Irlandesa
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Posts posted by Irlandesa
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My big disappointment of this holiday season is that Hallmark didn't cast Antonio Cupo in one of their holiday movies. I have rewatched Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade so many times it's not even funny because I adore Antonio and Autumn Reeser so much. And Antonio even made Haylie Duff watchable in Hats Off last year.
Ha! When I re-watched Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade this year, I was thinking the same thing. It also reminded me that I don't always know which movies will be the ones I'll watch again and again. When I first saw LatTDP, the woman stupidly accepting the proposal towards the end of the movie, just because she thought Antonio Cupo's character had a girlfriend, was a major knock against it. But overall, I thought the leads had more chemistry than most of the leads of these movies do and it's worth watching again and again even thoughI still think the proposal is stupid.
I suppose his "For Better or Worse" with Lisa Whelchel fulfilled his annual Hallmark Movie quota which was most notable to me because he was 15 years younger than his love interest. Quite rare in TV. It looks like his Christmas movie this year was a Canadian version of The Christmas Shepherd called A Christmas Tail. (Since they came out, it's not technically a version of TCS but the plots are very similar.)
Here's an article on the Hallmark movie factory.
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Admittedly, my attention was divided between this and football so that may have been part of the problem, but this episode didn't really do much for me which is a shame because a) Amy Adams is usually a good host and b) The cold open was great so I thought that signals the chance that the rest of the show would be great. It was not.
The cold open was everything right about a former cast member coming back. It was unexpected. He was playing a very recognizable character, even if it wasn't one of his very recognizable SNL characters. It was a great way to take on the biggest news story of the week and had some great one liners.
Kristen Wiig showing up in the monologue was everything wrong about a former cast member coming back. Both her appearance and the overall premise completely sucked the air out of the show. Then you add Garth and Kat to WU and it's the second indication of bad things happening when a former cast member comes back. In my years of watching SNL, I don't remember anyone talking about whatever Garth and Kat did on Weekend Update so why do they keep going to this well?
Such a letdown after last week.
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It'll never happen, but I'd love to see an Amazing Race that was, well, a true race, and not "A series of episodes that effectively negate everything that happened to this point in the season, excepting for one team that is left behind, sometimes". I get that on other competitive reality shows, you have the typical weekly evictee/bootee/eliminated person/team, but a race is a freaking RACE. They don't stop all the cars every 10 laps at the Indy 500 and say "Okay fellas, back the starting line- except you, Bob, you're out because you got to the checkpoint last".
In my ideal world- and yes, I know it won't happen for any number of reasons- the Amazing Race would be "Here's your first clue, see you in a month", involve more puzzling/da Vinci code style riddles, yet still have periodic "Last team to arrive" checkpoint eliminations scattered throughout.
That's why I miss Mark Burnett's Eco-Challenge (or at least I think that's the race). They didn't visit multiple countries. Instead, It was a multiple day/24 hours a day outdoor race that involved hiking, walking, running, kayaking, climbing, horseback riding...etc. The teams were co-ed. The show mined drama not only out of the race but out of whether or not a team would even finish. The race was so grueling that it was a victory for many just to finish.
He did try something called Expedition Impossible which was a blend of TAR and Eco-Challenge but it wasn't a hit. And I don't remember it being that good either.
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5
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I kinda feel a little for Brooke, she was a bitter pill at times... okay, a lot of times... but she wasn't totally wrong that the two NEL before the finale seems a little unfair. To steal a page from Clerks, "The scientists weren't even supposed to BE here today!"
The NEL vs. TBC has already been covered but I thought Brooke was ridiculous with her implication that it was unfair. If there is one thing that is true about TAR, it's about luck as much as it's about "fairness." Are NELs really "fair" when their extra task is rarely a difficult extra task? (I find them less so than the TBC legs.) Is it "fair" that there are so many bunching moments throughout the race? Are U-turns "fair?" Is it "fair" when a team loses due to an incompetent taxi driver? Is it "fair" that the soul surfers had a few challenges that seemed to be specifically in their sweet spot?
The only thing that is "fair" about TAR is that the race is created without considering the teams and that bad luck/good luck can hit any of them. Amy & Maya did enough to stay in the race and saved their strongest leg for the last leg. That's fair and I'm glad they won.
It seemed like Bethany got delayed because she messed up the order, and not by messing up remembering the numbers associated with each city. That is inexcusable. If I were on this show, I'd be constantly quizzing my partner about things like this until it was second nature.You don't think that's exactly what they did? These teams had a sixteen hour flight. They knew that was likely coming. But knowing it was coming is different than actually doing it after racing thousands of miles, having very little sleep and then have to hunt in the heat, focusing on memorizing numbers as well as the order of the places they visited. Actually, compared to similar challenges I've seen in the past, all three teams did admirably well. Amy just did exceptionally well.
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Damnit, I'm a big fan of Geoff Petersen and Josh Robert Thompson and I don't get why he's not getting more love here!
I was listening to the radio once and two women were talking about Craig's show. They felt he moved it towards being too 'masculine' when he introduced the robot which made me sad. The robot was a product of mythbusters/science/experimentation...why would they think that only reserved for the boys?
For the record, I don't agree with them. Geoff wasn't my favorite thing at first but when they gave him more "freedom" to be a real sidekick with more versatile humor, he did start working for me. I've always been on and off with my late night viewing but Craig usually had something going on in all his eras that I'd want to see.
From what I've read, the robot is going with Craig to his next gig.
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I hadn't seen any clips so the opening made me cry. Not sure why.
Because it perfectly encapsulated this show's spirit. I don't want to compare Colbert's send off to Craig's---but I'm gonna. Colbert's musical moment had an impressive in-studio crowd but it didn't really get to me other than making me try to figure out who was all there. Craig's, on the other hand, brought back a lot of nostalgia from the great actors/comics who did recurring bits, to some of his best guests and, most importantly, the characters who played a big role in his lip syncing openings.
Then it came live with a lot of energy. It was just fantastic and uplifting in the way that only this show really did it. And that is why I'm going to miss him so much.
I didn't even mind Jay Leno. I liked him a bit "not safe" when he was sharing stories about horrible guests.
Even their conversation about making references younger people won't get kind of led to the final bit with Carey and Mr. Wick in bed. I loved that bit--but then again, I am old enough to remember the ends to Newhart and St. Elsewhere.
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Katie's suspicious of Bill.
Why would they cut this scene? There's substance here and Katie's saying a lot of smart things. If they're going to reunite these two, the show is going to have to have a lot more scenes like this.
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While I think this show has done far better episodes, I actually like the theory behind the ending even if I wasn't as riveted by the execution of the ending.
I think it's realistic. People change and people stay the same. Sometimes people do both and I think that's what Neal did. Over the years, the show has had me buy that Neal does consider Peter, El & Mozzie his family. But it has also convinced me that Neal will always have a bit of wanderlust. That's just the way he is.
So I think this ending was far more fitting than having Neal consider either side of the scale 100%. Totally embrace the FBI in one alternate ending scenario? I wouldn't buy it. Leave primarily to keep stealing and betray Peter? Also a bit of a stretch after everything he has been through. But leave to protect those he cares about and later getting the itch to steal? Yeah, I'm buying that.
Another thing... when Peter shot Keller, he did it on emotion and to get to Neal, while saving that girl, it wasn't all about saving that person. So did Neal set Peter up to kill Keller? I don't care that Keller is dead, and no, I don't consider Peter a "murderer" , but I do think that's shitty of Neal to use Peter to do the dirty work while playing him. Mozzie ordering a hit was far less shitty than Neal having considered this outcome and decided that was acceptable.
Peter didn't kill Keller until Killer pushed his hostage aside, raised his gun and tried to shoot Peter. Peter was experiencing emotion but the kill wasn't about that. And I don't think Neal could have predicted that Keller would be killed. He could have been taken alive.
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If she'd been on the level, it affects a lot. That's a pretty egregious piece of medical negligence. She could make a pretty penny.
Without Rafael's support, I still don't think she has a case.
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If it hadn't been for the fact that she arranged for the insemination surreptitiously, she'd still have rights to the child. That said, she'd share rights with Rafael, not with Jane. (In other words, whatever custody arrangement Rafael had with Jane, he'd have to then take that and split it with Petra somehow. But it wouldn't impact Jane's parental rights.)
I'm confused. How does what Petra did affect whether or not she has a case?
I'm no lawyer but Petra doesn't have rights or ownership or anything over Rafael's sperm even if they were married. He couldn't go have sex with some random stranger, get her pregnant and have to share custody with Petra as his ex-wife. Therefore, she doesn't have a claim on Jane's baby either.
Now, if this were an embryo where Rafael's sperm had merged with Petra's egg, she'd have a claim. (And boy, would that have been an interesting premise because that really would shake things up in terms of rights.) But that's not the case here. In court, the only thing that would matter is the fact that Rafael was the biological father and that Jane was the biological mother. Any agreement about a possible surrogacy wouldn't matter because that's not what happened. In fact, had they used a surrogate, they likely would have had the surrogate carry an embryo that included Petra's egg.
The problem was that Ivan came back recently and she had no money to give him because she was separating/divorcing Rafael. After she cheated on him and they could no longer stand each other she was gonna ask for his help? I don't think so.
I still think she could have asked. She cheated on him but it's not like she destroyed his faith in her because of the infidelity--all it did was confirm to him that she was only sticking it out for the money. He thought she was a gold digger for the sake of being a gold digger. Based on what we've seen of him, I do think he'd be much more sympathetic to the fact that it's a life and death situation for her.
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I don't like Rafael and Jane looking smugly down on Petra. Okay, I really just don't like Rafael when he gets to be smug.
The smugness didn't bother me the way it normally would after such a tragic past about the "villainess" had been revealed. I'd normally be all sympathetic to Petra here.
But Petra did something a few episodes ago that is a huge pet peeve of mine--she falsely accused Rafael of domestic violence. So, IMO, he's got a few smug-a-bitches left in regards to Petra before I'll feel like it's too much.
And Michael did something tonight that normally wouldn't bother me in fiction but my feelings that there isn't much police accountability in real life lately colored my reaction to his breaking into Rafael's office. I loved that the "evidence" was MIA and I would've loved if Rafael had stuck his tongue out at him--smugly [assuming he moved the stuff in the safe.]
In general, I like Petra and Michael as characters. I just didn't want them to have "wins" in this ep.
Going back to Petra for a second, that back story was quite something, wasn't it? But it also sort of makes Petra's story fall apart. Her history seems tragic and sad. So why the hell hasn't she told Rafael this information? It's not like he had a lot of animosity towards her, even when he felt they needed to divorce. That came when she started fighting it and when he found out about her affair.
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So, Alison didn't realize she left a bra behind?
She realized she left her top behind and she may have assumed the bra was in the bag with her shirt. But I won't lie, it did cross my mind that she didn't push for the bra.
Ahhh the shampoo scene. I don't know why, but I think that one bothered me the most. What a bitch! That was just vindictive.
Yeah. I know. It's irrational but it felt like that little petty move was the worst thing I've seen on this show. I know it's not but it felt like it.
Apart from a couple of conversations (in the hospital with her grandmother as an example) I've seen no REAL love portrayed between the two main characters.This. I did feel they managed to bring emotion and connection into the affair which had been sorely missing for the first seven episodes of this relationship. It made me think they may be laying the foundation for something that felt a bit more real than it had been. I mean, I felt chemistry for the first time. Not really romantic or sexual chemistry but at least it didn't feel forced. And then they went way too far with the declarations of love. The last episode should have been the start of building towards ILYs but not the actual exchange.
Side note: Did Noah and Alison really have anal sex? Noah's version of bed talk implied that.I saw it differently than others here. He was playing with her behind and she told him that wasn't something she had done before. (Because earlier he said he wanted to do something with her that she hadn't done before.) Then she said "next time." So I got the impression that they didn't have anal sex but were making plans to do so.
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I guess it was a pretty good episode if the biggest complaint seems to be that nobody mentioned SHERLOCK.
While he didn't mention it on the live show, he did mention it during the "previews" he filmed with Kate McKinnon.
Not exactly the exposure as the live show but not totally running from it either.
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If I would to believe Erin she has never met a Christmas tradition she didn't like. Totally unbelievable. No one does all those things she pretends she does with her family EVERY Christmas.
Ha! She seems to have been bitten by Food Network's "You must tell a story for every recipe" bug. Thanks a lot Food Network Star. You've achieved the effect of me never believing any story anyone tells on the show.
All true. I guess I sympathize with Bill because I share his sentiments but I do agree that he should have been a lot less obvious about them.
I don't hate any of the contestant, although I think I'm more of a Naylett-for-the-win at this point, but the problem with Bill's reaction is that it's for pretty much any contestant that won. When it was just Erin, or mostly Erin, it made sense. She did seem to win a lot and I thought the exasperation was cute. But then he started having it whenever he didn't win.
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Ah but people wouldn't get the Picking up the Pieces references.
Ah yes, I know. It was my poor attempt at a joke. I wouldn't get a Picking Up The Pieces reference either.
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I knew as soon as he didn't mention being in Sherlock but did mention the Office what parody we'd be getting.
But he also mentioned "Picking Up The Pieces" so it was hard to know for sure which one they'd go for. Actually, I thought because they didn't mention Sherlock, we'd for sure get a parody of it later on. I will remain disappointed that that they didn't go there but hey, maybe next time. I doubt the ratings will impress but as a host, I thought Martin was terrific.
That said, The Office: Middle Earth parody was fantastic. There were a lot of good laughs. I thought Bobby evoked Ricky Gervais quite well. But I ain't gonna lie, seeing Martin playing a Tim-like character again gave me all the feels.
The Weekend Update had two great segments that were both funny and had a social edge to them with Sasheer's emoji rant and Cecily's on point "Stereotypical female in a male driven comedy" character.
Christmas Mass was my life when I used to go to Christmas mass.
I thought for a second Kethcup Assembly Line was going to go to an "I Love Lucy" place but it didn't. Yet it still gave me a chuckle. I should have seen the blue light coming but I didn't. I enjoyed the build-up almost as much, though.
The Waterbed sketch seemed to be a total throwaway to me at first. But then Aidy fell back onto the bed and rolled the waves of the waterbed and I chuckled. It was the only chuckle but it was just enough that I didn't think it was terrible.
I hope I get a visit from Sumptin' Claus. I can see that making the future Christmas compilations.
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I don't know if I appreciated it more because I watched it live instead of on a DVR when it's much easier to fast forward, but I enjoyed The Best Christmas Party Ever despite it having, perhaps, the worst title this season. It wasn't about the evils of a big city over a small town. The woman, in the end, wasn't giving up a career opportunity for love. It was the man. Neither actor was a block of wood and I actually had a few genuine laughs.
The Santa Con, on the other hand, I gave up on after thirty minutes. Life's too short. Let me know if I'm missing something.
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Josh and Cristela liked seeing each other outside of work--and I did too. As with last week, I think it's a good idea to start mixing both sides of the show.
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Rayna's actions again make no sense to me. Except even the show now seems to think Luke is too good for Rayna. RIP evil Luke!
Rayna didn't make sense. All of these issues had been brought to her attention multiple times but she decides before the wedding is when she decides to get "real" with herself?
So yeah, in that moment, I did think Luke was too good for her. At least he was pretty upfront about who he was.
Teddy is pathetic. Was he really hoping for a relationship with the hooker? Eric Close needs to find another job.
No. I think he realized he had been seeking comfort in all the wrong places.
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Did anybody see Wishing and Hoping the other night? It was in the vein of A Christmas Story with the narrator. I plowed through it even though it didn't really hold my interest. The hero was Annette Funnicello's cousin.
I watched it. Even though I thought it was well put together, it didn't hold my interest either.
I have such a backlog of Christmas movies and I think I need to focus on romcoms. After all, I don't watch them because they're Christmas movies but rather because a lot of the Christmas movies are just a method for delivering the romcom.
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Most states bar seeking child support from sperm donors, so medical malpractice is basically the only way to guarantee that child has money for the future.
Rafael isn't a sperm donor, though. I would imagine serm donors and recipients of donor sperm are made to sign forms severing rights between the donor and the child. The reason the sperm exists is for Rafael to have a child. If Petra had gotten pregnant and then he decided he didn't want to be married to her, he'd still be on the hook for child support.
Besides, a lawsuit isn't the only way to go. Jane is going to teach. She can support her child. Even if Rafael loses his job, he has the right experience and charm to parlay that into another job. So while the child may not be as rich as it could be should things go wrong, I think both of them are competent enough to provide.
I wonder if he might try to help Alba with the immigration stuff now that he knows she's undocumented. She's sort of elderly and her daughter and granddaughter are both U.S. citizens. Wouldn't that help?
I'm surprised she hasn't already applied for amnesty. I'm not up-to-date on immigration law but haven't the past few presidents all offered amnesty, at one time or another, to illegal residents who have children/grandchildren who are citizens?
So Rafael's mother also had a "mental breakdown"? I would guess that Daddy-O set her up the same way Rose screwed over Luisa. But why?
I believe Rafael and Luisa share a father but not a mother. Luisa's mother had a breakdown. We still don't know about Rafael's mother.
I don't consider his reaction to be all that negative, but that was the best negative reaction he could have possibly had. The narrator made a point of saying that Michael hadn't reacted that way, but that was two years ago and before she'd been engaged to anyone.
I didn't think it was that negative either. They both had been having very sexual fantasies but only Jane knew she wasn't going to act on it. Another factor from two years ago is that Jane wasn't pregnant. It's also not like Jane hadn't considered changing her status. The main reason she hadn't was probably more about Rafael than it was about her promise to her grandmother.
What Rose did to Luisa was cruel, but I don't blame her for doing it. Luisa had no right to make a one-sided decision to blow up her family like that. The relationship was over, and they both regretted it. At best her father would have been devastated at having been betrayed by the two most important women in his life.Normally, I agree that there is no good out of truth telling when it comes to big secrets that will only damage but Luisa had every right to share her truth. I think her father would have gotten over it...as far as she's concerned. Rose would have been out on her keister but she probably will be any way given how the father goes through wives.
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"The Tree that Saved Christmas" was decent. I liked that they didn't go the clichéd route of her boss falling in love with the main girl so there was a love triangle.
I am glad they didn't do a triangle considering how things turn out. Although, I do wish they had gone the cliched route of her falling in love with her boss over the cliched route of her falling back in love with her small town ex from high school. Neither character was super well acted but I thought the boss was a little more interesting at least and seemed to have better chemistry with Lacy.
I think that's my biggest complaint about some of these movies. I can handle lesser quality if the leads have chemistry but I don't think they cast for chemistry.
Mr. Miracle was bizarre. I get that Rob Morrow was going for "alien" with his angel but it was just weird. I did like the story about the person/couple he was helping. It would have been a better movie had it been about them rather than trying to launch a new series.
Pet Peeve: Why do all these movies have people excited to have some big shindig on Christmas Eve? If one of my professors had invited me to a tree lighting ceremony at his house on Christmas Eve, the last thing I'd do is fist bump the student next to me.
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1) I'm sorry but Hallmark doing the male version of Mrs. Miracle - just not good for the plot line I read. Why change it up and why Rob Morrow. What a shame.
They're switching it up because it's a backdoor pilot.
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S01.E10: 10
in The Affair
· Edited by Irlandesa
I know.
I can forgive some memory differences but that one was pretty huge. Heck, I could even forgive the memory differences if it took place in the same room with Noah and Alison just remembering different things about it but the differences here were just too big.
One of the most redeeming features of this season has been the home lives of Noah and Alison. Less interesting has been their affair so I'm somewhat dreading a second season focusing on their early days as a couple.
Does this episode put to rest the notion that Oscar could be the daughter's father?
I had read that before I came here and sorry, Sarah, it just doesn't work for me. I can buy memories diverging but not to the point that the only thing their memories of the incident had in common was the fact that Cole had pointed at a gun at Noah. Yet everything else? Outfits, setting, context, circumstances and people were all different?