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Originally, King was inspired only to write the middle-aged Chuck chapters, and then a year later he bound those pieces together by adding the boyhood kicker and its superfluous supernatural element.

Liu said Smith acknowledged “there are certain kinds of goods that we might consider superfluous, or maybe more than basic, like a linen shirt.”

Rather, he embeds us in the warm, casual messiness of the couple’s domestic life, underlined most amusingly by a seemingly superfluous subplot involving Ono researching how to obtain live flies for her latest art installation.

There are stylish but completely unnecessary dream sequences — just one would already be verging on superfluous — and frenzied endeavors to create intrigue where there is none.

“In a moment such as this, any awards show can seem self-indulgent and superfluous.”