scarynikki12

Last week, every time I went to Huffington Post there was one of those wraparound ads for the movie. Otherwise, I didn't see any, so I'm inclined to agree that the marketing failed the movie.

My take on Hemsworth is that he's a leading man but not a solo leading man. If he's the lead or c-lead of an ensemble (Thor and Avengers) then he's fantastic. He's got the skills no matter the role but I think that having a strong ensemble brings out the best in him. That's what I'd like to see from him in his non-Marvel roles.

While I freely admit to being guilty of writing some of the inflamed rhetoric that gets applied to some of these polarizing characters, I do agree that it generally gets out of hand to the point where legit criticisms of the characters get dismissed after a point. I know nothing about Sleepy Hollow but there are legit concerns surrounding the writing for Clara, the acting for Juliette and the writing and acting both for Laurel. The legitimacy of these concerns get drowned out in a sea of overreaction and exaggeration and the result is that the producers of the three shows just ignore anyone who brings it up at this point. Skye's different in that the producers seemed to wade through the overreactions to find the source, took those criticisms to heart*, and have clearly made an effort to address them without changing her path. It's a shame that the rhetoric is so inflamed that these producers refuse to address the genuine issues at the source. *The only one I actually felt was legit was Coulson going overboard in his praise of her (with little foundation) because I felt that she was well written and acted otherwise.

While I expect Erin to return to Intelligence, my hope is that she stays with the task force. This episode could be viewed as merely her having trouble letting go of Voigt and the team she'd been with for so long. She was nervous about being in the new environment and, despite a few snags, I think she held her own well. I'd much rather see her come in to her own on the task force than see her return to Intelligence and stall what could be a potentially amazing career. If we were supposed to see her as being groomed to take over her own team or when Voigt retires, that'd be different but we haven't been given any indication of that. I do expect her to return to the team by season's end despite my hopes. As for her and Halstead, I think that this hook up will have some short term consequences but will also be setting up a potential endgame for the two characters. I think that Erin's genuinely attracted to Halstead but went to his place due to the mixed feelings she was having about the new job. Ultimately, I think she went to him to both give into their mutual attraction and because he's familiar. Right now, I think Halstead's far more invested romantically than Erin is and, when he realizes this (maybe when Erin inevitably returns to Intelligence she doesn't think twice about breaking off their relationship while he wants to figure out a way to stay together without costing their jobs), that knowledge will put a strain on their friendship. Down the road, I expect Erin and Halstead to end up on the same page but right now they aren't. If done right, I think this could be a great story. I was also pleasantly surprised that Burgess turned Voigt down. I honestly find the character way more interesting in uniform than as a potential member of the team. I've been seeing her as the Gabby of the show since she first showed up (they even had the "I want to be with the engaged blond guy I work with and think it should happen just because I say so" thing going on) but I'm starting to think that the CPD people have read the complaints about Gabby and are consciously trying to avoid those same mistakes this season. They may still fall back on those same character issues that made Burgess so similar to Gabby in the first season but I don't feel it's a guarantee just yet. Great episode all around though I agree that more Olinsky would have been nice.

While I know Ava could still get a nod for Selma, I think this means that Linklater is all but confirmed to win the Oscar.

Hey everyone, we wanted to let you know that we've expanded the season 1 thread to now include general discussion of all seasons to date. If anyone wants to start new threads that don't yet exist, have at it and feel free to PM myself or CuriousParker with any questions. Enjoy!

I get it. TVD, whatever any of us think of the quality, is a guaranteed paycheck and none of the actors are in hot demand for other well paying acting projects. Even Kat is only rumored to be a possible candidate for X-Men, and I have a feeling they'll go with an actress who primarily does movies anyway (maybe Lupita, maybe someone else). I'm curious as to whether or not the current cast will all remain or if some will leave or be cut? We all know that Paul hasn't been enthusiastic about the show but, again, it's a guaranteed paycheck. Same with Candice. I can see them sticking around with maybe Paul renegotiating his contract to include more behind the scenes stuff (since he seemed to enjoy that). I'm much more curious about the other actors. I think a case can be made for them dumping everyone else and going with brand new recurring actors next season, as it would be cheaper and the show will no doubt be subjected to budget cuts for season 7. Did the panel talk about any upcoming stories other than the Damon/Elena one? Any spoilers on what's happening with Tyler, the merge, or anyone else?

IT HAS SIMFARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem, I may or may not have already wasted hours playing the games on the site.

The only part of the LOTR trilogy that I enjoy is that scene right after Sam and Frodo have left the group. Legolas runs into the scene saying something like "they've reached the Northern shore!" and I start cracking up because: A) he's talking about the other side of the river, B) we can see the other side of the river as he's talking (meaning it's not that wide) and C) he's being WAY too dramatic. Legolas enjoyed being Captain Obvious (we used to play that drinking game in college) but his dramatics get to the point in that scene where I just cannot take it seriously and start giggling.

One of my all time favorite descriptions of LBJ came during season 1 of The West Wing from the character of Josh: "LBJ would never have taken this kind of crap from Democrats in Congress. He'd have said 'you're voting my way. In exchange for which, it is possible, that I might remember your name.'" And that's what made him so effective as President (excluding Vietnam of course). Once he made up his mind to support a cause, he'd be a force to be reckoned with. The wins of the Civil Rights Movement at that time may have come had Kennedy not been killed but having LBJ as an ally was, in my opinion, a greater coup. And I think the movie portrayed this very well. If the movie had been about LBJ and the director and screenwriter dropped the ball, then I could understand the outrage, but it's about MLK and the movement and LBJ was only ever a supporting player at best. To provide characterization that accurately reflects the real man is a good thing but I guess these idiots were hoping for deification?

I agree. I wish they'd kept Cuaron and paired him with a better adapter than Kloves (who I'm convinced hasn't actually read the books). His direction was pitch perfect for the series and, while I agree that I wish the Marauders were explained, it makes up for the script issues when I watch it.

I know a lot of people who had that experience with Firefly. They all found it years after the cancellation and all of them completely loved it. Sometimes it was a case of simply not knowing it ever existed and sometimes it had to do with a generally negative view of the WB and anything/anyone associated with it, but everyone I know in real life has loved it since they found it. I know the only reason I knew it existed when it was on the air was due to my vow to watch everything Whedon ever makes as a thank you for Buffy, as I don't remember a single bit of advertising on Fox's part (not saying they didn't run ads just that I never saw any). I do think it's fun when someone new discovers it because the conversation is always the same: Person: OMG! I just found the most amazing show! It's called Firefly, have you heard of it? Me: Yep. Person: How? I didn't even know it existed. And repeat. Now, to be fair, a lot of these people discovering and loving Firefly are in their twenties, and therefore too young to watch it when it was on the air, but I do think that the minimal advertising from Fox hurt the shows chances of finding the age appropriate audience that would have kept it on the air beyond a single season. Look at how devoted Firefly fans are to this day. There are countless booths and panels at comic conventions around the country and the 10th anniversary panel at Comic Con a couple years ago was the the hardest one to get into. That's some serious fan love that Fox could have tapped into if they'd made more of an effort. It is a shame that social media wasn't really a thing back then because I think that would have saved Firefly, though I hate the idea of the fans doing all the work instead of the network. Moving on, since we are in the UO thread, one of mine is that I think Dollhouse is one of Whedon's best shows, second to Buffy in terms of my personal love and to Angel as a creative piece. I completely understand why it wasn't popular and I agree that Dushku was miscast as Echo, but I think it was just brilliant and I love rewatching it.

Cassidy's a year behind Veronica, Logan, and Dick (all in the same class). Lilly's murder and Veronica's rape both happened during her (V's) sophomore year, so Cassidy would have been a freshman. I think Cassidy stole Mac's clothes to prevent her from following him to the roof and potentially interfering with his plan to blow up the plane. I also think the reason he didn't do anything about his STD is due to being afraid to admit to the molestation. He no doubt spent years letting his feelings (anger, fear, shame, etc) fester until he snapped and became a monster. He may have been vocal about it had he been able to convince Dick or his father that he'd gotten it from a girl but he couldn't even stand up to them and make them stop calling him Beaver so I don't think that he'd be able to admit to being a victim. Logan did know about Aaron when he shows up to take Veronica to the airport. Keith asks her how he's doing and she says she thinks that he's taking it (the murder) badly as he refers to himself as Little Orphan Annie. He has a smile on his face when he arrives, which seems to contradict that statement but I think it's because Veronica makes him happy and because, despite his genuine grief, Logan hated his father and probably does have a part of him that is happy he's gone. Plus, the show was wrapping up that particular story, only had a few minutes to get them back together, and didn't yet know if they were making the move to the CW (Weidman's dialogue gave all of us hope and showed confidence from the show but we didn't get the official word until after the episode aired as I recall). If this had been the series finale, then they wanted to at least have them in as good a place as they can be.

My grandma had three mini strokes within a 15 month period a few years ago. After the first, her doctor told her to cut out her salt intake and she only started listening to him after the third. Low and behold, she didn't have any more strokes, mini or otherwise after she stopped adding salt. That's not to say that there was no salt in her diet, just that her health vastly improved once she stopped pouring it onto her food each meal. After her health scares we all stopped adding more salt than absolutely necessary and it really does make a difference in how the meals taste. I can't even eat at restaurants anymore because of how much salt they use. If I'm at a restaurant these days, I only order salad to avoid the salt. That's why I rarely take what the judges say seriously. They get pissed when dishes aren't overflowing with salt yet I probably can't even eat what's being prepared (and that's not taking into account my vegetarianism and shellfish allergy). The part that annoys me most is that I think most of what's prepared probably would taste great (even, dare I say it, better) without the massive amounts of salt yet we'll never know given how the judges act.

I really like the new details on Draco, but what I really love is Rowling's refusal to let the...let's call it passion of his fans sway the realities of the character: that he can grow and be better than his horrible parents (and falling for a woman who turns her back on the same prejudices he was raised with helps demonstrate that), but he was still a bully and all around horrible person in the actual books. I always liked the detail of Draco being skilled at Occlumency while Harry struggled with it. In part, because Harry needed to have serious obstacles when it came to certain magical practices along the way to defeating Voldemort, and also because it just made it more interesting to see the hero have a major issue where the bully did not. The only time I only ever dislike Pottermore is when I try to cast a spell. Some of the interactive links require that and, for some reason, my browser doesn't allow the graphics to work. Everything else works fine and I'm able to enjoy the site as long as there's no spellcasting.

I heard that the other day as well. I had read it was a hit in the UK but I hadn't realized they were pushing airplay here as well. Can't complain, as I found it to be a lovely rendition but it was definitely weird.

It's at Belcourt here in Nashville!

Jess and Rory had a One Special Girl storyline going on as well. Like the trope, Jess didn't actually treat Rory well but his poor treatment of her was still better than anyone else so it seemed positive in comparison. Like every female involved in such a trope, Rory liked being the only one Jess treated "well" and, as such, excused or ignored how badly he treated everyone else. Dean, on the other hand, inadvertently did a reverse of the trope by often treating Rory worse than some other characters. So, with that in mind, I can understand why Rory looked the other way for so long and pretended that SHE was the one who was special enough to be treated well by "bad boy Jess". It did get frustrating though, when Rory kept insisting that she was more at fault for the accident. I get that Lorelai was overreacting and that Emily was due to join her but Rory needed to tell them both to shut it, that the accident was exactly that, and even remind them of the deer accident from season 1. By insisting that she take on the blame, Rory made it seem like this was a situation where blame was needed. Now, that probably had lot to do with how Lorelai was acting but it was an accident caused by a wild animal. The accident wouldn't have happened if deer weren't genetically suicidal when it comes to cars. Lorelai was letting her dislike of Jess cloud the facts, which lost her one of her closest friends (albeit temporarily though they didn't know that), and Emily was letting her classist attitudes get in the way of those same facts. Rory needed to say that, rather than make excuses where none were needed. There's no explanation for her multitude of excuses for Jess later on though and I think it's telling that she was only able to stand up to him and say how angry she was (and not tell him to later erase the voicemail without checking) when he'd dumped her in such a humiliating way.

I have to watch Pixar movies alone because I always turn into a complete wreck and it's less embarrassing to tell people about it than to have witnesses.

I don't know how accurate this is but I remember reading that the secret was easy to keep before the movie was released, since it was revealed via voiceover rather than on set but the spoiler hounds were so relentless that they purposely wrote the line as "Obi Won killed your father" as misdirection. If accurate, that's a really clever way to keep the truth hidden until the release.

In the Questions thread, KingofHearts asked if the characters actually felt those 28 years they'd been under the Curse. I think they must have because their behavior in the last scenes of season 1 and the opening scenes of season 2 was of people who hadn't seen each other in a lifetime. And, of course, they hadn't thanks to the Curse. If they weren't supposed to feel every second of those years then they wouldn't have acted like it had been so long, as we know that Snow had seen the dwarves moments before they were swallowed by the Curse and they'd seen Blue not long before. Snow freaking out at seeing Charming made sense as her last memory of him was his severe wound and assumption that he was dead but the tears and hugs at seeing everyone else was due to feeling the duration since the Curse. Moving on, we've talked about whether or not it was a good idea to bring magic back so soon in the series and I go two ways on it. First, I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea to bring magic to town but, second, I do believe that it was a bad idea to give Rumpel and Regina their full powers back so soon. I think it would have done both a world of good to have to continue without powers in the wake of the Curse being broken. I'd have given the fairies their magic back (as they seemed to be innately magical when introduced), and maybe even specific items like Jefferson's hat, and let our two Big Bads have to use their brains to survive against the angry, Curseless, townspeople. Of course, we'd have to see said townspeople actually care about being Cursed for more than five minutes, but that'd be the plan. I think any redemption of Regina would have been successful without her powers, and I've always found Rumpel to be at his best when he was Mr. Gold, magic less pawnbroker. Plus, it'd have been amusing to see the two of them have to watch Emma's powers grow while they were stuck without theirs. It'd serve them right for being such horrible villains.

I started getting teary when the singing started but I got weepy when he finished his "report", sent it back to Jon and we got the most perfect Moment of Zen ever. Love it.

I have many thoughts on what I'd like to see and what I expect will happen in 4B but the show will completely disappoint me if they don't find a way to incorporate the Cruella de Vil song. They restrained themselves with Let it Go but Cruella's song is less played and shouldn't make anyone crazy. In the same way at least.

I'd like to see King Richard and the twist be that he's a villain with a great PR rep (as my Western Civ teacher described him).

Glad to see they listened to Kris Novoselic and got Joan Jett in there this next go round.