Some Random Thoughts About Television... [R]

They've established the premise I suppose but then, as I said before, the premise that they infected us without providing a choice was given almost straight away.

I didn't really understand why Carol went off with the pirate lady like that because 'she loves me'.

I mean, yeah... she does but only as much as she loves everything else, including buttercups, cows, apples, (famously), and everyone and everything else.

If you dropped dead tomorrow, she'd be MORE than happy to pop you in a pie and eat you. Well, not literally, but y'know what I mean.

She's not written as someone who comes across as spectacularly dense but I don't know... maybe she just wasn't paying attention when they were telling her this stuff.

But the other guy's take on it is a bit daft as well.

He seems to be fixated on who owns stuff. THAT'S your big take-away from all this? Like, who gives a shit?!

We'll see how it develops, but it all seems a bit muddled ATM.

It's interesting though. I'll give it that

 

I thought it capped it off nicely. Sets up season two for the Carol & Manousos team-up.

The thing I thought felt a bit rushed was the others' betrayal (from Carol's POV).

That opening scene was great. The goat was almost too over the top, but the others clearing out the village the moment after she was turned was chilling. Someone likened some aspects of this show to The Truman Show, in that the others are kind of performing a role for those individuals who aren't yet part of the hive mind and that was the most stark illustration of that. The do not care about the community, that culture, it only existed to keep that girl's little world intact and once she was part of the hive, they discarded it like it was nothing.

 

Yeah, there's a reason why it seems like they don't care

I know you said you hoped it wasn't yet another 'invasion' show, and I agree. But it's hard to figure out what's going on if it's not that.

I suppose it could be like I said... that the aliens genuinely think they're doing us, (and anyone else they infect), a favour and it's like that old British empire idea of 'the white man's burden'. Maybe it's that simple?

In a way, that would be the best of the available options because it doesn't imply any ulterior motive.

But maybe we'll never know for sure and we're just left to speculate?

I didn't quite get what the other fellas idea was in producing that frequency with the other guy and then shouting at him. Was it meant to be the frequency or just him shouting at him that made him go 'wobbly'? They didn't really make that clear.

But it struck me afterwards that he could have told Carol that before he did it. I mean, I think he supposedly told them so why not her?

 

I think he's trying to draw out the person behind the hive mind with the frequency, as if playing the frequency that they communicate on disrupts them long enough for someone to get past the virus and to the individual.

 

Yeah, that might be it. Or maybe that's just a frequency that disrupts them in some other way?

 

One thing I wondered about. It might be meaningful, it might not.

In the previous episode, when Carol was approached by the border collie at the ice rink where all of the Others sleep, Zosia explained that the Others don't keep pets but do take care of any animals who have gotten too attached to its human owner. In the season finale, during the great little opening vignette in Peru that depicted Kusimayu's turning, we saw the Others totally ignore the bleating goat as it followed the changed Kusimayu. So does this mean the taking care of pets thing was a lie? It definitely seemed like inconsistent behavior. And if so, does this mean they can lie after all?

 

The reason why I think it might be meaningful is the amount of screentime they spent on making clear that goat was Kusimayu's pet.

 

Stranger Things 5 has been better than the previous season but this whole Will subplot has wasted a good 25-30 minutes of time in episodes that are already too long, so unless him coming out to his friends is what defeats Vecna, then it takes the season down a few notches due to complete irrelevance to the story.

Episode 7 felt like a CW show that had jumped the shark. As a penultimate episode it's especially bad.

 

I've only seen the first two of the newly dropped three and I have to say this show is dragging itself to its conclusion from my perspective. So much of the story lines feel forced this year, none more so than the Dustin and Steve discord.

 

Funny you should say that. This popped up on my YT feed today, which has some interesting theories, some of which make sense... some, not so much...



He spends too much time looking for connections which may, or may not, be correct but don't really add anything to his essential point.

But that vid, from about halfway in, has some of the observations we've made.

 

Ah, this is about that specific episode, and it's implications...



He does go into things that are either too speculative or irrelevant, IMO.

 

LOL. Oh yeah, so many flaws in there. I had to LOL at the Coral/Carol anagram argument.

Also the thirteen descendants idea is pretty ridiculous, for one thing if the 1960 timeline thing he uses is extrapolated, 13 individuals would like have over 200 descendants with whom they share DNA.

 

Yeah, the 'coral' bit struck me as pure filler but the 'Sturka' thing is an interesting observation if it's as he says.

There was something else that occurred to me, though, about how another world might react if they view the 'infection' in terms of it being an 'attack'.

If their level of scientific development is higher than ours and they realise what it does and think it's an attempt to turn them into willing saps, ripe for an invasion, they might not appreciate the idea.

The aliens might create the very attack they're attempting to stop.

 

Fall 2025 Anime Roundup

I only watched one new show this season. There's a lot coming out with winter 2026, so I'm looking forward to those.


May I Ask For One Final Thing ~ LIDENFILMS

A noblewoman, with the terrific name Scarlet El Vandimion, has a special power and it's punching jerks in the face. That's pretty much the show. The catharsis of seeing said jerks getting pummeled really only lasts a few episodes, but it's a good time for those. There isn't enough for the rest of the anime to really build on, though, so it drags in the middle a lot. 6/10.

 

Stranger Things 5 = Ted Lasso season 3, but without the top tier finale to make it fully palatable.

Noah Schnapp's acting and Millie Bobby Brown's one facial expression should be nominated for Razzies.

 

It's brilliant to have Macaulay Culkin in an episode that starts by showing how fun and hilarious child labor can be. Fallout is just delightful at the moment.

 

This is insane, because 50% of the reason why I adored that show was due to Bashir and Garak.
Long before horny Trekkies created 10000 pieces of slash fiction about them, their shared scenes were already some of the best moments not just in Trek but on TV in general back then.

 

I wonder who wanted him off the show. Because if it had been the show runners or whoever it was that wrote Kes out of Voyager, he would have been gone.

The show was really well cast. They caught a pretty good break when Nana Visitor’s character worked out, since the series originally intended for Michelle Forbes’ character, Ro Laren, to be the key Bajoran, but she had other things she wanted to pursue.

 

Just caught up and finished Pluribus. I really enjoyed it, particularly Rhea Seehorn. I do wish it would have been a single-season show. I'm not sure how a second season is going to work. You'd think Carol wouldn't be eager to interact with "them" again, so that would seemingly restrict what they have to work with. I assume they have a plan, and not just winging it like Lost, but I guess we'll see.

 

I believe Vince Gilligan said he has a plan that could go either 3 or 4 seasons, but so far Apple has only done the 2 season buy.

 

I think Vince Gilligan said that he had some idea of what episode 201 would look like, but not necessarily anything beyond that. Of course at that time he admitted they had only just started the season two writers room. I believe I heard all that on the post season one appearance Vince and Rhea Seehorn had on The Watch podcast.

 

That's not too comforting. Amending my comparison to Lost as I feel they are opposite problems. Lost introduced way too many mysteries that it never could adequately answer. Pluribus's central problem was fully established 3-4 episodes in. While we got 5 more episodes of Carol absorbing that problem, following the finale, what is there left but her solving it (or failing to)? That doesn't seem like 2-3 seasons of content.

 

I think season 2 could be easily done, especially if you consider the virus/hive mind as more deceitful than they've let on so far. They were clearly channeling how Helen spoke to Carol towards the end of the season, with the snarky/sarcastic banter and playfulness. Carol and Manousos figure out how to reverse the virus, but not at scale, and it becomes a battle between the others and them to see if they'll be able to turn them back or if the hive mind goes into full attack mode and being willing to kill.

That seems like the logical ending point, so yeah they'll need some kind of role reversal level trick to move on beyond it the way Severance did.