Interesting Links for 25-01-2024

[andrewducker]

1. Inside the Mating Psychology of Incels

(tags:celibacy sex psychology )

2. Nicola Sturgeon shares my opinion of Boris Johnson

(tags:BorisJohnson politics incompetence pandemic )

3. How people laugh online in different languages and cultures

(tags:laughter language )

4. Which Shows Got Their Finale Right, and Which Didn't? A Statistical Analysis

(tags:TV statistics )

5. Pizza Hut releases a ramen pizza in Japan, and it took half a year to perfect

(tags:pizza food japan viaSwampers )

6. UK companies won't be allowed to add mandatory fees at checkout in the future.

(tags:uk business shopping regulation )

7. What's going on with Gorgie City Farm?

(tags:edinburgh farm animals )

8. Military interests are pushing new nuclear power – and the UK government has finally admitted it

(tags:nuclearpower military uk )

9. Netflix password crackdown fuels sign-up surge

(tags:netflix passwords business )

Comments

[calimac]

4) I'm rather surprised that they don't distinguish between finales, which I'd define as deliberately-made conclusions to an arc, and whatever happened to be the last episode of a show from pre-arc days when all episodes were free-standing. They're not comparable, the more so if the pre-arc show wasn't canceled for the next season until after the "last episode" was made, so nobody knew it was going to be the last episode. (That even happens sometimes today.)

I've seen few of the arc-era shows, and only one did I follow all the way through as a fan, and that was Buffy. The article classifies its finale as one of the brilliant ones. I guess by 'brilliant' they mean 'satisfying' in terms that it didn't leave the viewer feeling up in the air. But I'd hardly call it brilliant in terms of being particularly well-written or -produced.

[anna_wing]

Blake's 7 is both old (1978-1981) and from the UK, but had both arcs and an extremely memorable ending, which has variously been considered both a triumph and a disaster, depending on who's talking. It is also the only mainstream instance I can remember off-hand of the Evil Overlady winning, or at least surviving the heroes, so I have always had rather a soft spot for it.

[bens_dad]

I don't understand the scoring. Why compare the finale with episodes from all the *other* seasons ?
If I wasn't comparing it with all the other episodes I would be thinking more of comparing it with the other season finales or the rest of the final season.

Another old and British show with an arc was Morse. Each series is now available as a single block, but they were originally shown as something like four half hour shows where you only got to see whodunit in the last episode.
I think this was the established pattern at the time.