DearEvette

Jacob wins Karaoke night for me just based on everyone's reaction. I especially liked Simon and Mr. Johnson rocking out to it. Janine's face was great! Of course Mr. Johnson's Karaoke song is "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp." Hysterical that Erika and Simon ended up being Barbara's back up after she dragged their singing. Their volatile relationship was really fun background flavor. How apropos that Janine and Gregory did "Always on Time." And Janine's Ja Rule voice was ... not great. I am dying that Zach's one man show is called 'Got Out' which feels like a play on Jordan Peele's 'Get Out.' Yeah Zach is still pretty salty about the break up. That was fantastic. I actually liked the writing for Ava this episode. Yes she was a terrible date but I think between the writing and the acting it really showed her insecurities and the mask she hides behind. She is so uncomfortable with anything real that she hides behind flippant jokes and a little bit of mean girlness. It is interesting because she is the same way with Janine. O'Shon was fantastic. Not only is he handsome, smart and nicely nerdy he comes off as very authentic. I liked the scene of them as the valet brought his car around. It was a great contrast in the really fun joking insult (his car) as compared to Ava's snottiness earlier. That type of joking is their thing. So yeah I thought was was a really good character showcase for Ava and a nice beginning for her and O'shon.

I think the show needs another family rather than the one off characters like the Nurse and Shady Doug. Right now the Duprees seem to the be sun that everyone seems to be rotating around. The Leslie/Mona/Jan scenes show that there is another possible dynamic. Middle class people who aren't always on display and who have other concerns and their own story hook. Yeah Leslie is an adjunct story to the Duprees but at least these scenes round her out a bit and make her less of a one note character. I imagine the show will expand out that way at some point and build out another full on family. I think if they had another fully fleshed family with their own drama away from the Duprees, it would feel like some of the pressure could be taken off of the Dupree family and especially Dani to maintain the drama and would be more of an interesting hook than what they are giving us with Nurse and Doug.

I LOVED Dani treating her mug shot like a high fashion photo shoot. IRL her obsession with Bill makes a lot of sense and I think @Badsamaritan breakdown is a good example of why it does. I get it. It is also a classic case of people from the outside seeing something you can't see for yourself. But this is a soap and we want things to move faster. But for all that the narrative has made it seem that Dani is the ine that won't let go, this episode made it clear that Bill is as much an active participant in this drama. I don't know what is going on with him, but he seems to have a real axe to grind with the Duprees and is using Dani as the whetstone. So yeah Martin is a hot head with anger management issues. How long have he and Smitty been married so that Smitty has not seen this side of him before? I am frustrated with Naomi getting so upset with Jacob, instead of realizing he is right. Dani was gonna get arrested no matter what. If someone else had done it it wouldn't have been as respectful as the way he did it. She should know better. Dana/Leslie/Sherry may be crazy but she is also crazy like a fox. I kinda love her actually. I would love to see her and Bill clash. LOL. But it would be smart for Teddy Bear to just confess and take the wind out of her sails. But this is a soap and that just won't happen. But I am liking the cracks already forming between her and Eva. I would feel sorry for Hayley having her new life so hijacked if she weren't so trifling as to sleep with the father of her BFF and the woman who took her in and treated her like family. Oh well. The nurse's storyline and Doug's storyline. Why? What is the engine driving their stories? I can't understand what make them necessary as cutaways? They have no plot line. And they're boring. I will say everybody's coat game was on point this episode!

Oh I think sardines would be a good sub for anchovies. But I think miso would completely change the flavor profile.

LOL I have the same. But mine expires on 9/14 and I had a $30.00 discount for the one year. So I had paid $30.00 for the year. I'll bet they were running a Labor day special. That has been how I've subscribed to most of my streaming services, I wait for a discount coupon and if the price is right get s a yearly subscription. I refuse to pay full price. And IIRC, they are usually around holidays. I looked at my Peacock subscription and, yup. I got it for $20.00 for the year, a steep discount off the normal $80.00. This one expires on November 26th. So that must've been a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal.

This was fun. Yeah, I don't like the change up in format but still this was interesting. We know the who but not the why at first. OMG, not Adrian Zmed! I love the in-show 'The Godfather'-like movie and all the little tidbits me got about it. Reminds me of this week's Abbott Elementary and the little bits of the children's book The Sassy Little Wizard. Nice call back (again) with this show. The Ashton Hayes character they talked about in this episode was played by Keegan-Michael Key back in season one where he kills his new son-in-law after his wedding. I am sorry but vegan Puttanesca using miso instead of anchovies? Naw, I'll pass. The first time I ever had Puttanesca sauce was in this tiny Italian restaurant in the Village in the late 80s. I swear I think it only had six tables. Anyway, best pasta sauce I ever tasted in my life up to that point.

100%. I am sure that is why her fashions are just not quite right. And co-sign on Kat's Pilgrim dress. Her whole outfit was great too, down to the shoes.

Bill is absolutely stupid. Apparently he is a lawyer/fixer a la Olivia Pope. And he used his fixing skills to cover up whatever Martin did ( killed someone in a rage?) And it looks like he is a lot less discreet than Olivia Pope was because he has no problem showing that he uses the knowledge of what he does for people over their heads. I get that what he does probably has some element of tit for tat for a future unspecified thing, but that tit for tat does not involve not using it as quasi blackmail. This is unsustainable for a guy in his position. One day you are going to try that on someone who won't do the tit for tat but instead do a double tap. In the end his blackmail made things worse. Hayley did not get the wedding of her dreams. Half the guests wore funeral (but incredibly stylish) wear and were absolutely not interested in being there and showed it in their visibly displayed contempt. It became a viral punchilne and she ended up getting married with just two witnesses, an employee and a rent-a-friend, anyway. If the Duprees were smart, they'd neutralize the hold Bill has on them by getting their own ammunition on him. I get the feeling that Vernon might be getting there too based on his convo with Bill after the press conference. The Nurse continues to be a needle scratch. Chelsea and Kat have grown on me, both actresses feel more comfortable and their line readings feel more natural. I am kinda sorta able to tell Andre and Jacob apart because Andre kinda sorta resembles Larenz Tate. I know Dani is a LOT. But I can't lie, I love the chaotic, wild child, loose screw energy she brings. Karla Moseley is so mesmerizing to watch. I wish now that she has done all of her acting out that she let her rage go on a simmer rather than a boil and play the long game to make Bill & Hayley pay. A dish served cold as it were. Speaking of long games, I love the old skool soap scheming of Leslie and Eva. I am hoping Eva isn't Ted's daughter because that would be rather funny to know Leslie lived all that bitterness and infected her daughter with it only for it to be a big lie. On a shallow note, the wardrobe on this show is insane! I especially loved the black dress Dani wore at the wedding, Chelsea's wedding/funeral outfit and her hair ornament, and from the first week that grey tweed coat and skirt Nicole wore. Of the 'rich' set, Hayley (as Bill's fiancee) is the only one whose wardrobe has been kinda tacky.

Ugh. Yeah. That makes sense.

I have truly never thought about sitcoms having filler episodes. I have always looked at sitcoms as truly episodic in nature where that episode's plot started at the beginning and got resolved by the end. They are presented with a situation which they comedically worked through until resolved all in 21 minutes. I do know some sitcoms carry plots over multiple episodes, but each episode has always felt self contained for the most part. I am curious what you'd consider a filler for sitcoms? The Very Special Episodes maybe?

Ooh, I just saw their Spirit Tunnel. These are so fun and it is even better when the guests really get into it. This group did fabulous! They really got into the spirit of it. (Unlike Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, when the No Good Deed cast went on the show. yikes).

That was a cute movie. Jenny Slate and Charlie Day were fun and appealing. I am not a fan of Gina Rodriguez but she didn't detract from the overall charm of the film. I actually came across this one about a year or so back at the same time I came across a much older movie, My Man Is a Loser which stars John Stamos and Tika Sumpter as the rom leads. You could have knocked me over with a feather because talk about two actors I would have never paired or even considered would be in a movie together. It isn't as charming as 'I Want You Back' and had some 'oof' moments, but it also had some pretty funny moments. It wasn't terrible by any means and was fine for some mindless viewing. And I will Say Tika and John had some nice chemistry going.

The cold open was, as usual, excellent. Sassy Wizard Kid has a vogueing troll under a bridge. Unc's grilling ribs and 'Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self." It is like if somebody did a 'The Wiz' version of Harry Potter. Also, good to know that Charlie is not tender-headed. Heh Krystal's objection to the book isn't steeped in a performative morality like most are, though. For instance, I don't think she'd have been as concerned if the book had bad words in it. But she is concerned that the books promote kids thinking they can speak disrespectfully to their parents. But even if it were the former, I think that sort of hypocrisy is the point. Many of the parents who want to ban books are are probably quite hypocritical and whose personal lives wouldn't stand up to the 'purity' scrutiny they are trying to impose on everyone else. Also it was very telling Krystal hadn't even read the book only heard about bits and pieces that she created her own narrative around. Which again, is rather common. I continue to love how they are writing the Janine/Gregory dynamic.

I went back and re-watched the end of the pilot because my memory of what the actual issue was was very spotty. She said that she narrowed it down to Julian, Olympia and Senior. It was one of those three who hid the documents and she wanted to see them in jail. No mention of making the company pay, she was laser focused on those three. She also says they hid documents that "could have taken opioids off the market 10 years earlier." Which is why I have a problem with the whole premise because even with all the awareness of the opioid epidemic, none of the heavily prescribed ones such as Oxycontin or Percocet have ever been taken off the the market. They are still being prescribed. Even when Perdue admitted to lying about the addictive properties of Oxycontin and paid a 600 million dollar fine, Oxy was still allowed to be on the market. What the awareness of the crisis did was caused a lessening in the opiods being wildly over prescribed. But even that just caused the method of getting the drugs to shift from being prescription based to being illegally gotten. The crisis didn't abate, it simply moved around. I really wish Matty's crusade was something a bit more fictional in nature because the reality of the real life opioid epidemic just doesn't mesh with what she is selling here.

She's a Doomsday prepper who has been planning for the Zombie apocalypse. I'll bet she already has top of the line hiking boots and fishing gear and knows how to use them! 😂

So my husband and I are in the car with some random satellite station on and this song comes on. We have never heard it before but it was one of those songs that transported you instantly to the 80s and was pretty catchy/campy. We weren't even paying attention to the lyrics, just the vibe of the song. My husband said 'We have to Shazam this. I need to know what this is. It sounds like if Human League and the Pet Shop Boys collaborated on a gay anthem'. Again we were not paying any attention to the lyrics at all. We sat there car dancing to it goofily. So Shazam it we did and it turned out to be a song called 'Swaheto Woman' by David Johansen. Mind you the lyrics were in no way a gay anthem, LOL. They were telling this woman she was beautiful and strong and would be free. But my husband's description fit so well the music of it. Anways, RIP David Johansen.

This episode felt very odd to me. It felt very ... I dunno... enthralled with the Chloe of it all. She was just so very glamorous and chic and rich and every man wanted her. Heck, Elsbeth was almost apologetic to her for having to arrest her because she cried before helping the guy kill himself and framing his wife. Meanwhile, I thought the wife got a raw deal. It isn't as if she were a trophy wife who married him for his money. She said she was the one that put him through school. It just felt weird that the writing seemed so sympathetic toward Chloe because she loved a selfish asshole. But felt kinda judgemental and dismissive toward the wife because she was apparently trying to stop him from ruining them. Just felt weird. And then on top of that we had the most incompetent, buffoon character of a "detective." Yeah, I get that he is a nepo baby, but even so he was just over the top bad. Yeah, this one was a dud for me.

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.