Irlandesa

I don't know that Marsha backed out of White Collar. I don't even think the character was initially supposed to be a regular so it was always in second position to whatever else she had going on. When her other job ended, she came back and was bumped up to a regular in the second season. While I have no doubt it was disappointing, this isn't the kind of thing that could kill a career. They spoke well of her during and after her stint on the show. She was kept as a regular through the first season. The show clearly just opted to go in another direction through no fault of her own. People get replaced on shows all the time. Often times after the pilot so it gets reshot. Heck, Lisa Kudrow was originally cast as Ros on Frasier but they didn't feel like she was giving them what they needed so they recast her. It didn't kill her career. She went on to play Phoebe on Friends. It's just the nature of the Hollywood beast.

I don't know what she knew but the job only became available because another actress couldn't do the show. This kind of thing happens even in the regular world. It's not always a fit. Honestly, I like Natalie Morales but I did not like her White Collar character. The creator does a poor job with developing new love interests and I think that's sort of the angle they were going with her in regards to Neal (Matt Bomer's character). Marsha's character was part of the creator's original vision for the show and the character fit better...not the least because she was a lesbian and there was no romantic undercurrent. A lot of this is Jeff Eastin's fault and Natalie paid the price for it but in the beginning, I do think following his original vision was a smart quality move.

Marsha Thomason was in the pilot but was unavailable for the series due to scheduling conflicts. They brought in Natalie for the rest of the first season. Marsha became available later in the first season and for the next season so they went back to her.

There are many great dance moments that I'm sure I'll think of but the one I immediately thought of was from Three's Company when Janet was in a dance class and the instructor convinced her that she could dance professionally. She later found out he was lying to her because he wanted to sleep with her. Janet was feeling down and Jack asked Janet to dance with him. It wasn't grand but it was sweet. But in trying to find that on YouTube, another one from Three's Company appeared and I can't believe it wasn't the first thing I thought of. John Ritter at his physical best. The first minute is set up and it really gets in gear around one minute in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdH4KokYhFc

The West Wing had so many great musical moments. I think my favorite happens to be "Brother In Arms" that took place at the end of "Two Cathedrals." A lot of it probably had to do with the montage but oh what a montage. Another moment I remember is Josh Groban singing on Ally McBeal. I didn't know who he was so when the geeky actor playing the high school boy started singing, I wondered if he was dubbed at first. In YouTubable moments, I wanted to talk about the opening to the 2013 Tonys. If people thought Hugh Jackman's "hopping" opening was bizarre, I guess I can't really blame him for trying something different since it's very unlikely he'd be able to top this 9 minutes of pure entertainment from Neil Patrick Harris & supporting cast.

Archie Panjabi is 42 and her character isn't a mother. I have my issues with The Good Wife but all three of the main female characters are past their forties with the mother and mother-in-law putting in significant appearances as well. That should be commended. And Baranski may be older but is Diane her age?

Once & Again was killed before its time but at least it got more than one season. Another one canceled before it's time is another & Again show...Now & Again. Now & Again starred Eric Close, Margaret Colin and Dennis Haysbert. There is no quick way to explain it but the story is that John Goodman plays a man married to Margaret Colin who "dies" when he's hit by a train. His brain is then transplanted into the body of Eric Close as part of some government project. He isn't allowed to tell his family what happened but can't help but try to get close to them again. Dennis Haysbert plays his "handler" of sorts. It was so good and ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger.

I appreciate that this is a difficult subject for you and I enjoyed reading your post but let me be clear again, since I think I'm the one who brought up Robin/changing minds, that I never argued that it was unrealistic. It's absolutely realistic. I've known people who have done it as well. I just argued that 'changing one's mind' is well represented on TV whether it's by choice or an "oops, I'm pregnant and now I'm super happy about it." Happily childless by choice is less so. And people in your situation are also underrepresented on TV. They appear to give the "don't let the time fly by" lecture or they appear as the childless older woman who ends up adopting (whether legally or just spiritually) a troubled younger being because they never had the chance to have kids of their own. It's kind of sad that 99 times out of 100, an older woman who never had kids on TV expresses regret about it. I doubt 99% of older childless women regret that decision or result. Some yes, but not as many as TV would portray. But I think the biggest insult with treating women like a ticking clock is the presumption that women are stupid. It's condescending to point out a woman's ticking clock. The reason I say it's insulting is because I believe most women know that fertility drops as they age. It's just that many make the choice to put off having kids for valid reasons to their lives at the time. Whether it's because they haven't found the right man or don't feel like they're where they want to be in their careers or whether it's lack of money, it's not so much complete ignorance about when the easiest time to get pregnant is but rather a choice to put it off for one reason or another. Eventually, they may come to regret not pulling the trigger earlier instead of waiting until the time was "perfect" but that's usually the benefit of hindsight and not because the younger woman doesn't understand biology. I doubt anyone decided to get pregnant because a nosy co-worker asked a woman when she was going to get pregnant because the "clock is ticking." Who knows? Maybe women have gotten pregnant solely based on that but I tend to think better of women. I think there have been cases where women were too old to get pregnant but those women (Cuddy on House and Addison on Private Practice) were well off doctors who ended up adopting. Women who aren't in a position to go that route and genuinely miss out on motherhood aren't covered enough. But I think that middle/lower class is often not covered enough on TV these days in general. There always seems to be the money somewhere. Moving on to other pregnancy tropes, how about the fun "women who has abortion ends up struggling with fertility" message that usually comes with abortion related stories. That's a fun one, eh?

Putting True Detective in "Drama" also solves the issue of True Detective and The Normal Heart not going head-to-head with each other and HBO can push for wins in both categories. While I think Fargo was terrific, I don't think it's a lock since the category is "movies and miniseries." HBO will put its resources behind The Normal Heart.

I love the Powells and whatever they do. They're fun because their relationship is so equally twisted. I am thrilled Adrian didn't let Tony get away with it. Not only was Rosie not smart in not keeping her mouth shut until the residency stuff was settled, but she acted like Reggie was sending his Uncle to the moon, not Sacramento. I get that it's quite a distance from where they are but this is not the dark ages. It's not like once he's gone, he'll be completely out of reach. Adding to the stupid is Marisol, who I actually like, but inviting Opal to her house, knowing what she's capable of, without a backup plan? And then leaving the gun on the counter, behind her, with her back to the living room. What the hell? I miss Odessa but I really do like Carmen working for Spence. It's just the right blend of platonic and not putting up with the other one's crap. I knew Pablo would come crawling back and I can't decide how I feel. Part of me would like there to be a stable marriage on the show but Pablo ruined that when he wanted "space" and started dating Helen. I also love Zoila's nice, sexy boyfriend but the actors really sold me on Pablo and Zoila's "moment." Despite some stupidity, I really liked the show too.

Just beat me to it. Action is one I was going to mention. Profit, Keen Eddie and American Gothic as well. I think almost anything Kyle Killen creates ends up here. There was the already mentioned Awake, which I watched and loved, but there was also the two-episode lived Lonestar starring James Wolk. I would like to add Eyes too. It debuted about the same time as Grey's Anatomy but Grey's got all the promo and great time slot while Eyes was the superior show. I may be the only one but I wanted to see where Hello Ladies was going to go. It started out weak but I felt it got better as it went on. I'd also like to mention The Famous Teddy Z for no other reason than I still remember it all these years later. Jon Cryer was great as an accidental Hollywood agent. Me too but I don't know what category they'd fit in here. From all accounts, HBO was prepared to give the boys a third season but they chose to end after two.

Nope, he's not alone. It's also not just men asking this question. I've seen other women ask women this question as well. The sexism is so pervasive that his set up is based on the fact that somewhere out in the media there is a story in which her children are asked about how they feel about their mother taking this big job. I just can't imagine anyone doing a piece on a new male CEO and asking his children how they feel he'll be able to handle it. OT But this always baffles me. All I remember from when she was co-anchor of The Today Show was people talking about how she was a poor fit for that job and not good at it but once she was let go, the opinion of her fitness for the job was changed retroactively.

I think we did see that. She did flub some of her lines but they all did. I think when mentioned "listening" she was talking about all the times that people were talking at the same time. Jimmy, especially, ended up talking over his teammates. Ultimately, the team just didn't find the rhythem or chemistry the first time discovered. They kept talking over one another and would descend into silence when they were thrown by it. As for the stand up, I didn't laugh at Jimmy's set at all. He was energetic but I had more natural laughs coming from Aida. Rod Man seemed lost but I guess that's his thing. I remember him being funny so I'm not sad he won. I am sad that we're down to one woman.

Oh absolutely not. My mother was all of those things and a mother to boot. I firmly believe that a woman can have it all if they want it all even if I personally don't want it all. But that has less to do with my career and more to do with "me time." And not being very fond of kids but I digress. No, it honestly probably would not have been more palatable. As @Sweet Tee pointed out, the desire to parent was not an underrepresented desire on HIMYM. Lily and Marshall were married with kids bound. (In fact, Lily was a career mother and was employed more consistently than her husband over the course of the series.) Barney even expressed an interest in having kids. It wasn't make or break for him but the desire was there. And Ted really wanted to be married with kids. In fact, their differing wants in regards to children was one of the main reasons we were told that Robin was actually "Aunt Robin" and not the mother. Robin's decision to not want children made her somewhat of a unique character on TV. I think the percentage of women who choose not to be mothers in the real world is significantly greater than the percentage of TV women who manage to escape their shows without having the "mother" label aded to their description. So the fact that there was a positive and honest portrayal of a woman choosing not to have kids pleased me. I know characters changing is important in fiction but there are thousands of ways to change while still maintaining some core beliefs. Robin did change, by the way, but she changed for the worse.

I know we've moved a little away from HIMYM but I would like to go back to Robin because one thing I really identified with was the fact that she didn't want children. She was a smart, funny, ambitious and warm character who just simply had no desire to be a mother. As someone for whom parenthood holds little appeal, I found it so refreshing. It started going downhill for me with her when, during a lull in her career, she was playing with a baby bootie which had the unfortunate result of linking her choice to be childless to the state of her career. It became more about not thinking she could have it all than being a woman who had no desire for children even if her career stunk. To make matters worse, they then essentially robbed her of her choice not to have children by having a doctor tell her that she was incapable of having biological children. (In the craziest, most unrealistically revealing blood test yet.) And we had to have episodes where she was bummed over this. I know, in theory, that being told that being upset over not being able to have kids even when one doesn't want kids is realistic but at that point I didn't care. Robin was refreshing as a television character when she was a happy young woman choosing not to have kids just because. They slowly robbed her of that freshness and by the end they turned her into someone who essentially seemed to put her life on hold until the man who she rejected numerous times while they were dating became a widow. No. A character who is a strong woman is its own thing. You can have a character who is a "strong woman" but they may not be very well developed characters. A strong character is a well defined character whose decisions are based on their character and not solely in service of plot. That can be good things or bad things but its their thing. That doesn't mean they can't do things that service the plot but is there follow through with the character? Do we see what reasoning led up to the choice? Do we see that character deal with the repercussions of their decision? True Detective was always a problematic series for me in terms of female characters. They were either dead, prostitutes or served at the pleasure of men. It did many things well but female characters was not one of them. I got into debates about whether or not Michelle Monaghan's character filled the bill for a "strong character." My problem with her was that she was mostly defined in relation to the man in her life. There was confusion as to whether or not she was a doctor a nurse. And the one powerful act she took as vengeance never seemed to me to be about that character. It was about explaining why these two main characters ended up estranged for so many years. They didn't do much to explain why she felt this was her only choice nor did they show us the character living with her decision. That's why she doesn't pass the muster for me.

I love puppies as much as the next person but I'm a sucker for Steve Buscemi doing weird shit so I would totally need him tap dancing. Even some of his harshest critics admit they wouldn't think twice about going to him if they needed cardiac surgery. So he maintains his cred there. But TV show Dr. Oz? Total sell out. It's one thing to be open to natural aids because I do think there is a lot out in nature that can be helpful in either a treatment of an illness or the symptoms of an illness and there isn't a lot of money out there to study the effectiveness of these natural solutions. It's quite another to not offer up a critical perspective of the claims being made. John focused on the weird supplements because that's what Oz was being called out on, but it's not just the "bizarre" ones with negative consequences, unfortunately. Consumer Reports did a big report on supplements a year or two ago and in most healthy adults, they're just a waste of money or can even have negative consequences. For instance, the calcium information is interesting. Who would have thought that calcium supplements could potentially be related to heart attacks? Fish oil and calcium are probably the most popular supplements taken but quite a lot of the research seems to suggest that there is no "magical pill" (either from supplement manufacturers or big pharma). Fish oil supplements and calcium supplements don't provide the same benefits that fish oil from fish and calcium from food do.

I'm curious, how are Dom and Lynn moving really fast? I know they're probably the duo the best situated to develop into something stable in Season 2 but they had their first reciprocal kiss in the finale so I'm surprised to see them called "fast." I think Kevin and Patrick are a good match on paper but I don't think we can divorce the fact that he used his position as his boss to create an opportunity to get Patrick alone so he could cheat (apparently) on his boyfriend from the definition of who he is. Based on the way they started, I'd imagine that this would lead to its own brand of insecurities--going back to the old adage of "If they cheat with you, they'll cheat on you."

Looking will have 10 episodes next season. http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/looking-hbo-series-to-have-larger-second-season-32891/

I don't think so. Fargo wrapped filming a while ago.

Duluth is three hours away from Bemidji. They wouldn't have been involved. I don't agree that Gus's decision to not call in Malvo certainly cost Key & Peele their lives. There was certainly the potential of that outcome but Malvo left that cabin pretty soon after Gus arrived. It was in the middle of nowhere. He could have likely taken a few routes to get into town. All it would have certainly done is draw the people who were out around town looking for him towards a cabin where he wasn't and where he would likely never return given the fact that he had a police blotter. He'd know his cabin would be surrounded. The only additional info Gus had is where Malvo was for a few brief minutes. He didn't know where he was going. All the cops already knew Malvo was in the vicinity and likely after Lester. Gus was stuck with two bad choices in his mind. One was calling in the cops and risk Malvo shooting his way out. The other was taking care of it himself. I understand wishing Molly would have taken Malvo down but narratively, I think this was the best way to achieve the ending they did. Molly would have been too "by-the-book" in taking down a man who had an uncanny ability to roll over everyone in his way. He had to be put down. Molly likely wouldn't have chosen that option. That's not her style. Gus, who carries guilt about how he let Malvo go, would. But it's not an easy solution or one that I think makes either of them super happy. Gus may have gotten away with getting rid of Malvo the way he did and even received a commendation for it but neither one of them on the couch seemed overly thrilled with it. They knew it probably wasn't "right" in the legal, moral and ethical way even if they felt it was their only choice. Molly had to make a difficult choice between doing what her husband asked of her for their family and her job. She ultimately chose her job which I think Gus knew would happen deep down. Bill had to face the choice of leaving a job he had spent his life doing or continue in it and face just how much his ideal world had changed. Lester had the choice to keep trying to survive on his own or work with the police for his own protection. And that's why I accept some of the choices Fargo made more easily than had it happened on another show. I felt it worked with the theme of the episode and the story of the series.

Yep. McPhee was the big reason but I would throw in Julia's weirdly dropped adoption story and affair in there as well. Ellis was bad but getting rid of him was only the tip of the iceberg of what they needed to do. I don't personally agree that Boardwalk Empire went off the rails. In fact, I'd argue that the third season finale was a brilliant episode and did a great job tying what came before it together and the four season had some very good storytelling as well. But I feel like a viewer needs to have too much patience with that show sometimes.

The pilot had one cast of characters. The rather annoying woman in the pilot was replaced by episode 2 with an actress I liked. But then she was killed in the first season finale and I was done with the show even though I love Kevin Bacon. I used to think he could get me to watch anything, and maybe he did since I stuck with the whole first season, but I couldn't stomache the idea of watching a sixteenth episode of that show. I'd like to throw Smash in here. The pilot was pretty good. It had its issues but I thought they could be resolved. And honestly, they could have been but the show, for the most part, chose not to. It had some really good stuff and way too much dreck. Perhaps Boardwalk Empire could be here too. I really enjoy BE but one of the criticisms of the show is that never achieved the greatness that its actors and "look" were capable of achieving. I can kind of agree with that, although I do think it has had enough great moments that I'd say it was better than good but probably not as agreat as it could have been.

I missed it too. When did they actually specify that Nicholas hit the Powells' son? It's only predictable only if one can predict it. If this is the big secret, it won't be a surprise to me because I read the speculation here and over at TWoP before it closed. But would I have reached that conclusion if I hadn't read the spec? Maybe. Maybe not. I can sometimes predict twists and other times I don't. Would a general audience who doesn't spend much time thinking about the show beyond watching? Probably not. I think I'm enjoying this season a little bit more than last season. Last season was held together better by an overall murder mystery that affected everyone but there was no way the murder mystery resolution could live up to all that focus. So I have more "fun" so-to-say watching multiple stories. I miss Odessa but Carmen works better with less of a focus on how her employer can make her career work and instead having her employer expecting her to do real work. I knew Rosie's beau was bad news as soon as the daughter mentioned not getting a statement for a few months and I look forward to that exploding. Even if the mystery isn't interesting, I think Opal is. And, as always, I love Zoila and Genevieve.

I'm a binge watcher without the patience to be a binge water. I would love to gobble down multiple episodes at a time. I think it's easier for me to get into a show that way and once I'm into the show, I want to keep going. That's what happened to me with Deadwood which I don't think I would've watched if it weren't for the fact that it was On Demand and I had a rainy lazy Sunday to kill. It's especially true with comedies. US comedies are approximately 22 minutes long and can three can be watched in just over an hour. They go down so smooth. But if it's a show I really want to watch, I am not going to wait until after it's aired so I can binge watch it all at once. I want to see it "now" so I will watch it live, or within a few days of recording it. The benefit to that is being able to discuss it online. Still, there are some shows out there that escape me initially for whatever reason and I love being able to just watch them all at once. Heck, I binge watch shows I've already seen. If I'm free and there's a L&O marathon on, I will watch. Or when Scarecrow & Mrs. King was free on Prime, I would watch multiple episodes at at time. Or rewatching Quantum Leap. That's my comfort time.

And he'll be on Seth Meyers tonight.