River Monsters and co. - March 27

Bad news on the horizon, I am afraid – ‘River Monsters’ (RM) is getting cancelled; S9 is going to be the final season.

On one hand, everything must end, and I honestly feel that RM should have finished by S7 or S8, when it jumped the shark by going out to sea. (Until S8 it stuck only with freshwater monsters, remember?) On the other, what will Animal Planet offer as a replacement? ‘The Zoo’ is a good show, (although I feel that it is focusing too much on daily lives of zoo vets), but it isn’t a good equivalent/replacement; the various pet shows? ‘Tanked’? Do not make me laugh. These days, AP is all about pets and domestic/domesticated animals; ‘RM’ went out into the wild, into the remote corners of the world, as the various Nat Geo Wild programs do – you know, ‘Wild Borneo’, ‘Wild Scotland’, etc.? With ‘RM’ gone from AP, it will be an end of an era, and in a sad way.

But then again, lately the TV shows seem to be on the sad/disappointing end of things in general. ‘The Catch’, for example, has subtly revamped itself: it got rid of all the same-sex/interracial couples and is now a straightforward crime drama full of humor, drama and sex…yeah, it is still good, but the same-sex/interracial couple angle set it apart from the other mystery dramas and with them largely gone, ‘The Catch’ is more generic than it was in S1. It is still fun to watch, but somehow S1 of it was more intense and powerful – but maybe it is just me.

And moreover, ‘The Catch’ is still rather better than ‘Powerless’, which is suffering from chronic unpredictability: maybe it’s just Canada, but it has been airing irregularly, with intervals of one, two or maybe even more weeks between the episodes. What gives? It wants to be a solely U.S. TV show? Then why air in Canada at all? ‘Powerless’ has found its footing as a TV show, but due to the gaps between the episodes, it may have problems.

These gaps, mid-season breaks and the like can be trickier to implement in a show than it may look like. ‘Blindspot’ handled its mid-season hiatus well enough, but it clearly has a precise, concise and clear game plan in regards to plot development, and character development, and etc., so that it can recover, or rather – it has recovered from the latest hiatus well enough.

AoS…initially, the info that Grant is coming back, as a guest star, was very exciting, but by now the excitement is gone and the old battle lines are probably getting drawn: people who love him and those who hate him, and the two groups don’t get along. AoS should probably resolve the issue of Grant being a part of AoS for good in S4, or else the controversy that his character is creating, on top of the controversies about Hydra and Steve vs. Tony vs. Bucky may cause much worse backlash than what AoS needs – it needed to continue with the Ghost Rider and co., to make a new start with the Reyes brothers, and the new director, (i.e. Mace), and the Watchdogs…etc.

Well, okay, it did not need to, but… But the fact is that after the S3 finale AoS had direction problems on top of everything else. In the first 3 seasons there was clear-cut progression, as S.H.I.E.L.D. dealt with aliens/InHumans and Hydra (the organization) in various proportions, culminating in Hive, an alien/InHuman who was also in charge of Hydra by default. S.H.I.E.L.D., (or rather – Lincoln), destroyed Hive forever, ending S3 openly – Coulson was no longer in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Daisy seemed to have turned vigilante; etc. The road to move on into the future was clear. So what happened next?

We all know as to what happened next. S4, which began with the Ghost Rider mini-arc and a clean break from the previous seasons, is concluding where it began – with Grant Ward, and Hydra, and etc. The only question is why? Clearly, the matter of finances is there, (S4 AoS is much more frugal than the S3 AoS was), but it doesn’t really explain everything; rather than bringing back Dalton, they could’ve just continued with Luna all the way instead – between the Ghost Rider, and the Watchdogs, and the occasional InHuman, and even the LMDs, they could’ve created a genuinely original and new S4…and instead they created a chimera of old and new…and not in a good way…

Or, you know, if it was simply a matter of cash and it was cheaper to work with Dalton than with Luna, then they should’ve just worked with Dalton from the start, (somehow, but still), and not gotten involved with Luna, period. If you do not have enough cash to make a good AoS/Ghost Rider ‘crossover’…then do not. Just stick with the tried and tested and remain within the budget; otherwise, you will still fail…

Okay, AoS is not returning to the TV screens until the next month, so let us talk about Marvel’s ‘The Defenders’ instead. The last of them, ‘Iron Fist’, was released on Netflix in March 2017 and it had plenty of its own flak, considering that the titular character was played by the ‘Game of Thrones’ Flower Knight. You know what? The fan base knew about this long before March 2017, so it was not a surprise – or a problem. The problem is that ‘Iron Fist’ is strongly influenced by DC’s ‘Arrow’ the TV show, especially the first season – but we have discussed this in the past.

What next? First, there was ‘Daredevil’, who introduced several of Marvel’s B-string characters: the titular hero, the Kingpin, (Wilson Fisk), the Punisher, Electra…and the Hand. It also has two seasons under its’ belt now, making it a showrunner and the front man for the defenders’ team. Then – ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Luke Cage’, which introduced their titular heroes and gave variety to the usual cast of Marvel’s heroes as a woman – an abused woman – and an Afro-American man from NYC. That alone balanced out the whatever flaws JJ and LC had (as shows), and then came ‘Iron Fist’, and while it was reasonable to expect the titular character to be an Asian, or an Asian-American man, in the comics he isn’t, not really, so live with the Flower Knight in the role of a warrior monk, people!

…Of course, it does not really help that the defenders’ team moved into their endgame as well, with the all four of the defenders, (plus their allies), square off against the Hand and its’ ninjas, because, well, they do need a good and worthy opponent. The Kingpin is still in the big house, so why not ninjas? It works. ‘The Defenders’, just like ‘Blindspot’, have a clear plan progression in sight, while AoS does not. AoS’ ‘Ghost Rider’ mini-arc tapped into the vigilante ideas’ pool a-la ‘The Defenders’, and it could’ve stayed there or moved on with the Ghost Rider, but it didn’t, but rather returned to its old haunts – and the problems associated with them.

So: RM is moving into its final season, ‘Blindspot’ is going strong, as do ‘The Defenders’, ‘The Catch’…isn’t as strong as it used to, and neither is 'Powerless'; and AoS will have problems when it returns in April or so. That is it for now, see you next time!

Gilmore Girls III

So, back to GG. Firstly, I want to apologize, I got them wrong – it is the Palladinos, not whatever I have written down the last time. Sorry for the gaffe. Now, since we are back on the GG topic, let us get back to it.

Where does it stand in the term of TV show mechanics? ASP is a very strong-minded, very driven woman – and it is possible that the titular heroines are various aspects of her personality…sort of? Never mind.

On one hand, that is good, for the obvious reasons, on the other, in various interviews and the like ASP came across as a Mrs. Kim kind of person instead: ‘It’s my way or the highway!’ She does not really care what the other people think, she does not really compromise, especially when it comes to her vision, (whether it is GG or anything else), but neither does she try to convert anyone to her P.O.V., especially if she does not need to. Basically, she does not play well with others.

And now imagine her, and her husband, working on the GG revival with Melissa McCarthy and other important names in Hollywood. How will this work out? Considering that any further revival of GG is not very likely at the moment, it had not.

However, I did write about this earlier – the actors were not very enthusiastic about the GG revival – they have their jobs at ‘This is Us’, or ‘How to get away with Murder’, etc. They do not really need to invest into GG – and so they do not. ‘Fuller House’ is experiencing the same thing with the Olsen twins – they do not need to get involved with their old haunts and coworkers for any reason, and so they do not. (And their sister is busy working with the rest of the Avengers in the MCU, yeah).

So, where did it leave the viewers? Disappointed, and still divided as to whether Rory should be with Logan, or Jess, or whoever else. Sadly, the Palladinos either chose to ignore the previous, seventh season of the GG, or pretended to do so; Paul, Rory’s official boyfriend is…what? How Rory’s treatment of Paul is better/different from Logan’s treatment of Odette? Oh, Logan is actually in a relationship with Odette and remembers her, unlike what Rory is going/doing with Paul, (rather than to Paul, BTW).

Here is the thing. It is possible that Logan was going to be Rory’s ‘Christopher’, plus there was the entire British & French vs. the U.S. dynamic when you add Jess. Jess and Rory stand for the U.S.A., especially, while Anglo-American U.S.A., because they live in New England, as opposed to Texas or California, for example. Logan and Odette are Europe, Jess and Rory – U.S.A. For the initial six or seven seasons of GG, this could be very cutting stuff, but – hello, real life. In real life, the face of the U.S., its’ 45^th president is the Donald Trump, whose latest peccadillo involve ignoring Angela Merkel’s attempt to shake hands – as a sign of politeness. Trump is not Russia’s puppet because Putin has his own problems and he never meddled in the U.S. politics anyhow, this is something Trump’s opposition invented by themselves and it just makes the situation worse – just ask Robert Reich.

No, really, listen to the man – the way he is describing the situation in D.C. is chilling, which kind of relates to GG: at the end of S7 Rory went off to be a part of team Obama – and this was never mentioned in the revival; in fact, another point of contention was that team Palladino largely ignored the real world and tried to create some sort of a self-contained world instead – and it’d been noticed before, this world could be quite mean and nasty in a petty, politically incorrect way. Hello, Mr. President! How is your tower?

Yes, this is not entirely the Palladinos fault – they probably did not take into account that the Donald would win the election, but still, in this case, if they assumed that Hillary would win instead, they should’ve ‘updated’ their vision of America…but they didn’t, and the end result was much more Trump-like than people like to associate with GG – and maybe that was the intended result; it is unknown for whom did ASP and her husband vote, but her views are more Republican than Democrat, so that’s that…only no. These days, people are sore at the Republicans and ASP’s attitude probably does not win her any favors, not so much among the GGs’ viewers, as among its cast and crew – most of Hollywood was largely Democratic then and now…

And so, this is it. The GG revival has come and went and has been largely assimilated by the viewers, the audience, the fans. The fan base of the GG ‘dom still remains strong. The GG will go on with the times – but any more revivals’ of the original show do seem to be unlikely.

Gilmore Girls II & co. - March 17

What to talk about? Well, I could talk about ‘The Catch’ – it was good in S1, now, in S2, it is even more exciting, in a good way: the cast and crew at that series has invested effort and enthusiasm into the series, and there is plenty of imagination to go around as well.

How is this important (in greater detail)? Just look at ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’ restart and compare it with ‘Fuller House’. Both shows tried to play on the nostalgia of their former fans but while ‘Fuller House’ had enough enthusiasm in its cast (and crew) to create endurance for the show, ‘Gilmore Girls’ didn’t. Both shows had flaws, but ‘Fuller House’ is going to have S2 – actually, it had had S2, ‘Gilmore Girls’ probably will not. Yes, its’ humor was sometimes somewhat racist or otherwise abusive, (especially by modern standards than by the 1990s standards); yes, the plotlines had plotholes, and the character development of the titular characters (and others) was often flawed, but so’s the case of ‘Fuller House’ – it may not be exactly racist, but neither was it perfect, period. So?

Okay, firstly the racial issue (sort of). Earlier this month, there was a new viral video, a very short one. Professor Robert Kelly was interviewed for BBC from his home, when his daughter (3-4 years of age) walked in, followed by his son, (a baby, 1-2 years of age) in his baby walker, and then his wife (Kim Jong-A) rushed in and got them (the children, the professor was left behind to finish his interview) out. The whole thing took less than a minute, (judging by the length of the clip), and personally, I think that the mother’s actions were the most distracting and messy. What next?

Next, BBC released a full online interview with Robert Kelly and his family, and there were also plenty of other online clips that showed the family in question. As the audience can see, this an interracial family, probably bilingual as well, (Kim Jong-A has some problems with speaking English, and since Robert Kelly works at the Pusan National University, he probably has a good grip on the Korean language), and progressive/liberal in their views, at least when it comes to raising their children: they are given the run of the house and trouble began after their mom forced them out of the room, (which is apparently their room with their toys). What is this has to do with GG?

Enter Lane Kim, (who is a Korean), and her husband, Zach, (who is Anglo-American). They are either some of the main characters, or some of the most important secondary characters, take your pick. Moreover, the Kims are probably the only Asian-American characters of GG, just as Michel was the only African-American character there, so, while GG probably were not racist, neither had they tried to make their show more racially diverse, in keeping in touch with the current socio-political times…

No, seriously, Trump’s approach to the racial issues is as incompetent as it is to everything else…and Obama’s was not better, (remember all those racial riots throughout his presidency?), but this is not just about the 45^th president of the U.S., (or his cabinet, or the 44^th president, or etc.). Rather, it is about the fact that by now, the Americans like to think of themselves as interracially integrated people and GG failed to reflect this.

Of course, neither does ‘Fuller House’, but ‘Fuller House’ is centered around a single family, (although a very big and unconventional one), whereas GG is centered around an entire town instead. These are two different scopes, you know? Would it kill ASP and her husband to integrate at least some POCs into the town – as background, episodic characters? Since there really were not any, apparently yeah, it would.

Instead, there was the line of the Star Hollow not having any gays, so shall we export some from the next town? It was said by Taylor Doose, (I think), who is not always a positive character, but still, with the Donald in power, this sounds slightly too much as what the 45^th president can say under some circumstances or other, because it was tasteless. And that is a problem for the U.S. – it is not that the 45^th president is incompetent, it is that he is tasteless and vulgar, and the same goes for his cabinet, and – for his critics, who often just spew vitriol from TV and computer screens without caring as to whom they can really hit. By now, the Americans themselves are tired of this sort of criticism, so it is going down, but do not worry – the anti-Russian hysteria and wiretap accusations and similar topics going around will compensate for that sort of thing nicely…

And with its’ government divided, does the U.S. think that it can take on North Korea and China, should it come to WWIII? Yeah, the odds right now are not in the U.S. favor: first resolve the inner division between each other, (I am talking Republican and Democratic parties here, plus every other third party involved), and then go back to adventures abroad.

If we get back to GG, the truth, again, is that they didn’t try to be deliberately racist, or openly insulting towards fat people – various reviewers felt that Melissa McCarthy/Sookie St. James had views regarding this, and she’s a prominent actress in Hollywood these days and she and the Pellegrinos possibly had a talk, so between this and her fee no wonder that Melissa-Sookie didn’t stick around for the new show.

However, enough with the conspiracy theories for the moment, the fact is that GG do not feel racist, they feel sloppy, slothful or lazy – people just did not want to get involved/invest their effort into it. Milo Ventimiglia, who played Jess Moriano, was openly unenthusiastic in his interview regarding the ‘next’ next installment of the GG saga, and without Jess the GG dynamic just falls apart so either Milo will change his mind, (for an appropriate amount of cash), or no more GG – and considering that the backlash of ‘A Year in the Life’ was already rather damaging to the original series, this doesn’t look good for GG…

And that is actually my next point: team GG did not put too much effort or imagination into the show’s revival because there was no enthusiasm, or at least – not enough enthusiasm, you know? ‘APB’, ‘Powerless’, ‘Making History’ ‘Time after Time’ and etc., have their flaws, but they also have enthusiasm, and consequently, they make plenty of effort to counterbalance for these flaws. GG did not. Hence – the fallout.

The same goes for the dilemma of ‘For Honor’ – sort of. As far as I’m concerned, ‘For Honor’ did deliver mostly what it promised to deliver – a very good fighting game, not unlike that of ‘Battlefield 1’, save that it is set in the Middle Ages…sort of. Whatever option you choose, you still get plenty of good fighting – and nothing else. Apparently, when it came to the campaign mode in foiling Apollyon’s plot, this was not good enough, and that is a real problem. Oh, it is not the only one, but most of the other problems are technical; ‘For Honor’ should fix them easily enough and keep on going…or fail to do so, and vanish into obscurity forever, as it deserves to. A bad story, however, is not fixed as easily, and ‘For Honor’ is ‘purely’ a game; it cannot be redesigned and reset with the same ease that, say, a TV series can…

Facepalm. What I meant to say here is that ‘For Honor’ will need to back away from all the intensity it had generated this February (2017) and revise its’ campaign story mode big time, so that the next edition/release/whatever has something different. After all, the conclusion of the campaign mode is kind of depressing: Apollyon died, the wars continued, almost everyone else died, there is no peace and the matter of honor is hanging in balance as well. Yeah, after the disastrous 45^th presidential election this is just what the U.S. society needs – more doom and gloom. Maybe this is how the creative team of ‘For Honor’ thinks to introduce the new classes/characters/etc., but as I have written before, this probably is not the good/right idea that they think it is…

And that is that for today’s installment. GG is done, at least for the moment, ‘Fuller House’ is not, and neither is ‘For Honor’ (hopefully). See you next time.

For Honor VIII, etc., rant - March 13

…Last time I ranted, I tried to talk about things ending; maybe this time I should be talking about the returning and etc.?

One of the things that has returned is ‘The Catch’, which is the grown-up version of the ‘Zootopia’ movie, save that it is done with humans (rather than anthropomorphic animals) and is shot live rather than as a cartoon/animated feature. ‘The Catch’ tries to be a mystery/crime show, but in reality, it is more of drama show, with the mystery/crime elements actually being its bigger flaw instead. That said, it is still enjoyable to watch, so, yeah, watch it?

Another new TV show, (this time new for real), is ‘Time after Time’. This is a curious one, since it deals with Jack the Ripper escaping into our time via H.G. Wells’ time machine, (yes, we are talking about the RH person here), and H.G. has followed him to stop him, (duh).

Now, what is curious is that this is ‘take III’ on the idea, so to speak. ‘Take I’ was the original…novel, which laid the groundwork both for the first two episodes of the current series and the movie, (‘take II’?) that aired in 1979, (I think). This means that the scriptwriters and co. had plenty of ideas of what kinks need to be fixed at least for the first two episodes, and probably even beyond. Spoilers alert: the appearance of Dr. Brooke might be the ‘real-life prototype’ of Wells’ Dr. Moro, and frankly, I think that one of the show’s ideas is that H.G. Wells got his inspiration for his novels in the future – his future/our present. As far as ideas go, this one is not bad; ‘Making History’, (which has also premiered in March and which also features time travel) is worse.

No, I am sorry, but ‘Making History’ sucks. It makes ‘Powerless’ look good especially since the latter has gotten over its terrible first episode and has found its’ footing, whatever it is. In part ‘Powerless’ reminds me of Crimson Fox, the main superhero of Charm City, where the show takes place. Have you seen her, on the show or in the comics? She doesn’t look anything like a fox; she looks a bit like a mushroom or a cobra with its’ hood spread out, but while the crew in Gotham, (Batman & Catwoman, cough), look sort of like their titular animals, the Crimson Fox just…doesn’t. She is still a proper superhero, no question about that, it is just there is nothing obviously corresponding with her superhero identity.

The same goes for ‘Powerless’. It is supposed to be a comedy about ordinary, common people trying to make a living in a super-powered world, but in reality, ‘Powerless’ works best when it is a comedy about a business company trying to make a living regardless of the facts that its’ CEO is an incompetent and infantile jerk, most of the staff would rather do anything else but work, and the main heroine of the show (Emily Locke) has this sort of a ‘Perky Polly’ attitude that can be hard to swallow and can be overwhelming in a bad way. Further complicating the show’s standings are some RL issues – the promo videos are coming at irregular intervals, they can actually be misleading, and they do not really reflect what will be aired in the episode per se.

…This is somewhat reminiscent of AoS, save that that AoS has many problems that ‘Powerless’ just lacks: the former plans to return Grant Ward to its’ screen (why, but this was discussed in earlier installments), plus it still has not fully recovered from the mess of Lincoln Campbell, (played by Luke Mitchell) and his (i.e. Luke’s) departure from the show.

Again: the first half of S3 did its best to depict Lincoln as Daisy’s boyfriend/other half, fine. This makes his final demise on screen at the S3 finale only more pointless and damaging to the show; I cannot help but to feel that someone else was supposed to perish instead. Coulson’s demise would’ve made the most sense – he is heroically dead, (as an Avenger should be), there is a new director, Lincoln really has to work it out with Daisy, with the new director, with the other agents, and-

Well, yes, given how the show was handling Daisy and Lincoln’s relationship, Lincoln didn’t really have any other choice…but the actor who was playing him did. These days Luke is playing Roman on ‘Blindspot’, and I do not see he has any regrets about leaving AoS for good. AoS itself might have mentioned Lincoln three times or so throughout the entirety of S4, so I am guessing that his departure was a bad one…because it did do damage to the second half of S3, for example. Lincoln just could not up and leave, so they had to kill him off.

…Okay, he could’ve just left, as Lance and Bobbi did, (sort of) – it’s equally possible that Joey, (played by Juan Pablo), was the one who was going to die at the end: it would certainly be appropriate for his character development – from an ordinary person, to a new recruit, to an agent, to a hero – and instead he left the show on a whimper with nary a mention. For a former friend of Daisy and others this was a low way to leave. However, what else could there be done? Juan Pablo signed onto AoS for just one season, and this was it. With Lincoln doing the heroic self-sacrifice now, (because if he just left Daisy and S.H.I.E.L.D. instead it’d be worse), there was no point to keep Joey, and so he left, Lincoln died, and when Radcliffe’s framework captured Coulson and most of his team, Coulson got to be the one who taught the dangers of InHumans, which didn’t suit him very well, (I don’t think that he really cared about the InHumans one way or another aside from Daisy), but it did suit Lincoln, since Simmons and he had been working on a ‘cure’ for the InHumans in S3…before that plot point got completely forgotten, apparently. Lincoln was intended for S4 (and beyond) but this never happened. The end, and AoS chose one of the worst ways to replace him with Grant, (Brett), ‘cause this just brings back all the old controversies and fights between the fans and what have you. Great move.

Let us stop the rant about AoS, again, and talk about other successes gone wrong, such as ‘For Honor’. As much as it was promoted before February 2017, now it is being torn down – and for deserved, technical issues. This is reasonable and probably ‘earned’ – ‘For Honor’ needs to fix various technical bugs and change/update some of its context: ‘Battlefield 1’ is not doing so hot either, but it is getting better…and so will ‘For Honor’, I hope. What worries me are the rumors that new classes are going to be added – the centurion and the ninja.

Well, the centurion was a ranking officer in the ancient Roman army, which means that he had more basic/less advanced weaponry than a Viking, a Samurai or a Knight did. Moreover, the Roman military was badass, especially before and during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but-

But they were ‘team players’ fighting and working as a single unit; their armor was not very good, but their shields were broad and strong, and fighting cohesively, not one on one as their enemies (Celts, Gauls, Teutons, etc.) did, so when they could have a massive, army-on-army battle, they would win. In one on one battle, they would lose, as the S2 of DW showed clearly and honestly, by putting the abovementioned Roman Centurion against a Rajput warrior…who was not very different from a Celt, tactics-wise. As individual warriors, the Romans were worse than the Vikings, Samurais or Knights, so unless ‘For Honor’ will do some reality- and history-bending, the Romans are going to be the underdogs – and rightfully so…

(Of course, there were also the gladiators. The modern concept of gladiators is ‘shaded’ by the ‘reforms’ of the emperor Nero – yes, that Nero – but during the Roman republic they were different; at one point they were used as instructors from the Roman soldiers instead, but that is another story…)

As for the Ninja, here is the thing. DW gave it a bad deal, such weapons as black eggs, a medieval Japanese version of pepper spray, against a Spartan, who used a shield and a spear as its main weapons; the Spartan, essentially, won by points, and…let’s be fair to DW – it got rid of such unbalanced matchups in the following seasons. And anyhow, what worries me is that ‘For Honor’ already has a ninja-like character in its’ roster – the Samurais’ Orochi; his promo clearly says that this character was ‘trained by ninja clans’. So why add a duplicate?

…On this note, let me end the rant. It went in a completely different direction from where I wanted it to go, so yeah – until the next time, and hopefully, it will not be as embarrassing for me as this one was. 

Gilmore Girls gone wrong AU - March 3

For a change, here's a very rough draft of how post-main series 'Gilmore Girls' could've gone so wrong. (Maybe one day I will even flesh it out some).

1. Rory and Logan’s relationship never recovered and neither did Rory’s career (part 1)

In her years since graduating, Rory Gilmore became a truly entitled Republican, the Bohemian version. For months, if not years, she enjoyed being Logan Huntzberger’s mistress – and nothing more. As a result, her personality and skills deteriorated, and eventually Logan kicked her out – in part because of his family’s prompting, but in part because Rory herself no longer resembled the girl that he befriended, (and more), in college. He grew up. Rory just grew out.

2. Rory’s daughter grew as ‘something else’

Stephanie Cari Lorelai Gilmore II grew up as someone else. She was named after her grandma Lorelei Gilmore I, (Rory tried to mend the fences with her mum at the time), and there were some physical similarities but otherwise? Whereas Lorelai had loved her daughter and cared for her, Rory not so much. Her personality continued to deteriorate and she would often take it out on her daughter – who reciprocated it, but also copied her mother’s behavior as well. As a result, while Rory, (due to her grandparents’ will) did inherit a certain amount of money that allowed her to live comfortably and some degree of respectability, her daughter’s behavior was much more white trash.

3. Rory’s attempts to restart her career with the book backfired (part 2)

Rory’s attempt to restart her career as a writer by writing the book about her, her mum and grandmum backfired. The problem was in her writing skills – she was equally bad as a writer as she was a journalist. People largely ignored her book, gave it bad reviews, or demanded their money back. The publishing house who released Rory’s work had a ‘no money back’ policy, so there was a slew of minor online scandals and bad publicity. Consequently, Rory’s relationship with her mother and grandmother deteriorated further – neither of the women enjoyed the fact that Rory depicted their family as some sort of a classless rich…or worse, but they still tried to keep in touch – sort of, at least for a while…

4. More about the book (part 3)

The book itself did became famous, or rather infamous, for some time – but mostly because of the publishing house’s ‘no refunds’ policy. People took to complaining and trying to sue the organization in question, which launched a defence of its’ policy and a threat of a defamation suit. As a result, they gained the reputation of hard-liners and loyal to their clients, but also of being rather unscrupulous and unpredictable (in a bad manner) as well. Rory’s book became a representative of ‘bad attitude’ and Rory herself became infamous and unpopular, some sort of an anti-feminist or a pseudo-feminist, and it did not do her any wonders; her mother, grandmother and daughter got caught in the fallout as well.

5. Christopher got involved

Christopher, Rory’s father and Lorelai’s ‘first love’ got involved at this point, as the mess of the publishing house prompted his new family to force him to do so. Christopher tried to interfere, but in an inept, high-handed way, causing Lorelai’s ire to go onto him – in a bad, explosive way. The pair re-remembered why they disliked each other so much to begin with, and when the dust settled, Christopher de-facto disowned Rory and her girl, and cut-off all the ties with the Gilmores. What’s more, Luke had not been very amused by Christopher’s interference, and Lorelai was not amused by Luke’s involvement, so the pair put some distance between each other, as Luke remained in SH and Lorelei went to her mother’s new home in Nantucket.

6. Emily

Emily took it hard – the fact that her great-granddaughter is white trash, her daughter is vulgar, and her granddaughter is a spoiled brat (or worse). Her health began to deteriorate, so Lorelai used is as an excuse to move in with her mother under the excuse of taking care of her, and making distance with Luke. Consequently, her relationship with Luke withered, and Emily’s health also deteriorated: Lorelai’s unhealthy eating habits caught up with both women and their weight exploded, (with Rory, it was mostly post-pregnancy weight and she had it somewhat under control). Before long, both of the older Gilmore girls were overweight and out of shape, and Emily’s age finally caught up to her. (The caretaker they hired eventually had to take care of both of them instead).

7. Paris and Doyle

Paris and Doyle were initially on team Rory – tentatively so, more because they disliked Logan than liked Rory (still). More precisely, Paris was on team Rory – Doyle has largely distanced himself from Logan and Rory a while back (he was that sort of a person). When Rory’s book got published and Paris saw Rory’s depictions of herself, Doyle and Logan, she joined the group of people who did not want to associate with the Gilmores anymore, and she made her peace with Logan and his new wife. She and Doyle also made-up, sort of – they are not really married anymore, they just live together and raise their mutual children. Sometimes they dine with Logan and his wife. They do not talk much about Rory and the rest of the Gilmores anymore.

8. Zach and Lane

Zach and Lane got hired to run the Gilmores’ household – the new one, in Nantucket, at first. Mrs. Kim was that good and had that sort of influence with Lorelai Gilmore still. For a while Zach and Lane were reluctant, to say the least, regardless of their initially bad financial situation, (recession and all came to SH at last). But then, as Lorelai grew fatter and more despondent and spoiled on one hand, and Emily grew older, heavier and weaker on the other, the influence of the Kims grew and they realized that working for the Gilmores was not so bad – especially after Mrs. Kim ‘the original’ moved in and became the real head of the household, with none of the Gilmores being able (or willing) to stand up to her. To simplify matters when it came to the will, (and the bulk of Emily and Richard’s fortune actually went to the Kims, cough), Zach himself adopted ‘Kim’ as his last name, and this has helped his mother-in-law to become the matriarch of the family once more. These days the Kims own most of the Gilmores’ old property, including their old property in SH.

9. Sookie and Dragonfly Inn

Sookie was not bothered by Rory’s novel, because she did not read it. She did not really remember Rory, or Lorelai, or the rest of SH at all. She did become a successful chef due to having a competent and amazing manager, and she is quite rich – rich enough to own part of Dragonfly Inn, when Luke tentatively reached-out with this offer: after he and Lorelei drifted apart, their finances suffered – and Sookie came through, or rather her manager did. Sookie never realized what she was doing or what she has done; she has forgotten SH and it has largely forgotten her. At least Rory and her kid are running the Kims’ old antique store, (and are actually good about it, if they are not getting all very well with each other).

10. Jess

Jess tried to win Rory back after Rory returned to SH but Rory did not want him; she did not want to get married to anyone, it seemed. Her daughter’s father remained unknown and Rory just did not appear to want to settle down. She always backed down before Mrs. Kim the elder, but so did everyone else, including Emily, once she got old and feeble enough. After her book was published, Rory and Jess had a confrontation, and Jess left, SH, for good. Where is he now, who knows?

Just a rant - March 1

Briefly… Several things have ended in the last few days (well, on hiatus – sort of?). Can I rant about them?

AoS S4 is on hiatus. I have ranted about this before; the return of Grant Ward to the show can be a very good thing, or it can be an outright disaster especially since the S1 finale AoS in general was in a slog. The same goes for the return of Hydra – does AoS want to have more controversy among its fans? And MCU? …Well, with MCU in general it is tricky – Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’ is coming to Netflix this March, so maybe with the last Defender in its place, (and also Colleen Wing), the new Defenders will be able to make up for whatever shortcomings AoS will bring forth, who knows?

Sadly, ‘Iron Fist’ itself may have problems – the promo videos show something rather similar to DCEU’s ‘Arrow’, especially S1, and that probably is not very good. The ratings for the last – so far – S4 episode ‘Self Control’ are still low, regardless of all the excitement that the new twists might have generated among the fans and the month-long hiatus will not be a good thing for the fan base either. Not unlike the previous season, AoS might have shot themselves in the foot with the hiatus on top of anything else.

APB, on the other hand, is still going strong. Then again, they do have good actors and a simple, but solid, plot – the promotion of the police, you might say. There is some ‘loan’ of ideas from AoS and MCU, (especially ‘Iron Man’), but in general, APB has found its footing and continues steadily onwards. The ratings – and viewers – have dropped by almost one-half now, but, for comparison, AoS – and ‘Powerless’ are still lower in this turn of events.

‘Blindspot’ is also on hiatus, but I do not really want to rant about it – unlike ‘Big Cat Week’ of 2017, which has also ended last week (duh). Well, it is more of a mini-rant, and it involves the cheetah. Nat Geo Wild has said that the cheetah is the only big cat that cannot roar, and that statement is false.

Firstly, the cheetah is not a big cat from biological P.O.V., (hence why it cannot roar). As I have written before, the cheetah does not belong to the ‘roaring cat’ lineage; rather, it is a cousin to the puma and the jaguarundi, neither of which can roar either. And secondly, while the jaguarundi is quite small in size, (smaller than the ocelot, which cannot roar too, even though it is the third-biggest cat in the Americas), the puma is quite big – as big as the cheetah if not bigger, but it does not roar either, because none of them are ‘roaring cats’.

Now, cat taxonomy can be tricky, but this is not about taxonomy, it is about the fact that the folks over at Nat Geo Wild have ignored the puma in favor of Africa’s lions and leopards and even cheetahs. The jaguar special was a Sir David Attenborough special, and the great man is more closely tied to BBC than to National Geographic. (This reminds me – Blue Planet II is coming in the future; Planet Earth II was epic, Blue Planet II will be great as well). However, the puma is the biggest wild cat in the U.S.; you would think that the folks over at Nat Geo Wild would at least give it a nod in recognition – but no.

Away from real life and biology, ‘For Honor’ (the video game) seems to have its’ own problems; the fans’ honeymoon with it is over, now there is plenty of criticism online, and such YouTube channels as IGN and GameSpot are uploading far fewer ‘For Honor’ videos than they did in the beginning of February, for example. I am not sure what is going on for ‘For Honor’, but something apparently had. This is just sad.

Finally, ‘Powerless’ continues to be aired, and like APB it has found its footing, as I may’ve written earlier. It is still fairly ridiculous humor, and I cannot shake the suspicion that ‘Powerless’ is actually poking fun at DC comics and DCEU, but you know what? Compared to the real-life issues, such as the media’s feud with the Donald, his family and his cabinet, this is minor stuff, pointless sniping, really.

As for the real life… The 45^th president of the U.S., as well as his entourage, are crude, vulgar and not very smart, and that is the problem. The president of the RF, Putin, is a lot of things, including a convenient bogey for the American government and media, but in this case? He had nothing to do with the election and continues governing the RF as he sees fit. The catch, which was conveniently forgotten by John Oliver and his ilk is that since the perestroika, (look it up in the Wikipedia or wherever), the U.S. had 25 to 27 years to change the RF government as they seem fit – and apparently it included Putin on the throne, regardless of the fact that he has made a mockery of the U.S. democracy, period. But no, not until 2014 or so, the U.S. had no real problem with him, but now-

But now, here is how the cards fall. Russia is still an Asian, rather than a European, country at heart, and in a bad way too; Japan is more proportionally democratic…because the U.S. influenced it much more intently than the RF was, but that is that. Russia is nationalistic these days, but it is not given much to venturing abroad, especially into Europe; right now, there are rumors that Putin might actually be interested and willing to give up Crimea and co., if it wouldn’t cost him his popularity among the ‘little people’ of Russia; if he stops being popular, he just might be deposed and executed, as the last tsar of the old Russian Empire, Nikolai II, was. Putin rules the Russians with an iron hand – but only because if he does not, he will be deposed either by the elite, (as it happened in February of 1917), or with the elite (October 1917). Therefore, for now Crimea remains Russian…in no small part because Europe does not intend to fight Russia for the sake of Ukraine. Wars were fought over Ukraine from the XVII century onwards, so by now most of the fighters – Russians, Eastern Europeans such as Poles, Turks, etc., have wised-up and none of them wants to battle for the sake of the Ukrainian government, (which is as bad as the Russian is, BTW).

That includes the U.S. – by now, (I think), people in D.C. have figured out that they have screwed themselves in the foot by themselves, without any Russian involvement, and are trying to work out how to fix it, other than to wait for the next election. Okay, but Europe and the EU aren’t so interested in the inherent U.S. problems anymore and are solving their internal problems how they see fit, not the U.S. Put otherwise, Russia is still on the outs with the EU, but now so’s the U.S. This suits RF well enough, the U.S. – not so much, but they seem to be mostly concerned with the 45^th government than with Europe so yes, they are on the outs with the EU too, it seems…

Well, this is it for this rant. See you all in the future!