Black Knight

I appreciated that the district people weren't revealed to be secretly evil just to facilitate/justify Janine's decision to return to Abbott. She just wants to be in the classroom, at least for now.

Thanks to the poster who provided the link to the infamous story. Having just read it, I can understand why Slim Keith was so angry with Truman - except for Ann, out of them all she had the most reason. I also see now why the show had the Slim/Bill affair, since the story's Slim says she and Bill were lovers for two years back when they were young, and remained incredibly close afterwards. So it wasn't a completely ludicrous plot point to have them fall back in bed for a bit. I finally watched the last two episodes, and they worked for me. I admit it, the dreamy elegiac stuff always works for me. I understand where some would think it's over-indulgent and drawn out and boring, but for me it's none of those things. I haven't really felt Ryan Murphy's hand in this show until these last two episodes, but I sure recognized it now. For both of us there's something so interesting about the looking back and the consideration and reconsideration of our narratives. Joan Didion, one of the pioneers of New Journalism, famously wrote, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." And the question Ryan Murphy sometimes asks is, "What are the stories we tell ourselves in order to die?" I was shocked when Capote died at the end of episode 7 and didn't understand how there could be an episode 8, but then I saw episode 8 and understood.

Who else half-expected Mr. Johnson to say, "Well done, Grandpa," when he looked at the historical picture after adjusting it? I'm glad that that they chose to make the Oscars episode a work-focused one. Apart from about 20 seconds spent on Janine/Gregory (I loved Jacob's snarky meta line about them not being together now for some stupid reason), this was all about the school. I don't mind the personal storylines per se, but they shouldn't take up the majority of the airtime.

They could have just slapped a "To Be Continued" on there, though. It's not like audiences back then didn't know about season-ending cliffhangers.

(I'm just now finally watching S4, and if I had known there was a kitten episode, I would never have put it off this long! Squee!) While it was a bit over-dramatic - cats are tough creatures and kittens are so lightweight it's hard for them to hurt themselves falling - I still understood the decision. The show knew that catwalk wasn't attached to the other module and would fall if the kitten tried to walk on it, and that other module didn't look all that steady on its four skinny legs either. There's always that 1% chance the kitten lands in an awkward position that dislocates something or bangs their eye against an extruding Lego brick. And at that point the viewer backlash would be tremendous, the charity would be furious, and it would all come down to that the show knew the build wasn't stable. Actually, most likely the show would have to scrap the entire episode rather than dare show any of it, and then hope nothing leaked out - but they'd still have the angry charity to deal with, so good luck with that. The call was the right one. The entrepreneurs' act might get old for me later, but for now it's cracking me up, particularly when they talked about beta testing the kitten. Heh. I can't be bothered since they really did end up building the best build from a kitten's perspective. I know it was a little busy and unfocused from a human perspective, but for a kitten there was lots of entertainment. Will is as mostly unfunny as ever, and it pleases me to see more teams not bothering to play along with the lines that fall flat.

Yeah, I'll never understand that decision. Why would that episode not go earlier so Ides of March could be the season ender? It was Renee O'Connor's first time directing an ep, so maybe that had something to do with it. But really...

I think you should rewatch the two scenes with Blackthorne, Toranaga and Mariko. There really isn't any "yammering on the Christian nonsense" from Blackthorne at all. In their first scene, he briefly explains, when Toranaga asks why his country and Alvito's are enemies, that they follow different Christian religions - he doesn't even make a "Catholics aren't Christian!" comment - and confirms when Toranaga asks that both Catholics and Protestants believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Both the questions and Blackthorne's answers then move on from the subject of religion. In the second scene, Blackthorne doesn't mention religion at all early on, except for letting Mariko know as a matter of courtesy that he is not Catholic, and then later on when explaining the world he mentions the Macao base is "Catholic" and still later about how Portugal and Spain want to replace the government of non-Catholic countries with Catholic rulers (which Mariko chooses to translate simply as "Christian") - points when it's entirely appropriate to mention religion. But he's very in control of what he's saying at all times.

I don't remember the first Shogun adaptation apart from a few scenes, but I do remember the book and it certainly starts off pretty bleak. Yabu boiling one of the crew alive while everyone around can hear the screams, yeeeeeesh.

Per Den of Geek (massive spoilers ahoy): I don't think the book's time jumps would have worked well for the film.

Agreed. I watched it last Sunday, and promptly re-watched it with my parents who were interested after hearing that I had watched it. It holds up very well on a rewatch. And as an American, for me it was really interesting to see the way a French trial is conducted (albeit probably some liberties taken as is common with depictions of American trials). I particularly like how they can ask questions of the defendant during the examination of another witness. It's a more free-wheeling format and yet in a way feels more efficient despite the potential for it to spiral out of control.

Presumably his eating lunch in his classroom is his way of still avoiding the adults, plus until now he had the expectation that he wouldn't be bothered by the kids either. Eating in the car isn't very comfortable, so he probably noticed that he could have the same result of avoiding everyone by eating in his classroom and was happy to make the transition, which was working fine for him until now.

I theorized something similar in the previous episode's thread. There'd be a certain irony if Gregory, who was focused on the principal track, ultimately decides he wants to stay a teacher for his entire career, while Janine decides she wants to be a principal. And in some ways, I feel like that would be exactly right for both of them.

I'm not sure about that last statement. New York society is a small world; these women understand each other, but they wouldn't understand any woman outside their bubble, nor would any woman outside their bubble understand - or have much patience for - them. Shared understanding in a small world with limited options for friends goes a long way in making strong friendships between people who otherwise maybe would not have much of anything to do with each other. I referenced upthread, without giving spoilers because I figured the show was going to cover this, that Liz Smith hated Lee Radziwill for her role in the Gore/Vidal feud. I'll tell the anecdote now: The story Truman told about Gore drunk in the White House was told to him by Radziwill; that's what he needed her to testify to in order to help him with the lawsuit. Smith called up Radziwill to plead with her to testify, and Radziwill made the remark to her about "two f*****" that was featured in this episode, and still refused to testify. Smith, who was bisexual and leaned towards women, refused to have anything to do with Radziwill ever again.

I wasn't surprised. This is a large urban school that goes through 6th grade (which is what Jacob teaches). Multiple older kids will be identifying as nonbinary. The teachers would all be familiar by now. I was aware of both Jeffrey and Geoffrey, but I have not seen the latter as a last name. As such I would have found it perfectly plausible that Janine just defaulted to Jeffrey, but I guess they thought the Gee-oh-free thing was funny. I can understand why Barbara doesn't leave her church. Yes, the people in the choir are jerks, but they are only a few of the people at church. Barbara and her husband would have friends in the congregation at large, plus they may really like the minister. Going to another church just so she can have solos would be, to Barbara, missing the overall point of going to church to begin with. It's supposed to be about her relationship with the Lord, not about personal gratification. I really liked this episode, largely because of Barbara and Ava, but I feel conflicted because the show has really shifted away from work storylines to personal storylines and I'm not crazy about that shift, even if some strong episodes come out of it. I preferred the balance of earlier seasons, where it was about a third personal and two-thirds work. Now it's the reverse. I hope they can course-correct a bit and at least get it to 50/50. I wonder if they're just finding it easier to use the kids less.

I don't think Ryan Murphy had much to do with this season. I think every episode so far has been credited to Jon Robin Baitz as the writer and Gus Van Sant as the director. According to IMDB, Baitz wrote four of the eight episodes and Laurence Leamer (who wrote the book) wrote the other four. Van Sant directed six episodes and Jennifer Lynch and Max Winkler each directed one. Baitz is credited as developing this for TV. Ryan Murphy doesn't have an individual credit anywhere in the opening or closing credits, but his eponymous production company gets a card at the very end.