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2020-09-29 14:14:33

Joe Biden has, to my astonishment, come to represent the America that I believe in. An America that progressives, centrists and conservatives could conceivably compromise upon in agreement. (The perfect compromise is where nobody is happy.) I want to see Biden confront Trump with the destruction he has wrought, the betrayal he has enacted upon those whom he swore to protect, the reality that Trump is a failed businessman, a traitor to his nation, a disaster as world leader and an inept fool who has no business leading a marching band never mind a country. I want Trump to blanch onstage as he realizes he can't land a punch on Biden, that Biden sees right through his projection. I want his orange tan to go purple with frustration as he realizes he can't insult Biden into submission, can't maneuver a non-existent national dislike against Biden and can't sustain his cult act for much longer. I want Trump to face the country outside his institutionalized cocoon. I want Trump to face America. I want this more than I want a SLIDERS reboot.

2020-09-28 16:57:39

This is a post about the comic book INSUFFERABLE, by Mark Waid which you can read online for free and in its entirety here: http://thrillbent.com/comics/insufferab … apter-1/#1

The Stars: In the late 90s and early 2000s, the top superhero comic book writers were (and arguably still are) Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Mark Waid.

Grant Morrison is an eccentric visionary of crazy cosmic ideas who wrote JLA, NEW X-MEN and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. Mark Millar is the hypersardonic and action-oriented writer of CIVIL WAR, ULTIMATE X-MEN and THE ULTIMATES and also creator of WANTED, KICK-ASS and KINGSMAN.

Mark Waid reformatted traditional superhero stories with modern wit and high adventure pacing and hyperdramatic turns of plot and comedy with science adventures in THE FLASH and FANTASTIC FOUR, hilarious comedy in DAREDEVIL, spy thrillers in CAPTAIN AMERICA and some brilliant creator owned material with detective stories in THE UNKNOWN and POTTER'S FIELD and dark superhero horror in IRREDEEMABLE and INCORRUPTIBLE.

The Partners: Grant Morrison and Mark Millar were friends in the 90s. Morrison was renowned for his fourth-wall breaking work on ANIMAL MAN in the 80s and his BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM oneshot. Millar approached Morrison for advice on breaking into the industry.

Morrison saw Millar's talent and collaborated with him in order to get Millar hired. Together, they co-wrote SWAMP THING and THE FLASH and worked together on project pitches that led to Millar becoming a comic book star on THE AUTHORITY, THE ULTIMATES and SUPERMAN: RED SON.

The Breakup: However, on the last three, Millar took sole credit and did not credit Morrison's contributions to Morrison -- which apparently upset Morrison, especially when he had consulted extensively, offered ideas and plot points and even ghost-written an issue of AUTHORITY for Millar. This ended their partnership.

Grant Morrison's writing is eccentric and bizarre with peculiar ideas Superman fighting an angelic invasion of Earth, an intelligent virus that transforms into an addictive drug to mind control mutants, Batman creating a backup personality for his brain in the event of a nervous breakdown -- matched with an upbeat, gleeful joy for all the wild ideas of superheroes and a grand, epic scale of action.

Mark Millar's style is very action-oriented with a dark sense of comedy (a homicidal 10 year old superheroine) and while his post-Morrison writing has lacked Morrison's mind-expanding ideas, Millar has shown a gift for crafting comics as visual concepts perfect for film pitches that led to WANTED, KICK-ASS and KINGSMAN becoming box office hits.

Insufferable: Grant Morrison often gives interviews describing the inner workings of his mind and how he believes he was visited by aliens to impart their concepts to humans via the medium of comic books and how this had nothing to do with the hallucinogens he'd ingested and how he finds that far too many comic book writers think only in terms of reiterating superhero tropes and old continuity. Mark Millar relentlessly hypes his brand with his film pitches in comic book form and makes constant reference to hobnobbing with celebrities and studios to present himself as a film producer first and a comic book writer second.

The Response: Their mutual friend, Mark Waid, remarked in an editorial that he found arrogance to be obnoxious and annoying.

Mark Waid wrote:

I was reading an interview with one of them and as he blathered relentlessly on about what a genius he was and how tiny the rest of us were, I remembered the phrase, "Why be mad?" and instead expressed my frustrations creatively through the language I know best: comics. I'd do an ongoing series about two former partners where the junior one grew up to be an ungrateful jerk and the senior one would have to labor hard to choke back his resentment.

It is very interesting to read INSUFFERABLE because despite these origins, the actual characters of John (the older insufferable) and Jarod (the younger insufferable) have shifted from their real-life counterparts.

John in INSUFFERABLE is not a Grant Morrison-like eccentric genius at all; he is a troubled, sad, withdrawn, driven, tactical and while he is clearly a better crimefighter, he has no false modesty and can back up any and all of his boasts. He does, however, relentlessly chastise his former partner for any shortcomings. He is not full of lunatic concepts; all of his ideas are tactical approaches to fighting crime.

Part of me wonders if Waid made this choice deliberately because, as Waid concedes in his editorial, "Ideas are not a series and jokes are not a character," perhaps thinking that a pastiche of Grant Morrison would be a limited character template. The rest of me wonders if Morrison is so bizarre that any attempt to pastiche him would be hopeless. In addition, Waid has declared, "Grant and I have always been the best of friends," so it's possible that Waid's stated vitriol is for Millar and Millar only.

Jarod is certainly more like Mark Millar than John is like Morrison. Jarod is primarily fixated on how his superhero exploits will create a splash in the news and on social media, a marked criticism of Millar concocting superhero comics largely in terms of how he can market them for notoriety and he is relentless in trying to assert his former mentor's irrelevance.

Having a fictional character mimic the showboating Mark Millar is significantly easier, but it's intriguing that Waid largely confines his (forgiving) contempt towards Jarod. Waid presents Jarod as a talented but self-destructive oaf who is crippled by his inability to act on anything other than his anger towards his former partner while John is the more stable and responsible half of the equation.

But regardless. Waid has really hit on something. INSUFFERABLE is a great superhero comic with two hilariously dysfunctional people who are forced by circumstance to work together long after they realized they could not stand to be around each other. Their broken partnership is a joy to watch in the face of rising supervillain threats. And throughout the entire series and right to its finale, Waid's therapist's philosophy rings true. Waid was upset by his friends. He was offended. He was hurt.

But : "Why be mad?" Be constructive. Be creative.
http://thrillbent.com/comics/insufferab … apter-1/#1

2020-09-28 16:56:47

The New York Times got Trump's tax returns. Eighteen years' worth. He's paid no income tax in 10 of the last 15 years. He paid $750 USD in 2016 and the same again in 2017. While in previous years, he paid an overall total of $95 million, he recovered 94.1 million back via federal, state and local refunds.

In addition, Trump filed losses on all of his hotels, golf courses and resorts, losing $315 million since 2000 on his golf courses alone. Before the presidency, Trump had been financing his lifestyle with loans that led to $521 million in debt and with his mortages against various properties, that number is likely closer to $1.1 billion, most of it due by 2022.

He was paid over $400 million from his TV show. Trump could have put his earnings into mutual funds, real estate, technology, gold -- but he instead put his earnings into the money-losing vanity businesses that bore his name. He borrowed heavily to build his hotels, resorts and golf courses which have not earned the revenue to show a profit or repay his debtors. His businesses are now being kept afloat through more borrowed sums and billing taxpayers for government use of these facilities.

His debt is why he's so desperate to remain president.

Trump's debt-drowned, cash-poor enterprises make him the worst businessman in American history with loss after loss from 1962 to today. He has brought the same ineptitude to running America straight into the ground.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 … taxes.html

This will make, I think, absolutely no difference for Trump's supporters. Trumpists know their cult leader is a fraud and a sham; they just thought the fraud might favour them and the sham might support them too and now they're in too deep to allow themselves to think otherwise.

2020-09-25 09:18:22

This sounds cool! I love/hate how SLIDERS has had to be such a do it yourself proposition for fans. We have to make our own DVD sets with episodes at the best quality available and in the right order. We have to make our own episode guides. We have to make our own magazines and our own interviews. We have to make our own media tie-in novels. We have to make our own twentieth anniversary reunion special. We have to make our own screen accurate replica props. We have to make our own scandalous behind the scenes tell-all revelations.

2020-09-23 11:46:24

When it comes to America, I'm of a military mindset that has been carefully honed, crafted and refined through many years of reading CAPTAIN AMERICA comic books (and only through many years of reading CAPTAIN AMERICA comic books).

Ultimately, I believe that America will do the right thing, that Americans are a society of peace, decency, fairness and that their hearts are earnest and true. That they will unite against cynicism, intolerance, ignorance and injustice. That they will overcome all the problems facing the American Dream and make it an American reality. And I have been proven right consistently throughout history (for 50 per cent of the time).

I keep an open mind to God and can't claim to believe in an omnipotent deity. But I do believe in people. It is in the nature of Republicans to seize any opening for power within their means and rules (and sometimes well outside those means and rules). It is in the nature of Americans to recognize that they need new leadership to meet the moment and to commit wholly and fully to rebuilding a broken world. I have faith.

2020-09-22 16:06:05

I feel six years is just right for SUPERGIRL. I'll miss it, but after a shaky but enjoyable start, SUPERGIRL has been a winner for just about every season except the awkwardness of Season 3 when it fired its own showrunner for sexual harassment and fumbled its way to the finale. SUPERGIRL has been so topical, so aware of the world in which it is watched, so earnest in its social justice values -- and I would have worried that SUPERGIRL continuing for a SUPERNATURAL-length period could have overstretched its earnest statements into formula -- a bit like how THE FLASH and ARROW had Barry and Oliver deliver an inspiring speech about something or other every year whether they had anything inspiring to say or not.

No idea what's going on with BATWOMAN or how they can possibly make the show without a recast Kate Kane, but Javicia Leslie is awesome so I'll support her in anything despite my reservations.

THE FLASH lost its way in Season 3 and I don't think it can find its way back because what made THE FLASH a unique TV show was that it was so ridiculously fast, telling stories in 1 - 2 episodes that other shows would tell in 1 - 2 seasons. But with Season 3 and 4, THE FLASH started slowing down its pacing. Without the speed, the characters feel thin and the villains feel disposable and the central theme of the show (speed) is absent and there has never been anything to replace it other than Barry and Iris being cute and Ralph Dibney being funny and now we don't have Ralph Dibney. It's a shame, but it does speak to how Andrew Kreisberg was a pretty great showrunner even though he was rightly and correctly fired off his show for sexual harassment.

Hopefully, SUPERMAN AND LOIS will do well, GREEN ARROW AND THE CANARIES will be picked up, LEGENDS will have a few more seasons and BATWOMAN will... uh, well, like I said, I'll watch Javicia Leslie in anything.

2020-09-22 10:51:55

I don't find fault with Republicans for filling a vacant Supreme Court seat. Americans put them in power. If Americans don't want Republicans to fill Supreme Court seats, they shouldn't elect Republicans to the Senate. To be fair, the Senate isn't elected by a popular vote, but there's enough people voting McConnell and his cronies into office to get them there. And yes, Republicans are being hypocritical to refuse to hold a vote on Obama's pick during an election year only to proceed with Trump's during an election year, but they had the power and authority to do both.

It will be bad for women, bad for Obamacare and bad for Democrats especially if there's a contested election, but the purpose of a political party is to take every opportunity to acquire power to accomplish their ends. Why would anyone other than Joe Biden expect any Republican to do anything any differently? They aren't violating their oaths of office or breaking the law. They are breaking their own self-stated professions of norms and values, but that doesn't surprise me.

Ultimately, it is up to Democrats to win this election by uncontestable margins and rebalance the Supreme Court afterwards. And Democrats could have won in 2016 if they'd chosen a candidate who, fairly or not, was so disliked by so many Americans that voters who disliked both Clinton and Trump went with Trump in sufficient numbers for Trump to win. Democrats can win in 2020 by noting that the incumbent president has been such a disaster that a blandly inoffensive centrist like Joe Biden is someone even conservatives could tolerate to end this nightmare.

2020-09-22 10:15:07

In the comics, THE BOYS features most superheroes as having the public image of the Avengers and Justice League, but in reality, they are serial killers, rapists and sadists with total immunity to prosecution. The Boys are a covert black-ops squad charged with supposedly 'policing' the superheroes, but the only way to police them is to kill them and The Boys start with low level heroes before making their way up the chain, except the methods they use to infiltrate and assassinate make them as monstrous as their enemies. It's all played for dark comedy and it comes to a pretty definitive and bloody conclusion.

I didn't enjoy it. But I respected it because THE BOYS forced a lot of later superhero writers to ask themselves: why is Superman a good and kind soul? Why doesn't Tony Stark abuse his wealth and power? Why isn't Captain America a jingoistic nutjob? Why are the Avengers a solid peacekeeping operation instead of a fascist regime? Why isn't Batman a murderous sociopath? In a post-BOYS era, writing these characters as they'd generally been written before but with actual reasons for their moral standards became a very important challenge.

Writers like Geoff Johns highlighted how, much like Tom Welling on SMALLVILLE, Superman lived a high celebrity and action fuelled lifestyle -- but he would generally go home to his wife or his parents at the end of the day for a family dinner and would till the land, care for cows, write newspaper stories. Even Garth Ennis, who created THE BOYS, found himself treating Superman with respect when writing him in three issues of his HITMAN comic where Superman declares, "I'm not a warrior. I'm not a soldier of any kind. I'm simply doing what I can to help." Journalism is part of Clark's public service, empowering people with knowledge. Superman rejects Max Landis' proposition that he is to rule the Earth or save it. Superman is not above the Earth, deciding its fate or dictating its course; he is a citizen of Earth. He is a man of the people.

Writers like Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka had written Batman as a sociopathic isolationist who became so brusque and abusive that Alfred quit as butler and moved in with Robin. But subsequent writers like Grant Morrison highlighted how Batman, from his very early days, has been a teacher, mentoring the Robins, Batgirl and more and ultimately built a family around himself that would ultimately bring him back to being a man with great compassion for the weak and a nobility that makes him the equal of any superhuman. Writers like James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder would capitalize on how Batman had an instinct for building family (and publishing lines).

Writers like Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis and Matt Fraction changed Tony Stark quite a bit. In the 90s comics with Kurt Busiek, Tony Stark was written as a very blandly heroic, milquetoast hero. Millar, Bendis and Fraction gave Stark the Robert Downey Jr. arrogance and bombast, but they also highlighted how at the end of the day, Stark doesn't actually have any superpowers. Now-disgraced writer Warren Ellis also added to Tony Stark's persona a sense of guilt: Stark used to build weapons that were stolen by terrorists and killed millions; he is now ashamed and forever seeking redemption, hence his curtailed misuse of his privilege and money.

Captain America didn't really need too much adjustment after THE BOYS, but the comics took more care to have Cap frequently at odds with SHIELD and the United States government, at times going to all out war. But the seeds were actually sewn back in the 80s issues of DAREDEVIL by ridiculously jingoistic writer Frank Miller. Miller, like Ennis with Superman, seemed to find something greater in himself when writing Captain America.

An issue of DAREDEVIL has a corrupt general trying to steer Cap away from investigating an illegal supersoldier program, telling Cap that Cap's "loyalty" should have him defer to any order from any US Army commander. Captain America replies, "I'm loyal to nothing, General, except the Dream," a line that has defined the character since then with writers like Mark Gruenwald and Mark Waid making it clear that Captain America represents the American ideal and never the American government.

I've always liked Geoff Johns as a writer especially on Superman. A writer like Garth Ennis declares that superheroes like Superman are absurd because their decency of character is completely at odds with how people with power behave in the real world and creates superheroes that are more realistic. Why would a god on Earth work at a newspaper?

A writer like Geoff Johns, however, acknowledges that it's absurd that Superman has a day job -- but then he embraces it, reinforces it, creates new reasons for it -- because Geoff Johns understands that superheroes are myth and myths are always ridiculous. It is the ridiculous part of the myth that embeds it into the imagination along with the meaning behind the absurdity -- and realizing that ridiculous myths endure long after the realistic creations have been set aside.

Superheroes would not be as rich and meaningful as they are today without THE BOYS comic books. And we should grapple with all the questions raised by THE BOYS. But ultimately, I don't believe that we should make superheroes more like us, as bitter and as angry and as cynical and as corrupt as ourselves. We should not make Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo argumentative, cynical, chaotic, abusive, violent or indifferent in order to reflect our own failings. We should not kill them off one by one to demonstrate how we too would perish during sliding. We should make ourselves more like them; we should adopt Quinn's resourcefulness, Wade's empathy, Rembrandt's love for life and the Professor's wisdom.

2020-09-22 07:12:41

The creator of THE BOYS, Garth Ennis, has spent a lot of time talking about how ridiculous it is that Superman and Batman would have any sense of moral standards. But to me, part of what makes the Justice League and the Avengers special is the fact that with their superhuman powers also comes a sense of superhuman empathy. Superman's microscopic vision and superhearing allow him to feel the fragility of all life around him. Batman's trauma and grief is felt with his awareness that anyone can feel helpless and lost. And in response to the Zack Snyders of the world telling superhero fans to grow up and accept that superheroes must be corrupt and cruel, I hear Dr. Abraham Erskine:

Erskine wrote:

The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion. Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.

But, as I said, there's space in the world for THE BOYS. It's just not my world, that's all.

2020-09-21 15:30:45

My favourite actress asked me if I've been watching THE BOYS and I told her I haven't and won't.

I don't want THE BOYS taken out of existence and I respect that it's got a lot of talent -- but I've read THE BOYS comics and to me, that is not what I am looking for out of superheroes.

In my mind, there are four definitive scenes for superheroes. The first is SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE when Miles Morales asks Peter Parker when he'll know if he's ready to be Spider-Man. Peter replies, "You won't. It's a leap of faith." Later, spurned to action, Miles climbs atop a skyscraper, throws himself off and finally swings, dispensing all his fears, doubts, insecurities, neuroses and weaknesses to realize his potential and everything he has to offer. A superhero represents the height of human achievement in a form unique to each person. A superhero reminds us of our ability to overcome our failings and be empowered by the best of ourselves.

The second superhero defining scene to me is in the recent CAPTAIN MARVEL movie where Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) tells Captain Marvel if she really wants to prove she's a true warrior, she will fight him without her powers unarmed to show she's mastered her emotions. Captain Marvel blasts him in the face and knocks him on his ass but leaves him alive, informing him, "I have nothing to prove to you," and then sends Yon-Rogg back to the Kree homeworld as a messenger to inform the empire that Captain Marvel will be ending their tyranny. Superheroes have great power, but at their best, they use their power precisely, employing precisely the amount of force that is needed and not a hair more.

The sequence of Captain Marvel being inundated with images of Carol Danvers' various defeats throughout her life only for Carol to summon to mind her memories of getting back each time is also good but didn't involve superpowers or superhero duties.

The third definitive superhero scene to me is in the "Green Arrow and the Canaries" backdoor pilot of the final season of Arrow when Mia Smoak dives through the air, lands in a crouch on a rooftop and nocks an arrow to her bow, displaying ferocity, determination and a physical acrobaticism and athleticism that arouses an intense desire in me that compels me to immediately lift some weights before hitting the treadmill. Superheroes should stir something in audiences to encourage them to eat healthy and work out, in my view.

And the fourth definitive superhero scene, for me, is in "Crazy For You" (Season 1, Episode 12 of THE FLASH) where a married couple are trapped in an overturned car struck by a powerline. The Flash extracts the husband first, then returns for the wife only for the car to explode. The husband collapses at the sight of the burning car with his wife inside only to realize she's behind him, rescued just in time by the Flash.

The first time I saw this episode, I was with a girlfriend who remarked that this teaser of the Flash saving two people had no bearing on the rest of the episode. The couple don't return for any subsequent plot function. They aren't involved with the teleporter villain of the week. They don't ever appear again; they are never even mentioned and could have been cut from the story with no impact on the rest of the episode. What was the point? The point is that a superhero's main role is not to beat people up; superheroes SAVE people. They save them from car crashes, fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, urban sprawl and severe weather.

I've never seen THE BOYS, but I've read the comics and I know for a fact that the characters of THE BOYS weren't created to do any of the above. I hope people enjoy THE BOYS. But for me... thanks but no thanks.

2020-09-21 14:17:08

If Republicans are drummed out of government, they made it happen. They have the White House and the Senate, yet they are incapable of crisis response, allowing a pandemic to shatter their economy and populace and choosing an inept delusional as their leader. They have made it quite clear for four years that despite holding government, they are unable to govern and have no interest in governance.

2020-09-20 07:56:41

I am not sure McConnell has the votes. He may. And for optics, Democrats need to fight it, although I can’t see how they could stop it.

But I don’t think they need to win this fight. Let Trump and McConnell put a Conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Democrats can use that to show how that majority will ensure an end to health care and women’s reproductive rights unless a Biden presidency and a Democratic Senate can add more judges to rebalance the Supreme Court. Ginsburg’s sad passing and threatened legacy have led to a swell of fundraising gains for Democrats.

Republicans can win this battle. They probably will because right now, they have more power. But there are more Americans than there are Republicans. There are always going to be more Americans than there are Republicans because Americans care about each other and Republicans only care about power.

(The views of ireactions do not reflect those of the Sliders.tv community.)

2020-09-17 14:41:10

Who wouldn't have lunch with Cleavant Derricks? Transmodiar ATE Cleavant Derricks' lunch once. He's a very pleasant person. Anyone who insists on having family dinners with David Peckinpah is clearly determined to like people.

2020-09-17 10:24:17

Nothing is a lock. And nothing should ever be a lock. America is the birthplace to the finest ideals in human history, the belief that all are created equal and that we are one and that the loyalty of its citizens is not to an office or a politician or a leader but to the Dream.

Americans have never fully lived up to that, but every time they have committed to the founding ideals that every person should be able to live out their full potential if they put in the work, they have prevailed. I am so proud to be a neighbour to a country that produced the life-affirming philosophies and spirit of equality and decency espoused by Superman and Captain America and Anna from the movie FROZEN. No other nation could have could have created them.

America is in a bad place right now. But Americans have never failed to accomplish anything so long as they have done it together. Americans have never been defeated so long as they've been united. And I don't believe they will be defeated now.

I don't know that for a fact. I can't prove it because what convinces me that a new dawn is coming is based on polling statistics. Polling statistics don't necessarily reflect on-the-ground difficulties and polls have margins of error and the incumbent president is empowered to exercise his corruption to the fullest extent of his office. There are serious problems ahead. Massive, taxing battles that will cost us dearly. Success is not assured. I don't know that you'll win it. But I hope it. And I am counting on it.

(Yes, I'm intentionally quoting some of my (reluctantly) favourite Americans.)

(I cannot emphasize enough in the name of Quinn's cat, Wade's teddy bear, Rembrandt's afro and the Professor's three piece suit that the views of ireactions do not reflect those of the Sliders.tv community.)

2020-09-16 20:44:43

Where are you getting 290 votes for Biden? Five Thirty Eight puts him at 326 and they warned of a Trump victory in 2016. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 … -forecast/

The Economist projects 334. https://projects.economist.com/us-2020- … /president

NPR puts 101 votes as a toss up with Biden holding 268 and Trump holding 169 meaning Biden only needs to win one toss up state out of six whereas Trump needs all six. On paper, Trump is done. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/91200417 … till-ahead

In reality, there’s an issue of voter suppression.

2020-09-16 12:49:35

Yes.

**

Trump inexplicably bragged to Bob Woodward that Trump knew the virus was deadly and a pandemic was real but lied about it in public. Woodward has released the audio recordings. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol … 768376002/

In another piece of bizarre Trumpian projection, Trump blamed Biden for failing to lay out a national mask mandate. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol … 814307002/

It’s a nonsensical accusation because former Vice President Biden has no authority to enact a national mask mandate because he is not currently president. It’s like under the bluster, Trump already considers Biden president and has accepted defeat.

But I wouldn’t get comfortable. With the USPS slowing the mail and gerrymandering and voter intimidation and roll purges, it’s going to take a landslide for Democrats to eke out a win.

2020-09-13 02:18:01

I don't know what's going to happen. But I believe in truth. And I'm a big fan of justice. And I am always heartened by the unique capacity that America has for both. It hasn't always lived up to it. But I believe that it can. I have hope.

2020-09-08 20:35:22

I want to explain how Jerry clearly had no respect for SLIDERS until 2002 or so -- but it occurs to me that I should stop holding Jerry O'Connell -- and myself -- in contempt for what we did or didn't do between the ages of 20 - 24. And instead focus on what we are doing today. In that spirit, this is Jerry's Screen Rant interview from September 7:

Jerry O'Connell wrote:

It's currently on Peacock television. So the launch of this Peacock streaming service gave a new life to SLIDERS. It was on Netflix for a second, but then I think they stopped paying for it, so it's not on Netflix anymore. It was originally a Universal show. It was, I believe, Sci-Fi Channel's first original series. So Sci-Fi is part of Universal, and Peacock is part of that, whatever... I don't even know what the parent company is... It used to be General Electric, now it's Comcast. Sorry, I'm not up to date on the trades! But anyway, if it does well on Peacock, I bet Universal would return my phone call about a SLIDERS reboot.
I think it just depends on how it does on Peacock. They also care a lot about social media. They care about what's trending on Twitter and all that stuff. I think, if the streaming numbers are there, they will return my phone call. I'll say, as of now, no one has returned my SLIDERS phone call. Not to call anybody out... But I did make a phone call, and it has not been returned.
I know I'm not Shonda Rhimes here, but it's almost like dating. I can't call them up and be like, "You've gotta do a SLIDERS reboot, I'm telling you, everybody's DM-ing me, I'm getting all these messages on Twitter." I just can't do that. Peacock has to swipe right on my photo and write to me, "Hey, I'm interested in meeting up for a coffee," you know? It's like online dating. It can't just be me swiping and saying I want to go on a date; they have to swipe back, we have to match as a couple.
If it came close, I would take it to the fans online. I would take it to the fans, and see where they would like to see it. And I would call John Rhys-Davies, who I've gotta call back, and Cleavant Derricks, and Sabrina Lloyd. But I would take the temperature of what's out there. Being part of STAR TREK, it's funny; after doing SUPERMAN and STAR TREK, it's all right there on Reddit and Twitter. Everybody can be heard. I'm a firm believer in the idea that the fanbase, while loud and sometimes a little negative and maybe a little angry, I tend to believe that they're right.
If I work on something for STAR TREK, like LOWER DECKS, which is hilarious and everyone should go to CBS All Access and watch it, but STAR TREK isn't my baby. I'm just a guest. Someone's allowing me to drive a Ferrari for a couple of hours. I have to make sure I don't crash it, keep it at a sensible 70-75 MPH. Maybe I can take it out for a couple of donuts or sharp turns, but eventually, I have to get out and give the keys to STRANGE NEW WORLDS or whatever is the next STAR TREK show. It's not my Ferrari, so I want to make sure it doesn't come back with a scratch. That's why I always listen to the fans online.
https://screenrant.com/ballbuster-movie … interview/

2020-09-08 19:37:53

I think Jerry would be very eager to be in a SLIDERS reboot and would agree to do an audio drama. I don't know that a SLIDERS audio drama needs a large, pre-existing fanbase; it can court a new audience and if Jerry wouldn't do the voice, the producers could hire someone else. It'd be fine so long as the writing were presenting a reboot and not requiring that Quinn sound like the same character we met in 1995. But... I think Jerry would probably do it if it didn't interfere with his other work even if the pay were minimal. And if we can't get John, we could settle for his vocal stand-in, Bob Joles (a voice actor hired to play John's characters on animated shows if John is too busy to return).

I don't think Jerry O'Connell's profile in 2020 is any different from where it was in 2004. Jerry in 2004 and today is a working TV actor, but he is not a big star. He is, like John Rhys-Davies, a known name and a character performer. He isn't a long-term lead, hasn't been since 1996. I guess he leads CARTER, but that show only produces 10 episodes a year and there's no word on a third season.

Jerry's best chance was from 1994 - 2002. From 1994 to 2002, he tapped into a vital market as the sensitive, earnest, intelligent, thinking man's action hero. In 2010, Benedict Cumberbatch would redefine that sort of character as Sherlock Holmes in SHERLOCK, but Jerry had the first mainstream crack at it and could have kept going had he chosen his post-SLIDERS roles differently. The role that Jerry craved and missed out on and failed to win was the role of Peter Parker in the Sam Raimi SPIDER-MAN movie.

Peter Parker would have been the perfect synthesis of Jerry's brainy science hero persona with a cultural icon known worldwide -- but Jerry in 2002 would have likely played the character with the same smirking, preening arrogance that he applied to Quinn in Season 3. I think after that, Jerry's ego took a massive hit and since then, his performances have rebounded significantly. His episode of SAMANTHA WHO was hilarious as he played a reformed mugger.

He was terrific in the MUNSTERS reboot. He is absurd and self-mocking on CARTER. He has plenty of voice work in animation, he earns a great living -- but his career isn't really that different from 2013. I don't think his feelings have changed: he lost his chance to play THE science hero, Peter Parker as Spider-Man, and now longs to play HIS science hero, Quinn Mallory. I don't think his enthusiasm for SLIDERS has waned; I think it was non-existent until 2002 and now it increases with each passing year. And I think Jerry would like to play Quinn again -- even for a meagre rate -- to play his science hero one more time.

2020-09-08 17:24:30

Well, I believe in America. I mean, I just read the entire SECRET EMPIRE storyline on Marvel Unlimited where Captain America is rewritten into a HYDRA agent who believes that the Nazis originally won WWII until history was altered and he only just got his true memories back. I felt great relief when the original Captain America was restored and returned to take his counterpart to jail and found the story a pointed commentary on the modern era. I believe in what it had to offer.

And I believe that, ultimately, Trump's efforts to curtail and prevent the vote will backfire: that DeJoy will be too intimidated by a House investigation and his prominent and likely criminal profile to stop mail-in voting anymore than he already has and that the measures to bypass his interference will be successful. That Trump's efforts to seize the ballot boxes before the votes can be counted will be curtailed due to his own ineptitude and effective legal challenges from the Democrats who are already preparing for it. That Biden's victory will be so obvious and thorough on Election Night that counting the mail-in ballots becomes a formality rather than a blue shift. That cooler heads will prevail. That Trump, demoralized and boxed in, will flee in terror and abandon his efforts as he has so many failed business ventures.

Admittedly...

Barack Obama wrote:

Don't underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up.

I don't know that things will work out. But I hope it. And I have faith in the ideals of this country and the people who live in it.

**

In other news, the Trump campaign has gone from a $1 billion war chest that Obama worried about to having $200 million left in the bank despite being six to ten points behind Biden. How could they have spent so much and had so little to show for it? The answer: Trump has been using campaign funds to pay his own legal fees, to hand massive amounts to his family members, and spent little of his campaign budget on the actual campaign. In addition, his fundraising has flatlined badly because he refuses to engage in the 90 minute Zoom sessions that have allowed the Biden campaign to rise and catch up financially.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … -cash.html

2020-09-08 16:40:20

I don't see how it's "one side prepping for all out war" when the Trump administration has called for delaying election day, called mail-in ballots fraudulent despite the president using them himself, called for military force to intimidate voters in Democrat cities, wants federal agents to do the same, declared that only Election Day results should be accepted and that mail-in ballots should be discarded, says that any loss on his end can only be due to fraud even when he's losing every national poll, is bragging about crippling the US Postal Service to prevent people from voting against him, is denying foreign interference in his favour even after being impeached for courting it and has every intention of using the full force of his office to steal the election.

Democrats would be insane and suicidal not to run the war games and prepare for Trump administration's loudly advertised tactics and self-confessed intentions to prevent counting all votes in the election, to make it as difficult as possible to vote in the election, to declare victory regardless of the outcome and to refuse to accept any result other than the one the Trump administration wants. It isn't arson to hear a fire alarm and start reaching for an extinguisher. It isn't bioterror to see mounting infections and wear a mask.

The Democrats accepted defeat in 2016 when their polls put Clinton's lead over Trump within the usual margin of polling error and the results put her slightly behind instead of what they thought was slightly ahead. Biden's lead is well above the margin of error.

2020-09-08 08:37:18

I think you have a point about the economics of audioplays. Amazon is a giant. Yet, Amazon Audible operated on a peanuts model for THE X-FILES. Rather than commission new material meant for the visualess format of audio drama, they used comic book scripts that need visuals to function. Why use something so unsuitable? Probably because they only needed to pay a small fee to writer Joe Harris to secure the material and didn't have to hire a writer; the director, Dirk Maggs, had to adapt the scripts to audio as part of his existing duties.

Amazon Audible hired David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and many of the series' performers -- but they had replacement actors for Annabeth Gish (Reyes), Robert Patrick (Doggett), Nicholas Lea (Krycek), Steven Williams (X) and Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat). Not soundalikes -- just replacements. And the budget was so small that there were no rehearsals. The actors recorded it as they read it for the first time. It was like someone had assembled the play from the actors' voicemail messages. It sounded disconnected and detached.

Amazon clearly didn't see much earning potential in THE X-FILES and didn't want to invest in getting all the actors or a script suited to the medium or even a readthrough.

But I do think SLIDERS could work on audio as part of an initiative to create audio drama for a mainstream audience if NBCUniversal wants to try tapping into the podcast market with a small streaming service and a subscription fee that is low in cost but would be affordable for a high number of subscribers.

I can imagine NBCU Audio Originals as a brand headlined by SLIDERS, KOJAK, SEAQUEST, THE MUNSTERS, EUREKA, FARSCAPE and WAREHOUSE 13. I can see it as a low cost, high volume subscription service for podcasts. $5 a month. Entertainment for the commuter with earbuds or car stereo or for listening at home. Actors recording from home with equipment and sound blocking gear sent by courier.

Jerry and John shouldn't and wouldn't work for free. But if this hypothetical streaming service offered them a small upfront fee but a percentage of subscription gross based on the number of listens to the SLIDERS audioplays, they might sign for a year's worth of audio recording sessions with the caveat that if there is a second year, they need to be paid their usual rate upfront.

2020-09-07 16:33:31

TemporalFlux wrote:

ireactions wrote:
This is pretty slow and unaffordable for most TV animated projects.
Yep. It really turns out to be a similar investment to that of a live action series with CGI (especially if the animation is purely rotoscoped).
And I forgot to mention earlier, but I truly love Don Bluth. When I created my fantasy-type pitch to Marvel years ago, I sought out someone who had a Don Bluth type art style (and it turns out she had even trained as a Disney animator though she unfortunately wasn’t able to work on any notable project). What she produced was exactly what I was looking for, and I still love how it turned out.

It's interesting: Don Bluth has advised against rotoscoping (filming a scene live, tracing the outlines of the actors and then drawing on top of the tracings). He says that every time he tried it, it created the sense that the characters were 'floating' above the background because human beings ultimately have a gravity and weight that animated characters don't and the sense of being tethered to the Earth has to be achieved by drawing animated characters into an animated environment and interacting with it. His version of rotoscoping is to create video reference with actors and incorporate their movements into the animation.

I also love how Bluth hates TITAN AE, one of my favourite films, and it just goes to show how the artist is not the art.

Anyway. I'd like to see a SLIDERS animated series. But a 'realistic' vision of a SLIDERS animated series wouldn't capture the original appeal of the Vancouver years. Hand-drawn animation could give you the range of locations and set designs that benefit SLIDERS, but the only character who would translate effectively into animation as-is would be the bombastic Professor Arturo. Quinn, Wade and Rembrandt would need to be retrofitted significantly for simplified character designs and simplified animation which requires exaggerated gestures over subtle performance (as we've seen in LOWER DECKS). A computer generated version of SLIDERS might be able to have more body language and performance through the digital marionettes of such shows, but the locations would suffer in that the sliders would be exploring strangely empty worlds that only ever seem to have the immediate guest stars and no background extras (as we've seen in the Nickelodeon NINJA TURTLES).

I'm not saying SLIDERS couldn't face these problems, but it would be a very different version of SLIDERS than what we saw in Seasons 1 - 2 and it would have to create its own appeal because it wouldn't be able to capture what made the original work.

For the longest time, I tried to bring SLIDERS back and the only format I could offer was the zero-budget PDF screenplay which in recent years has become the zero-budget Google Doc screenplay. I think the audioplay might be the next step forward. If David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will do X-FILES for Audible, it's possible.

That said, Audible put so little time, money and effort into their X-FILES project that they didn't bother to pay Duchovny and Anderson to do any kind of rehearsal on the script and had both actors record all their lines as they read the pages for the first time with no idea what they were saying or why they were saying it. Jerry O'Connell at this stage in his career would read your shopping list for union scale, but John Rhys-Davies wouldn't put up with that and demand rehearsals.

2020-09-05 22:35:07

The human element is very present in the animated films ANASTASIA and TITAN A.E. (both by Gary Goldman and Don Bluth). The characters have a lot of physical interaction with their surroundings and each other, circling, pacing, touching, recoiling. They have most of the nuances of live action actors.

But this is achieved by the directors' process of hiring actual performers to act out the scripted scenes in front of them which they film and record -- and then they use it as reference when animating the characters to add in the body language and physicality that they see in the human performers.

This is pretty slow and unaffordable for most TV animated projects.

2020-09-05 20:19:46

I bought a Marvel Unlimited subscription. For sixty bucks, you can read almost every Marvel comic from the 60s to about 2019 through their digital app. And it's great value for the money and far better than paying $5 - $7 for a 22 page comic book. But...

It is really hard to figure out how to read the crossover storylines. For example, SECRET EMPIRE (where Captain America was rewritten by a reality-warping weapon into an Agent of HYDRA) -- it unfolds across STEVE ROGERS CAPTAIN AMERICA, SAM WILSON CAPTAIN AMERICA, THUNDERBOLTS, then SECRET EMPIRE. But the SECRET EMPIRE event reading list provided in the app is missing at least 8 - 12 issues of each series. I had to go on Wikipedia and various Wikia sites to find the complete list and then manually search for each issue within the app. The average person is not going to do this.

Marvel Unlimited also provides reading lists for characters. But they too are riddled with missing entries. Sam Wilson's era as Captain America is missing the ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA series even though that was his first solo series in the role! DAREDEVIL has a fairly complete run except after the Frank Miller issues, the 233 - 317 range is riddled with massive omissions.

But again -- it's only $60 to read whatever you want that's there. That same $60 would only get you 10 - 12 physical comic books or individual digital releases from Marvel. And it really shows how Marvel Comics is not seeking to make very much profit or even offer accessible reading material to people who want to get into their comics without needing to dive into guidebooks and lists to figure out what to read in what order just to figure out how to read one storyline. It's research and development for feature films and Disney+ and Hulu TV shows.

Anyway. I'm mostly reading 90s era DAREDEVIL (which is hilarious with very funny writing from Karl Kesel and Joe Kelly) and MS. MARVEL (Carol Danvers who will be Captain Marvel) comics from 1977. I did read the entire SECRET EMPIRE story with Captain America and I really, really liked it, although I was very relieved when the real Captain America came back and fought the Nazi Captain America.

2020-09-04 20:08:26

I regret to say I don't see this moving the needle. Trump supporters will either declare that Trump is right to call veterans names or deny he said it or claim there was some nuance to his statement that twists it to say that veterans aren't treated well. We've all seen Informant claim that Trump's inauguration crowds were huge or that Trump didn't mock a disabled reporter and was merely gesturing or that Trump isn't a white supremacist and merely respectful of history and Informant isn't even stupid, just determined to guard his cult.

I want to believe what Biden says about most Americans being decent, but the truth is that 40 per cent of them feel validated by their current president and while 40 per cent is less than most, it's alarmingly close to half.

2020-09-04 20:05:06

I'd like a SLIDERS animated series. SLIDERS would benefit from the range of locations and interiors and costumes and designs that come with animation. I'd like to see cel-shaded CG animation like the MTV SPIDER-MAN animated series which was hyperdynamic and full of life. And I'd like to see designs and motion akin to the work of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (ANASTASIA, TITAN A.E.). Their films show characters that were drawn to be lifelike and animated with a full range of movement: body language, gestures, postures, walking and talking, changing their gait, leaning, sitting, standing again.

However, animation for TV has its drawbacks. The first: because of limited budgets, characters often don't have as much motion as live action. THE HOLLOW, a terrific animated show about three kids travelling to different worlds, needed its characters to be very exaggerated in their body language and expression, well beyond the subtlety of real actors. TV cartoons are often overblown parodies of people.

I've watched some episodes of DOCTOR WHO reconstructed in animation and while actor Patrick Troughton could make his face a fascinating canvas of mystery and emotion, a drawing of Troughton is simply a still with some movement.

Another issue: the freedom of locations can also be an issue. I really loved the CG animated shows NINJA TURTLES and BEWARE THE BATMAN. However, the budget was limited: with all the character designs and sets, the Ninja Turtles and Batman were living in cities that were oddly empty.

Both shows were conspicuously lacking in extras. Aside from the main characters and featured guest-stars, the streets and restaurants and hockey arenas and shopping malls and office buildings of these shows were devoid of people in the background. This could be a serious problem for rendering parallel Earth civilizations convincingly.

However, the technology is always leaping forward.

2020-09-03 20:16:24

I'm not aware of these other definitions, but because it's you, I'm sure it's some juvenile sexual euphemism of which I know nothing but it's likely something you'd catch and remove from one of my screenplays because it'd be distracting to a large number of readers.

2020-09-03 06:48:32

Well, I wouldn't have wanted you to be in a CIVIL WAR type situation like Steve Rogers being in trouble for harbouring a fugitive. If I camped out in your backyward, you could claim you didn't know I was there.

2020-09-02 17:22:26

I feel like Margot Robbie's insistence on an R-rating and the title BIRDS OF PREY really harmed the success of the film. I like Slider_Quinn21's vision of a more DC Extended Universe oriented Harley Quinn movie. But I like the BIRDS OF PREY movie exactly like it is except that it has the wrong name and it has a few expletives that, if cut, would have allowed teen girls to watch it in theatres. I didn't even realize this was a Harley Quinn movie because of the title until my cineplex changed the marquee and online ticket listings to read HARLEY QUINN AND THE BIRDS OF PREY. Teenaged girls who would love to imagine themselves as Harley Quinn or in Harley Quinn's girl gang could not see this movie. It hid itself from the audience to whom it would have meant the most and even if they could find it, they wouldn't be allowed to see it.

With BIRDS OF PREY, Margot Robbie insisted on keeping a title and a rating that were ultimately irrelevant to her content, simply because she had a vision of Harley Quinn in an R-rated movie called BIRDS OF PREY. And it was pointless and self-destructive and I just do not understand this person at all and neither could the movie theatres which changed the name of the movie in their listings.

2020-09-01 16:55:50

You know, Matt, if you're going to tell people you have cancer, you might also be specific in letting them know what you told me -- that you appear to be out of the woods but will be getting regular checkups. Much in the same way a once-potential arsonist might assure his readers that his days of wishing death and destruction for past slights and misdeeds are behind him.

Transmodiar wrote:

ireactions wrote:
One night, in a fit of rage, I looked up where she lived and decided to burn her house down and then flee the country.
:-O

Yeah, it's a good thing I didn't do this, or I would have been on your doorstep the next morning asking to pitch a tent in your backyard. The life of a criminal is not for me.

2020-09-01 16:03:13

I think any real movement in the polls is variability in enthusiasm among voters who have largely made up their minds. The question is whether or not they'll be able to vote. Slate.com has released a guide on the best way to vote in each state: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … guide.html

In 2016, the main problem with Democrats was that voters who disliked Trump and Clinton equally and went with the lesser known politician. In 2020, those voters who dislike Trump and Biden equally are going with the one who is inclined to save them from COVID-19 rather than pretending that it'll magically disappear with no federal response.

As for those who support a president who's collapsed their economy, destroyed their jobs, attacked their health care and intends to let them die without lifting a finger to help them -- they're in a cult of personality where their fealty and independent thinking have been subsumed to following their chosen leader rather than see that they voted and will vote again for someone who has betrayed them. It insulates them from seeing the horror of their situation and so they march in streets unmasked, call Dr. Fauci a fraud for telling them hard truths and claim a gunman who shot unarmed man was acting in self defense when he fired on those trying to disarm him. (By this logic, a murderer can only be charged for his first kill and the rest of his body count doesn't count at all.)

Then there who see Trump clearly and will vote for him because they are fortunate to benefit economically from Trump. Such supporters have seized upon the COVID crisis to extract more wealth from the poor.

The rest see Trump for what he is: someone who will inflict his views on people with coersion, rhetoric, attacks drawing on improvised fantasy -- and they admire that because they too go through the world shouting down anyone who disagrees with them, seeking to defeat them with volume and grievance rather than facts and respect for subjectivity.

Informant called you and me liars for viewing the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a success for releasing 13 hit movies in eight years and viewing the DC Extended Universe as a failure. (The DCEU is airing its finale on a streaming network.) He admired that Trump didn't need facts, information, teamwork, curiosity or any need to update his views based on information, even unwelcome information. Informant likes a bully. A lot of Trump supporters do and might feel diminished by a pandemic only to be fired up by a convention that pretends the pandemic doesn't exist and encourages them to do the same.

I don't want to believe that's all Americans. I confess that I think poorly of Americans because I see most of them as Trump and Informant. But in recent weeks, I listen to Grandpop and I don't see you that way at all. I see this:

Joe Biden wrote:

This is the United States of America. Any time we've ever set our minds to something, we've never failed as long as we've done it together.
Everybody thinks that we've led the world because we're the most powerful nation in the world. And that's true. We are. But we've not led by the example of our power. It's been the power of our example.
I really believe that the vast majority of the American people are truly decent. I think they're angry right now. I think they're fed up. I think they're looking for some authenticity and honesty. I think it's going to be hard, but I think they're going to be with us.

Biden has not done anything to piss me off in three whole weeks and he keeps doing everything I ask him to do in my fan mail including requesting the release of Tara Reade's documents, reminding the world that he has a stutter, adopting the Green New Deal in all but name and handling crazy people with calm.

(Biden emerged from a limo in Pittsburgh carrying three boxes of pizza for some firefighters at their station. A heckler standing atop a truck started screaming at Biden about how Biden was going to eliminate fracking and decimate the oil and gas industry. I feared another crazed eruption of incoherence from Grandpa Joe, but Biden merely looked at the man sternly and called out, "Don't jump!" Thank God. Let's see if Gramps can make it one more week without blowing his stack and then it'll have been a month.)

2020-08-31 15:52:15

Chadwick Boseman saved me from a prison sentence.

I once had a very abusive employer who would deliberately give me vague instructions and scream at me for failing to meet the unspecified specifics. Who would give me assignments and then deny having done so, screaming at me for doing unsanctioned work. Who would then scream at me for not doing assignments she hadn't assigned. Who would accuse me of stealing from her office if she couldn't find something. Who would accuse me of sabotaging her computer if she forgot how to turn it on. I filed an abuse and harassment complaint and she was no longer employed. But I was still seething and furious from the constant, daily attacks. The indignity. The cruelty. I wasn't satisfied that she'd been chastised and dismissed; I wanted her to suffer more pain, more grief, more agony.

One night, in a fit of rage, I looked up where she lived and decided to burn her house down and then flee the country. But since I'd purchased my ticket to CIVIL WAR a week in advance, I had to see the movie first.

I'm glad I did. I'm I saw it on opening night. I'm glad Zemo's vengeful vindictiveness made me uneasy. I'm glad I heard Chadwick Boseman, playing T'Challa, tell Zemo, "Vengeance has consumed you. It's consuming them. I am done letting it consume me."

It made me realize that as angry as I might be, it wasn't worth destroying my own life and getting a criminal conviction for a passing moment of satisfaction. It made me realize that I had to stop thinking of transgressions, past or present, as something for which I had to mete out punishment or get even. It made me realize that self-defence is one thing, but actively pursuing people for past wrongs simply to satisfy a desire to strike back was a massive waste of time and only would only ever damage my own life and well-being. That repairing the damage they'd done was more important than hurting them back.

I would probably be in jail for arson right now if I hadn't seen CIVIL WAR when I did and if Boseman's performance hadn't been as moving as it were.

2020-08-29 18:45:44

I realize that it is obvious to you, Grizzlor. But it's not obvious to me. I am not a pollster. I am just very agitated about this race and I appreciate Cohn and Silver explaining the numbers because I wouldn't otherwise understand them. I'm not Temporal Flux; I'm not good at EVERYTHING.

2020-08-29 16:23:45

Biden didn't get more than a 1 - 2 point bounce in the polls after his convention. Trump got a bounce in the polls after his convention. Biden's ten point lead now looks like a mere six point lead with Trump catching up.

Pollster Nate Cohn (New York Times) notes that a six point lead is not a good place to be for either party as it's dangerously close to polling error.

Nate Cohn wrote:

Leaving aside the context of a 'bounce' for a second: Biden+6 is a tough number for analysts. Biden's still the fav, but it's getting into the zone where it doesn't take *that* much of a polling error with *that* much of an Electoral College edge for Trump to get a close race.
In the context of a bounce, Biden+6 is not a great number for Trump. After all, bounces are usually... bounces. Looking back, incumbent presidents would usually be expected to fare worse than their standing post-convention. Minus-6 it's not exactly what you want your upside to be.

And Nate Silver (Five Thirty Eight) thinks it's a small rise for Trump at the same time as a small diminishment for Biden after his small post-convention increase.

Nate Silver wrote:

One other technical aside: when measuring a bounce from post-RNC polls, it matters whether you're comparing against polls that were conducted before the conventions or rather in between the conventions, which may have captured Biden's bounce.
Morning Consult, for instance, generally had the race at about Biden +8 before the conventions. Then that gets up to +10 after the DNC. Now it's +6. So does that reflect a 4-point bounce for Trump? I'd say no; it's more like a 2-point bounce + a small Biden bounce wearing off. Trump might get a bounce because for four days, voters were living in a fantasy world where COVID-19 was behind us, etc. But now we're going to snap back to reality and whatever bounce he gets could snap back, too.

Last month in the right-wing website, The Bulwark, a columnist remarked that all political races with candidates well-known to the public have "a natural equilibrium" that is highly predictable and that Biden's place in the polls before the pandemic hit was being ahead of Trump by six points which is where the polls have put him again. https://thebulwark.com/newsletter-issue … ds-really/

Cohn said we won't have a clear picture from polling until the the middle of September.

2020-08-28 20:49:06

Chadwick Boseman has passed away.
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/chad … 234753232/

2020-08-28 18:37:32

An X-FILES branded animated series is in development. It's a spin-off not featuring Mulder and Scully, and Chris Carter will be tangentially involved without being the showrunner.

https://tvline.com/2020/08/28/x-files-a … eries-fox/

2020-08-28 16:57:05

It's deranged that the Republican National Convention was effectively a superspreader event on the White House lawn with few masks and zero social distancing. Trump is so desperate for the adulation of crowds that he's prepared to kill the people who would vote for him. It's literally diseased.

Mary Trump, his niece, remarked that Uncle Donald talks as though Joe Biden is already president and Trump is trying to unseat him, an interesting bit of projection on Trump's part.

2020-08-28 10:11:49

One thing we haven't gotten into -- there were recently MASSIVE layoffs across all of Warner Bros. and the DC Comics division took huge hits. At last 12 senior editors were laid off and their office staffers were shuttered, leading to about one-third of DC Comics being let go as part of the 800 WB dismissals. Of course, CEO compensation remains at an all time high in WB. A small fraction of CEO salaries could have easily covered most of the costs of the lower level staffers being cast aside.

Looking at DC Comics and comic book publishing, however -- comic books aren't working economically and have not been working for a long time. As Temporal Flux has pointed out, you could buy 2 - 3 chocolate bars for the cost of one DC comic, buy a video game for the cost of 10 issues and you could get 15 - 30 hours out of the average video game but finish all 10 comic books inside 45 minutes. Comic books are overpriced, offer poor value for the content, and the industry has refused to change its format and business model because it is being kept afloat by comic stores that have a dwindling number of readers come in every Wednesday to buy the latest issues.

Marvel has survived because publishing isn't required to be particularly profitable and notorious cheapskate Ike Perlmutter ran Marvel Comics like a startup on the grounds that it was the Marvel movies and television shows and video games and merchandise that earned money. The comics were treated as research and development. DC Comics, in contrast, has never had that kind of protection or minimalism, and it was likely viewed as a publishing arm that generated a lot of product with a lot of labour for very, very, very little reward. With Marvel, the comics division was for a long time also working on TV and film. There was a separation around Season 3 of AGENTS OF SHIELD where TV and comics were under Perlmutter and film was under Kevin Feige. Last year, however, Feige was promoted to handle the TV and comic book branches as well.

In contrast, DC Comics has very little influence over DC properties in film, television and merchandising. While individual DC creators are hired to specific DC properties (comic book writer Geoff Johns runs STARGIRL and consults on CW shows), the DC branch was not considered to be part of the TV and film teams. With a third of DC Comics gone, the output of the comics will likely be cut as well. There could come a point when WB no longer sees the value in publishing DC characters in monthly comics that few people read and they'll exist in TV, film, video games, audio dramas and commercials -- but not comic books.

But it doesn't have to be that way, of course. If comics can be made affordable and accessible, it can work, but the industry is currently locked into monthly 20 page pamphlets sold by specialty stores. I stopped reading comic books regularly around Season 2 of SUPERGIRL, realizing that I wasn't a fan of comics as much as superheroes and everything I wanted from superheroes was now on Netflix, especially when the SUPERGIRL comic book was an unfathomable mess while the SUPERGIRL TV series was a delight.

2020-08-25 20:55:55

Well, since winning the nomination, Biden (and Sanders and Warren) have assembled a platform. The platform is to create industry that addresses the climate crisis with the belief that Americans can earn a good living by entering newly created professions that will produce zero-waste energy and ecologically sound transportation, manufacturing, infrastructure and technology -- and also exercise the Defense Production Act of 1950 to produce COVID-19 medications, vaccines, tests and protective equipment. Medicare for all senior citizens, student debt forgiveness, increased tuition grants, police reform (but not defunding), a public option to Obamacare (but not Medicare for All), a return to all abandoned climate change accords.

The Democrats have effectively done what Slider_Quinn21 advised. They have presented themselves as problem solvers and crisis management professionals. They are here to help and serve. They have a plan (from Elizabeth Warren) for the pandemic. They have a plan (from Elizabeth Warren) for the climate crisis. They have a plan (stenciled from Bernie Sanders) for student debt and the economy. More importantly (and frustratingly), they have declared that they are a party of triangulators and centrists who will welcome Republicans and Democrats alike.

Vox had a neat article about how Joe Biden's platform is that he likes you; that Biden believes a president's job is to like every American even if only some of them support him. https://www.vox.com/2020/8/21/21387131/ … nce-speech

Joe Biden is apparently so likable that even neo-Nazi Richard Spencer endorsed him and declared Make America Great Again a failed movement -- to the horror of the Biden campaign which hurriedly repudiated neo-Nazi Richard Spencer. But you know it's significant when neo-Nazi Richard Spencer favours Biden and declare that he'll be voting for Democrats across the board. It isn't because neo-Nazi Richard Spencer found a soul, of course. It's because COVID-19 infects neo-Nazis just as much as people of colour and Jews and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer isn't suicidal. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics … r-BB18ktto

2020-08-25 14:38:27

DeJoy is going to do everything short of blowing up post offices to try to suppress votes, but he's been so overt and obvious that people can prepare in advance and work past him by voting early by mail or in person or by submitting their votes to ballot boxes. One wonders why he wasn't more subtle. Instead, he made a spectacle of it and that sounded the alarm.

The DNC was fine. Generally, I don't really think you get anything revolutionary or meaningful out of conventions that wouldn't come from the campaign, but the speeches were comforting and laid out the Democrats' position as servants and problem solvers offering empathy. Barack and Michelle Obama laid out a dark future for the country unless people exercise their power and vote and prepare for all the difficulties that are coming.

The major area where Biden solidified his public persona after his primary victory was made on a platform of vagueness -- Biden is a president who will guide the nation in their grief as opposed to the current president who is devoid of compassion or empathy. That's an emotional appeal rather than a policy position, of course.

I got the sense that Biden could be a serious security risk, however, in that he keeps giving his personal phone number out to strangers including an elevator operator and a boy with a stutter, both of whom spoke digitally at the convention. The latter, however, was a clever way of Biden doing what I asked him to do in a letter -- to tell the public that his supposed 'cognitive decline' when he says "Senate" instead of "President" and can't seem to speak the name of his former president are his struggle with his stutter.

I'm not going to bother watching the Republican convention. It's just going to be lies about how Trump did a great job fighting COVID-19 and claiming that Biden is a socialist. (I wish Biden were a socialist.)

2020-08-25 11:27:57

I'm not really sure where we stand on USPS right now. Postmaster DeJoy insists all service slowdowns were unintentional and temporary and that he supports mail-in voting and plans to use it himself -- but he's also refusing to reconnect the decommissioned sorting machines. Pelosi has declared that his capitulation is a lie and postal workers on the ground level have reported that despite DeJoy's public statements, he hasn't rolled back his changes or reinstated overtime.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol … 608724002/

USPS has assembled a bipartisan elections committee to oversee mail-in voting. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-release … 16553.html

Democrats have demanded that this same committee provide weekly reports on DeJoy and USPS.
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsro … ccountable

USPS have launched a website to guide people in how to mail their ballots. https://about.usps.com/what/government- … tion-mail/

Democrats and the Biden campaign continue to mount legal challenges against Trump's efforts to curtail mail-in voting. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/2 … lan-399671

2020-08-24 17:35:43

The first two seasons established a very clear tone and visual identity for SLIDERS: location filming in Vancouver, lighthearted satire, heroic but troubled characters filled with strengths and human frailties, and a grounded tone that made SLIDERS look like an independent film rather than a big budget network show. Season 3 throws all this out, moving the location to Los Angeles, costuming all the characters as magazine models rather than according to their characters.

The satirical, comedic tone puncturing royalty, sports, celebrity, the prison industrial complex, youth culture, ageism, chauvinism -- that disappears too. Instead, the episodes become focused on action movie ripoffs where the sliders resolve problems with force and violence instead of cleverness, literacy, knowledge and improvisation. The series also shifts into fantasy with supernatural monsters and magic -- a bizarre choice when the fictional realities of SLIDERS have been based in technology, mathematics and physics.

Season 3 is also when the original creator left the show and a deeply troubled and unfortunate producer, David Peckinpah, was assigned responsibility for scripts and production. In the years following the show, Peckinpah's son explained: Peckinpah was suffering from a terrible family tragedy, the death of his teenaged son, and it caused him to backslide into a drug addiction. He was getting high before, during and after work. After SLIDERS' cancellation, his addiction would kill him.

As a result, Season 3 is sloppy: scripts are not edited properly to amend errors or shooting issues, actors deliver lines incorrectly and production doesn't bother to do a second take, missing sound effects are ignored -- the big two parter of Season 3 was basically an excuse to hire rock star Roger Daltrey to perform for the cast and crew for two weeks with making an episode treated as something to do between binge drinking sessions. This attitude continued for the last two seasons of the show with sloppy script editing and revisions and it's truly unfortunate.

Season 3 also has a horrific exit for the Professor, one that I saw when I was 13 and in many ways, it left me permanently damaged. I felt like I had watched my own father die. I still feel it. Once, when completing some SLIDERS research for a podcast, I confessed to the podcasters that everything in my life since 1997 had been a reaction to the death of Professor Arturo followed by a fearful avoidance of the void that was left in my life, a gaping hole that I was afraid to look into until enough time had passed and I could address it, confront it and fill it.

What I'm saying is that if you'll cover the postage, you can have my Season 3 set.

2020-08-24 10:28:56

I'm not that keen on THE SNYDER CUT personally -- but it's important to remember that Snyder's approach has an audience and is very popular. It just wasn't popular to the point of earning the one billion in box office that WB hoped for. But a lot of people watched and enjoyed MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (actual title) and a lot of people wanted THE SNYDER CUT. The majority of the people who watched JUSTICE LEAGUE were not happy with it. The only people I know to enjoy JUSTICE LEAGUE are you, me, Informant and Kevin Smith. I've personally never met or talked to anyone else who had any fondness for it.

Snyder, to me, is like Bryan Singer: Singer came aboard the X-MEN film for 2000 and he didn't like the X-Men. He found the costumes, codenames, backstories and the superhero universe to be ridiculous.

A lot of the X-MEN movie is making an effort to be serious, to take these absurd concepts and place them in a world that resembles our own except for the one fantasy element -- mutants -- spurring all other fantasy elements. And redressing them in a genre that Singer actually did like. So you have the school for mutants and technology and surroundings that, if they aren't like our world, exist due to mutants -- but everything else is close if not identical to our reality and with the look of a high tech military espionage thriller rather than the superhero genre.

Snyder's genre is horror. And with MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (actual title), he made a superhero film both times that used the style of a horror film, redressing superheroes in that style. Whether that worked or not is purely subjective, but JUSTICE LEAGUE suffers from Snyder's horror aesthetic having been ripped out of the film, replaced with Batman and Superman cracking jokes and pretty much every surviving frame of Snyder's film having been recoloured and brightened. The way in which a story is told is just as important as the content itself and for people who liked MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (actual title), the SNYDER CUT version of JUSTICE LEAGUE will offer a satisfactory conclusion.

I've personally never met or spoken to any of those people outside of Informant, but they exist in sizable numbers and enough of them will subscribe to HBO Max.

2020-08-23 07:24:54

While I'm not a fan of Zack Snyder making a horror movie version of the JLA, he might as well be permitted to finish it.

There are so many versions of BATMAN that Matt Reeves should do whatever he wants. If it's bad, it won't matter and won't define the character in perpetuity.

I'm sure that both, whatever our enjoyment levels may be, will turn out as professional, presentable products.

2020-08-22 22:57:48

You could buy the Universal DVD sets separately. The quality won't be any different. Here's an eBay seller offering all five seasons. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/SLIDERS-Complet … SwqaRfLfBA

And if you're willing to buy used discs, you could get all the seasons for about $70 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Sliders+DVD+ … _sb_noss_2

For Reasons, I have a Universal Season 3 set. It is the season of hell and I would actually pay you to take it away.

2020-08-22 19:36:40

THE BATMAN trailer: https://youtu.be/NLOp_6uPccQ

Goth rock version of Batman.

2020-08-22 17:38:30

Snyder cut trailer: https://youtu.be/z6512XKKNkU

I'm not a huge fan of Zack Snyder, but I think that when a studio hires Zack Snyder, they should expect a Zack Snyder movie instead of a Joss Whedon movie and as much as I enjoyed JUSTICE LEAGUE (and I enoyed it a lot) -- WB, Geoff Johns, Diane Nelson and Jon Berg should have just let Snyder make the movie he was hired to make and let his team complete it instead of bringing in Whedon to change it. Would a Snyder film have been more successful? It would have at least had the benefit of standing or falling on its on merits.

2020-08-22 15:52:12

One of my favourite TV shows is the sleeper hit BLINDSPOT. Like every TV show I recommend, BLINDSPOT is about a troubled woman fighting crime for a secret federal branch (also the plot of THE BLACKLIST, FRINGE, AGENTS OF SHIELD, WYNONNA EARP). BLINDSPOT is a procedural about a mysterious, amnesiac woman (Jaimie Alexander who played Sif in THOR) who awakens in Times Square naked and covered in tattoos -- each of which provides a vital clue to a government crime and cover-up. Joining an FBI task force, the amnesiac woman takes on the name Jane and with her new friends, seeks to uncover the truth behind her memory loss, the individual crime connected to each tattoo, the creator of these tattoos and her true identity.

The main appeal of BLINDSPOT, at least for me, was Jaimie Alexander's performance. Her Jane Doe is astonished to discover that she has the combat skills of a Marine and Alexander and her stunt team presented Jane as a physically unstoppable force with an innocently gentle spirit contrasted in battle with the instinctive ferocity of a wild animal. Jane's fight scenes were a thrill with a regular sequence of improvised acrobatics for Jane to trounce roomfuls of villains using her surroundings and tolerance for pain.

The show is extremely well-done with a carefully considered mythology that is revealed over two seasons and comes to a climax and conclusion in Season 2. Seasons 3 - 4 deal with the aftermath and a new threat and reinvented the show while keeping the same formula and also lightened the show's paranoid, conspiracy minded tone to a slightly more comedic approach with the friendship of Jane's FBI team. The show featured astonishing action sequences and lavish location filming throughout New York City and overseas.

Never a huge hit, BLINDSPOT survived thanks to Greg Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. lowering the license fee to NBC, strong overseas sales, extremely positive press and ratings and a budget that went down every year to make its ad revenue enough for NBC to keep ordering it.

With Season 5, NBC and the studio agreed to a short 11 episode season to bring the show to a solid 100 episodes with a conclusion -- but this renewal came at a price. Season 5's premiere opens with one of the cast members suddenly killed off in a brief appearance with series creator Martin Gero confessing that the budget cuts for this final year had caused them to lose a cast member (although the actor returned for flashbacks in two subsequent episodes).

The budget also meant that the majority of the season had Jane and her friends confined to a bunker and when they ventured away from it, they were exploring empty warehouses or back alley streets with few extras. While the season had the team in hiding as fugitives and called for the confined locations, the budget also showed in that most of the season came and went with Jane showing off her fighting skills in only a brief fight scene. Showrunner Gero acknowledged that Jane's fights were a large part of the show, but with less money than ever, he had been forced to move away from that.

There were entire episodes confined to the bunker and one another interior set, very much like Season 5 of SLIDERS in the Chandler. The confined surroundings also meant the characters were interacting more than ever and their voices and relationships came through well as they worked through some of the darkest circumstances of the series. The voice of the show was present, but it was frustrating to see my favourite thing about BLINDSPOT -- Jane's physicality through Jaimie Alexander -- absent except for short bursts of athleticism. In fact, Season 5 folded Jane into the ensemble and presented BLINDSPOT as a team show instead of Jaimie Alexander's show -- something I think few viewers would protest as all the characters were splendid. Still, it bothered me.

But then episode 11, the finale, aired and it was astonishing. In this Jane-centric story, nearly every prominent guest-star from the previous 99 episodes returned for featured roles or cameos. There was extensive location filming on the streets of New York City and the climax was set on location in Times Square. Crowd scenes, pyrotechnics, and an incredible final action sequence for Jane where in a single shot, she defeats six heavily armed henchmen. It was apparently shot over three months and all the cut corners of the previous 10 episodes had led to the massive expense of the series finale.

BLINDSPOT's fifth season wasn't ideal, but its sacrifices early on ensured that its finale reflected all the strengths of its first four seasons. There's something about a strong landing that can alleviate the discomfort of a shaky takeoff.

2020-08-21 18:02:13

I finished Season 7 of AGENTS OF SHIELD. I liked it. I really, really liked it. Despite the budget issues (hallways followed by hallways and more hallways), there was enough outdoor location filming in the first four episodes that the final nine, set in space, seemed appropriate in being set-bound. I loved the way the credits changed for each era.

I found making May into Counselor Troi from STAR TREK with empathic powers to be... a peculiar choice, to put it mildly. I don't really understand why they went that route with this reserved, physical character or how it served her despite being relevant to the plot with her ability to sense inhuman (haha) impostors.

I felt uncomfortable with Coulson being resurrected as a robot. I'm not sure the show dedicated enough time to confronting that this Life Model Decoy is not Coulson. It is a simulacrum of Coulson. It is a digital approximation. A guess. A pastiche. Admittedly, the counterfeit nature of Coulson fits in with AGENTS OF SHIELD having always struggled with the possibility that it isn't canonical to the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, but the show doesn't really question the idea that the LMD Coulson should be accepted as the genuine article. As far as the show is concerned, Coulson is merely within a different physical form and the copied brain pattern from the end of Season 4 can be considered acceptably real.

The show definitely nods to it with the Chronicoms telling Coulson that he shouldn't be fighting for humans as he isn't even human at all, just a parody of one, but Coulson doesn't struggle with that. I'm not sure it would even be in character for him to be troubled by it, I admit. Coulson is my favourite superhero because he confronts endlessly deranged situations with can-do calm and positivity.

**

I really liked how Sousa from AGENT CARTER got a happy ending with Daisy Johnson. I wonder if / how / when the SHIELD we saw at the end of AGENTS OF SHIELD will be integrated (if at all) into the Marvel movies to come. All in all, I really liked Season 6 and 7 and I was relieved that after the endless dim hallways of Season 5, Seasons 6 - 7 were able to liven up the show a bit visually and provide a pleasing post-ENDGAME epilogue to the first five years.

It was a very good show and I will miss watching Chloe Bennett throw things around telekinetically and I will miss how the show kept reinventing itself every year, going from a children's spy show to renegade agents to facing down scientific madness in Inhumans and Hive to tackling magic with Ghost Rider and artificial intelligence with LMDs and the Framework and then space and aliens and then a season of time travel.

I think what I'll miss most is AGENTS OF SHIELD's mastery of switching from action and danger to sentiment. Season 3's grand action climax gave way to archenemies Lincoln and Hive sitting quietly in a shuttle about to burn up, contemplating the world they were leaving behind. Season 4 had the Framework version of Ward seeking forgiveness for his counterpart's crimes and Coulson delivering a speech against the Trump administration. Season 5 had Coulson confronted with the possibility that AGENTS OF SHIELD wasn't canon. Season 6 had Gemma and Daisy get high in an alien casino and blunder through a rescue mission. Season 7 had Mac telling Daisy that even if the team went their separated ways, they'd always be friends.

I hope to see Coulson again.

2020-08-21 17:47:16

This is a really good tutorial in how to write SLIDERS stories. The twist with Bennish is great. I will try to apply it later in theory as a post on this forum.

I mildly disagree with some of TF's views on SLIDERS stories, but given my inability to write them without story ideas from Nigel Mitchell, Tracy Torme and Transmodiar, I'm not sure anyone should agree with me. I would personally be intrigued by a SLIDERS reboot where Quinn and Wade are teenagers. TF astutely says this is redundant as teenagers already feel like the world's rules exist to annoy them and older adults would have a more meaningful reaction to being put off by a parallel Earth. Personally, I think teenagers being predisposed to irritation towards any and all social and societal conventions is precisely why it's a great idea.

I don't really disagree with TF saying he prefers stories where the sliders *don't* save the world and merely survive it. I would say that I like them when they're done well, but it is *very* difficult to write convincing stories where four strangers in a strange land with no resources can somehow topple the dominant regime and bring the local revolution to victory. This is probably why the first episode of SLIDERS was scripted to have the sliders succeed in rescuing Commander Wade Welles of the Revolution but revised to have them fail.

The sliders' success in defeating royalty in "Prince of Wails" required numerous contrivances: that the Professor looks like the municipal despot, that the sliders wander into an assassination plot against the prince, that they then just as conveniently blunder into the rebels and so on. It's incredibly uplifting and endearing, but by the time we get to "Prophets and Loss," the charming and amusing coincidences to have a few hapless civilians defeat a brutal regime has become a lazily executed formula rather than a plausible course of events.

I don't feel I made a mistake in my SLIDERS stories taking on the tropes of a superhero story with resurrection, restoration and the sliders saving the multiverse like it's DOCTOR WHO -- but I would say that I don't think anyone would want an ongoing series of SLIDERS stories to be anything like my deliberately limited mini-series. I've gotten enough fan mail to know that fans *definitely* wanted Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo restored and to know who they'd be in the present day -- but once that was done, they would have wanted ongoing SLIDERS stories like the ones TF comes up with.

2020-08-21 14:01:40

I'm starting to wonder if WB is going to stick with Ezra Miller and just refuse to address his on camera assault. He hasn't addressed the video. He is going to be at an online DC convention to promote THE FLASH film. I'm still doubtful this film will ever be made.

I'm starting to wonder if we should find some new adjective for "crazy" when describing a story idea that seems outside the bounds of the established conventions of a specific format or genre. Crazy is when someone's actions are in contradiction to their goals -- such as starting a new shared universe with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash only to somehow alienate the actor playing Batman and fail to maintain a contract with the actor playing Superman while hiring a violent loon to play the Flash.

But we've been seeing so much joyfully 'crazy' stuff in recent years -- accepting all DC comic book adaptations as part of a TV and film multiverse and having Ezra Miller meet Grant Gustin; having Tom Welling and Brandon Routh and Tyler Hoechlin play Superman in the same story; and now, having Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton play Batman in a movie for... THE FLASH. All this makes our 'crazy' magnum opus where we had the sliders fight all the Season 3 monsters attacking San Francisco seem rather mundane by comparison.

2020-08-20 16:46:25

Still relevant.

Coulson wrote:

Good evening. As you all know, a HYDRA facility was destroyed yesterday. HYDRA told you that it was an act of terrorism. They told you an Inhuman named the Patriot murdered civilians. What they told you was a lie. We're going to show you what really happened.
This footage was taken from the body-cam of a high-level HYDRA operative. HYDRA used this "enlightenment center" to brainwash anyone who dared to question them. Jeffrey Mace saved these people, but HYDRA was willing to kill them just to maintain their lie. Once you see this footage, the truth is undeniable.
HYDRA doesn't think we're smart enough to know when we're being fed alternative facts to keep us afraid. To keep them in power. Remember -- there are more of us than there are of them. And now that we know the truth, we have a choice to make.
We all have the opportunity to be patriots. Will you take a stand? Are you going to hold them accountable?
Throughout history, we've seen empires rise and fall and HYDRA was corrupt from the start. It was founded by the Nazis.
A wise man once told me that a person can do anything once they realize they're a part of something bigger. It's taking me a while to understand that. For years I was just a face in the crowd, a history teacher who spread HYDRA's lies. They seemed too imposing for any one person to fight.
But now, I'm choosing to stand up. To become a part of something bigger. I really do believe that together we can accomplish anything. Because the truth is, I'm not just a history teacher.
My name is Phil Coulson. And I'm an agent of SHIELD.

2020-08-20 16:37:37

Affleck will return (!) and co-star with Michael Keaton in THE FLASH movie (!).

https://www.cbr.com/ben-affleck-return- … ash-movie/

2020-08-18 20:07:15

I have a question for you, TF. How would you shape your ideas into a story for the sliders (Alli, Reese, Gibbs, Bennish or Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo)? What is the introduction, situation and climax for the characters? I ask you this because this is a part of the SLIDERS code that I personally cannot crack even when a visionary like Nigel Mitchell was holding my hand. When writing my own SLIDERS stories, I had a very clear vision for who I wanted Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo to be in 2015 and what I wanted sliding to be -- but I did not have any gift for conceiving interesting parallel worlds.

Nigel worked with me, coming up with alt-histories, backstories, little details of visual or societal data -- but I don't think I used it well. Ultimately, my SLIDERS stories featured the character interactions I wanted and Nigel's parallel worlds were a backdrop or Season 3 Diggs-type scenes where someone explains what the world is in a monologue or a conversation. And it was adequate -- but it wasn't the sliders doing what SLIDERS should have them do and what you and Nigel would have them do: get caught up in the culture and workings of an alternate history, encounter inversions of our own struggles, and come out the other side with renewed perspective and even enlightenment.

How do you tell a story with your alt-history concepts? What would the beginning, middle and end of these stories be?

2020-08-18 18:31:28

DeJoy has issued a statement saying that he's suspending all changes, reinstating overtime, no longer altering the postal service until after the election. Whether this is merely a public statement or actual intent to be matched with action is presently unclear. But with over 24 states planning lawsuits against him and the federal government and the FBI being asked to look into charging him with election interference, his lawyers have clearly been advising a hasty retreat or at least the appearance of one.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/1 … ure-397765

2020-08-18 10:05:13

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I think it works, but AoS did a good-enough job in the last two seasons of simply ignoring the movies (in retaliation for themselves being ignored) that just about any theory works. I did have my own thoughts, but it requires spoilers:
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
There's a moment in the last couple episodes that they discuss the idea that they're no longer in the same universe - that they're on a diverging timeline. Although this doesn't exactly jive with what we understand about this via Endgame, I was actually thinking at the time that it was a fairly genius way of dealing with everything. They'd literally chart their own course and end up in a completely different universe - maybe on where there are no Avengers or Fury or anyone they'd need to step around.
It worked well enough in my head that I actually was a bit disappointed when it didn't happen.

Speaking with the New York Times, Jed Whedon said that was indeed the explanation -- that the Snap happened some time during Season 7, but the Agents dodged it as they were time travelling and moving to different timelines via the quantum realm when the erasures took place. The explanation was filmed. It was cut for time. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/arts … inale.html

However, this explanation would have contradicted Season 5, episode 22, "The End" in which the Thanos-directed attacks on New York City and Wakanda are happening concurrently with the Agents confronting General Talbot in Chicago. But from Season 6 onwards, the writers wrote each script as though it were before INFINITY WAR even though Season 5's finale had led right up to the conclusion of INFINITY WAR.

As the filmed explanation wasn't onscreen, I'd prefer to go with the original authorial intent of the TV and film productions -- that it is all one shared universe unfolding on one timeline. Why isn't the Avengers tower visible in the Netflix shows that didn't wish to spend the money on the effects? Because Stark was testing out a new cloaking mechanism (as seen on the Zephyr) and made the building invisible. Why didn't the Snap take place during any Season 5 or Season 6 episodes? It happened between scenes of "The End."

2020-08-17 12:00:24

I know that the internet doesn't exit to validate ME -- but it disappoints me that I've posted my theory of how AGENTS OF SHIELD exists alongside INFINITY WAR and ENDGAME in various Marvel and AOS forums and nobody ever responds to it, not even to disagree with it, identify flaws in it, debunk it or replace it. I expected that someone would at least tell me why they think it's wrong, but in every debate on how the Snap fits into AGENTS OF SHIELD or doesn't, my remarks are invariably ignored.

To me, the sequence of events for INFINITY WAR, Season 5 - 6 of AGENTS OF SHIELD and ENDGAME is:

Thanos' forces attack in New York (INFINITY WAR)
Daisy and Talbot fight in Chicago ("The End")
The attack in Wakanda takes place (INFINITY WAR)
Daisy is triumphant over Talbot. The Zephyr flies May and Coulson to Tahiti and lands on the beach ("The End")
Thanos' Snap erases 50 per cent of all life in the universe including the entire cast of AGENTS OF SHIELD (INFINITY WAR)
Five years later, Banner performs the unSnap. All the missing are restored including the agents aboard the Zephyr (ENDGAME)
The agents, unaware that five years passed in the seconds they experienced, bid farewell to Coulson and May who disembark in Tahiti while the agents fly off to search for Fitz ("The End")
Earth rebuilds and resumes normalcy (SPIDER-MAN FAR FROM HOME)]
The agents realize from the news that they ceased to exist and were then restored and the Snap is ultimately less traumatic than any of their other recent experiences (off camera)
Fitz's ship is attacked ("Missing Pieces")
A year passes with the agents searching for Fitz still ("Missing Pieces")

I've come to wonder if this theory prompts a contemptuous disdain that is so vehement that it cannot be voiced.

2020-08-17 06:05:11

House Democrats are ending the recess early to hold hearings on USPS sabotage. Postmaster general Louis DeJoy has been summoned and is being threatened with arrest if he fails to appear. Six states are preparing to sue the Trump administration and prosecute DeJoy for interfering with an election. Democrats are preparing a voter education campaign.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/pl … ver-490091

2020-08-16 09:01:45

ireactions wrote:

Season 5 season looks like it was filmed in someone's basement and they clearly don't have the money for the extras and location filming that they once had. Excellent character-oriented writing and the stories are as strong as ever, but every episode feels like a bottle episode with only a few exceptions this year. I love the scripts, but the visual quality of the show has gotten frustratingly claustrophobic with the team constantly advancing down dimly lit hallways to get to more dimly lit hallways.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

By the way, since you said it, I haven't been able to unsee how every episode of Agents of SHIELD takes place in a dim corridor.
When, in this week's episode, they confront Gravity Man in his neighborhood, the natural light nearly blinded me.

Chloe Bennett (Daisy) wrote:

You’re telling me! Every day we were literally in those hallways, and if a scene was two minutes long we were there for seven hours. It was really, really exciting for the cast and the crew to get out of the stages and get out of the gray space hallways, because it does affect your mood. https://tvline.com/2020/08/13/agents-of … -hallways/

Jeffrey Bell, Producer wrote:

I wish we didn’t live in so many corridors because we had no money.
The way it works is, you know, there’s a pattern budget, we get the same amount for every episode. And so one of the things that we’ve gone to ABC about—and they’ve been good about—is we say, this week we want to have tuna sandwiches for lunch, so that next week we can have, like, a five-course meal.
And the problem is, we started in the 1930s and spent all our money. We just got backlot period costumes, which energized everybody and got everyone really excited. But we have the same amount for every episode.
So it’s up to us and our our wonderful line producer, Garry Brown, to really be able to do that. You know, we’re a network show with not a lot of money.
And so we’re sad when the corridors are more than we want—you know, we’re as aware of them as you have been from time to time. And it’s not what we want, it’s just all we can afford to do. We do try and save, so that we can go out with some scope and style.
We shoot in Los Angeles, which we’re thrilled to do, but to go off the lot, it’s just a lot. It’s cheaper to go to another planet than to go to Van Nuys.
The great thing about being in space is you don’t have to go on location because we can’t afford to go on location.
https://tv.avclub.com/the-agents-of-s-h … 1844694196

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Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,555 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

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