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Yeah, that's true. It's hard to see how she'd go from wanting to empower girls to having slaves whose asses she paddles if they misbehave, unless she never cared about any of that good stuff at all.

This whole thing is so insane. I can't get my brain wrapped around it. It seems like an Andy Kaufman gag or something.

At least Kristin Kreuk got out of it and isn't a psychopath.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4864917/i … h-paddles/

Now I'm not sure whether Allison is a victim or a perpetrator.

I don't take superherohype.com seriously anymore. Their coverage of the comic book movies has been ridiculously biased, to the point where they fail to report details or fill in gaps with huge leaps in logic. As you said, we know that there are movies and details that aren't being reported in the report that you quoted. Warner Bros/DC has been doing the filmmaker-driven thing all along, and then you get articles about how Justice League is somehow reverting to a failed form because they have dumped the Patty Jenkins style.

It makes no sense.

Yeah, I stopped watching trailers a while ago. Trailers ruin movies these days, because the marketing people have no idea who they're marketing to, or what these franchises are all about.

I don't think the DCEU has had any real failures, so I don't know that they need more wins before they make plans. I just prefer that they don't set some random release date and rush to put out half-baked movies (like Disney does).

Zachary Levi was just cast in the Shazam movie. That should be interesting. I can see him pulling off the whole "superhero body with a kid's mind" thing.

I see that. It had similarities to Black Mirror's themes as well, which is a show that could take entirely on one Sliders Earth.

The Orville is interesting. MacFarlane is probably the weak point of the cast. He just strikes me as a LARPer in the role, moreso than anyone else. That said, they've explored some interesting topics, and in ways that we don't normally see on TV today (OMG, their main villain isn't based on Trump! They're based on the actual bad guys in the world!).

I resent the show, because I feel like they're taking the wind out of the sails of the Galaxy Quest series that has been discussed. At the same time, I can't deny that they've done some interesting things. The humor isn't 100% my taste, but the show still holds my interest more than a lot of what's on today. They definitely put more care into it than shows like Supergirl (did they really make a Trump reference despite having a totally different President established in their reality?) or Legends.

Apple sucks. They've always been bad, but the last few years have been mind boggling bad, and the new phones just don't make sense to me.

BTW, I'm writing this on my new Note 8. I didn't pay full price, since my brother got me some discounts, but it was still wicked expensive. Still, I will probably have this phone for five or six years, so am I spending more money than I would on a cheaper phone that I'd have to replace in two years?

That's my logic and I'm sticking to it. And I love my S-Pen.

One problem is that Kid Flash is Flash's sidekick, and that role has been filled by a whole team of other people on the show.

I agree that they should have hired someone who fit the role of the street racer a bit more. Less Disney kid, and more Fast and Furious kid. Then they shouldn't have made his introduction to the West family go so smoothly. He shouldn't have moved in, he should have been raised from a totally different point of view, and viewed Joe as a deadbeat who turned his back on his mother, an he should have clashed with both Barry and Iris more. This could change slowly, over time, but he should have been a distant side character and not part of the team. His becoming a speedster should have been something that happened to him without his wanting it, and as someone who had no strong role models, he could go either way. Barry mentoring him would be as much for the safety of the world as it was for Wally's benefit, and through that relationship, Wally would come to know this side of his family. I wouldn't make him super close to Iris or Joe though. Maybe he's closer to Barry and Cisco than he is to his real family.

And as for love interests... I like Jesse, but c'mon. He should have been going after Linda Park.

I get the hesitation to fill the show with conflict, but with someone who is planned to be around for the run of the series, a drawn out arc shouldn't be out of the question.

Iris had one on the premiere of The Flash, I think. I don't recall any others.

You would think. But they've essentially killed off the Sara that we knew on Arrow. The version on Legends might as well be an alternate universe Sara at this point.

They made a mess with Legends, and it's getting every other show dirty.

Watched Arrow. I think it was a pretty weak premiere, and unnecessarily so. The five month time jump happened because the show needs to line up with all of the others. It didn't serve this story at all, and the slow trickle of plot killed every ounce of drama and tension on the show. Characters were specifically dancing around facts that they knew but we didn't, and it shouldn't have been that way. This episode should have picked up directly after the finale, with Oliver rushing to find survivors. William tagging along and kinda bonding with Oliver in that moment, instead of Oliver deciding to leave his kid alone on an island that has proven itself to be about as safe as Team Arrow's lair.

Oliver and Felicity. Why? When did this seem like a good idea?

Thea in a coma... I guess it's better than killing her off, but if she can't breathe by herself after five months, I'm guessing that there isn't much brain activity. But it's a TV coma, so I guess it doesn't have to make sense.

I kinda wish that Sara was back on Arrow this year. Having Dinah face off against an evil Laurel is nowhere near as cool as it would be to have Sara fighting her. Maybe they should have put Dinah on Legends for a while and kept Sara on Arrow.

And speaking of Dinah, does anyone else get weird vibes when she and Diggle go on missions together? I swear it looked like they were going to kiss at one point this week, and I hope they're not planning to go there.

The directing was also off this week. A lot of the blocking was just clunky and awkward, and at times it seemed like characters were specifically working around the camera, rather than living in that scene.

I hope the season picks up. The three seasons that we've had of the show so far have been pretty entertaining. I'd hate to see the fourth season of this show turn out as bad as some of those horrible fan films that I saw between season 2 and last year's long-delayed season 3.

Nope. They rarely reference the months or years that they're sometimes stranded in different times. And that's a problem. Even if the show if supposed to be wacky fun, the writers should still be taking their work seriously. They aren't though.

I'm not sure what to do with Legends, with or without Stein. Somehow, they've manged to take several solid characters from the different shows, and completely destroy them on this mess of a series. Sara is no longer Sara. Firestorm has zero cool factor anymore. I can see why Victor Garbor would want out.

I hope that they don't kill him. They set up an out for him, and they should take it. I still think it was a mistake to kill off Ronnie so soon. It'd be nice if Stein could appear on The Flash from time to time. I'm not sure there is a point in trying to figure out what they will do about Jax. He is barely used as Firestorm anyway.

Legends should be such a fun comic book show. Instead, it's like a production that a fourth grader would put on in their basement.

On the topic of HR, I kinda liked him. I like that he got to be a different kind of smart, and one that Harrison couldn't relate to at all. I thought it was interesting, because TV shows usually make their "smart" characters smart in every way. If they're good hackers, that means that they're good at building gadgets, etc. It makes no sense. It's nice to see a different type of use for a brain that is still naturally brilliant.

Y'know, I am no Trump lover, but the man is interesting. People think that they're being defiant by taking a knee in protest of Trump (which is really the reason at this point, rather than blm and all that), but they're helping him more than hurting him. Every time someone misquotes him or takes a quote out of context, even people who don't necessarily like Trump are forced to say "well, not exactly..." So people are now getting into the habit of "defending" Trump (really just pointing out inaccuracies about him) so often that by the time 2020 rolls around, people will be accustomed to rallying behind him on a regular basis.

None of these protests are hurting him in the least. And he knows exactly what he's doing with his "sloppy" comments.

Dude is a jerk, but he knows how to play the game that republicans usually suck at and liberals usually win.

On another topic, I watched this today!
https://youtu.be/BSAoitd1BTQ

So a gay classically liberal man interviewing a black woman who considered herself a liberal until about a year ago... It is an interesting story, because they represent stories that I've been hearing a lot lately. This woman never would have been "red pilled" if she hadn't been attacked by the extreme left. And he still consideration himself a liberal because of his beliefs, but he finds conservatives more open to his beliefs than the far left (who label him "alt-right" because... Well, they do that to everyone).

I think that the far left (Antifa activist types, but also celebrities and politicians) have gone so far to the left that they're alienating normal liberals who simply don't believe that voting for a republican makes you a Nazi. I've seen Rubin discussing issues with all kinds of conservatives that I'm sure liberals hate, but what's interesting is that despite having very, very different beliefs, those conversations tend to be really civil exchanges of ideas. There is no presumption that anyone is an evil Nazi who wants to eat babies.

I wonder if the extreme, pretty absurd left is reaching a point where the bubble will burst and the crazies will go home, and the normal, rational liberals will take their place.

Probably not. There's a lot of money to be made by keeping hate burning. But at least there are some interesting discussion taking place.

How much of that is spoilery? Should I read it?

I actually didn't hate the Elektra character. If the Hand had been taken care of somewhere around episode 2, in some epic battle naturally, and then we see Elektra wake up from the dead as this being who is torn between who she was before and this purpose that she was brought back for, it could have been more interesting. She wouldn't have been a straight-up villain.

But then the question becomes, what do we need Danny, Luke and Jessica for? I don't know. I guess we need random ninjas for them to fight. Or maybe Claire could get tired of stumbling around from one lone hero to the next, and decides that their problems could all be handled more effectively if they joined forces for the big stuff. We could see them fighting less apocalyptic bad guys, as they learn how to work together.

There were good elements. It just seemed more like a vague idea for a series, more than an actual series.

Dude, you just came up with a novel, screenplay or stage play. The book club cult thing is a great hook, and it's something original. Don't create a Quinn Mallory character, but you could have your book cult leader looking to TV characters and politicians as charismatic role models as he/she builds their cult leader persona.

And while we're on the subject of book clubs... I mean... you do know an author with several books out. Just sayin'. ;-)

I think I view Allison as a victim here because I felt incredibly uncomfortable watching her body language and listening to the tone of her voice in that video. She looked like someone who was scared of having the wrong thought. When you compare that to something like this: https://youtu.be/WKXqq7103s4 the difference is incredible. In one she looks like an abused puppy, and in the other, she's talking about how loud an opinionated she is. When I see her talking about things she knows and which she believes in (even if it's just telling a story from the set that actually happened) she seems confident and strong. However, when I see her talk about her beliefs, etc, she just seems so lost. I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but she seems to struggle with finding her true north.

When I say that it doesn't seem like she is engaging in that conversation, it's not that she doesn't look smitten with his words. It's that... When you're having a conversation that's sparking thoughts and ideas, and which is revealing truth to you, it tends to show a bit more. What little she did offer that conversation was delivered in quiet, unsure tones, as though she could be punished for having the wrong thought.

I watch Leah Remini's show about Scientology, and I see this guy using some of the same tactics when approaching his victim. When I look in her eyes, I see that almost drugged look that you see in Leah's eyes in those videos from way back when she was still in the cult. It's that look of someone who is totally devoted, but they don't really know why, and they can't put it into words. They have the absolute truth in their hands, but they have no idea what it is... yet they don't want to say that they don't understand it, because that means that they are defective.

I don't think that Allison is stupid or weak. I think that she is searching for something real, and she's not sure how to find it. So much of her life has been fake. Hollywood is fake. A lot of what they do out there is similar to what you'll find in cults. If you don't say the right thing and believe the right thing, and put on the right act, you are punished. And it all contradicts each other. You have to sell yourself as a sex object and a strong woman who demands respect at the same time. You have to starve yourself and work out endlessly, while declaring that your favorite part of the job is the snack table.

In a way, she's been in a cult for most of her life. Other actors would have breakdowns or turn to drugs as a result of that mental game, but she got attracted to something like this instead. Probably because a lot of what he says (the hollow circles of what he says) reflect the Hollywood message, so it's new but familiar.

I've seen other actors and actresses on that search for something real and meaningful in life, and I think there is a moment in that search where they are really vulnerable. When they are an empty glass that is looking to be filled.

Like I said, I could be reading into things while watching that video. He just seemed like both the snake and the charmer at the same time, and she just seemed to fall in line behind him. I won't invest in rumors of threeways and all of that, but I can give my thoughts on the video itself.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I wouldn't describe the two of us as being opposed to each other. That makes it sound like we're not friends. I would just say that we both mean well, but have very different perspectives on many issues (mine being the right perspective, of course).

Yikes. Damn.

Okay, so there are longer videos available, but the one I chose to watch was this one: https://youtu.be/9kd9bOzqO-A

Watching the video is uncomfortable for me, but also fascinating in a way. I see Allison reaching for something. Her side of the conversation seems like someone who has always been told that she has to be "this" and the message is "that", which is true of someone in that industry. Before she had a chance to decide who she was as a person, she was told that she had to be a role model for all young women. No pressure. But that side of Hollywood is as fake as what we see on TV. The causes that they champion and the messages they convey are carefully crafted to create a certain image for the public.
As an adult, she appears to realize the false nature of those images and titles, and she seems to want to move beyond the bullshit, but I'm not sure that she knows how to explore those feelings without reading books on the subject, or having someone explain it to her. In doing this, she is repeating the process that got her here in the first place. If my reading of her is right, she has a noble goal, but she is going about it the wrong way.

He is a con man. He answers her questions with hollow, meaningless ramblings that offer no great insight, but he does so in a way that validates her question and makes her feel like he is giving an answer that is just barely beyond her reach. He mirrors her thought process and projects a calm and rational version of what she already thinks, and passes it off as his own wisdom. He rambles, and she smiles blankly because he is saying nothing and her mind is probably wandering. She isn't engaging with what he says at all, and at times her physical response is dictated by his movements... She is actually being led into her responses without realizing it. His rambling is the smoke and mirrors. He says a lot of crap and she does her best to find some shape or purpose in them. But it isn't an actual conversation. There is no back and forth. He contradicts himself and feeds into what she is struggling with, offering validation...

I don't know enough about him or his organization to say whether or not it's a cult (my research so far is this one video) but he is very clearly a con artist. And you do see this performance play out in religious situations, which is why I've always been incredibly uncomfortable being preached to. I'm a strong Christian, but I turn into a total Scully the second I step inside a church. Not that all preachers are con men. I've just seen my share of them.

Should be interesting. I'm curious to see how Riverdale holds up in season 2.

A lot of the MacGyver stuff was BS though. Just saying.

Fun fact: I can't watch MacGyver anymore! In 2009, I decided to sit down and watch the first episode on Netflix. While watching, I was informed that my father had suffered a severe stroke (which ended up throwing the lives of a few of us into complete chaos, which never ended).

A while later, the initial trauma of that stroke died down and life went on. So we decided to sit down and watch an episode of MacGyver. Good times, right? Except, my father wound up in the hospital again that night (I forget why... Possibly a seizure, which we weren't familiar with at that point).

So, the show is officially considered cursed in my family. Nobody is allowed to watch it at this point.

I have friends like Rosenbaum, but I have a hard time keeping up with them. I'm not a pot smoker, or all fart and dick jokes, or anything like that. So I often stumble around, trying to find ways to interact with that type of person (who isn't necessarily just a gross person, but just has a different personality and way of expressing his/herself) while staying in my own somewhat square style.

I understand Tom's mentality more than Michael's. Michael is a showman and a self promoter. An extrovert. Tom is a more humble (at least outwardly. I don't want to insult Rosenberg) worker, who isn't interested in the self promotion BS within the industry. I get that. I am very similar, which is why I have a hard time promoting my books and found it impossible to push my way into an acting career. So much of it is the BS, and I just didn't have it in me. I can't lie without immediately feeling horrible and coming clean about it, so it's hard for me to schmooze.

I also get how Tom could be swept into the situation where he was working non-stop for 10 years, because he couldn't put his foot down and demand more free time. I would totally be that person who never spoke up. I'm fascinated by his story, because he is such the anti-Hollywood type, and I don't want to discount the work that he did to get what he earned, but his personality just doesn't lend itself to achieving that level of success and holding onto it. On top of that, he was surrounded by a cast that genuinely cared about him enough to speak up for him when he wouldn't do it himself, which I think says great things for everyone involved. In my (much more humble) experience on various sets, I've seen the group energy come together in a way that just made the whole experience fun and worthwhile, even when the hours were miserably long. I've also been on sets where there were more people around than I could count, and it felt like the most awkward, lonely, isolated place in the world. Working the hours in that type of environment, for ten years, would be hell.

Jensen Ackles (another one of the actors who I respect because he's not all Hollywood BS) once said that most young actors would go to the opening of an envelope for the sake of publicity and networking, and he isn't into that scene.

I love the stories of people that I can identify with, but who found a way to make it work. Who stay grounded and who don't turn into complete a-holes, the way so many actors do once they find success. I don't want to call it luck, because I think they still work hard and earn it just as much as the people who are constantly promoting themselves, but I've never been able to find that angle from which to approach a career in the entertainment industry where I could find success while managing to feel like myself at the end of the day.

As for Michael joking with Kristin about getting an erection, I think it's a combination of his being able to pull off the joke, and her being able to take it as the joke that it was. There are many, many people who would jump at the chance to get offended rather than laugh those things off, and I think any environment like that would be doomed to feel awkward and fake all the time.

Tom just appeared on Rosenbaum's podcast. It's rare to see a Tom Welling interview at all, much less an interview that lasts an hour and a half. Now I know why!

https://youtu.be/dmMcGLfU6Ns

Jessica is strong, which means she can jump really high.

I think.

Spoilers below
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The Defenders was better than The Avengers, but still had some of the same problem. The plot wasn't as important as the scenes that they wanted to throw in. A lot of the character interaction/banter felt forced. The overall arc was just... Why did several seasons of various shows build up to a deflated balloon of a story?

I think it'd be cool to see these characters cross over from time to time, but the big Defenders crossover series was pointless. And why didn't Claire just tell Foggy and Karen that Matt was gone?! She stood two feet away while they stared at the door!

Directed by Nicholas Meyer

Produced by:   
Ralph Winter
Steven-Charles Jaffe

Screenplay by:   
Nicholas Meyer
Denny Martin Flinn

Story by:   
Leonard Nimoy
Lawrence Konner
Mark Rosenthal

It is weird. I've always thought that the Worf cameo was awkward, even when I was a kid.

To be fair, scientists are always claiming that a planet has about 50 years left. It's usually just a way of securing additional funding.

Real answer: I have no idea. I'm going to say that Wesley Crusher figured out a way to save the planet.

I've been reading up on the new IPhone X, just to see what they're doing with it. Everyone is referring to it as being completely bezel-less. What am I missing here? The design is fine. It seems like something that Apple fans will like. I think it's cheating to include the notch in the official screen size (that whole section of the screen is now useless for everything except battery status, wifi, etc. It isn't a functional part of the display), but that's just me.

However... The phone has a pretty substantial bezel. It is far from being the bezel-less wonder that some are reporting... It looks like it already has a case on it! Like I said, I'm sure Apple users will love the phone. It's fine. But are we all supposed to pretend that we don't see the bezel?

https://www.apple.com/iphone-x/

It will probably never happen though, so I have no idea how it would work. Marvel has used some characters that 20th Century Fox was using, so it's been done. Yeah, it's weird, but if they can make money with it, I guess they will.

I doubt they'll be having a full season, with all of the shows that the CW has for midseason. Garber has been on a number of other shows during his time on Legends, so he probably has a flexible schedule built into his contract. Legends is what he does for money in between real jobs.

Damn, that sounds like a hot phone.
I'm not sure what else to add to the conversation. I find your phone stories fascinating, but I don't have much to add.

For the next week or two, I will be watching YouTube videos about the Note 8. I'm partly doing this because I am considering buying one (keep in mind, I don't replace phones often. This is a four or five year commitment), and I'm partly doing it because I have no gas for my car and every station around my area is sold out. People were convinced that Harvey would create a shortage, so they rushed to fill up. There is no real shortage because of Harvey, but the rush to get gas has resulted in a shortage that will probably last about a week. So... I'll be here... Waiting for gas...

Yeah, I don't think they need that stuff. It seems like the thing to do because Marvel does it, but even the Marvel stuff is a waste of time more often than not.

I'm still holding out hope for a Special Edition of Wonder Woman that deletes the Ares crap at the end though.