others, I suppose. 

I reviewed this week’s episode of The Old Man for Decider.

“The Penguin” thoughts, Season One, Episode Four: “Cent’anni”

But when we get to that final sequence, where she Saltburns her whole family while dressed like a post-apocalyptic Oscar statuette, most of my complaints fell by the wayside. What we’re looking at, of course, is a gothic, updated for the 2020s — a New Lurid tale of twisted family secrets erupting forth and unmaking the rich and powerful who built their empires upon them. Sofia Falcone is The Penguin’s Poe homage — Madeleine Usher risen from the tomb, the tell-tale heart beating out a reminder of murder, the Masque of the Red Death visiting diseased vengeance on Prince Prospero and his revelers. Spooky Season has come to Gotham City.

I reviewed this week’s episode of The Penguin for Decider.

“The Old Man” thoughts, Season Two, Episode Six: “XIII”

It’s funny: The Old Man, along with The Americans and Better Call Saul, are three of the best shows to ever do it when it comes to the craft of espionage and sabotage. But they’re also three of the quietest shows ever when it comes to the people doing the spycraft. Dan and Zoe and Carson barely raise their voices in this episode. Mike Ehrmantraut and Gus Fring and Nacho Varga rarely spoke above a low purr. Philip and Elizabeth Jennings could be explosively angry, but their jobs involved nearly as much quiet, wordless drudgery as it did honeytrapping; their unintentional Ahab, FBI Agent Stan Beeman, his partne Dennis Aderholt, and his KGB counterpart Oleg Burov talked like they worked in a library. 

Every single actor involved in the above roles (deep breath: Jeff Bridges, Amy Brenneman, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Michael Mando, Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell, Noah Emmerich, Brandon J. Dirden, and Costa Ronin) deserves kudos for shying away from the high-decibel, demonstrative acting style we associate with action and adventure. Sure, the spies keep quiet when they don’t wanna get caught, but otherwise they live for the excitement, right? 

Not these guys. Whatever compels them to keep doing what they’re doing has not translated into a bonanza of excess energy for them to spend. It’s rendered them thoughtful, quiet, cautious, careful. As Zoe puts it at one point, doing this means having to be okay with never trusting anybody again. She also says that while she’s always been a person who breaks things, her experiences with Chase and Bote, the things she’s learned how to do, mean she’s now “armed.” You speak softly when every word is a weapon.

I reviewed the latest episode of The Old Man for Decider.

“Tulsa King” thoughts, Season Two, Episode Five: “Tilting at Windmills”

Of course characters don’t speak for their writers, and television shows are not campaign platforms. But as these recaps have argued before, you simply can’t point to any place in Tulsa King where Dwight has acted in a way we’re supposed to find seriously immoral. Shaking down Bodhi, killing some bikers, jokingly humiliating his ex-girlfriend on the witness stand — less than ideal, but nothing you’re not supposed to be able to live with. Nothing you’re not supposed to find outright entertaining, in fact.

So when Dwight says school is turning boys into sissies, when Dwight’s primary interaction with immigrants comes at the end of a baseball bat, you can’t point to some really odious murder that demonstrates the show’s understanding that its main character is a piece of shit the way you could with Tony Soprano or Nucky Thompson. Dwight’s a delight! That’s his whole schtick. What’s the matter? Aren’t you delighted?

I reviewed this week’s Tulsa King for Vulture.