gesundheit

I'm feeling pretty similarly to everyone else. Like, now we have a new guy? So now we have two "man coming to terms with his sexuality" storylines, one in the present and one coming out in pieces from the past? I don't think we're even supposed to remember that, because I don't think we've heard anything from him before. He's been there, having significant-looking reactions to other people's stories (especially Dee Dee's), but I honestly don't remember him ever talking before. It's too much. If they wanted to follow this many people, they should've had more of them from the jump instead of basically introducing them and asking us to care this many episodes in. Yes, I'm aching for her to just tell the daughter she cannot afford it. She's absolutely got the right instinct to protect her daughter from ugly truths, but unfortunately the lack of money is cold fact. I think that might've been the implication at the end? I do like Sam, even as a late add. Dee Dee must be so irritated though, that somehow she became the group mom. Everyone keeps coming to her with their problems. Doesn't that grief group have a facilitator?? (He always looks bored on the rare occasion that they show him.) It's been bugging me this whole series that the grief group is in NYC when obviously people on the plane could've been from anywhere, it could've been a connection, they could've been flying home, etc. I'm such a dope that it didn't even occur to me till this episode that there's probably another grief group for the crash's bereaved in LA. (Oh god, they'll probably start making us watch their stories out of nowhere two episodes from now!)

Definitely the most interesting episode since the premiere. I'm okay with this show being hit-or-miss as long as it's sometimes hitting! Unlike a lot of the others, I didn't immediately figure out exactly how the flashback story was going to play out, so it really had me guessing about what had happened and what the trial charges were. Great performances, too. And of course Billy Porter knows how to put on a show!

Yes! Not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but a hell of a lot of fun. He got to fully show his range in the American Crime anthology series, he was so so good in those.

Does anyone know how closely these episodes adhere to the original series? I'm wondering if some of the sloppiness is due to some of the legal procedures that stood as obstacles in the UK version not really functioning the same way in the US criminal justice system, with the showrunner staying too close to the originals. Or is it really just the series premise that's been adapted here? (I have to imagine the series premiere for the US version was a stateside-only story for sadly obvious cultural reasons, but I'm not sure about the others.) I'd imagine because it's the most realistic, given the preponderance of wrongful convictions for Black men. They did seem to at least be trying to have something to say on that. I always wonder in situations like that if the little girl hasn't even been told what the story is, which is preferable to me -- I don't want to watch a nine-year-old play that kind of trauma. But they could certainly direct her to look sad or confused! Anyway, with some of these (like this one and the first one), I'd actually love a follow-up episode. With the second and third episodes I was grateful they're just one-episode arcs. MJW gave a strong performance. As did Wendell Pierce, as always! (And with Clark Johnson directing, a little The Wire reunion! With Robert Wisdom in that other episode, seems to be some common denominator. I hope there are more to come.)

Ah thank you, I guess I wasn't watching very closely! (Or my memory is trash, equal chance of both)

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about Marge, thanks for the reminder! This was 100% how I took it and found it very clever. Not a false flashback at all, just not the zoomed-out, full-info "version."

Maybe I'm overidentifying with Charlie here but I have to confess: if you asked me to name all the current (or event recent?) professional fighters in any genre of professional fighting? Manny Pacquiao is probably the only name I could come up with. (I have no idea if he's current, even, just that he's a known name even to people like me who are totally clueless about that world.) (I also had no idea he's Asian.) I can't imagine there's much that can be proven at all considering Keith and two other people already opened up the car and poked around in it. They showed her though -- she looked pretty burned up, but was certainly talking. I don't think that was supposed to be imaginary. It's funny, one thing I was thinking about right before I started this episode was whether or not they'd ever give Charlie a romantic situation or at least a one-night stand in one of these episodes, and then that was the first time there was even a spark of anything! The show certainly doesn't need it but I do wonder if/how such a thing will ever come into play beyond this small bit.

I don't know about this show. Good actors, good stories and characters (for the most part), but there's something kind of hackneyed about the smaller moments. Shay's dialogue. Adrianna's silly, question-evading speech getting a standing O?? ("You don't want to see me before coffee!" Cringe.) "There's no playbook for this." John couldn't just tell the angry people at the bar that he was a family member of the one crash survivor? Mystery girl at the bodega acting like she had something urgent to tell Edward but spending every moment of her available time just telling him to be quiet? Anyway, this week's episode was definitely a backslide for me. Also, it's nice that everyone understands Edward may need a wider berth than most 12-year-olds, but no, in fact, he cannot "sleep wherever he wants." I'd imagine Shay's mom did not want to inherit an extra kid but has too much compassion to tell him he can't just stay there every night. For now. Connie Britton continues to be the magical entity she is, though. And I'm glad we finally got a little more justification for those big moments with Rescue Dude in the first episode. And Amanda and her fiance's brother hadn't had nearly enough to drink to be making terrible decisions like that! I also feel like we hadn't spent enough time with her for a moment like that yet?

Rian Johnson. Brief commitment. Who would turn it down? Irresistible gig.

Well color me surprised. Best episode in a long time, how refreshing! Always wonderful to see Emmy!Nominee! Richard Cabral strutting his stuff (he does stunted and tortured so well), no irritating Muncy conflict, only appropriate amounts of Benson, and in a legit Fin episode for once, and a Munch reference complete with an update? Beautiful.

I guess? But I have so many questions! And of course was infuriated that Dee Dee just walked away from that woman's house without asking any! (I totally understand that it's in character and works for the story, it's just not in my character, so it drove me nuts!)

Ha! I think I just did a spit-take. Right? The whole "philosophy" angle on this episode was really annoying from every angle. He was just never going to identify him? And why did he think it was the Greek guy? How convenient for the plot, despite looking nothing like the actual perp. I think sometimes the writers try to play up local color like the endless cyclists-vs-pedestrians-vs-cars battles of NYC, but you're right, this one was misplaced. Fin's usually either more compassionate or just business. Weird moment. And they all seemed fine with that as the only explanation -- in fact, Muncy even made a snide remark at the wife that it wasall happening because of her affair. Cheating's not great, but jesus. It's not her fault her husband's a psycho serial rapist/killer. (Also somehow she was too stupid to understand that she should lie and tell him the affair's over and she's so sorry, but once SVU explains it to her for one second, she's a masterly, nuanced negotiator?) Yep, that's apparently his primary character trait now. He's convinced humanity peaked in 1999? Good grief. And we know when SVU decides on a character trait, they amplify it ad nauseum. So we should brace ourselves! I'm ready for the Manhattan-vs-Bronx commentary to cease any day now. I was so excited for that big multi-episode story to end so we could get back to self-contained episodes. Guess not. Guess they think they need a cliffhanger every week now. They do not! It's the literal opposite! I did like the COTW, though. Didn't they do another "messing with traffic signals" story before? Or maybe that was OG L&O?

Also, I wonder what the point was of showing us the rescuer with a drug problem in the first episode and then never revisiting? Saving it for later? Tossing in a few "hooks" for possible future seasons of folks to go back and track?

Watched all three today. Dee Dee is a great character, I want even more of her story! And I love Kojo and Adriana and Becks. I have to say I'm not all that into Edward himself -- I'd like to spend more time with his aunt and uncle and less time with him and his new friend, but considering the title I guess this is what we'll be sticking with. The first episode was so grim but it's settling in to a nice place where there's both tragedy and a lot of hope.

Okay, so every episode is going to be wildly different in tone and style, I see. Perhaps that's the point? I don't know. But this was definitely the Lifetime Movie version of the show. In fact I'm pretty sure I've seen at least three Lifetime movies with that exact plot, just a slightly different protagonist each time. Sometimes the son, sometimes the daughter, sometimes the sister-in-law!

That's the glory of it -- minimal commitment for only one episode, but they get to work on a fun show with major players (it's clear working with Rian Johnson is major right now so he can probably get whoever he wants, plus Lyonne is pretty universally beloved as a colleague). And since it's single-episode story arcs, they actually get meaty material for their one-time appearance. Win/win. Can't wait to see who else is on board!

I'm in full agreement. The deck was stacked to an almost comical degree, and the parents dropping the charges in the middle of the trial due to a few minutes of speechifying was ridiculous. Not just dropping the charges, but inviting their child's kidnapper into her life. Gosh, I wonder what our takeway was supposed to be! I definitely preferred the first episode, this one just felt cheap. Excellent performances, though! But I hope future episodes are a little more sophisticated.

The 4th episode is more like 45 minutes (the first four get progressively shorter), so I'm glad to see they seemingly got the freedom to make each episode as long or short as it needs to be for the story.

I've been to a lot of lesbian weddings and yikes, they're usually just full of nice people celebrating the marrying couple and not so damn horny! That was really disappointing that they played Tess's very catastrophic and humiliating relapse with so much comedy. That cheesy cut to Chrishelle Whatever and her wife raising their hands all cutely when Tess was yelling about who wanted Shane to f*ck them or whatever it was? Just really tacky. The show continues to completely avoid a POV for Tess and just keep her as this isolated problem with no real inner life or perspective. It's too bad because actually one thing the show usually is good at is congruence when it comes to the comedy/drama balance. But that wasn't comic relief, it was just off. Of course, same with Micah/Maribel on the lack-of-POV-investment front. They were barely there even though these huge things were happening, but we know virtually nothing about who either one of them is as a human being. And it did seem odd that they just brought the canister home, I had assumed a medical professional was involved? But they just bought a sperm donation online with a DIY plan? And had not looked up how to do it in advance? WHAT. I guess if that's the series finale (again), I'm glad there's hope for Tasha and Alice? Otherwise, Shane's exactly who she always was, zero growth. Angie's big story got shrugged off in a deus ex machina "oh he's moving anyway and is immediately a dick about it so she sees the light!" 10-second scene. I guess Carrie was just a temp. I could go on. Everything felt both too rushed and too open-ended for me to believe they had to rush everything in case this was the end.

I was entirely unspoiled on Rose Rollins visiting the show so it took me a day to get down off my delighted high and remember the rest of the episode to comment on it. But damn. Tasha. Tasha bailed on the cop plan and is a firefighter. Tasha's voice. I think I swooned. Wow, Angie. What a disappointing and self-destructive choice. So much for the satisfying payoff of seeing that guy suffer! I have no grasp on what the hell they're trying to do with Shane/Tess. What was the point of her whole "give me another chance" overture if she could only last about 140 seconds into an argument with Tess until arriving at breaking up with her again and I guess also ending their business partnership and pulling her funding? Obviously Tess was way out of line, but she's clearly spiraling and Shane's response was the usual: immediately cut and run. Maybe it's just Dre's baby face but they read to me as so much younger than Dani. The actors are probably close to the same age, but maybe it's also the way Dani presents? Apartment rentals, sadly. ("Sadly" because I like this little family and I kind of feel like we'll lose Carrie/Misty if Finley moves out.) (If the show continues.)

Best moment of my week, I think I burned 500 calories with my belly laugh at her primal scream. I hate when they do serialized stories. The reason SVU is such a cash cow is because each dumb episode is a one-off. It's fun when years later they have a new crime that's a call back to an earlier season, but serialization only exposes SVU's many weaknesses. Nobody wants that, we just want our dumb fix! I know they feel like they have to try different things to keep up with streaming & prestige TV but every time they try they fail. STICK TO THE FORMULA. Get silly, give us some rich incestuous families or some pervy politicians. This is not a gritty gang show! Serializing it makes me less likely to tune in next week because I already know I don't like the story. It's much better to give me a new one each week and I can foolishly pretend maybe this next one will be good! 44 minutes of my life, that's all.

They said she was with her mom, but yeah, they seem determined not to integrate the OG gang with the Q gang, and now they're literally on alternating episodes. It's not a good sign. I like many of the new gen, I just want the old folks too!

Okay, somehow I can't get the "quote multiple posts" feature to work anymore but: - I guess everyone at Dana's was boozing so maybe they wouldn't notice the smell? Except for Finley, who as a newly-ish sober person definitely should be able to tell that Tess is drinking, but that would require Finley to focus on not-her-own-problems which... - as sistermagpie mentioned above, she helped fan the flames of instead of walking through the many doors her (admittedly shitty) mother was cracking open. - I love that Carrie is a neurotic mess and that there's an over-50 character on this show who has normal over-50 issues that (finally) aren't mocked due to their lack of hotness in relation to, say, Bette. This is not a show in either incarnation that has been kind to masc-of-center women, so I'm appreciating it. - I don't know why there was such celebration at a donor match, there's so much more that has to happen between that and actually sealing the deal! I was glad that they gave more time to Maribel and Micah's good relationship moments in this episode, though. It seems they've been determined all season to make us long for their split after having been so glorious last year.

Carrie better not be dead now that they're letting her be wonderful. (And of course if she's dead it'll be another storyline about how Finley's life is so cruel.)

I love Carrie's parental relationship with Finley, I'm enjoying this direction. Perhaps Carrie can help Finley find work that isn't at a bar and doesn't let her just abandon work shifts because of girlfriend drama. SO glad Hendrix and Angie are over. What even was the point of that? I hope she reports him. I've been begging for a Tasha update since this reboot began, but that wasn't the one I wanted! Come on, Alice, go find her!