Larry's 100

100DaysToOffload

Stranger Things Season 5, Part 1 Netflix

The Stranger Things franchise is a hot mess. Bloated, convoluted plot, a chorus of characters to track, and the stars are now adults playing teens. But by the fourth episode of Part 1, I was back in.

The epic Boss Battle of Part 1 is the best action sequence I’ve watched all year. The Sorcerer twist was a solid payoff of nine years of loyalty and character development.

The show is a crockpot stew of nerd nostalgia, 80s revivalism, and theme-park thrills. That flavor remains even as the show expands, both in the story and its megawatt popularity.

Finish it

Part 1

#StrangerThings #TVReview #Netflix #SciFi #PopCulture #FediTV #Television #100WordReview #Larrys100 #100DaysToOffload #tv

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

A Merry Little Ex-Mas, Netflix 2025

3.5/5 Hot Chocolates

So begins Larry's 100 Holiday Movie Season! My family and I have been studying the genre for a decade, and for the past five years, I have been reviewing them on my Instagram. I am now applying the Drable/100 Word review format and cataloging them here. But don't worry, Instagram Fam, I will still post them there to preserve this cherished tradition.

Read more #100HotChocolates reviews

Notable Stars: Alicia Silverstone, Jameela Jamil, and Melissa Joan Hart. Silverstone, Hart produced for Mellisa Joan’s Mom’s Heartbreak Films production company.

Alicia Silverstone joins the Christmas Movie industrial complex.

Consciously uncoupling Silverstone and Oliver Hudson attempt to maintain post-breakup holiday normalcy with their young adult children, new paramours, friends, and Granddads. Awkward festive gatherings, hurt feelings, and rekindled emotions ensue.

After years of trying, Netflix got its version of the Hallmark Christmas RomCom right, mimicking the look/feel with a few meta inside jokes while tweaking the Young Professional Female Gets Stuck In Wintertown trope.

Middle-aged “what now” angst and Silverstone's puppy-dog eyes ground the plot, and the writing sprinkles the story with core genre elements: humor, empathy, warmth, and baking.

Stream it.

A Merry Little Ex-Mas

#100HotChocolates #100DaysToOffload #Larrys100 #100WordReview #MovieReview #ChristmasMovies #HolidayMovies #Netflix #Cinemastodon #FilmMastodon #AliciaSilverstone #AMerryLittleExMas #movies

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

Pluribus Episode 5: Got Milk

See 100 Word reviews of previous episodes here

Being yourself is lonely. After Carol's interrogation of Zosia backfired, making the whole world hive-mind cry, the Others are giving her the silent treatment. They convoy out of Albuquerque and rely solely on recorded updates and drone interactions. Her only social outlet is video messages to the other twelve soloists. 

Sparked by moments of action and levity with her co-opted police car, Carol's solitude, with help from a pack of canines, lets her grieve Helen.

Carol becomes Agatha Christie as a series of clues eventually leads to an abandoned dog food factory and a classic episodic TV cliffhanger.

Watch it.

Milk

#Pluribus #TVReview #VinceGilligan #ScienceFiction #Larrys100 #Drabble #100WordReview #100DaysToOffload #tv

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

Rumors of My Demise Evan Dando Audiobook read by author (2025)

Note: Part of my ongoing #AudioMemoir series reviewing author-read memoirs. Previous: Neko Case, Cameron Crowe. Coming: Wayne Kramer, Larry Charles.

The 100 Word Review of The Lemonheads' new album, Love Chant

Funny, honest, and soulful, Dando takes an unflinching look at his life as a teen punk of privilege, alterna-hunk, and dope fiend.

Examining his Boston upbringing, 120 Minutes indie rock era, and the burdens of being hot, Dando ambles through life dedicated to art and deconstruction. Stories of Gibby Haynes, Courtney Love, Keith Richards, and others intermingle with harrowing tales of the House of Shock crack den and breakdowns in Australia. 

He owns it all. No big sobriety arc or 12-step apology tour. He knows he’s hurt people and wasted time, but his warmth and talent shine.

Listen to it.

dando

#AudioMemoir #100WordReview #Larrys100 #100DaysToOffload #EvanDando #books #MusicChannel

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

Pluribus Episode 4: Please Carol

See 100 Word reviews of previous episodes here

Carol can’t help herself as she amps up her war on the Uni-Consciousness. Fun with chemistry turns disastrous as she concocts new ways to hurt Zosia et al.

Watching television crafted by Vince Gilligan is like being in the hands of an artisan who makes beautiful things. As much as the Big Ideas of Pluribus are a philosophy class, the small moments like Carol setting up her camera (has a memory card ever been so cinematic?) or the Paraguayan’s existence in his bunker, communicate vividly.

Some might view Pluribus as a bold defense of individualism; I am not so sure.

Rhea Seehorn as Carol in Pluribus Season 1, Episode 4, “Please, Carol.” Photo credit: AppleTV

#Pluribus #TVReview #VinceGilligan #ScienceFiction #AppleTV #Larrys100 #Drabble #100WordReview #100DaysToOffload #tv

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe by David M. Perry, Matthew Gabriele (2025)

Warnings from the Carolingian Empire about our current era. To be familiar with 2025, we get Brinkmanship, bloody battles, and family infighting deconstructed and reexamined. Charlemagne’s offspring did not honor him.

Perry and Gabriele are dynamic public historians, deploying a lively narrative and sharp scholarship. The use of poetry and participant reflections builds empathy for players in this epic soap opera.

I appreciate the reminder that egos, power-mad schemers, and an endless supply of nepobabies are centuries-old tropes. The authors spare no one as they posit elites can be the stupidest of us, then and now.

Place a library hold.

Oath breakers

#Drabble #100WordReview #Larrys100 #BookReview #History #MedievalHistory #Oathbreakers #Carolingian #Nonfiction #PublicHistory #Bookstodon #2025Books #100DaysToOffload #books #history

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

The Uncool: A Memoir, Cameron Crowe, Audiobook Read by author (2025)

Note: This is part of a series on memoirs read by their authors. #AudioMemoir

Previously in this series: Neko Case

Coming soon: Wayne Kramer, Evan Dando, Larry Charles

Listening to Crowe’s warm narration as he mines his teen music journalism years for laughs and tears, it felt like Almost Famous: Writer's Cut. 

A love letter to the 1970s, with Rock Stars galore, from Lou Reed to Dicky Betts. Tales of long tours, late nights, and chance encounters. All guided by mentor Lester Bangs. 

Light on movie career, but has choice Fast Times stories. Even winning an Oscar is quick business. 

Not the box set of his life, rather a double album. But in the end, it is a story about a family in San Diego.

Listen to it.

uncool

#Audiobook #AudioMemoir #CameronCrowe #Memoir #Bookstodon #FediBooks #MusicMemoir #RollingStone #70sMusic #Larrys100 #Drabble #100WordReview #100DaysToOffload #books #MusicChannel

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

Kurt Vile/Luke Roberts Classic Love (ep), Verve 2025

I am a Kurt Vile-O'phile. Classic Love is quintessential Vile. Warm. Weird. Funny.

A collaboration with Luke Roberts centers the EP. They team up on a version of Roberts's title tune, and KV takes a solo pass on another version of the song. Two versions? Both work.

They co-wrote “Hit of the High Life,” which sounds like a lost song off Neil Young's On The Beach LP. It's confessional, raw, and angsty about the world, macro and micro.

Mix in a Beach House cover, an updated catalog song, and you’ve entered the creative playground Vile calls home.

Stream/Buy it.

Vile

#MusicReview #KurtVile #IndieRock #ClassicLove #Music2025 #NewMusic #MusicMonday #FediMusic #Drabble #100WordReview #Larrys100 #100DaysToOffload #MusicChannel

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

Pluribus, Episode 3: Grenade

See review of the first two episodes here

In the aftermath of almost 100% of humanity entering the singularity, our cranky protagonist, Carol, is refusing to deal. But when even a grocery run to Sprouts typifies the emptiness of having every need met, avoidance is futile.

Gilligan humanizes AI slop through Carol's keeper, Zosia. She is a hive mind Amelia Bedelia, glitches at emotion, and one sip of vodka is enough to chat out random Wikipedia entries.

By Grenade's end, Carol understands the crowd-sourced charm offensive she's experiencing and the power both she and they hold. Carol now enters a race to protect her individualism.

Keep watching it.

Grenade

#Pluribus #FediTV #TVReview #ScienceFiction #Drabble #Larrys100 #VinceGilligan #SingularityFiction #100DaysToOffload #Pluribus #tv

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (2025)

In January, I wrote, “I feel bad for the rest of the books I will read this year.” As we wind down 2025, my statement holds.

No spoilers, but multiple stories power this novel. Advanced bio-prosthetics, driverless cars, and battle bots all feature in the plots. The narrative is American, African, and Galactic, expanding by the powers of ten.

Okorafor gives a soul and voice to what is artificial. Through that alchemy, she quilts together a complex, creative, and cautionary story about our collective walk into AI Evolution with intimacy and scale.

A novel for the Neo-Neolithic age.

Read it.

Death of the Author

#Bookstodon #BookReview #NnediOkorafor #DeathOfTheAuthor #Drabble #100WordReview #Larrys100 #100DaysToOffload #books

All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →