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scowl

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Posts posted by scowl

  1. On 4/23/2018 at 9:04 PM, rhys said:

    I got a new water heater within the last year. Mine was about $900. Not $8000. Mary Pat's must be lined in gold.

    Since the clock is running out on mine, I shopped for months and got one for $500. If folks are paying over $7,000 for installation then I am definitely in the wrong business.

    What bugs me the most is that Mary Pat seems like she would be easily intimidated. Just tell her that going to the police would be a very poor decision for her family. Think about your children, Mary Pat. Don't you care about your children, Mary Pat? 

    • Love 6
  2. 13 hours ago, Boofish said:

    I'm a horrible person but I want Boomer and Mary Pat dealt with; they are both insufferable assholes.

    Beth could easily say a few words to Mary Pat that would convince her that her situation could quickly turn from lucky to unlucky, especially since a guy really does want to kill her.

    Someone pointed out that Rudy and Stan's house doesn't say "poor" and now that's beginning to bug me. I know houses are cheaper in Michigan, but that's a very nice house! I know crews don't like shooting on small sets but they could have filled it with cheap furniture and made it look a little worn down.

    There are so many unrealistic things in this show that I sometimes miss important plot points because I have to shut down so much of my brain to enjoy it. 

    • Love 5
  3. You have to read the classic book that started this nonsense: Chariots of the Gods written by convicted criminal Erich von Däniken. He did brilliant job of finding all the mysteries (and several that weren't mysteries at all) in the world and explaining them with crazy extraterrestrial theories. Back in the early 70's, everyone was talking about this book, even educated people, because hardly anyone knew anything about the artifacts in the book. It started a whole industry of "In Search Of" movies and a TV series. The concept was nearly killed by a classic episode of Nova on PBS in which actual archaeologists explained that everything in the book had mundane explanations. Everyone who saw it felt like they had been had. It was a total bummer! 

    But a good money-making scheme never ever dies. Once FOX made a bundle in the 90's with the Alien Autopsy special showing a true alien autopsy, and then cleverly aired a followup special showing that it was probably a fraud, it was only a matter of time before someone dug out their old paperback of Chariots of the Gods and sold the ideas to a new generation of suckers. 

    • Love 1
  4. On 4/13/2018 at 8:45 AM, sempervivum said:

    Re. plot holes: once again, as with the bandage story, it's like the writer can't be bothered to think about how this would work in real life. 

    Once she said she had to stir a 55 gallon drum with her arm, I figured the writers were revealing that she has some kind of mental disability. You can buy a new paddle for $8 (or on sale at Amazon for $4.25 at the moment). 

    • LOL 1
    • Love 3
  5. 21 hours ago, Commando Cody said:

    The MacDonald's plan was the first thing I thought of when they were doing the budgeting meeting. I remember how crazy it was that they were basing it on having two jobs. 

    But sign me up for the $20 a month healthcare plan! 

    • LOL 1
    • Love 8
  6. On 4/12/2018 at 8:24 AM, benteen said:

    Elizabeth complains about American stuff but she loves her closet full of boots...

    When the show started I was curious how they could keep their agents indoctrinated while they're in America. That was a problem with everyone the Soviets sent to the west. Many Soviets defected not on political grounds but instead because they enjoyed the higher quality of life.

    Six seasons later it seems like P & E are on some vague "protect our country!" mission and have no belief in the communist system of the Soviet Union.

  7. 2 hours ago, Boofish said:

    How would they know from a cash receipt? You can't trace that like a debit card. The only times I'm asked for I.D. for a return is if I don't have a receipt

    They ask for your ID so they know where to mail the refund check. Oops, sorry, I was thinking "real world" again. 

    • Love 1
  8. 2 hours ago, Boofish said:

    Since they are paying cash I really dont understand why there isn't a team that buys and a team that returns. 

    Do they have to show ID to prove that they are the person who purchased the items? Not to suggest this system would work in real life.

    • Love 1
  9. 55 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

    I could see a more realistic alternative if they were buying big ticket items like cars with the cash, then turning around and selling them to private individuals. Of course, they would have to take a loss with each transaction since nobody is going to buy a car from an individual for the sticker price, even if it's brand spanking new. Still, since the money is counterfeit anyway, what is really lost in terms of profits? If you got $20K in real money out of $30K of fake money, isn't that more or less pure profit anyway, minus whatever it cost to print the fake money?

    Yes, at first it sounded like it was going to be a Craig's List or eBay type scam. Surely even Cloud 9's management would wonder about the sudden jump in returns at their stores in Michigan. 

    • Love 5
  10. 12 hours ago, sistermagpie said:

    But I think that's because that would be boring. Nobody wants to listen to people drone on about Marx and Elizabeth mostly only talks about this stuff on screen with Philip who doesn't need it explained to him. 

    So if Elizabeth spent fifteen seconds explaining the goals of the Soviet Union to Paige, you would be bored? I would love to hear Paige's opinion of fighting for a worldwide socialist revolution. I suspect she wouldn't have one.

  11. 12 hours ago, Mrs peel said:

    Well, publically she can’t do it because she’s supposed to be an American.  But when they are on missions, she’s totally believed everything she’s been told.  The US is doing research on wheat that will kill Soviet crops?  Sure, she believed that.  I’m blanking on other examples, but they are there.

    Her beef is always with the U.S. The Soviets were against all capitalist nations because they felt the entire western world was conspiring to subdue the worldwide socialist revolution and overthrow all communist nations. Even in the last season of the show Elizabeth looks like she's just doing a spy vs. spy job with no communist motivation behind it. It seems like she's forgotten why she's doing these things.

    This has been my biggest disappointment with the show because I love reading about what motivates people like her in real life. Instead many of the episodes look like they were reworked scripts from Alias. 

  12. On 3/31/2018 at 6:09 PM, Mrs peel said:

    I have to disagree.  She has made multiple statements about Americans being weak, pampered, etc.,  she told the Nicaraguan woman that her country’s revolution was “beautiful,” etc.  Any time Phillip said something good about the US, she disagreed.   I always remember the scene when they first arrived in America, Phillip was amazed at the air conditioning in the motel room, she was unimpressed.

    My die-hard capitalist father also constantly complained that Americans are weak and spoiled. Yes, she doesn't like the U.S. but many people in the world share that view. I have found her defense of what she's doing to be terribly weak and unfocused (what does "beautiful" really mean?). From the first season it has seemed to me that the show is purposely avoiding anything about what P and E really believe in.

    Elizabeth has never shown any belief in communist ideology or the beliefs of the Soviet Union. Those beliefs include that the capitalist countries are conspiring to destroy the Soviet Union and all communist countries, that all failures of the communist system have been the result of capitalist countries undermining them, that the entire western world (not just the U.S.) is controlled by corporations who seek to control and exploit the people of the world, and that true peace can only be achieved when the world is unified under a cooperative socialist system. 

  13. 17 hours ago, Umbelina said:

    Well, so far, this season, I hate the loud and endless music more than Paige.  It's cheap, annoying, and most of these actors don't need "help" conveying emotions and turmoil.

    I don't mind the episodes that end in with a song, but there were what, three or four songs in this episode? It starts to look like laziness to me. It's easier to pay for an 80's song and edit a wordless montage for it than to write a scene that has good dialog and solid acting that advances the plot. I never would have thought the Miami Vice pilot would still be influencing television over thirty years later. 

    • Love 6
  14. On 2/27/2018 at 7:59 AM, fishcakes said:

    Note for people watching in the Seattle area on KING5: this episode will be preempted by the Children's Hospital Telethon, but will be shown six hours later starting at 2:05 AM on Friday, March 2.

    My affiliate has been rerunning episodes of Superstore at 2:03AM three days after they air. I do not know why. 

  15. 22 hours ago, DearEvette said:

    Regards Mateo, I think he is the one character that I have done a 180 on.  I used to dislike him intensely.  But I think the show did a great turn in first putting him with Jeff and then pairing him as a scene partner with Cheyenne on multiple occasions.  I think the final turning point for me on him was the Tornado episode where I think they used him brilliantly.  And I loved the expression on his face when Glenn introduced the Pastor.  Actually everyone's reaction to the Pastor was comedy gold.

    I watched it again and I found that everyone in the break room, even the extras, were filling the screen with hilarious expressions all through this scene. I especially liked the woman who looked like she was brushing her teeth with a pencil. 

    • Love 1
  16. I am split between two possible endings I'd like to see. I'd like to see Phillip get caught then sit down with FBI and go through the trail of bodies he has left in America. I'd like to watch him go through every pointless murder he committed because some poor random person happened to be inconvenient for one of his missions. The agents would be holding their heads in their hands when they hear all this had been going on for years. It would be like Vic Mackey in the last episode of The Shield. 

    But my favorite (two parter) episode of Alias was when Christian Slater's Soviet spy wife found herself without a job after the Soviet Union fell. She stopped spying and became a regular American housewife. Wouldn't it be interesting if Elizabeth found that her beloved Russia had disowned her and was now stuck in our filthy capitalist society while her husband Phillip wasn't at all bothered by it? 

    • Love 2
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