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I have a hell of a lot more empathy for what Wallander is going through - in fact, it made me incredibly uncomfortable watching him suffer the early signs of dementia or Alzheimers because the show did a brilliant job of seeing it through his eyes and showing the confusion and terror creeping in. Yes, it's horrifying that he left his gun in a diner where anyone could have picked it up, but who wouldn't be in some denial if that was happening to them? I don't think he's either selfish or proud, I think he's just frightened beyond belief (but reasonably) that he is losing his mind and, worst of all, his identity. I'm not even sure I can watch the next (last) episode. If you've ever had dealings with people suffering from these conditions, you know how permanent and terrible it is - the person you know disappears like a ghost, and what's left is a shell. As for him being "stupidly unaware", I'd argue the opposite: because of his father, Wallander is so hyper-aware that he's gong to eventually (soon) collapse under the weight of his new reality. I just don't want to watch this brilliant, taciturn man (Branagh is brilliant in this) turn into a blank, confused, helpless person.

Apparently, Frankie and Grace are no the only ones dealing with the issue, but I think it could still be a great plot line and I hope they keep developing it: http://betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com/search/label/sex%20toys

What Maysie said! Frankie's hippie eccentricities are funny (if a little cliched), but they stop being funny when she pulls shit like she did in Brianna's office. Then she turns into an unbearable self-righteous, spoiled ass who seems like she has never had to function in the real world at all and has absolutely no sense of the impact her idiotic behavior might have on anyone else - although she pretty much redeemed herself with her support of Babe's decision to end her life. Brianna has gone from being a really amusing, wry commentator to being in the middle of the mix, and that has taken away a lot of her comedic punch. Yes, her reaction to Frankie's demands is 100% understandable, but her tone, which used to be cynically funny, has turned sour and unfunny, and her behavior with the bulk gifts box (which was a really funny bit and VERY telling about Robert) was just obnoxious. The growth in Grace's character has been a lot more interesting than anyone else's because even though she has been portrayed as the least likely or able to be self-aware in this bunch, she has actually started to become the most self-aware of all of them. To me, this season was extremely uneven - loved some of it, was ready to stop watching at some of it (the boring Sol-Robert stuff). I do love the show and hope that the writers were just finding their footing with a second season that maybe they didn't expect to get. The bigger themes (like the fact that Frankie and Grace have to deal with what their marriages really were, the reality of being invisible after a certain age, etc.) are set up really well, though, so I'm hoping season 3 gets a little more into how they deal with those issues and relies a little less on the trying-way-too-hard "wacky antics."

I find Jed kind of interesting. I don't know how a woman who is 6'3" can seem waifish and vulnerable, but she does to me. Either that or the character is just supposed to be dumb, but I don't see LeCarre writing dumb characters.

Completely agree! Ken's was sophisticated but familiar, Kini's was beautifully put together but I just can't get past his fabrics, colors and dino-ruffles. I wasn't in love with Dom's plaid at all, but she gets big kudos for painting her own designs - and for anyone who thinks that their toddler could do what Dom does, pick up a paint brush and try it. People who aren't painters always fall back on that tired trope that their kids could do it (move over Jackson Pollock because here comes my 4 yr old with some crayola markers). Um. . . no, they couldn't.

I'm expecting to see Paige start cutting herself or attempting suicide. I don't like the character (or maybe it's the actress), but Paige is convincingly distressed, angry, guilty, trapped - and self-destruction has always been a teen go-to. Why did Elizabeth have blood on her neck? This may have been covered, but I finally realized that Elizabeth used a stun gun on Martha, which would account for the terrible bruising she had on her torso. Yes, to whichever poster commented on Margo Martindale's refreshed eyes. I'd add botox to the other "little changes" she has made. Hope she doesn't go too far with the cosmetic surgery, because she already looks blander (not a good thing IMO) and less distinctive than she did before she got the work done.

And even more from Alexis, this is a great compilation called "Shit Alexis Says". . .

If Sam couldn't find flats on the shoe wall, I'm sure he would have just painted rainbow-colored maryjanes on his model's feet. Oh, wait - he'd have to have the idea handed to him first, and then he'd have to have help with the technicalities of foot-painting. I hope someone (like his husband) is reading the comments about Isaac to Isaac so he can get a clue about what a totally pathetic old lech he looks like.

Isaac needs to go away. Now. I can practically see the drool when he's getting his weekly wink-n-wave from Sam. That thing that Sam made was not just bad, it was awful - amateurish in concept and no sense of design or proportion. I didn't think Emily's dress was particularly avant garde, but Sam's wasn't even a dress, just a tucked and pinned piece of fugly painted fabric; he deserved to go home, not Emily. Ken and Kini, well, I didn't even care about the garments because I'm so repelled by by the Spanish Inquisition look.

I think i'd better go back and watch the scene with Pastor Tim and his wife and the Jennings and the "priest," because I thought it was clunky, unconvincing and badly written and acted (and I usually think both acting and writing are top notch here). I didn't believe Elizabeth's gooey, nicey-nice do-gooder attitude and speeches about them all being on the same side, I didn't buy the visiting priest - who looked like he was suddenly dropped into an alien atmosphere - or the nonsense about him wanting to meet them and I didn't buy PT and his wife sitting there like dummies and maybe/maybe not believing the b.s. being spewed at them. But I'm already tired of this sub-plot anyway, and wish they would just shuttle Paige - whom I find annoying as hell - off to boarding school. The professional spies and assets are so much more interesting than the pastor and his wife. I think the only one here I care about at all is Oleg, who ought to run off, assume a new identity and become a ski instructor.

Earlier this season Isaac wore a camouflage suit - slacks and jacket. I got kinda nauseous just looking at it, and for that wardrobe choice alone, he should never open his mouth to criticize anyone else's design. Or maybe it was just a good indication of his taste level! Also, hate Dom's dress this week, and Asha's dress had the worst fitting skirt ever. Sam's was simply. . . nothing. Top 3, seriously?

This! Sounds like all the earmarks of a crumbling society - and it unfortunately sounds a LOT like some of the gangs, police and violence problems we're seeing here in this country. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but I'm a big fan of "Intervention," and from watching it, it's clear what not having a stable male influence in a boy's life does to his psychological and emotional development. Your mom sounds awesome! I'm doubting that the KGB found Phillip/Misha in any kind of juvenile facility because I doubt Russia even had juvenile facilities in the dire post-war years (assuming that Phillip would have been a kid in the late 40's/early 50's?). The country had way too many other financial and social problems to take on the little misfits. I got the feeling that Misha was just another street kid whose behavior got noticed by local authorities who then passed his name up the line to the KGB as a potential asset. I'm SO glad this show is back!

Agree with everything said about Sam and his non-design - FGS, it was a cowl neck sweater and an unevenly hemmed skirt. Actually, though, I'm kind of glad he ditched that plaid fabric, because I bet the judges would have oohed and ahhed at such a "creative, fun" choice. Sam may be young, but he's old enough to not act like a baby, which is exactly what he did when he was accused of flirting with the judges. Valerie's outfit was simply butt-ugly, but at least she designed something, unlike Sam. I liked Emily's outfit, but it certainly wasn't spectacular or original. And just like Sam is too old to act like an infant, Emily (don't know her age) is too old to be sporting that, um, whatever the hell look that is supposed to be. Blue horned hair and orangey-pink eye shadow, WTF? Insanely awful and decidedly NOT becoming - looks like a special-effects makeup design, and not in a good way. Alyssa needs to get out of those 6 inch heels she wears - she looks like a toddler who's just learning to walk-stagger forward. To my shock, I wanted Mitchell to win!

I agree completely. That little girl in the Expedia commercial is unbelievably adorable, she really seems like she has no idea the camera is there, and that is a mark of really good acting. But it's a gift - even at that age - and most people just don't have it at any age. I remember seeing Jodi Foster before Taxi Driver in a Rockford or Harry O episode (dating myself just a little here :)) and knew right from the first scene that there was real talent there. When shows use kids who don't have any talent, it always shows. I've been watching Dynasty (don't ask, it has to do with avoiding politics) and the kids on it were simply AWFUL. Of course, so were most of the adults. OT, sorry.

Maybe he got confused and thought he was talking about James Franco, who I'm sure we will never see the last of! I must be looking at something the wrong way because I thought Sam's look was atrocious! That freaking huge bow at the neck looked like something a woman would wear to the office in a 1970's sitcom - ugly, ugly, ugly! Also, Stella's dress was awful - she might want to try to move past her goth sensibility. No, never mind, she is 110% invested in that look which - to me - ALSO looks like something out of the 70's or 80's, something a groupie would wear to a Motley Crew concert. Kini needs to stop being so self-effacing and Sam needs to. . . go home and grow up.

Daisy - that would turn things upside down! I'm puzzled by the way Mary was able to immediately get over her justified reluctance about marrying someone who races cars. She completely broke down when talking about not wanting to be a racing widow again, and in my opinion no matter how (unconvincingly) she claims to love Henry-the-bore, that would seem to be a true stumbling block to marriage. Why would she want to tie herself to someone she is terrified may never come back every single time he walks out the door to go to the track? She's not a kid - she's now in her 30s and has already had the supposedly great love of her life, so if she wants to marry someone suitable, she could make do with someone a lot less risk-taking. Of course this problem exists mostly because the writing has had Mary and Henry act like two ice cubes floating by each other in a punch bow, not like two passionately involved people.

She's a complete idiot - she and her boyfriend posted pix of themselves in Sedona where they have CARVED their names into the red rocks. Yes, these entitled asshats actually graffitied that beautiful place and bragged about it.. Obviously, just another brain dead celeb with no opinions of her own - she just riffed off the other judges.

Exactly! I'm not only over 60, but live in a resort town where glitter kittens on $200 t-shirts are the norm. I can't stand the "anyone over 40 doesn't actually exist (or wear clothes, apparently)" so I'm mainly watching for laughs since this bunch of designers is mostly spectacularly unimpressive. I actually kind of liked Fade's look, or at least I got where he was trying to go with it. And it was different from all that overflowing chiffon and I don't think he should have gone home. Sam is simply a young asshole who knows how to cover his deficiencies (really crappy construction) with the flash of cool patterened fabric that didn't look like the other prom dresses but also didn't deserve the win. Emily's was awful. Most of the rest - meh, safe, uninteresting, uninspired.

LOL - "Rosemary & Thyme: The Early Years." I'd love it, too! LOL - "Rosemary & Thyme: The Early Years." I'd love it, too!

I think we're watching a bit of a sea-change in Mary (I don't think she's emotionally capable of a big sea-change) and I disagree with the idea that she is going to be angry that she didn't know the truth about Marigold. I think this is supposed to be the point at which Mary's reality is changing, that she is beginning to understand that there is much more to the lives of people around her than she ever knew or ever cared to know. She has always been more superficial and traditional than Edith, and up till now has been so wrapped up in her identity as Downton's queen that she hasn't bothered to notice huge, obvious hints that there's something odd about Edith's obsession with the child. Now that she knows or suspects, I think we're going to see a more reflective and measured Mary when it comes to Edith - not an angry or hurt Mary. I don't think we can expect the sisters to suddenly become best friends, but I do think we're heading to a place where they can each understand and accept the other with less friction, Denker and Spratt: WHY? Daisy, STFU. Carson, stop being such a tool. Mrs. Pattmore, I hope you and Mr. Mason live happily ever after. Regarding single women in that era, I'm re-reading Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night which was written in the 30's and set at a fictional women's college at Oxford - and the conversations about feminism and women's rights and roles are incredibly modern. So I don't find Edith hiring a female editor or their ideas for articles in the least bit out of step with the times. And, oh. . . the CLOTHES!!!

Unlike most American actors, British actors not only go to good drama schools, but most of them are doing theatre when they're not doing British or American tv series. They have actual acting chops rather than simply having plastic cheekbones, pouty fish lips and the burning desire to be a celebrities. Look at the leads in critically acclaimed American shows like Homeland, The Americans, The Affair, Sons of Anarchy (okay, I know that's not a critically acclaimed show, but who could leave Charlie Hunnam off the list?) - all the male leads are British. As for Mary, I enjoy watching her snipe and do the arrogant aristocrat bored-talk - although I actually like both flawed sisters. Also, since Dockery's rl fiance died of cancer towards the end of 2015, it's possible that when they were filming while she was going through a terrible time in her life.

ITA it's Fellowe's fault. The "Edith finding a purpose" theme is full of sloppy writing. She wouldn't have been looking for a purpose in life earlier, since she was basically brought up to believe that a purpose in life means marriage and family. Without that, she's been such a relentlessly unhappy character that it would have been nice to see that the magazine-crisis brought her an unexpected understanding about herself, and she could say something like, "I never realized before that having a purpose could make someone so much happier."

I'm a pretty jaded watcher, but I didn't mind Edith's budding romance at all. There was a hint of interest in Bertie when he was at the hunting party last year, so the serendipitous nature of their re-meet and what followed was just logical enough for me. I think I'm in the tiny minority here, but I actually root for Edith, who's had some seriously bad luck in the past; I hope this is being set up so that Edith - for once in her life - can be happy. And I love that Mary is starting to realize (and really hating) that her sister is becoming a modern woman with real life success - let Mary keep the pigs, and Edith become a powerhouse publisher! Of course it was mostly completely unrealistic, but was having both Anna and Bates be on the hook for a murder for so long was pretty silly, too. I mostly watch DA to see Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton, but I also actually like the sudsy, angst-filled world of these rich folks, unlike the rich folks of the contemporary world. Watched the opening episode of Billions (the contemporary rich) right after DA, and the contrast had my head spinning - also thought Billions was abysmal, but that's beside the point. DA always looks gorgeous, which helps, and the clothes! I can't remember if it was Mary or Cora who wore this amazing green and black dress (with straps off the shoulder) last night, but it was jaw-droppingly stunning.

What a dull piece of crap - the opening scene had me rolling my eyes and the financial stuff had me fighting off sleep. Cliche after cliche after cliche. This is a talented bunch of actors who deserve much better material than this snore-fest. Particularly hated the Lewis/Ackerman home scenes and the inane "shrink" scene with Siff pumping up a sad-sack employee with lame motivational speaker-speak. I tuned in to see the actors since high finance and the problems of the uber-rich are all recycled and tiresome, but I don't think even the best acting in the world could save this from being 'I'll never need an Ambien again' material. Won't bother to stick around for second episode.

Ah, a very faint memory of that - thank you. Obviously, I should rewatch them too!