Darren Mooney
@darrenmooney.bsky.social
As seen/read/heard at: Second Wind | The 250 | Irish Independent | NewsTalk | Q102 | Polygon | The Escapist. He/Him.
Still marvelling at how Steven Moffat’s “Doctor Who” pulled the single best twist on the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in “A Christmas Carol.”
November 13, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Still marvelling at how Steven Moffat’s “Doctor Who” pulled the single best twist on the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in “A Christmas Carol.”
November 13, 2025 at 6:09 PM
It is so funny that the "Predator" cast contains two governors, and the "Predators" cast contains two two-time Oscar winners.
It really is such a wonderfully strange franchise.
It really is such a wonderfully strange franchise.
November 12, 2025 at 12:10 PM
It is so funny that the "Predator" cast contains two governors, and the "Predators" cast contains two two-time Oscar winners.
It really is such a wonderfully strange franchise.
It really is such a wonderfully strange franchise.
I thought #Christy was… fine.
A solid execution of a compelling story, albeit one that reaches the limits of Sydney Sweeney as both performer and celebrity. This is no “I, Tonya” and she is no Margot Robbie.
Only really roars to life when Chad Coleman is on screen as Don King.
A solid execution of a compelling story, albeit one that reaches the limits of Sydney Sweeney as both performer and celebrity. This is no “I, Tonya” and she is no Margot Robbie.
Only really roars to life when Chad Coleman is on screen as Don King.
November 11, 2025 at 8:52 PM
I thought #Christy was… fine.
A solid execution of a compelling story, albeit one that reaches the limits of Sydney Sweeney as both performer and celebrity. This is no “I, Tonya” and she is no Margot Robbie.
Only really roars to life when Chad Coleman is on screen as Don King.
A solid execution of a compelling story, albeit one that reaches the limits of Sydney Sweeney as both performer and celebrity. This is no “I, Tonya” and she is no Margot Robbie.
Only really roars to life when Chad Coleman is on screen as Don King.
November 11, 2025 at 8:24 PM
November 10, 2025 at 8:11 PM
This is not the point, but why is it “H2SH” and not “HU2H?
November 8, 2025 at 12:12 AM
This is not the point, but why is it “H2SH” and not “HU2H?
This is not the point, but why is it “H2SH” and not “HU2H?
November 8, 2025 at 12:11 AM
This is not the point, but why is it “H2SH” and not “HU2H?
I wrote a little bit at @SecondWindGroup.com about how “Predator: Badlands” demonstrates Dan Trachtenberg’s abiding understanding of the “Predator” franchise.
It is, like the best #Predator films, a Vietnam-inflected action movie about colonialism.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
It is, like the best #Predator films, a Vietnam-inflected action movie about colonialism.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
November 7, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I wrote a little bit at @SecondWindGroup.com about how “Predator: Badlands” demonstrates Dan Trachtenberg’s abiding understanding of the “Predator” franchise.
It is, like the best #Predator films, a Vietnam-inflected action movie about colonialism.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
It is, like the best #Predator films, a Vietnam-inflected action movie about colonialism.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
“Pluribus” is Vince Gilligan’s “The Leftovers.”
Bleakly comic, deeply moving, profoundly sad. It’s a meditation on the loneliness - and perhaps the selfishness - of grief.
It had me in pieces. Incredible stuff.
Bleakly comic, deeply moving, profoundly sad. It’s a meditation on the loneliness - and perhaps the selfishness - of grief.
It had me in pieces. Incredible stuff.
November 7, 2025 at 7:31 AM
“Pluribus” is Vince Gilligan’s “The Leftovers.”
Bleakly comic, deeply moving, profoundly sad. It’s a meditation on the loneliness - and perhaps the selfishness - of grief.
It had me in pieces. Incredible stuff.
Bleakly comic, deeply moving, profoundly sad. It’s a meditation on the loneliness - and perhaps the selfishness - of grief.
It had me in pieces. Incredible stuff.
Every once in a while, I think about how careful the “Minions” movie was to clarify that the Minions weren’t doing anything - anything at all, why would you ask? - during the 1940s.
November 6, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Every once in a while, I think about how careful the “Minions” movie was to clarify that the Minions weren’t doing anything - anything at all, why would you ask? - during the 1940s.
“Tell me how I can be great too.”
“I’m afraid you misinterpret me, Mr. Guiteau. You see, we’re all only men."
"Death by Lightning" is cautionary tale for the Second Gilded Age, the fetishisation of the American Presidency and why it's better to be a good man than a great one.
“I’m afraid you misinterpret me, Mr. Guiteau. You see, we’re all only men."
"Death by Lightning" is cautionary tale for the Second Gilded Age, the fetishisation of the American Presidency and why it's better to be a good man than a great one.
November 6, 2025 at 9:23 PM
“Tell me how I can be great too.”
“I’m afraid you misinterpret me, Mr. Guiteau. You see, we’re all only men."
"Death by Lightning" is cautionary tale for the Second Gilded Age, the fetishisation of the American Presidency and why it's better to be a good man than a great one.
“I’m afraid you misinterpret me, Mr. Guiteau. You see, we’re all only men."
"Death by Lightning" is cautionary tale for the Second Gilded Age, the fetishisation of the American Presidency and why it's better to be a good man than a great one.
I really enjoyed "Death by Lightning", the new miniseries on Netflix about two men forgotten by history: President Garfield and the man who killed him.
It feels, like a lot of recent historical biopics, like a work in conversation with the "Great Man" logic of such stories.
It feels, like a lot of recent historical biopics, like a work in conversation with the "Great Man" logic of such stories.
November 6, 2025 at 9:22 PM
I really enjoyed "Death by Lightning", the new miniseries on Netflix about two men forgotten by history: President Garfield and the man who killed him.
It feels, like a lot of recent historical biopics, like a work in conversation with the "Great Man" logic of such stories.
It feels, like a lot of recent historical biopics, like a work in conversation with the "Great Man" logic of such stories.
I wrote about Glen Powell’s “Chad Powers” for @SecondWindGroup.com, a fairly generic middle-of-the-road sitcom that takes a huge, bold swing in its final ten minutes.
Becoming a timely interrogation of familiar redemption narratives.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
Becoming a timely interrogation of familiar redemption narratives.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
November 6, 2025 at 12:21 AM
I wrote about Glen Powell’s “Chad Powers” for @SecondWindGroup.com, a fairly generic middle-of-the-road sitcom that takes a huge, bold swing in its final ten minutes.
Becoming a timely interrogation of familiar redemption narratives.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
Becoming a timely interrogation of familiar redemption narratives.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
Or, say, Arthur revealing that he specifically can’t have kids in the first few episodes, setting up… well, you know.
November 5, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Or, say, Arthur revealing that he specifically can’t have kids in the first few episodes, setting up… well, you know.
“Why does Wendy get to be Wendy?”
Rewatching “Alien: Earth” for the first time since the finale, I do appreciate how well it seeds various developments.
Nibs planting the seeds of Curly’s resentment of Wendy in an early throwaway line, for example.
Rewatching “Alien: Earth” for the first time since the finale, I do appreciate how well it seeds various developments.
Nibs planting the seeds of Curly’s resentment of Wendy in an early throwaway line, for example.
November 5, 2025 at 11:42 PM
“Why does Wendy get to be Wendy?”
Rewatching “Alien: Earth” for the first time since the finale, I do appreciate how well it seeds various developments.
Nibs planting the seeds of Curly’s resentment of Wendy in an early throwaway line, for example.
Rewatching “Alien: Earth” for the first time since the finale, I do appreciate how well it seeds various developments.
Nibs planting the seeds of Curly’s resentment of Wendy in an early throwaway line, for example.
Revisiting “Alien: Earth” and really enjoying Timothy Olyphant playing Kersch as a perpetually exhausted babysitter.
November 5, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Revisiting “Alien: Earth” and really enjoying Timothy Olyphant playing Kersch as a perpetually exhausted babysitter.
I really love that "Alien: Earth" never explains what Teng's deal is.
Is he a secret synth? Is he just a creepy dude? Maybe.
Is he a secret synth? Is he just a creepy dude? Maybe.
November 5, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I really love that "Alien: Earth" never explains what Teng's deal is.
Is he a secret synth? Is he just a creepy dude? Maybe.
Is he a secret synth? Is he just a creepy dude? Maybe.
“Save me from righteous men.
Save me from thinkers.
Save me from summoners.
Save me from midnight kings and the devil himself.”
(Imperial #4.)
Save me from thinkers.
Save me from summoners.
Save me from midnight kings and the devil himself.”
(Imperial #4.)
October 30, 2025 at 8:48 PM
“Save me from righteous men.
Save me from thinkers.
Save me from summoners.
Save me from midnight kings and the devil himself.”
(Imperial #4.)
Save me from thinkers.
Save me from summoners.
Save me from midnight kings and the devil himself.”
(Imperial #4.)
Logged on to Prime Video and it is so weird that as you type “H-E-D-D”, it doesn’t give you results starting with those letters.
I have to complete the word “Hedda”, or click on the word from my search history, to find “Hedda”, the new movie released today directed by Nia DaCosta.
I have to complete the word “Hedda”, or click on the word from my search history, to find “Hedda”, the new movie released today directed by Nia DaCosta.
October 30, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Logged on to Prime Video and it is so weird that as you type “H-E-D-D”, it doesn’t give you results starting with those letters.
I have to complete the word “Hedda”, or click on the word from my search history, to find “Hedda”, the new movie released today directed by Nia DaCosta.
I have to complete the word “Hedda”, or click on the word from my search history, to find “Hedda”, the new movie released today directed by Nia DaCosta.
Quite enjoying “Imperial”, even if it feels hypercompressed and like it should be extended, as a continuation of Jonathan Hickman’s meditation on the disastrous folly of those who would put themselves above others.
(Imperial #4.)
(Imperial #4.)
October 30, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Quite enjoying “Imperial”, even if it feels hypercompressed and like it should be extended, as a continuation of Jonathan Hickman’s meditation on the disastrous folly of those who would put themselves above others.
(Imperial #4.)
(Imperial #4.)
#NowWatching “Dust Bunny” at @horrorthon-fest.bsky.social.
October 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
#NowWatching “Dust Bunny” at @horrorthon-fest.bsky.social.
I wrote at @SecondWindGroup.com about the broken systems of Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite.”
It’s film about the decline of the delicate systems that have maintained American (and global equilibrium) since the end of the Second World War.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
It’s film about the decline of the delicate systems that have maintained American (and global equilibrium) since the end of the Second World War.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
October 27, 2025 at 7:29 PM
I wrote at @SecondWindGroup.com about the broken systems of Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite.”
It’s film about the decline of the delicate systems that have maintained American (and global equilibrium) since the end of the Second World War.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...
It’s film about the decline of the delicate systems that have maintained American (and global equilibrium) since the end of the Second World War.
READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...