wknt3

I really liked the Frank plot. It doesn't stand up to much scrutiny if you know anything about the issues involved, But if you can past that it was a good story. And if you can't why are you still watching this show? I like seeing Jamie and Erin working together, but wasn't there a way to do this plot without having Jamie and Eddie act like complete fools with no sense of boundaries? Maybe have them have to take everyone in at the beginning and then turn to Erin to try to keep the kid out of potentially going into the CPS system? Or have this be a recurring issue on their beat and they sense that there was something hinky going on more than they were being told? The basic idea had potential, but the only way the execution could have been worse is if Jamie and Eddie ended up adopting the kid themselves. And as far as the Danny is concerned I feel the same way about his plot as I do about Jack joining the Marines. Better this than him out on the street getting into trouble and beating people up. And it was nice to see Amy Carlson getting something to do. Maybe next episode they'll remember that Len Cariou is a great actor who can do more than sit at the table drinking wine and listening to Frank pontificate too.

I've always found the complaints about the holodeck really come down to one of two things. Writing or overthinking. Some people just don't like the show exploring other genres or doing non space focused stories. Although as I mentioned in my previous post that's pretty much been done since the beginning and I really do find it preferable to parallel planetary development, nigh omnipotent aliens scanning the data banks and recreating an environment, or spacetime phenomena that somehow always leave them on 20th Century Earth. And there are people that dislike specific holodeck stories or the way it's used. Which again applies to just about every element of the series. There are good and bad transporter stories, Klingon stories, time travel stories, etc. and the writers have overused or misused all of them at some point. The other big one is usually about the show being a show and not getting into everything we can think of. Yes we all know what humans use any new technology for, but we really don't need to think about Program Riker 69 thanks (they did hint at that aspect in DS9.) Yes they haven't really addressed all the issues that such a technology brings up and some of the details are absurdly primitive for something so advanced. Again that applies to just about everything on the show. And as they moved forward and understanding of AI has advanced they did start to explore some of the issues. Take away the holodeck and just about everything you can complain about would still be there in some other form.

But she's an amazing cop and a great leader! They tell us every damn episode! Yeah that hostage situation really bugged me. I would have had no problem with the perp killing himself or committing suicide by cop, but it was just glaringly obvious this time. At least in the past they've made some effort at contrived circumstances for why they had to go in alone. And I am in full agreement that they just keep finding ways to make Benson more annoying. It's particularly annoying that they insist on her doing everything in the field as well as running the sas there is precedent within the franchise for how to deal with this. Jack McCoy got promoted and they managed to keep Sam Waterston as the star without having him drafting briefs and arguing every case. Have Benson do more interrogations and visit victims more than previous COs and show us more of the office politics, CompStat meetings, etc. that were usually handled offscreen before. You get new stories and keep it believable! Actually she probably does have the years of service unless she made detective in less than 2 years. I'm pretty sure she has her 25 too which is better. She's probably too young to completely retire both financially (50-60% of salary plus whatever savings she has with a kid in NYC is tough) and in terms of still wanting to work, but she could easily retire from the force, collect her pension and find other work that offers a little more chance for balance. And yes it would have been nice to see a little bit more of Tucker's POV. Maybe the new unit isn't what he thought it would be. Maybe he thinks it off to a good start and he's going to let someone else take it over now. Maybe it's just time. But that would mean letting a supporting character be right. Or at least something other than a way to see what a special snowflake Benson is. Actually that felt all too real to me. Of course as someone who has clients in the business and has sat through some of their presentations in my previous job I have often felt that these firms are implausibly written and filled with unbelievable characters. The only question was were they intended as comedy or drama...

The Good: Solid acting from the guest cast as usual. Any of these roles could have become cheesy very easily, but nobody went OTT. Finn. The writing was nothing special, but Ice T was killing it with the delivery. Carisi. Both for the suit and for making the episode work. If not for PS's great work this would have been a train wreck. It was an actual SVU case involving the whole squad behaving like highly trained professionals (well at least until the end). The Bad: St. Benson the Martyr cranked up to 11. We get it show. She is sooper special and dedicated and is the only cop who really understands the victims and will keep on going no matter what. But you know we've seen the previous seasons and all the talk about burnout and how the job does change you? We even remember Liv's PTSD. And let's not even mention the ninja sharpshooter nonsense at the end. Another hostage situation? Really??? After about a million of these you would think they'd have learned their lesson about waiting for backup. Or at least about not giving the bad guy any chance to get behind you. If you are going to beat us over the head with the whole retirement thing and Benson not being done yet, why not at least explore it a little more during the opening and give Burke something to do? Just about everything involving Benson throughout this whole episode. The only thing that could have made her more annoying was if the found a way to do some Noah scenes. No Barba. So what we had was another solid episode that could have been really good if Mariska could put aside her ego for an episode. Which seems to sum up the season so far. It wasn't as good as the last couple before the break, since the whole multiple suspects that don't really fool anyone, protector is really the stalker, hostage situation finale story just isn't that great to begin with, but it's still frustrating to see even limited potential squandered by an ego trip.

I have to respectfully disagree about the mothership descending into soap by the end. It started telling more personal stories sure, but that's different or else just about every drama on TV would be considered soap. There is a difference between putting the political elements and personal agendas of the DA's office on screen and the Van Buren story line and having characters sleeping with each other, love triangles, everyone in jeopardy all the time, the focus on the personal lives with the procedural element almost becoming the subplot of many episodes, etc. CI fits a bit better, since by season 9 there were elements of just about every dramatic subgenre in there somewhere as we've discussed on that show's threads. And I'm sure that there were many variables in play with Meloni too. Personally I've always thought that they just didn't think Meloni was serious about leaving and were sure that he would sign on in the end. They mistook an actual willingness to leave for a negotiating ploy and never bothered to seriously plan for or set up his exit. I would be interested in reading his book too since he's always been interesting in interviews and talk shows.

Yeah. I'm willing to cut him some slack with Goren since there were a lot of off screen issues, but I really don't like what he did with Stabler where he had no excuse. I'm also glad that they never went there and that Meloni had the perspective and self respect to realize that they had gone about as far as they could with the character, that what the producers wanted was a soap opera that would probably not do anything for his reputation, and that he could keep getting work, and walking away when he did.

Most memorably IMHO he played Rafael, one of the brothers from "Couples" in Season 13. He was also in the SVU episode "Wildlife" which is memorable in a totally different way...

I wonder why he was miserable. I always got the sense that he was never able to reach his full potential for whatever reason. He was solid, but never quite broke through. And came in right after Steve and Stephen left with Ed Helms and Rob Corddry getting offers so there was sort of the expectation that this was THE launching pad for comedy success and to not have that happen had to be disappointing especially since he was watching Jason Jones, John Oliver, and Rob Riggle who came in after him overtake him in many ways. I'm not sure if there were any backstage issues or if he had creative differences with the writers, but getting your shot to join the '27 Yankees of topical comedy and coming up just short would probably make anyone unhappy no matter what else was going on.

And you have to admit as a way to put the characters in different settings, explore genres, use existing sets, etc. it's far superior to "we just happened to encounter a planet with an uncanny resemblance to the Old West!"

Saw when I was browsing through the guide on my DVR that BBC America has added Voyager starting with a marathon beginning at 5am ET on New Year's Day. Haven't seen any sort of PR or commercials during the latest TOS eps I recorded so I thought some people here might be interested and not know about it. Now they just need to add DS9 for those of us who don't get H&I and are too cheap or lazy to watch via other media...

I think two things have happened. One is the splintering of television audiences - there are very few mass hits these days. Especially in comedy. The other is the end of Must See TV and NBC's decline in scripted programming in general relative to their competitors. If you bring on Jim Parsons or Ed O'Neill it just highlights that NBC doesn't really have anything to compare so if you can a movie star or an athlete why not avoid pissing off the network execs? Personally I'm surprised they haven't announced Kristen Bell or Ted Danson yet as it would be a big name of someone with proven chops and cross-promotion. Or America Ferrera as it would be all of the above and bring in some diversity as well.

It seems that TBS original series usually have shorter seasons and it's usually less than a full year between them, more like 6-9 months. I don't mind the shorter seasons so much. But I would like to see shorter breaks as well. They're trying new things with running entire seasons as a marathon first why not order 20 episodes and split it up into smaller seasons with a few months in between like TNT does with Major Crimes and some of their other dramas?

‘GMA,’ ‘Morning Joe’ Among Most Googled News Shows of 2016 It's not the only show on the list that isn't really a news show so why single it out?

Have to agree with everyone that Casey Affleck was pretty much useless. I get that they wanted to have a lead from one of the big award season movies host and he has connections, but if you're not going to bring Ben and Matt or throw yourself into it why bother? There are other nominees that I'm sure could have done better. Did think this Trump sketch was better than the last one even if it solely motivated by the desire to troll Trump. Maybe because it had a punchline and a point or because John Goodman showed up at the end to play the disgusting Trump minion so it worked (and proved me right!). And loved Dunkin Donuts (I can't believe companies pay them for this), the Hillary sketch, and Chance the Rapper surprisingly enough. He showed far more personality and charm than Affleck.

I don't think it really has anything to do with American attitudes to artists. It has everything to do with Chuck Lorre thinking losers are hilarious (other posters who are more familiar with his body of work have pointed out his fondness for this character type) and Kevin Sussman being very funny and effective at playing hangdog. This show develops characters by seizing on actors' particular strengths and pushing it as far as it can go (and sometimes farther). The original conception was quite a bit different and more of a winner, but many geek based brick and mortar businesses are struggling in the real world and just about all of the characters have been put in the underdog role at some point so when the actor turned out to be good at it we were stuck with it. Just as tiny Bernadette being bossy and vicious when she got upset was a funny idea that Melissa Rauch executed very well and we ended up with that to the nth degree. Not because of cultural stereotypes of female scientists, because that's just how the writers work. If you are not a main character you will only get layers if you are Simon Helberg and excel equally at everything they give you.

At this point I don't really care about Stuart. I agree that they've gone too far, but it doesn't really bother me. They can simply take it down a notch and muddle through another season or two. Raj does since he's a bigger part of the show and there is an element of creepiness and malice with him that there isn't with Stuart. And yes the writers seem to realize that they've made a mistake, but this isn't the first time they've put it on screen and it's never been followed up on.

Actually I wasn't yelling. I was more mumbling quietly to myself "Wait isn't Scully a really good singer? Or was that Hitchcock?" and then trying to figure out what sort of elaborate scheme was going on...

I think you are correct at least in the broad strokes that it's a creative choice rather than preparing for a departure of the leads. At the beginning of the season we were talking about the girls seemed to be being separate from the guys. I do think they know that next season or possibly Season 12 will be the last and that has been influencing writing. They seem to be going back to basics and letting things move on and not trying to keep the balls in the air indefinitely regardless of whether it makes sense logically or is a good story. With the young Sheldon spinoff as a bribe to Parsons who seemed most interested in moving on and a shift in everyone's tone it seems that they think this deal will get done. And if it doesn't they will probably go with a big finale and blame the cast in anonymous quotes rather than try a drastic revamp that will be both expensive and risky.

I already thought he would have no problem getting cast in great roles in the future and is probably the best positioned of all the cast going forward as far as getting prime on camera work is concerned. He is known to audiences and throughout the industry now without really being indelibly associated with his character in a way that makes producers worry about audience acceptance. He has shown great range and versatility on the show and has chosen his side projects really well as far as prestige and quality are concerned. But this certainly does help.

I agree with @Slovenly Muse who pretty much stated my thoughts on this except more eloquently and comprehensively than I would have. I would only add that given TBS's scheduling practices keeping it all episodes will probably make life a lot easier for the mods as they won't have to go back and edit titles and posts 2 or 5 or 12 times when the show is postponed from Monday to Wednesday to Thursday and the featured story changes from charter school activists fronting for corporations to coverage of the President whipping it out at a state dinner in front of Angela Merkel.

Well deserved based on the clips I've seen. I suspect it's the first of many award nominations for movie roles.

Yeah. Pretty sure Stone's still "traveling in Europe, unavailable"...

Sheldon considers anything that deals with "yucky squishy things" to be a soft science.

Except at a certain point it's really not about the money anymore for at least some of the cast. There really is something to the desire to move on and try new things once you are pretty much set for life. Almost all of these articles are at least slightly misleading, because the television business has become so complex that without knowing all the side deals that might be involved it's pretty much impossible to say anything other than "BBT is very expensive to make and brings in a ton of money" although they did do a pretty job of pointing out it's not "the greedy cast has made this too expensive for poor CBS".

Yeah there seemed to be a few technical glitches this week - the commercial, the graphic popping up early during "Where'd Your Money Go", and a couple others I'm not remembering right now but noticed at the time. Which is very unusual as no matter how good or bad the writing is the directing and technical stuff are usually superb.