MyPeopleAreNordic

Seriously, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - THIS is actually peak Jude Law. He should hire the spray tan/makeup team & hairpiece people from this series to work in every project he does ever. Also, while I wasn’t paying attention over the last 3 years, Jude Law has morphed into this era’s Cary Grant. THIS is actually Jude Law in his prime, acting & looks (lots of credits for the looks to the amazing hair/makeup team, once again). I seek atonement for my hubris when I thought peak Jude Law was him beautifully lazing around Italy in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” two decades ago. I knew not what I had done. Hot Pope Pius is actually peak Jude Law. When is the sacrament of reconciliation being offered again at Primetimer? Because I also need to confess to this sin. 😉 I’m off to re-memorize the Act of Contrition since I haven’t been to confession in over a decade (shhh....don’t tell the nuns I grew up with, although they’re probably too busy dancing to ”The Good Time Girl” & low-key subverting the patriarchy to pay me any mind 😉 ).

Probably unpopular opinion: I loved pretty much everything about this episode. The only thing that could have made it even better IMO was if during the crowd surfing scene, we saw Lenny’s parents in the crowd (like at his speech in Venice), but this time they were among the people holding him up as he was lifted/moved via the crowd. That would have given me a bit of closure (or knowing Lenny had some kind of closure about his parents) as to orphan Lenny’s storyline with the parents who abandoned him, which felt like an integral part of Lenny’s story/character in the first season. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the show until Lenny/Pius woke up (& somewhat disappointed in Malcovich’s character arc as well) but have really enjoyed it since Lenny has been back awake. This episode was gorgeous and moving. Even with the plot not being as explained as it could have been for some characters (the Lenny cult’s devolution), it was pretty darn close to perfection to me. Maybe I’m just enamored of Hot Pope Pius, though. 😉 I also really loved Voiello becoming pope. On one hand, I’d love to see a season of Pope Voiello, but on the other hand, I remember that I love this show best when Hot Pope Pius is around (and speaking or living, not just silently appearing alongside characters). I’m okay if it stops here, but hope there’s some way to do a final season with Pope Voiello (and bring back SisterMaryDianeKeaton as part of his storyline) AND also include Hot Pope Pius without doing the “he’s not really dead” thing again (although I don’t easily see how that could be done). As much as I like Voiello and want to see him as Pope, I also think Jude Law & his character is what makes this show. Same. I was raised Catholic (12 years plus kindergarten of Catholic school, mass every Sunday growing up) & still identify as culturally Catholic, but I don’t actively practice aside from the “fun” folk Catholicism stuff, which in south Louisiana includes Mardi Gras, crawfish boils on Fridays during Lent (such a big sacrifice, haha), etc., I feel the same way about this show. I get why some people might find it sac-religious at face value, but it’s the opposite for me. It reminds me that the Catholic Church is an imperfect institution ran by men - who are humans grappling with bureaucracy, human nature (& its dark side); legacies of outdated/misogynist traditions vs. modernity; & the inability of humans to still totally understand even when given miracles/seeing the power of a higher power/seeing heaven/resurrecting from the (brain) dead, etc (and how they grapple with not having all the answers even if they have some - for example, Lenny knew that what Brannox had said at his brother’s grave but didn’t know that the terrorists at the end were members of the cult dedicated to him). Like another of my favorite (and criminally under-appreciated) shows, part of the beauty of this series is seeing the characters (& viewers) ultimately “let the mystery be.” This last episode made the so-so first handful of episodes totally worth it (for me). And gods, I loved that last little Kubrick-wink with little kid Pius running into Voiello. Hunter S Thompson said “it never got weird enough for me” about life. Well, this season was just the right amount of weird to scratch a strange itch I didn’t know I really had as a lapsed cultural Catholic (who also loves her some Hot Pope Pius & thinks this is the best Jude Law has ever looked with that perfect spray tan & hairpiece). Thank you for that, Sorrentino & Law (and shout out to the actor who plays Gutierrez for breaking my heart in almost every scene and to Voiello’s actor for stealing so many scenes).

As someone who was a teen during the super-plucked, thin eye brow style phase of the late 90s, all I can say about this current, opposite eye brow trend is: YOU ALL WILL REGRET THIS WHEN YOU LOOK AT PICTURES A DECADE FROM NOW. You'll see this trend was kind of ridiculous & looked especially ridiculous on the average person (compared to famous people & models with make-up artists & the like). (But I feel Anna & Josh regret a lot about their lives already, anyway, but aren't about to change anything.)

https://www.beautywithtori.com/ Did ya'll know this was a thing? Cause it's a thing. (I think Tori is a NuSkin consultant and I think NuSkin is a MLM? Is that what's going on here?) Edit: It is indeed NuSkin (which is a MLM), although her website is set up to make it not super obvious that the brand is NuSkin. Googling tells me she's been part of this MLM since 2018 and Ian Ziering was (or is?) in it, too. I guess at least she doesn't seem to push it too much in her @torispelling instagram (she has a @beautywithtori one that does a little more).

They talk about/post about how Stella was bullied by boys both times at both schools and how she used to want to grow up to do something that would benefit and empower other women & girls. I went to an all-girls high school and I know how mean girls can be, but I was bullied way less at the all-girls high school than my co-ed middle school (where both boys & girls bullied me). Stella has now been at three different schools due to bullying. If this continues, perhaps Stella may want to try to see if she feels more comfortable at an all-girls school. (I think Tori graduated from an all-girls school, the Westlake School for Girls, which merged with a boys' school sometime in the 90s and became Harvard-Westlake. I think Tori was in one of the last graduating all-girls classes. So the option of trying an all-girls school for Stella shouldn't be too foreign to her.) And I agree with other posters that the stuff their parents have put out into the public about their private lives, etc. probably don't help with the bullying the kids get. 😞

Babies grow so fast. I don't want any more kids (and can't have any more after my total hysterectomy anyway), but I do so miss my kids being babies. I love babies. I wish I could go back in time and play with my kids when they were little babies like Vaeda here one more time. They grow so fast. Interact with her, Catelynn! #MakingYourBedIsNotLiberating Look, I don't care if you make your bed everyday or not. (I don't make my bed at hotels, but I also don't take selfies with unmade hotel beds in the background.) Before you take a selfie with your bed in the background, MAKE YOUR BED! You picked your clothes, did your hair, and posed for the 'gram, make your bed for the 'gram, too. It will probably take less time to make your bed than to pick out your bracelets or perfect your pose. (Sorry, unmade beds & heaps of clothes in the background of "public" figures' social media posts when they've obviously taken time to style/fix/pose themselves for the camera is becoming one of my pet peeves.) It's like you went this far...just tidy up the bed in the background so it won't be so distracting from the look your look that you think is so "put together." Also, that unmade bed is still more inspiring than that 6th grade poetry. GIRL, you already have a baby. Vaeda just turned one. I had my kids 16 months apart (by surprise, not by design), so maybe I can't say anything, but I wish she'd enjoy the baby she currently has right now (see above post about Vaeda trying to get her attention). They're still so much more palatable than Jenelle or Amber, though, so I'll give them that. (Low bar, I know.)

I also really miss the story line about Lenny's parents who abandoned him at the orphanage and his struggle to understand it/search for them. I was almost expecting him to immediately be like "I saw them before I blacked out" after he woke up....but maybe he got all his answers when he saw heaven or...his mind is occupied with the whole "whoa, I was dead and I'm totally alive" stuff. In any case, I found that story line and how it shaped Lenny's life and actions to be the most interesting season 1 story line....and it feels unresolved. Is Lenny no longer bugged by it? Will he be bugged later? Is it a total non-issue for the resurrected? I hope there's some kind of answer in the next two episodes rather than ignoring it.

Same. I almost cried when the boy had a tear and I full-on bought everything Pius was telling him, even though I have no idea what his lips were actually saying. And I personally am also not religious. Jude's acting there was just perfect. Also, I've really been missing Hot Pope Pius Law. Swoon. Beautiful Jude Law in his beautifully done hair piece & spray tan in beautiful locations. I don't know why I was trying to kid myself that I watched this show for another primary reason. Ah, that makes sense. I thought he was letting them glimpse into Heaven to see their son there, but that explanation makes more sense, I think (from what I remember of the scene).

I like dogs more than I like most people, especially more than I like Jenelle & David. I hate these people and I hate that they keep getting dogs (and other animals).

I am kind of shocked at how bored I've been at least half the time by Malkovich. I'm not sure if it's the character or the character's story line (rather than Malkovich's acting), but ugh. Pope Malkovich's story line has had some glimmers of hope for becoming interesting, but I'm much more bored by Pope Malkovich than I expected.

I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing the resemblance! Jude Law really has kind of morphed into Cary Grant as he's aged (probably due in part to the amazing hairpiece and make-up/spray-tan team on this show, who I think he should try to get to work on every project he's in. IMO, Jude Law has never looked as beautiful as he does as Pius)! Ha! I concur!

Um, pretty sure we all know what happened (and you added details about how and where it happened with the kitchen counter tweet, Kail). And go ahead and justify how you came to the decision to have another kid with a man who you acknowledge doesn't do anything for the child you already have with him. I'm sure there's a total justification beyond "I thought trap baby 2 might do the trick to lock Chris down," so go ahead and tell us. We'll wait.

Nathan doesn't look all that hopeless in this picture. Maybe Jill has taught Nurie how she can grift him some orthodontia (as someone who needed a lot of orthodontic work, I feel terribly for him that his family couldn't afford it and I'm not trying to make fun of him. It sucks to get made fun of for your teeth being crooked and weird, since you have no control over that). Maybe he looks shiny & terrified in pictures Jill posts because Jill & the whole Rod clan have been around so much. That would be enough to make anyone sweaty, break out from stress, and look like they're terrified. Hopefully once he and Nurie are married, he will be able to put a little space between his new household & Jill, even if it's by hooking up (And Kaylee) with his brother or introducing Renee to a Duggar boy. I will give Nathan credit for having the confidence to smile with his teeth showing. Years after a lot of orthodontic work, I still don't have it. It's just been ingrained in me to smile with my lips closed from years of having crooked teeth. So good for Nathan for having the confidence to smile real smiles, even if they're imperfect. It also speaks a tiny bit well for the Kellers, IMO, that their two non-Fundie daughters wore pants in the picture. There isn't any of this "I feel convicted to wear pants but I'm still going to wear skirts only around my parents out of 'respect'" (ie: fear) capitulation that we see with Jinger or with the Bates girls when they're with their families. The Kellers might be slightly less authoritarian than the Duggars & Bateses, which could be good for Nurie. (The Keller parents still have awful beliefs & basically sold of Anna to the despicable Duggar crown prince, so I'm still not singing their praises.)

I feel like it's some kind of weird Fundie Super Power for some of these fundie families. The girl children of the Duggars and the Kellers especially seem to somehow inherit a combination of their parents' genes that is much more aesthetically pleasing than how the gene combo plays out in boy children once they're adults. I also hope Suze and Nurie become friends and Suze can subtly influence Nurie's make-up and hair choices (as well as maybe encouraging her toward some modern modest clothing), as it seems Anna is going to ignore Nurie as long as she can and while Priscilla seems sweet, I doubt it would occur to her to subtly try to help/influence Nurie's look (as it seems Priscilla isn't particularly in tune with what's going on around her). Suze has to know that poor Nurie & the Rods are a mess, especially since J-Rod had to resort to taking a picture of a picture of Suze to include in her thank you for Nathan & Nurie's engagement ring cake. The fact that she made that cake for Nathan & Nurie speaks to the fact that Suze must care about them, though (unlike Anna who is apparently too much of a Duggar Princess-In-Law to acknowledge the Rods marrying into her family).

How many more Duggarling births will there be? There will be an infinite number of opportunities for her to tell that story over and over. Hopefully, the show will go off of the air at least before we've had to hear it at the 30th grand-Duggar birth. Maybe it was both. Maybe Abbie wanted some privacy and used JD's possessive streak to get him to advocate with Big Boss JB that Abbie wasn't going to be home-birthing on the toilet for the cameras to see. In either case, I'm glad Abbie didn't have to be subjected to that.