DearEvette

Heh. This is what I also like to call the 'ambiguously brown' role. Whenever I see a new show announced where they show the cast picture and there is an actress in the ensemble that I don't recognize who is obviously a WOC but not what I would quickly or easily identify as black or East Asian -- her skin tone and facial features means she could be anything from black to SE Aisan to Latina to heck, just an olive skinned white woman. That is when you become an IMDB/Wikipedia/Twitter sleuth. LOL

Yeah, I have to agree with everyone SWS is a good addition. Like I said in last week's thread, I am enjoying the background and personality they are crafting for him. He's got that tortured hero thing going on, but he is reasonable about it. Not exasperating or wallowing. And he sells it well. Honestly, I have no problems with DW leaving. If he is not happy and he has health issues, then he needs to do what he needs to do. I hate the way he has gone about it, though. If the show does survive him leaving, I only hope that somehow they are able to salvage Keesha Sharp and expand Bailey's role. I hope I like her new partner. I loved the B-team last season, Just about the only bright spot from last season and hate that they didn't capitalize on them then. And now the actor who played her fellow B-lister is gone.

From the moment Nigel killed Nagini to Harry and Voldy's final duel is so emotionally satisfying. I can re-read that part over and over again. The same moments in the movie don't quite touch the emotional heft, imo.

Y'know, I think this is a shortcoming in the storytelling. And really does a disservice to the female characters. Jack, Randall and Kevin all have been shown to have relationships with people outside the immediate family. Jack had Miguel. Randall had his black surrogate family. And Kevin had Sophie. Rebecca and Kate seem to have only had Jack to focus on. Neither one of them seems to have had anything or anyone else. No wonder they are at odds with each other. They were competing for a limited resource. Thinking about it now, it does seem to be a bit glaring that they've never given Rebecca any girlfriends in the flashbacks, She should at least been friends with another stay-at-home mom in the neighborhood.

I agree with everyone that the cold open was great. I liked that even in her temp job Amy continued the tradition of wearing a wrong name-tag. And 'Roz' is definitely the perfect truck-stop diner waitress name. I liked the episode just fine and there were some nice one-liners. Who knew Sandra was such a Amy/Jonah shipper! Also liked how Carol was so underwhelmed that Kelly was completely over Jonah. That said, I HATED everything surrounding Noam(?). Uncomfortable and completely unnecessary. They could excised everything about him and have still gotten to the sex talk staff meeting. I was never bog on Amy and Jonah but that was mostly the tease. Glad they pulled the trigger and have them completely together. i wish shows would learn that multiple season long will they/won't they aren't as clever as they think they are.

Oh my gosh, this so much. That was such a major moment for Amy and the whole squad cheered for her. And I remembering watching it and thinking, "i am go glad Gina isn't there she would have completely shat on Amy's moment." And it would have dimmed some of the glow of that episode for me, because I thought that was a pretty great episode.

I know right? I am so exasperated, yet entertained by all their whispered conversations. Yeah, totally NOT suspicious at all, guys. Also way to dramatically milk listening to that voice mail by staring at it all episode long. I know.... I know.... he had to psych himself up for it and that makes sense, it was just a bit too much on top of all the whispered meetings and the flashbacks to them in bed. Anyway some other observations (I don't know all the names yet....) I think Giuntoli is doing a good job as the guilt ridden sleazy cheater. I think Roday is doing excellent as the snarky, trying to be cynical friend (and I adored his interaction with Jon's son). I am not very convinced by Romany Malco's performance as the tortured, suicidal man. I keep expecting him to be a little more comedic just because he seems to have the face and demeanor of a sharp comedian (and the way he delivered the 'Drink your mango tango tea" line). So I feel a lot of dissonance watching him be all tortured. I like the friendship between Regina and Delilah and even though we've only seen small glimpses of Regina she seems warm and friendly. I want to see more of her pespective and get some takes on how she feels about stuff. So far all we know about her is that she had a restaurant once. I want to like Ashley but she just feels shady to me right now. What is she doing? I know she has been his assistant for years but damn girl, boundaries! I want to also like the blond Therapist but the show feels so try-hard with shoe-horning her in with all these long time friends. She doesn't fit in comfortably and yet she keeps being there. Weird. Also I am not interested in her own story. And finally, they must have filmed this after they fired the original actress who was supposed to be David Giuntoli's wife but before they cast Grace Park because there was no glimpse of her at all. But I am looking forward to more of her, like with Regina I want to know what the deal is with stuff from her perspective. ETA: I wonder if Constance Zimmer is the mysterious Barbara Morgan? You don't cast Constance Zimmer as a blink and you miss it funeral attendee...

Yes. Thank you. You said this exactly how I feel. She was such a writers' pet. I hate characters like that and on top of it she was mean-spirited. I just didn't find the writing for her fun or funny.

You know, I don't think it is at all unrealistic for Randall to continue to have some issues related to his childhood, his role as an adopted child, and especially of a black adopted child in a white family into his 30s and 40s. I think it has been clearly established that his wound-tight personality, his perfectionism, his need to please -- all stem from his childhood and to some extent how he feels as an adoptee. People have all sorts of emotional triggers that last with them for years. Not all traumas have to be violent or physical to be traumatic. They just have to be something that caused some real and deep emotional distress and i think the show has done a good job of showcasing a lot of Randall's distress. Think about it... how many times has the show ever shown young Randall to be really comfortable in his skin? Honestly, the scene at his black BFFs house and when he was on the visit t Howard were some of the few times we've seen Randall looking his most carefree. Most of the time he is tense. It is also hard for something to heal when it keeps getting picked at. In S1 when he invited the Kevin's terrible theatre actress GF to Thanksgiving, her first comment to him was 'You're the adopted one." or something like that. I have my issues with all the Big Three at various times but I do have to give the show credit for crafting three distinct characters that feel logical in their characterization even when I might not like them sometimes or be exasperated at them from time to time.

I am one of the ones who read the books first and can probably say this might be the case. But then again, I read the first three books years before there was even a thought of the tv show and had always counted the series as one of my favorite epic, military fantasy series. So I had the opposite problem. I had a fair amount of investment in the book characters and couldn't really get into the tv show. I will say, I think the first season came the closest to it's corresponding book and the casting is so spot on that I actually watched most of the first season. And I did watch the Red Wedding just to see how that'd translate on screen.

Heh. I thought that for once at the movie premiere they were all -- finally -- on good behavior. Nobody acted out, they all showed up, they looked enthusiastic. Some other rando observations: I like Beth and Randall's little fist bump of support and Beth saying 'My man!' in approval. Just nice little relationship touches there. If you are gonna hide something in the fridge, stuffing it in something at the front of the fridge is not the way to go. Trust. I lived with four other girls in college during my junior year. If you want to hide your shit in the fridge, you have to be way more creative than that. I was focused on Randall's reaction to Kate's pronouncement, but the fact that she said 'I am the only one who can carry on a piece of Dad." is even worse when I think about it because it not only dismisses Kevin's intent to father kids but his ability to do so as well. And she made both those assumptions without a thought. Honestly, I would love to see Kevin as a dad. He'd have to hold the kid at least once, bare chested and say " Daddy say whaaaat?" Also he has such a good rapport with Randall's kids. I don't care what anyone says, I like Miguel. And I hope we get more of him this season.

Yeah, that line took me aback because I was like: wait a minute.... how much does Claire even know Lea or about Lea to even defend her to Shaun. I admit my dislike of Lea may have made me block out some of her scenes from last season, so I might not be remembering something, but I didn't get the impression that Claire knew enough about Lea's interactions with Shaun to make such a statement, And then it pissed me off. Not in the same way as it did for @SnarkEnthusiast but because to me it came off as blatant cheerleading for a character for reasons to manipulate audience reaction. Not only does Lea not deserve that consideration, imo, but it also does a disservice to Claire because it doesn't make sense for her character to say it.

I get that Kate's comment meant biologically. But you pass on more than just DNA from your parents. I felt bad for Randall in that moment. It may not have been as bad if he hadb't already been told he wasn't part of William's world. Now to hear something like that from Kate of all people had to hurt. I am loving Randall and Kevin's relationship evolution. One again Beth looked fab! I agree that I really enjoy the teenage crew.

I actually liked this. Not typically a fan of the CBS brand comedies, but i thought Amber Stevens-West and Damon Wayans jr have such charming chemistry and both have good, natural comedic timing. I've loved him since Happy Endings and her since Greek. And it tickles me she actually married her on screen BF Fisher from Greek (Andrew West) in real life.. I actually laughed a couple times (Jake dancing, the human Alexa). Also thought their message song was clever. And Amber has a great singing voice.

Totally. All the marketing bears this out. Also, I watched A Million Little Things and didn't once think of The Big Chill. At a glance the whole suicide and group of friends thing makes it seem similar. But at least judging by the pilot, the tone and focus is so different that the suicide+ group of friends thing seems almost incidental. For one thing the dead guy, the suicide & reason for it, in AMLT is a very central plot point/mystery. But the tone really felt like it was trying to reel in the TIU crowd. On another note, I just saw that Amazon has ordered Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time to series. I loved those books back in the day. They were my gateway drug to The Game of Thrones series. I never did get past book seven tho. The wait between books was getting longer and it is one of those series that you really have to keep up with everything going on. The scope is much bigger than AGOT. And then the author died. But I am now wildly curious about the tv series.

I liked this ep better than the season opener. Shaun and Claire's case was my favorite of two. Of course poor Claire gets a patient who dies and she has to deliver the news to the grieving family. But I love the triumvirate of Melendez, Claire and Shaun. There is a lot of cast chemistry between those three and Melendez has to be one of the better character redemption arcs in recent history. And yes, Shaun realizing the value of a helpful lie in the end was great. I like that it was something he struggled with all last season and finally deployed it here so effectively. I really enjoy Lim as a cast addition (even as I lament Jared being gone). I see they dialed down Resnick's bitch factor. Good. It works. I like her being prickly and cold, and you can be those things without being mean and witchy. Someone needs to remind Park he's a doctor here not a cop. In his role as a doctor his directive to is put patient care and advocacy first. His background as a cop can be used to inform care, but it shouldn't impede it. Still don't care about Lea.

Leverage. I can just randomly pick an episode and be in my happy place. Eureka. Ditto, Misfits. But only the first two seasons. Greek.

I like he new guy. I like the episode somewhat. You can tell there is a difference, the chemistry among the whole cast is a little bit off. But honestly, it was more fun than watching most of season two which, in hindsight, the chemistry felt off then too. I will say I was really over Riggs' issues midway through S2. And that has nothing to do with what was going on backstage, I was over his issues way before we ever learned about the drama. Adding on his daddy issues coupled with being betrayed by his BFF all that angst. It felt like overkill almost. One reason I liked the new guy is they gave him some background and some issues but they seem like they are different enough from Riggs while still being a little damaged. They didn't try to make him Riggs 2.0. I liked his family dynamic as well. Wayans did a great job, you felt like he was grieving. I like the route they went with the conspiracy theories and showing how much Riggs has rubbed off on him in he two years. I am cautiously optimistic they'll find the fun of S1 that they seemed to have lost in S2.

No I remember being impressed he went into this whole lie right off the cuff. Said he was teaching a regular Monday student at the time and the phone went off while the kid was playing. Then he riffed on how he blamed the kids' parents but it turned out to be his own phone so he turned it off.

Not only did he say ihe was with a student at the time, he effortlessly embellished the lie. Dude can lie on a dime.

I thought this was an interesting contrast to Jon's demeanour during his suicide. Given the way the whole scene went, it felt like the subtext was that Rome's attempt at suicide wasn't at all resolute. He seemed to be delaying it waiting for some intervention: taking the time to open the different pill bottles and spill them onto the counter so they disperse widely (it would have been more efficient to empty them into his hand straight from the bottle). Waiting for the water to filter. He was crying, nervous, trembling like he was really psyching himself up to do it. With him, the scene read to me like it was something he felt he had to do because he had to -- it would solve some problem. I wasn't getting a depression vibe from him. Meanwhile Jon was relaxed, smiling, whealing a deal, charmingly told his assistant to take a long lunch and -- just jumped. Of the two, I could more easily buy that Jon was actually depressed. With him, his scene read to me of a man would was relieved that it was finally all gonna be over and he was setting things aright before he was done. Whether the mystery of why he did it bears this our remains to be seen. Also, I think whatever is going on with Rome is somehow linked with Jon. Overall I liked it. I think the marketing made it seem like a This Is Us, but the story/plot bears no resemblance. Not even the tone does. This felt darker. I do like the mystery & questions being set up: why did Jon kill himself? What does the assistant know? Why not give the wife the envelope with her name on it? Why did he buy the restaurant? What is up with Rome? How do all these relationships fit together. If the show delivers on all the stuff bubbling under the surface I think it'll be great. I also, mostly like the characters. However, I rolled my eyes so hard at the manpain sharing at the Hockey game. My god that scene was bad and uncomfortable and felt really fake. And I can't believe that Boston Hockey fans would not be giving some major side eye to three men crying and hugging during a game when it isn't in response to their team winning the Stanley cup.

The set up for a ferris wheel and other bigger rides like that usually require the involvement of a midway rides carnie outfit or company. Most of those companies have a very defined season that runs from about April to Mid-October in the Northeast. Most of them close down and store all that equipment for the winter. I'd be very surprised if any would put up those sorts of rides in a cold climate during the Christmas season. If they have left it as some nice outdoor Christmas festival with hot cider and ice sculpture contests, that would be one thing but the big rides do make it a little --- not believable.

I enjoyed everything about this except the Kate stuff. I was hoping at this point the show would get past everything being about her weight. That said, I did appreciate how frank the doctor was. I didn't think she was mean or cruel, just starkly factual about something that can be hard to talk about without it seeming to come off as mean. And I hated her speech at her party. I think I FF'd through the rest of it because of the cringe factor. Beth looks gorgeous with her hair like that. I just needed to get that out of the way. On the one hand, I was not on board with her poking her nose in on Zoe and Kevin's romance. It feels like it was written very sitcom-tropey and played for light laughs a bit. But it felt beneath her. On the other hand, I liked the conversation she had with Kevin. Her admitting her "schtick" with Kevin felt real and right. I like that added complexity to their relationship. I liked her flat out admitting she loved him. And I especially liked her observation that he speaks to her kids like people, because that was one of the things I noticed about Kevin right off the the bat in S1 when I actively disliked him, except for that. I will say I hope Zoe and Kevin prove Beth wrong. I hope they are what each other needs finally to conquer whatever demons they both have. I also think maybe the trip to Vietnam may be part of that. I know we are supposed to get backstory on Beth this season so maybe that will encapsulate Zoe and we'll see why Beth thinks she is so destructive with romantic relationships. I know people rag on Randall, and sometimes he deserves it, but I loved how he was trying to be all stern with Deja only to visibly melt into delight when she pulled out his birthday gift. That is peak Randall, and SKB does that so well. And finally, I was as confused as anyone about the Franco Harris thing at first. My first thought was that this was Beth's family. But then the minute he started to put on the padding and finally the Harris jersey, i knew it was Franco. Of course The Immaculate Reception was the first thing I thought of. You couldn't grow up in my family and not know Steeler lore. I figured Jack and Rebecca's date would tie in somehow with it. I know it seems disconnected and corny, but I liked that little bit of connection/metaphor it provided. Also wonder if they consulted Franco in any way? Also I was tickled that some people on twitter were still thinking Franco was Beth's dad even after his identity was revealed. Also great casting on the actor.

Finally settling down to catch up with this season. I hate Dro. I always have. I think he is toxic for Molly. It would be one thing if she was really comfortable with Dro's open marriage, but she isn't at all. And when she tries to give him specific boundaries he pushes them and pushes them. And then he has the nerve to tell her "you need to figure out what you want." Bitch, she told you want she wanted. Ugh. I felt bad for Issa. She made a comment about walking on eggshells in all parts of her life and it is true. She is just completely powerless all over the place. Issa and Molly are such a contrast because Molly has a lot of the power Issa doesn't. She can demand her key from Dro whereas Issa is staying at Daniel's on his whim and doesn;t feel comfortable returning without an all clear text. Molly can negotiate her employment contract and work on her terms, whereas Issa's is being treated like a second class citizen and can't even point out obvious things to her boss. That said, Molly and Issa stay friendship goals. Their conversations ring so true and sound so natural. You feel like they've been friends forever. I love the vase saga!

I think the season 2 trailer is a bit of a misnomer. It is less a promo of the whole season and more a promo for the first episode of S2. They are continuing two storylines that they started in the finale of S1 that are not Claire centric. But in each weakly promo throughout last season, she had pretty good facetime. And in the episodes that centered her, she was promo'd. I absolutely agree that H'wood and tv has an abysmal track record wrt their WOC characters and using their images in promo and/or ghosting their characters in their storylines. I just don't think that is the case in this particular show. The show has been very clear from its inception who is the lead and what the show is about, a show about a doctor with asperger's. That said Antonia has gotten some very meaty storylines in her own subplots, she's driven the narrative, she has been given her own family backstory which informs her character to some extent, and the show has allowed her some gratifying complexity. It has actually justified her third billing in a largely ensemble cast. Yeah, them casting the stereotypical manic pixie dream girl for Shaun's love interest is really rather eye-roll worthy. I have been on record in the GD forums that I can't stand that character. But I am rather glad they opted against a romance with Shaun and Claire right out of the gate. I am loving the building blocks of their friendship. If the show later decides to go that route, I'd be fine with it because I think the characters would have built a foundation on top of a deep friendship and I think it would feel like they earned the romance and the audience would be completely invested in it. Now, On a completely different note... I wonder if Lifetime's horning in on what used to be solely Hallmark's turf with the Christmas Rom-Com tv movies is what finally caused Hallmark to step up their diversity and inclusion? Because Lifetime has unveiled their slew of Christmas movie offerrings and they have at least four movies with non-white leads.