Blakeston

Re: Frasier being married to Charlotte: Are we sure they got married? In this episode, they sad he'd been married twice. I assumed they were referring to "Nanny G" and Lilith. Anyway, I thought this episode was hilarious. It was the first episode of the revival that made me laugh the same way that the original series did. The resolution was weak, though. All Frasier had to do was explain to the opera singer that he didn't know the name of the woman he was meeting, so he thought June was his date. Maybe that was supposed to be the joke - that Frasier had been boasting about how good he is at juggling these situations, and then he handled the confrontation as stupidly as possible - but that didn't come across.

They couldn't even put the years of the Queen Mother's birth and death on screen at the end of the episode, like they did with Margaret? I'll bet a lot of viewers didn't even realize that she made it to 101. Peter Morgan had no problem depicting George VI as a great man. The Queen Mother took the same risk as he did in staying in London during the blitz. Why he insisted on depicting her so negatively is strange.

Vivian Duggar was one of the bankers who underestimated Lorraine in a previous episode. She caught on that he was involved in illegal dealings, so she blackmailed him into selling her his bank. Roy wasn't happy about it, and confronted him at the strip club and intimidated him into calling off the deal. Then he sent his shirt and the note to Lorraine to gloat. Re: Indira - it seems odd that she's just been putting up with her husband's endless stream of bullshit, and all of the debt. I know there are tough women who stay with terrible men, but nothing about her personality would suggest that she's this passive.

I still can't get over how weird the library scene was. It has to be the worst-written scene in the entire series. Maybe they wanted to show William making an ass of himself, but they couldn't bring themselves to actually depict him that way? Instead they ended up making the women look bad. I guess that Lola's behavior could be explained by her being angry about him flirting, and looking for any excuse to lash out. But Kate being so bent out of shape was just odd. And no, being a woman in modern society is not the same as being stalked by paparazzi and trashed in the press, and being forced to walk two miles behind your mother's coffin as a chilid in front of crowds of thousands. There was a point that could have been made about societal expectations of women, but that was not the way to make it. Another odd aspect of the epsode - are we supposed to believe that Kate never talked to her mother before about being sent to all of the places William was going? She just switched from Edinburgh to St. Andrews, took a gap year, went to Chile and Italy, and never made any comments to her mother (such as "why are you pushing me to stalk Prince William?") until she was well into her first year of college?

Michael Sheen played Masters in Masters of Sex, and he played Tony Blair in the movie The Queen (as well as a few other things.) On The Crown, Blair is played by Bertie Carvel, best known for his stage work.

Jacob Elordi is on Euphoria, he plays Elvis in the new movie about Priscilla Presley, and he's also in the movie Saltburn.

Bringing on a distinguished elderly African-American woman to make Colin more uncomfortable was a genius move. WU was very funny, except that Ego's bit went on way too long.

Bertie Carvel is a very distinguished actor, but wow is he wrong for this. He doesn't look like Tony Blair, for one thing, and he keeps flashing that horribly awkward smile. Blair had a much more natural way about him. It would have been less of an issue if they hadn't kept talking about how incredibly charismatic he was.

If Dot was putting her family's safety first, she would have gotten them out of that house in episode 1. Even if the only way to convince Wayne to disappear somewhere with Scottie was to tell him the truth. I think Dot is in so much denial that she can't even think straight. I'll root for her against Roy 100%, though. Speaking of Roy, it was great seeing Lorraine put him in his place, but I don't buy for a second that he would agree with her that he's looking for freedom with no responsibility. Based on everything we've seen, he would have blathered on about how libertarianism is all about personal responsibility, and not relying on the government, and how it's a man's responsibility to take care of his wife/chattel, etc. etc. Not that I'm complaining that we didn't get another Roy speech!

I thought this was a bizarre choice. We now know that Harry was completely and utterly devastated by his mother's death. Showing him joking around as if nothing had happened rubbed me the wrong way. Also, they seemed to have aged Harry about 8 years overnight.

I thought Adam did a fantastic job with the voices he used in the chocolatier sketch and the tiny bag sketch. He did more with those bits than most hosts would have.

I was disappointed by the lack of Please Don't Destroy. Is it just me, or did the chocolate Santa...not really look that much like a penis? It was only when they held it horizontally that I really saw the resemblance. It was thicker around the middle than the top, which was an odd choice. I have to wonder if maybe the censors insisted that it not look particularly realistic?

I'm a biit late to this discussion, but if Gerry decided not to pick Leslie based on her inability to form successful relationships, I think that's a valid reason. Everything about Leslie gives me the impression that she has a deeply unhealthy view of romance. Despite being married twice, she has this "no one ever picks me!" mindset. I think she's expecting some Prince Charming to complete her. Way back in the thread, someone commented that people who knew Leslie had remarked that she's always been a mess in her love life and financially/professionally, and that she flits from terrible man to terrible man. That certainly isn't hard for me to believe. I think her whole self worth is caught up in her "sexy dancer" persona, and she expects men to take care of her because of it.

I knew this one would be a letdown when that unfunny lounge singer sketch was one of the first of the night. They used up their good material very, very quickly. Strangest thing in this episode? The repeated lyrics in the nudity song about Emma having a big ass.

I would have found the proposal to Theresa to be very moving, if Gerry hadn't turned out to be such a huge douchebag. He really had me fooled into thinking that he was just a sweet, well-meaning, genuine guy. I take solace in knowing that so many other people were also fooled.

Wouldn't the obvious thing be for the injured cop to immediately alert his superiors that Gator stole the evidence?

He said it, but I don’t think the boys believed it. It would be plausible if he was letting all of the paparazzi get some photos, in exchange for going away. But those cutthroat photographers couldn’t be bribed by the promise that a sweet old man would got some nice shots.

I know a lot of people are unhappy about Ghost Diana saying that things will be easier for the family with her gone. Honestly, though, it’s the kind of dramatic, self-pitying statement I could picture Diana making off-handedly in real life. But I don’t think she, or Charles, would actually believe for a second that the boys would be better off with a dead mother.

I think the boys could tell the difference between the standard “here we all are in the countryside” family photo ops, and Charles saying “I know it was just supposed to be us the three of us out here, but let’s bring in a photographer at the last minute.” I don’t think he could successfully convince them it was being done to placate the paparazzi, either. The paparazzi wouldn’t be satisfied by that one photographer getting access.

They were used to being photographed at functions, and the paparazzi sneaking shots of them. But an afternoon in the woods with their father being turned into a coordinated photoshoot was probably more unusual. I think they were also aware (or at least suspicious) that their father had an ulterior motive.

I hate that the rap sketch was basically a beat-for-beat repeat of the rap sketch from his original appearance (except without Pete Davidson). The studio audience will laugh, because it's new to most of them. But for those of us with good memories, we might as well just fast-forward through it.

The closeup on Aniston made me think they wanted to capture the magic of the finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, when there was a long closeup on Rachel Brosnahan's face. It worked there, because that Rachel can move her face! I'm in agreement with the criticisms that putting the deal in place in one day was ludicrous. And how the hell would one of the big three networks have the money to buy one of the others nowadays? "They'll save money on shared expenses" was a pretty silly explanation. I also didn't care for the respectful, calm conversation between Alex and Paul where he seemed to be repentant, and not holding any kind of grudge. It wasn't believable. Someone this driven and ruthless would not be pleasant to the woman who just publicly humiliated him and smashed his dreams. Apparently the writers really like to try to redeem awful men this way.They spent season one showing us that Mitch was a predator, who used every manipulative slut-shaming tactic in the book when Hannah called him out, but then in season two they had to show us that he was really a decent guy who just didn't consider the power dynamics blah blah blah. I didn't buy it with Mitch, and I don't buy it with Paul.

I suspect that the producers really prod the rejected women to thank Gerry and commend him. And if they want to a chance at being The Golden Bachelorette, they know they have to play along. I don’t know if they’ll even do a season of The Golden Bachelorette. It would be kind of messed up if they did multiple seasons of The Golden Bachelor but never gave us the reverse. It would send the message that older women can’t be desirable. That said, I probably wouldn’t watch The Golden Bachelorette. If the men they cast are anything like the men on the regular Bachelorette, it would be unbearable. Men in their sixties or older engaging in constant dick-measuring contests? No thank you! And I’d have to wonder why men that age who claim they’re looking for love can’t find it. (Even though I know there are some eligible men who are just picky, or just getting over their late wives, etc.) I might make an exception for a season with Susan, Sandra or Edith as the Bachelorette, though! But I can’t imagine they would be cast. Faith is much more likely, but she rubbed me the wrong way a few times, like her “I’m not like these other girls with all their shopping!” plea to Gary early in the season. (I thought she was going to start singing, “They wear short skirts/I wear t-shirts…”) And Joan seems nice but bland. As a fellow resident of the DC area, I recognize her as someone who’s way too buttoned-up to fully enjoy herself. Also, god help me, something about her appearance reminds me of a (much more attractive, obviously) Ann Coulter. They could probably find us someone new who’s fabulous, too. But I like the idea of men applying specifically because they saw the Bachelorette on this season and fell for her.

I wasn't surprised that he picked Theresa over Faith. I think Faith's attachment to her home probably played a significant role there. I know some people interpreted Faith's "I'd leave with him in a heartbeat" comment to mean that she would move for him, but I just took it to mean that she would have followed him onto the plane. I think Gerry would have come across better if he'd said, "I do love you. But I fell in love with multiple women," as opposed to making it sound like his feelings of love just...passed. Re: a golden bachelorette - if they're going to choose one of these women, I think it would very likely be Faith. If the producers were interested in someone else, I think they would have insisted that Gerry bring her along to the final 3.

When did she say that she would move? If I were Gerry, I'd have huge reservations about Faith offering to move. She's clearly attached to her life in her hometown (much more than Leslie, I'm guessing). If she moved, she'd be doing it solely for him. She has so much more to give up than a typical bachelor contestant.