ivygirl

And I guess that’s just it: This is a MAJOR issue for a family to deal with—a whole season of another show could be built on that alone!—and yet it’s just kind of one more issue in the cioppino of issues that is AJLT. It feels like writing by committee. SJP said the show would only come back for “one little story” (maybe not exact words…) that had to be told. This is A WHOLE LOT OF BIG STORIES, all mooshed into one. Like before they started writing they asked all the principals: “What issues do you want your character to grapple with” and they added ALL OF THEM because no one wanted to be shown up by SJP or something. It feels so unrealistic and ham-handed. And I definitely get the sense that, by the end, a lot of this will be one big shrug.

I haven’t given up yet—not because I’m enthralled but because it takes me a long time to quit a show. :/ The way the hip thing was handled was not so bad… but geez. Hip surgery? I realize that it’s not solely the province of older individuals (and I can buy Carrie’s situation), but WHY? Could they not have given Carrie some other kind of ailment that doesn’t sound like they’re deliberately aging her character? What’s next…high-waisted polyester pants and an insistence on the early bird special? Miranda’s behavior was pretty selfish. Isn’t the whole point of staying with a friend who needs the help… staying alert enough to help? From what little experience I have in helping out an ill friend, I know things like sleeping and peeing are unpredictable. For Miranda to just get her jollies while her friend is convalescing is just… ick. I usually can’t stand it when Carrie gets all “WHAT ABOUT ME!” But in this case it was rather justified. And agreed, the way they’re trying to fit every possible storyline into a handful of episodes is just too much. I could use more laughs. There’s no lighthearted storylines to balance out the intense ones. In the previous show, this stuff had time to build—and, we’d usually get a b-story that was true to the characters but not equally heavy. The Charlotte and Rock/Rose storyline is a good example (to me) of that… kinda seems like Charlotte’s navigation of the mom group COULD have been a strong storyline on its own. I don’t know if we NEED to have her child dealing with a heavy issue ON TOP OF everything else that’s happening. At least in this “season.” I’ve never been what anyone would call a superfan of the original show—I mean sure, I watched it and know it enough to be familiar with the storylines and characters—but watching this, I really feel for those of you for whom SATC was a treasured show. They really have turned these characters and their stories into a mess.

That thought crossed my mind too. But it feels awfully… O. Henry-ish or something when we only have a handful of episodes left. I thought on the whole this was a MUCH better episode. The social media stuff made me wince a little. And though I like Seema as a character…. did they HAVE to make her name so close to Samantha? A little ham-handed.

Thanks! I thought I had spied the shape correctly. Ah well. I’m better at recognizing makeup and music. 🙃 Nice callback, anyway—at least I was astute enough to pick up on that bit 😊

I think (or it looked like) it was a Dior saddle bag, which was a nice callback to the original series. I couldn’t help but wonder (heh) if the door-smacking that Stanford endured was some way of demonstrating that he really wasn’t supposed to be there. That either he shouldn’t be there because he doesn’t fit as THE fourth and/or b) that if there was a fourth, it should have been Samantha. Like the fourth person was paying penance for not being Samantha. I don’t mean Stanford should not have been there in the sense that he shouldn’t have come—he was invited—but in the sense that Stanford As Fourth was just Not What Was Supposed to Be, so we will smack the viewer over their head with this via a constant smack of a door (paired with Stanford’s uncharacteristic rudeness).

That was my big takeaway… I don’t watch a lot of comedy specials and I don’t have Netflix, so I don’t have a nuanced understanding of how they operate. But I was like, “Aren’t comedy specials supposed to be… comedic?” The comment that got a little chuckle out of me was that Che would have had a special five years ago if they were male. Everything felt so forced, from the audience reactions, to Miranda and Charlotte’s reactions, to Che’s lines that just screamed LOOK AT HOW FUN AND FUNNY I AM. I get that some one-person shows end up more serious and self revelatory in nature, but we were being told how funny this was, and it wasn’t. If this show had portrayed it as a more serious (or at least just autobiographical) special with a few laughs thrown in, it would have felt more authentic. And maybe even actually funny. Instead of totally stilted. Also, Anthony—whom I never enjoyed in the original series or films, as I found him rude and abrasive—presented one of the most authentic and natural-feeling (to me) responses in the past three episodes. It was the only thing that felt like an actual piece of advice that an actual human would say to another human… instead of a plot point or box-checking comment.

Yup. Grad programs do typically have far greater diversity in age than they depicted in that scene. Heck, even some undergraduate programs do! So many of Miranda’s scenes were just a dumping ground of awkward and uncomfortable moments. It wasn’t even, seemingly, an exaggeration for the sake of humor. It was a 10-car pileup on the Van Wyck of cringe.

I still don’t mind Shannon all that much. But I think she’d be way better off ditching this crew and living her best life. These ladies are so obviously trying to turn her into the scapegoat. For me personally, that’s not worth any amount of money. I did like that Noella was being sympathetic to her. Like, talking to her as a real human instead of another character on a show. Heather talks about reaching her standards via a ladder. Like, a ladder that descends a hole? I don’t find her all that elegant, impressive, aspirational, or steeped in good manners. (In fact, she strikes me as rude.) She’s trying so freaking hard to be the LVP of the OC. And hey, I know LVP has her detractors, and I’m not saying she is a saint by any means, but at least she had… a sense of humor? Wit? A decorating style that doesn’t lead to a house that feels like a sterile hotel lobby? Something that made her entertaining. And Gina, the Hunchback of Notre Casita, clearly is vying for a space… well, if not in Heather’s nethers, in Heather’s Hotel Mausoleum. I also, inexplicably, kinda like Dr Jen. She dresses over the top, but she seems relatively level headed, MVP of the episode is the friend with the blonde bob who kept making all the same faces that I did as I watched.

Dorit can look very lovely when, as you say, she keeps it simple. I think she kinda looks like Brittany Murphy. And I actually thought this year’s reunion look was nice. It had some glam but it wasn’t as over the top as she can be. I also liked Kathy’s dress. Kind of flouncy and sweet. Garcelle and Sutton looked good—but not that memorable so I don’t know if that’s good or bad yet! Ha. I was supremely distracted by the small, pointy shoulder pads on Crystal and Rinna’s outfits. Enough has been said about Erika’s and Kyle’s reunion looks, LOL

Thanks for the reminder. I was thinking to myself, “*Allegedly* being party to bilking victims of a tragedy out of their settlements sure does seem so minor compared to being accused of planting stories or being kinda manipulative”… you have resolved that! ;)

Can someone explain to me how “playing your ass” is somehow preferable to, more moral than, or different from lying?

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily… ra-tings gonna tank!

She did! In the same sense that Richard Hatch won the first season of Survivor, with perhaps a similar eventual outcome. ***ALLEGEDLY*** Because she has friends who give out expensive bags just because. Friends who may end up on future seasons of the show. Better roll roll roll roll, roll roll roll awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…

In the first two episodes of this reunion, I’d missed the reaction shots with Erica nodding in approval/looking self satisfied about her “performance” in the scene they were playing. But I finally saw it: That look of “I am one tough B” was in her eyes and lips at one point. She’s not showing any kind of restraint—at all—except by sticking to her script. She’s been asked about the victims and she gets snappy. She calls a cast member a c—-. And she’s “keeping score”—and baring her teeth while she’s at it. As a viewer, I sit there and think: Is she really THAT blind to how she’s coming across? Even if she is 100% not guilty, does she not even think about what VIEWERS think of her AS A “CHARACTER” on the show? That the meanness, aggressiveness, and circuitous stories make us scratch our head and (in some cases) want her off the show? Fine: be angry and defend yourself. If it’s untrue, the anger is understandable (and should also be directed at the actual guilty parties). But be self aware as you do it. In the court of public opinion—which is where TV shows live and die—people need to be SOMEWHAT sympathetic, at least. She is not.

The only only ONLY reason I gave Garcelle a pass there was because it seemed like she was relating to the parts about getting cheated on in the manner in which Erika was describing. Not that I’m really even thinking Erika was being honest. I just think that part of it was where Garcelle was thinking back on her own experiences and felt a personal effect there.

*Raises hand* I repeated stories in my 20s, and I do it now in my 40s! Count me in with those who scratch their head about Erika handing her checks over to Tom. I’m not married but if I needed to get a divorce, one of the first things I’d do was look into how to get my money out of his hands—as one, I wouldn’t want him to touch thar money anymore and two, I’d be aware that I need every cent of it. Right? Or is there something I’m missing (besides her already being aware that her assets were going to be implicated in the lawsuit)?

To quote Imperious Erika: He has bigger fish to fry. You missed a golden opportunity to tell us a story about the exploding cataracts she had, which developed after a six— no, ten— no, twelve-time rollover accident she had while galloping back up the canyon behind your house ;) (I’m being silly. I’m sorry about your horse and hope she heals soon!) I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE that Simpsons episode. “Stella! Stella! Can’t you hear me yell-a? You’re putting me through hell-a! Stelllllllalalalal…. STELLA!!!!!” 🤣

Forgetting for a second that this is TV where she’s driving a narrative, There was NO reason to bring that up. NONE. Even bringing it up for TV purposes is dirty pool. Kyle knows Sutton wants to move on. That comment was just her dumping more gas onto the fire. On an unrelated note, I’d love a TV show with Elliot, Marshall (Crystal’s mom’s boyfriend), and maybe PK. The Guest Housegrandpas of Beverly Hills.

PK’s reply to Imperious Erika was lovely: “I have bigger fish to fry.” “They’re all fish.” Why is this woman given a pass to act so untouchable? Even if she’s not guilty in any way, the way she BEHAVED was atrocious. And because she refuses to acknowledge that she bears any responsibility for her behavior towards Sutton (an “unworthy”-sized fish), she looks even worse to the audience…. a pretty big fish, the court of public opinion. And don’t get me started on “Stir up Dirt” Kyle and “I’ll Tell Everyone What to Do, But Don’t You Dare Suggest I Need to Alter Mine” Rinna.

“Elliot: Did Not Get Up and Leave” 🤣

I loooooooovvveeee that you brought in that fantastic quote. Especially because Erika may only have a future in a reboot of Rock of Love after all this…

“Exploding Cataracts” sounds like either a rockabilly band or a cocktail at a chain bar and grille.

Hahahaha! A real “I wish I thought of that” moment! And would that it were true, as it would mean that Sutton and Kyle’s purchases were helping the victims more than Erika and Tom ever would… Tap the +” and it will collect all the posts you want to quote. Then, in your response, click or tap your cursor in between the quote boxes, then type. I hope that helps! 😊

One would think that, as a soap opera veteran, Rinna would know how to act out amnesia in a more convincing manner. Also: Yes, Crystal. It’s clear you don’t like “fakeness” and “phoniness” that some attempt to call social graces. Much better to be a dismissive, snobbish, cold jerk who acts like she’s above anyone she “doesn’t know” and/or is beneath her station. 🙄 It’s always the Crystal types who define their harsh snobbishness and rude commentary as “hating fakeness”. Finally: I want to take Occam’s Razor to any and all of Erika’s stories.

Grease III: Super Unctuous Edition Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee Lousy with liquidity Don’t give a crap, I’m not taking the rap DORIT, PLEASE LOOK AT MEEEEEEEE Watch it—Hey! I’m not a crook DON’T YOU DARE GIVE ME THAT LOOK I’m a tough broad but I’m also a fraud* WHY ME, WHY ME, WHY ME! *Allegedly