I’ve watched most of the first season of Absentia. It’s intense and dark. It’s also more of a British or European style thriller in that it keeps you in the dark with genuine ‘who done it?’ rather than ‘how done it?’

Interestingly Violo was co-creator and senior writer of Absentis but didn’t get as much producer credit. Seems her talent moved her up into creative control more quickly than the WGA stepwise progression in titles allows.

I wish that they’d provide just one anchoring standard date reference in-universe.

🥺

Well, here’s another angle — Business Insider reports “Paramount won’t say whether Middle East money is funding its WBD deal”.

Flix Patrol just compiles the public rankings from the streamers themselves as far as I know.

Parrot Analytics used to make public their rankings that incorporate everything available, including social media volumes, and presumably ‘alternative views’. They were excellent leading indicators and covered many markets that the other metric companies didn’t. However, they stopped making their top ten streaming shows list available, let alone their show by country details, and we don’t see them reported in entertainment media as we once did.

It has its ups and downs but many of us view it as the strongest live action first season in this era.

For older fans, episodes 5, 6 and 8 seem to be the favourites so far.

In fact episode 8 is so important for 90s fans, that I would argue that it’s worth hanging in until then at minimum.

I have no issues with the ‘dots’ given this is the 32nd century. It really puts the fine point on assigning physical labour as a disciplinary measure.

The lens flare is part of a directional code that’s getting dated at this point. I notice that in the premiere - which Kurtzman directed himself - he went for long camera pans with fewer jump cuts, and fewer lens flares.

As long as Osunsami remains the supervising EP and supervising director in Toronto however, I don’t think that it’s likely we’ll see Kurtzman’s own style of direction reflected in the shows.

Oh! That is an interesting pair of indicators.

Nemechek tends to draw the old guard. If he’s seeing his reach increase, it would be a leading indicator for a shift.

Thanks for this.

I think I should focus on finishing Resurgence.

Giametti has said quite unequivocally that he is not in this episode.

Big bridge scene with the senior officers.

Not sure. It’s his father Larry that is concerned about the news media.

It seems that David Ellison wants to control the entertainment industry and is willing to sacrifice every and any scruple he may have to get that, letting the news media be captured by whatever agenda in order to get what he wants.

Also, this way David is indisputably the victor in the succession competition that Larry set up between his offspring.

Seeing how that photo came up in the thumbnail took me aback too.

There is also this from David Ellison via The Hollywood Reporter:

“By uniting our iconic studios complimentary streaming platforms with a global footprint, our cable and linear networks, and our world-class IP, we have the opportunity to help shape the future and build a next generation media and entertainment company. This has been our goal since day one,” Ellison said Monday. “This is not about consolidation, it’s about reinventing the business. We want to expand our reach and enhance our ability to create the world’s most compelling stories and experiences. And we’re incredibly excited about this transaction, and it will accelerate that ambition.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/david-ellison-talks-warner-bros-deal-comments-1236519395/

You’re right!

And I’m very curious to see where this takes the curmudgeonly Doctor we’ve come to love as fans.

After the Doctor’s rapid development in Voyager, his relatively frozen state of psychological evolution — through Prodigy and on for 8 centuries — needed an explanation.

At a meta level, I don’t think that fans would have accepted a very differently tempered Doctor at the beginning of the show. So, this allows both the writers and Picardo to take the character into new experiences and development.

As an aside, American screenwriters are so stuck on trauma being necessary for character development that it sometimes feel they are celebrating it or suggesting it is necessary for greatness. It’s good to see instead a situation where a significant trauma causes a lasting paralysis in development that might never be overcome without taking emotional risks.

Why it didn’t really register that SAM will now be the Doctor’s daughter — formed by an environment where he shared his preferences and 800 years of experiences — I can’t say.

That’s on me. But surely, this will be a wild ride for all.

I DNFd a copy of Hyperion borrowed from a library in the early 90s.

While I had the tolerance to read a lot of dubious science fiction, and gave it a fair shot, it grated.

Reading that review, I’m so glad not to have pushed myself to give Simmons’ books another try.

Who gives a character the N-word for a middle name and writes him with contempt in the name of allegory?

The others in the household weren’t up to watching yesterday so I expect to get a rewatch with them very soon.

I suspect there are more layers in there that will hit during rewatches.

For example, what’s with the black Borg cube-shaped home of the Makers?

The Makers stated that she would retain both sets of memories.

Not sure how that would work but she’s not an organic being. Perhaps her original memories would have been encoded and available for access as she matured.

10/10. No notes.

In my view, perhaps the strongest episode yet.

Just goes to show that YMMV remains a truism.

I wonder why the old TOS fans like me are less impatient with fundamentals of human existence being presented through the growth of young adults?

Sincerely, resilience in the face of trauma is something many 30 and 40 year olds struggle with. I didn’t see this as sophomoric at all.

So, I wonder why episodes like this aren’t landing as well for folks 20 or even 30 years younger than I…

That Protostar looks great.

Really glad that Prodigy is belatedly getting some ship releases.

I’m much more excited about this episode than I had been.

And it helps settle some of the context of the first post-burn Academy class vs the fist at the reopened San Francisco location.