Whew!
In order to avoid another negligent 2¢ worth comment I actually speed-read all 45 pages here.

Kreist, ye ken ye watch too much TV & movies when you can honestly say you've seen almost every series and movie put forth so far & this thread only goes back to 2018.

At 70+ I have the opposite kind of memory problem most older folks suffer from - I can't forget.
I still remember YUGE swaths of the 1st SCI-Fi book I ever read, in the 6th grade (Starman's Son: 2250 AD by Andre Norton).
Forget trying to get me to watch a movie or TV show less than 20-30 years old, I can practically lip-sync the dialogue from end-to-end.
(A wee bit of exaggeration, but not much of one.)

SparklingCrystal, I think I've sussed out what grabs you favorably, so what I'm going to do is toss some stuff at you that might pry you loose a bit more from your "preferred" consumption.
I agree with plenty you do like, though having seen practically anything worth watching produced on 3 continents and some from S.America & Asia too, I find almost all of it tiresome recycling of shows that have already been done (something Hollyweird seems especially hooked on, re-booting movies for the 3rd, 4th, or even 5th time - like Dracula, A Star is Born, etc.)
I ABSOLUTELY agree, "Dracula Untold" was the best version of Bram Stoker's tragedy ever made.

I also agree in general that BBC/UK police procedural shows are far superior to American-made crap.
(Line of Duty, Luther with Idris Elba, DCI Banks, Ripper Street, Unforgotten-has Nikola Walker EVER done less than stellar in ANY role she's inhabited?, Tom Burke's "C.B. Strike", & looking forward to more of D.I. Ray.)
If it's a UK procedural, it's somewhere on my 24TBs of hard-drive storage (7x4TB in a PC tower).

I believe the reason is not better scripts, it's the fact that English/UK/Irish actors tend to walk the boards long before they ever do a TV series & have earned/learned to project "Presence" in their roles - and in general shorter "series" runs of 4-6 episodes per issue, which allows tighter focus on the case at hand & avoids 16 episodes of drift from "fillers" until they get the baddies.

igotthegirth was also correct (5 times) about "Hell on Wheels" being A-1+ fare, particularly in the Westerns/Civil War era genre.
SF doesn't get any better than the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot with Eddy Olmos.
Throw in "Babylon 5" & "Crusade" for good measure.
Straczynski has crafted a 123 eps.+6 movies feast running over 5-years in 2 separate but intertwined series.
A galaxy-&-time-spanning political extravaganza covering millennia of wars & a veritable UN of Aliens.

Horror is something I gather really isn't your cuppa but I believe I can actually change your opinion in a limited fashion.
Eldest & I have taken to watching a number of "Nazombie" flicks (WWII movies with zombi-fied Nazis).
Start with the 3-part series of "Outpost" movies;
•Outpost (2008)
•Outpost: Black Sun (2012)
•Outpost: Rise Of The Spetnaz (2013)
Then move on to the Dead Snow series;
•Dead Snow (2009)
•Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014)
If those five movies don't have you howling with laughter while also actually tense with a bit of dread, you are a lost cause.

Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen, James Purefoy, & a host of A-List appearances across the franchise keep it fresh & spice up what would normally be just zombie comic book fare in the "Resident Evil" movie series.

For good measure throw in a small Michael Mann film HE would rather forget but I found to be one of my favorite movies of all time, in ANY genre.
•The Keep (1983)
The Keep is very hard to find but www2.putlocker.digital does have it in 360 & 480p (check the gear wheel for settings).

I also did not "See" (see wot I dun dere?) anyone mention "Black Sails" (8+3x10 eps.)
John Malkovich's 1-off 9 ep. season, "Crossbones", is a nice companion piece to "Black Sails".
Zack McGowan does for 18th century piracy what Anson Mount does for the 19th century transcontinental railroad era ("Hell on Wheels").

Rob Roy is a better Scottish movie than Braveheart, even though the latter stole all the awards.

A particular favorite of mine was the 5-year run of "Person of Interest" starring Jim Caviezel ("Outlander" [2008]) & Michael Emerson ("Lost").
Something about it reminded me a bit of "The Pretender" series which ran 4 seasons in the late '90s - stoic ledes by Weiss & Caviezel I suppose.

"The Man in the High Castle" (4x10 eps.) is a brain stretcher alt-history/multiverse series based on a P.K. Dick novelette that might not really fit you, but it's worth a look-see (see wot I dun dere -AGAIN?)

There's been a ga-jillion Star Wars TV spinoffs but "The Mandalorian" (4x8 eps.) is by far the best of them.
The Book of Boba Fett (7 eps.) is a companion piece prelude but not strictly necessary.

As for a few movies I specialize in uncovering but which few people ever "see" (did it again LOL) - I guarantee they are worth the watch;
•"Quigley Down Under" (Tom Selleck)
•"The Grey Zone" (concentration camp)
•"Rabbit-Proof Fence" (trackers chase abo escapees from a Native resettlement camp across OZ for 1,600 km - true story)

Two unusual detective flicks with Jean Reno ("The Professional" aka: "Léon:The Professional") in the lede.
•"The Crimson Rivers" (FR-2000)
•"Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse" (FR-2004)
There is a 4x8=32 eps. spinoff TV series, "The Crimson Rivers" (2018-2022), but Reno plays no part in it.

My wife had a few favorites as well, though she was inclined to romantic movies & B&W films AND had what we laughingly referred to as "Video Voodoo", whereby every unknown VHS movie she picked out at the rental store was HORRIBLE! (mostly).
She did know good acting, good scripts, & good directors, better than anyone else I've ever met though.

She watched good movies over & over, which for me would be cruel & unusual punishment.
•"The Good Earth" (1937-Paul Muni)
•"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946-returning WWII vets)
•"The Helen Morgan Story" (1957-Paul Newman)
•"Spender in the Grass" (1961-though she detested Warren Batty, she loved this movie & "Bonnie and Clyde" [1967])

She was a bootlegging gangsters aficionado & also cultivated more mental ephemera about that era than anyone else I ever met and which helped me immensely in my research into Organized Crime's reach into the NFL (fully half the Owners are mafia/criminal underworld-adjacent if not outright involved, like the SF DeBartelo family, the NYG Maras & PIT Rooneys) - but I digress.


Finally, I remember you saying something about not reading books.
Is there anyone who doesn't like "The Age of Sail" genre?
For those who do AND hold Sci-Fi to no longer be "low-brow" entertainment, I present to you a pair of authors who combine the both of them with great storytelling;
•David Drake: the Republic of Cinnabar Navy (RCN) series which is currently 13 volumes and won't be more as Drake passed in 2023.
•David Weber: the Honor Harrington universe with 16 main-line books & 28 (& counting) splinter volumes about service in the Royal Manticoran Navy or being allies/enemies with Manticore.

I swear to you, both series will have you itching for more once you let yourself immerse in those worlds & start running a sync-ed movie of the adventures in your mind.
I have already seen the movies, at least how I would direct, cut, & edit them, were I to be tasked with turning them into films.
Oddly enough, I really admired what I thought I knew about Weber from his prodigious 100+ books output, but after watching the horseshight he spouts on his FaceBook account these past couple of years, I find myself in the awkward position of still loving the crimes while simultaneously very much not-loving the criminal.

Sorry if that was a long read but I tried to edit in sufficient breaks to get you through it without ending up with "Lazy Eye" & "Cross-Eyed" afflictions.

Taking applications for sugarmomma
(Send résumé, including bank routing & account #s with mother's maiden name, SSA #, brokerage account #s, and drivers license or photo ID.)

(Gives Zee the "side-eye" & asks if the daily fix was as good for her as it was for me? )

AI Overview
China's extensive AI-enabled surveillance network is officially known as "Skynet" (天网, Tiānwǎng), which uses facial recognition and connects surveillance cameras across provinces to monitor public spaces
. Launched around 2015, this system is primarily used by public security organs to identify individuals, crack down on crime, and assist in Operation Sky Net, which apprehends suspected economic fugitives.

Google it.
www.google.com/search?q=china+names+defense+AI+"skynet"

You are describing the old Yahoo Chat rooms to a "T".
Instead of scammers they had "booters" - immature little shights who got off on causing others misery.
The saving grace of Yahoo Chat was that room creators had admin/mod powers and could kick out undesirables & keep them banned (thus leading to the common practice of creating dozens of user names).

That sort of thing would go a long way toward cleaning out the hustlers, escorts, & scammers (most of them are obvious, blatant, easily detected, & terrible at the whole go on WazzzApp/Telegrift/Googlyeye Chat/Seignail & "send me money" grift - like this is the grift factory on-line training center or something.)

Admins here lose nothing and have a shight-ton to gain by allowing volunteer moderators to detect, process, & decide the fates of all the unfilled profiles that keep turning up in so-called "matches".

Private chat forums for moderators, where they compare notes over repeat turn-ups in matches, when the "match" part is an obvious crock when they haven't filled out ANY of the de-minimus bio categories even, have no photo or one that is obviously not in accord with what their given age/ethnicity is, or if their profile fill-in looks like it was a copy&paste job from a script so many of them use without even attempting to modify/personalize it.
So says Bob

I just read the other day that China has started integrating AI fully into their defense initiatives - which everyone else is doing as well.
What REALLY struck a nerve was the fact that China has NAMED their initiative.
Wait for it.......

Yep, they named it "Skynet".
<mic drop>

Well, the bot got me. My alt-profile was restored, I made 1 post here with it and the next thing you know, it got locked again.
Apparently even mentioning the AI-bot is enough to get the pac-man treatment.
Or was it YOU Zee?
If I offended I am truly sorry.
I honestly didn't think I said anything out of line - other than insult a computer program.
Sentient bot?

Yer over-thinkin' it Calvin.

Prolly missed it.
Got bored & walked into this thread when the guests were leaving & negligently dropped my ignorant 2¢ worth in the key bowl.

Now that you mention the "NULL" (that part which I am completely ignorant of) it comes into focus that there is potentially more to the tale than an old debater of numerical Cardinality carried in as a bias in his assessment of the context here.
That's not an account locking offense, is it?
Because I can edit it out before the AI-bot flags a digital packet it's told to watch out for.

Technically, null (zero) comes BEFORE all others, not last.

Apparently Duttoneer is making a collection of them.
Maybe he stashed the other 43 in his wine cellar, where they are drunk & unconscious.

Forgot my manners.
Thank you for the well wishes Gillian Machi.

Ugh!
Another day, another hour wasted, sorting through empty meat suits looking for love in all the wrong places.
This profile seems to be working now - drawin' 'em in like flies to a corpse flower - but not in any way usable for somebody like me.

Lawdy Mighty JeBus on a pogo stick.....is just ONE too much to ask for?

Sheesh, if this is how it's gunna be I need to adjust my search parameters to women 85-105.
Not so shockingly I will probably end up with few or no matches.
Well, 6 ain't bad I guess, now, if only I can hook up with all 6 I'll be in pig-slop heaven.

My youngest son is currently in a relationship with an East Indian woman who lives 150 miles away.
They commute and trade locations on alternate weekends.
So yes, he's as normative a white boy as it gets and she, while having lived in America most of her life, is 100% Asian Indian.

They cook together all the time because he used to work the kitchen at a dinner club for a few years & she likes introducing him to authentic Indian cuisine.
She is some kind of Councillor for her job in the Big Town and he's back in a paralegal degree program here in Madison.
Both are in their 40s.

So you hang in there, there's hope yet.

Yeah, but now-a-daze you'll get castrated by somebody for using that term as surely as if you said the "r"-word (analogous definition for slowing down a car's ignition.)

Perhaps I am an anomaly, as a male.
From my 1st sexual experience on I always felt strangely hollow, empty, and even guilty after casual sex - even if the girl/woman was BEGGING for it (yes, that's happened more than a few times to me).
When I met my Catholic wife-to-be, sex was a long time a-comin' (won't detail why but it wasn't for lack of desire) - more than 2 years in fact, even though we were both so deeply in love it felt like we were 1 indivisible person.
When we FINALLY did the dirty deed, for the 1st time in my life after sex, I did NOT feel any of those negative things that came from casual sex.
Sex became my deepest expression of just how much I loved her.

For the last ten years of our marriage my wife was no longer up to the task.
Between the lengthy illnesses from various norovirus, flu, and assorted things transplant recipients are much more susceptible to, anti-rejection meds, blood pressure meds, pain killers narcotics, the osteoarthritis agony - she just wasn't up to it, even when I offered to do all of the work or not even have penetrative, just oral sex for her pleasure alone.
(I actually get a hella kick out of pleasuring a woman orally.)
So, essentially I'm a more than a decade (13 years) celibate virgin these days.
Which, with my own heart/BP meds is tolerable, if not a preferred state of being.

But this much I know; sex will NEVER, for me, be inseparable from love ever again.
So, the question really is rhetorical, there is no either/or - at least in my case.

bobtail, why is it I find myself disagreeing with you so often.
Raised by different grandmothers I suppose.
The first part of your post didn't necessarily provide anything truly objectionable, but that last paragraph REALLY set my hackles in full stand-up mode.

When my wife took ill this last time she didn't make it, but if the doctors had miraculously been able to save her life it would have meant she would have lived every day having to change colostomy bags, and diapers, and lawdy knows what other physical infirmities I would have had to endure with her.

But you know what else?

I DON'T CARE !!!

I married her because of a deep and abiding love burrowed into my bones.
I promised to love and cherish her until death do us part in the marriage ceremony and in the promise I made to her father when I asked for his permission to ask for her hand in marriage.
And I meant every damn word of it.

I stayed with her when she lost her kidneys and the year of 3x/week dialysis.
I stayed with her through the devastatingly expensive cost of a transplant ($1.1 Million nearly broke the bank & wiped out any hope of a more comfortable retirement).

I stayed with her through 17 YEARS of all the medical complications & doctors' visits of living with a transplant.
And as sure as peanut butter sticks to your tongue I would have stuck with her through colostomy bags, diaper changes, and whatever else came with the good fortune of spending even 1 more day with her, albeit hopefully 20 years or more.

BECAUSE I LOVED HER, and nothing, nothing at all, could ever destroy that.
At least not in my heart, and those problems would have only shown her that I loved her even more than she ever realized - though lawdy I told her often enough.

Still makes you more man than most of the hapless wankers around.

Why is it the ones who are open to a relationship in these kinds of threads all end up deactivated?
There's a lesson in there somewhere.

I happen to have a predilection for that type too, especially Eastern European (former Soviet block) & Mediterranean-roots women.
I get we all have a favorite physio-type but there are some drop-dead gorgeous women from other parts of the world too.
Expand your horizons a bit, who knows, maybe you'll meet a stunning Latin-roots woman or Asian with mixed ancestry that'll simply leave both your jaw and your knickers lying on the floor.

My oldest son dated a Filipino woman for 8 years, they don't come any better as a romantic partner who will cater to a man's needs in overdrive, in every way (great cook, she was, & loved making meals).
It was unfortunate when her oldest son moved back to the States, moved in with them, and then went full-time trying to destroy their relationship.
My son withstood it for 8 months but eventually resigned & moved out rather than force her to choose between her flesh & blood or her long-time boyfriend.
Too bad, my wife and I loved her & had hoped to see them eventually get married.