whiporee

I was want to point out that Maurice is a space cowboy. Rewatching on Prime, it's a much more gentle show than I remember. Joel's not as bad, Maggie is flat-out beautiful, and none of the things that I expected to be overly quirky turned out to be. It's my current comfort show, so I'm grateful to it.

The Soviets made the only decision they could regarding Margo. Once she said she didn't want to return and she was turning herself in, they'd have been over a barrel. She had no ties back in Moscow, no one to be scared for, and was facing execution or imprisonment. So she would not want to return and certainly the US wouldn't let them take her by force. So they did the quickest hand washing they could. She didn't have anything to offer them anymore, anyway. I've never thought Dev was about money or power. He just had big dreams and wanted to see them play out. I think there's an inclination to equate money with malice these days, because I don't think there are many readings of the text that suggest he's been motivated by anything other than grandiose dreams at any point in the show. I listened to the showrunners today, and I think a lot of what they've said is that their world at this point would have moved beyond astronauts and engineers. The time jumps forced that, but in retrospect maybe they made the jumps too big, the tech advancement too much. For example, I don't think they could have developed Happy Valley to the extent they have in seven years. While I like the jumps, they never really talked about the ships that went to Mars now. If they get a fifth season, I'd like to see it not about getting to the asteroid belt, but about the first interstellar voyage. Maybe Alex is part of the team that decides to head to Alpha Centauri, and they end the show with them just headed out to space without plans to return. Because as much as I enjoy the show, even I don't need to see another season of space economics and labor struggles. I think they were good themes for this one, but we've got The Expanse if we want to see how all that stuff plays out. And as much as I like the show, and I liked this season, and I don't think Ed is an asshole or Dev a meglomaniac or even that they did something wrong in keeping the asteroid for Mars, I watched season one the last few days and it was soooo much better. Every character was deeper, the stakes were higher, the dialogue better and so was the storytelling. So I hope for another season because I enjoy it, but it used to be a lot more than it's turned out to be.

You could say the same about the American West or the colonization of the western hemisphere. People go to a place, they help to shape it, and it becomes a part of their identity. I don't know that I'd love to live on Mars, but there is an appeal to being a pioneer anywhere.

I like Dev's plan. I think it's the only way to make Mars self-sustaining. And it's pretty shitty of the Earthers to have the Mars crew do all the hard work of capturing the asteroid and then take the fruits of their labor. Almost as though there was a metaphor working. I'd like some sort of breakdown of the operations of the base. I think most of the people who are there are Helios, not NASA or Roscosmos. The fuel refining must be Helios, because it's Helios contracts that are messing things up -- they aren't government employees or federal workers of any country. So the Earth nations are planning for Helios to help capture the rock, help bring it back to Earth, and then, as Margo told Irina, let other companies start mining it, too? They are the only ones who have put the capital into Mars, and now they are supposed to let one of the biggest payoffs of that just leave? Because it's easier for the Earth governments? Fuck that -- if I'm Dev, I do the same thing. Steal the bastard. I'd feel the same way if I were Ed. This has been his home for a decade. He's a cowboy used to frontiers. He doesn't want to go back to Earth -- he wants the people who have helped build Mars to benefit from Mars. (It's not hard to see why every Sci Fi story involving Mars colonization eventually ends up at this place). On a sidenote, Massey is KGB. I don't think the USSR wants this to work at all, but they can't publicly say that. So they institute work slowdowns and unrest and strikes, and the opportunity slips on by without it really being their fault. Also, i don't like the idea at all of pushing a 1.1 km rock towards Earth for any reason, especially with how often things go wrong on this show. Once they have it coming towards us, they gotta then find a way to get it into orbit. That's a lot of mass to point at a fairly fragile, inhabited planet.

I don't think they are talking about putting it in Earth orbit. I think they are talking about lunar orbit, which would be a lot smarter because there's no real consequence of it hitting the moon, certainly not when compared to what would happen if it hit Earth. Not a planet killer, but certainly a planet changer. I was glad to see they're talking about landing on the asteroid to move it, because I did that in a book I wrote. Easier to push than to pull.

I’m in a small minority but I’m more on team Ed in this than Dani, but mostly because I am really over Saint Danielle. She’s been insubordinate plenty of times — she decided on her own to break her arm to get Gordo home, which left Ed alone on the moon. She disobeyed direct orders to complete Apollo-Soyuz. That it all worked out doesn’t change that she did it. She also crashed Sojourner. Had Ed not shown more restraint than she did, everyone dies on Mars. She picked her crew for that mission every bit as much as Ed did his on the Ranger. Dani made a decision that should have cost Ed’s daughter her life The difference is Dani keeps getting rewarded and Ed keeps getting shit on. Molly makes the call about Sojourner — Margo overrules her. Then Dani gets pissed at Ed for giving Danny a chance — the same chance Dani was giving him. She changed her mind and then got mad at him for disagreeing with her opinion. Then, here, she comes in, exerts her authority, and not only gets his trusted copilot who he’s been training imprisoned — or at least doesn’t fight for her — she tells Ed just to take it. He’s a Helios employee and has been on that base for eight years. She’s not his commander; at best, she’s his boss. And a boss — one who was trained and promoted by Ed — ought to have a bit more delicate a touch than she’s shown. Dani likes being the savior every much as much as Ed likes being a cowboy. Ed was being a dick. But Dani‘s perpetual self-righteousness has just gotten old to me.

I think they made a change in the last one, too, where Jordan was drafted by the Blazers and led them to a few titles before switching to baseball.

As a former reporter, I have a lot more sympathy for Bradley in the Hal case. She's not a citizen detective; she's not an adjunct to the police or the FBI. It's not her job to turn anything over to the police that she uncovered while working on a story. If the police have enough for Hal, then indict him. But reaching out to everyone's cell phones is overstepping their bounds, but more importantly sets a dangerous precedent for other situations. I don't know of any reporter who would have turned in a family member to the police, or allowed their footage to be used in that kind of way. Laura doesn't know how she'd act in that same situation ... oh, wait, she does. Because she's doing the same thing. It's not just protecting Bradley, it's that her life then gets pulled in, too. Just like Bradley's would have been. But instead of accepting that life has difficult choices, she got up on her self-righteous journalism high horse and delivered her sanctimonious diatribe. Bradley got put in a terrible situation through no fault of her own. Laura got put in a terrible situation because she snooped into her lover's phone and then searched hacked -- supposedly private -- emails for more details. And Bradley is the one who violated trust?

Halfway through season 2. Season opened with a fourth wall break, and then nothing but bangers. It's easy for forget Charles Rocket was once a thing. The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice was just great, from the Orson Wells intro to Cybil's singing on both songs. The one thing that I had misremembered was that Mattie and David liked each other almost from the start. It's not just a forced together thing -- they smile. They aren't in love yet but this isn't a "they hate each other but really ..." kind of show. There's affection almost from Episode One on.

Thought it was solid. I do feel bad because Kate was my favorite character. But hopefully she'll be redeemed.

Three episodes in, and it's pretty much like I remember. It's often silly. Too silly in some cases. The cases and their resolutions don't make sense. David's frat-guy sexism is often over the top by contemporary standards. Too many parts of it don't match today to even really recommend it to my daughter, because she'd never get past the silliness or actual sexual banter. But each episode I've watch has moments of pure brilliance. Poignancy as tangible as anything currently on. And the chemistry between the two, which I did not pick up on nearly as much when I was younger, is truly something to see. That Bruce had never really acted before is remarkable, even if he oversells a lot of lines, because there's nothing oversold in the little moments between he and Cybil. As I'm watching, I realize this is sort of the perfect show for the mid-to-late 80s. Kind of excessive. Kinda dumb. Kinda hot. Kinda magnificent.

Watching episode 2. Opening features Jonathan Winters and Tim Robbins.

Watched the pilot a few minutes ago. First time in 37 years. Every bit as good as I remembered.

Just two weeks!

First official trailer for Season 4. Looks like Ed is still kicking and Dev's vision won out:

I'm doing a rewatch, and I have a question. Does anyone know if there is a behind-the-scenes reason for Winona's change of heart in season 3? it was like she was perfectly fine with Raylan being Raylan in the first part of the season, and then turned on a dime to leave him. Is this about the time her rich-people-being-awful (the pre Sucession Succession show) was getting greenlit? Or did she piss off Yost or something? It was a very odd turn without any real motivating cause. Also, on the rewatch, Raylan shoots a lot of people.

I don't think Alieda is useless or shown as useless. She saved everyone on the moon and was one the lead engineers on both Apollo Soyuz and Sojourner. I think they show her as competent, even crucial. Annoying sometimes, but crucial. I don't know how any of them except Danny is complicit in Mars issues, nor how anyone but Jimmy is complicit in Karen's death. To stick up for them, Jimmy and Danny are damaged kids, raised by very negligent, damaged people who the world considers heroes. Kelly is shown as competent except for those darn hormones. And Alieda is the genius who saved Jamestown by getting snacks.

NM

I thought it was a blast. I only wish they had had Anson sing the opening in front of the a cappllas. It did a couple of things that were important. It shows why Spock went over to the logic side, and why in TOS he's sort of distant with Chapel in TOS. That's the first mention we've ever had of Carol and David -- I always assumed Kirk and she hooked up after he was a captain, because the responsibilities of being a lieutenant -- even a first officer -- don't seem to be enough to justify abandoning a kid for so long. I don't dislike Wesley's Kirk, but I thought that line was just a bit too much. Which is why the prequel thing -- which I've loved -- has some issues that are now starting to pop up. Does this Pike really seem like a guy who would just decide to hang out in the Menagerie in seven years? If Uhura is the genius she's being presented as, why does she have the same job at least five years later? If Una is as important a person as she's portrayed, why no mention of TOS or even TNG? How does Chapel go from fellowship-winning researcher and war veteran to handing McCoy instruments in sick bay? Kirk, Spock Chapel and Uhura had intense interactions with La'an -- why wouldn't those have influenced the way they interacted with Khan? I know the REASON, but adding so many elements of TOS into a timeline just messes with the overall. Not complaining. Probably my favorite show on TV right now. And the musical was fun, even if the songs didn't really resonate with me. But there's a lot being mingled here, and I wish they had been able to stay away from canon more than they have.

Harmony Melody was the most grating, unlikeable character I've seen in years. Congrats to the actress for pulling it off and being willing to portray someone who not pleasant in any way. I felt more sympathy for her corrupt boss and complicit suspects than I felt for her.

But he didn't really kill anyone. That he was willing to kill is one thing, but, if you're assuming that everything ends up in one timeline, the people who died won't die this time. They might die a different way, but nothing changed after July 1.

Most of those are full multi-course meals. I think they include a wine pairing, but you can spend more on wine if you choose. Some places can do stuff a la carte for less, but they are intended to do the chef's menu for the day unless there are dietary restrictions. And a lot of them do only offer seating for even-numbered parties.

Because I was curious, I did a little research on how much stuff costs. Ever in Chicago -- about $320 a plate. Aliena is about $425 Noma -- about $400 a plate Masa in NYC (considered the most expensive in NYC) -- $975 a plate Per Se in NYC -- about $400 Guy Savoy in Paris -- $575 A bunch in Vegas are in that range, but Vegas prices are inflated. While all of those are very very expensive, I had thought they would be higher.

I rewatched season 1 before season 2. In the pilot, Carmy was opening a can of tomato sauce, but before opening it fully he threw it away out of disgust/frustration. Just saying.

I'm going to post this in both forums to see how the answers, if any go. It's 1985, and you've got one ticket. Who do you see, Midge Maisel or Deborah Vance? Same question, but this time you get to have dinner with one of them. Who do you eat with, Midge or Deborah? And lastly, who pulled off being a standup better, Jean Smart or Rachel Brosnahan? (I tried to think of TV shows based on male standups as to not be sexist in the question, but I couldn't think of any. Maybe Seinfeld? but he was playing Jerry Seinfeld. So anyone has anyone to toss in, please feel free)