Just finished the first season of “The OA” on Netflix today — loved it.  But I can’t figure out how they can move on to a second series without effing up the first one.  I hope they will surprise me, in a very good way . . .

@pedant   I did start “Ascension” but all the goofy politics became a bit annoying, so I sort of forgot about it.  I’ll take another look.  Thanks!

Ichi

@pedant  Longmire isn’t reachable for you through Netflix?  That’s where I’m watching it.  Love it; and the NA material is probably more than usually accurate, given that an NA friend of the author is an official advisor on the show in that department.

@missrori  Goodness, yes!  Maybe parents are more critical of that sort of thing here because here in the US we had that mad “comic books will pervert your children’s brains!!” scare from Dr. Frederick Wertham back in the fifties, and then the “bad music will rot your children’s morals!!” scare, and then the “Play these records backwards and t…[Read more]

@pedant   Indeed we do — really good stuff, and there’s an occasional edge of supernaturalism in it that I think is very well done (I haven’t come across any reactions to it from tribal people here) (maybe I should go look for some).  It provides more depth, or perhaps creates an illusion of depth . . . ?

@thane15   Oh, you’ll have a blast with Netflix — pedant has listed the pick of the crop.  I’m into about #3 of the Canadian show “Travelers” and liking it, nothing like “Fringe”.  I also keep up with “Longmire”, a modern western supposedly taking place in Wyoming, but shot up around Santa Fe; I liked the books (guy called Johnson who’s ac…[Read more]

@thane15  I’m glad to here your mum is feeling better, sorry to hear that you’ve been sick — don’t be a bag of bones!  Eat stuff!  Feel much much much better, both of you, and a happy new year!

Ichi

@missy  This special stands alone, and most definitely for kids. I don’t think you (you generally) can compare it with the others.

I’d agree with that; it’s definitely family viewing, and reassurance for all those who got really rattled and upset about their beloved kid show from when they were kids, suddenly (and quite deliberately) grown up fo…[Read more]

@missy  Thanks for your good wishes; I’ll just stay clear of any discussion (or discussion page) of the Christmas Special until after I’ve seen it Tuesday, so please, feel free to rave away!

The year is almost over . . . all best to everyone for a (magically?) better 2017!

@missrori   No “Mysterio” for me til next Tuesday — I’ll be seeing it in a cinema plex thing Tues. night, since my current TV services aren’t delivering it at home.  Bah.  I’ll have to go across the blasted river for it!  Ah, well.  We’ll see.

No Christmas lights show downtown this year, no tours.  Everybody’s still shellshocked around here…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

@whisht  Sorry for your losses — some chez moi as well, what with oldness advancing in my age cohort and all.  So sympathies, of course.  You too, janetteb.

@pedant  HoRS stays as wonderful as it was the first time round; I have hopes for “Mysterio”, but after this long in the desert, I’m not feeling all that picky.

Couldn’t log on for a whi…[Read more]

@missy  are any of you finding it hard to wait for the Christmas Special? Or is it just me?

It’s not just you.  I am gnashing my teeth to gnubbins!  Come ON, already — !

@pedant   Thanks so much for the update.  One worries . . . or rather, we all do, I think.

@mssy  One more — S10 — is assured, since they’ve finished filming it.  After that — nobody knows for certain. He has, or has not (depending on the source) been asked to stay for Chibnal’s first series, S11.

@missy  This multiple-channel mind process hit me first when I was watching rehearsals for a stage play. The actors would do a scene, everybody uptight and emotional, and then one would stop, completely dropping the “act”, and ask the Director if maybe *this* would be more effective, and then bam, he’s back in that charged dramatic moment again…[Read more]

@pedant — Ah.  Thank you!  If I think of it as every set of probabilities (as percentiles) must add up together to 100%, am I getting it right?  It’s the bare-naked “one” that threw me.

@mudlark  @missy  Too much for me; I can’t get past needing the sum of the interactions to add up to one.  Why?  Is there an explanation graspable through lay English?  The imaginary object, though, is wonderful — it might be timey-wimey, but how can we tell whether it’s also wibbly-wobbly or not?

Nice, though; intriguingly simple-looking, espe…[Read more]

@missrory  Perhaps the Twelfth Doctor’s story is indeed not a grand one, but one where he comes to recognize the goodness in himself at last, to fully accept that he is lovable…just some thoughts.

“Am I a good man?”  Measuring himself against Robin Hood, Santa, and now — GMan, at Xmas?  The tension between the larger-than-life legendary hero a…[Read more]