rockchicknyc

Okay, now PBS is just messing with my head. I just watched the repeat showing of “Degüello”, and yet more microcuts have been made, and I’m deeply, deeply annoyed. First, I never saw the reference to the history scholar (young Bill Clinton) or the Pelican PSA, in either showing. There’s the scene with the schoolkids running to get Bright’s autograph, which was in both showings, but no explanation either time as to why they wanted his autograph. Which puzzled me Sunday night and now again, though at least this time I knew what was missing from what I’ve read here. But now the scene where the fading Mrs Bright calls her husband Puli is gone too, and also the devastating line where Bright says bleakly that the recommended specialist is the one who already pronounced his wife’s grim prognosis. Those are just the trims I actually noticed. Who the hell knows how much else has been excised? What is the point of trimming crucial lines and scenes like this? All to fit in yet another commercial or self-aggrandizing promo? Well, I will not be pledging so much as a penny to this vile, high-handed excuse of a station (PBS New York) ever again. Rot in hell, money-grubbing pledgemeisters. From now on, I will be buying the DVDs of what I want. Not a perfect solution, but at least I will get to see a bit more. Oh, and Miss Paroo the librarian? “The Music Man”? Okay, Lucy, not Marian, but still. More fun with names.

Maybe I imagined it, but in their touching deathbed conversation, I thought I heard Mrs Bright call her husband “Puli” (or perhaps “Pooley.”). The reason I know I didn’t imagine it is that I quickly looked at the closed captioning and sure enough, there it was, written out as “Puli.” Seeing as his name is Reginald, I was puzzled as to why she would call him a Hungarian sheepherding dog. Anyone able to splain?

Oh. My. God. Just...what all y'all have said. I'm not sure I understand what happened, but man, am I boggled. Loved the Butch & Sundance ending, except they don't get shot. I hope that they find an even more spectacular Den of Secretitude for our boys and girls and Bear! and the Machine: first that fabulous library (which I went by the other day in a cab), next the incredible lost subway stop with Guastavino tile vaulting like the Oyster Bar, now...I'm hoping for the top of the Chrysler Building (Quetzalcoatl!). Or maybe a lost section of the Cloisters, or a little island in the East River...

Sorry, Juliette's the baddie here, IMO. She's undoubtedly deep in post-partum, but PPD had a lot to work with. She's always been all about herherher, and now it's just magnified a gazillionfold. I am really hoping they manage their intervention before something bad happens to little Cadence. Though I don't think even "Nashville" would go that far? Or...would they? She's just nutso and serve her right if everybody just dumped her, from Avery right on down.Those crazy eyes, though! Worthy of a demented Roman emperor. Surprised Hayden Panettiere can still keep them in their sockets. Scarlett and Gunnar, don't care anymore. One more go-round on the old jealousy carousel: Scarlett's jealous of whatever the interchangeable chick's name is (and I don't believe for one nanosecond that it was rape; all just a plot to get Gunnar), interchangeable chick is jealous of Scarlett, Gunnar jealous of Nice Dr. Caleb, Dr. Caleb much too grownup to play their stupid games. And I'm fed up. Fed up with Mayor Teddy too. Another storyline I'll be fast-forwarding through. Chip and Connie hit it out of the park tonight, though.

Oh, soooo much the doubting and the scoffing. Rapist Jason (his name was Jason, right?), jealous petulant gloomy-Gus Gunnar (compared to him, Eeyore is Pollyanna!), Luke and Jeff and Rayna oh my! Maybe Teddy grabs Daphne and they both run away to WASPy-town, Connecticut. And a million bucks seems a bit stiff for a PIECE of a living liver...you don't take the whole thing, since it regenerates itself in both donor and recipient. Please, Beverley and Kylie (it is Kylie, right?), just go away and never, ever come back. And take Gunnar with you, driving off into a horrible CGI sunset. And then into the sea.

Tiresome episode, and the ageing job on Mom Kono was, as has been said, laughable. What I did like a LOT were the little bits of Hawaiian sacred tradition: the kahuna sprinkling the boat with water using ti leaves, the conch shell salute, the prayers and chants and rituals...great stuff, and it was really nice to see a non-Christian religious tradition being portrayed in a respectful light in a mainstream show. That said, Kono was one dumb-ass wahine, especially for a trained officer of the Mighty Five-O, not to prepare properly for her voyage: waterproof communication device tied to the canoe, another tied to the paddleboard, same with food and water, etc. She could have had some kind of electronic locater around her neck or fixed into her vest, or several of them in case one went silent. Yeah, it was a big rough storm, but still.

They're not really snoods, but hoods. The French hood, generally credited to Anne for introducing to England, is the very pretty face-framing, front-hair-revealing headband with veil attached behind one. The gable hood, which the French hood succeeded and replaced, is the rather clunky, padded in front, pointed on top, box-like thing that covers the whole head, hair included, that was favored by KoA and later picked up by Jane Seymour, perhaps as a way of connecting herself with Katherine's virtue, as she perceived it, and distancing from Anne and her debauched French fashion. Snoods were favored in the 1930s and 40s, and were more like fancy crocheted or knotted hairnets that you bundled your hair into at the back of your neck; a very pretty style, but in my opinion inferior to the French hood. I'm more into the bling myself: I've always loved that pearl necklace Anne wears in paintings, with the lovely gold B and its pendant pearls. The teenage Elizabeth is painted in a gorgeous rose gown with a similar A on a necklace, and I think there's even one of her with the B pendant, undoubtedly both inherited from her mother. I've seen a locket ring Elizabeth wore, with two portraits inside, one of her and one of Anne, I think the most overt reference to her mother she ever made. But yes, costume porn and jewel porn forever!

That was the most pathetic attempt at an Irish accent I ever heard in my life.

I thought they had a local driver ferry them back from the desert? Or no, I guess they would have to drive themselves to the pit stop, otherwise it wouldn't be kosher. I don't remember it being 215 km, either; that's pretty far. Confused... Camels can be spitty and recalcitrant, but you'd think most Racers would know how nasty zebras can be. That oryx or whatever seemed chill, and donkeys are fairly calm too. A decent pair of episodes, I think.

There is nothing I like more than good historical costume-drama soap. The operative word being "good." "Wolf Hall", of which I had such high hopes, is the biggest pile of dull, boring, sterile, threadbare monotony I have ever had the misfortune to witness. Mark Rylance demonstrates all the affect of a flatfish. Or possibly Eeyore. Damien Lewis looks the part, as so few Henrys have in recent years, but even he, as one of the most interesting and horrifically unenlightened monarchs in all history, is a freakin' bore, surpassed in boredom only by Claire Foy playing a complicated and morally ambiguous queen-wannabe as if she were just a London mean girl. I'm currently wading my way through the book---it's taken weeks, and I'm ordinarily an extremely fast reader---and I know a vast amount about the period, but man, I just do not care. But the locations, props and costumes are gorgeous, so I will continue to watch for the eye candy.