New Things: PONIES & The Diplomat

New Things #26 & #27 are somewhat similar streaming series - PONIes and The Diplomat. Both shows deal with wives who were once on the sideline suddenly taking on big roles in international relations and finding themselves in all sorts of drama.

I’m counting The Diplomat despite the fact that I only watched two of the three seasons. I tapped out because one of my pet peeves is when someone keeps screwing up but, at the same time, keeps getting labeled as a master at their trade. In The Diplomat, the protagonist is arguably the antagonist as almost every major issues stems from something Keri Russell’s character did. The rinse and repeat of the show is Keri Russell learns a piece of evidence, Keri Russell jumped to conclusions based on that info, at the last minute new intel proves her conclusion was wrong, Keri Russell jumps to new conclusion based on new info. And round and round we go. In short, The Diplomat is terrible at diplomacy. That being said, the acting is terrific and Keri Russell proves that she is a star and should be cast in more things. This might be the best role for Rufus Sewell, who I never really thought much of before this. At the end of the day, season 2 ended in such a way that I just really didn’t want to deal with Keri Russell’s character anymore.

Ponies is as equally flawed but I felt like it didn’t take itself as seriously as The Diplomat so I was willing to overlook some of the issues. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hardly a comedy (but I could see them trying to get nominated in that category for the Golden Globes) but the central concept - two women whose CIA-spy husbands have been killed in late-70s Moscow becomes spies to help the US and solve their husbands’ murders - is kind of silly to begin with. There’s also the silliness of taking two wives of guys that the KGB murdered and putting them undercover. I get that they are Persons of No Interest and the Russians don’t focus on them but it’s kind of ridiculous to. think that NOBODY would notice. Especially when one of them is working at the US Embassy and, at the same time, pretending to be a random Russian woman from Belarus. In the early episodes, they make it known that everyone US agent has a KGB agent following them which, as the series goes on, makes it even harder to believe that nobody has sussed out who the two leads are. If you can overlook all of that nonsense, Haley Lu Richardson is as charming as ever, Emilia Clarke is very strong in this, and the games of cat & mouse are fun, if increasingly silly. Ponies might also get the benefit of the doubt here because it’s only 1 season. I could see season 2 wearing me down to the point of tapping out the same way The Diplomat did.

January Review

A bar-hopping expedition in the Valley helped get me to 28 new things for the month, which is obviously way off pace for 500 New Things but since my other goal this year is to check out all of my old haunts and revisit some of my favorite bars and restaurants, 28 New Things isn’t bad and is probably more realistic, especially since I’m about to start a new gig that’s going to eat up more of my time than my previous job.

My Map of 2026 is pretty populated after just one month and the obvious thing that jumps out is that I need to cool it with the strip clubs. Maybe it’s a sign that I need to get back on the dating apps. To be fair, if I wasn’t doing this map, I probably wouldn’t have pulled the trigger and gone to as many but it’s still probably not great that they were on my radar so much to begin with.

The one thing my forays into the strippies did expose was that my small talk skills have absolutely deteriorated. I’m not sure they really ever bounced back from COVID but working remotely has also helped them atrophy. I’ve never been as good at chatting people up as I should be - I get into my head too much or simply don’t invest enough attention into the conversation - but there have been a couple of painful convos where the girl was trying to chat, my brain was thinking “Why don’t you say something?” and I just kind of flounder and throw out the lamest retorts and zero follow through. So maybe I shouldn’t get back on the dating apps quite yet.

Too much of my focus this month as been on The Map and I haven’t worked out or written at all. Those are going to be top priority for February.

Recxpectations: Islands

Islands is a film that I went in completely cold and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The synopsis is basically: A tennis pro at an island resort befriends a couple, only to have the husband disappear after an evening out partying.

EXPECT: UNDERCOOKED HITCHCOCK
At first I was going to call this movie a slow burn but, honestly, I don’t think it ever reaches “burn” status. The whole thing kind of smolders, which isn’t bad and is kind of an interesting and different choice in the genre’s current landscape that seems to be leaning to soapy melodrama. Everything about the film is subtle. For this reason, the drama and tension feels lacking at times. It’s a film that you’re intertwined with rather than gripped by. I really enjoyed it but I could see a lot of people being bored by the subtle smoldering approach.

EXPECT: SHOW, DON’T TELL
This film is kind of the polar opposite of the Knives Out franchise. You should not expect anything close to the Benoit Blanc final monologue in which he explains everything that is going on. This film is as slice of life as you can get in a kind of island noir. Most of the genre is overly crafted, every moment feels like a scene more than a real event. Islands just shows the moments unfold. It’s kind of like eavesdropping on a conversation as opposed to being told a story. That being said, the resolution is also as subtle so I could see some people wishing that there was a moment that spelled everything out.

DON’T EXPECT: SHOWY PERFORMANCES
The title refers to the characters as much as setting. Every character is repressed for their own reason - as a service worker or playing their role in a relationship. The writing doesn’t give much room to really perform but every actor plays their role perfectly. A nearby island has a volcano that is smoking and the characters are just the same; you know there’s something more ready to breakout but who knows if it will ever erupt.

DON’T EXPECT: A BREAKOUT HIT
While the approach to this film worked for me, it’s a classic indie film. There isn’t really anything here that will grab the attention of critics or awards voters or mainstream audiences. This is another example of why I wish companies would invest in Variations on a Theme because as much as I liked this version, I wouldn’t mind seeing what someone with a more commercial approach to things could have done with it.

Recxpectations: Send Help

Google Synopsis: “A woman and her overbearing boss become stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. They must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it's a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive.”

EXPECT: CLASSIC SAM RAIMI
Word order is important here because while this is classic Sam Raimi, I wouldn’t say it’s a Sam Raimi classic. I’d probably put it a notch below “Drag Me To Hell.” But this is Raimi returning to his kind of B-movie roots albeit with obviously a healthier budget. But it still has an offbeat feel, a dark film with a light touch, tinges of horror, a few avert your eyes gross-outs, and just not the usual film you’d expect from a Hollywood studio.

EXPECT: SOME DODGY CGI
One of my steadfast beliefs is: Just because you CAN use CGI doesn’t mean you SHOULD use CGI. I especially felt this in the plane crash scene which I think could have been better with creative editing and close-ups rather than relying on fake-looking CGI. But again, this is a Sam Raimi film so we shouldn’t really be expecting top notch realism out of the FX. Also, so much of this film appears to use CGI that you can almost forgive it for a handful (or more) of clearly fake moments.

EXPECT: A TIK TOK MOVIE
A Tik Tok movie is a film that you can break into 5 - 10 minute episodes and people can easily watch at their leisure - and perhaps start tuning in at any point - and still get most of what the movie was delivering. Trapped on a deserted island movies are always tough but, to me, Send Help especially felt like a collection of episodes rather than a fluid storyline.

EXPECT: THE CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD CONUNDRUM
Don’t get me wrong, Rachel McAdams is great in this and they did a great job of making her look like a loser at the top of the movie but it’s still Rachel McAdams, everyone’s sweetheart. Obviously, Hollywood wants a name for this role but I couldn’t help but think that there was probably a character actor who would have been a better casting job. If this movie was made 10 - 15 years ago, Juliette Lewis would have been the obvious casting choice. Which made me think - who are the new generations’ Juliette Lewises? Gen Z is the easiest thanks to Yellowjackets, with Sophie Thatcher playing a young Juliette Lewis. But who else is there?
Similarly, while I like Dylan O’Brien and he held his own in this film, I think the power dynamic would have been better had his character been portrayed by the bigger actor of the two. (An example of this is Misery, which had a relatively unknown Kathy Bates playing against the more famous James Caan.)

New Things #16: Wonder Man

My hot take when it comes to Marvel is that, if Doomsday and Secret Wars disappoint, Kevin Feige should be replaced as the head of Marvel.

I’m sad to say that Wonder Man didn’t do anything to alter my thinking on that. And I really do hate to say that because I’ve wanted Marvel to break from their normal approach and try something new with their films and shows and this certainly does that but I think it was unsuccessful and a step in the wrong direction.

For me, the first issues was that Wonder Man himself isn’t a very interesting or likeable character and then, on top of that, his main conflict is completely concocted. That might be OK if there was some emotional growth for the character but I didn’t feel like Simon Williams really showed much change at all. This star of the show was Ben Kingsley as his Trevor Slattery character made yet another scene stealing appearance. But his character also was the one with the real conflict and the real inner struggle and actual change.

In terms of the bigger picture, this was exactly the wrong show for Marvel to go with IMO. Marvel films/shows are struggling to retain their audience so they go with a slow burn, inside Hollywood./acting show?! I’m sure some critics and artistes will celebrate the sloth-like pace and industry touches but it’s absolutely not something that I think will bring back any of the mainstream audience. (And, quite frankly, it’s still not good enough to win over cinephiles IMO.)

Again, I’d love to see Marvel hit up different genres and expand their storytelling but, while the pace may have obscured it, this was another formulaic piece, this time, they just didn’t force in an action scene every episode. It felt like it could have been a Trojan Horse - using the superhero angle to get people to tune in to a character piece but, as I said, the main character didn’t do much for me nor did I think we really gained great insight into him and they barely even touched the topic of him having to hide his amazing powers. They also made the decision to give him a girlfriend for two cliched scenes that added absolutely nothing to the story or character.

I’d be absolutely stunned if this saw a second season - I’m not even sure where you go with it - and either way, I’d throw it in the same PASS pile as the Netflix/Marvel reboots. You’d think with all of the stories Marvel has spun over the decades that the TV shows would be better but they just can’t seem to hack it consistently. (And I looked up Wonder Man on Wikipedia and the original character seems a lot more interesting that this adaptation.) Maybe when they reboot the MCU after Secret Wars, they can do something more interesting with Simon Williams,

Book #1 of 2026: Audition by Katie Kitamura

I was hoping this would be my first literary New Thing of the year but sadly, this gets a big fat DNF - Did Not Finish. What killed this one for me was the mix of the book being in the first person and the author’s penchant for dissecting every single moment and look. When the lead of the book is constantly waxing poetic over every single moment of her life, it starts to feel less like introspection and more like complete and utter self-involvement. By page 60, the lead of the story was coming off like a cliche of high society New Yorkers. The stereotypical New York actor who yammers on at dinner parties and manages to spin every conversation back to herself (and then goes out about how she recognizes that flaw and has worked so hard to improve at it.) It felt like being stuck listening to someone monologuing about something that, at first, seemed interesting but you eventually realize that there really isn’t anything happening. There were some interesting insights here and there, but the main thrust of the story became increasingly annoying to me.

When I finally looked up reviews to see what Part 2 was about, I immediately lost any and all interest and tapped out.

New Thing #13: The Schnitz

Two things you have to know about me are:

1. While I love trying out new restaurants and eateries, I’m a stupidly picky eater.
2. I have a knack for ordering the wrong thing at a restaurant.

For The Schnitz, the reason I’m not reviewing it is more the former than the latter. I ordered just the schnitzel and fries with nothing else and the guy working the counter looked at me like I was crazy. Which I probably was. Schnitzel (which is the only option at The Schnitz) is more of the delivery vehicle for the toppings, which bring the flavor.

Still, I held my ground and got my plate of battered-thin fried chicken and fries. The fries were whatever; no seasoning and the kind of mid-sized fry between a steak fry and shoestring. The Schnitzel also didn’t have a ton of flavor on its own but when you order from a Schnitzel sandwich place and ignore 90% of the offerings, that’s on me.

The location is not great. It’s in a more industrial part of DTLA and there are a lot of really good eateries nearby. The owners seemed nice so I’m rooting for them but it seems like another dream eater of a location that will probably be something else this time next year.

Recxpectations: Dead Man's Wire

Maybe I missed it, but I felt that it was a little odd that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were doing pretty much every media outing possible - my friend said he saw them opening Pokemon cards online at one point - yet I never saw them give a shout out to Gus Van Sant, whose first film in seven years, “Dead Man’s Wire” opens wide this week. I know that there’s obviously some competition for eyeballs but I feel like they could have given him a little bit out of shout out.

Anyway, “Dead Man’s Wire” is based on the true story of a man in the 70s who took the President of a mortgage company hostage and became a folk hero as he railed against the greed and shady dealings that were eating away at everyday people’s savings.

There are obvious parallels to modern day - Luigi Mangione being the first one but also private equity which has been buying up companies like Saks in order to get their land and then they pull a mafia-esque move of running up the debt until the company has to file bankruptcy.

EXPECT: A MOVIE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A DOCUMENTARY
This is one of those films that pretty much has a trailer’s worth of story and you just kind of see a more fleshed out version when you sit down for the full hour and forty-five minutes. The incident itself is crazy but there is actual footage of much of it and I’m not sure that getting an inside look of what was happening in the apartment when the cameras were out of reach makes for the most interesting investigation of the incident And to beef up the story, there’s a completely unnecessary, half-baked b-story about a local reporter trying to get her big break. Ultimately, this is a crazy story that doesn’t really build. It starts off as crazy and then doesn’t really go anywhere. Oddly or maybe fittingly, it’s similar to The Testament of Ann Lee in that way. The path to becoming a prophet or folk hero is a lot more interesting than trying to maintain the position.

EXPECT: WEIRD ACCENTS
Maybe the accents were true to the characters and true to Indiana but I have to wonder, why worry about nailing the accents when the actors look NOTHING like the real participants. I also feel like everyone had a different accent. Cary Elwes was unrecognizable in his role but it might have been because I was wondering where his accent came from.

EXPECT: A JARRING EPILOGUE
The epilogue of the film enters an entirely different discussion into the mix and I immediately thought that perhaps the focus of the epilogue should have been present far earlier. I think one major issue with a film like this is you kind of have to decide between playing up the tension of What is going to happen? vs. digging deep into what happened and why. Gus Van Sant seems to have gone for the former so, for me, it felt like watching a mere reenactment more than a film that had much of a statement of its own.

New Thing #12: NoBar

The North Hollywood bar scene feels like it’s a lot of similar bars with one or two things tweaked about it. I walked into NoBar and wondered if I had been there before but after looking it over, I concluded that I hadn’t. It was dead that night (and at one point, there was a pretty large leak coming from the bathroom) but overall it was a nice spot for a drink and a chat. Like all NoHo bars, it’s a locals spot rather than a destination.

New Thing #11: The Testament of Ann Lee

The Testament of Ann Lee is an interesting take on a musical but, despite being well made, it just wasn’t for me. I tried writing a Recommended Expectation for this and I quit because I just feel like people are going to have very different reactions to this film For me, it was a numb experience. The music and dancing occasionally elevate things but for most part the score, story, and Thomasin McKenzie’s narration (I’d think Zen or meditation apps would look to hire her after this) just had me in an oddly serene place. Even during one of Ann’s darkest moments, we’re told what happens and then we’re shown it happening while a slow, repetitive musical number is performed by Ann (played my Amanda Seyfriend.) On top of that, there’s nothing really new to this story besides it being a female who is the religious leader. The story hits all of the usual points that these films of faith hit and Ann herself is devout that there seems to be no real internal conflict.

Ultimately, this is a faith movie told from the POV of the most faithful follower so it ultimately just isn’t in my wheelhouse. The second half especially, which feels less about Ann Lee and is more just anecdotes about what happened when they moved to America, falls flat and, in the end, had me wondering whether this was really a story that needed to be retold.

Recxpectations: The Rip

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been all over the airwaves, promoting their new film “The Rip” on Netflix. The Google synopsis is “A group of Miami cops discovers a stash of millions in cash, leading to distrust as outsiders learn about the seizure, making them question who to rely on.”

EXPECT: A NETFLIX-LEVEL ACTIONER
Matt Damon said that Netflix wants films to written in a way so that people on their phones (and who are half paying attention) can follow the film. He also noted that they want the customary set pieces - opening action scene, second act action scene, and big finale. I’m not sure if Netflix deserves all of the blame (I think the best thing I’ve seen out of Matt & Ben’s Artists Equity are the Dunkin’ Donuts commercials) but The Rip is very much in line with the mediocre pulp that they usually churn out. It’s immediately forgettable. And like many of these Netflix films, it tries to be a little of everything so it ends up being nothing at all. As a Whodunnit type film, there’s no strong driving force and most of the characters are so ill-defined that the mystery feels almost secondary. As an action film, it fails because the action scenes are all classic Cinema of Chaos - quick cuts, lots of guns or fast cards and you can’t really tell what exactly is happening. Much of the second act builds a kind of Assault on Precinct 13-style film but that doesn’t really materialize.
If you go in with low expectations for a B-movie action flick with big stars, then you might find this a good way to kill a couple hours.

DON’T EXPECT: THE PRESS TOUR MATT & BEN
It’s a little weird to me that Matt & Ben are playing up their friendship and have really turned on the charm offensive for a film in which neither of them really shows an ounce of charisma. They are both beaten-down-by-life cops who are just trying to make it through the day. I get that playing up the Matt and Ben of it all is the best way to drum up business but I kind of felt like a waste of talent. I mean, why cast Scott Adkins in a role where he basically is a guy who sits behind a desk?

Recxpectations: 28 Years Later - The Bone Temple

First off, I have to confess that I can’t say “The Bone Temple” without smirking. I always want to make a crack about how it’s the perfect name for a gay bar. If there isn’t a live, all-male revue version of this movie in the near future, then art is truly dead.

GOOGLE SYNOPSIS: “Dr. Kelson finds himself in a shocking new relationship with consequences that could change the world as he knows it, while Spike's encounter with Jimmy Crystal becomes a nightmare he can't escape.”

TL;DR: 28 Years Later fans likely won’t be disappointed by the sequel but it’s a film that seems like it could have been more, and it feels like three steaming mini-series episodes of material shoved into a under-two-hour film. I wouldn’t recommend it to people who haven’t seen the previous films; they’ll be able to follow but I doubt they’ll connect with any of it enough to make it worthwhile.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends the year in my Top Ten but I hope there will be 10 movies I like more than this.

RECOMMENDED EXPECTATIONS

EXPECT: AN EPISODE MORE THAN A SEQUEL
For me, 28 Years Later - The Bone Temple felt like the 7th episode of a 10 episode series. It’s an episode that can’t get as deep into the characters because it has so much work do to push the story forward. Of course, the issue is that this is the second movie of a trilogy and fourth movie of a franchise so I kind of wish we got to spend some more time with the characters before moving forward with the story. (That being said, I’m happy the film was an hour and 50 minutes and not well over two hours like so many films nowadays.)

DON’T EXPECT: A TYPICAL ZOMBIE MOVIE
At this point, I’m not sure why anyone would expect this out of a 28 Later movie but this is more a post-apocalyptic drama than a zombie film. There are a few moments of the usual zombie action but the undead aren’t the looming danger that they usually are in a zombie movie. Thematically, the Humans Are As Big A Threat angle of The Jimmys isn’t breaking new ground (even in this franchise) but there’s still a lot in this film - especially the soundtrack - that could knock people for a loss at first.

EXPECT: RALPH FIENNES TO CARRY THE MOVIE
The film mostly bounces between Fiennes’s Dr. Alec and The Jimmys but the core of the film is Ralph Fiennes. I feel like it’s the kind of performance that gets ignored by awards because it’s so good that you get immersed in it and forget that it’s a performance.

DON’T EXPECT: BIG BOY SPIKE
For me, one of the more disappointing moments of the film was speeding through young Spike’s realization that he’s made a deal with the devil. The previous film is partly to blame for this, rushing into the meeting with the Jimmys but 28 Years Later is so much about Spike’s coming-of-age and path to manhood and then, in this film, he’s basically just a quivering, scared mess throughout. Not that it’s hard to fathom why; Spike learns the very real lesson that what you think makes you a man doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the cruelty that the world can throw at you.

EXPECT: MORE, BUT NOT TOO MUCH, GORE
A lot of the critics discuss how violent and gory this film is - and it is gorier than maybe the other 28 Laters, but compared to other zombie films, I didn’t find it a top tier gory film. I averted my eyes a few of times but it wasn’t a full-on assault of gore. The goriest scene in the film is tough but I feel like other films would have shown even more of the hard-to-watch actions.

Resolution: FINISH MY DAMN SCRIPTS!

I’m a master of finishing a draft of a script and then tinkering on it few years or, in one case, decades. Last year was supposed to be the year that I actually finished these scripts and put them out into the world but I basically slept away most of 2025 so ‘26 will be the year! (Or will it?!)

The reason for the kick in the ass today is that one of my ideas seems to be a fairly popular premise in the indie world. My script, Inebriangel, is about a woman who wakes up after blackout drunk and realizes that she has superpowers. She can’t remember how she got them and she soon figures out that her powers only last as long as she’s hungover. After getting wasted again to regain her powers, she discovers that, when she’s blacked out, her drunken self acts like a superhero, putting herself in harm’s way to help others, and that’s something our hungover/sober hero is NOT cool with.

It’s a fun half-hour comedy with drunken and hungover hijinks that also investigates the question, “What if there’s a better person inside of us but we just don’t like that person?” and “Is it OK to not want to be your supposed best self?”

Anyway, I’ve been sitting on that script for a while and lo and behold, today I discovered that drunkeness is having a moment.

My friend sent me a story about the new film Buzzkill.

“Buzzkill centers on a group of sorority sisters who end up trapped with a murderer. Nora’s (Agudong) tipsy memories hold the clues to figuring out who is killing their friends, but she can only remember them when she’s drunk.”

The funny thing is, my friend only sent me that paragraph so when I went to find the story, I stumbled upon another announcement from just a few months ago about a different movie featuring drunkeness as a key element and, well, you’ll never guess the title.

Billy Magnussen and Lulu Wilson have signed to co-star in Joe Lynch’s horror comedy Buzzkill ahead of an early 2026 shoot in Texas, as Anonymous Content and The Veterans join forces to launch sales on the film at the AFM.

Billed as a blend of A Quiet Place and Another Round, the movie is set in a small Texas town terrorized by a creature that can only be seen by people who are drunk.

Now obviously, these films don’t follow my exact premise and maybe I can jump in and finish off the original trilogy (although mine’s a TV show not a film) but it inspired me to tackle the project and finish it so I can maybe try to do something with it.

Another script that, sadly, is having a moment is the script I started writing in college. It’s called Freaks and the premise: Set in the old West, a traveling freak show gets stranded in a town of xenophobic, homicidal maniacs. The travelers must realize that the townsfolk are the true freaks and escape before it’s too late.

I feel like with everything going on in the US right now and all of the ICE craziness, this script could get a bit more attention. Unfortunately, despite tinkering on it for about 25 years, I’ve never been able to crack it. But, again, maybe 2026 will be the year!

At the very least, I have to give it a try. I’d love to enter my 50s without any unfinished scripts/ideas looming over me.

Resolution: Less Autopilot

One thing I’ve noticed in the last few years is that I spent way too much time on auto-pilot. There are a lot of things I do either while daydreaming about something else or I just do it so much without thinking that 15 minutes later, I can’t remember if I did it or not. As I get older, I worry that the memory thing is a loss of cognitive function but, in this case, I think it is more that I spend a large part of my days, doing things somewhat thoughtlessly and just going through the motions. The 2026 Resolution is, in more cliched terms, to try to be more present in everything I do, even the little, mundane moments of life.

New Thing #8: Found Oyster

The stretch behind the Scientology Celebrity Center has picked up over the past years and Found Oyster is one of the highlights. As I’m not a raw fish fan, this isn’t the best spot for me but they also have a good selection of hot entrees. Overall, my friends and I left with a “It’s good!” but none of us really had much of a hankering to come back and try other dishes. In fact, my friends seemed more excited about trying out nearby Jim & James.

I feel like this neighborhood could use a watering hole as it’s a healthy walk to the nearest bar (Jim & James has a bar but feels more like a restaurant.) Whenever I’m in the area, I tend to just walk to Lotus Lounge, which is a locals’ dive bar and a place that I never feel the urge to overstay my welcome. And as someone who is usually the last person at a party, that’s a rare feat. There’s nothing wrong with the bar and I don’t dislike it but it just doesn’t feel all that welcoming and it also features the wall art that makes me feel the creepiest.

New Things #7: Bub & Grandma's Pizza

Bub & Grandma’s Pizza is a spin-off of the popular Bub & Grandma’s Restaurant, which landed in Glassel Park after the Bub & Grandma’s pastries, croissants, and loaves of bread were wildly popular and selling out at Farmers Markets all over Los Angeles.
I will say that I feel like, in general, pizza from bakeries is usually a bit disappointing to me. Bub’s slices didn’t change my thinking on this. It’s just kind of a bland slice. The location also is just a pizza window with three outdoor seats and then a shelf to lean on and eat your slice.
I don’t think the slice was bad but pizza in Los Angeles has improved so much while I’ve lived here that there are simply too many better options to try out there. This stretch in Highland Park also has a lot of eateries that seem more interesting to try.

New Things #6: Breadlam

Breadlam is a sandwich place in my neighborhood and I can’t really review it because there’s only one thing on the menu that I’d get, and that’s a grilled cheese (I got mine with roast beef added so it was around $17 after tip.) It was a forgettable grilled cheese but the menu is filled with more involved offerings that my basic, plain tastes aren’t into but are probably very tasty so I don’t want to dissuade anyone from giving it a go if they find themselves in the Arts District/Little Tokyo area.

New Thing #5: His & Hers

The synopsis for His & Hers is: His & Hers is a thriller that follows the investigation into a series of murders in a small town, told from the alternating perspectives of an estranged couple, news reporter Anna Andrews (Tessa Thompson) and Detective Jack Harper (Jon Bernthal). 

One of my pet peeves is when people review things that they clearly were never going to like. When film critics who love high art pan a Jason Statham movie for being what one expects out of a Jason Statham movie, my response is, “Who is this review for? The scant few people who might think THIS TIME Jason Statham’s Beat ‘Em Ups might reach high art?”

I bring this up because, as much as I love Whodunnits, “His & Hers” basically hits everything I don’t want to watch so I feel like I’m not in a place to make a recommendation or real review of the show. One problem with going in blind on a show is that you miss the obvious red flags that you aren’t going to like it.

For starters, with so much going on in this world, the last thing I want to watch is a show with a bunch of people leading depressing, dreary lives. And, good lord, is everyone in this show dreary. Anna and Jack are estranged after losing their daughter. Anna comes home to find that her mother is dealing with alzheimer’s or dementia. Jack is staying with his sister and having to raise his niece because his sister is a drunk and doesn’t know who fathered her daughter.

And maybe it’s all of this dreariness but everyone in the show also seems like a bit of an asshole with a potential dash of psychopath. The one person who seemed somewhat OK is Priya, an Indian woman who seems to be recently hired to the local police department. Jack calls her “Boston” to really hammer home the fact that she’s not from around there. That’s pretty much all we ever learn about her. In the end, she’s more plot device than character.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix greenlit this show right after watching HBO’s Mare of Easttown but the problem is HBO makes prestige drama and Netflix makes (mostly) pulpy trash. I think you can get away with dreary jackasses when you’re really digging into characters and hitting some deeper themes. Dreary pulp is exactly what I don’t want - a depressing show that doesn’t make sense in the end. I wasn’t wild about how “Sirens” ended but at least the journey was an enjoyable watch. And the goofiness of the ending didn’t feel so out of place in a world that already felt a bit unreal.

“His & Hers” felt like Netflix was trying to make an HBO style show, realized they couldn’t pull it off, so then the last two episodes they quickly switched to Ryan Murphy over-the-top approach. I can’t stress enough just how stupid the last two episodes of “His & Hers” are. There are some implausible moments in the first four episodes but the last two feel like they were written to be spoofed on SNL.

Beyond the general issues I had with the show, there weren’t really any other saving graces for me. Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal had no real chemistry and their one Emmy-bait scene when they finally talk about what happened to their relationship was just one trauma cliche after another. And, honestly, after watching them be dreary jackasses and potential murderers for four episodes, I quite frankly didn’t give a shit about their relationship. You really need to buy into the concept of “I love the leads in a show because they are the leads” to hold out any hope that these two crazy kids can make it work in the end.

If I was going to give a Recommended Expectation aka Recxpectation for this one, I’d say: Expect a dreary, depressing version of a trashy summer read adapted by Netflix, a company that (mostly) specializes in pricy straight-to-DVD level entertainment.

New Things #4: Interactive Jeopardy

Interactive Jeopardy at Alamo Drafthouse is something I’d definitely recommend for all trivia and Jeopardy fans. That isn’t to say that it is not a little bit weird. Essentially, you’re going into a movie theater to play a game by yourself on your phone.

The way it works is that there’s the Jeopardy board on the big screen (you also see the answers and the leaderboard up there) and a host sitting in front of the screen who reads the questions and answers. Everyone logs into the game on their phone. To start off, the host picks a category/dollar amount. Then everyone can answer or abstain (a few people didn’t realize that you lost points by answering incorrectly) and the person who submits their answer first gets to pick the next question/amount. But control of the board doesn’t really matter since even the Daily Doubles are available for everyone. I never won control of the board but I was able to go for a true Daily Double… and nailed it!

There are no teams for this, everyone plays on their own, and the room is very quiet as the host is the only one talking. Our host asked if we wanted music playing during the game and a couple people forcefully answered No! so that was the end of that idea.

Still, it’s a lot of fun. I had a real rollercoaster of a game. After the first half of Round 1, I was in 6th out of 17. By the end of Round 1, I was in 15th place. But the second round saw me mount a big comeback - helped by the Cinematic Oakland category in which I was able to double up to 20,000 after my true Daily Double. I ended the second round back in the top 10 and then went all in on Final Jeopardy and was able to get it right, vaulting me into third play and winning me a free popcorn! I was entirely too jazzed for someone my age about coming in third and winning something I didn’t really want or need but hey, simple pleasures!

I can’t make it next Wednsday but I’m already signed up for the following Wednesday.

One odd thing about Alamo is that they have Interactive Jeopardy on the same night as they have a team trivia night. The trivia night takes place in the bar area and is hosted by Geeks Who Drink. Maybe they want to corner the market on DTLA trivia folk - both people who want to go solo and those who want a team game - but it strikes me as odd to have rival trivia nights at the same place.

Resolution: Be Social Sober

I’m not going to do New Year’s resolutions per se. This year, when I realize something I don’t like about myself or some failing of mine, I’m going to immediately make a resolution to improve.

After dinner, I went to give Death & Company one last shot (more on that later) and I was seated next to a woman who was also alone. It was pretty evident that she wanted to chat but I just sat there like a loser and kind of avoided eye contact and just kind of spun my glass. Even after she introduced myself, I didn’t try to be social and friendly or, dare I say, human. Even as I was sitting there, I was wondering why I just didn’t strike up a conversation.

Now, if I had had a few more in me, she probably couldn’t have shut me up. It’s a bad habit I’ve fallen into so the resolution for the rest of the year is to be friendlier and more open with chatting with people when the opportunity presents itself.

On the same note, I’ve somehow stopped looking at people when I talk. Not sure when I picked up this stupid habit but it’s kind of weird. Obviously, you don’t want to lock eyes with someone and glare into their ojos while talking to them but I’ve somehow gone the opposite direction and am often looking past them or just not looking up which is less creepy but more rude.

So those are two self-improvement needs for 2026. I’ll let you know how I do.

As for Death & Company, it’s definitely Off The List for me. It’s basically a date bar for the young ‘uns. It might be the darkest bar in LA and while the music isn’t obnoxiously loud, it’s not exactly old folk friendly. Basically, whenever I’m there I feel like Al Pacino in Scene of a Woman.

The other thing I don’t love about it is that it’s a completely seated establishment,. You walk in and a host brings you to your seat. Even the bar seats are doled out by the host. This is why I call it a date spot; it’s certainly not a neighborhood bar to pop in for a drink. That being said, the bartenders were very friendly and I’ve heard that the mixed drinks are delicious but that’s not enough to bring me back.