DearEvette

During the, I think it was the London Olympics, we got a VPN and watched the British coverage. So different. They'd show entire events. And when it was over, they'd show the time from the event to the medal ceremony. I can see why NBC would not necessarily show that, since it usually consisted of the athletes, gathering up their stuff, getting told where to line up, where to go etc. But it was fascinating. Also they'd show sports NBC never showed, like indoor track cycling. I had never seen that sport ever on NBC and yet I became fascinated with it in 2012. For the summer olympics, I will say, I love the NBC sports analysts who do the track and field announcing. Ato Boldon, Sanya Richards-Ross and Carole Lewis are great to listen to as they talk about the athletes. They are knowledgeable of the sport and enthusiastic. Since the Track and Field events are my hands down favorites for summer, I do make sure to watch the NBC coverage.

Yeah. Honestly, I have not watched the last two episodes and that has never happened. This season had felt like what Lone Star feels like all the time. That show has always prioritized the misfortunes of their main cast and Rob Lowe over the actual 911 calls. And while this show has also had its fair share of main cast trauma, it always had a much better balance with humor and interesting rescues. I honestly would need to go back and look and see how many rescues they did this season that did not directly involved one of their own being the rescuee. I am crossing my fingers that the lack of rescues is a by-product of the short episode count (10 as opposed to the normal 18) and the restricted time they had in getting the shows up and going after the strike. I checked the episode writers and they are the same people who have written rescue heavy episodes in the past. So I am hoping a full season to course correct is on the horizon. I will of course watch when it comes back, but if it doesn't get back that balance I'll probably not watch as regularly.

They don't go into a lot of detail, but they do give us more info as this series goes on especially about Lady D and her background. But all of the POC who were elevated were very rich, landed folks. They just were not titled. The rich, landed gentry would not have socialized in the same circles as the ton (the titled nobility). Hence the elevation to give Charlotte some brown/black folks to be around so she didn't seem so 'other'.

Moment missed at first watch: There is a scene ofJanine getting the apartment ready for the party, just before Melissa and Barbara arrive early, we see her move the prop vase from farther back on the shelve to closer to the front edge. She pats it with a satisfied look and smirks at the camera. I also like the flickering broken light call back to Season 1. Again, Janine kinda looks at the camera when she makes a comment about not trying to fix it.

But that kinda signals that the Gregory/Janine romance is the point of the show. They've gotten together so then end? I think there is still quite a bit she can mine from elementary education. We haven't gotten a full on science fair episode, or when the book fair rolls in, field days, the PTA, Ava can get a vice principal, there are other teachers to meet -- the music teacher for instance -- there is a lot that can be said about music. And like Brooklyn 99 that had annual recurring episodes (Doug Judy, The Halloween contest) we could go on to the Conference every year and we already get a field trip episode each season there are more places to field trip in Philly. We could follow the 8th graders as they get ready to go into high school. On the personal front there is still the mystery of Janine's father, the rest of Melissa's siblings, any of Jacob's family. For the actual series finale, I would expect that to show the crew moving on/up -- Barbara retiring, Gregory becoming the principal, Janine becoming Barbara, Ava getting famous etc.

I just want to know where in all of this did Bobby become the Twin Cities Junior figure skating champion for three years running with his partner Heidi Shatsky?

What a lovely, lovely episode! Lowkey love the idea of sending your one-year-in-the-future self an affirmation (reminder of what you planned) that you accomplished all the goals! "They said you couldn't do it!" To a bunch of kindergartners moving to first grade. LOL. OMG! Evil mastermind/perfect party planner Janine is the best Janine! Her evil laugh "muahhh!" Knowing Barb and Melissa will sjow up early and clean. Prop vase! "It's not a party until something breaks." Honestly this is the best of all of her glow ups this season!! And she was wearing another Freakum dress! I love that people had a good time at the party. I love that Erika and Simon "broke up" before the party was over. I loved seeing Zach and the district folks and Sea Barbara and wise sage Mr. Johnson. And Zach was by far the best DJ of the three who DJ'd. I am kinda cackling that after last week where the writers made everybody all mad about J & G, this week they were like 'Psych!' LOL They had to know they'd piss everyone off last week. Only to turn right around and remove the reason. I am glad they are together, but tbh, I would have liked to see Janine and Manny. Oh well.

Yup. This was where I was in the beginning. Everybody had jokes. Sly and dry, but still jokes. The whole 'Loins' thing had be cackling. And then shit got real! Agreed. They are not in a healthy place. And when Will "proposed" to Angie and we saw their wedding I knew it was a false scene, but the longer it went on, I knew it went even further than just a fake out, it was pure fantasy wish fulfillment. It was Will's version of the "ideal happy tv family" something that he had probably always wished for but never thought he'd have. I am glad the show let Angie's bad decision come back and bite her on the ass. I do like Angie as a character but that was a terrible decision. The sad thing is, Angie's sacrifice was for nothing. Not just because it did blow back on her, but in all likelihood, even if Crystal had taken the rightful blame for killing her pedo step dad we might have still ended up in this place but without it blowing up Angie's life in the process. There was a great chance that Crystal would have gotten off lightly, maybe probation and community service. Sure she killed a guy, but that situation is highly sympathetic and juries might have been swayed. Especially if Angie had testified both of her past with Lenny and told a good story on the witness stand about what went down that day. So Crystal would have been free and still would have killed Lenny and still would have gotten away with it. Her mother, being the person that she was probably still would have abandoned her and Crystal would have still been on her own. And she was a textbook spree killer complete with keeping trophies. She would have gone that route anyway. So Angie's decision to take the blame only hurt herself in the end because we would have ended up here regardless. Shallow note: Faith looked extra nice this episode. I loved her hair. Also I am not feeling her boyfriend. But I hate the trope of the reporter in a relationship with a first responder and their relationship gets tied up in trading information to do their jobs. Also Amanda doesn't like him so that has got my Spidey senses tingling a bit.

Ahem. I will now saw something complimentary about Chet Haze AKA Ton's Hanks' son who thinks he is Jamaican sometimes. This is a first and most likely only time I will be doing this. Anyway, apparently Tom asked him to explain the Kendrick Lamar/Drake beef. if you don't know... no worries his explanation is pretty good and quite funny.

I feel like Erika's statement about 'vindication' kinda points to Crystal being the murderer? I feel like there was a fair amount of dismay amongst the viewers that she covered up the murder of Crystal's pedo stepfather. So now it is coming home to roost. And I wonder what this means for Angie's state of mind? I would bet it kinda puts her into a tailspin. I just hope nobody dies. Not even Ormewood! I still have residual sorrow for poor Cricket. I can't take a regular getting offed.

LOL. Me too. I thought for sure that would be the gag. But then that would mean yet another Schemmenti was a teacher and we should have already seen her during the conference episode. I did like that return of Tatyana Ali. Legit question -- I missed the misogyny what points to that for you? I did like how throughout the season the show has been dropping little hints about the state of his marriage in throw away lines and this is the culmination. At the start of the season we found out he eloped over the summer. And then later on we found out he and his wife were in couples counseling and then even later, I think it was the episode with the book club we found out he and his wife were undergoing a trial separation. And now this... full on divorce. LOL.

Delightful episode. This made me cackle out loud. And then she put on the Usain Bolt pose. And I agree, the Janine/Gregory stuff is misfiring. I almost think it would have been more interesting if they had actually gotten together after that kiss and found they really weren't a match after all. It would have been a good twist on the will they/won't they. Morton and Jacob's continuing enmity is a gift.

I think It is a combination of things: 1- People who read the books knows she is a much better character in the books so some of that is nostalgia leaching over to the tv character, who imo, does not deserve it. The tv character is written with a meaner edge, imo. 2- People like the actress and are carrying that over to the character so it excuses a lot. 3 - Body positivity rep. It is nice to see someone who isn't always thin with the tv perfect body getting a love story, but again that elides the more damaging part of the character's actions.

Damn, Somebody called them a Temu Ray J and Kim K and I just.... LOL.

I liked Season one mainly because of the novelty of someone actually adapting a Hist-rom of the Avon variety with some actual respect for the genre. And yeah, Rege Jean-Page, mmmmm. But yeah I quickly fell out of interest in S2. Just didn't keep me. And since The two main characters in S3 are a combination of a boring and annoying, I am all the way out.

I am not so sure that Michael's was a 'just figuring out' though. My read was that he was always gay and always knew it but was deeply closeted even to himself. When he came out to the kids he said 'This is something I have been struggling with my whole life" and during a fight with Athena implied that she always knew but ignored it. In any event, I like that the show explores the variety of ways in which LGBTQ expresses itself. You have Hen who is a lesbian and has, iirc, always been out. Josh who is a gay male who, like Hen, has been out. Michael who always knew but kept it hidden and finally came out even though it was messy. And Buck who is Bi and just realized it. Also interesting because he had always been coded as a hypersexual ladies man. They are all different in a lot of ways so the show is unconsciously showcasing there is no single way to 'look' gay (or bi).

Tatum O'neill was really good in Paper Moon. Also Jurnee Smollett was fantastic in Eve's Bayou. Too many people sleep on that film, it was a gem.

The Gay Wedding Advice, I think, has become my favorite K&P sketch. And it is largely because of the other actors in the skit, K&P let them carry it.

I disagree to some extent. Smaller episodes work better for a tighter story when you are telling one story though the season. An Anthology or limited series , for instance is great for a 10 -13 episodes. Is is harder to sustain a single story over 22 episodes where you have to string out the central plot/mystery and pad it. It is why when we get genre series for instance where they have a Big Bad each season, we get these filler episodes. Episodic tv is well suited to a longer season because the viewer gets the best of both worlds. You get self contained stories that finish in one episode but you get the luxury of time to get to know characters, watch them grow and develop and live with them through a bunch of different seasons in almost real time. There was this big trending discussion on twitter about this very thing around the time of the strike. People were lamenting the erosion of the network tv shows that follow the 'school year' season. Where you meet the new class (the new shows picked up by the network) in September. You get holiday episodes (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc.) in real time with people on the screen. And at the end of the year some shows graduate (end or get cancelled) and the rest take a summer break so you can anticipate for next year again. I think this season probably hurt Abbott because of the strike. A show like this probably plans for the full 22 episodes and they probably had everything planned to be paced a certain way. But with the shortened season and the inability get back into the writer's room without enough lead time to really break the episodes, everything is compressed. And it doesn't help that even with the truncated season we get gaps in airing so you lose viewer momentum. I still think this season was pretty funny overall, with this episode was an outlier.

Yeah, this is probably the weakest episode of Abbott in a long time. I checked to see who the writer was and he had only written one other episode, one that fell a little more on the serious side. I agree this had funny moments but wasn't funny. Everyone felt like a caricature instead of themselves. The Gregory stuff was cringe and not in a good way. But I will say Janine looked great, Erika and Tariq were 100% themselves and Manny looked goodt! I am not gonna lie, I wouldn't mind if Janine and Manny became a thing. The book subplot was a little better, but I am kinda disappointed that Mr. Morton turned out to be such a weenie. Parable of the Sower is no joke. That book is prophetic!!

Obviously the underlying theme of this episode was: Karaoke! First his bachelor party was supposed to be an 80s themed Karaoke bachelor party and then we are reminded Chim worked at a Karaoke bar and finally, the 'Islands in the Stream' song that ran under their wedding was the first song Chim and Maddie song together at Karaoke! This was a good ep with a lot of callbacks: Kevin, Doug (and all the references to stabbing) and of course the aforementioned karaoke. But I am bummed it wasn't the Hangover-eqsue hijinks that were hinted in the promo. I am disappointed in Buck and Eddie and how stupid and childish they were during the Not!Bachelor party. I mean, Buck can be impulsive and stupid but I would have thought Eddie was too mature for that idiocy. Lovely ending though with a special nod to Bobby and Athena exchanging looks during the vows. Also the look on Buck's mom's face when he walked in with his sooty face had me howling.

Yeah, that and The Wobble have displaced the Electric Slide for the fun group wedding dance at black weddings. Don't forget 'Now Beyonce I" and 'Now Beyonce II'! LOL.

Great deployment of the 'Cha-Cha Slide.' It was a black wedding in Atlanta, no brainer choice. Altho, I can't lie, Ego Nwodim and John Mulaney have hijacked that song in my imagination forever. I can't hear it without thinking about their SNL skit. Let's hear it it for yet another guest character who made the most of their small screen time. Like Bon Bon from the last episode, Patty the asthmatic volunteer firefighter who 'likes action and can kick like a mule' made her mark. I thought for sure they were really gonna lean into Die Hard at a wedding and let Faith start dropping bodies one by one. But oh well, just cute bartender/safe cracker. I kinda call foul on Spud instantly recognizing Jeremy just from the picture on Faith's phone. The likelihood of the cross-race effect in facial recognition kicking in was at an all time high in that situation. It was a high stress situation, lots of black and brown faces, seen only fleetingly and not in the same context as the photo on Faith's phone. Added to which, Jeremy does not have a face that has a stand out feature that makes him instantly more memorable. It would have made more sense if she had taken Faith's phone with her walked among the crowd and looked at it while checking out faces until she hit on Jeremy's. But that is just a quibble. This was a great episode, very action packed, tense at times, and funny at others. I also agree that Crystal could disappear yesterday and I would not miss her. The only possible way I'd see her presence as even slightly interesting is if her being around comes back to bite Angie on the butt for covering up a murder. And yeah, NOT a fan of Angie and Will rekindling anything.

If I am not mistaken, Janine never signed anything. Everything was verbal. Her job was always hers to come back to once her fellowship was over, hence the revolving door of subs. And let's face it Ava's 'hiring' practices were a joke. I admit, I liked her storyline at the district. I thought the way the district characters were written, for such small parts, were excellent. Each person was a distinct and interesting character and they made the most of the little screen time they had. I especially liked how they just really liked Janine, like Jacob level liked her. But I admit is was also very nice seeing how really genuinely happy everyone (except Ava) was to have her back. I liked everything about this episode except the Questlove joke. It was as obvious as Janine coming back. And I do think Janine's return was rushed and a skosh clumsily handled, but that might have been a by-product of the truncated season. But everything else, was great. The cold open was brilliant. The individual characters all had really funny moments, especially Melissa's terrible accents and Barb's reactions to them. The cafeteria workers are always a fun time. And I love that the district HR person is basically the Ava of the District who just hates Janine and thirsts over Gregory.

Yeah, it is really fun. I was listening on my earbud and I think I cackled out loud during one scene in Target and a person looked at me like they were sure I was about do something crazy. It was a scene where the mean dragon, Ajax Nightwhisper, was trying to intimidate Birdie into abandoning Jim and he had her arrested (the Dragons had some cops in their pockets...) So she gets arrested: LOL.