Transporter Malfunction (2)
Via Mr William Shatner, I’ll just leave this here.
What was I saying? Oh yes, open thread. Share links and bicker.
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And if you laugh at this juxtaposition, you’re a terrible, terrible person.
That’s brilliant.
As some of you have a strange interest in your host’s viewing habits, a brief update seems in order. We finished the first series, from 1978, of James Burke’s Connections, which was fun. before realising how sharply the quality drops for later series, which are much less coherent and rather glib. We re-watched HBO’s Rome because… well, Polly Walker’s Atia is a model for us all. We’re also re-watching The Expanse, which starts out unremarkably and has two mediocre lead actors, but gets much better as the scale of the, er, situation unfolds – and it has one of the more interesting MacGuffins in recent memory.
As usual, recommendations are welcome.
I’m not sure what to make of This but for some reason, Chechens and Algerians are engaging in guerrilla warfare against each other in France.
I suppose it’s yet another benefit of Diversity™
via Steve Sailer
Free shit matters.
A scooter.
6 or more of them have stolen a fecking scooter from a kid.
And this is worthy of fist bumps and posting a video?
And this is worthy of fist bumps and posting a video?
Exulting in predation and degeneracy. It’s a triumph, apparently.
Re: Dijon, Free shit matters
Violent peasants gotta peasant, violently. Yet again the magic dirt of civilisation fails to have any effect on stabby primitives.
I enjoyed the Expanse, once it got going. The good stuff/dross ratio is always wearying for the sci-fi fan. Especially if, like me, you hate Marvel drivel.
Is Rome worth a go then?
I enjoyed the Expanse, once it got going.
Yes, the first few episodes aren’t particularly gripping – it’s mostly world-building, which pays off later; but once the MacGuffin is introduced, things pick up and the story accelerates and widens in scope, and by season two it’s noticeably better paced, with more at stake – and more so in season three.
Is Rome worth a go then?
I’ve watched it three times. And I’m not even sorry.
The good stuff/dross ratio is always wearying for the sci-fi fan.
Yes, The Expanse is an odd mix of a great premise and central plot device, and an admirable leaning towards hard science fiction and at least some nods to real-world physics – but is marred by two uninteresting lead characters – Holden and Naomi – played by unremarkable actors. They get better as the thing goes on, but not enough. Luckily, some of the supporting characters are more interesting. Amos is surprisingly good and the Avasarala-Bobbie-Cotyar trio were, to say the least, quite entertaining.
Mrs. Oik and I enjoyed The Vast Of Night, and we are currently engrossed in The Wire, half way through season 2 for the third time.
One wonders whether The Wire would make it past script development these days; it’s unrelenting in its depiction of the nastiness of the (mainly black) drug culture, and doesn’t hold back when it comes to the (mixed race) police being tough, either. There is the heartbreaking fate of Wallace in season 1, for instance, or the beating inflicted upon Bodie by the cops when he pushes one of their number during a raid. The most striking aspect of that scene is how the gay character Kima Greggs pushes to the front- one’s natural reaction is to think “OK, the brave/fearless/whatever LGBTQ will step in to hold back the racist white cops”, but instead Kima joins in with the arse-kicking most enthusiastically, whilst screaming “You hit a PO-lice?” at the hapless Bodie. The Wire, apart from being superb drama, serves to demonstrate just how deeply embedded the tropes and conventions of film and TV are.
Agreed David, Holden and Naomi are mainly eye candy. Amos is good value (most entertaining character in the novels too0 and the actor who plays Avasarala is always great; marvellous voice.
@Lancy Oik – I watched The Wire avidly 10+ years ago but have only rewatched the first series I think. It is very good, but it is also a little bit too contrived and pleased with itself. It also glosses over the human cost of drugs, crime & poverty, although TBF you have to otherwise you end up with something unwatchably grim.
Some great writing and acting in it tho, including Chad Coleman, also in The Expanse.
I have been largely failing to summon the concentration for TV bingeing, however recent highlights have been:
Kingdom (Korean period Zombie drama. Oh yes)
The Witcher (Well sort of. Cavill does a decent job and they’ve spent a few quid on it at least)
Fauda (Israeli cops vs Palestinian terrorists. Early days but good so far.)
Rick & Morty (obv! Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!)
and the actor who plays Avasarala is always great; marvellous voice.
Yes, Shohreh Aghdashloo and her tailoring are worth the price of admission, I think.
It also glosses over the human cost of drugs, crime & poverty
I think we’ll have to agree to differ on that.
One thing that I really quite liked but which only lasted one season was Vinyl. It was a tad contrived and maybe tried to cover too many bases; another mistake was to shoehorn an anachronistic British band (the proto-punk “Nasty Bits”) into the series’ timeline, with James Jagger miscast as their lead singer. On the whole though it’s pretty good stuff, especially if you were a teenage reader of the NME in the mid-70s like yours truly.
Holden and Naomi are mainly eye candy.
Yes, regarding Pouty What’s-his-face and his acting, the nicest thing you can say is, “good legs, nice arse.”
Which, tragically, will only get you so far.
Crikey. She-Kirk is kinda hot. I wouldn’t turn Lady Spock away either. (Anyone else seeing a bit of Diana Rigg there?)
Miss-Coy, though… I’m not saying she looks exactly like DeForest Kelley in a wig, but…
“before realising how sharply the quality drops for later series, which are much less coherent and rather glib.”
True. As I said before, I think the first one is the greatest TV series ever made, but I don’t think I even watched the third.
“the hapless Bodie.”
For Brits who remember The Professionals (best title sequence ever), those words do not compute.
Crikey. She-Kirk is kinda hot.
I’m guessing that first thing this morning you had no idea you’d soon be typing those words.
Indoctrinating 10 year olds.
https://thepostmillennial.com/the-nyc-school-system-is-teaching-my-10-year-old-son-that-hes-racist/
Today’s word is equality.
Crikey. She-Kirk is kinda hot.
Yeah, I learned something about myself this morning. Still not sure what, but something. Also unsure who owes whom a credit note right now.
Today’s word is equality.
Top comment: They are beginning to treat blackness like it’s a disability.
Actually they have been for a while, but maybe – MAYBE – some affected people are starting to notice.
Altered Carbon is worth a watch. First season was better than the second, but I think they’ve shown you can successfully switch out the main character actor and have things work.
The 100 for the pure shlocky melodrama of it all. 7th and final season is unwinding right now and several characters have become parodies of themselves. It’s 90210 meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mad Max in post-apocalyptic outer space. So don’t take it too seriously.
And as a completely intellectual exercise there’s Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth. Although it’s tough to track down all the episodes. It used to be on Netflix but I’ve managed to pull most of it together through Vimeo and Youtube.
Indoctrinating 10 year olds.
Damaged people with distorted world-views are more likely to find appealing what the left sells than not. Therefore the left has an interest in manufacturing damaged minds.
If you want to keep an organization of cluster-B personalities fed, anxiety farming is the most secure method.
Indoctrinating 10 year olds.
In a saner world, these pernicious hokum merchants, these psychological abusers of children, would be chased out of town by furious parents.
Today’s word is equality.
I read that a professor at a prominent American university has been suspended for refusing to make such a concession to black students. Sorry, I don’t remember where or remember a link.
Indoctrinating 10 year olds.
I have been informed by a Wise Progressive Mind that teachers can do whatever they want because Academic Freedom. Parents have no say. The idea that the teachers are servants rather than rulers is foreign to her.
I don’t remember where or remember a link.
William Jacobson?
William Jacobson?
No, William Jacobson is under fire for criticizing Black Lives Matter, pointing out that it perpetrating a fraud. I was thinking of someone else, who had refused to cancel exams for black students or something like that.
I don’t remember where or remember a link.
Gordon Klein
And he was following University policy as directed by his supervisor.
I was thinking of someone else,
That there are several possibilities is a thing to note in itself.
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qVtMY7KjQgEJ:https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/status/1272640664468144137+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Feel the compassion!
Apologies for the text pile-up. It wouldn’t let me embed the link for some reason, but I promise the preview looked normal. (I had to post the web cache link because he naturally deleted the tweets.)
Feel the compassion!
The inside of his head must make a loud, continual buzzing noise.
Feel the compassion!
I’ve never heard of the guy, but it occurs to me that any fool can create a webpage and call it [trumpet voluntary] The Palmer Report in imitation of the more famous fools that we see in the newspapers and on TV–the fools who are usually more careful to not reveal what they ultimately want to do to people like us.
Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth. Although it’s tough to track down all the episodes.
[Hoists Jolly Roger, adjusts eyepatch] I prefer the term ‘gentleman of fortune’.
I was really enjoying The Expanse at first because I think there’s a lot to be said for a hard SF setting without warp drive, BEMs and ray guns – until, well, er. You know. Spoilers.
Let’s see, TV recommendations. My usual list is a bit long in the tooth now:
Justified
The Americans
Banshee
Burn Notice is good for the first two seasons, but then suffers from getting more seasons than they had ideas to fill.
Cobra Kai is surprisingly watchable, since they’ve taken the “Daniel-san is actually the villain of The Karate Kid” joke and run with it.
I’m enjoying Knightfall, which is about as accurate as Vikings but is entertaining.
Churchill’s Secret Agents – a reality show about the SEO training program – is a cracking good watch.
For a CW-esque kind of show, MTV’s Teen Wolf does a surprisingly good job of building its own unique lore. It’s a slightly less grim Vampire Diaries.
I’ve been avoiding most new TV because I’m just weary of the covert and overt proselytizing.
What, again?!
Indoctrinating 10 year olds.
If there is a silver-lining to the Wuhan Bat Lab Cooties lockdown and shutting down schools is that parents have been right there to listen to the lessons their kids are getting via online platforms. Before, unless the kids came home and actually shared what they were learning, parents may have had suspicions but now, there it is, on their own computer screens.
AND parents are learning that homeschooling may have been difficult but not impossible. Many parents are not going to return their kids to school when they do open.
What, again?!
[ Fixes italics overflow. Which, for those who like to know these things, was All Daniel’s Fault. ]
[ Fetches rickety, two-legged stool. ]
I was really enjoying The Expanse at first because I think there’s a lot to be said for a hard SF setting without warp drive, BEMs and ray guns – until, well, er. You know. Spoilers.
What put you off? Everyone else, look away now.
What put you off? Everyone else, look away now.
I too am curious: most of the praise I’ve seen has been from people whose opinions I do not trust due to them being far-left ideologues likely to praise or condemn based said ideology. (Did I ever mention the sf writer whose “list” of fine writers turned out almost all leftists and gay leftists with a few token lesbian leftists?)
the fools who are usually more careful to not reveal what they ultimately want to do to people like us.
If there’s one thing I appreciate about these outbursts of, uh, enthusiasm, it’s that our junior-varsity Jacobins, high on the thrill of surfing what they imagine to be the Next Wave of History, don’t bother trying to disguise a sentiment like “We should put conservatives in involuntary therapy/work camps until they prove to us that they deserve to be recognized as human beings, and by ‘conservatives,’ we mean ‘nice people’ who mind their own business and treat others with basic courtesy.”
All Daniel’s Fault.
Oh.
I’ll get me coat.
…did you have to use the smelly lighter fluid?
What put you off?
I’m a big fan of the industrial future as depicted in movies like Alien, Outland and Planetes, where the focus is more on the social and technological changes that have evolved as humans moved out into near space. The Expanse started out like that, with clever little details like the Belter neck tattoos being stylized versions of the scar early Belters got from wearing poorly fitted helmets for hours or days at a time.
And then wormholes and aliens and rayguns.
Justified
Many ideological fellow travelers with similar tastes have recommended this, but I cannot see the appeal honestly. What’s your favorite aspect and does it get better?
What put you off? Everyone else, look away now.
Also curious. I thought David had a good synopsis of the uneven quality of the show. Personally, most episodes had me complimenting something original, then swearing off the show 5 minutes later as being irredeemably stupid followed by genuine laughs and culminating in weaponized cringe. Then you jump back on the roller coaster for the next episode.
Kind of a “brings you a steak but takes your silverware” kind of show.
And then wormholes and aliens and rayguns.
Heh. I’m not sure that’s entirely fair. I haven’t seen any aliens or rayguns yet. The politics and grime and so forth are still there, just in a much wider setting. And as alien technology – or whatever it is – goes, it’s quite ambiguous and capable of surprising. Ditto where it came from, and why. Its creators are unknown, unseen, possibly extinct. What I’ve enjoyed – more than the politics and grime, and certainly more than the irritating Belter patois – is the sense of escalation – most obvious in seasons two and three – where the scale of the story grows quite dramatically, with huge asteroids… doing impossible things, or large chunks of Venus… doing impossible things. The open-endedness of the proto-molecule, the MacGuffin, is a large part of the appeal, at least for me.
What’s your favorite aspect and does it get better?
It’s Elmore Leonard, and it’s the one adaptation of Elmore Leonard that Elmore Leonard said got it right. If you don’t care for Leonard’s particular kind of drolly ironic style, I can see how it wouldn’t appeal. I do, and I also enjoy the modern Western flavour. Along with Banshee, the other reason I like it is that it’s unrepentantly aimed at its male audience and neither panders to nor vilifies them. It’s also probably Neal McDonough’s best performance.
Seasons 4 and 5 aren’t as good because they only had three planned and wrapped up most of the narratives at the end of Season 3.
the uneven quality of the show.
Yes, that – uneven. It doesn’t quite cohere. No episode ever hits a ‘9’. Bits of it are great and genuinely surprising – the, er, relocations and transformations of very large things, for instance. And other bits are dull and hackneyed – Holden and Naomi being obvious weak points.
TV recommendations
The best series I’ve seen in years is Escape at Dannemora, about a couple of lifers breaking out of a high security prison — “based on a true story,” so I’m told, but what matters is it’s gripping and convincing. Benicio del Toro is scary-good, as you’d expect; you might not be able to guess how terrific Patricia Arquette is as a slow-motion train-wreck of a woman, the prison employee who helps them escape.
It’s seven episodes, so they were able to have just one diretor throughout, keeping it consistent. The director was Ben Stiller, and it’s a no-vanity project for him: he serves the material, finds just the right tone and stays true to it.
You think you’ve seen everything? Ooooh, no. Now you’ve seen everything.
The world has gone completely batshit insane.
If you haven’t seen Bosch, it’s well worth a look.