DearEvette

I've always liked The A Different World opening credits. Not only does it show each character in their personal venue: Dwayne Wayne studying math, Whitely primping in the mirror etc. it tells the whole story of college from studying, romance, sports, greek life, graduation etc. all in just the course of the credit sequence. Also the saturated colors and the faux single-take tracking camera as it goes from vignette to vignette is nice. And Aretha Franklin singing the song is also pretty cool.

So happy so many already mentioned Homefront. I always think I am the only one who remembers that show! One I haven't seen mentioned yet, that I lament is Wonderfalls. Quirky and funny with a great cast. And I always loved Tracie Thoms' character name on that show: Mahandra. So pretty.

Nigel does that shit all the time. A couple of years ago he made a statement about a female dancer "looking ugly" when she talked about quitting. But the way he said it, given his cumulative comments about the dancer up to that point, made it seem like a reference to her phsyical attractiveness. It is bad enough she was cast as obvious cannon fodder but to give a back slap about her looks was just foul. Making matters worse, she was an AA female dancer who, let's face it, don't get a ton of exposure on SYTYCD.

I want S3 to fall somewhere between S1 and S2. I like the use of a the single story arc of S2 that seemed to work as an umbrella for season. Not one single inmate was unaffected by Vee, but there were still a lot of interesting side stories going on too. I like that structure and would like to see something like it again in S3. But I also liked the lighter tone and the humor of S1 and the exploration of the more constructive relationships, not the destructive ones from S2. - Less Daya and Bennet. Or really how about NO Daya & Bennett. I can't express how awful their storyline is to me. - Lose Larry. Really what is his point now? - Pepper in a few more scenes showing inmates who may not normally interact. I loved the revealing little convos b/t Suzanne/Morello and Nicky/Poussey and Big Boo/Pennsatucky. - Honestly did not miss Alex. I don't mind her return, but please don't let her swallow the season. Somehow I don't think Prepon could carry it like Toussaint did. - I liked the level of insight we got into the individual guards. I hope they continue it. Not too much, but just enough to get to know them a little more. - I would love a competent Assistant Warden to come in and really shake the place up. It was necessary to have the neglect of Fig and the turmoil of Caputo make them so incompetent so that Vee & Red's smuggling ops could thrive. But it would be ineresting to see what happens when someone good actually runs the place. - The slow leeching of Soso's idealism. - More interesting revelations re: favorites and more surprises re: minor/tangential characters. The scenes of family visits is always an interesting way to set up intriguing little bits about the characters.

Every single Ryan Murphy show belongs in this thread. They start off so brilliant : Popular, Nip/Tuck, Glee and theny they completly implode into a messy, self indulgent pile of poo. Usually you get at least a great season or two before the mess happens, but The New Normal didn't even make it past four episodes before it began to sink under it's own idiocy. I never started watching American Horror Story because that sort of macabre story telling isn't to my taste, but I thought maybe it would escape the Murphy Curse because he was essentially rebooting every season. But I understand that the last season of it began to show signs of the same over indulgence and loss of control over the story narrative that marks the rest of his shows.

@Willowy I think it is more a function of how exasperated I became with all things Kurt on the show. The writing for him and Rachel basically ruined the show for me.

Favorites romantic couples: Brad & Jane (Damon Wayans Jr. and Eliza Coupe) from Happy Endings Dwayne & Whitley (Kadeem Hardison & Jasmine Guy) from A Different World Riker and Troi (Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes) from Star Trek:TNG Peter and Olivia (Johnathan Jackson and Anna Torv) from Fringe Alisha and Simon (Antonia Frasier and Iwan Rheon) from Misfits Allison and Carter (Sally Richardson Whifield and Colin Ferguson) from Eureka Stef and Lena (Teri Polo and Sherri Saum) from The Fosters Favorite Platonic couples: Penny and Max (Casey wilson and Adam Palley) from Happy Endings Abbie and Crane (Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison) from Sleepy Hollow Zoe and Mal (Gina Torres and Nathan Fillion) Pembleton and Bayliss (Andre Braugher and Kyle Secor) from Homicide:LOTS Marc and Amanda (Michael Urie and Beckie Newton) from Ugly Betty Least Favorite couples: Carrie and Big from Sex and the City Kurt and Blaine from Glee Sookie and everybody from True Blood Elena and Damon from Vampire Diaries Daya and Bennet from Orange is the New Black Andrea and The Governor from The Walking Dead

Really good season. Upon reflection it felt darker and meatier than the first. Interesting how we got deeper looks and more character development for some last season favorites (Piper, Taystee, Poussey, Morello, Suzanne and Gloria) while getting bigger glimpses of earlier peripheral characters that went a long way to explaining them (Fig, Black Cindy, Caputo, Sister Ingalls) , while still giving other characters meaty plot arcs to work through (Healy, Pennsatucky, Larry, Alex, Red, Daya/Bennett), while still managing to give key screen space to other characters (Boo, Nicky, Sofia, Watson, Miss Rosa) all the while introducing a couple of brand new characters that stamped their personailty indelibly on the season (Vee, Soso). Plus they fleshed out the guards more so that they weren't these faceless day players. If you think about it, it was a master class in how to keep a lot of character & plot balls in the air without letting them drop. Regards Suzanne -- my overwhelming feeling is one of immense sadness for her and anger on her behalf. If nothing else, the fact that those two inspectors who clearly saw that she was not mentally of sound mind, were willing for her to take the rap just so they could go home, goes to illustrate how profoundly she is being underserved by a system that either is not equipped to or is unwilling to deal with criminals with mental issues. Suzanne was nothing more to Vee than that mop Vee broke to threaten Cindy with. She was nothing but a weapon for Vee who used her till Suzanne was broken and then she threw her away. And If schemers like Red and Gloria can be easily taken in by Vee, someone like Suzanne had no chance. The only dud the whole season for me, was the Daya/Bennett story. To me those two have no chemistry whatsoever and every thing that came out of both their mouths just annoyed the heck out of me. Last observation: They did a fantastic job of casting all the younger aged actresses in the flashbacks. Not only did they look like the other actresses, a lot of them captured the mannerisms of the older ones really well. I was especially struck by the resemblance between young Rosa and older Rosa. Final bit of trivia: I was tickled to learn that Miss Rosa was protrayed by Barbara Rosenblat who is one of my very favorite audiobook narrators. She is a fantastic voice performer.

I agree Vee's seeming warmth is part of her socipathic nature. And I love that Toussaint is playing it with just the right amount of nuance and restraint so that it doesn't come off as over the top. Vee is a villain. Her actions portray her as such. Toussaint isn't twirling her mustache or chewing scenery to get the point across. Instead, she's portraying Vee very warm and maternal yet allows her ruthlessness and coldness to undercut it. As much as I despise the Vee character, I am loving watching Toussaint portray her because it is a joy to watch an actor play a charismatic villain without making it too broad.