Macbeth

While the tussle over the stock prices is true to life and a view to how the world works - it pales in comparison to Mr. Pamuk dying in Mary's bed. The entertainment from that one plot point ( Mary, Cora and Ann carry his body through the halls of Downton Abbey, Violet's reaction to the news etc...) as well as the repercussions from that event (Edith outing Mary) made Downton a massive hit.

I agree with you re: Carrie Coon. I love Carrie Coon. She was spectacular in the Leftovers. I feel like this role has her tightly wrapped up into a cocoon and I am waiting for the butterfly to emerge. Her wardrobe states she is a butterfly but her emotions are wrapped up tight. But I did really enjoy her scene with Mrs. Morris. That was great.

I deal with Marian - so I can watch Peggy. She is a much more compelling character.

OMG - I love the phone cops story line. Below are the relevant scenes from the 2 part episode. Sorry for the quality. WKRP - every member of the cast was talented. And the show held it's quality through all 5 seasons. 22 episodes a year.

I know many will laugh. But this article argues that Matrix Resurrections was the best movie of the year. https://filmschoolrejects.com/movie-of-the-year-the-matrix-resurrections/ In dealing with the idea that M4 solidified that Neo wasn't the savior: "The core idea here is about breaking down boundaries and binaries, with a multitude of examples that illustrate this idea....Even the idea of The One — the hero who will bring salvation and freedom, whom the original trilogy posits as being Neo — is a concept built on division. There is The One and then there are the others, those who help him in his quest." That's why it was important that Trinity was shown saving Neo at the end, and the crew survived.

I agree. I think the Russells should have been introduced the 2nd episode. You see old money people speculating on who's moving into the neighborhood. Clutching their pearls, talking about who owned that property previously, etc....

If you scorch the sky so there was no longer any solar power - All life on earth ends. Why are you believing what the Matrix says on what happened that lead to human's being enslaved? The deal Neo made was so that Zion would not be destroyed this time. I know they were destroyed the other times. But in the end what we saw in M4 - Zion was killed anyway. I am talking about Zion not IO. IO existed because some made a deal with the Matrix. Smith is a virus that pops up occassionally, and Neo is the program that clears the virus. As far as the Matrix is concerned that is his purpose. He was created for that purpose. What changed with M4 is that Neo and Trinity's fight is with the Architect not Smith. Not that I think we are getting another sequel from Lana.

I watched the Trilogy in the theatre when they were released. I really loved the Matrix. I didn't like the sequels as much. But I did end up respecting the story the Wachowskis were trying to tell. Because Neo wasn't the one. The Architect said as much in M2. He was the 6th version and he was basically there to take care of a virus - Agent Smith. And the Matrix to then take care of the human rebellion. Neo made a deal in M3 to take care of Agent Smith as long as they left Zion alone. For me they Sisters went over the top by actually blinding Neo (Trinity's death scene lacked impact, IMO, given the bandage over Neo's eyes.) But they were right that Neo was blind to what the Matrix was all about. The machines have always known about Zion and let it alone, for the most part, as a way for the human population to rebel. The big lie was that the Earth wasn't destroyed. Only Trinity contains that knowledge. Shortly before she was killed she broke through the underworld and saw the actual sun that was burning brightly in the sky. And she was stunned by its brilliance. That's why the scene in M4 where Trinity sees the sun rising really connects her to Neo - it's a trigger to when she actually saw the real sun. Although I don't think she understood that yet. Neo didn't save anyone. In the end Zion was destroyed anyway. All that happened was the Matrix's green tint was removed and replaced with it looking more like Earth. I really did love Resurrections. Up there with the Matrix. There was no more story to tell. The Sisters had no intention on bringing this back. But here are the reasons why I really loved Lana's approach to the sequel. 1. Warner Brothers was going to do a sequel without the Wachowskis. Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Rising were flops so I can see why the Studio felt they didn't need a Wachowski behind the scenes. But Lana had Keanu in her corner. Keanu, given JW's success as rated R films, proved he can still do action movies, and continues to be a big draw. And there was no way he would do it without a Wachowski behind the scenes. Especially if the studio purposely sidelined them. This was a man who said no to Speed 2 when everyone was telling him to do it. And he ended up being blackslisted by Fox for 10 years. 2. So those meta jokes at the beginning was Lana's way of punching back at the studio. I heard a podcast say that Warner Brothers allowing this to be in the movie was telling as they didn't think Disney would ever allow such criticism against them see the light of day in a film. 3. I am suprised to say this but I enjoyed the fight scenes so much more than the ones in M2 & M3. They were much more realistic. Not as stilted. The fights with Smith for me were boring. The CGI to create all of those Smiths - doesn't hold up. I think Keanu, although being 20 years older, is a better fighter after all of those JW films. Just don't ask him to run up stairs as his knees are shot. He can't do some of the moves he used to do of course. But the fights look like actual fights not just a dance sequence. This applies to M2 & M3. The fight scenes between Neo and Smith in M1 were off the charts epic. 4. Lana was working through her grief when she made these films. She lost both her parents and a dear friend in a short period of time. So she wanted to heal. And she wanted both Neo and Trinity back in her life. And given her transformation into a woman it was very important that Trinity be given rightful role in the universe. It's not just Neo who is important, but also Trinity. That's why Trinity being the one to fly first thus preventing Neo from falling was a great moment for me. I also liked the fact that the team who backed up Neo and Trinity all survived. There were no sacrificial lambs on that front. 5. The ending when you saw people getting taken over by computers, joining mobs, or jumping out of windows as suicidal bombs, trying to kill people they don't know other than what a computer told them to do. Those shots were filmed in San Francisco March 2020, Look at how prescient those scenes are to what has been happening the last year. Those scenes chilled me to the core.

I am glad to hear it. That she was clear with Julian where she stood. She didn't want to do the movies. I watched the 2018 documentary Nothing like a Dame a/k/a Tea with the Dames. It was clear that the filming was tiring her out. As much as I loved her character in Downton Abbey. One of my favorite characters of all time. I sometimes think she regretted taking the part. She was 76 years old when Downton first aired. And she was really surprised by the show's success. I belileve it was this show that made her an international superstar. And she really wasn't happy about it as she could no longer visit a museum in peace. She was in Harry Potter, but she said it was only the little people (her phrase for children) that recognized her. So unlike Downton, the Potter films didn't change the way she lived her life.

I love that they are focusing on Maggie Smith's Dowager. She is my favorite character. Fellowes is giving her character the proper respect while he can. Maggie is 87 years old. Unfortunately she might not be around for a 3rd film. I hope she is.

I really loved this finale to S3. I love Tom and Gregs's dynamic. Assuring him that he can have his own Gregs to torture. I agree that Logan, even if he had been so focused on the buyout, had not attented to undermining his kids' power to use their majority to sink the deal - could have been easily dealt with on his end given Caroline's willingness to play. All he had to do, did do, was ensure that her new groom gets a title. My only problem with it - that Logan, when he was young and top of things - ever agreed to a divorce agreement, that gave his children so much power to begin with. But this show is so good I can hand wave over that plot point.

I am beginning to think Maggie Smith made up a lot Dowager's zingers. She is a master at comedy. She's up there with the top tier. So it could have been her phrasing as well. A line that would just have fallen flat with another actor. she made shine. Of course she had a fantastic partner in Penelope Wilton's Isobel. She was a great straight "man" which is the harder role in comedy. And could sling some zingers as well.

I think Covid really limited what the show could do this season. To keep people safe- you have the same group of people hanging around each other. Instead of having a big dinner with the Pierce family - you have Logan and Kendall meeting with Adam Brody's character. I wondered what they would do with the shareholders' meeting. They pulled off Shiv's large meeting with the Waystar staff but this would be a different group of people. They did a lot of smoke and mirror there. And in the end Logan didn't even address the group. Except for poor Frank, with relief from Gerri, nobody else addressed the shareholders. Whom we saw very little of. This is a show that loves to take the cast on the road to new locales to meet new people. And it's very hard to do that during Covid.

One of the biggest WTFs for me was the fact that Logan had no problem going through with the foreign investment even though his son was held hostage at gunpoint. The deal was struck with a gun pointed at Roman. And Logan was fine with that showed what a true monster he is. Kendall tried to oust him - so Kendall going to jail for his crimes works for him. That's tit for tat. But Roman? But let's face it - all of the kids are hostages to Logan seeking approval and love. His own kids are hostages to him. From a business stand point it didn't make sense at all either. Obviously that government is in flux and you don't make deals with people who point a gun at you. And pointing a gun at Roman is the same as pointing it Logan even though Logan doesn't understand that. So whatever savy Logan has - he's lost it. Karl is just going through one ptsd moment after another - and he would never fight Logan. Laird's pissed because to him - after nearly being killed he expected to at least get paid. So it was up to Roman to tank the deal. The only way Roman could do that was to claim that the person he was negotiating with was high on coke. And thus couldn't be trusted. Like Kendall. And Logan definitely doesn't want another Kendall in his life.

I am just waiting for the crash with Kendall. It looked like it was going to begin at the end of the episode with Shiv's letter, but the FBI raid brought him back off the ledge. To say that Kendall has been coked-up to the gills for the last couple of episodes is just stating the facts. Which is why Roman wasn't going to join him to bring down Logan on Kendall's latest attempt. Not that Roman is at all capable of confronting Logan. But he did initially join in Kendall's first attempt as he was being rational and had been sober for a significant period of time. But then there was no way Roman would have voted to have Logan removed with Logan in the room. Roman was there to see if Kendall was fueled by coke or rational thought. Since it's coke he was not joining. That's why Roman was so good at pointing out how unreasonable it was to make a deal with the foreign investors when it was clear the guy was on coke. I don't believe that guy had been on coke by the way. The fact that Logan was willing to make a deal with investors who had kidnapped his own child was completely insane and brutal. That has to have been the biggest "I really don't give an F about my children" Logan moment for me. The foreign investors were completely unreliable and homicidal. You don't make deals with people like that. But then Logan is someone like that. Roman had to say the guy had been coked up so that Logan would see it as a Kendall problem. And Logan really doesn't want to deal with people on drugs. So I am just waitng for Kendall's crash now. And Shiv's letter- we really see who Logan's true heir is. She may not get it in the end. But she is a ruthless killer. Who like Logan doesn't understand the workings of her own family. As people have pointed out Roman and Kendall have each other's back to some extent. When it comes to the top prize they are not going to support each other as both want the prize. But they will watch each other's back for the pot shots others may take. The fact Roman was doubled over, protecting his genitals, when Shiv was asking him to sign the letter was Roman's way of saying "I sign this I might has well shoot my own d*** off."