Television

Art as Propaganda, Propaganda as Art

by John Cole| May 22, 202112:29 am| 49 Comments

This post is in: Television, TV & Movies

I’m on episode 44 of Dirillis: Ertugrul (Resurrection: Ertugrul) and I am completely sucked in and have been since the first couple episodes. So much so that even when I learned there were 76 episodes in the first season, I kept watching. It’s based on the story of Ertegrul Bey, a turk who fathered Osman (which I assume will happen in Season 5 the way this show is paced).

The thing is, it is just shameless propaganda and basically a fictional rewrite of Ottoman History. I’m sure Erdogan loves it. It’s one part Game of Thrones, one part Triumph of the Will, and one part Dallas. And I can not get enough of it.

The fights are laughable, with every sword fight more and more absurd, and the important characters never getting hurt. Historical gender roles are strictly enforced, the Beys and Muslim scholars fawned over, and so on. As far as propaganda goes, it is a masterpiece.

The only show i have seen recently this over the top was a Russian state movie from 2018 called T-34. Do you have any other shows you have watched like this? Shows you know are just propaganda, but you watch them anyway?

Art as Propaganda, Propaganda as ArtPost + Comments (49)

Thursday Afternoon Open Thread

by Betty Cracker| January 28, 20212:38 pm| 172 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Television

With He Who Shall Not Be Named’s malign influence fading, I’m seeing more wholesome content on my Twitter timeline:

I don’t want to oversell William Shatner’s performance of Rocket Man, but it may be the greatest thing that ever fucking happened.

pic.twitter.com/QTWCqsFadO

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) January 28, 2021

Nature is healing!

Speaking of Shatner, at the University of Florida in the late 1980s, there used to be a T.J. Hooker Viewing Society.

The hair!

Also speaking of Shatner, I read a story once that alleged that the young actor who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek TNG approached Shatner (who was doing a flashback cameo or something) for an autograph and was rudely rebuffed. The kid told a castmate — maybe even Jean Luc himself — who said something like, “Oh, did no one tell you Bill is an asshole? Bill’s an asshole! Sorry about that,” and then went to the producer or whomever to make Shatner give the kid an autograph. No idea if it’s true, but I want it to be so!

Open thread.

Thursday Afternoon Open ThreadPost + Comments (172)

The West Wing in 2020

by John Cole| December 30, 202011:55 pm| 85 Comments

This post is in: Television

I’m trying to watch the West Wing again, which I used to love, but it is just so detached from our current reality that it seems like science fiction.

The West Wing in 2020Post + Comments (85)

Crown Jewel (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker| November 22, 20201:17 pm| 145 Comments

This post is in: Birdwatching, Open Threads, Television

This guy is good:

A little treat for fans of #TheCrown!

Bad TV Impressions: The Crown Season 4#TheCrownSeason4 #impressions #comedy pic.twitter.com/ZLd0rWWTob

— Kieran Hodgson (@KieranCHodgson) November 20, 2020

I’ve already binge-watched Season 4, which was pretty good, IMO. The mister and I also just finished up The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix — highly recommended. (It’s about chess, not royalty.)

Did a grocery run earlier to lay in supplies for a two-person Thanksgiving. I’m making Ina’s turkey roulade, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie. Plus extra stuffing and fresh cranberry sauce. It will be way too much.

It’s dark and cloudy today. The forecast calls for rain, but it’s just clouds and mist so far. The weather will likely deter us from taking a boat ride, but we did yesterday and saw this pretty anhinga in a tree:

That’s all I’ve got. Open thread!

Crown Jewel (Open Thread)Post + Comments (145)

I Remember When She Was Just a Wee Lass

by John Cole| October 30, 20209:57 pm| 24 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Readership Capture, Television

Look who is going to be on TDS tonight:

Don't miss @DesiLydic's special tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg featuring @ewarren, @rtraister, @katekendell and Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady). Tonight at 11/10c on Comedy Central! pic.twitter.com/pgpUnivYzk

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 30, 2020

They grow up so fast.

I Remember When She Was Just a Wee LassPost + Comments (24)

Dubious Conversion Open Thread: Tucker Carlson, Jedi Master of the CYA Corps

by Anne Laurie| March 19, 202010:52 pm| 105 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Television, Assholes

Tucker Carlson calls for Senator Burr to resign and await prosecution for insider trading if he cannot provide a reasonable explanation for his actions. He goes on to say it appears that Senator Burr betrayed his country in a time of crisis pic.twitter.com/q7yJa5wjuA

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) March 20, 2020

He plays a bigoted thug to perfection on TV, but either Mr. Carlson isn’t quite as dumb as he acts, or he’s at least smart enough to hire competent advisors. Lo, a Damascus moment for one of the richest ‘conservatives’ on Fox News!

Tucker Carlson apparently flew to Mar-a-Lago to personally lobby Trump and his aides to take the coronavirus more seriously and to stop seeing everything though a political lens https://t.co/XO50HpH4qc

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) March 17, 2020

Though it’s hard to believe, Fox News host Tucker Carlson made his very first visit to Mar-a-Lago only a week and a half ago. The resort was hosting a birthday party for former Fox host Kimberly Guilfoyle, also attended by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, and Donald Trump Jr.,—but Carlson wasn’t there for the party. He didn’t even know about it, he says. Instead he’d come with an urgent message for the president. He was there to pull Donald Trump aside and speak frankly about the dangers of the coronavirus epidemic, the gravity of which had not yet fully registered with Trump or his White House.

For his troubles, Carlson was actually exposed to the coronavirus, along with Senators Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott, all of whom had been in the room with infected Brazilian officials attending the party…

Tucker Carlson started talking more extensively about the virus on his Fox News show on February 3, spurred, he says, by harrowing reports emerging from China. Trump, it seems, was the last to know. A White House adviser arranged for Carlson to meet with Trump so the TV personality could, in essence, penetrate Trump’s bubble. They talked for two hours. The oncoming pandemic, Carlson told him, was an existential threat to the nation. To translate it into Trumpian language, an existential threat to his reelection. Mike Pence joined at one point. Carlson won’t discuss the president’s reaction on the record, but suffice it to say that Trump’s denial went on for another week while the pandemic ballooned and right-wing allies—many of them on Fox News—suggested the virus was a liberal hoax and members of Congress, as recently as three days ago, told people to continue going out in public as if nothing was happening.

I’ve known Tucker Carlson for 20 years, since before his infamous Jon Stewart debate on CNN in 2004 and before his paleoconservative tendencies—he was always sympathetic to Pat Buchanan—found their moment in the election of Donald J. Trump, reanimating his career. Carlson has always been one of the most intelligent and reliably savage observers of Washington—even more so off camera. A canny TV diplomat, he won’t say Trump is terrified, weak, politically doomed, in deep denial and surrounded by toadies and mediocrities. But what he does say is enough to make you realize we’re entering uncharted territory…

A sample of the ensuing tonguebath:

We’re at the point where conservative media and right-wing politicians take their cues from Trump and from the White House. Tell me when you decided that maybe something had gone out of whack.

So a lot of Trump voters believe that all news about Trump is designed to hurt Trump. And they’re absolutely right about that. It’s been monomaniacal, the coverage of Trump. So when the moment came, when there was something that ultimately really didn’t have anything to do with Trump, which is the emergence of a weird new virus from Eastern China, they were trained to believe that all coverage was designed to hurt Trump. Because that’s been true. So it was very hard to convince a lot of those news consumers that this was fundamentally not a political story.

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Everyone in America has been praying for three years to see all stories through the lens of political advantage, period. And so this isn’t fundamentally political. I mean, it’s affected, of course, by politics and the decisions that elected leaders make. But in the end it’s a story about health and economics. Do you know what I mean?

I do. But I also see that Trump’s political worldview, which 35 to 40% of the country believes, says they should distrust elites and institutions. And we now are in a situation where we need both. We need public trust, we need leadership, and we need faith in institutions to hold up. And now it’s not there.

No, no, we don’t. Now, let’s be wise here. We don’t need faith in institutions to hold up, listen to yourself. We need institutions to behave wisely. That’s what we need. And faith is restored when people make wise decisions. That’s the truth.

The truth is people distrust institutions because they’ve hollowed out the economy and made a mess of the country. Now, that’s just true. Trump has been an imperfect vessel for those sentiments. But the sentiments are rooted in reality, and there’s nobody who looks at America 2020 or 2019 who can say that people in charge have done a good job, ’cause they haven’t, they just haven’t, period. So at a time of crisis, you need people to make wise, prudent, selfless decisions. That’s what you need. And you need the institutions to earn the trust of the population…

When you say institutions have failed, I would include the Trump administration in with that.

Well I don’t think anybody thinks the government is going to save you. I really don’t. I don’t think there’s anybody who thinks that…

Nobody with a grain of sense would fall for that crap, of course. Enter the Cosplay Socialists!

unless you write for the intercept.

— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) March 18, 2020

“That a cable-news host used his outsize influence for a positive purpose is something to be grateful for. But that he had such influence to begin with is nothing short of insane.” https://t.co/93nGB1zG2Y

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 19, 2020

Margaret Sullivan, who has always refused to play the idiot for the Media Villagers:

… Was Trump’s turnaround all Carlson’s doing? Of course not.

With the world turned upside down and Americans dying, Trump would have been forced to reckon with the disaster eventually. But the talk-show host did seem to get through to Trump in a way that no one else could, which is completely consistent with what we know about this president.

Trump has always placed far too much emphasis on what he sees on television, especially on Fox, which functions as his inspiration and megaphone. Sean Hannity is a close friend and adviser, who once got a slap on the wrist from Fox brass by appearing with Trump at a rally….

All of which is well beyond unseemly. It would be shocking except that we’ve all grown inured to it in this norm-shattering era of reality-TV star as president…

Honorable mention to Fox ‘newsman’ Sean Hannity:

Hannity blasts the media for their coverage of coronavirus while claiming he's "always taken coronavirus seriously" and "never called the virus hoax."

9 days ago, he said people were faking concern over the virus and trying to "bludgeon Trump with this new hoax" pic.twitter.com/jQ1dyiW4r3

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 19, 2020

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Diversions

by Anne Laurie| March 7, 20207:24 am| 116 Comments

This post is in: Music, Nature & Respite, Open Threads, Television

I suspect lead singer Natalie Maines would have been more than happy for this not to be true, but: Impeccable timing for the new single!

There are a half-dozen serious, weighty posts waiting to be written, but after this week I’m tired.

What are y’all doing as a respite from politics, at this point in time?

Spousal Unit & I both really enjoyed the first two seasons of Death in Paradise, every episode a sprightly Christie-style stand-alone mystery. I’m having trouble getting into the unlovely third-season replacement for the central character, but the rest of the cast is still sharp, and I console myself that the blemish in question eventually gets replaced in his turn…

Saturday Morning Open Thread: DiversionsPost + Comments (116)

Lyrebird on Sunday Night Open Thread (Jun 16, 2025 @ 12:02am)

Jay on Sunday Night Open Thread (Jun 16, 2025 @ 12:01am)

Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom on War for Ukraine Day 1,027: Another Early Morning Drone Swarm (Jun 15, 2025 @ 11:58pm)

Chris on Medium Cool – ~~Fictional Dads~~ Fictional Characters (Jun 15, 2025 @ 11:54pm)

Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom on War for Ukraine Day 1,027: Another Early Morning Drone Swarm (Jun 15, 2025 @ 11:53pm)

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

We still have time to mess this up!

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

I really should read my own blog.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

All hail the time of the bunny!

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Republicans in disarray!

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Giving up is unforgivable.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

No one could have predicted…