Rockfish

Enjoyed your whole post, but I quoted this section because of the Who Stabbed Noah? reference. Last season was such a head-shaking mess that while it’s logical (based on what we’ve seen so far) to conclude Alison committed suicide, it’s probably not what happened. Who knows what Treem and writers have cooked up? What I find frustrating is how unlike real human beings these characters sometimes behave; for instance when Alison was in California and had her panic attack—why didn’t Noah bring her home with him, after getting Xanax from Vic, so he could keep an eye on and spend time with her? He told Cole she’d been in bad shape. So why hadn’t he maintained contact with her? That’s what friends do for one another when one of them is in a crisis. Hopefully, the upcoming episodes will explain everything in a sensical, wrapped-in-a-nice-ribbon kinda way—I’ll worry, though, if I see Brendan Fraser’s name in the credits.

I’m truly enjoying the word play in the series, and I love that you’re sharing the words because most of the time, they flash by too quickly for me, especially the subtle shifts. And that’s my one criticism—I want the camera to linger a half second longer. And I guess I watched this episode when I was much too tired because what I thought Adora admitted to was that she never loved Camille’s father because of his coldness, and that Camille suffered from this same coldness which prevented her from being loving/lovable. Of course, that basically translates to her saying she never loved her, but I need to rewatch to see how far off base I was.

I, too, figured Alison was dead based on the episode description, but I was hoping I was wrong. Cool effect at the end was the scene where Noah noticed the family and waitress: at first, her hair was down and loose and her dress was short, which changed to her hair being pulled back and her dress being much longer (knee-length)—nicely reminiscent of the first episode. I don’t blame Ruth Wilson for wanting to move on to other projects; if viewers found Alison’s character arc (or lack of one) frustrating, I can imagine how frustrating that would be for a talented actor.

Huh, I’ve never heard of this movie, but I was a little kid when it was released. Looks interesting, though, and it has Jenny Agutter from Logan’s Run—I wanted to look just like her.

Last season after Cole and Alison slept together, she told him she loved him and wanted to be with him, but she’d wait for him to decide it was what he wanted. So, I think it’s fair to say she cares about him. Also, in the first season(?) he basically admitted he blamed her for Gabriel’s death because she didn’t take Cherry’s advice to take him to the hospital, thinking she knew better. (And I don’t find Alison blaming Cole or Cole blaming Alison to be egregious behavior or in any way indicative that either one of them is flawed because of this one thing—that’s a natural reaction to a tragedy—but once those feelings are felt and expressed, they do serious damage to a relationship.) During this episode, I briefly wondered if the storyline in any way resonated with Amy Irving, since she was the Cherry to Steven Spielberg, and Kate Capshaw was the Nan—according to my scan of tabloids while I waited to pay for my groceries way back in the day.

I think we’re all being a little unfair to Crocodile Dundee—he, too, helped get Walkabout into our everyday vernacular.

As I’ve said before, I love reading everyone’s comments and how differently we interpret everything. I liked seeing Vic’s POV, I guess, but nothing surprising happened which makes me think the writers needed a few more days added to their deadline. (Oh, and Sierra? After seeing you get it on with Vic, I can understand why you’re having bad sex, lol.) I thought Cole’s segment was beyond hokey. But maybe I’m confused or bitter because I’ve been to Morro Bay, and while I did enjoy a couple of nice fish tacos nobody invited me to a party packed with intellectual guests—not to mention the opportunity to gain relationship insight and sexual healing. I guess I didn't go to the right art gallery. I did finish the episode feeling sure that both of Cole’s parents are/were creeps.

Excellent post—especially the last paragraph—who else will know what you’re talking about, lol?! Loved* this bit from the show: Cole: Hey Luisa, whatcha doin’? Luisa: I’m leaving you, Cole. I’m tired of you never choosing me. Cole: I have an even better idea. How about if instead of you leaving, I take a vacation so I can do whateverthefuckIwant and feel sorry for myself at the same time? Luisa: Great idea! I’ll see you off, but don’t expect me to fix you a coffee to go. I’m done with that shit. *Thought it was clunky writing—there was a better way to get Cole to California for his bro roadtrip.

I’m sure that’s it, and normally it’d be NBD, but it’s bothering me because Joanie’s resemblance to Cole was such a big deal last season. (For sure, hair color changes, but her eyes would not have changed into brown or dark hazel.) But I will let it go.

To me, the dog Tulip saw looked different to me than the dog in season 2. However, I need to rewatch a batch of shows because there’s so much I’ve forgotten.

Something that really bugs me: when Joanie was a baby, she was blondish with blue or green eyes and looked like Cole, but now she looks as if she could be Noah’s with her dark eyes and dark hair. If how a child looks doesn’t matter, then don’t turn it into a plot point, show! (When Scotty ran into Alison and Joanie in Manhattan, I think, he was struck by how much Joanie resemebled Cole, which set things into motion.)

Although I do like the different points of view, when they’re drastically different I get pulled out of the scene trying to work it out in my head—but that’s me being too literal. But what I really enjoy about watching the show is coming here and reading all the drastically different POVs; I find it fascinating. For me, all I could feel was empathy for Luisa’s plight and further annoyance at Cole for his blasé reaction to her situation, which has no easy solution. (I’m an American living in Canada, and my spouse and I made two simple errors on one of the forms, which caused a delay in my immigration. And although I knew eventually everything would get straightened out, I was under tremendous stress at times, so I completely understood her panic.) So I was surprised to see harshness directed toward her. But I’ve never been a fan of Cole—to me, he’s often a passive-aggressive jerk, and I think he’s lucky to have patient Luisa. I was cracking up when watching Alison get saved by new cute guy, anticipating all the comments here, lol.

I know the MIL scene was Helen’s POV, so who knows what really happened, but all I could think was how silly of her to get resentful about the stocked fridge. If I were Helen, I’d pragmatically wait until MIL went home and then pig out on everything—hopefully, there was also a batch of naan to wipe up all the yummy sauces. But I love Indian food. And I’d continue to let MIL think I was an inept wife to keep that food coming! In Noah’s scene, having the flirty student be all flirty with him seemed realistic to me. She seemed like she was just messing with him to throw him off balance—something some young ladies do for fun—however, I wasn’t paying close attention so may be wrong, of course.

This made me laugh—glad you mentioned it. The pose is so over-the-top ridiculous that I’m wondering if she, or whomever set up the shoot, did it in a tongue-in-check way.

Late to comment, but after every episode I look forward to reading everyone's very different points-of-view—it’s amazing how our filters and experiences give us such disparate opinions. Me? I was firmly Team Tanya, although she should have spoken up in the beginning about being uncomfortable being placed in the Precision battle. Compared to the other Speed contestants, Claudette seemed unrelentingly demanding and rude to her teammate, so when she really needed help (with plating and the addition of an acid), Tanya had already checked out and wasn’t there for her. The other team dynamics were the opposite: the Speed people occasionally asked for help while cooking, not continuously, so when plating time came around everyone pitched in with good attitudes. Of course, I don’t know what *really* happened. Also, I thought Tanya was talking specifically about the batonet cut, not all of them, but my memory may be way off. I can totally see myself being a Carrie in that situation because I get uncomfortable around conflict, so my irritating meddler persona sometimes comes out in an effort to mediate.

I assumed the police got enough from the guinea pig to identify her, which would allow them to question her, not necessarily place her under arrest. In her state of mind, though, I’m sure she cracked immediately and confessed, so that part worked for me. Beyond a few things that bugged me (like, how she was able to move his dead body around, much less lift it into her car, or how she was able to overtake the insurance investigator), things I chose to look past, I thought this was a compelling-if-horrific story: a warning to Everyman, if you will. I was able to imagine why she went along with her mate initially, even though it was wrong, as well as why she broke and killed him and then kept killing to try to cover each previous crime in a delusional effort to hang on to her life. Iceland seems much less appealing to me now, as are Suzuki vehicles. (That was a Suzuki that wouldn’t start, right?)

I ended up really enjoying Ozark. The writing, combined with Bateman’s and Linney’s acting, showed a realistic marriage—the good stuff and the bad—which made the show more compelling to me. Also, since both of them were written as believable characters it was easy for me to empathize with their predicament and wondering what I’d do if I was in a similar situation. The rootability of these two let me overlook other flaws of the show, I guess. Another thing I appreciated was how Jason Bateman's character would flat out tell people the truth, even if it was dangerous to do so, but he did it in a way that made people stop their rash behavior and listen.

It was telling that when Marie put the tablet away—after realizing the damage she was causing—she didn’t walk to school with Sara that first day. This would have given them the opportunity to talk about the dog and about any other stressors that may have been overwhelming for her. But it didn’t seem as if there was much communication between them. As a parent, I liked this take on helicoptering parenting. But I agree that the older Sara seemed much older than 15.

So Alicia spends about an hour gabbing on and off with some lady who compliments her ("People look to you 'cause you're like, wicked strong and all"), which makes her immediately embrace that lady's newborn philosophy of "Never make a decision based on fear," which means she rejects her family entirely. Good thing she wasn't around in the late '60s, or she would have joined up with Charles Manson within five minutes of meeting him. (Of course, making a rash decision because you're afraid of making decisions based on fear isn't necessarily what her new buddy meant.) Oh, and writers? That "zany" story Alicia told about not only her but Nick! too forgetting the lyrics of This Land is Your Land--that was the best you could do? Seriously? I get that they wanted to anchor something to the song at the end, but that stupid story? "And Nick also forgot the lyrics and kept kept singing 'This land is your land' over and over, which was so crazy that we got an awesome standing ovation." Come on! Plus (completely showing my age, here), by spending about five minutes looking at the lyrics of the song, the writers may have realized, "Hey, this old song is actually about social injustice, which means we can easily craft a wacky-yet-compelling anecdote that Alicia can tell that will reinforce Nick's character as a true friend to society's undesirables. Score! We are masters of our craft!" Oh yeah, the live chat thread on this and the the original show has the best lol comments. I can never join in, though, cause I watch the show later.

I liked how considerate the horde was when they moseyed over to the ranch--they stayed completely off the road, which allowed Nick and the brothers (or, just Troy at the point? Idk, I barely pay attention to this show) to drive safely by. Question for Alecia and others: why create a barrier of RVs if you're just going to stand there yakking? You know they can hear you, right? Drives me nuts when writers can't figure out a way to get to a specific script point--RV being pushed over, ranch being infiltrated--in a somewhat sensical way.

Thanks for this! I loved her recaps because they were the perfect mix of insight and humor. I watched this episode when I was exhausted, so I was a complete dunce and missed that young Jesse brought the dead chicken for his grandma to resurrect or whatever her specialty is, which was obviously the main point (or one of them) of this episode! I thought that he brought her the chicken for ritual ingredients she might have needed, like an eye of newt, 100 chicken feathers, etc. Having not read the comics, Preacher is the perfect TV show for me--it's funny, quirky, exciting, raunchy, and mysterious--so I'm looking forward to doing a rewatch. I didnt even find the Annville episodes tedious, that's how much I like this show; however, the rich cattle dude really, really turned my stomach. My only beef (had to) is that Tulip sometimes seems kind of dim in an OOC way.

I've seen plenty of gratuitous sex and violence on my teevee, but nothing could quite prepare me for the heinousness of Doug Stamper in a sex scene. Of course, he was was lying passively in a supine position, and of course upon finishing immediately inquired about her sex life with her dead husband. That she didn't leave right away because she had to get up for an "early meeting" defies all credibility. I'm kind of kidding but kind of not: that scene seriously squicked me out!

For whatever reason, I didn't realize there was a new season of Twin Peaks until a couple of weeks ago. Even though I barely remember season 1 or the movie, and I don't think I saw season 2 (so, obviously a lot has gone over my head), I'm loving this season and am looking forward to rewatching the old ones. Let me say thanks to everyone who's taken the time to comment--some of you are very insightful! It seemed to me when the four guys from the sherriff's dept were walking, after Bobby said that the path they were on used to be a road, there was an image of the convenience store superimposed on Jack Rabbit's Palace, which makes me wonder if it existed in that spot but burned down and still exists on another plane. But, like I said I've forgotten almost everything from before, so I may be way off. Also, I think it's significant that Norma shed the not quite authentic versions (doppelgängers?) of her restaurant.

I just have a cursory knowledge of art and probably even less artistic ability, so I guess I was looking at his architectural paintings through that lens, thinking, "That's better than what I could do." I also thought I remembered reading that modern critics thought he had had some raw talent, but I could be wrong. I do find it interesting to wonder the whole "what if" he'd been accepted into art school, even though that's going down a senseless rabbit hole.

To me, the direction they went with Hitler and Eugene in hell is interesting and unexpected (I haven't read the comics). When I realized we were going to see "Hitler's worst day," I had my fingers over my eyes because it would have to be beyond horrific, right? But it wasn't. It seemed banal and reminded the audience that Hitler had been an aspiring artist with talent, who was always bitter about the art world's rejection of him; my memory is his work was considered to have no humanity or emotion, and that's why he didn't make it as an artist, which can be confusing because I believe he mainly did architectural paintings and/or drawings. Anyway, what if the whole point is because he was such a horrible person, all of the torture, murder, slaughter, and destruction of families, communities, and countries, etc. that he was responsible for--atrocities so extreme that they're basically incomprehensible--actually meant nothing to him. No, his worst day wasn't the mass starvation and execution of people nor the horrible experimentation done on Gypsy children and others but the day his artwork was rejected and possibly ridiculed in front of a young lady he fancied. Also, what if he's beginning to groom Eugene into following whatever his evil intentions are? After all, Hitler couldn't have created the whole Nazi machine if people hadn't believed in and followed him.