StarBrand
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Posts posted by StarBrand
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Since absolutely no one's mentioned this (at least in this forum)
Frasier-"You will RUE the day!"
Niles-"I DON'T CARE, NILES GOTTA HAVE IT!"
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On 10/16/2020 at 10:46 PM, Annber03 said:
And AGH, yes, the episode where Daphne accepts Donny's proposal. Niles' face there gets me every single time. If you wanted a picture of what actual heartbreak looked like, that would be it.
There's that, and Martin saying "I really wish I could fix this for you, son..."
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On 3/26/2019 at 1:38 AM, tessaray said:
Frasier himself doesn't change all that much over the course of the show but the supporting characters do, which keeps things interesting.
My personal low for the show is the storyline written to accommodate Jane Leeves' pregnancy. The fat shaming is cringe-worthy and I don't think the writers could get away with a similar plot today. (Though I don't watch many sitcoms, so maybe they could/do?)
Yes, they could have done that better, although they did come up with a nice reason for why she might feel insecure enough to start overeating-her feeling she couldn't possibly live up to Niles' angelic view of her. He literally could not see one thing wrong with her, was still idolizing her as this perfect being. Frasier had to remind tell Niles to stop putting her on so high of a pedestal, because if he kept doing that, he's ruin things before they had a chance to start. Niles listened, to his benefit... things started...("It wasn't at all how I imagined it..")
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The episodes in between when Daphne finds out about Niles (in the most offhand, anti-climactic way), and when they truly "start" their relationship ("Daphne Returns") are my favourites. Daphne started doing the things that Niles had been doing for years. She caressed Niles hand a tad too long when treating a burn, ran away when being caught doing it, berating Martin for dating a widow because "people can't just do these things with people because you're all of a sudden attracted to them", wearing her sexy red dress for Niles the first time she got to be alone with him, then getting upset after the surprise shower "ruined" the moment (and her dress, eventually).
The ending to Season 7 was perfect. Daphne choosing to run away with Niles (as if there were any doubt). Niles tells her to fasten her seat belt, and she responds with "fasten yours, Niles". It wasn't just that she called him by his first name, it was the tone of her voice and the look she gave him....as in "boy, are YOU in for the ride of your life..."
On 3/24/2019 at 6:39 PM, chessiegal said:There are episodes I don't care for, including the one with Lilith's half-brother. I almost deleted it without re-watching, but stuck it out and found a few amusing moments. Niles as a character and DHP as an actor never fail for me.
I think one of the writers said in his blog later on that episode didn't work because Micheal Keaton didn't play the chracter as they had intended, for some reason. I'm not sure how true that is, as I don't remember that particular episode. Besides, bringing in just Lilith herself was always comedy gold....
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I do wonder why they pulled the trigger on the Daphne-Niles relationship iwhen they did. I guess the producers couldn't have been sure exactly how much longer the series would go, so I guess they decided do that before it did. I've never seen any show get so much humour out of romantic and sexual frustration. Niles's physical and verbal reactions to Daphne saying or doing anything suggestive were priceless, and he never did it the exact same way twice. When they brought them together, Niles changed a little. He was still "Niles" as we'd seen him, but he was definitely more assertive. He had never been with any woman who hadn't emasculated him and held him back. Seeing them interact from Season 8 onward, free to express themselves with each other, was nice to watch, (especially when their lovey-dovey-ness would make Frasier and everybody else roll their eyes.)
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The creaters wanted to do a spinoff that was nothing at all like Cheers, so they changed almost everything. They had him move across the country, so there was a built-in excuse for the old Cheers buddies not appearing that often. (Every one of them did at some point, except for Rebecca), had Frasier give up his practice to be host of a talk-in show, which fit because Frasier was a character in love with his own voice, so that made sense. The other inspiring change was his family life. Casting DHP as Niles was a masterstroke, who was equally, if not more, neorotic than Frasier, (and there was David's gift for physical comedy). And the fact that his Dad was absolutely nothing like his sons (they apparently got their intellectual brainpower from Mom) was a nice touch. Front the start Frasier hit the ground running carving it's own unique path. And it ran for exactly as many seasons as Cheers. It made (and makes) me laugh, a lot. That's all you can ask for from a comedy, isn't it?
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More random thoughts;
How difficult must it have been for the writers to come up with Norm-isms for almost every episode. I wonder how much input Wednt had with those lines. I also liked how every now and then, they'd throw a curve ball-like when Norm enters the bar after Rebecca has taken over, and the "new" crowd doesn't respond to him at all. And most of all, this one. The reaction shots of everyone are priceless...
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The season one episode where Sam lends a friend his lucky bottle cap was an early example of how this show could pull off nice character moments. I liked the fact Sam trusted Diane with the story of it, of how that bottle cap of his last drink kept him from falling off the wagon, and it was often very difficult for him to do that. Then right after that admitting that he really needed it back, because his urge to drink was getting worse since he'd lent it away.
And then he gets the phone call where he finds out his friend lost it weeks ago. Having just heard the story, Diane knows just how bad that news is to Sam, and is almost desparate to keep him from giving in and pouring a drink for himself. She watches helplessly as Sam pours himself a glass. And stands there and looks at it for what feels like eternity, before finally doing the glass slide trick he'd done at the beginning of the episode. The audience claps almost in relief.
It was a very thoughtful scene depicting how difficult it is for a recovering addict to stay on the path of sobriety, where one bad day, or decision, can have them standing on the edge of the abyss, and someone like Diane has to try and pull them back.
Ironically enough, Diane is the reason he relapses two seasons later. And at that time we also get a glimpse that Drunk Sam was not entirely fun to be around...
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It really amazes me that the first season had such awful ratings, it could have gotten cancelled. But the network head stuck with it, along with some other shows that weren't getting any viewers (I think Hill Street Blues did just as bad its first season), and the show helped NBC become the powerhouse network of the 80s. It was still getting strong ratings in its final season. If Dansen hadn't decided he'd had enough, it could have gone on even longer.
Long's departure turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The Diane and Sam story really had played out, and the writers more or less admitted they'd let that relationship become the driver of the show. When Shelly left, they conentrated more on the original concept-the Cheers bar and the people that hung out there. It became more of an ensemble. Notice the difference in the opening credits the first five seasons-Long and Dansen's names are listed together-signifying how much the show focused on them-then afterwards, where names are listed individually for the rest of the series.
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6 minutes ago, buckboard said:
I wasn't commenting on the content of the preview. Just that there was one on the West coast, as opposed to the East coast.
Ah.....my bad then....
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12 hours ago, Raja said:
More Boone family stories. At this point I think we shouldn't have met his daughter as they missed a running joke.
I guess Agent Pike went to a serial killer seminar on his own dime. How often does the Coast Guard take a lead in such an investigation? It could play like Kate, the black balled Secret Service Agent as a NCIS, or CGIS Agent who settled for the show's star agency. Where as you would think more would be like Agent Percy of New Orleans who moved to the FBI.
The older woman who blew off college, so Janey's son is thinking the same. There is the less than A grade explanation. They took care to emphasize he was 18. I guess she is not a Hawaiian native as she didn't start with the elder respect when addressing her boyfriend's mom.
I don't think Tennant's son was thinking of going the "no college" route. It's what Tennant herself seems to think.
What I also didn't like was that she more or less forced her son to introduce her to his girlfriend THAT NIGHT!. Like there's a limited amount of time you're allowed not to do so.
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7 hours ago, blackwing said:
I enjoyed the case of the week, and I especially enjoyed the appearance of Agent Pike. Pike is such a tool, and the hilarious thing is that he doesn't seem to recognise that he's a dork. He's like the dork latching on the cool kid Boone. Boone's exasperation was hilarious.
Re Heather Boone... did we see her on Facetime last season? I swear Jane was Facetiming with her in the episode where the daughter got kidnapped, and we might have seen an indistinct small face on the phone in the background. But I'm wondering if we are ever going to see her.
Jane has a lot of patience with Alex's girlfriend. I would have put my foot down instantly if she handed me a glass of wine and called me by my first name. She thinks because she is 21 she is an adult and is allowed to treat her boyfriend's mom like they are equals? I'm surprised that Jane didn't say anything to Alex about that. She should have told Alex that this woman needs to call her Ms. Tennant. I know that Jane is worried that she will push Alex away, but at some point, she needs to demand some respect.
Sorry, responded to wrong post.
7 hours ago, blackwing said:I enjoyed the case of the week, and I especially enjoyed the appearance of Agent Pike. Pike is such a tool, and the hilarious thing is that he doesn't seem to recognise that he's a dork. He's like the dork latching on the cool kid Boone. Boone's exasperation was hilarious.
Re Heather Boone... did we see her on Facetime last season? I swear Jane was Facetiming with her in the episode where the daughter got kidnapped, and we might have seen an indistinct small face on the phone in the background. But I'm wondering if we are ever going to see her.
Jane has a lot of patience with Alex's girlfriend. I would have put my foot down instantly if she handed me a glass of wine and called me by my first name. She thinks because she is 21 she is an adult and is allowed to treat her boyfriend's mom like they are equals? I'm surprised that Jane didn't say anything to Alex about that. She should have told Alex that this woman needs to call her Ms. Tennant. I know that Jane is worried that she will push Alex away, but at some point, she needs to demand some respect.
1 minute ago, StarBrand said:I did not think the girlfriend showed Tennant any disrespect whatsoever. Maybe she was overeager to get Tennant to like her as her son's boyfriend, but that was about it. The show seemed to want me to dislike her, but I didn't....
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I'm not sure what I was supposed to think about Tennant's son's girlfriend. Were they trying to portray her as being an airhead, or having it be weird for her to have six roommates? These days, if you aren't living with your parents, making great amounts of money yourself, (or at least have a girlfriend/spouse that makes some money to share finances with), sometimes you pretty much have to have that many roommates to afford rent and food for yourself. And then there was the fact that she was (gasp) 21!. The biggest "sin" appeared to be that the girl thought of colllege not being necessary, so she "skipped" it, and Tennant seems to be worried about her attitude about life being a "bad influence" on her son.
BTW, having a post-secondary education is NO guarantee of future success.
Pike can be tolerable in small doses, but boy, is this guy annoying most of the time.
I'm still amazed how the writers make the Lucy/Whistler pairing not an issue. They don't try and shoehorn their drama into every episode. I actually don't mind it at all now.
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I did like Jimmy continuing to not be threatened the least bit by Jess' ex boyfriend, despite how much everyone seemed to think he should have been, which I thought was odd. The Jimmy of seasons past might have felt insecure, but nt now.
There was not a single thing about that dumbell that was remotely likeable, from the "oh, look at my ripped naked body" antics, to his headstrong "I'll do whatever the hell I want" attitude with Cole and Vance, and his chest-thumping in front of Jimmy ("I came here to play...". Who the fuck says that and doesn't expect to get laughed at? It's possible you can make silly dialouge sound better than it should be, but NOT with that actor.) I was so glad Jess told him off on how selfish he was. T
8 hours ago, buckboard said:There WERE coming attractions on the West coast. Maybe someone goofed back East and they corrected it.
I couldn't care less usually about previews and promos....I learned long ago they can be (and usually are) misleading...
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On 9/29/2022 at 10:21 PM, mythoughtis said:
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Wow. The Whistler/Lucy did not annoy me at all this episode. Lucy's interactions with her didn't annoy me. (And speaking from the shallow end, the both of them, especially Lucy, looked hot). Whisler had legitimate worries about revealing her relatnship to her boss, because of both her sexuality and the fact it could be looked on as being a conflict of interest, etc. It seems those fears have been allieviated, although something slightly bothered me about the boss' (non) reaction. Of course, I expect the writers to prompty put them in situations where there actually IS a conflict of interest, though; they have to do more than make this couple not annoying for more than one episode for me to come around on it.
I'm with Kai on being squemish about a body crushed in a car..or crushed in general. The body was already dead, but still.
What was the big deal with Jane and her son? So maybe he has a girlfriend. His attention is going to get pulled away from schoolwork sometimes. Count on it happening again. Although omeone alluded to the fact that the reason he's kept it from his parents is because it's not a girl. We'll see. That's the only reason I can see for that plot to even be in the episode.
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On 9/8/2022 at 10:57 PM, Cranberry said:
Today in headlines that made me chuckle: ‘The Boys’ Creator Eric Kripke Tells Toxic Fans to Stop Watching the Show: ‘Eat a Bag of Dicks’ and ‘F— Off to the Sun’
Good. Someone needs to tell these fuckwads off.
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On 9/24/2021 at 10:10 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:
So now I'm watching seasons 4, 5, and 9 on the various channels, just because.
Jenny was a fucking screw up as an agent, and I am still gobsmacked at how she managed to get on the fast track and became Director. On a purely shallow, shallow, shallow note, did Holly do something to her lips between 4 and 5, because dear LORD, she suddenly had Duck Lips in the season five.
Abby was still the wonderful character she was through the fifth season, I think. I'm not looking forward to her raspy voice turning into a high pitched child-like squeal.
"Requiem" still breaks my heart and I wish Maddie had returned for more guest appearances. I hate that neither the syndicated episodes on cable or even the streaming, show the audience what was in Kelly and Maddie's time capsule. I can't remember if it's shown on the DVD. I do remember you had to go to the CBS website after it aired to find out what it was.
And I never noticed it before, but when Armand Assante first appeared, there were throwaway lines to previous roles he'd played: Gotti, in that horrid tv movie; Assante himself talking about Napoleon, when he played Napoleon in a television mini-series, and there was a third, which I'm blanking on!
Also, the whole Frog weapons guy storying did severe damage to a character nobody seemed to like. It was ALWAYS about revenge, getting this guy and killing him for making her father kill himself, no matter how else she tried to spin it, and dragged Tony into it as well, causing him a broken heart in the process. Tony made it pretty clear he would not do something like that for her ever again.
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On 1/31/2022 at 10:56 PM, maggiemae said:
I think Ziva was fiercely independent and raised to be Mosad. And Tony was looking for a relationship like his mother and father had before she died when he was 9. But he was shipped away then to boarding school and summer camps or left alone in Maui by his suave father.
I always thought there was a spark between them...more than team members having each other backs, or brother and sister. A little jealousy and interest in each other's relationship.
Tony needed to grow up, and Ziva soften.
Ziva prodded Tony to grow up. Encouraged him to be a better version of himself, and she expresses disappointment when he seems to be regressing (like right after Jeanne left, and she berated him a little for being interested in "girls" and not "women"). Tony gave Ziva someone to really trust completely, or at least learn to not rely on herself all the time and let friends help her when she needed it.
On 9/24/2021 at 10:10 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:Jenny was a fucking screw up as an agent, and I am still gobsmacked at how she managed to get on the fast track and became Director.
Yeah, wasn't ever quite sold on that. Gibbs even questions her why she'd even want to be director, because, like him, she didn't seem to have a knack for the polictics involved. The show did show you sometimes why she was a good agent though..
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On 9/7/2015 at 4:57 PM, jaytee1812 said:
I've always suspected that they decided between seasons one and two that Gibbs had a dead wife and kid. In See No Evil, the first episode of season 2, Gibbs about puts the guy through a wall for risking his wife and kid. That reaction isn't there before.
I mean, you could understand his reaction without all of that, really. Gibbs was just pissed off the father scared the shit out of their smart, lovely girl, all for money. I would have wanted to throttle him too. Taking Gibbs' family into account, he probably showed a bit of restraint by not killing the guy on the spot.
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In terms of self-loathing (or at the very least, self-disliking), as I said, this comes up several times in the series. One such moment where Ziva truly seemed to slip into darkness, (and in fact, seemed to be welcoming it) was after her boyfriend was killed by DiNozzo, decided to go back to Isreal and leave NCIS. She ended up on what probably was a suicide mission, captured and tortured with no hope at all of rescue...and yet NCIS...and Tony in particular...came to bring her back to what was truly her home. Her whole demeaner during the experience was one of someone truly beaten. She was just....tired. Her friends had come back for her, but that did not lift her spirits. She couldn't fathom why Tony, or anyone else...would have taken all this trouble just to get her back. Even when brought back to NCIS, the look on her face is NOT that of someone glad to be back. It's not really until a few episodes later, where she is pushed to show where her true allegience lies-Mossad or NCIS-and Gibbs stands up for her, telling Eli through his proxy, he's better back off and leave her the hell alone. It's at that point, I think, she really starts to believe NCIS is where she belonged. And she would need her adopted family because before long, her actual family would all be gone. But where she was at in "Truth Or Consequences" was a true low point.
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I believe D.B said on commentary that, to replace Kate, he wanted someone unlike her, someone European-the kind of person who would would have no shame when it came to sex, or talking about it. And right away we see that right away, with Ziva teasing Tony about fantasizing about his partner, telling him nothing was abnormal about it, then looking Tony...down...then up. (Although at the time he was in no mood to be messed with.) It's fair to say the writers gave Ziva more than enough personal tragedy and anguish. It all started with the reason she joined NCIS in the first place. Having heard what Ari had to say about her family, she admitted she joined NCIS to get away from her father. I liked at the end of her 1st season, Ducky was exasperated she didn't know what hospital Gibbs was at, then was accused by Abby of being cold and uncaring. And this...bothered her quite a bit. There was that scene with her washing her face and looking at herself in the mirror, as if to ask "are they right, am I really that awful of a person". Of course, if she were truly as awful as she thought, such a thing would not have bugged her at all. That vauge sense being a broken and bad person kept coming up at various times. And she allowed herself to feel anguish over kiling her brother in front of Gibbs, something that allowed him to fully remember his life after his brief amnesia.
I saw more than enough that first season, to convince me Ziva would be a very interesting character. She was someone who always seemed to be on the verge of falling into complete darkness, only to always be pulled back out by her friends in NCIS.
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Since there does not seem to be a solo Ziva thread (if there is, I missed it), I thought I would provide the honors..:)
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I never really got into Kate. Maybe that would have changed had she stuck around longer. She always came across as uptight, as someone who always tried far too hard to prove herself. She'd already done that in the pilot when Gibbs recruited her. That rule about "not wasting good". I never bought at all any UST between her and Tony, it was always a brother-sister rivary (which was fine, BTW).
Ziva, I liked a lot, but more on that later...much more.
Bishop, I didn't mind. They originally seemed to write her as this big nerd that couldn't socialize properly (Lord knows we've had a few characters like that on the show). She was initially devoid of any personal problems, at least until her husband cheated on her. Front that point onwards, her and Torres did this little dance (although that actually didn't start until a season or two later, I think.)
All Episodes Talk
in Frasier
Yes, I beieve that story about Keaton (and more) came from Ken Levine's blog. Lots of interesting tidbits there, BTW..
More good lines...
After Niles emerges from the bathroom covered in shaving cream..
Martin-"I know what must have happened! My hot and foamy must have exploded!"
Daphne-"He was a detective you know."
Apparently, everybody could NOT get past these lines for dozens of takes. Makes me think of the Roz The Snozz episode, which Levine directed, where Leeves and Pierce's laughter was completely genuine. "We have a couple of giant schousers"
"Under the right circumstances, anybody can be fooled..."