Actually, based on observation in the real world, I think most people as they get older get more selective about what they invest time and energy learning. That Henry is 200 would only make him a more extreme case of the same.
Also - if he did, we wouldn’t realize that he’s a “man out of time” - he would be just like everyone else… albeit with 200 years of history under his belt.
I guess I didn’t make my objection clear. I don’t expect him to be an expert programmer. I DO expect him to know what a hacker is. You can’t read a newspaper or watch a TV news show once a week without knowing common pop culture terms like that. My 90-year old mother, who is half deaf and almost completely blind, knows stuff like that.
There was a sitcom before most of you were born, called “The Second Hundred Years,” where a guy had been frozen or something for a century, and then was somehow revived, and now he lived with his grandson who looked more like his grandfather, similar to Henry and Abe. In that show, there were all kinds of gags like that, where the guy (e.g.) didn’t know who the Beatles were (when they were at their peak).
That made sense, for that show. It doesn’t make sense for this one. If Henry were some kind of recluse in the mountains, who spent all his time one one narrow subject, maybe. But in this show, he’s living in NYC, he goes to work in public every day, and he’s an expert on all kinds of stuff (like perfume fragrances) that implies he’s interested in absolutely everything. Heck, he even LIVES in a store where anybody can just walk in. And he’s often shown reading the NYT.
More, he’s an expert on all the pop culture stuff of previous eras – music, literature, etc., which implies he should be an expert on the pop culture of whatever era he’s living in. But in this show, not consistently but fairly often, it’s like he has just woken up from a decades-long coma, and is completely unfamiliar with everyday stuff that anybody who lives in the US would know about.
I don’t know why that bugs me so much in a show that’s based on fantasy, but it does.
I don’t remember: did he not know what a ‘hacker’ is or what a ‘hacktivist’ is? Because, I have to tell you, this was the first time I’ve heard the second word, and I could only get what it means by analogy with ‘slacktivists’, and that might not necessarily be something frequently reported on in the newspapers he reads.
I don’t see that it matters. He’s supposed to be a genius at putting clues together, and it’s hardly a genius-level puzzle to figure out which two words were put together to make “hacktivist.”
I gotta agree with ‘Neverending Elbow’ here. I think most 40 somethings would need a refresher on ‘hacktivist’, much less 200 year olds.
Remember, Henry probably reads the paper but I wouldn’t be surprised if he skips the ‘Technology’ section and sticks to things like the weather and world events. It’s not like he’s browsing slashdot to keep up on the latest trends.
Sherlock Holmes, the prototype observational genius, despite his vast knowledge of so many subject allegedly did not know the Earth went around the sun or something of the sort - that sort of knowledge was not relevant to his areas of interest therefore he did not know it.
Henry may be able to use computers when he has to but he’s not interested in them other than unavoidable tools. I could see “hacktivist” not being in his vocabulary.
Well, looks like Henry is feeling a bit better about the circumstances of his first death. I had a feeling the Cuba Gooding character would be related to someone on board the ship.
Adam is truly whack. He’s the kind of guy you aren’t so much afraid will do something deliberately terrible to you, he’ll do something unintentionally terrible while trying to be nice to you.
Is anyone finding Adam a more compelling character? Who is he? Ceaser? Brutus? Cassius? Some poor Legionairy who got in the way?
I’d prefer he not be someone famous or powerful, but more like Henry, just a sort of ordinary guy saddled with immortality.
He’s not physically old enough to be Caesar, who would have been 56 at the time of his death. Nor is he nearly arrogant, ambitious, domineering and self-aggrandizing enough as a character. He does look suspiciously like the British Major on TURN.
Well, given 2000 years to mellow, maybe Ceaeser might have less of an ego.
But he was killed by daggers small enough to conceal in a toga, so probably not a sword. And he’d probably have a hard time working out after the fact which blade had actually been the fatal one, if it was any one stroke that did the killing at all.
Given the name “Adam”, his interest in Abe’s holocaust experience and the fact that he was killed by a Roman sword, I’d guess he’s a Hebrew killed in one of the Jewish revolts.
Yeah, but in an earlier episode he expressly states the dagger was made in 44BC. Thats too much of a coincidence. Likely connected to the assassination.
Caesar was also notably balding.
Suetonius He was embarrassed by his baldness, which was a frequent subject of jokes on the part of his opponents; so much so that he used to comb his straggling locks forward from the back, and of all honours heaped upon him by senate and people, the one he most appreciated was to be able to wear a wreath at all times…
You don’t have to be Jewish to be interested in the Holocaust, especially if Dr. Mengele personally butchered/vivisected you multiple times in an attempt to figure out your resurrective abilities.
Nope, I hope he’s just a plain old ordinary Roman dude. And it wasn’t a sword, it was a type of dagger that killed Adam. Maybe he was the guy who made it and and he was somehow blamed for how it was used, or the purchaser killed him, or something else.
Caesar’s body was also notably present after he died. I would say that the “vanishing body” thing rules out anyone else who was famous.
Agreed, the 44 B.C. date is too heavy handed to be anything but someone connected to the assassination. Caesar’s body is accounted for. So is Brutus. Here are our suspects:
How about Servilius Casca, who is less accounted for among the more famous conspirators?
Good, but maybe Gaius Cassius Longinus , since there’s been legends of a Longinus who has lived forever? True, his death is recorded, but only witnessed by his slave.
And once again, the super-observant Henry can’t see the marching band coming down Broadway.
What, that Jo has some interest in him?
Given how Henry’s prior marriages have turned out - incarceration in an insane asylum requiring him to hang himself to escape, his ex shooting someone while trying to shoot him, Abigail simply disappearing - can you blame the guy for being gun-shy when it comes to relationships?
I think Henry is aware that Jo has feelings for him but doesn’t want to get involved with her and, being a gentleman, would be pleased if she was happy with another man.
Or were you referring to something else?