Streaming live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVdpOCxRwj4

Announcements/videos:

• Path of Exile 2 - a new seven-act storyline that will be available alongside the original Path of Exile 1 campaign (not a separate game). A 14-minute gameplay preview is available. Not planned to even go into beta until "at least very late 2020".
• Conquerors of the Atlas - 3.9.0 expansion
• Metamorph League
• Mobile version

I was a Homeland fan right from the start. Great performances, constant suspense, smart developments. The show remained watchable in later seasons, but the amount of action was greatly increased. Previously smart characters became dumb, and on season 7 Carrie Mathison was more action hero than spymaster.

Most recently, this is happening in Amazon's series Jack Ryan. The first season was a good thriller with interesting twists. The second was basically "Jack Ryan: Navy Seal". We know right from the start who the bad guy is, and, in the end, we get a "twist" that is both lazy and predictable. Not only that: Jack's "cowboy" behavior gets absurdly dumb (he's kind of an asshole too...), in a way that is not compatible with his backstory. I won't spoiler anything, but in this season he does things that would make Jack Bauer stand and applaud.

To me, that's frustrating because I love all that spy shit, preferably with large doses of realism. If I want action I'll watch Mission Impossible or something.

One of the possible reasons for the increase in action scenes in successful spy shows is the larger budgets. They start small, with character-driven stories, and grow to be action movies.

Another might be the need to please and retain a larger audience gained in the first seasons.

They also tend to get less and less realistic, like The Americans.

I wish there was a spy show that kept being a spy show all the way through.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

This topic is part of a weekly series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss their weekend.

If you have any plans, things you want to get done, things you have done, things you haven't done, or even if you just want to talk about how you're doing this weekend, this is a place for casual discussion about those things.

A list of all previous topics in this series can be found here.

So, what (or how) are you doing this weekend?

Timasomo FAQ

Thread #3: Reflection for Week Two of Four

Halfway through!

Give a Progress Update

How's it been going? Tell us where you're currently at!

Breakdowns and Breakthroughs?

With any creative process, there'll always be unexpected flashes of brilliance or unexpected fizzles for what seemed like good ideas. Have you encountered anything that didn't go like you wanted it to, or something that up and surprised you out of nowhere?

What's Coming Up This Week?

With seven days down already, what do the next seven look like for you? Let us know where you're headed.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Inspiration

Where do you draw your inspiration from? What other creative works have inspired you? What creative works do you hope your creation emulates, channels, or stands alongside of? I know it can come across as lofty to compare your own work to those of "established" art, but compare away! No need to be modest!

As before: best of luck to ALL participants! Let's go MAKE SOMETHING.