Granimal

Not a far leap, IMO. Would Emily be given the same consideration that she is giving to Shane (presumably again)? I doubt it. It's one thing (maybe) if you're a grad student with no kids and no responsibilities, quite another for any parent to stop parenting for (at least) ten days to study for a test that (s)he's already failed twice. Again, I remember being in the sole care of my father (who worked a difficult full-time job) while he studied for the bar and the patent bar. Life didn't stop. This is a along way of me saying that Shane's entitlement is ridiculous. He's either entitled enough to drop all of his responsibilities onto his wife, or there's a serration. Either way, being an absent father is a bad look, and their marriage is in trouble.

Agreed. I was five when my father studied for the bar. My parents were divorced, and I'm sure he could've stopped visitation during that time period- but he didn't. Because I am his child. I still went over to his house on weekends, and we still had fun. I'm guessing if my father were Shane I'd have been out of his life. Shane isn't a single childless man, but he has the luxury of being married to an Emily. Emily studied and passed the bar, and I'm guessing that Emily didn't get the "Shane treatment", and still had to be "mom" everyday.

Roseanne isn't the type to suffer in silence. Dan's lines were pretty blunt on the matter. What spoke even louder was that she hid her behavior (typical) and then was willing to let the kids or anyone else in the house get the blame. If it were explainable she would've explained it- instead of hiding more pills. First thing she did when Dan left was to check to make sure her other stash was still there... and that relieved sigh(!)... yeah it was portrayed as an addiction IMO.

Oh, wow I wan't to live where you guys (the ones who never see racism) live! The "scared young child" thing happened at my neighborhood playground. In brief, some Muslim kids were kicked out by some white kids- the neighborhood received letters. I can entirely see a young child being afraid- all I have to do is go next door. I agree, that did seem mild to me. A high-profile hate group that I thought was long-gone (you can guess which one) held a public parade in a very close county the day after the election, so... not far-fetched at all to me. Around here racism is not the domain of young people, thank goodness. I moved here to get away from racism, besides my little bubble, you move over a few counties and it's scary. Beyond that, yes the Fox line was hysterical- and unexpected coming from Roseanne- props to Roseanne for allowing that. I also hated the episode- both as entertainment and as social commentary. The only point that was well done was the responsibility we have to help our veterans. I know vets who despise "Thank a Veteran Day" and "Thank you for your service" for this very reason. Well they sure packed in almost every social issue in the world. I don't expect this episode to go over well.

Agreed. I don't think it's anything unusual or out of the norm to be offended by either. Hardly falls under the category of "actively seeking things to be offended by" IMO- more like "things I thought were commonly known to be offensive for $200 Alex". Ah, Ramona as Britney cracks me up. Still bored by Tinsley.

I actually fell asleep during this episode. I hope things pick up. An Ariana/Sandoval break up would do it. Please, no more weddings. Spare us. No matter how much Scheana begs. The show can go on without her. I can't stand LaLa, she's all sex and money, and not in a fun way. Just in a... sad and weird way. Live your life, but I don't have to applaud it. Bragging about sugar daddies and that sort of thing on TV and instagram is just... not my cup of tea. Maybe I'm too old for this. Jax is the worst. The way he screamed at Brittany was legitimately frightening. Imagine if SHE had been the one to make a mistake. Tom Sandoval is getting weird. I used to love him, but now all he talks about is how Ariana won't sleep with him. Ariana and the horse- lost me. I was bored. I like horses, but...it just didn't make for interesting TV. Schwartz continues to have a weird obsession with Jax. He calls it Stockholm Syndrome. I call it an abusive friendship. The highlight, was shockingly, James. He was actually cool for one episode. I missed Ariana farting, but that is just odd. She's in her 30's. Everyone CAN fart. Most people choose not to revenge fart, but whatever makes you happy. Brittany- no words. The guy you "hope to marry" said "girlfriends are a dime a dozen." You're either in it for the money, or you've lost any self-esteem you might've had. Scheana- missed her! I count this as a plus, since I'm sure nothing she said would've added value to anything. (No, not even entertainment value.)

Anyone else feel this show has gotten less...feminist in tone? Can't describe it...but it feels like new writers.

Unfortunately, not a big LaLa fan. Or Raquel fan for that matter. I enjoy the originals. Though I can't stand Scheana, and think she's gotten worse over time. Total agreement that Britney is not some innocent lamb that needs protecting, however she is the nicest person in the cast. I can see what Kristen meant by "making us all better people." For a second there, she made a more "likeable" cast. The "I thought I could be the one to change him" was cringey. Stassi was even more cringe-worthy. Tom has mentioned dry spells with Ari before. Seems like an odd thing to bring up. I also thought the masturbating to her haircut was weird though. They're a couple that lives together... if he thought the haircut was super sexy- why not initiate sex? Jax and Britney will continue to make each other miserable. I actually don't think Brit is in love with Jax. If she were in love I think she would've stayed angrier for longer. I think she's in love with his friends, the job, the show, etc.

Yeah, seems like a personal preference thing. I don't see how it defines a person. Some people are very social and some aren't. Whatever. I agree it would be odd if someone you lived with came home and nobody spoke the entire time. Re: Amsterdam. I don't think it's that odd to not speak over vacation, depending on how long the vacation is- what was weird about it was that Patrick was so condescending and very, "What did we learn? It's best for us not to talk about what happens while we're apart." Uh, yeah... if my husband ever said that I'd get a lawyer with quickness. The "What did we learn?" would be enough. The "lets not discuss what I did on vacation" would be icing on the cake. That's not even a good code for "I'm going to be doing things that would hurt you, so let's just not talk about them, k?" Gah, Patrick is awful. I take back every word I said about Ariana being condescending in the earlier seasons. Patrick could give freaking lessons on being a condescending idiot. Nothing he said was impressive, and it's sad that Stassi has to fake like she's beneath him. Stassi's got stuff going on. She's on a TV show, has her podcast thing, and I think some other projects. I'm sure she has good money. Who is this homely weird guy? And he has a SPORTS podcast!? Not what I pictured. Not that having a podcast means anything to me, but that guy thinks about sports enough to have a damn podcast. *Not dismissing Podcasts at all, I just have no idea how much actual work or knowledge goes into them. And please correct me if I'm wrong about the "sports podcast". It has to be something else......right?

Patrick is pretty awful. Tom and Ari are always having dry-spells. Oh yeah, I believe Tom Schwartz was going to say something about "Stockholm syndrome" and then blather on about Jax. And did anyone else notice James' nose when he first sat down with Lisa and Raquel?

Warning: Still can't keep the character's names straight. So two- potentially- three, four? cases of people trying to live life on their own terms, and outsiders- well meaning or not- interfering. I actually don't think that Mendoza(?) was sticking up for his fiance at all. I think he was just angry and said what was on his mind, which opened things up for... his fiance (can't remember her name) to say her peace. This was telegraphed in an earlier episode. Wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't want kids at all or has a medical condition. She did mention adoption. Mendoza made it pretty clear that he had no interest in that. So that leaves us with Claire. Claire didn't want to report, and I thought the storyline realisticly spelled out the reasons why. For her boyfriend to take things into his own hands against her wishes. Argh. Way to force Claire's hand to save poor boyfriend's job. What generations of women would've wanted in this situation is neither here nor there, as boyfriend is not dating some hymogenous pool of "women", he's dating Claire- who is an individual. If she didn't want him to interfere, she didn't want to interfere. I believe she communicated that quite clearly. (On another note, the Claire situation really reminded me of the Gwenyth Platrow/ Brad Pitt/ Weinstein story.) Sean- Not much to say, as I'm not that engaged with the character, so I missed the little things. Agreed that he was in a good place and shouldn't have therapy forced on him. It's clear that he has unresolved issues over his brother, but forcing someone into therapy- unless they're a harm to themself or others- is never a good idea. The scuffle at the end was so shocking that I missed who slapped who. (Yes, I probably shouldn't be commenting.) And then possibly the cancer patient. I like the actor on The Good Place, and I loved his character here. Story was a little murky to me. Wasn't quite sure what to get out of it, besides- live life on your own terms. (?) Go out on top? I missed the message, but I enjoyed semi- watching it! So we have three- possibly four cases of an "unwanted rescuer". I happen to be in the boat of people that didn't see Mendoza as sticking up for his fiancee. I'm sure he has some personal history that will put the comment into context, but it seemed more like a pissing match between the two men. The Claire situation could also be reduced to a pissing match. It wasn't as if her (ex? boyfriend?) was sticking up for someone he had no history with. Perhaps he was angry someone hit on (the woman he wants to be with.) Maybe he's angry at himself for not believing Claire earlier, and taking that out on Dr. Creepy.

This reminds me of something from my childhood that happened when we moved from IL. Milo [last name] was summoned to appear in court to pay for a non-vaccination ticket in the county where we previously lived. Milo (RIP) was the family cat. But yes, where I currently live- a yearly is required as well. I'm not happy about this because one of my babies has such an adverse reaction to these vaccines, and has (typical) feline herpes, and other conditions. They live inside and have yet to make contact with another cat, so I feel the county is being a bit over-zealous. ETA: My cats get SUPER excited about their water bowl being filled. The house is kept very cold. Should I be worried that they drink (IMO) a ridiculous amount of water? One did have a bladder infection when he was a kitten, so when we adopted him at one we were advised to get him a fountain, but he's just as happy with a bowl.

I am also an "avoid the carrier at all costs" cat-owner, as my cats have been through some stuff, and are pretty sensitive. Unfortunately, where I live cats need to have their vacs up to date. I have no choice in the matter, but I don't like it. My baby reacted badly to his first round, and has had slight on and off FHS (which COULD be unrelated). I used to have a fabulous vet that would come to my home to see both kitties, but she moved. I used a cheaper in-home service and they were terrible, but gave my cats the three year vaccines(?) They really walked in and walked out and handed me paperwork. My baby usually gets sick after vaccinations, so my previous vet used to space them out and do one of them as an intra-nasal spray. Anyways, I have my doubts as to whether the last mobile vet I used bothered to even give them shots, since they just barged into my home and two seconds later found me and handed me the paperwork. It was...very odd.

Yes, we just had a very scary experience with my 7 year-old cat. It started off as weekly vomiting- mostly hairballs, then turned into throwing up multiple times daily, and bloody stool. Otherwise he acted completely fine. After the multiple vomiting sessions in one day, we ran to the hospital, and they did ALL the tests. An ultrasound revealed that he had IBD and can ONLY eat crazy expensive prescription food. We have two cats (the other is overweight by a bit), so now they're both stuck on this health food. They don't like the dry food (that's much cheaper) so we were told that we could add a rabbit protein wet food on top. Well, since the new diet- which has only been about three weeks- there has been NO vomiting and no bad smells from the litter box. As a bonus, the other cat has already lost some added weight. We can't even buy this food at Petsmart without his (the cat's) medical prescription. Aside from the price, it's been great. His coat looks better, he smells better, no more barf, no more bad bathroom smells, and he sleeps through the night in my arms instead of pacing- it also drastically cut down on his bouts of FHS. But really, the price of this food (and considering how little they eat of it-as they're grazers, and I don't want to leave it out for days... is something that will have to be figured out after the little guy recovers a bit. (We still give him anti-inflammatory meds on occasion.) Some cats and dogs genuinely need this to live a normal healthy life. I don't know if the pet store sells the RX brands, but if they do- kudos to them, because these foods are hard to find. Although I suppose they'd need a vet (vet pharmacist?) on staff, as we needed a vet to review our prescription before we were allowed to buy the darn food!

This series relied a lot on themes that were happening across Twitter. Reactions on Twitter were predictable. Liberals seemed to like the ending. Trump-voters seemed to hate it. "Predictable the lesbians and WOC win in the end." seemed to be the sentiment. (Winning? In what way? Ally sold her soul.) I see this as a horror story to both liberals and those who voted for trump. Conservatives/Republicans against Trump likely had the most unbiased view. I'm separating Republicans from Trump because this was clearly about trump voters and liberals and the endless SM bantering back and forth. It wasn't a Republicans v. liberals narrative IMO. The show parodied extremism on the Trump side and extremism on the anti-Trump side. I don't think the show skewered the average Republican/ Conservative pre-Trump, but maybe I missed it. Essentially, the show showed what Twitter would look like if it was played out in real life. Nearly impossible to separate the two, since the season starts off with a cult pretending to be Trump voters trying to trigger Ally. Did not see it as a happy ending. Ally became what she hated the most to overcome her fears.