A while ago I asked if Supernatural gets better -- and it does! It starts getting good at Season 1 Episode 20. The first 19 were... filler. I suppose I would have liked them on a lazy Sunday afternoon at 3PM if my friends were busy.

Smith1980 says this a lot, at least obliquely, and I agree with him -- I wish they would do a Native American show based on Native American mythology with absolutely no mention of the white man. The natural beauty of the USA is phenomenal, but the Whites came in with an already forged idea that 'there be (no) dragons'.

19

I recently acquired Supernatural based on a few positive mentions here on KIA2. I quite like it, but it's a bit... off. These sorts of shows are really about the banter and camaraderie, with the monster stuff being almost incidental. Somehow the chemistry/banter is not quite working for me.

Should I persevere?

31

There are three great comics traditions in the world - US, Japan, France(/Belgium). But for some reason, French comics (septieme arte) seem to have absolutely no traction, even on a nerd-board like this one. Asterix and Tintin were huge in their heyday, but the cinematic versions were either okay (Asterix) or bizarre (Tintin). I've read both at least five times, and they never get old.

I've read a literal ton of French comics, and I really loved some of them. But I would struggle to give a recommendation, because they tend to be smaller runs without any particular hype behind them.

On the other hand: the art in French stuff is often magnificent. A friend of mine writes 'Pico Bogue', which sells in the 100K - 1M range, and he's a bonafide artist, capable of recreating the likes of Velazquez (as a copyist -- meaning he has talent, but not necessarily genius). Pico Bogue itself (created by his mom, in order to stop him from just being a useless faggot) has artwork of amazing insouciance. The artwork puts Calvin and Hobbes to shame. (Just the artwork)

French comics are a bit like British TV shows. The Avengers (UK), for instance, is wonderful, and if you get into it, you really get into it. But you're not really going to sell John Steed dolls.

Anyway, I'm just wondering why a collection of nerds on the internet haven't tapped into this tradition.

Because of a knee injury, I've done little but watch TV in the last few weeks. And I found some fantastic stuff that's not woke at all. And they're all from the last year or so:

  1. Blackbird
  2. Dark Winds
  3. The Offer
  4. The Bear (sort of)

None of these shows had gays or trannies or whatnot. There were a few 'strong female characters', but they were mostly ignorable - except in the case of the Bear, where it detracted a bit from the story.

Dark Winds was astonishing from a woke point of view. It's set on an Indian reservation, but other than one or two verbal barbs that are basically humour, there's nothing about the suffering of the Natives.

I hope this is a wave of the future.

Keep in mind: These aren't necessarily recommendations because of quality, but because no part of them were 'woke' in any meaningful way. I did, however, like all of them.