Yes, it's on our DVR.I like that they cut the Liz character and sent her off to a cousin, and we see the set up for a new female character DRAWING CONSTANTINE COMIC ART!!!

(Jesus, we have a fucking geek show recording every night but Thursday.)

11 things on network tv way more offensive than "Constantine" smoking: [link]

I mean, seriously. This is NBC, the network that airs Hannibal in all of its Grand Guignol goriness.

Latest Doctor Who: In the Forest of the Happening. Didn't much like it for reasons, but one interesting throwaway note: the plan to burn paths through the trees was announced on TV as a decision by COBRA. This is not in fact some sinister fictitious organisation. COBRA is a real thing; it stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, and would be much like referring to the Situation Room on The West Wing. (One is left to speculate as to the functions of Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms B through Z; this is a Conservative government, so probably sex dungeons.)

I was reading a review and the writer was commenting on how it was good - and could produce some especially good episodes - if TV series could be given a final season to finish up, tie up loose threads, rather than, in his words, "taking them out back and shooting them."

billytea, I didn't like the latest Who either. Reasons.

Plus, I'm worried that, rather than the Last Age of the Great and Bountiful Who, we are seeing it's sad decline.

I really like Capaldi, but am so, very sad about the writing this season and am actually dreading this finale.

Who knew I could pine for the days of 11?

Patooey.

Hmm, I liked it. I liked the trees-as-shield.

Plus, I'm worried that, rather than the Last Age of the Great and Bountiful Who, we are seeing it's sad decline.

See now, I've actually enjoyed most of this season. I do think it's had its flaws, but some of the major problems I've had with Steve Moffatt as showrunner I think he's addressed this time around. (Most importantly, this season's Clara is to my mind the best-written companion he's produced.)

I would like them, not exactly to pull back on this incarnation's ruthlessness, but to give more sign that he acknowledges the cost. (Which is a reason Orient Express and Flatline are my favourites so far.)

Hmm, I liked it. I liked the trees-as-shield.

Doctor Who has often been scientifically dubious, and it doesn't always bother me. (I mean, Kill the Moon was screamingly absurd from a sci-fi perspective, and apparently I'm willing to forgive that for Clara tearing strips off the Doctor.) But on this occasion it did. The character work didn't really benefit enough from the fantasy set-up, and something about having the trees cover the oceans really got to me. (Plus, solar flares don't work that way, and Tunguska wasn't the same thing, and where was all that biomass supposed to come from, and trees can't stop fires by withholding oxygen because it doesn't get rid of the oxygen already in the atmosphere, and who's going to fix Nelson's Column and everything else including possible every road ever and what will they think they're doing if they don't remember the trees (or to quote the Doctor, "TREES!"), and telling kids that hear voices in their head that they should stop taking their medication and listen to them feels kind of irresponsible.)

But mostly it was having trees cover the oceans.

I actually dislike Clara. I don't like the way that she lies to Danny AND the Doctor. They also don't feel like a team to me, they are separate entities working toward the same goal, maybe?

trees can't stop fires by withholding oxygen because it doesn't get rid of the oxygen already in the atmosphere

I'm still not watching, but this sentence makes me think BACKDRAFT.

I actually dislike Clara. I don't like the way that she lies to Danny AND the Doctor. They also don't feel like a team to me, they are separate entities working toward the same goal, maybe?

I kind of love that. From the end of Mummy on the Orient Express on, she's been making some bad decisions, and for bad reasons. Danny was one of the elements of last ep that I liked, and I'm glad they wrote him as sharp enough to recognise Clara's been lying to him; I would have preferred if he'd also been harder on her about it, but he did still make it clear that she was going to have to make some choices. (The Doctor, of course, realised long ago, probably as soon as she started; but he doesn't seem to care.)

The upshot is that I quite like having this kind of tension in the relationship between the Doctor and his companion, especially tied into deeper themes of Clara's own self-image and moral centre, and how the Doctor's value proposition can really screw people up.

Which leads to the promos for the finale, and I'm less than enthused that they seem to be returning to that Impossible Girl rubbish. (I could be wrong, I hope so anyway.)