Two news stories as startling as a sunrise:

Syfy cancels George R.R. Martin’s ‘Nightflyers’

I *eventually* got around to watching all of season one. It was slow, it was plodding, it was gibberish, and it won’t be missed. I have nothing against dark sci-fi, but when every last character is portrayed as the sort of terrible person who would star on or write episodes of “Star Trek Discovery,” the appeal quickly washed away.

My own sci-fi stories, in particular the “Zaneverse” tales, are heavily steeped in Very Bad Things. But at least I *hope* (and it is certainly my intention) that the characters, who are exposed to terrors, remain not only interesting, but to greater or lesser degrees appealing. Even villains should often be people you kinda like, Like Darth Vader or Loki or Khan or Zod; their intentions may be evil, but they should be at the very least entertaining. And even surrpunded by Very Bad Things, if the characters are just doom-filled emo glumbots… honestly, who gives a rats ass about them in the end? You don’t want characters who can’t or won’t recognize that the sun is gonna asplode and they’d best hop the next Ocasio-Cortez train to Alpha Centauri, but you do want characters who see the terrible things and can either laugh in the face of doom… or figure a way out of it and take some joy in that.

“Nightflyers” was all depression, all the friggen’ time. SyFy missed a trick there. Look at some of SyFy’s prior successes: Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse. Both were built on a world where humanity is in some deep, deep trouble. And yet… interesting characters who could laugh.

And in “well, it’s about time” news…

Actor Jussie Smollett faces a felony charge for allegedly filing a false police report

I suspect the FBI will want their pound of Federal flesh as well. Political candidates would do well to pair photos of their opponents with their tweets about this case.