The 20 Best TV Dramas Since ‘The Sopranos’; The New York Times, January 10, 2019

The New York Times; The 20 Best TV Dramas Since ‘The Sopranos’

"2014-2017

The Leftovers

Because it pondered the big questions without feeling ponderous.

Damon Lindelof, creator:..

One question the show was always asking was, “How can you emotionally invest in anyone, if you think that they could just slip out of existence in a second?”

Obviously that’s something we contend with in a nondeparture world, because people die. But that feeling of, “I now have an excuse to not emotionally connect to anyone” gets magnified in a world where 2 percent of the world’s population just slipped out."

How Stan Lee Fought To Keep Spider-Man An 'Everyman'; Comic Book Resources, November 13, 2018

Brian Cronin, Comic Book Resources; How Stan Lee Fought To Keep Spider-Man An 'Everyman'

"In 1965, Esquire magazine polled college students and found that Spider-Man was just as popular to them as other generational talents like Bob Dylan. One pollee brilliantly explained Spider-Man's appeal, "beset by woes, money problems, and the question of existence. In short, he is one of us."

The problem was, though, that Steve Ditko was beginning to think that that was not a good thing...

However, a more philosophical dispute between Ditko and Stan Lee came over how Spider-Man should be depicted now that he had graduated high school and entered college. Ditko, a follower of Ayn Rand and Obkectivism [sic], was okay with the idea of a young teen not being a "true" hero (that is, having some gray areas), but now that Spider-Man was in college, Ditko wanted Spidey to become more of an objectively heroic character. Stan Lee and Martin Goodman, though, wanted to keep Spider-Man as an "everyman." That was the exact opposite of what Ditko wanted for the character."