Steph J

After the "Kyle is jealous of Pete" sketch I thought that maybe Daryl missing his name in the credits was part of the joke because the sketch starts with Kyle saying that he feels like he's become invisible. I thought the show was okay. In general I think Adam Driver is actually really funny (although not necessarily in a way that translates to sketch comedy), but only a couple of the sketches tonight played to his comedic strengths. The oil baron sketch killed me, though. Instant classic. As for Kanye... can we just be done with Kanye? I watched the second performance, but I only made it about 30 seconds into the first one before I had to change the channel and turned the show off when he started his third. I've read a few reviews of the show this morning and I'm surprised that no one is making more of Pete's joke about switching out Arianna Grande's birth control. That's a pretty messed up joke to make in the current climate, but I guess everyone is too busy talking about Kanye.

I don't think it makes votes for Trump look sympathetic. It's deeply, deeply critical of the Democratic party, but it leaves no doubt that Moore thinks Trump is a fascist who capitalized on racism, misogyny, greed, and hate. It's sympathetic to people who didn't vote at all, but it's not sympathetic to Trump's platform or the people who embraced it. If anything, I think that Moore's intended audience is people who see both parties as corrupt and the system as rigged and as a result don't think there's any point to voting, because what he does throughout the film is make the point that grassroots organizing by people who are outside the system can work. I think his intention is to convince non-voters that the system can be changed if people organize and fight for change and vote for those grassroots politicians who haven't become compromised by special interest groups.

Anyone else see this? I was reluctant, because I'm pretty "Trumped out" in general, but it turned out that, despite the heavy Trump focus of the film's advertising, it's not really a movie about Trump. I thought it was pretty good, heavy handed in certain places but that's to be expected from Michael Moore. Overall I kind of wish that he'd just made the entire film about the Flint water crisis because I thought that those sections were the strongest ones in the film, but the sections dealing with the West Virginia teachers strike and the Parkland kids were really good, too.

I'm in the midst of re-watching 1995, which has got me thinking about some of the shows biggest missed opportunities during the period that I originally watched: * Not pairing Tad and Liza in the 90s/00s. I've never seen Liza's original run in the 80s, but when Marcy Walker came back in 1995, Liza instantly became one of my favorite characters and I loved her with Tad (of course, I've also always kind of hated Dixie, which made that easier). I understand that Tad and Dixie fans pitched a fit any time the show hinted towards putting Tad with Liza, but I think this is one of the times when a show shouldn't have listened to fans - particularly during the period when Dixie wasn't even on the canvass. Instead of wasting Tad with Gloria and Camille (remember her? No? Just as well, there's no reason to) and trying to make Liza and Jake happen, we could have had a Tad/Liza/Adam triangle instead, which would have been so much more satisfying. * Charlie Brent. Given that he's the show's original legacy kid, it's a real shame that no regime of writers could figure out who he should be or what to do with him. He had ties to so many characters, but the writers just couldn't seem to find a way to make him interesting and turn him into a long term adult character. * The Fryes. I think AMC actually did a pretty good job in the early 90s in terms of creating and then actually writing for black characters, but that started to fall apart in 1994. Mimi and Livia just disappear from the show, then Terence is unceremoniously sent out of Pine Valley (I can't remember whether Lucas, who wasn't a Frye but was related through Terence, disappeared or got an actual exit, but my recollection is that he left off-screen and got one of those exists where some other character will casually remark that he left town) then Taylor turns psycho. The show transitions to the Keefers in 94/95, but I think there was still a lot of story that could have been told with the Fryes if the writers had just given a damn about them. * 90% of what they did with Brooke after she and Tad split up. It wasn't always the fault of the writers - her relationship with Pierce had potential which was undone by the original actor having to be let go and subsequent recasts not really working - but it really shouldn't have been that hard to write a character played by someone as talented as Julia Barr. * Greenlee and Jake. I liked Greenlee and Leo, but I thought Rebecca Budig and J. Eddie Peck had great chemistry when they put Greenlee with Jake. I also thought that she matured quite a bit in that relationship and that when they put her back with Leo, she regressed. The Greenlee/Jake period is pretty much the only time the Jake character actually worked for me. * Bianca and Lena. They had potential to be a classic star-crossed couple, with the twist that they were both women. The start of their relationship had such great conflict and angst, but the writers at that time either didn't know how to or just didn't want to write a same-sex romance so the relationship faded further into the background until finally Lena just... left. It was pretty much the only relationship of Bianca's that I was actually invested in. * Ethan Ramsay. He was a character with so much potential, but once Zach was introduced, Ethan became yesterday's news and by the time he left he was fully on the backburner. It was such a shame, particularly when you consider that Ethan and Simone could have been a great romantic comedy type pairing that could have acted as a lighthearted counter-balance to the drama if the show had actually seen fit to have them onscreen more often.

I'm pretty sure the reunion was over and done with before Dennis' death (unless of course you're referring to something Carole has said on social media or whatever since he died).

Good lord, if I never hear the words "Carole" and "Bethenny" in the same sentence ever again it will be too soon.

It's kind of surprising to me that Charles and Diana didn't know each other at least a little bit better because, on paper, it seems like their families were very much in each other's orbit. Diana and her brother played with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward as children and visited Sandringham every Christmas, the Queen Mother was a godmother to Diana's eldest sister, and the Queen is a godmother to the now Earl Spencer. I guess it's a matter of the age difference between them, since it's not as if a 26/27 year old Charles would have been hanging out with a 13/14 year of Diana, but the very fact that when they got engaged she had just reached an age where grown men could spend time with her socially without it being illegal should have been a red flag in and of itself (and I assume that it would have been if there hadn't been this insistence that Charles' wife be a virgin/have no history of her own yet). I've only watched the first part so far, but I agree with the assessment that it seems to be a rehash of all the recent stuff. At this point the story from Charles & Diana up to Harry and Meghan has pretty much been told to death, both because it all played out in the tabloids in real time and because the media revisits the Charles/Diana story all the time both for itself and for the sake of comparison to their sons' marriages. I would have been much more interested in going further back and looking at the reigns of Edward VII and George V (particularly George V, since he's one of the few monarchs who still had a kingdom at the close of WWI). If they're going to go over Charles and Camilla's relationship pre-Diana, they could at least shine some light on how Anne fit into that situation, since I understand that one of the reasons Anne disliked Camilla was because she had it bad for Andrew Parker-Bowles back in the day and wanted him for herself.

I found that interesting as well and, coupled with the ending's focus on Heather Heyer and I wondered if Lee was trying to make the point that the fight against racism is everyone's fight and that it's going to take everyone to defeat it. I thought it was an incredibly powerful movie, and I say that as someone who has a bit of a love/hate relationship with Lee's work. John David Washington was great in general, but I thought he handled the more comedic moments particularly well, especially in that scene where he makes the initial contact with the KKK over the phone and afterwards one of the other cops points out that he used his actual name and he's like, "Oh... shit."

That's because Kail thinks that she's physically intimidating. She's the kid who runs the school yard at recess by threatening to beat other kids up if she doesn't get her way. It works because she's bigger than the other kids, even though she's never actually done it. But beneath the bravado she's terrified that someone will actually call her bluff, so at the slightest hint of a challenge she's got to up the aggression in the hope that that will cause the potential challenger to back down.

There's a celebrity who once said something to that effect about fame, which is what I was thinking of. I kind of want to say that it was Matt Damon, but I can't really remember because it was so long ago. But, yeah, the Teen Mom shows have done the teen mom participants absolutely no favors in terms of their development into functioning human adults.

I can't remember who said it, but someone once remarked that when a person becomes famous, their development becomes frozen in whatever stage they were at when they became famous. So if you become famous once you're an adult with a developed sense of self, you'll be fine, but if you become famous as a child or adolescent, you're sort of fucked.

I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence that he sang "I'm On Fire" in the same episode that featured Badison's flashback... in which she set someone else on fire.

He should have shown up with a haircut.

Tinsley went to university? To do what?

"Carole is out of the way, so Betheney and I can connect." Sure, Lu. It's not a matter of B no longer having Carole as a sidekick and needing someone else to play off of; it's because Carole was in "the way" before and keeping B from hanging out with you.

Presumably there aren't two deranged famewhores at your workplace screaming at each other and trying to get into a physical altercation. I don't blame Chelsea for leaving; someone could have gotten hurt because of those idiots and the producers were clearly prioritizing drama over everyone's safety.

I've always drifted in and out of watching Teen Mom 2 (the show tends to get too... lets say "real" for me if I watch a lot of it) and the last time I watched regularly was circa Nathan being taken from his & Jenelle's place in handcuffs, so it is super weird to me to see him and Barbara hugging and acting like friends. I guess circumstances make strange bedfellows and the combo of Jenelle and David is so bad that anything seems like an improvement, but it's still so weird to me.

The two major questions of the episode for me and I'm not sure which one bothered me more. Probably the Barb question. I just can't see how it is that people would continue to take orders from her/let her be in charge in the state we've seen her in so far (which it sounds like is the state that she's been in for decades), or how it is that some enterprising prisoner wouldn't have successfully staged a coup and taken her place by now.

Really? No one ever leaves of their own volition except you? Because only you would never be fired? Given how much of this season has been built around the Bethenny/Carole feud, I don't really believe that Bravo wouldn't ask Carole to return. They'd ride that horse into the ground and beyond (although I know that for some viewers, it feels like they've already done so). But I can see Carole deciding to leave because, really, life is too short for this shit and the portrayal hasn't exactly been flattering to either of them. I can also see Bethenny giving Bravo an ultimatum and telling them that it's her or Carole. But I can't see Bravo deciding on its own not to bring Carole back.

Why did it take so long for anyone to ask about life jackets?

Does Jenelle not understand how cameras work? We all saw you pull out the gun. Don't gaslight Jace by telling him that it didn't happen. That poor kid.

Yeah, I didn't think the flashback did much to enhance the present day narrative. If the flashback story had ended with Cindy going back to the guy who got her pregnant and him acting like he didn't even know her, then it might have made some sense because you could argue that the point of the story was that Cindy put herself out to protect him and just ended up being left holding the bag (even though, more accurately, it's her mother who was left holding the bag). As it is, the flashback didn't illuminate anything about Cindy that we didn't already know.

I think it's more of a self-preservation thing. If she speaks up about the cover up, there's a chance that the truth will come out. However, there's also a chance that the truth would be buried if those in charge of the investigation are corrupt and decide that it's best to let the inmates take the fall, since otherwise it might leave the prison vulnerable to a lawsuit from Piscatella's family, not to mention that the revelation would taint every case that the ME was involved in, which could lead to all sorts of legal complications. Cindy's been around, she knows the score. If you have trust in the system, then maybe you would have the courage to be a whistleblower; but if your experience of the system is that it's always rigged against you, you might not be so willing to stick your neck out and put a target on your back.

I think this is exactly right. I think that Bethany expects rejection/abandonment and that when things start to go a little bit sideways in a relationship (be it a romantic one or a friendship) it triggers something in her and rather than try to right the course, she steers it off a cliff. Afterwards she looks at the wreckage and says, "I knew that would happen; people are terrible and they'll always try to destroy you and then discard you." It's a self-fulfilling prophesy. You would think that with all the therapy she's had, she might have developed a strategy for breaking herself out of that cycle by now.

I wouldn't be surprised the poll results are pre-determined based on what Andy wants the outcome to be.