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BrainDead - New

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BrainDead - New

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Tue 21 Jun 2016, 18:54:24

BrainDead is a new TV series on CBS from the same people who brought us the series The Good Wife. The basic premise is that the Earth is invaded from space by what seems to be a meteor about 1 meter in diameter, but that meteor is actually a tiny spaceship containing some ants from space - who enter through the ear and eat people's brains and make them walking talking automatons.

I know I'm making a judgement based on only the Pilot episode, but I find it strangely coincidental that every Washington politician whose brain has been eaten is a Republican, and that this caused a change of majority party (so it's 2012) and that the Democrats have been exiled to the basement of the Capital building where the ants cannot enter through an open window.

I was looking for a good quirky SF show, and instead I think what we are getting is one-sided and heavy-handed political satire in an election year.

All we need now is a brash populist Republican candidate (with ants for brains) and a heroic female Democratic candidate for President.
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As if this was not enough, we also know that Madam Secretary, wherein a blonde, slim, and ever-so-clever Secretary of State, newly selected to be the VP running mate of the incumbent (but doomed) President, will triumphantly help him win the election, and then assume office upon his untimely demise, and decisively demonstrate how cleverly she can run the country, all in the first five episodes of Season 3 that occur before the November 6th election later this year.
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....all while garbed in the same expensive Armani suits that Hillary loves. CBS has never been subtle about politics. I remember when Commander In Chief died an untimely death because a black man got the Democratic candidacy rather than a clever woman.
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Before that I remember years of The West Wing where they used hindsight to second guess every decision of a Republican President.
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I know that such political programming is aimed at people who never watch the news and will make up their minds on who to vote for the week or the day before November 6th, but this is tiresome for people who actually can think, and regularly do so.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Plantagenet » Tue 21 Jun 2016, 20:35:46

KaiserJeep wrote: this is tiresome for people who actually can think, and regularly do so.


Yup.

I never watch Commercial TV at all (except NBA playoffs and NFL games) because commercial TV shows are largely drivel.

I mostly watch PBS.

PBS is even more politically correct then the commercial networks, but at least they admit their bias.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Tue 21 Jun 2016, 23:20:03

Yeah, I watch the PBS Newshour and the BBC World News both on most days. You are correct about the liberal bias and the PC.

Still, compared to the incredibly biased stuff you find on the web, it's not bad. Few people reporting on the web ever attended a school for journalism, and don't understand that they are supposed to be in theory impartial.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby GHung » Tue 21 Jun 2016, 23:43:11

Still waiting for that definition of what non-PC is, or what a non-liberal bias is all about. Enquiring pragmatic independents want to know!

I'm amazed by what some folks waste their energy on. Helluva way to spend a life; bitching about TV shows.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 00:36:52

Ghung, my complaint was really about people who will let their votes be swayed by such things as fictional TV shows.

As much thought as you or I may put into politics, their unthinking vote is worth as much as ours.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Newfie » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 08:37:41

We gave up most TV years ago. We would try to watch the History Chanell but between bad signal and too slow a pace that eventually went. The physical box went to college with our daughter.

I listened to NPR regularly for decades but I find now that they have many advertisers (including big AG and the Koch bros) and that their quality of reporting has become dismal. Individual programs are OK but Morning Edition, All Things Cknsidered, etc. has gotten very poor. What really irks me is when they do some piece that just screams for a deeper explanation or obvious counter argument. I don't know if it is trying to sway the public or just parroting feel good bits to keep listeners or simple brain dead reporting. No matter, now we only listen be dry selectively, mostly not at all.

In my experience once you go some protracted period without TV you loose the taste for it. When it's on at my kids house or an airport it comes across as crass and stupid. Some of the sitcoms are painful to watch.

But it's what the masses want a sits what make Capitalism great, it's so American, you just gotta love it.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Ibon » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 08:52:32

Watching that TV is what defines BrainDead.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby GHung » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 09:44:29

Newfie; regarding NPR, et al, I think they are just going with the flow trying to survive. Adapting to the public's short attention spans is seen as a necessity these days, it seems.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Ibon » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 09:52:02

GHung wrote:Newfie; regarding NPR, et al, I think they are just going with the flow trying to survive. Adapting to the public's short attention spans is seen as a necessity these days, it seems.


Let's face it folks. When your life sucks and you are unhappy because you squander this rare and wondrous miracle of this one shot at life then you choose escape into a brain dead medium over choosing to be awake.

At 60 years of age I feel the same disdain for this medium as I did when I was 20 years old putting on my backpack and hitchhiking across North America and going into the wilderness. Already back then I saw suburbia and TV as brain dead.

It rots as much today as it did back then.

This wondrous life wasted in mediocre entertainment instead of walking down the nearest path marveling at nature.

It's everyones choice.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Timo » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 10:20:41

Careful, Ibon. The computer and smartphone are rapidly filling that very same niche that you described as producing a brain dead nation. I don't have a TV, but i do have a PC and a smartphone. Anything digital will produce the same product as a TV, especially if it's mobile.

As for the series KJ describes, it sounds to me like the same premise as The Walking Dead, or whatever that show is called. Zombie hordes all trying to eat the brains of the remaining, living humans, while humans use all of their military might for survival. That premise has political undertones, as well. If a television show does not have political undertones, then it will project moral undertones. The entire purpose of every form of media is to influence the public in some manner. Some media overlords like Murdoch manage this capacity better than others, but everybody does it.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby efarmer » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 11:39:02

The brain eating ants are a real pickle of a problem to overcome, but I think if the show producers can put the victims in a room, and pump in simultaneous feeds of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and a few other choice talk radio feeds, the resultant mental enema can flush the ants and stop the damage. These victims can then be retrained to do calling for telemarketers and having lost their anger center and most emotional capability will be happy as a clam in the face of millions of angry retorts and hang ups and will revolutionize the telemarketing industry and be driven home by Google robot cars each night for fish sticks and macaroni and cheese dinner. When the popsicles come out for desert, they will glady accept whichever one comes out of the box, there will be no fighting for grape and cherry, no abandoned lime popsicles slowly getting freezer burn, and as long as they are reminded that you don't eat the stick after the posicle is finished, peace and harmony will reign. I love it when a happy ending for a series is pragmatic and realistic, but dang it, is also a true feel good scenario like this.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby GHung » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 12:53:46

I got around to investigating BrainDead. Wikipedia:

BrainDead is an American comedy-thriller television series created by Robert and Michelle King.[1] CBS announced a 13-episode straight-to-series order on July 22, 2015. The show premiered on June 13, 2016. The series centers around the Capitol in Washington, D.C., where a conspiracy is set that many members of Congress have been infected with a sort of "bug", as said by one member.


Taking a comedy seriously seems a bit much. If, in fact, the bugs are primarily infecting Republican brains, I do find that funny since there are so many Repugs who clearly fit the "braindead" category, more perhaps than even the Democraps. Anyway, if resident Republicans find that annoying, they are free to try and get their own TV shows on the braindead Fox network, eh? But maybe liberals have a better sense of humor and more imagination..... I haven't met many neocons who are particularly creative, other than devising ways to exploit their fellow man and environment.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 17:05:34

Ghung - A Dem congressional leader helps kill a bipartisan deal that would have prevented a govt shutdown. And it was for political gamesmanship and hadn't been taken over by the aliens. BTW it was one of his Dem constituents that helped smuggle the "ants" into the county.

As it stands now it looks like a young male R and a young female D will be the bipartisan heroes of the show.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 19:23:07

Folks, make no mistake, the virtual worlds of networked interactive video games and video programming are a major slice of American culture today. You may decry the passivity of it, but when you consider that a piddling amount of electricity is replacing a lot of hobbies that involve burning fuel in motorbikes, jetskis, trucks, and snowmobiles, it's a win on the energy front. Doubtless the wildlife that is no longer hunted because it's more fun to hunt online monsters or zombies is also benefitting.

PO.com is a good example, we entertain each other although we are spread over at least five continents.

This IS mainstream culture all around the world today, in fact. You may choose to opt out to whatever degree you like, but if you are 40 years old or older and carry a mobile device like a phone or tablet, you are an enthusiastic adopter of modern networked culture, whether you watch video or not.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Ibon » Wed 22 Jun 2016, 23:14:53

KaiserJeep wrote:This IS mainstream culture all around the world today, in fact. You may choose to opt out to whatever degree you like, but if you are 40 years old or older and carry a mobile device like a phone or tablet, you are an enthusiastic adopter of modern networked culture, whether you watch video or not.


Thinking outside the box takes on a whole new meaning.

There is tremendous opportunity for those who choose not to be networked,
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby efarmer » Thu 23 Jun 2016, 11:39:22

There is active entertainment where one does something to entertain themselves or people entertain each other and actually do something, and there is passive entertainment where one flops down and entertainment is done to them, I prefer the active forms.

The other phenomena I see is wearable computing devices constantly making their users decide if they are an entity in the real world, or a slave to the virtual world and interconnects that beckon them to flail their thumbs on touchscreens and stand in rapt attention to the device in the midst of what is otherwise a real life situation. Many people I know and love and many others I simply observe are slaved to their devices as if they are their real life, and the one their body is immersed in is a spacer until the device requires their time and attention again.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Thu 23 Jun 2016, 14:09:48

Ibon wrote:-snip-

Thinking outside the box takes on a whole new meaning.

There is tremendous opportunity for those who choose not to be networked,


Somehow I think Ibon that both you and I are as networked as we wish to be. But we are also not typical today, certainly not typical of two whole generations younger than ourselves.

As for me, I'd be satisfied just to be able to drive down the street and not have to watch out for drivers who are distracted by cell phones, portable video, miniature dogs in their laps, or screaming children in their immobilizing rear car seats.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Thu 23 Jun 2016, 15:57:09

efarmer wrote:There is active entertainment where one does something to entertain themselves or people entertain each other and actually do something, and there is passive entertainment where one flops down and entertainment is done to them, I prefer the active forms.

The other phenomena I see is wearable computing devices constantly making their users decide if they are an entity in the real world, or a slave to the virtual world and interconnects that beckon them to flail their thumbs on touchscreens and stand in rapt attention to the device in the midst of what is otherwise a real life situation. Many people I know and love and many others I simply observe are slaved to their devices as if they are their real life, and the one their body is immersed in is a spacer until the device requires their time and attention again.


efarmer, I don't see much difference between one person vegetating in a gaming chair, moving his thumbs, and another vegetating on the couch, watching video. One is active and one is passive, granted - but one does not acquire culture and knowledge from a video game, as one can watching a documentary on video. Feed your head, always.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Subjectivist » Sat 30 Jul 2016, 20:57:17

Not sure if this show was cancelled or not, but the first five episodes are available on Amazon Prime so I watched them. It's not awful, but the conclusion seems to be only down the middle moderates can come to reasonable compromises.
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Re: BrainDead - New

Unread postby Narz » Wed 08 Feb 2017, 00:48:31

I watched BrainDead, it started off showing some potential but the 2nd half of the first season was pretty weak.
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