DearEvette

I have a non-communicative teenager who rolls his eyes at me witheringly and thinks his dad and I are just the most embarrassing people on earth. And slams out of a room at the least provoking comments in the world "it is cold this morning, you should wear a warmer jacket?" for example. Then he'll turn on a dime and be all talkative and funny. But no matter what he is never, ever rude to other people. I swear when we observe him in the wild, he is the most polite, well mannered creature you'd ever want to meet. Re Randall's gifted status: I was one of those gifted students. At fourth grade I got plucked out of my comfortable neighborhood public school and shipped off to a tony private school completely subsidized by a gifted grant from Kodak so my blue collar parents didn't have to chuck up a red cent. In retrospect it was a great thing for me. It set me on a path I may never have considered. At the time it was incredibly difficult because I was like one of maybe 3 black students in the entire school all the way up to 12th grade. And it was probably the reason I sought out every black organization to join once I went to college. LOL. But from an educational standpoint, I think it was absolutely the best decision my parents made to let me go. Re: Teaching qualifications. Yes public schools require state certification which usually means having gone through a teacher ed program and taking qualifying tests. In New York state it also requires a butt load of workshops (child abuse, drugs & alcohol etc.), a psychology course requirement and a second language requirement (if you are a Speech Pathology teacher then sign language can be your second language). They also require fingerprinting and a background check. Teaching programs are also age specific. So an Elementary teaching program is different from a Middle or Secondary program. Also in NYS in order to receive permanent professional certification and often tenure you have to earn a Masters Degree. Private schools don't require all the educational pedagogical stuff. But they tend toward the highly credentialed. So they like to say they hire PhDs. But while the PhDs know their subject matter back and forth, don't actually know how to teach. Some do because depending on where they went to school, they most likely had to be TAs while in Grad school or even become adjuncts while searching for tenure track positions. Some of that does go a long way toward teaching you how to teach. Especially if you are thrown into teaching freshmen who these days are still really high school students in mentality. But there is still a lot of theory that gets missed if you don't take take actual Ed courses. Think about how different your high school teacher's teaching demeanor was compared to a college professor's and there is the difference. Not the knowledge, but the ability to teach it.

Yeah, I giggled at that. Also him calling himself "Kanye" and him telling Lucy "You won't be welcome here. Stay outside, don't make eye contact." Nice call back to the pilot. I loved that this answered some questions and now we know that Flynn isn't trying to change some specific event but trying to eradicate a shadowy organization to bring back his wife. Still wonder how all those other trips fit in, like what specific thing in Ford's Theater or the Hindenburg crash site or even Nazi Germany was he targeting that would stop them? Also thinking we are going to see Doc again. If she is the only person who has the entire membership roll of Rittenhouse stored in her head, then I do think it is a good bet she'll show up again somewhere. For a moment when he first stared at her Rufus froze and I thought she was his mother or something . But realized it was just because he didn't realize it was a person they were after and not an actual document. And finally I liked how Lucy and Rufus played both the Rittenhouse goons and Flynn to disappear Doc and rescue Wyatt.

Honestly I find both Wes and Laurel the two coldest people in the room. Even going back to Sam's murder, if you look at how each of them handled it in the Wes and Laurel kept their eyes on the prize. They still do. Right now Wes is lying like it owes him rent with a deadpan straight face and Laurel has been juggling Anna, Bonnie and Frank like the baby Ana disciple she is. Meanwhile Connor subsumed all his fear into biting sarcasm, but Michaela was the one who lost it the most. She was a wreck. One thing I am noticing about this season, Michaela feels like she the one who seems to be studying the most. She just wants to get good grades. I like that they are keeping this detail about her. Probably why out of all of them she is only behind Laurel in gpa rank. And finally, I am wondering where does Michaela get her money? She has great clothes, shoes and purses, a $400 duvet, and she had a Vera Wang wedding gown. I know I assumed Aiden paid for her gown, but did he? And how did she wind of getting adopted by a white southern family? And why are they asking her for money?

I really dislike Oliver from How To Get Away With Murder. And that is saying a lot considering how damaged and fucked up the characters on that show are. But In the most recent episode he and Connor have this big argument and I sat there watching soooo pissed. I couldn't get over his passive aggressive self righteous ass trying to weasel in in an entitled way as if he is supposed to know everything about a person who he was only involved with for almost a nanosecond and using it as a way to yank him around emotionally. Ugh. I never really warmed to him a character ever. That 'meh' attitude morphed into dislike when he deleted Connor's college acceptance letter. But now I actively despise him.

What are they doing to Dr. Charles this season? He feels very unlike himself. It is obvious he has a very bad relationship with his daughter -- sounds like he was an absentee father, very little involvement in her life -- that he is now trying to rectify by being over involved? But it doesn't look good on him. I just dislike Manning on so many level. Just really I don't like her at all. Halstead, I am tolerating a lot better though. Weird. Choi gets interesting cases a lot. I hope we see get some more background about him that isn't jsut about being s PTSD ex-soldier. Maybe his GF will show up again soon. The April storyline would feel more realistic if they had just made her say something like "I am so stupid...of course the pill gets letss effective with the TB med....how could I not have thought of that." Or just have the fiance as the audience surrogate "How did this happen. I thought that was why we started using condoms?" and let April be the one to tell him "I know, but nothing is 100%" blah blah blah. Other than that I did like it as a development. Also I need to cosign on the fact that her brother was better deployed as supportive brother than inept doctor. Am I heartless if I don't care about the whole Danny thing? I don't. I am not sorry he's dead.

There is also the fact that the MLB seems heavily involved with Pitch that might help it. Fox made an announcement that they weren't using Nielsen overnights anymore. Given that ratings are used to get advertising dollars, they are important in the sense that you can charge more for advertising if they perceive there are more eyeballs on their show. But Fox has been making noises about different types of revenue streams for different types of shows that don't necessarily rely heavily on advertising dollars and therefore don't rely as much on ratings to make decisions about the show. And I think with the MLB and Nike as heavily featured sponsors of the show might work in Pitch's favor there. One can only hope! Besides if they cancel any 1 hour show this year my fervent hope is that it is the shit show that is Sleepy Hollow.

My take is that outside of Richard these weren't meant to be new revelations about the characters so in that sense any character would do. In fact, I think these were supposed to be things we already knew about these characters to act as catalysts for them to put into use for saving the patient. As someone upthread pointed out, this self contained episode was most likely a logistical and financial decision. It is a bottle episode and those are typically done to contain costs so that a more expensive episode can be produced. Also they have two cast members who are pregnant and that may have created unanticipated changes in shooting scheduling. Also there may be storylines coming up for other characters that will be showcasing them heavily and these characters may have been the best choices for this particular one. I can't hate on it because I do think Stephanie deserves more exploration as a character so I am happy to see this for her. Even thought it is a standalone it still feels like it is advancing the ongoing storyline. For Richard it shows that he is re-evaluating some things given what happened with new Dr. whatserface. And he isn't dumb. He can see the writing on the wall. I think this was a clumsy way for him to try to put into play an out-of-the-box teaching method to show he's still got it. For Owen/Riggs, it is a good way to signal that some of our suspicions about the not-really-dead Meghan are true Why go to the bother of casting someone to put a real face to the character if you aren't going to be using them again. For Stephanie is further crystallizes why everyone thinks shes a good doctor. And it is finally showing that rather than telling it, and it poises her to step up a bit more. And finally, it puts a real period to Meredith's grief over Derek. I think this signal's the real closure she needed. And it may be the thing that causes her to finally accept a relationship with Riggs. And of course, now that we have a Meghan that will make that all the more soapy.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I do appreciate the exposition sometimes. I had no idea a relief pitching is different from regular pitching. To me it is just the pitcher goes up there and throws a damn ball. But yeah, I wish it wasn't at Ginny's expense. By all reports she's been living breathing baseball since she was a kid. She shouldn't be that naive. Also meh on the nudie photes. Glad they are over. Liked the ESPN photo shoot but as a plot that storyline just kinda fizzled. I loved the opening with Mike coming into the empty locker room with his legs all taped and his knees creaking. Basically I love all things Mike. Him in that ice bath-- Yikes! I am not a huge fan of the flashbacks. In a show like This is Us they are vital to the storytelling. In this show they are distracting. But I did like seeing the backstory of young Mike. I don't know if it was just me but every time he or his mother walked about her "interviews" or "appointments" I kept putting quotations around the words. I kept thinking she was a grifter or call girl. Since they never said, I still think so. I absolutely loved all of his interactions with Livan(sp?) Mike has to know this is the guy being groomed to be his replacement and yet he still tries to give the guy good advice and is thinking of the team. Speaking of Livan -- so according to Oscar fleeing Cuba gives you carte blanche to be an asshole? What a contrast to his introduction as the newbie on the team and Ginny's. She worked hard to be included and tried very much to be part of the team, this guy is coming off as being rather cocky and selfish and is trying very hard to be this bad ass loner. After they won the game everybody was in high spirits and there was a great sense of team camaraderie and he had to shut that down with a nasty remark to Mike. Screw him. I hope he gets knocked down hard. I am enjoying the evolution of Oscar as character. In the pilot he just came off as a slick operator. Now he seems more like the GM. I am also liking the evolution of his relationship with Amelia. I am also liking they are incorporating more humor in the show. Like when Ginny walked into the office where Buck and Al were and she was complaining about not starting. Buck just says "two days off in ten days." and Then Al says "What he is trying to say, Ginny, is that we have two days off in ten days." And Buck just looks at Al. Ha! Also Ginny's cutter. And am I mistaken or did Livan of all people tell her to pitch it in that last game? And finally, I would love to see pictures of Blip's Yorkies in questionable outfits.

I love this. it feels like a ceremonial friendship robe. Yeah. This is my take. But then again I've never liked Oliver. He could've been under the sheet and I would have been super happy. He always seemed way to eager to be included in all the Ana shit. And knowing what we do about the K5 and how toxic they all are when they are together, I think Connor was right to try to keep him as much in the dark as he could. I do see Oliver as being the one thing of normalcy in Connor's life during all the shit going down and that is probably why he clung to him and probably why he tried to keep him out of Ana's clutches. To keep him normal. But from a relationship standpoint that isn't a bad thing. At least Connor's action toward Oliver seemed to come from trying to protect him. Meanwhile Oliver's declining the acceptance, telling Stanford not to contact Connor and not being the one to actually fess up about it came from a place of pure selfishness. Also now that he has his toe in with Ana he conveniently dumps Connor. It feels awfully like he was using Connor too. As much as I like Connor he does take more than he gives. Michaela is usually giving him support. The last time I can remember Connor being there for her was when they discovered who Eggs was. I hope we get some more parity in that friendship.

Same creator, I think. Dan Fogelman.

I wasn't sure what I thought about this episode. But after it was done I decided I liked it. It was different and a little pretentious in some places, but I liked the tight focus on one surgery and I liked spending time with just a small number of people. I probably would have swapped Owen out for ... Riggs maybe, but only because I am not a big Owen fan. But even he didn't bug me too much. It is nice to get away from the Jolex this and the Japril that and the Omelia something or other have a stand alone to concentrates a little bit more on medicine and method. Looks like next week is gonna be a doozy!

Ha! to the "woke black Powercouple of 2016" but I do have to say I was side-eying Chantal even before Nova started giving her the squirrely eye. It felt like she was trying to control the narrative even before Nova had a chance to give some thought about what she wanted to say. I do think it is one thing to help her clarify Nova's own points, but the sistah-girl meeting taking place without Nova felt almost like Chantal wanted Nova to be her mouthpiece. It was an overstep imo and then she had to turn Nova's relationship with Calvin political and shame her about it. It was a punk move and is wasn't her place to do so because she has no idea what Nova's relationship was all about. Yeah, these are shameful secrets. I could easily understand why they kept it hidden. Also i kinda get why Ernest needed them to want the land on it's own not just because they felt compelled through some sense family justice/revenge. I mean given what we knew of them when we first met them, the Bordelon siblings weren't exactly committed to the farm and who knows how they would have reacted if they hadn't had a chance to want to do. Man the Bourdreaux guy was all up in Charly's personal space Dude, boundaries! Ths feels like a turning point and I am really stoked to see next week.

No, I totally agree with you. I have worked in Higher Education all my adult life in various capacities. And let me tell you, not every child is cut out for the full 4-year college experience. I would meet with really smart kids who were failing out because their parents pushed them into something they didn't want to do or weren't ready for. Also tuition at a 4-year private school can cost more than your house. And.. there is still no guarantee they are going to end up getting a job in their chosen (or not chosen) area. So they come out with debt, or you have a second mortgage on your house and they end up working in a field where that has no relation to what they went to school for. Take it from someone whose current career has absolutely zero to do with what I got either my undergrad or grad degrees in. If my kid comes to me and tells me he wants to go to the local community college to learn welding (let me tell you the world NEEDS welders!!) I would sign him right up! Me and my snobby PhD husband (he's like Bow only he feels the PHd is superior to the MD) would be glad for it. Ok, off my soapbox.... As for the show... this was not my favorite. I liked the central story with Jack because it created an argument (Bow and Dre's 'I want my kids to strive for the American dream in a proscribed' way) but it also offered a strong counter argument ("who says college ad white collar bourginess is the only way to achieve a dream?") And it made the counter argument more compelling. But... I did not like the denouement of the Diane subplot. If they had just made it about Ruby being overly hysterical about demonic possession and kept Diane as just the unwitting recipient of Ruby's craziness, that would have been fine. That would have actually felt like some meta commentary on the viewing audience's unease over Diane. But yeah it went one step far. It took the gag past the funny point and into the unrealistic. And I have to agree, I am not liking how caricaturish they are making Stevens. In the first season he was much more interesting character. He was rich and out of touch but there was no overt racism there. They have made him into a cartoon. I am not liking the office scenes at all anymore when I used to love them.

True story... My husband won me over because he knew all the words to the Bugs Bunny Ride of the Valkyries. And he sung them in the character voices: Elmer: Oh. Bwunhilda, you're so wove-wy Bugs: Yes I know it, I can't help it.... Totally awesome.....

Yeah they would. They didn't greenlight the Nancy Drew series starring a Sarah Shahi as the main character because...ahem.. it was "too female." And make no mistake, this was not a real remake of Nancy Drew as an stylish, amateur sleuth tooling around in her sassy roadster. No she was going to be "re-imagined" as a 30-something police detective. And they were really talking it up saying they wanted to cast Nancy with a non-white actress. Or rather as they put it "going diverse". So basically every CBS show ever, just with a female and non-white lead.

I agree with this to some extent. Yet, sometimes I can't help but wonder while watching some of these show, is this the story the creators really want to tell? Is it a coincidence that so many so-called "high concept" or "prestige" dramas feel all dark, arty & gritty lately? Like, they fancy themselves the latter day coming of the French New Wave or German Expressionism or something. Sometimes I get the feeling that showrunners get so in love with being critical darlings that they subconsciously (or consciously) stop trying to tell a good story and instead shoot for style rather than story, or try to create shocking moments, rather than just letting them occur naturally from the story, in order to generate fan reaction. So it doesn't feel like real storytelling and the artificiality bleeds through as you watch.

Even outside of their demographic challenges, CBS shows just are not my cup of tea. They are all these procedural shows. They feel soulless. I do find it interesting that out of all the CBS shows the one that is arguably more diverse, the Good Wife spinoff is being shown solely on their subscription streaming service. As will the new Star Trek show (which, is also being talked up for its commitment to diversity). So basically the messaging by CBS is if you really want more diversity you have it pay extra for it. No thanks. That is what pirating is for. IMO, this is directly related to the people in charge. PR has Heidi as an executive producer. I'll be she has a lot of creative input more than just as a host of the show.

I know this is one of the things that I am finding a bit of a downside with having such easy access to celebrities. No wonder they need publicists. Same thing with authors of books I've liked and read. I'll ignore minor stupid stuff, but some stuff just colors your perception of them. For instance, the actress Ciara Renee who played Hawkgirl on Legends of Tomorrow said something on twitter that completely soured me on her. I don't dislike her or anything, but it took me from being neutral on her to not really wanting to watch her. So I didn't watch DC:LOT mainly because of her. Now that she is gone I have been watching it and enjoying it.

I really liked this case of the week and of course saw the parallels with Ana and the K5. I wasn't sure how I felt with the whole "come at me bruh" scene where they all stand there and unload on Ana. On the one hand some of the stuff they said was silly, but on the other it probably was a much needed catharsis. I do think they are suffering some sort of PTSD all linked back to Sam, (Asher's is a result of killing the DA) and all of their guilt and trauma is tied in to their relationship with Ana because she is the only common denominator between what they did and between each other. So that there is a lot of dysfunction there. I can't stand Simon so I love how the K5, despite any of their internal issues with each other, all are unified in their dislike of him. I usually am not on board with Asher's goofiness, but I admit he was welcome comic relief. The faces he made every time he delivered a line especially when he and Michaela were teasing Oliver and that "I choose you Hackachu!"

Yeah, this pretty much me. I figure I've been watching tv for almost 40 years. I've been inundated all my tv watching life with very little to no diversity. Since it seems to be happening I am going to totally curate my shows on how much diversity there is. I will admit this season is one the best so far as far as I am concerned especially because I have been thirsty for black representation especially. In the case of shows like Queen Sugar, Atlanta, This is Us, Insecure, and Pitch they are showcasing the diversity within black characterization. The Bordelons on Queen Sugar are as different from Paperboi and Earn from Atlanta as you can possibly get. Heck the Bordelon siblings themselves are all so wildly different from each other, they are a diversity panel all on their own. And don't even get me started on the women. Nova, Charley, Issa, Ginny, Molly, Beth, Evelyn, Misty and Van -- none of them are the same. It is nice to finally have the numbers to showcase the difference instead of having the to depend on the 'there can be only one' model. I will also give it up to a show like Pitch that actually casts very diversely. Not only is Ginny, Blip, Evelyn are black but Oscar is Latino, Elliot is Asian and now David who plays Mike's ex's new fiance is a Middle Eastern guy.

Oh Man I loved that. Especially since it was repeat of Evelyn's earlier "Whaaaa?..." face. I just love Evelyn and Blip. I loved Evelyn's trying to be sensitive to the vibes in the room when Ginny and Amelia face off only to give up because she really wants to hear what they have to say and this would be too good to miss. And than later when the Nike rep (btw, that actress played Bonnie McKechnie on As the World Turns back it the day!) asked Blip to take a photo, Evelyn shut that right down "He doesn't take a picture unless you pay him." I loved that because, no Nike, you have deep pockets you don't get free shit. And Blip's choke-laugh at Ginny when Ginny mistook the waitress for wanting a picture. This or course after he joked about the big picture on the wall of Ginny's wide head. Those two were really fun this ep.

I thought Steph was really funny. I also didn't even mind that her snark at Ben. I did love her trying to pump Ben for information at first and he trying to explain the whole church and state thing and she says "Your happy little marriage can be adorable on a different day." I also liked Arizona crying "Scatter!" after the consultant came out while they were all trying to stare into the room with all the residents.

But then it would be a CBS show, and I hate those.

I thought it was a nice insight to the back office (or rather front office) dealings of baseball, though. So even if the action wasn't on the field, it was still very baseball. And by making Blip & Ginny the the central focus it gave an emotional investment into it through Ginny. But I have to say I learned about the whole trade stuff and it wasn't something that I'd have thought of at all. And it created a jumping off point for me to come here and ask questions. Kind like how this episode opened my eyes to the whole mental health issue that surrounds this sort of transition into fame. I am used to seeing movie stars/ teen pop stars etc break down but I never thought about that for professional sports. Maybe it is because most of what I see in passing for athletes who do act out it the headline just seems to be about them doing something bad in a club without any additional context then "oh another athlete is fighting at a club."

I think it is more complex than that. It is a case where they become hidebound in their own teaching methods that they don't even know that what they are doing isn't working as well any longer. The consultant kept mentioning their methodology being outdated. She was giving them new ways of thinking Having gone through something similar, albeit not in medicine, I can attest that it is very uncomfortable to have a light shined on your business practices and to see how what you do has gone stale and not kept pace with industry innovations. And often times it is because a boss or director has been there a very long time and has grown complacent. And consultants can get away with saying stuff that people who work there could never say because the consultants are outside the political structure of the institution and don't have to worry about retaliation. When she said to the residents "this room is a vault" I kinda smiled to myself because that is the green light to spill. When the consultants came to my office I was just like Stephanie because they said stuff to the upper and high level folks that some of us middle managers have been wanting to say to them for years. I actually had a mad girl crush on one of the consultants who -- after one of the VP's laboriously explained some process -- she paused and looked around the room and said "That is some of the stupidest bullshit Ive ever heard." I wanted to weep with joy. I do cry foul, though, on her deliberately knicking that artery. Or whatever. There is opening their eyes to what they are doing wrong (I love that Maggie seemed to try to work with this) and then there is just wrongness. Doing that deliberately was a road too far.