For my January reading wrap-up I came up with some adaptation ideas for books like Larissa Pham’s Discipline, Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs, and the new Jennette McCurdy novel: open.substack.com/pub/thedesko...

Grey’s Anatomy with a real “return to form” episode this week… love that Webber gets to be the one to have a mystical memory palace experience this time

The Pitt and Grey’s Anatomy are airing the same night and this week featured identical exchanges of someone saying “I don’t know how to thank you” and a doctor responding “I think you just did”

Afternoon on the couch accidentally double featuring movies about offputting guys whose mothers implanted ideas in their heads that ultimately lead to complete mental deterioration

I’m confused why Highest 2 Lowest Sounds Like That but I am happy for Dennis Duffy

Having a new Saoirse/Timothée collaboration to look forward to would make things just a little bit better

Philly mention in Stranger Things finale we stay winning

The conditions are finally correct; Gibson Girl Winter 2026 incoming. Happy New Year!

To close out the year, I wrote a small reflection on the prevailing theme of 2025—grace—with help from the work of @realgdt.bsky.social , Florence + The Machine, and Rian Johnson. You can check it out here: open.substack.com/pub/thedesko...

Stranger Things’ addiction to showing flashbacks to something you watched maybe45 mins ago

To close out the year, I wrote a small reflection on the prevailing theme of 2025—grace—with help from the work of @realgdt.bsky.social , Florence + The Machine, and Rian Johnson. You can check it out here: open.substack.com/pub/thedesko...

Make SHOP AROUND THE CORNER your Xmas Eve watch!!!!!!!

Maybe it’s because the film isn’t out yet, but it doesn’t seem to be registering in the Timmy Chalamet discourse that he’s still kind of playing Marty. Which isn’t to say he’s being disingenuous, just that the promotional strategy is obviously calibrated to the character.

Returning to my War on Christmas to humbly offer my own failures and to take inspiration from “Lil Timmy Tim” Chalamet: open.substack.com/pub/thedesko...

I was kinda giving this movie the benefit of the doubt bc I like Michael Showalter but then there was pro-Amazon delivery driver propaganda in the middle lmao whoa

I think Oh. What. Fun. could’ve been saved if it dialed up the camp factor like 50x… need a comic actress wayyyy more insane than Michelle Pfeiffer to pull it off

Once again crazy how I have access to 8 different streamers and none of them have A Few Good Men. Same happened when I was trying to watch big-name classics from Robert Redford or Diane Keaton. It makes me mad

Nothing is better than this youtu.be/ovkiChacfc8?...

Yesterday my final piece as an AV Club staff writer went up. I’ve been musing over post-pandemic tv since the beginning of the year and personally found it under discussed at the COVID 5-year mark. Really proud of how it turned out❤️ www.avclub.com/2025-tv-covi...

Really devastated to learn of the passing of Sophie Kinsella. I really fell in love with her non-Shopaholic books in the past few years. I think of the dancing scene in “I Owe You One” a lot and really appreciated the overall theme of “The Burnout.” www.npr.org/2025/12/10/n...

Yesterday my final piece as an AV Club staff writer went up. I’ve been musing over post-pandemic tv since the beginning of the year and personally found it under discussed at the COVID 5-year mark. Really proud of how it turned out❤️ www.avclub.com/2025-tv-covi...

Me the day after declaring war on Christmas

The Baumbach/Gerwig household’s commitment to casting this Queen is so absolutely correct… and next time, let’s make her the lead!

Fleshed out this argument—about arrested development culture and Christmas—in a new essay, which you can read here: open.substack.com/pub/thedesko...

Is anybody talking about how Frankenstein and Wicked: For Good end the exact same way (our hero embarks out on the tundra for the unknown, pausing first to look up at the sky in their fashionable little hood)?

Today is pub day for Television by Lauren Rothery, possibly my favorite book of 2025. Can’t recommend it enough. Loved Rothery’s writing, but was especially compelled by her ruminations on how to live a creative life in a hostile modern world.

Earlier this month, I got laid off from The A.V. Club after 3.5 years. It changed my life and I’m going to miss it so much. Don’t know what’s coming next but I do feel more committed to the work than ever. I wrote about it on Substack if you care to check it out ❤️ open.substack.com/pub/thedesko...

Earlier this month, I got laid off from The A.V. Club after 3.5 years. It changed my life and I’m going to miss it so much. Don’t know what’s coming next but I do feel more committed to the work than ever. I wrote about it on Substack if you care to check it out ❤️ open.substack.com/pub/thedesko...

The first installment (issue?) of my comic book newsletter is live! Read it or subscribe here. untitledcomicbook.beehiiv.com/p/the-untitl... Also, if this post inspires any editors out there, I want to add that I'm available for any freelance work that anyone out there might have. I'll do anything!

Loot s3 is so delightfully sitcom… crazy amount of Maya Rudolph getting tricked and kidnapped on her own plane

We have some incredible news to share: thanks to generous offline donations, we have surpassed our initial EOY campaign goal and raised more than $56,000 so far! We’re blown away by the support—and are raising our total goal to $75,000. Can you help us bridge this final gap of $18,562?

Decided that this year I am after all launching a War on Christmas… this kind of thing is a symptom of our collective arrested development… being a Christmas Person is spiritually related to being a Disney Adult www.billboard.com/music/chart-...

I’ve been ironically evangelical about getting ppl to watch Shiny Happy People s2, including in @avclub.com ‘s latest Staff Picks: www.avclub.com/alex-winter-...

More bookishness from @avclub.com : with Horrors Week ongoing, @salonig.bsky.social @schimkowitz.bsky.social & book clubbed the dark academia fantasy Katabasis www.avclub.com/katabasis-rf...

For the @avclub.com November books preview, I wrote about the function of fame in fiction, which comes up in a lot of this month’s books. Check out these and the rest of our staff recs here: www.avclub.com/book-club-cr...

Has anyone done an investigation as to why that one section of Moynihan Train Hall always has a bunch of youths learning/doing tiktok dances

Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl is a just-okay album that doesn’t live up to the promise her immense talent demands. My review for @avclub.com : www.avclub.com/taylor-swift...

Heart The Lover came out yesterday and it is so, SO good. This and other recs here:

Been treating myself to more theater in the past few months and it’s like oh yeah experiencing art is nourishing and stimulating. John Proctor Is The Villain was great and made me cry. www.avclub.com/best-live-sh...

Shiny Happy People s2 could not be more relevant to everything happening today (specifically, and more broadly as a country) — outlines the playbook for this rhetoric specifically. They have been waiting and hoping for a martyr

This Emerald Fennell quote from a Saltburn Q&A is the Rosetta Stone for her Wuthering Heights btw. Perhaps for her whole career

32 action franchises have been summoned to a tournament of champions. One will win the title belt. This is the first round of The A.V. Club's action franchise bracket: www.avclub.com/best-action-...

Get ready for a weeklong slugfest at The A.V. Club: Starting Monday, September 1, the biggest action film franchises will be battling it out in our bracket. You can have your say in the reader poll.

The New York Times recently reported that the primary audience of The Summer I Turned Pretty is 25- to 54-year-old women… three of us weighed in on what makes the YA love triangle so irresistible! Cc: @emmakeates.bsky.social & @salonig.bsky.social www.avclub.com/the-summer-i...

What do yall know about this

I’m one of the world’s foremost advocates for Bruce Springsteen covering “peace” by Taylor Swift

I wish I didn’t still care so much about Christian storytelling that it still makes me mad anytime someone perpetrates the myth of Mary Magdalene being a prostitute

Put some Rachel Chinouriri on your summer playlists! You’re welcome! www.avclub.com/avqa-song-of...

Saturday morning on the subway, just headed to— SELFIE (2014) STARRING KAREN GILLAN AND JOHN CHO???

Not sure how I feel about the Mommies phase of the MCU