1) Doom Patrol is coming back. The current season (the fourth) was split into two parts, and for a long time it wasn’t clear if the second half was ever going to be shown. The episodes were completed, from what I’ve read, so the current strikes weren’t a factor. The series has been canceled (also from what I’ve read — these things are always in flux), but we wanted those final episodes.

And now they are (in theory) coming. I’ve said it before, I like some different shows, but there’s nothing like Doom Patrol.

 
2) I’m watching Wheel of Time (Season 2), and I’m enjoying it, but I’m realizing that I’m enjoying it at a distance. Based on what I’ve seen online, the fandom mostly consists of 1) devoted fans of the book series, who are either interested in or dismayed by (or violently opposed to) the ways the show’s story deviates from the books, and 2) people who have not read the books but who are captivated by the complex story and/or emotionally attached to one or more of the main characters.

The acting runs the gamut from very good to actually great. I’ve seen several people online declare that they are on “Team Liandrin,” and book readers point out how thoroughly evil Liandrin is, but Kate Fleetwood, who plays Liandrin, is riveting in every scene she’s in. This reflects how I watch the show: I’m not rooting for anybody in particular, or for the “good” characters or the “evil” characters. I’m here for the complexity and the mysteries and the design elements, and the acting.

 
3) Season 3 of The Witcher is over, and it was very satisfying. A lot of people didn’t like it (and many of them had made that decision before the season even started, for reasons which I have no interest in), but I enjoyed it. Not perfect (no season has been perfect so far), but I had a good time. I’m eager for Season 4, but production hasn’t started yet, and there are various strikes, of course, and viewership apparently tanked for Season 3, so I’m not holding my breath. (For example, a second season of The Peripheral was confirmed, and now it’s been canceled, and that’s happened to other shows, too.)

The difference, for me, compared to Wheel of Time is that with The Witcher I’m (very) attached to the main characters. I still tear up a little when Yennefer, who has wanted a child for many, many decades, bids farewell (possibly forever) to Ciri and kisses her (on her eyelid, apparently) and whispers, “I love you, my daughter.”

::sniff::

The point being that there a different ways to enjoy things, and, as I’ve talked about before, finding “relatable” characters to root for doesn’t work for everything. It’s not going to get you very far with Macbeth or King Lear or The Shining (or any Kubrick film, really) or Chinatown or Apocalypse Now.