New Year...New Me?

What happens next.

Well, friends, it has been quite the packed holiday season, since last we spoke. First of all, I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable time with family, friends, or anyone else who may give you joy. (I don’t know that the third group wouldn’t encompass family or friends anyway, but you do you.)

It has been a bumpy holiday season for me both personally and (semi-) professionally. My family spent Christmas Eve night and the morning of Christmas Day in northern Arizona doing what appears to be one of many nationwide Polar Express events. That was fun! The morning after that, I had to put my cat to sleep. That was…shitty! The morning after that, I learned that the corporate entity running Slashfilm no longer wanted reviews from freelance critics, meaning…I currently have no regular outlet to write movie reviews. That was…also shitty!

And in between all of this, more pressing to this post and the system that houses it, I was one of many Substack writers to co-sign a letter exhorting the people who run the show at Substack to stop platforming Nazis. “Yes, Josh, you published that before your last paid post in December. What of it?” Well, a couple days before Christmas, the response from Hamish McKenzie came through and it was Not Great, Bob. The short version is “But censorship is worse than Nazis, so we will continue to take their money and also let them spew their hate here.”

It’s a gross, lazy, very techbro response that has made me less and less inclined to post here. However. As I noted above, my most regular outlet for freelance criticism is no longer, and the thing is…I like writing film and TV reviews. You may be aware that one of my other outlets is Episodic Medium, where I have been fortunate enough to contribute in the past and hope to again in the future. (Possibly in the very, very near future.) You may also know that Episodic Medium is a Substack publication, and I mention that because I’m slightly torn on removing this Substack entirely as opposed to just taking a break and pausing paid subscriptions.

I say slightly, but it’s only just. I have, in fact, as of this morning, paused paid subscriptions until May 5. I don’t want Substack to take money (admittedly not a ton, but it’s still money) from you all, and I also fully understand folks not wanting to pay an organization that’s being so wishy-washy about Nazis, who are always bad and it’s disturbing that we keep having to say that out loud instead of just knowing it innately in our bones. My sincere hope is that Bluesky, where I post regularly, will introduce a polling option at which time I can bring the brackets back to their rightful home on social media.

If you want to follow me elsewhere, and don’t already, the best places to do so are Bluesky and Letterboxd; the former is where I’ll post any and all links to new reviews and the latter is where I’ll post any thoughts on new movies. (Until such time that I can review new movies, and boy, I hope that’s soon. I love reviewing movies! Love it to death! I’ve gotten good movement on other freelance work that you’ll see soon enough, but it’s TV-related.)

Is it possible the Substack will come back? I mean…yes, it is possible. But considering the fact that it’s been almost three weeks since McKenzie’s half-assed response and nothing else has changed in spite of many, much larger publications either leaving or threatening to leave, I doubt it. (If they wanted to ban Nazis, they could’ve done it already.)

For now, to paraphrase a show that was part of the last big bracket here…well, I could type it, but let me have him just shout it. (Imagine it in present tense.)