dominikrappaport

The series is like a car accident. It is sometimes even disturbing to watch all those humans struggling for freedom, but you can't divert your eyes.

Los Angeles, in fact, the whole world, is a huge Nazi concentration camp but with the inhabitants being unaware of it, at first. Can they succeed and defeat the invaders, despite their superior technology? I sincerely hope for a happy ending as otherwise, I couldn't endure watching all those endless moments of pain and suffering.

Besides, I'm really curious if season three can come up with a good explanation to THE open question: What the heck do the aliens want? Don't tell me that they've come for the cheap workforce for their sinister factory. I'm sure a race advanced enough of being capable of interstellar travel can also automate such workflows.

I've watched the handmaid's tale's first season and read a lot of reviews on IMDB. I'd like to share my view as a non-American. I come from a country that had to endure the Nazi terror. My grandfather's father was killed for being a Jew.

Rather than interpreting a handmaid's tale as a feministic story, I consider it as an allegory on fascism in general. Everything in the Handmaid's tale had a counterpart in the Nazi era. In fact, I'm sure you can find parallels to almost any fascistic dictatorship (the Soviet Union of the Stalin period, the Red Khmer, you name it).

Those parallels are so striking that watching the episodes was sometimes almost unbearable to me because I know that similar things have happened in my country. The only difference is the flavour of terror.

A lot of books were written how the cruel things the Nazis did could have happened. Hannah Arendt called it the "the banality of evil". I'm personally convinced that it could, in theory, happen everywhere. It would just need a trigger (in the story it's the fertility crisis) plus an amplification of trends that already exist in the society. Margaret Atwood was undoubtedly spot on that such a system would likely be a religious one if it happened in the US.

It's definitely nothing you can watch easily, but I recommend it to everyone as a warning what could happen if we give up our vigilance.

We had to wait till season three for Star Trek The Next Generation to become the show we've all loved. So there is hope for Discovery.

So far, however, my fears have come true. Star Trek, and in particular TNG, has always had a focus on a good storyline. In fact, compared to Discovery, TNG looks more like a stage play. Also the actors, first and foremost Patrick Stewart, had a stage background.

The Discover pilot, on the other end, had no plot whatsoever. It was just an endless sequence of action with lots of quick cuts that made the episode hectic plus some lousy dialogues.

I can tolerate a change in visual appearance to honour the technological progress. It takes me more to accept the new appearance of the Klingons.

But I fail to accept a lack of plot. Twenty-six years ago (on 30 September 1991) the episode Darmok was aired for the first time. That's the kind of Star Trek we want to see.

The 5th House of Cards season didn't convince me like the others. Of course, there was the usual suspense and Claire becoming the new president and Frank being at the mercy of her was an unexpected turning but what I didn't like was the lack of logic.

In the past, all crimes were committed by the inner circle, Frank, Claire and Doug. But in season 5, there are so many witnesses that it's hard to believe all of them will keep their mouth shut. The FBI director and his agents for example who know that Josh Masterson was in the FBI's custody and eventually murdered. Also, someone must have damaged the gas line at the Tennessee polling station. Next, how could Frank know for sure that Catherine Durant wouldn't survive when he pushed her down the stairs (it remains to be seen if she recovers, but if she does, she has for sure a lot to tell about)?

Last but not least, there is Claire. She poisoned her lover Tom Yates in Mark Usher's house. Even if we assume that the crime had been agreed between the two of them in advance (his surprised reaction suggests the contrary), is it wise to let a person like Mark Usher know that you've killed someone? A person, known to changing sides whenever it suits him? Same with Jane Davis who knows everything about the murder of LeAnn Harvey. Both of them can't be trusted, and they definitely pose a risk to both, Frank and Claire.

Looking forward to season 6, all the same.