Three Taiwanese stories that explore death penalty cases and obliterate illusions of meritocracy

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! For those who celebrate, we hope it was wonderful. We share these loving words from Anne Lamott about a simple word of thanks before a meal: “We understand how far short we must fall, how selfish we can be, how self-righteous, what brats. And yet God has given us this marvelous meal.” 

This week we recommend three lucid and riveting Taiwanese pieces of visual media—a documentary, a fiction film, and a television show—all released this year.   

But first, a quick update on the will-they-or-won’t-they romantic comedy between the opposition parties here: the ship has sailed. This past week the Taiwanese media has once again obsessed over a series of attempts to revive the partnership. The latest twist involved Terry Gou—the real villain among the candidates, as Eli Friedman reminded us on Twitter—jumping into the fray in an attempt to broker a deal. This led to a frenzied Thursday in which all three parties tried to negotiate a meeting, but nobody could agree …