There are a ton of projects that are better built as a limited series than as a continuous multi-season show.

I have a few thoughts about television series.

Steven Spielberg famously once said that he wasn't sure if people knew how to tell stories anymore. What he was referring to was the conclusion, the finale, and there being no sequel. No one wants things to end anymore. They just keep on wanting the story to go on and on and on, for whatever reason. Maybe it's kind of like another hit of Ecstasy (a well-known club drug). The audience just wants that dopamine release one more time, and so they ask for it from the creators of a story that brought them pleasure, and the creators end up spinning some filler (or stretching a plotline way out) because it means more money in their pocket. Only this made up stuff is sub-par because it was never going to be part of the original story in the first place. Sounds familiar, right?

My mom was always on guard for house guests that "Overstayed their welcome." Well there are stories that do this too.

Good Omens is a great example of a show that does not overstay its welcome. Short and concise, and taking few liberties with its story from the novel version allows it to play out in the brains of its audience and finish with a bang. On the flip-side of this, stories like The Man in the High Castle (Amazon), The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu), The Walking Dead (AMC), and American Gods (Starz), are turning in lackluster seasons because each of these was meant to explore a single interesting idea (and now its all about grabbing some money). This works great in a single book or in a limited series, but it starts to break down when it is extended into an exploration of the world around it.

I would even argue that Star Wars is another great example of a show that has overstayed its welcome. It had a singular idea, which was the arc (and the story) of Darth Vader. But the love for all of the extras from Jedi vs. Sith to bounty hunters to the world at large has fueled a never-ending amount of stories that can be told in the universe. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm one of those junkies that has insisted on more Star Wars stories. However, time may well prove (along with Lord of the Rings--I guess we will see) that it is (in fact) one interesting idea that has been stretched in innumerable ways and none of it is as good as the core story.

I would also argue that dystopian fiction is better as a limited series than as a continuous multi-season show. Here's why: dystopian fiction is kind of prophetic--it tries to speak to a particular tension in the present moment that readers can relate to and are bothered by. This tension becomes the backbone of a world, but it is ultimately not sustainable for long because tension needs to have some kind of resolution. The Man in the High Castle, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Walking Dead in particular fall victim to this trap. Season after season of the dystopia (just throw a rock and pick one) never resolving is not a way to continue to woo an audience. Who wants to just immerse themselves in a frustrating anxiety-inducing thing with no end in sight?

This is where (I think) good science fiction is better built for multi-season (or extended) storytelling. Science Fiction in particular is "speculative." It tries to imagine a working future in believable detail, based on existing trends, technology, and scientific theory. In dystopian fiction, if there is a "speculative" element, it is usually just a vehicle to get us to the prophetic element, to show us a nightmare scenario if you will. The latter mode doesn't play well with world-building, which is the core of multi-season storytelling. The former, however, is made for it.

Anyway, these are some thoughts, and now I'm interested to hear yours. Other than that, have a fine weekend.

The Infernal War Machine from Wizkids is available today and I'm super excited to get mine.

Look, I play Dungeons & Dragons. Y'all probably already knew that. But along with the hobby is a bunch of nerd gear that goes beyond dice and rule books. I also collect miniatures, and the maker of the officially licensed minis for Dungeons & Dragons is a company called Wizkids. Today, August 28th, is the day that their latest set, called Icons of the Realms Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, goes on sale.

In the D&D universe, there is not just one Hell, but nine of them and they are arranged like poker chip piled one on top of another on a table. The top most layer of Hell is called Avernus. In the past, it was ruled by a five-headed dragon. I've no idea who rules it now, because I haven't bothered to keep up. But the minis that are coming from this set are ones that I've wanted for a while now, because most of them are various kinds of devils (which I don't have very many of). And then there's this: the Infernal War Machine (look at the pics below).

This thing is 12-inches long (most character minis are only an inch high). According to the Wizkids website, these magitech tanks breathe noxious gas and ride roughshod over anything that gets in their way (and where devils are concerned it is probably their hated enemy, demons).

And it opens up. The vehicle "hood" is removable and you can place one regular sized character mini in the driver's seat.

It also comes completely apart so you can stick an army in the back (cargo) area.

I got the call last night that the Infernal War Machine was on the shelf. I asked them if I could come and pick it up tonight, but they refused saying that they can't sell before the August 28th sell date. So I guess I need to be patient until this evening when I get off work. Good thing my local game store doesn't close until 10 p.m. :)

The trailer for The Mandalorian makes me think that Disney spent all the monies on this to ensure that its excellent.

The Mandalorian trailer dropped on the internet last week, and my first thoughts were around how good it looked, how identifiably Star Wars it actually was, and how it seemed steps away from expected tropes. All of these things got me excited to subscribe to Disney +. In fact, I wish it was out already so that I could hurl money at Disney faster, and start watching it. I wonder if the assassin droid in the trailer is IG-88? When I used to run the Star Wars RPG from West End Games in my college days, I sometimes talked about what a badass I thought IG-88 might be. For the record, I also posed that a live-action Star Wars series told from the perspective of a bounty hunter in the galaxy might be fun to watch. That was thirty years ago. Glad to see that someone else thought the same thing and made it happen and with a reported $100 million budget for ten episodes (source The New York Times).

So yeah...if you haven't seen the trailer yet, click on it below and let me know what you think in the comments.

The Netflix series Altered Carbon brings up many questions regarding the subject of immortality.

For various reasons, I put off watching Altered Carbon on Netflix until the last week or so. If you haven't seen it, I think it's worth watching. The author of the series is Richard K. Morgan, and I'm familiar with this author through his dark fantasy series called, A Land Fit for Heroes.

The Altered Carbon film adaptation on Netflix follows a main character named Takeshi who is hundreds of years old because the human civilization has discovered alien technology to allow them to transfer their souls (called consciousness) into human bodies (referred to as sleeves). You come to find out that this technology was originally invented by a woman who simply had too much she wanted to do to fit into one lifetime. That seems like an admirable thing, right?

But when the technology was released unto the world, it allowed those with financial means to become immortal. Without death to keep people in check, a dystopian world emerged. The people who always had the power stayed in power, the people who always had the money just generated more money, and the evil that was always there was now allowed to survive in perpetuity. Basically, there is no upward mobility anymore, and there's no getting rid of bad ideas and tyrants, because the tyrants never die and never suffer the debilitating effects of old age.

This idea of immortality and how it is truly monstrous is something that I've thought about a great deal, and I think it hits really close to the mark of how it honestly might be if the likes of Peter Thiel (a very conservative billionaire) get their way.

The subject of immortality (as well) goes beyond just fictional study for me, as I live in the state of Utah (which is a kind of "special" place all to its own). As you may well know, Utah is heavily populated by religious people belonging to the Latter Day Saints. Many of them believe in an interesting afterlife, wherein family and friends are sealed together for all eternity and can enjoy each other's company for that same amount of time. This explanation is very simplified, and you just need to assume that it will be mostly if not all the way a blissful and happy existence. But thinking of immortality the way that Altered Carbon presents it seems to me to be the more realistic of how something like this could play out (if it is indeed a real thing). Unless personalities are altered--which (to be honest) would not make that person who they were on Earth--then humans are fundamentally flawed and awful creatures. They are judgmental, narcissistic, self-absorbed, prone to megalomania, prone to envy and greed, etc. So in my book, spending an eternity with any family member sounds like pure Hell, even if I were to believe in that kind of thing. And if people in the afterlife didn't possess those qualities because all needs were met, then I think it would be a very boring place, not to mention that I wouldn't recognize any people I knew to begin with because all the people I know have these qualities.

But I digress as I was talking about Altered Carbon and the particular view of immortality in which Richard K. Morgan paints, albeit with a "bloody" brush. In Altered Carbon, the eternal soul just jumping into bodies so that it can interact with the real world is horrifying. People treat their "sleeves" as disposable, and having an immortal life has caused many to become psychopaths...losing all connection they ever had to empathy. Immortals (for the most part) have become monsters. After having watched Altered Carbon, I think the show presents the idea that things coming to an end is actually a good thing for life, because the finality of an ending provides its own satisfaction that living an eternal life could never give. If this is true, I wonder then why so many people struggle with their age? Why is it so difficult for many of us to let go and to realize that death is just a part of life? Why have humans always been obsessed with immortality?

My own brother would be eternally young and immortal (I think) if he could be. So would many people. I don't think I would ever choose something like this for myself. Maybe it's because my own life's experience hasn't been all that great, or that there have been particular pains that I have endured that I really wouldn't want to relive over and over again. Rather than immortality, I think I'd choose maybe one more lifetime than the one I'm currently living. And maybe I'm saying that because I don't have the perspective such a long life would provide. I just hope that humanity never discovers a way through science to realize the ideas of Richard K. Morgan. If that happens, humanity may well enter an epoch of suffering unrealized by the crimes that history has thus far presented to us. Just imagine a world in which souls like Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot were allowed to continue forever. It gives me nightmares just thinking about it.

Spider-Man will no longer appear in MCU films and I think this decision won't really matter all that much.

So, news dropped yesterday that Sony will no longer be sharing Spider-Man with Marvel. I wasn't expecting this news, but it makes sense given that Far From Home grossed over a billion dollars and is due to take down Captain Marvel on its re-release (to show four minutes of extra footage) this weekend. I guess they didn't even consider Marvel's offer, which was to pay for 50% of everything going forward, and Sony pretty much just told Disney to stick it where the sun don't shine (maybe a little more polite than that). I think Kevin Feige and others at Marvel made some really great decisions in casting Tom Holland and in crafting the last two Spider-Man films (I feel like the character is on track better than he ever was before), and Sony definitely now has a good blueprint to create a successful Spider-Man film.

I remember the buzz of having Spider-Man join the MCU before Captain America: Civil War. I hadn't read that particular comic book, but a lot of the nerds I talk to and respect told me that Spider-Man was pretty crucial to the storyline. Please note that these are the same nerds who also stood up for Adam Warlock being crucial to the Infinity War storyline (which I had read and was familiar with), yet that character was completely written out of Infinity War and Endgame and no one noticed because the storyline didn't follow the books, yet was still quite good.

So knowing all of this...and then having watched Captain America: Civil War...I'm still not certain that Spider-Man was necessary at all. I don't think he was necessary for Infinity War or Endgame either. Don't get me wrong...I like that character and I think that he was a great inclusion and lightened the mood in several spots, but Spider-Man was never essential to Captain America: Civil War or any of the others he was in. I mean...what did Spider-Man even do? Take away Captain America's shield? Give Iron-Man someone to mentor and miss after the snapture? Help fight Thanos on Titan (which they ended up losing anyway)? All of those things could have happened through another character, easy. The only thing he was really good for was having a teenager to rope other teenagers into wanting to see the film (because they had a character that represented them).

Anyway, I guess my point to all of this is that Spider-Man going back to Sony seems like a good move at this point. It means Tom Holland will probably appear in the next Venom movie and that his appearances in future Avengers films will depend on Disney showing up with a truck load of cash, which they probably won't do because...why? I think I prefer the smaller plotlines anyway...where Spider-Man faces off against one of his rogues' gallery villains and they expand the world just a wee bit by exploring various characters Peter Parker interacts with. I will miss Happy Hogan, but I'm sure they'll have fun with the Aunt May character.

The great Stan Lee understood that the troublesome issues of the day belonged in Marvel comic books.

I hear all the time from white religious people in Utah about how they wish television, movies, comic books, and other forms of entertainment (they enjoy) didn't include things like feminism and other social justice warrior issues. I look to none other than the late Stan Lee for an explanation of why entertainers should never completely cater to the escapism crowd who (in their hearts) just wants to ignore the fact that our government is putting brown people in camps. This was such a refreshing find to stumble across on the internet:

For any of his faults, Stan got it. I just wish other people did.

Today I'm thinking about exploitation and I'm wondering why there is so much of it in the world today.

As I've gotten more aware of how the world works, I've noticed that a lot of life seems to be comprised of people who are looking for others to do unpaid work for them or to just flat out support their lifestyle of fun and play. It's a fascinating thing to observe, and I don't really have strong feelings about it either negative or positive. It just is, and I'm aware of it. Now, I'm not going to call this "unpaid work" by the term "slavery," but some resemblances to the images that particular term conjures into the mind do exist.

For example, I know people who are hyper-sexual and long for a devoted partner who will go to work 40-hours a week to pay for all the bills they rack up going on lunch dates, seeing doctors for various things, playing board games, and entertaining multiple guys and gals in that oh so special way (glamorized somewhat under the term "polyamory.") I know people who take on partners and then down the road, expect these partners to pick up more and more of the slack of caring for disabled individuals. And I know disabled individuals who really want a partner for doing all of the domestic chores and then some free sex here and there. I know people who "borrow money" with no intention to pay it back (another way to manipulate someone into doing something for them for free).

I know of organizations who couch unpaid work as evangelical volunteerism, or that use a religious calling as a thinly disguised way to make someone do a lot of unpaid duties. I know unpaid interns working for corporations. I know some former prisoners who tell me stories of work they were forced to endure while behind bars, which was essentially "unpaid." I know people who always have "their hand out," and it's because they want someone else to do the work they don't want to do (for free). I know people who feign helplessness to try and get free work out of someone else. And I know people who use emotional blackmail to enlist volunteers for lots of work (caregiving for an elderly parent comes to mind).

Becoming aware of this "fact" of living in the 21st century has become essential to my well-being and self care. I've actually found it "empowering," because I've learned that there is a never-ending pit of need out there, and that saying "Yes" to everything is dangerous to a person's health. If you do, you risk spending the rest of your days doing unpaid work for someone else, which can lead to bitterness, rage, and resentment (and other issues). And believe me, there is a never-ending supply of people who want you to work for them for free. Some will even be so ungrateful that they will criticize the work you've done for them for free.

And I wonder, sometimes, how many people out there are unaware of this fact. The curious thing about "facts" is that they are true no matter whether or not you believe them. This is a hard concept for some people to swallow, especially in this day and age of "fake news." I wonder how many people end up in marriages that, after several years of honeymoon, break apart because one spouse realizes that they are being worked to death. I wonder how many people understand that they are being "exploited" by an organization or a person. I wonder how many parents exploit their children for free labor.  And I also wonder how many people are honestly wanting to be exploited, because their self-esteem is so damaged that they long for a good exploitation with exultations of "Yes! Yes! Exploit me more!" I find the whole thing just fascinating to think about.

I have been careful in the past few years to avoid any opportunities where I feel someone or something might try to exploit me. And I must say, it's had a souring effect on my disposition regarding this particular word. People do a lot of things in the name of "love" whether or not they are actually feeling that emotion at all. Sometimes, maybe all it takes is someone mouthing "I love you" and there is no meaning behind it.

"Love" in my book is supposed to be Shakespearean. It's when two people who have great passion and respect for one another, come together and become greater than they are apart. But what I've been witness to are people who are afraid of living alone just taking anyone to cause the pain of aging to go away, or people see another person as a meal ticket and think "why not?" Or people who choose a partner because it allows them to climb higher in whatever social circle in which they reside.  It all seems to fly in the face of my heart, which is that of a true romantic. I suppose I should add to the stack of "the people I know" a nice helping of psychopaths. Yes, I know a few people who I think are psychopaths, and by the very definition of that word, they could not possibly know what love is. Yet...these people end up in marriages...and they say, "I love you" to their partner with as much emotion as a fish. "Whatever," I think to myself. "You do you" and all that, right? But it does leave me wondering why this happens.

I wonder why there is so much exploitation in the world. I also wonder why people fall victim to it every day. I do know that things are changing. Cheap labor is drying up, and I think that's a good thing. But I expect there to be a tipping point...that there will be violent pushback from the modern day "slave owners" who suddenly will be in danger of paupering themselves to get the help they need. There will be lazy people everywhere who suddenly will need to do the work themselves because they no longer have someone to boss around for free. Organizations may need to cut their bottom line to start paying unpaid workers or risk being destroyed. I honestly can't wait to see this happen, and I hope it happens within my lifetime. I love to witness a good wake-up call as much as anyone, and I can't wait until the "entitled" in our society come face to face with the fact that they may have to scrub their own toilet.