Picking Nits
Missing Han Solo figure; dog acceptance; Keys close-ups; medical and quarantine decisions; neighbors and police; hygiene; pizza; bicycle skill
In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 01:13:38Read transcript
- Elliott owns Lando, Boba Fett and Greedo but no Han Solo figure; this absence complicates the joking objection to Ford appearing in a Star Wars-aware world.
- Harvey’s quick acceptance of E.T. is questioned, countered by initial mutual alarm and E.T.’s ability to connect.
- Repeated close-ups of Keys feel excessive, defended as a child’s memorable visual identifier.
- Four-year-old Gertie should be kept away from the traumatic death scene.
- Treating Elliott and E.T. together and then leaving the child alone with the unprecedented discovery strain medical and security logic.
- The quarantine should draw more neighbor concern and news coverage than a small onlooking crowd.
- Gertie’s arrival at the farewell prompts an initial question, answered provisionally as coming with her mother.
- Mary, Gertie and Keys reaching the farewell alone without police following is implausibly convenient; federal charges for the children are jokingly imagined.
- An online essay’s horror-film interpretation—E.T. disrupts a family, endangers it and leaves—earns respect for its contrarian commitment but strong rejection as a reading.
- Keys eating discarded candy from the forest floor is inconsistent with later biohazard caution.
- Everyone removing protective equipment immediately after E.T.’s death makes no quarantine sense while his body remains present.
- One pizza for four teenage boys seems inadequate; leaving the fallen pizza and insecticide near food also bothers the hosts.
- Elliott’s advanced bicycle riding seems improbable for his age, but visible cautious stopping and falling distinguish him from the older riders.