Cheezwiz

To me, Christine just looks like a blow-up doll or a video game character. Perhaps she resembled something more human a few surgeries ago.

I think she actually looks like a doppelganger for Gwyneth Paltrow except with darker hair and brown eyes. I guess it speaks to how likeable she comes across on screen, because I like what I have seen so far of Maya, and I LOATHE Gwyneth Paltrow. I agree on this - Chrishell needed to quit talking and just drop that topic. That being said, Davina is a total asshole.

When I first heard about this, I thought it was a bad, bad, idea. Just terrible. I pretty much loathe Quentin Tarantino at this point. I feel like he started out with a bang, with "Reservoir Dogs" & "Pulp Fiction" which were supremely entertaining at the time, and that his movies have devolved and gotten worse ever since. The one exception being "Jackie Brown" which explored more nuanced adult themes. I've grown to hate his smirky self-congratulatory aura, and his constant adolescent fixation on gory violence. I absolutely hated, HATED "The Hateful Eight" - got so tired of seeing Jennifer Jason Leigh being used as a punching bag for the entire movie. In short, he seems like a self-satisfied creep, and it's turned me off of all of his films. But then I saw the trailer for this and was completely captivated. As much as I dislike Tarantino, he sure knows how to pull good vintage tunes for his soundtracks. I've had that Los Bravos song on repeat since I first saw the trailer. The actor playing Bruce Lee just kills it in that brief snippet, and it looks like Tarantino's done a great job at recapturing what the 60's Sunset Strip probably looked like. I have no idea what course the movie will take, but I'll try to see it without reading advance reviews. My only quibble so far is that I wish they had looked for an unknown to play Sharon Tate. I like Margot Robbie, but as beautiful as she is, she looks nothing like Sharon, who was just otherworldly in terms of gorgeousness. I'm fascinated by that whole era, and Hollywood lore in general, so I'm hoping this might actually be decent.

I really loved this little movie - it was so gentle and sweet without being too saccharine and "Hallmarky". I liked that it was about female friendship. Danielle MacDonald is a super-talented actress, and I'm really happy to see her popping up all over the place (and yes, she pulls off a flawless American accent - I never would have guessed in a million years that she's Australian). The supporting players were all fantastic too - the actress who played Millie did a great job. I'm a middle-aged old bat, so I don't usually drool over young guys in movies, but I thought the actor who played Bo was positively dreamy. Not a country music fan at all, but I really loved the new song Dolly wrote for the film "The Girl in The Movies". Really, how can you NOT love a movie that basically has Dolly Parton as its spirit animal?

This is a BRILLIANT idea! Although I seem to recall him saying in interviews that he's not particularly fond of kids, so that kind of premise it may not occur to him. The comedic possibilities are endless.

I don't have the energy to go back and check, but if it was a matter of seconds (under a minute), then it certainly could have been an accidental pocket dial, which would explain why neither Murat or Sergei remembered it when questioned. 39 minutes, on the other hand, is all kinds of suspicious, and makes it look like they were up to something nefarious, even if it had nothing to do with Madeline's disappearance.

Agreed - I think it's just so they can film catfights more easily. If they do another season I'm really hoping Davina gets her ass handed to her at some point.

Wow, so it IS real! I was skeptical. It's a grotesque monstrosity, and I hope it slides right off that hillside when the next big one hits. TEAM CITY COUNCIL!

My understanding from the show is that the brothers were actually developing that property themselves and then wanting to sell it. Maybe it hasn't been formally listed yet? Or maybe it's all fake for TV? Who knows.

That particular house left me cold, but the trails outside were neat looking. If I were to live in LA, my fantasy home would be either a craftsman or a cottage built in the interwar years. I'd consider a spanish-style too if it had charming architectural details. Something with citrus trees in the backyard. Now my internet pages are filled with ads for LA real-estate!

Thoughts on the "cast": How do the employees tell the tiny twin titans of the Oppenheim group apart? They look identical to me. Maybe no one cares? Do you think they ever swap just to mess with the realtors? Christine: the bitchy queen bee. For someone who looks like she's 100% plastic above the knees, she sure is judgemental about other people's appearances. Everyone is always telling her how gorgeous she is. I think the operative word might be "was", prior to fillers and silicone. Clearly she is insanely jealous of Heather the playboy bunny realtor, because she's more naturally pretty (even for a playboy bunny). I found myself getting tired of watching her flip her thin lank peroxided hair around. Mary: surely her supposed romance with the himbo pastry chef is totally manufactured for the cameras, right? No one could be that completely delusional in real life, right? He's such a stunned banana - even for a 25 year old with limited English, he seems incredibly dim. Do they even talk? Heather: Seems innocuous, but sorry hon, your hockey player boyfriend just isn't that into you. Maya: the only seemingly normal likeable one in the bunch. Hope all goes well with her pregnancy. Davina: Just the WORST. Shit-stirrer extraordinaire. Every one kept repeating "oh, she's just direct". She's the opposite of direct - a snake-in-the grass who enjoys sitting back and watching the catty chaos she's instigated. She has such a weird flat affect, and seems charmless and humourless. My guess is that she's totally boring in real life, so they wrote her in as a villainess character. These women's manicures probably cost more than my monthly rent. I was agog at the sheer grotesqueness of the 40,000 (?) square foot behemoth that the brothers are building up in the hills. It looks like a shopping mall. City council is no longer allowing anything of that size to be built there. GO CITY COUNCIL! YOU RULE!!! Watching this has taught me that I really do not like "hip" California modern architecture. All boxy/glass/sharp edges. I was hoping to get a peek at some different styles of homes, but they were all pretty much the same: not homes to live in, but douchey show-places that scream "I have a shit-ton of money, folks!". The only two homes I liked were the one that Mary was fantasizing about buying for herself to live in with her French cream-puff (it was a bit plain on the exterior, but the interior was lovely), and an older traditional Spanish style one that Maya took Chryshell through. The rest can tumble into the San Andreas fault as far as I'm concerned. Seriously, does it not strike anyone as incredibly stupid to build homes perched on hillsides like that in an earthquake zone? End of snark for now!

I'm not normally one for reality shows (I never watched The Hills, or Laguna, which were done by the same creator), and I only thought I'd watch an episode or two. Well, this show turned out to be the television equivalent of a can of Pringles. Trashy, unhealthy and addictive! I blew through all the episodes in one weekend. It's fake, staged, ridiculous, yet way more entertaining than I expected. I had a tough time distinguishing the realtors at first, as they all looked like escorts. It was bizarre seeing the two tiny bald men presiding over a harem of silicone amazons. I think Chrishelle is supposed to be a sort of proxy character for the viewing audience - the newbie coming into an established workplace and trying to figure out the dynamics. More thoughts on this silly show later. I'm amazed that I have so many thoughts on something so incredibly dumb.

Wow, I didn't realize the call was that long. That IS weird. Certainly not something both parties would "forget". On the other hand, if there was something substantive, you'd think the police would continue pursuing it. S Someone mentioned above that they wondered if some of the higher-ups in the police could have had some involvement in trafficking, which is an interesting thought. Sadly, child abduction/traffic rings will never be eradicated, because too many wealthy powerful people around the globe are involved.

Not wanting to hi-jack this thread, but I'm REALLY hoping someone starts a thread on this show. I just started watching this because I was looking for something mindless to entertain myself with. It's jaw-droppingly tacky and delightfully hate-watchable! All the female realtors look like unemployed porn-actresses (which they may be). Sadly not the kind of LA architecture I'm interested in looking at though. No old-school mansions or homes with any character. It's all massive glass boxes perched on hillsides that look like they should be inhabited by Bond villains.

Yes, people always do this, unfortunately. Lindy Chamberlain went to jail for a few years in Australia simply because people felt she didn't behave the way people assumed a grieving mother should behave. She was imprisoned based on public opinion. She was only released because new evidence came to light that proved her story - evidence that was found by a complete fluke. She likely would have spent life in prison had it not been found. None of the evidence presented in this documentary made me think the McCanns were guilty. My hope is that Madeline was stolen by a family who simply wanted a child very badly. She has distinctive pupil in one of her eyes. Perhaps if she's alive she will recognize herself from the recent publicity and come forward.

That poor guy seemed seriously traumatized. Probably the same for the N. Irish investigator heading up the human trafficking unit at Scotland Yard. I honestly don't know how investigators can do this day and and day out, but I hope the joy of actually finding children and reuniting them with their families makes the horrors they have to absorb worthwhile.

I don't understand how anyone could possibly have been able to relax and enjoy wine and dinner in that scenario, no matter how often they were checking. It seemed like they were unnecessarily tempting (or taunting?) fate. Still face-palming. Yes, heartbreaking. Just like they said on the show, the majority of children abducted are from very poor backgrounds - families have fewer (or no) resources to launch investigations, and they are simply viewed as disposable. That poor little boy - his family will be tormented forever by the most terrible imaginings.

Yep. Given that I had absolutely no opinion one way or the other before watching this, I was a bit taken aback by how vehement my dislike for these people was. It takes a certain amount of arrogance to go to a foreign country and do something like that. Even if they were scrupulously checking every 20 minutes as they claimed (which I sort of doubt), there are SO many things that can go haywire with unattended toddlers within the space of just a few minutes. Who's to say one wouldn't wake up and wander into the street? Open a window from their crib and fall onto the pavement? Get into something dangerous in the luggage?. That's a definite possibility - someone who worked there may have been working with accomplices. It's also possible that the intruder may have administered something at the time of the abduction, but I would think they would prefer to grab the kid and exit as quickly as possible. The main reason I suspected the parents may have dosed the kids with sedatives was because one of the grandparents offhandedly let slip to the media that it may have been a possibility. Why even mention it at all unless you'd seen the parents do this in the past? Knowing the kids were in a deep sleep and unlikely to wander may have given the adults the false confidence that nothing would go awry while they partied in the restaurant. I dunno. I just know I wanted to reach through my TV and shake them.

Agreed - this case was hopelessly bungled from the get-go. It made me angry that he wrote a book to make $$$ after his own incompetence (and probable corruption) got him fired in the first place.

I'm almost done watching this. I didn't pay much attention to the case at the time, so all the information presented was new to me, and thus, interesting. That being said, it's waaaaaay too long - it could have been cut in half, if not more. Far too much padding - just endless, endless shots of the McCanns holding hands walking to press appearances, holding hands walking to church, holding hands walking here, there, and everywhere. I felt the show was reasonably objective and didn't seem to lean too far in one direction or the other. For those who followed the case closely as it happened, there is no new info or anything revelatory. This was my thinking from the very beginning as well. I don't think the McCanns murdered their daughter. I think someone close by at the resort had been listening in on their convos, learned their routine, and began stalking them, figuring out the best opportunity to snatch Madeline. I do think the McCanns were shifty and evasive - I think they were lying about some of the events leading up to the abduction. I 100% believe they sedated all the children, which is how a stranger was able to enter and carry Madeline off without waking her or the other little ones. I think they were drinking more heavily than they wanted to admit and they may not have been checking as regularly as they claimed. They were embarrassed and knew they'd be crucified in the media, so they covered that part up. After a time they were also subjected to a change in the wind of media and public opinion - much the same as what happened to Lindy Chamberlain in Australia in the early 80's when her infant was carried off by a dingo. I think the Portuguese Police (Commissioner? Chief?) was publicly humiliated by how badly the police had botched things, and rather than widening the search, doubled down and made the McCanns the prime suspects (and yes, I know statistically parents usually are responsible), but the police theory of how Madeline's murder may have occurred was totally ludicrous. I think the only thing he may have guessed correctly was the sedation of the children. It sounds like there were predators everywhere in that resort area that should have been followed up on. The translator dude who was assisting them and got hauled in for questioning seemed strange to me as well. I think the gut instincts of some of the journalists were probably correct. As tragic as this case was, I found myself more angry at the McCanns than sympathetic. I don't think they murdered their child, but at the same time, I did not like them AT ALL. I did not like their constant appearances at church which felt like phony staged piousness (although I imagine they may have been trying assuage major guilt too). If you're going to make a night of chugging wine and tapas, why not use the resort babysitting service? Or if you insist on leaving the children asleep in the suite, WHY NOT LOCK THE FREAKING WINDOWS & DOOR? It's still making me shake my head. I actually felt as angry watching this as I did when watching the idiot parents in "Abducted in Plain Sight". It wasn't an accident or a moment of forgetfulness or inattention, it was a dereliction of duty as far as I'm concerned.

I'm curious about this too - it looks so adorable wherever it was filmed. My guess is that it's probably just a bunch of different locations cobbled together to look like one community, which is how it goes with most film/tv shoots. And the cute town scenes are probably nowhere near a beach. But I could be wrong!

Wow @paramitch, thanks for the summary! I was toying with the idea of reading Israel's book, but based on your review, I think I'll just stick with the movie. It may have been mostly fiction, but I really loved it, and would prefer to have that in my head. I had kinda hoped the real life characters would have had a bit more self-awareness, but it doesn't sound like it.

I'm really enjoying it, but not able to binge it in one go, as I keep crying. There are very funny bits too - I think most people can relate to (at least once and awhile) wishing they could just blurt out whatever dark angry thing is on their mind, and not give a shit about propriety. Plus, there's a dog, and the dog is awesome!

Awww, that's too bad - I was hoping that scene might have had some basis in reality: "Make me 29, and not stupid". The other scene that I loved was McCarthy's statement to the Judge. At first she's all defiant, and you assume it's going to go completely off the rails, but her description of her strange alliance with Jack wound up really pulling the heartstrings. That may have been fictionalized too, but I just loved that scene and the whole movie.

I just watched this one tonight, and absolutely loved it. I would be so happy to see any of the folks nominated for this one win, but I know it's unlikely to happen. This has to be one of the underdoggiest underdog Oscar nominated films ever. It was a touching, entertaining look at isolation and hardscrabble survival in the city. Also aging and feeling your best years have passed you by. And if you know even a passing amount about the authors Lee Israel was imitating, the snippets of letters she composes in the film are hugely entertaining. McCarthy and Grant were perfect as the oddball partners in crime. Loved seeing Jane Curtin as Israel's editor, as well as Dolly Wells as the sweet bookshop owner who befriends Lee. It was heartwarming to see such a humane treatment of hopeless outsiders. Now I want to dig out my Dorothy Parker collection of stories!