incidents and accidents, hints and allegations

This animation of a dragon accordioning into a wall is, as they say, a mood.

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Via Courtney Milan, did you know that Stacey Abrams also writes romance novels published by HarperCollins? Because I didn't.

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Abigail Nussbaum raises important big-picture questions about S3 of The Good Place that I hadn't gotten as far as because I was being grumpy about smaller-scale stuff. Spoilers, obviously.

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I haven't had much time for stitching lately--at home I've been working on my Christmas Nanoblock set--but I really like this freebie curly heart from Mary Corbet. Into the ever-growing stash it goes . . .

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Finally, I had a root canal a few years ago, and in the late fall the tooth got infected again. Happily, the endodontist went back in today and didn't find any fractures or other stuff that shouldn't be there, so I guess it was just one of those things. And it only took four and a half hours for me to be able to fully move my face again!

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One lonely episode this month, then the last three of the season in January. (They did this on purpose, but it's still weird.)

( SPOILERS )

I got a bit behind and then even when I caught up I didn't have time to write, but I do have some notes about prior episodes which I will tidy up now! Spoilers through tonight's. I will confine each cut-tag to my contemporaneous notes, but comments will probably have spoilers for all currently-aired episodes.

( S03E04, 'The Snowplow' )

( S03E05, 'Jeremy Bearimy' )

( S03E06, 'The Ballad Of Donkey Doug' )

( S03E07, 'A Fractured Inheritance' )

( S03E08, 'The Worst Possible Use Of Free Will' )

(I number these as two episodes because then there are 13 episodes in the season and that is the Proper Number of episodes in a half-length season and I am happy. And because they're Chapter 27 and Chapter 28 on-screen.)

I sat on the floor so I could pet the dog while watching this and I am so, so glad for that whole experience, especially today.

( SPOILERS )

I watched this over breakfast so this will be quick.

( SPOILERS )

On rewatching most of it with Chad tonight, I had a follow-up thought.

( spoilers forever and always, of course )

( brief spoilers )

I assume we have a substantial hiatus coming up since it's another 13-episode season, unless they're going to burn them all before New Year's?

(The first week was two episodes back-to-back, which is why we're up to episode four.)

I love this show very, very much. Also, Chad hasn't seen S1, but we watched the first four episodes of S2 together and he enjoyed it too, so while you definitely should watch S1—I think the characterizations work better that way—you can totally jump in at S2. (I did pause it once, to explain Mindy, but that was it.)

If you haven't seen it yet: go, see it! You'll almost certainly like it! And my goodness does it burn through plot at an extraordinarily high rate of speed, wow. This is really good, really funny, really thoughtful speculative fiction, and it makes me incredibly happy.

( SPOILERS through currently-aired episodes )

Spoilers are ok in comments--please do, in fact!

I love this show A LOT but it hasn't been renewed for another season yet and I really really want it to be so please go and binge it on your option of choice; if nothing else you can watch all 13 episodes on NBC's website. Because it does stick the landing and it's AMAZING but I really, really, really want a second season. A lot.

As I said in my original post, "it's using admirable pacing to unfold a lot of plot and character development in a very compact space," and that continues right up to the very end. So if you're puzzled by certain aspects stick with it, it's worth it, and it all really works as a single thing. And I love everyone in this bar, they're so great, and it's so delightfully off-kilter in all the little details, and it just makes me happy. And amazed. It's so good.

(Yes, there is a rather open end to the season, but it's also one that allows you to pretty easily write your own closure if you want and if for some reason it's not renewed. So I wouldn't call it a cliffhanger, but YMMV.)

A spoiler post will follow.