EPISODE 906: PROBE ME ALREADY
I've been looking forward to this for a long time.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and welcome back to Pop Culture Spirit Wow, the Substack where which offers weekly content plus free typos! (Sorry!) I’m your host, itinerant writer, and David Lynch obsessive, so any time I see anything with him in it I’ve got to post it. Like this:
Or this:
This week we’ve got some weird and sad Star Wars news, a twist in a play that no one saw coming, the Super Bowl, and a new feature! Let’s get into it!
THE WOWND UP
Gina Carano, who was fired from The Mandalorian over two years ago after a series of posts that were anti-Semitic, transphobic and more, has announced that she is suing Lucasfilm for wrongful termination and wants her role as former soldier Cara Dune back. And if that’s not weird enough—Why two years later? Does she understand that the writers have no obligation to write stories for her character? Does she think Cara Dune is real?—Elon Musk is financially supporting her cause. Because of course he is.
At this point it’s not even clear that The Mandalorian will ever have another season. Two movies have been announced: The Mandalorian & Grogu, which seems to be replacing the next season, and some sort of movie-to-come which brings together all of the characters and plot lines from the post-Return of the Jedi shows.
Even if she…wins?, this is clearly what she has to look forward to:
(She’s Greedo, btw.)
Also in Star Wars news, Carl Weathers died in his sleep last week at age 76. Weathers made his name as Apollo Creed in the Rocky film series, and did a million other things over the course of his career before he got tapped to play bounty hunter-turned-statesman Greef Karga in The Mandalorian, a role which got him nominated for an Emmy in 2021. Apparently Weathers loved the role. He said it was “one of the greatest things that’s happened in all of the years that I’ve been in entertainment.” And he was so good at it, able to move between dangerous, noble, and untrustworthy with slipstream ease. May he rest in peace.
Meanwhile, King Charles III has cancer, because what a new king needs one year into his reign is a serious medical situation. And on Broadway, the great Tyne Daly, née Lacey, has had to pull out of the revival of Doubt just as it is beginning previews, after being hospitalized with a serious medical condition. They’re saying she’s going to be okay, and let’s hope so, because there’s no one like her.
Daly will be replaced on Doubt by Amy Ryan, whom I frequently mix up with Carrie Preston, not because they look or sound or even perform alike but because I feel the same joy any time I get to see either one of them. Ryan is probably best known as the girlfriend/wife of Michael in The Office. She was also in Birdman, Gone Baby Gone, The Wire, played Steve Martin’s first love interest in Only Murders in the Building and to my surprise has done more than a dozen plays, including playing Stella in Streetcar on Broadway back in 2005.
Doubt without Daly is definitely not going to be the show that people were expecting. But hopefully what it will be instead will be wonderful in its own way.
IN WHICH THE AUTHOR LEARNS THAT IT IS SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
Today is the Super Bowl, or as I call it, Sunday. (I actually asked someone earlier this week if the Super Bowl was on Monday. They looked at me like, Are you serious? I was.)
I’ve never been a football person. As a kid it just seemed bizarre—So you’re telling me this is a sport where you get hit again and again? I was afraid to be a pitcher in baseball for similar reasons. So I’m supposed to throw the ball as hard as I can at a guy who has a bat in his hand?
As an adult football just seems kinda slow a lot of the time. Oh look, the game is stopping for another 3 minutes of ads where a celebrities shout at me to drink soda flavored like jalapenos. (Honestly, I probably would drink that.) With the Super Bowl the ads are a big part of the draw, which is truly a genius way of turning your worst aspect into your greatest strength. Bravo Madison Avenue.
Here’s a couple from this year that I really like.
I am always here for Parks & Rec content.
Or Kate McKinnon content.
Give this one a chance. It’ll grow on you.
But this one is the greatest:
I will henceforth be manifesting Patrick Stewart as a head-kissing reality TV villain.
But as much as American football has never made a lot of sense to me, as a child I used to spend hours reading through coffee table books of my dad’s about the early days of football and hockey. I can’t tell you the names of the coach or the quarterback for the Chiefs or the 49ers, but George Halas and Vince Lombardi live on in my mind, watching from the sidelines as their players fight through snowstorms to glory. And looking through those books was this wonderful experience of discovery for me.
I haven’t looked at those books in a long, long time. But they remain this sort of wondrous experience of discovery. The world was bigger and more magical than I realized. There were gods in coliseums out there, hurling lightning bolts.
FORGET WHAT YOU HEARD
I’m starting a new occasional column here in the Wow where I shower a little love on something that I feel like hasn’t gotten enough of it.
I’m starting with one that is definitely thirsty: The Marvels, starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Paris and Iman Vellani as Carol “Captain Marvel” Danvers, Monica Rambeau and Kamala “Ms. Marvel” Khan, released on Disney+ on Thursday.
As you may know, Marvels is the lowest-grossing film in Marvel’s history, worse even than Edward Norton’s foray as the Hulk. Pretty much no one saw it. Even Disney seemed to distance itself from the film days before its release, with leaks about the director not giving it her all (which from all reports are just not true).
I’ve seen the film. And you know, it’s actually kind of a lot of fun. It doesn’t exactly start that way. It begins with our main characters suddenly starting to switch places, which proves to be a pretty confusing way to try and enter into the story. I had strong uh ohs running through me those first 10 or 15 minutes.
But once the three leads get together, the film really settles down into some nice interpersonal dynamics. Marvels has great sister energy—big sister, little sister, frenemy sister. Think Frozen in space vibes, with an adorable kid sister in place of Olaf.
Also, it has two of the wackiest ideas I’ve ever seen in a Marvel film: A world where people communicate by way of song and dance (spinoff movie, please); and a horde of alien kittens that...well, I can’t say, because it’s such a funny plot point you have to see it for yourself.
There’s a million things out there to watch. But if you’re looking for something warm and easy, or something to watch with daughters or sisters, check The Marvels out.
One tease:
I HAVE FINISHED SEASON 1 OF SEX AND THE CITY. I HAVE THOUGHTS.
Carrie is constantly trying to prove that Mr. Big doesn’t really love her. Thank God they broke up.
Miranda is going to turn out to be gay, right? (The possibility that she might be queer is raised in 3 different episodes of season one.)
I have no idea what Charlotte is doing here.
More Stanford Blatch, please.
I BET IT’S GOOD THOUGH
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s the 50th anniversary of Blazing Saddles. I’m fascinated to read this Guardian essay about it.
MOMENT OF WOW
Kittens in zero G. I love it so much.
Thanks so much for reading. I’ll be back later this week with more subscriber content. And I think I’m going to release today’s Wow early in honor of the big game. (Go Chiefs!)
Have a wonderful week!