kingshearte

For me, what makes Eric (and several of these other guys) extra horrible for their actions is less the actual "cheating," and more the fact that it comes right on the heels of explicitly declaring themselves fully committed. As much as I'm not really leaning toward defending Kendall too much anymore, I don't recall she and Joe actually having any explicit "I don't want anyone else" conversations before Leo arrived. Maybe they did, and I just don't remember, but I definitely remember Chris saying that to Tia before he made out with Crystal, Leo saying something to that effect to Kendall before making out with Chelsea, and Eric for sure saying that to Angela — multiple times — before Cassandra showed up. And further, what makes all of those even worse is that when confronted, all three of those guys fully tried to make the women involved believe that things didn't happen that we clearly saw happen. Eric's assertion that "well, we didn't really define what we are, so..."? Really? His other declaration, that he just woke up and changed his mind is super lame, but it's at least not so gas-lighty. Whoever said a few episodes ago that it's like these guys have all attended a gaslighting workshop before this may be onto something. We've ibviously seen plenty of jerk moves, but there really do seem to be more guys trying to make women believe that things that happened didn't this time out.

Ugh. Leo. The less said about this asshat, the better. Honestly, does he not hear himself? One hand, I almost get where he's coming from. Almost. In this context, even more than in real life, people should perhaps not be so quick to assume that insta-monogamy is the default. Buuuuut, at the same time, people who are not feeling that monogamous vibe should really refrain from implying that they are, or even explicitly stating that they're "all in" or whatever, if they're then going to turn around and make out with someone else. But hey, at least a few of them are providing us with beautiful, textbook-perfect examples of gaslighting — and the women they're trying it on are doing a pretty good job of showing the appropriate response to such bullshit. Kevin was amazing. Whether it was actually an accident that he spilled or not, he handled it all beautifully, and I agree with those who said he was a much better example of a "real man" than Leo will ever be. And Annaliese, OMG. When I said that thing about not assuming insta-monogamy from the moment someone looks at you, you were the one I was most talking to. Good grief. Get it together, girl. Quit being so desperate to find a man and get out there and live your life. Much better chance of actually connecting with someone worthwhile who's actually a good fit, and even if you don't, it's going to be a much more enjoyable way of living your life than this pathetic moping nonsense.

I will say one thing about this season so far. For a few seasons, many (including me) have noted that the little bits of silliness at the very end are often the most entertaining moments of the shows. And I've noticed that they've actually included a bunch of scenes of that ilk in the main episodes. So while there's definitely a very high level of eyeroll-inducing bullshit, there are also more of the lighthearted, genuine interactions that we've been clamouring for, and I'm digging that. I also still kinda like Kendall. I mean, we've all been through ill-advised infatuations, right? Hopefully she clues in and snaps out of it sooner than later, whether or not that means going back to Joe. Leo does have pretty hair, but he's definitely skeezy. And add me to the chorus desperately hoping that now that Colton and Tia have made it "official," we can move on from their tiresome story.

Wow, the toxic masculinity bullshit on display this week was downright nauseating. Chris & Jordan's in-depth discussion of Chris's theoretical four-date evening, as though all the women involved were basically just objects? Gross. Chris's attempt at gaslighting Tia? Infuriating, although awesome to see her see right through it and immediately walk away. Krystal gave signs that she might do the same after witnessing it, but I guess the desire to stay on TV won out over that. However, if she thinks he won't play her just as hard given the slightest opportunity, I think she will find herself sadly mistaken. Jordan's outburst? Quite disturbing. I'll admit that, having not watched Becca's season, I have not witnessed the whole Jordan-David saga, and if David really has just been prodding for however long that is in real life, at a certain point, I suppose it's not that surprising that Jordan would eventually snap. But seriously, the sheer possessiveness of the silent grabbing of the giant dog, the appalling behaviour toward entirely unrelated people, the insistence that his permission is required to give "his" woman a gift... It all just gives me the willies. I was really really hoping that Jenna would refuse the rose, or at the very least, accept it only with the warning that this would be his only chance, and that any hint of this sort of behaviour again and it's over. But she did seem to at least recognize it as troubling, so hopefully they will have that conversation, whether we see it or not, and hopefully she'll stick to her guns about it. Also, I didn't much care for Bibiana on Arie's season, but I was enjoying her commentary here, and I'm sorry to see her go. Couldn't we just keep her around for the commentary?

Wow, they really are ramping up the blatantly manufactured drama this time, aren't they? I am beyond over this Tia-Colton nonsense. Particularly as I could have sworn that at one point it was said that they actually only went on one date. One fairly substantial date, but just one. Did I make that up? Regardless, it definitely doesn't seem like it was a very long "relationship," and he's clearly over it, and she therefore needs to move on. Her pre-rose ceremony chat with him was brutal. In case all the other signs didn't clue you in, dear, when he told you flat out that he was not bothered by the thought of you kissing someone else? There's your answer. You can harangue him all you want, but that's really it. Ugh. At least she did ultimately give her rose to someone else, which almost gives me some glimmer of hope that this won't just be an entire season of her pining after someone who clearly doesn't want her and trying to browbeat him into wanting her. The only other thing I'll note is that while David didn't make any particular impression one way or the other in the actual show, his intro segment horrified me. I don't even care if some of that was meant ironically; there was clearly enough truth in it to make me run far far away if I were presented with such an option. He and Corinne seem like they could get on quite nicely with her nanny and his mother taking care of them.

I loathe eating challenges. The "gross" otherwise unusual ones are sometimes tolerable, but the overeating ones should just be abolished forever. At least this one wasn't in a place where significant numbers of locals didn't have enough to eat... All three Express Passes were indeed used this leg. One team used theirs early in the pie challenge, another used theirs later in the pie challenge, and the third used theirs to skip the fairy door challenge. Did have to laugh at the one who tied the wrong know at least 20 times. If it's a similar knot, I get making that mistake and trying it a few times, but when the judge tells you repeatedly that it's wrong (not too slow; wrong), it's time to reassess. I did notice that when she did get it, she got it in something like half the time allotted, rather than within a second like most of them, so I'm guessing that the knot she was thinking of was indeed very similar to the one required, and if she'd just paid a little closer attention to the details, she probably could have smoked that as fast as the firefighter did.

It's definitely this. They wrote this Evil Queen villain, who, let's be honest, was pretty great in the first season. She was so deliciously evil, with such fabulous outfits, and it was just so much fun to hate her and look forward to her eventual downfall. The trouble is that villains have shelf lives. At a certain point, you need to defeat them or redeem them. They didn't want to lose the character, so they went with redemption, but the problem there is that to truly properly redeem someone, she needs to change, and if she really changed enough to be properly redeemed, she wouldn't still be that deliciously evil character that they were trying to preserve. So they just basically declared her a good guy, but changed nothing significant about her attitudes and behaviours. And the series has been on a downward slide ever since that declaration. I always thought they should have kept her as the baddie and defeated her after a season or two — but trapping or binding her or something, rather than killing her, so that they could bring her back somehow as the biggest baddest for the series' epic final clash. Heck, you could even work a happy ending for her into that if she somehow was convinced to be redeemed and sacrificed herself for some noble reason, and then we see her being reborn as a new baby in some sort of likely-to-get-a-proper-happy-ending new life or something. But yeah, the point we all seem to come back to is that "redeeming" her without any real change or even remorse for her past actions is what contributed the most to killing this show's potential. Conversely, if they really wanted to write a show where the baddie's happy ending is the endgame, they could have done that too, but the whole POV would have had to shift from day one. That is not the show they presented us with in the first season.

I just recently hauled out my DVDs because I needed something familiar to mindlessly binge-watch (still digging this decision). I haven't gotten to Season 3 yet, but I definitely agree that making Lauren evil was a sucky choice, especially when it was so obviously retconned. One of the best things the writers on Grey's Anatomy did was make Derek's wife actually a delightful character. It adds way more interesting nuance to a triangle if one of the points isn't such an obviously unsuitable option. I had nothing against Lauren when she first showed up — it wasn't her fault that the late partner of the man she fell in love with and married turned out to not actually be dead. I mean, I still would have wanted Syd to triumph in the end and reunite with Vaughan, but I would have loved it if they'd written Lauren in a way that allowed for that decision to be a genuine struggle for Vaughan, and for us to actually feel for her when she inevitably got dumped.

Oh god, I hope not.

If they didn't show it, how would you know where the cookies came from? You can't just have a plate of cookies; people will be confused. I just hope it's a bit of an exaggeration for her to say she had no clue. Because the concept of walzing onto a set to direct something without having done any research into what the role entails, or how to do any of it is just... Well, among other things, it's disrespectful. The implication that there's so little to it that you don't need to do any prep work beyond showing up with "ideas" is just so mind-bogglingly dismissive of the work done by good directors. Ugh.

And this is a much bigger problem. You can pretend not to know something your character shouldn't know yet. It's effectively impossible to act like you do know something that your character should know when you don't know it. There's likely to be some of that in any long-running show — especially one that regularly incorporates flashbacks — but it shouldn't happen left, right and centre within a season. Writers should have at least the broad idea of the arc and what elements are important for a season, and they should respect and trust their actors enough to fill them in on the relevant points — even the ones whose characters won't find out about them until later. To do otherwise just does a huge disservice to your story and its believability, your actors, and your audience. This is certainly not the only show guilty of this, but it's definitely one of the more egregious offenders, and it's maddening.

I've heard this sort of argument before, but as a stage actor, I don't really buy it. A good actor can make you believe this is the first time they're learning something despite hvaing played that exact scene for months, and rehearsed it for months before that. And, if it's not a brand-new work, they might have read the whole script well before any of that ever started. So the idea that someone couldn't possibly act surprised unless they actually didn't know what was coming is... well, not really acting, and I'd give most of these people more credit than that.

This conversation has definitely waded into much broader territory on humour and offense and opinions, etc. but this kind of sums it up. The kind of jokes that April Fools jokes usually are tend to be the sort designed to at best embarass the one getting fooled, and are usually much funnier to the fooler. Most such things are more on the harmless end of the spectrum, but they can definitely cross a line, and it's very hard to know exactly where the line is, because it's in a different place for everyone, and who gets to decide when something is "just a joke" and anyone upset by it is being too sensitive, and when something is "genuinely offensive" and the perpetrator is a straight-up jerk? I guess, if one is in the public eye, someone's going to object to pretty much everything you ever say, so you might as well just do you, and expect/ignore the inevitable backlash.

I'm pretty sure that very few, if any, people who post jokes like that are intending to mock infertility. No matter the intentions, though, it is treating pregnancy very lightly, which is often highly upsetting for people who are struggling with it. And one has to basically live under a rock not to get that at this point. So although I have no doubt that they had no intention of hurting or upsetting anyone, they need to get their heads out of their asses if they expect not to get raked over the coals for stuff like this.

I was going to say that there are so many that I don't even know how I'd narrow it down to a top 10 (or 20, or 50...), let alone just one, but then: I think this would have to be it. It started out so well, with Emma getting sucked into the vortex shortly after finding out their true relationship and Snow, without hesitation, being all "Nope. Not doing that again." and jumping in after her. And then... Pretty much nothing. So much interesting territory to cover between all three of them, and we got basically none of it. Definitely the most egregious of the very long list of missed opportunities.