gesundheit
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Posts posted by gesundheit
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So they really cut the character of Steffi the Staffie from this adaptation? Foolish decision!
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I can easily see why they cast Bhanu - very overzealous, enthusiastic, warm guy who's incredibly animated and will probably be beloved at first, but it's always dramatic to cast someone on Survivor who was simply born without guile. Had he not ended up in that tribe situation, the guilelessness probably would've been an occasional wacky moment but not really doing damage until later in the season where he'd emerge from the supporting cast and then everyone could see how unhinged he was and then he'd flame out fast. It could be extremely entertaining! But instead we got we got, and it was deeply un-entertaining.
On 3/21/2024 at 8:53 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:We will see where Jem goes with trying to create the suspicion that the idol is still out there. But there are a couple possible directions. She could throw suspicion on a particular tribemate that that person has the idol and thus needs to be blindsided. She could reveal to someone she wants to get closer to that in fact she has the beware advantage and laid out this trap (a strategy that could in fact backfire).
If it just get revealed at tribal, she's going to be a fast target for the schadenfreude of it all.
On 3/21/2024 at 10:04 AM, mertensia said:Dear lord. Bhanu removed my will to live last night.
I remain amazed, however, that people get all offended that tribe mates who know they're at the bottom of the pile spill the beans to other tribes. Like, duh.
Exactly! His mistake wasn't trying to get new allies by giving them dirt, his mistake was telling his tribe he'd done that.
On 3/21/2024 at 12:42 PM, iMonrey said:(Side note - I vote for keeping a separate Live thread. They are two different animals. Live threads are for immediate reactions, show threads are for after you've gathered your thoughts and meaningful discussions.)
Me too.
16 hours ago, TVbitch said:In contrast, Survivor AU has minimal idols and twists, savvy players, two tribes, 47 days and still features individual questions from the jury. I eagerly awaited each new episode (and they have 3 a week!) I hope Jeff is watching.
I loved Survivor AU and was halfway through a marvelous season when Paramount+ yanked it. Heartbreaker! (I was also in the middle of Survivor South African and Survivor NZ -- depressingly small grand prize, but still fun!)
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5 minutes ago, roughing it said:
So are you saying that Brooke didn't have an affair with Savannah in the book? Did Brooke and Gina break up?
Spoiler-tagging this just in case book details are against the rules!
SpoilerBrooke definitely didn't hook up with Savannah. Also there was no Gina because Brooke was straight -- and recently single.
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On 3/20/2024 at 12:17 PM, Kenz said:
This series is so boring. Why am I watching it? I guess it's because I am a fan off Liane Moriarty and I like Annette Benning, but this thing is dragging at a snail's pace.
It's so bizarre that changing all the character's relationships and conflicts and personalities from the book in order to make things more dramatic has actually made it less compelling. So disappointing. It's basically the Lifetime movie version. Seems like they thought the series would be more appealing if they added a bunch of secret sex. (They were wrong.)
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Someone needs to tell the L.A. writers room that calling the first day of spring "Sundress Day" in NYC is ridiculous, since it's almost always in the 30s on the first day of spring. (As it was this week!) "Every woman in New York wears a sundress that day," my ass! (Also why did a bar have "Happy Pride" in the window in the winter?)
13 hours ago, Demian said:He really is a terrific addition to the cast. I'm wondering if he's deliberately holding himself back as a Guest Star to avoid signing a multi-year contract, because that's not what he wants for his career.
He's always neck-deep in a bunch of big Amy Schumer projects, so I wouldn't be surprised if he likes the flexibility for his directing/producing work.
Why is Olivia such a mean boss? She wasn't as bad as usual this episode, but she did get a few digs in at the cops that were already there on the scene. Her "everyone in this profession besides me is utterly incompetent" attitude is terrible leadership, Brene Brown would not approve! (And neither would Cragen.) I mean, thanks Liv -- without your expert wisdom nobody would've thought after going to Queens to identify all the potential places that may have employed the victim the day prior, they should find out which one it was! Only Benson would be sensitive enough to think of going to the homeless man's turf to ask him what he saw instead of hauling him into the station! Thank goodness they have her uncanny sapience.
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Still no separate reward challenge in a 90-minute episode. No thank you!
What did Randen say at the end? My TV cut off. Did we get a medical update, is he okay?
That was so awkward having everyone rejoice about his removal. Bhanu's god sure does have schadenfreude!
I did see the preview for next week, though, and I guess
SpoilerBhanu goes and admits he spilled all on the "journey" because he really really really cannot learn and so all we've done is kick the can down the road one episode for the predictable one we almost got tonight!
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Well this should be... bizarre!
Rockefeller Center will turn into an SVU-immersive experience
The area will temporarily be renamed "Olivia Benson Plaza."
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16 hours ago, North of Eden said:
*every time I see young people with sprawling body art I imagine the mortification they will feel visiting the doctor in their 70's and 80's. When the taut young skin is long gone.
In my experience people in their 70s and 80s with sprawling body art look completely badass.
16 hours ago, GenerationX said:Gotta figure the "Marketing Strategist" with 3 or 4 companies who discussed email is just a spammer.
I needed someone to press her on that. What in the world does that mean? Who just says that without elaborating?
16 hours ago, princelina said:In fairness to Jess - she says that at home she falls right to sleep. I myself cannot do that and have wondered about how I'd ever sleep on Survivor! I do not need to hear her constant whine about her ADHD however.
This show is doing a great job casting social media archetypes. Last season we had "that one social media friend who makes absolutely everything about astrology" and this time we have "that one social media friend who makes absolutely everything about her adult ADHD diagnosis." That said, I liked Astrology Woman (I forget her name) by the end of last season, and I already liked ADHD Woman by the end of last night's episode. There's my personal lesson is reducing people to their one annoying quirk!
14 hours ago, 30 Helens said:I think the 90-minute format is here to stay. They even expanded the Amazing Race season that’s about to start. Originally intended to be 60 minutes, it was recut to be 90. I welcome the longer episodes— so much more time for context and getting to know players. It’s the main reason Australian Survivor has been so much better than the US version, IMO.
It looks like next week is 2 hours again, though. Hopefully we go back to 90 minutes. 2 hours is too much! Do we know?
8 hours ago, Haleth said:If you are allergic to everything (especially coconut!), why in the world would you apply to be on Survivor?
I feel like there has to be some behind-the-scenes arrangement for that sort of thing.
7 hours ago, seacliffsal said:I don't know what show Jelinsky actually thought he was on. Smashing the timer because they only had 2 3/4 hours left?
That had my jaw on the floor. And why was he parsing the several/seven thing so much anyway? If the timer is 4 hours, then you have 4 hours. It's not some trick that proves it impossible.
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Jon does definitely interrupt his guests more than Trevor did, but it always feels like Jon's engaging in a conversation that he knows enough to participate in -- Trevor often respectfully sat back and yielded the floor because he just rarely knew enough to really engage. I like both styles, but I consider Jon's guests to typically be there for a conversation and Trevor's guests to typically be there for a interview. (Not that constant interruption is okay for a conversation, either! I just mean I think the basic premise usually means hearing more of his voice than we were meant to hear of Trevor's, and that's okay depending on the topic. But I definitely want to watch all the extended versions because many thoughts I wanted to hear the rest of get cut off!)
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Also pretty handy that Liv just has full-time live-in childcare for her son that makes it easy to just hop a plane on a whim with no notice to the caregiver
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Wouldn't it be glorious if the United States had anywhere near as robust a passenger rail system as the SVU writers' room has given it in their imagination?
Poor Velasco with the awful exposition. "Tanya Garcia." "The girl we found OD-ing in that bag in that hotel room back in January?" Ouch. (And why did they even clarify that at all? There never would've been a question that they had an ID witness! But of course we needed everyone else to be dumb as a brick again so Olivia can have the genius eureka moment.)
And by the way, great news! Tanya's fine, the trauma and drugs are no match for aftercare from Olivia Benson!
13 hours ago, MerBearHou said:There were how many detectives in that house where they miraculously found Maddie but only one takes off after the bad guy — St. Olivia running down the guy in the snowy woods. Absolutely laughable.
"Perp on the run -- let's send the 60-year-old in couture shoes!"
So uh... what happened to the showrunners' big promise back in 2020 that they were going to start presenting IAB in a new light? Since rooting out dirty cops and police corruption is actually a good thing and shouldn't be presented otherwise? Guess they abandoned that. Sure, they might want to have an opposing opinion on the squad to be more realistic, but zero chance Fin would be the loudest advocate of Blue Wall of Silence out of everyone.
Why so much drama about identifying a boy vs a girl? This is a allegedly a bunch of enlightened people who are conversant in vics who identify anywhere along the gender spectrum, but apparently now it's grounds for self-flagellation if you can't tell that a short-haired girl is a girl on first sight.
I'd love to be grateful that the Maddie storyline is over, but unfortunately the "Olivia's personal feelings aftermath" has only just begun.
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5 hours ago, Zaffy said:
I really liked the finale and overall I enjoyed the season.
The whole show was Capaldi and Jumbo and I would love another season with those two investigating together. Every scene with those two was fantastic. They have great chemistry and they are both amazing actorsI agree. Partway through this finale I was thinking they actually could have another season with these two working together (still with tension/conflict but closer to the same goals), but of course that twist ending pretty much extinguished that possibility. I was a little bummed by that because of the fantastic chemistry whenever they had scenes together that weren't straight-up adversarial. (Obviously the adversarial scenes were great, too, but hopefully my point was clear!)
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I did bristle for half a second when Melissa was "covering" and pretending she waited 2 more years after 14 to smoke and got called out that that would only make her 16 -- but 16 absolutely was the smoking age when Melissa was 16! Her cover was fair!
52 minutes ago, Badsamaritan said:I am not at all surprised Janine smokes weed, she was with Tariq for ages.
I was going to say the same thing -- there's no way they didn't smoke together. For comedy's sake they're complete opposites in every way, but we have to picture something they actually did together that would lead to that many years. I can definitely picture him getting her to try it and then Janine realizing exactly what she explained -- that it calms down her neuroses and anxiety. (But not something she does at parties!)
I didn't really buy the serious FADE woman being so utterly unprepared to answer a single question, but it was funny nonetheless!
Jessca was hysterical, and in just the right dose. Wouldn't want her to be recurring because the shtick would get old, but it was perfect for one episode.
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9 hours ago, pezgirl7 said:
I’m guessing that won’t be the last therapy session we see. Mariska was on Jimmy Fallon tonight and said that this season would be delving into Olivia’s mind and that her arc is about healing.
God help us all
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Hilarious. I just said last week that I hope they didn't make us watch any of Liv's EDMR sessions, and boom! Right in the cold open of the next episode. Also hilarious: a therapist asking for Liv's assistance, and Liv thinking she had to explain to a therapist that she's a mandatory reporter. What would any adult professional in any field do without the wisdom of Olivia Benson?
Also hilarious: just to demonstrate how Liv's more saintly than all other humans, they write a scene where McGrath's wife just found out her friend's son definitely raped her daughter but took a quick break to accuse Liv of going after McGrath's job. As if.
Also hilarious: they tell us the whole episode it's required for IAB or the ADA to be present at all times in this investigation because of the McGrath situation. Well, at all times except... the actual arrest of his daughter's rapist, an arrest happening mere steps from McGrath's home. Amazing.
Not hilarious and actually good: I forget her name but I love the IAB agent and am delighted that she'll be the new girl. Obviously she'll have to live in Liv's shadow, but at least I can thrive off of the shreds they'll toss her.
Anyway. Last week sure was a nice breather! Back to the Benson Hour.
(Oh wait! One more hilarious: McGrath says he should've seen that his buddy was a wife-beater, and instead of her usual "you can't always know," Olivia just smirks at him.)
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But once again with the hilarious 1970s version of NYC -- when that property manager was like "eyyyyy -- crimes happen in this building constantly, whaddya want, it's Brooklyn!" as if most of Brooklyn isn't now more upscale than the Upper East Side.
(Of course this what happens when your writers room is on the other side of the country and probably lived in 1970s NYC and hasn't been back since outside insulated work travel between airports, hotels, and events/meetings)
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Hey, actually a pretty solid episode! Almost old-school. Couldn't really tell where it was going, fantastic famous guest star who gets some meaty material, detectives and lawyers doing actual detectiving and lawyering instead of just St. Olivia doing mental health counseling! I don't even mind the dumb Olivia bookends if that's the price of admission to the good stuff.
On 2/5/2024 at 3:32 PM, Xeliou66 said:I’m beyond sick of the Maddie subplot though and I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about St Olivia trying to hold her family together while taking it personally. Get this shit done with already.
Truly. I thought the mom hated Olivia anyway, but now all of a sudden she's her best friend and entire support system!
23 hours ago, Sake614 said:But then at the end of the episode, Liv is all in on Tess like she was involved the whole time.
That infuriated me. Woman, you did nothing! You bailed on this woman's horrific story partway through, you don't get to have the wise, self-congratulatory wrap-up with her!
4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:Turns out, all we had to do to finally have a good episode was to quarantine Olivia into her own stupid little subplot! I really liked the case of the week, I am glad that they showed that the doctor and the call girl were both being victimized and we didn't get some lame twist where the doctor was the real bad guy or something.
Agreed! I assumed that's exactly what we were getting when they demonstrated that he's an uber-wealthy, for-profit cosmetic doc -- that's SVU catnip for an evil dude. But nope, they actually let him just be a fairly decent guy dude with some midlife insecurities! And it was actually really cute the way he was so proud to his wife about being "undercover" and having to go back to finish his "job."
The ingredients are all still there! I'm expending all my energy trying to feel gratitude for that instead of resentment that they can still pull it off but typically choose not to. (This is not to suggest this was ever some masterful piece of prestige TV, but they did have a formula that often did the trick.)
Also I hope we don't have to sit through any of Liv's EDMR sessions
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Good grief, this episode. SVU proudly taking up the "wokeness has gone too far!" mantle. Embarrassing.
Of course they try to do an episode focused on race and are afraid to put Fin in it after it took that turn. Instead, it was Olivia who could speak on it the most wisely! Because of course!
And I'm already sick to death of the Maddie thread. This is going to be insufferable all season.
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3 hours ago, Fellaway said:
As to Rollins, I think the show has done a decent job over the years showing she has an affinity or an innate understanding of this kind of criminal, so I could believe her leaving SVU to go to school as a student, but as a professor? That is to laugh.
Exactly -- she could've gotten a great offer for a full ride + stipend doing criminology graduate study somewhere she had a teaching assistantship covering some criminal justice courses. Easy. But nope, instead we get miracle unsolicited job offer falling from the sky.
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34 minutes ago, pezgirl7 said:
Oh, I also LoL’d at the mom saying they moved to NYC because they thought it would be safer.I've long said this show must be a real thorn in the side of the Chamber of Commerce, considering they love few things more than having folks either new to town or even just on a vacation in town being the victim of a brutal crime immediately. (In fact, the only people getting attacked more than newcomers or tourists are college students or nannies from far away)
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1 hour ago, Ohiopirate02 said:
(seriously St. Olivia needs to see Rollins in order to figure out the next step is getting the list of buyers of said sex doll)
Ah, one of the nation's pre-eminent minds in criminology! Truly an expert at work
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It's like I finally let go of my inexplicable aggression about Rollins's absolutely ludicrous send-off story, and then they bring her back "in action" just to annoy me more. Once again, has zero credentials to do anything but at best give a guest lecture or two in a criminology course, and yet she's a full professor at an extremely competitive university. Teaching a social science! How would she respond to peer review? Does she even know APA? What kind of assignments is she giving those poor students? And now Olivia actually comes to consult her as some Yoda-esque criminal expert/sage, something that never actually happened while she was a detective? (At the very least they could've had her teaching criminal justice, which would actually track. Criminology does not.)
On 1/18/2024 at 10:03 PM, dttruman said:I got a feeling this search for Maddie will probably take all season and we will see Benson taking on the perp, George and rescuing the girl.
This is what bugged me the most -- seems that they're doing it again, going with a season-long arc that we're repeatedly forced to check in on and then probably endure two-episode/three-episode arcs at the end of the season. Literally the opposite of SVU's appeal, which is that it isn't serialized.
On 1/19/2024 at 2:17 AM, Andyourlittledog2 said:Olivia is one of those people who make absolutely everything about her. The overemoting is so boring and aggravating. If that's acting, anyone can do that. They keep giving her Emmys for this crap.
In fairness, she only got one Emmy 18 years ago when both the show and the TV landscape were very different. This is not respected as a quality show in the field, just workhorse commerce at this stage. Points for endurance and longevity and giving east coast actors and TV directors a place to work when they need it.
Such awkward writing in this episode. Detectives would really just sit there speechless if a mother is demanding that they tell her what they're doing that she couldn't do? Name something! And then at the end? Tell her obviously that finding this other girl is good news for the search for Maddie because now they have information and a witness!
Oh and the NJ Olivia counterpart had Olivia's exact hairdo, which gave me a chuckle. Subtle!
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On 1/4/2024 at 6:50 PM, shelley1234 said:
Natalia is a better person that I would be if I was her. The grace and forgiveness she has shown to Michael is not somethign I think I could do.
I wonder if her feelings changed once she will have watched the episodes. And how he is still manipulating and lying to discount his part in what happened to her. How his lawyer was painting Natalia as the problem over and over again. That she was violent. That she was overly sexual. That she was manipulative. Michael's lawyer works for him, so he is working on his behalf.
I hope Natalia continue to find peace and the answers she seeks.
And maybe she was! Maybe she did have weird sexual obsessions and maybe she did physically act out! It would make sense with her history. But none of it changes the caregiver culpability. That's the saddest part, is that there's this subtext that if Natalia did even a handful of the things they've accused her of, it justifies the abuse in some way. It doesn't matter!
On 1/4/2024 at 8:47 PM, MagicEyes said:Also I want an explanation for why her adoption by the Barnetts happened so quickly. It's all very suspicious.
I think everything that comes out of Michael's mouth is a lie, which in a way makes things easier because we don't have to wonder whether it's true or not. Has he ever said anything that turned out to be true?
I think your second paragraph here is probably the answer to the first! They mentioned in the second season at some point that the Ciccones didn't legally relinquish their ties to Natalia until about 6 months after the Barnetts picked her up. It wasn't quite the quickie adoption Michael tried to make it sound like.
I can't stop thinking about Michael saying in season one that this mental institution just gave her back to them, insisting there was nothing they could do and that she was a danger. As if.
On 1/7/2024 at 2:17 PM, shelley1234 said:Also, one more comment about Michael's slimeball of a lawyer. He seemed so much more like he was Kristine's lawyer. Spinning Kristine's dolling up Natalia as an innocent bonding between mother and child. Basically calling a 8 year old child a dirty, dirty whore. Saying that whenever Natalia goes, chaos follows as a way to blame her for bringing on her own abuse.
You'd think as Michael's attorney he would turn his attention to attacking Kristine and the abuse she inflicted on Michael and Natalia. But nah, he has little to no interest in that. Interesting choice when Michael keeps saying they both have the same monster, but Michael's attorney keeps emphasizing the monster in Natalia.
Also, I found on a reddit thread that he was suspended for 6 months in 2014 and also disciplined in 2007 for misconduct. So he seems like the best and most awesome attorney ever.
In a way he is also Kristine's lawyer, since acknowledgment of Kristine's abuse implicates Michael's complicity, so the (legal strategy) story is that it didn't happen, that Natalia was an unmanageable presence, and Michael just did the best he could in impossible circumstances.
And yes, absolutely a slimeball!
I think the awful apartment neighbor also got pretty cruelly exploited by this documentary. I have no doubt they didn't disclose to her that there is definitive proof Natalia was a child at that time, and so of course her immediate reaction to a video clip of someone she'd known only as a creepy and problematic adult is going to be based on the long-held understanding of that person she's had for over a decade. If she was given all the information and had time to process it before that, then I stand corrected, but considering this show's approach I highly doubt it.
This was such a deeply unethical documentary that I feel guilty for watching it, but now I'm just sucked in and will continue following the story. I'm still mystified as to why she can't get her legal age changed back? That has to be in the works for inevitable civil action. I can't believe Michael is still resting on "but she didn't grow at all in the years she lived with us" -- she has dwarfism! She didn't grow in height but she obviously grew in other ways. And he'd seen her once she reached adulthood, that physical change is not something that happens between 22 and 33! (Don't know why I'm looking for logic from that man.)
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On 1/13/2024 at 9:07 AM, TexasGal said:
I assumed Hegarty was retired since he’s driving Uber or whatever. Just for extra money? But he seems pretty high ranking. That was confusing to me.
I wondered too. Side-gig-slash-money-laundering front? Or maybe he was used to some previous nefarious cashflow that he doesn't get anymore and had to take this on because he was living even outside his very good high-ranking means?
Baby Reindeer - General Discussion
in Baby Reindeer
Agreed. I thought this was phenomenal, and demonstrating Donny's infuriating behavior was the whole point. I'm so relieved they never gave him some big fake heroic moment to make him finally "likable," and even that they showed how far from healing he was, even in the end. Very honest.
Yes, I thought they did a great job illustrating why she "picked" Donny. (And of course at the same time, it's wrong-headed to assume that abusers can only pick someone understandably appealing. That's not how these fixations work!)
Me too -- obviously Donny is light years from turning into a Martha, but after all his own hurtful, damaging behavior he had the compassion to understand the trauma that could've led someone else to it as well.
Possibly my favorite series of 2024 so far.