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I'm a little shocked that Ben & Kate isn't doing well in the ratings. I mean, it's a good show. I know the conventional wisdom is that critically acclaimed but low-rated shows like 30 Rock and Community don't do well because they're too edgy and cynical, but B&K is a genuinely sweet, sentimental show--just not saccharine. And I'm sure someone's thinking "Yeah, but all those Romney voters can't stand to see a show with a single mother and interracial romance and a liberated woman enjoying her body!" Which I don't think is it, since how many hit shows have been about twenty-somethings in the city having premarital sex? And I hear that the infamous Two And A Half Men is actually really mean-spirited and crass. Is it just that Ben & Kate is called Ben & Kate? Does it need a pun somewhere in there so that people can tell it's a comedy?
Also, it's kinda shocking how good Person of Interest is at basically being Nolanverse: The Series. It is pretty openly trafficking in some of the themes and tropes of Batman, but everything is still very original and fresh. And compare to something like Arrow, whose hero is actually more kill-crazed than John Reese because the writers don't understand why a superhero shouldn't kill. I especially like the way the show has built this friendship between Reese and Finch. I know every show has two white guys being bros, but usually there's a 'bromance' in there and their actual interaction makes it seem like they can't stand each other except for when it seems like they're having sex.
"Look at this gun! It's smaller than your dick!"
"You know my dick's bigger than that!"
*bro-grab*
Reese&Finch seem much more sincere; possibly because this is two fortysomething men interacting and not guys fresh out of the CW. But there's a nice measure of them actually caring about each other without them just gushing on about it all the time to the point that it loses all meaning. Reese showing concern for Finch after he's become agoraphobic because of his kidnapping by a psychotic hacker is a marked improvement over the "Get back to work, soldier!" you'd expect from a Batman character.
Lastly, this doesn't really fit, but is anyone else weirded out by the current attitude toward science education in the US? It seems like there's this attitude now of "Let's not even have this debate, who cares what the parents think, let's just do an end-run around them and teach the kids what we think." Which is pretty close to indoctrination. I know most of the pro-evolution people would be pretty fussed if someone said "We don't care what you think your kids should be taught, we're going to teach them that abstinence is the only way to avoid getting pregnant," since that happens. Not to say the anti-evolution people aren't being unreasonable, but there's something odd to me about "Teach the controversy" being advanced as a compromise and that being roundly mocked.
This is just me spitballing here, but how's this: Teacher's starting the course on evolution, he says that some people believe that the Earth is only 10,000 years old, then goes into why modern scientific thinking is that that's false. Maybe pass out a little packet with interviews and quotes with different scientists, some Jewish, some Christian, some Muslim, going into how they reconcile their faith with SCIENCE!, just in case the kids are interested in that. Then it's on to Darwin and whatnot.
You have the kids learning the theory, what the objections are to the theory, what the official response is to the objections, the general critical thinking stuff, and a little something about other people's beliefs. That seems fair to me, kinda like, I don't know... a film class screening Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and going over what it did wrong and how it could've been better, refuting the idea that just because it made a lot of money it was good.
Also, it's kinda shocking how good Person of Interest is at basically being Nolanverse: The Series. It is pretty openly trafficking in some of the themes and tropes of Batman, but everything is still very original and fresh. And compare to something like Arrow, whose hero is actually more kill-crazed than John Reese because the writers don't understand why a superhero shouldn't kill. I especially like the way the show has built this friendship between Reese and Finch. I know every show has two white guys being bros, but usually there's a 'bromance' in there and their actual interaction makes it seem like they can't stand each other except for when it seems like they're having sex.
"Look at this gun! It's smaller than your dick!"
"You know my dick's bigger than that!"
*bro-grab*
Reese&Finch seem much more sincere; possibly because this is two fortysomething men interacting and not guys fresh out of the CW. But there's a nice measure of them actually caring about each other without them just gushing on about it all the time to the point that it loses all meaning. Reese showing concern for Finch after he's become agoraphobic because of his kidnapping by a psychotic hacker is a marked improvement over the "Get back to work, soldier!" you'd expect from a Batman character.
Lastly, this doesn't really fit, but is anyone else weirded out by the current attitude toward science education in the US? It seems like there's this attitude now of "Let's not even have this debate, who cares what the parents think, let's just do an end-run around them and teach the kids what we think." Which is pretty close to indoctrination. I know most of the pro-evolution people would be pretty fussed if someone said "We don't care what you think your kids should be taught, we're going to teach them that abstinence is the only way to avoid getting pregnant," since that happens. Not to say the anti-evolution people aren't being unreasonable, but there's something odd to me about "Teach the controversy" being advanced as a compromise and that being roundly mocked.
This is just me spitballing here, but how's this: Teacher's starting the course on evolution, he says that some people believe that the Earth is only 10,000 years old, then goes into why modern scientific thinking is that that's false. Maybe pass out a little packet with interviews and quotes with different scientists, some Jewish, some Christian, some Muslim, going into how they reconcile their faith with SCIENCE!, just in case the kids are interested in that. Then it's on to Darwin and whatnot.
You have the kids learning the theory, what the objections are to the theory, what the official response is to the objections, the general critical thinking stuff, and a little something about other people's beliefs. That seems fair to me, kinda like, I don't know... a film class screening Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and going over what it did wrong and how it could've been better, refuting the idea that just because it made a lot of money it was good.
