BIGGIE'S PLACE

20. How is it possible that Disney has destroyed a brand as massive as Star Wars this quickly? As someone who credits Star Wars in large part as being the most influential piece of entertainment of my life, it’s been devastating to witness its creative and ideological collapse under new management. I’ve already done a post on who’s most likely to blame for this, but honest to god, fuck you Dave Filoni, and fuck you, Jon Favreau, more than anyone else, for your shitty, simple-minded, legacy-killing storytelling. Aside from Andor, the diamond in this sewage, I feel like all I’ve done over the past 3 years is hate-watch Disney Star Wars TV, between The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka. I want to say fuck you to Kathleen Kennedy too, but she’s been involved with too many movies I absolutely adore for me to turn on her completely. But it’s been abundantly clear for several years that she’s not right the person to lead Lucasfilm, and I fear that by the time she leaves her position, it will be too late to fix what’s been broken.

I now agree with the growing number of disillusioned fans who say that Disney Star Wars and George Lucas Star Wars must be considered two different entities. Unfortunately, Disney Star Wars has beaten me down so much as a fan that I can barely muster the energy to care anymore. I think we probably are at the point where you can no longer undo the damage these people have done. Because how would you? There aren’t enough paying customers left to make it worth Disney’s while to spend the money it would take to make a bunch of projects that might signal a course correction, even if the current creative team at Lucasfilm were dissolved and positive changes to the material were guaranteed.

It should be noted we’ve somehow also reached a crossroads where the once-invincible Marvel Cinematic Universe is similarly FUBAR because of just a few years of bad decisions driven primarily by sociopolitical trends. That would have been an equally inconceivable concept just 5 years ago.

21. Will I be the last human with a smartphone to avoid signing up for a TikTok account? I’m still holding strong, baby. I refuse. I hate what it’s doing to people’s brains. I hate what it’s done to attention spans. I hate how low it’s dropped the bar for what people expect quality entertainment to be. I hate that it makes everyone think they’re a born entertainer who needs to be seen. I hate that it’s the most popular source of entertainment on Earth. On top of that, not enough people care (or even know, I suspect) that it’s owned by a Chinese company. If the Chinese want my personal data, they’re gonna have to get it from another source. Fuck, even my 70-something-year-old father is on it. I’m honestly surprised the new iPhone 15 I just got didn’t come with it pre-installed. Fuck TikTok. Fuck that annoying lady narrator voice. Fuck dance trends. Fuck lip-syncing random audio clips. Fuck vertical video.

22. If I stopped adding a single thing from today on, would I ever be able to watch all the TV shows and movies currently on my watch lists across the various streaming platforms? This is more of an existential question, as I suspect the answer is no. If it is no, then what should I prioritize? In the time it takes me to ponder this question, I could’ve watched an entire 7-season show. Now I’ve lost that time and will never see that show. Fuck.

23. How weird was this, the first NFL season post-Tom Brady? I feel like along with his inevitable Hall of Fame induction, they should rechristen the eras of the league to Pre-Brady (P.B.), during Brady (D.B.), and after Brady (A.B.). For instance, one would say, “C.J. Stroud entered the league as a rookie in 1 A.B.”, or “the Jets last won the Super Bowl in 31 P.B.” If this doesn’t make sense to you, well then that’s a you problem. I know this much…I definitely cared a lot less about the league as a whole this year. I also admit that might be primarily because my Patriots were DOA since the start of the season.

24. Could China please not drag the entire planet into WWIII this year? That’s a bummer we just don’t need. I admit I’m really concerned about the number of dictators in control of influential nations these days. When is some brave soul in Russia going to do what’s necessary concerning Vladimir Putin? It’s terrifying enough that there are 70-80 million Americans who want a would-be dictator to be president again.

Happy New Year! Maybe I’ll put up more than one post this entire calendar year. I admit it felt good to sharpen the cranial tools and write this. It’s been a hectic 12 months for me, and forcing myself to detach from my real-world worries and be creative is something I need to do much more frequently.