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dirtpie
Meanwhile, as stated IMO, ?.?. Abrams and the like, represent the culmination of everything Gene Roddenberry wasn't, in attempting the opposite. Incapable of an original thought or comprehending a reality without money and the inevitable sellout as motivation. That thought, as opposed to censorship, would require, at the very least, a backbone to endure even the tiniest, insignificant wisp of scrutiny.
Roddenberry attempted and inspired to reveal truths in an abundance of thought, imagination and diverse opinion. Not to bury facts, speech and free thinking in a sudo paradise representing the parasitic paralysis of a dystopia. Misrepresenting reality and manipulating opinion to profit off other's actual brave works, thoughts and original ideas that they, themselves, will actually be remembered for. It continues to disappoint, but bravo to the snow.
Despite the excesses of the moment being wasted by a few who have reached the apex of the complacent, mind-numbingly safe, nonintellectual curiosity of the status quo. Payed for at the expense of the legacies of others who had the courage to be rewarded for their ingenuity. Money, like opportunity, is not worth anything when wasted, knowing no one will remember the insignificance of tomorrow. In other words, Carpe diem.
Where is that contribution? The originality and bold creativity. Where is that old risk/reward equation?, because I'm sensing a deficit. Cost, is a combined word encompassing more than just profit. So what is the risk of honesty? The risk of offending who? Anyone?
Everyone must be the only logical answer. In such an unrealistic reality, "any" would have to mean "all" because that would have to be the expectation. To not be offended would be offensive in itself.
We're adults when we want to grow up. Do we want to live in a world where everyone is expected to be offended or content in unison? If no one should be offended, then literally everyone must be expected to pretend. What is the price for that reality? Wouldn't a forced reality of unity and agreement be a pretence of an otherwise futile exercise, which would actually encourage dangerous resentment and division?
A world where people whisper and distrust in fear and suspicion is hardly an understanding world filled with creative generosity. Who would be happy in that reality? So far, no one because of reality in fact. Reality may only be a matter of perception, but it is perception itself that makes such a ridiculous reality untenable.
At no point in history has everyone enjoyed a combined opportunity to be content. People are restless by nature, that being a necessary inconvenience of growth and evolution. It is human to be unsatisfied. Much like noted in our own Constitution. "in Order to form a more perfect Union." Notice the word "more" is perfectly and strategically placed. The same said without the word "more" would be frighteningly absurd and be at conflict with the meaning, spirit, intent and necessary reasoning of that same document.
In fact, its authors not only go out of their way to not embrace conformity in any pretence, but to defend against it. We keep hearing that the people are free to say whatever they believe, but that doesn't mean without consequence. How is that statement unique in any society?
It's a perfectly reasonable expectation, but, who decides? Indivisible means together as Americans. It means that we are free to agree or disagree in opinion. You are free to be offended by an opinion and to express your own opinions. It doesn't mean we are protected from other opinions that may, or may not, offend our sensibilities or any potential, seen or unseen, sensitivities.
At some point in a free society, shouldn't people be allowed to make up their own minds as individuals as to what those consequences should be for themselves, and especially for a thought? To buy or not buy. An individual choice in what or who to believe. It's the orchestrated nature of those consequences, the incitement and scorn that are becoming not so unique, visible or individual.
For instance, we're free to eat whatever we choose. Unless of course if those choices were limited because one company controlled our entire food supply. Not at all far-fetched anymore. Another analogy could just as easily be made of our entertainment choices or the news we consume. I'm all in for a profit in a competitive free market economy of ideas because that creates and encourages creativity, opportunity, innovation, quality, fairness, and the choice created thinking outside that box.
Rewarded for thinking outside the box? Imagine. People once actually did that? Regardless of the analogy and whether life is stranger than fiction, the price has become too high. As society, the cost of just the fear of being offended, or the insincere and dishonest fear attributed a false compassion and understanding, to not offend, when silence comes, even in, and maybe especially as a fiction, and at the expense of an honest reality, understanding and growth. Not to mention, at the expense of being entertaining by expressing an individual talent or idea.
We're not babies, figuratively perhaps, since none of us live long enough to learn much wisdom. We think we know it all at 10yrs old, only to try and figure out every 10yrs thereafter the foolishness, until we forget how to wonder.
Perfection is a dull vision devoid of freedom. A bleak shade of equally bland sameness. In that world, beauty would be in the so-called flaw. Insecurity and envy would be in the lie. Being different, unique, surprising, and expressing an individual self would be the only truth and the only sin.
I don't expect answers in my entertainment, but where are the questions? Where is the curiosity, the folly or thought-provoking insight? Where are the gasps? It's only a breath. A proof of life. Where is the surprise or the wow of the unexpected? Controversial and shocking even. It used to be on the poster, tantalizing us.
We no longer need that? We've moved beyond such inconveniences? The world is now an enlightened Utopia, and to strive for something "more perfect" has become obsolete. We have finally and once and for all transcended. Controversy and disagreement is dead and no longer required. All our minds have been opened, and we are of one open mind of irrefutable perfection and thought. Terrifying in reality.
At most, all we know is what we believe, and in a multitude of arrays of individual perception. With any courage or talent at all, how does one not explore that strength and frailty of humanity?
In this writing, I'm being almost exclusively pretty, but I'm free to be petty, Just like producers are free to create useless crap, and people are free to pay for that crap. At this point, really, what is the alternative? Someday soon we'll all be drooling immobilized, while ingesting our favorite flavor of flavorless paste.
PSA. Thank God for happy dentists. We need talented dentists. Just like we need brave, talented, visionary directors/writers/producers in this age. I love my dentist, but entertainment isn't getting any better. Despite sitting around the fire watching it burn, we're singing kum ba yah and telling fairy tales, while only getting more divided. Tolerance is only made more difficult by BS. Especially while taking it hard from both ends.
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The Peripheral (2022)
Which Way is Forward?
Wow, reviews all over the place here. People complaining that characters are not well-developed, while others complain that there's too much dialog. Some complaining that it's too complicated, that they can't follow and that they don't know what's going on, all the while professing their intelligence and that it's the show that's stupid.
Then there are reviews claiming the show is boring and irritated that it requires some semblance of an attention span. And of course there are people complaining about the politics of it all. E.g., the opening scene of Chloe Moretz being sexualized, or someone else is PO'd that global warming was even mentioned, and in the future no less.
I could go on and on. Wooden acting vs Great acting, or people complaining about ridiculous accents or bad language. I live in the south and yeah, we cuss like sailors here and the southern accents portrayed in this show ain't far off.
There are even complaints about the Roomba, as if it was meant to show the advanced technology of the future, without any understanding or context that the scene was shot in a much older house than the Roomba itself. Using the same logic, why is everyone not living in the clouds like George Jetson, or some kind of more advanced bubble than people are living in right now? The point was very well-made that necessities are expensive and in short supply, so just maybe, that's a very old Roomba. Looking at it, that's obviously what it is.
And of course, next I read the opposite, that there's no way technology could advance so much in such a short time as the show depicts...
So yeah, we are all living in such differing realities that maybe I should complain that the story doesn't accurately depict how screwed we really are. At least until we're all better able to imagine an idea or another point of view, and stop trying so hard to be convinced of what we think we already know.
The one that gets me most are the suggestions of rip-off anytime the future is imagined similarly to any other vision. As if we should ignore all prevailing wisdom for the sake of originality. I'm all for originality, but there is a logic to a common understanding pertaining to the evidence of current events and continuity. We are talking about a continuation of where we've been, where we are and where we're headed after all. The evidence I've seen suggest the future is a lot more static than visionary. Comparing in a comic book mentality, ugh, another hero with a superpower. Obvious rip-off.
If you want something unimaginable, then you're gonna need to look a lot further into the future than what most of us are currently capable of comprehending. Short of any doomsday/ascendance scenario, that is certainly far beyond the scope of this or any other show I've seen.
Golly gee, I'm just hanker'n for some quality sci-fi at a time when it's increasingly in short supply. So please, lighten up on the criticism and stop tearing it all down if you don't have at least a hint of an open mind. Something I would imagine is a prerequisite to be a science fiction fan.
8 out of 10.
The Flight Attendant (2020)
Season 1 = Pretty smart psychological drama disguised as a comedy thriller
I see this show getting a lot of hate, but through season 1 at least, the psychological trauma portrayed here rings very true to me.
The detachment, the selectively dishonest memories of her childhood and overcompensation that can come across as both needy and shallow, but is only just the disease of abuse passed on from parents to their children.
I find the comedic espionage and murder story a pretty enlightening metaphor to what it takes to overcome the emotional damage many are never forced to confront.
Here we have a character that would have surely continued her life in that fog had she not been forced to change and recognize her circumstances honestly.
It shouldn't work, but it does for me. I found it surprising and very entertaining.
Maybe season 2 is a different story. Hope not but, as of now, I'm looking forward.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Pop Goes The Bubble
Can we stop proving the point this movie makes fun of, and ultimately, helplessly concedes to? This satire is well enough deserved. Who should be ashamed? Maybe it should be hilarious how sadly unavoidable the reasons are that we all should be.
A comet is going to destroy a planet full of morons. Well, that makes sense. You can't throw a rock without hitting a cesspool in this s***show. Why take offense? It's not directed at any particular one of us. The stink is on us all. No one wants to own it? But it's undeniably true.
We are our own worst enemy. Tell me again who's fault it is? Oh, it's their fault. That thing everyone else should have seen while we were concerning ourselves with what? Has history taught us anything? We do still teach history, right? Can we still brainstorm here? Because apparently we're all imbeciles and only getting dumber by the second.
Can I please get a mirror? Anyone, anyone? Wait, what... no one has a mirror? But everyone has a rock to throw? Uhh... how does that happen? Who could have foreseen such a thing? I guess it is just so much bad luck from so many busted mirrors that we can no longer recognize ourselves, let alone each other, after all the s*** slinging. How thick does, let's say, "irony" have to get before it stinks to high heaven?
The people insulted by this movie are arguing with who? Oh, it's political! You don't say? Well then that makes it understandable, and what a great and dignified reason to not flush after taking a dump.
It's the labels that trigger the response, ultimately leading to no response, and how predictably triggered people do get. Pick a subject and wait for nothing but vitriol. Now, where's that Tool album? Ah, here it is... time for an Ænima.
The lack of conversation and self awareness in society is good for whom? Even more concerning is the lack of respect we have for ourselves or the respect and duty we once held for each other. This is what we call pride now? Is that what that smell is, or the gaseous odor of a society engorging itself on BS?. Duh... I don't know, but fear not my friends. Enlightenment is on the horizon.
This feel good story will ultimately come to an end when all our bubbles burst once and for all, and if one thing's for sure, if anything still matters, there will be a lot of dumbfounded people on all sides wondering WTH happened. How's that for salvation.
It's been real fun y'all and hallelujah! Lord help us and have a pleasant tomorrow.
CSI: Miami (2002)
"If he's Tom Brokaw, I'm Elliot Ness."
I love this show. I understand why some never got its appeal. It's over the top absurd. This show was never meant to represent a reality. I view it as a comic book. A colorful graphic noir full of superhero posing and one-liners. Horatio Caine attempts to embody every flatfoot ever portrayed on TV and film, from Barney Fife to Philip Marlowe, all within a singular amalgam of personality. That's his superpower. Horatio is confidence supreme. It's hilarious, and for me, as fun as anything on TV. For reasons I completely understand, this show is viewed as bad for some. As for myself, those same reasons are what makes CSI: Miami all the more irresistible.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022)
Have The Writers Ever Heard of a Vulcan?
Writing the legendary Spock as ignorant, slow, weak and submissive? I can overlook the artistic castration of human males, but Vulcan males? Even with half human Vulcan males, that's going too far. I couldn't care less about political ideology. I watch to be entertained and escape the reality either side imagines and ignores in their messaging. Please, enough already. Imagined or not, there is no reality where continuity and history doesn't matter. At least have the cojones to remain true to the story.