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I recently saw some click bait link for the worst 25 scifi tv shows of all time. And believe it or not La Brea was not on it. We were robbed! The problem with the series finale and the show is not that it was convoluted and made no sense it is that they didn't even make any pretense of trying. We got a shotgun introduction to "sister" and then "dad" who seemed a key figure disappeared. Never mind Grandpa. And I'm still unsure why this microchip could not just be replaced. But that is not what is gnawing on me. It's how they completely ignored the subject of how changing the past would change the present. I.e. one reason we ended up with the world we have now is the neolithic revolution started in the middle east and spread from there with the America's being more isolated and developing and/or receiving various advancements at a delayed clip. If agriculture is developed in 10,000 BC in California that changes a lot. And we're not even talking about more modern technologies such as computers and automobiles that are just lying there. Now of course one reason why we're not reading about Olmecs sailing across the Pacific and conquering China is this "civilization" is facing packs of dinosaurs. Perhaps still wandering around downtown LA to this day. Again a pretty big deal. At least TRY to come up with some type of answer, a wormhole, something from the past, a volcano destroying the area.. something to say why our timeline is not totally messed up.

Missed opportunity to do a Safelite product tie-in. Tommy would be a great celebrity spokesperson! I know he developed magical ninja skills since going to college but the person D-Mac reminds me is the kid we couldn't help but groan at every time he appeared on screen in the original Power, Tariq. Of course D-Mac lacked a dad with enough pull to cover all his screwups. But he certainly brings Tariq level whininess. But the one thing D-Mac lacks is any prospect of having a future spinoff. Whether it is next season or the season after next we all know he's a future organ donor.

On Sacker. Here is the thing. She is running in New York City. And that already puts her at a disadvantage running as something other than a Democrat. Mike Prince is running to destroy the Democratic Party. Full Stop. His platform is basically a centrist Democratic Party platform. If he succeeds in New York given the way the system is set up you will have thousands of people thrown out of work if the Democrats are thrown into third party status. Unless the Democratic Party nominates someone really crazy against her and the party itself wants to throw behind her as independent she is just the tag-a-long of a spoiler. The nephew has seemed pretty fine with bulldozing people for profit. The professor was personal but he knew exactly what he was getting into when he applied for the position. It's not Rian joining a hippy dippy firm that got merged into something else. But here is another possibility related to the nephew. Scooter himself. He didn't want Philip hired because he saw the firm as potentially too dirty for him. He is obviously protective of him and was rather thrilled to push his cousin ahead once hired. Take this very possible scenario. Wendy, Axe, & co are able to dirty up the firm and put Prince at risk and Prince decides the best course is for Philip as head of the firm to take fall arguing that it will only be a little time in Club Fed (and FYI that is DEFINITELY not the Brooklyn Federal Detention Center) and he'll take care of him as President. Scooter disagrees and pushes Prince in front of the train to protect his nephew. And actually Daniel Breaker is a great actor. I'd watch a Scooter spinoff.

I'm not sure how to analyze this episode. I am not sure I am even supposed to. Why again am I supposed to be rooting against this Prince guy that some of the richest scummiest people on earth seem to hate? Why is Sackler who has been building relationships for years with power brokers in the Democratic Party to run in one of the most Democratic cities in America thinking of running as an independent. And how many times has Chuck prided himself on turning down asks from people like Axe on principle. Hell. He torpedoed state of the art MTA improvements to deny NYC the Olympics because the rich giving gifts to the city would corrupt the public. And he lets in Dr. Evil to blackmail a former cabinet official as a favor to a another fugitive from justice? I've come to conclusion maybe I should be looking beyond logic to perhaps the writers guild strike. Now normally with a story this much of a mess I'd blame Hollywood writers doing too much cocaine., But if they are on strike perhaps it is ChatGPT instead. But perhaps it's a little of both. You can get ChatGPT to write a script as if it was written after a coke and booze bender. Now at last this episode makes sense to me.

The model of a successful third party run is to compress one of the major parties so much that you become their de facto replacement. Perot in 1992 before the Democratic convention and before he dropped out due to Clinton being scandal plagued pushed Clinton to third and became the anti-Bush/anti-Republican candidate. He ended up dropping out as Clinton rebounded (and then strangely came back in the race later). But that is what you want to do. Take most of the vote from one party and then pad your numbers with some votes from the other. Another example would be Macron who basically squeezed out the mainstream left in France. Leaving a more extreme left who supported him in a run off and the right doing a similar thing but with different percentages. But in essence what Prince is doing is running as what billionaires like Bloomberg and Schultz have toyed with. Running as essentially moderate Democrats who will be able to a squeeze and consolidate much of the left and then have some hook to get those on the more moderate right who might not vote for a Democrat but will for an independent. Prince is trying to be the person who squeezes out the Democrats and then tries to siphon off some Republicans as well. Hence the Killer Mike endorsement. Hence using talent from the a big DNC affiliated strategist (and no doubt his firm and affiliated firms in his orbit). The problem is major parties in America are major for a reason. And there is a reason a more "moderate" or "radical" alternatives to them fizzle. They retain enough institutional support that it's difficult for any effort no matter how "serious" not being eventually seen as a spoiler. He's going to have a difficult time no matter what Wendy does. She's just there to make sure it hurts extra bad on the way down. Surprised Chuck didn't throw Ira to the wolves. In fact would not be shocked if next episode we find out Chuck did just that and was just lying to Ira.

You're supposed to cheer for mega millionaires to beat the billionaires. This is classic Marxist class struggle. Except the proletariat are prep school educated, attended Ivy League universities and have 100 million dollar IRAs. And rather than quoting Hegel they quote Andrew Ross Sorkin's favorite band this week. Plus Wendy is like Christopher Walken in the Dead Zone. Except rather than psychic powers she has the ability to compel plutocrats of already questionable morals to do even worse in the name of making bigger bank. This makes her the greatest moral arbiter that our era has been blessed with. All that said keep an eye on the prize. It is to keep as many pieces on the chess board for as many possible spinoffs as possible. And while that means Prince is not going to become leader of the free world, long term consequences beyond that might get in the way of possible future tv pilots.

What I'm cheering for is Ira to get back at Chuck for sinking his company for his own ambition. I want to see Ira backstab Chuck and become the US Attorney himself. The office could do worse than having someone highly competent without a self-serving messiah complex.

I'm glad the show is ending because I've invested too much to quite but it feels like the show rather than telling a story with organic characters is just dragging the characters along where it wants to go regardless of what makes sense or feels organic (like say the last half of the last season of Game of Thrones). The show always had it's flaws. It's overuse of meta and cultural references rather than adding to the show just became stilted dialogue. And everything meant to show New York CIty culture or extravagance felt like paid product placement (because it probably was). But in the end it really was a biting satire about flawed human beings making moral compromises to achieve their ambitions while wistfully trying to moralize their choices to justify themselves. You had at its center a Brahmin old money Ivy League educated man born with a silver spoon in his mouth worth tens and most probably hundreds of millions of dollars on a populist crusades against new money billionaires he considers vulgarians and intruders. The type of fight New York City has had for hundreds of years. It also is a biting satire on the excesses of capitalist excess and governmental and societal corruption. But in the end it was fun. Over the top people butting heads and getting a little come uppance for their evils and living life up the way as mere plebeians wished we could. What I had against this last episode is trying to frame Axe as a hero. Axe is great. Axe is fun. I missed Axe (and understood why the actor who played him had to attend to family). But he is not the "answer" for bettering the common good or to be admired for much besides showing panache. We may want him to get away with it. But Wendy trying to build him in moral terms made me scratch my head. Then there is Wendy who is the "pied piper" of the show. Never the moral center. She is actually the moral blackhole. She is where the Taylors of the world go to help them lose their moral inhibitions against doing the worst possible things to help make the firm and themselves money. Her "counseling" is about helping people understand their most wanton desires actually are perfectly reasonable if they think about it differently. Whether it is seeing the "good" your fortune can bring at future times or realizing you don't really need to fear the scorn society shows you for doing wrong. Our Jeff Bezos wannabe is probably a megalomaniac. And let's be honest anyone who does become a contender for president probably does have more than a touch of megalomania and self-belief. But being a moral barometer has never been Wendy's strong point. It has been helping folks remove their. That said I think it can be fun watching Axe destroy Prince. Just don't sell me on Wendy being Christopher Walken from the Dead Zone. That's just too much for me.

A few things. First. I am not convinced the kid in white is the good guy and not just toying with them. Or at the very least answering to a higher power and just following orders even if doing so a bit more reluctantly. Second. I now get why the bus was necessary. How long has it been since the end of season 1 and the end of season 2. Maybe two weeks? And what has the body count been since then? Come to think of it how long has it been since the Matthews' family arrived? One month? Two months? Three. The kids saying Angkoeey. I am wondering if it's a child's mispronunciation of another word that's similar used to describe what they are going through. Two come to mind. Agoge was the harsh regimen children had to go through to train them in Ancient Sparta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agoge Another would be Anagoge which would be more meta. Again from wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagoge Given the last two scenes with Tabitha I find that definition intriguing. Lastly I am curious to see who Tabitha meets on the outside in the unnamed town she is now in. There are three directions they could go in. She could meet those who "died" in the town. She could meet those who escaped the town (i.e. perhaps the nurse is Victor's mother). Or she could just be in a dream like state (perhaps to the outside world catatonic like Julie was) and/or chained to some wall or stone somewhere. Whatever the answer they need to hurry up and settle the writer's strike and gives us a third season!

On lack of communication. One thing to keep in mind. We don't actually know how long they have been together. We don't even know if Victor has only survived one "reset" where the community was wiped out. The town may only have 40 people tops with a very high turnover rate. Kept in a constant state of agitation where no one has much time for much discussion until the next crisis hits. if you take this to the human world picture a town occupied where the invaders use torture and atrocity to shock people into a state of fear because they know once they calmed down planning for an insurrection could start. Terror and horror are a form of social control. Epix/MGM+ isn't most streaming services. It is a pay cable channel even if like HBO they are trying to rebrand into a streaming channel because that makes investors happy. They are also building up their original programming inventory. Godfather of Harlem is already in it's third season and should see a fourth. They haven't greenlighted a zillion shows like some streaming services did (and ended up reversing course when it was too many). I think we'll get a third. For what it's worth and includes very necessary caution of who knows how long the writers strike will go for and how that affects everyone's plans with everything. https://readysteadycut.com/2023/06/17/from-season-3/#:~:text=At the time of this,praise from critics and fans.

Gonna miss this show. Loved the ending with the fake movie. One last skewering of Hollywood. It got everything wrong and created a fake cliche narrative. Whenever you hear the words "based on a true story" it means yeah a lot of it is just made up.

He doesn't need to start a new one. He signed a contract to buy ATN competitor Pierce. He can even claim he's continuing the "true" legacy of his father. Roman had it right. There is nothing magical about Royco. It's just some crummy company his father used to run. Tom almost played himself with Greg. If he had just told Greg that as long as he is at the company he would be taken care of Greg would not have been so scared of Mattson. Tom assumed Greg was too stupid to try to watch his own back. And perhaps he had reason under normal circumstances to think that but given Greg had access to both sides that was risky. Unless Tom's real end game was to end any chance of Shiv and Mattson hooking up (both business wise and in real life) This is about as close as we can get to a happy ending if Mattson follows through with it. Makes me wish Elon Musk had bought Fox News/Newscorp instead of Twitter so we could see what the complete gutting of a media company looks like in real life! I expected Stewy to screw over Kendall too. But I guess it was part of the drama to make us think Kendall had "won." Still I do expect given the ratings success they will try to do a spinoff. And a Stewy centered "Billions" type show about an Iranian-American vulture capitalist is something I could see. Shiv going back to Tom now makes more sense. Shiv throughout the series played on Tom's insecurities saying implicitly and even explicitly that he was out of her league. That she was slumming with the help. Only now that he's CEO does she even consider him being in her league. She always viewed his ambitions as being pathetic and a joke. She might humor him or she might ridicule him. But she always undermined him both professionally and emotionally. The funny thing is she ended up boosting him when she denigrated him to Mattson as being a pathetic lapdog since that was exactly what he was looking for in a CEO. So now if even if she still looks down on him she has less ammunition to lord it over him. Meaning they may be able to finally have a somewhat more balanced relationship. That said his stay as CEO might be limited since he won't be needing an American CEO after regulatory approval. He may get a nice golden parachute out of it. So who was that guy who followed Kendall? I was thinking federal agent or someone his family hired to follow him around or simply a bodyguard.

So it would be like Pretty Women, except the call girl rather than marrying the CEO becomes the CEO. I'm in. As for Greg he could get it because he is fine with what Mattson wants in the job. A figurehead who would be the American who would do (or more accurate have actions done in their name) whatever Mattson and his brain trust wanted. He's not looking for Shiv to come "run" the network. He's looking for someone like Big Head in Silicon Valley.

Deals of this magnitude usually have breakup fees. The kids may have a lot of their personal finances on the line if it does not go through. Money which the Pierces may use to help buy ATN or even Waystar itself. They put too much effort into the plot point to leave it dangling and it may bite the kids. From Connors presidential run and his buying the Mansion from Logan's ex to the Pierce purchase the kids have been pretty cavalier with the money Logan gave them. But they can't escape a contract even if the price becomes too rich for their taste. I agree. If Roman lived a different life and wasn't in Manhattan he would be picking a fight with the biggest man he could find in the bar. He wasn't looking to "win" a fight. Quite the opposite.

What would Shiv be getting anyway? Mattson is quite clear he wants the network for it's intellectual properties (movies, tv shows) and he intends to take a wrecking ball to the rest. ATN he wants to be a low cost Bloomberg clone rather than a high priced egofest to sell My Pillow. Even if she is CEO she would not be exactly getting much. But yeah, Mattson will totally screw her over. And she'll deserve every second of it. Mattson is trying to tempt Mencken with what the rest of his company can do. Particularly social media which can reach more people than the news ever will. One thing people forget in the whole Fox vs MSNBC vs CNN thing. Or in this world Pierce vs ATN is how few people actually watch ANY of them. Some may get better ratings but it's all relative and all of really bad (read old) demographics. Absolutely. If you live in the outerboros it may be overreacting a bit. But if you're in Manhattan and they are boarding up the buildings it may be nothing but the noise and commotion may scare the kids. And there is still a chance something bad could happen. So if you have the means why not take a little vacation and spare them the drama? To me it was more about Kendall wanting the universe to center around him and perhaps a bit of guilt over the Mencken call. And yes the Roy kids who dad accurately called "not serious people" did not become any more qualified to run the company anywhere besides into the ground after Logan died. With his funky numbers and skeletons the kids may actually beat Mattson. But folks like Stewy are waiting in the wings to do the same thing. Kick the Roys to the curb and dismantle Waystar for fun and profit.