Eliz

It frequently seems like the celebs don't give the most useful clues because they don't want to describe someone physically -- I'm remembering a paaaaiinful instance of someone completely freezing up trying to give a clue for Melissa McCarthy. And they often don't even want to mention race. Cheryl Hines was great because she just went for it, and she showed it's possible to do it without putting your foot in your mouth.

I think this is the heart of the matter. I can easily see the exact same situation occurring and Luann 100% taking the position that Heather took -- that it was rude and even irresponsible of Ramona to let a stranger stay unattended in the same suite as two friends who didn't know he was there. But because of the way events unfolded that morning, Luann was on the defensive before she ever had a chance to understand the facts, much less form an opinion on them. And because Ramona wasn't there, Heather kept going at Luann, and Luann dug in. Then once Kristen popped in with the "he was married" bit, Luann really had to double down on the "don't be uncool" line of argument. In a just world, Luann would have dragged Ramona out of bed and made her fight her own fight, and the battle between Luann and Heather might not have escalated and hardened the way it did. Alas, the moral universe of RHNYC doesn't operate that way.

Poor Manny nothing!! He's been telling that story at brunches for months now!! I would take him to brunch tomorrow myself to hear all about it. It is funny to think of him shutting the door behind the last producer, standing there alone trying to readjust to his apartment just being his apartment, his sofa just being his sofa and not the throne from which a Countess summoned a series of peasants to be yelled at one after another.

I don't care if Kristen doesn't add a single other thing to the entire season; she earned her whole season's salary with her delivery of "he said your guy was married" and eliciting that reaction from Luann. I'm 100% Team Heather and Carole on that whole business. Ramona is unbelievable at causing the whole thing and then completely staying out of the line of fire. She is the woooooooorrssst. (She really does look great, though. Actually refreshed, unlike that year she kept telling us she was refreshed.) And Luann seemed/seems to be looking for a reason to fight with Heather. I think she genuinely didn't like them coming in her room with cameras, but how that got turned around in her mind to thinking that they were looking to "catch" her with a guy in her bed is crazy on her part. Since the big blow-up, Sonja seemed to be making a point of not getting drunk and sloppy. It's no coincidence that she's been delightful the last couple of episodes. When she's not off her rocker, she is a cute quipster.

"So Manny, what are you up to tonight?" "I'm having all the Real Housewives over to my apartment to bedazzle some shapewear. Just a low-key craft hang. I got some new coasters in case my dining table is on camera." "Okay, sounds totally normal, see you tomorrow."

But Gideon did deduce it, right? That's why he was back at the office checking on the server again at the end of the episode, I thought

That was brutal. It's just impossible to watch that and not either remember yourself in a similar situation or picture it happening to yourself in the future. It's gut-wrenching. I think Vicky is basically a disaster of a human being, and it all came out of her in disastrous Vicky fashion. But I also cut her slack in that moment. On the question of whether Bravo should have stopped filming, I think that if it really did just happen while they were already filming, it's okay that they kept going. Personally, I would have aired less of the footage, because at a certain point it started to feel gross. But I 100% believe that Vicky is perfectly glad to have it all shown. And the preview seemed to indicate that

Emily Bergl. Ruining shows for me from Chilton Academy student government meetings to the RV in the Gallaghers' side yard.

LIFE GOAL: Gloria Akilitus dancing.

pssst, Nick, in a May-December romance, the older person is December. May is when things are fresh and blooming; December is when things are shriveled and the year (=life) is almost over. xoxo, The Department of Metaphor Deployment

I know it wasn't connected to anything else, but that footage of Sonja working out in her bathroom instantly became one of my all-time favorite Housewives moments. Even if nobody had been showing her shoes. Just being in the bathroom. The things that go on inside Sonja's house never disappoint. If it weren't for this show giving her life some structure, she could easily go full Grey Gardens in no time at all. Can we get a WIG COP ruling on Bethenny's friend Robin at that lunch in Miami? I am terrible at spotting wigs, but even I thought I saw something there. Eight is too many. The complaints about too much Bethenny or not enough Heather or not enough of all of them together -- all valid complaints, in my opinion -- all come back to the bottom line that it's just too many to deal with.

Shout out to that check for being dated April 29, 2015. I love it when shows make the show-universe date match up with the real-world air date. There's absolutely no reason to do it, but I LOVE IT.

That scene with Oleg and Tatiana beeeeeping at each other is maybe the most authentic scene showing co-workers working together that I've ever seen.

The "give me a dollar" is my least favorite legal fakeroo in tv and movies. Not only is paying a lawyer NOT necessary to create a lawyer-client relationship protected by privilege; but if Kalinda doesn't know why she's giving the dollar, then giving the dollar fails to create the relationship. A relationship is created if both parties intend for one to be created. If Kalinda says, "I'm coming to you because you're a lawyer and I need legal advice," and Finn says, "okay, shoot," that's it, whatever comes next is privileged. My one other lawyer nitpick is on the whole leaked email story-line. While the inter-office trash-talk is amusing, and the Will and Alicia affair is juicy, the real problem for a hacked law firm would be the disclosure of privileged emails. It would be a major, major deal.

I agree that none of the siblings look alike, but man did they do a good job casting the teenage versions of Kyle Chandler and Ben Mendelsohn. I watched the whole series in about 4 days. Once I came up for air, I realized I didn't think it was very good. It's an amazing cast, and the show certainly has the look of a Quality Prestige Drama, but I thought most of the season it just kind of meandered and stalled.

The Chicago geography errors in this episode were worse than Ian's idea of hitch-hiking with Monica. All I care about is Lip. My mom taught at a state university in Illinois, a not-great one, where a significant portion of the student body was pretty unprepared for college. And she taught remedial freshman composition, for the kids whose writing tests showed they weren't ready for regular English 101, so she had some of the most unprepared in her classes. Many of them were the first in their family to attend college, and many were from the south side of Chicago. My mom's vibe is very no-nonsense maternal, and that attracted kids in distress who told her stories about what they were going through. On behalf of all of them, I am rooting hard for Lip to make it.

I really love that scene of McNulty and Bunk at Stringer's condo. The thing that struck me when I rewatched it recently is that it was not only new info to the detectives, but to us, the audience. It seems significant to me that as much as the show showed us Stringer's desire and attempts to go legit, and we felt we knew a lot more about Stringer than the police did, it never showed us that condo. I haven't worked out exactly what that significance is, except that it does allow us to share in McNulty's feeling of "who was this guy I was chasing." So excited for you that you're about to watch Season 4.

D'Fwan! I look forward to the 7 1/2 straight hours in which I will watch this show on March 6. And I don't even love Ellie Kemper. I just trust that the people who made this show know what they're doing.

Tara, I feel you on not following the ins-and-outs of the purported legal maneuverings. I'm a lawyer, so if I were to pay attention to what they say they're doing, it's so stupid I'd have to turn it off and never look back. The depositions on this show are the most ridiculous fictional depiction I've ever seen. Which is saying a lot.

Sometimes as you make your way through life, there are things you know in your bones to be true -- things like "Leah Remini is a garbage person who would be intolerable to be around for a single minute" -- but, even though you know it as surely as you know Scott Foley was raised so midwesternly that he says "thank you so much" to every primetime game show prop assistant who hands him a cardboard block or pair of safety goggles, you resign yourself to the fact that you'll never actually obtain proof. And then Leah Remini goes on Hollywood Game Night and provides all the proof you ever could have dreamed of.