Co-showrunner of The Good Wife, Good Fight, Elsbeth, Evil, BrainDead. Producer of Your Honor and Happy Face.
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view profile on Bluesky Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
WEAPONS. A very entertaining movie. It starts with a Twilight Zone premise, but then keeps turning over new cards. A surprising number of laughs. Beautifully shot. Great writing. From the brilliant writer/director, Zach Cregger. See it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Proudly sleazy, HUNTING WIVES is BIG LITTLE LIES with guns. The show’s amorality is to be admired. Everybody is happily sleeping with everyone; just don’t call it an “open marriage” because that’s a liberal thing. The subculture of performative Christianity is well-observed.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Jerry Adler died last Saturday. The intent was only to have him for one episode of THE GOOD WIFE, but he was so funny in a diner scene, yelling “I said ice cream, you stupid bitch” we had him back for six years of Good Wife and three years of Good Fight. One of our favorite collaborators.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
ALIEN: EARTH. There’s a lot to like about this series—modernist sculptures, Marie Antoinette parties—but what I like best is the portrayal of the children’s minds in adult synthetic bodies. It’s charming. Well-performed and well-written. It also offers some much-needed comedy.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
THE NAKED GUN. It’s very funny. Very self-confident. Great visual and verbal gags throughout. Non-stop. Some great absurd detours—one involving a snowman is blissfully funny. See it. It’s worth seeing in the theaters.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Agreed. My favorite part. Like visual limericks in the middle of the movie.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
HEADS OF STATE. Surprisingly witty script by Applebaum, Neman, Query. And funny direction from Naishuller. A lot of great lines and filmic creativity. It’s an intentionally dumb movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, or even seriously at all. On Amazon Prime.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
More about SISTER MIDNIGHT. You can really see the influence of Buster Keaton on the writer/director, Karan Kandhari. Very rarely do so many uninflected images in a movie make you laugh. He always knows where to put the camera for comedy.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
SISTER MIDNIGHT. A bit like a Christopher Durang play: comically bizarre, wild, always surprising. It’s an Indian movie about a wife in an arranged marriage going crazy, and possibly becoming a witch. Radhika Apte is fantastic, as is the first time wr/director, Karan Kandhari. See it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
FAMILIES LIKE OURS is a fascinating series about the evacuation of Denmark as it sinks underwater from global warming. No tidal wave visual effects, it’s more a slow-moving bureaucratic disaster. What’s more interesting is flipping the usual immigration debate: the most advantaged become the least.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
If you missed LOVE AND MERCY today is a good day to see it. A great tribute to Brian Wilson who just died. Great artist.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Wow. It’s like reading a Philip K. Dick-like alternate history of TV. Never heard or read anything about her. Thanks for this.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
How did I ever not see this movie? LE TROU (THE HOLE). Written/directed: Jacques Becker. It’s an exciting French prison escape movie— just as great as A MAN ESCAPED. Intense, clever, focuses more on the procedure of escape than the melodrama. Stars one of the original prisoners. It’s on Criterion.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Agreed. I didn’t know that. Loved it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
MOBLAND again. I did want to add that the dialogue is strikingly good. The showrunner is Ronan Bennett, but even more interesting his co-writer is Jez Butterworth, the great writer of the play THE FERRYMAN. Anyway, even more reason to see this series. It’s pulp but expertly written pulp.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
MOBLAND. Lurid and propulsive. It’s anchored by three great performances: Tom Hardy, underplaying effectively; Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren, overplaying wildly effectively. Pierce is insane, imitating a pig. Reviews have been so-so because they only saw two episodes. See it. Good fast editing.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
I’m 22 years too late, so lovers of TV probably already know this, but what a wonderful show SLINGS AND ARROWS is. It’s a comedy about the difficulties of artistic integrity. Very funny. So many good performances. Each season does something new and original. A streaming service named Acorn has it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
I hadn’t seen SLINGS AND ARROWS. I just got to it 22 years late. It’s wonderful. Thanks for pointing me to it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
ADULTS. On FX. It’s very funny. Well-paced. Not just a slice of life comedy, but often smartly absurd too. It’s a bit like ENGLISH TEACHER. It has actual jokes. Written by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw. See it. Start on episode 2 or 3. Don’t get thrown by the “voice of generation” ad campaign.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
THE REHEARSAL FINALE. Still jaw-dropping. There was an Albert Brooks short he made for SNL about achieving his dream of performing open-heart surgery. This episode was like that, but real. Again, if you haven’t seen it, watch it today.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Premium streaming is often so thin on plot you can write on a post-it note what happens in any episode. That’s what’s so exciting about NO MAN’S LAND, a French series on Hulu about an all-female Syrian militia. It has plot upon plot upon plot. Many are imperfect, but they don’t let up.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
WARFARE. A remarkably tense and compact movie. It denies all the usual cliches of action: eg. lightness just before an explosion, comic byplay on radio transmissions— so you never know when the violence will hit. It trusts the audience to catch onto the military jargon. Very good.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
It’s worth reading Pope Leo’s first homily (not his address in St. Peter’s). I found the text reprinted in NPR. I found it a tonic.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
THE ETERNAUT. I’m a sucker for these kind of apocalyptic shows; and this Argentinian epic has a great and disturbing look. The quietest images are the best: all the corpses dressed for summer lying in the snow, survivors camping out in a megastore. The fx are excellent too.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Not sure why I’m in an evangelical mood about this show but I am: some think it’s a “cringe comedy,” but it’s not. It’s a new invention, a hybrid of documentary, activist op-ed, and weird comic memoir. It’s better than anything else on TV. If you’re interested in what TV can do, watch REHEARSAL 2.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
The honest satirist has to end up satirizing him or herself. Consistency requires it. This is what Randy Newman does, and definitely what Nathan Fielder does. His shows always swing back around to point fingers at himself. It’s what makes his work so fascinating. Watch it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
An effective statue in Trastevere.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
We’ve been vacationing in Rome for the last few weeks so we were able to see the procession.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Seize season two. Completely different animal— in the best way.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
A great and holy man misunderstood by both the left and the right. To say “he will be missed” is a massive understatement.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Amazing show. To paraphrase James Agee, “like taking a nun on a rollercoaster.” THE REHEARSAL SEASON 2 is serious and funny— simultaneously. It’s a comedy with a real driving question: “Does subservience in the cockpit result in plane crashes?” Watch the first ten minutes, and you’ll be hooked.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Here’s a last appreciation for THE PITT. Streaming often has movie-envy, stretching out a story with a movie structure to eight episodes and ignoring the pleasures of good network TV: living with an ensemble. So I’m guessing I wasn’t alone in reacting to the finale: “I’m going to miss these people.”
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
As I said before, I love the script and acting on ADOLESCENCE. I especially love Stephen Graham. I just hate when directors break through the show like the KoolAid Man yelling Look at Me! It draws attention away from the actors and toward the technical achievement.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
THE PITT has been firing on all cylinders these last few weeks; and it shows what you can do with the fullest tools of filmmaking: complex layers of movement, paced cutting, overlapping dialogue. It’s also closer to an events lived experience than all this one-shot nonsense.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
There’s an incisive satirical core to THE STUDIO: the executives who greenlight Jenga the Movie during the day go home to enjoy Goodfellas at night. Very funny lines, a second episode that satirizes the one-shot nonsense. A warning: anyone who’s worked on a set: the second episode can bring on PTSD.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
“Could be qualified as terrorism” is a terrifying phrase.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
This is a fantastic article with some damning Meta emails showing they knew what they were doing was theft. The earlier database was about TV and movie scripts being stolen. This one lets you search for your books and research papers.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Michelle and mine. We were noticing that certain people in the first Trump years were easily ignoring court orders and summons. We wanted something like Catch-22. We used our daughter’s birthday.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Done badly. Kills momentum. Offers backstory that is almost always unnecessary. Is more a function of writers-roomitis (ie.—the claustrophobia of writers feeling trapped inside one premise and characters for too long). And it’s a cliche.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
In every writer’s room, around episode 7, writers will find themselves saying: “Hey, let’s see how we got here,” and will start to build a long flashback episode about “backstory,” or some character will return home so they can experience “backstory.” When this happens in your writers room… resist.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Focus it on Section 230. The most bang for the buck is bringing it down.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
I don’t think it makes sense— unless it’s an internal document to spark the mind. Or possibly it’s something for the eventual collaborators. But that’s one man’s opinion.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
There are some words that are just ugly. Bespoke is another one. The mind tries to slide over them the way we slide over bad compositions in photography.
We all know TV is getting stupider as it tries to compensate for people watching it while looking at their phones but the new show I am watching that premieres soon is by far the recappingest bullshit I have ever seen. Even people watching while playing Royal Match are going to feel insulted
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you so much. I’ll try to participate here more.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
No. Smuts wrote a freelance script and Schkolnick and Lichtman were there for half a season. The lawyers who were there for almost the whole run were Ted Humphrey, Keith Eisner, and Craig Turk. There were other lawyers too but those were the three I think I was thinking about.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
I’ve been sick for the last week so I’ve had nothing to do but watch TV. THE EASTERN GATE. A hard-edged Polish spy drama streaming now on Max. It moves fast, but its strongest asset is the female spy lead. The actress is Lena Gora who does a great minimalist job.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
#Companion is a lot of fun, and since much of the fun comes from various surprises, there’s not much we can talk about. Just know: it’s well plotted and directed by Drew Hancock. Anyone writing a spec, this is a perfect example of how to write something excellent and makeable.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
PARADISE. I didn’t get enthusiastic about this show until the seventh episode “The Day.” One of the most tense hours of TV I’ve seen in a while. If you’ve fallen away from this show, give it another chance by watching this episode. Great acting from Sterling K. Brown and J. Marsden.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
KUGEL. A prequel to the wonderful Israeli series, SHTISEL, by the same showrunner, Indursky. Really excellent writing. Draws you in. Simple, but funny and authoritative. It just started on Izzy, the streaming service showing Israeli TV series. Catch it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
The best cure to this moment: watch STOP MAKING SENSE on repeat.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
I was lucky enough to get to direct the Valentine’s day episode of ELSBETH. This is me showing the cast how to catch a basketball. Please watch the episode on February 13th.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
“David Sacks suggested that DeepSeek used responses from OpenAI models to train its own. “I don’t think OpenAI is very happy about this,” Sacks said. Really? They’re not happy. Guess how happy I am that OpenAI stole all my scripts for its generative AI. Welcome to the club, OpenAI.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Yuh-huh.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
#8. We’re neck-and-neck with Fellini.
Words of wisdom.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
It’s an excellent limited series. We produced it with Liz Glotzer, but the real artistic vision came from Jen Cacicio and the true life story. Dennis Quaid is fantastic in it as is Annaleigh Ashford who we worked with in Good Fight and Evil. Watch the trailer below.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
There will come a very funny moment soon when Sam Altman accuses DeepSeek of stealing its advancements through industrial espionage. It would be lovely if DeepSeek turned around and responded that it’s just “fair use.”
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
The Agency was smart and worth seeing. Next year it needs more Richard Gere who is fantastic in it. A good cast. It was probably hurt by the expectations of a spy show having double-crosses within double-crosses; I never quite believed the love affair at the center of it.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Often I can fast-forward to the last five minutes of a binge episode, get the wallop, and move on. The advantage of a act-based structure from a viewer’s point-of-view: there are more essential plot turns. A lot of streaming shows these days: Walk walk walk, plot turn, walk, walk, walk, cliffhanger.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Be safe. I’m so sorry.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
With the new and quickly spreading Hughes Fire in LA, I’m finding the best news source is KCAL. National news sensationalizes too much. Local news has been great when you just need to know what’s going on.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
From the ADL: It seems that he made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Rich wimpy men don’t like being ridiculed.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
THE PITT. What seems like a stunt—an ER shift is played out over 1 season—works well in a sort of Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich way. It’s dramatic without being melodramatic. It’s the accumulation of human drama that lands a punch. An antidote to all the serialized melodrama that has taken over
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you for the respectful tone. Carping has never been so enjoyable.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
We’re really not the angry types. Maybe Michelle is angry—I’ll have to check. We like jokes with some bite to them. The opening credit sequence was supposed to be funny. We wanted it to start like a sequence from Masterpiece Theatre and then all the elegant things start to blow up.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
I think the problem is that writers are using the paradigm of movie-storytelling and filling it out with “character” and extra dialogue stuff to fill eight episodes. The result is reiterative. Actual character work needs to come from the provocation of plot development.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
I don’t know. I just remember it having great energy.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
I’m kind of bored of the ”8-hour movie” model adopted by streaming. It’s mostly poorly paced, with a flabby structure. There is a lot of people entering rooms waiting for someone to do something or say something. I like how Sopranos told a serialized and a self-contained story. More happened.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Gross Pointe Blank
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Apologies should be private. Gratitude should be public.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
How do I get the algorithm to believe I want more David Lynch content here?
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
I was just commiserating with our composer on EVIL, David Buckley, about how we emulated Lynch’s soundscapes—especially ERASERHEAD. Buckley composed a dozen tracks—with names like Drone #1, etc. inspired by radiators, plumbing, HVAC, we used to create an unsettling mood w/o score. Thanks, Mr. Lynch
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Yeah. It’s even creepier to have written it. Fun times coming.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
“September 5” is only 90 minutes long and is one of the best movies of the year. I hate that length is being equated with profundity.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes and the Brian Eno/David Byrne song “The Jezebel Spirit.”
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
I just want to go on for a minute about September 5, the second best movie of the year. It’s about how the ABC sports division dealt with the technological and ethical issues of a live terrorist attack. It’s only 90 minutes long and moves like the wind. It is such a feat of filmmaking.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you so much.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
What the hell
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
I just rewatched the Ian McKellen retelling of Richard III, and it’s quite good. It’s also a bit scary heading into the unknown of our next administration. Machiavelli reigns supreme here, and even though it uses the iconography of Naziism, it’s about how norms get supplanted by conscienceless will
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
What a compliment to be among so many great shows. If you haven’t seen Say Nothing, English Teacher, and Sho-Gun please watch them. Also not on the list but great: Extraordinary. www.tvguide.com/news/feature...
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you. I sit at my computer all day writing and procrastinating. This is not a bad place to procrastinate.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
If you haven’t seen Say Nothing please do. It’s the best series of the year, and a real education in structuring a binge-watch series. The idea of streaming series being 8-hour movies has done great harm to the ways TV improves on the structure of movies. This series shows how episodes are chapters
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Watch this to ring in the new year or you will receive a phone call and a child will whisper “seven days.” Then you will have to show it to someone you love www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/will-mo...
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
I didn’t think I was shutting down anything. Ask away.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
That’s another subject and has nothing to do with AI exploitation. But if you are arguing that authors are being exploited more than writers for screen because they own their copyright, I would agree. And that’s why I have so much respect for Sarah Silverman
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Just saw it yesterday. She was fantastic.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Structure and narrative are considered individual expression, and therefore are considered part of authorship. The only difference is that story by and written by are judged separately. Yes, there is collaboration in film/TV but the assigned author is the author; there is no line-by-line assigning.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
That should’ve been “come to their senses.”
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social) reply parent
Screen and TV writers are also hurt by the fact we don’t hold our copyrights. The studios do, and they, for the moment, seem willing to play ball. I do think people will come to their when Gen AI aids the theft of plot points from one Bourne Identity movie into a rip off. Discovery is the rub.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
Check which of your shows are being stolen (I mean, being used for training purposes) by Generative AI. For us, all 156 episodes of GOOD WIFE, 1st season of GOOD FIGHT, oddly all of BRAINDEAD, none of EVIL; all my post-Corman movies. Check for your writing on it. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
A gang warfare musical set in Mexico City. It’s a hybrid that works extraordinarily well. It's written and directed by the always great Jacques Audiard who also did A PROPHET and RUST AND BONE (both great). Definitely see it. Not perfect, but one of my favorite of the year.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
A modest proposal.
Robert King (@robertking.bsky.social)
People said to come here, so I have.
Janis Cohen 