Your Friday Video Link: A Ghosts Serenade

Your Friday Video Link for this week comes from the cast of the CBS comedy  Ghosts.

Goofing around on the set between scenes is  Román Zaragoza  (Sasappis) and John Hartman (Nigel)  sing "In My Life" by the Beatles.   

Fine Dining and Breathing

So June 3rd was my wife Andrea’s birthday where she hit the ol’ double nickel.

 

Yep, she’s 55. 

 

As in Sammy Hagar’s “Can’t Drive 55!”

 

Anyway, June 3rd was on Monday this year and both us took the day off and we celebrated as we always do when it comes to our respective birthdays and our anniversary: we eat at Olive Garden. 

 

I have not been all that happy with previous excursions to Olive Garden.  It feels crowded like a cattle car on a third world train. 

Now I'm a bit of a curmudgeon and easily annoyed but even Andrea seems to have become aware of the less than inviting environment of her favorite restaurant.   

 

But the experience on June 3rd was different. Our dining experience was almost...   civilized.

 

Andrea and I went to Olive Garden for lunch instead of dinner and it being a week day and not a week end, the restaurant was not over stuffed with people.  The songs from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were at a pleasant volume.

 

The key to enjoying Olive Garden is to go on a week day at lunch.  

___________________________________

 

A few weeks prior, Andrea and I made what may be our last visit to Red Lobster for awhile.    

 

In recent weeks, Red Lobster made news by closing dozens of restaurants and declaring bankruptcy.  The blame was placed on customers eating too much limitless shrimp which used to be a special deal but then Red Lobster made it a regular thing. 

 

Offering unending shrimp all the time is a recipe for financial disaster but the woes of Red Lobster were a thing long before that.

 

A private equity firm bought Red Lobster and scored a crap ton of cash by selling the land out from under all the restaurants.  So the equity firm scores a quick billion and the restaurants have to pay rent to on land that used to be owned which just adds more pressure to bottom line.

 

As for Andrea and I perhaps not going there anymore, here’s that story. 

 

The Red Lobster in Greensboro survived the purge.   We’ve been going there for a few years now.  When we started they had a combo that we quite liked: an entrée and 2 sides.  The sides included baked potato, fries, slaw and salad and other things.  Andrea’s favorite combo was popcorn shrimp with baked potato and a salad.  

 

She likes shrimp but not “shrimp” with the tail on it and stuff . 

 

Then a couple of years ago, Red Lobster added an up charge for picking salad as a side.  

 

Then a year ago, they summarily removed the combo entirely.  Popcorn shrimp was still available with one side and a full charge for the side salad. 

 

Three weeks ago, Red Lobster dropped the bomb on Andrea:  NO popcorn shrimp.

 

Well, not exactly.  They offer it on weekdays but not on weekends.   What….?  

 

It was a death of a thousand cuts as Red Lobster kept hacking away at the last vestiges of Andrea’s enjoyment of her Red Lobster dining experience.  

Red Lobster's motto seems to be "If it ain't broke, break it."   

The Judgement of Donald Trump

 So last week a jury found Donald Trump guilty on....

How many counts was it?  

Guilty of 34 counts relating to paying hush money to the porn storm he had an affair with, falsifying business records in the process of paying said hush money and for the purpose of hiding this information from the electorate prior to the 2016 election.  

(Thanks to my son Dean for sharing the graphic for this post.) 

But does this really mean anything? 

All of us with at least two function brain cells to rub together who have seen past the facade from day one that Donald Trump is nothing more than a lying, cheating, ignorant, conniving asshole, well DUH! Donald Trump is guilty! 

For everyone else who is mindlessly devoted to cult of der Furher, a guilty verdict is just another example of his martyrdom. 

I really don't see the needle moving.

Come November, Donald Trump could still be elected President even with 34 guilty convictions that Trump needs to answer for from behind bars. 

The Judgement of Donald Trump by a jury of his peers is conclusive: guilty on all 34 counts.

The Judgement of the United States is still a whole other matter.

We may not win this one.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Star Trek Discovery

This week’s Tuesday TV Touchbase reflects on the series finale of Star Trek Discovery. 

 

The poor little Star Trek series no one asked for and no one wanted.  It began as an egregiously misconceived prequel to the original series.  It was a dark version of what has otherwise been a positive view of our future among the stars.  

 

It takes a lot of fortitude to get through season 1. 

 

But in it’s defense, Star Trek Discovery got better.

 

Season 2 with Anson Mount’s Capt. Christopher Pike taking over as interim Captain of the Discovery was a balm not just for the weary viewers who had put up with this show’s missteps but also for the crew of the ship. 

 

The plot device that propels Discovery to the 32nd century for season 3 is a major change to the status quo and finally gives the show a distinctive voice and vision, making it in my mind a worthy part of the Star Trek pantheon.  

Star Trek Discovery deserved better than it got, disrespected even in death. After completing season 5, then Paramount+ announced the show should not be renewed.  While the cancellation was not overturned, somewhere a saner head prevailed to let the Discovery crew come back to complete some additional scenes to make the season 5 finale "Life, Itself" a series finale.  

Let's break this down in 2 parts, first as a season finale and then as a series finale. 

"Life, Itself" brings to a action packed finale the quest for the Progenitors' tech.  The Progenitors were first introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase" as the ancient race that seeded the galaxy with humanoid life.  The power of the Progenitors would have far reaching implications for good in the right hands and it also have extensive potential for death and destruction if it falls in the wrong hands.

Such as the militant Breen.    

After enduring trials and solving complex riddles as part of the quest, the Progenitors' tech accepts Capt. Michael Burnham as the right hands.  Burnham can keep the tech away from the Breen but is she or anyone in the galaxy really ready to be the right hands to possess this technology?  

Burnham let's it go. The Progenitors' tech slides past the event horizon of 2 black holes to disappear forever.  

This may seem to be a bit anticlimactic but it is in keeping with the spirit of Star Trek. Frequently in Star Trek, wisdom takes precedence over power.  Efforts to solve problems with MORE power often fail while approaches that involve intelligence, compassion and wisdom work.   

As the episode winds down,  Saru and T’Rina get married.  Saru gets a bad ass moment in "Life, Itself" where he makes a Breen dreadnought turn around with only the force and convioction of his words.  "Action Saru" strikes again! 

Saru, I'm going to miss you most of all, scarecrow. 

We find out that Dr. Korvich is actually the time travelling Agent Daniels from Star Trek Enterprise.  Well... that's somethng we know now.  Do we really care? Eh.....

But even in the 32nd century, 800 years from the time of the original series, it's a reminder that Star Trek Discovery is still part of this sprawling thing we know and love as Star Trek.     

Burnham and Book officially become a couple again.  Yay!

So that is that for the season finale.   

But we are not done yet. 

We have a series finale to contend with.   

Thirty years in the future...

We find Burnham and Book older now, living lives of quiet domestic tranquility.  Their son, now a Starfleet Captain, has arrived to collect Admiral Burnham for one more mission: to send Discovery and it's AI Zora off into deep space and await the arrival of something or someone called Craft.

Which is an effort to make the Short Trek “Calypso” fit in continuity.  That episode was released between seasons 1 and 2 when Star Trek Discovery was still a prequel set in the 23rd century.  

Sitting in the captain's chair one last time, Burnham reflects on her crew (giving us cameos of Reno, Bryce, Owosekun, and Detmer).

And one last command from Burham: "Let's fly!" 

And thus ends the saga of Star Trek Discovery.  

This was not an easy series to love at first. It was only when the show jumped the 32nd century that it became it's own thing and not bound to the limitations of being a prequel.  

In many ways, Star Trek Discovery encompassed the ideals of the original Star Trek better than a lot of other Trek projects, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.  

The trolls unfortunately were out in force for Star Trek Discovery, deriding the show as "woke" and never accepting a black woman as Captain.  These trolls do not truly understand the vision and the ideals of Star Trek and to hell with them. 

The epilogue does give Star Trek Discovery a relatively good sense of closure, poignancy of over things lost coupled with hope for a future with more things to come.   

      

Next week, Pat Sajak says goodbye to  Wheel of Fortune.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.  

Doctor Who Is NEW!: Dot and Bubble

Let's start this week's edition of Doctor Who is NEW! at the end.

It's Friday night and Andrea and I are sitting on our sofa as the closing credits of this new episode of Doctor Who play us off for another week.

Flummoxed, I ask, "What the hell was that?"

Andrea observes, "I'm sad.... AND angry!"

How did a new episode of Doctor Who leave us in such a state?

I'll explain more after the break.

Caution: Spoilers!! 

Dot and Bubble

by Russell T Davies  

OK, two weeks in a row and we're getting very little Doctor in our Doctor Who.  We get a bit more of Ncuti Gatwa  than we did in last week's "73 Yards" but mostly it's Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson interacting via social media on electronic screens save for one in person scene at the end.  

Most of this episode takes place from the perspective of Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke), a perky, incessantly happy young woman with her floating AI "Dot" and  a virtual reality “Bubble” around her head. She lives in a community called "Finetime" where it's not all fun and games.  Lindy has a data entry job that she has to work at a whole TWO HOURS A DAY while her Dot recharges then the rest of the day is for having, well, a fine time. 

Listening to Lindy and the others in her interactive chat bitching about having to work two hours of day makes me want to reach through the screen and slap them. 

But this isn't what makes Andrea and I angry. 

We'll get to that. 

Meanwhile trying to get Lindy's attention away from the mundanity of her virtual world are the Doctor and Ruby.  People are disappearing from Finetime and stuck outside the protective dome that surrounds the community, the Doctor and Ruby need someone to help them by dropping their Bubble and actually looking around.  

Bugged and annoyed by this intrusion on her day, Lindy finally lowers the Bubble and sees what she's been totally oblivious to all day: giant bug creatures eating people.   

Gross!!! 

As only a virtual presence, the Doctor and Ruby do what they can to guide Lindy to safety. 

Except...  the giant bug creatures are not trying to eat her.  

Why? Why are the giant bug creatures eating some people but not others?  The Doctor struggles to determine a pattern.

Meanwhile in the real world, Lindy gets help from online superstar (and Lindy's idol) Ricky September.  

Ricky's cute.  And smart, witty, charming, compassionate, capable. Hell, I think I'm in love with him. Anyway, Ricky guides Lindy to a room where they are safe from the giant bug creatures  while the Doctor has sussed out an escape route to an underground river.  There's a locked door between the safe room and the escape river but the Doctor has worked out the code sequence which Ricky is entering to unlock the door. 

AND the Doctor has worked why the giant bug creatures  are killing some people and not others.   

The giant bug creatures  are killing the inhabitants of Finetime in alphabetical order.  

Which means the killings are part of plan. 

A plan developed by the AI Dot.  

Forced to listen to the insipid ramblings of self absorbed privileged young people, Dot has learned to hate these people and is killing them. 

In alphabetical order.  

And it's now working it's way through the letter "P" and one Lindy Pepper-Bean is next. 

AND if the Dot can't get the giant bug creatures to a victim, it will do the job itself. It starts zapping lasers at Lindy.   

Ricky tells Lindy to take over entering the codes in the door lock while he throws himself into harms way to save Lindy from Dot. Ricky is knocked down just as Lindy unlocks the door but too late to stop Dot from killing her.

Except...

Lindy reveals Ricky September's real last name actually begins with the letter "C"  and that means Dot needs to kill Ricky before it can kill Lindy Pepper-Bean.   

Lindy runs through the door and slams it shut, leaving Ricky no chance to escape Dot before he is slaughtered.  

What the hell?  REALLY?  

We come to the underground river where Lindy is not the only one who has made it here.  Also present is the Doctor and Ruby with the TARDIS.   

The escapees plan to get away in a boat down the river to live in the wilds beyond the Finetime dome.  

There is no way these pampered young people are going to survive out there.  The Doctor offers to take them in the TARDIS to a truly safe place. 

They refuse.

Why?

As Lindy puts it, "Because you, sir, are not one of us."  

How is the Doctor different from these people? These people who are young. And rich. And white. 

Wait! Is that it? Are we dealing with some good old fashioned racism here?!?!

Every single person on screen in the Bubble was white.  

The only person that Lindy tried to block was the one black guy who showed up in her feed, the Doctor.  

These people don't deserve to be saved!

But the Doctor still pleads with them to let him save them.

They pull away in their boat, lest they become "contaminated" down the river out in to the wild where they will surely die.  

Flummoxed, I ask, "What the hell was that?"

Andrea observes, "I'm sad.... AND angry!"

Whoa! 

OK, props to Russell T Davies for a tight script.  

But not so much loving that this is 2 Doctor Who episodes in a row with the Doctor in a supporting role.  I mean, in terms of this being a 61 year old TV show, way to go in finding new ways to tell stories! 

But given this is whole launch on the Disney+ platform is being billed as a "Season 1" which means potentially a lot of new eyes checking out Doctor Who for the first time, this seems a questionable time to go all experimental before we really get a handle on who this Doctor really is.   

And making the POV character so unlikeable, that was a risk. Callie Cooke has to do a lot of heaving lifting using only her face in most shots and making us care about a character who inherently doesn't care about others.  You keep hoping she's learning to get beyond her petty self centered privilege and then....

Dot killed Ricky! YOU BASTARD!!! 

Lindy callously sacrifices Ricky to save her own skin and then fucking lies about it?!?!? 

And then...

AND THEN...

Racism?!?!   Really?!?!?!

Andrea said, "I'm sad.... AND angry!"

Me too! With an emphasis on the angry!! 

Russell, you OWE me a good time for next week's Doctor Who.

Cinema Sunday: How to Marry a Millionaire

Yesterday, June 1st, was the 98th anniversary of the birth of Marilyn Monroe. 

So today's Cinema Sunday looks back on a classic American screwball comedy from 1953 starring Marilyn Monroe along with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall. 

It's How to Marry a Millionaire.  

Three women are on a mission: to land a husband but not just any husband but one who is a millionaire.

It's all there in the title, honey: How To Marry a Millionaire

To facilitate their mission, they secure a high class penthouse address in New York City.  They are renting the penthouse from Freddie Denmark who is hiding in Europe from the IRS.  

And our three women get to work.  

Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall) conveys a polished sophistication, resourceful and smart.  Well, mostly. She's not so smart when she fails to recognize a millionaire when he's right in front of her. How dare he not wear a tie and buy his own sandwiches! Really! Poor Tom. Well, not so poor. He may be the wealthiest guy we'll meet in this picture.  

Tom is in love with Schatze even as she sets her sights on J.D. Hanley, a delightfully charming (and rich!) widower who never thought he would find love again.  And he still may not have since Schatze is finding Tom's charms hard to resist.  

Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable) is brash and spunky and pairs herself up with Walter Brewster, a grumpy but rich (very!) businessman who turns out to already be married. She dumps Walter and buddies up with Eben Salem who Loco believes is a wealthy landowner but he's not.  He's a state park ranger.  

And there's Pola Debevoise (Marilyn Monroe) who is a bit of a ditz and it doesn't help she refused to wear her glasses. She's blind as a bat without them but you know what they say, "Guys don't make passes as girls who wear glasses."  Pola has fallen in with an oil tycoon who is... not.  He's a con man working an angle and Pola would've gotten sucked into in his nefarious scheme if not for her poor eyesight puts her on a wrong plane where she meets Freddie Denmark.  

Freddie's problems with the IRS stem from a crooked accountant and he's trying to gather evidence to prove his innocence.  Freddie wears glasses and convinces Pola she should wear hers.  She puts on her glasses and two immediately fall in love.  

Pola marries Freddie even though he has no money.

Loco marries Eben even though he has no money.  

Schatze marries Tom even though she thinks he has no money. 

Turns out he's worth about $200 million.  

And we reach the end.  

So we have a movie where the women have the life goal of getting not just a husband but a millionaire husband. But these women do exercise some agency in their pursuit of that goal. Such as renting the upscale penthouse apartment to bolster their personas as upscale women who would be attractive to millionaire men. 

The apartment scam backfires when the plan to land to millionaire husbands takes a bit longer to accomplish than expected. 

The rent is due! Schatze pawns Freddie Denmark's piano! 

The rent is due again! This time Freddie's sofa set goes to the pawn shop.   

As Schatze, Lauren Bacall lends a level of class and depth to the proceedings.  This is not Schatze's first go on the matrimonial merry go round but her last turn left her high and dry and poor.  Schatze is determined not to let that happen again.

Marilyn Monroe brings both the sex appeal and a gift for adroit comedic timing to her role as Pola. Monroe was frequently underestimated for playing the role of the "ditz" but it takes true talent to make such a character truly likeable and funny.      

Of course true love does triumph over blatant scheming for wealth with only Schatze landing a millionaire but she didn't know of his wealth until the very end. 

How To Marry A  Millionaire is a fun movie which tells us that wealth (like love) is to be found where you least expect it. 

Cinema Saturday: Terminator Genisys

Today's Cinema Saturday is a reprint of a post I made on July 6, 2015. 

Tomorrow's Cinema Sunday post will be new (I think!)  

Terminator Genisys...Explained...Sort Of

So the El family ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see Terminator Genisys. Why? Because Matt Smith...yes, THAT Matt Smith from Doctor Who...was in it. 

A little bit. 

Last year Entertainment Weekly put out a double cover for this new Terminator film which included Emilia Clarke (Sarah Connor) and Jai Courtney (Kyle Reese) on one cover and Jason Clarke (John Connor) and Matt Smith (?) on the other. The article inside was coy about what Matt's role would be other than having a "relationship" to John Connor.  But it must be pretty darn big to give Matt Smith a part of the cover. Of course the only reason we had the issue here in the Fortress was because my wife bought it. 

You know, for the Doctor Who connection. Which may explain why EW put Matt on one of the covers because Matt barely appears in the movie. 

Who cares? At least he's in the credits, right? Yes he is. As Matthew Smith. Matthew?  

Now at this point, I must insist that SPOILERS will be invoked so read on if:

1) You have seen the movie (some of you).
2) You haven't seen the movie and have no intention of seeing it (most of you). 

If you are among those who haven't seen the movie but do have an intention to see it in the future, that's fine. The three of you can come back tomorrow for my blog post on women's soccer*. 

*USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! 

On today's topic, I will proceed in 1...

OK, that's enough of a countdown.

Matt Smith appears 3 times in the film. His first appearance almost goes unnoticed. He's lurking in the background but then you become aware of this character making eye contact with the camera. Hey, look it's Matt Smith! In the very last seconds of this bit, he gets a line of dialogue and, guys and gals, I hate to break this to you but...

Matt Smith's the bad guy. 

He appears a 2nd time in a flashback where Matt has a bit more dialogue...evil dialogue...and you can hear the distinctive rhythms of Matt's voice even if it has been de-Britishized. Oddly enough, Matt Smith without a British accent sounds like Neil Patrick Harris.

His 3rd appearance is near the end as a blue hologram thing where Matt sounds even more like Neil Patrick Harris which is quite disconcerting.  

All told, between those three segments, Matt's face is on screen for a grand total of maybe a minute. So if you're a Whovian and you want to see your beloved 11th Doctor on the big screen, brace yourself, that's all you're gonna get. 

OMG! IT'S MATT SMITH!!!!

But maybe the rest of the movie makes things worthwhile so who cares if Matt Smith is basically in a blink and you'll miss it cameo (so don't blink!). 

Er, about that...

What makes or break any movie are the characters on the screen. Whether its a comedy or a drama, whether its life action or animation, whether its historical or science fiction, the audience has to give a damn about that's happening to the people on the screen. And in Terminator Genisys, that kind of empathy is very hard to come by. 

Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese engenders almost no feeling from the audience. Jason Clarke as John Connor has no charisma even before the sinister turn of events that changes him. Emilia Clarke looks and acts like she could be cast in a teenage drama on the CW instead of taking on the iconic role of action heroine Sarah Connor. 

J. K. Simmons, God bless him, is an unexpected breath of air in this mess as a discredited police officer who actually has some understanding of what's going on, even if nobody believes him. And everything you heard about Arnold Schwarzenegger in this movie is true. As the emotionless T-800 cyborg who's protecting Sarah (more on that in a minute), we feel more for Arnold on screen that we do for anyone else. Maybe its just nostalgia talking or maybe in his golden years, Arnold has just gotten better at bringing nuances to what we come to expect from an Arnold Schwarzenegger performance. 

And while I've had fun with ludicrous brevity of Matt Smith's screen time, his extremely brief flashes on screen deliver a level of intensity and menace that would've really served this movie better if there at been more of that.  

Maybe all this would matter less if the basic plot of the movie was strong and made sense. 

Scratch that. 

Time to follow the bouncing ball as we make our way through this thing. First, a recap from 1984. 

The Terminator tells the tale of a future gone mad. In the future, a computer network turned malevolent entity called Skynet leads a robot revolution that nearly decimates humankind. In 2029, a human resistance led by John Connor begins making headway against Skynet and the robots so Skynet sends a cyborg, a Terminator, back to 1984 to kill John's mother, Sarah Connor. The resistance sends back a fighter named Kyle Reese to stop the Terminator and save Sarah. Kyle does this at the cost of his life but not before getting Sarah pregnant with her son, John Connor.  

In the sequel (T2: Judgment Day), Skynet makes another go of it by sending back a T-1000 which can morph itself into anybody and anything. The resistance sends a re-programmed T-800 to save Sarah and John. Sarah leads an operation to stop the rise of Skynet that was destined to occur in 1997. The Judgment Day is averted. 

OK, not averted, just postponed. The next two films do the hokey-pokey with time and stuff and...you know what? The producers of Genisys ignore the 3rd and 4th sequels so let's do that too.  

Which brings us to 2015.  

Terminator Genisys tells the tale of a future gone mad. In the future, a computer network turned malevolent entity called Skynet leads a robot revolution that nearly decimates humankind. In 2029, a human resistance led by John Connor begins making headway against Skynet and the robots so Skynet sends a cyborg, a Terminator, back to 1984 to kill John's mother, Sarah Connor. The resistance sends back a fighter named Kyle Reese to stop the Terminator and save Sarah.

But things get weird. 

It seems Skynet sent a T-1000 back to 1973 to kill Sarah Connor when she was 9 years old but a re-programmed T-800 was sent back (by somebody) to save her. In 1984, Sarah is already a gun toting bad ass with a T-800 as a guardian. Kyle does not need to save her. In fact, Sarah and the T-800 have anticipated this moment in 1984 to secure the necessary future tech to kick start their own time machine to jump ahead to 1997 and prevent the rise of Skynet. 

Then Kyle's memories of growing up cold and alone in an apocalyptic landscape are joined by new memories of growing up loved and in the company of his parents. These memories also include a message that Genisys is Skynet and will come on line in 2017.  

So Kyle and Sarah go to 2017 (the T-800 has to take the long way) where they find that John Connor from 2029, the one from the time line extending from the 1997 rise of Skynet, is there waiting for them in this time line where Skynet is not running yet but will be soon. Then we find out that John has been corrupted by the machines and is a weird human-Terminator hybrid thing that has gone totally stone cold evil. He's determined to bring Genisys/Skynet online and start the robot revolution in 2017. 

A bunch of stuff blows up and the day is saved and oh my God, I've got to wait two weeks for Ant-Man? 

In case you had any trouble with following any of that, here's a handy-dandy graph.

Although I must be completely honest, I'm not sure what all of that is supposed to convey. 

I kept hoping that Matt Smith would put on a tweed jacket and bow tie so the Doctor could explain all this to me. However, chances are even he would go, "Timey-whimey?" and run into his TARDIS.  

It's been said that Matt's role in this franchise will expand in forthcoming sequels but given that Terminator Genisys is an sci-fi action blockbuster released over the 4th of July weekend that came in THIRD on its debut week does not speak well to its chances to getting a next chapter. 

I'm reminded of the debacle when Green Lantern was released a few years ago. A lot of the mistakes in the movie came about because too many eyes were on the franchise and not the movie being made right now. And that's a potentially fatal mistake for Terminator Genisys. To be fair, I think this re-imagined version of Skynet is a great idea but we needed to see it now, not be teased for it later, particularly when the film as delivered may not get a later. And that would be shame if we miss out on a sinister character brought to life by Matt Smith. 

Or Neil Patrick Harris.

Hey, be good to one another. I'll be back here tomorrow with my blog post on women's soccer. 

Which I know nothing about. 

Which has never stopped me before.

Dave-El 
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You