Weeknotes 211

I took a taxi to see a foot doctor on Wednesday morning.

The administrative part of that visit was a comedy of errors. The person on the front desk told me to take the lift to the fifth floor, where I had to hobble down a long hallway to reach another reception, whose receptionist said my appointment was actually on the fourth floor.

So then back along the long hallway, wincing, back into the lift, down a floor, down another long hallway to a different reception, where I sat in the waiting room until fifteen minutes past my appointment time. A phone rang and the receptionist who answered it called out “Tom? The doctor’s waiting for you on the fifth floor”.

Anyway, the medical part was fine. I had another X-ray and my foot’s healing well so far. It’s much less painful now that I’ve rested it for a week. I can shuffle around my flat no problem.

I otherwise haven’t been able to go anywhere. For guilt reasons I have to keep reminding myself that I care much more than anyone else about missing/cancelling/rescheduling things. I’m always like “I’m so sorry to mess you about! I feel awful!” and the other person’s like “yeah fine whatever, who are you again?”. Phew.

I finished season four of For All Mankind and thought it was pretty good. It went a bit talky in the middle episodes — I would’ve liked more Space Peril and less geopolitical intrigue — but the finale’s closing shot made me feel excited for season five so I’ll keep watching it if they keep making it.

I’m keeping up with The Traitors. Is it made better or worse by the fact that the traitors themselves have no incentive to cooperate? It sort of undermines the whole game-theoretic premise of the show, although I suppose it also generates a lot of drama.

Overall, a good week of completely unnecessary interpersonal conflict.

Around these parts we know that rotations in three-dimensional space are the most interesting part of any game, and The Traitors is no different: the contestants are frequently confused about how to write a name on a slate and correctly turn it to face the camera.

One instance was so egregious that it needed a correction clumsily composited over it:

Sort yourselves out.

I also watched the rest of The Curse. A few episodes before the end I wrote down “this show is weird and unsettling but I don’t really know what it’s about or where it’s going”, and that remains true now that I’ve finished it.

By volume it’s mostly a conventional satire about an unpleasant, vain, narcissistic couple, held together by an amazing performance from Emma Stone. But there’s also an unresolved vein of quasi-supernatural dread running all the way through it, appearing so briefly that it’s almost homeopathic. It made me feel intrigued and impatient. What was actually going on? Was anything going to happen?

Fortunately that all changes in the final nightmarish episode, which I think retroactively makes the slow burn of frustration worthwhile. It’s incredible, singular TV.

I’m enjoying The Last of Us Part II Remastered so far. The three levels that were cut from the original game are interesting but brief, and I don’t think it’s likely I’ll play No Return at all, but I’ve really enjoyed the cast & crew commentary on the cutscenes I’ve rewatched. I’ll probably revive my current playthrough and turn on the commentary for all the remaining cutscenes so I can hear it in situ.