My 2025 Holiday Wish List

Well, this has been an eventful year for everybody, Hollywood included.  Focusing just on the entertainment industry, I don't think anything is going the way we'd hoped, but such is the nature of living in interesting times.  And though there have been some tough blows, nobody is down for the count yet.  I'm actually kind of heartened by some of the shifts in the culture I've been seeing over the last few months, and I have every reason to expect better in the year ahead.

I never addressed much from last year's list, but I will express my deepest appreciation for the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack becoming the new favorite in my household.  I don't know how Netflix did it, but the speed at which that movie took over the attentions of the under-twelve set was truly breathtaking.  

So, this year for the holidays, I want…

For Stephen Colbert to make every remaining moment of "The Late Show" count.  The end of "The Late Show" is going to be one of the big cultural moments of 2026, and though I'm not happy about how things have turned out, I can't wait to see the fireworks.  As someone who has kept an eye on the late night ecosystem for decades now, weird and wonderful things tend to happen when these shows are in turmoil, and nothing says turmoil like the highest rated late night show on American television being abruptly cancelled for sketchy reasons.  

For the non-franchise films to score some wins.  I'm not even going to try and distinguish original films anymore.  At this point anything that's not a sequel, prequel, or reboot is getting scarce.  So I don't care if you're adapting the Booktok flavor of the month, or if the cartoon is about a robot beaver, or you're a horror director who has had way too many chances and the trailer was awful.  I am rooting for you.  We have "Scream 7" and "Toy Story 5" incoming, and I'm just so tired.

For more theatrical releases.  Studios are getting the hint that they're leaving money on the table by premiering promising titles on streaming, especially films for family audiences.  "Moana 2" is the biggest example so far of a project that was originally intended as a streaming exclusive turning out to be much more lucrative as a theatrical experience.  There's been a significant shift in the attitude of Hollywood toward the streamers lately, and we're seeing cracks in the resistance to theatrical releases everywhere, even at Netflix.  And I'm all for it.

For the AI bubble to bust more quickly.  I know it's holding up the American economy, but it's so obviously a bubble and it's so aggravating to watch the grifters try to convince everyone that generative AI is some kind of cure-all that's worth paying attention to and investing ridiculous amounts of money in.  So far, aside from some very limited, specific tasks, it just seems to be leading the mentally unstable off of a cliff and further straining the economic prospects of the creative community.  And the amount of AI slop my relatives keep sending me is just excruciating.  

For a long break before the next major merger.  The concept of the Paramount Skydance Warner Brothers Discovery union is still difficult to get my head around.  I knew that Warner Brothers Discovery was looking for a buyer, but any further consolidation of the studios can only be bad for everybody.

For more gainful employment for film critics and other media critics as the legacy media companies continue to reconfigure themselves.  I have never been more aware that I am and always be a hobbyist when it comes to writing about movies and television.  

For "Doctor Who" to find some way forward, even if it means a hiatus.  After twenty years, the show could do with a rest, but it would be a terrible shame if it were mothballed for good.  

For Netflix to take care of my friends at "Sesame Street."  

And finally, for everyone making my favorite shows and movies to keep being able to make money doing what they do best, and have every opportunity to do that work.

Happy Holidays.  

—

Exploring "A House of Dynamite"

Katheryn Bigelow's latest thriller, "A House of Dynamite," is one of the most frustrating films I've ever watched, and I strongly suspect that this is the point.  The subject matter is the stuff of typical thrillers and action films, where a nuclear missile is discovered inbound for the continental United States, and those in charge only have minutes to deal with it.  However, this is not one of those universes where everything works like clockwork, and all the systems created to handle this situation function as intended.  Instead, the message here seems to be that if a nuke ever really was launched at the US, the response would be chaotic and insufficient, and the decisionmakers would be woefully unprepared.  The movie is good, but deeply unnerving and purposefully doesn't follow the rules of a typically Hollywood thriller.  The ending in particular is going to make a lot of people very upset.

Past this point, I'm going to spoil the whole movie, because the structure of the piece is important to any analysis of what it's doing.  Also, knowing what's going to happen may better help set expectations.  The actual missile crisis in "A House of Dynamite" only lasts for roughly fifteen minutes, and it's replayed three times from different points of view.  First, we see it unfold from the White House Situation Room, being run by Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson).  Then, we follow the Deputy National Security Advisor, Jake Bearington (Gabriel Basso), who is trying to provide advice to the decisionmakers.  Finally, we follow the President of the United States (Idris Elba), as he gathers information to decide what the US response should be.  There are additional POVs from the Secretary of Defence (Jared Harris), the First Lady (Renée  Elise Goldberry), the commander of a US military base (Anthony Ramos), the commander of STRATCOM (Tracy Letts), an NSA expert on North Korea (Greta Lee), the military aide in change of the nuclear football (Jonah Hauer-King), and others.

Because the situation unfolds so fast, there's no time to cover all of these different characters' experiences in a single narrative, which I believe is the main reason for the repetition.  Also, having that structure in place, where we already understand what the outcome is going to be after the first run-through, makes the audience more aware of the futility of some of the characters' actions, and how small delays and technological snafus can have a massive impact.  Every single character is caught off guard by the crisis, and everyone reacts in very human ways to what they consider an unthinkable scenario.  A significant amount of time is wasted dealing with simple communications issues.  Bearington is on his way to work, and we watch him clumsily try to hold a video call while walking through city streets and navigating a security checkpoint.  The President is in the middle of a youth basketball meet-and-greet when he learns about the situation.  Greta Lee's character, amusingly, is watching a Battle of Gettysburg reenactment with her young son.  Everyone seems to be in a state of shock as they watch the events unfold, often asking if something is really happening, or if anyone knows what's going on.  

Written by Noah Oppenheim, a former broadcast news producer, "A House of Dynamite," offers a degree of realism that I appreciate seeing onscreen.   The security provided by our armed forces and military hardware is largely an illusion when it comes to a nuclear doomsday scenario like this one, and I like that Bigelow isn't afraid to show us the ugly truth of mutually assured destruction strategies up close and personal.  Some of the people in charge stay calm and collected.  Others disintegrate.  This film fits right into the genre of anti-nuclear proliferation films that were common in the 1980s, and since the nukes might be making a comeback, it's fitting that the films warning us about nuclear war should be back too.    

The performances are great, a few questionable accents notwithstanding, though only a handful of characters are onscreen long enough to give us more nuanced portraits of the people involved.  Idris Elba stands out as a President having a bad day that turns into a much worse one, admitting that he's unprepared when the time comes to make the big decisions.  I like that Bigelow includes several brief moments with characters like a Secret Service agent played by Brian Tee, and a FEMA official based in Chicago played by Moses Ingram, to give us more reactions from those on the periphery.

Because the treatment of the material is so unorthodox, I expect that "A House of Dynamite" is not going to get much traction with audiences.  However, its unusual candidness will keep it in the conversation whenever anyone tries to make a similar film in the future.  I certainly won't ever look at a typical "launch the missiles" scene the same way again.

---

The Simplicity of "Multiplicity"

I saw the poster for the Harold Ramis comedy "Multiplicity" so many times in 1996, but it was one of those movies that I just never crossed paths with.  It was a box office bomb, and never entered the rotation of syndicated movies that would play constantly on our local television channels on the weekends.  We all knew who Michael Keaton was, but he wasn't enough of a draw in the mid-90s to sway my family to rent one of his movies instead of the latest Robin Williams or Jim Carrey vehicle.  Still, "Multiplicity" seemed to be a movie that I would enjoy.  It had a goofy sci-fi premise.  It had Andie MacDowell, who I generally like, as the female lead.  So, this was definitely on that endless running list of movies that I meant to check out eventually, someday.

Well, someday turned out to be yesterday.  "Multiplicity" is currently available on Tubi, so I went ahead and took the plunge.  The movie is not very good, but it's fascinating to look at as an artifact of the '90s, so I gotta write about it.  Spoilers ahead.

There is very little that surprised me about "Multiplicity."  It fits very well in that vein of 90s comedy based on material taken from "National Lampoon," mining the base instincts and preoccupations of the Boomer male for comedy.  Doug Kinney is a sympathetic protagonist, at least at first.  He's an overworked construction foreman who never has enough hours in the day for his job, his family, and himself.  Through the magic of Harris Yulin in a lab coat, Doug gets his very own clone to help out - meaning a Xerox copy of himself with the same memories up to the point of cloning.  Then another clone.  Then another clone.  These clones are initially referred to by number - Two, Three, and Four - before getting their own names.  Two spends all his time working construction and comes across as very masculine and assertive.  Three does most of the domestic wrangling, has a lot of feminine behaviors, and is very gay coded.  Four, who was cloned from one of the other clones, and thus not as "sharp," is a walking dumbbell who is there for comic relief.  It's obvious why Michael Keaton signed on, because he gets to play four funny versions of the same guy.  Keaton does a decent job, but the writing really doesn't do him any favors.

Though one of the four credited writers is a woman, "Multiplicity" is a product of the male id.  Doug has let his life get so overbooked that he needs two other versions of himself working full time to get a break.  His wife Laura is a flimsily constructed creature who creates a lot of Doug's problems by going back to work, but this isn't a "Mr. Mom" scenario where the couple really feel like partners sharing their struggles.  All the extra work falls on Doug's shoulders and Laura is so preoccupied that she doesn't ever realize that there are three additional Dougs living out of the family shed to help pick up the slack.  Doug insists that the clones should never be intimate with her, as his unbreakable "Rule One," but she ends up sleeping with all three of them inadvertently.  To sidestep any difficult moral questions and emotional fallout, Laura just never finds out the truth.  She takes what she thinks are Doug's wild personality shifts and forgetfulness to be symptoms of a failing relationship, and temporarily leaves with the kids.  Doug, who by this time has been fired from his demanding job, and has learned that too much free time is bad, is able to win her back by finally fulfilling his promise to remodel the house.  He proves his devotion through manual labor and the promise of a job change.  Then, even though there's no sign that Doug's life will get any less busy, he sends the clones off to Florida together to start lives of their own.    

The obvious joke here is that Doug can't handle a situation that many working parents have been handling forever, even with all the extra hands.  However, that's not really fair, as Doug is never shown to be anything but a loving and well-meaning father, who tries to do the right thing with the wrong methods.  The bigger issue is that Doug being overworked is really just scaffolding for all the clone humor, and the movie never really takes his troubles all that seriously.  The scripting also shows a lack of imagination, barely exploring the consequences of having the clones around.  Nobody notices the grocery bill going up or the other extra expenses.  Laura never catches on about the clones, but neither do the kids or anybody else.  The cloning lab is so inconsequential that the clones may as well have been made by magic.  Even the sexual hijinks are pretty tame.  The moral implications are the only interesting part, which are skipped over entirely.   

Instead, a lot of "Multiplicity" hinges on the audience being impressed by the gimmick of multiple Michael Keatons onscreen at the same time.  The effects are very good - good enough that I forgot about them a lot of the time - except that the camera kept drawing attention to the double/triple/quadruple act in distracting ways.  The characterization of the clones also gets overly cartoonish in a hurry.  Two was initially interesting in that he lets Doug see what his life would have looked like if he'd stayed single and unattached, but this doesn't really go anywhere.  When all three clones are interacting, they come off as three completely different personalities - which is great for the comedy, but it all feels arbitrary and convenient, with no attempt to explain why each clone has such different traits.  Three in particular just comes across as bizarre, especially since the implication is that doing housework makes you more feminine.  

Am I overthinking a silly comedy?  Sure, but "Multiplicity" came out a few years after "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "The Nutty Professor" already covered much of the same material much more thoughtfully and successfully.  I can't think of anything that "Multiplicity" did that a dozen other movies of the same era did better.  Keaton's performances just end up reminding me of when he played similar characters in prior films.  Apparently there was quite a bit of improv in the "Multiplicity," and Keaton only had himself for a scene partner a lot of the time, which didn't help.  

I'm glad that I finally watched this, but I don't think I missed much by not having "Multiplicity" in my regular movie rotation growing up.  Keaton's made plenty of movies I like better.     

    

---

"Nobody Wants This," Year Two

Joanne and Noah are back, for another season of "will they, won't they," as Joanne considers converting to Judaism for Noah, and Noah considers new career opportunities to be with Joanne.  They spend the season exploring more aspects of the Jewish faith, including episodes about naming ceremonies and Purim.  However, that's not enough to fill a whole ten episodes, so there's a lot of time spent with two other couples this year - Esther and Sasha, and Morgan and her new boyfriend, Dr. Andy (Arian Moayed).

"Nobody Wants This" feels more like a traditional sitcom than most of the comedies I've been watching, even though it's not a multi-camera show, and even though I've never seen another series be this candid about Jewish characters' struggles with their faith.  This season feels like many second seasons of shows that are hoping to be long-running series, especially in the way that it has narrowed down its conflicts to very simple, relationship-centric issues that can be repeated ad nauseum.  The Valentine's Day episode is all about Noah trying to create the most impressive Valentine's experience, while Joanne just wants something more personal.  Awkward culture clashes are repeatedly assuaged with cute affirmations of devotion.  The cast of regulars is also much more clearly defined - Joanne, Noah, Esther, Sasha, and Morgan are the main characters.  We still see plenty of Bina, but other formerly recurring characters like Miriam and the Head Rabbi are very scarce.

However, the leads are all strong, and each one of them can carry the show if necessary.  Now that Esther doesn't have to be the hostile future in-law, she's much more compelling as she considers having another child what it means for her happiness.  Morgan has the most dramatic arc, as is fitting for her dramatic personality, when she pairs up with a new man who seems to be perfect for her, but she might be rushing into things.  Then there's  Joanne and Noah, who discover that they don't know each other or themselves as well as they thought they did, as they keep hitting relationship snags.  The big one, of course, is that Joanne isn't sure about converting, and Noah doesn't want to rush her, but this does impact Noah's life negatively in various ways.  On the Jewish faith front, easily the most interesting subplot involves Noah becoming involved with the much more liberal Temple Ahava, run by Rabbi Neil (Seth Rogen), and discovering that he's more traditional than he realized.       

There are some good guest stars this year.  I want to point out Leighton Meester as Abby, an old friend of Joanne's, who is at the center of the season's funniest episode, where everyone is at a party trying to be on their best behavior.   Arian Moayed as Dr. Andy does a great job of riding the line between eccentric and concerning.  And  then there are Morgan and Joanne's parents, Lynn (Stephanie Faracy) and Henry (Micahel Hitchcock), who prove to be just as much of an aggravation to Joanne this year as the openly disapproving Bina.  They were both around last season, but this year lays the groundwork for the two of them to become much more involved, if "Nobody Wants This" decides to go in that direction.  

My only complaint with the show right now is that it's noticeably shifting gears to prepare for a longer run than I think it originally intended.  Ten episodes isn't a short season by modern standards, and it still feels like it went by too fast and didn't get enough done.  An awful lot of time is spent setting things up that aren't going to pay off for a long time, and very little gets resolved.  Issues that were pretty central in season one, like the fate of Joanne and Morgan's podcast, seem to have been completely backburnered in the second.  I expect that future seasons will address some of these things, but it's frustrating when Noah's employment worries are just ignored after a few episodes, and it feels like we've somehow skipped some important moments with Esther before her big decision in the finale.

Fortunately, a comedy like "Nobody Wants This" has a perfectly reasonable production timeline, and I don't expect it'll be too long before I get a few more answers in season three - assuming the show doesn't get cancelled first.

---

Podcasts Ahoy! 2025 Edition

It's been a minute hasn't it?  I did a post for Youtube channels instead of podcasts last year, as several of my favorite media podcasts have been quietly morphing into Youtube channels recently, but there's still a clear distinction between the two mediums.  And I've definitely latched on to enough new podcasts over the past two years to write a new post about.   Below are a couple of new and new-to-me offerings that I've started following since my last podcast post.

Going Rogue - Australian writer Tansy Gardam is my new favorite podcaster.  She is the main writer, researcher and host of "Going Rogue," which has gone through a couple of permutations, but can be broadly described as a show about the endless drama of getting movies made.  Initially, in 2022, it was a six part miniseries on the making of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."  This was followed by seasons covering "Solo: A Star Wars Story," the 2007 WGA strike and its fallout, and "The Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.  Lately, there have been a lot of one-off episodes devoted to a diverse selection of titles including "Megalopolis," "Gladiator II," and Kenneth Branagh's "Cinderella."  Every episode is extremely well researched, often following the development of a film for decades on its way to the silver screen.  I love the "Megalopolis" episode in particular for explaining the reasoning behind some of Francis Ford Coppola's artistic choices, including his fascination with "live cinema."    

The Big Picture - I've brought up the Ringer podcasts before, but I want to give special recognition to "The Big Picture," hosted by Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and a revolving group of other co-hosts.  The show premiered roughly around 2017, and follows the familiar format of reviews and interviews revolving around new releases.  However, "The Big Picture" is also run by some of the most insanely knowledgeable film geeks I've ever encountered, and they dig into awards races, top five/ten/twenty-five lists, and rankings with a gusto that I find super impressive.  What they're best known for is probably their movie drafts, where they'll invite a few friends and run a draft of movies by year or actor or director.  They did one for Tom Cruise movies recently that ensured I will never forget which "Mission: Impossible" movie is which, ever again.  However, the nerdiest movie podcast discussion I think I've ever heard in my life was probably their Sidney Lumet episode last year, when it became apparent that Sean had seen all or nearly all of the forty-three movies that Lumet had directed over the course of his storied career.  Now that's dedication.

The Spiel - From the folks that brought you "The Kingcast" comes another podcast about a famous Steve.  "The Spiel" is all about the films and shows that Steven Spielberg was involved with in some way.  Hosted by Eric Vespe, the guests have been fantastic, including some of Spielberg's major collaborators like producer Frank Marshall and screenwriter David Koepp.  Rian Johnson stopped by  a few months ago to talk about the early episodes of "Columbo" that Spielberg directed at the beginning of his career.  I especially appreciate that the show counts any Spielberg involvement as fair game, so they'll talk about movies that Spielberg or Amblin only produced, like "Casper" or "The Goonies" or "Joe vs The Volcano."  There's an "Animaniacs" epsiode.  There's an episode on John Williams scores for Spielberg movies.  I hope that Vespe will manage to wrangle an appearance by Spielberg himself one of these days - "The Kingcast" got their Steve, so it's not impossible.

Little Gold Men - Finally, I want to send a little love to Vanity Fair's long-running "Little Gold Men" awards season podcast, especially since we're losing another host to editorial changes.  It's always a great resource for interviews and putting titles on my radar that I might otherwise have missed.  They also talk about festivals, controversies, business deals, campaigns, and pretty much anything else going on in the industry that could affect the awards races, so I like checking in regularly to keep myself informed.  

---

Del Toro Finally Made His "Frankenstein"

Guillermo Del Toro has not hidden the fact that "Frankenstein" is one of his dream projects, embodying all the themes of monsters and the monstrosity of men that have appeared in all of his best work.  So, it's no surprise that his "Frankenstein" film is one of his most lavishly beautiful, and the story it tells feels very personal to Del Toro.  I'm pretty familiar with all the major film versions of "Frankenstein," and Del Toro's version is a welcome new addition.  I've never seen one quite like it.

We begin in the frozen Arctic, where a dying Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is rescued by a Danish ship on an expedition to the North Pole, led by Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelson).  After a thwarted attack by the Creature (Jacob Elordi), Frankenstein relays his history to the captain, starting with his tragic childhood and ending with the creation of The Creature.  This takes up the first half of the film.  The Creature has his say in the second half, covering events until the present day.  In this version of the story, Victor's love interest Elizabeth (Mia Goth), is the daughter of the arms dealer Harlander (Christoph Waltz), who funds Victor's experiments.  She's also not Victor's intended, but the fiancee of Victor's younger brother William (Felix Kammerer), and bonds with Victor over her love of the natural world.

There's an over-the-top theatricality to Victor Frankenstein's half of the film, where Oscar Isaac gives us an arrogant, feckless Frankenstein, who is single-minded in his pursuit of reanimating the dead.  Del Toro makes him more complicit in the tragedies that befall him, especially his unwillingness to recognize the Creature as a person.  Frankenstein has never been a very sympathetic character in any telling of this story, but here Del Toro seeks to humanize him more by framing his behavior as part of a legacy of generational trauma.  Isaac makes him funny, charming, and a showman when he wants to be, and a petulant, cowardly, selfish wretch in his moments of weakness.  Yet, this Frankenstein also displays the ability to learn from his mistakes, and the redemptive ending feels earned.  

However, the best performance in the film is far and away Jacob Elordi as the Creature.  He's totally unrecognizable under the elaborate makeup and prosthetics, and using a voice that has been deepened and modified to sound more inhuman.  Initially the mostly mute, nearly naked newborn Creature seems almost human, and it's the actions of Frankenstein and the Creature's subsequent exposure to the world that create the destructive, rampaging  monster who causes so much harm.  Likewise, Elordi's performance becomes more and more compelling as the Creature gains awareness of and experience with the dark side of humanity.  He comes into focus fairly late in the film, in the subdued, melancholic scenes with an old blind man played by David Bradley, as he draws parallels between Bible stories and his own sad history.   

It's easy to lose sight of how deeply sad and macabre the story is, with Guillermo Del Toro indulging in sumptuous art direction and gloriously colorful cinematography every chance he gets.  And there's never a moment that this doesn't feel like Del Toro's work.  There's almost nothing that recalls James Whale and Boris Karloff - even a few campy moments in the laboratory are of an entirely different tenor.  I don't begrudge him any of the excess and pageantry, as the amount of effort that went into every frame of this film is incredibly impressive.  It often feels like Del Toro is throwing everything he has into "Frankenstein," as if he may never get a chance to make another movie.  However, "Frankenstein" is at its most moving when it's at its simplest, and the visuals are at their bleakest.      

And I found it very affecting that eventually we do get to the heart of the story, where Frankenstein has to confront the Creature and himself.  And despite all the beautiful gore and dazzling costumes and magnificent set design, the best parts of the film come down to good, old fashioned storytelling through the carefully played conversations and a great monologue or two.  Guillermo Del Toro's "Frankenstein" is a horror film and a creature feature, but it's also a tremendously touching piece about fatherhood and creation and taking responsibility for your actions.  It's my favorite film of Del Toro's in over a decade, and it was worth the wait.

—

"The Diplomat," Year Three

Because I don't know what you're doing watching the third season of "The Diplomat" without having watched the first two, spoilers for those first two seasons lie ahead.  Please step carefully.

Recent events in world politics mean that "The Diplomat" now operates in an alternate universe where there are still some standards as to how major US politicians and officials conduct themselves.  No matter what the outrageous twists and turns the writers come up with this season, it all feels perfectly plausible in light of what's actually going on with the current administration.  And boy did they fit a lot of twists and turns into the eight episodes that make up this season.

Initially, there are several major changes in the status quo, with Grace Penn becoming the U.S. President, which means the Vice Presidency is up for grabs, and Bradley Whitford gets to join the cast as Todd Penn, the delightful First Gentleman.  Kate also gets a new love interest in Callum Ellis (Aidan Turner), a British spy, and we spend a lot more time with Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah), the no-nonsense White House Chief of Staff, and Nora Koriem (Rosaline Elbay), the VP's Chief of Staff.  Kate and Hal's marriage is tested as it has never been tested before.  And while the whole messy affair with the aircraft carrier attack is no longer the most pressing problem in the show, of course the potential for scandal remains high and everyone's trying to figure out who takes the blame.      

I really enjoy the way that "The Diplomat" has become such an ensemble show, and it's now less about solving a particular crisis, and more about seeing what happens when you have Allison Janney and Rory Kinnear facing off against each other in a scene, or how Bradley Whitford has somehow ended up in the position of the show's best comic relief.  We get a lot of Rufus Sewell as Hal this year, which means that the storylines with Hal and Kate feel fully front and center and supercharged in a way they haven't always been previously.  "The Diplomat" is at its best when the Wylers are at each other's throats.  And at the same time, I can't help rooting for them as a couple.  

Though the quality level remains high, It feels like the writing has taken a step down this year, not only because the premise of "The Diplomat" has shifted from its original form into something else, but also because it's clear that the show has become beholden to certain expectations.  We have to end on a big cliffhanger, for instance.  It's also noticeable that the show does a few tricky things to keep every member of our main cast involved in the big storylines and in close proximity with each other, most notably Stuart Hayford and Eidra Park.  "The Diplomat" has proven very capable of juggling all of its characters and ensuring that everyone gets something interesting to do, but there's also a lot less of a sense of narrative momentum with the big mystery of the first season mostly resolved.  The character drama mostly makes up for it, but sometimes they could have used a little more oomph.  

The reliance on big twists also makes it harder to trust when the writers are being sincere about certain storytelling choices.  Aidan Turner is a nice addition to the cast this year, but I was waiting for something terrible to happen to his character  from the moment he was introduced.  I don't think the show is ever going to top the season two finale in any case.  Also, I don't think that the binge model is doing them any favors.  I very deliberately didn't watch more than one episode in a sitting, and it still didn't feel like I had enough time to fully absorb most of the events.  

However, these are pretty minor complaints for one of the best series currently running on any platform.  The production has never looked better, taking advantage of some gorgeous UK locations.  All the actors remain fully at the top of their game, even if they aren't around for long - Rory Kinnear makes his few appearances really count.  And Keri Russell as Kate Wyler remains the kind of heroine who I'll happily watch until the end, even without Hal if it comes to that.  On a show like "The Diplomat," I'm not ruling anything out.  

---