vibeology

Probably my favourite moment of the season so far. That or drunk Eph a few weeks back. Corey Stoll is very good at being funny. Its a shame Eph is such a mess the rest of the time. Nora and Fet could be interesting together but the writing for them has been so lazy that its hard to care. Dutch and the more annoying girlfriend are also terrible. I like Dutch when she's with the group, but that girlfriend is a total momentum killer. I just wish this show was better plotted. I like the actors, I like the idea, but it just doesn't come together to be more than the sum of its parts.

One thing I really have not liked about this Stage vs Street is that while Travis has gotten to choreograph, we haven't seen Twitch dance or choreograph. Twitch not dancing has been pretty depressing. I love Joshua and Cyrus but Twitch always brought it as an All-Star. Also, I think its pretty shitty for different choreographers to come along and say a dance is the answer to Girls (Who Run the World). That dance was about female empowerment. It did not need a "boys rule, girls drool" response. Pharside and Phoenix can take a long break as far as I'm concerned. Not a single routine they've done this season has been anything special. That tap number was amazing. This show has slowly collected a good tap All-Star base so while I'd have preferred Aaron, Zack is pretty great. I hated the costumes; why do the tap costumes have to be so cheesy? Hailee is going to come in fourth, but when the tour is over, she's going to work the most. She's got her own personality and is still versatile. Her solo was still not great but I love she picked Paula to dance to.

Kristen Bell. I actually feel like that could make for an amazing show.

Regardless of whether Atlanta was a gettable clue (probably should have been but I think Michelle was already caught up on The Walking Dead part and was too focused on that) the bigger issue I had with it was that The Walking Dead and Sesame Street are not comparable culturally. One is a show that's been around for 40 years, that most people have seen and I'm willing to bet at least one person in that room had guest starred on the other is a fairly new show watched by a much smaller audience who is into sci-fi/horror/gore. It was not a great episode. The balloon game was fairly silly. I've loved the block game before but "words that rhyme with duck" is a very stupid category. The NFL teams was great so if the categories are interesting then its a perfectly good party game. Most of the players were not very strong. I'm going to give Michelle a pass for her grumpy face. That's just her face. It's what got her hired to play a petulant teen on Buffy and Gossip Girl. At least she seems to care about winning.

After Jim's dance last week, I do get why he went home but it's still a shock since his dance capacity is so great. That samba was wildly underpraised. Sambas are hard and Jim's footwork was strong, there was so much content and he stood up to Anya. I do agree his back and hips could have been looser, but overall that was a great performance. Nigel should have given him credit on the way out. I'm not mad at Hailee making it. She had a good week last week and a better week this time. When this show is over she's going to book so much work. She's that sort of dancer so I get why she's made it this far.

And the show established they have security earlier this season when Esther couldn't get past the lobby to see Louis. Obviously the shows goes for drama over realism but it bugs when they contradict their own episodes.

Paula Deen being cast means I'm done with this show. Internet stars, Kardashians and Bachelors I can deal with but Paul's Deen is racist. Openly grossly racist. Good to know the show is more concerned with a water cooler name than protecting their cast and crew from her vile behaviour. So I'm out. I don't care if she goes first. It's too much that it happened in the first place.

Drunk Uncle is maybe my favourite thing on SNL nowadays. Its not laugh out loud funny; in fact its actually sad. Bobby nails that drunk character. I just find it captivating, but I get why its not everyone's thing.

I don't think I was supposed to cackle with glee at that ending, but I did. In fact this continues the best string of episodes ever where someone calls Mike out on his victim complex, arrogance and other sundry bullshit with the extra fun of handcuffs! That priest had him dead to rights when he pointed out that Mike never is to blame for the things that happen in his life. Mike always finds somewhere else to point the finger. The firm drama was compelling enough. I loved Louis and Jessica's talk when Louis told her how he was going to vote. That felt very real. Also loved the vote scene. The Harvey stuff was fine. Turns out he sucks a little more than I realized but overall, it was okay world building. That being said, grown men cannot play 20 year old versions of themselves, or teenage versions. They didn't even really try with Harvey making it really hard to place where in time we were. Mike's wig situation was horrific. I know this show doesn't have a huge budget, but that was a disaster. The only real thing I hated was Donna with Harvey's doctor. I like confident Donna but everything about that scene was too much. She was arrogant and off putting.

Eph has finally found a purpose; comic relief! I loved him. So snarky now that he's always drunk. I just enjoyed everything about him in the group scenes. More of that and less Eph the superhero. We've got Setrakian for that. Coco Marchand needs to love herself. That is a creepy old man who is happy to see the city purged. That is not attractive. I can only hope she's latched on to him in an effort to stay alive rather than because she thinks Palmer is actually hot. The love triangle was boring and I actually don't care about Quinlan. We're deep into the second season and I'm not saying don't introduce new people but I just didn't connect with him. The idea that he has a more important backstory with the Master than Setrakian bugs me. Setrakian's my guy. Don't replace him with a rubber mask.

I really hoped after Megz ballroom parents reveal last week, she'd be stronger. I don't know who left could have pulled off a Paso, but her shoulders were a mess. Neptune was nice this week too. So thrilled Derek is gone. He was just blank to me. He could not connect with his partners and his solos were just the worst. Slow down, breathe, listen to the music. He just doesn't have the musicality of a great dancer. Jaja's dance was so cute. She may not have the technique, but her face is something out of a silent movie. Hailee also really knows how to sell it and connects to the music in a very real way. Gaby is top of the class right now in my eyes. It seems like she can do anything. Virgil too. I feel like they're our final two. That group stage number had nothing to do with the story. The addiction/unhealthy stuff Tessandra described did not come through at all. It felt way too happy and joyous. I did love the street number. Its hot, lets dance! Sometimes the less you make of a dance the more successful it will be. Every street cut hurts. I could still lose Jim before I'm sad on the stage side. His solo was wonderful, but that hip hop was the worst of the night.

That was more Intervention than The Walking Dead. I will say of course the show has already killed one black character and has another missing, probably dead based on the "irony" of the daughter's texts. So, it definitely a Walking Dead show. I like Nick. Nick wants to live and that is the most important skill. Plus he reminds me of Connor from Angel with the hair and the running around LA, so that's a plus for me. I don't really care about any of the other characters yet. Travis shows some promise, but zombies or no, going to that church in the night when he knows its full of users makes me think he's missing that will to live gene.

Mike cannot pass the bar. Certainly he would pass the test but there's more to it than that. There is an extensive background check that he could never get though without getting caught. Also, he is a member of the NY bar thanks to his hacker friend which would also get him caught. He's in far too deep to try to go legit. He had to either keep on lying, get caught or quit law all together.

Mike's hacker client/friend hacked into both the New York Bar association and Harvard Law and added Mike's name so a cursory search shows he's legit. Where Mike gets into trouble is when he meets people who either know him or know Harvard well enough to say that he's full of shit.

If every episode is going to end with someone from the past calling Mike out for his bullshit, this could quickly become my favourite season. When Trevor of all people thinks your life is a mess, you in danger. This season, I've been thinking more and more this show needed a time jump. I don't know exactly where it would have fit, but a few years ago Trevor was in deep with drug dealers and now he's a moral compass? Its too fast. A time jump would have allowed for Rachel to actually finish law school, for Mike to have been at the firm long enough that the partnership makes sense and would have explained how Soloff came out of nowhere to be such a big player at the firm when we'd never heard of him before. I know a time jump is getting cliched, but these plots would make more sense if we'd jumped ahead two or three years. I did really like Harvey, Louis and Jessica each making their moves to try to save the firm. Harvey has really wised up quickly and knows how to take responsibility for his actions. I like characters who grow. Louis trying to solve everything was also really telling, character-wise. He might actually get why his scheming hurts everyone and not just Harvey. Jessica was fabulous again. I really liked her last outfit and the way she dealt with Soloff and Hardman. And I liked Harvey/Louis/Donna vs Hardman. Whatever their issues are, they kept it together in the face of the enemy. The wedding stuff is just killing the show. Its all excitement, intrigue and character growth with a side of Say Yes To The Dress. I don't care how many people end up at the wedding. First off, the anvils being dropped are huge and I really don't think there is going to be a wedding. Every week Mike gets a reminder of why its a horrible idea so I assume he'll leave Rachel "for her own good" right at the end of the season and since I'm pretty convinced that's going to happen, I don't care what chef they get. Its time that could be spent at the firm. Boo once again to no Gretchen. No one should have to go without Gretchen.

The only problem with that is they'd either have to pre-tape the solos or they'd wind up with some very strange costume/makeup choices. Also it means if someone goes first its hours between them and the end of the show which isn't great for getting votes. By splitting it up everyone gets to dance in the back half of the show in some way. I know she got far in the competition last year, but Jessica was not a good partner dancer. She was the black widow last season and saw 3(?) of her partners go home. She is not someone I'd be excited to dance with even though I acknowledge her movement is beautiful. Paula has basically been filling that role all season and I think for her its genuine. She's a choreographer so I think she really does get excited to see someone else bring their work to life successfully. She knows first hand what that's like. I didn't feel like the Empire songs skewed too much towards team Street. I watched Empire and there are so many stage options, but its more likely the kids all rushed to pick songs and picked the first thing they really liked. Most of the V. Bozeman songs would suit the stage dancers, Jussie's solo songs are good fits too, Jennifer Hudson, Courtney Love, etc.. Gabi was probably at the biggest disadvantage but any sort of assigned song selection is hard for her because after weeks of no solos she probably wanted the option at least of no music.

Who is still voting for Derek. Edson isn't a superstar but at least I can remember his dances. Derek is so boring. I just don't get it. Loved Edson's piece this week, Gabby was amazing, Virgil was strong and Megz continues to totally surprise. I didn't love Neptune's number; I really wish there had been more dancing away from the table because I wanted to see Neptune do more. If the show is going to do cross promotion, the way they handled it this week with the solo songs was really good. That being said, if you're going to dance to "Drip Drop" dance to the chorus. That has to be Empire's most iconic song! Just own it.

Every time they show us the Master, it just gets more ridiculous. Thankfully there should be no more of that unless they do more Nazi flashbacks. Bolivar doesn't look quite as ridiculous. At least Lee got to hook up with bald, hot Eph before she died. I don't watch this show as closely as I should, but I feel like in "show time" Eph and Nora are still a couple? Like, they hooked up just a few days ago in Kelly's house? I guess Eph is living the whole "if he cheats with you, he'll cheat on you" thing. Or they could be broken up. Honestly, I don't really remember. I hoping now that Zach almost died, he'll get over saving Kelly and accept that she's gone. What is Gus doing with his life? Where did Dutch go? Why even bring the bodyguard back just to die? This show needs to tighten the storylines up a little, I think, to ramp up the suspense and build more atmosphere.

Ouch for UNCLE. Not even second on its opening weekend. I have no interest in seeing it. I don't care about Henry Cavill or the Winklevoss twin actor. I'm too young to have any TV nostalgia and the commercials for the movie aren't selling it to me at all. Obviously most movie goers agree with me because $13million is a huge disappointment for the studio I'd expect.

I knew Louis was up to something the moment Harvey opened up to him and Louis didn't invite him mudding or some other weird Louis thing. How Harvey wouldn't pick up on that shows me just how out of it he's become. Louis is an idiot though. He's a named partner. How does it look to outsiders if it gets out that one named partner attacked* another? How is that good for his future? For his investment in the firm? Also, and I will give Harvey full grown up points for not making a big deal about this because he was still wrong either way, but Louis kept saying he was attacked and that is not exactly what happened. Harvey sucker punched him, but he didn't throw him into the table. Louis lunged at him and Harvey moved out of the way and as a result Louis crashed into the table. Harvey was totally wrong, but Louis needs to also take some ownership for his actions in that office. I do think Harvey will find a way to win that vote, because Donna and Jessica will help him. It was nice to see Jack actually do the right thing a few times. If he's really wised up, he'd take whatever the hell Hardman has over him straight to Jessica so the whole team can work to solve the problem. As for Claire, love her. For once someone who didn't buy Mike's bullshit and actually called him out for the damage he can do to the people he cares about. He's a fraud and his actions don't just put him at risk; they put his firm and his clients at risk. I'm so sick of Mike the "good guy" being above everyone else on the show. When he went in on Rachel for messing up, I wish she'd come back at him so much harder, but at least Claire was there at the end to slap him down and remind him that his is a house of cards that will all come crashing down eventually, the only question being how many people will he destroy in the process.

Esther is basically young hot Martha Stewart. A lovely office seems about right to me.

That dance was a send you home dance if there ever was one and I'm sure both girls knew it at the first rehearsal. Not that anything would have made that a great dance, but every production choice was about making it worse. The costumes, the makeup, the lighting, the staging, the lack of closeups. The whole thing was a mess designed to send Alexia home over Derek. Yep. Every so often, Nigel does get it right. That dance was lovely because you could tell Neptune was really feeling it. I think choreography-wise, Stacey is in a real rut, but she got lucky because Neptune and Gaby really pulled this off. In this particular case, because the show wanted to make sure that no one voted to save the girls in the twitter vote. I see you show. They sent those girls under the bus to make sure they saved both guys in danger and got a balanced top ten. Nigel is no fool; he's seen the voting results of "sexy girl" dances before and he knew that by giving Alexia and Ariana and JJ and Kate those sexy numbers that neither stage girl would get that twitter save.(Although I doubt it would have mattered with Kate since she's been circling the drain since the beginning.) He completely set them up. Same with the street girls. Ariana was in that awful fish number, Yorelis went first so by the time the twitter vote happened, Neptune already had an advantage. I was going to be sad either way because I love both Neptune and Yorelis. I think JJ is far weaker, but of course the show already setup booting her with that pinup dance number so I doubt I'll be watching her for long. I get that the show wanted even number a guys and girls going into the top ten, but the way to do that is to cast stronger guys not bus the women after the fact. If Team Street hadn't wasted two spots on Asaf and Burim, maybe men wouldn't have been endangered species going into tonight. I've liked and defended Kate but that whining was over the top. She had to know that she was probably going home but still she complained about the dance style. Does she want to book work when this is over? Because that was Katy Perry backup dancer realness and Katy tours and treats her dancers well. Who wants to book her now knowing she finds it so hard?

I actually am excited about this show again. It was a long slog to this point and I don't think this episode was the best, but I'm so happy with where it seems to be going. Instead of hiding away, I'm thrilled the team has met up with the Vamp hunting officials and are sharing knowledge. So often in shows/movies like this, people don't talk but here they're trading info and ideas. It should make everyone better at dealing with the infection because now the Staten Island crew knows about silver, knows how to detect the virus faster, knows that even a little knick will kill you and knows about the light, while our team got a heads up about Kelly's Spider Kids. That's so much progress in one day. Zack is the dumbest kid ever. I get why Eph drinks. Thank you for finally losing the wig. Eph didn't need to go to Washington. If he'd stuck around and gone with the team to meet Justine, he could have handed her the vamp infection and she could have used her resources to spread it. But Eph is all about his own glory so of course he needed to go and be the hero. I don't care about the old book. I can't believe Coco Marchand is dating that old man. I get that he's rich, but come on, he's old and creepy.

That whole episode was amazing! I was smiling the whole time. Watching all the correspondents come back was like having all my babies come home. Its just incredible to be reminded of the talent that been on this show all these years making us laugh. Even with this show gone, look at how Jon's legacy has spread through TV, film and comedy. As far as Jon's goodbye, I feel like its been going on since the show came back for its final run and this was just the very last act in these three weeks. I loved Stephen's words of thanks, loved Jon highlighting the crew and the final dance party was so happy. I really do believe Jon has changed the way an entire generation comes at media and politics. For the last 16 year, he's been giving us a toolkit to interact with our world. I think it started out a bit of an accident, but he slowly showed us how to recognize corruption, call out bad journalism, how to engage, meaningfully, with political issues and how to let yourself be angry and sad in the face of tragedy. I know what to do because of Jon. I'm happy for him and I'm glad he left on his own terms. He's been looking tired these past few years. Ed Helms is right to ban him from the institute. I'm happy that Jon can choose to turn off the TV as this election cycle unleashes its crazy.

If Harvey is 40 something, why was that childhood flashback happening in 2015 instead of the early 80s? Is Harvey secretly the kid from Big and that's why he acts like a gd child all the time? As for Mike and his junior partnership, what did the secret keepers think would happen with his career? Good lawyers move up and minus the law degree, Mike is a good lawyer according to the rules of the show. Eventually someone was going to either ask why he was still an associate or suggest a promotion. I did love everything to do with Gretchen, the scene where Harvey asked Donna to dinner, their dinner and all the Louis/Esther sibling stuff. And Jessica and her wardrobe.