stagmania

I hope the people who dismissed this show as a shallow guilty pleasure stuck around long enough to realize how off-base they were. There's so much here to think about and dissect, it's hard to know where to begin. It's a rare thing to see a story so concerned with the lives of women and all their emotional complexities. That therapy scene was something. I'm still chewing on it, but I think it's clear that the show is not trying to depict Perry as a straightforward villain. And given the way they revealed Jane's backstory, not showing her rapist's face and having him use a fake name, I expect we know him, or will soon.

Lots of teens don't get their licenses right away.

I am very interested to find out more about Bonnie's state of mind. To me, the fact that Nathan decided to make himself a new family in the very same town in which he abandoned his first family is such a slap in the face that if I were Madeline or Abigail, I'd probably never get over it. Seriously, they can't live in another school district?! Given the circumstances, it seems really naive for Bonnie to think that she and Madeline could ever be more than civil, and I find it a bit odd that she seems to keep popping up and trying to be friendly. But maybe that's motivated by something genuine from her, especially if she's grown close to Abigail. I am also super curious about Abigail's feelings towards Nathan. I wonder if we'll get more backstory about when he came back as a consistent presence in her life. If it was while she was still a kid, it tracks a lot better for me that she would forgive him and even develop a preference for him and Bonnie. Oftentimes abandoned children yearn most for love and closeness with the parent that left them, while resenting the parent that stayed. If he came back more recently, though, then her attitude would read as strange to me.

I really wanted to like this...but I didn't. I found the dialogue to be laughably bad in parts, the story not as engaging as I expected, the urgency and energy I wanted to feel noticeably absent. The whole thing was just kind of lacking for me. The character progressions were also startlingly fast in a couple spots-notably Cleve and Roma both going from timid to confident and self-assuresd as hell in the space of a couple scenes. I'll stick with it for the next episode and see if it captures me a little more. With a pedigree like this and such interesting real-life characters to inspire it, I guess I just expected more.

In this case, most of the people who saw the episode appear to have understood it very differently than the writers intended. The details are eluding me, but wasn't there an early season out of town trip where she hooked up with some random teen?

Emily Nussbaum wrote a great review of the episode. Her take is far better than the ATE with the creators, IMO.

I definitely don't get psychosexual creep vibes from him at all. If anything, I could see them going the route of the aggrieved "nice guy" who snaps, but I think his violence would be directed at Nathan, not his wife or kids. And I kind of hope that's not where this is headed, because that's a tired trope.

I did, and I thought it was maybe a sign that whatever happened to her in episode 1 was not an isolated incident. There are so many stray comments in this show that raise alarm bells; I'm sure some are red herrings but I have no idea which!

Did you notice that little bit of dialogue right at the end where Celeste realizes the hippo's leg has been torn off? I think that may be there for a reason. She is utterly charming in this role and I love just about everything she says. My favorite this week was "I love my little grudges. I tend to them like pets."

I thought her reaction was over the top, but not at all unexpected. They have a fraught relationship that Bonnie is well aware of, and advising Madeline's daughter on sex and helping her get birth control without even giving Madeline a heads up is over the line IMO. Bonnie seemed to know that, which is why she just accepted Madeline's anger without fighting back. Intrigued by the "conspiracy to incite violence" charges. Makes it sound like someone is set up or given false information that leads to the murder.

Matthew Rhys! Being a creep! I thought this was a good episode, but I'm not sure how to read it. I definitely walked away interpreting Palmer's behavior as kind of a long con to trick and humiliate Hannah (as did Sepinwall), but then the interview with the creators after indicated that they saw it as him having a genuine connection with her and being dysfunctional in how he expressed it. I didn't see that at all.

I interpreted that to mean Celeste was recognizing something of herself in Jane. What Jane said about not belonging in her own life seemed to resonate with Celeste, and I think she sensed that Jane may have some similar damage. They're clearly hinting at some violence in Jane's past; without knowing anything, my speculation is that she may have gotten pregnant with Ziggy as the result of sexual assault. It would explain the anxiety and indicators of trauma, and the way she appears to be both afraid of Ziggy and determined to love and trust him fiercely.

Is she trying to do an American accent? I thought her natural accent was clear in her first scene and assumed she wasn't doing one. Admittedly, I don't have the best ear for that stuff.

Second husband-thus the whole bit of business where the ex tried to claim his younger child as her half sister, which Madeline pointed out isn't actually the case. Madeline's older daughter is his daughter's half sister; Madeline's youngest isn't, but the two share a sibling. I'm in on this show. Great actresses, great scenery, a mystery and bonus Adam Scott. What more could you need?

I could be misremembering, but I don't think Shoshanna still had feelings for Ray at the time he started up with Marnie, or that Marnie lied or acted like a defiant asshole about it. Plus, Marnie and Shosh were never close friends the way Hannah and Jessa were. Jessa gets no sympathy from me on the Adam front; her choices were a total affront to Hannah and their friendship. Agree with those who think this was a solid episode. I hate Desi but that awful sex scene and his Oxy breakdown were pretty amusing. Hannah appears to be growing up, finally.

So true, and I would argue that the only reason the writers felt free to create such an all-around good guy of a character (and such a healthy functioning romantic relationship for him with Jane) on a telenovela is because they knew he was going to be killed off. Their happy relationship was not sustainable within the genre of the show. I'm glad they decided to have the drama derive from external forces and tragedy, rather than creating an endless back and forth and rotating sides of the triangle.

The comparisons to HIMYM are a little bewildering. That show undermined the stated purpose of their own story and pulled the rug out from under their viewers with no warning, making their romantic protagonist look like a selfish asshole in the process. JtV is pretty much doing the opposite of that-fulfilling a long foreshadowed plot point and progressing the story in a way that is mindful of portraying the romantic protagonist in a good light.

Have to agree. I'm also behind on the show but when I saw cryptic comments on Twitter my first thought was "Did they finally get around to killing Michael?" The foreshadowing was pretty straightforward, but it was smart of them to do it randomly in the middle of the season.

Not only was FNL a much better show, but the things they erased/elided were things the audience wanted to pretend never happened, because they were clear missteps. I'd say just about the opposite is true for Shameless, where they're constantly dropping good stories and retconning beloved parts of the show's canon.

I'd wager that the vast majority of people voting for SAGs have never even seen Shameless. He gets nominations because everyone knows him (ditto Joan Cusack for the first five seasons).

It sounds like the negotiation is only for one more season, and Showtime has a bunch of new shows in development, so my guess is that the intention is for this to be the last one. Agree it's a shame she wasn't able to fight for this earlier in the run.

Emmy Rossum seems to have confirmed on twitter that season 8 is happening. Looks like she won the battle.

Not only was the bank misunderstanding an obvious machination and nonsensical from Ian, but it didn't track with Mickey, either. Just a couple scenes prior he was pissed that his jailbreak buddy robbed the gas station and ditched him because he was going to get them caught. But now he's down to rob a bank with no knowledge or plan? Shameless is always willing to sell out continuity and character for the sake of a supremely dumb joke.

I agree and unfortunately I think that is a strong possibility. John Wells has proven his pettiness before, and I'm sure he's not happy that she took the fight public. In related news, one of the Shameless writers (Sheila Callaghan) was tweeting today about the male writers of Shameless being paid more than the women. Seems this issue goes beyond Emmy, which is not surprising.

I was singing this tune all through seasons 5 and 6. I've given it up as a lost cause. And I agree with your whole post-what a missed opportunity this was.