Happy Wednesday!
Welcome back from the long labor day weekend. As usual on Wednesdays, first it's a short essay designed to make you think about a particular topic in a new way. Today's piece begins with a bizarre trip to watch some old people play pickle ball, and a truth I never expected to learn there.
Then, I've compiled the five best "things" -- articles, podcasts, videos etc. -- I found this week, which I think you'll enjoy checking out. Let me waste my time scouring the internet for the best content so you don't have to.
In Storytelling, 2 plus 2 is greater than 4
Over the past few weeks, a handful readers have reached out to me in response to the last couple movie reviews. They've noticed a pattern, spotting one of the clearest indicators in whether a movie is good or bad.
Predictability.
And they're right! All of the things that make for a good movie or TV show begin when you don't know what's going to happen next, or you're surprised by what just happened: humor, drama, suspense, amazement, horror.
These feelings are curbed by a handful of lazy and annoying filmmaking crutches. Whether it's expository dialogue ("we've been friends since we served in the war" one friend says to another) that feels heavy-handed and doesn't resemble any real life conversation anyone's ever had, or the close-up cutaway shots that directors insert to tip off the audience to every signal not explicitly stated ("I know you'd never hurt me" one friend says to another, as we see a cutaway to a close-up of the other friend's pocket where his hand rests on a gun). There's plenty of examples.
All of them are patronizing to an audience, an assumption that viewers would never be able to connect the dots or synthesize complex thought without their hands being held throughout the entire process. "This is a bad guy!" a crappy movie yells, as its antagonist sees an abandoned kitten on the side of the street and punts it into oncoming traffic for no particular reason. "Here comes the break-up!" a shoddy rom-com states, as two ill-suited lovers sit across from each other at a restaurant and a waiter walking by slips and dumps a tray full of food on them.
Think of these moments as "4's." They're solutions spoon-fed by the director, like a teacher giving the students an answer key before handing out the homework problems.
The thing is, we actually like puzzles!
Puzzles are challenging. They're fun. There's a reason why we play iPhone games like 2048 and do Sudoku on airplanes and spend free time on vacations doing jigsaw puzzles. What is fantasy football if not one giant puzzle to be solved?
As I , the "aha" moment is the greatest feeling in the world. As humans we are obsessed with solving problems. But we even enjoy the struggle, the wrestling with uncertainty as we try to make sense of things.
In short, we like 2 plus 2.
Here is a message I got the other day from Wade, a hilarious dude I have never actually met but is probably reading this right now:
"Is the gas station scene in No Country for Old Men the best Coen Brothers scene of all time? Just watched it (again) and held my breath the whole time. I've probably seen it 20x and I don't think I've breathed during any of them."
There's no better example of 2+2 storytelling than No Country for Old Men. There's literally no musical score, which is often used to manipulate a viewer's emotions, there's no real protagonist, multiple key characters are killed completely off-screen, and the ending is totally ambiguous. There's basically no 4's.
Yet it's essentially a perfect movie! Viewers are engaged in the storytelling process from start to finish.
Let's look at the gas station scene. Rewatch the scene here (if you haven't scene the movie, it's on Netflix so drop whatever you were going to do for the next two hours and go watch it now).
This is perhaps the most terrifying encounter in movie history. I agree with Wade, I can't even breath as it's happening. But what makes it so powerful? The fact that viewers have to put the pieces together and figure out what's going on.
Compare it to another coin-flipping scene, this time from The Dark Knight (to be fair, not a bad movie). Two-face (Harvey Dent) is holding his gun up the entire time, we know exactly what the stakes are, and the end result is pretty predictable. Everyone is going to die. Even before Dent goes to shoot the driver, we get the extra couple seconds of him buckling his seat belt. That's a "4" move. Because of it, the scene is far less powerful.
These are micro examples, but movies and shows operate in either 2+2 or 4 on a macro scale as well. Entire plot lines can be telegraphed or masked. The only thing to watch for, which can happen sometimes in high falutin arthouse films, is an abstract 2,2 story. Here's a thing, and here's a thing....aaand there's no real way to solve the problem or put the ideas together. There's no "aha" moment. Obviously, that's not great either, though I will concede that there are instances where this can be effective if the confusion is satisfying in and of itself.
It's still better than "4."
2 plus 2 is always greater than 4.
The Best Things I Found This Week:
Ozark Season 2
Netflix
Welcome to #TVSZN. It's September, which means an overwhelming amount of new network, cable, and streaming content is headed to a screen near you. Netflix's big entry is the second season of Jason Bateman's anti-hero drama, which doesn't seem to be too interested in slowing at all from the breakneck pace of season one. The significant plot movement in one episode of Ozark is roughly equivalent to four or five in any other show, and somehow the show scratches the Breaking Bad itch more successfully than the direct spin off (Better Call Saul). It seems unsustainable at a high level, but it's a hell of a lot of fun while it lasts.
It's Aways Sunny in Philadelphia Season 13
FXX, Hulu
In the entire history of television, I don't think there's ever been a show that has remained as consistent in its quality over this many seasons. Friends ran for 10 seasons. Seinfeld ran for nine. The Office ran for nine also, and I don't think anyone could argue in good faith that the last couple were as good as the first.
Always Sunny begins its 13th season tonight...13TH!!...and if the trailer linked above is any indication, it's just as funny and entertaining now as it was over a decade ago. If you're looking for ridiculous, over-the-top humor week in and week out, I'm not sure there's a better bet than this show.
Rick Pitino hopes new memoir will help clear his name
The Athletic
Tuesday marked the release of disgraced basketball coach Rick Pitino's new book. I have no intentions of buying said book. But I have spent a little bit of time thinking about Pitino in recent days, in relation to the slap-on-the-wrist suspension of Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer. In the wake of an FBI investigation that was supposed to shake up the entire sport of college basketball, Pitino was the only implicated coach who was actually fired, and that includes four coaches whose assistants were literally arrested. All of which is to say, the morality of college athletics is as murky as ever.
But no one is as well-connected to Pitino's journey as my former boss Seth Davis, who sat down with Pitino for this story and did a good job of basically summarizing Pitino's perspective and all of the parts of the book which college hoops fans would actually care about. There's nothing too shocking in there. Pitino pleads his innocence as expected. However, there's plenty of interesting tidbits and legacy questions arising from one of the best to ever pace the sidelines.
The Dave Chang Show: David Choe
Podcast
I'm not exactly sure how many individual podcast episodes I've listened to in the past couple of years. Thousands probably? I'm subscribed to 20-25 different shows and crank out a couple every single day while commuting or working out. In all of those episodes I don't think I've ever, EVER, heard an interview as insane, as jaw-dropping, as mind-blowing as this one.
Which is to say I've never experienced anyone like David Choe. On one hand, everything he touches turns to gold. He's a multi-multi-millionaire from his art, his media properties, his early Facebook investment, his high stakes gambling. On the other hand, his self-destructive streak runs a million miles long. He's lived the type of life that is way more farfetched than any fictionalized movie could recount. This two hour interview tries to cover all of it, while also exploring his muddled psyche. I've really never heard anything like it before. But WARNING: the contents of this podcast, and Choe's life, are highly explicit at times. Proceed with caution.
Tom Clancy's Jim Ryan
YouTube Video
No matter how good of a career John Krasinski has as an actor, or as a director if this year's A Quiet Place is any indication, he'll never be able to shake his iconic role as Jim Halpert in The Office. Nor should he, if we're being totally honest.
And so in playful jest of the debut of his new Amazon show, Jack Ryan, some dedicated internet content creators overdid themselves by cutting together footage of the two shows into this incredible trailer spoof. If you're a fan of The Office you'll die laughing at this video from Funny or Die.