Joshua Rivera
@jmrivera.bsky.social
writer for hire. bylines at Vulture, Slate, The Ringer, and Vanity Fair. movies and tv and games and books and drop me a line: jriverawrites@proton.me
saw a kid in a really good riddler costume and told him I was impressed, I hadn’t seen a riddler costume. He nodded kind of sadly and said “the riddler’s not very popular”
Breathless headlines about Democratic dirty tricks “swinging” the Alaska Senate race are going to drive me insane. Ranked-choice voting makes it *functionally impossible* for Other Dan Sullivan to make a difference. It’s like warning that an oncoming rainstorm will soak you when you are inside.
The Truth About the Alaska Dan Sullivan Shenanigans
The threats Republicans are issuing right now are best understood not as fully baked legal theories.
slate.com
will I be the oldest person at this holywatr show? Time to find out
If you know strategy games (?) and are a good writer (??) and available for a review (???) please DM me.
Tangential to this (v good) essay from Sam — I think what drives people to this movie is not dissimilar to what makes reality tv appealing. The dissection of others’ behavior, negotiating what is or isn’t socially acceptable with other viewers in a world where social obligation has been devalued
Sam Adams@samadams.bsky.social · 2d agoI wrote about the real reason audiences are flocking to the hottest movie of the moment, and the one detail I still have questions about.
Really wanted to do this before Halloween but developing this essay on channel zero, a show that had the misfortune of arriving just a few years too early for the liminal horror craze. Watch channel zero, I love it
I doubt Stewart ever gave a bad TNG performance, but if you want to watch just one, "The Inner Light" is something else -- beyond the sci-fi story, it's really a reflection on what it means to live a good life, and how to find purpose in the face of despair www.nytimes.com/2026/10/29/a...
Patrick Stewart Brought Elegance To ‘Star Trek’ as Jean-Luc Picard (Gift Article)
Led by the Shakespearean veteran in his role as Jean-Luc Picard, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” gracefully went where the franchise had never gone before.
nytimes.com
“What came first: the Hey song or the Hillsong”, the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate
Joshua Rivera@jmrivera.bsky.social · 2d agoI would call this extremely wrong
I’m not saying this is where I stand but with how much I and everyone else liked you can see everything I did wonder for a moment if, five years from now, we’d think of this like another tiger king
Daddy Yankee takes his job as Boricua cultural ambassador very seriously www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1h...
Daddy Yankee and Diljit Dosanjh - POKITO (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Daddy Yankee
youtube.com
My notes for the zoomers: good job with the hats and scarves but you also need some PBR, hand rolled cigarettes and drugs, no one was actually happy that’s what the Molly was for
For Inside Baseball week at @aftermath.site I gave some counter-intuitive writing advice for people who want to write criticism: never pitch a review! aftermath.site/never-pitch-...
Never Pitch Reviews
A counter-intuitive suggestion for getting your words in front of eyes and money inside your pocket
aftermath.site
I forgot that The Best of Both Worlds Part 1 is all about _Riker_ maybe leaving the crew. Really mean feint
man the remaster of TNG is such incredible work. no one will ever spend the time and money to do it like that again
kind of charming how excited everyone is by the reports of a realistic mass transit system in gta vi. if we steal cars it’s only because it hastens the coming of a post-car future
Really really fun episode of Cupertino, please watch this show
New York Magazine@nymag.com · 3d agoThis episode places a gigantic bet on Michael and Olivia’s clashing styles amounting to something greater than the sum of their parts.
“Everyone wants to write reviews, just like everyone wants to kiss Hudson Williams“ I haven’t kissed Hudson Williams (yet) but I have been lucky enough to write a handful of reviews and Joshua is right. It is HARD to get your foot in the door. Come with an angle and be prepared to pitch yourself.
Joshua Rivera@jmrivera.bsky.social · 3d agoFor Inside Baseball week at @aftermath.site I gave some counter-intuitive writing advice for people who want to write criticism: never pitch a review! aftermath.site/never-pitch-...
Always good to see a new game from analgesic
Melos Han-Tani (Danchi Days NOW OUT!)@hantani.bsky.social · 3d ago☀️My new game Danchi Days is NOW OUT!!! ☀️ In a slice-of-life adventure in 2000s Japan, explore an everyday town, meet surprising neighbors and, as 12-year-old Hoshino, revive a summer festival for her grandma who is living with dementia! store.steampowered.com/app/3107530?...
This is excellent! And excellent advice! I was never an official "reviewer" but I wrote stuff in the gaming space that got me put on reviewer lists with marketing firms so they would send me review tokens for all these games and I was like "I'm not a critic" and they said "that's why we like you"
Joshua Rivera@jmrivera.bsky.social · 3d agoFor Inside Baseball week at @aftermath.site I gave some counter-intuitive writing advice for people who want to write criticism: never pitch a review! aftermath.site/never-pitch-...
I loved this from @jmrivera.bsky.social , especially as someone who is often told what I’ve written is a review, when it is in fact often a meandering reflection based on notes I write about things seen in the world
Aftermath@aftermath.site · 3d agoNever pitch reviews aftermath.site/never-pitch-re...
NEW: You may have heard that Rockstar Games workers are unionizing. And holding a vote on it next month. What you may not have heard is the size of this union: Over 1,600 workers across Rockstar's UK studios would be represented if the vote passes www.gamefile.news/p/rockstar-u...
Rockstar Games’ union could top 1,600 workers
Plus: Xbox game review drama, Ubisoft not remaking more Assassin’s Creed games, and more
gamefile.news
never ever! it goes straight in the bin! (Josh's piece also contains the necessary follow-up advice!)
Joshua Rivera@jmrivera.bsky.social · 3d agoFor Inside Baseball week at @aftermath.site I gave some counter-intuitive writing advice for people who want to write criticism: never pitch a review! aftermath.site/never-pitch-...
he really could do anything at the drop of a hat
Michael Warburton@michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 2w agoPATRICK STEWART singing & dancing on the bridge of the USS Enterprise-D in 1991 as a birthday surprise for STAR TREK creator GENE RODDENBERRY. (never intended for public release this clip eventually surfaced as a DVD bonus feature)
For Inside Baseball week at @aftermath.site I gave some counter-intuitive writing advice for people who want to write criticism: never pitch a review! aftermath.site/never-pitch-...
Never Pitch Reviews
A counter-intuitive suggestion for getting your words in front of eyes and money inside your pocket
aftermath.site