beadgirl

Yay, it's back! And not as dark and depressing as I feared. I'm glad that Shaw and Reese are still trying to help people. Finch's depression, I totally get. His refusal to kill the senator in cold blood has lead to a great evil, and it is understandable that he would be disillusioned and not want to be involved in anything. I absolutely think he made the right decision, and I hope he continues to think so, but it would take a cold person to be unaffected by the consequences. I've decided that Detective Crockett (is that his cover name? I really want it to be) came to NY from another jurisdiction, so of course no other officers know him, but that he quickly proved his worth. How clever of the Machine to provide the team with a new communications system and home base! Were we supposed to recognize "Romeo" and his friends in the van?

Like I was saying, the show isn't just historically insane, it's theologically insane, too. Especially because the end result of the apocalypse is the final, total defeat of evil. A big part of Christian theology is that evil may win the battle, but good will win the war. So why, exactly, is Moloch trying to bring about the end of days which will result in his own end? He wants to go out in a blaze of glory? In the season finale she did mention that her powers were weakened; from the context it wasn't clear if it was a result of Jeremy's interference/resurrection as War or as a result of her stint in purgatory, but it would make sense. Absolutely. One of my complaints about the "strong female characters" that are in so many shows and movies is that they don't have actual personalities ("hot" is not a personality, and neither is "badass"). Abby, however, is a three-dimensional character, and a delightful one at that.

Yay, it's back! I knew the time jump couldn't be real (if only because I knew Katrina at least had to be alive), but I thought it was a hallucination on Crane's part. And then I thought maybe the key would be some kind of time-travel device. Or maybe a reset button. But no, it was Henry's mind games. (Funny, too -- Mr. Beadgirl got caught up with the show over the weekend, and just before the big reveal of Henry's identity in the finale he commented how boring Noble's character was; he really is best off playing crazy, evil, or crazy-evil.) It's the kitchen sink approach to historical fiction. Remember how they incorporated the Roanoke colony because reasons? But if I can tolerate the theological crazy (their version of purgatory is wrong [so to speak] in pretty much every way) for the sake of awesomeness, I can deal with Ichabod knowing everybody and everything. Poor Katrina -- her attempt to stab Headless (he's death! did she think that would slow him down?) can't compare to Jenny's escape. Katrina can't (and shouldn't) become the fighter Jenny and Abbie are, but the writers need to make her witchery actually useful. I'm not crazy about the character, and I will like her even less if she just becomes a damsel in distress. Fist bump! Eventual romance or not, I adore the relationship between Abbie and Ichabod. I wondered about that too. Mr. beadgirl knows accents well, and he confirmed that at that time there was little difference between British and Colonial accents, so I suspect it was just a way to highlight Franklin's crude, egotistical ways (you know, ugly American and all that). Interesting! I like it.

"Do it for her," "we'll really miss you Mrs. K," Homer on his car, Flanders and Nelson missing Edna's laugh ... I tear up for every one of those. And as for Mr. Bergstrom, I actually embroidered his note to Lisa, and have it hanging on the wall. I like it on those rare occasions when Bart and Lisa do something nice for each other -- Bart and Michael Jackson writing the birthday song, Lisa buying Bart's soul, the flashbacks during their final hockey confrontation, and so on.

Sure. Although, Truescott is the only one, I think, who really did get away with his bad behavior. Mulligan paid for his crimes, including adultery and rape, by getting murdered. Lily's husband (I keep forgetting his name) is his own worst enemy and will clearly ruin his own life all by himself. Otto I thought was the typical arrogant cad, but he agreed to a loveless marriage to protect a woman and her child, and was willing to risk his career and status and even death to protect her from Mulligan, and based on the reappearance of the lost husband, apparently won't be getting the supposed love of his life. That said, there was definitely an attitude that men can do whatever they want, and one of the things I found most irritating about the show was that no woman ever called them out on their hypocricy or just said "no thank you." Not every woman from that era was a doormat, and not every man was an amoral jackass. I too assumed Elizabeth wanted to keep the baby, and continue to pretend to be a happy family, which is why Otto's face was to stricken. But I guess we'll never know; the series was not renewed, right?

Yeah, his refusal to take the job came out of absolutely nowhere; add in his idiocy with Mulligan, and I want Lily to free herself. I get what you are saying, but I don't find her liberating or a role model. She did, after all, rekindle a relationship with a man she knew was married, without caring at all about whether anyone else might get hurt. At the funeral someone said she always lived for herself, or words to that effect, and that illustrated my problem with her -- she appears to have always put herself first. And I don't think that is a good way to live a life, whether you are a man or a woman, married or unmarried, parent or child-free. And no, I don't hold her more responsible than Truescott -- his apology is not nearly enough to make it up to Jean. Jean, on the other hand, deciding to take whatshername's advice and be herself? I approve. Boy, based on what I just wrote, you'd think I was far more invested in this show than I actually am. It was predictable and annoying, and Otto's face when his wife revealed that she's pregnant with Mulligan's baby (because of course) made me laugh and laugh.

Good! I've been drafting a nasty email in my head to Acorn about hogging intellectual property rights and screwing over people who can't afford fancy media services (me) or who aren't technologically savvy enough (my mom), but I guess I'll refrain.

Wheeler was by far my favorite detective; I loved her combination of cute, smart, tough, low-key, and competent. I think Logan was the better partner, although I'm a big fan of Goldblum and I liked Nichols. Wait, what? What is this lost episode?

Right! My mom graduated college in the early sixties, got a masters, held several jobs, moved to P.R. by herself for a year, and eventually married my dad and became a housewife, which she wanted. As we got older she occasionally took a tutoring or teaching job, and my father had no issue with it. Which is not to say my mom didn't experience sexism (she tried to become a flgiht attendant, but apparently her legs were too fat), but she wasn't oppressed and miserable either. As I watched the show I couldn't help compare it to a recent episode of Endeavour. There was a young, well-off college student who complained bitterly of sexism and protested a local beauty pageant, but then whined that she would probably end up a married housewife (because apparently she had no say over her life?). She was contrasted effectively against the (working class, I think) winner of the pageant, who had a definite plan for her career and was determined to achieve it, and the wife of the businessman who ran the pageant -- the husband openly admitted that his wife was the brains behind all of his success. Using one's looks is not the best way to succeed in life, and it is a shame that the wife had to work through her husband rather than run the business herself, but nonetheless these two went out and did things, rather than passively sit and be victims of the men around them. But yeah, I'll be watching too!

Ugh, I just watched this. The biggest problem I think is that it is based on a very simplistic form of feminism/liberalism. "Look how awful it was! Aren't we so much more enlightened now?!" Yes, there were women who were stifled and miserable. But there were also women who genuinely loved being "just" a wife and mother. There were women who maybe wanted more or something else, but were nonetheless able to find contentment or even happiness in their lives, or who found other outlets. And there were women who worked even after marriage and kids -- they may not have been the majority, but they existed (my grandmother was one). There were women who saw nursing as a vocation, not just something to do until marriage, and even some women who became doctors, lawyers, scientists, and so on; again, not the majority, but they existed. I think it does women of the past a disservice to portray every single one of them as despairing victims with no agency. And you know what? Not all men were lecherous or clueless assholes. Some loved and respected their wives, some supported their wives in big ways or in small ways, and quite a few managed to be faithful.

Pie Man was a good one; Homer was caring in it.* And now that we are coming to the end, you can see that they started making Homer likeable again. Makes a big difference. *But my favorite superhero was Burns as Fruit Bat Man. Smithers running around staging all the crime scenes was the best. The Dependables were great, too.

That line made me laugh; I like it when Homer displays a burst of intelligence or savvyness. Which is the problem with most of the middle seasons -- Homer is perpetually a stupid jackass, and is inserted into absolutely every plot line. It's on mostly as background noise now. I actually watched a couple of episodes of Law & Order last night, for a change of pace.

Well, my plans for minimizing how much tv the Beadboys watch every day have gone right out the window. Fortunately we are in the mediocre seasons now, so I can occasionally change the channel to catch the news or weather. I've long wondered why they don't release a DVD set of the Treehouse of Horror episodes; I would so buy that, given that I stopped buying the seasons after season 9. I'm recording the ones I don't have (except for IX and X, which I missed), so that will help. I miss Phil Hartman greatly, not just for Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, but his other roles, too (I forgot he was Bart's Big Brother!). And I just watched the episode where Maude FLanders dies, and it made me sad to think that poor Flanders was widowed twice. Not only is it great social satire, it also manages to have a lot more genuinely touching moments, and be supportive of "family values," than most of the traditional sitcoms on tv. Finally, I've made the disturbing realization that I have become Marge Simpson -- I have a trouble-causing ten-year-old, an overly bright and sensitive (almost) eight-year-old, a precocious infant, and a beer-loving, occasionally doofusy husband.

What the hell happened to that place? I used to go there for dinner all the time with my parents (the last time I think was nine years ago?), and the food was always good and the place looked nice (if a bit old-fashioned in that New Englandy way). Sad, really.

Especially since there is a surprising stigma against bisexual people from either end of the spectrum. I get that if Willow had been presented as bisexual, there would have been fans waiting for her to "revert," but on the other hand there would have been value in having a confirmed bisexual given that there are people who think they are waffling or in transition or too scared to be gay or whatever. The speech at the prom is probably my favorite moment from the entire series, followed by Buffy's monologue at the end of "The Gift" (I kind of wish they had ended the show then, for a number of reasons). Gah, I'm tearing up just thinking about those two scenes.

They haven't said so explicitly, but they've shown it with the way Nick has reacted to certain wesen effects -- when he was temporarily blinded he permanently picked up super-hearing, and he retained a certain zombieness. No human has reacted the same way, as far as we have seen. That makes me think there really is something physically different about Grimms (beyond the seeing-wesen thing). Maybe the writers have not been explicit about it because they want narrative flexibility.

Jeebus Cripes, you should add "The City Sleeps" by MC 900 Foot Jesus to your pyromaniac list.

Playboy Mommy by Tori Amos never fails to choke me up; I'm usually fighting tears by the time I get to "I'll say it loud here by your grave / those angels can't ever take my place." Gah, even typing it makes me misty! Unsurprisingly I associate Peter Gabriel's "I Grieve" with my father's death, and the time after as I slowly got over it. I have a happy playlist for whenever I need a boost. It's rather eclectic, but songs like C+C Music Factory's "Robi-Rob's Boriqua Anthem," Voice of the Beehive's "Monsters and Angels," TMBG's "Birdhouse in Your Soul," Yerba Buena's "La Vida La Life," Kermit's "Lydia the Tattooed Lady," and Rusted Root's "Send Me on My Way" always cheer me up.

Oh, I love this thread. I don't make mix tapes/CDs anymore, but I have an awful lot of iTunes playlists for every conceivable mood. Autumn: a-ha: Manhattan Skyline Bostitch + Fussible: Centinela Donovan:Season of the Witch Eva Cassidy: Autumn Leaves (live) George Winston: Woods Guns N Roses: November Rain Kirsty MacColl: Autumngirlsoup Neil Young: Harvest Moon Nick Drake: Pink Moon Patty Larkin: Wolf at the Door Sarah Vaughn & Clifford Brown: September Song Tori Amos: Putting the Damage On U2: October Vince Guaraldi: Great Pumpkin Waltz White Stripes: Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground Yo La Tengo: Autumn Sweater Driving Mix (since BizBuzz does a lot of driving) (this was originally at least 2 CDs): Everclear: AM Radio Cake: The Distance Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood Poe: Wild Tori Amos: A Sorta Fairytale Suzanne Vega: Some Journey Nick Drake: Pink Moon Tracy Chapman: Fast Car Red House Painters: All Mixed Up Badly Drawn Boy: The Shining Master Cylinder: Yung at Heart SPY: Million Miles Moby: Porcelain Sting: Desert Rose The Wallflowers: One Headlight Incubus: Drive Tori Amos: Taxi Ride U2: Where the Streets Have No Name Heather Nova: Walk This World Loreena McKennitt: The Old Ways Led Zeppelin: Ramble On Gipsy Kings: Montaña Seal: Prayer for the Dying Peter Gabriel: Secret World U2: Acrobat Buena Vista Social Club: El Carretero Dar Williams: Are You Out There Smash Mouth: Walkin' on the Sun Brandi Carlile: Dying Day Bon Iver: Blindsided Simon & Garfunkel: The Only Living Boy in New York Moons (still working on this, and the title): Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bad Moon Rising Sting: Beneath a Desert Moon Billie Holiday: Blue Moon Cowboy Junkies: Blue Moon Revisited Cowboy Junkies: Crescent Moon Joan Osborne: Dracula Moon Shivaree: Good Night Moon U2: Hawkmoon 269 Cyndi Lauper: Heading For the Moon Los Lobos: Kiko and the Lavendar Moon Sting: Moon over Bourbon Street (hey, this could go on the Whiskey mix!) Henry Mancini: Moon River Van Morrison: Moondance They Might Be Giants: Nightgown of the Stolen Moon Nick Drake: Pink Moon (hmm, this song shows up a lot on my playlists) Enya: Shepherd Moons Sting: Sister Moon (I guess he likes moons) Dead Can Dance: The Snake and the Moon Tea House Moon: Enya Rdka Toneff & Steve Dobrogosz: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress I'd better stop now, or I'll be writing this all night. I'd play along, SrPab-PTV, but I know little of Daryl Hall or his work.

I saw that video this morning and went to wikipedia, hoping for something to enlighten me. According to the page for the song: "The band comments: 'The video is about a Japanese fan of the band who becomes delirious and has hallucinations of band members and our logo appearing unexpectedly in her daily life as a chef.'" So you were close!

Gah! Stupid cliffhanger. Pointless, too, because it is just a matter of when, not if, regarding the charges against Morse. As for Thursday, I have to believe (I really want to) that because it was so very obvious he would get shot all throughout the episode, he will in fact survive. Me, I was thinking of the Ventriloquist from Batman, and specifically Batman the Animated Series. But by the end, my heart was breaking for the guy.

Heh; my mom once did that with my dad in front of me, only he couldn't understand what she meant, so I told him. In his defense, English wasn't his first language. I've been wondering about them. Are they legit? Why would a drug rehab center need to advertise on TV? I hate that commercial for so many reasons, and that's one of them. Not so coincidentally, I also hate how in real life some people feel they need to bring their entire extended families with them when shopping, thereby hampering my plan to get in and out as fast as possible.

That's why they infuriate me, too. I love fried chicken, I let my kids eat crap occasionally, but under no circumstances would I consider it a major dietary and family-togetherness victory if I brought home a bucket of fried food. I mean seriously -- what kind of home life do these families have?

Yup. Historically, D.S. children were treated terribly and often institutionalized, with no family contact. Which makes me ragey (Beadboy1 has D.S.). It was so contrived, just for the purposes of the "misunderstanding," and I hate that. Such a cliche in TV. I suspect shows like this pick actors with bad American accents on purpose, perhaps as payback for all our horrible British accents. I liked this episode; the hundred-year-old mystery was engaging and suitably creepy. I also like how Bright and the young arrogant officer are warming to Morse; Bright by taking his ideas seriously in this one, and whatshisname when he enjoyed Morse's smack-down of the professor in the previous episode.

It's so damn catchy! And hipstery, with the beard and the vest and the strummy guitar and the questionable grammar ... I'm generally not a hipster hater, but this ad is making me reconsider that.