In This Family, They Show How Wholesome They Are By Othering Members Who Don't Conform!

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Officer 444.

And the awful joke about the woman who murdered her kids is a relief because it puts an end to the antisemitism.

For now.

Finding An Excuse To Be Bigoted About Everybody Else.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Winking Idol.

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It's like he's trying to underline my frickin' point. Muir doesn't actually feel anything about the plight of Palestinians. He despises them the same as he always has. It's just that now he can look at the Israeli Right's rhetoric on them and recognize its obvious hatefulness--because he's a nasty antisemite now, so he's always looking for excuses to despise Jews.

He Can Accept This As Wrong As Long As It's Clear White People Are The Real Victims.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Strings of Steel.

Once again, Muir demonstrating that this reconsideration of Israel doesn't come from a place of deep moral revaluation, it comes from him buying narratives that both confirm existing biases and frame this as another slight against whites. Because, once again, he's gotten really, really Nazi these days.

The Transition Era; Part 2: A Periods Piece.

 When I first set forth the idea of eras being divided up into periods, I noted that the Mystery Business(tm) Era's division was very simple and that future eras were likely going to be more involved. And well, not only was I right, but the very next era would prove to be the most Byzantine of the lot. As I noted in the last installment, the Transition Era was one of constant clumsy experimentation, and that wound up giving it the most periods of any era--eight periods, over a six year, eight-month span. Further, there is no uniformity here--some will last for years, others can be measured in weeks. A lot of this is because of the period's lack of narrative sinews--what might come across as a storyline in one of the more defined eras winds up being the closest thing to something holding a large sequence of strips together as a unit.

And so, to give you all an idea of what's ahead, I will list off those periods, with a brief explanation of what each entails. My classification of these periods is largely going to focus on what Zed's doing, both because he's rapidly becoming the principal protagonist and because it provides a handy measuring stick. Trust me, by the later portions of the era, Damon and Jan are already in sharp decline as relevant characters.

1. The Hardware Store Period (2008-9): For the next two years after getting laid off, Zed does the obvious thing, and goes to work as a floorman in a Home Depot. You know, what any guy who has worked in design at a high professional level and is also a highly accomplished military sniper does. With a wife, two daughters and a sister-in-law who frequently refuses to leave back at home. Politically, Muir goes from an endless cycle of denial and fretting over the 2008 Presidential election, and then, well, really losing it about Obama.
2. Opening the Bar Period (2010): Zed decides that he just CAN'T keep working at a hardware store and so the cast decides--hey, why don't they open a bar? You know! As one does! There are shenanigans with evil unions, Naomi comes back, and oh, so much awfulness over a period of months, as Zed prepares for his new business.
3. Cap'n Mitty, US Agent Period (2010-11): But it turns out his country needs him again! Yep, just three years after calling him back to service in Iraq, Zed has to go to Afghanistan. There's Muir's first, real sustained action storyline, we get a new character, and oh, boy is this bad. Prepare for awkward action, bad blocking, cheap sentimentality, cheaper shock, and a guy who talks like Ensign Chekov all the freaking time! 
4. Working the Bar Period (2011-12): With the epic adventure done, the cast settles into what's supposed to be the new normal, but doesn't actually last a year. The Bar is supposed to be a laidback place for the cast to hang out, bump into politicians and mutter about how awful Obama is. But it just sort of hangs around as a limp setting, Mystery Business(tm) only even more poorly defined and with raunchier fanservice. Oh, and Skye dates that new character I mentioned. It's weird.
5. First Trailer Trash Period (2012): Hey, remember how Obama is bad? Well it turns out he really is awful! He and his evil gubmint goons force Sam and Zed to abandon their house due to legal problems and move into a trailer. Oh, and they somehow keep the bar running in all this chaos with a government that is actually investigating them.
6. CIA-Paid-For-House Period (2012-13): Hey, remember what just happened? Yeah, forget about it. Zed's secret CIA allies have nullified it, and gotten them the house back using secret government funds which is very cool and not at all illegal. Now just settle in for the election, where the Democratic usurper will.... And... he's still here. Uh huh. Hmmm.
7. Second Trailer Trash Period (2013-14): And now the house is gone again, and this time the bar gets closed. Obama is still president, and so his evil gubmint goons took it again. But hey! Zed, Sam and the kids have moved to a new trailer--that's also designated as an Argentinian embassy thanks to El Dorado Dad! Don't think about that! It is just what has happened! So let's all scowl at the gubmint, kids! Scowl and have weird standoffs and intrigues that don't make sense!
8. Road Trip Move Period (2014): Zed's dad called, and he needs Zed's help keeping the Dusky Hordes off his lawn, that being a massive ranch on the Texan Border. It's located in Brewster County, a fact that obviously go to remain stable and true forever afterwards. Sam and Zed travel there, bitching about the gubmint the whole way, as we slowly transition into the Compound Era.

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Yeah. Those are the periods. Seems chaotic doesn't it?  Trust me... it's worse than that impression. Each one of these is an increasingly fraught and manic stew of paranoia and weirdness, with contradictory plotlines and bad writing. So buckle in. Once again--hella bumpy ride ahead. But hey, at least it's going to start... fairly sedate.

Making It Clear It's The Wrongs Against Him That Bug Him.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Fighting with Buffalo Bill.

Once again, any relief one might feel to see Muir finally acknowledging the immoral nature of much of Israel's policy, or their flaws as an ally is completely offset by the vicious antisemitism that fuels it and the nasty conspiracy-laden way that it is put. Hell, this one even tries to make it look like the US is the primary victim of Israel's foreign and Palestinian policy, and... no.

The only relief here is that Muir is clearly writing from a somewhat checked-out place, ignoring a domestic scene that is not looking good for his politics.

Looking At Tanks Makes Sam Go Howler Monkey!

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Scarlet Streak.

There's something especially grim in that the only reason Muir can finally see this as vicious is that his antisemitism has reached Third Reich levels himself. In the old days, he was nodding along with shit like that, and muttering "Ahh, but we must support Israel..."

"The Tsar Has Those Of The Tainted Blood Around Him!"

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Perils of the Wild.

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I see Muir is already picking his scapegoat in the Administration, and gosh, it's the Jewish son-in-law. It's astonishing how much of an out-and-out Nazi he's become, while imagining himself to be something that isn't.