mikemariano

Yeah, these points make a lot of sense. Instead of Andrew Packard's mysterious death being an idle curiosity in the backs of our minds, it becomes a front-and-center pointless time suck.

This show has so few episodes left and I can't believe we haven't even hinted at: Jake and Chris: You were both pretty unimpressed with the Andrew Packard storyline. But what were you expecting? We knew from the beginning in the series that Josie had married Catherine's brother and that he had died in a mysterious boating accident. Twin Peaks is definitely enough of a soap opera that we knew Andrew Packard couldn't possibly really be dead. I guess it would be more interesting (and more soap-opera-y) if it came after a high point—like Truman and Josie elope after she returns to Twin Peaks. A happy married couple! But then Andrew Packard comes back from the dead! Having him show up while Josie is an indentured servant is just ugly, and Dan O'Herlihy doesn't have much chemistry with Joan Chen.

I remember this being my least favorite episode the last time through. This time around I am skipping every single James scene so maybe that will improve it?

You already mentioned all the best moments to screenshot. ASIAN MAN KILLED shows up again in the next episode, I think. It's so ridiculous.

Dan O'Herlihy is Irish! But, yeah, the Packard siblings of the Pacific Northwest sure have some stagey accents.

I used to say that continuously in Japanese class. One way of forcing an "alphabetical" order onto Japanese syllables is to arrange by consonant, then by vowel. The order I was taught was "AIUEO." So ta chi tsu te to, sa shi su se so, r/la li lu le lo... I have no idea if actual Japanese children are taught this way, but maybe it's supposed to tie into rote learning?

New camposanto dot com sidebar quote.

Audrey's been through a lot at the beginning of this season, but with Bobby she knows she can toy with him without getting hurt. I really think that there's not much more to that relationship than what we see.

Haha I thought the same thing. Though usually the thing Nick says "that's dumb" about is the sentence he said immediately before.

Thank goodness that's over! I am deathly allergic to your murder demons.

Chris or Sean or Jake or Jane or someone answered this in some interview or video or article or something I thought I had a link for but I can't find. Time is tied to your progress in the game. So I guess those teens at the lake will stay there forever until you come and yell at them.

RE: Chris's discussion with the New York Times reporter about Firewatch being a game about adults: I wonder if developers get hit with questions like, "What ESRB rating are you aiming for?"

And then you woke up and discovered you were now a member of the Church of Scientology.

Hey, Audrey! Remember last week when your dad owned a brothel at which he demands to have his way with all the new girls? Anyway, now he's tormenting his young female hotel staff and it's really funny; check it out. After this line, I don't really care if Ben Horne is faking it or not: If I recall correctly, this is the end of the Little Nicky storyline. Is that right? Dick and Andy get caught, nothing happens, and Nicky disappears? Denise is still cool. And you know what? I like this couple.

Oh man, the Fake Tojamura/"Real" Tojamura split screen you describe on the podcast sounds like it would devolve into a Saturday Night Live sketch, where Catherine-in-make-up is in the middle of a big speech, then Tojamura walks in behind her and the studio audience goes wild. Oh, Twin Peaks 2016 has a studio audience now.

I started the third novel. Gurney's back!

Doug do you have the shirt in real life already?

I recently came across a Frank Herbert biography by Tim O'Reilly (the reference book publisher). It discusses the first three Dune novels in depth. "I can't read this until I read Dune Messiah and Children of Dune!" I thought. So I read Dune Messiah. And it was extremely underwhelming. Herbert re-shaped his entire universe in between novels, but it doesn't affect any of the characters mentioned in this novel or the first one. A few pages ago in this thread I was concerned about clones and shapeshifters—Herbert doesn't use them poorly, but like everything else in the novel he barely uses them at all. And why does the entire surviving cast of Dune show up except Gurney? He was the most quotable, passionate character!

I'm writing something right now and it's terrible! Make something terrible! Or adapt something. If someone already created a beginning, middle, and end for you, you can riff on those themes.

I completely forgot to write in about this, but this episode features a Mod Squad Reunion! To be honest, I've never seen the Mod Squad, so going in cold I had no idea that Peggy Lipton and Clarence Williams III used to be co-stars. But it was a notable guest spot at the time. After this episode aired, Entertainment Weekly interviewed Michael Cole, the third Mod Squad member and asked him about Twin Peaks: The Mod Squad was on television for five seasons. It feels weird that I know so little about it and let this Twin Peaks reunion slip past me.

Chuck Jordan: No pressure, gang!

Wow, I'm breaking the law right now!

Wow, great interview! I could watch Sawyer talk forever; he gives so much consideration to his story and how it comes across in gameplay. Anyone eavesdropping on that interview probably thought his description of how souls work to be bizarre. Compare that to souls in the Elder Scrolls games. When playing Oblivion, the final part of one of my major sidequests had my mentor end his own life to trap his soul in a gem to protect me. Mechanically, his sacrifice didn't do anything except unlock a battle with an evil necromancer. I then killed the necromancer with an item that trapped his soul in another gem—what did it mean to have the soul of an important character in my inventory? Apparently it meant nothing—it was just another way to recharge magical items. Soul power is only specific when the plot needs it to be. It seems like soul power will have similar abilities in Pillars of Eternity, but there will definitely be more going on. I'm excited to roleplay in this game!

Firewatch with only a sky system is officially prettier than Grand Theft Auto 5 without textures.