The Morning Watch: 'Pulp Fiction' Briefcase Theory, Aspect Ratio Ignorance & More

The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.

In this edition, find out how HBO is keeping you from seeing movies the way they're supposed to be seen. Plus, learn about an interesting theory about the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction, and watch as an aspiring talk show host with autism takes over The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

A video essay from Patrick (H) Willems, illustrates how HBO, Starz and even Hulu are preventing you from watching movies in the aspect ratio they were intended to be seen. Despite some filmmakers complaining, these distributors and their VOD services have movies with the incorrect aspect ratio, meaning audiences aren't seeing the movie as the filmmaker wanted it to be seen. That's just not cool.

Next up, Metaflix attempts to explain what might be inside the briefcase at the center of Pulp Fiction. The explanation ranges from the literal to the symbolic, and this is one of the more in-depth and fascinating investigations into this movie MacGuffin.

Finally, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert brought on aspiring talk show host Carly Fleischmann to replace Stephen Colbert by interviewing Stephen Colbert. Fleischmann has non-verbal autism, so she asks questions and cracks jokes through special software on a tablet. She's hilarious, charming and so courageous. This is one of the coolest things The Late Show has ever done.