Pemyquid

Anyone notice that Kady looked sick and off balance for a few seconds, once in the first scene, and again during her burlesque number? What’s that about?

I'm with vteal. Liked it. Enjoyed the songs enough, especially I Bring Me. Never seen Empire, so maybe that's why I'm more open to this. I was on board with all of it except the cold blooded stabbing scene after the most cliche'd portrayal of foster care ever. I do think Star has star quality, mainly because she's ambitious as hell and owns it. Kinda like Madonna with more talent. Sure, if this was on HBO she'd have slept with the potential manager with full frontal nudity. I'm not sure I need another uber dark, gritty show about the 101 ways these young women must debase themselves in order to make it. I'm OK with a bit of fluff, magically perfect performance sequences, etc. I enjoy the back and forth interaction in the hair salon, as it's a glimpse into a world I doubt I'll ever see in real life. Certainly this fictional group of girls have better singing voices and better material than 90% of what's being put out on mainstream radio. The closest comparison is 5th Harmony, as girl groups are hardly thick on the ground these days, and I've not found any of their songs as catchy as the ones on this show (sad state of affairs). I do wonder who is actually doing the singing... I'm in for now, which means it will likely be cancelled soon.

I've been really liking the music too, especially I Bring Me, and the duet between the two sisters and their dead mother in the cold open of episode 3 season 1 (no idea what that one is called, maybe Come On Baby? I do wonder who is actually singing these songs. Some or all of the 3 lead actresses? Sometimes their voices sound so similar, although in the duet I just mentioned, Star definitely sounded different from Simone. Dead mama had a wonderful bluesy, raspy sound while belting briefly in mid-upper register. Hope we will get to hear her sing more.

My absolute favorite part of the last number was the Melania impersonator gazing vacuously at nothing while singing I Wanna Sex You Up. With that said, Amber's portrayal of Trump was nudging from fun parody into creepily realistic, given recent events.

Um, I liked the line about not being superheroes or provocateurs as tongue in cheek allusions to Agent Carter. I think- I hope - it was intentionally snuck in there as a little wink at AC fans. Also, nice to see Beth from TWD, despite getting typecast. However, not a fan of any woman calling another a bitch, especially your boss in front of your coworkers. Miss the British accent, but like the actress and the show. Hope it gets some time to get found. If the network did any advertising, I didn't see it, and nearly missed this promising little show.

Ummm, how did Alicia teleport from the far side of the blond guy holding her and Maddie back (behind Travis and on Maddie's left side) to standing in front of Maddie with her knife plunged into Andreas' chest in the second or so it took him to raise his arm? And why did she knife him anyway, if he was already moving the gun away from Travis? That whole sequence of events made absolutely no sense to me. I'm so sick of watching folks running around Mexico in what must be May by now in hoodies, windbreakers, leather and jean jackets. Chris' death was the one truly satisfying, Karma is a bitch kind of death. As for the rest of it, I'm sure I was meant to feel something, but I felt as blank as the faces of Travis, Maddie, and Alicia as they drove away from yet another perfectly good place they'd managed to ruin.

In the summer of 1993, I spent 3 weeks working on an Anasazi archaeological dig site that was in downtown Colorado City. I mean we were working 5 days a week literally across the street from the church. The folks running the dig through the U of Arizona had been working in that location for at least 5 years, and had a good relationship with the FLDS leadership. One day a middle aged man came strolling through the dig site and chatted with the leaders, followed deferentially by a girl who looked about 14. Otherwise we were ignored, but not in a particularly unfriendly way. We were allowed to go buy things at their one and only grocery store, and every day we would stop at the local gas station on our way out of town to use the bathroom and get snacks. I remember that as the cleanest gas station I've ever encountered, and they only played instrumental show tunes. It was one of the most surreal experiences I've had, with the isolation, the wide empty streets, the women in long dresses ( although at that time they were more colorful), the men in long sleeved shirts buttoned all the way up in the Arizona heat, and the occasional car stuffed full of tow headed children, none of who were in car seats or wearing seatbelts. I don't remember feeling fearful or hated, or anything like the God Squad. It was just like visiting another planet. I've only read Carolyn Jessop's book and the one by the woman who was key to Warren Jeff's conviction. I believe Carolyn and I are similar in age. I don't really know the timeline, but I'm thinking I was there either just before or at the beginning of everything going off the rails with the FLDS. I remember some mention of a splinter group from the main church having happened not long before we were there. I would bet that archaeological dig was ended shortly thereafter, as I can't imagine the current FLDS tolerating the presence of outsiders to that extent. What I find so striking is how differently the FLDS seem to be operating now vs when Carolyn Jessop was part of it. 10-15 years ago it was all about marrying off the girls, getting and keeping them pregnant, and making a great effort to prevent them from leaving, usually by using their children and other family ties to keep them, but sometimes by forcible kidnapping. Now, with the development of the United Order and Warren Jeffs' commandments to have no physical contact, they seem to be less focused on any pretense of family, instead creating individual autobot zealots. And they don't seem to want the women who leave to come back. During the episode in which Rachel snuck into the family compound to look for her sister, she didn't seem at all concerned that she might be kidnapped and forced back in. Instead it was more that her sister wouldn't or couldn't speak to her, and she didn't want to get the sister in trouble. It seems the fear control is all emotional/mental rather than physical at this point And the whole no touching- which means no breeding - thing goes completely against one of the fundamental things about any type of Mormonism, which is the importance of having lots of kids to bring souls down to earth. I wonder if this is truly just blind following Warren Jeffs who is unstable, contradictory, and as someone said, imposing upon his followers the life he has now. Or if there is an underlying realization that they can't continue to support all of these children even though "bleeding the beast", or that they are too inbred. I'm quite certain it's not because they fear the wrath of the law over underage marriages, since they showed everyone who's boss after the raid in Texas. I'm loving the inclusion of the FLDS this season, even as it has shown us (see Lizzie and Julie) that these Kingston women are woefully unprepared to deal with the level of brainwashing going on in the FLDS. They certainly know about brainwashing, but this is a whole new level, from birth in total isolation. They seem to think they can just drive into this insular community and pick up these people. They sorely need an FLDS advisor, including an expert on deprogramming members, starting with showing them the video footage of Warren Jeffs confessing that he's not the prophet and it's all a lie. I really hope that if there's another season we will see that included in their much bigger budget. Finally, I wonder which head FLDS likes that wacko hairstyle they must all have now. It's fugly.

You're right, Shapeshifter, the next episode did clear things up a bit, maybe? I think Crosely - never knew his name, he's always just been The British Guy - is sharing information with British Intelligence, I guess because Helen broke it off with him and he isn't being appreciated professionally either. I do remember the father-in-law (?) reminding him that the Americans take the science generated by the English and run with it without ever giving credit where credit is due. That makes sense to me I guess. I suppose he needs to have the switchboard operator in on it because she can hear the messages being sent. What I don't get is why is he receiving these messages? Seems risky and the reverse of Intel going out. As to Jimmy and the blond lady, I'm thoroughly lost. I don't know who she works for or how he got caught up in it. Sometimes they seem to be conscientious objectors to the idea of dropping an atomic bomb on Japan, like Frank, but there must be more to it. And how would they even know that was planned? Frank's beef is that no one knows what the bomb will be used for, so how would these two know? Both spy stories seem contrived to me, but this one more so.

My DVR cut off right when Frank was storming out after his speech. I get from your comments that the ending revealed FDR's death, but what else did I miss? I don't mind shows that don't spoon feed the story to me, but I must confess I'm finding this season a bit too cryptic. I followed the first season, but then during the long hiatus I forgot things that the show runners seem to be relying on me to remember, in order to follow this season. I think I also missed 1-2 episodes at the beginning of this season. Can anyone help with the following? I'm not really clear on the two sets of spies, i.e. How did they develop, who are they working for, etc. Is the British guy receiving some sort of primitive faxes from his former father-in-law? What's the deal with Jimmy and the blond woman? There's other details I've missed, but these seem particularly germane to understanding what 's going on....thanks!

Oof that was a terrible episode! It's been downhill since JSS for me - except Morgan's episode which was lovely but completely out of place - but this one made no sense whatsoever. No idea who anyone in Daryl's scenes were. Couldn't care less about any of them, but nothing made any sense. Essentially we crashed into the middle of some random people's story. It makes sense that we the audience didn't know what was going on, but what's really confusing is that Daryl seemed to understand. Also, I'm supposed to believe that in all the time that Aaron has been scouting around for new people to recruit, he's never been aware of another sizeable group nearby? Abe and Sasha were equally out of left field. That was some powerful bonding they accomplished overnight in a safe place with no intelligible conversation, so much so that they've gotten over their respective honeys and are ready to start something with each other. I know this was supposed to be a life changing experience for Abe, but I couldn't follow his epiphany. And I hate when they have characters appear somewhere without showing where it is in relation to where they were. Abe and Sasha were presumably needing to stay in that building for safety, then suddenly he's on a random bridge finding bazookas and smoking a cigar - that somehow no one else had already taken - out in the open like he was on vacation, . The voice at the end saying help sounded like Rick, but was purposely so staticky that it could have been anyone, and I didn't see the preview. I'm just getting kinda pissed that they keep ignoring the Glenn issue to give screen time to people we don't know enough about to care about. They keep starting up storylines, only to do nothing with them, and adding characters while most of our main cast has had virtually no screen time this season.

During the promos for this episode that showed Ariel up in the tower, I epwas like "FINALLY, they put the tiny woman up there where she could still be of use but not be surrounded by forty something inmates (those scenes just made my blood run cold). But nope, apparently the tower is just one place she spends time as a Rover. Good God, I don't know if understaffing, affirmative action, or what is at work here, but she is like a lamb in there being circled by wolves.

I wish that the editors would figure out that white script on the black and white background means that you have to guess what have the subtitles are.

To my thinking, if what Hundra said was true - I know, I know - if anything she's bisexual, not a lesbian. She said in the beginning that she had been in multiple heterosexual relationships and had gotten her heart broken, Emily/Melanie/Geralyn was the first woman she had developed romantic feelings for. I would think she would be somewhat truthful about this part of her backstory, simply because presumably her friends and family would know if she had never had a boyfriend. I guess I just don't understand why literally nobody on the show, upon hearing her backstory (truthful or not) raised the possibility of her being bisexual. Everyone was like " oh, you're coming out as gay" as if none of those heterosexual relationships meant anything, when she said at least one of them did. Hundra came across as entitled, ugly on the inside, immature, and incapable of self reflection, much less an apology. The other two she was in cahoots with came across as harmless but vapid. Nothing about this episode made any sense. I was left with the feeling that everyone involved came away looking bad, except for Nev, who remained professional in the face of such trifling behavior.

Can we please get rid of Sean Cheeseman? He's the kiss of death, always puts his dancers in red and makes them do meaningless, disjointed, unattractive choreography. I thought the routine that took out Missy several seasons ago was hideous, but that was light years better than the abomination poor Kate and Asaf were saddled with. The good? Alexia and Neptune - they finally did something interesting with the wall; and Gaby and Virgil - Gaby was flawless, even making her lifts with a man a head shorter than her look graceful; and Yorelis and Marissa - nothing earthshaking, but nice and tight, and Marissa kept up nicely. The mediocre? Jim and Arianna - yawn, seen it a billion times, plus I enjoyed that version of EWTRTW waaaay better over on that other dance show, plus the discs reminded me of the bed dance. What's with all the monochromatic, shades of grey (pun not intended) or beige lighting/costuming this season? It's like they have a quota where only allowed to use color in one routine per night. They did this in Megz and Edson's routine as well, which was fine but felt manipulative to me with the prop, and I think the choreo was watered down for her, and Edson literally and figuratively carried her through that routine. Also blah? Jaja and Hailee. I understand Hailee has been chosen as this season's contempo girl by TPTB, and she was excellent in the robot routine last week, but this time around I was watching Jaja. The bad? JJ and Leonardo and that mess of a tango. Compare it to his tango with Mackenzie (I think) and they are worlds apart. And of course, Kate and Asaf. There was no saving that. Did I miss anyone?

This was the lowest point so far in a very lackluster season, for me. Lots of damning with faint praise and criticizing dancers for stuff they weren't responsible for. Costuming was way off on multiple routines. Jana should not have been wearing that jacket, and butch Megz should have been wearing something feminine if they wanted her to look girly. Neither of them were sexy, nor did they have any chemistry with their partners. I think Paula wanted to say Megz wasn't sexy, but couldn't for fear of rousing the PC police. If they could tell Marissa she was too sexy in a number that screamed sex, they should be able to tell Jaja and Megz to move their fucking hips and flirt a little. Jesus. And what in the actual fuck was up with that fish cabaret number? That was pure set up to fail, with those poor girls in those hideous costumes all alone on that huge stage with no props to provide either a cabaret or an aquatic atmosphere. Horrible concept - sexy fish? - laughable choreography. I can't think of anyone who could have made that work. The judges talked about making faces, but there were no close ups. I can't recall a single thing Derek has done this season. I'm fairly sure I didn't know his name until last week, purely because he got injured. I'm not seeing what everyone else is apparently seeing in Megz. I would have kept Yorelis over Megz and Alexia over Derek. On the plus side, it's nice to see that Sonia's choreography has moved away from black leather S&M bondage into beige Travis choreo territory. I think.