Cherpumple

She ruined all the scenes she was in. I honestly can't understand what the writers think they're doing with her character. This show is not known for having such unlikeable characters, as even the "villains" (Leon, Bev, Kathy Bowman) were hilarious. Not only does she make everything about her, but she's making Ben out to be the bad guy. And she couldn't have been more petty or obnoxious about her choice of a plus one. Really, Darlene? You're going with the guy you had secretly planned to go to Hawaii with? She's just awful. Speaking of dates, I did a double take at Harris's date because he looked like 90s-era Kato Kaelin. Talk about a blast from the past!

I agree, and one of the problems for me is that they are trying to slide Darlene into the Roseanne role and it's not working. Roseanne was an overbearing bully most of the time, but she was funny and had some of the best one-liners around. She also had Dan and Jackie to balance her out as the other adults in the room, and had unique relationships with all the kids. I can totally see her barging into a wedding dress store to yell at a bride, or going to a church to spar with a minister about religion, but it probably would have been hilarious. Meanwhile, Darlene barely talks to her kids and always comes across as bitter, humorless, and controlling. Dan's been shitty about Becky's recovery for a while. Remember when she returned from rehab, and on her first night home he chose to eat in the garage rather than forego beer with his dinner for one night? Yeah, what an ass. Regarding Becky and Mike, it probably wasn't the healthiest thing to do, but I get it. She seemed really stressed out about the notion of having sober sex, and rather than have it loom over her and become an even bigger deal, it might have been better to take the "rip off the band-aid" approach. Now it's one less thing she needs to worry about. In terms of anything beyond this, I didn't see much chemistry, but he seems like a good guy who really cares about her, and I wouldn't mind if he sticks around (as a friend for now). However, it is a little eye-rolly that she's the third Conner to hook up with someone who had a huge crush on her in high school. This pattern is getting ridiculous.

Good for her! That's also why I get very nervous about Jackie's jokes about Bev dying. At this point there's a decent chance that between the taping and airing of an episode Parsons could really pass away, and the joke would come across badly.

Dan and Roseanne definitely had a will. In an early episode they realized that their initial will didn't include DJ, so they spent a few days updating it and trying to decide who they would leave the kids to (they settled on Crystal and Ed, but then Jackie threw a fit so they changed it to her). Whether or not it was ever updated after that is anyone's guess.

This was a great episode. It took some surprising turns, and there were some genuine laugh out loud moments. I did get nervous when Dean's brother was mentioned, but it turned out to be fine. (Speaking of, I'm curious what they're going to do with his character. Rather than kill him off like Winnie Cooper's brother, I suspect that he might come home with a physical injury and/or PTSD.) I loved how Dean's parents handled the magazine situation, especially the dad's interjections as the mom was explaining to Dean what makes a good man. On the other hand I was pretty grossed out by the principal when he got caught trying to keep one of the magazines. What a creep. Also, like last week, some of the elements didn't seem to ring true to the setting. Namely, why do so few of these kids have southern accents?

I did like Glascott's description of his harrowing waterslide experience. He really painted a picture with his words. But I don't get why they did this storyline now- who's going to waterparks in October in Pennsylvania? I thought those places closed for the season on Labor Day weekend (they do in my area, I think).

I knew right away that Amanda's horse would fall over. The whole thing was designed to balance on a very narrow surface (the horse was basically one big vertical biscuit with two small points of contact), and once the rocker broke, there was no amount of sugar glue that would keep everything together. Freya's design was much more practical- her horse had a flat back, so the legs were separated into a sturdy table structure. It looked great! I had nothing against Lizzie going into this, but I was really turned off when she told Noel that she watched Harry Potter instead of doing her practice bakes the day before. It just felt really disrespectful, to both the contestants and crew members who are working hard to produce this show in extraordinary circumstances, and also to all the bakers who tried out and didn't make the final cut.

Wow, I guess not too people are watching this. Anyway, I read the book about 10 years ago because I was familiar with most of the places Langdon went to and wanted to see how they were portrayed. I don't remember much of the plot, and found the overall story to be "meh" but I still wanted to watch the tv show because I like historical puzzles. So far I'm enjoying it, despite the inaccuracies (that was definitely not a DC metro station). I liked Katherine's assistant, and am sad she's gone. I also like the cop that's helping them, and hope he makes it through. One change from the book that I'm happy about is Sato's character. In the book, she had some kind of neck/throat injury that affected the way she spoke. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator gave her a very raspy, hoarse whisper of a voice which got very annoying very quickly.

Once again, Dean's parents were awesome. The fishing storyline with his dad was great, and I loved how proud his mom was about the tiny fish she caught. I did like the story with Dean, and thought it was a great blend of personal/national tragedy as well as a good mix of funny and serious. However, I was surprised that ALL of the white teachers in his Montgomery school were bending over backwards to be sensitive and kind to the black students, especially after last week when we saw some white students back away in disgust after seeing Dean drink from the school water fountain. The 1960s were before my time, so I don't know what it was really like, but I was expecting to see a more mixed reaction from the teachers- some being kind, some ignoring it, and even some being smug (or worse), especially since riots broke out in several places after the assassination. This version just seemed a little too neat and tidy, I guess in order to create the rest of the plot.

It's not just you. It still looked really run down, and those stupid footballs in cases took up a ton of counter space. I hope it gets fixed up for real. I was more interested in Becky and Mark starting at new schools than I was in Darlene's spiritual journey. I don't mind the idea of her trying new things to help her cope with her panic attacks, losing her mother, going through a divorce and a break-up, Molly's sudden death, etc., but so far I find it boring and preachy. I thought Roseanne died on the operating table, but in this episode they said she overdosed. Am I misremembering or did they change it?

I also chuckled at his suggestion to "Tootsie" Adam.

Well, Adam has officially become my least favorite Goldberg. Between constantly harassing the dean and throwing Brea under the bus, his entitled spoiled brat attitude has reached new heights. I loved when Dean Martin called him out regarding all the "challenges" he's gone through (even though I hated that the application process was so openly a sob story competition). Rather than trying to underplay his privileged upbringing or using cheesy gimmicks, I would have liked to see him pivot and focus on his passion for and knowledge of filmmaking. That would have been more satisfying than yet another "oh, your mom is nuts, I'll help you out" ending. In contrast, Erica, Geoff, and even Barry seem to be maturing and I enjoyed their storyline. Bev's wig still looks weird. It looks like it's only half styled.

***** spoilers ***** Yes! What struck me the most was that you could immediately tell by Michael's expression and body language just how comfortable he felt with his female friend from school. He just looked so relaxed around her in a way that he wasn't with anyone else. She would be a great wing woman, or double date partner for him. Loved Jimmy and Sharnae's wedding! It looked beautiful, their vows were amazing, and I really enjoyed seeing the Aboriginal elements. I wish them all the best. I'm really gutted about Mark and Chloe. They seemed like a great match, and I got choked up seeing them so happy at the dinosaur garden, especially when Chloe surprised Mark with a kiss on the cheek. If it was a case of one of them getting a little overwhelmed by the romance aspect, and they really are staying friends, I'll keep my fingers crossed that it might work out for them later once they get to know each other a little better.

Yeah, I was wondering if inviting Colin to the hang out was going to cause a rift between them, since Laszlo seems to actually like Sean, and Colin doesn't ever seem to "turn off" his feeding. I thought Laszlo was going to get mad at Colin for turning a night out with the boys into a feeding frenzy, but it clearly went another way.

Yes! They were just part of the gang in Atlantic City, and in this one I thought it was so sweet that Sean and his friends actually made the effort to play Colin's boring game, instead of just brushing it off to watch football. When Sean started droning on about the Guy Pillow, the thought crossed my mind that we were witnessing the birth of a new Energy Vampire. Even Colin looked confused about where his mind-numbing sales pitch was going.

Why shouldn't actors get time off, just like people in many other jobs? IMHO, attending a charity event for first responders is more important than appearing in one episode of a silly sitcom with an overly-stuffed cast.

I get that. I tend to prefer the "Easter egg" method, when a show uses winks and nods to the source material so that people who know the references can get some extra laughs, but those who don't know can still enjoy it without feeling left out. The Goldbergs, however, tend to use the "beat you over the head" method, in which they tell you directly which movie they are riffing, use tons of actual quotes, and have the cast act out exact scenes in the exact same costumes. It's definitely lazier, and can feel alienating.

Yes! I have high hopes for this too. I always wanted to like Winnie, but I didn't find her very relatable since Kevin mostly viewed her as this untouchable perfect girl on a pedestal. And as far as I remember, they really didn't have much in common.

I'm a similar age and definitely identified with the kids. I thought Kevin's mom was fine, but was a little scared of his dad. I don't remember him being a bad guy, he just had a short fuse and was very emotionally distant from his kids, which caused a lot of problems on both sides. With this new show, I'm already more interested in the parents than the kids, and I hope they get a lot of screen time.

Bats? Flying squirrels? Neither really fit, so I'm stumped too. In weird coincidence news, while watching Jeopardy I was actually scrolling through Etsy looking for William Morris needlepoint patterns. Freaky!

Definitely, and I'm glad that they made it all about the character/actor, without mixing in stuff about the real Pops. And I'm glad there was a time jump. It would have been way too sad to see them go through the death and funeral. I didn't mind the idea of it, but one of my biggest pet peeves about this show is that they are always SO on the nose with their 80s references, rather than using them as a jumping off point to show a similar idea. I mean, Adam literally said, "we're gathering important people together, just like Bill and Ted did!" Yeah Adam, we know. We're not idiots.

If I remember correctly, near the end of last season they showed the episode of Jeopardy that Jackie was on, during which she lost badly and went on a rant about how great the Chicago Bears are compared to the Packers (which is the team that the guest host Aaron Rodgers plays for). The rant went viral, and soon the Lunchbox was full of Bears fans. Jackie abruptly decided to cash in on her 15 minutes of local fame and turn the Lunchbox into a sports bar, which, to be honest, sounds better than the crazy mishmash of food she was serving before. In yet another stroke of brilliant financial planning, Becky - the recovering alcoholic with the steady factory paycheck - decided to join her in the hopes that spending all her time in a bar would by a great employment option and a full time childcare solution. What could go wrong? I'm glad they ditched their masks, and hope it continues. Their inconsistent and nonsensical mask use last season was just too distracting. I liked the idea of showing us the larger Connor family, but this was not the way to do it. Maybe it will happen at the wedding, but at this point, I doubt they'll even bring back little Ed for that.

Are they gaslighting us with the whole Darlene/Ben thing? I was positive that they definitely broke up last season, so I almost did a spit-take when Dan asked Darlene how she felt about the fact that Ben was "thinking" of breaking up with her. I was glad that he broke up with her AGAIN, but I'm not convinced the storyline is over. Serious question: is anyone actually rooting for Darlene and Ben to get back together? (No judgment if you are) I don't look at any other tv-related social media, so this forum may be an outlier, but I'm baffled that they're dragging this out for so long. I mean, Jackie married Fred and had a kid with him (and Dan worked with him), and the show had no problem removing him completely. Why is it so hard to do the same with Ben? I honestly can't tell if the actor is just super popular with fans, or if the showrunners are just so enamored with this pairing and are convinced that it's an epic love story. Didn't DJs wife come home at the end of last season? I hope they didn't change that!

I haven't seen the original in a long time, but the set up is pretty similar: nuclear family in suburbia with two boys and a girl. In the original, Kevin's older sister was a hippie who drifted in and out of the series, and his older brother was a stereotypical jerky older brother who teased/harassed Kevin constantly. The best friend character was much nerdier (he had the thick coke-bottle glasses), and the girlfriend/crush (Winnie) was more "girly" and aloof (I doubt they would've been sharing comic books). Also, I don't think Kevin's mom worked outside the home, and his father had a pretty mundane office job and was very closed-off emotionally from his kids. The parents in this version are already much cooler. This first episode had a similar sepia-tinted feel to the original, but dealt with different issues. Going by the original, I kept waiting for something bad to happen at the end, and was surprised it was Dr. King's assassination (I had forgotten the timeline) and not news about the older brother. Also, the original ended with Kevin and Winnie kissing on the swings, so I was surprised by this twist. It wasn't amazing, but I'll keep watching for a while. I'm not really into middle school drama, but his parents seem interesting.

Speaking as someone who owned way too many velour shirts in the late 90s, I loved Mayim's blazer and thought the purple on purple combo looked great on her. FJ was an instaget for me. I just watched the movie again last week, and had to fast forward through the scene of the cute little shoe getting "Dipped" because the childhood trauma of it is still too strong. I would have asked for one on the "Ramses" response. And I'm not happy with the response of "Ferdinand" for Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand isn't his surname, it's just one of his many middle names, and I've always heard him referred to with both names together (never just "Franz"). Would they accept "Antoinette" for Marie Antoinette? I don't know.