Verily, in article <
UBI20250823@dont-email.me>, did
weberm@polaris.net
deliver unto us this message:
I watched:
Major Changes Coming to Pluto TV Now That Its Under New Owners https://youtu.be/M6nJFm4A9EI?si=EjCnt9kHo32xo1GF
That's potentially alarming. Let's hope they do it sensibly.
Pluto is doing the streaming for some fairly large names like Comedy
Central. Paramount will have to take that into account, whatever they
do.
This video says that I, as a Hulu subscriber, should now have access to Disney+ content. I might try some of the superhero stuff. I'll probably
drop Hulu when it's no longer an option, since I keep thinking about
dropping it anyway.
I do agree that there are currently too many streaming services.
What did you watch?
I watched some ST:TNG.
"Haven"
Deanna Troi's arranged marriage is finally happening. They like and
respect each other, but they're not in love. Will they be practical or
will they break everything off to chase true love? The question is
resolved via deux ex machina, in which the literal woman of the groom's
dreams turns out to be real and he goes off to save her people.
This one is kind of lame. I generally prefer the adventures to the sudsy episodes, but even for a character-driven plot, this one's contrived.
Just how many spacefaring societies practice arranged marriage, anyway?
Is that the galactic standard? The acting's also kind of mediocre, IMO.
Riker is still responding to most things by smirking (Frakes will
improve a lot), and Troi's face might as well be a wooden mask (Sirtis
will improve a little).
"The Big Goodbye"
Is this Picard's first experience with a holodeck? He gazes about
himself as if he were beholding a wonder. Maybe it is; he does explain holodecks into the ship's log.
Data probably wants to join the scenario as part of his dream of being
human. That was a huge part of his character at first, but it's almost
time for "Datalore" and more layers.
I then watched some South Park. I started with the new episode,
"Sickofancy." It didn't gel, IMO. It poked at Trump, poked at enabling
AIs, and managed a little satire on using tech to solve the problems
tech creates. It was watchable, if not great.
I can't help noticing that a few years ago the showrunners were poking
fun at excessive nostalgia (memberberries), but now they're bringing
back a number of elements from decades ago. Is it fun to see Satan
again? No, not really. He was a great character back in that era, but a
show can't live on nostalgia. They've made that point themselves enough
times that I can't help wondering if this season is another deliberate
attempt to get cancelled.
I then watched a few more South Park reruns, including "You Have 0
Friends" (s14e04). It's a more artful look at how we all got sucked into social media, chasing clicks and likes and friends, until our online
profiles became more significant than our offline lives. That's worse
than ever. In addition, now we can just direct an AI to give us
attention and approval.
What did everyone else watch?
--
Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil (Third Doctor)
Watch party on Saturday, 1:00 PST
https://discord.gg/mw4QzndY?event=1408952064645795852
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