rubyred

I'm already experiencing The Crown withdrawal -- but not Claire Foy withdrawal, as yesterday I binged Wolf Hall (Netflix or Prime, can't remember which) in which she plays a very...different monarch, Anne Boleyn. (And oh hai, Harold McMillan and Michael Adeane and Jojen Reed and Peter Parker....).

Philip seemed to think that having the title of "Prince" would automatically confer on him respect from "the moustaches." Personally I don't think respect works that way, but he's not the first person to conflate "status" (an artificial social construct) with superiority (a complicated concept with both objective and subjective aspects). It's probably of a piece with his upbringing and generation that he's more concerned with having the "respect" of servants and staff than the respect of his own wife <cough> THE QUEEN <cough>, but he is also not self-aware enough to realize that any respect shown him is more likely to be performative than genuine. He would, however, have the appearance of respect (which IMO is shorthand for deference in his worldview), and that's all that matters. To him.

Another reason that introduction faux pas rang false for me was that even Jack would have had a better grasp of English society etiquette since his father had been Ambassador to Great Britain! Come on, folks. It seemed to me that Morgan was more interested in depicting the Kennedys as brash, nouveau Americans to better highlight how much more genteel British repression is. So let's puncture Jack Kennedy's glamorous image as well as Jackie's so as to make Elizabeth more sympathetic. Sometimes I don't think Morgan understands how profoundly sympathetic Claire Foy's depiction of QE2 is. On paper she's the least dynamic character, but Foy's restrained, subtle performance still illustrates all her inner turmoil so powerfully. But it's like no one around Elizabeth pays the slightest bit of attention to what's really going on with her, whilst I can tell by the minutest facial expressions. I often find myself thinking, damn, this is the loneliest woman in the world. People rarely take the time to really connect with her, and she's so charming when they do. All her prime ministers underestimate her -- some of my favorite scenes are when she dresses them down and they realize she's not some idiot, but someone who takes their role seriously.

Rewatching this (which was actually kind of a chore, which I find to be true of most Margaret-centric episodes) it occurred to me that the thing about Margaret and Tony is that while the actors have chemistry, the characters do not. There is no indication that Margaret and Tony like each other the littlest bit, they're always trying to score points. If Margaret isn't snapping at servants or sniping at her sister, she's trying to intimidate Tony with the perceived glamour of her "status"; meanwhile Tony Tryhard is being, oh, so bohemian, darling whilst working out his mommy issues. Both actors are doing phenomenal jobs, and I'm fascinated by how Vanessa Kirby is deepening her voice, (no doubt in keeping with Margaret's chainsmoking,) yet maintaining that royal accent. But this show has so many more interesting things going on that I can cheerfully skip most Margaret, Tony and Philip stuff after one viewing, and re-binge everything else.

Totally agree, and also LOVED when she lambasted Elizabeth for having no clue how her family's needs and demands affected other people's families and lives. Go Eileen! I was so relieved Tommy didn't manage to mess up her divorce proceedings.

Margaret may have needed a cause/job, but I don't think we've seen any indication that she wanted one. Additionally, I would have preferred to have been shown rather than told that she was such a sparkling wit. For me she veers from spoiled brat to rude bitch, barely civil to anyone who doesn't anticipate her every wish. She was fascinated by Tony Armstrong-Jones because he negged her and that turned her on; there's nothing particularly modern or earth-shattering about being a poor little rich girl who runs off on the bad boy's motorcycle. That said...Vanessa Kirby is really doing an amazing job. While I still don't like Margaret much (and I don't necessarily think the show is trying to make me like her), Kirby really infuses a lot of layers into her performance. I get right to the verge of empathizing with Margaret...and then she says or does something so very...Margaret... and I'm right back where I started. Kirby is killing it. I was a little bemused by the amount of time they spent on Armstrong-Jones. Was it just because they got Matthew Goode for the role? He comes across as about as trifling as you could imagine. Also...this show is about the Crown, I am not as interested in what is going on with the manchildren in this family, please let me watch Claire Foy convey complete emotional devastation without so much as the flicker of an eyelash.

I didn't get that either, but someone upthread mentioned that the patient had only one questionable nodule; it wouldn't have helped them to biopsy another nodule that didn't have the potential symptoms/red flags for that type of cancer. Which I agree should have been made more clear because it made no sense why they didn't just do another biopsy, it had to be this.sample. I'm not complaining but wow there are a lot of British actors on this show. Freddie Highmore, Antonia Thomas, Chuku Modu and then last night Marsha Thomason.

{sorry wrong thread}

I like Amy Acker fine, although I'm not a superfan (thought Fred sucked the air out of Angel, never watched her on POI), but GOD she is saddled with the worst dialogue on the show. Practically everything out of her mouth is a Mama Bear cliche, and even now she's seemingly willfully naive about the situation she's in and the future her kids have. I am trying to separate the actress from the dialogue but it is so.hard. when everything she says could/has been said by Harriet Olsen to Carol Brady to Ma Ingalls. And points to the poster upthread who mentioned that she's more than happy to allow mutants to risk their lives for her husband, but god forbid her kids learn how to control their own powers. What does she think this "normal life" they're going to have will look like? I sometimes think she's on the verge of telling them to hide their powers. 'Cause then, you know, everything will be fine. On another note...why is it so hard for Moyer to find believable hair dye? PS Did I see this right? Did Caitlin take someone else's wedding ring and give it to Reed? Help yourself, lady!

Dare I suggest...Eobard Thawne?

Also, AIDA had to have been lying about being able to bring Lincoln back, right? Because she never downloaded Daisy's conciousness/memories of Lincoln, so all she would have to go on were the other team members memories and they didn't know him as well...oh, and also, Lincoln died before AIDA was born, right? So there's no way she has a human to make into an avatar, she's never even met the dude. (Oh, and stop teasing me, show. Luke Mitchell may be on a crap show but it's a much better role. Lincoln ain't coming back to be Daisy's Gary Stu.) Oy I think I am going to stop trying to make sense of this and just enjoy the action and drama.

I find myself both anticipating and dreading each of the episodes of this arc. They have been so damn good, but the anxiety and tension as I watch them unfold forces me to pause constantly. This is the thing I don't get about AIDA and the Framework. So AIDA is handwaving that HydraWorld is a dystopian nightmare by saying that she's only helping people fix "one regret" -- so basically the completely disparate life experiences of this handful of people created the basis for this totalitarian hellscape? So it's their fault?! Wha? AIDA used to be far more perceptive - does she not notice that this world of hers sucks big time for everyone except her and Fitz? And why does she keep them around anyway (in their RealWorld induced coma state) if they're such a threat to her Happy Place? Also I don't understand how people within the Framework who are dead in the RealWorld could conceivably "cross over"? I would love to see Hope and Trip in the RealWorld, but I don't understand how that could happen without a RealWorld human body...container. Has this been explained or alluded to?

Oh for fuck's sake. I miss the mystery of season 1. It's not that there aren't mysteries in season 2, it's that they're not good ones (IMO). And Dennis Quaid is no replacement for Stanley Tucci.

Hulu has all 7 seasons.

I hope Amaya's emotional struggle isn't foreshadowing her leaving LoT, I like her and think she's a great addition to the team. I spent the ep thinking "fucking NATE" because it's his fault she's going through this, with his petulant defiance in the last episode leading her to check out her historical timeline. If Amaya leaves it's all your fault, NATE. Plus as noted above he's not needed anymore; he's always been a historian version of Ray, and if they're dumbing GIDEON down to give Nate something to do...that's not a good sign for a character.

It's cathartic to read all the reactions to the latest WestAllen clusterfuck. Somehow I have found a place of zen about it all, knowing that the writers are going to do something stupid/incomprehensible/completely lacking in any vestige of human insight, so I just wait for it to pass. They don't seem to realize that they continually troll their own narrative. But in the end it's a comic book show so I have let go of expecting that they know how to write relationships, write romance or write consistent characterizations of anyone other than the male characters. They still suck at writing women. But although Iris' reasons for ending their engagement were thin, they were at least plausible, which is more than the word salad Barry spouted last night. I still don't know what he was talking about. I was glad when Iris said, "what does that mean?" because I thought he'd then actually explain something coherent. But...no. Still, at this point in the season I think it was inevitable that there would be a hiccup in the relationship. And next week Flash/Supergirl shippers will have a whole show from which to spawn their fanfic, so that's nice for them. I can hardly wait for the "Well, Barry & Kara have better chemistry than Barry & Iris anyway..." comments. /grim rant (This is what I mean about the writers trolling their own narrative. By doing such a shoddy job on the main character's personal life they distract from what the show is supposed to be about - the adventures of a speedster superhero. The conversation about the show shouldn't be overshadowed by the sub- soap opera-quality "challenges" of the WestAllen relationship. Although as I write that I realize that I am not a comic reader, so maybe this is all par for the course for the character. I surely hope not.)

Placing so much importance on whether or not Iris was wearing The Ring when Savitar kills her is so fucking dumb. There are any number of reasons why someone might not have a ring on at that particular moment, like it was getting sized, or she took it off to wash the dishes and Savitar grabbed her up, or a diamond came loose and it's at the jeweler's. I have a feeling this Ring Thing is going to be a dumb red herring and I'm already resenting the bait and switch that hasn't happened yet. I've already given up on Supergirl and never watched Arrow, and the writing on this show is driving me away from The Flash too. At least with Legends it's so batshit I don't even attempt to follow the show "logic" (if there even is any, which I doubt BUT DON'T CARE CUZ IT'S FUN). Get it together, show!

Huh. I didn't think that Iris was upset that Barry didn't ask permission, but that he lied and said he did as part of the proposal (in his haste to get a ring on her finger to save her from the future). But I may be wrong. I don't think Iris would care about the permission thing (although I wouldn't put it past Joe to harrumph about something like that). But Barry made it part of the romantic proposal monologue, and once she found out he rushed into proposing she then deduced that he hadn't actually asked Joe or had time to ask Joe. But I may be filling in (plot) holes. I would like to care more about him and his current plight, but...Wally bugs.

My cynical side tells me that the Iris/Barry couch scenes are a low cost, low effort attempt by the writers to create a sense of normalcy and stability about the couple, so that when the big threat comes there will be some emotional heft to it, higher stakes because the audience sees them as OTP Barry&Iris. That said, I grin like a loon during those scenes and enjoy every second because it's about damned time this was presented as a mutual all-in commitment instead of an unrequited teen crush. It's also usually a win for the makeup and wardrobe departments, because even if the writers forget about Iris those departments don't and dayum she looks slammin' 24/7.

Oh, I knew nothing about Stargirl's powers or superweapon "cosmic rod", so when she was talking about creating Camelot I thought she meant she had used the Spear (and its ability to "change reality") to make a fairy tale "real" -- although now that I think about it she only had a piece of it so I guess she couldn't have done that without the whole spear? Also I guess the LoT crew doesn't realize that yet another shard of the stick is in 2017 Portland with the Grimm folks, where it's lovingly referred to as "that...Stick."

Wow. This show is firing on all cylinders, what a great hour. I'm going to have to rewatch to make sure I got all the finer points. But one thing occurred to me: I wonder if Ward's presence is going to be the fly in the ointment that makes Daisy realize that the Framework is not "real." As it is she and Jemma entered it with only a theoretical understanding of how it worked, they haven't heard Radcliffe monologuing about the "world without regret" blah blah blah. I fully expect them to be taken in by the seeming "reality" around them. (Well, Daisy at least. What up with that JS tombstone?!) But I was shocked to see Ward in that pic with Daisy, I was so thankful to stop thinking about his abusive ass that I totally forgot she'd had feelings for him. And they've leaned on the beat of her feelings of guilt over Lincoln's death.

Now that we've seen Connor attempt CPR on Wes, I think it's pretty clear he wasn't the killer...or manslaughter-er. I've realized something since Wes' death, which kind of makes him more cool in my eyes - he didn't give a shit what Connor thought of him. It always seemed to bug me more than it bugged Wes that Connor continued to call him "Waitlist". He never reacted to it, even just as an eye-roll, and the flashback scene made me realize that he simply didn't care about Connor's opinion of him. Which is why, I think, Connor couldn't resist needling him, since he seemed immune to the charm/sex appeal that Connor takes for granted as his place in the cosmos. Not that I think Connor was attracted to Wes sexually or anything like that - just that Wes made no attempt to buddy up to the "cool kid" and that got under Connor's skin. For all his self-assurance there's always been a layer of bravado and thin-skinnedness in Connor. And his reactions to his own feelings of insecurity have often been self-destructive, usually by deliberately pushing people away with his actions or words, whether it's hooking up to hurt Oliver or telling Michaela to abort in her hospital bed. Whatever happened that night with Wes, Connor feels guilt. He also feels cornered, so he's looking to get someone else on the hook. Also while I could see Michaela's point (although I'm getting a little tired of her rapid-speech putdowns), I did not like seeing her shut Asher down to the point of demanding he not say anything she didn't want to hear. I was disappointed that Asher acquiesced to that.

I don't know if this was a continuity error or a big ole red flag, but...when Laurel was melting down at Wes' memorial and mentioned his mother dying of suicide when he was 12, we didn't see Meggy's reaction to that. Because didn't he tell her and her dad that his mother died of cancer? (I always thought that one of the reasons why it was so easy for Wes to transfer his affection to Laurel was that she was someone he didn't have to lie to, so I bought their connection.) I so look forward to seeing ADA Atwood getting ground under Annaliese's heel. While I'm sure the DA's office has a huge hate on for AK making them look like idiots for years, STILL they underestimate her by putting her in GenPop. It was obvious to me that as soon as AK started thinking again, instead of wallowing, she would find a way to get her ass out of there and it's the DA's fault for making that a possibility. I'm just hoping that we won't lose L Scott Caldwell, I want to know more about her -- what's her crime, man? And AK needs another ally other than Bonnie and Frank, even if it's just someone she can talk to and be real with, like she could with Eve. I don't think Frank killed Wes, but I also don't think I'm clear as to why he killed Mahoney? What was the purpose of that? I mean yeah he was jealous about Laurel but he IMO was always jealous of AK's seeming preference for Wes -- what was killing Wes' birth father in aid of? Is it just that Frank is cray?

What?! The Russian is The Superior?! I guess I should stop waiting for someone Powers Boothe-y.

I must have missed it -- did they ever explain how "Untouchable" got from Flashpoint to the current timeline? He was killing all these cops that he said he "remembered" from an entirely different universe. Is this a handwave moment?