5 seasons. No more, no less. It gives the overarching story enough room to breathe and play out a solid three act structure with a wide middle. It needs to all be written and plotted out before anything gets filmed.

I agree with all the other people in this thread mentioning ‘In Time’. It had such a great premise, and I didn’t even hate the execution, but it was mediocre. It was like they went 50% of the way to a flawless execution and just said “fuck it, that’s good enough”. The concept has a lot of elements to explore, like classism, labor exploitation, human rights, even free will to a point… A movie just isn’t the right vehicle for that story. It needs to be a series. Done right, you could explore all that while having an overarching plotline, and still have your weekly subplots and B stories. That would give the story time to fully develop the romantic connection between the poor guy who comes into a bunch of time, and the rich girl who empathizes with him. That romance felt incredibly rushed in the movie, but you could build it up over a whole season in a show.

I also want to mention another movie that I’m not sure belongs here. It’s not a bad movie, nor do I think the execution was mediocre, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why it didn’t do better. That movie is called ‘Push’, with Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning. I just watched it again the other night, and I freaking love it. The concept isn’t that amazing or original, but the way they present it is great. There isn’t a ton of exposition or world-building. They kinda just drop you in and let you figure it out, and I really like that. Evans and Fanning have great onscreen chemistry, and Djimon Honsou is a perfect bad guy. This is another one where I think it would make a great series, even though I think the movie was done really well. It’s just kind of a perfect mid-budget sci-fi action movie, and we don’t seem to get those anymore.

I loved the original West World movie, which is about 20% high concept and 80% “how do we copy terminator when all we have are a bunch of random Wild West, medieval and classical back lots?”

I’m sorry what? ‘West World’ came out in 1973, ‘The Terminator’ came out in 1984. Am I missing something here?

She also has an MEd, which is a Master’s in Education. I think people like the one you’re replying to skim her Wiki and read it as Med, as in Medical, which is hilarious.

Middle ground on social issues: “Separate but equal”

I think the French saying is a response to rising Fascism. If Fascism is taking power in your society and you do not directly and explicitly oppose it, then you are at the very least going to be tacitly supporting it. By definition, centrism cannot fight Fascism, because it will always “both sides” the problem, which ultimately only benefits the Fascists. This is what we are seeing now in the US with the Democrats. The only realistic opposition to Fascism in this scenario is Leftism.

You can draw a straight line from folk music to the birth of metal. They use a lot of the same melodies and structures, and they’re both often built around storytelling and symbolism. Before the metal gatekeepers jump on me with “but but but most metal has a classical influence”, what we call “classical music” is heavily influenced by European folk music. Over time it just became more complex and incorporated more instruments and so on. Classical is just fancypants folk.

The reason folk music blends so well with metal is the same reason classical music blends so well with metal: The common ancestor of both classical and metal is folk.

Here’s some Black Metal for you. Arka’n Asrafokor from Togo, West Africa.

Prohibition of vice does not work and only empowers organized crime.

End of argument.

Any mention of “family” and I’m out. You aren’t my fucking family. I barely tolerate any of you, and I only go that far because I am forced to participate in this bullshit just so I can feed and shelter myself. Just give me my project, shut your dick sheath, and let me grind my life away in silence.

On a totally unrelated note, “team player”.

Totally off topic, but Maggie is just awesome. If you aren’t familiar with her, I suggest doing a deep dive into her video essays on cinema and pop culture. Here’s a link to her site. Also, there’s a really interesting episode of Behind the Bastards with her as a guest, talking about being a descendant of notorious cannibalistic child killer Albert Fish.

I have nothing to add on the actual topic though.

The point isn’t to convert the fascist. It’s to humiliate them

The point isn’t to make them feel humiliation

Make being openly fascist an embarrassing

Do you think about the things you say before you say them?

You can’t humiliate someone who has no shame. And with their firehose of falsehoods, you’ll only expose a small portion of their lies by the time they’ve already moved on. Nothing productive comes from waging a war of words with people who don’t believe in the words that come out of their own mouth.

This I agree with. However, I disagree with debating fascists. They don’t debate in good faith. Their aim in any debate is to wear you down by spewing more lies than you have the time or energy to debunk.

I use it any time I’m turning. Remember, it’s for the people in front of you as well as the people behind you, and at night, it can sometimes be hard to tell if the oncoming lane is a turn-only lane.

Cave wall art. Carving trinkets and talismans. Might branch out into making spear tips, arrowheads, axes, stuff like that.

Caption: Judy said her family hasn’t got the MMR vaccine because they ‘don’t like the things in it’

I will cut off my left testicle and eat it for breakfast if Judy can name one ingredient in the MMR vaccine.

Not really. It’s weird. You kinda have to be familiar with the ranch that raises the beef, and the ones that don’t use a ton of chemicals also don’t advertise to the public. It’s basically only available to small town folks who are “in the know” and boutique restaurants. This has been my experience, anyway. One of my exes comes from a cattle rancher family, so my sample size is tiny. Other people may have other experiences.

Argentinian beef is top tier. While we do have some great beef in the US, it’s all from smaller ranchers that most people don’t have access to, and it still doesn’t compare to Argentina.

It depends on where it comes from in the US. You’re spot on when it comes to basically anything sold in a grocery store. But we have some great cattle that produces great beef. You have to go to high end butchers for it though. Or buy it directly from the ranchers and butcher it yourself.