Sign in

Phillip Maciak

@pjmaciak.bsky.social
6.8K followers 1.5K following 3.8K posts

TV Critic @ The New Republic // DAD: A POP HISTORY (Plume 2027) // utility infielder @ Wash U in STL // pjmaciak.substack.com 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, sixers

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 1h
"I don’t feel like I have to prove myself necessarily... I’m like, 'Guys, I don’t know how to do this. The reason I write it this way is because I don’t know how!' I’m figuring it out as I go, and I like for that to stand as a kind of example to people that you can do it in other ways."
021
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Sam Thielmonster @samthielman.com · 1h
this is very good
0827
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 3h
Like it or not this what Maine Guys actually sound like. Might sound like shit to you, but this is a Meryl Streep-level performance for guys from Maine with this voice and personality.
1763289418
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Patrick Monahan @pattymo.com · 12h
Le Wackisme
Wired app push notification 

New Frontier
3m ago
A French company claims its newest Al model, ‘Le Chonk,’ can compete with the
US and China
1445538
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
the beach that makes you old the one night a year single people can legally have sex the guy who gets eaten by a whale
090
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
If you go up to the box office and say "one adult for the movie where the whale eats a guy, please" they have to give it to you. There's no law that says you have to say Whalefall or whatever it's called.
58121191
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The original Google search algorithm that was wizard magic was machine learning. Same with videogame enemies learning flocking techniques and figuring out how to beat you based on your tendencies. LLM stans fucked this up just let the scam artists define what AI is now because they are dumb.
181080251
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Josephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 05/10/2026
achewood's philippe speaks to the ghost of billy idol, who has possessed him:

"I don't get it, Billy! How come I have to say so many cusses?"

"SAYING CUSSES... IS POWER..."
0254
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I wrote this without having seen LANTERNS' season finale, which aired last night. But I think the main argument holds up: LANTERNS is SURF DRACULA. newrepublic.com/article/2159...
newrepublic.com
The Bleak Future of HBO’s Lanterns
In Damon Lindelof’s new show, the good guys might survive, but they have to wade through a whole season of disappointment along the way.
1142
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Econ 101
Person one: Taught my kids how socialism works. Let them trick or treat while I stayed home. Then took all their candy. Socialism 101.

Person two : The socialism part is where the community came together and fed your kids for free. The capitalism part is where you made them do all the work and stole from them.
2160011157
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It feels like some journalists just discovered being fortysomething with young kids and then diagnosed it as a social issue. WHY AMERICANS STOPPED WAKING UP WHENEVER THEY WANTED WHY AMERICANS ARE WEARING MORE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS THEIR DAUGHTERS MADE THAN EVER www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...
theatlantic.com
Why Americans Stopped Throwing Dinner Parties
The share of adults who say they regularly have friends over has declined dramatically since 1975.
0252
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Yes. Every talk I give about AI and writing people ask how we’re going to deal with the inevitable and I always insist, it’s not inevitable!
0283
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This was wild to see. My first time writing for the screen. My thanks to Zoe Kazan for inviting me on this journey back in 2023, and my agent Jason Richman and everyone at @unitedtalentagency.bsky.social for their work on my behalf.
“Written for Television by ZOE KAZAN & ALEXANDER CHEE” in white letters against the black tv screen.A tv still of Mike Faist, Christopher Abbott and Florence Pugh. White text in a San serif font reads “This East of Eden, adapted primarily by Zoe Kazan-Alexander Chee co-wrote a key midseason episode-with Garth Davis directing, is rich, morally complex and packed with memorable performances."
Daniel Fienberg
The Hollywood Reporter
1162070127
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
with all respect: i'm losing touch with what AI does because i have no interest in it and it's not my business. nobody worries about me losing touch with developments in particle physics or artificial bull insemination. it's not my fault the richest guys on earth want me to make their toy my life
462379357
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
At a really fundamental level Leo XIV is just a person with sound, well-reasoned, moral stances on the world and how life should be lived who isn't afraid to say those things in public. That kind of person simply does not make sense to business leaders and politicians for whom speech is convenience.
311419260
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
None of the extremely embarrassing things the Philadelphia Phillies did on the field last night were more embarrassing than the continued, enthusiastic existence of The Chop.
070
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Not the main point, but, for whatever reasons (easy to speculate the reasons), we have been denied ten years of prestige series from the Matthew Weiner coaching tree. bsky.app/profile/pjma...
020
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The range of outcomes for this is so wide, it's hard to even speculate.
2130
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The danger for criticism is that people will want to become critics in order to become [PODCAST HOSTS], rather than enjoying the pleasure of writing and the excitement of trying to define and describe what you’ve seen. (1992)
191
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
shirley jackson you tell em www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
ar and away the greatest menace to the writer—any writer, beginning or otherwise
—is the reader. The reader is, after all, a kind of silent partner in this whole business of writing, and a work of fiction is surely incomplete if it is never read. The reader is, in fact, the writer's only unrelenting, genuine enemy. He has everything on his side; all he has to do, after all, is shut his eyes, and any work of fiction becomes meaningless. Moreover, a reader has an advantage over a beginning writer in not being a beginning reader; before he takes up a story to read it, he can be presumed to have read everything from Shakespeare to Jack Kerouac. No matter whether he reads a story in manuscript as a great personal favor, or opens a magazine, or—kindest of all—goes into a bookstore and pays good money for a book, he is still an enemy to be defeated with any kind of dirty fighting that comes to the writer's mind.
13677136
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I'm cautiously optimistic about Andrew Martin's reluctance to really own the "Report on the State of Humanities..." in this convo, the first real response we've heard from him on it. Esp in contrast to the way Daniel Diermeier immediately deployed it as propaganda. www.studlife.com/news/2026/09...
studlife.com
Martin talks University finances and humanities report in annual SU address - Student Life
Chancellor Andrew D. Martin spoke about WashU’s political engagement in Washington, D.C., threats to federal research funding, and rationales behind larger expenditures by the University in a joint St...
010
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Josh Fruhlinger @jfruh.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
seems bad. also seems like the AI doomers should spend less time thinking about future aliens torturing their cybergholas and more time thinking about this
3334
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
That feels plausible.
000
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Believe in yourself the way national NBA media believe in the sample size of three games they saw Paul George play in the 2026 playoffs. www.theringer.com/2026/10/01/n...
theringer.com
The Seven NBA Players We’re Most Curious About
Can Paul George turn back the clock? What if Reed Sheppard pops? Plus, five more guys we can’t stop thinking about heading into 2026-27.
260
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I agree, but I think that the show has not done enough in terms of character development or world-building or plotting to make me care about anything OTHER than John Stewart getting the ring. Stewart is on a quest for an object he only wants because he's been told to want it, and so are we!
110
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Adam Sternbergh @sternbergh.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
excellent deployment of SURF DRACULA here by @pjmaciak.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2159...
newrepublic.com
The Bleak Future of HBO’s Lanterns
In Damon Lindelof’s new show, the good guys might survive, but they have to wade through a whole season of disappointment along the way.
0111
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
All of which is to say, both Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are giving extremely charismatic performances that deserve a better show. Kelly Macdonald deserves some sort of escape pod or Saving Private Ryan style rescue op — one actor should not have to endure both this and BOARDWALK EMPIRE. 5/5
0100
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Anyway, LANTERNS feels to me like the beginning of a new phase of extended universe TV. A copy of a copy of shows that used the format to come up with genuinely new televisual ideas. It makes sense that its showrunner was the showrunner of OZARK, aka BREAKING BAD (blue). 4/x
160
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I don't know if they were hoping Lindelof would win that cage match or hoping he'd lose.
130
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
All of those shows are risky bets for a studio; it feels like LANTERNS wants to be perceived as a risky experiment w/out actually risking anything. Is it weird that TRUE DETECTIVE has a more interesting take on cosmic justice than INTERGALACTIC TRUE DETECTIVE? 3/x
270
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The most (creatively) successful shows in the "extended universe" era — ANDOR! WANDAVISION! WATCHMEN! — have been shows that get far enough away the canonical lore that they can make radical changes in tone/style/characterization, building new stuff without tearing down existing infrastructure. 2/x
2131
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Completely agree!
020
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
LANTERNS ends this weekend, and, while it's got wonderful performances and some fun set-pieces, it remains hard not to see it as one of those fake parody prestige series that the Florricks watched on THE GOOD WIFE. 1/x
6314
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Matthew Dowd @matthewjdowd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Latest WSJ poll: "63% want to pause AI development 61% want a billionaire wealth tax 59% want Medicare for All 57% want a $20 minimum wage 58% want to end U.S. military aid to Israel" This is the center of the country politically. it is time all adjust to this political spectrum, esp. media.
9534621079
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Let John Stewart Surf
back in the day if u did a tv show called surf dracula you'd see that foold surfing every week in new adventures but in the streaming era the entire 1st season gotta be a long ass flashback to how he got the surfboad until you finally get ti see him surf for 5 min in the finale
182
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I wrote about LANTERNS, HBO's prestige buddy-cop anti-hero drama set in the SURF DRACULA extended cinematic universe. newrepublic.com/article/2159...
newrepublic.com
The Bleak Future of HBO’s Lanterns
In Damon Lindelof’s new show, the good guys might survive, but they have to wade through a whole season of disappointment along the way.
4121
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you want "personalized music" made just for you pick up a fucking guitar. Or else break the heart of someone who already has.
131363219
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Begin to be a place where parents can send our daughters and be confident that they will be as safe as it is possible to be under patriarchy. And become a place where our sons are not initiated into rape culture." www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
021
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The indignity of the Pontiff, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Jesus Christ having to utter the phrase, "Rate Field."
050
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Are you hesitant about the idea of a JD Vance presidential run? What if I told you he was considering selecting this sentient thumb as his running mate?
1100
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Between Schmitt confusing the Hawks for the Hawkeyes and Denny Hoskins messing up redistricting because of paperwork, we are in a genuine Golden Era of Missouri Republicans looking like absolute morons on the national stage.
051
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I don't always agree with JCK, but this is a thoughtful engagement with Nikole Hannah-Jones' recent essay — its feelings and its arguments, what it seems ready to give up and what it shouldn't. www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...
newyorker.com
Individual Choices Won’t Fix America’s Public Schools
Nikole Hannah-Jones sent her daughter to a struggling local school and has come to regret it. But personalizing the problem is the wrong approach.
030
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Fr Chase 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁 @kalanthropos.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
239161654212
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think part of the pivot can be to less formalized writing — opening, ungraded, in-class free writes, for instance, are not a new invention, but they are extremely useful for framing conversation.
020
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
YES!
020
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If colleges want to build for a post-AI world that values human creativity, they should be throwing money at writing programs, not only because they are on the front lines of grappling with this sea change, but because they have the capacity to teach something that's genuinely NOT replicable by AI.
1163
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Students don't need writing to think — I agree — but it's only because they don't know HOW to think through writinh. It's a skill that's been lost (because systemically undervalued) over generations, and that scholars and observers of this subject have long been trying to alert us to.
3121
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think humanities classes that relied on writing as a diagnostic tool can and should pivot to other modes or hybrids. But I don't think that means writing matters less — I think it just means we've been misunderstanding where writing instruction takes place. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think.
If I do not treat writing as essential for achieving thought, it is not clear why I should force my students to.
5161
Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Mad Men's secret sauce was always its incredibly deep bench of women writers and directors.
020