wendyg

I think Chuck Lorre is used to working with a live audience and so that's what they went with. It's only jarring because you don't expect it after the Netflix logo. :)

It's a weird unsettled mix of an interesting premise (what do you do when you win your cause and the world changes?) and a traditional sitcom. But I *love* the fake ads (which have long been a thing of Chuck Lorre's), and I'd watch the show just for those.

When the whole thing came down about the viral video I really did miss having Diane, Matt's ex-wife, call to yell at him. I can't fault the writers about that: there wasn't really time. But she was great.

I've never thought about when the show takes place; My suspicion is that the British writers' experience they started with could have happened in any generation. Although The Box could probably only be credibly satirical now. I think the problem wrt Mircea Monroe is that it's not really credible that you'd have the same group together on multiple shows over a couple. of years. Bev, Sean, Matt, and Carol are all essential. Morning, for all her good qualities, is not. I liked this opener. Everyone is at about the lowest point they could be. I assume they're going to want to leave them in reasonably happy places, so nowhere to go but up.

I've always been so impressed with Alison Brie's work - she's the best kind of chameleon. And some of the characters were interesting. However...the big downside for me is the wrestling scenes. Yes, I know they're scripted and rehearsed, but I still do not like (and never have liked, back into childhood) watching people slam each other around, even "for fun". Didn't mind watching the rehearsals, but really didn't like having to sit through the show in the finale.

Reactivating this topic to ask: Nashville is going to be bang in the middle of the path of totality for the upcoming eclipse, and I see that the city is going all out to attract tourists and give them places to go and stuff to do. I want to see the eclipse, and for various reason I would like to see it in Nashville. I was wondering if the local residents here could suggest some locations that would be more likely less populated by tourists - places locals might go to get away from them. :) Much obliged for any pointers.

Cush Jumbo in the Guardian, talking about race, class, and the realities of working in Britain as an actor: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/jul/11/british-tv-and-film-industry-pulls-plug-on-black-actors-says-cush-jumbo

iMonrey: We live in a present world where people say things like, "Me and him went to the grocery store", which would have been a lot more important to correct. Overuse of "like" seems like small beer by comparison.

Do we know that chuck's house has *no* electricity? I thought he had it but it wasn't turned on. Can anyone point to the law for Albuquerque? I certainly knew someone who lived for five years in a house in Portland OR with no electricity, due to non-payment.

One of the things I like best about BB and BCS is that there are no "average" criminals - every criminal we see has their own story and their own reasons for their criminal behavior, and each one has a distinctive criminal personality. Mike's desire to support his daughter-in-law and granddaughter is not the same as Walt's desire to support his family and not driven by the same personality characteristics or circumstances.

I think it has to be a strain on the writers to come up with four stories every week and that's why this season has seemed flat (to me, at least). (Plus, yes, the novelty has worn off. We get it, short stories for the YouTube generation.) Think about it: the average sitcom has one to three stories every week and by season 4 the quality is usually beginning to deteriorate. Yes, they have a lot of characters to play with, but even so. There is no way anyone with that serious an allergy hasn't learned to ask before trying *any* piece of unfamiliar food. Because they'd be dead. There's no problem with homemade items as long as you can trust the person who made them to tell you accurately what's in them. The *worst* situation is pre-packaged food where there's no label, which happens a lot on planes (the label is, I guess, on the big bag all the individual ones came in).

I think that's really numerous steps too far over the edge for an American network comedy.

We need a betting pool on how they'll destroy the store at the end of season 3. Season 1 was the walkout. Season 2 was the tornado. What's next year?

That was awesome. I hope next season we get to see Glenn reluctantly converting to Islam because it was Allah that saved them.

There should be one more episode this season. They usually do 24.

Actually, one thing I liked about the way GIRLS ended was that so often in TV/movies characters with big dreams solve some personal issue and then achieve them - they write their breakthrough hit song, or whatever - and in GIRLS two of the four lead characters have those dreams and wind up having to accept they're not going to happen and build other lives than the ones they envisioned for themselves. Hannah is *not* going to be the "voice of my generation" or even "*a* voice of *a* generation". She's going to scrap along doing things she's not particularly qualified for because she's got just enough talent to keep herself visible and she's good at conning people into things. Marnie's big dream was to be a singer - and that's utterly failed. She may not go to law school, but going back to school and getting qualifications for a middle class sort of job may be her best option. Neither of them got the brass ring, and that seems very real to me.

Terrific episode. Did anyone else think that the salesperson at the end looked (and sounded) like Debra Jo Rupp? I couldn't find a credit for the character and wonder if it's something that got cut for time. ETA: not Debra Jo Rupp - Yeardley Smith. She had a part in Dharma and Greg, so it's entirely possible.

FWIW, "Blair Waldorf's mother" is the wonderful actress Margaret Colin, who has many, many credits to her name.

Only if you've already done a detailed outline and all the organization work, which is the time-consuming part.and have previously written large chunks of it and don't have to do much new research (I did a book like that in three months, taking a few days off every few weeks to work on something else). I think actually it's more realistic for *fiction* - and, as Kieyra says, there is an annual write-a-book-in-a-month fest (NaNoWrMo) in which everyone scrambles to write a whole novel in a month. *However*, anyone who's a professional writer would see that as a rough draft that would then take many more months of work to bring up to publishing standard. Only Isaac Asimov gets to publish his first draft without *any* changes, and he's dead. I use "to be fair" as AuntiMel does: to signal a dissenting opinion. I use "To be honest" as Kieyra does, to signal an unpleasant truth. Having said that, Jane Lynch's character may well believe her glib characterizations, and if you're in the position Maia was of being interrogated by a woman who is faking the folksy charm about events of which you have only the haziest recollection, you're likely to be intimidated enough to believe they have special insight into all your vulnerabilities. Which I guess is why Maia didn't simply say, "I really don't remember the details of gynecological appointments ten years ago. I just know I had them and my mom came to some of them." Which, btw: REALLY? That scenario is unimaginable to me...even at 18.

*Cello*. Please. (Actually, Lynx, even before that.)

I don't think I'll be watching this show. However, a data point: the joke at 8 minutes in about the waiter, the spoon, and the man who didn't eat his soup...appears as the explanation for the Jewish use of "Aha" in Leo C. Rosten's wonderful book The Joys of Yiddish. More famously, of course, the Gettysburg/Lincoln one-sided phone call is Bob Newhart's old routine. I can't tell if we're meant to think he's copying or if ASP is simply borrowing. It's confusing to me, and either way, it's not a good look. ETA: OK, I should have watched a bit further...

Even the 2 BROKE GIRLS had a horse in the series opening episodes. I sat there going, "A horse. In Brooklyn. Where there is no space for manure. And how do they afford hay and stuff for the horse to eat and..." And then I dumped the show.

The show is advertised with the images of Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, and Rose Leslie. That makes it highly unlikely any of them will be dispensed with. Which is a pity because they're wasting Erica Tazel, and given the developing Will-and-Diane-ness of Diane and Adrian, her character doesn't really have a function. Looks to me like they tacked the final scene on once they knew the show was being renewed. If it hadn't been, they could have ended with Amy coming home for dinner.

Which reminds me that the thing I bought *least* in the entire series was that Elijah would leave NYC to go hang with Hannah in *Iowa*. I never understood at all what he was doing there.

One thing that occurs to me on further thought is that in a very real sense both Hannah and Marnie have adopted their mothers' lives. Hannah's mother is an academic, who raised her kids in a relatively suburban setting with, as she now describes him, her best friend. Marnie's mother is a woman we've seen escape whenever she can into someone else's life, typically someone much younger than she is. And yes: virgin, mother, crone. The three stages of Hollywood. Though we know Marnie is no virgin.