Out of sheer morbid curiosity, as an autist and a writer, things like this fascinate me. I like to know what not to do and how to avoid it where possible. That doesn't mean it's never happened to me, though, there's been a few times.
Now, I'm not talking about like gay characters in a show and you're not into that thing. I'm mean the media equivalent of receiving a great blowjob and then suddenly you get a finger in your ass that wasn't part of the original offer.
Mine is the show, The Magicians. I knew it would be lefty-leaning because that's just how the books were and the cast was diverse in hollywood's favorite way. That said, I was in for some trash and the fastforward button was for the parts I didn't like. 3 seasons in, I like the dumb plots and the sudden twists, then, the show decided to pull some stupid fucking meta and lecture the audience: Rasheed starts to lecture us that you're a racist, sexist, bigot if you don't watch/read something because the main character isn't white and male. After that, I completely skip a couple episodes, because fuck that bullshit. I calmed down and the first episode I watch, they killed the main fucking character, a white male. Series goes on, I do not. The whole fucking scene was the producers trying to guilt the audience into not rage-quitting the show by calling us bigots. After that, I decided I was never watching another syfyllis network show again, or one with a racially diverse cast, especially no Rasheeds.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds is the same way. They put the white guy in the captains seat... but literally everyone else is a member of the diversity squad and crowd him out of every scene.
It's like the Simpsons episode where everyone decided to be like Bart. Everyone has to suddenly be the central character, right down to the attitude and quips.
I think I was checked out around the time Ahsoka showed up. It's like they tried to hide how bloated her face looked by making the ugliest episode they could. When I try to recall that episode, my mind instead conjures memories of the first time I played Dead Money, on low settings and a dim monitor.
It used to be a man's game. The need to pander is what destroyed it. They wanted to sell more tickets and the untapped audience was pussies, both in the pants and in the head.
The Mandalorian was feminist back when Gina "fence sitter" Carano was in it.
The average man can kick the ass of a "trained fighter" woman. Didn't you see Fallon Fox?
Give me a few weeks to train, I haven't fought anyone since sixth form.
Objectively true. Over 50% more grip strength, so once you get a hand on it's all but over. Never mind the muscles beyond the elbow, the strength differential below it are sufficient to make victory (and horrifying injury) significantly more likely.
I can't watch modern day shows about historical figures.
It was so refreshing to see the new version of 'All Quiet On The Western Front' because they tried to maintain actual integrity in their casting.
If you cast like retards I don't even give it a chance. Saves me a lot of time.
Actually just re-watched Lawrence of Arabia and Guinness in blackface was a much better actor than Omar Sharif (who did a good job) which I found pretty amusing.
I heard that was good. I’ve been meaning to get the book as well
See it on a big screen or in 4K, it is a film that is truly once in a lifetime. It isn't a good film but it does things that could not be repeated no matter how much technology advances.
I'm not a huge fan of O'Toole in it simply because the complexity of the character is too much for him but my god the set locations are stunning. Unbelievable choreography and cinematography. A true gem.
Not too often you get to see a 4 hour film with no female lines either. It is a complex oddity.
The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, the comic book series from IDW. When it began it was a series about a group of (mostly) Autobots with wildly incompatible personalities, wandering the galaxy looking for some Ancient Knights of Cybertron. The Great War had just ended and people were starting to heal from several million years of battle fatigue. The characters had virtues and flaws, got along with some and not at all with others and... just had adventures.
Then the writer, James Roberts, swept all of that off the table and the series became all about "these two are gay for each other", "these three are in a love triangle/rivalry", "these two were in a platonic relationship, but this one is now a lesbian", and so on. And yes, they don't call it homosexuality, they call it Conjunx/Amica Endurae, but it's the same fucking thing and all the characters lost any depth and complexity they had on the altar of LGBT.
Motherfucker even turned Megatron gay for some bot called Terminus.
Never forget. Never forgive.
Gay fucking robots. What a time to be alive.
That's some serious faggotry.
I'm not sure there was a specific moment. I just lost interest in most modern media, TV/movies in particular. I mean plenty of shows jump the shark, including well the show that phrase came from, but it's not that I'm talking about. I ended up mostly quitting TV from boredom and not really coming back. I think the last series I watched new when it was released was Mandalorian season 2, and I can't think of anything newer I've watched. Maybe an anime, I went through a 6 month spell of that but most of it was older. I've watched a lot of older movies and sitcoms when I do watch TV, and a lot of it is older than I am.
My speculation is really more the Disney-fication of things killed off me watching things before they added the extra doses of woke. Meaning the MCU type stuff, production and eye candy over anything actually being interesting.
Dr Who
A character who can travel all of space and time doing good. Just think of all the cool, magical settings a writer comes up with for the Dr to help with
And they do Rosa parks. Protecting her from some future evil racist that looks like John Travolta from Grease
And they do this by rearranging bus schedules.
What a fucking joke
Dr Who has become such a massive disappointment, loved it as a kid. Now it's almost the wokest crap on tv
I miss the spray painted bubble-wrap monsters that took 3 cliffhanger episodes to defeat.
Zero budget but somehow those shows had better atmosphere than anything NuWho.
As a kid the Daleks and Cybermen scared me shitless.
Damn, you got past the obligatory "Did you know I'm a black lesbian?" pilot episode near the end of the Capaldi run?
Yeah because I did like capaldi overall
Bill is the ugliest human being I think I’ve ever seen
Ah yes, the Dr. Jill Who, DFA.
I would say Westworld is a good candidate. First season was great and that was before 2016 election. I heard the script was re-written to really push feminist stuff. My last straw was in season 3 when one of the leads told the head of a crime syndicate thst she would be spared because “it’s nice to see a female in power”.
Another example on a lesser scale would be Stranger Things season 3 when they had the reformed jock and nerdy girl bonding only to subvert expectations and make her a lesbian. Typical for modern Hollywood but I read that the original plan was for them to be a couple so I’m sure they changed it to get fawning praise. I no longer have Netflix but I hear the 4th season is much better.
The 4th season of Stranger Things is actually woke trash. Dustin’s nerdy girlfriend is a tech super genius because of course she is. The police chief and Winona Ryder break into and out of the same Russian prison like three times. They gayed one of the original main characters, and he of course wants to fuck another original main character. The black dude’s little sister is hyper competent and continues to overshadow him. Mike and a bunch of other male characters function almost entirely as comic relief and a literal cheerleading squad for eleven. She continues to be a Mary Sue. It’s like wall-to-wall woke gay feminist retardation.
But the bad guy is cool and there’s a catchy eighties soundtrack, so I guess 10/10. That’s how all the “alternative YouTube critics” saw it, anyways. I won’t be taking Critical Drinker seriously ever again.
rofl, that was my complaint as well. No way these people would be that cool with homosexuality.
The “I’m a lesbian” girl wasn’t in it? I figured she would be a main Star along with Eleven, the red head, and the little sister. Wow I heard it was better but I guess that’s a low bar. I like drinker overall but I was surprised he was so positive about that one last of us episode. I barely played the game but I heard that they really expanded on the game and injected a gay romance that really has nothing to add to the series. I guess it’s fine if you had a gay romance show but I assumed that would happen.
After season 3, season 4 was a welcome change, even if it was thumbing its nose at a lot that came before. It was good. And I'm not one of those fucking morons who says "Season 3 of Picard is great, it's not like the first 2 at all, it's like real Trek" because those lying faggots are full of shit. Picard is pure shit. ST4 was a nice take and got back to the monsters and action of the first.
Was playing Hitman, the first in the remakes, doing the mission in the country with the four targets. Was having a good time when I ran into some NPCs having a conversation talking about how he likes Trump, all but says his name: talks like a leftist TDS meme with distorted talking points and misrepresentations of what he said. It was supposed to be very "ha ha these murderous rebels really love Trump because they are murderous traitors ha ha".
There was nothing political about this fucking game. Fictional organizations in a fictional world order but the devs just couldn't resist. By the time you got to this mission it was well past the refund point, too.
If there is a second civil war, TDS is going to be a major cause.
The Blacklist, they started to try and justify eco terrorists and nowadays they're trying to pull the Raymond is Liz's mother angle
Simpsons did the exact same thing, only the eco terrorism was only to support feminism.
I’ve been watching Simpsons since the Tracy Ullman shorts when I was a kid. I feel like they could’ve had a big resurgence if they would’ve told that stupid comedian who whines about Apu to eff off and mocked him. What’s funny is that the comedian’s own parents had no issue with Apu and a bunch of people from India said he is very popular over there.
I can't believe that show is still on.
The Magicians!
I loved the books so much. They were leftie, but... strangely based. Like one of the big ideas was how you can be a nihilistic cunt up to a point. But then you will have to face it.
They were all stereotypes of the uwu gay, the hot goth sad girl, the über bitch, the nice guy... but then they all got majorly fucked and had to get over it real quick.
Hell, the casting of Quentin was great too, dude looked 17 and 45 at the same time.
Quentin and Alice were good in the first season. The rest of the characters weren't as much to my liking, and everything went downhill after season 1.
It's a shame they freaking ruined it. I actually liked the Trans character from season 1 and that was some nobody background character. It just felt fun and the death felt real, until the addict became the center of attention, again.
I lost all interest in The Simpsons when they made Bart a feminist.
I've hard quit a lot of things over feminism, mostly games.
Lisa could eat a (male) baby on screen in one of the episodes and Imp would be like: "That's women for you!"
Don’t you mean A CALIFORNIA CHEESEBURGER
LOL! I totally forgot about that bit! Ahh, the good old days....
Women did not so thinly-veiled advocacy of cannibalism, in the NYT not long ago.
https://archive.ph/bZBvo
Edit : Added missing word.
Which episode was this? I have a suspicion, but wanna confirm.
Bart spray paints that the patriarchy is a weiner.
That's the one. That's the fucking episode where I decided the whole show as dead. Lisa was never a terrorist and the real Lisa believed in her government, if not the people in it.
Lisa from Simpsons?
Yes I'm talking early season Simpsons not the insane know it all bitch she became.
Gotcha. Before there usually some joke or pushback against her
This one
It's even bigger of a gaslight because it claims opponents of women's garbage secretly like it.
Oh god, yeah that's the one I thought. Fuck those cunts. No, seriously. That episode was the worst. Lisa a fucking terrorist? It's as bad as the one where Bart sold secrets to China for a dirt bike. There were many things Bart would do, but treason was not one.
For me believe it or not I don't think it was any particular example, I think it was that realisation of noticing that all of them were going fucking woke and I just switched off entirely. Whole industries being consumed by this ridiculous ideology and the enablers who clearly financially benefitted from it just letting it happen even though it would cause franchises to die off or be completely unappealing.
The generic SJW virtue signal is everywhere and it's tediously formulaic when you think about it, it's some kind of story making everything about the main characters being gay or a typical girlboss female with boring writing and pathetically done scenes.
To add insult to injury, one thing Hollywood had going for it even when the writing was trash was action and CGI, you can't even enjoy that anymore because the scenes look subpar compared to either fanmade content or people just doing it for fun in software like Blender. The studios have gotten absolute trash in what they put out for directors and it's so bad even the normies are noticing.
CGI without practical effects is just cringe.
The new 52 relaunch of captain marvel (shazam) still makes me seethe a little to this day. I've been very happy to not give DC comics my money for over a decade now.
The Halo tv show. Maybe 3 episodes in and I lost like any sense of even curiosity. I always expected woke shit from Hollywood but that was the point where I realized I had to start avoiding it because it was just bad. Tv and movies at this point are on the like same mental tier as the daily beast or hallmark movies.
I used to make fun of the Hallmark movies because it just seemed crazy, mostly white people conspired together because they wanted 2 random white people to get married and breed. The gayer the man and crazier looking the woman, the more ardent they were about them "being in love!!!1!"
I want to see in a movie or read in a book, a character just shoot those cunts. Feed them to the monster, shove them out the airlock. Just, snap and boom, dead bimbos everywhere.
How to destroy anything instantly - Simple add 1 x laura Dern
I was into the Lethal Weapon TV Show Remake for the first season, it was pretty good. The killed off the MC in the second, because Wayans in a bitch made pussy who was mad that he was getting sidelined in the show he was producing, and forced the actor out of the show to make it all about Himself, Mr. Wayans, the REAL star of the show.
The show predictably got canceled and failed, because Wayans fat head and ego cost him everything.
The actor got shitcanned because he was a fucking violent drunk. Wayans' self-importance aside, the actor was a piece of shit.
I think most things made before 2010 are okay. With a soft stop at 2014, and a hard stop at 2016. There were signs and hints here and there in some media about how it aligned politically, but it could mostly be ignored in favor of not ruining the show/movie.
Now it feels like everyone is a self insert, and all the writers have taken to making bad fan fiction, and for some reason it gets put into movies and TV.
My general rule of thumb is to avoid stuff made after 2014 unless a trusted friend or family recommends it. 2014 into 15 is when I noticed the constant talk about diversity
Velma Syndrome, is what we should call it.
Yeah, that's good. I'm gonna start using that.
New Star Wars in general. From the absolute pile of shit the movies have become (Palpatine came back, somehow) to the books (the TIE fighter wibbles and wobbles through the air). Seriously, fuck Soyface Wendig and his Anti-IA fight.
I don't think it's ever happened in the middle of media that I was really enjoying. The warning signals are almost always there. I can't take people seriously when they say they were caught out by Netflix Witcher changing quality between S1 and S2, or similar examples. You have to seriously recalibrate your radar if shows like that one are sneaking into your consideration, either that or people aren't plundering the vaults for much older, better shit to watch.
I guess Hannibal got a little tumblr-y in S3, but it was still pretty good and a certain amount of lazy lesbian pandering was forgivable due to the troubled production, doubts of renewal, etc.
Travelers felt like it came pretty close. There was an atmosphere to the show that seemed to promise it was just about to suicide itself into woke madness just from its general vibe - not helped by the fact that a key male character was surely a libtard self-insert, a laughable soybeard bleeding-heart social worker, who was always treated as if he's way more sympathetic than he actually is. Somehow it never exploded disastrously, just stayed a very solid sci fi series through to the end (abrupt as it was), which was a real relief. The writers mastered (what I presume to be) their biases pretty well.
Maybe Rick and Morty? I enjoyed it just fine for the first 2 seasons, can't remember if I liked S3, but around that time Harmon's real life persona made it clear what any viewers would be in for if they continued to watch. Narcissistic self-insertion, feminist talking points, serial punchline of emasculated white men and boys, implicit premise that it would be muh sexist not to include Summer as Morty's equal... all of that was fairly easy to predict and all of it arrived in droves, in perfect correlation with Harmon having to genuflect at the altar of feminism for his #metoo moment (now memoryholed). It's easy for me to gear myself up to ditch a show in between seasons, when it's not airing and I'm reflecting on its most recent quality or lack thereof. So I can't say it broke me.
So I guess those are the lessons:
Don't over-indulge yourself in self-insertion. Your real world blind spots and vanities will bleed through. Don't write likeable characters just to like them and don't write hateable characters just to hate them, because stuff will devolve into masturbatory political or ideological fart-huffing. Inhabit the characters you write from their own perspective, not yours.
Don't be an insecure, miserable piece of shit who seeks redemption through personal politics, just in general (ie. don't be like 100% of modern leftist writers). Strong political messaging is fine, imo, but if writers do it from a place of resentment - like 'why can't those IDIOTS see they're all wrong...! my capeshit story will BTFO them forever!' - I think they end up chasing their tail and writing something that's not very interesting to anyone. Not even people who agree with you necessarily want to read a story that feels like a lecture they've already heard and agree with.
Michael Crichton's 'State of Fear' might be a good case study in this; it's been a long time but I remember it rode the line really hard in terms of being a global warming myth debunking project and a thriller in its own right. I feel like it crossed it a little bit sometimes, too, since there were parts of the book (including an afterword where Crichton laid out his points in his own voice, explicitly) where I was like 'OK, I get it'. But at the same time, I think he was coming at the topic from a place of balanced, well-informed confidence and self-assurance, rather than just trying to smash imagined political enemies, and that's probably quite well-reflected in how even the global warming activists in the amazon reviews still give the book at least 3-4 stars.
I just want to tell a story that happens to a character. The problem is making it realistic enough to make it relatable to the reader and not leave them asking what the fuck is going on. So there has to be some real world conflict to, but the politics makes it difficult to succeed sometimes.
Since I don't watch TV (except to complain about the news) and don't go see movies I don't recall any one related to woke but I had a similar moment with manga.
It was in "Tenkaichi: Nihon Saikyō Bugeisha Ketteisen" one of those duel based combat mangas you see poping up now and then.
In the fight between William vs Yagyu Munenori I expected William to lose (these kind of mangas will often do this so not a surprise) but the way in which he lost, and the abilities of his opponent make it so that the writer will have to pull bullshit out his ass to have someone defeat him as he would be utterly invincible.
It just knocked the wind out of my sails so hard while the manga was enjoyable up to that point.
Then again it wasn't some amazing story but when your draw is the fights and you have a tournament that is layered you really can't just make a character that is impossible to beat and who could end every fight in seconds after the start.
I've read books and fanfiction like this. It makes you want to throw things at the author, sharp, heavy things. You get invested in the story and then they show they got bored and fuck you for not liking their sudden poetic license.
Most of that genre has a clear samurai bias but at least they give the losing guy a fair fight.
But this time it made no sense, William fucked up various samurais without any gear when he arrived in japan, he was chosen by one of the lords to represent his clan in a bid to inherit all of japan, and yet gets owned so fucking hard. But it doesn't end there cause they way they describe Yaguy's abilities mean he has an instant kill on any fight going forward and no threat from any of the other fighters since he can learn their styles and use it better than them just by seeing it.
Author would have to pull something out of his ass to make musashi (the likely winner in the end cause he is quickly developing underdog that won his match through a gamble) to justify Yaguy not ending the fight in seconds since his instant kill also stunlocks.....so he can kill you harder
Makes the whole tournament become way more boring.
Record of Ragnarok for example gets over this problem by being a "best of x" style tourney so no matter how OP someone is they will only score the one point and even then the balance is way better (though it has highly nonsensical moments it is fun to go through the fight and learn their backstory)
Mine is a bit older. I enjoyed Marvel cinematic universe, up to Infinity Wars, and even though I skipped out on Captain Marvel, I decided to just finish the universe with End Game. I rolled my eyes at Captain America's consoling scene with the gay man. I was happy that Bitch Larson was gone for 90% of the movie. Even the scene where she comes back was pretty bad ass with Thanos's ship stopping the barrage and changing targets.
The scene where I just knew I was done was the woman power scene at the end. Just cringe. My gf just laughed in the middle theater saying "What the fuck even is that?"
GIRLS GET IT DONE, BIGOT
Endgame sucked.
Men did all the heavy lifting, time for the cleanup.
John Wick 3 when John falls off a roof and lives. I don't get all the positive talk about JW4, it was retarded. I literally facepalmed multiple times in the theater. I only went to see it after the disaster of 3 because I heard a lot of positive talk. I feel like I am taking crazy pills, I think it is a retarded dumpster fire of a movie.
That's what did it for you? Out of all the improbable stuff that happens in those movies, that's what did it for you?
Yes. That is the straw that broke the Camel's back.
LOL Don't get me wrong, the concept is ridiculous, I think people including myself have been so jaded it's a relief to get something that isn't raging woke. It's about the only movie I'm looking forward to just because it has retarded action in it. I tend to watch anime now instead and that's my go to for modern entertainment. I hope the Japanese can resist the mind virus.
People hype themselves up because it's something new in a world that's lost its fucking mind.
Can't think of anything other than star wars. I gave the Mandalorian a chance but that scene on the hillside where Mando and Boba comically fight off a platoon of stormtroopers. It's hard to get invested when there aren't any stakes.
For me, it was a while ago and had nothing to do with Woke.
But it was Dead Space: Martyr. The actual story in broadstrokes is great and very important to the lore of the series. But its written like an 11 year old girl trying to make characters sound cool, or scared, or quippy, or evil. Like at some point a guy hallucinates his dead brother outside a hatch underwater begging to be let in, who then proceeds to explode into gore and blood in front of him while he loses his mind trying to help him. When told to calm down he mumbles sarcastically back:
While he returns to work. Like its a big joke, instead of a scene of absolute horror in a fucking horror series. And the whole book is full of shit like that, despite the cliffnote version of the story fully fitting that mold. Showing the writer was given the outline and then told to make a book from it, and carried entirely by that outline.
That's the Buffy Effect.
I expect that from movies, and especially TV. I don't expect it from game lore novels, which are usually niche products written for ultra nerds.
Who do you think is writing the novelizations these days? And they are aimed at the girls who write fanfiction anymore.
Well this novel was written in 2010, in the midst of the Halo books being at their peak popularity and leading the path that all these other game novels would follow. Prior to books being entirely consumed by female only markets as the 2010s would prove.
I don't do well with specifics but I'm kind of torn on this issue. It seems now EVERYTHING I watch has some little current year thing in it. Even if the overall presentation is good (Take Puss in Boots 2 for example), there will be one or two little things that make me roll my eyes because it is pandering (it seems).
But then looking at it in a meta sort of way, wasn't that the problem with SJWs back in the day? Now everything is pozzed, everything is globohomo and you have to point it all out? That doesn't seem to me to be the way I want to live my life.
I have, for the large part, withdrawn from current day productions.
It's not that we have to point it all out, it's looking for something that isn't pozzed to hell and back. We aren't looking for things that aren't there and making mountains out of antbite boobies. The culture shift was very real, and was very clearly delineated to exclude us.
Black Sails
Show was trashy low-quality entertainment with lots of action, sex and gore (the type you would expect from 'Starz') but with a decent enough budget to make it all seem much larger than it truly was. All the pirate characters talked like sophisticated gentry, even the uneducated and barely literate whores. It already suffered from feminist overreach in its portrayal, but in season 2 they turned one of the main character into a gay guy.
This happens a lot on Starz shows, apparently. Come to think of it, all these 'male demographic' shows on Starz (and Cinemax) had a conspicuous amount of homosexuality and feminism. It's almost like they were trying to push an agenda of some sort. But they would never!
Buggery? On the high seas? That's a hanging offense!
He was part of upper class British establishment, was set to marry the sister of his 'lover', all upper class. There was no buggery on the high seas. He was driven by vengeance.
But the point was, he was the lead character and they turned him gay mid-way through the series.
I'd say I first started noticing this around when I was casually watching the Green Arrow and Flash, and both shows started royally plugging in some new and random characters that just never fit in.
I wasn't exactly big on either show, and recognized them for being utter trash, especially after a few seasons, but the mediocrity quickly devolved into outright unwatchable cringe.
Then STD came out and I knew this idiocy was not over and would just keep coming.
Disney star wars the last jedi for sure. That was the movie that broke the camel's back for me
Someone combined the best scene with ST Picard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuR7Yq2onP4
TLOU (remember that show?) Averaged at least 1 per episode
But more to the point- Leia space-poppin back into the ship after being dramatically blown out broke the lore, broke the tension in the film and broke my interest in Disney-brand Star Wars and that's before Holdo shows up
I found the girlboss shit in The Magicians much more intolerable much sooner, and the fact that the writers wanted it to be High School Musical was also a turn-off.
A pity, because the premise and first season were relatively solid.
Killing off the best character, even if he stopped being the "main" character, was the final nail in the coffin.
Hence the fastforward button. I actually laughed when the 'magic addict' had all her friends die/got raped. Sadly, that group, even with the tranny, was a better story than most of the main cast and far more interesting. I hated Rasheed DasGupta and his whore girlfriend, Klepto. The girl boss shit was fucking annoying, but when the faghag was done with shit, the bitchy comments were truly enjoyable.
The first season was pretty damn good, a shame they pissed it away trying to make us feel sympathy for unrepentant cunts.
The show could have been a lot better if they'd cut Elliot, Margo, Josh, Penny, and Heroin out of about half the scenes they were in. The in-universe consequences of death and resurrection would've been interesting. More time spent with the definitely-not-C.S.-Lewis-ripoff kids could've been interesting.
If the writers were talented, instead of trying to figure out how they could work in more Glee and more Margot girlboss, and more faggotry, there was a lot of interesting material to work with in the worldbuilding that had already been done.
Agreed.
I've stopped watching Ted Lasso because they put that fucking "wunderkind" in charge of my beloved Hammers.
Shingeki no Kyojin. The manga was solid until the ocean scene time skip. Then it started unraveling with Garbage no-scope garbage, devolved further with nonsensical teleporting, and I completely checked out by that pathetic attempt at humor with the pie scene. I expected the zero IQ requiem ending at that point. Somehow the author created a finale so awful, it retroactively ruined the entire story.
Now it belongs in the Macbeth 5:5 club, along with other stellar studies of idiocy like Last of Us Part Deuce and the Disney trilogy.
I'd also like to shout-out the Dark Tower series. Those last three books were pure dreck distilled from the nastiest sewer sludge.