The Netflix adaptation of The Sandman was pretty good overall and well worth watching. I loved the first season quite a bit. Some people didn’t like that many of the characters changed race and/or gender from their appearance in the comics, but that didn’t bother me. However, I did hesitate before watching the second season due to recent revelations regarding creator Neil Gaiman. I ultimately decided all the other people working on the series both in front of and behind the camera shouldn’t be punished for Gaiman’s sins, so I did end up watching it. That said, I don’t blame anyone who skipped it.

This season, the first episode is “Treehouse of Horror VII” (S8, E1). It was frustrating for me at the time since I’d come to depend on new Simpsons episodes airing in September, but this season, we had to wait two months until the end of October for the first episode. Like usual, there are three short horror stories. The stand-out episode this time involves the one-eyed aliens trying to take over Earth by replacing the President. However, since it was an election year they had to replace both current president Bill Clinton and Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole. As we’ve come to expect, The Simpsons pokes fun at both Democrats and Republicans, even if it had a reputation for being a liberal show at the time.

Plur1bus is Vince Gilligan’s latest show. He’s best known for realistic shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, but he also used to work on the X Files. He returns to his sci-fi roots with this one, presenting a world in which everyone on earth except for a dozen people are part of a hive mind. The main character of the show is Carol, a romantasy author who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She’s the only person in America not part of the hive mind. The other main character is the hive mind itself. Although the hive mind is depicted by numerous actors, in effect, the show only has two main characters. We sometimes see other people who aren’t part of the hive mind, but they don’t appear regularly.