Meekat Manor and Other Things

We're into 2018 and I guess I'm used to that- didn't want to type 2017- so the year has turned.

After the end of Paint Your Wagon, I didn't get sick; didn't get too down, and haven't yet looked for work.

I am reading Joyce Carol Oates' Jack of Spades- which is excellent- and no surprises there:  I'm impressed to read her self-reflect.  It's good.  I guess it's possible that I'll hate the ending but it's doubtful- she's the best writer- in fact she's more than one.

I just watched Meerkat Manor Season One- and I'm pretty sure I had seen all those episodes before.
In my desire to document what I've watched and read it occurred to me that I should take the cutest pictures of those adorable meerkat babies and include them in my blog- but who wants to do that when we can just google for any image we want to see?

What I noticed this time around about Meerkat Manor was the interpretations of animal behavior which of course is anthropomorphic: but this time I was aware of not just imposition of our feelings onto what they do- but various ways of interpreting what each animal does.

For instance, Youssarian is seen as an awkward socially misfitted bumbler- but maybe he's getting what he wants.  Maybe he's moving pups around in order to accomplish something- and he's getting that- whatever that is.  It reminds me of Trump.  If his goal is to be in the news every day then he's not a bumbler- he's brilliant.

Youssarian was given a backstory, complete with black-and-white film of being carried away and dropped by a bird of prey, resulting in his scar on his head.  The first time it's presented as a possibility, and the next time they just say it as if they know that's what happened.

The writers continually tell the audience that the matriarch of a meerkat group won't tolerate any other female having pups- yet it happened three times in season one.  So what they push isn't true.  Either Flower isn't a great matriarch or she let this happen on purpose- most pups were accepted (adopted?) so maybe she wanted that to be?  They also say over and over that pups die- but how many died?  Are the characters more in danger than the scripted created characters constantly put in danger to keep the audience watching?  Is it like the news that tells us all the dangers, even when they are slight?