Crown-of-thorns starfish - Nov 27

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Just ask Toronto’s police force, which was currently on the manhunt for a man who was walking around throwing feces, (hopefully, not his own), at other people. Considering that he is an Afro-Canadian, this is really a PR disaster for everyone involved. What is next?

Nothing much, just a brief admittance that ‘Kings of Pain’ are beginning to grow on me. In this week’s episode, the not-so-dynamic duo continue to follow in the footsteps of ‘Brave Wilderness’… sort of. Coyote Petersen got stung and bitten by harvester ants, (Pogonomyrmex species, but there are several ant genera which are called ‘harvester ants’ by lay people), and so did the ‘Kings of Pain’. Coyote Petersen got stung by a tarantula hawk, (a common name for two genera of so-called solitary spider wasps, family Pompilidae), and so did the ‘Kings of Pain’. Coyote Petersen encountered a crown-of-thorns starfish, and- wait. Here is where the two shows diverge: Coyote Petersen, in fact, was not stung or stabbed by the venomous starfish, while the ‘Kings of Pain’ did. And-?

…Well, geography has gotten the best of the ‘Kings of Pain’ again. See, the crown-of-thorns starfish lives in the Indo-Pacific biogeographic region. ‘Brave Wilderness’ had their venomous starfish encounter off the coast of Hawaii, which is within the eastern end of Indo-Pacific, but ‘Kings of Pain’ caught their specimen, supposedly, off the western coast of Mexico, which… isn’t a part of the Indo-Pacific biogeographic region – in the east it ends around the central Pacific Ocean region, which does include Hawaii, but not Mexican western coast. Put otherwise, ‘Kings of Pain’ have staged their starfish hunt in a way that ‘Brave Wilderness’ didn’t, but-

-But on the other hand, the crew of ‘Brave Wilderness’ didn’t get stung by the crown-of-thorn starfish. The leads of ‘King of Pain’ did, and the look on Alleva’s face after Thorn got stung first – it did not look staged. Last week’s episode, one that featured two scorpion species, (we have discussed them earlier this month, remember?), and a lionfish, (species not established), felt staged, especially at the end, when the not-so-dynamic duo had their banter at the end of the episode. This time, after the starfish encounter, felt more genuine. Maybe the show’s cast is warming up to each other and making it more authentic, simply by default? If so, good for them, because as I said, I am beginning to warm-up to this show and am actually rooting for it to finish its’ first season at least, before it gets cancelled, because so far? Given the lack of authenticity that stuck to ‘Kings of Pain’ as a bad smell, it might well happen.

Speaking of bad smells… yeah, the impeachment keeps on going, the American government remains divided, and the American enemies keep on winning, even though they have their own problems, but they also got stability and endurance, something that the current version of USA seems to lack – but that is another story.

…This is it for now – see you all soon!