DearEvette

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.

One thing I noticed -- which I loved -- when Bow was talking to the kids about their presents, they each had an electronic device that mapped so well with the kid: - Zoey had her phone - Diane was reading a book on an e-reader - Jr. had his ubiquitous laptop - And Jack had a tablet. Didn't like the Ruby/Bow stuff. They need to put that away for now and only bring it back sparingly. And there was no real good payoff really either. Liked the Jermaine Dupree bits. His relentless self promotion, the non sequiters, "I'm vegan" and "I discovered Bow Wow" Ha! Charlie & Josh remain fun.

Sooooo..... basically we can expect Idris Elba to show up on The Vikings any day now, right? Right?

Stringer Bell & Omar Little. I loved them. They were my two favorites on The Wire. But I'd shit myself if I were around them IRL.

From the 'In The Media thread" I think I kinda agree with that. My own personal speculation is that is was probably no later than when they announced the renewal of Gotham, Brooklyn 99 & Empire which was on Jan 17th. At the time I was a little nervous about SH, but really had little doubt they would not renew. Now as time went on and no announcement was made I got a little nervous. But looking back again, in the comfortable knowledge that we do have the renewal, my gut is that SH was never in real danger because they were openly talking about S3 changes even then and if you think about it reading between the lines it really was all about finding his replacement because he was already done. And going further I see the later episodes -- the rewrites etc. -- as auditions for the writers to see who would keep their jobs and who would be going with Goffmann

Have a reply but gonna move to the Ratings/Renewals thread.... more relevant there...

1 - Y'all are on fire on this thread. About as much fun to read the reactions as it was to watch the show 2 - Too much to process for me right now, but I must say they brought it! The last episode especially was really well done. Lucious is one hell of a manipulator. And I love the figurative chess game everyone is playing. 3- Cookie and Anika's fight was fantastically choreographed. Anika got in her punches. But Cookie FTW! I am sorry but when she broke the pearls and then lifted and flipped Anika onto the pool table and choked the mess out of her, I was done and so was Anika! 4 - Jamal's sing-fight with the rapper with the terrible name that we've never seen before was pretty damned good. I loved the falsetto 'Bitch!' at the end and of course the double entendre about 'get on your knees.' At first I was like, 'No he is not crooning at a rap battle!' but then he brung it. 5- Oh J.Hud-character you dropped the Lord real quick didn't ya! LOL. 6- 'My Mother is White' - best line of Becky's all season,. I have more thoughts... (I don't even want to think about Anika & Hakeem right now) .. but I need to process. But this was fab, epic ending.

'You're So Beautiful' hands down for me. - It is catchy as hell - the scene most associated with it in the show (the White Party and Jamal using it as his coming out anthem) is pure energy -The lyrics celebrate female beauty regardless of size, age, hair texture or skin color. It really sends the message that the woman's confidence is what makes her beautiful to the man singing the song, not superficial stuff.

I wonder when the cast was informed? Nikkie Beharie has been pretty silent on twitter since she posted & then removed the instagram about not being invited for the DVD. Then yesterday afternoon she tweeted two very nice tweets about being grateful to everyone and life being sweet and loving the fans. I can help but wonder.... man I need someone to write a juicy tell all book about the BTS stuff that when on. How long ago did Goffman get fired? Did it hurt? Did he cry on KW's shoulder? Which Fox executive sent the note to 'Kill the Witch'? Did Orlando Cackle gleefully or did he just throw shade? How red were the roses/ old was the scotch they gave Nicole/Tom/John in acknowledgement of how shoddily they were treated? How polite was Lyndie about it all because she's Canadian? How many antacids were chewed watching the ratings go down? How many angry twitter accounts did they block? Inquiring minds want to know.

you guyz!! We got renewed. Sigh. Imma need a minute.

Oh, I get all that. I would have completely understood if that was all it was. But, imo, it wasn't just her longing for her kidnap mother and feeling no connection to her birth family. As a character she came off as needlessly cruel and judgmental to her birth mother from the jump. She was barely even polite. You don't have to love someone to have some compassion for their situation. She never displayed even that. Hence my comment about the lack of nuance in the writing. I can't help but draw a comparison to Callie on The Fosters. The situation aren't exactly the same, but there are some similarities. The writing for Callie allows for a lot more layers in her reaction to her birth father.

I don't love to hate this character, but I dislike her so intensely after watching just three episodes of her show that I basically stopped because I had no desire to spend any more time in her tv presence. Carter from Finding Carter. My god what an asshole she was. I truly would not have faulted her birth mother for sending her back to her kidnapper. I get the sentiment that she was just a teenager who shockingly found out that she was kidnapped as a baby. And so she has a hard time adapting back to her birth family. But the smugness, and judgement and the cruelty in her was repulsive. And the heavy handedness of the writing was a factor too. There was no nuance in the writing at all.

From a recent interview Kathy did it sounded like they wanted her to be a more abrasive copy Joan. And she balked because she 1) isn't Joan and 2) there are some lines Joan could cross and would be acceptable just because of who she is that Kathy couldn't sell. But it also sounded like she got notes from E indicating that they were trying to introduce some new segments that frankly made the show feel meaner than it was even under Joan. For instance they wanted to introduce a segment called 'Whore Score'. In the interview Kathy tries to make a distinction between making fun of people because of what they do, how they behave/what they wear versus who they are. And it sounds like 'E' was blurring those lines more and more. Which is why her letter stresses 'context' so much. This is why the Zendaya mess was so, well, messy. They didn't get the nuance of why the joke didn't work because it didn't take into account the identity politics inherent in what they were saying. The interview is here: http://national.suntimes.com/national-entertainment/national-celebrity/7/72/771476/kathy-griffin-fashion-police/

I think both shows are fun. But i have to disagree about the kids on Black-ish. At least in the case of Junior and Diane. Junior vaulted straight to to top of totally awesome during the masturbation episode when he overshared about his love of Helen Mirren. I also think his spot on nerdiness really makes his character pop for me. He isn't a 'tv-show nerd' but he reads as rather authentic. And Diane's brand of dark Wednesday Addams-like characterization is sold very well by that little actress. I agree about Dre though. I think TER acts comedy rings around him. Shes brilliant, imo. I never totally warmed to Anthony Anderson.

You know what... I actually liked this one. I loved the return of Marla Gibbs aka 'The Where's the Black lady lady' and I loved that the story between her and neighbor lady turned out to be a love story. I enjoyed the Susan Ross stuff and I too am thinking that she will turn out to be a bit more than Mellie & Fitz thinks she is. I kept wincing thinking they were going to somehow kill poor Astrid (i can't remember what her name is on this show). Even at the end i thought a sniper was gonna take her out or the house was gonna blow up or something. I liked how restrained everything is between Liv & Fitz. I hope she stays mad a long time. And finally, I hope this is the beginning of the end of B613. The only reason I would hope they would revive it is to kill it off completely. And maybe finally get rid of Papa Pope too.

The costume designer is Rita McGhee. The furs belong to her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law is Janet Bailey who is the wife of Phillip Bailey from Earth, Wind & Fire. Here is link to Jezebel that does a run-down of all the furs Cookie has worn to date: http://themuse.jezebel.com/every-single-fur-coat-cookie-has-worn-on-empire-so-far-1690938569/+katedries re: The shares:. I know nothing about business dealings etc.etc. but it seems to me that if the family had to sign legal papers in order for the IPO to happen, that means that they have some legal say in the company, which means the shares aren't solely his. If it was just his company then there was no reason for them all to be there to sign anything -- except Cookie who is now on the board. He would have been the sole person to sign-off. He also has a voting board. It seems like there were agreements made in advance of the signing so Lucious unilaterally reneged on some agreements, if not legal then verbal.

Cookie's attitude toward Michael, all things considered, is much more enlightened than some people still today. She has no problems with homosexuals given her love for Jamal. But I saw her attitude toward Michael as the same as her attitude toward Camilla. This is a hanger on. Not worthy of her son. While she puts digs in on Camilla's age -- you wouldn't necessarily say Cookie hates all older women or might care one way or another if Camilla was dating some other younger dude. But even so there has still been a fairly big cultural shift since 1997 led largely by technological innovations that Cookie would have missed out on. For instance, by 1997 there were probably still quit a few people who had only just knew what the internet was but had never really been on it. When my mother was diagnosed with being bi-polar in the late 80s/early90s, the doctor referred to it as 'Manic-Depression' because of our "wha...? faces when she used the term Bi-Polar'. We didn't start using the more modern terminology til much later and unlike Cookie we were all college educated and supposedly more aware of stuff than she would be. I actually thought, like the earlier episode when she didn't know what 'going viral' was, that was great reminder that Cookie is smart but she's not educated. And I loved the later scene of her looking it up. Another indicator of how smart Cookie is.

I am not gonna lie. The news about Goffmann being gone plus the dismal second episode numbers for The Following and I am letting my hopes go up a bit. But seriously.... how does this guy keep getting jobs? At least is is on CBS. I never watch that network. LOL.

I admit I watched the first season of 24 because of the gimmick. And it was non-stop, but I stuck around for Penny Johnson Jerold. She was a revelation at the time. yeah, people talked about Dennis Haysbert being the black President on this major tv show. But she as the First Lady and she was so deliciously evil. She was such a Lady MacBeth character and she killed it. Uh. I wish she had gotten more recognition for her work. I never came for S2 because I'd lost interest int he show & concept by then and she wasn't in it.

Poor girl. I think most people see her this way.... as Buffy (or Kendall to some). Mostly Buffy though. Buffy is such a seminal tv character. I wonder if this is why she is having such a hard time translating to other roles. Kinda like you could never see Leonard Nimoy as anything other than Spock. Even as William Bell in Fringe, he was Leonard Nimoy playing this character who was not Spock.

Lots of POC casting news in upcoming pilots: Jaina Lee Ortiz & Morris Chesnut as leads in a Fox drama Maisie Richardson-Sellars has a lead role in 'Of Kings and Prophets' (ABC) Joy Bryant has a co-lead role in 'The Advocate" (ABC), Coby Bell also cast as a series regular role Aimee Garcia & John Foo cast a co-leads in Rush Hour (CBS) Rutina Wesley is cast as one of four female co-leads in a cop drama 'The Broad Squad' ( ABC) Parminder Nagra is cast in a regular (not sure if it is lead or not) in 'The Kingmakers' (ABC) Christina Vidal is cast as a lead in 'The Curse of the Fuentes Women' (NBC) Wesley Snipes is a co-lead in 'Endgame" (NBC) Anika Noni Rose is the lead in 'For Justice' a CBS procedural These are only pilot castings, and subject to change may not be picked up etc. etc. but I can't remember the last time I've seen so many potential pilots with POC as leads much less regulars.

Hmm... Imma have to give that a try. I imagine a liquer over ice cream would be tasty, but liquor? Hmm...But now that I think of it I think I may have had rum over butter pecan and somebody called it a cold buttered rum? This bears investigation......

But why do they have a rack of basketballs in their boardroom? Were they signed by famous NBA'ers? I didn't see any signatures on them (I don't think). After a long day of hammering out contracts do they push the table aside and play some hoops?

Not only that, but she was so quick in coming up with the murder trial scenario: "A known drug kingpin Jose Carlos Ruiz, the Jackal Carlos. Bad man." i wonder about that child.

Honestly, I think the main plot that falls under the umbrella of the IPO and the pitting of the sons against each other in the wake of Lucious' ALS diagnosis & the fallout from Cookie's return are the only plots they should have really concentrated on. That was enough especially when you add in the character development necessary to help drive plot, such as the unfinished relationship b/t Cookie & Lucious, Jamal's coming out, Hakeem's mommy issues and Andre's bi-polarism (along with his freaky marriage). I think Bunkie's murder, Cookie testifying, Cookie's hit, Jamal's surprise paternity etc. were a bit too much for what they had to work with esp. when you add in the space they need to have for showing the creative side of the business. My gut is that they had an idea of what they wanted to do with the show when they shot the Pilot but some things happened organically, rather than planned. I wonder if Taraji being so charismatic with Cookie was one of those 'let's capitalize on this' thing and maybe Cookie's ---Cookieness -- might have been expanded. I also get the impression that maybe Anika's role might have been expanded beyond orignially planned because she was really rather like wallpaper in the Pilot. So the earlier shows may have not had a chance to lay a foundation for what they are doing now. I also agree that Cookie is far from a stereotype. She is savvy and smart. She always was. And Taraji layers her with so much emotion bubbling underneath that she is waay more than just a Hood Angry Black Woman. If Cookie were just a caricature, I don't think I think the response to her would be so positive. Even the harshest skeptics have been won over and part of that is because she is so warm and vulnerable with it sometimes. Cookie's biggest flaw, imo, is that she hasn't learned to mask her emotions. She wears them loud on her sleeve and she has no filter. Contrast that with Anika who always looks like she is wearing a mask and is scheming underneath. I think people like the out-there-ness of Cookie because it feels more honest compared to the inscrutability of Anika.