Aboringgoose

First, I still think Dropout is a net positive and will stay that way for some time. Before announcing the Rookies crossover, my issues with them were a few people who have had shit takes still being in their good graces (*1 will expand below). But they still give day rates to a lot of people who might get their power turned off without them (improv comedians are not wealthy, y'all, most actors/directors aren't either or not enough to factor in paying their team w/o getting paid themselves, & god help writers).

They let people exist in whatever their identity or shtick is and that's going to remain really important, YES EVEN FOR SILLY STUFF, as shit gets worse. Most of their practices are extremely impressive and some of them are standard setting for the industry. Some of these paychecks will get close to life or death or at least rent or living in someone's sewing room away from all your dreams, especially for queer folks & POC in this media landscape. I would prefer Dropout survive & avoid propaganda in the future than I would to see it crumble while we cackle anime-ly.

Second, WHAT YOU CAN DO - It is absolutely worth canceling & leaving in your cancelation notes OR emailing to say "when my membership is up in x months, I don't feel I can renew" or otherwise say, hey, you're a business. I get it. But this is the line for me and my dollar. I think the most likely situation is that Sam turned a show's need for a game show location into a deal that got the Variety coverage and some of his hardest workers paid. I see merit in that and recognize that any partnership they do will inherently be tainted by the fact that 4 companies own every story now. But I wouldn't have done it with fucking cop comedy (or dramedy or just... bad procedural, idk) & I wouldn't have done it with Nathan Fillion. So that's... both of those things exist.

THIRD...

What's funny about the show is that it set out to fail. I said it before but Percy Jackson is not a mainstream name--not in the way Harry Potter or Star Wars or even Hunger Games is--in one critical area: Merchandising.

When I was a kid I remember seeing a middle-aged man happily enjoying Sea of Monsters. The first five books are very approachable to a reader of any age.

But a giant fandom that's only book fans can't sell character's faces on a tshirt at walmart. There's no visual element to market beyond the covers, and it has very little iconic symbols and a generic trident pales in comparison to the simple-yet-effective Deathly Hallows.

So this show set itself up for failure in one big way: It alienated a large portion of its fans right off the bat in just how it chose to treat us.

Aggressive and incendiary marketing focusing on the casting as if every naysayer is a racist or making mountains out of molehills. Creating negative controversy instead of showing us positive press with amazing trailers, acting, scores, and writing. All they had was rage bait, and it disrespected so much of its potential audience in doing so. They had this entitlement as if we should all be grateful that the show exists at all, as if, so long as it was not the films, we'd embrace it. And they were wrong.

But it also lacks identity. The show is neither Harry Potter nor Hunger Games, in that it cannot commit to either being a kid's story with child protagonists and all the wacky nonsense and whimsy and humor that comes with it (in terms of Philosopher's Stone not Half-Blood Prince), nor can it be an adult story with child protagonists with drama, seriousness, and politics.

Yet it's trying to be both, and Percy Jackson is a kids story, with story beats that, from time to time, make kids think.

The series ages and matures with its protagonist (and its readers, when it was being published). He's not the 16-year-old general of the demigod army accidentally getting campers killed with his powers in Lightning Thief. In book 1, they go get directions from a talking pink poodle (notably missing from both adaptations). Do you remember Gladiola? Rick doesn't. I didn't even have to look it up.

It could do both. ATLA did both. We went from penguin sledding to Gyatso's corpse in the middle of a mass grave in 3 episodes, and then right back to surfing on a giant unagi to impress Aang's fangirls.

PJOTV does not have nearly the same caliber of writers to walk that line.

So if it can't cater to adults wanting something either superficially adult in language and violence, or deeply in its messages and themes, it won't win over an adult who wasn't already a fan. If it can't cater to children, because these "child" characters are talking and acting like 18 year old romantasy characters, and all the colors and whimsy and fun is gone, children who didn't already care, won't.

So you're left with just the pre-existing book fans, and only the fans who will accept anything fed to them and voice no criticisms or complaints.

Being medicated isn’t for everyone, but it is a powerful tool in our toolbox. and I am seeing way too many people giving up that option prematurely, because they are unware that:

there are different medication options. they do not all have the same side effects, and not all are amphetamines 

dosage matters. if you are discontinuing bc of side effects, consider trying a lower dose first

a good doctor will be willing to work with you to find a regime that works

I know that’s such a “duh” statement but so so many people assume the high they feel for the first few days on a stimulant that works is how it’s always going to be and it’s not. Once your brain gets used to the new “normal” on meds, you lose that high feeling and get to a “hey, I can actually get shit done, lookit that” kind of place.

It amazes me how many people never had anyone explain that to them. I’ve been on some sort of SSRI for the last 20 years so when I started Adderall I knew what to expect. I had so many people (in a group for ADHD) tell me that the “holy shit look at me go!!!” feeling would wear off and it would stop working after a week or two and I had to walk them through just how wrong they were and quite a few had no idea that that feeling isn’t supposed to last long term. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I explained it like this:

Your unmedicated brain is used to operating at a 4 on a good day. It sucks, you’re all over the place, a hot mess. Then you get on a medication that works (antidepressant, stimulant, non-stimulant, whatever) and the first few days are incredible! You can’t believe that this is how it’s supposed to be! Your brain is now holding steady at an 8 or 9 and you are one productive bitch! But then your brain gets used to operating at an 8 or 9 and it becomes your new normal. It’s harder to recognize that the medication is still working because there’s no noticeable high anymore. You get bummed because you assume it’s not working and you either request a med change or a bump in dosage. Then 8 months later you’re frustrated and depressed because you’ve maxed out on the dosage of whatever med it is and you think nothing is going to work but really you’ve unknowingly self sabotaged.

Because the truth is, the first dose worked perfectly, but your squirrelly ADHD brain is so used to searching for the next dopamine hit that you failed to recognize that you were able to get through the tasks you needed to just fine. You weren’t hyperfocused on researching the nuances of plant breeding, you didn’t spend 5 hours in executive dysfunction while staring at your vacuum, you actually remembered to thaw out chicken for dinner. You missed all of that because you were looking for that high feeling that you had at first.

So, how does one figure out if the med is working or not when you can’t tell because your brain is a dopamine fiend? Personally, I make daily “ta-da” lists. Not lists of things I need to do, but lists of things I did. Before meds, I’d have maybe 5 things on a ta-da list. After meds, I’d have 15-20 things on my list! So it does work, even if I don’t feel like I’m on cloud 9 when I take it.

He’s just talking to Lois in the bullpen one day, surrounded by coworkers, and suddenly just goes weird still. Lois sees the beginning of red in each of his pupils and ducks out of the way just in time for the lasers to tear into the wall behind her.

They were never heard from again. 11 people vanished, apparently along with their plane, and the only clue is that last word.