DearEvette

This is what frustrates me a bit about this show. It really gets into some good discussions, just the kind that should happen in college, and they can;t really explore them in any good depth because 22 minutes and bloop it is over. It could easily be longer. Oh well. I liked what they were trying to say and on some level I agree. A safe space should be a place where you feel comfortable espousing your views without the fear of judgement. So in that sense, Ana is right that she has a right to a safe space, but that would depend on what the majority make up of the student body is. If there are more conservative women there than not, then she de facto has a space space because she would be part of the majority and isn't marginalized. On the other hand, it could also be argued that a safe space could be defined as a place available for people who otherwise might feel physically unsafe in other spaces under certain circumstances. In that sense, a space for conservative women (based on political views) isn't on the same plane as a safe space for LGBTQ or POC or just women in general. I did like that in the last couple of episodes the show has allowed the other characters to be more front and center with Zoe playing a teensy bit more of a support role. Glad to see them moving in that direction.

I think the gimmicky little communities and their eye-rolling quirks is a large part of why I just can't with this show anymore. And I think it is why I look back fondly to Woodbury and the early days of Alexandria. Those types of communities make sense. People trying hard to create an little enclave of normalcy and cling to a strong leader who gives them that normalcy. Or in the case of the governor, the veneer of normalcy. I can even kind of understand Terminus and place that starts out with good intentions and because people are savage things just slide into awful. But the Garbage Pail kids and The Kingdom are just dumb. Not dramatic enough I guess for them to come across a small band like kinda like CDB was themselves in the early days.

Just more evidence that Carol is the worst. But thinking about this scene and Kelly's reaction makes me think even more than ever that Kelly is actually supposed to be the most 'normal' person of the group. She just doesn't get the hyper-weird personality flashes that we get from everyone else. Regards Mateo, I think he is the one character that I have done a 180 on. I used to dislike him intensely. But I think the show did a great turn in first putting him with Jeff and then pairing him as a scene partner with Cheyenne on multiple occasions. I think the final turning point for me on him was the Tornado episode where I think they used him brilliantly. And I loved the expression on his face when Glenn introduced the Pastor. Actually everyone's reaction to the Pastor was comedy gold.

Really? That would mean that Randall is about 49 -50 in that flash forward and his make up makes him look much older closer to 60. Also that would make Tess, what, about 22? I think the actress also looks older than 22.

The crying white lady cracked me the hell up!! Ha! She is so extra. If she was listening to it on a top 40 pop radio show then she would have been listening to the radio edit, which mean no way would the words "dick" or "nigga" been allowed, they would have blurred out or replaced by more acceptable words. Why is Earn working my last nerve? I get that he feels frustrated and dissed, but why does that have to translate into being continuously stupid about money? Al was giving him some good advice about presentation and confidence -- something Ivy League Earn should already know. Seriously. That poor engineer.

Whatever writer comes up with Sandra ideas needs a raise because I have loved how her character had evolved. Am I wrong for hoping she gets Carole in the end? I can't stand Carole. Y'know I don't think Kelly is supposed to be annoying. Or at least not any more annoying than anyone else. But they've made the other characters irrationally disrespect her for no real reason. When she started as a new employee who was trying to learn, everyone treated her like she should have been a ten year veteran and treated her ignorance as stupidity. And thus her character story is written. It is a nicely bent way of presenting the character when in reality there is no reason for the other characters to treat her the way they have because the show has also taken pains to show Kelly as being rather smart, but the rest of the crew are just willfully blind to it. I think it is funny that they continued that through with the Pastor Craig character. She's not a dummy, she was the only one who knew that he was talking about a tire gauge. And yet he too manages to disparage her by calling her 'Tire Gauge girl" when he realizes that she is Jonah's girlfriend. If they are gonna get Amy and Jonah together I wish they would just do it already and put us out of our misery. I find the dialogue and acting choices around Amy and Jonah's liking each other dance rather juvenile and unfunny. I actually did like everyone else's reaction to them though, now that was amusing.

Heh. the upcoming ep with Sterling Brown was inspired by the Homicide: Life on The Streets episode Three Men and Adena. Per Tvline:

I liked this episode. The only thing I could have lived without were false 'memories' of Jack and Rebecca's vow renewal. I get it that Kate is a Daddy's girl and would be thinking of Jack on this day, but it would have felt more organic if she had fantasized about him giving her away and him being there on her day. Although I will admit, the scene of Jack dancing with Tess and Annie kinda got me. I am loving Kevin and Randall's relationship. They seem to be at such a good place now and them being wedding planners for Kate is all kinds of awesome. And I also love that every scene of them was really quite funny. Even the worse case scenario scene, which went dark but darkly funny. Randall had some great lines, trying to be all smooth when he went into the room with the bridesmaids and called it a "room full of damn." I love how SKB let his voice go into deep register when he said it. Randall trying to be player-smooth is never not funny. Also calling Deja 'Russell Crowe.' Yay, we get to see some of Beth's family and she is played by Melaine Liburd (masking her British accent), whom I loved on Dark Matter. Love the relationship between them! I go back and forth on Deja. On some level I like her story and in and of itself, it is well done. But I resent her intrusion into 'my' family. And think she is given too much space to play out. I hope there are consequences to her vandalizing the car, real ones that make a difference. Regards the flash forwards: It seems like the Toby one and the Kevin + Zoey one are in the category for 'a year from now' given what Randall's voice over was saying while it was happening. So I imagine that Zoey and Kevin will be a couple next season and they'll be part of the Jack's brother storyline that the show has been hinting at. And something happens to trigger a depression in Toby. So those feel like they are hints at next season and will play out in present time. The Randall/Tess one is so far into the future (20 years) that I can't get too upset that they might be talking about Beth -- which I think the show wants us to think but it might not really be her. I am leaning toward that it has something to do with Deja too. Even if it is Beth, that doesn't affect her 'present day' presence. So I am ok. I mean, Jack has been dead for two seasons and we still get to hang with him.

Fun episode. I agree with some others it would have been nice for it to have gone on for at least two episodes to feel a bit fuller. To let Barry at first mourn and then come to terms with the loss of his powers. To let Iris settle in to them and maybe let us see her realize she really doesn't want them. As it was it was a little too much tell and not enough show. But for all that it was still fun. Except Ralph. God, I hope he is a one and done character and we don;t have to be saddled with him again next season. While he was busy shitting on her and hypocritically calling her a coward (dude, have you not seen all your own episodes?) I wish iris had forcefully reminded him that he'd only been with them for a nanosecond and knows nothing about what she has done 'in the field' with the team. Hell just months ago she was helping to repel alterna-Earth Nazis. So he can have ten seats. I think I would have been cheering for her reading him for filth as much as I did when she got to run with her purple flash if only they'd given her the opportunity. I really do hope this is a big sign that she is going back into journalism. Their world needs to expand out of Star Labs and that would be one way to help that along. Also she still needs to write that future article.

I don't even understand Earn. How on earth could he think handing over his entire $4,000 to a criminal he just met on a gift card scam is a good idea? Why not just try it first with 500? See if it works. He is supposed to be the smart one. I am not gonna lie, that Yoo Hoo commercial was obnoxiously catchy.

He was wasn't he? I imagine he just blew them away with his audition and they just cast him as a true colorblind casting. There was one scene where he was watching Kate (his crush/kinda-girlfriend/not-really) playing the piano and singing Rocket Man, the expression on his face was so heartbreaking. Really talented kid.

How much does a resident get paid? I guess if you have really low overhead and no real expenses other than food and rent and maybe student loans (unless they're still deferred) you can save a lot of money. It doesn't seem as if Claire or Shaun own a car so no car payment or insurance. No kids -- so no childcare expenses. Shaun at least would not be spending a lot of money on a wild social life -- and from the looks of it neither would Claire. If she was able to save 1,000 bucks just from baby-sitting then it speaks to someone who has a lot of restraint when it comes to money and doesn't spend just because she had money in her hands. When i was in grad school, I always thought of myself as a poor, impoverished grad student. But truthfully, i had a fairly healthy savings account. If I needed to I could have withdrawn a couple grand quickly. Couldn't do it regularly or anything, because it would have depleted me real quick (and I definitely would not have done it for formal wear), but I had a full time job at the time and lived in a rather ratty apartment with a roommate, no car and learned to go to any department event that served free food, LOL.

So came across Everything Sucks on Netflix. It is a series set in a high school in the 90s in Oregon. An ensemble show with a group of A/V nerds and drama club kids. The main POV character though is a black kid named Luke. The role that would typically go to a white actor. In watching the show I got the impression that Luke was supposed to be white given that there is no mention of race at all. They just cast a black actor and didn't change a thing in the script. Even his bio dad in the show is white. He is also only one of two characters whose family life we get to see (or get any background on), mainly because his mother has a romance storyline in the show.

I don't believe that Claire's mom is really on her meds, or even that she was telling Claire the truth that she was really actually diagnosed. The very first scene is of her singing and dancing in the hall with an audience. Felt like a very 'up' moment and not really an 'even' moment. Also she seems manipulative so she could be playing Claire by making her believe she is getting treated. Poor Claire. I wonder if she just thought , hey let me write her a check so she'll just go away? Always nice to see Sharon Leal though and she looks barely old enough to be Antonia Thomas' mother. Y'all have already mentioned two great Shaun throwaway moments from the episode: When he looks at his watch when Claire says she'll be a minute and also when he says "that's nice" after the husband gives the really nice speech to his wife. I like the Claire and Shaun friendship and am glad they were on a case without that other super competitive chick. And I liked this case. But did we get a resolution? He came out alive but will be get mobility? Speaking of competitive chick....gah, she is such a broadly written character. She is rather poisonous and everything about her is always calculating. She is just exhausting to watch. I hope she isn't a permanent character. Cop Doc is way more interesting, he can stay.

Not so much because of the time involved, but waiting for a development that the author keeps stringing out over books and never resolving. When it gets to that tipping point, to me it is less about lamenting the time involved and more about becoming resentful of the what felt like the author had nothing new to say, no interest in really telling the story but was just stringing things along for a cash grab. That is when I give up when I feel like the author has checked out too. That and if they feel like they've lost control of the story they are telling. I gave up on the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones because to me it doesn't feel at all like the same series I started with. I feels like she is making up stuff as she goes along. Re: The Kitty Kat series by Gini Koch, I saw one just was released recently and was amazed that the series had gotten that high. I liked the premise first book but couldn't continue the series after about book three because of how deeply committed the author was in making her main character a Mary Sue.

I don't think we are supposed to think she was brighter than everyone. It was all an accretion of different ideas that hit in just the right way at just the right time because of what Barry said to her. Harry was the one who thought of the Speed Force. Jesse was the one who thought of Lightning. Caitlin wasn't there to offer an opinion. Only Killer Frost was and she isn't a scientist. At that time they un-stuck KF they hadn't the idea of the lightning yet, the freezing was the second idea. They hadn't had the conversation about the lightning when they un-stuck Cisco either. By the time they had exhausted all ideas (and everyone was tired) Barry told Iris all their ideas and she had the one piece of the puzzle Barry didn't have because she knew about what Cisco did to bring him out. She's smart enough to put stuff together. I thought this was a great episode. Nice out of the pocket idea. Some good special effects. Good Iris/Barry action. I liked seeing how time had elapsed every time they went back to the warehouse, especially in the end. And nice not to think too much about DeVoe or the bus metas. It works as a metaphor for this point in the season. Like Barry, it was nice to take a breather from DeVoe.

I know right, D'Isiah T. Billings-Clyde won an Oscar!! Ha!

I think I'd go full Tiffany Haddish if Get Out won Best Picture. LOL.

Nicole Kidman. Beautiful color. Terrible bow.

Tiffany and Maya are fun together.

Holy Shit. Oscar Isaac is BEAUTIFUL.

"Don't say La-La-Land, don't say La-La-Land. Ha, Mark Hamill's got jokes. Kobe Bryant has an Oscar. Whoa.

I had no desire to see this movie but on the strength of that quote alone, I'd watch it.

Confetti.

Awww, the Shape of Water guys all have the same pocket square that looks very marine-like.