DearEvette

Well, whoever is responsible for shutting down non-Iris distractions for Barry, I am glad they had the clout to put any brakes on Barry/Caitlin, Barry/Patty etc. The Flash could have easily gone the route of the Arrow where the long running comic cannon of Dinah/Oliver being a long-time couple who get married is completely ignored in favor of Felicity -- a minor character in the series who never had a romantic relationship with Oliver. They brought her character to the fore in the comics in 2014 in response to her popularity on the show. But even still Dinah/Oliver were still endgame. I think to some extent we also have to credit the Iris and WA fandom. A lot gets talked about SFF fandom and their treatment of WOC characters -- and it is truly toxic -- I think the WA fandom really responded in force to any negative threats to WA in general and Iris in particular. Having followed it for some time, I got the impression that people weren't gonna allow Iris, their leading lady, to get shafted the way so many other WOC characters in SFF. I also think this is especially true since I (anecdotally) believe a lot of Abbie Mills fans (Sleepy Hollow) were also Iris West fans and were extra determined not to have Iris fate follow in Abbie's footsteps. So i think it was just as important for the creators to know that Candice had a strong and vocal fanbase, just as strong and vocal (if not more so) than her detractors.

I love this quote from Grant from that article:

Totally. They have a good idea then they inevitably mess it up because they try to get fancy. The Thinker started brilliantly. But then they went and messed it up so hard. They made him evil instead of making his idea evil, which would have been much more interesting. I'll bet Cicada starts our really cool. but by mid-season his plans will be tedious and we won't have a clue as to what is actually happening. Sigh.

If they are talking 'real' deaths for major characters this makes me feel a little nervous for Wally. The only other character given the current cast that I think is expendable that the audience would accept without rioting are the newer regulars -- Cecile and Ralph. But... but... I am also a little nervous for Joe. Out of all the regulars, I could see Jesse L. Martin getting maybe a little fidgety after five years. Candice's reaction to the "arrow free" vow renewal. "The shaaaade, honey" made me LOL. Also Helbig's reaction "buttons." Makes me wonder if he is referring to fans or if the cast was also triggered by that. I read somewhere that the person who penned that episode of the crossover -- even though she was a Legends writer -- was originally an Arrow writer for the first four seasons of that show. So no wonder poor Barry and Iris got jacked.

Ha. I love the Tv Insider interview. The interviewer asks Grant and Candice, how are things on the West-Allen homefront. She answers "We are killing it. Being a very healthy, married, interracial couple." Nice little reminder for the peeps on twitter who give her grief about IR couples being 'wrong' and 'people needing to stay with their own kind.'

Lashana Lynch was just cast as Agent 55 in the movie adaptation of the very popular comic series Y:The Last Man. The casting of Agent 55 would have been a deal breaker for me with this movie and Lynch (finger crossed) seems like a great decision. I decided to look her up a bit more because the only thing I had seen her in was the few episodes of Still Star Crossed that I managed to watch. I thought she was very good on there. I came across Bulletproof when I was looking her up, I am not sure it is available here in the US for streaming, but I came across a twitter convo about the casting of her and how it was a deliberate choice by the creator to not only to make her black (I think the producers wanted Pike's wife to be white) but to make her a dark-skinned black woman. I am too lazy to trawl for the twitter like but here is an article about it that basically says the same thing.

I recently discovered and binged Détectives It is a French show (shown with french subtitles). I found it because I fan girl for Sara Martins and was really bummed when she left Death in Paradise. it just wasm't the same after her departure. I was pleasantly surprised watching it. I was expecting it to be a run of the mill crime-detective series, but it is quirky and light. And sexy. On the downside, there are two seasons but only one season so far is available for streaming in the US. And even that isn't easy. If you have HOOPLA, you can watch four episodes a month. But I actually used a 7-day trial on Amazon for MHz ( an international streaming channel) to binge the whole first season. Now I have to wait for whenever the second season ever drops here and who knows when that will be since the first season made it across the pond in 2014.

I love that! There is one I saw on twitter where Iris and Barry are dancing and Candice asks "where were those moves in the bedroom?" And Grant stops and says "Gurl!"

I just finished reading (well, listening to on audio) Jed Had To Die by Tara Sivec. A breezy, funny murder mystery/romance. Laugh out loud in some places. And the police interviews of the various townspeople made the book remind me of scenes in a little of Big Little Lies, except the witness interviews in this book are hysterical.

This brings to mind the creator of Boy Meets World's revelation on why he had Shawn and Angela Break up. This quote kills me because it basically it sounds to me like he is trying to reassure us that he didn't break them up because they were an IR Couple. But the alternative reason sounds even worse. It sounds like the Shawn/Angela pairing was as popular Corey/Topanga pairing and they had to break them because they were threatening to overshadow the main couple.

Now I can't remember. Did the detective actually every say what they were arresting Liam for. If not, then Liam's arrest is one of those things that you have to fill in the blanks on. As far as we know Liam was never seen in Tandy's presence by the Rapey or his friends. So if he was arrested it would be 1) because someone identified him as a known associate of Tandy's and the detective is arresting him to lead to Tandy and 2) the detective had something on him to arrest him for his own crime(s). His arrest, even if on unrelated charges, has to be all about getting Tandy because otherwise his arrest by that detective just at that time is too coincidental.

I finally got a chance to watch it. I like the potential. But I kept wanting something to really happen to make the story exciting. I get the need for set up but the backstory and angst went on for just a beat too long. A couple of other things bothered me -- like why was his coach so determined to see him in the wrong? There was obvious dirty plays during the game and bad reffing. Why did no one else on his team see it? I get that for plot purposes they wanted him to be alienated from his team, but that just stretches credibility. Also once he found the cop, why didn't he got to his parents and say 'Hey remember the red headed cop with the scar? I found him, his name is Connor and his uncle was the guy that told us he didn't exist." I think there were too many artistic gaps in the storytelling that contributed to some of the feeling of set up and not enough action. Also I agree that Tandy is a terrible grifter. She preys on people in a place that she is such a regular at that the bartender knows her regular drink? The guy didn't have to track her down at the ballet, he just had to go back to the club. Also who lifts wallets at a place where the people are going to be needing them right there to buy drinks and immediately realize they've been robbed? A pickpocket picks the pockets and leaves really quickly. She was still hanging around. Also it looked like she and Liam were the last guests to leave the wedding? The banquet room looked deserted and the maid of honor was tipping the staff. But then why was the 'just married' car still there? Usually the married couple leaves driving away in the car while everyone throws shit at them as they drive off. And don[t get me started about her driving around in that car...talk about an open invitation to get pulled over by the cops given that she just robbed the wedding! Kinda of a shame I liked Liam more than I liked Tandy. At first thought he was shady, but then they went in the direction of him just being a schmoe in love. He could still be shady I guess, but her little trip into his mind didn't lean that way. I'd really pissed off at her if she just lets him twist in the wind like that. Even though this sounds like I hated it, LOL, I didn't. It is still interesting enough that I want to keep watching. I just hope it moves into more decisive action pretty soon.

Nah. When a subculture gets discovered by the mainstream, their vernacular is quickly incorporated. Some idioms get used to death and die out and some endure. For instance the term '24/7' is widely used, but it actually started out as black street slang in the 80s. I always thought it was a sort of nod to the 7/11 store name, just expanded out. When disco went back underground in the 80s only to emerge again as house music, I used to go to the Paradise Garage, a dance club in the Village that mostly was mostly a gay club, but a lot of us college kids went just to dance our asses off he great music because during our college parties all of our DJs would play house music, and I remember hearing the term 'shade' but had zero clue about what it meant -- no context given in random overheard conversation. It wasn't till I saw Paris is Burning a few years later that I finally got it!

I am completely shocked by this. Naive, I know, since you really don't anything about anyone's inner life, sometimes not even the people closest to you, but definitely not celebrities you only know from their work. But....man....wow. RIP.

On the one hand, the ball culture from the 80s is so specific that the show couldn't help but feel derivative of Paris is Burning because what you saw there is what walking a ball was like. The show couldn't deviate too much from that. On the other hand, it feels like it cribbed a little too hard from Paris is Burning. Did we really have to have Pray say '10s across the board' in just the inflection of the original? It felt like a steal not an homage. Also Angel's character (with her 'what I want' speech) was giving me big Venus Xtravaganza vibes. But I do admit she is simply stunning to look at, like a cross between Amandla Sternberg and Zendaya. And it wasn't just Paris Is Burning that the show felt like it just stepped into. Instead of seeming to present what life like was in the 80s, it felt like it was giving us what life was like in the 80s as seen through movies. James Van Der Beek's character felt like he had wandered off the set of Wall Street as an understudy to Gordon Gecko's character and the insertion of Trump felt too meta and again not nearly as clever as I think they were going for. And Damon's cringey audition was just a Flashdance call back. I want to keep up with this and hope that it settles into itself. I really want the actor who plays Electra Abundance to improve. I thought she overacted a bit, emphasized words in all the wrong places and her speech was too inflected to sound natural. And yet, she has such charisma and presence (and fantastic cheekbones). The ending of the opening scene where she put on her game face and pranced up to the police with her hands held out was fantastic. Just the right amount of theatre and pagentry, that her audience in that ball would have reacted just the way they did. I liked Blanca and felt she came off as more natural. I do wish the show had built up to the schism in the House of Abundance rather than just having Blanca leave and Electra come off as Mother that is less 'Mom' and more Mommy Dearest. It would have been nice for us to see the nurturing side of Electra instead of the ego/bitchy side and therefore make Blanca immediately more sympathetic and Electra less so. But then again Ryan Murphy and 'nuance' are not friends. The music selection was straight up FIRE though!

Yeah, the acting was ...not great. But not surprising in all, it appears that none of the actors have any real acting credits prior to this. Billy Porter, of course, is a Tony award winner with an MFA in drama. So of course he stands out. And of course Kate Mara and Evan Peters are professional actors. But I think those are the only three. The rest... the print is probably still wet on their SAG cards.

Yeah, the Wayans thing sounds like a contract rider of sorts. But since it seems to be health related I wonder if it is explicitly included to for liability issues in the event something does happen while on set related to his diabetes and he can't claim that his health was not being accommodated by the show? The Variety article still hasn't swayed me from believing that Crawford comes off as rather toxic and that the Wayans stuff is fairly minor in comparison and is included in some ways to present a picture of balanced reporting but can be viewed in some ways a deflection from the more critical issues. Is Wayan's riders, including his not wanting to table read, responsible for the problems on set? According to the article those things were all in place prior to the show even starting in season 1. So what precipitated the animosity between Crawford and Wayans? Was it there is S1? or did in grow in S2? Crawford seems to have some sort of dick measuring stick where if 'you can't take a hit' you're a pussy and must be ridiculed for it. The two or three confrontations noted in the article all seem to be precipitated by Crawford. The walk off by Eric Laneuville, a veteran tv director with decades of experience and tons of directing credits, was precipitated by Crawford's reactions. It was Crawford's pay that got docked because of the delay and change in directors. Even though I still think Crawford comes off sounding like a massive asshole and has deservedly been reprimanded, I do think the show-runners and ep have alion's share of the blame in how it appears they have no control over the set. His outbursts, no matter how 'passionate' he is for the work, should never have been tolerated from the get go. Lead actor or not, he is not the boss. Say what you will about Wayan's 'Divo' demands. They all sound like they were duly agreed upon as part of his contract. Crawford yelling profanities at people was not.

And yet, I am cynical enough about this show to believe they will truly fuck it up somehow.

My favorite episode of the season. I love seeing Sam, Coco and Janelle being sister-friends. I love seeing this by-product of Sam and CoCo's earlier realtionship... that CoCo still stays in touch with Sam's parents even though her relationship with Sam soured. Just in this one episode, the show did such a great job of fleshing out Sam's dad and giving us the complicated look at her relationship. It was simultaneously really sweet and really sad. Honestly it was like a race-bent version of Imitation of Life. Loved seeing Sam's family and I am loving the loosening up of Sam's hair as a metaphor for her unwinding a bit.

He may not be insurable now, but a strategic fade away for 6 mos to a year. A stint in rehab. An apology tour. He'll get a part in something indie which will lead to a bigger part. An voila he's back. If he manages to luck into something really big and manages to behave himself, this will be just considered a blip in his career. See: Robert Downey Jr. Big names were still lining to up work for him even though he was completely unreliable. It wasn't until he was deemed uninsurable that he began to lose parts in A-list projects. After a long stint in rehab, a confessional on Oprah, and finally Mel Gibson( !!) paying his insurance bond himself, he was back on his comeback tour. And look at him now.

I agree. I admit in my first viewing of it, I characterized it as a bad season. But upon repeat viewings, I put it down to being a bit of a shock to the system because of the abrupt tonal shift going from all things Avon and Stringer in S1 to the waterfront and the Sabotkas in S2. It isn't til we get to S3 and realize that each season has a different focus, circles that ripple out and examine all the different 'broken' systems. Honestly if I had to rank the seasons, S5 would come in as my least favorite of the 5 seasons of the show. S1 and S4 run neck and neck as my favorites with S2 and S3 coming next.

They have done so much better by Troy this season than last season. He is so messy! I love it. I especially love the scenes with him and Reggie and how they are two peas in a IDGAF pod. Also, shallowly, I have to admit Mr. Pastiche is an actual snack this season. The man bun is working for him. And they have low-key made him feel more 'real' as less like a character type.

This was the weakest ep in all of season 1. The rest of the season gets so much better. Believe me, the race relations, the social commentary, the smart look at college life all of it gets much better. Troy in the first season is really rudderless and his POVs reflect that. In one of my comments somewhere on the threads about him I call him a cypher. And to some extent he is. But his character is one that shows the most growth, imo. By the time the S1 ends and we get into S2 we'll see they've done a good job of making Troy more complex in iterative steps.

From the firing, to being dropped by her talent agency and now all the other tv providers/channels removing the original recipe show from syndication, other actors really coming down hard in condemnation in language that isn't diplomatic -- all of this is happening with such a decisive quickness that I am frankly surprised. We haven't seen this type of wholesale industry response to a celebrity acting out since, well, Kevin Spacey. Makes you wonder is Disney/ABC flexing muscles behind the scenes? Or were people wanting to distance themselves from Roseanne as she's become incrasinly unhinged on twitter well before this didn't feel empowered to do so until ABC cancelled her in such a definitive way?

I am betting it won't be too long before we get an announcement she's leaving too.