Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

truthaboutluv

Member
  • Posts

    9.6k
  • Joined

Everything posted by truthaboutluv

  1. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    It's disappointing but the thing is, that match actually in a way showed just why there's been such a dominance in the men's game. Tedious though it may be watching those same four guys, or really three, (sorry Andy, I'll include you when you've won more than two slams) guys win, the reality is they do because they not only have the game but the self-belief of a champion. They go down fighting until the bitter end. That's where in my opinion, some level of arrogance in sports is a good thing. Athletes need to believe that they're not only good enough to win but almost deserve to win. And the reality is a lot of the younger players and hell some of the older players, don't have that and especially when they're playing against a Nadal, Federer and Djokovic. They get a lead but then can't sustain it, especially when these guys fight back and level the matches. I don't know why anyone would want a Nadal/Federer final, we all know how that will play out...unless Rafa gets an injury during the match and even then he might STILL beat Federer. It is amazing to think though that they have never met at the U.S. Open for as many matches as they've played.
  2. Well it was serious enough for him to be in the audience every week, supporting her, all the while she and Val kept up their creepy "we just want to do each other right here and now" schtick. I like Val well enough but man, I still shudder remembering those two. The best thing that happened to him in my opinion, was getting Zendaya the next season where he had to focus only on the dancing as she was only 16 and was forced to be truly creative in his choreography, again because she was only 16. I will say I agree about Janel not seeming very Kelly-like and that more than her boyfriend is why I don't see her and Val pulling what he did with Kelly. She seems to be more of a goofy, silly type, the cute girl rather than the "hot chick" which is how Kelly came across. Kelly was all sex appeal, so it was easy, between that and Val "I can't keep a shirt on" to go down that road. I can see Janel and Val being a little flirty but nothing more than that, imo. I don't think age has been the factor in Val's partnerships. Kelly for example looks so amazing for her age, I doubt many people realized she was that much older than Val. I think particularly with the last two, Danica and Elizabeth, they just didn't have the fanbase and viewer votes. So if he should be excited about anything, it's to hope that Janel's PLL fanbase is as big as some believe.
  3. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    And the answer is no. Gutted man...damn you Monfils, so close. But the second he blew those match points and immediately got broken to lose the set, I knew it was over. It's not like I have anything against Federer but dammit I was getting excited at the possibility of a men's final without any of the big names. Alas, you'd think I'd learn by now. It's up to Kei but I don't know, those two back to back long matches has to be taking its toll and Djokovic is like a freaking roach that just won't go away quietly in a match.
  4. Yeah that will never happen...after all, in their delusional minds, what they write is actually amazing. No, it's just those simple minded viewers who can't appreciate amazing, complex writing. Like I said, I'm sure Ryan especially blames and resents the fans for the ratings being in the toilet because they were just too stupid to appreciate the genius they gave in S4.
  5. I think the show is picking the cast they can get. Some seasons they luck out with a few decent names but the reality is that DWTS has always been seen as the place where C and D list celebrities go to try and revive their dead and/or dying career. And mixed in among them sometimes are a few popular athletes and reality stars. I mean Trista Sutter was on S1 of the show which means they've been casting people from the Bachelor/ette franchise as far back as the early seasons.
  6. Hmm, guess I'm an oddity because I never did that. I mean there was always a celebrity or two I was excited about but fangirl squealing over the cast of DWTS...yeah no. Which is probably why I'm shrugging my shoulders over the reaction to this cast. Sure there's no current Olympic medal winners but other than that, I guess I don't see what is really that different with this cast and last season's. They had a nostalgic television star in Candace Cameron-Bure, this season we have Alfonso Ribero. Tommy Chong is pretty known to older generations, both Lea Thompson and Janel Parrish are on current ABCFamily hit shows, Betsey Johnson may be 70 but guaranteed you've seen some teenager/20-something walking around with her fashion, especially her purses. I'd be surprised if most people don't recognize Antonio Sabato Jr., Sadie Robertson's family's reality show was one of the highest rated shows on television and as a reality show star, she's no different than Nene, Rob Kardashian, etc. who've all been on. And then there are the athletes who we get every season.
  7. There have been seasons where the "star" power wasn't that big and it turned out to be pretty good imo. I think it really just depends on the chemistry between the cast and Pros and the performance level because sometimes the no-name stars end up truly surprising and shining. And I've said it before, ymmv, but I prefer the seasons that I go into where the win is not an obvious foregone conclusion and I get to be truly surprised by what the stars can do on Premiere night. As for the pairings - man, they sure love saddling Mark with these young girls from "controversial" families. First it was Bristol and now Sadie. She seems more pleasant than Bristol but I only saw seconds of her on GMA, it will be interesting to see her work ethic on the show and see if the Duck Dynasty support is as strong as Pailn and she sticks around even if she's not that great. Of course I guess she may turn out to be good. Physically she certainly looks the part. Artem got a good one for his first season. Sure as Lea pointed out she hasn't danced ballet professionally in 32 years but hey, it still worked for Jennifer Gray and she's clearly still in very good shape. Alfonso could be fun but if talks and hogs camera time as much as he did at the announcement today, that'll get very old very quickly. It's interesting that the host said Jannel is being picked as the one to beat - I mean I guess she has the PLL fans (I know it didn't work for Brandt though he made it to mid-season but Brandt was more a supporting player on the show while Jannel is a star), she's young and cute and has Val. Still she may not be that good of a dancer.
  8. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    Amazing match between Nishikori and Wawrinka. There were so many momentum swings, that right up until the end I wasn't sure who would win but I think ultimately Nishikori just played better on the key big points.
  9. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    You got your wish and it was done in brutal fashion - 6-0, 6-1. Man Wozniacki is looking great and I'm really happy for her for getting herself back in a contender position for a slam. Peng looks great but I give Wozniacki the edge to make the finals. Her worse nightmare will be if Serena's there because Serena's the one who stopped her at both Masters this summer and both times she was up in the match but it just slipped away from her. But it's just really good to see her reminding people of the player she was a few years ago. Oh yeah that I can definitely attest to and she's never even been subtle about it. Hell, if anything, she's been kind of open and upfront about it so points for owning it I guess. But yeah she LOVES Federer and that really doesn't surprise me, Federer's style is very similar to Evert when she played - that delicate, slightly prissy, almost aloof style of play. I agree that Monfils can definitely be a total headcase but I will say he's also struggled throughout the years with a string of injuries and I think that too has played a significant part in derailing his career.
  10. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    I will admit that I often tune out the commentary during matches but every so often I do listen and I honestly cannot remember Darren ever saying anything about Rafa that would indicate disliking him or bordering on disrespecting him. I will concede that yes he can sometimes, make it clear if he really likes a player and he does get excited about the Australian players, but never in my opinion, at the expense of their opponents. Darren was one of the ONLY ones far as I remember downplaying Rafa's losses coming into the French Open this year and saying that in his opinion Rafa was still the clear favorite when others like McEnroe, Carillo, etc. were all jumping on it being Djokovic's time. eta: Really impressed with and happy for Monfils. He really did seem calm and focused throughout the match. Grigor had his chances but just made some very poor decisions with shot selection in those moments. Matt Cronin at the US Open site hasn't been hitting out of the park with his picks. He picked Maria to beat Caro, said Bencic was going to beat Peng in 3 (yeah she was barely ever in the match) and had Grigor in 4 against Monfils. In his defense, with the last one, he did say it depended on which version of Monfils showed up for the match. Which is often the case with him. Meanwhile Thiem just got murdered by Berdych and at this point I am so bored by Federer's matches there are no words. I mean good for him, he looks good and healthy but they've all been so one-sided that I just find myself tuning out and not caring. At least Murray keeps attempting to inject some interest in his matches with his random dropping of sets and as for Djokovic, he's been even more boring than Federer.
  11. Also, I don't want to be an intellectual snob but damn, do any of these people have anything above a high school education or is their diction just really bad? Between Mama Dee saying Joseline needed an "innervension", Joseline struggling to say the word exposed, Deb saying it was like the "extorcist" came through, Kirk talking about Joseline and Stevie having this "era" around them when I'm pretty sure fool meant aura - just wow.
  12. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    Great match between Nishikori and Raonic. Raonic is talented but he has the same problem that Isner has and Roddick to an extent also had, they don't have a very good all-court game and rely far too much on their powerful serve. And that can serve you well at times but they run into problems when they play anyone who has a great return of game and can put their serves back into play. And that was evident last night with Raonic and Nishikori, the latter was destroying Raonic in the majority of their rallies. Definitely looking forward to Dimitrov and Monfils today - that could be a really good one.
  13. As soon as they were showing how everything all went down and I saw Nikko just standing around looking like he had zero fucks to give, I thought, "I bet Nikko was probably the one to call TMZ and send them footage because you know that fool is all about making money." Cue half-way through the show and Somore asking him if he was concerned for Mimi and he trying to pretend he was, only to have footage show him chilling backstage on the phone, talking about what happened with no care in the world. And I loved how Arianne quickly called bullshit on his story. While Stevie J and Joseline were definitely out of control, the hour-long pile on fest kind of got boring. Not saying anything anyone said was wrong but there were really only so many ways to say that Joseline is a coked out psycho and Stevie J is just as bad. Like someone said, Karlie seemed to be the only one not willing to jump in the fray and the others new to the show who didn't have much to say like Bambi, Kaleena, etc. I actually found Deb kind of a annoying which I know may be horrible to say. She was making sense but I felt like she was almost too aggressive in her opinions and wouldn't let anyone have a word in edgewise, case in point when she jumped on Joc when he was trying to make a comment. And I can't lie, I laughed when they showed the part where Joseline went after Tami and the show her telling Deb not to get involved because she didn't want to beat no old lady's ass. But seriously, I definitely agree with the above that the people truly culpable for this is VH-1 and Mona and company who allow this to happen and continue because guarantee they won't fire Joseline and Stevie J from the show because for all the bullshit canned crap they had Somore say about the show not condoning violence, they love the drama because it equals ratings for them. It's the same with Basketball Wives and how Tami and Evelyn's behaviors were condoned for the longest time.
  14. But that's exactly the point I made above. I know they don't view it that way which is why I said I don't think they ever intend for either to be seen as a bad guy but the whole point is that they are such mediocre hacks, that's the result that comes of their shitty writing. When I speak about the destruction of the character, I'm speaking from the perspective of a viewer. And I maintain, in my opinion, that other than some die-hard Blaine/Darren Criss fans, Blaine has become a complete and utter mess in the eyes of the viewers intentional or not on the part of the writers and the "conscious coupling" with Karofksy sure as hell isn't going to help change that. As for the stuff about Kurt, YMMV but this reminds me of all the arguments about his not getting enough POV in S4 and his screentime being reduced which was all true, but at this point I personally feel like, I'd rather my favorite character have no POV on this show and almost no screentime if screentime and so called POV equates to the mess that a character like Blaine is and what they turned Tina into when they focused their attention on her. Again, reiterating what I stated above - at the end of the day, Kurt will likely still end the show a good, kind, forgiving person who loved and cared about his father, friends and loved ones. Bad things happened to him but he always rose above and succeeded and triumphed. And in my book, that's pretty good. At most those who loved the character will be pissed that he got saddled with that greasy nutcase Blaine if they do get back together but Blaine, well when it's all said and done he'll be a greasy, lighthouse-fucking creepy, abusive psycho who manipulated Kurt into taking him back.
  15. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    Not surprised by Bouchard's loss. She's looked shaky all summer, that's why there were questions about her coming into the Open and she had to fight to just barely get out of her last two matches. I was more surprised at Murray's straight set win over Tsonga. I should know better by now to hope for too much from Tsonga.
  16. I guess I disagree that the writers ever intended to make Kurt the bad guy in these situations and that the viewers were meant to see him as such and judging by the comments on many boards, I certainly never got the impression he was. Sure, the people who already hated the character and so would criticize him for anything saw it that way but I honestly cannot remember anyone who wasn't a biased viewer, truly hating or blaming Kurt for Blaine's cheating. And I as I said above, I actually don't think the writers believe that they're making either guy a "bad guy" but rather creating amazing "angst and drama." The spoiler states that they kept fighting when Blaine moved back in and Kurt decided it was a sign they were too young to get married and broke things off. I know RIB aren't worth shit with their writing but I see no way that that was written with the intent to make it seem like Kurt is a bad guy. And when Blaine cheated and told Kurt he was lonely and many interpreted it as Blaine blaming Kurt, I never saw it as that being the writers' intent. I think the intent was to give perspective, weak as it was, to why Blaine did what he did. Right or wrong, those were his reasons for his actions and Kurt rightly, lest we forget countered with the fact that he too had had moments of being lonely in NY but never cheated. So I never saw the writers as trying to make Blaine cheating Kurt's fault.
  17. Oh believe me the thought crossed my mind and that would actually make it even worse. Yes, pretend to date the guy who terrorized your ex to make him jealous but again with Murphy and company, I wouldn't be surprised.
  18. That's the thing though, these writers are so god-awful and shitty, that I actually don't think they mean to have either necessarily be a "bad guy". It's like the fighting when Blaine first got to New York. I honestly think they thought they were writing some awesome storyline about "adult reality" and neither was necessarily meant to be a bad guy but rather both flawed in some way. The problem again is that they SUCK so badly that the execution is always a convoluted mess where instead Blaine looked like some clingy psycho suffocating Kurt. This is all in their minds, I imagine, creating angst and tension so I don't think we're meant to blame Kurt or Blaine but yeah good luck with that, when they now have Blaine date the guy who told Kurt he would kill him if he told anyone he was gay. Like everytime I think of this, I just have no words. But the thing is, if all the spoilers are to be believed, yes he comes to Lima but they create some convenient storyline of his helping the Glee Club counting for credit and by all accounts he's still at NYADA thriving. Contrast this with the spoiler stating that after he and Blaine broke up, Blaine was so pathetic over that that he flunked out of school and went back home to Ohio. Which means that the full destruction of the character is complete because for all the "he wins too much, he sings too much, he's always portrayed in canon as so talented", he ends up back in Ohio a washed up failure who flunked out because he got dumped I won't deny that the writers never had a clear plan and outline for Blaine's character and I've said that many times before and it's another reason I've defended Darren against all the claims that he didn't understand his character enough because he is such a weak actor. In my opinion a lot of the failure of the character falls on the writing. He was created to be a perfect boyfriend for Kurt and once he and the pairing got popular, any writer with even some average skill would have made a decent effort to sketch a full outline for the character. But not Glee, they just kept whinging it and so he instead just became used as a human jukebox and a puppet for creating "angst" in the Kurt/Blaine relationship.
  19. Kurt and Blaine as a couple is one more example of the less is more with Glee. If they ignore a pairing, it's for the best. So Kurt and Blaine were "healthy" (at least by Glee standards) for S2 and most of S3. I DO NOT want to get into any debate about the First Time episode but I personally always disagreed with the claim that Blaine forced himself on Kurt or there was any hint of any kind of assault. But that being said, while they had a few roadblocks to create romantic tension, the writers at least had them maturely talk things out. The Kurt flirt-texting storyline was stupid but at least they both maturely admitted their mistakes at the end of the episode and opened up about what they were really upset about, in Blaine's case, Kurt moving away. And other than that, they were pretty much ignored for most of the season. Things went downhill VERY fast in S4 with first, the decision to make their breakup more than just a normal case of two teenagers not being able to handle a long distance relationship. Instead all of a sudden Blaine jumped into some AU of an episode of Queer as Folk and was going around picking up some random guy online and having sex with him. And no one batted an eye and there was no PSA about the dangers of this even though Blaine was a 17 year old boy. Because I guess in Ryan Murphy's world, that's probably normal for teenage gay boys so whatever. And from that one decision it's just been complete disaster. The aftermath was a mess since Kurt barely got screentime being in the NY narrative and then Murphy and company got far more excited about showing the homoeroticism of Blaine and Sam. Then Kurt and Blaine get thrown back together in some half-ass plot in S5, then finally get to be together in NY and the writers decide to troll fandom some more for every negative opinion people had of Blaine and make it canon. And as this went on, Kurt as played by Chris, came across more and more as cold and plain dismissive of Blaine and who could blame him since Chris Colfer seems like a very intelligent guy and I imagine he had to at this point be wondering what is the point of those two as a couple with every new horrible storyline created with every new episode. More importantly to me though, is reading the summary above of the history of Kurt and Blaine's relationship it just further shows to me how Blaine as a character has been horribly, horribly destroyed. I know people have their feelings about Darren but this is why I have especially never understood the claims of how badly Kurt's character has been treated. I understand being upset about his screentime being reduced in S4, not wanting him with Blaine after the cheating and all that and hating that he took him back or whatever. But I honestly cannot understand on any level how Kurt has been ruined in that relationship - dude has been freaking Mother Theresa, taking the high road, always forgiving. With Blaine however, we have seen him go from confident, caring, supportive, loving guy to a needy, weak, spineless, lying, creepy, clingy, cheating boyfriend. Since S4 EVERY relationship issue the pairing has had, has been due to some character failure on Blaine's part. And now we have that lovely Karofsky spoiler. Blaine as a character has not been allowed to grow not once since S4 and instead it's like he regresses and gets worse with every new season. It almost makes me think they should have kept them as best friends and dragged the will they/won't they to the series end. But who am I kidding, with these writers, they would have still found some way to ruin the characters .
  20. It's the classic cliche television trope - keep the couples apart by any means possible for as long as possible because it creates "tension and angst" and when the series finale comes around, throw them back together in some half-hearted, lame reunion. And the sad thing is, Ryan pretty much warned viewers this is how it would go back in S3 or early S4 I think, when he attended some television symposium thing and in an interview afterwards basically said he was all about the "big moments" and not interested in happy couples because that's boring. The thing is though what he and every other writer who's pulled this same tired shit over time don't realize is that when they do this, all they're basically doing is telling and showing the audience why the two people are awful for each other. And so some bullshit 13th hour reunion doesn't magically make it all okay, not to mention that as is the case with many other shows, at that point, no one other than some straggling die-hards still hanging on, give a shit about the reunion. But say this for Ryan Murphy and company, they're not underachievers because with the shit they've pulled with Kurt and Blaine and frankly every pairing on the show but particularly those two in the last two seasons, it may go down as the epitome of fucking up a pairing. Seriously I am actually to the point of possibly thinking that at this point, particularly with this Karofksy bullshit, they may rival Chuck and Blair for most toxic "meant to be" couple of all time and Chuck sold Blair for a damn hotel.
  21. There's some speculation that Sharna's partner may be
  22. truthaboutluv

    Tennis Thread

    Go Wozniacki - first time since 2011 she's in the second week of the Open and she was brilliant for the first and third set of that match against Sharapova. Hate to say it, but maybe McIlroy dumping her was the best thing for her game. It's forced her to focus all her energy back on her tennis. He's still a douche though, imo.
  23. Blaine for me is the epitome of what many have said in regards to Glee, that it's better when you like a character, that they be ignored. S2 Blaine was pretty much a guest star and even S3 the character had little storylines of his own other than the episode about his brother. But then S4 happened where he was more of a central character and it's been freaking downhill from there. And I don't know Darren Criss personally but judging by some not too subtle passive aggressive comments he's made, I don't think he's exactly happy about a lot of what's happened with the character. It truly has just been bad to worse to worse and then you think, it can't get any worse and then it does.
  24. It's official, the writers hate and for some reason resent their own fandom. I don't know maybe they're resentful that the fans didn't appreciate their "revolutionary" idea in S4 and allowed the ratings to drop and this is their form of payback. I just have no words. The only characters actually coming out of this great are the ones they don't give a shit about. Kudos to Artie sticking with film school and Mercedes, Brittany and Santana off doing their own thing. Meanwhile, unpopular opinion I know but I feel so bad for poor Darren Criss - what a clusterfuck of a character that boy has been asked to play. Because it was so hard to cast some random to play the new boyfriend. No, they had to make it Kurt's former bully because the sex with the lighthouse and creepy crushing on Sam wasn't awful enough. I cannot wait for the honest opinions years from now from that cast when this show is long over. The only other possibility with that vomit worthy Karofsky crap is that Blaine is pretending to date him to make Kurt jealous but that would actually be even more disturbing than genuinely falling for him in the first place. You know how I know Ryan and company are just pretty much saying "screw you" to the fandom now is because I know for a fact there were some very loud Karofsky/Kurt shippers. So I can just see Ryan responding to all the outrage of Blaine dating Karofsky by arguing that all the fans who liked Karofsky and said he had changed and deserved a second chance thought he was good enough for Kurt, so what's so wrong with Blaine dating him. Because again, he is that much of petty little shit, along with being a shitty writer.
×
×
  • Create New...