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I didn't sense a genuine connection either; he guessed correctly that the way to seduce her was by praising her writing, and then she helped him improve the approach by telling him the story about her teacher, which provided confirmation and a blueprint to continue. One really interesting point to me is that she actually "got the story" by making a significant personal mistake at the outset, which was to agree to go to interview a guy who is the subject of sexual allegations alone in his apartment. Had she brought a friend for protection or insisted on a public place, she would have been safe from the con, but she wouldn't have seen it in operation and understood it on the personal level of "This could happen to me". She has much more to write about this way.

snarklepuss: Cottage cheese? Gross enough...but if you *really* want to be grossed out, here's what British people put in lasagne instead of ricotta: bechamel sauce. It's *awful*.

I would like Beth Hall (Wendy) to get a storyline. The actress is so great - compare her here to her work as Roger Sterling's secretary, Caroline, on MAD MEN - and yet so far is only given snippets to suggest her character has a lot more facets than we see.

Wendie Malick has done one-off guest shots in Chuck Lorre shows before. She appeared on CYBILL as a one-episode date for one of Cybill's ex-husbands (and was very funny).

The other thing about the money is that it can finance less lucrative creative projects you want to do later. Seinfeld probably doesn't make much from COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE, but he seems to have a great time doing it, it's a great contribution to our understanding of comedy and comedians, and he doesn't have to care. John Mahoney, from FRASIER, I think is doing theater; David Schwimmer's done a lot of that, too.

This whole storyline is way too much FRIENDS for me (Rachel cutting herself off from her father's money in season 1; Joey later on).

Simon Helberg got excellent reviews for FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS. I'd expect him to go on to have a fine career because he's a good character actor and has done enough other stuff that he's less likely to be typecast.

Actually, the scientists' salaries may be more uncertain than you think. AFAIAA none of them *teach*, and none has tenure. These days, it's very common for research scientists to be required to raise the money to pay themselves by applying for and getting grants to fund their research. It's a while since we heard of them doing any of that, but if you don't raise enough money not only do you not get paid but eventually you're let go in favor of someone who will do a better job of fundraising. However, *of course* their spouses earning more doesn't make them dependents.

The Guardian seems to like it: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/feb/17/the-good-fight-review-wife-spin-off-christine-baranski

qtpye: Hannah has sold *one* autobiographical piece, to the New York Times, and gotten a commission for a second from what sounds like the kind of website Rory despised. So she is at the very beginning of her career. Rory Gilmore was having a mid-career crisis after writing for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and a bunch of others I forget. Rory in 2017 is where Hannah could easily be in six months, next year, or ten years from now. Freelance careers are always full of highs and lows, periods where you can't breathe for all the work that's coming in and periods where you wonder if you'll ever work again ("standard freelance panic" a veteran freelance told me in my first year). The real test of a freelance is how you learn to survive the lows - how you manage your money when you have it coming in, how motivated you are to work on more speculative projects when you have time, and, especially, how you manage your contacts, especially with editors you've worked with before (managing long-term relationships with editors is its own special skill). Rory did poorly with most of this, and it's not uncommon: she had a period of success and thought it would last forever. Marnie's going to go through the same thing in music. I remember hearing Diana Rigg - one of Britain's most successful and brilliant actresses - tell Dick Cavett about this same thing in acting and saying "If you can live through the downs..."

Watching this episode was excruciatingly uncomfortable for me. I guess it was meant to be a light-hearted moment of escape, like the hijinks stealing maple syrup last year (which I also really disliked), but as much as I support legalizing marijuana (especially for medical use) I find it hard to believe that in that group of alcoholics and drug addicts not *one* will suffer further consequences or start telling themselves, "Well, I was high that time and nothing bad happened, so I could do it again once in a while."

Very sensible decision, and one I wanted MAD ABOUT YOU to make back in the day (the show was supposed to be a close-up look at a marriage, so look at the marriage and how it changes in between the times when they're dealing with the baby). And given Ma W's voice, is sort of a homage to their own former running joke.

Notaro is a stand-up comedian, not a full-time actress, and I think that has to be taken into account. My feeling about her character is that although we're watching her move through these events she's also kind of a narrator of them, and that made her slight stiffness work for me. I thought Tig and Remy together were great: they immediately lapsed into the kind of silly, parent-scoffing giggles they probably engaged in as children, which seemed quite natural to me. I loved all of it.

There is a difference. In the Juliette case, Juliette was indeed the boss and she was trying to get the sound *she* wanted. In the Scarlett case, a director with apparently little feel for her or her music was trying to bully her into giving the performance *he* wanted. He is not the main artist here - she and Gunnar are. What I thought was bizarre was how passive Gunnar was in the whole thing. It's their song, it's their careers, and it's their video. But the whole thing is ridiculous anyway, because I'm sure when someone shoots a video like that they have storyboards and a script and it's all reviewed by the record company producer, the artists, and the director and it's all agreed beforehand. I can't believe it's ever done this way with a director being an "artistic" jackass who refuses to tell the musicians what effect he's actually trying to achieve. seewillrun: all art is manipulative, but there's a difference between the artist manipulating the audience, which is what that phrase suggests, and a director manipulating a cast member. This was, to my taste, abusive.

I don't care what guise the actress who plays Janet comes in, she's great, good or bad. I thought at the beginning the "good place" was likely to turn out to be the bad place, but then kind of forgot about it as things progressed, which is a sign of *very* good writing.

lessthanzero: in the early days of the show, one thing I really liked was the local settings. The Tennessean used to have a great blog where they noted all the insider places. It seems to me that's pretty much gone now, and the show is more or less generic in its setting (perhaps so it can move if the taxpayer subsidies run out). Is that true, or are there local shout-outs I can't spot because the newspaper doesn't do the blog any more?

Re the discussion about birth order: Randall *is* older no matter what the birth order is, because as far as we know he was not premature and the triplets were. So even though their birth certificates should have the say date of birth, Randall had six weeks' greater gestation. That should make him physically bigger and noticeably more developed, certainly while they were babies and toddlers.

I was bothered that Christy referenced Margery's AA membership without checking first that the nephew knew.

Jeannette: try calling the local press. The best option in the case you're talking about is probably publicity that this is what the internship is.

It was originally Maisie Stella (Daphne) who auditioned for the show; then the sisters released their YouTube video of "Call Your Girlfriend", it got a lot of attention, and the show said, "Wait, there are two of you?" and hired them both. I've always thought that Maddie's original storyline about her birth was conceived for a younger child, when the chronology would have made more sense. I would not be thrilled if someone bought me a car without consulting me about *which* car. The surprise car would be as welcome as a surprise house: these things are personal, and they come with seen and unseen costs.

The Olivia story makes me nuts. She's supposed to be an ambitious Tony-winning actress and the star of this Broadway play. A seasoned professional. And she vanishes for a month leaving no word? a) People would be calling the police; b) there'd be an insurance company involved so the producers would get their money back; c) she'd have an understudy; d) they would recruit a new female lead to star - they've still got The Manny and a play they thought was viable; e) Olivia would know she was likely to never work on Broadway again. Or at least, not until she'd offered a public explanation and apology. Something like 20 years ago, Stephen Fry went missing from a play he was starring in in London's West End - I think he was gone about a week, was found, and it then came out that he had clinical depression. Obviously, he made it back, but I think it was a long time before he did another theatrical production - if Wikipedia is right, fifteen years or so. And in the interim he went public about his struggles with being bipolar. And even now, I bet he's expensive to insure.

marymitch: my (possibly flawed) recollection of the Octavia Spencer scene is that the character did discuss the glass of wine with the others before ordering, and it was actually one of them (Bonnie or Marjorie) who ordered it for her. As for the bed, I think the show just finds it convenient to have that intimate location for them to talk. I see as being like the stairs in THE BIG BANG THEORY - a setting that works for all kinds of interactions.

....but in season 1 Rayna and Deacon performing together was supposed to be a huge draw. Why would he "dilute her brand" now?

Bradley Whitford was astonishing, though. I don't think the show will have Adam realize he's an alcoholic; they played that card several times in earlier seasons, and not everyone who is a heavy drinker is an alcoholic. One of the things I find interesting in this show is the spectrum it explores, like having Octavia Spencer's character come back and believe she can drink wine in moderation. Maybe she can, maybe she can't; presumably the show will come back to her at some point and we'll see how it's gone. The sober alcoholics I've known are often less certain about anyone else's situation than outsiders are, I think because they've seen a broad spectrum and know individual reactions are highly variable. As much as it's easy to say Adam is a jackass about this, I think it's also true that he can't be in a relationship with someone where he's constantly walking on eggs in case he sets them off. Bonnie's sobriety is *her* problem, not his, and it has to stay that way because the instant she starts being able to blame him for her problems it all goes out the window.

hnygirl: Actually, "supersede" is the correct spelling.