Skin

I'm glad I waited to watch this, rather than looking at each episode piecemealed. The show didn't really start to get interesting until the last few minutes of episode 3 with the Wanda and Monica tension. The show really found it's stride from Episode 4 onward. Elizabeth Olsen deserves a Primetime Emmy in the Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series category, stat. Like I don't care what Disney has to do, just make it happen. She pretty much single-handedly made Disney's service a thing, that's worth tuning into beyond their bad screen for screen remakes. Episode 8 was brutal, but also what this entire series needed from the very beginning. I really can't walk around from this episode without a burning hatred for Tony Stark and Tyler Hayward. Literally such awful people, and I feel it would be justified if Wanda hated them for what they put her through. That scene where Tyler gaslights her, is enough to make me want to push his head in. Literally every sentence he said was designed to trigger her. The behavior is just disgusting. Desecrating Visions body in front of her, telling her she has no say in how she can mourn him, and that his body doesn't belong to her but the government -- it brought up really bad themes of slavery to me. Just beyond unfair. But she maintains control the entire time. It makes me even angrier that he basically created Ultron again, by creating a sentient weapon. Showing how Tony continues to be a scourge on this earth. In the end of the episode, I was actually glad to see her reject the reality that life gave her, and just sort of create her own in sheer denial and obstinance. I would totally do the same thing. I stan. Wanda gave herself the life she deserved, and I don't really see a problem with that, even though what she is doing is technically "wrong" with the mass brainwashing of an entire town. It's hard not to see this story as a bit political, or at least a commentary on gender? Women are constantly told to keep their emotions in check and that they can't get overly emotional, Wanda has to hold back against someone who deserves all of her anger, which is deeply unfair and unsatisfying. The idea that Wanda has this conga-line of grief and she is still seen as someone who deserves to be put down, and is dehumanized when it's men who put her in this position time after time, just makes me seethe. Especially since she came into S.W.O.R.D. peacefully, listened to them, let them point guns at her, threaten her, and walked away without much fuss. It's also kind of wrong that everyone in the universe gets a happy ending but her? It's kind of cool that they are finally adding Wanda's powers into the MCU, her powers have always been a bit confusing and I feel comic book editors have never known how to describe them: she impacts probability fields, she has magic, she warps reality, she has telekinesis, she reads minds until she can't, etc. Her capabilities are monstrous, but I guess that will help scale Phase 4 effectively. It's hard to not see her as the strongest Avenger moving forward. Even Agatha seems to be completely out of her league.

That's condescending as hell. 🤣 I know what the MCU is setting up for (we all do honestly, they aren't being subtle about it), that doesn't change my opinion on the topic, nor do I think it takes any weight away from what I expressed.

I'm waiting for all the episodes to drop so I can binge this, because I have no patience for Disney's slow drip. That said I am crestfallen that Aaron Taylor-Johnson isn't in this, and that he's been replaced. I felt even in his one appearance in Age of Ultron that he had great chemistry with Elizabeth, and they really sold the chemistry of being close siblings who had been through collective trauma together their entire lives. Peters just isn't the same, and kind of ruins the dramatic weight of that storyline and damages the pathos of what Wanda experienced in Ultron and Civil War. But I guess it kind of had to be him, as the original version would have been too sad, and he would compete with Wanda's grief over Vision.

This is hilarious. We saw Carly give birth to Morgan in 2003, during that panic room storyline with Ric. I personally think there is a sliding scale here on the spectrum. I recognize that soaps overall, have to compete with quarterly ratings 'sweeps' numbers that command them to do something to bring soap viewers in which is why you get these 'event' storylines such as fires, storms, illness viruses sweeping the canvas, serial killers, and more. You have to find a way to get people to show up continuously every three months (February, May, July and November) for the all mighty advertising dollars. But honestly I felt soaps would try to accelerate this even more than every other month, and they were trying to do it weekly with all the Friday cliff hangers, then they would try to do it daily, then they would do it in almost every scene. You can't keep viewers on the edge of their seats in every moment of every episode, every week, until infinitum. At least not with lower staked stories (and especially if you don't bother to build them up with pay off - which takes time). As such they went with these outrageous storylines that almost pre-baked itself with so much drama that it was sensational but not at all realistic (possessions, time travel, supernatural elements, etc.). There are tons of soaps that are successful by being grounded in the day to day, but they also don't have the "burdens" that soaps do. Soaps have to create 200+ episodes of programming a year, while a lot of primetime series just have to fill 10-22 episodes within 9 months. Bridgeton, Grey's Anatomy, ER, Desperate Housewives, and so on are all soaps. Just different kinds of them.

The Justin Timberlake stuff is honestly disgusting, as it's basically the only reason Justin had a career to begin with. He hitched his wagon to a bigger star, and he was able to separate himself from the rest of the boy banders and create an image of himself as a "man" precisely because he had Britney, who at the time was the hottest and most popular female star in the late 90's and early 00's. Kathy Griffin also said while they dated Britney, he was a controlling presence in her life. It's really sickening to hear that the reason radio played his songs was because he shared details of their sex life during his radio promo tours. He used her name so many times during the promotion of Justified (most of the songs were about her, or at least he played it off like they were), and then again with FutureSex/LoveSounds during the campaign with What Goes Around Comes Around. It's really a shame, how he got away with stuff like this, and how anti-women the early 00's were. We can see the way he treats women is awful: Janet, Britney, Jessica Simpson, etc.

But why doesn't the president tweet, and complain about things? We need the sound bites for our 24/7 news cycles Psaki. 😩

^ Times have changed, as has their relationship to Britney Spears and journalism overall. Journalists are the enemy now. Society now understands that Britney is not someone to be vilified anymore, and now someone who people should have treated more kindly. I was a huge fan of Britney during 2003, but I remember a lot of people disliked her and hated her once she matured into a young woman. She was shamed for being too sexual and being too provocative (not unlike Madonna during her "Sex" era), and Diane Sawyer was just one aspect of that culture shaming her for it. Britney was constantly harassed for not being virginal enough, and being too sexual for her audiences, and she wasn't allowed to "fight back", because she had to be the good girl and take the scolding. It was more important for people during that time to shame a woman, than it was to ask journalist to adhere to ethical standards. Sawyer just embodied the cultural zeitgeist at the moment. That doesn't age well with where we are in 2021. So progress I guess?

Yeah, I just disagree. I personally find it hard to see the point behind the "I didn't get my ship", members of social media who at max represent a handful of thousands of people. The show is still in the top 10 of most watched series on Netflix, so if the finale was hated so adamantly I find it hard to believe it would still be streaming so highly weeks after the series finale. There's a difference between Game of Thrones finale and this one. Even with stan twitter going off it seems like the legacy of SPN is well intact. The problem with a lot of the Destiel twitter fan arguments is that they just do this all the time. Everything is a smokescreen to make their objections appear more valid. They did this time and time again through out the series of the show. Jensen doesn't like the Destiel ship because he views his character as straight the fans start a campaign telling everyone who will listen Jensen is homophobic, writers post a tweet saying they liked the finale, twitter fans dox the writers into deleting it, on and on. It's just very obvious what they are upset with. Misha is a cast member who has fluctuated from being a regular to guest star to recurring over the period of 12 years, because he can't find a job elsewhere. He will do and say anything he can to remain on the show as long as possible, so he gets a paycheck and can remain employed. He will feed the fans of a particular ship because it gives him relevance to appear on the show long past his sell by date. If you are going to look at extraneous sources of data and make them valid as an argument to what the canon text says, then you also have to look at the biases implicit within those sources. Misha will say and do anything that makes him more important to the series and show. Saying that he loves Dean makes his character more important and increases his profile because then he can have more scenes with one of the shows leads. If Misha is saying something it's his opinion. Honestly Castiel's "I love you" was said back in season 13, and it was said to Jack, Sam and Dean and it was taken platonically. Now all of the sudden his "I love you" is romantic, when the context is more or less that same - he said both phrases as he was set to die. If the "I love you" was supposed to be romantic, it could have been written as "I am in love with you" to be more explicit. I'm looking at the episode counts and screen time and again I just don't see it. The only actors who have more than a season worth of episodes are: Rowena (33), Mary (37), Lucifer (38), Jack (39), Bobby (68), Crowley (67) and Castiel (146). This is a show that lasted 327 episodes. Bobby was actually in the finale - but the rest of these characters were on the show for less than 50% of the time it was even on. Some appeared for only 10% of the shows episodes, yet the argument is they should have been included in the series finale. I don't see the point of having a bunch of extras who only lasted a few seasons here and there to bloat an episode that was only going to last 45 minutes or less. When the lead characters, who this show is about have the equivalence of 8 seasons more airtime and screen time then they do.

I heard the 2022 map for Senate is very favorable to Democrats. They should do all they possibly can to pick up seats because 2024 is going to be rough.

He's the most powerful player in the Senate now that Democrats control the house. He is the most Republican of all the Senate Democrats by far.

I would say even with Castiel's confession of love, that is a very specific way to view the scene in that what Castiel is referring to is romantic love instead of familial love, which is kind of the problem. Fans of that pairing refuse to consider or think about anything outside of a romantic or sexual perspective when it comes to their ship. Even when the show has told them time and time again that no, that is not what is happening here. I am all for a death to the author perspectives, artists don't have control over their work or how people interpret it after their art work is released. I am completely onboard with that, but you can't deny aspects of the work because you don't like it, then draw your own conclusions that don't come from the sourced text, and then get upset when your perspective isn't validated by the artists larger and more subsequent creations, just because they are not what you want it to be. That's not what death to the author is, that's you getting upset because your fan fiction didn't become on text television. The Destiel fandom has done this for years now. It's so tiring. I basically think even if the CW and SPN writers wanted to throw the Destiel fans a bone, that fan base would take that inch and ask for a mile. The writers never should have engaged them in the first place because they never were going to be satisfied. Cas tells Dean I love you, and they still want more. The writers tell them Destiel is not going to happen and the fan base ignores them. If the writers don't have Dean say "I love you back to him", the immediate reaction from the fanbase is the network, actor and show writers are all homophobic and it's a conspiracy! They've even latched on to foreign translations from multiple countries to say that the CW is homophobic and is silencing Misha and Jensen. It's cringeworthy. Regarding the show and it's content and the idea that supporting characters are important, this show has always been the Sam and Dean show, they are the only characters that have appeared in all 327 episodes. The first supporting character in the series Bobby, didn't come on the show until the back end of season 1. There was and should have been a focus on them in the series finale given that it's their show. It's right on the tin, and has been on the tin for years now. That fan base of a very specific ship just refused to see it.

I watched the show briefly from seasons 4-7, and watched a few episodes from seasons 1-3, with sporadic viewing every now and then and it’s clear what the show was selling. It was never a show about Castiel and Dean’s romance. Castiel at best was in no more than 45% of the episodes, and the actor was fired once and demoted to recurring status numerous times. But still his online fan base would kick up a fuss, and we get things like what was posted above. The Destiel fans refused to take the show at face value, and created crazy conspiracy theories like if Dean wore green and blue he was secretly telling audiences that he loved Castiel, and if Dean would drink flavored water it meant he was bi. Just ludicrous stuff. I would never say this show queer baited, fans just believed what they wanted to and cried when they didn’t get that onscreen.

Those Destiel fans are starting to look like QAnon at this point, and it's embarrassing. Throwing temper tantrums, hiring lawyers to sue the show, vote barraging with their bots and fake accounts, while throwing out thousands of hashtags because a ship that was never going to be canon in the first place didn't give them the ending they wanted is just ridiculous. SPN is not homophobic, because Dean and Castiel didn't get together and kiss during the show. I really wonder, what show they even were watching sometimes, it's like they deny canon, insert their own interpretation of the show and then get upset when the show doesn't align with their vision and cry abuse. They really can't read a room, or understand what the writing on the wall is. Jensen has been telling them for years, that Destiel doesn't exist as a ship, Dean is canonically straight, and that Supernatural is not a show about romance. It's a show about brotherhood and family. If Destiel fans still don't get that Dean would drop kick everyone else in the world for Sam, they haven't been paying attention the last 15 years.

I saw the series finale, I was not remotely prepared for it, they did a shockingly amazing great job, in a break your heart sort of way. Jensen and Jared’s futures are hell a bright.

Don’t feel like you have to apologize, I definitely empathize and understand. This was the first time that I really felt the impact of the isolation since it started in March. Usually I am pretty strong, and I’ve been resilient, while my family has struggled but something about the holidays and now with Christmas right around the corner, it’s just different than it was in previous months. I’m lucky that my mother lives so close to me (50 minutes away), and that I was able to spend the last 4 weeks with her while working remotely. But I have a large extended family (they live all across the eastern seaboard from Massachusetts to Georgia), and it’s upsetting to not have a gathering with them this holiday season.

This is why I am not overreacting too much with the 2020 election. Trump drives turnout but they won’t have him moving forward, if Democrats can keep the enthusiasm they had for the midterms like 2018 - 22 won’t be such a blood bath. I’m only concerned if the resistance narrative ends up losing ground and Democrats go to sleep again the way they did when Obama was in office. Trump is a last gasp of a dying electorate, but only if the rest of the electorate wakes up and becomes a continued part of our electoral processes moving forward. The New Yorker, had an article run recently, that spoke to the fact that Trump winning the Latinos in Texas and Florida, wasn’t a big surprise she by you take into the “incumbent” effect of most candidates who occupy the Oval Office. Democrats should definitely have messaging in those places and also recognize the different pathways to immigration the Latino population has.

They need to do that in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida going forward. I feel the “blue wall” in the mid-west is a mirage. Democrats might keep it for a few more election cycles max, but the writing is on the wall - look at Ohio. Democrats success is in the Sunbelt and the coasts moving forward.

The House of Representative is something Democrats need to keep an eye on. Right now they need to prioritize the Georgia senate seats otherwise a lot of Joe’s executive agenda is dead on arrival. Especially with McConnel as the leader. But in the House, Republicans are projected to win 214 seats this Congress, while the Democrats are projected to win 221. That’s crazy close and Republicans just won the rights to gerrymander 40% of districts moving forward. On average Democrats have to over win districts by 6-7 points in order to overcome Republican gerrymandered seats in the house. Expect them to make it even harder for Democrats to win seats moving forward. More over the “party in power” tends to lose a massive amount of seats in the midterm years, Obama lost a record 60 from 2008 to 2010. It will be even worse with Trump screwing up the Census work as well, likely misallocating population totals from a lot of blue leaning cities. They will probably try to rewrite districts to make sure Democrats lose seats (i.e. drawing two Democrat districts into one so they lose seats in red states, and then redraw lines to make more Republican leaning districts), and the census has already started pulling down electoral college votes from some swing states (Pennsylvania is likely to lose electoral college votes in 2024). So many uphill battles it seems. Democrats need really strong defense on all these fronts. Joe did his part in delivering the electoral college of 5 flipped states, now the Democrats need to deliver the Senate, and be on their best behavior for 2022, right around the corner.

Agree with Beto, GOP didn't care about COVID-19 and they reaped the benefits from it.

I wouldn't say he could even get votes tossed out, as he can't point to any single instance of voter fraud. He would have to supply that evidence first. I think someone earlier hit the nail on the head though in that they are trying to establish a foothold to weaken the states rights/laws concerning elections. That was straight out of the Kavanaugh playbook and that's what conservatives are trying to do moving forward. Make it so states themselves can't hold elections and rules are administered by the federal government, making it easier for them to disenfranchise certain voters who Republicans can't win with. This also establishes a precedent where incumbent Presidents can refuse to concede elections. Democrats won't use this, but Republican presidents very well may.

Good for the Decision Desk to make a decision. PA's done. The networks are just scared because of Trump so they are being overly cautious. GA is still a toss up -- but Biden may have it if there are no big surprises: Provisionals (lean Democrat), Overseas Military (lean Republican), Oversees Expats (Lean Democrat) and fixed rejected ballots that people have until today to correct (lean Democrat). It's close but I think it tends to Biden. NV should have been called already. AZ is a mix but Biden may still make it happen there too.

The New York Times is reporting that Trump filed another lawsuit to get Philadelphia to stop counting votes because his observers were denied access to watch them count. He has a hearing scheduled at 5:30, why is he getting these quick hearings? I largely don't care for him either, but he has a talent for breaking through to them that other Dems could learn from. When he opens his mouth, conservatives don't hear sirens or a Charlie Brown sound, and it doesn't make them want to recoil and vote red. Democrats have a real voting problem if they can't turn out the Latinx vote going forward, those are keys to flipping Texas, Florida, Arizona and keeping Nevada and New Mexico. Democrats will eventually lose Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin due to socio-economic and cultural factors - the writing is on the wall. They need to prepare and invest in the future.

I think Democrats need to invest in some media interviewing techniques like Pete, he is like the conservative whisperer, and they seem to "get it", when he speaks to them.

Different times. McConnel can block pretty much anything if he has the Senate, even if Joe has Congress.

I really think this is a problem due to the infrastructure of the US. It's hard to say that a President has a mandate, if they just squeaked by and won the election. I would feel more comfortable with a Biden mandate if we won the Senate, or received at least 300+ electoral collage votes. We need those in order to truly action a "mandate". That's easier for Republicans to do than Democrats.