Enginerd

I don't get the impression that Ben craves "popularity" nearly so much as he craves attention and connection. But I certainly don't understand high school boys.

I think Ben would break up with Shira in about 0.3 seconds if he thought he could have a girlfriend who actually likes him...or at least respects him...or at least pays attention to him. It's pretty clear they don't like each other. Heck, maybe even just making out with Devi could give him a little boost of confidence to decide he doesn't need to put up with someone as horrible as Shira. Dating ANYONE leaves lots of room for drama, though, given that Nalini has forbidden Devi to date. Maybe Devi should pretend to date someone really horrible and then her mom will see anyone she actually wants to date as acceptable in comparison. I still can't believe how rude Nalini was to Paxton. Way to model maturity and good manners. I understand she was mad at Devi for going to the party, but that's no reason to tell a kid she doesn't even know that he's an idiot.

If we get to make wishes for the next season (fingers crossed it can happen sooner rather than later), can we find out what's going on with Eric? That poor kid. So far he seems to be just a random side bit that makes me sad. His constant eating and asking for food, and lack of discrimination as to what he eats to the point it makes him sick, is not funny. Surely they can't be treating this person as a stupid fat joke, right? I want this show to be smarter than that. But clearly there is more to that story; this is not a happy large kid who just loves to eat. He's miserable. He looks like he's in great emotional pain and compulsively seeking food rather than enjoying it. I will say, the actor is doing a great job conveying depth and complexity in a bit part.

I don't care about Ben all that much, but I thought the scenes were funny but also sad. I'd like an episode focused on Kamala's point of view. Get a little more in depth than beautiful nerd who doesn't want to be married off. We've already seen that there's more to her, but I think a more focused look at her past and her psyche and what she really thinks about everything would be interesting. And on the same note, Nalini's earlier years, before she got married. She's so much like Devi, it's hard to believe she was quite the demure dutiful daughter she claims to have been, who did nothing but care for granny and learn to cook or whatever. What was she really like, and what led her to the life she leads now?

It was total farce. Elaborate lies and skulduggery instead of either a fraction of the truth or a small easy lie (like walk him out the front door in front of everyone and pretend he was there to fix the wifi or something). I don't know that it was necessary for Preshant to be "hot", because how much do looks really matter when choosing a life partner? But I'm glad he turned out to be a reasonable, cool person with a sense of humor and decency, who isn't looking for someone who reminds him of his mother to go to bed with. Devi's mom was incredibly rude to Paxton, and it was completely uncalled for. He's the one who's always rescuing Devi.

I think John McEnroe's extremely blunt, non-actorly narration is hilarious. Also, while I see the point about the intrusion of a white man into this Indian-American girl's story, I actually like that presence on the sidelines, because for basically forever, teen girls stories in particular have so typically been brushed off as frivolous and unimportant and only interesting for teen girls themselves. Doubly or more so for stories about minorities. Mainstream culture generally dismisses these narratives, while literature teachers and history books and politics and basically almost everything tells us that the stories and concerns of older men are Very Important and worthy of our time, no matter who we are. So although it is a point that should never actually need to be made, this older white man following Devi's story and taking her seriously and empathizing with her emphasizes that this is not a niche show just for teens and just for minorities. It's a human story, and it's for anyone, like all such stories. Although I still would dislike it if the narrator were just any old white man, but that he's a hothead like Devi (and her mom) and has that connection with her memories of her father makes it make sense.

She isn't even definitively dead, though! She's presumed dead! It would be just like Phryne, even at that age, to pop up somewhere alive and well.

I thought it looked like she didn't even stab him intentionally at all, even in the heat of their argument. Like she sort of lunged toward him but forgot she even had the broken bottle in her hand. She looked shocked when she realized he was stabbed.

That is not how quicksand works!!! That aside, I mostly enjoyed the movie. The settings were beautiful; there was high drama. I did not like how callous Phryne was to Jack during the first part. She may value adventure and righting wrongs over domestic bliss, but the Phryne we know and love tried not to hurt the ones she cares about in the process. Her nonchalant flippancy while Jack was very upset, having thought she died and then seeing her show up and treat him as an afterthought, was incredibly rude. I like it much better when Jack and Phryne are flirting than when they're fighting! At least they sorted it out before the end.

There's just no way that jagged, curved, thick champagne bottle should have gone through Polo's ribs and stabbed deeply enough to kill him. Also, a full-height glass wall like that on an upper floor with no back-up railing that's flimsy enough that you could just fall through it so easily would be a building code violation most places in the world. That aside, I liked this season but not as much as previous seasons. Too much time spent on random new characters I don't care about, and Cayetana's continued existence is irritating. I did like that Lu and Nadia became friends, and that Carla got fed up with her parents trying to pimp her out like a long-ago princess, or maybe more like the pretty village girl being sold to the trader with the most camels. Who even does that anymore? If it's a good business deal, do the business deal, whether or not anyone in the families are married or sleeping together. Nadia and Guzman should have spent more time together; it would have been a bright spot in a mostly bleak season.

Ander seems to be melancholic in general. He has his happy moments, but he tends to turn gloomy and disconnect when things are bad. As much as he likes Omar, I think Omar can also be a little much for him. Omar is very eager to live a festive gay life now that he's out, and also seems to have a much higher sex drive than Ander and is constantly trying to initiate sex, often when Ander seems to want a little space. Omar moved in when they'd only known each other a few months and Ander was still in high school, and right around the time Ander's parents split up. And then Ander got leukemia. It's all just a lot. I can understand why in some ways Ander just wants a breather and to not deal with romantical issues all the time. I liked the season but was a little disappointed that Guzman and Nadia spent so little time together. Cristian never reappeared, either. Is he still in that Swiss clinic?

I like Patrick, but I think he's mostly high on the thrill of having a partner who is a man and uninhibitedly himself, and that their relationship would not have a lot of longevity if it were real and not on TV. Wouldn't he eventually get tired of having to be the responsible, mature one all the time, trying to keep the business solvent while David assumes a business check is his own personal bonus and likes to splurge on everything, etc.? Wouldn't it get exhausting to be married to someone who's so insecure and immature that he melts down over a minor embarrassing incident like wetting the bed? Shouldn't you be able to be more honest and open and comfortable with your spouse, and be able to just deal with the ups and downs of life together? Because you'd be amazingly lucky if nothing more unfortunate and embarrassing than wetting the bed ever happened to you. You should be able to trust that your spouse will be on your side and not think less of you over things that aren't your fault.

Did they promote this show at all? I'd never heard of it until my sister mentioned it last week, and I watch a lot of Netflix and this is right up my mind-candy alley. I binged the whole series over the last four days and despite the somewhat shaky dialogue, oddly paced plot, and trying to cram in too many plotlines for the number of episodes, I would have watched another season.

It cracks me up that the visitors to William's and Julia's house are so rude. They constantly insult the architecture and decor, invite themselves to stay for dinner or drink the booze, murder people in the potato cooking room, steal the artwork, and almost every person who comes over walks right in as soon as the door is opened, without waiting to be invited.

Some of her expensive clothes could make sense, since the rest of Fleabag's family seems fairly affluent. Gifts from Claire or her Dad, for example, or the funeral dress may have been something paid for by her parents in her younger, still-getting-launched years, or maybe even specifically for the funeral. Maybe the Agent Provacateur business was a gift from a repeat partner...Pretentious Bathtub Guy seems like a candidate. It wouldn't make sense if she was poor and came from a poor family, though, unless she really lucked out with free or cheap castoffs from other people. The apartment really doesn't make any sense, though. How can she afford that?

Working for a startup low-budget airline doesn't sound that great. Seems like the sort of outfit that would have Stevie working four puddle-jumper flights a day to, like, Winnipeg and Duluth, and going back to her home base every night with no time to actually spend in a destination city. So she's just trapped in a tiny metal tube all day long serving drinks and giving the same speech over and over. Although maybe she'd get free flights to travel somewhere on her time off, or could use the experience to step up to another airline with better perks.

I think it was just a plot device requiring suspension of disbelief. In my experience, flight tickets always have the name of the month written out to avoid confusion, since travelers are from different places with different date-writing conventions. They've always been vague about where exactly the Roses lived and where Schitt's Creek is supposed to be.

Watched the whole thing this week. I did not expect it to be good. I expected pretty, entertaining fluff. It did not really live up to those expectations. So very little plot, yet so many questions: 1. Why do so many of the characters wear jeans, boots, and leather jackets in the tropical heat? You can tell it's hot; they're always sweaty. Maybe they're cooking their brains; that would explain a few things. 2. Why didn't the mother take the stolen inheritance money and run far away from this creepy town, since she hates it so much? She doesn't even like her family; what reason is there to stay? Do they elucidate any of her motivations at all? She seems like pointless filler. 3. Do the Tidelanders have no concerns about possible incest in their rampant liaisons, given that they don't know who their parents are, but believe them to be from fairly small communities of townsmen and sirens? Or is incest totes OK in their polyamorous, pansexual society? 4. Why isn't Arielle a better negotiator after hundreds of years of life and drug dealing? She'll murder or blind anyone on a whim; she has no qualms about fighting; but her shard supplier names any price and she's like, "okay, I'll pay it." ??? 5. Did Cal's dad get lured off by a Siren, or just get murdered by Arielle? If it was the Siren, is one of both of those child Tidelanders his? 6. How did this show get greenlit? 7. Why did any of the actors sign up for this? 8. Where was Arielle supposed to be from? Her accent sounded fakely generic Eastern European, but at least once when she said something that I think was meant to be foreign and cryptic, it was Spanish. 9. Did the entire script fit on one sheet of notes? Script: -Fights -Sex -Murder -Visions of "the prophecy" -Wading at the beach -Stupid pointless chitchat; don't bother writing it; it doesn't matter what they say. Adlib. Repeat until there's enough hours of footage. 10. Was this entire show a syphilitic psychosis of the promiscuous town? Such a good premise. Such a phoned-in execution. But a second season is unlikely, since they killed off almost all the characters.

I agree; I didn't think it was an abuse of power. She is not a religious believer. She doesn't see him as an authority figure. What she wanted was to be able to be open and honest with someone she really connected with and for it to be okay. In the rest of her life, as much as everyone always thinks she's a sassy brat, she spends a lot of time tiptoeing around other people, especially in her family, and being told that everything she does is wrong. The priest was making it clear that it isn't a flaw for her to want what she wants (him), even if their relationship isn't going anywhere for reasons. The attraction was mutual, not dysfunction on her part. They actually have the sort of honest connection that makes for a healthy sexual relationship...if not for his circumstances, whereas with her other hookups, she's been very detached, not really even a present participant in the moment. She's horribly lonely but deals with it by mechanically seeking sex and then distancing herself. This was different. Also, she leaned in first before he kissed her.

Is it, though? It's only controversial if you think callously letting children die or be disabled by preventable illnesses is a valid choice. I don't think that's a viewpoint that deserves any oxygen or respect. (I do recognize that some people can't be vaccinated for medical reasons, and that's even more reason the rest of us need to be.) Sure, some people are going to be offended because they insist on being ignorant, but oh well.

Ugh. By way of explanation, loooooots of Mormon mommy types are very into those things, either as viewers or blogging/vlogging about them as a sort of part-time job that lets them still be stay-at-home moms, which is widely viewed as the "righteous" choice among conservative Mormons. I was unfortunate enough to be raised Mormon, so a lot of my family and long-time friends are either former or current Mormons, and Facebook is absolutely convinced that I want to be part of EVERY Mormonism-related group or discussion imaginable and many I never would have imagined. It's obnoxious. Basically I can't use Facebook without seeing a thousand "suggestions" for a religion I would really prefer to never hear of again (but I don't want to cut off the friends and family I do like, so apparently I'm stuck with it).

This show had a lot of potential, but didn't live up to it. I enjoyed it, but the script really needed a few more rounds of editing, and in a lot of the scenes, the dialogue seemed unnatural. You could really tell that they were reciting lines rather than being people in a situation reacting naturally and saying what their character would say. Danny in particular was kind of a deadweight compared to his counterpart in the original, Julio. Julio had a lot more charisma, and the scenes showed a lot more of how he used clever scheming and charms to get away with things and get help. The original also had denser, more intricately woven plotting, and the stakes seemed higher. Like, the hotel was fairly isolated with just a small village nearby, and Julio had a criminal history. Working in the hotel was really his ONLY chance to investigate, as there weren't many other jobs nearby he could get, and the hotel was so exclusive that a lower class man couldn't have merely dropped by the bar for a drink and a chance to chat up the employees. Plus, a lot of times in this show they seemed to have no idea how a hotel or resort is run. A general manager would not be painting flowers or really dealing with flowers or that kind of thing at all. They would have a go-to list of local vendors to order from, and they would know how to tell the clients to choose from things that actually exist. And someone with the slightest bit of sense and tact would not tell a gay man who lived in a VERY conservative place and was finally getting married that she knew just what that was like because her boyfriend wanted to keep things quiet for awhile. Also, if half your staff walks out, your top priorities are getting the rooms cleaned (skip vacuuming and dusting for a day unless it looks bad!), getting people checked in and out, and serving food and drink. If your laundry and maintenance are in a desperate situation after less than a day, you have bigger, more ongoing problems. And laundry can be sent out to another commercial facility. I did like a lot of individual scenes and characters, but the whole show never really came together for me. It needed more rigor and polish. I think they should start over and try the whole thing again.

It's a problem faced by many teachers as well: How do you motivate someone who doesn't care about anything, when torture is not an option? And it's even more complicated in the good place, because their actions only count if they become self-motivated to do things just because they're right, and not to avoid consequences.

Oh; hmm. I missed that. I thought that Michael had designed it, but Janet created it. Although of course the people then were demon actors, so she didn't have to create them.

I thought that was odd, also. Even in the very first episode, she was creating/maintaining the place with seemingly no effort. You'd think after so many reboots and upgrades, she'd be so powerful that this would be nothing. Does her increasing human abilities like humor, sarcasm, and love come with increasing human challenges like fatigue and struggle?