heavysnaxx

What The Affair really needs at this point is Cherry's Australian great-aunt, Barbara Stanwyck.

Oh I think Sunshine is, if anything, less perceptive and equipped to make connections than he first appears. Many college students - not just recent ones - take the path of repeating back material correctly and get excellent grades. And then there's his inability to read a room - he didn't seem to grasp how his coworkers might feel about him going off to nap, mid-shift. But what I'd loosely call "maturity" or even emotional intelligence is...not great.

Well, there's being told things and then there's really hearing them. From what I've seen of Thatcher, I can easily imagine her waving away any help on offer and disparaging it, to boot. I would ordinarily be on the side of the person in her position but her utter lack of either humor or self-awareness is just chilling, given the power she holds.

I had the very same thought! Thatcher had a much rounder face and a bit of a double chin, and while maybe ol' Nancy's do was a bit more elegant, it was very similar to Maggie's, in sheer magnitude. There was a moment when Thatcher was in profile in this episode when that bulwark of hair and Anderson's more delicate features made me think, "That's Nancy Reagan!"

Gillian Andersen is just KILLING IT as Thatcher. I feel like I have her entire emotional history already: She's uninformed about the culture and customs of the place she's about to visit but instead of availing herself of insider-knowledge, she opts to remain proudly and obstinately ignorant. It's not pride. It's fear. She needs that ignorance as a reason for why her failing will not be her fault. That tells me she has little real confidence in who she is, her ability to build a rapport with others, or in her capacity to evolve as a person. She doesn't feel as if she belongs there and she refuses to do any of the work to change that, even when the Queen is trying to be kind. Her much-vaunted "grit" is nowhere in evidence. She's a PM and negotiating high-level social engagements is part of the job but she's defeated by a pair of walking shoes.

It's difficult because I watched this after having read about her life and I need to stick to the show. I agree with you both except on the point about Diana surely being able to have visitors - from what we see in episode, the move into Kensington was like crossing over into another world that was more a workplace than a home. She was instructed not to trust anyone outside the Palace in the lead-up to the wedding because of the media frenzy. Her family wasn't close in the way we mean close. Her friends were largely off-limits. I think people forget that, on the spectrum of royal marriages at the time, Diana for all of the Spencers' aristocracy, was considered a commoner and that meant if anything went wrong - if she talked honestly to a friend, the friend gossiped and the media got it - she would be blamed and her family shamed. Lady Fermoy made that clear. And yet we see that the same Palace didn't ensure she had training in how to cope with the mammoth media frenzy or set her up with an inner-circle group. FFS, the family had each other to complain with about Diana yet these very senior "adults" never asked themselves who their newest family member might have to kvetch with. She was 19! How did they not grasp that she needed - and would do so much better with - intimates during such a stressful time?

I agree with all of that but I could not forgive the Windsors in this episode on two matters: -They knew the age difference and power differential. Charles was 31 and Diana 19. They knew it was essentially a job hiring and that Diana did not truly understand that. Heck, her ignorance was the core of her appeal to them as someone who knew how to perform the role but wasn't informed enough to see what the role really was. They exploited her. -Her isolation once engaged and their failure to grasp that showing emotional care was part of doing their duty. They saw she was suffering and their response was to judge her as weak. It's grotesque. Did you notice how we never see her with her own family while getting ready for the wedding? She's alone. And I do blame Charles for this. He's the elder in age, rank, and knowledge. He knows what's going on. He could have shown simple concern for her as part of his duty. Honestly, I do have sympathy for him, in general, but the Windsors' defensive coldness is just plain cruel and he's continuing it.

She's not male and there are male successors who render her irrelevant. If she were in the position of either of the two Queen Elizabeths or Victoria, she'd be the favorite.

"Sandy was lecturing about how a chef who's not white has to keep their emotions in check and act professionally" Tom loses his shit on the regular, serves raw chicken = passionate perfectionist Kiko fired mid-service for serving fried food, sobs privately, shows up to finish charter despite being fired = unprofessional

When she wasn't reached for comment about Tom's professionalism," Downton Abbey's Mrs. Patmore didn't say, "I don't mean to be unkind, but the lad were a bit of a big girl's blouse." She also didn't point out what she managed, versus what Tom had to do: Her Brief: Feed large household for 12 years in a Yorkshire basement She works with: Coal-fire, a dozy kitchen maid Her triumphs: Cooking in a corset while semi-blind; a wedding breakfast during war rationing Fears: Electrical appliances, being married for her cooking The # breaks she took: 2 (Surgery; once sat down in His Lordship's presence) Lives by: “It’s a poor workman who blames his tools."

The hardest part of arresting a boat is waiting for it to find a jacket large enough to hide its bow before you perp-dock it in front of everyone. I assume you arrest a boat the same way you fire someone for prescribed medication that you insist on calling "drugs" as if you're a Maritime Florrie Fisher: With disordered thinking, no bail(ing), and relying on a bosun who really doesn't love you back. I'm just an unfrozen maritime lawyer and even I've never seen a deeper crevasse than the one Sandy has that Malia's currently all up in.

Not gonna lie, I was bracing myself for seeing Sr. Monica Joan become a handsome laird's Sisternach when they had her standing with her hand on the stones. But I'm guessing the Scotland of Outlander isn't THIS one, to paraphrase Shelagh. Image: Parody of an Outlander promo showing Sr. Monica Joan and Jamie Fraser on either side of a stone. "POPLANDER 9/10 Starz"

Tom Checketts is (not) in fact one of the Checketts from Poachly-in-Unclewho that's related to the Masshole Afflecks that have a duplex in Southie-on-Wickedfrigginpissa. Casey Affleck refers to his distant cousin as "this fuckin guy." Apparently, they had a falling out when Casey called him a tool after Tom disparaged Dunkies' coffee.

Tom Poachly-Unclewho, aka A Boy Named Sous Vide, of Pustule-on-Gordon, has all the skillz and charisma of a shitty-first-draft Bond villain before Phoebe Waller-Bridge gives him some wit and an interesting back-story for his rage.

[Oops, messed up the intended image. Oh well!]