I mean, she may not love Tom, but she does love him . . . .

Roman coming back from a bathroom flirtation with a neo-Nazi convinced he had found the next President of the United States, and possibly being in a position to make it happen, is arguably the most objectively horrifying thing that has happened on a show full of horrors.

If Kendall had ANY idea of how to manipulate his father, he would have told them there was no way he would ever, ever cash out, and then maybe would have gotten to the point of a binding contract he could sign.

Yeah, in the show he mostly seems like a pretty typical “Spanish Inquisition (non-Python version)“ character, which is not terribly interesting but also to me an acceptable archetype for a minor character serving as a plot-advancer.

So Valda was of course right—right about Egwene being able to channel, and right that torturing Perrin would force her to confess. In that sense his methods, from his stated perspective of someone who thinks it is inherently evil to channel or to be in league with those who channel, were logical. I also interpreted…

My guess is this was intended to raise the stakes for when Aes Sedai are in jeopardy, not least Moiraine, by making us feel the reverberating consequences of such a loss, not just to Stepin but on to Lan and such.

For good or ill, what I have gotten so far in terms of the show’s position on gender relations is as follows.

I saw a grimace futilely trying to hide the existential despair the eyes still revealed.

Highlander II: The Quickening.

I don’t know why, but seeing Fellowship of the Ring ranked behind Ocean’s 11 (a movie I quite enjoyed, incidentally) was where I completely lost it.

Straight to hell.

Random aside, but I was thrilled to find out The Americans was actually a family drama for much the same reason.

I think part of why that attitude is common is there is a reasonable case that life for many people in, say, the United States has not gotten significantly better since the 1990s, although even that has some rather notable exceptions.

“I roll my eyes, because being too cool for everything lasts forever.”

I think part of it is Shiv’s “limousine liberal” shtick proving completely hollow, which I suspect many in the audience find particularly galling. But I also think part of it is the sense that Shiv endured less childhood abuse than Kendall or Roman.  I think it is clear she by no means escaped unscathed, but I suspect…

I still feel like this season is perhaps leading up to Shiv making some sort of bridge-burning open move against Logan (or at least trying to, even if it gets blown up in some way).  We shall see.

Art is good/bad when one particular person likes/dislikes it, namely me.

The show is definitely taking a long, luxurious soak in Shiv’s unearned arrogance and easy corruptibility. Which I am OK with as it is quite enjoyable for me, but I agree if this is just all there is going to be to Shiv’s story, it would ultimately limit her relevance.

Gilmore Girls is pretty on point, though, because at least the sequences set at college were basically about new female students at Yale (including Rory) dealing with romantic issues while also juggling classes, activities, and family. I note there was also some overlap of those seasons with the first few seasons of…

The main one that comes to my mind is the seasons of Gilmore Girls set at Yale.