lucindabelle

I actually think until recently (looking at you twilight) most Ya a was BETTER written than many adult books because unlike a lot of literary fiction it had to have a plot as well as good writing. I'll stake Cynthia Vogt and zillha Keatley Snyder and Sasan cooper sentence for sentence against anybody. I'm in my late 40s and I just can't with novels about women on Cape Cod gloomily looking into the ocean waiting int heir divorces wondering where to go next. Yawn. I actually think fault in our stars is beautifully written, snarky and funny and engaging but I can see where the film might be cloying. Gus is a little too perfect. But the YA dystopian trilogies mostly suck. I do like Hunger Games but Divergent, which I read just to keep up with my niece, is beyond silly (apparently the third book explains that away somewhat). Can't make myself read book three of the pretties, the writing is too bland. Etc. this gives YA a bad name. When it wasn't a big moneymaker, editors worked harder and things were better written. I love Kate Thompson. If you haven't read The New Policeman hand enjoy Irish myth at all, you'll love it. Ok on to UO: Donna tart is overrated. I'll read The Goldfinch one of these days it all I remember about The secret is that classics majors were never that cool. It's actually not that unpopular an opinion, but g.r.r. Martin is a terrible writer as in full of cliches. Good storyteller but bad writing. The series is better than the books. The first Harry Potter is my favorite, from the moment I read it in 1998. I feel like I want to make recommendations but that should be another thread I guess. I think Fitzgerald is a better writer an Hemingway, there. I've said it.

Omg yes to Rent. I saw a revival of it not that long ago and all I thought was where is the sequel called Mortgage? The idea that were supposed to feel something for these "rebels" most of whom have lovely suburban parents who worry about them and want them to come home makes no sense. I mean there are scenes he here they basically make fun of voice mails left by parents. In La Boheme, believe me, Mimi does not have parents in the equivalent of Long Island who could support her. The bohemians there are not just posing. Their art is all they have. It's a young piece by and for young people. When they got up and danced on the table and spouted all their NYu learning even citing. Vaclav Havel I just thought oh shut up, you know nothing about dissidents and the iron curtain, Havel and his cronies only WISH they could have had it so good. I mean Havel could not even GO to college b ecause his family were considered not Marxist enough and his family's palaces were taken away and he he worked as a brewers assistant and a street sweeper, So shut up Rent brats, shut up,

Omg thunderstorm in Nj and I can't sleep and this board has me laughing so hard. Literally lol. Thank you guys. When Pam first said Sylvie and he repeated Sylvie I thought I must be hearing because, who? Any yes, it dawns on me that she's supposed to be still in college, meaning unde 21, and she's very pretty but does not look quite that young. (Mild rant: why can't TV ever actually hire people that young? One of the things I loved about "Spring Awakening" on Broadway was that one of huge teenage girls was short and flat chested. At last! High hs school kids that looked like high school, kids, not the thirtysomethings that play in "Grease"). Just say "grad school" and I'm fine. She looked young, but not 19. ITA that they chose 1986 because of money. I mean please, so lazy, just tip your hands that all the writers are 30$ and that seems ages ago. I mean there was almost no clothes so it could have been almost any time in the 20th century at LEAST make it 1956 or something. I'd buy her flat hair if she's a paysan. I did think Alcide turning into a dog as he ran out again was high camp. I laughed. What was the point of the photo flashback? We already know Bill loved his family. (But again: sepia! It's not as if photographs were all that terribly common in the 1860s they were ti types and you had to not smile because it took a very long time for the picture... NOT the ten seconds they show. I had one done at the Smithsonian once, you have to sit still a long time). A bit of an unpopular opinion in that I still like bill and Sookie together. Even while loathing Sookie. I contradict myself, I contain multitudes. Yes swords! Because they're Asian! Question: just now are they transporting all those swords? And how Re they getting around? Seems like e kind of thing homeland security would notice.

My bad, I thought she was playing Nan Flanagan but it was Jessica Tuck, who sounds just like her!

Wow that was talky. Sexposition all over the place. Yogi and numis was the worst. Seriously, pillow talking how you'd been there five months? Really really bad writing. The choose day civil war ere photograph was laughable. Hello, it would be sepia, not black and white, and not that sharp and just different. You got the camera equipment right you had to know at HBO. I mean HBO!!!! It'snot TBS. I just expect better. I found a lot of things inadvertently funny this episode like Alcide running in a guy and out a boy, and Sookie feeding in he he car, it couldn't have been more Scooby gang if it had tried to be. Why Drag out the Jessica's sick thing? Why not just do it? I did love seeing Annie Potts. I just love her.

I fell asleep trying to watch the aviator on tv!

It's good to see older women on tv. No argument. I'm just saying that 48 and 62 are completely different experiences. I don't know how old Diane is supposed to be but it isn't within five years of me, I know that for sure. (Similarly, 19 and 32, or 29 and 42). It's just the 50+ syndrome I was talking about before where every age gets a fashion reccomendation in a magazine (look great in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50 plus) until it's 50+ as if 50 and 70 are the same in any way. I don't think I've ever seen one solitary woman character in her 50s who isn't also a mom. Let alone one who is just like Sarah jessica Parker next year (ok, she is a mom, but what I mean is, fashionable, trendy, young). I live in NYC and know a lot of actresses my age and a few years older who constantly get taken for early 30s because society has no image of women who are neither senior partner like Diane nor nubile young thing. I guess panjabis character is a start. And Liz lemon who I did not realize was in her 40s in huge series. No doubt when I am 60, there will be loads of images of women in their 50s, because that's how my life seems to work ...

I hated that the rich guy was also a meanie and baddie. Would have been a pan interesting choice if he were decent but dull etc. it's just stacking the deck. Only decent scenes were old couple dying and the band playing nearer my god to the and saying it's a pleasure playing with you. The irish band were great but rose dancing with them, not, and everyone wading through the water with no flinching when that water should have been freezing really bugged.

Lol I remember thinking really, demoiselles d'avignon went down on huge titanic? Who knew?

When that episode aired I burst into tears. The only ever time I've bawled like that in a tv show was the end of season one of in the flesh when the dad relives finding his son in the cave and thinks he's all right then sees all the blood. Harry walked in looking teary and she couldn't focus on the cute Yale guy and she apologized with tears in her eyes... And when he said that's not good enough I felt so bad and then he kneeled... Shit, I'm crying just reliving it, so beautiful. I also thought the romance episode contrasting the Russian and carrie and romantic gestures with Harry and Charlotte both having food poisoning and ending up holding hands on the bathroom floor was brilliant..l that's the real romance. Still adoring someone when you're having (too ladylike to spell it out)

Yes I think carrie was kind of like Jennifer Aniston in t hat she seemed to want kids theoretically at least but it just never happened. It would be interesting to catch up with those characters now in terms of age stereotypes, because carrie would now be 45 and samantha well over 50... But the movies went weird directions and in the end women in their 40s don't get to be cute, fashionable flirtatious. I agree about the older characters on the good wife but frankly a woman who is over 60 and I have zero in common. Different generations entirely. I'm not a baby boomer, didn't smoke pot in the sixties, I was a toddler. As was Sarah jessica Parker. Who in real life is 48, a few months younger than me. I'm not Meryl streeps age. Not helen Mirren's age. Don't want to be lumped in with them, wonderful as they are, it's just another way of discounting women my age (not saying anyone here is doing that, just saying).. Helen Mirren was born in 1945, Streep in 1949. It's the same old lumping women as older women once they're over 40. almost 50 & almost 70 are not in any way the same. Christine Baranski was born in 1952, 12 years older than me. I don't look at her and see anything like myself. I'd just love to see someone LIKE me on tv, not someone 12-20 years older or 12-20 years younger. Tami taylor is great but again, a mom.literally carrie is the only example I can think of and the show ends before she's 40. I appreciate the examples of future role models. But, just not the same as seeing someone like you, I loved SATC because those girls were my age, among other reasons. Now it's off the air and the characters just stopped aging, I guess.

I hear you. I'm pretty tired of huge woman goes to abortion clinic and changes her mind plot. I know it happens but it's a TV cliche. Joan on mad Men most recently.... I totally see why she would keep the baby, just wonder why she couldn't have made the choice sooner. Though with the current political climate doubt well be seeing many abortion stories at all for awhile.

I was also shocked at the reveal. I thought the sadness about her fiancé dumping her to marry someone else was sincere. I didn't even figure out what was going on until the hearing. I wonder what that first date was like that he never wanted to see her again.

Thanks... But pretty sure that characters in her 30s. Jennifer Aniston in real life... I'm sure she's wishing she hadn't gone so public with her desire to have kids now.

Couples making choices is underrepresented, period. I'm always amazed by the TV couples that appear not to have talked about children, religion or where they want to live before they married. Mad Men, Thirtysomething, I'm looking at you.

I know a few examples of hot guy, plain woman. they are all Irish, men marrying mum-types, and most of them cheat (not all, of course).I've also read that people gravitate to same level of attractiveness, think there may be something in that too. I've never been attracted to a supermodel type guy, because I'm n ot a supermodel girl, but I am attracted to fairly hot, because I'm fairly hot. But I agree, men are more visual.

Hah, Heimel was right. But you'd think that with so many more women writing and being showrunners that would change. But patriarchal thought exists in women too, along with the myth of appealing to men being moneymaking when in reality women are bigger consumers of media (theater too). When I was in high school we didn't read one single female author in AP English...this idea that men's stories are universal whereas women's stories are some girl thing. That kind of hangs on. Which is one reason I'm heartened by the huge successes of Frozen and The Fault in Our Stars. For me, 50 which is a few months away is terrifying,...ever notice how women's magazines for fashion at any age go 20s, 30s, 40s, 50+? as if 50 and 80 are the same... There's nothing between nubile and granny. When you do see a woman in her 50s she's invariably someone's mom, with grown kids. Women like myself? not there at all. Thanks, Bastet.

Oh, I apologize then, I misunderstood you. Obviously it is a sensitive issue. (I've recently been reading up on Wiki about women bearing children naturally at 50-something. This really should be in a sitcom somewhere. I know I'm not alone). In that case, I agree with you. Older women really are not always int he business of handing out lectures and advice unless we're asked. I didn't like it when I was in my 20s and don't like it now, heh. And I completely agree that the woman who didn't make a choice but had one handed to her is also worthy of portrayal. Of course, that's not the ONLy issue facing women in their 40s (ask me about bra sizes). But it isn't always do I/don't I. Sorry for jumping the gun. One of my favorite lines in John Patrick Shanley's brilliant "Outside Mullingar" was when this rural 30-something young woman announces triumphantly, "I've been to the doctor and i've frozen my eggs!" An appreciative laugh all over the theatre (funny because unexpected in this rural town, funny because she's so practical). Schematic writing like what you describe is annoying on loads of levels. Please accept my apology.

Bastet, I find that really offensive. You do realize you've just slammed me as the kind of character who offends you. I'm not giving any advice here. I'm just saying that people like myself are JUST as real as you are and our concerns are JUST as valid as yours. Maybe this thread has been misnamed, because it sure seems to privilege one point of view and one point of view alone. I am a real person. With real regrets. And I've never seen anyone like myself represented on television. No, I don't want to be a "lesson" to you. I'm just a person too. Delaying can turn into forgoing. That's what happened to me. That's a real deal. Sorry it offends you to hear it, but it's the truth. I look 35, but I'm not. That makes me sad. Sorry that makes You angry, but it's the truth. I have a PhD and a great job title. What I don't have and probably never will have are kids of my own. (yes, the probably is me in denial, I know). Women in their 40s and 50s and hey! 60s! are real people too. We also care about feminism. It means choice, not shaming and silencing.

Non-whites play white characters in theatre all the time. Non-traditional casting means a person of color can play a white role. I just saw a black actor play Clitandre in Moliere's "The Learned Ladies." Obviously, the French character is white, but we can all pretend. I remember seeing a black actor play Thomas Jefferson at something I got taken to when I was a little girl and I understood right away that Jefferson wasn't black and that the actor was pretending. Film is a realistic medium, though, so you have to reimagine the character, which makes it tricker.

The thing about being treated as if you are a ticking clock is that there is, sadly, some truth to it. I'm 49 so it's over for me. i always assumed at some point I'd have kids, and now that option's off the table. It's not off the table for my 54-year-old brother (well it is, because he just married an age appropriate woman, but you know what I mean). This is unfair, but a reality. When I was in my 20s, egg freezing wasn't the norm. A lot of women are like me, pursuing advanced degrees and careers and assuming things would fall into place, but they don't always. That's one reason the issue comes up. It's not the only one of course, and sexism plays a part in it, but not everyone who asks is coming from a sexist place. As for stay-at-home moms-- my mother was, though she worked before. Being a mom was her calling. I'm sensing a kind of "oh no she'll be bored" thread here that is kind of a slap at people who really are NOT bored just making a nice life for their families. My mom was not a sew, cook, etc. homemaker, just a very involved mom who got very active in the synagogue and in the schools too. Yes, there are some women who just don't want kids. And there are women who made having a family a priority. There are also a lot of women like myself, who would have loved to have kids and can't anymore. We exist, too. If I had the choice to have kids in the next few years I'd do it. There are limits to choice. I'm limited by biology (money too, but that's a totally separate issue). Characters like myself should also be represented on television. It really isn't a dichotomy. Unless you're saying that I and my feelings do not matter. And yes, I loved seeing Cristina stand her ground. I especially loved that we could see she was good with children and liked them, just didn't want any of her own. Ann Patchett has a wonderful essay on this, about how she never felt the need to stop carriages and look at babies, but always stopped to scratch dogs' ears and look into their limpid eyes. ETA: I personally do know women who have changed their minds. So while it may not be palatable to some to see that, it is not unrealistic, nor unrepresentative. Some people start out life wanting kids and change, too.

Huh. I always thought who-shot-John was just a way of saying "hooey." Now I wonder where "hooey" comes from. That doesn't make sense. And if something doesn't make sense, it's not true.

Excellent point. This would all be scarier if it seemed that anybody was considering the, you know, obvious.

I so need to see Love, American Style again, just to relive my preschool days. I can still sing the music. I suspect most of the stories went right over my thre-year-old head.

And yet you made a baby with him. You picked him. Your mother thinks you're cute. I don't.