Nov. 12-Nov.18: Processing Justice

This week: have the fruits of “The Process” justified Sam Hinkie? Also, ‘Justice League’ opens, to mediocre reviews and the Harvey Weinstein scandal looming over it.

Welcome to the Zeitgeist Chronicle. Every weekend we catch you up on the past week’s most interesting pop culture and news events. Sometimes it’ll be what everybody’s talking about, other times it may be something we’d like to bring attention to. Our goal is keep you informed enough to be able to have a conversation about any of these current events. This week:

Justice League

Ever since Marvel began their cinematic universe with Iron Man, DC has been playing catch-up. Instead of taking their time to flesh out their heroes in individual movies, as Marvel did with their (major) Avengers, DC was impatient, and opted to “assemble” the Justice League by the the fourth installment in their universe.

Besides the glowing exception of Wonder Woman, all of DC’s cinematic universe movies have been lackluster, with the common theme being “too much destruction” and CGI final battles with non-human entities on destroyed land. The trailer for Justice League doesn’t lead one to believe DC’s moved away from that. The most optimistic reviews, based on a quick Google search, can all be summed up by “It’s not as bad as Batman v. Superman.”

As if the movie itself wasn’t bad enough, Justice League was also involved in two PR-related news stories this week. The first was Ben Affleck being grilled about his name coming up during the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal, which is to be expected. The second was somewhat related but much brighter, which is also to be expected, because it involved Gal Gadot, who used the leverage she acquired as being the brightest spot in the DCU to get Brett Ratner, who has had sexual assault and harassment allegations made against him as a result of the aforementioned Weinstein scandal, removed from the production of the Wonder Woman sequel.

Processing “The Process”

The laughter that came at the expense of the Philadelphia 76ers for the last half-decade has officially been made awkward. The Sixers tanked their way to some truly hideous win-loss records and some very high draft picks, but what Sam Hinkie should get credit for isn’t selecting Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons — both Embiid and Simmons were top-2 talents — but for recognizing that tanking was the best course of action for the franchise at the time.

This season so far, particularly this week against the also-rebuilding Lakers, the Sixers came away with the last laugh. Joel Embiid dropped 46 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, and 7 blocks, while Ben Simmons, who is now the NBA’s biggest Point Guard, dropped 18 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists, and 5 steals. Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer summed it up the best:

This is even assuming Markelle Fultz doesn’t ever turn things around. Even if Fultz turns out to be a bust, it doesn’t matter. The Sixers got two generational talents, when most teams have trouble getting their hands on one. Of course, health is a factor in this case more so than most. Prior to this season, Embiid played in just a shade over 30 games in 3 seasons. Players who begin their careers that way don’t just go from that to being able to play 82 games a season. Here’s hoping he becomes an exception. As always, live long and prosper, and #TrustTheProcess.