Kareny

I watched the pilot and then fired up Hulu to rewatch the original pilot, to see how my fond memories of it stood up to time. (Has it really been twenty years?) While the changes are unsettling and I miss some of the emotional punch from the original, I have to say the new one is probably better done overall. They're trying to do something different with the same source material, and I'm excited to see where they're going with it. I just hope there's enough of an audience for it between new viewers and the old diehards (guilty).

That's not true at all: https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/david-hogg-at-school-during-parkland-shooting/ To keep this on topic with the show, I do think this illustrates an important theme about what Noelle and her classmates have been through and how they've been treated, and you add that to the challenges she already faces by being publicly out as a transgender teenager. It's a unique situation and I hope it does get more coverage on the show.

I'm glad the show is addressing Noelle's involvement with the Parkland shooting head on, although it's terrible to see her in pain. And that's without taking into consideration the way that some of her classmates have been viciously attacked on social media. I hadn't even considered that while some of her higher-profile peers (like Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg) have been facing crazy internet hatred, they've probably also been struggling with PTSD similar to Noelle's. Wasn't she spotted onstage at the March For Our Lives rally in DC? I hope we'll get to see more about her involvement in that. Hopefully the intelligence and resilience we saw in earlier seasons will help her get through this, too, and be a stronger person for all of it. She has the potential to be an amazing activist, but she should focus on her own health first.

Yep, here she is on the HumansofMSD Instagram account. I realize it's not technically part of Jazz's journey, but it'd be a shame if the show doesn't touch on Noelle's involvement with all of this. For someone that we "know" (at least as well as you can know a supporting character on a reality TV show) to be part of something first so terrible and then so inspiring is really interesting. Does anyone know if they've been filming at all over the last month?

There is no way retail employees at Farrah's store qualify as contractors. She's going to get hosed by the labor department at some point if she ever pisses someone off. On second thought, that shouldn't take long.

I didn't realize that Noelle goes to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. That school really produces some incredible advocates. Unfortunately, now she has one more thing to advocate for. I wonder if the show is planning to address the shooting and the aftermath next season.

This show is knocking it out of the park on showing how casting should be done. The use of two authentic Deaf/ASL-speaking actresses to play younger versions of Marlee Matlin (after her part wasn't even originally written for a Deaf actor in the first place), in addition to having Candis Cayne play a cisgendered role? Great opportunities for visibility on top of great storytelling, and we're getting to see some great performances on top of it, even though they're not calling much attention to it. That little Deaf girl especially was outstanding. So expressive and compelling. I don't know much ASL, but I enjoy watching good ASL-speaking actors at work because the language is so expressive, and she knocked it out of the park. That whole silent sequence was great and caught me by surprise. Has there even been anything like that on TV since Switched at Birth? It felt completely natural and authentic to the character. Marlee Matlin must be loving getting to play a storyline where the fact that her character is Deaf is almost completely irrelevant to the story they're telling.

Mackenzie is the kind of girl I could never stand, and not because I'm any fan of Maci. I wouldn't last ten seconds around her in real life. Just an insecure, passive aggressive piece of work. With Ryan and Maci, isn't the discrepancy over the hair follicle test? Mac and Ryan are acting huffy about him passing pee tests for his lawyer that show he's currently clean, but it sounded from the earlier episodes like he's been refusing the hair follicle test that would actually show when he last used. Maci wants to know how long he's been clean, probably so she has a sense of how likely it is that he'll stay clean around Bentley, but it seems like they don't want to share that information - which is pretty revealing.

I just realized this tonight too! Is this groundbreaking, to have an openly transgendered actress playing a role that's not specifically written to be transgendered? (And she's killing it!) I didn't recognize her from I Am Cait when I watched last season of The Magicians - I didn't even make the connection until I finally noticed her name in the credits tonight.

I happened to randomly catch the credits of this week's episode, and was blown away when I noticed (and then confirmed) that the theme song is in fact by Steve from Blue's Clues.

Oh, gosh, yes. Iain has had a profile in New York theater circles for a few years now though I think he actually lives in Virginia. His father (Euan Morton) is a fairly successful actor himself, but the kid's been obsessed with theater from a ridiculously early age and seems to relish in shows and performances that you'd think would be way above his head. Where Sheldon is a prodigy when it comes to science and school, Iain is probably a bit of a prodigy when it comes to understanding theater and acting performances. His reviews are really a hoot (check his channel out on YouTube if you have some time), and anyone who goes to theater events has probably seen him clicking around the city with his tap shoes. That being said, it seems like he's very comfortable interacting more with adults than with other kids - which has to resonate some with Sheldon's character. That's why I think it's so interesting that they actually chose him for this role, out of all the kids they must have considered. I suspect he's got a lot more natural ability as an actor than most kids his age due to how attuned he is to stage performances, and it looks like he genuinely enjoys and is motivated by what he's doing, as opposed to your average run-of-the-mill over-polished child actor.

Alex Wyse (Saul) has a new webseries that just premiered today on Huffington Post's Queer Voices. I always find him extremely funny, so I'm looking forward to this.

While it wasn't millions, this definitely happened to people in January in the US during the travel ban. People with jobs, homes, and families in the country were being barred from them. I knew people who were affected, and it was terrifying for the few days that the ban was in effect, when we didn't know how long it would last. No one was being removed, sure, but it wouldn't be that big a step from what was actually happening. If it had been successful and hadn't met with the resistance that it did, who knows what would have happened next? It was definitely a big fear for a lot of people who were affected by the situation. And yet so many people have been dismissive of this reality, or denied it, or hand waved it away. So watching this series definitely hit close to home. Sometimes we need fiction to hold a mirror to our reality and make us really understand it. Telling a story like this is a little like just tossing the frog into the boiling water - we see where we could be going, and are a little more aware of the warning signs. I'm really looking forward to seeing where they go with season two and more of this story. Already the expanded world is fascinating to me - clearly they're going somewhere with this, and it's great that Hulu has figured out how to fund it and make it happen.

I think the mom's been pretty clear that the attraction for her is the elimination of the high probability that her transgender child will be a suicide risk - I don't see much of a reason to question that, it does seem pretty compelling to me.

I'm NOT okay with Hopefully the outrage will give them enough energy for a one-off movie to wrap things up.

I would say Matt did a total heel turn tonight, but let's face it, he's always been a scumbag. Tonight really showed his true colors, though.

I've come to realize that the audience for these disclaimers isn't the public. It can't be. It's the true believers. They're the only ones who could possibly think it's valid to dismiss someone's accusations of abuse because they were kind of rude to a handyman who was working for them this one time.

This season so far feels much more cohesive than the first one did. It seems like it took a long time to really set up the characters and the mythology in season one, and now they can actually move forward with explanations and development. It's really paying off, though. I also don't mind all the extended ways the story keeps taking a pause to celebrate the connections between the main 8 and go all artistic - if anything, that just makes the storytelling that much more interesting. It seems like a much more unified narrative between all eight this season now that they're all aware and actively working towards the same things. I was wondering how long it would be until Lito's fame bled into one of the other storylines. Bug's fanboy moment was great.

I love that this show found a way to work in a role for Zach Anner. I've been a fan of his since he was on Your OWN Show, and read his autobiography recently. He's hilarious, but of course, doesn't get half the work he deserves, due to the lack of roles for people with CP, which is unfortunate. I wouldn't object to him being a recurring character here. JJ could use some more friends who understand his point of view, and Zach is funny as hell and a perfect fit for the inappropriate humor of this show. Speechless is coming into its own and should be a shoo-in to be renewed. It's moved past the "gimmick" of representation and has only gotten funnier throughout the season.

They did a good job with the flashbacks of reminding me of that first, great season, and not how the show went downhill after that. I'm in too. What in the world could Michael Scofield be up to now? He clearly doesn't have amnesia, so why would he react like that to Linc? Here we go, let's break some more prisons!

I think the announcement of a second season confirms a different perspective on this show for me. If she made it all up out of books because she was crazy and then died, there's really no more story to tell. The fact that they're confirmed to be doing a second season supports the interpretation that at least some if not most of what she said is true, even if parts of it may not have been depicted perfectly literally. Bring on season two!

Was that the underscore from "Burn" from Hamilton when Rebecca was burning things in the flashback? I'm almost positive that it was.

Did anyone else ever see A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant? I went to see it Off-Broadway back around '03 and for me, it was my first exposure to Scientology methods and beliefs. Needless to say, they got threats from the "Church", legal and otherwise, but I don't think it really had much of an effect. I think it would be a very different show if they were to do it now.

I gotta give the show special kudos for "Tommy, can you hear me? Tommy, can you see me? Tommy? Tommy?" Because musical theater nerd in-jokes never get old.

Oh, step right this way. I'm partly surprised they haven't talked about it on the show yet, but I guess it's a whole other can of worms, and they're focusing on the most explosive stories in the time they have. But when Leah talks about Scientology saving the world and her reflexive desire to help addicts, I'm pretty sure this is the kind of thing she's referring to.