lidarose9

I think that was Karl's storyline this week. Hard being a single mom, even if you are a celebrity. There was also the whole Karl calling off building her new dream home cuz she don't have a man to share it with. Chelsea's anxiety is obviously going to be her storyline this season. So apparently Adam hasn't been arrested lately. Brianna is the opposite end of the appearance spectrum, with Catelyn at the other extreme. Lately Cate always looks like she's made up to go out to a night club, while Brianna always looks like she literally just rolled out of bed. Why?

FYI, my DVR did not pick up either of the reunion episodes as well. I could not view them On Demand either. I had to go to the MTV website to watch on my computer. Delighted I could fast forward cuz it was a lot of boloney. 1. Ryan was high. Ryan has the emotional maturity of a 7 year old kid. Ryan is going to overdose and die. 2. Butch is going to go back to prison or overdose and die. He was so different from when he was sober. I am appalled that this entire family has not embraced Al-Anon with both arms. 3. I felt like there were two extra people squeezed onto that couch: Cate's boobs. Sparkly watermelons. With all their money, free time, and doctors eager for free publicity, I'm surprised she hasn't had a breast reduction.

Yeah, I know. Some here were wondering if MTV would relent after she got her kids back. I am glad to see they are holding the line with her.

My DVR picked up a commercial for upcoming eps of TM2 which showed quick previews. There was no sign of Jail-nell. There were snippets of Kail, Leah, Chelsea, and some new women from some other show.

I'm enjoying it. I am really skeptical about the ghosts, but I do find it entertaining. Somehow my DVR started picking up the old reruns of the original GH and I was delighted to see those guys back in the day. I forgot how hilarious Brian Harnois was. Remember how when they went to foreign countries, they'd be trying to do EVPs in English? Sure, all ghosts have built-in Universal Translators. Anyhow. I'm going to keep watching.

I think mentally both Woniya and Jordon could have stayed another month, with a little bit of food here and there. Not sure I can say that about Nathan. His fire was 100% predictable and avoidable. That's the thing: it's not just a matter of weight loss, you start losing mental focus. Woniya sitting out there exposed to the cold, bashing away at the ice, especially with the wind blowing. That was just stupid. Jordon was making dumb mistakes too, leaving the ladder up to his food stash. After a while you become a danger to yourself, even if you aren't approaching organ failure. I'm happy for Jordon. He wasn't arrogant, he had a good attitude, and he didn't whine about how much he needed the money, how it would change his life, blah blah blah. And he had a wife! Who knew?

Overall I was disappointed with Season 2. I was delighted to see Our Heroes again, but there were too many obvious plot holes that just never got resolved, and that's the very least you expect from a show like this. On the other hand, I enjoyed it very much (except for certain painful events that I won't go into)! I hope they do another season.

Amber's therapist (or whatever) appears to be pretty useless. Amber was sitting there telling him that her symptoms were escalating. A proactive response would be to suggest increasing her meds, focusing on self care, giving her some practical tools she can use to help de-escalate explosive situations. She was 10 seconds away from smacking Andrew in the car. And all this constant weeping. She is coming apart at the seams in front of our eyes, and yet everybody stands around helpless. We know a LOT about how to live a good life with bipolar disorder and BPD, but the approach with Amber seems to be give her sympathy and let her flounder. Let her isolate herself, do nothing productive, and avoid any social situations where it's not at a spa. It's painful to watch Andrew trying to make a joke, get her to lighten up. It's obvious he has no idea how to help her -- again a failure of the therapist. Jesus, it's hard to watch.

Right, so life isn't depressing enough, now I'm supposed to start caring about a family where the mother is dying of cancer. Oh yay! In addition to the other misery documented in this fun, uplifting, interesting show! I do feel terribly sorry for them, but that just is not what I want to watch during my relaxation time. Already I fast-forward through Maci and Cheyenne, I will now add this new girl to the list. That leaves Cate and Amber, and both of them are dull as ditchwater. I have been trying to break this stinky TM habit and this seems like a good time to clear them off my DVR. UGH.

Wouldn't black bears be hibernating by this time of year?

I was appalled by Amber's reaction, and I was very impressed with Kristina not taking it personally. OF COURSE Amber would make it All About Her. And to turn it into a conspiracy. She is nothing if not consistent. I can understand Gary's reflex to minimize the anxiety attacks (if that's what these are), since Amber has 100% defined herself by her diagnoses. I was really bothered by Amber's visit with her shrink a few weeks ago, with all the focus on how screwed up you are, how hard life is for people like you, blah blah blah -- like oh woe is me, instead of focusing on going forward, keeping positive, etc. Amber has essentially crippled herself with her self-pity and self-centeredness. She has so much good in her life, yet every day is a trial for her. There is no joy that is not shadowed by her constant self-pity. With a child, you need to be so careful of not labeling them, so that they don't start to see themselves as defective or not-right. If someone had handed me a label when I was 9, I might have started to believe it whether it was true or not. Leah needs to believe she's her own person, not a mini-me of her fucked up mother, while at the same time being allowed to feel her own feelings. It's important for Gary and Kristina to be open with Leah, to talk directly about how she's feeling, not minimizing but also not catastrophizing everything. Yes, you want Leah to live a normal life -- but she doesn't have a normal life! I think it would be great for Leah to have a 3rd person she can talk to openly about the "challenges" of having a fucked up Mom and no privacy, but the conversation needs to be oriented towards ways to cope, how to dispel the occasional anxiety, planning ahead, being proactive and positive. They used to have school counselors, but I guess those have all been eliminated via budget cuts. I also think it's possible these incidents are not panic attacks. They need to allow for that possibility. Maybe she has asthma! If Gary and Kristina truly want Leah to have a normal life, they need to quit MTV. Other than money, what good does it do them? or anyone, really?

I don't know what's worse, Amber with a machete or David with his arsenal. And both with hair-trigger tempers, an attitude of entitlement, and kids around. I suspect that Andrew is on the spectrum. A lot of times stalkers are guys that just don't know when to give up and back off. He seems like he's not great at picking up those little interpersonal signals that tell people how to behave. He always seems half there to me, like he is bored or his mind is wandering and it's hard for him to focus on Amber, which she picks up on and resents. I think that might help explain why he hooked up with her. He didn't see the very obvious red flags that are so obvious to everybody else. (No disrespect meant to people on the autism spectrum.) I don't know where, but I got the impression he comes from a family with money that was basically supporting him. He lived "at home" in their "family home" -- and so I doubt if he was after Amber's money. But I have no idea why any man would be attracted to her if not for the money. His family must have been appalled when he took up with her -- they are not high-tailing it to the tabloids and Twitter, are they? I suspect they are waiting for this to blow over, hoping it's just a phase. I don't doubt or question Andrew's love for that baby. But you never hear them talk about how much his folks love that baby or the gifts they sent or how they're going out to CA so James can see Nana and Poppa. Does he have siblings? No visiting aunts and uncles or cousins.

Gary needs to know everything that goes on with Amber as it pertains to the safety of his daughter. Depending on what he finds out, he may need to get a restraining order or change their custody arrangements. Of course he'd want to be there to see and hear it all for himself. Giving Amber a hug and his "thoughts and prayers" tweet are probably less a show of support as just simple decent behavior. Gary has generally always taken the high road. Also, Amber is fucking scary and unstable. He has to keep things civil with that maniac or maybe she'll come over to his house with a machete.

I think this is a good idea. It's not enough to stop watching the show or clicking on her clickbaits. People need to contact the companies who are paying Jenelle and tell them they will never use their products or patronize their businesses, and will do everything possible to spread the word about it.

Absolutely. This is the truth.

I am late to the party, but I couldn't bear to watch this so soon after Chernobyl cuz I just *knew* it would suck, and it does. omg I don't drink, but this would be perfect for a drinking game: every time the camera zooms in on someone's sticky fingers or people coughing or children breathing and the music swells.... I get it, all right? Move along to the next trope, please. The music is horrible. The dialogue is hilariously bad. The human interest twaddle is just awful. The sick father! The loving but scared husband! Honey, you wanna save the world and I just wanna protect the kids! And the sexism, haha isn't it quaint? How can something as sophisticated and artful as Chernobyl exist in the same continuum as this drek? Both set in the 1980s, yet what is never self conscious in one is heavy-handed in the other. AND THAT GUY'S HAIR. There just is no excuse for that, ever. But it was nice to see that guy from Justified. Nick Searcy.

That 911 operator sounded so disgusted. Jenelle: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah <long silence> Operator: .... Alright.

This episode's title meant I had to watch the whole episode with the sound off reading the subtitles, ready to put my hand up so I didn't have to see or hear a moose die. I guess the joke's on me.

They have to verbally confirm that it's actually you: "Are you Jenelle Eason?" and you answer, "Yes, I am." Then they can hand you the papers.

I'm a big John Le Carre fan and have read most of his books and I'm delighted to see the remakes. (Unfortunately I was not a fan of the recent remake of The Night Manager. Somehow it all just felt so improbable, off kilter. Nothing against Tom Hiddleston. Maybe I should try it again.) Anyhow, I recorded this back in November and yet somehow forgot about it and just found it on my DVR. So I finally watched it. I absolutely loved it. I did not feel that it was too long: I appreciated how unhurried it was and I think now that compressing it into a 2-hour movie must have been a real challenge. I am particularly impressed with Florence Pugh. What a brilliant performance! Her face is so expressive. She can say so much without speaking. I will watch for her in the future. When I saw the film with Diane Keaton back in the day, I was very drawn in by Charlie’s story. Much as I loved Florence Pugh’s performance, there was an emotional neediness in Keaton’s Charlie that was lacking in the miniseries. She was a struggling nobody actor who was singled out for this wonderful opportunity in Greece -- wa hoo! Then this romantic stranger singles her out, seduces her, makes her fall in love with him. She wanted so much to believe it. Then when she is taken for her "interview" and they systematically destroy the fiction she's adopted about her identity, her life -- they break her down. Someone here asked that question: Why does Charlie go along with this at all? I must say in the mini-series that is not clear. But in the movie, you can see it plainly: all that hopeful joy, thinking she was having this great good luck, this fairy tale romance – but then boom, the bubble is burst. Keaton visibly deflates, and of course that is when she was most vulnerable, so that's when Kurtz springs the trap. Klaus Kinski was absolutely wonderful. This scene is one of the few quibbles I have with the miniseries: the interrogation and "audition" with Marty fell a little flat for me. But that was minor. (Fascinating to note the mastermind behind all this is named Kurtz. We know that name from the man who went too far and lost his moral bearings in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now.) The fact that people argue about the Israeli vs. Palestinian issue after seeing this show tells you how effective it was. I'm sure that was John Le Carre's hope. The book was written at a time when Americans were largely sympathetic to Israel, and Palestinians were seen as terrorists. (I realize that's a blatant generalization.) It is interesting to see this story now, in today's context, where so many people have a more sympathetic attitude toward the Palestinians. John Le Carre did a masterful job of showing both sides of the story, and this miniseries did justice to it. As the point-of-view character, Charlie shows us very well how both sides make a compelling argument for their positions. If she's searching for moral high ground, she finds none. They all have dirty hands. I also found the settings, costumes, hairstyles, even eyeglasses were spot on for the era. I felt the direction and cinematography were wonderful. It did get a bit muddled now and then changing locations, how much time had elapsed, etc. but I was able to keep up OK. My only real quibble is with the last 15 minutes or so: Charlie's reactions in those last few minutes as she was forced to confess to Khalil. Somehow even after all these years, I remember the scene in the film: him demanding from her, “Who are you?” and her tiny voice answering, “I’m nobody.” And then his sudden, merciless murder. It was absolutely devastating to Charlie, to see Khalil basically executed right in front of her eyes. In the mini-series, Charlie's reaction just didn't work for me. Her tears seemed a bit by the book. And in the movie, Charlie is literally destroyed emotionally by that climax. She'd been deliberately manipulated into falling in love with Joseph, then sent into a situation where she was again seduced into caring about people, and even developed feelings (if only sympathy and some admiration) for Khalil -- only to see them all killed as a direct result of her actions. It drove her to a breakdown. I found it a bit incredible that Miniseries Charlie seemed to take it all in stride. I also did not understand the gift box she got while she was recuperating. And I felt it was bizarre to see her track down Gadi in Germany and go seek him out to resume their love affair, apparently unfazed by her experiences. It felt a little too pat, a bit cliche, and out of character for them both. But again, overall I absolutely loved it and was blown away by Florence Pugh. My comparisons with the movie are beside the point, but if you did enjoy this miniseries, you might want to dredge up the movie and watch it just to compare. I remember walking out of the theater back in 1984, standing around in the street with my friends, dazed, more than just a little overwhelmed. It blew my mind how both sides were cold-hearted killers, and how Charlie had been such a pawn.

I noticed this too and have wondered if it is the camera. Self-consciousness, trying to be funny, or trying to look at ease using some tool or weapon -- or just generally distracted (is the camera angle right? did I remember to put on my pants? is the red light on? how much battery did that one have left?). Like people who step off the edge of the Grand Canyon taking a selfie.

I didn't miss the "meet n greet" episode. That always bores me. I agree Donny should not have been there. Also I was not impressed with his shelter at all, unless it was meant to tide him over while he built his real one. These people are going to need a serious shelter in that kind of cold. Like some of the ones we've seen in past seasons: with a floor, with a door, with a fireplace/chimney or firepit, with a safe food storage area away from the actual shelter. Sheltered from the wind, not too exposed, where the snow won't bury it, or flood if it warms up and the snow melts. When that brutal cold and wind gets started, they are going to need sturdy walls, serious insulation and a nonstop fire burning. I'm thinking of that couple two seasons ago where she actually built a for-real log cabin. Food storage will be critical. You need so many more calories in the bitter cold. As miserable as V.I. was, it never got that cold. This is going to be a challenge even for experienced outdoorsy types. People who have never experienced bone-chilling cold day after day have no clue how paralyzing it is.

Does anybody know did that guy Tim actually break his leg last week?

Don't get it. I thought the Terror was the name of the ship. This just sounds like another American Horror Story.

Am I the only one who thought Ryan looked high at dinner?