DearEvette

Honestly, I think Connor loves Oliver but in an idealized sense. Which is interesting since Connor seduced him with ulterior motives. Haven't re-watched all of Season 1 so I can't recall where the switch occurred -- where Connor developed real feelings for Oliver. But it felt quick and not really grounded so I am not surprised they fell apart so quickly. I am not quite so convinced about Oliver's feelings. It could be my bias because I am not an Oliver fan, but he seemed soooo eager to get an in with Annalise and the K5 that my spidey senses tingle. Also, i know the deleting of the Stanford letter could be read as "Oh I am so in love with him i don't want him to go." But it could also be read as "I haven't gotten into the real inner circle yet, and my ticket to get there can't move 3,000 miles away and I lose my chance." It alos doesn't help that the minute he got the in, he broke up with Connor. At this point, Oliver is a bit of a wild card. He can go either way depending on what the show has planned for him. He and Connor can be endgame if it turns out he is just what he appears on surface or he's outta there if he has been playing some long con on them to get close to Annalise. Right now I can't root for anything Connor/Oliver because 1) I don't like Oliver and 2) Connor is being such a petulant asshole. Regards Asher & Michaela, to me they are a surprise break out couple and I think their relationship could go the distance because unlike Connor/Oliver it feels like their relationship is more grounded. I also think a lot of people have slept on the character development of Asher. But he has shown a lot of growth in the seasons. He was arrogant and a little dim in his rich,white privilege guy role. He was causally racist in a "I don't have a problem with those people" way and casually homophobic in a "but I am ok with that lifestyle" way. But I think that is a thing of the past. I feel like he is stupid in love with Michaela and he's a huge shipper of Oliver and Connor. The Asher of today is really different than the Asher of two seasons ago. Sure he is still a dork, but it is a dorkiness that you smile at rather than deride.

First episode I watched all season. Not bad. I was so happy that there was No Negan and then still had to hear his stupid voice. I laughed so hard at the whole Ren Faire vibe of The Kingdom right down to the speech pattern. I especially loved Ezekial calling Rick, "Rick of Alexandria" like that was a real motherfuckin' title. Seriously, I think he knighted Rick right on the spot! Rosita was flying her bitch flag high. And it wasn't the cool sort of bitch but rather the little petty sort. Jesus, Sasha wasn't asking Rosita to braid her hair, she was letting out some frustration about their situation and just happened to be walking next to Rosita at the time. If she can't put aside the fact that a guy dumped her ass during a fucking Zombie Apocalypse where their group currently being made to bend over and take it by a psychotic bully, then her bitter ass deserves to die. I think I rewound the Clothesline Mass Death scene like three times. That was fun to watch. The look on everyone's faces when they got a load of not only Ezekial but Sheba was worth a rewind too.

Seriously, show? And I was enjoying this....

Ok, that pretty damned cool.

So we have Negan, Rick, Geoffrey and Ezekial as leaders. It is interesting the personalities that people choose to follow and how people psyche themselves out to follow these people.

I'll take an entire episode of every single person saying things like 'prithee', 'anon' and 'sup' if it means no Negan.

He called him "Rick Grimes of Alexandria." Why did I feel like there was a silent 'Sir' before that?

What in the Sam Hell Prince Humperdink shit is this?

The Kingdom is prosperous. CDB has met them. The Kingdom will stop being prosperous soon.

God help me. I decided to watch this after not having watched any of the first half of the season. Don't make me regret it show!

Nope. I love this. This is spectacle. And it is very much Lemonade.

I am such an old. I don't know who any of these people are. Last year I learned who Desiigner was. Now there is a whole new crop.

Every time I see Ed Sheeran all I see is a Hobbit. But his little hobbit ass can do some music! I like this song and the video is nice too.

So this Carrie Underwood/ Keith Urban song doesn't sound very country. it sounds very 80s rom-com soundtrack pop.

I've only watched two episode of Riverdale, but from what I saw they doing what I call wallpaper diversity. The non-white characters are there are decoration. They don't feel like actual people who are really part of the storyline. Josie and the Pussycats show up to sing. Josie has had a few badly written monologues but outside of the pussycats and Archie does she even interact with anyone? I haven't seen the last episode so maybe it has gotten better? Have any of the other Pussycats even had more than a line or two? And yeah Veronica is Latina. Which is great but she is still a White Latina.

I saw him and I shouted "It's, Paperboi!!" in my onw living room. At 10:00 at night. Totally the break out character in Atlanta for me. Tickled to see him in this as a lawyer. Yup. I loved this. I hate on tv how people get all eloquent with no preparation. This messy speech felt real. And I love how even -- Connor? - was all "she should've let you write something for her." Oliver is shady. SHA. DY. He lied so smooth. I think he was lying to them when he was sweating. That is how much a liar I think he is. I loved seeing the look on Connor's face when that realization dawned about how simple it is for Oliver to lie. And if Annalise hadn't spilled the beans to Connor about the Stanford letter Oliver would have gone on lying (by omission) to Connor about that. I Oliver in anyone's pool to be Wes' murderer? That'd be a twist for sure. Also I agree wholeheartedly that Michaela was MVP of the episode. I love how every week someone has asked Aja Naomi King on twitter why Michaela isn't wrapping her hair. Her response re:Asher and Michaela "They aren't there yet." and then finally we see they are there. And It is lovely and natural. I continue to be amazed how good they are together. Just amazed.

I didn't find Maggie terrible in this. I like LaTanya Richardson and all but I can see Maggie's point. Her mom shows up, no warning, no call and basically letting everyone else know before Maggie even that she is there. And this on top of her having left the family to move to Hawaii, apparently surprising her then. I can't totally fault Maggie for her reaction. I LOVED DeLuca telling Alex that he saw him everyday and he could have apologized to him then. I am 100% in agreement. Man, Minnick is the worst. The WORST! I was hoping that April would tip to the fact that Catherine was the architect of the Minnick decision or Richard. That is still possible, Catherine was showing her hand too much for someone not to realize something. Bailey -- what happened to you?

Key and Peele have a couple of sketches that play around with both the common name and the sterotypical name. The subsitute teacher one is where an black teacher finds "normal" names hard to pronounce And then their more famous East/West bowl which plays around the trope of the stereotypical black name and NFL players

Confession time, Jodeci were never in my top five. Sorry, not sorry! Boys II Men though, yes! Also anything Teddy & New Jack related. But I was partial to the girl groups: En Vogue, SWV, Jade and of course TLC. The funny thing is, this sounds stupid to us now but the etymology of naming shows that so many names came from really commonplace things. Like, most surnames we use today came from the job the people of the commoner class had. So names like Smith, Cooper, Baker, Hunter, Clark etc. weren't so much their names, but a way to identify what they did and basically the poors weren't individuals to the upperclass nobility. So no matter what your actual family name was, you were 'John Coachman' because that is what you did. Outside of names in the bible, even first names came from general terminology like Barabara was what the Greeks called barbarian (foreign) women. Supposedly, William meant 'helmet' in olde english and the names Jessica and Pamela were apparently straight up inventions.

But I think that is exactly the point the show as trying to make. There is such a deeply rooted racism in the idea that the name black people invent are considered inferior, laughable or 'stereotypical' while names that white people invented are considered acceptable and 'normal'. In and of itself the name 'Jessica' is not inherently better than the name 'Devonte' but the latter has been loaded with such derision simply because it is a name no white person has ever used. There is literally no other reason. And yet even when white folks begin using unusual names of their own - Skyler, Braxton, Kayden etc. people may raise eyebrows but they are not actively derided to the point where the names become a detriment or yet another signifier of 'otherness' toward an entire race. I liked the episode because once again I think the show made a lot of salient points on both sides - that and the photoshopped baby head at the start of the show. Ha! But Personally, I dislike both extremes. I roll my eyes at the too out-there cray-cray names. Really watch Toddlers and Tiaras sometimes for some incredibly inventive names or incomprehensible spellings of conventional names (how is it that a name pronounded "Kaylie" ends up with 15 letters in it?) But I also sigh at the utter conformity of it all too (my youngest son was in a class had that five girls names Emma. Out of a class that had 12 girls, five of them were named Emma).

I don't see this as a 'shipper show.' To me, it is a suspense/mystery show. But it is also a show with a small, tight-knit group. So It is natural that people in that group create connections otherwise they'd become nothing but a toxic bunch who are always watching their backs. While that could be mined for drama for awhile, it would be exhausting, imo, to maintain in the long haul. And it isn't cookie-cutter CBS procedural where the people feel like card boards. There is a soapy elements amongst the drama. So in I can see why we can watch the show for the mystery/drama and also root for relationships based on personalities and interactions of the group dynamic. I actively root for Connor and Michaela's friendship because I see the possibilities in it, the writing set it up and the actors sell it. Conversely I would have never thought of pairing Asher with anyone. I didn't think he had any chemistry with Bonnie (but I do appreciate how important that relationship became in the larger story once Asher ran over ADA Smugface because Bonnie was uniquely positioned to be the one to help him) -- but I think he and Michaela are perfect together. I thought (and still do think) that Laurel and Frank had some great chemistry. I was not feeling her and Wes at all, except for a very brief time for a couple of episodes early this season. It feels to me like the Wes/Laurel pairing was made for pure plot purposes regardless of the actor's chemistry, where the Asher/Michaela pairing was probably just a lark, but the show unknowingly hit gold with them. I would tend to agree with this on the whole. But this isn't really something that comes out of thin air. There has been a lot of discussion, articles, blogs and think pieces about the concept of subconscious bias is shipper/fandoms for years. Yes, chemistry is very subjective and you like who you like, but subjective bias is very real and it would be unrealistic to think it doesn't creep into fandoms especially in the area of romance.

I haven't been a news watcher in ages. My husband is though. He is an old fashioned, sit down at 6:00 and watch the national news kinda guy. So I had nothing to give up. I checked and the only scripted show I watch on NBC regularly is This Is Us. Weird, i hadn't realized my viewership of that network had fallen so sharply.

Don't forget the Melissa Harry Perry's ugly departure from MSNBC. In fact, I would say her issues were the harbinger of the changes on NBC and MSNBC https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2016/03/02/the-ugliness-of-melissa-harris-perrys-departure-from-msnbc/?utm_term=.31f41560efc5#comments My husband, white moderate guy, stopped watching his beloved Lester Holt because he hates Megyn 'Santa Claus is just white' Kelly and the minute NBC hired her, NBC was dead to him.

Yes to all of this. The metal wedding song Rebecca and Paula did really presaged the tone. Not a lovely wedding at all, really dark and twisted. I will say that the show has never been coy about Rebecca's mental issues. I think on some level as viewers we push them aside -- maybe subconsciously -- to concentrate on the comedy because the idea of Rebecca being really unstable just doesn't sit comfortably in the setting of the show. So I am not surprised really that it took us there, but then I kinda am. Everyone gets kudos to their reaction when they learned Josh wasn't coming, especially Rebecca (who really looked liked she was losing it) and Paula (her whisper threat of taking Josh's husky limbs and tearing them apart was perfect). I also loved the cut away to Heather's scream. The wedding was really beautiful. The venue is spectacular. The bridesmaids dresses were really pretty -- good touch having Josh's sisters be bridesmaids along side Heather. Valencia and Heather make a good comedy duo. And I loved Hector's mother covering his eyes when it looked like Rebecca was gonna jump. Very much looking forward to season 3.

I am currently angry at Connor. I don't hate him, I am mad at him. And I want to slap him upside the head. But it would be a frustrated "get your shit together' slap. With an added thump to say 'stop being a bitch to Michaela.' My most loathed character in the history of the show is definitely Rebecca with ADA SInclair a close second and Oliver a distant third.