Stan ‘The Man’ Lee died today, aged 95.

His pop cultural footprint is immense, with Lee leaving behind globally recognised characters that he had a hand in creating - Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, Daredevil, and Captain America (to name just a few).

Within the comics industry he was both celebrated and pilloried for his work within the industry. There was no doubt that his shameless marketing (and self-marketing) abilities propelled the industry forward, but comic fans are well-aware that the characters attributed to Lee wouldn’t really exist without the Steve Ditko’s and Jack Kirby’s of the world.

Regardless, Stan Lee was an icon and the world is a lesser place without him being a part of it.

Excelsior!

Amid all of the reboots and revivals underway right now, it goes without saying that the only one most of us actually care about is the proposed ALF reboot.

Sorry to have to tell you this, but it doesn’t appear to be going ahead anymore.

As per Michael Ausiello:

Cats far and wide can breathe a sigh of relief: I’m hearing the proposed reboot is not moving forward at this time after failing to attract a suitor.

November 22 has the US version of No Activity launching on CBS All Access.

Parrot Analytics is a research company that has inserted itself in the conversation about a TV shows popularity by offering rankings based on how frequently a show is mentioned online. I’ve never really quite bought into what the service is claiming. Now it is claiming that Agents of SHIELD is in the top 0.03% of in-demand shows.

That seems a little bit high.

But really, is social discussion really that valuable a tool? And how accurate are mentions vs interest in a show - if a show has a small, but highly passionate fanbase, it will always appear higher in the rankings than a show with a broad, but fairly quiet fanbase.

Would you pay for Vulture.com? You may have to soon as it joins other New York Mag sites in going behind a paywall.

Speaking of paying for things, Always Be Watching will always continue to be free. But, it does take time for me to put together each day. Usually about 40 mins or up to an hour. If you find value in it and would like to support it to ensure it continues, consider becoming a patron.

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I don’t really understand exactly what a Detective Pikachu is, nor am I really that bothered about finding out.

But, I just know that this is going to become a thing in all of our lives and I should maybe just open a Wikipedia article.

Here’s the trailer to the new movie based on Detective Pikachu.

I really like that Netflix has embraced the UK idea of Christmas specials. This year we are treated to a Christmas episode of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter's Tale arrives on Friday, Dec. 14. The special follows the Church of Night's annual celebration of the Winter Solstice in which families gather around the Yule Fire to croon pagan carols and tell ghost stories, some of which are probably based in truth.

It’s just one of a number of holiday-themed shows to appear on platform.

Vox has this compelling case: Criminal profiling doesn’t work, so maybe TV shows should stop using it. I’m absolutely there for this argument as it pertains to dreck like Criminal Minds, but draw the line at shows like Mindhunters.

As seen on TV, this is a real product for sale in the US.

And finally…

Alex Trebek has revealed the sort of Jeopardy contestant who shits him:

“What bothers me is when contestants jump all over the board even after the Daily Doubles have been dealt with,” Trebek says, referring to a strategy employed by previous champions like Arthur Chu, Buzzy Cohen, and Austin Rogers. By hopping around the board, these contestants hope to initially suss out the much-needed Daily Double bonuses. They then continue to jump around in order to disrupt the flow of the categories and keep the other contestants back on their heels. “They’re doing themselves a disservice,” Trebek continues.
“When the show’s writers construct categories they do it so that there’s a flow in terms of difficulty, and if you jump to the bottom of a category you may get a clue that would be easier to understand if you’d begun at the top of the category and saw how the clues worked.”