Dobian

Well I pointed out earlier that the Soviets being able to build a massive high tech underground facility underneath a shopping mall in America without detection is completely implausible. Not to mention the massive amount of energy it would have to be pulling from the local power grid, again without detection. But you just suspend disbelief and go with it.

Ummmm....you know how tv shows and movies work, right? It's called plot armor. Laws of physics, reason, and common sense don't enter into it. Hopper survived that explosion. Trust me.

There was nothing paranormal about how Hopper got to Russia. The big beam generator exploded, supposedly killing him in front of Joyce. Conspiracy Guy then shows up and they escape right as Russian guards arrive. Obviously to me, the guards found Hopper alive buried under debris or whatever and took him with them out some back tunnel exit, eluding the American military newly arrived on the scene. How they smuggled themselves out of the U.S. will probably never be explained in detail.

You can already see how next season is going to shape up. They had Eleven lose her powers obviously so she can't "see" Hopper, but at some point early next season she is going to get those powers back. But are the writers planning on getting all those kids over to the Soviet Union to rescue him? LOL!

I laughed hard when Dustin yelled, "Steve, you did it, you finally won a fight!"

Great season. I thought the 80s references throughout were terrific, from Fast Times to Back to the Future to the Neverending Story scene, which was inspired and hilarious. Steve and Dustin were my favorite pair all season, and my favorite story arc was the two of them with Robin and Erica in the secret Russian facility. Steve and Robin were way more fun than Nancy and Jonathan, who are frankly kind of a bore, and I'm glad they focused more on Steve this season than Jonathan. Eleven was very touching and you felt for her at the end. Conspiracy Guy and "Smirnoff" were funny with Joyce and Hopper, and I cracked up at his "Bald Eagle" code name. Several things about the season are hard to explain away, like how the Russians managed to build a top secret underground facility on American soil that would have taken an incredible amount of manpower and equipment, and the construction of which would have been highly visible. And the creature dying at the end because Joyce closed the portal didn't make sense to me, since it appeared to have survived and grown after the original portal was closed by Eleven. But whatever, the season was a blast. The obvious cliffhanger at the end suggests that Hopper is indeed alive in a Russian prison cell. Of course, how they managed to get him out of that mall when it was surrounded by the American military is a total mystery and will never be adequately explained.

Because...plot. June in Canada means no more main characters being oppressed in Gilead. Show becomes boring. Writers want her in Gilead for the rest of the show.

Well she did that a lot in Mad Men.

Yeah Ashley can blame herself for this mess. She's 32 years old with kids and should be looking for an age-appropriate husband who wants a family. She's blonde and pretty and would have no problem finding guys, but instead she wants a Jamaican sex boy. Guys like that you have a weekend fling with, you don't marry them.

The look on Azan's face when Nicole said she was coming back to Morocco was priceless. The look when she was still talking marriage even more so.

She won't dump him because she's getting her own show out of this circus. A show I won't watch. Hopefully, no one will watch it and it will bomb, because there isn't a single likable individual on either side. Except the gay friend who calls out Pedro's family for the cockroaches they really are. Let him have a show.

I don't care at all for the on-again, off-again soap opera between Peyton and Ravi. It's entirely manipulative and cliche. The latest where Ravi finally fesses up his true feelings and Peyton comes over to get back together with him...again...only to find that medical examiner woman in his kitchen...why would he even do that? The reason, of course, is so that the writers can have her bounce back to bad boy Blaine, who seems to be exonerated of his monstrous crimes simply because he lost his memory. "It's okay you murdered young boys and turned people into zombies, you can't remember doing it and you play the piano and are all sweet now!" Why is she even an assistant D.A., with that kind of attitude she should be defending serial killers.

I have mixed feelings about this episode. I liked the premise, the little a.i. robot was kind of neat, and it looked like the story was going to go down a dark road. But then all of a sudden it turns into this goofy teen comedy caper. The result was that the whole of it felt very disjointed to me.

This was a pretty typical Black Mirror episode, with near-future technology exposing long-existing human issues. I thought it was pretty clever how the episode exploited my gut reaction at seeing a very hot scene of this girl and this guy grinding on each other in a video game while saying "ewww noooooo!!!!" The story works because of the terrific performances of all three of the main actors. Danny is happy but bored in his suburban life and clearly missing something. Karl has missed his best friend for years since Danny got married, as the two have drifted apart, which often happens when one gets married and the other stays single. Theo wants to grow a family and get some affection, which can lead to problems when the husband has lost his sexual attraction for her. This is a natural development among long-time married couples. The scenes between Danny and Theo at the restaurant and Danny and Karl in the rain were well-written and acted. The episode did a good job at exploring the complexities of sexual desire and attraction. Danny and Karl aren't gay. Danny is attracted to a female in a video game, and Karl is excited at being a female in a video game. So we have a straight man and a transgender. And it's only with each other that they feel the intense connection because of their friendship and history with each other. They know each other and trust each other like no one else. Karl said as much when he talked about how he couldn't duplicate the experience with other people or a.i. online. The ending was fairly practical, with Danny and Theo agreeing that they both need something outside the marriage, her with the occasional bar pickup and him with Karl in the video game. So unlike other Black Mirror episodes, the ending wasn't especially astounding or revealing. It's a scenario that plays out all the time in our own reality. I still enjoyed it though.

I was rooting for Salome. She could have won if she got a couple more answers right or landed a daily double. She just happened to be up against two equal competitors. Emma now becomes a footnote in Jeopardy history, the player who unseated James. At least she can say she defended her title twice. I think the person who dethroned Ken Jennings lost the very next game.