DearEvette

This episode was fire. The jokes were pop-popping! That cold open was awesome. I loved Jacob's creativity. Ok, Dia is great. I love how dry she is with Ava. "Just so you know, I am slowly building my case." Her delivery was everything. And then the scene in the break room with Jacob insulting sweet cheeks and Melissa ready to squabble up. 'Run' and he ran the hell out of there. LOL The kids, as usual, were hysterical. Andrew: "Not touching that" meanwhile Stevenson giving the detailed breakdown, also thinking Janine is 19. While Margaret thinks Janine is 50! LOL. Speaking of, Little Margaret is actually a little Tik Tok star name Savannah “Van Van” Mcconneaughey. She is super cute. Janine and Gregory popping up to give O'Shon ideas... Barbara's makeover...eeek (much to Krsytal's approval) So fun!

I just wanted something very light for lunch. I made a yogurt dip - small container of plain yogurt - sauteed spring onions (4 cut up) and 4 cloves of garlic in olive oil until onions cooked and garlic is mild/sweet - mixed a couple squeezes of lemon juice, with 3 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tbsp thai chili crisp, salt to taste, oregano poured that over the onion/garlic mixture and mixed everything and then swirled everything nto the yogurt topped it with castelvetrano olives - toasted some cranberry grain bread and used that as my dipper. Hit the spot.

I liked the Ormewood plot the best I think. It was silly fun and had a lot going on. I especially liked the intervention in the beginning with the Indian mother doing the worst job of giving positive affirmation. LOL. But it felt so real. And then it devolved into utter farce. I don't watch a lot of reality shows, the only reality royalty I acknowledge is Tiffany 'New York" Pollard (... well I lie, I don't think of anyone like that...) so I am not at all familiar with Ariana Madix (sp?). But she did a good job and her increasingly competent skills in everything was pretty funny. I loved the Bodyguard moment in the end. If only Faith could've seen that! Speaking of, I am here for Faith/Ormewood. If you had asked me if I'd root that at the start of season one I would have thought you were on crack. But like I've said before, they've done such a good job on rehabbing Ormewood as a character that I think he and Faith would be an intriguing couple. And even if they don't go there, I am 100% onboard for for BFF roommate shenanigans! And I don't blame Faith for not wanting to live in her murder-kidnap-violence condo. I thought the child abduction case was just fine. Something about it didn't 100% click for me. But I will say, LOVED seeing Will and Faith's teamwork in fine action. Especially as they synchronized their watches and tag-teamed that terrible dude with their bullet-fast interrogation and great eye-contact communication. That was a great scene. I didn't mind Marion, much to my surprise. Her job as ADA worked here and her trauma felt believable. This is the most natural she has felt since joining the show. Amanda with her hair down looked gorgeous and the little girl was really cute. And yeah, what was Will thinking leaving Betty unsupervised!! He probably has her chipped, but still. I had such anxiety. I would never. I am cynical but I feel like because it is Angie, Scot Foley's character is probably gonna turn out to be a bad person. Probably sells organs on the black market or something. Angie does not attract good things. LOL.

Agreed. I hate that. I hate the need to make previous relationships less important or problematic to put the hero and heroine is a bubble of one true love. I know there are readers who despise the idea that the hero or heroine had a prior true love and some authors pander to that, but it is ridicuolous to write people in their 30s and act like they could have never had an authentic real love relationship before. One romance off the top of my head that kinda plays with/subverts that trope is The Sleepover by Serena Bell. Her main male character is a widower with a young son. The main female has an ex who left her for his first love. She of course is hurt because of it but tries to have somewhat of a civil relationship because of their son. The hero/heroine are neighbors and their sons become BFFs. They get together but the romantic conflict is the heroine is a little leery of becoming involved with someone who was deeply in love with his (now dead) wife. She has some left over trauma from being 'second best' So they have to work through him letting himself fall in love again and not feeling like he is betraying his wife and assuring her that she is not second best. Cute book. Another one is Hero by Lauren Rowe where the heroine is the widow and her now dead husband was a great guy, a first responder. They were in love and had three kids. The main male character is also a first responder. There is a great scene after he's gotten with her and has really bonded with her kids where he sees a video of dead husband having a tea party with his daughter, complete with wearing a tiara and thinks "damn he was a handsome guy and a great dad. fuck."

Depends on the version. The first version I ever heard was the one that named everyone.

Great casting. He has that face, the face of a shady cheating cheater. Same actor played Davis on Queen Sugar where in the pilot episode we find out he cheated on his wife. He was a pro basketball player and she walks on the court during a game and causes a SCENE! LOL.

Ok. That makes better sense. I actually had to go look at the show wiki. The two guys sorta blend because they both have the same hair and sculpted goatee.

Yeah I like the story telling theme songs as well. Gilligan's Island introduces all the characters right there in the song. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air actually starts with 'Now, this is the story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down..' and proceeds to give the background about how he got there all with the personality of Will infusing it. Green Acres was also like Beverly Hillbillies where the song told the premise of the show.

Finally got a chance to watch. What I liked: The opening scene with 'Best of My Love' blasting. Set quite the tone! Tamara Tunie's hair. It is glorious. Actually all the actresses hair. The sets. Dani's red dress. The grounding of the family's prestige in the civil rights movement and Anita probably being somewhat of a Diana Ross analogue. Pretty much everything Clifton Davis. The scene with the entire family sitting on the couch and Vernon talking about his love for his wife and hyping up the family. The entire family pausing one by one to give an 'Oh well, thems the breaks' stare down to Hayley before calmly walking off. LOL. The Realtor giving her news (she did a solid to her friend) but getting the hell out of Dodge. What I didn't like so much: The expositiony dialogue. Necessary I suppose, but belabored. The social media model and her nameless cousin. I am hoping they grow on me but they just feel vapid right now. The Nurse. Talk about a needle scratch. LOL. But... the photographer husband's dialogue with her felt awfully...flirty. I just got a weird vibe there. The Congressman grandson has two young children. We haven't met them yet.

This show feels like it is trying very hard to lean into being the snappy, smart, glossy inheritor of Suits+LA LAW. Not just that is what it is, but it is being deliberate and calculated about which in turn make me feel cynical about watching it. There is also almost too much going on... the flashbacks, the daddy issues, the betrayals, the competition, the shifting power dynamics, the inner conflicted-ness of everyone! With the debut of the new soap opera Beyond the Gates today, it had me thinking about the great Doug Marland who was the head writer for As The World Turns. He was very much lauded as a great storyteller in a medium that had to juggle lots of stories relentlessly. He had a set of rules that drove how he approached writing. One of them was to introduce your characters with care so people can get to know them and care about them, good or bad. This show does not do that. I don't know and don't care about any of these people. I especially rolled my eyes at the younger, white guy lawyer who seems be Steve Amell's protege. They seem to be setting him up as some great moral center and has him speechifying to everyone about their flaws. Spare me. I will say there were two instances that I did appreciate: One was the pro bono lawyer who let Steve Amell's character know he had absolutely no leverage on her. It was the way the scene played out that I loved. He was so cock sure and she was so over it and cooly delivered her truth to him. I loved seeing him knocked back. Second was how the black lady in the green sweater (Erica?) seemed to be two steps ahead of her assistant and then Steve Amell again when it came to issues of trust. She already had her ducks in a row. I dunno. I might revisit this again when it settles into itself a bit. For now it feels a little too, too much.

It looks like it might be this outfit from designer Trina Turk. But with added Elsbeth ..um...flair.

Fun episode. Matthew Broderick's character reminds me of his character from the movie Election. He does stuffy but sinister well. Also he really must have been a garbage person if his daughter isn't the least bit upset he was arrested for murder. I am so happy the show didn't have him kill the cat. Whew! I continue to love the callbacks on the show, with Elsbeth promising not to make duck at her dinner party. Aww, look at Lt. Connor being part of the team/family and even making jokes you can't even tell are jokes.

I re-watched the scene and there really is very little connective tissue that got them from point A to point B. Kaya is aware that the company is a suspect because of the drug test. The Scottish group knows who the killer just based on his scarf. But they never saw his face because he wore a mask. Elsbeth's phone is already dead when she gets to the perfume company, so she never had time to tell anyone where she was going. When they all burst in in the end, it seems like they KNEW he was the murderer but all Kaya says is Angus called the switchboard. There is no explanation at all of how they connected mysterious man with a scarf to that particular executive at the company. So yeah, it feel like the show felt Angus calling the switchboard was all the explanation we needed.

Ok, the A-team is back. This is the Will Trent I am used to: The crackling writing, the stellar cast chemistry. And yeah, no Betty but that is ok it would have been weird if she were there. I loved the structure of the episode with the compressed time and the time stamps, the thunder, the darkness, the jump scares and the title card wrapped around that poor woman's body on the elevator . And all of that spookiness interspersed with Mariachi puns, Franklin in a conical birthday hat, a creepy cop mannequin and light up mariachi hats. Not killing Marion made no sense since he had no problem offing the other two women and as DA her identification of him would have been unimpeachable, especially since he villain monologued his confession right to her. But I guess they can't kill off another Will love interest so quickly and I suppose his weapon of choice was a knife that got conveniently left. I thought the brother in law was a little too obvious and reserved judgement. So I wasn't too surprised it wasn't him. But I did get a little satisfaction in knowing he'd have to eat crow with John's exoneration and him living with them. I do love how they cold stole his Oxy for Caroline. Poor Caroline. Poor Pete. I am so glad she'll live for both their sakes. I was a little perturbed about everybody standing over her opened up body (in a morgue no less) about the germs etc. But then I imagine that is how field medicine works. I too hope they manage a way to keep Raphael around. Funny how Sunny kinda disappeared. Did they lock her in Amanda's office with her ipad or something? I figured since Raphael was still there she had to be as well. And finally that last shot of the mannequin --- he kinda looked like Ormewood.

Ooh, I know what show you might be talking about and I was gobsmacked how good he was with that twist.

What damaging consequences? What evil? She hasn't in any way, shape or form damaged Matty's crusade. The only thing she has done is groused to Billy, told Maddy that 'Fie upon thee! Thine hath made a sworn enemy of me' and worked with Shae to look into Matty's background because both women suspect her of lying. But in just this single episode that all got scuttled because of Matty's plot armor. As we see in the end, they both backed off and Sarah is crying in Olympia's office. Like I said the only consequence to all of this was Sarah's relationship with Billy. You can't apply real world reality to this. That ship has sailed. In the real world, Matty would have been better vetted and not hired at all. And what is her whole conspiracy board crusade about if not about crushing someone or possibly ruining the business? Seriously? What is her end goal here? Just to find out who did it and walk away? But that isn't what she is doing. She thinks Matty is hiding something. Whether her form of behavioral science is real of hooey, is up for debate, the fact of the matter is, it is what she is hired to do as an expert and Matty believes it enough to plan for it with her own lie detector machine. But beyond that, Shae caught Matty in an actual lie. Matty of course covered it up and then went on the offensive. 'I don't want people in the office knowing all about my business and I am sure you don't want people to knows yours.' Shae hadn't made any sort of threat at all to Matty at the time, she merely questioned, like anyone would, a discrepancy in a story. But Matty racheted that up by implying she'd spread gossip about Shae sleeping with Julian. Where is this conscience? I am asking this sincerely. Because her manipulation of Olympia is foul. This is a woman she made trust her and call her friend, and as we saw Olympia doesn't trust or unbend easily. And she is using Olympia's confidences to poison her divorce proceedings with Julian. She stole Olympia's computer. She's planted a listening device and is allowing Julian to take the fall for it. She manipulated Sarah into confiding something personal and painful, again knowing that is not Sarah's comfort zone, and because she needed to move Billy's attention away from her, she callously told Sarah she was not vulnerable enough. And Matty opened up a false HR complaint about age discrimination against Shae. Also I don't see any evil threats being followed through. Shae did not threaten Matty. On the contrary, Matty is the one who threatened Shae. But Shae herself is doing the due diligence the firm should have done in the first place. She simply asked about Matty's prior firm. And Sarah has done nothing. Not a single act against Matty except look up something on the web. And when Shae met with the (fake) employer, her line of inquiry about Matty's past seemed to pan out so she shut it down with Sarah.

First of all Chris Gorham is aging real nice. Anyway, I can't dislike Sarah. I find the actress has been excellent in crafting the smart, but super socially awkward character with self esteem issues. Absent Shae's influence, Sarah's animosity toward Matty has mostly been played as light comedy. To me it is a acknowledgement that Sarah isn't in Matty's weight class in manipulation. Using Elizabethan argot with super melodramatic emphasis and the light, quirky music in the background says it was mostly all bluster and posturing. Even Olympia, who had noticed it, wasn't taking it too seriously until Matty complained to teacher. And then Shae comes along and seems to validate Sarah and makes it more serious than it previously was. I don't see Sarah as a villain, because minus the main characteritis, Matty is the real villain. Just because she thinks she has a righteous crusade doesn't mean she isn't doing willful harm to people, not just the work in the firm but to the actual people. She is gaslighting Sarah to the point that she's broken down what little self confidence she had. She falsely accused Shae of age discrimination. I don't give a rat's ass about Shae and never actually liked her, but it is really icky that Matty is weaponizing discrimination complaints in such a way since any actions against real discrimination takes a boatload of proof and usually multiple people complaining about the same person. We have to handwave so much for this show already but each time the show clears a path for Matty to sail effortlessly by it gets harder and harder to do. I will say that Sarah's treatment of Billy is on her and I am glad he called her on it and is showing her how much harm she did to him. But that is yet again a place where a character other than Matty is getting the consequences of their shitty behavior. I also really dislike the 'war' Julian and Olympia are waging. It was so refreshing, briefly, how evolved and friendly their divorce was and now they are going scorched earth. I hope something happens that allows them to come to their senses. As much as I enjoy the scenes between Olympia and Matty and love the chemistry between Skye Marshall and Kathy Bates, I can't even really enjoy it for Olympia's sake because it is all a lie.

I blame Outlander. This episode felt like a nudge-nudge wink-wink to romance novels. Set during Valentine's Day and using several romance novel signifiers. Romance has a thing for Scotsmen. Not so much for Welshmen. That too.

My closed captioning tells me it was (You Don't Know How) Glad I am by Nancy Wilson. And I also Shazam'd it. Also, this was a nice Valentine's day theme show. A little different because it was a real whodunnit both for us and Elsbeth. And I loved Elsbeth's blue coat and the hat she wore with it.

Right. I wish that if they wanted to give Will a new love interest than just let him meet some woman at the vet so they could bond over dogs and go from there. Just let her be the love interest. Making Marion the DA who suddenly is everywhere just doesn't work. They force her into work situations to give her something to do. Also, frankly, she doesn't have any personality. Regarding Cricket, I liked SKW's glee with which she played the character. Cricket was a firecracker! I miss 'the what could have been' with her because I would have liked to see how her big personality played against Will's reserve. And bonus they actually had crackling chemistry. Which given how brief her time was, had to be something since I still remember it. But even if she and Will had never had a romance, I still would have liked her character to stick around and pop in with her brand of gung-ho. Just another interesting personality kinda like what we have with Franklin and Pete.

It feels like the C-Team wrote this episode. Where is my crackling dialogue? My little bursts of humor? My character chemistry? Ok, Carver was the only character that made me perk up a little bit. 'Spearminted' indeed. LOL. He was like a more demented version of the cannibal character Tim Meadows played on Brooklyn 99. Even down to lunging at Jake trying to eat his face like Carver did with Angie. LOL. And Yes! I admit that my general dislike of Gina R definitely colors how I see her on this show, but even without it, her character has not been well integrated into the show. Or rather, not organically. She is plopped in for love interest only. So they are shoe-horning her and it just isn't interesting. And that scene in the kitchen was pretty cringey, imo. I was done with Sunny the minute she told Amanda to chill. Nope. I am not here for that level of disrespect no matter how stressed she is. Amanda is right when she said it was a matter of respect.

See, I wasn't even that sympathetic to Matty in the beginning because I thought the whole set up and premise was stupid. But I did like Matty herself. And even as I roll my eyes at her incredible main character plot armor, I went with it because well, you just do. I don't for a minute believe that lawyers aren't ruthless enough to manipulate every loophole they can to get the best outcome for their client. And you could argue that in Matty's head, her dead daughter is her client. But usually when that is happening, the lawyers on the opposing side are on the same playing field and knows what the plays are. But in this the opposing team aren't even aware they are playing. But between her ruthlessly dismissing her old friend who simply wanted her help with his own child going through the same thing her daughter did, to the way she absolutely slammed the door in Sarah's face, to the way she is manipulating the rift between Olympia and Julian. Everything she is doing is just cruel. Not to mention the listening devices and rifling through people's personal spaces. So it makes it hard to really even like her as much. To me the best comeuppance she could have is to realize she was working with faulty intel from the start, i.e. the infamous Reddit post was a piece of hooey or that the suppressed memo wasn't the big smoking gun she thought it was and that her whole mission is built on a foundation of smoke. Now she has to deal with the harm she's caused and has to make reparations. All the while she now has to maintain the false identity which is becoming harder and harder to maintain.

Yeah, I just wonder what the end game is? If you set up a show with any type of secret conceit, it either needs to be self sustaining or it needs to have a satisfying reveal that opens up more story possibilities. Let's say Mattie finds out that someone from the firm did hide documents. Now what? Does she confront them? If she was going to do anything legally shouldn't she have done that in the first place? But now that she has infiltrated their firm using a false identity couldn't anything she finds be suspect? And even then what is her end goal? Did she want to expose the firm? Ok but newsflash, opioids are still on the market and your daughter is still dead. And let's say a single someone does take the fall? Shae or Elijah or Senior (I doubt if the show will sacrifice Skye Marshall or Jason Ritter) are they supposed to turn to her with glad heroic thank you hugs? How does she even stay with the firm? She will have shown herself to have utterly betrayed whatever "friendship" she had with Olympia. Not to mention Billy and Sarah. I figure the writers have some end game in place for the big reveal whenever it happens, but much like the whole premise itself, I think it will riddled with a lot of illogical things we are supposed to handwave away.

I watched Mildred Pierce. And the whole movie I just wanted Mildred to pull a real Joan Crawford on her daughter Veda and go 'no more wire hangers' on her ass.

Yeah but this is tv. People always warn their adversaries "I'm coming after you.' It is the same with villain monologuing. Sure give your adversary time to take counter measures. No if I were coming after someone I definitely wouldn't give them a heads up.