James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hIn short, this is a pretty good model for how you reboot a show so that it stays fresh and tells new stories, while still keeping the ethos of what made the original show great. I was initially a bit wary but they pulled it off and by the halfway mark I was fully on board. Good job. 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hThis is no longer a show about how many restaurants a professional footballer should buy but about the challenges of childcare and keeping an eye on your post football career. We don’t have a whole season of an angst ridden coming out story; half the cast are lesbians and it’s taken for granted. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hSeason 5 will start with the new team well established and the focus squarely on them. It’s now a very different show, focused on the realities of women’s football being far less well financed and high status than the men’s, meaning that it’s telling very different stories. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hIndeed, the season finale ends with one of the recurring cast members exiting and another presumably having a role reduced to cameo status next season - one gets the impression that they only stuck around to resolve a significant lingering plot thread. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hNot sure they entirely got the balance right, but at least the show ended squarely focused on the main cast, including newbies. It’s not like, say, the old team got together at the end and took over (*cough* Picard season 3 *cough*). NEXT POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hBut in fairness, while this was fan service, it was more in the service of giving the new characters an audience than it was to wallow in past glories. As the show progressed, the cameos reduced and allowed the new cast the space they needed. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hThe interesting thing for me was the way they used cameos. This was a bit annoying for the first half of the season and a character from the previous seasons would show up, do their bit and sod off again. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hSeason 4, if you don’t know, marks a big shift as the focus switches from the men’s team to the women’s. Honestly I think it struggled a bit at the start but it won me over. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hWatching Ted Lasso season 4, I do think there are some good lessons there to be learned for other franchises. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 1hA particular type of nerd who turned to hateful, nihilistic philosophies over finding community in other interests, to be fair. They all seem to have a common origin story of playing D&D as teenagers but very few sound like the sort of person you’d want as your DM. 110
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 5hQuite possibly. I get the feeling that everyone was waiting for someone else to get organised in the run up to conference. And when no one did they were left scrabbling for a response. 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 5hAs I expected, the new Star Wars D&D is going to be a standalone game and not a supplement to the existing game, making it far closer to the D20 Star Wars games that a lot of commentators I think were expecting. 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 6hI love the fact that when I typed “has larry the downing street cat caught any” into google it autocompleted it to “ghosts”. 040
Reposted by James GrahamThe Onion @theonion.com · 8hThis Weeks Editorial Cartoon: Recipe For Disaster theonion.com/recipe-for-disaster 311472224
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 8hA 2027 challenge will damage the party with not much immediate benefit. 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 8hI have real concerns that it’s too late. With 8 months to go before the locals people are far more likely to just minimise it and move on. Maybe the start of something that sees fruit in 2029 but too late for a leadership challenged before the next General Election. 300
Reposted by James GrahamJooooohhhh No! @josefoshea.bsky.social · 10hHe can survive this - by abseiling off the roof and riding a jet ski to the Bahamas 26212
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10hNever mind Sharia Law, when is London going to adopt Shakara Law? 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10hThe industry is addicted to mega blockbuster films making mega profits when it could make more money making more lower budget, more creatively interesting films. 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10hTo be fair, if they can find a way to push up cinema prices and thus profits for a troubled medium, I’m not completely against. But at a time when cinema ticket prices have plunged and that seems to have worked for the industry, I suspect it will backfire. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10hAlways bet on the liberal with “Maynard” in his name (or not, I don’t actually know this dude and this push should have started in May). 111
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10hI think the 3D push might have been worse, forcing us to pay more for what was often a worse experience. 110
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 10hBut also, reflecting on this, if she thought that the Greens might win AFTER the ZIR motion passed then she must recognise that it would have been seen as a vindication of that conference vote. So really the right thing to do would have been to campaign more, not less. 010
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 11hHe’s from bloody Hampshire! This is the greatest outrage since the Yorkshire Tea debacle. 010
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 12hThey must have been thought that HSP was extremely close. I can see how it was possible to win but not without a lot of luck, which they manifestly hadn’t been having. Which begs questions about how they convinced themselves it was so winnable that it was worth sacrificing their conference for. 120
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 13hI’m not saying it’s easy to criticise a leader after a strong result (been there, done that), but there are diplomatic ways to do so and there is certainly an opportunity to organise concerned members in a way that can’t be presented as a direct attack on the leadership. 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 13hI say that because the signs were there and politicians need to look beyond basic results. For example the local election campaign was a disaster for the Greens in my bit of North London (Barnet) with Polanski doing everything he could to sabotage it with his social media re the Golders Green attack 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14hThere certainly should have been interventions when the local election campaign went off the rails in May. And there were a few articles concerned with how online Polanski is but there’s been almost no concern about this entryist putsch and October was far too late to say anything. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14hI think it goes beyond ZIR. The writing has been on the wall re Polanski’s leadership style for some time but MPs have been busy either sulking or hoping that it will sort itself out. Aside from Spencer they’ve all been remarkably quiet for the last 12 months. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14hI agree he’s lost all moral authority, but question that if there was a leadership election now he wouldn’t simply be replaced by someone worse. It would likely backfire like Labour’s 2016 putsch. Still, at least a more extreme leader would hasten their demise and make space for a new alternative. 151
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 14hI’m sure Trump will be delighted. Who has won this year’s FIFA peace prize incidentally? 020
Reposted by James GrahamWill Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026How high does this thing go? 3625336
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 16hOn balance I will take government procurement by “mob rule” over and above government procurement by shady back room deals overseen by Peter Mandelson. 032
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 09/10/2026It got bounced around so badly I never got to see it. Treated atrociously. 100
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026Lower Decks was a nostalgia fest as well of course, but it did seem to have broader appeal. It’s my wife’s favourite for example - and she’s basically given up on everything else by this point. 110
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026It started with plenty of potential but then they junked all that in favour of a TNG reunion and bringing the Borg back AGAIN. 110
Reposted by James GrahamDorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 08/10/2026We made a whole season about the complex history and different meanings of socialism and he just comes out and nails it in a sentence. Damn 1519328
Reposted by James GrahamJames Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026If you spend over a decade gleefully conducting culture wars over history, don’t act surprised when the vast majority of the public nope out and favour nature of history. 055
Reposted by James GrahamaLec robBins @alecrobbins.bsky.social · 07/10/2026looked up mine and this is killing me lmao 1045402838
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026Too much puffin hate on this website.static.klipy.comPhotographer Captures Puffin PortraitAlt: Photographer Captures Puffin Portrait 020
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026You’re happy with the bee and call yourself a proud Yorkshirewoman?! Typical pro-Manchester bias. 000
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026My one criticism of this is that I question the wisdom of choosing to depict an Attack Puffin on the puffin note. Absolutely terrifying: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukBank of England reveals the four animals to feature on banknotesThe decision comes after nearly half a million people voted on a shortlist of 18 creatures. 101
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026To be fair, his main issue was with badgers and he can claim a victory that they have not been selected. Fucking badgers!static.klipy.comRobert E Fuller's Yawning BadgerAlt: Robert E Fuller's Yawning Badger 120
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026If you spend over a decade gleefully conducting culture wars over history, don’t act surprised when the vast majority of the public nope out and favour nature of history. 055
Reposted by James GrahamDarach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Lookit. Deep down every Irish person wants to spin some yank a yarn that gets cited as fact in some factual text. We told an Irish American girl that when the Muppets was released in Ireland, Kermit the Frog was called Dermot the Frog because Cromwell’s son was a Kermit. 641658351
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026I think that’s exactly right. But I think it’s also true that Labour thinks a “working class northerner” is what Ecks thinks it is as well. 110
James Graham @jamesgraham.theliberati.net · 08/10/2026This page makes me look incredibly healthy. I think they’ve grasped the wrong bit of the elephant there. Happy to not correct them. 001