#morstan meta

There's no denying that he is a masculine person. The ultimate ideal of what a man is. He's played by Richard Dean Anderson, the man semi-responsible for the term "MacGuyver" being part of our everyday lexicon.

But as a man, he doesn't fit the modern ideal of masculinity. He doesn't have a six pack. He's of average height. He's in his 40s, with greying hair and wrinkles. You don't get to be a Colonel in the Air Force and stay a fresh faced 20-something. Overall, he just looks like some guy you'd see down the pub. Not making a podcast on how men need to be dominant.

On the surface O'Neill appears to be emotionally unavailable who uses his humour as a defence mechanism. This is partly true, but it's not the whole story. His humour is a defence mechanism to stop himself from being overwhelmed by everything that has happened to him as a career soldier.

When it comes to those under his command, he's compassionate. He asks for advice and ideas from his team before offering anything of his own. He LISTENS and pays attention!! He's willing to offer hugs when needed. He's good with kids, giving an adorable shiba Inu to a girl in mourning to provide her with emotional support and joy. His advice is often to try to be friendly and smile. He never tells anyone to suck it up and get over it, and if he does tell someone to put their feelings aside it's so they can focus on saving lives.

He sends Daniel a tissue box as a message that he needs contact, rather than an intrusive probe.

Episode SIX we also see him (well, a crystal that had taken over his form) sitting in a ball, clutching the pillow of his dead son, crying his eyes out. You would NEVER see that in a modern day drama that early on.

This was made in 1997, and yet I am left with the intense feeling that we need to have more characters like Jack O'Neill around today. We need more men who want to emulate his version of masculinity. The kind who attends his doctors appointments, listens to what she has to say, and will follow her orders as a medical professional.

We need more men whose character is partly defined by his complete lack of knowledge. He regularly says "I don't know about this so I'm going to ask Captain Samantha Carter about it."

Knowing this, it lends another light than usual to why Watson was involved in so few of Holmes's cases between the autumn of '89 and Holmes's "death" in April '94. It wasn't that he didn't care about his friend or didn't want to get involved, but as a practicing doctor in a pandemic riddled metropolis he would have been overworked for a large part of the year while the virus resurged.

Also Holmes would have been hesitant about involving him against Moriarty, not just out of concern for his safety but because he knew his friend was already overworked.

It also offers another facet to why Watson was willing to sell his practice almost immediately upon Holmes's return and why Holmes asked him to.

Watson didn't have the best health to begin with, he did after all never fully recover from his case of typhoid fever. When Holmes returns in April '94 that winter's resurgence had only just begun to abate and this was just the latest one of a yearly recurring resurgence, resurgences that often took over half a year. This as well as Watson's twin bereavements (Holmes and Mary) could easily at this point have meant he had reached the end of his ability and capacity. Holmes might indeed be legitimately worried that Watson might work himself into an early grave if he doesn't take a prolonged break. A ironic role reversal that I don't think was entirely lost on Holmes.

So Holmes might have asked his cousin and fronted the money just to be sure that Watson did sell and quickly enough that he didn't get second thoughts.

They might both be disasters but they cannot be compared. DashCon was popcorn watching, TwitchCon is layer upon layer of horror.

And Mike is the loser substitute teacher everyone bullies. Excellent dynamics.

Whilst yes, it is likely that Netflix are going to invest in foreign media to pack out their schedule, it's not as though foreign media wasn't already performing well for them.

TikTok takes far too long to land a punchline, and makes people lose interest half way through. It makes it less funny.

Shaggy Dog Stories are fantastic, don't get me wrong. But a good Shaggy Dog Story should have jokes along the way that lead you up to the final punchline. Which is often just a terrible pun. Because in that sense, the journey is the important part. With skits, you need to be fast. You need to be quippy throughout. You're not making a sitcom where you can have long moments between jokes.