DearEvette

I highly recommend peeping the discussion on the Pilot episode in the Pitch forum, but I enjoyed it and I don't even follow baseball. Kylie Bunbury is excellent as the central character Ginny, she manages to convey both the swagger confidence that this girl has being the first woman in the majors as well as the panic just under the surface -- not really apparent -- just flashes sometimes of what this all means and the pressure. I can kinda see the actress maybe trying to channel, say, Jackie Robinson and not reacting to stuff -- just striding through with her chin up sometimes. Ali Lartner is all sharp and steel in her role and Ginny's agent. Mark-Paul Gosselaar has put on some weight, grew and beard and has a 'fuck all' attitude that is perfect for a veteran of the team who is chasing a championship. He also has some of the best lines. But I think I was mostly struck by the look of it. The colors are crisp, the photography is really good and there is an energy to the baseball scenes.

Ha! I had this exact conversation with a niece. Except she was talking about... Five something something and I was all, Hey I know isn't there a Zayn and a Niall in that group? I get a Who Is THAT moment every single time I see Naomi Watts. I know that she is an actress with a fairly high profile, not A-list but as a person who follows pop culture I know who she is, but I have a major case of face blindness with her. I can see picture after picture of her and every time I will not recognize her.

Good list. A some point I am sure we will see The Special Episode where her team comes to her defense -- the old, we can fight amongst ourselves, but we close ranks when someone comes against one of our own, thereby cementing her as One Of Them!

I think the comparison was between black females vs. black males. Anecdotally, it feels like the reverse is true for Asian females vs. Asian males. It feels like the representation among Asian women on tv is stronger than among Asian men. Off the top of my head from dramas I can think of Lucy Liu, Chloe Bennett, Ming Na Wen, Grace Park, Michaela Collins, Priyanka Chopra, Yunjin Kim, Archie Panjabi For men, I get Daniel Dae Kim, Brian Tee & Steve Yuen

Ahh, gotcha. So since imdb ratings are set by imdb users it is crowd-sourced and I could see how it might skew recent shows .

I dunno. American Horror Story's ratings have to be miniscule compared to a show, like say, LA Law back in it's heyday. Or Dexter vs. something like The Golden Girls. I wonder if this was just a vote thing?

I think it is an intersection and totally how fucked up Hollywood works. I once remember reading ...God... many moons ago when I was a grad student taking TV production classes, there was an interview about casting and one of the talking heads, a BW, said something like 'if you need a woman, she's white but if you need a black person, it's a man." that always stuck me with me. I mean, women always have it worse anyway, but a WOC is going to have it the worst. And frankly, because H'wood seems incredibly afraid to do anything original, even their choices of when they choose to diversify their female casts the woman is usually as near white as they can get. So I am not surprised when they cast they cast very light skinned. The conversation around diversity is confronting that more, but yeah if you look at cast breakdowns of main or leads I believe black males outnumber black females. And in ensembles, black males tend to be cast more as well. This is us is a great example. I love that Sterling K. Brown was cast because after all he is a really good actor, but they could have just as easily made the third sibling the actress that plays his wife. Then it would have been her story, not just her being a support to his. On a different/related note I just discovered Survivor's Remorse on Starz and besides it being a major revelation for me (it is funny and very well written) I love it that all of the main female characters on that show are dark skinned. I absolutely support all WOC getting good roles on tv no matter her ethnicity or shade of skin, but I have to admit it is very nice to see some really strong representation of the darker girls.

So far for the new season big thumbs ups to: Atlanta, Queen Sugar, This is Us, Pitch -- It is interesting that my two fave network shows so far This is Us and Pitch were both created by the same person and both had a twist revealed at the end of the pilot. Will give it another try to: Speechless -- I liked it ok but it was a bit strident. Hoping that is because it was suffering from Pilotitis Didn't even bother to try: Bull, MacGyver Looking forward to: Insecure, Luke Cage Will try at some point: Designated Survivor

Yeah, that could be. But Analise is a lawyer and this is a law school. If nothing else she would have seen through such an obvious ploy. That is why I wondered if she were tenured. Because normally the only way they are getting rid of or demoting a tenured prof is through just cause. Rarely is that cause academic in nature so it would have to be something like misconduct, peculation, or wilful incompetence and all the stuff that went down over the last two season fall right within that. And Analise and that Prez would be well aware of this. So Them saying it was about these five students' grades is something Analise would have seen right through and should've given the president an "are you shitting me with this?' look. That is why that whole conversation felt wrong. It would have made more sense for them to warn her on the basis of all the other stuff because that falls more in line with the just cause.

Dead Denny is a topic I think we can all agree on. LOL.

I had no interest at all in watching Survivor's Remorse. Not in my wheelhouse and I had so many pre-connceived notions about it. But it was on at my sister's house and I started watching it and man, it it sharp, funny and very well written. I love the actors and the characters. I love the lesbian sister isn't written broadly or problematic at all. She is just presented as a full realized person. I also love that her name is Mary Charles and they call her M-Chuck. I actually broke down and got the free 30-day trial that comes with my Amazon Prime for Starz so I could finish watching it. LOL.

I think I read somewhere that the kids were born in '79 and the present day of pilot was 2015. At least it was shot and shown in 2015 to be bought by NBC.

I know the problem with me with the revelation about Jos's past-- and I do blame the writers to a large extent -- is that it is such a badly done retcon that it just makes her actions so damn dumb. I can't get over them. If you go back you don't see a woman who was hesitant to get involved with a new man because of the past hanging over her. You don't see someone who is constantly shying away from commitment because she is married. That only came out when she saw the ring in the latter part of S12 when it was obvious they had decided to write this story for her. Most damning really is the conversation she had with Alex when she found the letter about Izzy's eggs. "I love you and you love me, but when I look ahead...Am I just the let's get a dog girl? I am wondering what you think we are, what you want?" And "She was worth it to you but when I ask you if you want to have babies, you are all..'Duh... I dunno" Alex: "She was my wife, we were married!" Jo: "That's my point, what am I?" Alex: " She had cancer." Jo: "So I have to get sick to figure out if you are gonna go all in with me?" Those are not the words of a woman who already has a husband, those are the words of a woman who wants a life commitment from her boyfriend. The whole tone of that entire conversation was a woman who wanted more. And a woman on the run, who is hiding, who is worried about creating a commitment because she is already married would not have had that conversation. Human nature is such that when you don't like character on a show you blame the character for their bad actions, but when you do like the character you blame the writers for their bad actions. I don't like Jo at all, but I do blame the writers. But all said and done, with what they gave us on screen, she looks like a liar and hypocrite who could have known better about getting involved and making someone fall in love with her. And on a final note from the writers, I think making her a domestic abuse survivor is a manipulative way to make her instantly sympathetic to make her lies palatable. It is the same thing they did with Melly on Scandal.

Yeah. that is what I am hoping happens as the story plays out. All in all it is a good thing that the pilot left us with so many questions and intriguing possibilities. It gives the narrative room to maneuver. The one thing you don't want to come away from a show is thinking 'How can they sustain that over 22 episodes?" I can that this show has all sorts of scenarios to play with and that makes it nice to anticipate watching.

I don't think the questioning is that he hired someone, but more along the lines of how does a PI even reasonably go about finding someone who anonymously left a baby at a firehouse. And from there, proving that this guy is actually Randall's father. There are a lot of suppositions that could be made about what happened off screen: it wasn't anonymous, he actually gave his name when he dropped the baby, there was a note left with Randall, there were security cameras etc. But the show didn't bother with any of that. For me the details do make a difference in this instance because of how absolutely sure Randall is that this guy is his father; so much so that he invites him into his home with his children.

As long as they also take April's dumb ass brother with them. I think I groaned out loud when he showed up.

Finally watched this. Ooh, I really enjoyed it. Kylie Bunbury was luminous. Ali Larter was bad ass. Mark-Paul Gosselaar was fab & funny. The look of it was great (watching Queen Sugar has given me a more critical eye about tv photography). The first outing was painful to sit through. I'm in. At least til Fox fucks it up somehow.

Frank has such a handsome face when it isn't covered with all that hair! My god, he's totally hot! Too bad he's gone all Travis Bickle to go with the hair cut. Unpopular Opinion: I have never really liked Oliver. Him deleting the Stanford stuff and wanting to so bad to be one of "them" and then breaking up with Connor because Connor is too, what, good to him? Just no. So Michaela and Asher as still banging? Ok. Not awful but not wonderful. I am sorry but that scene with the University President was all kinds of wrong. I would have found it more realistic is they were "transitioning" her on the basis of her personal life. Analise's life outside the school is basically a dumpster fire. I could totally understand the school wanting to distance itself from her for that. But citing the performance of five students in one class for one semester as a basis for concern makes no sense. At the post-secondary and post-graduate level of education, the professors don't get blamed for the bad grades of a handful of students. The students would get warning letters, put on probation or outright suspended or dismissed. The professor swans on and continues about their business unscathed. And if Analise is tenured and her reputation up til last year was so great in student performance, the K5's bad grades wouldn't even register as a blip on the radar of the university let alone the president.

Awww... Bill Nunn. He was such a good character actor. I remember him mostly of course as Radio Raheem from Do The Right Thing and also as Duh Duh Duh man from New Jack City. RIP.

But that personal chatter and making everything about them is a hallmark of the show and has been since its inception. I think Grey's would only be abut three seasons long so far if every patient wasn't there just so our Docs could make it all about them! I totally get that Maggie's character can be annoying. I wince at her sometimes and I genuinely like her. She's definitely not the kind of person I could ever be, But I also get what SR is trying to do with the character. Maggie is younger than folks in her job would normally be, a medical wunderkind who was most probably a geek of some sort who was typically asocial. She doesn't do social cues well. And she is a A-type personality who is neurotic and trying desperately to fit in with her new found sister. Kelly McCreary does a good job of making Maggie this person. I think that one episode S10? coming from Maggie's perspective did a great job of showing her mindset. But I also think a lot of viewers had a knee jerk reaction to a new character getting so much face time and on top of it she isn't a "cool" character. So I do get the annoyance factor. This isn't directed at you @Deanie87, just because I quoted your post -- LOL. But I personally think she gets a fair amount of shit on minor things where other characters get a pass on big things, that's all. And even though i can see why she can be eye-roll worthy I can't help but be compelled to defend her. It helps that I kinda see her as a puppy who just wants approval and acceptance.

That is my suspicion too. I mean we went from a picture "I found him" to "You're my dad!!" What real proof did Randall really have before confronting the guy? Or for that matter I would love to know how did they even find the bio-dad in the first place? But it would be another twist for Randall to realize that this dad isn't his real dad either. Also I can't help but think he is a bit shady because the preview That just sets my radar off. I could see him being an opportunist. But we'll see. I am liking the trajectory of all the stories so far. Curious to see what the fallout of Manny-gate is for Kevin -- will it actually be a positive thing? The public is just unpredictable enough to like that. Also curious too see how Kate & Toby's relationship goes. Also if she becomes committed to the weight loss, and how that will work with the actress in real life. Obviously is she loses weight IRL then the character will too. Very interested in seeing how the kids grew up. And oddly I am finding Milo Ventimiglia kinda hot with that beard when I never gave him a passing glance before. And finally, I want to see the sibling relationship dynamic in present time. I realize the pilot had to keep them away but I am real curious as to what their relationship is.

Not only that, but whose ever camera phone video they were watching , the person didn't turn it landscape (my pet peeve) and you saw like, their personal calendar on the side and stuff. Nice touch.

Pitch got major buzz after the upfronts. In fact, IIRC, it was originally not suposed to air until mid-season, but the reaction at the upfronts was so strongly positive that Fox moved it up in the schedule. But Fox, imo , doesn't promo well. I only heard about Pitch becuase of critic buzz. Meanwhile, NBC was saturating the airwaves with their big buzzy new show, This Is Us. But I like Kylie Bunbury and have done so since she was in Twisted. And then she was also excellent on Tut. Glad to see she si getting more exposure on a network show.

I hate the whole idea of the triangle too. Have ever since it was first hinted at last season. But I don't blame Maggie. I do think she is socially awkward and it is clear she never went through the regular adolescent rituals of dating. So she has an air of real arrested development. I mean she is super young and a head of a cardio, I think i read somewhere that she was basically a Dougie Howser. So it isn't really a bad thing to be interested in someone and not know how to make your interest known. But the real issue is Meredith, imo. She is the one in possession of all the information. She knows that Maggie likes Riggs, all she has to do is just freakin' tell Maggie that she and Riggs slept together. Or maybe giving Riggs a heads up "by the way, Maggie has a little crush on you so this is kinda awkward here." Withholding something so simple that could head off later complications is what really strikes me as childish. It would be so refreshing (so it probably won't happen) if when Maggie finally does learn about she says something like "well why didn't you just tell me you were involved with him?"

I know she eventually told Steph, but Steph had to practically beg it out of her. Jo was packing to run away and quit the program when Stephanie caught up with her. But the Webber thing in the beginning of the episode was really odd. She was "I don't know, I don't know"and wanting him to leave and then she ran out of her own house while he was still trying to get her to talk. I know that she was drunk but damn, something like that should have sobered her up real quick. And she had to realize people assumed that DeLuca was hurting her so the longer she stayed silent the worse it got. Meanwhile her conversation with Alex where nobody could finish a sentence is just bad soap opera writing. It is designed specifically to maintain the misunderstanding.