I gave this show a chance but very quickly lost interest and wandered off halfway through the first season. Probably because I was in choir in high school and, it probably goes without saying, the experience was neither dramatic nor life-altering. The most memorable thing about it, 25 years after graduation, is that…

The production values are very let in the first season due to budget issues.  It does get better, but it really is a product of it's time.  It also has a weird ending structure because it got unexpectedly picked up for a final season.

If one takes the series as a whole, the central theme at the heart of Deep Space Nine is an examination of how “good” the Federation actually is. Ideals and principles are great, but they only mean anything when they are tested and held to when made inconvenient.

But how would the movie have suggested this? Because you are right that male characters in these types of movies aren’t taken to task nearly enough (as in at all), but within the framework of the movie, I don’t know who would be doing the teaching except the female characters, which is absolutely wrong. It’s not their…

Do you worry about the self-harm of people who see things like child separation and have no emotional response?

Cults are weird. From a completely logical and disassociated position, they really shouldn’t happen, but they do. All the time. Otherwise perfectly normal seeming people start wearing track suits and distance themselves from friends and loved ones, stop showing up at parties, and before you know it, they’ve gone…

like made into iron swords and ploughshares? Dunno, but iron just don’t cut mustard on those icy folk

I don’t watch game of thrones but isn’t the whole point that you can never “win” conclusively and you always have to be watching out for the next person to try and take you down?

Are we no longer entertaining the theory that the Iron Throne will be broken down into its component weapons to defeat the White Walkers? 

Arryn has no connection to the throne, which is a sizable demerit. He doesn’t seem to have any particular following outside of the Vale. Also, he’s basically hooked on morphine to control his seizures, so his life expectancy is not great. 

The books end with Stannis being snowed in some distance outside Winterfell and everyone getting real hungry.  When I read the books I had a really dire impression of his situation, like he’s just turned his army into the Donner Party.  I was kind of surprised in the show when the snow just melted in like the next…

Uh, she was pregnant.  That’s why she needed a body double for the scene.  

She was treated brutally, and her punishment is an outsized one for her crimes

I can’t remember if the show refers to this (probably not) but the High Sparrow is very much in the tradition of religious fervor/Great Awakenings that have swept through Westeros every so often since the Seven became the chief religion -- his army that Cersei foolishly OKs is a resurrection of a past force. He is the…

Eh, I will blame the show runners for many things, but not that. That’s pretty much on the HBO CEO of Tits, or whatever the title is for the guy who insists on more boobies in their shows (defining quote: “This is HBO! We have a reputation to uphold!”).

One thing should be made clear, because this always comes up. This is mostly for book readers.

It was pretty early in her Hollywood career, and I don’t know if she really had her choice of roles at that point. To Die For, which came out the same year, was really her breakout acting performance. Also, she may not have cared about feminist roles at that point, considering her character in Malice is pretty…

No, the star power helped, especially Jim Carrey, who could do no wrong at that point, but the movie didn’t need it. What hooked ticket sales was it was the next Batman movie, and maybe wouldn’t make us as uncomfortable as the more Gothic elements of Batman Returns, which we liked, but only just. Plus the ads showed…

Random thoughts about this:

No, we did not all think that was fine.