Kathemy

Honestly this upcoming run of episodes look SUPER lit.

Plus Thomas Wayne Jr (or "Five", if that's your cup of tea) is apparently trying to ice Tabs and Babs.

I've been thinking, might it be a plot on P&E's behalf to get Gabriel to think twice about leaving?

That would be the final irony - the Center sending the girl after Stan to figure out what Philip has told him, which would end up with her blowing Philip's cover through sheer incompetence. It might be the best option yet.

I have to disagree with that too. The relationship isn't cyclic, it's a dialectical process. The so-called "tween version" - sixteen-year-old kids are tweens now? - has more depth and nuance to it than any previous incarnation of the relationship in any medium.

I partially disagree, I think Bruce and Selina is among the best written and acted romance plots on television.

Jim Gordon being the weakest link of the show is a rather common opinion which I would tend to agree with. I addressed the issue in a recent review, http://www.douxreviews.com/2016/12/gotham-beware-green-eyed-monster.html It should be said, Gotham is my favorite show on television.

The 3.5 floppies didn't hold significantly more data than the 5.25 ones. (1.44 versus 1.2, though old 5.25 were often only 360kb if I'm not mistaken.)

In David we trust! No, seriously. Seems like the show's realized who the true star of the show is.

A perfect ending to an instant classic series.

No, they didn't. There were some text mode adventure games in the early 80s run on VAX machines and the likes where you could theoretically encounter someone else inhabiting the same world as you. Normally these were run terminal style. There's a huge leap between playing a game on a home computer and engaging in prototype "online gaming" in the early 80's. Real time online gaming hardly existed before arpanet.

He installed an extra physical phone line without them noticing? :D

It really is the only thing that would make sense. Yes, I get that we're supposed to think that the KGB are panicking, but the fact that Claudia and Gabriel are riding them this hard is simply reckless, which only makes their condescenting attitude all the more infuriating. If either Philip or Elizabeth is caught, they've managed to burn four active or potential operatives, each one immensely valuable. In a best case scenario, the kids will be "self-going" in just a few years, but right now, if someone drops a nuke in that family structure it's game over.

It's a ridiculous workload for sure. The only explanation I can think of, which doesn't seem very plausible either, is that the center wants to limit the people in the know on the plot. That, plus Liz and Phil being their best agents, obviously. The honeytrapping obviously is a bigger problem now. I mean, I don't think they ever liked that part of the job, but now they really don't like it, what with having a functioning romantic relationship and said relationship having been threatened in the past by things like that. However, this is where I have to apply suspension of disbelief. Realistically, after all they've been through I think Elizabeth and Philip would've been pulled off front line duty long ago. Especially given the prospects for their children. They'd possibly be managing junior agents, like Gabe does. Their experience and knowledge is far too valuable to waste on an operation gone wrong.

Liked this one too. I'm not feeling the Paige hate personally. Also was nice to have a little longer scene with Henry. Really curious what will happen with all the plot lines.

Sure. I'm not unreasonable. :)

As bizarre as it all sounds I think P&E's behavior makes perfect sense. The Hans situation, the situation with Randy... from their perspective they had no choice. I like Tuan. He's simply a very angry kid who's seen the United States trash his own country and kill hundreds of thousands of people. It's important to understand that the Vietnamese identified America's role as simply a continuation of the colonial oppression, a handing over of the flag from the French. I've never really gotten the impression that Philip and Elizabeth truly "enjoy" the luxuries of their new country. I don't think they're "irked by being reminded of their own misgivings", I think it's mostly a case of feeling guilty that they are living in such comfort while most of their countrymen definitely don't. In a sense, though, that guilt trip is hilarious, seeing as they have the most nervewracking job on Earth and would probably be much happier living in a suburb in Leningrad, working some random desk. I think this is one of the strengths of the show. Deep down, you always get the sense of them that "they don't belong".

Billy helped sink their ship and slaughtered Silver's crew sitting in the comfortable safety of a boat, picking them off like fish in a barrel. I'd say that merits more than a fair share of hate. However, the last episode really does need to solidify exactly why Billy is so terrified of Silver.

Well, as things stand right now him is a far sight better than he actually deserves.

Super Rogers strikes again! ¤puke¤

As for the situation of the food problem, I found a rather comprehensive analysis from a Western source using Western figures where able. I quote: https://web.archive.org/web/20070314063045/http://www.usm.maine.edu/eco/joe/works/Soviet.html Does that mean that no people ever "went hungry in the Soviet Union"? Probably not. Does it mean that they could eat whatever they pleased? Obviously not. Problems with government corruption might also mean some of the avaliable data is misleading. Still, this doesn't prove it was an Ethiopia. This is not apologia, it's an attempt to look at the facts at hand more closely.

Yeah, but that was sort of my point with the original post. Martha lives in Moscow, a relatively modern metropolis and the capital of the Soviet Union. It's no underdeveloped hellhole. So, I think that comments like how she must have a really hard time getting along seem rather unfounded. Is she happy? Well, of course not, but as someone above me said, she's a fighter, and in a city like Moscow, I truly believe there was happiness to be found if you look in the right places.

My impression was different. Of course I knew that Leningrad and Moscow was model cities where you were lucky to be living, but Martha is in Moscow. But... we had, as I said, a tourist exchange program. The boys of the family I mentioned visited and lived with us for a week, then we did the same. I got to know one of the kids pretty well and he was softspoken but somewhat critical of the corruption of the society, still, he encouraged us to use the black market currency exchange. His impression of Sweden seemed to be he thought it was a very strange country. Not a bad country, but strange. By his standards, people behaved strangely, mixing sexual flamboyancy and/or adventurism with a very withdrawn mindset. What struck me about the mindset of the Soviet citizens I met was a certain, vague melancholia. Not at all too different to the way Finns act. Still, they didn't seem "sad". They were people with both feet on the ground. They had clubs, partied hard and drank hard. That's where I learned to drink vodka straight because it just felt silly to mix it with cola - a small bottle of pepsi cost five times the price of a bottle of booze! To them, I think we came across as very reserved. Anyway, actually having visited there, and twice, I feel a little nuance is needed to all these Soviet horrorshow stories. Were there terrible things happening, oh, most certainly, but your average Joe... well, he got along.

It's a bit weird hearing all this talk about how the Soviet Union was some kind of hell. There were many places worse on this planet than the Soviet Union. I visited the place twice and yes, the selection of goods was rather limited, but there certainly were some luxuries, nice restaurants, theaters, music, ballet... Of course that would all depend on your level of income but I visited with a family living in Leningrad, who was probably pretty well off but not "rich rich" by any means - this was a student exchange program - and the food was very nice. Then again I like Russian food. You could say "well, you Swedish students were probably protected and only shown the nice parts" but as a matter of fact we had free reign of the city, both in Leningrad and in Moscow. One thing that I noticed was how shabby the multicolored towers looked up close - they are covered in cloth, and it had many rips in it. Political freedom? Eh, no. But, it's important to note that after the collapse of the USSR the average life expectancy dropped by ten years and only started to recuperate under Putin.