Troubling

Supergirl is really schizophrenic, making James Olsen agree to do propaganda for the Children of Liberty, then afterward regretting destroying his reputation. Why didn't you listen to Lena earlier about denouncing them and not trying to meet up with domestic terrorists? Lena spent the whole episode doing a human trial of the Harun-el, and it was boring as hell. Why do they stick her in such stupid plots, and make a backstory where she thinks she's evil for merely witnessing a death when she was four years old? What the fuck is that? Meanwhile, Manchester Black goes too far with his vigilante justice by betraying Supergirl and then spitefully putting an empathy enhancer on poor J'onn. So petty and selfish with his pain (much like Liam Neeson's character in Widows whining "I couldn't save us, so I had to save me" like he's a victim instead of a monster). I'm tired of Ben Lockwood as the main villain, and I wish we'd move onto some other plot like the Red Daughter Kara.

Anyway, I finally finished watching the She-Ra reboot, which is more entertaining and full of female friendships. Though it was a shame that Light Hope turned out to be almost as bad as the avatar that kept asking for an administrator. Light Hope wanted Adora to let go of all human attachments and just abandon the rebellion to train for years. Rather singleminded focus on balance rather than on moral right and wrong, and we didn't get any explanation of Grayskull in this universe, just a vague reference to generations of She-Ra's that came before.

Double Feature

Gambi lives after all on Black Lightning, though he's still in hiding. I'm not sure I'm following this new story with Sange and Perdi people in South Freeland. The silver element is creepy, and I don't know why Looker hasn't aged for 30 years, yet Jefferson aged normally. I'm also tired of Tobias Whale constantly threatening and attacking Khalil; it's so repetitive and uninteresting.

On my day off I went to see both Widows and Green Book, which I had been waiting for.

SPOILERS BELOW

Gambi, No!

I think Black Lightning just killed off Peter Gambi. I may be wrong. It may be another case of comic books killing people only to resurrect them later, just like Lala in season 1 of Black Lightning, but he got haunted and eventually died again. I kept looking for any hints in the episode that Gambi was still alive, but there was nothing concrete, just Jefferson saying that he wouldn't believe it until he saw a body. But eventually even Jefferson mourned as if it were true. I don't know what's going on, and I sometimes wish the show was more straightforward and less mysterious. I'm tired of Tobias Whale constantly threatening to kill Khalil too. We need more info about what was in that suitcase. We got a little taste of some blackmail material, but certainly not enough for Gambi to describe it as "hell."

As for a more straightforward superhero show, the new She-Ra has debuted on Netflix. I've only watched the first few episodes so far, but it's interesting seeing the new character designs. I do find it kind of troubling that Light Hope keeps asking Adora to pledge to honor Grayskull while not explaining what Grayskull is, and that Adora seems kind of vacant/possessed when she becomes She-Ra. Catra has a point that Adora is joining the rebellion after only knowing these people a couple of hours.

Recent TV

I'm glad that Murphy Brown brought Jim Dial back for another episode. He had one scene at the bar after returning from a boat trip, and I was afraid that would be all. Instead, he got to come back to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award at a journalist dinner. He went on a date with Phyllis while other characters also paired up that night. I liked that Avery mentioned things about growing up with his mom, such as having to learn how to cook, and Eldin teaching him about sex. I really like the family relationship even if I wonder if Avery will ever decide to get his own place to live, just for some privacy and independence.

Meanwhile, The Good Place spent the whole episode on a flashback, showing how Eleanor and Chidi fell in love in one of the reboots of the afterlife. It was okay seeing the magical world again, but I really wanted the story to move forward, and we only got that in the last few minutes when Michael had the idea about Canada, and the Bad Place demons built a portal to earth. Yet the Judge still doesn't do anything to punish any of the rogue people on Earth? Anyway, welcome back Vicki.

The actress had a part in a couple of Supergirl episodes this season as Fiona. It seemed gratuitous for her to seemingly die twice. :( I did like the new Manchester Black character, but apparently he's gone by the next episode. I'm kind of dreading where all the plots are going with Agent Liberty, and now Guardian now being used for anti-alien propaganda. Too much stuff, and yet not enough of other plots like the Red-Krypton Supergirl.

Fresh Off the Boat introduced another Chinese family to the neighborhood. Interesting so far, and much better than the stupid plotline about Kenny Rogers owning the restaurant last season.

Won the House

Well the Blue Wave wasn't enough to get us the Senate, but Democrats got the House, so we'll finally get some power to resist Trump's agenda. Checks and balances are in the Constitution, and the Republicans just ignored their duty. Democrats will step up.

I am sad that Beto didn't win, but the margin was only 3%, and he built a statewide infrastructure that we can use in the future. Also, there were some downticket races where Democrats were able to defeat Republican incumbents, like Collin Allred taking Session's seat, and Beverly Powell taking back Wendy Davis's old seat from Konni Burton. Glad to have a little blue back in Tarrant County. Yay for Democratic women helping flip 12 seats in the Texas House!

Nationally, there were also great Democrat wins for diversity and for voting rights. Of course it's disappointing not to win the marquee races, but it's important to get governorships and state legislatures so we can control redistricting and fix gerrymandering. I am still hopeful for the future, and relieved that the election is done finally, so we can stop seeing loathesome campaign ads.

I know everybody's gonna talk 2020 even more than they already have; everybody was pushing for Beto to run for President in 2020, like we didn't need him so badly to defeat Cruz and be our Senator. I do wish people would stop pushing the horse race and let us take a breather.

Election Eve

The tension is terrible. I already early voted of course, and I'll be working tomorrow, so I won't even be home to watch the election coverage. (The breakroom TV has been on the fritz for months.) So I'll have to hope that my news alerts on my phone will bring good news. I hope the Blue Wave will be able to overcome numerous voter suppression efforts.

In North Dakota, Native Americans are still fighting to vote. DailyKos raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to get voters new IDs with the required street addresses, but I read that emergency services started changing their addresses in the database, so now it doesn't match exactly. Throwing out hundreds of ballots! They shouldn't have changed any address without informing the people who live there, or mailing them a free ID for the trouble they caused. If that's not voter suppression, what is? Fuck those bastards, and fuck all the screaming about the caravan and ending birthright citizenship. Racist bastards.

Pretty soon they'll try to attack naturalized citizens too, try to round up every non-white race just like the Japanese internment camps and the families still separated at the border. Treating all immigrants like invaders rather than refugees from war-torn countries, or just families seeking a better life like all the white immigrants a century ago. The shooting at the synagogue is part of that fearmongering and hate indoctrination.

Still, there's a strong resistance. Many Native tribes are fired up and banding together to fight the ID fuckery. We might not have better gun laws yet, but the Parkland students do seem to have created a huge surge of youth voters this year, and the NRA has flailed around since they became a pariah. They claimed to be close to bankrupt, so they couldn't fund candidates like they used to. Hopefully we can flip enough of Congress to enact some real legislation and start holding the White House accountable. There's so much to fix.

Such Liars

There's now talk that Arrested Development's remaining episodes won't air until "early 2019" which means that Netflix lied to us when they said they would air in 2018. I just hope that Mitch won't end them on a cliffhanger, because there's no way there will be a season 6. I wouldn't come back for it, if there were. How fucking long do you need to complete the "movie" plot you said you had planned all these damn years? Fucking solve the Austero mystery and Tony Wonder's "death" and stop creating new unresolved questions! You never even answered who sabotaged Gob's wedding illusion. Kill the Rebel Alley plot and move the fuck on!

And boo to A Million Little Things last night for not letting Ashley give the fucking folder to Delilah. I care more about Jon's suicide plot than the damn paternity of the baby. I hate that the promo last week deceived us into thinking that Ashley would finally reveal the truth, but I hate the showrunners more for writing and filming the imaginary scene in the first place just to tease us. Either have the reveal, or don't have the reveal. Don't trick us. And of course we still have no clarification on why Jon killed himself, if life insurance won't pay for a suicide. And if Jon planned out everything so perfectly for every friend, then why the fuck did he fail to pay off an account and endanger the loan for the restaurant? Why did he attach his wife's name to the restaurant and risk ruining her credit too? And apparently he didn't confess this in the folder he left for Delilah, because Ashley had to discover the secret mailbox herself. Sounds like Jon didn't plan everything after all and was a bastard.