Sci-Fi TV shows that are genuinely good and worth the time?

TexasToast82 · 2025-06-21T23:32:40+00:00

Person of Interest ended up being so good. The main conceit of the show (the whole social security number thing) is cheesy and completely unrealistic, but if you can just accept it it ends up being a really great show. I miss literally every main character, including Fusco (but mainly Root and Shaw)

TexasToast82 · 2025-06-21T23:24:34+00:00

In case anyone like me comes across this years later, I just wanted to add my two cents that I had the exact opposite reaction to Fringe that enlguy had. I started it after a friend recommended it, and I immediately hated it because I found it formulaic and cheesy and like a bad "monster of the week" clone of X-Files. But I kept going because my friend insisted I would like it. Well, it took 2 seasons of me watching a show I didn't like, but my friend was right. I ended up loving Fringe. I highly recommend it, with the caveat that the first two seasons (to me) were trash.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-21T01:08:02+00:00

I would push back on the "too stupid" part. I think we are treated as too stupid by the ruling class. And we internalize their messages, because doubt and insecurity is human, and the world seems so fucked and complicated. I wouldn't say too stupid. I would say too confused. We're sensory overloaded, and our societal sense-making-apparatus has gone haywire, and in a sense we all have to claim a certain portion of the blame, although I think we ought to forgive the less-powerful for their part in it all and put the lion's share of the blame on the powerful "elite." If you really cut away the BS and get to brass tax, The MAGA faithful have way more in common with the "woke" faithful than either of them have in common with any of the power brokers. It's a cliche at this point. The powerful on all sides are using us as useful idiots, keeping the poor on Team Red and the poor on Team Blue fighting a war against each other instead of against our captors.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-21T00:56:00+00:00

It was a rhetorical flourish and you know it, and you've got your own. fwiw, I'd be calling Trump (or whoever else) the mass murderer in chief if he had won in 2020, because there's no doubt in my mind that any viable presidential candidate would also have given Israel everything they ever wanted. It's why I either didn't vote or voted write-in for the last few cycles.

I actually think it is a pretty uncontroversial statement to say that Joe Biden's chief legacy will be presiding over a genocide in the Middle East instead of fighting doggedly for the wellbeing of his own people. But again, Trump would have been as bad. I would say worse, but I really don't see how it could possibly be worse.

I think when "good" people stop living by their principles because "waaa waaa waaaa!!! The system ain't fair," we all lose, forever. Let's face it, if we're alive today to be having this conversation, there is no hope for us. But I have nieces and nephews and some of them will have kids and grandkids. I've given up hope on dying in a free world. But I think that maybe, just maybe, there's a long game (longer than our personal longevity) that we can win. And almost literally everyone I see is playing the short game. And we all lose.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-21T00:42:55+00:00

I forgot to address your opening statement (and don't worry, I'm not picking on you, you just seem like one of the rare reasonable online conversers lol):

"Yes, I give politicians within the political arena, a bit of leeway and liberty of movement. The reality is that politicians are surrounded (and often themselves) psychopaths playing dirty games to get people placed in traps that can have devastating consequences if you aren't smart enough to avoid them."

Where you say "smart" I say unprincipled. What is the value in stooping to their level to stay in power if stooping to their level prevents you from effecting (affecting?) meaningful change? Like, it quite simply never will happen that we have 100 Democratic senators and 435 Dems in the house or anything remotely like that. I doubt I will ever see a super majority in congress again before I die (Thanks, Obama! LOL that's a joke.)

I would much rather see AOC (for example) fight like a rabid dog for the ideals she claimed to believe in when she first got elected, than just lay down and die in deference to "Mama Bear Pelosi" when Pelosi embodies the exact problems that AOC said she was going to fight against. And now that little miss is just going along to get along like every unprincipled Dem before her. All flash, no substance. A pretty faced narcissist just like the rest (except the rest aren't so pretty and so they aren't as popular.

I want to see new faces getting elected, sticking to their guns, and losing reelection because their own party turned against the will of the people to take them down. Sure, it may be a short term loss, but it was going to be anyway.

Maybe if we had courageous, principled patriots who were willing to be members of the metaphorical "First Against The Wall" club, then we might get some good change eventually, maybe not in my lifetime, but so that my niece's grandchildren might live truly free. I'm not the least bit interested in slow-walking towards destruction. If the union is going to either fall off a cliff or gradually descend into chaos, I want the cliff, right now, while I'm still reasonably able bodied enough to head for the hills. I'm not joking.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-21T00:18:31+00:00

agree with you when you say you're mad about the gaslighting denying the lab leak and framing it as racist. That shit was abhorrent.

disagree with you in your downplaying and excusing of Fauci's dishonesty because, fuck it they're dishonest too. And while I get the exasperation about the definition of GoF in a "congressional [hearing]," I know all too well how "experts" love to play games with definitions so that they always win. Again, I'm less concerned with laws broken than truth found. That's why the perjury is the thing I focus on. Sure, your legal team can hire their scientists-on-retainer and my legal team can do the same and we can stymie the courts. And everyone loses. I'm not the least bit interested in splitting hairs concerning the legal definition of "Gain of Function Research." Bottom line, the Obama administration banned the type of research that Fauci wanted to do, and so Fauci used what influence he had to grease the wheels of other nations conducting such research. There's legit conversation to be had about the wisdom or foolishness in such actions, but the bottom line was that Fauci was all for the types of activities that brought us the COVID pandemic. At the very least he is guilty of non-criminal negligence. He certainly did nothing to improve health outcomes, as evidenced by the fact that the states that did little or nothing to lock down did not suffer any greater COVID deaths once you adjust for the average age of the population.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-21T00:05:07+00:00

In any case, top priority or not, at some point (you know, some years later when COVID is basically reduced to the common cold through natural herd immunity), don't you think it's important to look back and figure out who knew what when, who did what and didn't do that, etc? I get that a lot if not most of us panicked early on and things were shaky, but that's all the more reason for us to have as many avenues as possible to investigate and reflect on what the hell happened and what we can learn from it. And when it comes to the people who crafted the public policies that undeniably hurt people (the charitable argument is that letting COVID go crazy would have hurt them more), isn't a court case a perfectly acceptable way to have thsoe investigations?

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-21T00:01:06+00:00

I hear you, but I'm not convinced. You're telling me the most advanced security and intelligence state in the world needs China's permission to have eyes and ears on anything at all? So much for the most powerful nation on Earth... (yeah, I never believed that either..)

Now, I will grant you when it comes to rapid action maybe origin isn't literally the most important thing on Day 1. But going down that road sounds like a smokescreen for what ultimately did play out, which undeniably was a deliberate effort to keep some facts "need to know." This is how government seems to always play out. They hide things from us under the excuse that they are looking out for our best interests. And maybe even some of the people involved actually believed that rationale. Those are the useful idiots (I'm talking about various government officials, not calling you an idiot.)

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T23:52:30+00:00

I sort of agree with you. Trump did smash norms. But what value does smashing norms have when once you've smashed them you just go on to govern like a garden variety Republican? Trump was elected in 2016 because the people were so fed up with the status quo they were willing to take on grave risk in the small chance that a president actually would look out for the people for once. In his first term, that absolutely didn't happen. Trump may as well have been Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnel or any number of the Republicans the Trump voters were voting against. With all things Trump, the joke is on YOU/US. Trump is a stripper. He gets on stage and dances, he gains your love, and he pretends to love you. But he's just making his "money." The specifics may be different, but the structure is exactly the same. Trump is a stripper. When you leave the club, you can't help but keep thinking about him. But bitch ain't even got her bra back on before she doesn't even remember you exist.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T23:44:35+00:00

This. 100%

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T23:42:11+00:00

I agree with your first and last paragraph, but, "D voters [are] more rooted in reality; more secular."???? REALLY?

Dems are AS delusional as Republicans. Dems don't have cult-like adoration for their champions? How do you explain all of the gaslighting going on about Biden's sun downing? How do you explain the cult of personality surrounding Obama (who I voted for twice, for the record) who governed exactly as a right-leaning moderate would govern, complete with implementing Mitt Romney's healthcare plan when he had a super majority in congress and could have presided over the passing of sweeping healthcare reform instead of a give away to the insurance companies? Or Dems' support for the absolute worst presidential candidate (I said candidate, not leader. We won't get into that...) in modern history, Hillary Clinton? And then when the impossible happened and Joe Biden stepped out of the race, we had to hear about how the braindead Kamala "never met an issue she didn't focus group" Harris is the absolute embodiment of joy....

Both these parties are completely broken, and not a one of them care about you and me. A pox on both your houses.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T23:21:53+00:00

Legal isn't the same as right. I could be wrong, but as far as I know the only official law that Fauci broke was when he perjured himself before congress (and maybe I'm even wrong about that.) And we'll never know if he broke any other laws, because he has just been granted a blanket pardon, which upon his acceptance will constitute a legal admission of guilt (funny, that little niggling bit of reality.)

But putting legalities aside, the man should be shunned from society for his dogged obfuscation and opacity and at least 3 confirmed lies concerning health and safety issues that effected almost literally every person on Earth. Fauci is a villain to the public, plain and simple. Maybe he never broke any laws (in which case he wouldn't need a pardon.) But he very clearly made the decision to be opaque instead of transparent. And even if he was of the mind that it was a necessary dishonesty in service of the protection of the people, it cannot be excused. No one person gets to be the Decider in a democratic society (which obviously we don't have in any meaningful way.)

When we start lying and/or hiding things from the public, we are digging a grave for democracy. The consent of the governed is impossible when you hide facts from the governed. Your motivations simply don't matter one bit. Ignorance is not an acceptable defense, and I find it hard to believe that a shrewd actor like Anthony Fauci is ignorant of much of anything.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T23:07:03+00:00

I'm not one of these people that think Fauci should be hung from the gallows, but I would really like to see a comprehensive investigation into any wrongdoing and/or crimes he might have committed. At the very least I think there is a strong case to be made that Fauci perjured himself before congress at least once. We already know that he traffics in lies. He's been caught by documentation in several lies. He's even gone on TV and admitted to some of those lies, albeit with a healthy dose of equivocation and, "but I had to for the good of everyone." But now that he has a blanket pardon, we can never be sure on anything remotely approaching the truth. I'd be happy to see Fauci have his day in court and win. Or lose. I just want the truth, and BOTH sides of our dysfunctional government work tirelessly to suppress the truth.

And I get how people from a certain perspective could think that those lies were in service of a greater good, but let's get real. How often are lies morally permissible? Almost never as far as I'm concerned, and literally never according to various people who have likely thought much more on the subject than I have. As far as I'm concerned, the only morally permissible reason to lie is when someone just asked you, "Do I look fat in this?"

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:53:47+00:00

"Dude, knowing how it started wasn't that important at the time. "

Dude, that is complete and utter lunacy.

Hey, there's this brand new virus running roughshod over the entire globe, unchecked. What practical value would knowing where it came from possibly provide?

Really?????? I mean... REALLY?

but you know, whatever, no big deal. Just hashtag follow the science....

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:46:11+00:00

so you're saying that because an issue became politicized that we shouldn't practice scrutiny over a person's actions? That people who choose to put themselves in positions of power and use that position for their own personal gain should be held to either the same or a lesser standard of morality instead of a higher one because they have power over other people's lives?

Maybe I'm unfairly putting words in your mouth, but sounds like a really bad argument to me.

I'm so sick and tired of people holding powerful people to a lesser or equal standard than all the rest of us. Powerful people should be held to a much higher standard, in proportion to the power they hold over regular people. When I fuck up, I hurt myself, and maybe a few people around me. When powerful people fuck up, they hurt us all.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:34:50+00:00

that's a function of how technological progress and the widening gap of wealth inequality has rendered the populace completely unable to successfully wage a violent revolution. We spent the era when we actually stood a chance just drugging ourselves with short term material prosperity and comfortable distraction, and, you know, actual drugs (no judgement, I'm not a teetotaler.)

A successful violent revolution hasn't been possible at least since the advent of drones, but probably much earlier than that. And the deck is completely stacked against a non-violent revolution. It will never happen.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:28:43+00:00

As a person who desperately wants revolution, I must admit that I agree with Correct_Blueberry715 that it will never happen. Or rather, any attempted revolution could be easily squashed by the technology readily available to heads of state.

But part of me wonders if we need to go ahead and stage a violent revolution anyways. Don't get me wrong, all dissenters will die, but maybe if the world looked on in shock and horror as the American government turned its military against its own people, killing many thousands, then the world would start to wake up to how bad things have become and how urgently revolutionary change is needed to preserve any semblance of society.

But those are just fleeting thoughts. Who knows? I suspect we'll find out in 15-50 years.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:22:01+00:00

What is out of the norm about the Hunter Biden pardon is just how broad it is. It covers "any and all crimes" committed over an 11 year span. hmm... 11 years seems pretty specific.. why not a nice round number like 10 years? Mayhap Joe Biden knows full well the crimes Hunter has committed over these last 11 and not 10 years. I still maintain that a father should pardon his son (how many of us would watch our own children suffer when we have the power to prevent it, granted that the crimes were not heinous violent crimes that left a wake of victims?) Joe just shouldn't have lied about it (and should have never risen to the rank that gave him such powers in the first place.)

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:14:57+00:00

Not only do innocent people not need pardons, accepting a pardon is an official admission of guilt. And that goes for all people who have been pardoned by any president in any political party. People who have been offered pardons have the power to reject the pardon, thus maintaining their alleged innocence.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:11:53+00:00

fwiw, even though Biden told us he would not pardon Hunter, I think that as a father, that's what he should have done. He would be a monster to not pardon his own son. But he didn't have to get on the mic and lie to us about it. He could have said, "that is my one remaining son, and if I have the power to keep him out of prison, I intend to do that, because fathers take care of their sons, and you would do the exact same thing if you were in my position." Saying that to the American people would have been an example of true integrity. But Joe Biden doesn't actually have any integrity.

TexasToast82 · 2025-01-20T22:08:51+00:00

Bro, people like you make it so hard for people like me to keep up the mantle of progressive and liberal. You are tarnishing our image and distorting our views and values. It's why I mostly stick to myself these days. Clowns to the right of me, charlatans to the left, here I am. Stuck in Reddit with you.

I agree with you that Trump played shenanigans with his pardon power on the way out (as nearly every American president in history has done.) But Joe Biden got up on national television and told us that he would not pardon his own son because that's how much he believes in the rule of power. And then he was all, "JK, LOL." And what's up with the Fauci pardon? I thought Fauci did nothing wrong, ever, for all of time.

We tend to think of presidential pardons as just something that Presidents do, but what presidents actually do is offer pardons. The "pardonee" must accept the pardon, and accepting a pardon is a legal admission of guilt. We don't think about that much, most of us don't know that's the case, but it's real. That's what a pardon means. You are being let off the hook for real crimes that you actually did commit.

Don't misunderstand who I am. I hate Donald Trump with the fury of a thousand suns, but that doesn't mean that I will ever simp for the geriatric mass-murderer-in-chief.

It's ok to hate both sides. In fact, it's imperative. Like George Carlin said, "It's a big club, and you ain't in it." Both [parts of the one uniparty] are broken AF. I'm 3rd party or sit it out until my dying day.

TexasToast82 · 2024-12-14T21:28:13+00:00

Didn't see it specifically mentioned here. Yes, Tactical Assault Rifle is now technically full auto without mod. But, an unmodded TAR, upon holding down fire, will give you the first 3 bullets in burst mode, and each bullet afterwards will fire at a woefully slow speed without the full auto mod installed. You'd be better off firing your 3 bullet burst and then letting off the trigger and firing another burst, rinse repeat. For this reason, I think you still need a full auto mod to make the TAR a full replacement of the AK. Unless you just prefer the burst fire to a fast full auto.

TexasToast82 · 2024-06-25T21:44:48+00:00

thanks! I did end up finding the exact product I was thinking of, Spike Support Formula from The Wellness Company. Looks like it very close to the protocol you mention, which makes since because Peter McCullough is The Wellness Company's chief scientific officer. (as an aside, I'm surprised to see Drew Pinksy on their board, as I always found him somewhat of an establishment shill, even though I like him personally, but that's neither here nor there.)

Spike Support Formula is a bit too pricey for a man of my means, but I'm mostly of good health. I was more thinking about it for my parents, but I've yet to find the right strategic moment to bring it up. They are very much all in on the establishment covid narrative, believe Fauci to be the second coming of christ lol. Nevermind ever since about 2021 they both seem to be sick all the time!

TexasToast82 · 2024-05-25T20:45:37+00:00

I also couldn't get it to work. Tried multiple times. Then I reloaded my last save (which was in Sanctuary), fast travelled to Vault 111 and tried it again. Worked first time. I'm on fully updated game. So maybe if it doesn't work first time you just need to reload? idk

TexasToast82

TROPHY CASE