Kirsty

The game of pall mall was great fun! And Daphne knows. Good episode. It successfully switched track for Anthony/Kate. Before this episode they were only competitors trying to best one another and constantly getting exasperated and angry at each other. In this one they also laughed together, made some kind of peace, and finally almost kissed. It kicked off a new chapter. The flashbacks were great. Loved Anthony's Flashback Hair! Hated the misogyny maternity services of two hundred years ago. But mainly they gave an insight into Anthony's relationship with his mother. He went from her child to the head of her household overnight, when he was a traumatised teenager and she was in no position to help him. And finally we're made to understand Anthony's thinking on what constitutes a successful marriage ie. pain avoidance. He's trying to be sensible. Edwina is sweet and agreeable. What could possibly go wrong? This exchange made me laugh: "Oh come see the baby, Eloise!" "Why? Has he changed since I saw him last?"

I suppose if Simon was still on the show, his main role this season would be Anthony's friend and confidante. Like, it would be Simon getting a shave next to Anthony and talking about "the sister", instead of Benedict. Anyway, my main takeaway from this episode is that Kate is a shocking bad loser. Twice this episode she doesn't accept defeat in a gracious or sporting way. Instead she'll take her ball/sister and flounce in a fury, almost knocking over the footman on her way out the door. I have to be honest, it makes her seem like an asshole. I'm even slightly impressed that the show is prepared to feature a heroine who behaves so badly. Given that she's described by Julie Andrews/Lady Whistledown at the start of the episode as a "rather prickly spinster of a beast", I take it the show knows what it's doing. I wonder what else was going on with Kate at the end of that soiree evening when Anthony won Edwina to his side. Is Kate jealous? Or is it about Edwina going against her? At the races, Kate could take Edwina home with her when she departed in a rage. At the soiree, Edwina stayed with Anthony. Good for Edwina, though. It would be hard to respect her if she let Kate push her around all the time. I like that Mrs Bridgerton tries to advise Anthony, while Lady Danbury is a wonderful mentor for Kate. As for the subplots, Eloise's obsession with Lady Whistledown is getting repetitive. But the new Lord Featherington is intriguing because I've no idea where that plot is going, and because he can actually have a romantic happy ending this season. I know that's not true of Eloise, Colin, or Benedict, because the Bridgerton family is allowed only one new happy couple a season! It's the Bridgerton quota.

Anthony was overbearing last season. I'd forgotten how high-handed he was about arranging a match for Daphne until I rewatched. It was quite unattractive. In fact he behaved a lot like Kate is doing now with her sister ie. acting as gatekeeper, scaring off potential suitors, and deciding what's best for her. I think that first Kate/Anthony meeting on horseback was really important for setting up the season. It was just the two of them meeting as strangers, away from the rest of society and without anyone's knowledge. They competed, which set the tone for every other encounter so far; they enjoyed the competition; and then when they spoke for a moment, each one called the other out (on being a bad loser, on being lost). And the main thing is, each one came away liking the other. You can tell because when Kate sees Anthony again, she follows him round the ballroom. And when Anthony sees Kate again, he looks delighted. Oooh. That's why she was so angry at him after eavesdropping! She was crushed. I'm so glad there's a reason for that. I didn't get that Kate took what she overheard as a blow to herself, so I thought her anger and their quarrel was just manufactured drama. Thanks for explaining. So that's why she gives him a verbal slap.

Yay! It's such a treat to have another slice of this show. I've been looking forward to its return so I actually rewatched some of the first season last week. Phoebe Dynevor was excellent last season and Daphne was (mostly) lovely. But to change things up, I like that Kate is a very different variety of heroine. She's not simply self-possessed; she seems accustomed to running her sister's life as well as her own. She's not intimidated by Lady Danbury. She's not worried about offending her by abruptly leaving the ball. And she's not concerned about offending Lady Bridgerton either. Actually, in the opening episode she has shown no fear of anything. Fear is not her problem! And neither is pleasing other people. I'd say Kate is headstrong, and with the sweeter, milder younger sister surrounded by suitors, I wonder if this Julia Quinn book was inspired by The Taming of the Shrew at all? I loved that story in the nineties movie 10 Things I Hate About You, and I like this riff on it, if that's what it is. It's good the way Anthony spelled out that his wife will be the new Lady Bridgerton so she'll have to run things. Kate seems born to run things! Edited to add: I appreciate that the writers gave Nicola Coughlan from Galway the opportunity to put on an Irish accent this season!

Totally. I would expect people from Bertha's former life -- probably family -- to show up and unintentionally threaten her good standing in the eyes of all the old moneyed snobs she's trying so hard to impress. I just hope the show doesn't lay on the Irish stereotypes too thickly for her family members or it will be v cringe-inducing. 😆I know, right? Bald servant is still skulking about mysteriously in the finale, like some guy who just spotted his ex in the supermarket aisle. But you didn't miss anything. What do people here think Julian Fellowes' strengths and weaknesses are as a writer? I think he can create good female characters. I particularly like that he doesn't try to make all his heroines nice people. Lady Mary wasn't nice, nor is Bertha Russell, and f*ck the haters. And I know from Gosford Park that he can write good, sharp dialogue when he tries. Withering put-downs, and passive-aggressive jabs. I like that his world view isn't especially romantic and he's very concerned with money and class. But his stories are often overly broad and lacking in subtlety, he's terrible at plotting out a storyline, and he sometimes fails at taking the viewers along with him. So on Downton Abbey, I'd say most viewers just wished the Bates Crime & Punishment saga would end.

The explanation of the Raikes story that you quote here from the Julian Fellowes interview is more interesting to read than the plot was to watch. The Marian/Raikes romance was so unappealing that I eventually thought it was deliberate and we were supposed to be rooting against it. We never got Raikes' point of view. I never knew what was going on with him so they failed to convey his story. The relationship was dragged out all season, and the destination turned out to be as dull as the journey. I didn't think that was possible! But... he's still at the office because he changed his mind? That's it?! So much money is poured into the beautiful sets and costumes. Yes, the ball looked great. But the writing is a disappointment.

Same. I really hope the pay-off is good, and not just some off-screen action followed by a handwave-y explanation. But at this point, I'm mainly hoping that the pay-off comes next week, so we don't have to wait until next season for Marian/Raikes to go up in flames. This shit is draaaagged out enough already. I think the season is too short for a show with a cast of this size. There isn't time to get around to everyone or to make me care about the minor characters. Bertha continues to grow on me. Good character. But the show is slow and low-stakes. It's nice, easy viewing but I wish it was actually compelling.

Yeah, that was a cute moment when George, on stage, lifted his hat to Bertha below in the carriage. She looked thrilled. Bertha is growing on me. And the spectacle of the building lighting up with the awed crowd watching was probably the highlight of the show so far. But Marian/Raikes is such a drag. Am I supposed to think Marian loves him now? She barely knows him. It's like her aunt is being unfair to Raikes so Marian wants to give him a fair shot. She'll go almost to the altar for the sake of fairness. We all know Aunt Baranski will be proved right about this guy, and the show is dragging it out forever. I'd like Marian to at least keep getting scenes with Larry the wannabe architect while we wait for the other Raikes shoe to drop, so to speak. If Downton Abbey is anything to go by, then Turner isn't going anywhere.

The most predictable storyline for Gladys would be... Keeping her locked up and sheltered ensures that she stays naive and ignorant, she doesn't trust her family/mother's judgment, and she longs to break out of her prison. That combination makes her ripe for exploitation by a worldly fortune hunter, especially if her mother doesn't approve of him. So maybe she'll elope with Oscar, thinking it desperately romantic and liberating at the same time. At the concert, when Marian told Bertha that Raikes has no money, the Fane husband and wife exchanged a look. What do you think that meant? Raikes is so dull I'd prefer if he fell under a carriage, but perhaps he's secretly shady or secretly wealthy. Anything to liven him up! I agree with whoever said that they had thought Larry/Marian was the key romantic pairing because Larry and Marian got a meet-cute, and because one belongs to the principal new money family and one to the principal old money family. But it has gone nowhere. Larry's character has gone nowhere, let alone his relationships. He was barely in this episode. Bertha is an interesting female character. She's a proud, cold, ambitious woman. Unfortunately those qualities would be more effective in someone who could make their own way in the world in this period ie. A man. Soft power is the only kind open to her, and I hate to say this shit but you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Imagine if Bertha was the most charming, sociable woman in the room, always laughing and with friends everywhere. People would *want* to be with her. Anyway, my main issue with the character is: has she had any victories of her own? Everything seems to be contrived by her husband. I know he's doing it because he loves her, but it makes her seem a bit useless. Even this week's dog rescue ploy failed! I would like her to be able to succeed in her own realm while he succeeds in his. But I guess he's trying to buy that for her. I thought Marian assuming things about Peggy and surprising her family was a good story development. Totally rang true, showed Marian up painfully, and I didn't know Julian Fellowes had that in him.

I guess the Russell's lady's maid is letting Mr. Russell know that she's available, should he be interested in having an affair. She's gambling with her livelihood. The Russell children are nice but not interesting. (Their parents are the opposite.) The son, Larry, is lovely to look at, and very pleasant, but that's it. I wonder if we just haven't got to know him yet, but maybe there isn't anything more to know! Maybe he's an agreeable Charles Bingley type. Marian is more interesting than him because she has a stronger personality — presumably taking after her aunt. But then the primary romance of Downton Abbey was Lady Mary/Matthew, where she had a strong personality like her grandmother, and he was a nice man who would inherit everything. The end. Of course, you could also say that Marian/Raikes is a little like Lady Sybil/Branson, where she's a well-meaning aristocrat who wants to change things, and he's a very determined working man who's smitten by her. The problem is that I don't find either of Marian's potential romances compelling! To make it compelling, one of the characters would have to be a huge snob, and the other would have to be new money or someone from old money who disregards the rules. Because that is the central conflict of the show. Then they would clash, sparks would fly etc. But, judging by Downton, I think Julian Fellowes prefers more harmonious romances.

I agree with all the comments that it was a weak but enjoyable season. I'd have liked if the show could slow down some of the plotty developments, but I guess there were a lot of story threads to tie up before it ended. The pacing was an issue this season. I loved the ending Molly got. I liked how awkward Taurean is and I liked them together, even if we didn't see much of it. I didn't find Nathan stepping back to be out of character. I can believe that he wanted out of the messy shit because its not good for him, or that it was too much too soon for him and he was in over his head, or maybe he didn't trust what he and Issa had for good reason. I just don't know if it was supposed to be a healthy choice for him (to admit that it wasn't good for him), or if he was running away as he always has, bailing when the going gets tough. Like maybe the show was playing into Nathan's character flaw? In any case, Kendrick Sampson is ridiculously attractive. Over the seasons I had hoped that the Lawrence character would be jettisoned. But given that he was still getting his own episodes in the final season, his reunion with Issa was inevitable. I wasn't excited about it. Good show over five seasons, I really enjoyed it, great perspective on that stage in life, and I loved the soundtrack and the look of LA. I'll continue to recommend it to people.

I liked how transparent Logan's manipulation attempts were in that final scene. It was obvious to all that he was trying to split up the three kids. It's always worked in the past! And it just made him seem more villainous. It's interesting that the big change in the season finale isn't Logan losing. That's never happened. Selling the company is new, and it's also another variety of Logan winning, which is old. The kids lose again, Kendall loses again, Shiv loses again, Roman loses again. That's the show, I suppose. It makes Logan seem very small and petty when I consider that he constantly wants to defeat his children to give himself a boost. None of the kids are allowed to leave his circle either, because then he wouldn't have anyone to play against or with. They're his favourite toys. On a shallow note, how good does Skarsgard look, stretched out under the Tuscan sun? He's a knockout.

Agreed. Gerri committed herself to exactly nothing. She committed Roman to nothing either -- I love that she said she couldn't recall if it had happened before! I take it Gerri has learned to steer around the Roy kids and their manipulations over the years. But it's not in her interest to make an outright enemy of any of them, and who would want the drama anyway? The Roy kids are kind of like in-laws; you don't have to like them but they're part of the package deal of, in this case, running the company. Same! I paused more than once because I was dying of mortification. When Roman realised what he'd done! When Logan clicked on the picture! Omg the cringe factor was sky high. Unless Jeremy Strong has chosen to move on from the show (which I doubt), Kendall in the water is just a tease. Maybe the finale even ends with Kendall at death's door as a season ending cliffhanger, but it will still be a tease and I expect him to play just as big a role in the next season. I thought this was a strong episode. Logan/Kendall was excellent; I was intrigued by Caroline's interactions with all her kids; Connor proposed; Roman's storyline did not go where I was expecting and Logan went for the merger idea; Tuscany looked fab; and it made me laugh.

I enjoy the individual episodes. This week Tom letting loose by turning over Greg's desk and trashing the room made me laugh a lot. I love some of the fantastic lines in the script. Of course I knew the birthday episode was going to be depressing but I was still moved by Kendall's sadness. But... there's so little forward momentum. At the start of the season things seemed to be happening. Logan was threatened by Kendall's move and everyone knew it. That shook things up and made for good drama. But as the season progressed, everything returned to the status quo and the show is stuck there. I don't usually watch shows that press the reset button at the end of each episode. That's what this show is starting to feel like. Like you could just watch an episode here and there for fun and the order doesn't really matter. This week they try to make a deal at a birthday party, the sibs quarrel and Logan growls. Next week they try to make a deal in Tuscany and same again. Idk if that was shallow. It was one of a series of birthday disappointments coming back to back. Not that he got a watch, but that the one person who claims to care about him doesn't know him well enough to get him something he would like or find meaningful. There was nothing personal about the gift, that was the disappointing part. It could have been a corporate gift. For someone who's "shit at gifts" Naomi built it up as though it was special. And for Kendall it was one disappointment too many so he couldn't brush it off. I liked how petty the show allowed Kendall to be, between Connor's jacket and not letting his family into the tree house. It was pathetic and ridiculous. And it was also his way of hitting back, of trying to control things, of expressing his disappointment with how the night was turning out. I can be a petty asshole sometimes (I'm not proud) and that shit rang true. Edited to add: When Kendall started to cry, and he said "I wish I was..." did anyone else think he was going to say "dead"?

Huh?? You've lost me. The number of episodes in a season is on IMDB and Wikipedia, and I'm sure it's in entertainment news pieces all over the internet. There isn't anything here to dispute.

There are three more episodes, which makes it a nine episode season.

A commenter on the Guardian recap of this episode put Logan's comment about Peter Munnion together with Kendall's age ie. Logan said that Kendall's mother's new fiance is a man who has been sniffing around her for forty years, right? And Kendall is turning forty. So what if Logan is not Kendall's biological father? It would be one hell of a twist! And it might push Kendall over the edge. But it's such a fundamental change that I don't know if the writers would do it.

Well, it's not confirmation bias, because I thought Roman was into older women. Why would I expect or look for sexual tension between him and a random male political candidate? What bias would that confirm? It was very surprising. I'll admit I don't know if it was intentional, though. Like I genuinely don't know if that's what I was supposed to take from that scene or if the scriptwriters were just as surprised as me when they watched it! It was there, and I'm giving the actors credit for it, but that doesn't mean that anything will come of it.

I don't know how you get two actors to generate sexual tension when they're talking about politics from opposite sides of a bathroom, but the guys playing Roman and Mencken did a beautiful job. I'm very curious about where that might go. Given Mencken's politics, he's probably wildly homophobic. And Roman's sexuality must be deeply repressed. But then Roman is so damaged and dysfunctional that it's hard to know what's going on with him behind all the jokes. He's pitiful. If Logan notices the vibes between Roman and Mencken, I guess he could use it to destroy Mencken's conservative support. I'm enjoying the show but it does feel like it's spinning its wheels. I wonder if this is one of those shows that must maintain the status quo from first episode to last? It teases you with the idea of dramatic changes -- Tom going to prison, Logan taking a step back, Kendall winning for once -- but in fact everything will stay the same until the series finale. I can see myself getting frustrated with that. This episode is the first one I've watched where I felt that way.

Nooooo! I was counting on this show to get me through the festive season! That is so disappointing. Its the perfect Christmas show, too.

The sequence with Midge's TV spot has to be the highlight of the second season. It was very enjoyable to see the positive reactions in all the various rooms where her colleagues, her acquaintances, her friends, and her family were watching her light up the screen. Well played, Midge and Susie.

Nothing illustrates Joel's role as The One for Midge better than the flashback to his marriage proposal at the start of this episode. I might not like his pushy style in that scene, but there was singing, dancing in the middle of the street, and an audience. On this show, that's how you do a proposal. I think Midge found it crazy romantic and it was a very happy memory for her. Unfortunately for Dr. Ben, he didn't even get a proposal scene. And the flashback to Joel's romantic proposal came right before the scene of Benjamin discussing his bank statements with Abe. That was a pretty stark contrast and a bad sign for Dr. Ben. Unfortunately for me, Joel the unattractive ex is not what I want out of a cute show like this. Brosnahan is a star; the costumes are fabulous; the music and dancing are fun; and I love the period details like the baby drawer at the hospital, or the 1950s TV studio for the telethon. Joel is the bum note. Critics praising this show use words like 'dazzling', 'swooning', 'sparkling', and 'charming'. Zegen is miscast as the romantic lead on a show that fits those descriptors. I would love a romantic storyline for Midge in this sweet confection of a show, so it's too bad her love story always comes back to Joel.

Good episode. I love that Midge enjoys all the resort activities. She really cares about doing them and excelling at them. Her zest for life is a very attractive quality. Midge's outfit for the journey back to the city was adorable, her radio routine in Benjamin's car was funny, and then I enjoyed her date. It's a good sign that her comedy routine in the car is what made him ask her out, also a good sign that she took him to a comedy club and to the Stage Deli, and even better that she came clean about her big secret. He passed a couple of tests there, plus Zachary Levi's delivery of "So it's not a terribly well-kept secret" made me laugh. It's odd to see him playing a serious adult character. I guess Benjamin is supposed to be a smart, serious guy (like her father and her brother) with a dry sense of humour, who can play the straight man to Midge's larger than life personality. But I keep expecting Zachary Levi to break into song, or do something wacky. The interlude with Lenny Bruce was delightful. He's like her comedy fairy godmother. I don't know a single thing about the real Lenny Bruce, so this is not a knock on him, but I'd find attempted sexual assault more realistic than this guy scattering magical comedy dust every time he shows up. So I'm glad this isn't a realistic show! First Abe finds out Midge has been arrested more than once, and now he finds out she's the dirty comic. I wonder which is worse, from his point of view?

I enjoyed this episode. The resort looks lovely and quaint, and I want to stay in that house on the lake with its sunroom! Imagine spending two months there every summer. Actually a summer of drama at one of those resorts could be its own show. (I'd watch.) But if Amazon is pouring money into this show, then this was a fun way to spend it. I liked getting to see Midge, Rose, and Abe happily enjoying themselves together. Zachary Levi is an interesting arrival on the scene. His character's personal philosophy of staying away from people is obviously supposed to be wrong. But I don't know whether that's setting him up to be wrong for Midge as a result, or just ripe to fall for Midge and to find it impossible to stay away from her. Either way I like seeing him in 1950s clothing, or what I think of as 'old man clothes'. I could see parallels between this show and Gilmore Girls, but I hadn't realised until now that if Midge is Lorelai, then Susie is Luke.

It doesn't make sense to me that Midge doesn't even consider quitting comedy for Joel. It's the 1950s; she's never had any ambition to be anything other than a wife and mother until now; she doesn't have a comedy career yet because she only took it up a few months ago; and it's the only thing standing in the way of her marriage.