Pattern Ghost

I think about 8-12 episodes is the sweet spot for a good, tightly-plotted season, even 6 depending on the material. It seems like the trend is popping up here and there on American TV, and I wish it'd continue.

They probably should've broken Lex out of prison to handle the aliens, because We watched the final two episodes tonight. This show really needs smarter writers.

I haven't seen Riverdale. I probably should have said CW superhero shows, though I'm not sure if we watch any other type of CW show at this point.

NP, and thanks.

Oddly enough for me, Legends season 2 was the best of the CW shows this year.

I are not a subscriber. Can you summarize?

I also knew I'd find an article like this one. The Slate article eventually meanders around to the point that Bem's publication had a big impact on how research is viewed in the psychology community. It buries it under a huge, steaming pile of bad writing, but it does sort of make the same point as the above article. (Without mentioning the journal's second publication pointing out that Bem's results weren't repeatable and therefore weren't valid.) But that's Slate for you.

I knew you'd say that.

I hope not, I like Jesse.

Well, they do seem to be fixated on time loops, and plot loops. Or as my wife said, "The Speed Force is boring." They need to quit retreading old ground, IMO.

The article says the family leave plan is part of the budget proposal. Maybe the Dems would support it if it were it's own thing. They probably oppose the rest of the budget plan, so the baby gets tossed out with the bath water.

I haven't read Avengers Forever like you. But here's what Wikipedia says about Libra: That exactly fits the stereotype the article was applying to movie Mantis. It also happened prior to him becoming whatever he was in Avengers Forever, canonically, so . . . war bride mom. You aren't really disagreeing with the point I made. You just made up a different point that you think you disagree on. The very article that you posted above accuses Mantis of being a bad stereotype for being a passive Asian woman. I haven't seen the movie yet, but given the obvious slant in the article, I'm going to reserve judgement until I do. However, I do know two things: 1. Movie Mantis isn't from Earth. So, she can't be Asian. 2. Comics Mantis is of Asian descent and a martial artist, therefore, according to people who harp on this nonsense like the article writer, a stereotype. (An aside: Hollywood can't win with martial arts lately. If you give the main/best martial artist role to an Asian actor, you're stereotyping. If you give it to a non-Asian (especially Caucasian) actor, then you're culturally appropriating or something.) I know this. Why do you think I don't know this? Do you think the fact that her creator managed to keep the rights to the character across publishers is significant? I don't see it. No. You'll just respond with more stuff that I'm forced to respond to, then we'll go round and round and round and create a space-time vortex that does irreparable damage to the universe, possibly causing a continuum where Leifield-created characters are the only movie and TV supers, and nobody wants to see that. My central points to these two diatribes are these: 1. Comics aren't usually high art. 2. People whine too much about nothing. MCU Mantis is a different character than an comic version of Mantis. Even if GOTG2 does commit some offenses to female characters or use some worn stereotypes that we're all supposed to be too enlightened to let slide . . . it doesn't really do any worse than the comics has done with the same character. Because you can pick apart anything if you have the time and energy. I'm willing to save the complaining until we see what they do to develop the character. The vibe I was picking up from the trailers wasn't so much a passive creampuff of a character as one who seemed naive and full of wonder and innocence. I got the impression that despite her apparent age, she was practically a newborn. Given the connection to Ego, she could well be freshly hatched from some giant seed pod. Who knows? (No, really. I haven't seen the movie. What's her origin?) Also, in the trailer she gets smacked by a meteor. Was that actually in the movie? Because if she survived that, then she's probably not a lightweight, just not trained in combat. Yet.

I read another article about the firing. To summarize (days later, so a bit imprecise): It seems the officer was still new and on his probationary status and the reason given was poor judgement. So, it was actually a BS reason, the author of the ACLU article just didn't find time to squeeze in a couple of lines to cover that while searching for ways to make it all about race. Edit: As for the according to his training part: maybe so, maybe not. It's possible he actually violated his civilian police training. Civilian police are a lot more quick to the trigger (by way of policy/training) than their military counterparts or even other MOS's serving in similar roles.

So, instead of Mantis being a stereotypical Asian war bride in the comics, her mother is. Not much different than what the article is accusing the movie of, just off by a generation and the movie only implies the connection if you squint your eyes and look at it sideways. As for the martial arts: She's still of Asian descent and still knows martial arts, regardless of who trained her. Comics version is actually half Asian by the story. Movie Mantis doesn't know martial arts and is an alien, so movie version wins there. Really, the comic version of the character is rife with bad stereotypes and fan service. It's not like the original is some form of high art that's being besmirched by the movie version.

I didn't find the trailer for The Orville very funny. That's pretty much a guaranteed sign of success, as all the sitcoms I hate seem to be huge hits.

Just remember when shipping supers to use an acid-free backing board so they don't get bent.

The Expanse was so good at being hard SF that I lacked the concentration to keep watching it. Plus having to google things like why they were putting match heads in their coffee was annoying.

I have a mixed reaction to this one. On the one hand, the officer who was first on scene shouldn't have been fired. He correctly assessed the situation, and the facts bear him out. On the other hand, the ACLU author is clearly being unrealistic in not expecting the second officer to shoot after the victim started to raise a gun in his direction.

It'll probably be on Netflix for him.

That's pretty much how I felt about Jane Foster's whole crew, really.

Arctic Fox may be mad at Eel for beating up Vainglorious . . . before she does.

They do have me curious about the new Klingon look.

It's supposed to be on Netflix outside the US, so maybe that will help it as far as money goes. I can see a certain amount of built-in audience just for it being Trek, but I think it'll be outweighed by people who wait to see if it's any good before paying for a streaming service that otherwise has zero interesting content.

So, I guess they were lying about it not being about the bridge crew. The trailer actually looks interesting.