Blakeston

This episode had its moments, but it was probably the most predictable the show has ever been. Of course Janine wasn't going to quit Abbott. And when you have everyone screaming at Ava that "Questlove isn't coming!", it's not exactly a surprise when he shows up. Also, I think they're overdoing it with the celebrity cameos. Is every famous person from Philly going to show up at this one elementary school?

I think she was asking if people like James Marsden and Joanna Kerns sent him letters of apology for supporting Peck. They should, IMO - it wouldn't mean that they support Drake's misdeeds. The stars who wrote letters and testified for Peck didn't know how extreme Peck's abuse of Drake was, but they knew that Peck slept with a minor - and it seems that they knew that Peck knew that the boy was a minor. And in some cases (like Joanna Kerns), they still tried to blame the victim. Brian Peck must really be charismatic. But now matter how charismatic he is, it doesn't excuse Drake's mother. I don't care how manipulative Brian was - if your child's father tells you "I really think this guy is out to molest our son," you don't let your son sleep over at his house, period, under any circumstances.

I really didn't care for the finale. We not only saw this concept on the Seinfed finale, we also saw it in the finale of the fatwa season. When that man who was sent to kill Larry met up with his past antagonists - like the ski lift woman - that was funny, because his attempts to put a positive spin on Larry's misadventures were clever. This was just "look, it's that person" again. The one appearance that really cracked me up was Auntie Rae, because they actually bothered to give it a comic premise, with her figuring about the recipe thievery.

The cheese plotline would have worked better, IMO, if they had eaten some of it. These social etiquette things work best when the issue is something that you can realistically see people disagreeing on. Whether you should toss keys to a valet falls into that category. I don't think it would be ridiculous for someone in Susie's position to try the cheese, and feel it was justified because they were storing it. But eating the whole thing in one day? That's not even debatable.

There was Brian Peck, the molester, and Josh Peck, one of the stars of Drake and Josh. They're unrelated. Brian Peck was not an actor from Head of the Class, although Dan Schneider was. I think my biggest complaint about the documentary was the constant close-ups of Brian and Dan looking creepy as hell. We get it, they're vile people. I don't need to see their faces in extreme close-up over and over and over again.

That was Richard Lewis's widow. Re: the valet, when he first gave Larry the dirty look, I figured it was because of the odd way Larry was scatting/singing. Also, that was a lot of cheese for two people to consume in one day.

Drake Bell's mother can rot for all I care. She had been specifically warned about Brian, and she let Drake stay at his place over and over again? And getting a call from his girlfriend's mother, saying, "I'm taking your son to our family therapist because something is very wrong with this situation" wasn't enough of a wakeup call? Drake strikes me as having a severe case of arrested development. I think he stopped maturing at the age he was when he was molested (which is common for people in that situation). Something is "off" about the way he talks - it's like he's still trying to sound like a kid. And it helps explain why he had inappropriate text conversations with a minor.

The plan with Jeff's pretend dream was pretty good, I thought (even though his delivery was over the top). However, Stu would have to be the dumbest person in the world to not realize what Freddie was up to. The argument between Larry and the group text guy (played by Trevor Einhorn, who played Freddie on the original Frasier) wasn't funny to me at all, and it went on way too long. The artist seemed like the most promising relationship candidate for Larry in a long, long time!

He was chosen to be on lots of talk shows because he was so entertaining, and he was one of the most sought-after dinner guests of all time. And he lived in an era when gay men were expected to be closeted, but he managed to become the toast of town while being out and flaming. He must have had a good sense of humor. Even if he wasn't the wittiest bon vivant in real life, the writers should have had some fun with the character. But I think they were far more concerned with their pretentious aspirations than anything else.

That really is one of the biggest disappointments, for me. If you're going to make an entire season of television about Truman Capote, you need writers with a knack for witty dialogue. We heard Capote say almost nothing over the course of the season that was actually funny. I get that the swans in real life weren't necessarily the sharpest wits out there, but the writers should have had some fun with their cattiness. And surely an episode with James Baldwin should have had some terrific dialogue! (I know Baldwin was just a fever dream of Capote's, but a fever dream of Capote's should still have some sparkling repartee.) Also, this is a small quibble, but...why would Lee's ghost be present at a 2016 auction, when she was still alive?

I understand putting limits on how many books a student can take out. But I had the impression that Barbara just wanted to bring some books to her class for an hour or so and bring them back. She should be able to have more than three books for her class to choose from.

I’ll defend Barbara on one point. It was ridiculous that a teacher couldn’t bring more than three books at once into her classroom for a reading lesson.

Speaking of age, I thought it was funny that no one commented on the absurdity of Ted Danson playing Lincoln, who died at 56. I expected the Lori Loughlin stuff to go somewhere a lot funnier. Showing her cheating in mundane ways was the most obvious thing they could have done. Also, why would Larry have cared whether she can get into a club? I'm curious what the inspiration for the "Sienna Miller needs to eat fruit to act" thing was. I know a lot of people have commented over the years on how often Brad Pitt is shown eating in his movies. I'm guessing that the "fish sick/fish stuck" thing will lead somewhere later in the season. If not, there was no reason to bring it back.

I'd definitely prefer a season of Capote v. Vidal. But this season was heavily marketed as "watch big-name actresses play the queens of New York high society as the gloves come off, and they go to war!" People love that kind of thing. It says a lot that Tom Hollander has final billing, rather than first, even though he's so clearly the main character.

It's still pretty rare for mainstream TV shows and movies to feature a same-sex couple where both actors are openly LGBT, so bravo to the casting people. Sean Hayes and Daniel Levy both fit into the world of Curb nicely. I'd say Larry was correct that Mantle is a better last name than Zeckelman, but I think he was wrong when he said that whoever provides the sperm should also pass down their last name. If one father provides the sperm and the other provides the name, that drives home the message that they're both the kid's parents. Larry gets set off by the smallest things, but he can be pretty understanding about big things. He handled the lawyer's mistake with the filing a lot better than most people would have. Also, funny how Larry shrugged off the possible death of Susie's dog a couple of episodes ago, but was so concerned for the fish in this episode. I guess the difference was that he related to the fish. Re: the fish - I thought it was odd that the restaurant employee didn't want to admit that the fish died. He'd been claiming that the fish was sick, so he could just say, "Yeah, he died, I told you he was sick!"

This was the best episode of the season, by far. I really wish they hadn't given us those close-ups of Richard. It was so painfully clear that he was in horrible condition. In the previous episode, it wasn't nearly so jarring, because the camera wasn't right in his face.

I said "bimbo" because she played a lot of vapid, annoying characters. The cheerleader was too clueless to figure out that Air Bud is a dog. The character in the judge sketch was dumb and trashy. The Hooters waitress was completely incompetent, as was the "shoot" woman. The NYPD intern was competent, but it was the same kind of vocal fry character she played on The White Lotus. I was hoping she'd get to show more range.

I thought this was terrible. Sydney played a bimbo over and over again, and I didn’t laugh at much of anything besides WU. The “shoot” sketch was just painful.

I have to assume it was "fleafag," which I took to be a way to call someone a fleabag and a *ag at the same time. Publicly throwing the f-slur at someone isn't a reasonable reaction to a breakup, even if they tried to annoy you.

I'm not crazy about them making Zach out to be a psycho. He had reason to be pissed, but ruining Jacob's clothes, and writing something about him called "Flea*ag?" That's troubling, to say the least.

I don't think the sub being non-binary had anything to do with Janine's mistake. Janine just assumed that Geoffries was spelled with a "J." I'm glad they had a character who just happened to be non-binary, but I admit I was distracted by it. I kept expecting one of the teachers to make a faux pas related to it, and I was waiting to cringe. I loved seeing a different side of Barbara, but I was practically screaming at the TV for her to just find a new church already!

"Elementary school principal caught talking about microdosing in teacher's lounge" could easily be a TMZ headline. Fox News could also easily go nuts with it, particularly because it involves the Black principal of an inner-city school. There are parents who would flip out if their kid came home from elementary school and showed them a viral video of their teacher (or principal) talking about smoking weed, taking edibles, or microdosing - regardless of whether it's legal. I suspect that people are probably less uptight about this in inner-city Philadelphia than in more conservative areas, but I also think that school administrators in general would have an issue with this.

There's nothing Harper Lee's estate could have done to bar the show from depicting her. If such a thing was possible, then Slim Keith's family would never have allowed her to be depicted as Bill Paley's extramarital lover.

I'm thrilled that the writers were willing to call out D.A.R.E. as total BS, and that they were willing to acknowledge the reality that there are responsible professionals who use drugs. (Even - gasp - people who work with children!) But realistically, I think it would be a very big deal if there was a viral video, shared widely among the students of an elementary school, showing teachers discussing what drugs they take. Especially considering they were talking about it in school. I would expect there to be a certain amount of heat on them from the district, if nothing else.

I think Jeannine's complaints about the subs were pretty legitimate. Her methods weren't just unorthodox, she was straight-up teaching them to write improperly. And it sounds like Jeannine is going to be teaching these kids again, and she'll have to deal with them calling her by her first name.