DearEvette

AS much as I like Orlando Jones as an engaged member of the show/fandom, I am not feeling doomy/gloomy about him leaving. I like the dynamic of Team WTF and wish he was still there, but I don't think the show will truly suffer from him not being there. Honestly I feel that Abbie & Ichabod are the only two really indispensable characters.

Although I had major issues with the last season of Eureka (mainly because it felt like it there was too much Felicia Day) I loved the finale. There were some great call backs to season 1, and it did a nice job of bringing together the different time-travel threads that happened over the course of the series.

I feel like the last three/four eps have really hit their stride. The situations/plots themselves are familiar sitcom tropes, but the lines, dialogue and quips feel like they are really elevating the show. The jokes are flowing so fast and furious and the site gags (I loved the emoji conversation in this one & all the 'white savior' movies in the last one) are clever and spot on. And I even liked Dre in this one. This is how Dre's neurotic personality needs to be deployed best. Also, Diane's hair was super cute.

From what I could glean, it looks like there are at least three new-to-the-show writers. Two of whom are AA. So Diversity, yay! In addition to the black female writer, there is also a black male writer (twitter handle is @LDJackson). Peeping his TL, he seems socially aware and his pic is a pic of him and George RR Martin, so he may actually be a true genre geek.

I completely agree. I don't want S3 to swap CFD to become MFD. As much I love the Mills Sisters that is a big NOPE for me. I think Grace works well in very small doses. it was nice to see her once in S1. It was nice to see her in the S2 finale. And it is nice to have her journal as a counterpoint/companion to Washington's Bible. And it may be nice to see her in an occasional flashback a la the ones we get from Ichabod. But that is all. But that said, in Necromancer when this exchange happened: Irving "A dead guy, a mental patient and a time traveler from the Revolution,” Abbie “That’s our team.” A sort of energy clicked together in the show. When Irving and Jenny were dealing with the Hessians and Abbie & Ichabod were dealing with Headless, it felt like the show had settled into itself and the cast felt comfortably complete. So in that sense I like the idea of the team of four that we are left with. As long as Abbie & Ichabod are still indisputably the focus, with Irving & Jenny as support I am good. I thought both Jenny and Irving had just the right amount/type of inclusion in S1. It was their S2 involvement that was problematic. If they can bring them back to S1 levels I think that would be great. Funny thing: In Irving's comment about the 'dead guy' he was referring to Andy of course. But even without Andy, the assessment of their team is still true, b/c Irving has replaced Andy as the requisite 'dead guy' LOL.

The scene where Bow realizes that Mike Brady is a slave owner is when she is actually watching Roots. Dre has finally convinced her to watch it and she and Dre are sitting in front of the flickering tv. It is the one-two punch of realizing that not only OJ is in it and Mike Brady is a slave owner that makes her decide to stop watching it. I could be wrong, but I interpreted the Sarah Palin/Vanilla Ice thing as a deliberate 'cry for help' choices by both Jack and Diane. They had been so quick to reject Bow's help with their projects in favor of Jr. and Zoe, than when they actually worked with their two older siblings they realized they would get no real help. There is a scene where they both said to the camera, breaking the fourth wall, 'I played this all wrong' after they knew Zoe and Jr. were useless to them. So I got the impression they chose those two for deliberate shock value, not because they were truly their heroes.

Lots of great lines in this episode. But for some reason Pops saying "I say good day, sir" just seemed to crack me up especially. Yeah, Michael Rappaport getting his Bronx on sounds so natural for him. So much better fit for him than that horrible country-hick-mafia-corn-pone accent he put on when he was on Justified last season. Such an awful performance all around. WHo knew when he was fist introduced that Charlie would be such a breakout character? I really enjoy him as a supporting character. But... I still can't bring myself to enjoy Dre completely.

This is yet another thing to lay at the feet of Season 2. After all the great word of mouth for S1, they were poised for really big things. They were getting good ratings, they were critical darlings. Tom & Nicole got the cover of Emmy Mag and had a couple of other industry mag covers. They got Palyfest and were special guests at the Fox upfronts (something reserved for network darlings). But S2 cooled them off rapidly. Ratings fell, critics & fans became discontented etc. If they had continued the momentum of S1 into S2 then they could be getting more exposure. S1 of Scandal was relatively unknown. It had modest 1.7 - 1.9 ratings and was largely watched by AA women and made itself a Twitter event. ABC didn't even promote Scandal in S1. Scandal's brand steadily grew and grew mainly through fan word of mouth and a stellar season 2. And suddenyl ABC started promoting them. The thing with Scandal is their momentum grew and catapulted their show. But SH's momentum waned. If S3 can manage to woo back fans & critics, then I can see SH being hailed as the comeback kid and we'll likely see more publicity & promotion by Fox.

Oh sure the characters forgetting is the point. But the viewers (or in the case of the book, the readers) are constantly made aware. The Brothers on the Wall are sort of AGOTs' version of Mad Eye Moody. They are always doing their 'Constant Vigilance' by harping on Winter coming. So there's always this tension there that feels missing on the show because we aren't getting enough of the stuff beyond the wall. I know that they are consciously diverging from the books but by concentrating so thoroughly on all the courtly intrigues and wallowing in the sexiness factor, I think they are losing some of the stuff that makes reminds you how high the stakes really are.

There is a story in USA Today about fanfiction. Sleepy Hollow was one of the mentioned shows: http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2015/04/15/denny-bryce-fan-fiction-firefly-sleepy-hollow-xfiles/25764897/ Also, Nikki Behaire is one of five actresses featured in the nude issue of Allure Magazine. http://www.allure.com/celebrity-trends/nudes-issue

Thank you! I keep wanting to say , You know that whole 'Winter is Coming' thing? Yeah, that means something. The sense of menace of knowing that something way more dangerous than just fighting over the throne is on the horizon is missing from the show. But Cersei's hairstyles are rather fierce, though. Not gonna lie.

To go even further and what really makes it real shade, imo, is that he doesn't even mention S2. And not mentioning it, it makes the absence of it more glaring juxtaposed next to the fab compliment of S1. That's the beauty of it. Shade is as much about what you don't say as what you do. In the words of late Dorian Corey "I don't tell you you're ugly....but I don't have to tell you because you already know you're ugly. And that's shade."

Ugh. If I had to rank all the characters from most liked to disliked, I have always had Dre kinda low on the list. But this week he fell straight to the bottom with a huge gap. Yes, He's even below Charlie -- who has really grown on me. I've always cut him some slack because he is supposed to be self obsessed and that is his schtick, But he knew how well Bow wanted to come off in front of her friends and he sabotaged her. It didn't come off as funny to me, it came off as a bit cruel. But I love TER like a fat kid loves cake! And I loved food for her party (yes I watched the show while I was hungry, bad move!). She is like a modern day Lucille Ball. Her comic timing is fab. The Diane/Charlie thing is comedy gold! They are using it sparingly and thus it has great comedic impact. And we still don't know what caused their enmity. That is the beauty of it! Also, I love the fact that Josh did not know how to use chopsticks! On tv everyone just effortlessly uses them while eating Chinese. But Josh was struggling. Much more realistic. A nice little sight gag that was just allowed to happen with no special attention or commentary.

Ha! John Noble is still throwing shade at Season 2: Love it.

I thought they said that Bow had been on the pill for bad cramps all these years. And she had recently stopped taking them and thus the pregnancy possibility.

This clicked on all cylinders. Every scene pretty much killed. I like that the workplace scenes seemed to acknowledge how completely inappropriately absurd the dude-bro conversations are. I know that it is part of their stchtick and it is a funny recurring gag, but the "and this is why I record all these meetings" was just about perfect. There were so many to choose from, but I loved the scenes with the kids when they first discussed "Aunt Flo". Diane of course was perfectly Diane "Are you guys getting birthday money we don't know about?" as was Junior being perfectly junior "If it is a boy I'm thinking Gimli. And if it is a girl, Gimli still works." and of course Jack & Diane's exchange about the softness of turtle skin "Why are you fighting me on this? it is the unborn monster in mommy's tummy!" Jack's facial expressions killed me. And I loved everything Bow did. Especially her face when she asked Junior if he was experimenting with drugs. Everybody was spot on. Great episode.

No. She doesn't. I commented on this in several of the episode threads. She really has no expression. She stands like she is waiting for her next line. It is so odd. And distracting. If you look at a person's profile, you can see everyone who is following them. In the case of celebrities who have anywhere from 10,000 too 1 million or more followers that is difficult to scroll through. But if you follow someone and then go into someone else's profile, twitter lets you know if you have any people in common followers/following. I follow all the SH people. When I go into any of their profiles all the rest of the SH folks show up as our people in common. So If I go into Tom Mison's profile it will say something like 'Nicole Beharie, Lyndie Greenwood and 7 other people you know are also following Tom Mison'. And usually the 7 other people are the SH folks. When I go in KW's profile, Orlando isn't on the list of people we have in common, so he isn't following her. When I go into his list, she shows up so she is following him. From what I recall from this season the biggest jerk was Metzner and the two frat dude-bros who wrote Deliverance. Metzner was the one who tweeted about haters, I think. And isn't he also the one who thought Lyndie looked hot hence the leather skirt episode? However there have been a handful of other writers who really reached out and tried to connect with the AbbieMillsDeserveBetter hashtag, Melissa Blake especially. And Heather Regnier and Damian Kindler are the ones that seem to be credited with writing the more Abbie centric episodes. Not surprisingly these are three who are holdovers from s1.

Ok conspiracy theories.... Orlando Jones does not follow KW on twitter. They all follow each other. But he doesn't follow her. Did she block him? Did he unfollow her? I swear, i don't even need an ebook of the BTS stuff... just somebody post rambling thoughts online somewhere....tweet it out and then do a storify.... something.... eta - contradictory storytelling: Katrina knowing she was pregnant before Ichabod died per the Pittura Infamante episode. Shady Katrina strikes again. But Metzner responded when someone asked 'Oh it was a mistake." How the heck do you forget a major..and I mean...MAJOR plot point like that? Ichabod being ignorant of his impending fatherhood was the foundation of the entire back half of season one!

I am liking Lana and Archer together this season on Archer despite myself. I was really sure I wouldn't, but the show is doing them justice. They are still themselves but somehow they aren't awful together like I thought they would be.

@HalcyonDays Y'know.... I do have to wonder sometimes. It was so contradictory what we were seeing. I can't help but think there was a small subset of writers who were being subversive on purpose. If they were quietly working against the Prime Directive and were deliberately planting these nuggets that really undermined her character. It is almost like a tiny rebellion or a small mutiny. And since he was so narrowly focused with his own tunnel vision he simply couldn't see it. I mean the line in Kali Yuga where Abbie says with some contempt 'He's trying to work things out with his Witch wife." The delivery was really rather acid. But the line is there. Or kinda like all of Abbie's eye-rolls (which honestly I think those were Nicole's eye rolls, her own version of a tiny rebellion).

Oh I rather enjoyed Weeping Lady. The actress who played Mary was very good. Between her and Caroline, it proves that even the most minor walk on actresses have 100x more chemistry with Ichabod than Katrina ever had despite Goffman's best efforts and pouring her down our throats. Also Mison's acting when he thinks Abbie is dead is worth the entire episode. And finally I thought this episode finally makes explicit what a lot of people already knew that Katrina was truly shady. Not just implied, but for real an awful person for what she did to Mary. Plus Ichabod's half hurt/half disgust at Katrina once Mary revealed what she had done was perfect. It was a really strong episode. It felt like it was moving the story along a very satisfying path. Of course the one-two punch of Deliverance and Heartless killed the promising momentum of what The Weeping Lady started. I can't help but wonder how much better the season would have been if they had allowed the seeds planted in The Weeping Lady to grow and let Katrina's awful nature continue right from there as a natural trajectory instead of trying to mold her into a romantic heroine that never, ever fit right. As much as I came to really dislike the character and am glad she was killed, from the perspective of a person who appreciates a story told well above all else, I hated how her change was affected. Given all the time they had, they really could have made the transition so much more meaningful and interesting. And it would have served the story so much better if they had committed to what they seemed to be suggesting in The Weeping Lady rather than being forced to do it much later in Spellcaster/Awakening.

I went back and tried to re-watch S2 and simply couldn't make it through so many eps. They enraged me in hindsight. I agree with HalcyonDays' watch/skip list....except I would even skip The Kindred because that entire episode was nothing but them affecting the rescue that did not happen. And it was the first of instance when Abbie caves to Ichabod against her better judgment all for the service of Katrina and in the end all the shit they did was for nothing. So the grand result of that episode was a) the first seeds of Ichabod & Abbie at odds over Katrina b) Jenny gets thrown into the slammer because she was doing something to help them rescue Katrina (who again chose not to be rescued) and c) The biggest dropped plot element of the entire season: The Kindred whom we never see again all season long (except his leg in the finale). And I'd FF to end of Pittura Infamante to when Abbie saves the day because the minute she joins the A-plot it gets a badly needed jolt of energy. It is too bad some of the best special effects of the season are wasted on an episode that is trying to make Katrina into Nancy Freaking Drew. But yeah, under no circumstance even subject yourself to Deliverance. To me that episode is like Aliens III, Terminator III and The Godfather III -- these things just don't exist in my world. Never happened. And make sure to re-watch Tempus Fugit over an over. It really is that good.

So I was watching Season 1 eps. and just finished The Sandman episode. In that ep. there is a character named Seamus Duncan. He is Native American. He owns a car dealership called 'Geronimotors' and he was cited for pollution, dumping stuff in the river. In just that one walk on character we have something clever, subversive, funny and a pop culturist referential dream. And the actor nailed it all. The existence of Seamus Duncan, coming out of nowhere, is something that nerds and inveterate tv watchers would chuckle in delight over. And did. Remember the chopped off sign in the Pilot? The Horseman Crossing sign that got it's head chopped off by Reverend Knapp in a blink and you miss it shot? That sort of sly cleverness & wink-wink we are in on our fun -- along with the existence of someone like Seamus Duncan is what was missing in S2.

Ha! The funny thing is, he flat out said that out loud and on the record in a post-mortem interview of the finale. All these things put together.... Mison's interviews where he is blatantly shipping Ichabbie (almost in defiance of the Prime Directive that 'All things lead to Katrina'), Orlando's shade tree he's been throwing throughout the second season, and now John's remarks.... all gives a glimpse (finally) how frustrated the cast must have felt.

I saw that and had to laugh. Now that he is out of there he can spill some tea. And really it is just confirming what we all already knew.