Got an email and this was the subject line:
I feel super called out.
You know, people make that joke about Cardassians over Kardashians but don’t try and tell me a reality show revolving around Garak, Dukat, and the rest wouldn’t be just as extra and petty XP
Damar: What’s this “and the rest” crap?
Tekeny Ghemor, Seska, and Natima Lang nod in agreement.
Only on DS9 it’s called Keeping up with the Dukats, and every few weeks there’s an episode with Dukat’s wife finding out about some new illegitimate child, until finally Dukat actually bring Ziyal home and she’s had it. Files for divorce, and the entire proceedings are televised. Cardassians around the Union are glued to their holovid sets every week, with the equivalent of popcorn, ready to throw when Dukat makes some grandiose line. They cheer for his wife.
A crew follows Dukat around whenever he visits DS9, because the Union has decided that his misadventures work as a good teaching tool for the rest of the Union.
One of two things happens on Garak’s end: (1) he’s either really current with every episode, and saves the ones where he makes a particularly good zinger (he also saves the one where Dukat gets owned by Bashir, because damn that’s hot stuff in his book); or (2) Garak is behind on the series, since he has to wait for Quark or Mila to smuggle him the latest episode, so whenever the crew is around, he feigns being current, and then when he gets some of the latest news from the Cardassian bit, he locks himself in the back of his shop so he can scream with laughter.
