Black Knight

That's usually more along the lines of having character actors do one minor role after another, though, as opposed to re-using people who had major roles and were extremely recognizable. I think they just wanted to make it fun for the audience. Using the same guy for Caesar and Cupid is hilarious.

When June was running joyfully back to the house, I honestly expected she'd arrive to find that it'd been firebombed and Luke and/or Moira were dead. Since that didn't happen, like you I now assume something terrible will happen during the raid. I liked Luke's point about not bringing Nichole into Gilead, and I noticed June didn't argue it. I think Lawrence is misjudging Nick's POV a lot here. No, Nick would not like to have both his wife and June in proximity, and I'm guessing he would also probably prefer that his daughter with June stay safely away from Gilead. It's hard to tell, with the real-world references when the show is set in an alternate timeline, what exactly is going on in the THT universe. Like the point about Gorbachev being followed by Putin. Plus Lawrence was using Hong Kong as an example of how New Bethlehem would be, and was arguing that the more modern New Bethlehem would spread into Gilead, but as we know, in the real world that's not how it's played out with his chosen analogy. Has it not been the same way in the THT universe? Or is the point more that the writers are giving foreshadowing about what we should expect to happen with New Bethlehem? Lawrence was going on about his "400-point plan," which combined with the real world references makes me think he's going to be a big death soon. I'll miss Bradley Whitford, whose delivery of "Do you have an irony deficiency?" was priceless. (And in classic narcissist style, that didn't deter Serena one bit from saying essentially the same thing that provoked Lawrence's comment to June later. I liked the contrast between Lawrence and Serena, between actual self-awareness and narcissism, between genuine remorse and self-pity.)

TMZ says some kind of medical emergency while he was driving. So sad.

I’m no expert, but I figured it had to do with kindergartners not being able to hold it in as well as older children. Hence, proximity.

Not always. Henry VIII is one prominent example, dumping Anne of Cleves immediately after their wedding because he wasn’t attracted to her, and otherwise always marrying women he was really interested in. Victoria famously was hit by the lightning bolt when she met Albert. And it was usual for monarchs to be presented with portraits of prospective partners if they lived far away. In regards to Alicent, she did encourage both Viserys and Rhaenyra to engage with each other, which heightened the chances of Viserys telling his daughter he was considering her BFF as wife #2. I do wonder if that was her way of trying to deep-six the possible marriage. Or to at least give Rhaenyra the heads-up that Viserys had implicitly forbidden Alicent from giving. It seems like Rhaenys would have been a better ruler than Viserys.

Now that the first season is at an end, I’m finally watching so that I can just do a binge! The one comment I have for this episode that I haven’t already seen mentioned is the nice bit of character-building for Alicent at the tourney. We see that she sincerely cares for her brother, and is upset when Daemon pulls that shitty maneuver that might have really hurt her brother. But when Daemon then asks for her favor, she sucks it up and gives it to him with a smile. She is very politically-minded already.

Since Janine irritated them by showing up to their meeting, maybe they decided to sabotage her efforts...

I expect the guy in gloves is Ciprien, the Michael+Aaron combined character. But as for Mona, if I remember correctly she didn't come until the second book. Rice might have name-checked her in the first book as one of the many Mayfairs floating around, but I don't remember her having an (execrable) storyline until the second book. They'll have to cast her at some point because she's critical for combining the Witches and Vampires universes into one. But Louis and Lestat are pretty busy for now. It seems like Mona wouldn't be needed for a couple of seasons.

This, exactly. There is truth to the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" mantra. But at the same time, it goes directly against almost the entire history of human innovation, which is rarely about coming up with entirely new things and mostly about refining what already exists. The computer is an easy and obvious example: The computers in the 70s and 80s weren't broke, but there is a light-years difference between them and today's. I was also glad Janine called Barbara out on the "I explain 'why' to kids and I don't want to explain 'why' to adults." Adults need training. One of the biggest problems in employment is the unwillingness of employers and managers to actually train hires. I appreciated Barbara admitting Janine was right. It's not helpful to just spout "if it's not broke, don't fix it" or "this won't work." It really doesn't work any differently with adults than it does with children: You need to explain shit. Nobody responds well to "It's this way because I say it's this way." There is always that tension between older and younger people, where some of the older people's points are valid - they really have seen something tried before and know from experience it won't work - and some are not, it's that they're in a comfortable rut and not interested in innovating or trying anything new. The perspectives of both Barbara-types and Janine-types are equally valuable: Barbara-types for their lived experience, and Janine-types because nothing would ever advance otherwise. Any good working group has both types, and any good working group continually strives to balance the two, to understand when the Barbara should carry the day and when the Janine should.

It's sort of the dialogue version of Roger Ebert's Law of Economy of Characters. There are no unnecessary characters, and so if someone seems unnecessary, they will be revealed eventually to be important. Now, in that case, he tied it to movie budgets; films can't afford to spend money on unnecessary characters. But for a broadcast TV show, it can be tied to airtime; shows have to clock in at a certain length and so cannot waste time on useless bits.

Something I have been thinking about lately, that this episode has really helped clarify my thinking on: It's interesting, and not in a good way, that a show about the systematic rape, torture, and psychological abuse of women in a dystopian nation is so afraid of female rage that it has made that the central problem in a universe where if ever there was reason for women to be angry, it's Gilead. Of course eternal unrelenting rage isn't a good thing, and can be poisonous, and can destroy one's own life. I would never argue otherwise. But not only did they essentially set up a strawman with June, they pretty much have told us that any of the former handmaids or Jezebel workers or Marthas who don't move on right away from their anger, even if it's less than June's, are also wrong. Moira has been shown essentially trying to stifle other women in this regard, that her way is the way. And the thing is, on a smarter show, there would be a lot to unpack in putting a Black woman in that particular role, because Black women often feel they cannot show anger for fear of being cast as The Angry Black Woman, and it would bring up questions about whether Moira has so internalized that mindset that she perpetuates it with other women. This is not that show, alas. Moira is simply the character who's usually right about things, and so because this show's writers are so worried about female rage, they've given that soapbox to her. And in this episode, we now have the utter whiplash of June, poisonously angry June, turning on an absolute dime and spouting nonsense about "it's God's will" that Serena - a borderline sociopathic, narcissistic woman, who gleefully celebrated murder and instigated and participated in rape, whose principal problem with Gilead is that it dared treat her the same way that she was totally fine with Gilead treating all other women - raise her baby. Because borderline sociopathic, narcissistic people make great parents. June's not allowed to make the entirely reasonable point that Serena still doesn't fucking know what it is like to be a handmaid. We have some weird narrative that it's really all Fred's fault and now that he's gone, Serena will be a better person. Never mind that we saw Serena was a horrible person well before Gilead, when Fred was worshipping at her feet. A final point to tie into the issues of female rage and how to deal with it before it destroys your life: It's really hard to have healing with no accountability. This is where the arguments about moving away from retributive justice break down: Gilead is still a functioning entity that continues to oppress women horribly. There is still an ongoing war between Gilead and America, in which some Americans are being held captive or fighting or dying, while other Americans are refugees in other lands. Many Americans have lost their children or other loved ones to Gilead, either in their oppressive systems or just plain being murdered. And if we want to talk about Serena specifically, she's never faced any accountability for her actions, other than being stuck for a little while in nice quarters where she could do yoga in a nice yoga outfit and kickstart a cult who is happy to spread the sickness of Gilead further. June did get to tell Serena that she didn't care about her apology, but the tone was off. She wasn't angry about it. Moss chose to play it in a practically beatific way. I know from personal experience that it's possible to get to a point where you don't care about someone's apology but you aren't angry about it, but I also know that it takes quite a while to reach that point. It doesn't happen when you've been poisonously angry right up to that second, when large parts of the situation that have made you so angry are still ongoing (June's daughter still in Gilead, Gilead itself continuing to exist and working to spread its sickness to the formerly safe country that took in refugees from Gilead), and after one experience. It is a process, for which there isn't a fast-forward button. This show has unfortunately reached a place where there is little emotional or psychological truth left in the writing, with this episode perhaps being the nadir. THT has never been good at the world-building aspect of storytelling, but now that same laziness and willingness to write whatever nonsense it takes to get to the point they want to be has now infected what the show's strengths once were. I'm more than ready to make the jump to the sequel show and see if that goes any better.

It wasn't a flashback to something we've already seen, no. And it's pure retcon to boot. Janine was pregnant in the flashback; we saw her delivery in the second episode of the series, Birth Day, and Serena was not rolling her eyes at the silliness of the birthing or exchanging conspiratorial bonding glances with June over it. And the idea that Serena was broken up over the death of the handmaid is also pure retcon. We saw in the first episode when Serena and June met for the first time: Serena spoke of the previous handmaid, the one the show doesn't want us to remember anymore, the one who killed herself, as being so brand new it was like trying to train a dog, a not very smart one. Which is why it's hilarious that Serena peaced outta the Wheelers' house after experiencing a couple of days of a fraction of the condescending part of the treatment that's visited on handmaids. But when Serena was whining to June about how she was like a handmaid now, she's like June, for June not to throw it back in her face with an "except for the endless rapes and torture" retort was ridiculous.

Since Quinta Brunson's also the showrunner, I imagine she's trying to avoid falling into the trap of making her own character a Mary Sue. It's also probably funnier for her to play, and it offers her more of a character progression should the show (hopefully) go many seasons.

And also, that it's the title of one of the greatest comedies ever! So the joke works in two ways.

Yeah, I wonder too. After all, Janine had to deal with a disruptive kid last season, although Courtney was disruptive in a different way for a different reason. Also, that conversation was rather similar to when Melissa was trying to tell Janine about Courtney and Janine didn't want to listen.

I hope they do get a second season. There are plenty more Christopher Pike books to use for the midnight stories! They did a couple of my favorites in this season (See You Later and Witch), and I'd love to see them do my other favorites. I liked the meta about how stupid the herpes motive was. Pike is an EP for the show, and it appears he has a sense of humor instead of being precious about his work. I watched the show over the space of two days and generally liked it. The main issue it had, for me, is that when Anya departed the canvas there was a loss of energy. But the kids noted in the finale that the empty seats will eventually be filled with new people, so there is the opportunity to fix that by introducing a couple new kids. I disliked the decision for the camera to be pulling so far away from the kids when Ilonka was explaining to them about Anya's statue. It really robbed the moment of the cathartic effect it should have engendered. I guessed a couple of episodes before the end that the doctor was likely the daughter of the cult leader. It was cool to see her tattoo at the end.

Goodell needs to stop trying to have American football displace football worldwide. It's just not going to happen.

I was just reading some more about the series and Carlotta was one of the characters cast. Beth Grant is playing her. Annabeth Gish is playing Deirdre, which feels a bit of a waste of Gish's talents considering the great number of women in the story. Looking at the IMDB cast list, it seems like probably the first season is only going to tell Suzanne's and Deirdre's stories in addition to the present-day stuff with Rowan. Hopefully the rest of the Mayfair witches follow in S2. There are only 8 episodes for the season altogether.

Watching the trailer in the first post, I definitely see snippets that look like flashbacks.

A string of episodes that includes several actors who went on to become well-known: Bellamy Young (World's End), Justin Hartley (Justice), and Jennifer Lawrence (A Dollar a Dream).

No! This year started with the last of the Golden Girls, and now Angela Lansbury? The great female icons I grew up watching on TV every week as a child are now all gone.

Heh, I had exactly the same reaction upon scanning the cast list. Although if they did choose to put her in at some point, I think they'd have to drastically rework the character and storyline anyway.

So this is fun: It turns out the cold open was inspired by Sheryl Lee Ralph herself! She mixes up white and black actors in real life, and Quinta Brunson heard her doing it with Orlando Bloom (thinking of Orlando Jones maybe?) and decided to do a bit about it.

That's really what it was for me. The refs saw the tackle and had no problem with it initially. In that kind of situation, especially, if they saw nothing to warrant throwing a flag, they certainly shouldn't be doing it after the not-at-all-biased QB complains.

@Proclone, for the show, Michael and Aaron have been combined to form the character Ciprien.