Malbec

I think that would be a really interesting route to take Simmons. Because for me, the thing is -- while she's a bit extreme in her grief over Trip, she's not totally wrong. They're dealing with a completely new and unknown biological phenomenon. They really don't know what it's going to do. For all they know, it really could be the equivalent of smallpox being introduced to the Americas, or rabbits being introduced to Australia. Even in cases where the introduction isn't malicious, the effects can still be devastating. I hope, but I'm not optimistic, that the writers don't just reduce it to "Simmons being emotional / hurting Skye's feelings" because while I don't know if I agreed with everything she said in 2x11, I don't think her concerns should be blown off entirely.

I like Skye, and still have a lot of goodwill towards her for shooting Ward. I was happy Bobbi brought that up, because the awesomeness of shooting Ward should be brought up as often as possible. But I do find some of the writing choices around Skye to be a bit groanworthy. The argument where they all upset her really did remind me of a "Mary Sue against the world" type of fanfiction. I know she was meant to be an object of sympathy in that scene (and I give credit to Chloe Bennet, who I think is handling it well as an actress). But it was kind of aggravating that the scene felt more like it was in service to Skye!angst when there were actually some pretty reasonable and interesting points to be raised about the alien woowoo and Coulson's leadership. Tbh, I agree that I hope Mack and Bobbi are working for someone like Fury or Tony Stark because I'm a little meh on Coulson as a director. I sometimes wonder how the show is intending us to see him.

Does Mack know that Coulson was willing to abandon him after he was possessed? It wasn't brought up, but I could see how that would make him extra-angry about the whole "run in after Skye at all costs" thing.

I feel like Simmons is in the ballpark of a good point -- they don't know what the Terrigen Mist's effects are, and assuming the worst on the "is it contagious?" question is... pretty much exactly what an organization like SHIELD should do. I'm surprised they let Mack out so early, to be honest. The "I am going to tell one of the potentially infected people my extermination feelings" scene was a little OTT but I don't think Simmons' position is entirely unreasonable. At the moment. I wasn't sure how I felt about Fitz preemptively lying for Skye -- that seems like it's gonna get awkward fast. Definitely interested in what Bobbi and Mack are up to. Assuming they're not evil, I kind of like the idea of them having an ace up their sleeve. Keeps things interesting. I think the actors also have really believable chemistry.

The Olivia Benson comparison made me laugh because this show reminds me of how there's always one guy at the beginning of most SVU episodes whose life gets totally ruined by the detectives showing up and going "WE KNOW SOMEBODY MOLESTED THAT POOR KID. YOU WERE THE LAST PERSON SEEN WITH HIM, BOB. WHAT'S UP?" in front of friends, family, business associates, etc. This! This really bothered me. Like... I get that Ben and Jess were in an emotionally difficult place, but if I had Juliette Lewis on my ass ten times a day trying to find me guilty, I'd be like "we're taking a quick trip to the police station with this." I think there's a good show buried under some of these contrivances, but man... the contrivances.

I think Juliette Lewis is fine in her role. I don't like the character but she's a far more credible antagonist than I expected. Ryan Philippe's character made a few too many plot-mandated dumb decisions for me to completely go with it. Personally I would have lawyered up from minute one and the polygraph (among other decisions) was beyond dumb. Also, Drunk Slob Buddy can get catapulted off into the sky any day now. What an irritating load.

I was also very much Team Anouk after she told off Rosie in the restaurant. I wish she hadn't gone back to Rosie for that "you love your babeh!!" speech at the end of the episode. The scene that pissed me off was the one where Anouk asked for the abortion doctor referral.... leaving aside one's personal views on abortion, the cliche of "but we all know this silly woman wants the baby deep down and just needs to be talked out of it" was SO predictable. Actually, everything about the pregnancy was like the writers went to TV Tropes and decided to run down the list of pregnancy tropes. I thought the actors managed to bring some humanity to it, but it was still a big eyeroll.

The Dap: A once-happy family is torn apart when two members are suspected of giving each other a terrorist fist jab.

Well Uma Thurman and Blythe Danner certainly acted the shit out of that episode, and Uma had surprisingly good chemistry with Penn Badgley. Nevertheless, there was a serious lack of slap-related plot developments in this episode of The Slap. What gives?

I actually thought Rhonda was reluctant about the "sleep with a board member" plan from the very beginning, even when it was the attractive woman she might be sleeping with. Maybe the green face mask was obscuring my read on the actress' face, but I got the feeling that even when it was someone "sexy" Rhonda didn't totally want to do it and needed to be cajoled by Andre. When it turned out to be the creepy old dude, she lost even the tiniest bit of willingness. I think Andre can be forgiven for failing to pick up on her reluctance, but I can also understand why Rhonda was pissed off that he didn't.

Yeah, that would have been a hilariously different scene if it had been R. Lee Ermey.

Yes! I agree with your whole post, but especially the bit about Luscious projecting his problems onto Andre. In fact, I'd take it a step further and say that Luscious' entire problem is that he seemingly can only relate to his sons as projections of himself. That's why he takes Jamal's homosexuality so personally and why he favors Hakeem, the youngest and the one who most conforms to Luscious' image of himself. Of course it's normal for parents to see themselves in their children, but it's like Luscious takes it to a point where he CAN'T step back and relate to his sons as they are.

Exactly. This is what pissed me off. I mean, it's great characterization of Luscious as a delusional, toxic narcissist, but infuriating to watch. How's he going to lecture Andre on going against the family, when Luscious is the one who made a big point of setting up a competition between his sons? How's he going to lecture about family loyalty while humiliating Cookie, his sons' mother, with the Anika situation? Or goading Hakeem and Jamal to go against each other? I wish Andre had pointed out that Luscious didn't seem to mind Andre's Ivy League education when he needed a CFO for his company. The line about Andre not being loyal seems particularly cruel when you consider that flashback a couple of episodes ago of Andre hiding the gun, and providing his father's alibi in the present day. Luscious lectures about white people never accepting Andre, while simultaneously making it clear that he himself will never accept Andre as good enough either.

Luscious is a complete piece of shit. He even almost had me feeling a tiny drop of sympathy for Anika, to say nothing of Cookie. And not only rejecting Andre, but humiliating him in front of the board? Piece of shit on a new level. The healthiest thing Andre could probably do for himself is move across the country and get the hell out of Luscious' toxic grasp. Bless Jamal for the most epic coming out moment. The way Luscious' face changed when he realized what Jamal was singing was PRICELESS. I was worried that Documentary Guy had some nefarious motives where Jamal was concerned (i.e. "seduce Luscious Lyon's son and sell the story for publicity") but at least that ended happily, for the most part. Hakeem dropping by afterward was a wonderful scene.

I really like this too. I think it speaks to the care and thoughtfulness that the writers put into buildling Peggy's relationships with other characters that you could justifiably imagine her ending up with several different characters -- yet it doesn't feel like the writers were pandering to shippers.

I'm hooked on both Agent Carter and Empire, and what's interesting is that both shows are strongly driven by the performance by the female lead (Taraji P. Henson in the case of Empire). I also think Empire, like Agent Carter, benefits from not being a full 22-episode season. It forces an economy of storytelling that really makes the series tight. I have to agree that Agents of SHIELD's weak beginnings bear a lot of the blame for people's unwillingness to take a chance on Agent Carter. Most people, when I tell them Agent Carter is actually REALLY REALLY GOOD, seem genuinely surprised to hear it.

I thought this was a pretty much perfect finale. The writers did such a great job of tying the action climax and the emotional climax, with both Peggy and Howard needing to let go of Steve, together. Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper absolutely killed their scenes over the radio, and that final scene broke my heart. (I admit I too thought about the potential for super-fish, though.) I just can't state enough how much I love the way Dominic Cooper riffs on Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Tony Stark so perfectly. You completely understand how Tony turned out the way he did, yet Howard feels entirely like his own character. I really enjoyed Sousa outwitting Dr. Hypnosis but wish he'd shot the guy. Also, I need a season 2 for more scenes of Enver Gjokaj chained to a bed, please.

Please tell me I am not the only one who giggled uncontrollably when Zach Quinto gave the "sometimes you just have to kill it" speech to his son.

Oh man, Andre. His identity is so wrapped up in the company/Luscious that you knew he wasn't going to take the ALS news well. Even so, his meltdown was a hell of a thing to see. I can't help thinking Hakeem's lucky the fight got broken up before Andre could fully get his hands on him. Did the actor playing Michael get a new show or something? His exit seemed oddly abrupt. Right?! I was like, Boo Boo Kitty could be the new page picture for "Asshole Victim" over on TV Tropes. What she did to Elle was straight-up cold-blooded.

The guy who apprenticed/worked for Chef Morimoto! I remember watching that episode and thinking "Wow, what a bunch of jerks." As it turned out, only two of the competitors (Matt and Carrie, the woman who got chopped first) were jerks, but they were SO unpleasant that it kind of overwhelmed the episode for me. I was also glad Poppy won. I tend not to get too upset when contestants trash talk each other's food, barring if they say something really egregious, because I just assume there's a producer off-camera asking them to comment. It does bug me when contestants trash talk each other as people (i.e. "Suzy's appetizer looks like a mess" doesn't bother me, but "Suzy needs to go back to home cooking" will piss me off quick).

Raw red onions for no reason are a huge peeve of mine, albeit in my daily life I'm obviously eating far more plebian food than the Chopped judges. So I confess that I do a little fist-pump of validation whenever Scott's hatred of them comes up.

Sure, but as Judge Judy likes to say, "you picked 'em." By that I mean, Jamal's been seemingly content with what Michael brought to the relationship up to this point, including the support of his "I'm a real artist, I don't hustle" mentality. And, Michael followed without protest when Jamal moved to the poorer apartment, so at least he seems committed enough to follow through and accept the consequences of Jamal not selling out. Basically, I don't really think either Michael or Jamal is a bad person in this scenario. It's a sad fact that people change and relationships don't always survive that. But it doesn't always mean that the person who changed (or the one who refused to change) is doing something wrong.

It seems like Hakeem is also a bit spoiled and not accustomed to having people say no to him, so he can't handle Tiana having her own thing. He's like a child that throws away a toy, and then gets mad and wants it back as soon as another kid starts playing with it. I think the writing and acting for Hakeem are really solid -- the entitled fuckboy is strong in him, but they've done a good job creating some character depth in addition to that. His rage at Cookie and other women actually reminds me eerily of one of the biggest misogynists I've ever known IRL. This guy's mother had died when he was young, I don't know the circumstances, but even as a grown-up he carried a lot of rage about that abandonment and took it out on women generally. I see a lot of that in Hakeem.

I honestly found myself liking Sonjia's collection best of the three. Although, because Dmitry used a lot of black, the dark runway really affected the visual impact of some of his clothes. I'm defintely not upset that he won. That one dress he made really did look like a marijuana leaf. I felt a little bad because I think he was going for something cool, but yeah... he totally did end up in "legalize it" territory. I thought it was kind of unnecessary for Zanna to point it out during the runway walk. Agree that the short time they have to work is killing the show. Four days for a final collection? Stupid. Both Dmitry and Sonjia totally repeated looks they've already done (Helen's stuff is unremarkable enough that I can't remember if she did or not as well), but I sure as hell can't blame them.

I don't think she needed to sugar-coat things, but I think she let bitterness get the better of her when she was talking to him. Which is understandable, but ultimately she wasn't helping.