Johnny Loftus
@johnnyloftus.bsky.social
Writer, Chicagoan. Interests include reading, 🍕; being a nice person.
You should chase away the bullshit this weekend w/ 'Last Samurai Standing,' a thrilling, thoughtful action series set in 19th c. Japan, where a noble samurai has a few things left to prove to the jerk-offs running his country. Wrote about it @deciderdotcom.bsky.social:
decider.com/2025/11/13/l...
decider.com/2025/11/13/l...
Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Last Samurai Standing’ on Netflix, a limited series where the last of Japan’s legendary warriors must battle to survive
In modernizing 19th century Japan, as the samurai are getting canceled, one warrior decides the only way to survive is to fight his way through.
decider.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:29 PM
You should chase away the bullshit this weekend w/ 'Last Samurai Standing,' a thrilling, thoughtful action series set in 19th c. Japan, where a noble samurai has a few things left to prove to the jerk-offs running his country. Wrote about it @deciderdotcom.bsky.social:
decider.com/2025/11/13/l...
decider.com/2025/11/13/l...
I’m recapping ‘Alien: Earth’ for @deciderdotcom.bsky.social, which is awesome because this show is scary and stylish and weird and a great place to escape to, even if its future is still full of rich dipshits. Also: Sabbath and Tool and other exquisitely curated jams.
decider.com/2025/08/12/a...
decider.com/2025/08/12/a...
‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 1 Recap: Cool If We Crash Here?
The first few scenes are committed to bringing its franchise’s past into its present.
decider.com
August 13, 2025 at 10:19 AM
I’m recapping ‘Alien: Earth’ for @deciderdotcom.bsky.social, which is awesome because this show is scary and stylish and weird and a great place to escape to, even if its future is still full of rich dipshits. Also: Sabbath and Tool and other exquisitely curated jams.
decider.com/2025/08/12/a...
decider.com/2025/08/12/a...
While I detest in all its forms the in-game interview w/ coaches/players, I’d pay extra for a feature that opened a (listen-only) mic whenever players were talking at first base.
August 3, 2025 at 4:44 PM
While I detest in all its forms the in-game interview w/ coaches/players, I’d pay extra for a feature that opened a (listen-only) mic whenever players were talking at first base.
I feel like for FOUNDATION S3 — what year is it in this show? Wellllll… — basically everybody, even Asimov heads, must be watching only for its flowing river of impenetrability. My sense of what’s happening? Vague. But! Space drugs, mind-control pirates, and “something casting shadows in the math.”
July 22, 2025 at 6:31 PM
I feel like for FOUNDATION S3 — what year is it in this show? Wellllll… — basically everybody, even Asimov heads, must be watching only for its flowing river of impenetrability. My sense of what’s happening? Vague. But! Space drugs, mind-control pirates, and “something casting shadows in the math.”
Was able to dart in and grab an extra ice cube from the tray while my freezer's door was closing, extricate my arm without disturbing its motion. 🏆 (Feel like I deserve to take the rest of the day off)
July 10, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Was able to dart in and grab an extra ice cube from the tray while my freezer's door was closing, extricate my arm without disturbing its motion. 🏆 (Feel like I deserve to take the rest of the day off)
Sly was so cool, and his music will forever be powerfully danceable. Questlove's recent Sly doc is also totally brilliant.
decider.com/2025/03/25/q...
decider.com/2025/03/25/q...
Stream It Or Skip It: 'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)' on Hulu, a thoughtful Questlove-directed doc about the leader of Sly and The Family Stone
Questlove directs Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), a doc about Sly Stone that finds wider import in what it meant when he became a kind of Black Elvis.
decider.com
June 9, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Sly was so cool, and his music will forever be powerfully danceable. Questlove's recent Sly doc is also totally brilliant.
decider.com/2025/03/25/q...
decider.com/2025/03/25/q...
Like 20 years ago, I rested a coffee on the roof of a car before climbing in. Drove away and it went flying. “Never again!” I swore about roof-resting things. Anyway, I just rested my computer on a car’s roof and drove away 💀
June 6, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Like 20 years ago, I rested a coffee on the roof of a car before climbing in. Drove away and it went flying. “Never again!” I swore about roof-resting things. Anyway, I just rested my computer on a car’s roof and drove away 💀
Nothing but anecdotal data on this, but TV used to have more bar fights. Nice to see a few pool cues meet cheekbones in the latest ep of DUSTER. Took a drag on a recap: decider.com/2025/05/30/d...
‘Duster’ Episode 3 recap: Slippin’ into darkness
“Follow the numbers.”
decider.com
May 31, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Nothing but anecdotal data on this, but TV used to have more bar fights. Nice to see a few pool cues meet cheekbones in the latest ep of DUSTER. Took a drag on a recap: decider.com/2025/05/30/d...
DUSTER is cruising away from all noise and bullshit at 275hp. I mean, in the second episode, 70s Josh Holloway is out here robbing Elvis. ‘Capped it for @deciderdotcom.bsky.social:
decider.com/2025/05/23/d...
decider.com/2025/05/23/d...
‘Duster’ Episode 2 recap: Too late to turn back now
Duster continues to have a whole lot of fun with its take on the 1970s.
decider.com
May 24, 2025 at 12:50 PM
DUSTER is cruising away from all noise and bullshit at 275hp. I mean, in the second episode, 70s Josh Holloway is out here robbing Elvis. ‘Capped it for @deciderdotcom.bsky.social:
decider.com/2025/05/23/d...
decider.com/2025/05/23/d...
Reposted by Johnny Loftus
DUSTER is one of my fave pilots in some time. Thrilled to have the former Metro Wheelman himself, @johnnyloftus.bsky.social, recapping the exploits of Josh Holloway's wheelman over at @deciderdotcom.bsky.social. Fire up your 8 tracks and punch your gas pedals, hombres! decider.com/2025/05/16/d...
‘Duster’ Episode 1 recap: You don’t mess around with Jim
This thing feels as much like a riff on real life as it does a tribute to how the ’70s used to look on TV.
decider.com
May 19, 2025 at 6:03 PM
DUSTER is one of my fave pilots in some time. Thrilled to have the former Metro Wheelman himself, @johnnyloftus.bsky.social, recapping the exploits of Josh Holloway's wheelman over at @deciderdotcom.bsky.social. Fire up your 8 tracks and punch your gas pedals, hombres! decider.com/2025/05/16/d...
'100 Foot Wave' makes being an infinitesimal speck of dust -- one human against a zillion tons of surging water -- look both insane and totally cool. And as a proud Midwestern flatlander, surfing to me just seems beautiful and impossible. Maybe like life? Wrote about it: decider.com/2025/05/01/1...
Stream It Or Skip It: ‘100 Foot Wave’ Season 3 on HBO, where Garret McNamara and his fellow big wave surfers keep chasing the dream
What about a 500-foot wave? A thousand? If it’s out there, the athletes profiled in 100 Foot Wave will surf it.
decider.com
May 2, 2025 at 12:58 PM
'100 Foot Wave' makes being an infinitesimal speck of dust -- one human against a zillion tons of surging water -- look both insane and totally cool. And as a proud Midwestern flatlander, surfing to me just seems beautiful and impossible. Maybe like life? Wrote about it: decider.com/2025/05/01/1...
Haven’t seen much of Etoile, but the show’s first episode does feature a fantastic intro of Lou de Laage as Cheyenne, rogue prima ballerina.
And hey, solidarity w/ Cheyenne, too. In real life, lots of the forces and people harming our society deserve to get zinged w/ a solid line like this.
And hey, solidarity w/ Cheyenne, too. In real life, lots of the forces and people harming our society deserve to get zinged w/ a solid line like this.
April 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Haven’t seen much of Etoile, but the show’s first episode does feature a fantastic intro of Lou de Laage as Cheyenne, rogue prima ballerina.
And hey, solidarity w/ Cheyenne, too. In real life, lots of the forces and people harming our society deserve to get zinged w/ a solid line like this.
And hey, solidarity w/ Cheyenne, too. In real life, lots of the forces and people harming our society deserve to get zinged w/ a solid line like this.
One burning question I have after the PITT season finale: do they keep that cooler for the post-shift park beers in the trauma unit somewhere?
Anyways, time keeps on ticking into this incredible show's future, which I can't wait to watch. decider.com/2025/04/10/t...
Anyways, time keeps on ticking into this incredible show's future, which I can't wait to watch. decider.com/2025/04/10/t...
‘The Pitt’ Season Finale recap: Goodbyes are the Pitt’s
“To the Pitt crew.”
decider.com
April 11, 2025 at 11:12 AM
One burning question I have after the PITT season finale: do they keep that cooler for the post-shift park beers in the trauma unit somewhere?
Anyways, time keeps on ticking into this incredible show's future, which I can't wait to watch. decider.com/2025/04/10/t...
Anyways, time keeps on ticking into this incredible show's future, which I can't wait to watch. decider.com/2025/04/10/t...
Do you ever buy a couple random records, bring ‘em home, and when you slot them in, you look at the artist they’re next to alphabetically, the little genre dynamic that represents, or the interesting typefaces aligned, and say out loud to no one, “Oh shit, that’s a good one”? It’s a nice quiet win.
April 5, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Do you ever buy a couple random records, bring ‘em home, and when you slot them in, you look at the artist they’re next to alphabetically, the little genre dynamic that represents, or the interesting typefaces aligned, and say out loud to no one, “Oh shit, that’s a good one”? It’s a nice quiet win.
The rock show this weekend was packed. A six-piece band blowing up the spot. Which is why it was hard for everyone to hear me while I shouted in their ears about the brilliance of THE PITT and Dr. Robby reaching his breaking point.
March 30, 2025 at 5:25 PM
The rock show this weekend was packed. A six-piece band blowing up the spot. Which is why it was hard for everyone to hear me while I shouted in their ears about the brilliance of THE PITT and Dr. Robby reaching his breaking point.
As Dr Abbott, Shawn Hatosy is rocketing to the top of my Pitt staff power rankings. But after this latest episode, I’m mostly just sobbing along w/ Robby. This show is putting us through it! Wrote a recap:
decider.com/2025/03/27/t...
decider.com/2025/03/27/t...
‘The Pitt’ Episode 13 recap: “7:00-8:00 P.M.”
No clowning around.
decider.com
March 28, 2025 at 1:07 PM
As Dr Abbott, Shawn Hatosy is rocketing to the top of my Pitt staff power rankings. But after this latest episode, I’m mostly just sobbing along w/ Robby. This show is putting us through it! Wrote a recap:
decider.com/2025/03/27/t...
decider.com/2025/03/27/t...
The level The Pitt is working at...it's like if I was any other medical drama on TV, I'd probably say "It's over. Pack it up. We're gonna re-tool our format. Maybe 'scandals and animals.' There's no way we can compete with what The Pitt is doing."
Wrote about it:
decider.com/2025/03/20/t...
Wrote about it:
decider.com/2025/03/20/t...
'The Pitt' Episode 12 recap: Really real-time
There is blood everywhere in the Pitt, and tension bunched in everyone’s features.
decider.com
March 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
The level The Pitt is working at...it's like if I was any other medical drama on TV, I'd probably say "It's over. Pack it up. We're gonna re-tool our format. Maybe 'scandals and animals.' There's no way we can compete with what The Pitt is doing."
Wrote about it:
decider.com/2025/03/20/t...
Wrote about it:
decider.com/2025/03/20/t...
Our world is crazy. So maybe escaping into The Pitt, where their emergency department regularly shatters, is a kind of self-treatment. All I know is that it's so crazy gripping, I feel like I work there now.
decider.com/2025/03/13/t...
decider.com/2025/03/13/t...
‘The Pitt’ Episode 11 recap: Shit’s gonna explode
Still overworked, but now understaffed, The Pitt’s trauma team carries on.
decider.com
March 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Our world is crazy. So maybe escaping into The Pitt, where their emergency department regularly shatters, is a kind of self-treatment. All I know is that it's so crazy gripping, I feel like I work there now.
decider.com/2025/03/13/t...
decider.com/2025/03/13/t...
Reposted by Johnny Loftus
This piece is about Gaga, but it's really about resistance, outrage and hanging on to yourself when others call you a monster www.npr.org/2025/03/03/n...
Pop needs freaks. Thankfully, Lady Gaga is back
The sometimes-transgressive pop star has a new album, Mayhem, that seems poised to recapture the confrontational darkness of her early work. There's more than one reason to hope it's true.
www.npr.org
March 4, 2025 at 10:09 PM
This piece is about Gaga, but it's really about resistance, outrage and hanging on to yourself when others call you a monster www.npr.org/2025/03/03/n...
Hackmania, my Gene Hackman movie marathon this weekend, will include The Package (a double-tribute, as it was one of my dad's fave GH performances), The Conversation, Night Moves, Enemy of the State, and The Quick and the Dead.
February 27, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Hackmania, my Gene Hackman movie marathon this weekend, will include The Package (a double-tribute, as it was one of my dad's fave GH performances), The Conversation, Night Moves, Enemy of the State, and The Quick and the Dead.
Fired up a rewatch of ANDOR. The tyranny alive in BBY 5, how the series uses grime and the “used universe” aesthetic, the urgency of its writing — feel like it all feels way way amplified this time around.
February 2, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Fired up a rewatch of ANDOR. The tyranny alive in BBY 5, how the series uses grime and the “used universe” aesthetic, the urgency of its writing — feel like it all feels way way amplified this time around.
Currently balancing reading Onyx Storm with a re-read of Persuader, the novel season 3 of Reacher is based on. So now I keep thinking a pedantic huge guy w/ fluid ethics is gonna suddenly reveal his signet, or maybe get into a fist fight with a dragon.
January 28, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Currently balancing reading Onyx Storm with a re-read of Persuader, the novel season 3 of Reacher is based on. So now I keep thinking a pedantic huge guy w/ fluid ethics is gonna suddenly reveal his signet, or maybe get into a fist fight with a dragon.
Shea Whigham is so great in American Primeval. Always the realest guy on screen. Fact is, Whigham is so great in Primeval, so real, that he made me miss all over again the unconscionably-canceled Perry Mason, where he was also the most real guy ever.
January 14, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Shea Whigham is so great in American Primeval. Always the realest guy on screen. Fact is, Whigham is so great in Primeval, so real, that he made me miss all over again the unconscionably-canceled Perry Mason, where he was also the most real guy ever.
The Cut Copy bop “Take Me Over,” heard on this day in the subterranean wilds of the Chicago Pedway System. Latent cosmic energy from Pitchfork 2011??
January 6, 2025 at 2:25 PM
The Cut Copy bop “Take Me Over,” heard on this day in the subterranean wilds of the Chicago Pedway System. Latent cosmic energy from Pitchfork 2011??
I don’t know what I was doing in my life up until now that was so important that I didn’t catch up with Dickinson.
Latest ever on this but: it is fantastic and acutely funny.
Latest ever on this but: it is fantastic and acutely funny.
January 5, 2025 at 12:51 AM
I don’t know what I was doing in my life up until now that was so important that I didn’t catch up with Dickinson.
Latest ever on this but: it is fantastic and acutely funny.
Latest ever on this but: it is fantastic and acutely funny.