I think it is. The characters are never quite as annoying as the White Gold Wielder in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, but some (most) of them are really annoying. They all act like spoiled teenagers, and wilfully do stupid things, but this idiocy is often (nearly always) the only thing that allows the story to move forward. I have only watched episode 1 (and won't watch any more until I am sure that they complete the story, which I truly don't believe that they will. GRRM has harmed me for life) but it was obvious from the start that they have modified a lot of the events to avoid upsetting modern sensitivities. I don't recall a single ugly female in the books, good or bad, and surprisingly few ugly males: very few of the baddies were ugly (qv the Children of the Light) but monsters, however, were universally baddies.

I enjoyed the books, and was pleased that the series got an ending (although it was very much an "and then the good guys won, and lived happily ever after"), but most of the characters not so much.

Aside: The author(s) worked really hard to make "strong women" characters, but they very much seem to be the male idea of what a strong woman is (either magical powers, or contrarily headstrong and often both) rather than really strong. But as a chap myself, I understand that it must be quite difficult to write a strong female without making her unpleasantly masculine or shrewish. It is an interesting trait in some recent novels that the gender (or race) of a majority of the characters is unstated, but that doesn't really work when the gender conflict is an essential part of the story like in WoT. The whole a'dam thing made my stomach turn, so I can't imagine what that would have been like for a lady to read/ watch (assuming it makes it into the TV show).

The main group of young people are dull and predictable because they seem to embody some millenial ideals of diversity and gender neutrality in the talents and advancement.  They are not particularly interesting because it's like someone at Google dreamed them up.  Then there's a couple of super smart people, a woman and her gorgeous samurai support guy, and of course, she's smarter than most of the oddball women who hang in this tower waving their arms around with CGI lines of force emanating from them.  This has caused her to becone somewhat of an outsider.  I haven't even bothered to learn their names.  The show had such a long hiatus that I hardly remember what they're going on about at this point.  There's a force of evil and a couple of the teenagers have special powers that have the potential to save the world but it's by no means a foregone conclusion, but, hey, I've seen enough Disney movies to figure out how this will work out.  There are times that I think a random episode of Doc Martin has more emotional complexity and interesting characters, but I digress.

I don't know if South Dakota is "local" (and to the extent that it isn't, I'm completely grateful) but the governor is currently enjoying a well deserved backlash for taking a 14 month old puppy that was bred to hunt pheasants and shooting it in a gravel pit.  This was followed by a similar summary execution of a goat because she found it disagreeable and smelly.

After everyone was horrified by this cruel behavior, she doubled down on this approach to the disposition of unwanted animals by boasting that they'd also just killed 3 horses that had been owned by the family for 25 years. 

article here:  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/26/trump-kristi-noem-shot-dog-and-goat-book

A man called the police and said, "I found a suitcase with a cat and four kittens in it, in the forest." The operator said, "That's terrible. Are they moving?" The man said, "I didn't ask but that would explain the suitcase."

What constitutes fashion in space?  Does it exist?  Will there be Armani spacesuits or other elements of conspicuous consumption?  How many people have to be walking around on other planets before this becomes a thing?

Inquiring minds want to know.  Now I have to go put my wet laundry into the dryer.  Do I win?

If clothes are worn then the Fashion indusry will sell them

How many critics does it take to change a lightbulb?

None.  They wait for someone else to do it and then write a long critique assessing the performance.