gesundheit

Me too, it's pretty heartbreaking. I know they'll do their best to keep viewers up on the various goings-on but they're not going to be able to have the budget or reach to do the scope of their current stories. Home visits? Probably on a little camera phone at best. All these great talking heads with adopters and parolees and the family, etc., will probably be a thing of the past. And it's going to be the hardcore viewers, rather than the folks flipping through on their couch who might actually change the way they see things because of what PB&P is depicting. One of the terrible things about our incarceration system is how the meaning-making job skills some people are lucky enough to get inside, they can't really apply on the outside (for instance the many states that put them to work as firefighters but will not hire parolees for same). Getting to use those skills that helped shape a new way of thinking but now to make an actual living? So critical for success after incarceration. Seven episodes this season, right? So only three more? Wow. I'm going to bawl, I just know it.

I was delighted to see several filming notices for this show in midtown today. It's happening!!

And of course delivered by that actress sounded about as significant as "Can you hand me that pen"

Oh wow! That really blows my mind. I guess that's why this became such a big story, she had connections. From the documentary I just thought they were some nutty family with a wild story, I didn't realize she'd had a legitimate acting career for two decades! Interesting that they played that down in both this show and the doc. (Since this is the finale are we allowed to talk about that kind of thing now?)

Hey, at least Amanda tied her hair back so we didn't have to be distracted by her weird asymmetrical 'do! Exactly, I was cracking up that they had her nodding in agreement and even smiling a little. This girl thought she was hot shit for her situation with that rapist, "one day you'll get it" is a perfectly acceptable and true thing to say, but it's not going to move the needle for a 17-year-old! Also, somehow she had been able to keep this secret for over a year but gushed to a total stranger on the street that she'd had a "relationship" with Paolo? Sure, sure. I was honestly dumbfounded that they were just standing there.

I really liked how they represented Jan's gradual realization that everything was a lie, the world is as it was, nobody's going to vaporize. That was my sense, too. I think the show moved too slowly in the early episodes but then too quickly in the finale. She tells her parents she was raped for years and that she thought she was an alien, they hug, and then we just wrap it right up? I needed a much, much longer denouement. And it's their fault for doing such a good job making me care about the family to the point that I'd want to see more about the aftermath rather than just feeling good that it's all out in the open (and B's dead). Yes, I guess her early love for acting came with some real talent! I was nervous about it since I knew it was coming, but she did a nice job. Dopesick was really really well-done but they should not have moved forward with shooting it until they fixed the ridiculous wigs. Distracting throughout. I think my favorite of the genre was The Dropout, but then again I'm not sure it's fair for me to hold those up against this one, as those had massive scope and this really was an intimate drama of what one man did to one family.

I absolutely loved this and found myself surprisingly emotional about it! Did not expect that. I didn't get the impression she would really run litigation, just that she was going to be her usual pushy self and aim way above anything rational and Diane would eventually give in and give her a junior associate job. But who knows, with the way her journey was treated on this show she's probably be the next SCOTUS justice by next summer. I was thinking the whole episode how sad I was that they skipped the credits. Little did I know! I got very un-sad!

I'd be into that, I just need to part ways with B!

I'm nervous about the finale now that I see it listed everywhere as the "Season One Finale." I need this to wrap up!

This episode was way too much fun. Just every damn part of it. From a distance I enjoyed them. But his deepest values supported taking away her rights and, from her perspective, being a passionate and public advocate for something that kills children. There's a point at which it stops being a game of opposing ideas like some sort of thought experiment or debate club and starts being about life and death consequences. If her beliefs are real, and I think they became more so over the course of the series (as opposed to a more generalized ideology), she cannot abide that. Just as a pro-lifer who really does truly believe that abortion is killing babies could not possibly stay in a relationship with someone who advocates for it. They don't differ on the size of government or the estate tax. It's fundamental. I don't believe in the slightest that she married him hoping she could change him, I think she changed from someone who loved the thrill of political maneuvering and debate and the "game" to someone more and more disgusted with the idea of the damage caused by those games. It was a heartbreaking but necessary breakup. Frankly the only reason they lasted this long is because they so rarely had to face the day-to-day together. I am thrilled with everything they've done with Carmen this season after being somewhat baffled by how they used her before. Just sparkling on every level. And as a person with a general distaste for Marissa, I've also completely warmed to her this season too! Will the miracles never cease?

I really enjoyed this pair of episodes, Patrick really sold the grief over his ex-wife -- so he's probably the killer but also maybe doesn't know it? And dissociated after the Fire Island incident or something, and is somehow seeing himself do some of this? I don't know! Also, did Patrick take the dog? Something's going to happen to that Papillon. Now I kind of want to go back and watch some earlier scenes to see if there were hints that certain folks knew each other. I do love a reveal like that! I can't wait to meet Whitely's mother, maybe a surprise cameo from a former AHS stalwart? Conroy? Lange? Bates? I do recall months ago seeing AHS signs for street closures in some very non-AHS locations, and now I see why. It's been kind of fun trying to identify the digitally-altered locations. I've noticed a lot of productions using way-Upper Manhattan or the outer boroughs for 70s/80s NYC scenes meant to be in midtown/downtown. That does make some sense, aesthetically. Less contemporary-looking development.

This is the thing I'm most looking forward to seeing -- how does everyone find this out, how do they react to it, and how do they deprogram her? That seems like a lot of ground to cover in the finale! My god B is so vile. My stomach turned clear over in that scene with his brother when he said there was nothing to worry about because "she doesn't even have her period yet." His brother looked horrified, sure, but that's miles past the moment you better snitch on your brother.

I think it was more just like, "Fine by me if mother nature intervenes" rather than an intentional killing. THANK you. I do not understand this asymmetrical 'do at all! For a couple weeks I just thought that was the way it "fell," like the longer hairs were pushed behind her right shoulder, but nope. It's dramatically shorter on one side than the other. The main thing that cracked me up in this episode was the defense attorney thinking he'd really done something there when he asked that one witness why he didn't care about the fudged scores prior to the DA offering him a deal. Yeah, and? He literally recorded proof of the fudged scores and the bad guy admitting he was qualified unqualified swimmers in exchange for sexual favors. Pointing out his own questionable motivation didn't undermine his proof at all! I was dying at the attorney's smug little "that's what I thought" moment. So what!

I agree. It's chock-full of Broadway greats and it's got actual tension and scares. The last two episodes have had genuinely scary endings. (Though I do think the doubling-up of episodes waters that down a bit -- episode 3 would've led to a suspenseful week of waiting.) It's working for me so far (except for the immediate wilt that happens in Billie Lourd's scenes). Mantello seems like he's in Normal Heart, which is kind of weirdly great in AHS.

That was definitely my impression. Although what did Jake confess that got him sent to the rehab? I can't even remember. I feel like Season 3 might implicate the principal somehow since she pushes that rehab center so hard for some bizarre reason, but this show doesn't seem that interested in adults as major players. Me too. I know forgiveness is coming but that betrayal was pretty massive and offensive, so letting someone back in as a human can work but letting them back in as a romantic partner after she was so reckless just because she wasn't allowed to override literally every other person's opinion? Nah. Bring on Janae/Addy.

Pretty effective final scene.

I wonder if that FBI agent resembles anything that actually happened. (I'm not asking for true-story spoilers! I'm just watching and wondering.) Both actors in that bishop/FBI scene were excellent. Well hey, at least the Mormons and the Catholics are being called out here! Equal opportunity institutional negligence accusations! It's so sad to watch her look so scared and skeptical but then just light up and bounce right back when she sees B. He programmed her so well and isolated her from being able to be her real self around anyone else. No wonder she was ill enough to buy the whole thing, hook line & sinker. McKenna Grace is really good in this. Of course he claims he came up with The Bionic Man and is getting a quarter-million dollar advance on his memoir.

It's mind-boggling but this is precisely why she and any children cannot give valid consent. And he brainwashed her much younger.

Agreed, playing an idol for Elie would've been a fast backfire on her. Elie was understandably upset about Sami & Owen ratting her out to Gabler, but she handled it by lashing out instead of trying to smooth things over. She found out she was a target and made herself a bigger one in response. Going straight up to people and essentially saying, "You are now on my shitlist, but also you better vote with me now" is never a good move!

This was a fun other-POV episode, but it kind of highlighted one of the biggest problems for me with the series. It feels like we're steered to dislike anyone who's against the Murder Club, but to any logical and decent human observer, they are all horrible, awful human beings. (And really, they kind of are in the sense that they will do any shitty thing SS demands of them, no matter how cruel or destructive, to protect themselves from having to tell the truth.) So basically they've all agreed to be cartoonishly horrible people in exchange for their secret being kept, and apparently with no end in sight. Essentially seeing it from the outsiders' point of view has made me even less sympathetic to the protagonists than I already was. And sure, maybe that's the point, but I'm skeptical this show is working on that level of sophistication! This show also suffers from "People Who Do Not Follow Up On Things Any Human Would" Syndrome. Zero chance Janae wouldn't have sat down with the others and come up with some explanation for the murder board to offer to Vanessa. Zero chance they'd just let her walk away and shrug it off after finding out Simon Says is blackmailing her too. I really thought this was going to be the episode that brought Vanessa into the club fold, but nope.

Yes, plus in the school break episode where everyone went back home, wasn't Lydia the friend on whose behalf Lucy punched that guy?

So the chatter at the wedding made it seem like Drew is no longer living, right?

Even older, my minimum wage college job paid far less! Also isn't Stephen supposed to be so charismatic? Surely he could charm the country club members!

Oh, I thought we were meant to see the knuckle tattoos -- did he already have those in 2007? I thought the same thing about the no-ring too, but then the tattoos stood out, plus he immediately dangled a fiancee.

This episode was quite the placeholder. We pretty much knew exactly how it would play out at the moment of the inciting incident. Seriously every beat of it -- we knew Bronwyn would sing something sexy and look and sound really hot and confident while doing it, we knew somehow Kris would soften, we knew Janae would have their gender ambiguity affirmed, etc. And we definitely knew something would miraculously keep them from turning themselves in, and that something would be extremely unconvincing. Also, great idea to cover yourself in glitter and get drunk immediately before turning yourself in to the police! I'm sure that would go great!