Calamity Jane

Re: Anthony Ryan running to Michelle with what the others were saying about her having "copied" Dmitry's look - when my middle schoolers pulled that kind of s***, I called it the "Let's you and him fight" ploy. It causes the majority of conflict with that age group. Same with Irina stirring the pot in the first place. And then Michelle compounded it with her passive-aggressive "Do you have something to say to me?" All of you, if you're upset, say so. If it isn't your business, zip your lip. The whole thing gave me unpleasant flashbacks to endless spats I had to mediate. At least those were kids, not grown professionals. I did like Michelle's dress, except for a little too much glimpse of the model's butt. I didn't think Dmitry's belonged in the top three, to be honest. Juli's was the worst, but I'm sorry to see her go because she just brightened things up in the workroom.

Thank you! I knew it reminded me of something but couldn't come up with it. That's it, exactly!

Several people in my family have had weight loss surgery, and the therapy/counseling/evaluation was of the most perfunctory sort. I don't think there's any doubt more would be better, though.

Possible too that her mom is like me - I will do almost anything not to cry in front of other people, and she was definitely getting to that point. Probably it would have been a better decision not to drive away, but I completely understand the compulsion to get away from the cameras. I heard what she was saying as meaning that she was afraid of the dad, still not a good enough excuse for his OR her behavior, but a reason nonetheless. I do think keeping distance is the best plan. The relationship she has with her step-daughter gives me the best hope that her future is positive. That delighted "Mom!!!!!!" when she surprised them in Oregon was just the sweetest thing ever.

I'm only partway through, but I heard the entire first hour as a lengthy litany of victimhood, some of it truly horrific, and was predicting she would never make the needed changes. It's awesome to read here that she did turn things around, highly surprising, really. I'm always struck by how much the personality of these folks resembles that of hoarders, in that they present a pretty affable face at the outset, but it turns out that the people around them live in fear of their anger if they are pushed at all to change. All of these folks need therapy, and lots of it, and I'm glad that Dr. Now is including that more now. Brianne is young enough to have a quicker recovery than most people on this show. She has a supportive family at home, and distance from family of origin will probably be a big plus. I like the success stories!!

HVR sounds like an STD to me.

There were wood beams in the ceiling, so I'm assuming somehow they rigged something up anchoring the tree to that. It's been a long, long time (1968), so my recollection is minimal. It was impressive, though.

Yes, Bravo.com, and then the usual is that it wants my provider and a password, and then, boom, I'm good to go. This week, for some reason, I just get an endless loop of log in, pick service provider, back to log in page, pick service provider, back to log in page, and on and on and on. After ten tries, I decided to give up and wait until I get home. Arrrghhh.

Ahhh, January, when the kill-me-right-now perfume and car commercials, which lately start well before Halloween, have faded from my TV screen, to be supplanted by diet plans and tax services ads. April 15 seems like a long, long time from now.

I am unable to watch it on my computer through my service provider, either, which is my usual means when away from home. I wonder what's up with that? Can't wait to get home tonight so I can watch!!

At this point, that is why I love it.

Explains the double elimination, too. I wish they'd just done the 2-hour episode.

I got to watch a bunch of the old California shows last week before I left for the holidays, and it really struck me how much everyone has changed. The kids were so, so young! The situation in Tehachapi was so sad, but the move to Louisiana seems to have been for the best after all. I admire what they do immensely. It takes almost superhuman dedication and hard work to keep everything going, and I'm so glad there are people with the will to do it.

Yes, it was on my mind all the way through, very distracting and saddening. So far, this seems like quite a talented group, and there are no personalities that put my teeth on edge as there usually are. Even Brandon, who would seem a likely candidate to be the "villain" this time, appears to have some self-awareness and sense of humor, which go a long ways to softening sharp edges for me. I can't remember the name of the guy who bought all the lamb in #2 (Eddie??), but he seems like a nervous wreck to me. I hope he finds his footing soon and calms down. Although he seemed to settle a bit after he did well this time, his anxiety just reaches out at me from the TV screen and makes me very uneasy for him.

And even the facial expressions have been reduced to a very few. Sad walrus seems to predominate. What I have noticed increasingly the past couple of years is how many times per episode Frank heaves a huge sigh. It's to the point that I start giggling, it happens so much. If he's that weary, time to retire!

I thought it was part of a sequence of events that would end with Luke realizing they were good together/it was none of his business in the first place. They were setting up a whole scenario for them to get together, then dropped it, and it was odd. Also, I may not be able to forgive this show for killing off my beloved Sgt. Gabriel.

So many things to wonder about in this case, but it's clear Dee Dee was a master of manipulation and knew just how to pull the strings. After the HBO documentary, I felt only pity and sorrow for Gypsy, and I still do, but mixed now with a feeling she really was the driving force and brains behind her mother's death. What pushed me over to that was when she said that Nick "ordered" her to do various things during and after the attack. He just did not have the force of personality for that to be credible to me. If anyone was issuing orders, it's pretty clear it was Gypsy and she's trying to mitigate her responsibility for what he did. It doesn't change the horror of what her demented monster of a mother put her through, but it does make her more culpable than I thought after Mommy Dead and Dearest, and she's obviously more intelligent and capable of planning than she ever showed before prison. I'm glad she's getting care and socialization in prison (who would ever think of that being possible??), and I hope she can have a somewhat normal life after she is released, but I think she will need massive and consistent care and guidance for that to happen. On her own, I think she would just connect with grifters like her mother and continue down that path.

Is this the place to discuss ID's update, or is there a separate thread?

I am so glad to learn that I was not the only one. I was so emotional that the dog and both cats had to come over and check out if I was OK.

Honestly, if anyone was in big trouble at least once every year for seven years running, wouldn't you start to think that person was the problem, or at least a good part of it? Such a tired, tired plot line. First episode I've watched this season, and likely the last. Same ol', same ol'.

Holy guacamole, did Bannon get off the sauce? Find the Fountain of, well, not Youth but Looking a Bit Better? A year ago I thought he would fall down dead from seizures or stroke or something - he looks pretty good on this show. His rhetoric is repugnant to me, but he is at least capable of assembling sentences into coherent conversation. And I agree with Bill that we need to listen to people like him who fostered what's happening right now and figure out what their deepest game is. It's all about the Supreme Court, always has been, they keep their eye on the prize. Everything else they want comes more easily if they have the court for a generation. We need some of that long-sightedness on the Democrat side, and maybe the ghost of LBJ to kick some a** when needed.

Wow - I was literally thrown out of my bed in that one. I was on the second floor of a dorm in Eagle Rock, and was sure the building was collapsing. The girl across the hall from me didn't wake up until all the yelling started, though.

Just re-watched this one (it's been my week for going back to some old shows whose nuances I'd forgotten) and this time through I am just puzzled and put off by Jay. I guess it's a good thing she's there as support for Bryan, but on the other hand, it really enables the dad's disengagement with his son and his desire to shed as much responsibility for him as he can. As for the lawsuit - I have no idea of the exact circumstances, but sometimes insurance companies make you do that to get your claim paid off. Although I'd believe almost anything of that guy. The first time through I had trouble wrapping my mind around a mother deliberately committing an atrocity of this magnitude, but this time I'm not nearly as sure. I lean more to the theory that she got completely blitzed, perhaps unintentionally, on the pot and booze and in a stupor drove into oncoming traffic, but I freely admit that that could just be reluctance to accept that it could have been on purpose. Those poor, poor parents; the other families; and I do still feel the most heartache for that little boy.

Just re-watched this one with my mental-health-therapist-in-juvenile-hall-and-adult-jail daughter, and she said the case is pretty notorious in her milieu. The girl whose father is schizophrenic still just flabbergasts me - the parents said they knew schizophrenia has a genetic component, but they still reacted to her odd behaviors and reactions as if it was all within normal parameters. Not if you already have this genetic gun possibly going off! Not a word about getting her seen or checked out by a specialist. I understand the desperate hope that she would not be affected, but to me it was not a good decision to cross their fingers and hope. My daughter's reaction was unprintable; she had been under the impression the schizophrenic dad was not biologically related, and she couldn't believe they hadn't been more aware of this possibility. And the lack of parental presence during those interviews staggered me. Wow, people in Wisconsin sure seem OK with minors getting f***ed over by the system (the kid from Making a Murderer, Avery's cousin? nephew? still breaks my heart). I do not believe, however, that the Internet is the villain in this story. Those girls would have found some other urban legend or made-up crap to justify their impulse to hurt or kill someone even without Slenderman, I believe. I remember being 11 and 12, and I did not have any difficulty at all separating fact from fiction at that age. Up to about 7, maybe. Their supposed belief that Slenderman was real did not persuade me much at all. They wanted to do something evil, and they made something they saw online fit as a reason, not the other way around. PS - Just looked above and saw that I said much the same 18 months ago or so. On this second viewing, I had less sympathy for the parents than the first time through, though, especially Morgan's parents. You can see how horrible her dad feels, possibly because he is the one who passed on the gene for schizophrenia, and it's true you don't expect such dark thoughts from children that age - but they really needed heightened vigilance in the circumstances. Still a very sad story all 'round.

My daughter lives in Sonoma County, so every time we go to the city from here and come back, we go through the Robin Williams tunnel, and I get a little teary-eyed every time. What a fascinating mind he had, and how horribly tragic that his mind was what was attacked by a horrible disease. I didn't like everything he did, but he was always mesmerizing, and often you could glimpse the tragic mask behind the comic one. I'm glad we got to experience the gift of his talent!