Because simultaneous effects are resolved in the order of the active player's choosing, runners can host agendas on Film Critic before any "on access" or "when stolen" effects trigger. Film Critic completely disables NAPD Contract, TGTBT, Explode-a-palooza, Fetal AI, The Future Perfect, Haarpsichord Studios, Argus Security: Protection Guaranteed, and Jinteki: Personal Evolution. Because adding the hosted agenda does not count as stealing an agenda, it also gives a buff to New Angeles City Hall - making it nearly permanent - and throws a wrench into any Midseason Replacements decks.

A few notable cards synergize poorly with Film Critic - Leela Patel: Trained Pragmatist will only be able to bounce cards when the Corp scores agendas, Kraken and Human First won't fire, and Corp currents will never be wiped from the board.

Film Critic is also a connection, making it vulnerable to Snatch and Grab and Contract Killer. If the Critic is trashed, the Agenda will end up in the Corp's archives - which may not be a bad thing.

Film Critic represents one of the most significant forced meta shifts in the game, on par with Plascrete Carapace and Clot. Easily splashable into any runner deck, the Critic is a total shutdown of the common Butchershop deck archetype, with Thousand Cuts Jinteki taking a hit as well.

[Story time with H0tl1ne! Now with more speculation than usual.]

The weird lady with a screenplay-writing gerbil has been around for a while and we still can't explain how the heck this card was supposed to work flavor-wise. I hope to give it a go in this review.

So, the way I see it...

You've met that kind of a person at least once in your life. This person might not be mental, crazy, bonkers or loony, just a little too much... focused on a thing. Be it that guy who keeps telling you about the video series he'd been watching lately, or a kid who goes on without a stop about Netrunner (wink!), or...

Yeah, you get the idea. Fixated - this is the word.

Now imagine befriending such a person. Sits all day in their mom's basement and just watches movies. Knows every bit of cinematic trivia since Lumière brothers. Amazing pop-culture trope knowledge. There is a downside though - everything they know, they've learned from the TV. And everything they see, hear, think is immediately associated with it.

You're in the business of netrunning. Instead of just going public with every bit of dark secrets you steal away (and attracting some instant karma), you forward them to your delusional friend for safekeeping until it can be safely released. This results in many hilarious situations, because everything you give them, they immediately assume to be a movie script.

Might sound like a stretch, but look at this!

"Hey, have you heard of Explode-a-palooza?"

"Yeah. Two stars out of five. The same bit of dissolved cereal every year."

"What about this?"

"Psh. Please. An obvious jump on the academy awards, is all."

"Hey, Miranda Rhapsody is making a new musical with a lion, a scarecrow and a bioroid!"

"It's called Wizard of Oz and was around since, I don't know, forever?"

Wait. It gets worse.

"Hey, have you heard of the psychic clones evil government uses to fight crime before it even happens?"

"Yeah. Minority Report. What are you, living under a rock or what?"

"So I've had these two guys following me around. Strange haircuts, fabulous glasses, guns..."

"You mean Starsky & Hutch. Yeah, seen that too. Bloody philistine."

"Yo, ever heard a corporation amass so much money they would buy a third-world country on the spot?"

"Wow, they're making a Stand on Zanzibar movie now? F*cking finally!"

"I've been on the news. Now they're trying to murder me."

"Oh, you've finally watched Network! How did you like Beale's speech anyways?"

"Wait, you know about Beale?"

"You did! I know you would! Now along with me: I'm mad as hell, I'm not gonna take it anymore... I'm mad as hell..."

"So I've been in my office and some guy in the glasses tried to shoot me! In the head!"

"Wow. Congrats on discovering Matrix. Spoilers: don't watch the second one. Third one... Know what? Don't watch it, too."

"Two of big-ass AI merging together to avoid Turing police, it's..."

"...Neuromancer. Come on, Gibson is so eighties."

"This new advanced car-"

"Don't you tell me they're pulling 'Hoff back from the dead for this one."

"Know what? You're officially the worst person ever."

"Never as bad as Jim Carrey, baby."

Film Critic has a lot in common with Clot for me. It's a card that directly counters a number of decks when it hits the board, turning entire strategies on their head. It's also a card that, simply by existing, changes the meta. It doesn't actually matter all that much if you're running Film Critic. It matters that Film Critic exists, and that some people are running it. It means that people who are building corp decks built primarily to take advantage of on Access abilities have to either abandon those decks entirely (as it was expected would happen with Fast Advance), or remove tertiary pieces of those decks to include things like Snatch and Grab or Contract Killer to answer people who are using Film Critic.

By the same token, it now means that "all you have to do" as a Runner is have Film Critic. And Clot. And Plascrete Carapace or IHW. And....

Film Critic has the upside that it addresses a number of the most popular Corp decks in the meta that aren't Fast Advance - Butchershop can't affect you if you don't steal any agendas. RP's self-protecting agendas like The Future Perfect become far less safe. NAPD Contract's ability to hide from Runners with less than 4 credits is gone. Even Fast Advance suffers a bit, as NAPD looses the ability to be a "safe" or tempo destroying install.

However, it suffers from the fact that it can only be found by drawing, or by using Hostage, which is reasonably rare. Street Peddler can help if you get a good draw, and has the same "Surprise! I can deal with you!" quality. It's also a resource, which means decks that want you tagged only have to ensure they have a way to tag you that isn't based on agendas and it's turned off.

But to go back to the beginning - that's not really the point. The point is that it exists. And at 1 influence, it's potentially in every deck out there.

The only answer I've come up for outside of Weyland who has cards like Contract Killer and Corporate Town for dealing with this, is to try overload a runners Film Critic. I've been playing Butcher Shop, which this card pretty much destroys. I've had some success by leaving enough agendas in archives to overload the film critic, enough to fill them up, one more to let things like Midseason Replacements trigger because they have to steal it but not enough to let them win the game. Since this came out you see a lot of people waiting until they have Film Critic and New Angeles City Hall up and keeping money to avoid tags. So put all your agendas in the bin as they come, rescue them with Jackson Howard when you need to but leave in enough to overload the critics and get your Midseasons off. Then if you don't have your kill cards in hand, you can kill the Critics, maybe some other resources too. If you're rich enough, you'll put so many tags on the runner that its either a race for them to clear the tags or you to get your kill cards.

Just don't try it by leaving NAPD Contract in the bin as the runner can opt not to pay the additional cost.