Maelstrom

OK, yesterday when I saw that our first new episode in a week was Sonny's funeral I watched Days, with its epic saga of Ben and Ciara's Twu Wuv, instead. Ben and Ciara, people. If you don't watch Days and don't know who they are, consider yourself very, very lucky. If you do watch Days, then you know how desperate I was to avoid the inevitable Sonny lovefest. Yeesh. Episodes like this are why the FF button is made. Not. Enough. :( Nooooooo!! Though, to be fair to the writers, killing off all other men would be the only way any sane woman would willingly pick the SLS human equivalent of a wet paper sack of unflavored instant oatmeal Michael. While it would be very nice to have everyone STFU about how evil Ava killed poor saintly Morgan, I'm not sure having Morgan back on the show is a price worth paying. What else is new, right, lol. Hey look! There's a Jason emoji: 😶 Inferior as in, you can see his facial muscles moving and expressing emotion? Random thought of the day: Carly is the hybrid of a banshee and a Dementor, warning the unaware of her presence with her terrible voice while sucking the joy out of everyone around her.

Well, since you asked... :) I really enjoyed the first movie. As you said, the movies allowed us to see beyond Katniss' scope into the rest of the world, which really deepened the entire story. The fact that this movie was just a little throwaway in Hollywood's eyes meshed so well with Katniss as the underdog from a crap district - there's a strange symbiosis between THG book and movie that are just.. magic. I enjoyed the second movie as well, though in a different way. CF may be my favorite of the books (it bounces between THG and CF, whichever one I'm reading at the time, lol) so I was really curious to see how the movie would turn out. And it's interesting, because Hollywood obviously knew they had a moneymaker by the time it came to adapting CF, and I can see the difference on screen, in how this book is adapted compared to the first. Bigger budget, more stars, bigger spectacle. And yet it works. Because this is exactly what Katniss and Peeta experience in CF - their world has expanded, there is far more at stake, and they're now on a bigger stage than they ever could have even imagined. So, again, the vibe between book and movie for CF are strangely parallel, which only elevates the story for me. And, for the life of me, I could not get a mental picture of how the island was laid out in the QQ, so the visuals of the movie were first time I really understood what the heck Collins was going for, lol. I'll be honest, MJ is by far my least favorite book. I found Finnick and Johanna's character growth and deepened friendships with Katniss the most interesting parts, and sadly I felt MJ1 movie totally skipped over that. I never even saw the second MJ movie, so I can't speak to that one - I will someday, really, but considering it's (in my mind) The Part of the Story Where Everyone I Like Dies, I'm not in a big hurry. The casting for the Capitol film crew and the district 13 gang was excellent, which only makes me less interested in watching most of them die. When I saw MJ1 I hoped that the nature of film compared to the written word would even out the basic story considering that Katniss spends so much of the story out of her gourd, so to speak. MJ was the first book where I felt that the tight POV from Katniss was a detriment to the story - she's not with it for such large chunks of time, so how can we get the story if our only narrator is out of commission? MJ1 did smooth out this issue somewhat, but not as much as I'd hoped. Though there were some fantastic scenes that still give me chills to think about - Katniss singing 'Hanging Tree', rebels blowing the dam, the lumberjacks from Johanna's district dropping out of the trees onto the Peacekeepers - overall MJ is still my least favorite, both book and movie(s). (And again, I know it's not completely fair to judge without having seen MJ2, and I won't get started on the fact that it really didn't need to be split into two movies, but anyway). So, there you have it, my two cents. Probably more like three cents looking over the length of this post. :)

Ah, I've heard of Prison Playbook but never watched it. How are you liking it? I've reached the point of recognizing certain locations from various shows (I'm starting to think that all dramatic confrontations are required to happen on the same rooftop with a panoramic view of Seoul, lol). Right now I'm watching Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung. It's the first full-on historical/sageuk I've watched so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get into it, but I'm really liking it. The lead actress starred in Bride of the Water God as well, but now she has some really good material to work with. Definitely worth a look if you're OK with a historical. I know, I'm always happy when someone posts on this thread. Have you found Dramabeans yet? It's a whole global community of addicts :D They have recaps of many shows and lots of opportunities for discussion. I don't post there very often but I lurk quite a bit. I've also found it helpful for understanding cultural differences, etc, too. And, I admit, I use their recaps to check the ending of a show to make sure it's worth watching (no tragic or unsatisfying endings for me, thank you very much!)

Wasn’t it?! I watched almost a dozen Kdramas last year and that one was truly a standout. I really loved everything about it - the characters and their emotional growth, the cast, the juxtaposition of two very different worlds, the mix of the humorous and the heartfelt, the maturity of the romance... I could go on and on. Man-bok the wiretapper was a standout for me just as much as the leads. Great show. Glad you enjoyed it too!

CLUE! Count me as another person who loves that movie. 🥰 I can recite all of the dialogue with it as I watch. ”Professor Plum, you were once a professor of psychiatry specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur.” Just like Marlena!

Welcome to the land of Kdramas, OogleEyes. They're highly addictive, that's for sure. I've yet to watch one live since I don't think I could wait from week to week, so I commend your patience. And I'm still burned from Memories of the Alhambra, which I started watching before the final episode had aired - I won't be doing that again (nothing like investing 16 hours of your life only to be majorly disappointed with a crummy ending). Right now I'm watching Bride of the Water God (aka Bride of Habaek), which is fun. I've been curious about It's OK Not to Be OK since I enjoyed the lead actor in My Love From the Star, but haven't watched it yet. You'll have to let us know what you think!

My DVR decided not to record the special even though it acted like it would, so I missed it. Sadly I'm not surprised to hear I didn't really miss anything. I can understand needing to narrow their scope (100 years is a LOT of skating to cover after all) but still. Why not just have a special about the current "big names" in American skating if that's all they want to show? Sheesh.

Ah, thanks for the links, justmehere! I was thinking I'd have to trawl through YouTube to find anything. Much appreciated!

I don't believe Jill Wagner has ever played an evil robot or the devil's mother, so that helps differentiate them, to me at least. And writing that out makes me wonder how Tricia Helfer even ended up in Hallmark-land to begin with... I watched the Lindy Booth/Justin Bruening one last night (I don't even bother learning the titles) and was pleasantly surprised. Still chock full o' tropes, of course, but better than I expected. I always like Lindy Booth, and Justin Bruening has actually improved from his days on All My Children. Also, that star ornament was gorgeous.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this show, ElectricBoogaloo - if Disney ever loosens their claws and gives non-subscribers access I will definitely be checking it out.

And kitties! This is my favorite holiday fluff movie hands down. Fun, likable leads who act like adults, cats, and a touch of humor. I actually bought the dvd so I can watch it every year. Joining in with everyone who liked Sugar and Spice Holiday - an unexpected treat! No pun intended.

You can always tell the Canadian boys who grew up playing hockey! I recall seeing Niall Matter and Michael Shanks in a few movies over the years where it was extremely obvious they'd spent a lot of time playing hockey. I'm all for this too! At least it might offer something slightly different. I see Ali Sweeney has one coming up sometime this week, I set it to record since she's one of my faves (Sami Brady FTW!) Beyond that, I have to say that I'm so over Hallmark's Christmapocalypse. At least the Lifetime holiday movies offer up a few laughs and surprises in their fluff.

Especially considering Sonny needed a stepladder to have a hope of staring Martin down. I hope they don’t have a lot more scenes together, I hate missing out on Michael Knight and I HATE watching Sonny (I know, that goes without saying, but it can’t be said enough).

Whoa, so nuLucas wasn't just a matter of not being able to get RC and needing a last-minute replacement? Um, OK then. I would ask why this show continually ruins and gets rid of everything I like about it, but it's what they do best sadly. Also, they can't give me Brad back (with Britt!) and then take him away from me, it's just too cruel.

I found an hour on regular NBC (not the sports network) Sunday morning - time will tell if it actually airs...

Sooo.... anyone here in the US know if NBC is going to deign to show more than an hour of Cup of China on network, or is full coverage only for Peacock subscribers? Let the schedule scavenger hunt begin. *insert my annual rant about how much NBC sucks here* Finally catching up on Skate America, and Keegan Messing looked great! He really impressed me - I never used to have much of an opinion about him one way or the other, but in the last few years he’s really come into his own. He was on his game here - his FS almost made me like Guns and Roses for a minute. So happy we got to see him shine. (in other news, I still miss Jason 😢)

Just watching from home I find those cutouts wildly distracting - I keep looking at them instead of the skaters: "Hey, is that a cutout of Bea Arthur? Nah, they wouldn't want to pay for the likeness of a celebrity. Is that a kitten with a placard written in Japanese? Must be a Yuzuru fan. Speaking of, there's a Pooh Bear knock-off. And another. Oh, wait, watch the skater. Hmm, sure are lots of Geico lizards watching this event, too. Hey, is that another one of the man holding the Nathan sign? I wonder if there are any duplicates out in the 'audience.' Oh yeah, watch the skater." Sad. Still, it's definitely better than nothing. Any word if Cup of China, Rostelecom, or NHK are still going to happen? And I'm with everyone hating the music. Thank goodness for the mute button.

Josh Farris was one of my favorites, I always loved watching him. Such a beautiful skater. IIRC he had a lot of injuries, sadly. What’s the deal with his coach?

I was really dubious about a live action version in the first place... but now with those rumors* and no Bryan and Mike... no thanks. I'll happily stick with the original, which IMO is pretty close to perfect as is. I wonder if this adaptation will even get off the ground anyway. * If there's even a kernel of truth to any of them it's a dealbreaker in my book

That's great, Good Queen Jane, thanks for sharing! I can't imagine a whole year without getting to hold my breath every time Jason comes onscreen and hope that Yuzuru doesn't break anything else watch my faves. It's hard enough to be a figure skating fan in the US anyway (thanks for nothing NBC) so this is good news, however changed the GP may look this year.

Too bad he didn’t just shoot the viewers to put us out of our misery. BlackberryJam, you’re braver than I could ever be, and it’s interesting to read your impressions after a few years have passed. Despite really liking some aspects of this show (early on, at least) it turned into such a colossal clusterfuck of an insult to brain cells that I don’t think I could ever stand to rewatch. Not even for Eric Balfour’s hotness.

Hey, can’t say she didn’t learn from the best!

Six primal elements + dark/human magic. At least, that’s my guess. Either way, yay!

Yes, yes, yes!! This is my main problem with this show these days.

No worries, this can't be repeated enough! Days writers: Diff...er..ent? We're not familiar with that word. I would add Todd from OLTL to that list, considering he was about as vile a character as you could imagine early on. They took several years to redeem him, over the course of a couple different storylines, and even afterwards he was never a hero by any stretch of the imagination, something he acknowledged more than anyone. Characters used to be allowed to embody many shades of grey, but these days (and Days is especially bad about this IMO) everyone is either good or bad, black or white, period. It's infuriating to watch.