I watched:

PHANTOM SIGNALS:
"Soviet Doomsday Warning". A Russian radio station has broadcast a signal
nonstop since the Cold War, and no one knows why; experts use hi-tech methods
to investigate what it is and what might happen if it ever stops.

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA:
"S14:E19: Reunion Part 2". The reunion continues as Kenya brings up shocking
allegations concerning Marlo's true identity. Kandi addresses the shady
locker room rumors. Kenya details the inspiration behind her year of
renaissance. Marlo shares the facts surrounding her recent break-in. Drew and
Shere� go head-to-head over allegations about Ralph.

What did you watch?

--
Let's go Brandon!

On 2022-09-21 08:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:

> What did you watch?

OK, lemme try to do a two day catch-up here...:

BOTH:

soaps: GH - Mon's & Tues' ep's. Yeah, I was afraid they were going to
go down this road... Brando seemingly "recovers" from the Hook Killer
attack long enough to be conscious and have a conversation with Sasha.
But then he starts coughing up blood, Sasha screams for the Doctors,
and Brando is soon el muerte. Sasha and his mom, Gladys, are
devestated, while Sonny and Nina (and Portia and TJ) look on in
shock... Meanwhile, Carly's "adventures" in Jacksonville continue - I
have no idea where they are going with this, and I will be disappointed
if it doesn't lead back to Nelle being alive! Also, Lil' Lizzie goes to
Kevin for some hypnosis, and recovers more of her former memory.

MON:

soaps: DOOL - (Mon's ep.) After Maggie plays the "Gwen" card, Sarah
goes crawling back to Xander!... Meanwhile, Leo Stark goes to Gwen to
try to figure out who is framing him - so far, his suspects are
*terrible* choices! Also, after a misunderstanding, Clive proposes to
Nancy.

Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix) - "Low-Flying Panic Attack" (ep. 2.1). If
any series needed the "On the last season of... !" teasers, it's
Netflix series!! - I barely remembered what happened in season #1 of
"Fate", and while more of it came back during this season premiere, a
retrospective "teaser" on season #1's events would have helped
immensely!!
OK, first thing to note - they recast Lesley Sharp (from season 1)
with Miranda Richardson as new "headmistress" Rosalind, which was
jarring. (I'm not sure what's going on here, as I think Sharp may still
show up later on in season #2 - not sure how that's going to work!!)
Rosalind runs the fairy school as a near prison camp, and Our
Heroine(tm) Bloom (the lovely Abigail Cowen) hates Rosalind's guts. By
the end, though, Bloom decides to go "under cover" with Rosalind to
find out what she's up to.
There is also a subplot with the lovely (but EVOL!!1!?...) Beatrix
(the lovely Sadie Soverall), and how she's under-appreciated by
Rosalind, and is somehow *still* managing to maintain her
threesome(!?!) with Riven and Dane. (WTF!?!)
The main plot of this season premiere, aside from the
"disappearance" of the previous headmistress (Dowling), was Bloom
conspiring with her friends to bust Silva (from season #1) out of
custody/imprisonment. They are successful with this, despite being
"down a fairy" - Stella is waylaid by Rosalind who uses a painful
magical doohickey to prevent Stella from going invisible.
At the end, it is also revealed that some students that have gone
missing are actually being experimented on by (EVOL!!1!(??)) Rosalind!

The Imperfects (Netflix) - "Sarkov's Children" (ep. #1). An amusing
start to this.
Three young adults - the oldest appears to be Tilda, played by my
fave Morgan Taylor Campbell: Tilda fronts a (pop?)-punk band, and they
let Taylor sing, and generally be a cute goth girl! - have been
receiving "treatment" from a shady doctor named Sarkov (an amusingly
over-the-top Rhys Nicholson). But when they stop getting their pills,
they start developing... uh, "symptoms"! Tilda gets super-hearing, and
a "sonic scream"; a science-y young woman named Abbi starts releasing
pheromones which cause people to become dangerously attracted to her;
and the youngest, Juan, turns into a kind of "werewolf"!
Eventually, they stumble upon Sarkov's former partner, and current
rival, Dr. Sydney Burke (Italia Ricci). Burke promises to try to help
the three get control of their "symptoms", but they agree that they
need to find Sarkov (who has now disappeared!) first.
As they are about to do this, they are attacked, by another of
Sarkov's freaks! which Juan seems to dispatch... until the freak
"revives" during autopsy!
This is pretty good - I will stick with this to see where it goes.
And I love Morgan Taylor Campbell anyway! ;)

TUES:

House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "We Light the Way" (ep. #1.5). This was
a good episode.
My one complaint is that they show King Viserys pretty much near
death the whole episode - yet he is somehow still alive in episode
#1.6, after the "jump forward" ~10 years!
In the episode's open, Daemon is confirmed to be straight-up
EVOL!!1! when he murders his wife (by horse!!), Rhea (Rachel Redford),
in the Vale. With no witnesses, Daemon seemingly gets away with it.
Anyway, an ailing Viserys and Rhaenyra head to Driftmark to arrange
the marriage of Rhaenyra to Sir Corlys's son, Ser Laenor - after a
little haggling, a deal is struck. Meanwhile, in a wink-wink, Rhaenyra
arranges with Laenor that their marriage be "open" (Laenor is gay, you
see, and Rhaenyra still has designs on humping Ser Criston!!).
On his way out of Dodge! Otto Hightower warns daughter Queen Alicent
that she better get her s**t together, and make sure her son Aegon is
ready for the throne, because otherwise Alicent's fate is in Rhaenyra's
hand, and Rhaenyra's crowning will surely lead to war!! Alicent further
investigates Rhaenyra's "impropities" from ep. #1.4, and gets a
confession out of Ser Criston. Alicent seems done with Rhaenyra from
this point forward.
At the pre-wedding banquet (this was a really good sequence), things
get wildly out of hand!! - First Daemon shows up. Then Rhea's family
accuses Daemon of murder! Then Alicent makes a shocking grand entrance,
and subtly signals her bannermen that she is ready to fight for the
crown for her son! Then Laenor's lover unwisely approaches Ser Criston,
who loses his s**t and violently attacks and kills the dude in front of
all assembled!!
In the end, Alicent just barely prevents Criston from performing
hari kari! While Viserys forces an immediate "shotgun wedding" between
Rhaenyra and Laenor... before collapsing!!
The promos from ep. #1.6 indicate a substantial "time-jump" (of at
least a decade), so Milly Alcock and Emily Carey are done (booooo!),
and Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke take over as Rhaenyra and Alicent,
respectively.

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

In article <tgfepb$1s0bs$1@dont-email.me>,
Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:

> The Imperfects (Netflix) - "Sarkov's Children" (ep. #1). An amusing
> start to this.
> Three young adults - the oldest appears to be Tilda, played by my
> fave Morgan Taylor Campbell: Tilda fronts a (pop?)-punk band, and they
> let Taylor sing, and generally be a cute goth girl! - have been
> receiving "treatment" from a shady doctor named Sarkov (an amusingly
> over-the-top Rhys Nicholson). But when they stop getting their pills,
> they start developing... uh, "symptoms"! Tilda gets super-hearing, and
> a "sonic scream"; a science-y young woman named Abbi starts releasing
> pheromones which cause people to become dangerously attracted to her;
> and the youngest, Juan, turns into a kind of "werewolf"!

Chupacabra!

> Eventually, they stumble upon Sarkov's former partner, and current
> rival, Dr. Sydney Burke (Italia Ricci).

Who doesn't look anything like she did on DESIGNATED SURVIVOR. It took
me quite a while to even recognize who she was.

> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "We Light the Way" (ep. #1.5). This was
> a good episode.
> My one complaint is that they show King Viserys pretty much near
> death the whole episode - yet he is somehow still alive in episode
> #1.6, after the "jump forward" ~10 years!

I think he has leprosy, which makes all those scenes of him banging
Alicent even more cringey, 'cause that shit's contagious.

> In the episode's open, Daemon is confirmed to be straight-up
> EVOL!!1! when he murders his wife (by horse!!), Rhea (Rachel Redford),
> in the Vale.

It wasn't much of a plan: spook the horse and hope you get lucky with a
fatal fall? She could just as easily have fallen off the horse and leapt
to her feet and put a few arrows in him.

> On his way out of Dodge! Otto Hightower warns daughter Queen Alicent
> that she better get her s**t together, and make sure her son Aegon is
> ready for the throne, because otherwise Alicent's fate is in Rhaenyra's
> hand, and Rhaenyra's crowning will surely lead to war!! Alicent further
> investigates Rhaenyra's "impropities" from ep. #1.4, and gets a
> confession out of Ser Criston. Alicent seems done with Rhaenyra from
> this point forward.

Which is odd since Criston's confession pretty much proves what Alicent
was saying all along: her father's info was faulty. Rhaenyra didn't fuck
her uncle. She fucked someone else, yes, but it wasn't her uncle.

> At the pre-wedding banquet (this was a really good sequence)

I like the dance with pairs coming together and breaking apart. It was a
great visual allegory for the shifting loyalties and political
machinations going on among the all the houses.

On 9/21/2022 11:52 AM, BTR1701 wrote:
> In article <tgfepb$1s0bs$1@dont-email.me>,
> Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:
>
snip
>
>> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "We Light the Way" (ep. #1.5). This was
>> a good episode.
>> My one complaint is that they show King Viserys pretty much near
>> death the whole episode - yet he is somehow still alive in episode
>> #1.6, after the "jump forward" ~10 years!
>
> I think he has leprosy, which makes all those scenes of him banging
> Alicent even more cringey, 'cause that shit's contagious.
>
>> In the episode's open, Daemon is confirmed to be straight-up
>> EVOL!!1! when he murders his wife (by horse!!), Rhea (Rachel Redford),
>> in the Vale.
>
> It wasn't much of a plan: spook the horse and hope you get lucky with a
> fatal fall? She could just as easily have fallen off the horse and leapt
> to her feet and put a few arrows in him.
>

I watched a break down video that indicated it might not have been
planned out as a murder. He showed up to the encounter unarmed (unless
you count the rock) and she drew first.

This will be a two day catch up. I watched:

Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
it was OK.

Stargirl - "Frenemies – Chapter Two: The Suspects" and "Frenemies –
Chapter Three: The Blackmail" - I caught up on the last two episodes.
Just above background noise. It's looking to me like Starman may have a
"Pet Cemetery" situation going on!

Porky's 1- 3 (blu-ray) I binged these 80s teen sex comedies. The first
two were written and directed by Bob Clark who also made "A Christmas
Story." The movies are set in the 50s and involved a group of teenagers
who get into conflict with the owner of the local strip club. There is
also some social commentary about discrimination. I picked up 2 and 3
double feature blu-ray several years ago and was going to pair them with
"American Pie" but I was never in the mood to watch Porky's and American
Pie at the same time. I eventually just watched the American Pie
movies. But then I decided they would pair well with college comedies
and was finally in the mood to watch them again. I guess they held up
well enough, although they would have paired much better with the
American Pie movies. Clark even mentioned American Pie on the
commentary track.

Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
> I watched:
>
>
> What did you watch?

Hey, thanks for asking!

My rewatch continues and I think comes to a sudden stop with

BLUE BLOODS S03E21 – ends and means

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2778890/

This is the episode where Erin became evil. It’s a clear bright line. Up
until this episode she was a prosecutor. In this episode she gets made
assistant bureau chief - whatever that is - and immediately changes sides
and starts working for the defense. They are reviewing a case of a repeat
rapist who was caught literally red-handed Raping an 80 year old. He was
identified in a lineup and not only by the victim but by two sanitation
workers who caught him in the act and put a stop to it. Evidence turns up
that there’s a traffic cam that caught his license plate somewhere else
around the same time but there’s no evidence whatsoever who was driving it.
Nor apparently did the defense ever mention that he was somewhere else at
that time. Aaron goes apeshit and threatens to out her boss in the press
and burn the whole place to the ground because she feels if they had
presented the fact that the guy really didn’t have any alibi to the jury he
would’ve gotten off and she wants him to get off even though he’s as
incredibly guilty as anyone has ever been because that’s the way the law
works.

And then everybody agrees with her that she’s right.

I don’t know what the hell happened here if they got a new show runner at
the end of the season or if the freaks at CBS decided the show should be
pro crime or what.

The production is also full of mistakes like the prosecutor saying she
reviewed the tape and there’s no evidence he’s in it and 30 seconds later
Erin screams at her that 30 seconds before she said she never reviewed the
tape which is the exact opposite of what she just said.

And they have a soapbox derby race with three cars in three lanes and the
order of the cars in the lanes keeps reversing. I don’t know if they shot
it twice with different lineups but I suspect they kept flopping the film
to make the cars be going the wrong way which you shouldn’t do in the first
place.

Oh and they have a big shoot out in an apartment where Danny and the
suspect each fired dozens and dozens of shots without reloading and are
taking shelter behind flimsy interior wallboard walls that bullets don’t
penetrate.

And Linda becomes the nasty fish wife I recall her as in the later episodes
in this one whereas up until now I was wondering why I used to dislike her
because she had been fine.

Only Nicki had turned to total crap before this.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2778890/

>
> --
> Let's go Brandon!
>
>

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On 9/21/2022 5:33 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
>> I watched:
>>
>>
>> What did you watch?
>
> Hey, thanks for asking!
>
> My rewatch continues and I think comes to a sudden stop with
>
> BLUE BLOODS S03E21 – ends and means
>
> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2778890/
>
> This is the episode where Erin became evil. It’s a clear bright line. Up
> until this episode she was a prosecutor. In this episode she gets made
> assistant bureau chief - whatever that is - and immediately changes sides
> and starts working for the defense. They are reviewing a case of a repeat
> rapist who was caught literally red-handed Raping an 80 year old. He was
> identified in a lineup and not only by the victim but by two sanitation
> workers who caught him in the act and put a stop to it. Evidence turns up
> that there’s a traffic cam that caught his license plate somewhere else
> around the same time but there’s no evidence whatsoever who was driving it.
> Nor apparently did the defense ever mention that he was somewhere else at
> that time. Aaron goes apeshit and threatens to out her boss in the press
> and burn the whole place to the ground because she feels if they had
> presented the fact that the guy really didn’t have any alibi to the jury he
> would’ve gotten off and she wants him to get off even though he’s as
> incredibly guilty as anyone has ever been because that’s the way the law
> works.
>
> And then everybody agrees with her that she’s right.
>
Just to be annoying I am going to chip in here and piss you off even
more. :)

I recently sat in on a lecture that the attorney's at the local DA's
office were required to attend covering Discovery. This is California
so the state laws differ some I'm sure but the basics are the same. In
that situation the Prosecution ABSOLUTELY HAS TO TURN OVER to the
Defense something like that traffic cam evidence. Failure to do so
would, once found out, very quickly result in an overturning of any
guilt verdict or plea, serious sanctions against not just the attorneys
involved but the entire DA's office and possibly criminal charges
against them.

Basically copies of ANY evidence the Prosecution has, with some
extremely limited exceptions, has to be turned over to the Defense. In
California the DA even has to make efforts to find any evidence that may
be "discoverable" that exists, _even if they don't know of its existence
or what it is_. They can be in violation of the discovery laws for not
turning over evidence that they don't even know exists.

So that traffic cam evidence had to be turned over to the defense. Erin
may have been screaming bloody murder because it hadn't been. And no,
it doesn't matter if the defense already has it or doesn't ask for it.

Now that I've refueled your outrage you may return to your ranting and
raving. :D

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
<arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
> it was OK.

This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.

They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
there.

On 9/21/2022 7:25 PM, A Friend wrote:
> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>
>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
>> it was OK.
>
>
>
> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
> original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
>
> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
> there.

I agree a new gimmick would help. But they do sort of have one with the
mystery behind why he leapt without telling anyone. Also I don't think
the original cast refused to participate, I believe they weren't asked
to come back which has caused some soar grapes. Personally, I think the
show would have been better if they had asked Bakula back.

On 9/21/2022 7:44 PM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
> On 9/21/2022 7:25 PM, A Friend wrote:
>> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
>> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past.  I guess
>>> it was OK.
>>
>>
>>
>> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
>> original.  I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
>> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
>> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
>>
>> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
>> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
>> there.
>
>
> I agree a new gimmick would help.  But they do sort of have one with the
> mystery behind why he leapt without telling anyone. Also I don't think
> the original cast refused to participate, I believe they weren't asked
> to come back which has caused some soar grapes.  Personally, I think the
> show would have been better if they had asked Bakula back.
>
Bakula was sent a script and passed.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> On 9/21/2022 5:33 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>> Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
>>> I watched:
>>>
>>>
>>> What did you watch?
>>
>> Hey, thanks for asking!
>>
>> My rewatch continues and I think comes to a sudden stop with
>>
>> BLUE BLOODS S03E21 – ends and means
>>
>> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2778890/
>>
>> This is the episode where Erin became evil. It’s a clear bright line. Up
>> until this episode she was a prosecutor. In this episode she gets made
>> assistant bureau chief - whatever that is - and immediately changes sides
>> and starts working for the defense. They are reviewing a case of a repeat
>> rapist who was caught literally red-handed Raping an 80 year old. He was
>> identified in a lineup and not only by the victim but by two sanitation
>> workers who caught him in the act and put a stop to it. Evidence turns up
>> that there’s a traffic cam that caught his license plate somewhere else
>> around the same time but there’s no evidence whatsoever who was driving it.
>> Nor apparently did the defense ever mention that he was somewhere else at
>> that time. Aaron goes apeshit and threatens to out her boss in the press
>> and burn the whole place to the ground because she feels if they had
>> presented the fact that the guy really didn’t have any alibi to the jury he
>> would’ve gotten off and she wants him to get off even though he’s as
>> incredibly guilty as anyone has ever been because that’s the way the law
>> works.
>>
>> And then everybody agrees with her that she’s right.
>>
> Just to be annoying I am going to chip in here and piss you off even
> more. :)
>
> I recently sat in on a lecture that the attorney's at the local DA's
> office were required to attend covering Discovery. This is California
> so the state laws differ some I'm sure but the basics are the same. In
> that situation the Prosecution ABSOLUTELY HAS TO TURN OVER to the
> Defense something like that traffic cam evidence. Failure to do so
> would, once found out, very quickly result in an overturning of any
> guilt verdict or plea, serious sanctions against not just the attorneys
> involved but the entire DA's office and possibly criminal charges
> against them.
>
> Basically copies of ANY evidence the Prosecution has, with some
> extremely limited exceptions, has to be turned over to the Defense. In
> California the DA even has to make efforts to find any evidence that may
> be "discoverable" that exists, _even if they don't know of its existence
> or what it is_. They can be in violation of the discovery laws for not
> turning over evidence that they don't even know exists.
>
> So that traffic cam evidence had to be turned over to the defense. Erin
> may have been screaming bloody murder because it hadn't been. And no,
> it doesn't matter if the defense already has it or doesn't ask for it.
>
> Now that I've refueled your outrage you may return to your ranting and
> raving. :D
>
>

The rules they established here were that it was up to her boss to decide
if something was worth handing over. Her bosses opinion was that you’d have
to be an idiot to be swayed by something that had no evidentiary value. And
Erin insisted you should hand over anything that might get the guilty guy
off.

Under your rules they wouldn’t have had anything to argue about in the
first place!

By the way in this episode I got to looking at the outside of Frank’s
office building, one police plaza. They always say he’s on the 14th floor.
That building… Isn’t that tall.

Also in the last couple episodes sometimes Baker has a cubicle and
sometimes she doesn’t. Presumably it’s so they don’t have to set up the
larger outside set when you look outside the door but it was somewhat
confusing.

Also Frank’s adjoining conference room has a far door that opens right to
the elevator banks which are way down there on the opposite side of the
building.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>
>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
>> it was OK.
>
>
>
> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
> original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
>
> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
> there.
>

Well, that’s how the old series ended. After Sam met God and/or Satan he
got to just do what he wanted. (I have no idea how, without Ziggy, he
suddenly knew what to set right) This new crew presumably wouldn’t be
privy to that information though.

Obviously the search for Sam would be their new gimmick. But Bakula
apparently put the kibosh on that!

Oh, just to show that they do listen to the fans online, for years fans
have been arguing about how to save Sam when the ending title card says
“Sam Beckett never did return home“ and the answer was “until now“

“until now“ is how the new show began. :-)

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> On 9/21/2022 7:25 PM, A Friend wrote:
>> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
>> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
>>> it was OK.
>>
>>
>>
>> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
>> original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
>> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
>> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
>>
>> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
>> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
>> there.
>
>
> I agree a new gimmick would help. But they do sort of have one with the
> mystery behind why he leapt without telling anyone. Also I don't think
> the original cast refused to participate, I believe they weren't asked
> to come back which has caused some soar grapes. Personally, I think the
> show would have been better if they had asked Bakula back.
>
>

I think they’re saying that there were only two people in the cast so
Bakula not coming back is half the cast refusing to participate. :-)

I know we saw some people in the future now and then but I have no idea if
they were the same people or anything.

We know they approached Bakula. We know he’s not involved. We don’t know
what happened between those two events.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

In article <tggkq2$223eh$1@dont-email.me>, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

> On 9/21/2022 7:44 PM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
> > On 9/21/2022 7:25 PM, A Friend wrote:
> >> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
> >> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
> >>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
> >>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past.  I guess
> >>> it was OK.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
> >> original.  I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
> >> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
> >> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
> >>
> >> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
> >> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
> >> there.
> >
> >
> > I agree a new gimmick would help.  But they do sort of have one with the
> > mystery behind why he leapt without telling anyone. Also I don't think
> > the original cast refused to participate, I believe they weren't asked
> > to come back which has caused some soar grapes.  Personally, I think the
> > show would have been better if they had asked Bakula back.
> >
> Bakula was sent a script and passed.

I don't blame him.

In article
<2142776969.685508680.194452.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> > In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
> > <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
> >> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
> >> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
> >> it was OK.
> >
> >
> >
> > This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
> > original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
> > again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
> > participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
> >
> > They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
> > little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
> > there.
> >
>
> Well, that¹s how the old series ended. After Sam met God and/or Satan he
> got to just do what he wanted. (I have no idea how, without Ziggy, he
> suddenly knew what to set right) This new crew presumably wouldn¹t be
> privy to that information though.
>
> Obviously the search for Sam would be their new gimmick. But Bakula
> apparently put the kibosh on that!
>
> Oh, just to show that they do listen to the fans online, for years fans
> have been arguing about how to save Sam when the ending title card says
> ³Sam Beckett never did return home³ and the answer was ³until now³
>
> ³until now³ is how the new show began. :-)

I noticed that, as one of the early "until now" people. I wondered if
they'd done that on purpose, as a bit of fan service. I guess they
did!

A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> In article
> <2142776969.685508680.194452.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
> anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
>>> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
>>> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>>>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>>>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
>>>> it was OK.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
>>> original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
>>> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
>>> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
>>>
>>> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
>>> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
>>> there.
>>>
>>
>> Well, that¹s how the old series ended. After Sam met God and/or Satan he
>> got to just do what he wanted. (I have no idea how, without Ziggy, he
>> suddenly knew what to set right) This new crew presumably wouldn¹t be
>> privy to that information though.
>>
>> Obviously the search for Sam would be their new gimmick. But Bakula
>> apparently put the kibosh on that!
>>
>> Oh, just to show that they do listen to the fans online, for years fans
>> have been arguing about how to save Sam when the ending title card says
>> ³Sam Beckett never did return home³ and the answer was ³until now³
>>
>> ³until now³ is how the new show began. :-)
>
>
> I noticed that, as one of the early "until now" people. I wondered if
> they'd done that on purpose, as a bit of fan service. I guess they
> did!
>

I certainly hope so. I always thought that was incredibly clever and it’s
simplicity. They thought they written an ending that would keep the show
from ever being brought back and the fans Mert having any of it!

Did they ever do any novels with the “Sam’s on his own“ format that we
never saw on TV? The missions would seem to be fairly straightforward if he
had his memory back and knew what he needed to do without Ziggy or Al.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> On 9/21/2022 7:44 PM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
>> On 9/21/2022 7:25 PM, A Friend wrote:
>>> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
>>> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>>>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>>>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past.  I guess
>>>> it was OK.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
>>> original.  I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
>>> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
>>> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
>>>
>>> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
>>> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
>>> there.
>>
>>
>> I agree a new gimmick would help.  But they do sort of have one with the
>> mystery behind why he leapt without telling anyone. Also I don't think
>> the original cast refused to participate, I believe they weren't asked
>> to come back which has caused some soar grapes.  Personally, I think the
>> show would have been better if they had asked Bakula back.
>>
> Bakula was sent a script and passed.
>

That’s interesting because this didn’t actually suck in anyway. It was just
like another episode. But presumably the script Bakula got would have been
different in order to include him… Maybe they killed him off in the first
episode and he didn’t want to bother?

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

On Wed, 21 Sep 2022 14:25:25 -0700, Arthur Lipscomb
<arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

>On 9/21/2022 11:52 AM, BTR1701 wrote:
>> In article <tgfepb$1s0bs$1@dont-email.me>,
>> Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:
>>
>snip
>>
>>> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "We Light the Way" (ep. #1.5). This was
>>> a good episode.
>>> My one complaint is that they show King Viserys pretty much near
>>> death the whole episode - yet he is somehow still alive in episode
>>> #1.6, after the "jump forward" ~10 years!
>>
>> I think he has leprosy, which makes all those scenes of him banging
>> Alicent even more cringey, 'cause that shit's contagious.
>>
>>> In the episode's open, Daemon is confirmed to be straight-up
>>> EVOL!!1! when he murders his wife (by horse!!), Rhea (Rachel Redford),
>>> in the Vale.
>>
>> It wasn't much of a plan: spook the horse and hope you get lucky with a
>> fatal fall? She could just as easily have fallen off the horse and leapt
>> to her feet and put a few arrows in him.
>>
>
>I watched a break down video that indicated it might not have been
>planned out as a murder. He showed up to the encounter unarmed (unless
>you count the rock) and she drew first.
>
>
>This will be a two day catch up. I watched:
>
>
>Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
>it was OK.

I tried to watch this. Got to the point where he had jumped back into
the past and gave up. They skipped through his jump and why he had to
do it THEN too fast for me to get the rote story line that I just
didn't care enough to watch more.

I watched:

Seal Team - where they opened up with tons of action as the team is
under fire from a well planned attack that should have ended up with
them all dead. Instead through some heroic action by GI Joe, I mean
Bravo Team Leader, they end up surviving. Though I dare say Clay's
soldiering days are done for. Which does explain how he is going to
have the time to show up for the burning of California in CAL FIRE, I
mean, FIRE TEAM. I thought with only ten episodes of SEAL TEAM he
would end up doing both full time. Guess I was wrong.

FBI, - Starting off with someone who has gone off the depend in his
hate for right wingers and wants to take out some members of the
Federalist Society and has stolen a bunch of C4 configured into a bomb
while Jubal keeps having issues with his son (who is having issues at
school.) Then we have Omar (FBI agent, not a bomb tech) deciding to
move the bomb to save the 300 or so still in the building while
risking their lives if the FBI bomb expert was right about the bomb
possibly having a motion detector that would set off the bomb if
moved.

FBI MOST WANTED
Here we have a guy who has lost his daughter to a mass shooting who
ends up purchasing an illegal gun that was stolen from a couple that
buys legal guns in Georgia and then sells them up north where they are
illegal. The guy (Nathan) that stole them killed the couple and their
kids and then sells the guns to another couple who try to sell the
illegal guns to one of the FBI. Though they previously sold one of the
stolen assault rifles to the dad that lost his daughter.

Of course the couple steal the money from the FBI guy but they then
lead them to Nathan who dies in a shootout. Then they return to the
dad story who is heading to the Northeastern Rifle Federation meeting
with his AR-15. So the FBI head to the meeting to stop them. They get
into a big fight over canceling the convention and threaten to arrest
the head of the NRF if he doesn't cancel the convention. He caves but
is then caught by the daughter who takes him hostage, but instead of
shooting him he demands he post the picture of his dead daughter to
the guys social media feed so all the members will see what happened
to his daughter. Once the NRF head does that the dad surrenders.

FBI INTERNATIONAL
A US police officer in Paris working with the DSG to shut down a gun
smuggling ring is killed so the team is called on to help out with
their returning member from maternity leave and the new liaison from
Interpol. Oh, and they return to the story from last year where the
surviving brother is ready to kill the FBI agent that killed his
brother but he is taken into custody by some Russian (I think) gang.

The team find, lose,find, lose and then find the bad guy who was
heading up the illegal gun smuggling while also running a legal arms
international arms dealership. The guy has a big deal planned that
involves stealing spent plutonium rods that are being transported for
recycling. Of course the team and police arrive just as the bad guys
are stealing the rods, but can't stop them. Nor can they chase after
them as they have the road blocked (and apparently there are no police
on the other side of the blockade. They later find the bad guys, dead
from radiation exposure, but no control rods.

Later they find and capture the arms smuggler but he has already
delivered the rods. Turns out it's a guy who blames France for bad
things that have happened in Dondi (supposedly an African country), a
Dondi government enforcer. So he plans to detonate the dirty bomb in
Paris but hey, the team finds him and stops him in time.

In article
<1183628016.685515464.503142.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> > In article
> > <2142776969.685508680.194452.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
> > anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
> >
> >> A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> >>> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
> >>> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
> >>>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
> >>>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
> >>>> it was OK.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
> >>> original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
> >>> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
> >>> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
> >>>
> >>> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
> >>> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
> >>> there.
> >>>
> >>
> >> Well, that1s how the old series ended. After Sam met God and/or Satan he
> >> got to just do what he wanted. (I have no idea how, without Ziggy, he
> >> suddenly knew what to set right) This new crew presumably wouldn1t be
> >> privy to that information though.
> >>
> >> Obviously the search for Sam would be their new gimmick. But Bakula
> >> apparently put the kibosh on that!
> >>
> >> Oh, just to show that they do listen to the fans online, for years fans
> >> have been arguing about how to save Sam when the ending title card says
> >> 3Sam Beckett never did return home3 and the answer was 3until now3
> >>
> >> 3until now3 is how the new show began. :-)
> >
> >
> > I noticed that, as one of the early "until now" people. I wondered if
> > they'd done that on purpose, as a bit of fan service. I guess they
> > did!
> >
>
> I certainly hope so. I always thought that was incredibly clever and it¹s
> simplicity. They thought they written an ending that would keep the show
> from ever being brought back and the fans Mert having any of it!
>
> Did they ever do any novels with the ³Sam¹s on his own³ format that we
> never saw on TV? The missions would seem to be fairly straightforward if he
> had his memory back and knew what he needed to do without Ziggy or Al.

I didn't even know there were novels.

In article
<1095042751.685515665.848176.anim8rfsk-cox.net@news.easynews.com>,
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
> > On 9/21/2022 7:44 PM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
> >> On 9/21/2022 7:25 PM, A Friend wrote:
> >>> In article <tgg5qd$1u7ko$1@dont-email.me>, Arthur Lipscomb
> >>> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
> >>>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
> >>>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past.  I guess
> >>>> it was OK.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
> >>> original.  I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
> >>> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
> >>> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
> >>>
> >>> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
> >>> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
> >>> there.
> >>
> >>
> >> I agree a new gimmick would help.  But they do sort of have one with the
> >> mystery behind why he leapt without telling anyone. Also I don't think
> >> the original cast refused to participate, I believe they weren't asked
> >> to come back which has caused some soar grapes.  Personally, I think the
> >> show would have been better if they had asked Bakula back.
> >>
> > Bakula was sent a script and passed.
> >
>
> That¹s interesting because this didn¹t actually suck in anyway. It was just
> like another episode. But presumably the script Bakula got would have been
> different in order to include himŠ Maybe they killed him off in the first
> episode and he didn¹t want to bother?

My understanding is that Bakula just plain didn't want to do it. I
think this was a mistake on his part, but my vote doesn't count.

I remember Leonard Nimoy saying that he really hadn't wanted to play
Spock again in the films, but he did it because he thought the fans and
the work itself were owed something. There's also this: Nimoy came
from a group of young and starving actors that included Vic Morrow and
Nick Adams. Nobody talks much about those two guys anymore, and they
don't talk about the rest of the group at all.

In article <tggi6u$21t60$1@dont-email.me>, arthur@alum.calberkeley.org wrote:
> On 9/21/2022 7:25 PM, A Friend wrote:
>> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

>>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
>>> it was OK.
>>
>> This new show needs something, some sort of gimmick, that wasn't in the
>> original. I really don't have the patience to plow through this series
>> again, especially since half the main cast of the old one refuses to
>> participate, and the other half is too dead to even consider doing so.
>>
>> They might have started by showing that the new leaper has at least a
>> little control over where he's going and how long he's going to stay
>> there.
>
>I agree a new gimmick would help. But they do sort of have one with the
>mystery behind why he leapt without telling anyone. Also I don't think
>the original cast refused to participate, I believe they weren't asked
>to come back which has caused some soar grapes. Personally, I think the
>show would have been better if they had asked Bakula back.

They asked for Bakula but he declined after reading the script.
I think I shared an article on RAT-FB recently about it.

--
Let's go Brandon!

shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Sep 2022 14:25:25 -0700, Arthur Lipscomb
> <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>
>> On 9/21/2022 11:52 AM, BTR1701 wrote:
>>> In article <tgfepb$1s0bs$1@dont-email.me>,
>>> Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>> snip
>>>
>>>> House of the Dragon (HBO Max) - "We Light the Way" (ep. #1.5). This was
>>>> a good episode.
>>>> My one complaint is that they show King Viserys pretty much near
>>>> death the whole episode - yet he is somehow still alive in episode
>>>> #1.6, after the "jump forward" ~10 years!
>>>
>>> I think he has leprosy, which makes all those scenes of him banging
>>> Alicent even more cringey, 'cause that shit's contagious.
>>>
>>>> In the episode's open, Daemon is confirmed to be straight-up
>>>> EVOL!!1! when he murders his wife (by horse!!), Rhea (Rachel Redford),
>>>> in the Vale.
>>>
>>> It wasn't much of a plan: spook the horse and hope you get lucky with a
>>> fatal fall? She could just as easily have fallen off the horse and leapt
>>> to her feet and put a few arrows in him.
>>>
>>
>> I watched a break down video that indicated it might not have been
>> planned out as a murder. He showed up to the encounter unarmed (unless
>> you count the rock) and she drew first.
>>
>>
>> This will be a two day catch up. I watched:
>>
>>
>> Quantum Leap - "July 13, 1985" - Series pilot which picks up with a new
>> team of scientist trying to figure out what went wrong and thanks to
>> mysterious circumstances the lead scientist leaps to the past. I guess
>> it was OK.
>
> I tried to watch this. Got to the point where he had jumped back into
> the past and gave up. They skipped through his jump and why he had to
> do it THEN too fast for me to get the rote story line that I just
> didn't care enough to watch more.

I’d say that’s a fair assessment.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

A Friend wrote:

>>. . .

>My understanding is that Bakula just plain didn't want to do it. I
>think this was a mistake on his part, but my vote doesn't count.

I don't agree with you. I take it he simply opposed reviving the show
and just didn't want to go backwards in his career by redoing one of his
better-known characters.

>I remember Leonard Nimoy saying that he really hadn't wanted to play
>Spock again in the films, but he did it because he thought the fans and
>the work itself were owed something. There's also this: Nimoy came
>from a group of young and starving actors that included Vic Morrow and
>Nick Adams. Nobody talks much about those two guys anymore, and they
>don't talk about the rest of the group at all.

Everybody remembers Vic Morrow because his death was so pointless and
tragic. Preparation for a helicopter stunt that should never have been
done with actors in place led to destruction of the helicopter. He and
two child actors were killed.

Fine. You got me. I can't think of any comment to make on Nick Adams.

Nimoy didn't owe me anything and I sure didn't see the point of the
post-series movie having sat through Star Trek the incompetently edited
and lamely directed Motion Picture.

The Wrath of Kahn was fantastically entertaining and good for Nimoy who
got one of the most moving movie death scenes ever.

That's what an actor owes the fans, to be in something entertaining, not
a lame revival for further exploitation.

Maybe Bakula blames them for killing Al as I do and just wanted nothing
to do with it as it was no longer fun.

On 9/21/2022 8:36 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
> Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>> On 9/21/2022 5:33 PM, anim8rfsk wrote:
>>> Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
>>>> I watched:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What did you watch?
>>>
>>> Hey, thanks for asking!
>>>
>>> My rewatch continues and I think comes to a sudden stop with
>>>
>>> BLUE BLOODS S03E21 – ends and means
>>>
>>> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2778890/
>>>
>>> This is the episode where Erin became evil. It’s a clear bright line. Up
>>> until this episode she was a prosecutor. In this episode she gets made
>>> assistant bureau chief - whatever that is - and immediately changes sides
>>> and starts working for the defense. They are reviewing a case of a repeat
>>> rapist who was caught literally red-handed Raping an 80 year old. He was
>>> identified in a lineup and not only by the victim but by two sanitation
>>> workers who caught him in the act and put a stop to it. Evidence turns up
>>> that there’s a traffic cam that caught his license plate somewhere else
>>> around the same time but there’s no evidence whatsoever who was driving it.
>>> Nor apparently did the defense ever mention that he was somewhere else at
>>> that time. Aaron goes apeshit and threatens to out her boss in the press
>>> and burn the whole place to the ground because she feels if they had
>>> presented the fact that the guy really didn’t have any alibi to the jury he
>>> would’ve gotten off and she wants him to get off even though he’s as
>>> incredibly guilty as anyone has ever been because that’s the way the law
>>> works.
>>>
>>> And then everybody agrees with her that she’s right.
>>>
>> Just to be annoying I am going to chip in here and piss you off even
>> more. :)
>>
>> I recently sat in on a lecture that the attorney's at the local DA's
>> office were required to attend covering Discovery. This is California
>> so the state laws differ some I'm sure but the basics are the same. In
>> that situation the Prosecution ABSOLUTELY HAS TO TURN OVER to the
>> Defense something like that traffic cam evidence. Failure to do so
>> would, once found out, very quickly result in an overturning of any
>> guilt verdict or plea, serious sanctions against not just the attorneys
>> involved but the entire DA's office and possibly criminal charges
>> against them.
>>
>> Basically copies of ANY evidence the Prosecution has, with some
>> extremely limited exceptions, has to be turned over to the Defense. In
>> California the DA even has to make efforts to find any evidence that may
>> be "discoverable" that exists, _even if they don't know of its existence
>> or what it is_. They can be in violation of the discovery laws for not
>> turning over evidence that they don't even know exists.
>>
>> So that traffic cam evidence had to be turned over to the defense. Erin
>> may have been screaming bloody murder because it hadn't been. And no,
>> it doesn't matter if the defense already has it or doesn't ask for it.
>>
>> Now that I've refueled your outrage you may return to your ranting and
>> raving. :D
>>
>>
>
> The rules they established here were that it was up to her boss to decide
> if something was worth handing over. Her bosses opinion was that you’d have
> to be an idiot to be swayed by something that had no evidentiary value. And
> Erin insisted you should hand over anything that might get the guilty guy
> off.
>
> Under your rules they wouldn’t have had anything to argue about in the
> first place!
>
They would have been arguing over the DA's illegal refusal to turn the
evidence over to the defense. Of course this is all being filtered
through the IQ of TV writers so .... :P

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

In article <hjdnih1jk523hgrgca4d334omgsh13mem1@4ax.com>,
shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:

> Seal Team - where they opened up with tons of action as the team is
> under fire from a well planned attack that should have ended up with
> them all dead. Instead through some heroic action by GI Joe, I mean
> Bravo Team Leader, they end up surviving. Though I dare say Clay's
> soldiering days are done for.

Watching Clay drag that leg around the dirty battlefield nearly gave me
a whoopsie.

I wonder who they're going to bring in to replace him?

> FBI, - Starting off with someone who has gone off the depend in his
> hate for right wingers and wants to take out some members of the
> Federalist Society and has stolen a bunch of C4 configured into a bomb
> while Jubal keeps having issues with his son (who is having issues at
> school.) Then we have Omar (FBI agent, not a bomb tech) deciding to
> move the bomb to save the 300 or so still in the building while
> risking their lives if the FBI bomb expert was right about the bomb
> possibly having a motion detector that would set off the bomb if
> moved.

This whole thing was ridiculous. First, there was no way there was that
many people in the building they showed us from the outside. It was just
a large country house. A building that size could be evacuated in five
minutes. They were acting like was a TARDIS or something.

Second, unless that bomb was nuclear, there's no way it could possibly
have been that powerful. It was in a gym bag, for gawd's sake.

Then Omar drives it a quarter mile away and he's still saying he's not
far enough away and he dives out of a truck at 60-70 mph and rolls a few
times, then comes up running instead of screaming in agony at all the
broken bones he'd actually have. And when the bomb detonates, it knocks
people off their feet back at the house a half mile or so away, but
Omar, who is only a few hundred feet away comes away completely
unscathed.

And if I was SAC Alana, I'd haul Omar into my office and explain in no
uncertain terms that when I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed and
then send him home for a month without pay to let him think about it.

As for Jubal and his kid, give me a fucking break. First, the kid isn't
a 5-year-old. Daddy missing his birthday party shouldn't be a
soul-shattering event. Second, if Jubal's attendance is an emotional
necessity for his kid, he should have put in for leave well in advance
and have the day off. Not keep making promises to do things he almost
certainly knows he won't be able to do because he's working an active
terrorist attack that won't be resolved by the end of the normal work
day.

> FBI MOST WANTED
> Here we have a guy who has lost his daughter to a mass shooting who
> ends up purchasing an illegal gun that was stolen from a couple that
> buys legal guns in Georgia and then sells them up north where they are
> illegal.

This whole thing started with a WTF moment when the fugitive team gets
called down to Georgia by the ATF because they "need an assist". Huh?
Are all of the ATF's agents on leave so they could go to their kids'
birthday parties or something? Why can't they do their jobs without
having to ask the FBI to do their jobs for them? Which is exactly what
the fugitive team does. The first thing Dylan McDermott does is have his
people start tracing the guns and talking to the gun shop owners. Why
can't the ATF do that again? Which, I reiterate, is their job to do.

And of course this entire episode was just one big Hollywood "fuck you"
to anyone who owns a gun. They're all portrayed as unfeeling two
dimensional caricatures, right down to the guy who mows down a state
trooper and then says, "Yee-haw! Thank god for the 2nd Amendment!!"

And the rifle he used to shoot the trooper was full-auto, yet somehow
was bought from a local Georgia gun shop over the counter. Is the show
trying to portray the average gun store owner as so wantonly criminal
that they're selling fully-auto rifles to anyone who walks through the
door or are we just supposed to assume that this is another case of
leftist 'progressive' neckbeards in the writers' room who have no clue
how any of this actually works?

> Of course the couple steal the money from the FBI guy but they then
> lead them to Nathan who dies in a shootout. Then they return to the
> dad story who is heading to the Northeastern Rifle Federation meeting
> with his AR-15. So the FBI head to the meeting to stop them. They get
> into a big fight over canceling the convention and threaten to arrest
> the head of the NRF if he doesn't cancel the convention.

Which was so ridiculous I don't know where to start. If I'd been that
guy, I would absolutely have forced the FBI to arrest me and then let
him fund my early retirement with the Section 1983 lawsuit settlement
I'd absolutely win.

Just so we're clear: the FBI can't show up and force you to cancel a
political speech under threat of arrest. That violates so many laws and
constitutional principles, the judge would get eyestrain from reading
the legal briefs.

> instead of shooting him he demands he post the picture of his dead
> daughter to the guys social media feed so all the members will see
> what happened to his daughter. Once the NRF head does that the dad
> surrenders.

And then the NRA, err NRF guy probably picked up his phone and deleted
the post so it would only have been up for about 20 seconds tops.

Oh, and the lesbian agent that came back from maternity leave looks like
she's gonna have a hard time passing her quarterly PT test. Her ass is
now monstrous and she's wearing muumuu shirts to hide her fat belly,
too. I'd love to see a foot chase scene with her in it. She'd make it
about 20 yards.

> FBI INTERNATIONAL
> A US police officer in Paris working with the DSG

Did the DGSE recently change its name? They kept referring to them as
the DGSI, but they were always the DGSE when I worked with them.

> The team find, lose, find, lose and then find the bad guy who was
> heading up the illegal gun smuggling while also running a legal arms
> international arms dealership. The guy has a big deal planned that
> involves stealing spent plutonium rods that are being transported for
> recycling. Of course the team and police arrive just as the bad guys
> are stealing the rods, but can't stop them. Nor can they chase after
> them as they have the road blocked (and apparently there are no police
> on the other side of the blockade. They later find the bad guys, dead
> from radiation exposure, but no control rods.
>
> Later they find and capture the arms smuggler but he has already
> delivered the rods. Turns out it's a guy who blames France for bad
> things that have happened in Dondi (supposedly an African country), a
> Dondi government enforcer. So he plans to detonate the dirty bomb in
> Paris but hey, the team finds him and stops him in time.

The contrivances the writers are forced into to make this show
interesting are so divorced from reality that it's like it's not even
taking place in our level of the multiverse.

(1) FBI agents absolutely cannot run around shooting up foreign
countries, engaging in reckless car chases, and tackling and arresting
foreign citizens. No country on earth allows this. The time I worked
threat investigations in Paris ahead of a presidential visit, the French
government wouldn't let us do anything ourselves. We had to provide them
with the names of the people we wanted to talk to and the French
authorities would go talk to them for us. If they brought a French
citizen in for questioning, we weren't allowed to say a word to them. At
most, they might let us sit in the room and observe. And we weren't
allowed to do any of it, including just walking around the city, armed.
The French government (or any other European government, for that
matter) does not allow American law enforcement to carry guns. The only
time we did was during the actual presidential visit and even then we
weren't allowed to, we just did it anyway and had diplomatic cover so
the French couldn't prosecute us for it. Most they could do would be
kick us out of the country. During the visits, however, they become
schizophrenic about their gun policies. When the president is on their
soil, they officially forbid guns but unofficially look the other way
because they don't want anything to happen to the president on their
soil and in the aftermath have it come out they had disarmed the Secret
Service. That would make them look... well, very bad. It might actually
seem to the world that they were facilitating the attack.

(2) This show acts like these are the only four FBI agents in all of
Europe. Every embassy in every country has an FBI legat office. Why this
team is constantly traveling all over Europe working these cases is
never explained.

On Sun, 25 Sep 2022 03:36:12 -0700, BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

>In article <hjdnih1jk523hgrgca4d334omgsh13mem1@4ax.com>,
> shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:
>
>> Seal Team - where they opened up with tons of action as the team is
>> under fire from a well planned attack that should have ended up with
>> them all dead. Instead through some heroic action by GI Joe, I mean
>> Bravo Team Leader, they end up surviving. Though I dare say Clay's
>> soldiering days are done for.
>
>Watching Clay drag that leg around the dirty battlefield nearly gave me
>a whoopsie.

Yeah, that was not going to a pleasant experience for him.

>I wonder who they're going to bring in to replace him?

No idea. I would normally say they would bring in someone who would
create some drama to replace Clay but at some point they are going to
have to address Bravo Team Leader's medical issues so that's going to
create more than enough drama for the team.

>> FBI, - Starting off with someone who has gone off the depend in his
>> hate for right wingers and wants to take out some members of the
>> Federalist Society and has stolen a bunch of C4 configured into a bomb
>> while Jubal keeps having issues with his son (who is having issues at
>> school.) Then we have Omar (FBI agent, not a bomb tech) deciding to
>> move the bomb to save the 300 or so still in the building while
>> risking their lives if the FBI bomb expert was right about the bomb
>> possibly having a motion detector that would set off the bomb if
>> moved.
>
>This whole thing was ridiculous. First, there was no way there was that
>many people in the building they showed us from the outside. It was just
>a large country house. A building that size could be evacuated in five
>minutes. They were acting like was a TARDIS or something.

Yeah, the only way I could explain it is that for some reason (middle
of the ceremony?) the wedding crowd wouldn't leave. Though I might
have started by pulling the fire alarm as that would get most people
on their way out and then use the agents to get the rest. As you say
that people held many more people than it should have.

>Second, unless that bomb was nuclear, there's no way it could possibly
>have been that powerful. It was in a gym bag, for gawd's sake.

Yeah, they showed it was C4. Powerful enough to cause the building to
collapse if it went off but they acted like it was going to blow the
building to pieces.

>Then Omar drives it a quarter mile away and he's still saying he's not
>far enough away and he dives out of a truck at 60-70 mph and rolls a few
>times, then comes up running instead of screaming in agony at all the
>broken bones he'd actually have. And when the bomb detonates, it knocks
>people off their feet back at the house a half mile or so away, but
>Omar, who is only a few hundred feet away comes away completely
>unscathed.

Hey, at least they had Omar hide behind the wall to at least give him
some cover. Though, as you point out, if it was really Oklahoma city
level it wouldn't have mattered.

>And if I was SAC Alana, I'd haul Omar into my office and explain in no
>uncertain terms that when I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed and
>then send him home for a month without pay to let him think about it.

Agreed. Especially when as said above the bomb tech wouldn't move the
bomb because he thought there was a good chance it had a motion
detector. So Omar risked killing everyone still in the building
(citizens and FBI) by moving the bomb. That alone should be enough to
get him sent home for a while. Unless I missed the part where he
became a bomb expert and so might know better than the guy actually
trying to defuse the bomb.

>As for Jubal and his kid, give me a fucking break. First, the kid isn't
>a 5-year-old. Daddy missing his birthday party shouldn't be a
>soul-shattering event. Second, if Jubal's attendance is an emotional
>necessity for his kid, he should have put in for leave well in advance
>and have the day off. Not keep making promises to do things he almost
>certainly knows he won't be able to do because he's working an active
>terrorist attack that won't be resolved by the end of the normal work
>day.

I get the feeling they are building to something with Jubal's kid. Not
that I think he's going to become a mass shooter but maybe he will try
to take his own life or something. None of the issues that were raised
should be that big a deal. Hell, my family moved to a new town almost
every year when I was growing up so me and my siblings were always
lacking for good friends as we were always the new kids.

Also there didn't seem to be any reason for Jubal to have been out of
the office for most of the day other than to keep him away from his
family as I didn't see anything that Jubal did by being at each
location that he couldn't have done from the office. By this point in
their relationship it should be obvious that as much Jubal might want
to be the go to guy in the family his job is likely to get in the way.
So he should have just told his wife (ex?) where to get the cake and
concentrated on stopping the bomb.

>> FBI MOST WANTED
>> Here we have a guy who has lost his daughter to a mass shooting who
>> ends up purchasing an illegal gun that was stolen from a couple that
>> buys legal guns in Georgia and then sells them up north where they are
>> illegal.
>
>This whole thing started with a WTF moment when the fugitive team gets
>called down to Georgia by the ATF because they "need an assist". Huh?
>Are all of the ATF's agents on leave so they could go to their kids'
>birthday parties or something? Why can't they do their jobs without
>having to ask the FBI to do their jobs for them? Which is exactly what
>the fugitive team does. The first thing Dylan McDermott does is have his
>people start tracing the guns and talking to the gun shop owners. Why
>can't the ATF do that again? Which, I reiterate, is their job to do.

Apparently this show has gone down the path of making everyone else
incompetent so that the FBI can shine. You would have expected the ATF
to have already done that ground work of tracing the guns by the time
the FBI team arrived.

>And of course this entire episode was just one big Hollywood "fuck you"
>to anyone who owns a gun. They're all portrayed as unfeeling two
>dimensional caricatures, right down to the guy who mows down a state
>trooper and then says, "Yee-haw! Thank god for the 2nd Amendment!!"

At least he was shown as being unfeeling through out the episode. The
gun shop owner, though, definitely felt like the unfeeling caricature
because he knew what the kid did was wrong but yet was shown only
worrying about getting his merchandise back right away so that he
could get a sale.

>And the rifle he used to shoot the trooper was full-auto, yet somehow
>was bought from a local Georgia gun shop over the counter. Is the show
>trying to portray the average gun store owner as so wantonly criminal
>that they're selling fully-auto rifles to anyone who walks through the
>door or are we just supposed to assume that this is another case of
>leftist 'progressive' neckbeards in the writers' room who have no clue
>how any of this actually works?

I don't know if the writers are neck beards or not but clueless? Yeah,
I can buy that they are clueless

>> Of course the couple steal the money from the FBI guy but they then
>> lead them to Nathan who dies in a shootout. Then they return to the
>> dad story who is heading to the Northeastern Rifle Federation meeting
>> with his AR-15. So the FBI head to the meeting to stop them. They get
>> into a big fight over canceling the convention and threaten to arrest
>> the head of the NRF if he doesn't cancel the convention.
>
>Which was so ridiculous I don't know where to start. If I'd been that
>guy, I would absolutely have forced the FBI to arrest me and then let
>him fund my early retirement with the Section 1983 lawsuit settlement
>I'd absolutely win.
>
>Just so we're clear: the FBI can't show up and force you to cancel a
>political speech under threat of arrest. That violates so many laws and
>constitutional principles, the judge would get eyestrain from reading
>the legal briefs.
>
>> instead of shooting him he demands he post the picture of his dead
>> daughter to the guys social media feed so all the members will see
>> what happened to his daughter. Once the NRF head does that the dad
>> surrenders.
>
>And then the NRA, err NRF guy probably picked up his phone and deleted
>the post so it would only have been up for about 20 seconds tops.
>
>Oh, and the lesbian agent that came back from maternity leave looks like
>she's gonna have a hard time passing her quarterly PT test. Her ass is
>now monstrous and she's wearing muumuu shirts to hide her fat belly,
>too. I'd love to see a foot chase scene with her in it. She'd make it
>about 20 yards.
>
>> FBI INTERNATIONAL
>> A US police officer in Paris working with the DSG
>
>Did the DGSE recently change its name? They kept referring to them as
>the DGSI, but they were always the DGSE when I worked with them.
>
>> The team find, lose, find, lose and then find the bad guy who was
>> heading up the illegal gun smuggling while also running a legal arms
>> international arms dealership. The guy has a big deal planned that
>> involves stealing spent plutonium rods that are being transported for
>> recycling. Of course the team and police arrive just as the bad guys
>> are stealing the rods, but can't stop them. Nor can they chase after
>> them as they have the road blocked (and apparently there are no police
>> on the other side of the blockade. They later find the bad guys, dead
>> from radiation exposure, but no control rods.
>>
>> Later they find and capture the arms smuggler but he has already
>> delivered the rods. Turns out it's a guy who blames France for bad
>> things that have happened in Dondi (supposedly an African country), a
>> Dondi government enforcer. So he plans to detonate the dirty bomb in
>> Paris but hey, the team finds him and stops him in time.
>
>The contrivances the writers are forced into to make this show
>interesting are so divorced from reality that it's like it's not even
>taking place in our level of the multiverse.
>
>(1) FBI agents absolutely cannot run around shooting up foreign
>countries, engaging in reckless car chases, and tackling and arresting
>foreign citizens. No country on earth allows this. The time I worked
>threat investigations in Paris ahead of a presidential visit, the French
>government wouldn't let us do anything ourselves. We had to provide them
>with the names of the people we wanted to talk to and the French
>authorities would go talk to them for us. If they brought a French
>citizen in for questioning, we weren't allowed to say a word to them. At
>most, they might let us sit in the room and observe. And we weren't
>allowed to do any of it, including just walking around the city, armed.
>The French government (or any other European government, for that
>matter) does not allow American law enforcement to carry guns. The only
>time we did was during the actual presidential visit and even then we
>weren't allowed to, we just did it anyway and had diplomatic cover so
>the French couldn't prosecute us for it. Most they could do would be
>kick us out of the country. During the visits, however, they become
>schizophrenic about their gun policies. When the president is on their
>soil, they officially forbid guns but unofficially look the other way
>because they don't want anything to happen to the president on their
>soil and in the aftermath have it come out they had disarmed the Secret
>Service. That would make them look... well, very bad. It might actually
>seem to the world that they were facilitating the attack.
>
>(2) This show acts like these are the only four FBI agents in all of
>Europe. Every embassy in every country has an FBI legat office. Why this
>team is constantly traveling all over Europe working these cases is
>never explained.
>
>(3) The whole scene in the Dondi embassy in this episode was beyond
>ridiculous. The black agent tells the receptionist that he has to use
>the bathroom so she buzzes him into the secure area of the embassy and
>lets him wander up the stairs unescorted?!? In what universe would that
>happen? There'd be a public bathroom right there off the lobby for
>people to use and if, for some reason, they didn't have one, they'd have
>had embassy security escort the guy to the bathroom and back. At no
>point would he be left alone to poke around in the ambassador's office
>for Christ's sweet sake.