Welcome back to another episode of What About Dat? My name is Jen and today on the cast I'm joined by the full What About Dat Team to discuss Happiest Season. Specially, the way it transcends into the mainstream media. 

Welcome back to another episode of What About Dat TV recap and review my name is Jen and today on the podcast I’m joined by TV PUNDIT, QUEER JOURNALIST, and author of the Destiny and Darkeness Series (which I’m currently reading)...  The lovely Karen Frost  Karen … SAYS HI TO EVERYONE   Jen - Today we are discussing tello Films’ first movie, which just dropped December 1st. Season of Love is a lighthearted rom-com featuring an ensemble cast of diverse women and their connected love lives during the hectic holiday Christmas through New Years, who discover love truly is the best gift of all. Follow IRIS , MARDOU, LOU, KENNA, JANEY, and SUE    CONT”D Karen frost… The film stars in order by couples    Mardou - Laur Allen    Iris - Emily Gross  Lou - Emily Clark    Kenna - Sandra Mae Frank  Janey -  Janelle Marie    Sue - Dominque Provost Chalkley  Karen - Just to warn you all, beyond this point we will make a conscious effort to not spoil the film.  That said, spoilers may happen toward the the latter half of the cast. And also, come on guys, it’s a Hallmark-style movie. You know how this ends. Karen - Look, Hallmark is an interesting genre. Traditionally, Hallmark movies have carried some subliminal cultural messaging. Busy city woman goes to a small town and rediscovers the magic of simple living when she falls in love with the local farmer. Modern career woman meets time traveling prince and discovers that it’s okay to revert to traditional female roles. For years, this genre has been VERY white, Anglo-saxon Protestant and it’s reinforced what are essentially conservative Christian values. Within the last few years there’s been a bit of a shift away from that as the genre tries to draw in non-white viewers, but ultimately viewers--who include my seventy year old father, by the way--really enjoy the predictable, by the numbers aspect of the genre. They’re not looking to be surprised by twists and turns.    Obviously, tello’s film wasn’t going to be about reinforcing heteronormativity, but I had a suspicion that it would keep the other major trapping of the genre, which is, plainly put, a pretty non-confrontational, vanilla story about people falling in love. Two strangers or mostly strangers meet, fall in love. Boom. Did you have favorite couple?      Karen -  I watched with my girlfriend and we both liked Mardou and Iris best.   What did you like about this couple?  Kenna and Lou - Lots of fun, felt like more balanced side characters  Mardou and Iris both were incredibly strong. They could’ve been their own movie going experience.  Janey and Sue - Felt like they had issues…   Was there a moment that took you by surprise?  Jen - Mardou and Iris’s first kiss. Mardou under the mistletoe was one of the best moments in theater.    Karen - The 80s themes for Kenna when Lou was looking at her. I was like, “Is this a thing that happens in Hallmark movies? Why is this happening?” I still don’t have the answer.   If you could pitch a sequel what would that look like?    Karen - I think it would have to be all new characters, no? These characters found love. End of story for them. But I would love the sequel to go back to that traditional Hallmark style where it’s a single character finding love during the holiday season. So I’m thinking something like New York lawyer gets sentenced to probation in a soup kitchen after accidentally hitting a fire hydrant while texting and driving, learns it’s better to give than receive while falling in love with a woman who volunteers in the kitchen over the holidays.     Do you think tello achieved what they set out to do?  Karen - Yes, but that’s not actually any surprise. Look at the romance novel industry. For both straight people and queer women, it’s the single most lucrative and largest genre. People LOVE romance. Tello saw the market gap and went for it. So if the goal was to produce a Hallmark style movie that offered three different romances in one movie, then of course it succeeded.   Jen - Yes, I think this film is big for tello... Karen - In total, this movie had 586 backers on Indiegogo, raising a total of $61,157. That comes to just over $100 per backer, on average. To the queer community, I say this: content costs money. If there’s no money, it won’t get made. So I encourage listeners to think about if they’ve got even $5 to donate to causes that matter to them. Content matters to me so I prioritize it. I hope other people will do the same.    Jen - (Over Music) -  Christmas is a fantasical time of year in which the lifetime channel screens a month’s worth of heteronormative fluff to distracts us as we wrap presents, bake cookies, and decorate our homes. For one brief evening, I didn’t watch Rachel Maddow with a sinking feeling in my gut. Instead, I found myself in a room of allies and potential friends, sipping a delicious beer with a soggy hotdog and at one point during the film I looked around and the majority of people in attendance had giant grins across their faces as they watched for the first time ever their own Hallmark experience unfold on the screen. It was sweet, innocent fun and I couldn’t help but think: why did this take so long to come into existence?  Karen - Thank you for tuning into this recap/review, please be sure to follow us on twitter at whatabout_dat, follow Karen @lezdish Closing music 

A Sordid Tale of AfterEllen with Former Content Contributor Karen Frost  First of all, for people who might not know… What is AfterEllen? For the Generation-ZERS  AfterEllen was founded in 2002. Prior to its founding, there hadn’t really been a queer women-specific site that focused on queer female representation in the entertainment industry. AfterEllen flagged for readers when there was a queer female character on TV, offered movie reviews, and conducted interviews with women in queer roles. Over time, the site went through several sort of cosmetic variations, to include video logs and sock puppet re-enactments of “The L Word,” but for 17 years it’s stayed true to its original ideology of identifying and promoting queer female visibility on TV and in movies. Show Notes:                                         Before the Intro - 15 secs  What About Dat? Is a Podcast Queens Production,  Sponsored by Archetype Footwear.  Archetype Footwear OVER MUSIC INTRO - 30 - seconds Jen - Welcome Back to another episode of What About Dat? A podcast where I talk about socially relevant television and speak with thought leaders who want greater visibility and representation in film, television, and digital publication for women, lgbtqia, and their allies.  Today on the podcast we are joined by arm-chair TV-Pundit, former content contributor for AfterEllen, Lez Watch TV, and Tello Film Productions. The Queer Queen of analytics and data and Young adult novelist of the upcoming, “Daughter of Fire Series,” Book 1. Conspiracy of the Dark.   The lovely Karen Frost. Jen - Thank you so much for joining me today, I’ve been a huge fan since you decided to eat your sandwich next to me at Clexa Con.  Karen - Thank you for having me.    Jen - What did you do before writing for AfterEllen? What compelled you to reach out and become involved in the publication?  Karen - I’d read the site since probably a few months after its founding. Every day, I would go on and see if there was a new article. Frankly, back in the early 2000s there was so little representation that there were only new articles a few times a month. The site was absolutely pivotal to my formation of a queer identity as a teenager, and I’d always dreamed of contributing, so when a call went out for writers in 2015, I hoped I’d be picked. Jen - Of your 182 articles what is the piece you are most proud of?  Karen - Let me preface my answer with a bit of a story. In 2016, there was a MASSIVE uproar in the queer female community after the character of Lexa on the CW show “The 100” was killed. Without getting into fandom-specifics, one of the things to come out of it was the feeling, “Why are our characters always being killed off?” For the first time, someone put together the data on it, and we discovered that 25-30% of all queer female characters have been killed off on TV shows. That’s a rate orders of magnitude larger than straight characters. Put another way, there was a statistically significant tendency of shows to kill off our characters. But had no one done the math, that knowledge would have remained in the realm of “feelings” rather than “data.” Because of work to highlight this problem, the next two years saw a plummeting in the number of queer female characters who were killed. Now, to get back to your question of what article I’m most proud of, I would say that the articles that I’m most proud of are the ones that used data to make a point about representation, for example showing that an actresses’ best chance of getting an Oscar nomination and winning since 2002 has been to play a queer character. I believe that it’s hard to convince Hollywood to have more representation using just “feelings,” but if you use data to show the profitability, then it’s hard for Hollywood to say no.   Jen - At ClexaCon, you briefly mentioned a mass exodus from AfterEllen? What happened? Why did so many writers cease their involvement with the publication?  Karen - The mass exodus happened in September 2016 when then-editor Trish Bendix was fired after six years at her position. Evolve Media, who owned AfterEllen at the time, announced it could no longer keep a full-time editor given that AfterEllen wasn’t meeting revenue goals and that it would be reducing the amount of content produced. The relationship between Trish and Evolve immediately soured, and all the writers but me chose to leave in solidarity with Trish. Anyone interested in those dynamics should read an article Trish posted about the dying queer media and the struggle to monetize it. She had a first row seat for years in seeing how the entire media landscape was affected, not just AfterEllen.  Jen - You wrote an article entitled “Why I stayed,” which was a compelling counter-argument for why you were going to continue to contribute articles to AfterEllen during a time when other people were leaving. Why did you stay?  Karen - As I mentioned before, AfterEllen was an absolutely pivotal part of my identity formation as a teenager, and I realized that the site would continue to exist whether all the writers stayed or left. It would continue to be a global platform with the ability to create positive impact for young women coming to terms with their sexual orientation. Girls in Bangladesh, Kenya, South Korea, Argentina, and even in the US wouldn’t know about the backstory with Trish. Two or five or however many years later, they would log onto the site and I wanted them to have something to read that would help them. I think we often become very myopic and Anglo-centric when we think about the world just because we write in English, but there is SO much of the world that is also impacted by what we write. Jen - What was your turning point? What made you finally leave?  Karen - After Trish, Evolve Media hired Memoree Joelle as the new editor. Memoree came to the site with some baggage in the sense that she had expressed what were perceived to be anti-transgender comments in the past. We writers knew about those sentiments, but for the first several years, she kept the sentiments behind those comments private and off the site. In late December 2018, however, when it became clear that Evolve Media was looking to sell AfterEllen and would no longer be monitoring whether she was publishing anti-trans rhetoric, she began to publish that rhetoric through the AfterEllen Twitter handle. That’s actually a bit of an over simplification in the sense that Memoree would argue that she’s not “anti-trans” per se but rather that she feels that as the LGBT community has focused on trans issues, it has come at the cost of lesbian issues and therefore she seeks a more equitable balance of resources and energy. However, the delivery of that message came across as extremely anti-trans.  By December 2018, I could no longer remain with AfterEllen. As someone who doesn’t share Memoree’s ideology, it was impossible to continue to be associated with it. As much as I believed in the spirit of AfterEllen’s mission, to have stayed any longer would have been to condone that sort of bigotry, which I don’t.  Jen - What are some of your takeaways from working at AfterEllen?  Karen - I would say the biggest takeaway is that Hollywood is changing. Often we get impatient at the pace of change, but in 2002 we might see three queer female characters in movies a year and in 2019 we’re talking about whether Valkyrie and Captain Marvel will date in massive, billion dollar grossing Marvel movies. The amount and quality of representation today is unbelievable compared to two decades ago and earlier. I’d like to believe that some of that is a result of the great work done by people at AfterEllen, Autostraddle, and other sites.  The other takeaway is that yes, queer media is dying. That’s for a variety of reasons, but one thing that I would flag is stovepiping in our community. For a decade, readers would come to sites like AfterEllen or Autostraddle and they would read about all the queer content on TV. There was a unified base of knowledge that was shared among the community. Everyone knew, for example, the ten shows that had queer characters. Now people seem to be falling into a few fandoms and not paying attention to what’s happening outside those few. Readership for sites like AfterEllen is dying in part because rather than going to AfterEllen, viewers are going to show-specific sites. But if we lose these universal or aggregative sites, then we lose a really good repository of knowledge. Book Trailer - 1min + Jen- “Conspiracy of the Dark” - Is really different from the deeply analytical articles you’ve put out into the world. Where did the inspiration for the project come from? How did you find your story? Karen - I’ve always loved Young Adult fantasy. Ever since I was a kid, that’s always been my favorite genre. But there really haven’t been a ton of queer protagonists in mainstream books. When I was a teenager, there were three: Malinda Lo’s “Ash” and “Huntress,” and then Tamora Pierce’s “The Will of the Empress.” So with “Conspiracy of the Dark,” the inspiration was just to write a good and interesting story, but also to create more content for young queer women. We need stories of our own, and if mainstream publishers aren’t particularly interested in giving it to us, then we have to write it and disseminate it any way we can.  Jen - Being that you write high-fantasy, what kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? One of the luxuries of high fantasy is that no research is necessary! I love it. You just open up your computer and go. Jen - What does literary success look like to you? If you could have it all, what would it look like with journalism and writing, what does success look like for you?  Karen - I would say that literary success for queer content looks very different from straight content. Here’s what I mean: JK Rowling has made a billion dollars off the Harry Potter series and merchandising. If you’re going to write straight content, that’s success. Success is fame and fortune. But queer content will never sell like that. No one will be getting rich off queer content, and in fact I only know of one queer female writer who makes enough to do it full-time. To me, success in our genre is impact. If someone reads my book and says, “Wow, this is fantastic. I’ve never before seen myself portrayed as a knight or a mage,” then that’s success. All I want to do is put out the content that didn’t exist when I was a teenager. Let’s fill figurative libraries with the content that the mainstream has denied us for centuries.   It’s largely the same with journalism: success is about creating impact. It’s almost impossible to know if the articles that I write have caused anyone in Hollywood to re-evaluate how they do representation, but I hope they have. Ultimately, fame is fleeting and subjective. Here today, gone tomorrow. But if an article plants the seed where Hollywood says, “Hey, maybe Captain Marvel CAN be gay,” then that’s impact forever. Jen - What’s the most difficult thing about writing queer characters?  Karen - There’s nothing difficult about writing queer characters…if you’re already queer yourself. I think where we see more difficulty is when straight people are writing queer characters.  Jen - How does your background in queer pop-culture effect the way you write characters? Karen - Not exactly. I will say, however, that there was a queer couple on TV whose dynamic I really liked so I used their dynamic as the basis of the romantic pairing in my book.   Jen - What was your hardest scene to write? Why? Karen - The opening few pages of my book. In the initial draft, I wanted the description of my character’s world to be very detailed so that readers would feel immersed in it. I immediately realized, however, that it was too much and no one would get past those pages. They would stop reading. So I had to go back and cut.   Jen - What was the pitch process like trying to sell your concept to literary agents? Karen - The way publishing works is that for mainstream publishers, normally you get a literary agent and the agent then tries to market your book to publishers like Harper Collins. So in essence you have two barriers to get over: finding a literary agent and then finding a publisher. Literary agents post online what they’re looking for: cook books, fantasy, sci-fi, etc. I ended up querying 17 literary agents, all of whom specifically said they wanted LGBT content and fantasy content. Every single one of them turned the book down. Then I tried Bella Books, for which you don’t use a literary agent, and also was turned down. The truth is that mainstream publishing really doesn’t want queer female YA content right now, and the two or so books a year that come out with it feel like a miracle. For me, I was also hurt by the fact that to date, queer women haven’t shown an interest in YA fantasy as a genre. The most popular genre is contemporary romance. So for any publisher taking on the book, it’s a risk. It could turn out that neither gays nor straights want to read it.   Jen - How did you connect with Ylva publishing?  Karen - I sent my manuscript to them using the website instructions. To be honest, it was my last effort. If Ylva hadn’t taken it, I would have given up. Ylva has been wonderful to work with, and I really, really am glad they believed in the book and decided to take a chance on it. Jen -  Moving forward what do you think will happen to queer digital publications? Do you think you will ever return to journalizing or has that ship passed?    Karen - I think we’re seeing an atomization of queer digital publications. The revenue structure that supported blogs and websites in the mid to late 2000s is gone. There’s just not the money in it, and that hurts websites. When they can’t stay monetized, they fold, and that trend impacts not just the queer sites, but everyone. For queer content, what pops up are small, personal websites run by one or two people. The problem with sites like that is it’s hard to direct traffic to them. With so many, how do readers know to go to them? It’s not that they’re bad, but rather it’s hard for them to promote themselves. For myself, I love writing about queer topics, particularly in the entertainment field, but frankly, my ability to return to that field isn’t contingent on me. With this atomizing, people feel like they want to run their sites themselves without outside content. What that’s meant is that I can’t get anyone to take my free articles. So while I have lots of ideas for articles, I have no place to publish them.   Jen - This has been an interview with Karen Frost, thank you so much for being here today. Your presence elevates the podcast. Please come back soon. Be sure to follow us on twitter @whatabout_dat.  Music Outro    

  Do you love YA Novels? But wish for more queer-centric representation? Well, then look no further, Daughter of Fire -- Conspiracy of the Dark is the Lesbian Harry Potter you've been carving. It's a four part series which follows the story of a young woman who can conjure fire with her hands. Available at Ylva Publishing this book trailer was produced compliments of What About Dat? TV Recap and Review, be sure to look for our next podcast with author Karen Frost.   https://www.ylva-publishing.com/product/daughter-of-fire-conspiracy-of-the-dark-by-karen-frost/  I am the daughter of winter. My people are strong and unbending as ice. I was born with the frozen winds sweeping through my hair, with snow dusted across my skin. I am. I am. I am… For Aeryn, a girl born to the remote, wintry Ice Crown region of Ilirya, the outside world is a fantasy: a series of wonderful stories told by occasional passing travellers. She never imagines anything for her life beyond following in her parents’ footsteps. But the discovery that she has the rare gift of magic shatters her isolated world. Aeryn can create and tame fire. It’s an intoxicating, raw, and thrilling power, but it also sets her apart. And her gift attracts attention. She is whisked from her home in the wilds to train at Windhall University and master her magic. There, Aeryn slowly learns the truth about the real world, with its strange mix of people and powers, and so many intertwining threads of shadows and light. She’s drawn to unattainable Lyse, a beautiful healer in training who makes Aeryn’s heart soar. But she also senses a creeping darkness all around that could threaten the future of the kingdom itself. A compelling, original, evocative fantasy novel for young and old. Part one of the Destiny and Darkness series.

Join the @whatabout_dat Team as they bring you Jes Macmillan live and uncut from the #Clexacon2016 press room. Get Jes's thoughts on the future of #avalance. Love the podcast? Want to help us grow? Be sure to follow us on twitter: @whatabout_dat 

Everything you need to know about planning and attending Clexa Con 2019, from budgeting to sound equipment. Join Sara and Jen on the convention floor as they bring unique prospective from the Press Room, featured panels, and on to the pool we will be bringing you footage as it happens. Be sure to stay tuned in for all the day-to-day action. #Clexacon2019 Viva Las Vegas  Love the Podcast? Be sure to follow us on Twitter @whatabout_dat

Tango & Avalance, a break down of all the Avalance scenes from LUCHA DE APUESTRAS!!! It's an apuestras for your ears. Love the podcast? Follow us: @whatabout_dat    

IN THIS EPISODE, #lames break up scene and a cacophony of farts... And Lena Luthor wears a Lady Suit.  Slays the internet.  SHOW NOTES  Welcome back to another episode of What About Dat? TV RECAP AND REVIEW   My names Jen   I’m Sara   We are so excited to be here today talking the most recent episodes of Supergirl. But first...   Today we have a “WHY WYNONNA” UPDATE. Jen & Sara - And now it’s time for the Salty Supergirl Review... EW..EW..EW (EFFECT)    Sara - It’s been five episode since we last recaped Supergirl. We are currently deep into the second part of the Season. Supergirl has returned, and story and plot feel stronger than it has in years.   I want to start off with Menagerie which created the first part of our most recent ark. This episode introduced the villainess Menagerie, a Jewel thief who happens to have an Alien snake logged in the back of her neck. In this episode we see rise of the Sons of Liberty as well as the gradual formation of the Elite. A group of anti-facist terrorist under the direction of Manchester Black.   Sara - The most important thing to happen in this episode was break up of James and Lena. #lames   Jen - Because it’s the Salty Supergirl Review... I’m gonna go full organic pink Himalayan smelling salts on this one.   Play the #lames Break Scene & Underscored by Fart Sounds   Jen - What did I feel when I saw this scene in my eyes? Gratification, Salty, Anger, Dumbfounded, like it’s been a long cold winter. And now, Supercorp can now come out for the Spring, rejuvenated and dressed in matching three-piece lady suits. I also felt confused because really, if #lames break up felt more like a transaction then an emotional loss. They literally broke up over Lena working for the government.   It was never addressed the fact that these two characters are fundamentally not good for each other. They brought the worse out of each other.  James became more annoyingly self righteous. Lena was regaled to arm candy whilst James used his shield to save her from shit she never need saving from before. Lena the smartest person in the entire shows was constantly defending her sense of morality to James. He did petty shit like not showing up for live interviews that Lena scheduled for him to do. And giving Lena hell over dressing him in gray suits, #Lames made me dislike gray suits and trivia pursuit.   They gave us cringe inducing flirtation and senseless banter delivered with forced nuance and zero chemistry.   They gave us moments of hollow declarations of love followed by angry fights and accusations of lying.   James begrudged Lena for keeping him out of Jail.   Lena felt out of place at Catco because really she only bought the damn thing for Kara.   #lames is the end of another toxic poorly written and terrible arched plot line that took two likable characters and reduced them to their worse "Selves," making a point about exactly nothing. #lames is dead. I’m methodically salting the television space it lived in. Beat...  ... And Now it’s time for the "Wardrobe of the Week."  Jingle  Sara - Now that #Lames has broken up. Like ELSA from Frozen The Wardrobe Department has decided to LET IT GO! And unleashed the non-binary spectrum on Lena Luthor’s clothing choices by giving us LENA LUTHOR IN A 3-PIECE LADYSUIT. And slaying twitter for a full week. My feed is literally just  screenshots of "Lena in the suit" I’ll put some of these Screen-shots in the show-notes so you can enjoy them.   Okay, I think this is good time for "TWITTERISMS!!!" Jingle  In an effort to reach across the Supergirl fandom and bring people together we’ve gathered some of the best tweets off line. This week’s theme is Lena Luthor in a Lady Suit. Oh boy, it’s a doozy, we've got a lot of ground to cover. Twitterisms...       Okay, and to finish off the day I’m going to talk the Highs and Lows of Supergirl over the span of the last six episodes. Speaking to the things, I liked and disliked about each characters artistic direction.   Let’s Start with the Highs Jon and Manchester Black - Rivalry Thought this was a really well arched and pace the bween two strong men with opposing views of world order. I loved the extent in which Manchester Black got under Jonn’s skin. I was thoroughly surprised by the outcomes of this feud especially as each episode Manchester Black was able to out maneuver Jon and Supergirl.   I would like to see this character back in the future as an ongoing nemesis for Jon. My favorite lines this entire season came from Jon. It was after he Kills Manchester Black and is holding the Legion ring. “He says something along the lines that, he is not a man of peace.” I loved the way this was worded and how it summarized this entire plot line.   The Manchester Black and Jon stuff is a good example of pacing and subplot that adds to the overall story while not detracting screen time from Supergirl's storyline. I give this subplot a A-     Brainy and Nia Nal - (Romance)   Not gonna Lie this Brainy and Nia Nal budding romance is so so good. Nia Nals jounery into dreamer, earlier this year we met Nia Nals family. AKA, Santa Barbara hippies  who weave their own hemp baskets so they can take their home grown veggies to the farmers market in. Nia’s mother recently died and her sister was deeply disappointed to have not received the powers. From this storyline I would love to see Nia’s sister come live in National City and interact with the Supergirl crew on a pedestrian level. She’d be someone who is strictly at Kara’s for game night. And when game night is interrupted by crime and everyone has to peace out and go fight monsters then she’s the one putting away the onion dip and subdividing the trivia pursuit cards back into categories   Nia Nals evolution in the Dreamer, it feels like it’s coming slightly too easily. I love the idea of her as a sidekick but sometimes it feels like its all a little too easy. Or maybe, here’s an idea. Every also knows that Nia Nal is Dreamer.   The only person on the show who doesn’t know either Kara or Nia’s identity is Lena Luthor. Clark Kent always had work as an obstacle. He had to get away from his boss to fight crime. But, in this case James knows Nia is Dreamer and Kara is Supergirl and is totally fine with them taking half days for crime.   I’m giving the Dreamer stuff a B- And the Brainy ad Nia Nal romance a B+   I think Jesse Rath adds so many levels to Brainiac. I find myself enjoying everything about Brainiac. What makes him compelling is a character who is all deductive skill is so well balanced with empathy and vunerable, it makes him a better superhero. Yes, brainiac is still assigned the role of WINNING, which is when a side character is too smart for their own good and solves earth shattering crisis on ipad in like two-seconds. You see versions of this character all over the Arrow-verse: Cisco, Winn, Felicity, Lena Luthor does it as well. Anyway, The character of Brainiac has really managed to evolve past the trope into something unique and fun to watch. Giving him A   Betrayal of Eve TessMacher - First of all this character has the best name.   Eve hijacked a naval ship most boss and Natasha scene ever on Supergirl. -It’s super fun seeing Eve be evil. I thought she was a one off character and i’m pleasantly  surprised by her development. I’m left to wonder if Lex and Eve conjugated that conjugal visit. Eve Tessmachner reminds me a little of Harley Quinn. She is one character who is a villain that I would like to see end up with powers from the Harun-El.   Lex Luthor as a Villain -   Strong intro musical intro. The Jail Scene “MY WAY” Jon Cryer balances empathy and sociopath. It’s so compelling and as audience we can understand why Lena Luthor keeps falling for the same old trick.   Lena Luthor   Lena Luthor has now been at Catco and the DEO. I think she is most compelling and in her element when she is at L-Corp and would love a return of storylines in her natural habitat. Lena Luthor need to spend less time as a roving boss and more time at her L-Corp desk brooding. She needs to wear more power pant suits, have bourbon stored in Austrian crystal decanters, and taking work lunches with Kara on the L-Couch. For being a woman who has L-Corp bugged with cameras and highest security with trapped doors that can be DIY open by hairpins. She needs to either fire all her securities and hire news or just stop having assistants period. Or Hire Alex full time as a bodyguard.   Lastly, I’m not so sure about Alex’s new love interest. I mean if you're not going to go with Supercorp as a core couple. The show should use what they have and embrace AgentCorp. You don’t have write anything that isn’t already present. People would love it. Lena Luthor - Is like Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football. The Football representations the love and validation she seeks. Lex and Her mother are like Lucy baiting her into a false sense of security and then pulling away the football at the last moment.   Kara Danvers - Alex Danvers mind wipe that lead to her not knowing Kara is Supergirl. Is weighing down the plot more than it’s helping to move things along.   Alex - So far this season has been about her evolution into DEO director. Although, as she embraced her authority she found herself outranked by General Hailey.   It seems that General Hailey is independent thinker and not entirely the government hack that we all thought her to be in the beginning. Though, I think we all her saw her true colors when she brought pie to work for thanksgiving. Can’t be an evil General if you bring pie to the office.   James - Overall this character connects a lot of the supergirl world together. But the actor has no chemistry with the women he is set up with. His tv coma was a plot device within a plot device use to progress the story of Lex Luthor's acquire the Harun-EL. The TV Coma did not feel like there was high enough stakes. I never got the impression that James was gonna be in real peril. I didn’t buy in. I guess it was because of the the pacing, James was in a tv coma for less than 24 hours and than was shot in the chest al la Pulp fiction style.   Side note _ I feel like this actor struggles with this part. I’m not sure what it is but I find his choices so boring. Is it the writing or the actor? I’m gonna say actor. Because there’s a lot of questionable plot-lines that happen on this high fantasy superpowered show. Like the time Rhea plucked hair from Lena and Mon-El to conjugate a hair baby. In her scenes, Teri Hatcher delivered her devious plan completely committed to the moment. And I was like Oh shit, we getting a hairbaby season 3. I feel a false sense of vunerability when this actor is doing an emotional scene. Like a lack of connection to the material itself.   He now assumably has superpowers which I’m going to put in the category of confused. Guardian’s whole deal is that he is a superhero without powers. He beats up back alley weed dealers, the homeless, and punk teenagers who sass him. That’s where we like you James. Being thrown through glass windows. That’s your forte. Let’s look at Legends of Tomorrow. Half of them don’t have powers and they are still valued members of the team.   Jame’s sister. Kelly or Sister Olsen - She’s a new character and she’s a psychologist. You know what? That is an actual useful role. Lena Luthor, Kara, Alex, Jon, Brainiac, Nial in that order need so much fucking therapy. You could make the argument that the capacity to express and release blocks is a superpower within itself. So I welcome the new Olsen. Looking forward, to more of this character. Pacing - Overall, the pace of the show is either slow or at break neck speed. This most recent episode reminded me of the Ben Lockwood backstory episode.   - We spent a lot of time see Lex’s side of the story and everything he’s been plotting for the  entire season. The pacing felt incredibly fast and one thing I kept wondering long after the episode ended was:   Now that Lex Luthor has the Harun-EL and Superpowers? Why does he need Russian Supergirl so badly?   I was under the impression he was against embracing any alien with powers greater than a human. Now that he has powers why not just give a blood transfusion to Otis Graves?   The Russian or Russian Red Daughter Storyline is finally set into play. After being teased all season. I like the new supergirl suit.   - Russian Supergirl is like lost “stranger in strange land” She’s like little baby dov She’s being manipulated Alex. Lex Luthor. Is not really a true villain.   Predictions:      Lex Luthor will become president of the United States. Alex will end the season going into the finale on the run and no longer director the DEO. As much as everyone already ships Russian Supergirl love for Lena. I think Russian Supergirl is either gonna be killed by Lex Luthor or End up living happily ever after, on another planet with Nikal the little boy Otis Graves saves, who is the walking metaphor of Russian's Supergirl's innocences lost.   Gonna give this episodes scale of 1-10 - 7 ½ because somethings work and some do not. Anyway thanks so much for listening today. Please be sure to follow us on twitter: @whatabout_dat, Like and Subscribe to us on Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-kFHQ93ttWc4TqJRg_zvDg?view_as=subscriber

Today on the show we go over the Maureen Ryan Article linked in the show notes. And review the call to arms by our fellow earpers. #NOCHILL or rest for the weary until we know Wynonna is getting picked up for Season 4 & 5. GET IT TOGETHER @IDWPUBLISHING #FIGHTFORWYNONNA SHOW NOTES:  " WHY WYNONNA?"  Jen - I knew something was up a few days ago when I woke up and my google search literally said, “Wynonna Earp Trending worldwide.” Whenever Wynonna Earp trends it’s either #Earpers fundraising massive amounts of money for cancer, building habitats for humanity, Earpapoolizing. Or we’re getting a #Wayhaught wedding, or it’s because the show is in danger of losing funding for Season 4, and it’s rallying cry by the Showrunner cast and crew to grab your pitchfork and burn the system down to the ground... Jen - That’s said, I saw this trending and decided to stay off Twitter for a full 24 hours because thanks to Jussie Smallet I didn’t want to overly jump to any conclusions. Then, I took a peek on google. Just typed in a quick, "Why Wynonna?" And, the first blog post popped up about the show possibly being in danger of cancellation. I didn’t want to subscribe to the single blog post that I saw online because I needed to see that the story had been fact checked. But then, I saw it… The big mama report from Maureen Ryan a.k.a, ally, entertainment writer, television reviewer, investigative journalist. Woman who broke the Jason Rosenberg story about Misconduct on the set of Supergirl and I knew we had a real problem. “Wynonna Earp is truly in peril.”   Jen - Today on they cast I have the original article by Maureen Ryan, if you haven’t read it I’m going to read just a little bit so you know beyond what is stated on Twitter how we got to where we are now. After reading Maureen Ryan’s Article which can be found. Here. https://www.vulture.com/2019/02/wynonna-earp-season-4-emily-andras.html   Jen - I knew it was time to rip off the bandaid. I finally checked Twitter, specifically  “Tales From the Black Badge” To find out from Kevin Bachelder what was going on. I found an article linked at the Wynonna Fans Website, a call to arms to get everyone who is a fan of the show into the fight. You can read it here… https://wynonnaearpfans.com/2019/02/22/wynonna-earp-season-4-the-fight-is-on/ Anyway, thanks for listening today. Stay positive #earpers you have created some great karma in the world. The universe has your back.  If you love the podcast please be sure to follow us on twitter @whatabout_dat, Like and Subscribe to us on YOUUBE. Much love to all of you fighting the good fight. We will be back with more Salty Supergirl Review this week.  SIDENOTE: OMG!!! IT'S THE END OF #LAMES and will need to talk about it!!!

"Bitch call me Director Danvers." In this episode of Salty Supergirl Review, Alex Danvers has no memories of Kara ever being Supergirl. As a result she's become a total hard-ass who shoots first and doesn't bother to ask questions ever because to quote Melania Trumps army green H&M jacket,  "She really doesn't care, do you?" Join Jen and Sara as they unpack this episode 4x11. Blood Memory.  Are you slightly in love with the podcast? Do you crave more content? Immediate feedback or a friend to hang out with at Clexa Con.  Be sure to like follow us @whatabout_dat on Twitter.  Anyways thank you all so much for listening and we will try to have the next one up by weds or thursday this week. Lots of love xoxoxo