A Return to Form
Five Little Treats for the week of December 3rd
Welcome to Five Little Treats! A weekly recap of five-ish things that I find noteworthy.
Late post this week, and I apologize for that. It’s not that I’m too busy or there isn’t a lot of great stuff, it’s that my wife is a prophet and I don’t feel nearly as passionate about anything as I do this PAC-12 finale that took place on Friday.
A quick programming note: Five Little Treats is going to take a pause for the rest of the year. Instead, the Tuesday posts will be my top treats from this year. Movies, TV, Books, etc.
Enjoy the final Treats of 2023!
Slow Horses Season 3
Apple TV+ has cracked the code on how to make television.
This used to be so simple. Take a charismatic bunch of actors, cast them in well defined roles that can all bounce off one another, and give them a twisty, propulsive, and easy to follow script.
Slow Horses is an interesting mix of “the old ways” of making TV and the modern streaming approach. It’s got an A-list movie star leading the cast, and it’s a text-book “this would have been a movie 15 years ago,” both trademarks of the streaming era.
For all that, watching it feels like watching the best crime-dramas network television has ever had to offer. Scenes crackle with dialog like they’re trying to keep you watching after a commercial break. There are old-school “or else she dies” cliffhangers.
Best of all, 3 seasons in these characters all feel lived in. We don’t need to waste time with setup, we’ve been able to spend time with them. In a world where Netflix cancels everything after two seasons, Apple put its chips on the table and renewed it through season four before the third even started filming.
The premise of the show is brilliant and the highest of concepts: what if the British secret services had a team comprised of losers? Throw in a crass Gary Oldman as their tough-love (it is love, isn’t it?) station chief, and folks we’ve got a ball game.
While this may not be the “best” show on TV, it’s certainly my favorite. I get more pure enjoyment watching Jackson Lamb and his lovable band of screw-up spies than I do anything else all year.
Randall’s Candles
Every so often, we see genius come along and change the game.
Individuals so titanic in their field that they become inseparable from the medium itself. Think Frank Lloyd Wright for architecture, John Phillips Souza and parade marches, Elon Musk and the art of stupidity. These are individuals so closely associated with their field that even the layperson knows their name.
And now, “Randall” has come to completely redefine how we perceive scents themselves.
Not much is known about the elusive Randall. Like Banksy, we can only glean bits of information through clues left in their work. Thus far, we can tell that this is an individual dedicated to excellence of the highest caliber in every facet of their craft.
Their initial run of the signature scent, “Fumo,” marks a clear before and after in the world of aromatic enhancement.
Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, such an event will be asked about for generations to come. Our children and children’s children will gather ‘round, asking, nay, needing to know where we were that fateful day.
Like the world before the internet, future generations will ask how we ever lived without it. And we will tell them it was much the same, though certainly it smelled worse back then.
Klaus, A Personal Christmas Classic
For a long time, I held the opinion that Elf, released in 2003, was the last true entry into the “Christmas Canon.” When the average person thinks of the classic Christmas movies, many of the same names come up. Christmas Vacation, The Santa Clause, the Rankin/Bass Clay-mation specials, and so on.
While, for most people, the list ends at 2003, I’d like to make a personal appeal for 2019’s Klaus.
On paper, a Netflix film about the origins of Santa Claus could not be less up my alley. I find most Netflix Originals to be creatively bankrupt and the “superhero origin story applied to a character in the public domain” has never really worked out.
Klaus, in that respect, is something of a miracle. Its animation style is kinetic, tactile, and warm. Its star-studded voice cast creates real depth of character, not just 2-dimensional cutouts. It feels like creatives with a vision, rather than filler of an algorithmically determined gap in a content library.
I enjoyed it the first time I watched, alone in my apartment the first Christmas of the pandemic. However, I gained a new appreciation watching the first time with my then 2-year-old daughter.
Klaus is a lovingly told story of how kindness triumphs over hatred-sincerity over cynicism. A perfectly gentle movie for the season, and one planted firmly in my personal Christmas movie rotation.
The Ladder of a Kind Neighbor
Not gonna lie, this entry exists solely so that I can brag about putting up Christmas lights. Thanks to a pipe bursting, we were in a rental house last Christmas. This year, and for the first time, we’re home for the holidays.
While the women in my household did a wonderful job making the inside of our home look like Rockafeller Plaza in December, the outside was my job. So I donned a rain jacket, my headphones, and the wrong shoes for the job, setting out to make our curb appeal merry and bright.
It’s simple, yes, but It’s also the first time I’ve hung lights on my house, and its simplicity makes me no less proud.
Thanks to my neighbor for lending us a very tall ladder that I wasn’t at all terrified I would slip off of.
Husky Football Check-In
On December 1st, 1923, The Washington Huskies defeated the Oregon Ducks 26-7 in their final regular season game, sending them to the first-ever Rose Bowl. Exactly one hundred years later, they did it again. Say who said Dawgs ain’t bad motherfuckers?
It was a game of firsts and lasts.
Washington is now the first team to go undefeated (13-0) in PAC-12 play in the last year of the conference. It was the first top-five matchup in Washington’s history, and the last time two teams would play for a slot in the 4-team playoff. It was the last conference game for star quarterbacks Bo Nix (Oregon) and Michael Penix Jr. (Washington), who may very well be Washington’s first-ever Heisman*.
Much like their week 7 matchup in Seattle, this game was an instant classic. With a playoff spot, a potential Heisman trophy, and the final championship all on the line, many were saying it was the biggest PAC-12 game ever. I tend to agree.
While the final score—34-31—reflects a close game, Washington was the dominant team in the first half, outplaying the ducks on both sides of the ball.
Not only were the Huskies able to score 20 points in the 1st half, they also managed to hold Oregon to a 3-and-out on 3 of their 4 opening drives. Save for a controversial pass interference foul, eventually setting Oregon up for a touchdown, the first half would have ended 20-3.
Washington’s defense has been criticized this season. Yes, their last 9 games have been decided by 10 or fewer points, but they have stepped up when needed.
Oregon’s star running back, Bucky Irving was held to only 20 yards on 9 carries. Wide receiver Troy Franklin only gained 34 yards. Bo Nix, the unanimous favorite for the Heisman last Thursday, was held to a season-low 6% pass completion rate and threw a rare interception—only his third of the year.
Make no mistake about it, Washington’s defense can stand against elite teams and come out on top. You could almost say they won them the game if it weren’t for the return of this top-shelf offense.
The story of the second half of UDub’s season was rife with conspiracy. Penix wasn’t playing as well, is he hurt? Cracking under the pressure? Did they put everything they had into the first Oregon game and not have enough gas in the tank to finish strong?
One critical piece of Friday night is the roster: this was the first game in which the entire receiving core was able to play. Similarly, running back Dillion Johnson who was in a walking boot the week of the Apple Cup, was back and put up another 100-yard game (his fourth this year), putting him over 1000 rushing yards on the season.
The takeaway seems pretty clear. When this offense is clicking, they are damn near unstoppable. Even when they aren’t (see: ASU, Stanford) they still find ways to make it work.
Another big headline from this game? This is a coaching staff that knows what they’re doing. Kalen DeBoer is now 24-2 in his tenure as head coach. Co-defensive coordinators William Inge & Chuck Morrell lead a squad that gets better and better every game. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb knows what this offense is capable of**, and executes creative and inspired playcalling said it after the OSU game,
I said it after the Apple Cup, and I’ll say it again now: these coaches trust their players to make the big plays when they need to. When coaches don’t trust their players—*cough* Ryan Day *cough*— it shows. The players can tell, and their game reflects it.
While winning the next two games would be an incredible feat, the second-best outcome of this season would be locking this team down for as long as possible. DeBoer is actively in contract negotiations with UW’s Athletic Director, and short of bankrupting the school (shoutout Arizona) I don’t know how much would be too much.
Speaking of the future, let’s talk playoffs.
On New Year’s Day, Washington heads to New Orleans to play Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Win that game, and they’re on to the College Football Championship against either Michigan or Alabama.
Regarding the Sugar Bowl, despite being unbeaten and ranked higher, Washington is again an underdog against a one-loss team they’ve already beaten in the last 12 months.
Sounds pretty familiar, huh?