Isn't that always the way?

So, I finally got to see Torchwood: Children of Earth. If this is how they work it when they're not doing full seasons, then, shit, yo, never let them write 13-episode seasons again. It was easily the most compelling Torchwood ever. They tackled big issues, and they--gosh!--dealt with them. Not in that "everyone is forgiven 'cause everyone messes up" way either, which was most shocking of all. I really enjoyed it...

...up until Day Three when I, looking for icons for a totally unrelated fandom, got spoiled for MAJOR PLOT DEVELOPMENTS by someone not putting a spoiler warning on their icon dump and I saw spoiler icons for the series. THANKS A LOT, ICON MAKER.

Seriously, I managed to go a few weeks without being spoiled through vigilance and courtesy of those who'd seen and did everything in their power to give away nothing. The second I let my guard down, boom, spoiled. SIGH.

I did still enjoy the series. I liked how weighty it felt and how it even made me sympathize with some fairly evil folk here and there. (Except that one lady. No spoilers to say that, just, yeah, if you've seen it, you know who I mean.) Over at ivy03's post, I mentioned how very Who it seemed at parts--where perfectly ordinary people got to be amazing, and I really liked that counter-balance to the people who were inherently extraordinary or just powerful who were complete dicks a lot of the time.

I think ivy03 gets into it in more and better detail than I'll ever manage, so go read and comment on her post if you like. (Spoilers, naturally.) The one thing someone brought up that I held onto so I could address it after I'd seen it all was this question raised over at io9: Was Children of Earth homophobic? (Spoilers!)

My short answer is no, but that doesn't mean they didn't slip up a bit. ( Spoilers everywhere! )

I have other thoughts on the abuses of power and the ugliness of the ethical choices, but they've been covered by most other people. I might get around to posting them, I might not.

That explains it then

While the hilarity of Blockbuster not including a button to cancel subscriptions to it's mail-order DVD program are meant to be at the forefront of this article, I can't help but gawk at something else on that screen shot.

$1.99 for in-store rentals? I thought that just about the only thing Blockbuster had going for it as far as being a competitor of Netflix was the in-store trade-in policy. I had thought that these trades were free. Apparently, this is not the case. And that definitely explains this trend line, doesn't it?

Another bit of proof that Blockbuster is doomed: one of the upgrades to the XBOX 360 Netflix platform is a feature that allows you to modify and add to your instant watch queue on the XBOX--no more having to have laptop and console together! It doesn't sound like much, but it's quite a nice feature, really.