Blue Castle

I'm also really enjoying this show - I would say it's almost ranking up there with Succession for me, which is my favorite current drama. It's also really surprising because I never had much interest in the books and thought the movie was so-so (I might have to read at least the first few books now). I feel like all the changes they've made so far (Louis and Claudia now being black, moving the time period to the early 20th Century, making Louis and Lestat's romance explicit, aging Claudia to always be on the verge of adulthood) have really made the story more interesting to me (at least compared to the movie). This episode was pretty heartbreaking - to see a young woman at first happy with her new life as a rich vampire, but then to slowly realize she is trapped in an isolated existence for eternity. It was interesting how her diaries focused only on happy moments until Charlie's death. I got the sense that she was even hiding her loneliness from herself (cannot imagine spending your teenage years with no one your same age to talk to).

This episode really made me think that not only are none of the kids going to "win" the top spot - at this rate I don't think there's going to be a company left at all. Kendall was so hard to watch in this episode - he makes the wrong choice like 95% of the time. It's also interesting how the kids think their dad is a dinosaur in some ways, but they only know how to emulate him. So they lash out and never trust anyone else and are always trying to prove how "tough" they are and it's destroying them. I wonder if they did finally see their dad fail (lose the company and/or go to jail) if it would actually cause them to re-evaulate their own behavior and go into intense therapy?

Yes, I thought the exact same thing! He's never been scared before. I liked it too, because I think he previously wrote Din Djarin off as being not a big threat but the message showed that this random bounty hunter has what it takes to find him. I think he was really surprised. This show often has ridiculous plot devices (the whole imperial facial recognition system made no sense) but I don't even care because the character development and the action sequences are so good. I really hope Din finds Grogu next week, though. I would be so unhappy if they end on a cliff hanger where those two aren't a clan of two again. It was except Gideon said "It means more to me" and Din changed it to "he means more to me" (naturally). Made it even more powerful! PS. Hi, everyone. I used to post on TWoP but haven't really been at the new site much. The Mandalorian makes me want to read everyone's thoughts, though!

Looking: The Movie has been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series. (I really hope it wins.)

I didn't watch Passions, but I think this is also the classic soap archetype of the "bad girl." Blair Kramer on OLTL, Carly on GH (as played by Sarah Brown at least), hell even Erica Kane, were all popular bad girls. The bad girl is the woman who plots, schemes, lies, and in short does anything to get what she wants--but the audience still loves her because she's also vulnerable and tough. There's always something tragic about the bad girl because often she's doing all this for a guy who doesn't love her enough (or who loves someone else)--or she's doing this because she doesn't believe he will love the real her (or the person she is without lies). And her schemes never work out on the long run--she's usually left to pick herself up out of the ashes alone. The bad girl is, imo, the heart and soul of any good soap opera. Her desires define a soap. Even though she's often the antagonist to a "good" character--she's never a villain because the audience is rooting for her, even if they don't root for her schemes. I never really thought of Rebecca in these terms because Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has such a different tone than the soaps I've watched--but yeah, you guys are right, the show is kinda like a deep examination into the mind of soap opera bad girl if she happened to be a West Covina lawyer.

Thank you for this review. Every time I see the commercials for this show I become enraged and you articulated all the issues of its crap premise perfectly.

I just love this show so much. As good as the Tina story was, I think my favorite part was Linda's ridiculous/fun idea and how the other Belchers slowly got into it with her. So many other family sitcoms create consistently adversarial relationships to generate story and I love how Bob's Burgers doesn't do that--the Belchers are a family on the same goofy wavelength.

I'm not watching the show anymore (last season broke me and this season looks like more of the same crap) but I enjoyed the recap, especially the 'Professor Gretchen Witter' line. I always think of her as Pacey's sister, too! I also liked the recap's points about how Shameless deals with race because that's always been a huge problem with this show.

I'm a little obsessed with Bob's Burgers so I know the answer to this, it was established in "Christmas in the Car" that all three kids very much still believe in Santa. That's the ep where Louise creates a "Santa trap" that Teddy gets caught in and Bob mentions to Tina that he's grateful that she plays along with Louise' belief in Santa and Tina doesn't really know what he's talking about (because she still believes, too). It's implied that all of the kids are a bit too old to believe in Santa but they all do nonetheless. I loved Nice-Capades! It's definitely my favorite Christmas episode so far. I think my favorite throwaway moment was Linda getting distracted by the fudge shop while talking to Henry Winkler, ("Ooh, fudge!"). Also, I just loved the exchange with Bob, Edith, and Harold--their irrational hatred of Bob and Bob's long-suffering acceptance of it just makes me laugh (also, the idea that Bob is having a Christmas Eve felt-emergency).

I've gotta hand it to them, this new spoiler has somehow made me even less excited for season six and I didn't think that was possible. Very impressive.

Sorry to post twice but here is a good review of the finale that identifies a lot of problems with the whole season.

There are less and less reasons to tune into season six.

I am really questioning whether I can be a fan of this show anymore. At this point I would only come back because I love many of the actors. In that finale the only good things were some of the performances. I was so excited for fifth season after the wonderful 4th season and it was a train wreck. The writers didn't just create mediocrity, they burnt this show to the ground.

It’s not the actors. The show wrote a sex scene and the actors filmed it for the third episode of this season. It was then edited out, presumably to make room for more exciting ‘Fiona and random dude’ scenes or Frank being an asshole. I agree that Fiona had an unfair burden placed on her, but I don’t think she ever believed her family was a burden. She felt burdened by her poverty. She felt burdened by her lack of opportunities. She felt burdened by her narcissistic father who only sees his children as people he can use. But in the first four seasons she literally said, “Those kids are my life.” Lip told her in season one to leave with Jimmy because he could step up; but she chose not to leave. Jimmy wanted to take her to a hotel for one night and it took a bunch of convincing for her to go. In season three the impetus for her to gain custody of the kids was not that they would go to foster care (she was planning to clean Frank up and use him to get the kids back). Her motivation was when she learned that Frank had betrayed them - she then decided (and she never once wavered) to seek custody of them herself. It felt more like her deciding to take control away of her life more than anything. In season four after she endangered Liam she missed her role as a caretaker greatly and that was partly what led her to further falling. She begged Lip to bring Liam back so that she could mother him again. When she got out of jail the first thing she did was make a big breakfast for her family. In the fourth season finale she was a woman who wanted to recommit to her maternal role. Who wanted to recommit to being responsible to the people who needed her. This season all of that flew out the window. And that would be fine if there was a story behind it - like what you were saying - if she unconsciously wanted a break from this (but even if it’s unconscious for the character the audience should know somewhat what’s going on). But I don’t know what happened for Fiona to change her so radically from 4x12 to season 5. Why does she basically abandon her family and her previous motivations? Is it because she feels guilty about last year? Or is she acting selfishly because she just can’t give of herself anymore? What story are they telling? I have no idea. What I saw this season for Fiona was a bunch of shuffling love interests and a half-baked abandonment of the family she once loved so fiercely. For unknown reasons. I can speculate wildly about what was going on with her, but I really don’t know. It was terrible storytelling, imo.

If that's true, that just proves yet again that the writers are bad at their jobs. If they were planning a happier, non-break up ending for them (which the rest of the episode seemed to imply) they still could've done it! If Noel Fisher didn't want to be in seasons six they could just say Mickey's in jail for something or other. I mean, come on--why invalidate the characters' journeys for this season just because one actor might not be available for next season? The ending was insulting to anyone who was invested in those characters.

The weird thing is that it was most of the same writers. My only thought is that they must be busy with other projects (I know John Wells is developing something) and they no longer care to put in the needed effort to make a high-quality show.

She was too good for Lip. Godspeed Amanda, godspeed.

That was a horrible finale to a horrible season. Like everything else this year it felt like a shoddy term paper written by a 15 year old during an all-nighter. The Kev and V story amounted to virtually nothing. Fiona's Discount Barn of Men was consistently boring. I mean, Ian runs away, Debbie is TRYING to get pregnant, Carl is in juvie, and poor Liam is abandoned half the time and she wonders if she's a bad person because some jackass lead singer is mad that she dicked around his best friend? Who cares?! Your household is in shambles! These kids used to be your life! What happened to you? What is going on? And don't even get me started on Ian and Mickey's breakup which literally made no sense. And then Ian, who in season 1 flipped out when Kash pulled a gun on Mickey, was just now like "LOl. Sammi may kill the love of my life! Better go inside and have some coffee." I think I'm done with this show.

I would love it if Fiona's revolving carousel of men actually amounted to an interesting story but I doubt that's in the cards.

If they do break up I can't imagine the show getting rid of Noel Fisher unless he himself wants to leave. Everyone loves him! And Mickey and Ian were broken up for the first half of season 4 (Cameron Monaghan wasn't even on the show, he was filming a movie somehere) and they still found stuff for Mickey to do. I think Mickey is kind of like Kev, Vee, (and formerly Sheila)--he's a firm part of the show no matter who he's dating.

I just don't understand Fiona's story at all this year. Are the writers trying to tell a story about how Fiona's neglectful? Because they're not really doing that. If things were operating in the same universe as seasons 1-4, Lip, Debbie, even Vee would've been saying to her, "what the hell is up with you?". But no one seems to care? She moved out (apparently) with no conversation or discussion and left the kids she loves with Sammi??? What is this story? What is the point? Fiona still acts like everything is the same and I can't tell if it's bad writing or just an incredibly odd writing choice.Fiona used to be the heart of the Gallaghers and the heart of this show--now she's an appendage.

Yes, you are! Ian's biological father is Frank's brother Clayton, but since Ian didn't want to really acknowledge this, it's largely been forgotten by the other characters. I don't think it's even been mentioned since season 1

Mickey and Debbie's "Adventures in Manslaughter" was the only truly funny thing that has happened on this show all season, largely because Debbie's freak out combined with Mickey's "Oh well" attitude was brilliant. Both actors were terrific. Sean is a tool. I feel like the writers are going overboard to try and make me like him (he's grizzled! he's driving her to military prison! he's cooking hash! he gets Fiona in a way that no other man has!) makes me dislike him more and more. The part when he was being "funny" and said that everything was all about him - that was actually on the money. He's a very self-involved person. I think he would be terrible for Fiona. Gus is probably better for her but he's such a snoozefest. Fiona's love life has definitely been one of the many low-lights this season. Monica's return is maybe my favorite thing in season five so far. I love her character and her scene with Ian was very affecting. I don't think she was manipulating him, I think she just sees the world in a very, very mixed-up way. She was telling him the truth as she sees it.

Hmm, I'm not sure. This show has always defined itself as a dramedy, I think--and I believe the showrunners are still aiming for that. Ever since season one there have been tons of Frank's "humorous" storylines--that's never really changed. He's always gotten too much screen time, he's always had stories that were trying to be funny but which really weren't. I personally believe the big change this season in the show is due to the fact that John Wells took a step back and Nancy Pimental is the main showrunner now. I think this is why so many characters are half-way unrecognizable and so many things appear only to be dropped with no explanation or follow through later--there's a new person running things and how she views the show is very different to what we previously had. Regarding Mickey and Ian, I'm of two minds. On the one hand until 5x10 they were the only characters who had a story I was enjoying this season so like Slovenly Muse I've been mostly happy with how the show has handled them. How they both dealt with Ian's mental illness was handled really well. They had very little screen time but their story made sense, it wasn't pointless, and they were in character (something that cannot be said of Fiona, Lip, or Debbie's season five stories). On the other hand I completely agree with you, tennisgurl, that Mickey and Ian do get far too little screen time compared to the other pointless subplots we've had for most of the characters. Since they do have an interesting story it would've been nice to see more of it instead of watching Frank and Sammi yelling at each other, Lip worrying about money until it dropped out of the sky, Fiona watering Gus' plants while her family is in shambles, and the gentrification subplot that went nowhere. So I wish they'd had more scenes but at least their scenes were mostly good ones? nd I'm not sure about this army plotline (it seems really contrived) but maybe it will be good, too (hopefully)? I do think it's really weird how little onscreen affection is shown between them, though, when they are a couple who have been together since season one and they're massively in love. I also did not appreciate having their first big romantic kiss of season five occur after Ian sucker punched Mickey and called him a f*****.

One of the big problems with Fiona this year is that there was a lot happening with her and her choices and we never got to see it. She starts the season in 5x01 in her usual role as the Gallagher guardian (her legal role BTW), then she marries Gus. If this were the Shameless of series 1-4, her marriage would've involved discussions/arguments with the rest of her family, scenes of her deciding how to work out her marriage in regards to the kids, maybe a scene where Sammi offers to step in, and some stuff about changes in the household dynamics. Instead Fiona gets married after knowing this guy for 2 weeks. No one bats an eye (remember how jimmy tried really hard to convince Fiona and the others that he could fit in with their family in season 1?). Fiona immediately seems to forget she's a legal guardian to three kids and acts like she could leave them no problem and move in with Gus. Sammi is suddenly taking care of everything? With no explanation? When none of them liked or trusted her last season? Then Ian kidnaps a baby, Carl gets arrested, Sammi rats out Carl, and there's no running water or food in the house? And Sammi is still living there? And Fiona is watering Gus' plants while Liam is being taken care of by...who exactly? Sammi? What is going on in Fiona's brain? Last season she was falling apart but I knew why and that entire season had this great exploration of Fiona's character. This season it's just a bunch of stuff that's happening to her. And I feel lucky when the character's behavior tracks from one week to the next. Most of the time it's just like there's a Fiona type person on my screen who's only there to juggle her four (five?) Different love interests. There were a million continuity errors and missing scenes and character missteps this season and Fiona's story has been one of the worst imo.