As the title suggests, so forth.
So Help Me Todd & Divorce as self-actualisation
So Help Me Todd has been cancelled before the second season even makes its way onto Alibi. This is a terrible pity as it was a very entertaining show, despite some mis-steps towards the end of the first season. These revolved around how the show decided to depict divorce as a path to self-actualization, particularly for Margaret. Her dead husband was out of nowhere villainised for being emotionally and verbally abusive, which on closer inspection turns out to mean not supporting her legal career dreams. Yet, the show simultaneously wrings comedy from Margaret receiving just such treatment from Beverly, the disdainful named partner she is always failing to impress. And then at the very end, just when Margaret has reached her breaking point and snaps at Beverly that she won’t take this abuse anymore when she brings in so much money that she deserves to be a named partner – Beverly makes it Crest, Folding & Wright. And Margaret does the dance of joy. Uh… Traditionally in a movie this is the point where the character realises that what they wanted was not actually what they needed. But instead of leaving and taking her clients with her to set up her own law firm, where people would be treated better, Margaret accepts this hazing as totally acceptable and just the kind of behaviour she would wish to model as a named partner. So this behaviour was grounds for divorcing her husband (had he lived), but simultaneously perfectly acceptable and presumably something she would have no problem inflicting on other people. Meanwhile her daughter Allison has divorced her adorkable rich husband Chuck because he was picked for her by Margaret. There’s no real reason, Allison is just bored with herself, her life, and the world in general. But whimsically getting divorced will surely set everything right! Even as she continues to drudge away in the ER room in the medical profession chosen for her by Margaret, but presumably too great a sunk cost at this point to just be cast off as unfulfilling. And settling both their divorce paperwork at the same time is Todd’s ex Susan. Who seems herself to be on course for a third divorce as self-actualisation. Francey brutally stops Todd from chasing after Susan to the airport when she impulsively decides to marry the charismatic rich Peter. But what Francey doesn’t know is that Susan clearly feels if she doesn’t marry Peter now she never will, because her attraction to Todd is too strong now that he works in such close proximity to her. Not exactly the best reason to get married. It left me wondering how that dynamic would be tweaked.
Which is perhaps not very sporting, many people are saying
I have been trying to watch the European Football Championship. But the professional millionaires playing in it sure don’t make it easy. And their endless cheating is laundered by the useful idiots of the punditing class who have a range of euphemisms to deploy for disgusting behaviour. Kylian Mbappe was the victim of some instant karma when he did one of the trademark tics of this generation; claiming a foul because they couldn’t be bothered. Mbappe made an effort initially, but once it became clear he wasn’t going to get the ball back, Mbappe immediately fell over clutching his face – which had not been touched. Free kick. And from the resulting fraudulent free kick Mbappe managed to break his nose by running into another player’s shoulder. So if he hadn’t cheated, he wouldn’t have got himself injured. The end of the Serbia-Slovenia match saw much of the same guff. The Slovenians were praised for ‘running down the clock’ by the commentators; which is to say kicking the ball out of play, dawdling, and generally behaving like school children holding the ball at the corner while going nah-nah-nah-nah-nah. The piece de resistance came when a Slovenian player went down doubled over holding his groin, only for the action replay (which I anticipated would be very winceworthy) to show the ball hitting him at force, a couple of inches above his knee. This isn’t entertaining to watch. It’s frustrating and disgusting. But it’s also disturbing, if you think about sport’s old Victorian purpose of building character. What exactly is this teaching children? To lie, to cheat, to steal, to gloat, to bully, to demand no actions be taken against themselves, but all punishments possible should be visited arbitrarily on their opponents. There is one person, another dubious role model, who seems to fit this bill. Donald Trump.
Bomber Jedis
I’ve been mulling over cries that the new Disney+ show The Acolyte has been review-bombed. This seems to not take into account that its viewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes truly spiralled when it started in earnest to present the Jedi as villains and break Star Wars canon repeatedly and egregiously. But it occurred to me, when we talk of review-bombing we are assuming there are not two sides. Churchill enraged Hitler by ordering the bombing of Berlin at the height of the Blitz; and he did it just to enrage Hitler by showing there were still two sides in this war. If The Acolyte can be taken down so easily by a tiny minority of toxic fans, per the party line from Lucasfilm, then, uh, where is the other side? If a tiny minority can destroy the Rotten Tomatoes score, why can’t a tiny minority on the other side bring it back up to a 50% equilibrium? And if the people who don’t like The Acolyte are so unrepresentative then why isn’t there a thumping great majority of fans pushing the score up to 70%? If a review-bombing campaign can succeed this easily it suggests there aren’t really two sides in this war. Which only leads back to the Fall of Star Wars at the box office, and the increasingly obvious conclusion that Lucasfilm is alienating an existing audience to target an audience that simply is not there. If you believe that The Acolyte is being review-bombed by a horrible sliver of the Star Wars fanbase, why is the overwhelming majority of that fanbase not rushing to its defence? And, a better question, after 9 years of Disney’s stewardship of Star Wars, do you believe they could sell the rights to another studio for even 4 billion dollars?
Musk must have his money!
It really is startling watching CNBC and seeing pundits frothing at the mouth that Elon Musk must get his 56 billion dollar pay package or else capitalism itself will fall apart at the seams. The pay package is obscene. The ancien regime in 1788 would look at it and mutter that this might be rubbing the face of the workers in the mud a bit too much, old boy. The fact that it was ever agreed to in the first place is evidence of a market that is not working. The fact that it has been ratified because of Musk musing out loud about losing interest in Tesla and taking his brilliant ideas elsewhere if he didn’t get it is absurd. That is not how companies are meant to work. If a subordinate of Musk, in any of the many companies he is somehow working at full time, at the same time, tried to pull such a stunt does anybody seriously believe Musk would not summarily fire them on the spot? Musk has already relocated Tesla’s incorporation from Delaware to Texas, in emulation of the boy who takes his football home when he loses the game. Tesla would be nowhere in America right now if huge tariffs were not keeping Americans from being able to drive China’s BYD line of electric cars. Many of which are very cheap. And also look very sleek. Neither of which could be said for the Tesla Cybertruck. But this is what Musk is to be paid 56 billion for – at this particular moment in time – because otherwise he might lose interest in doing his job. Sorry, one of his jobs. God, the cost of living must be biting when a man worth 212 billion has to have side hustles.
Talking Movies 