Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

sistermagpie

Member
  • Posts

    8.4k
  • Joined

Reputation

38.9k Excellent

Recent Profile Visitors

6.0k profile views
  1. That last moment wound up having what I think was the opposite effect than intended on me. Made it seem like they still considered themselves way more relevent and valuable than they were. Yes, he was at the hanging.
  2. Can't say I'm that convinced by what she's writing here since I don't see Babe in the show as being portrayed that way at all. Seems like the show keeps desperately trying to make her exactly as she's being described here and it just doesn't really work. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I met the real Babe and it didn't work in person either. Not that I see her as a victim, but just that she seems like a rich, tasteful snob that her friends really liked and that's about it. How can she say they're trying to portray her as a victim when she's planning a big, perfect party for her own funeral? She did die of cancer and get cheated on and betrayed by Capote. How does one not show her as a victim of those things a bit? Is there some other thing she was that we're missing? Was she a brilliant physicist on the side or something? As others have said, it seems like her children have some actual issues with her as a mother that are pretty extreme. And Babe died in 1978, which have made her granddaughter like 8 or 9 when she died. Hardly a personal expert on what the woman was really like. My main thought at the end of this ep was "My god, how is this still not over?" It seems to be trying so hard to center Truman and Babe's relationship as so central and strong and sad to lose, and it's not that I don't think I'm getting it, particularly with the mentions of her taking care of him when he was sick that time and the two of them being catty about Joanne's house (too bad, she's still my fave), but sort of seems like CZ was the one he had the best friendship with. Not so much on his side (since he seems incapable) but she seems like the one who accepts him and sees him for what he is. Which is maybe why she didn't trust him with weapons to hurt her?
  3. Philistine that I am, I couldn't help but be thinking, "But people still wear gloves...?" Okay, I get that she was talking about indoor gloves but still--they must have had a place to buy gloves! I just don't even get why there are so many of them when they're not presented that distinctly. I get Babe is Truman's favorite, despite CZ seeming to be a better friend. I get CZ is the more level-headed one who's still friends with him and Slim is the leader. But that's not much of a distinction. Lee seems like just another person who happens to look much better with her hair down (seems nobody's told Babe her helmet looks ridiculous). I get nothing out of her talking about being divorced multiple times. It's not like i know to who or anything about it. Babe's husband seemed to be getting a better edit when he was at her treatments but now he's subtly criticizing her punctured hands? They want the world of these women to seem glamorous when it just seems small and empty. Like when Lee made her snotty remarks to Kerry it's not like it really hurt her since as an actual young person this wasn't actually how she dressed. I know her remarks were more about Truman, but she directed them at Kerry for a reason and it might have been more interesting if they showed how little power she had. Like yes, thank you random middle aged woman, I'm in costume at the moment as you ten years ago when you apparently mattered to some people? The only other wife who I can identify is Molly Ringwald for being the goofy California wife so it's nice to see her.
  4. Really? I'm just surprised because it doesn't seem like they're any less repetitious than he is. They just don't seem to even have to interact with the outside world, so when they're faced with it changing they're sort of mildly bemused (no gloves? no gardening hats?) and then go back to talking about how everyone's fascinated with them. Only CZ seemed to risk putting herself out into the world or even looking at it. It didn't feel like it was about youth so much because they don't seem like they were ever young. I liked this episode more than most, though--probably because I even forgot about Truman's whole affair with the air conditioner guy. I just did like all the little vignettes about them growing old, and Truman talking with his other friends. Honestly, it seems like the people who stayed with him--CZ and the two men--are more interesting than the women anyway. Maybe because in his scenes with those guys I could feel a past. They seemed like old friends who were honest with him and cared about him without revolving their lives around him.
  5. A podcaster I listen to nailed it when he said, "This show's credit sequence is writing a check that the show has no interest in trying to cash."
  6. You're definitely not the only one who had that thought. I, too, thought maybe the whole thing was imaginary. In Capote Truman mentions a convo with Baldwin in his first scene so I believe they knew each other and had some interaction, but this was obviously a fictional set up. The one thing I did agree on was when Truman was saying the Swans would not have come to his aid this way. For all it was his own fault that they dropped him after that article, it did seem like he was somebody they called when they were in a tizzy but did not help him in return. I believed he was accurate in how they related to people outside their bubble, particularly in, for instance, not inviting Jack to dinners with Truman.
  7. Just watched The Committee on Human Rights… THE SOURCES Philip notes that Deidre only has one set of plates, as if she wants to make it clear that she doesn’t want guests for dinner. Ever. I remember some people thought this moment was about Philip trying but not being able to turn her into another Martha. But I really don’t think he wants another Martha, and he doesn’t need her to be one. I really think it’s supposed to be him just making an observation about this woman he thinks is unnecessarily standoffish, and part of Deidre being Elizabeth without being Elizabeth. She’s beyond independent. They go to Mississippi to follow Stobert and spot him making out with some other woman. In keeping with him being Philip without Philip, Elizabeth somehow thought this guy wasn’t a player, which points to some pretty big blind spots in Elizabeth’s understanding. She actually has very little experience with relationships, ironically. And what is Stobert doing with this other woman besides making out with her? He’s taking her to a jazz club. Could he be more of a cliché. LOL! Fucking Stobert. RENEE This is the ep where Renee makes her damning mistake of mis-naming the University of Indiana (so I’ve been told). Naturally, that’s a detail she didn’t need to even include. Where most people would just say, “You know, I went skinny dipping once in that quarry” and only give details if the person asked, Renee has to go into irrelevant details right away about her friend’s name, where they were going, what their route was and why they went swimming. Does Stan ever meet this friend? We don’t know, so we don’t know if it’s sus. Back in S3 Stan said the key to fooling people was to tell them what they want to hear. Renee’s method is burying them in so much irrelevant detail they stop listening to you, I guess. STAN Politics works in Stan’s favor again, when his boss refuses to fire him for sabotaging the CIA’s plans to turn a KGB agent. He talks about it with Renee, who doesn’t really give him any advice, but Stan thanks her as if he thinks she did. I wonder if this is again supposed to mirror the way he is with Philip. Adderholt feels like Stan’s sabotaging their work too by giving Sophia a more realistic view about how safe she’ll be with the FBI. Stan says his honesty will make her trust them more. Does he really think that, or is he just not wanting another Nina? Since it’s Stan, seems like the latter. GABRIEL In one of my favorite movies, a character says, “Am I the dumping ground for everybody’s fear?” I feel like Philip sometimes gets stuck being that dumping ground for the rest of the Illegals. For example, Gabriel meets with both Jennings to say goodbye. To Elizabeth he’s all supportive about Paige—they’ve done a great job, it’s great she doesn’t expect happiness. When Elizabeth fishes for a more reassurance, saying she sometimes thinks they’ve put too much on Paige (ya think?) he says she’s fine. But when Philip’s leaving, Gabriel tells him that he was right, they never should have dragged Paige into this. Maybe there’s something comforting in somebody telling Philip that at least he’s not nuts to feel this way, but it seems like an easy way for Gabriel to feel like he did something to help before dashing off when he just gave Philip more reason to worry about something he can’t do anything about. Telling Elizabeth might have had more effect. We learn that Gabriel gave Paige a stuffed tiger she used to carry around. This sounds sweet until Philip adds that Gabriel wanted her to grow up strong like a tiger, which just made me roll my eyes. Like, could you not turn it off long enough to just give the kid a plushie? ELIZABETH Elizabeth really is genuinely disturbed by Stobert being exactly who he obviously is. She denies that her issue was that she liked him, trying to claim it was more about her instincts in thinking there was something about him that meant he wouldn’t sleep around even though that’s what their whole relationship mostly is. Like, it’s hard to even think he needs to be faithful to “Brenda.” Elizabeth is shamelessly pleased at Paige breaking up with Matthew and, more importantly, Paige’s coming to understand that hard as it is to believe, America really is trying to starve the USSR, even though she knows they aren’t. I doubt she really feels like she’s lying, because hey, it’s something the US and only the US would do! PHILIP Just as Elizabeth’s reactions to Paige here (approving of every step she takes towards them and away from everything else) foreshadow what she’s offering her for the future, Philip offers sympathy after she breaks up with Matthew and advises her not to give up on finding happiness for herself. He knows she feels like she’s different from everyone else—something Paige admits (to no one’s surprise) that she felt even before she learned about her parents. But that’s the thing, it’s a common adolescent way to feel. Giving into this kind of narcissistic despair might be satisfying in the short term, but she’s not hurting anybody but herself with it. I seem to remember this was another one of those scenes where Philip’s offering Paige sympathy and love and it just got him judged as a terrible father again. Not just because his own actions are causing her problems, which they obviously are, but because a good father would have had her laughing and carefree by the end of this scene. Once again he fails to get her to the mall. Of course, he still backs Elizabeth up by not telling Paige that the wheat plot is bullshit. Guess the best that could be said is that he at least looks uncomfortable by giving her vague responses about how it’s going. Elizabeth might be more open about it, and feel more entitled, but both of them crave the kids’ acceptance. PAIGE In retrospect, this episode is another one that’s really about Paige. She’s making important moves in it, but it still feels like nothing is happening since she spends almost every scene looking awkward and glumly distracted. There are some important foundations laid for her future here. She meets Gabriel and thinks he’s like family, suggesting that being a spy is like having a spy family. She talks with her parents and realizes that if this wheat plot is reality, their spying is justified. She tells Pastor Tim she’s come to realize there’s more important things in the world than her, which he compares to Jesus. When he asks if she prays, she hesitates before saying “sometimes.” So it seems like she’s no longer trying to believe in God—which I don’t think is hard for her. All this leads her to actually take important action in breaking up with Matthew, then coming home and staring at her Marx books. I had forgotten how very heavy-handed this ep is about that, but it still doesn’t really feel like it matters. Even in retrospect, it’s hard to see how she’s reacting to any of this specifically. Is it meant to be disturbing that her parents agree she seems to be getting better when they mean she’s giving up? If so, that’s still not interesting to watch. It’s like she’s just asking for audience sympathy all the time. It seems like she’s just passively puzzling over everything everybody else is saying instead of trying to grab onto a perspective that makes her feel good. Of course, there is one scene that’s active, where she breaks up with Matthew. I wound up thinking a lot about that scene because there’s a lot of stuff in it we’ll see again later. Like the moment where she starts to leave, and Matthew tries to stop her using the exact same move as the guy in the bar in S6, and she shoves him violently away. Iow, she’s overreacting and lashing out. It shows that Elizabeth’s self-defensive course isn’t giving her control and security, just a way of letting out her fear and general PTSD. Matthew’s shocked reaction shows how much attention this kind of behavior gets, yet in S6 she dismisses it. When she starts breaking up with him, she seems to be trying to be somewhat honest in saying that Matthew doesn’t know her, that all they do is make out. This is something that seemed to never quite come through the way it was meant to—that Paige doesn’t like sex without emotional intimacy. It’s not that she’s a big prude, but that she craves the emotional closeness her parents have and isn’t satisfied with just physical stuff. As a kid she maybe thought it was the same thing, but with experience she sees it isn’t. It’s not surprising that betraying someone by using that desire is one of the worst things she can imagine. But you don’t really get that here. In fact, I realized watching this scene and this ep that while most characters in the show always manage to look like what they’re saying or doing is coming out of something they are inside despite it all coming from a script, Paige’s emotions always seem to just be following the script, it’s very surface. Like it’s just the script telling her what emotion she should have based on what she’s saying. In a show where all the other actors are doing more, it just stands out. Plus, it makes it impossible to really get what’s going on with her. In this scene, she starts out trying to be tearfully honest about Matthew not knowing her. She ends the scene tearfully saying she just can’t be his girlfriend anymore, violently shoving him, trying to get more tearful, apologizing and leaving. In the middle of this, though, there’s this one moment in the script. After Paige says she doesn’t want to just make out anymore, they have this exchange: Matthew: Okay, we won’t make out anymore. Paige: That’s it? You’re not even going to argue with me? Matthew: Do you want me to argue with you? Paige: No! Matthew: Look, what do you want me to say? Paige: I don’t know! Something! It sounds a bit like a cliché comedy scene where the person doing the dumping suddenly gets offended when the other person doesn’t make it difficult, because it’s a blow to their ego. But this isn’t that kind of scene. I would almost have expected her to respond to Matthew saying they won’t make out anymore by saying that wasn’t the point. So I tried to figure out what it could mean. It could be a moment where she’s actually expressing stuff that she really doesn’t like about Matthew—maybe it is kind of annoying to her that he just goes along with anything. In fact, I just remembered that Sandra once told Stan that he always agreed with her to avoid conflict, which would be ironic given that Matthew claims he’s *not* his dad here, and if he did something wrong, he’ll fix it. Since this breakup is about Paige’s situation I feel like dramatically it makes more sense for that line to be there to suggest that on some level Paige hopes that Matthew will save her here. Give her some reason not to break up with him. I mean, what else could she want him to say even if she doesn’t realize it? It just made me wonder if somebody could have done something with all of this stuff that would be different. Not just that moment with Matthew but all the scenes. MATTHEW Poor Matthew, btw. As much as I mentioned him being like Stan here, he’s also Sandra trying to just stick with this relationship with a person who’s clearly not in it with him. Even worse when you remember that Paige is supposed to be the person who is there to see him when he’s in Falls Church, since Stan not really there with him either. Really, for all people love to say Philip and Elizabeth are the worst parents even without the whole spy thing, Matthew’s got it rough with his.
  8. Agreed. It's also frustrating because you can't discuss the episodes on their own, which is how they're really meant to be seen. The one advantage is that when you binge watch you don't have time to get invested in things you want to happen but you're wrong about, but that investment's also part of investment in the show in general. Having to binge it all at once like an assignment cuts out a lot of the enjoyment I have about the shows I really love. The individual episode threads are usually just dead as everyone talks about the whole thing and misses details along the way.
  9. I liked a lot in this episode, but sometimes it's hard for me to keep track of the timeline. I'll think something's a flashback and then realize it's not. While I totally believe he'd lost it because of all the booze and drugs, I can't help but feel defensive for any writer having their unfinished work held up for scrutiny. TV and movies always show people writing the book as if they're just typing their final form, but lots of writers are fans of the horrible first draft.
  10. What was the alternative? That the commercial was just there to put a button onhow the 60s was commodified to sell things? (I thought that was a possibility when I watched it the first time.)
  11. While it doesn't excuse what he did, I do find myself thinking that he really is at their beck and call--we see them calling him when they're upset and he shows up to support them, but we never see them do that for him. Of course, that goes back to him not confiding in them back, and they are shown taking some interest in his life and showing concern. But it is kind of interesting how even when they talk about missing him they don't talk about that. Again, it's not a situation that makes me feel like they're in the wrong or he's the victim, but it does complicate things a little. Especially since this is happening when he's imploding. In this ep we've got Babe saying things like, "Well, I'm proud of you" etc. when he's at his height. Would they be standing together in a situation like this if In Cold Blood came out now?
  12. Ah--in that case, just a big party that Truman Capote through with a very carefully considered guest list that made a big splash.
  13. I didn't feel too badly for them on that score. They all just personally thought they deserved to be a guest of honor for no reason whatsoever and had to backtrack. It was of course bitchy of him to leave them guessing and hoping, but the only reason it worked was because they share some similar flaws with him. Yes! Really makes me want to see her in more roles like this. Especially since I kept wondering what it was like back then doing it. Now people can easily be shot without them knowing, but back then they're staring at a guy pointing a camera at them. It's the ball Truman threw in the episode. It was a huge deal at the time and still famous for the guest list.
  14. I've liked a lot of the actors but nothing was better than seeing Allison Wright turn up as a British floozy. Loved watching her get to do something so goofy. Glad Ryan Murphy is still using her. I was happier to see her than Jessica Lange. So he could imagine the Swans at the table, I imagine. When I think of that movie I tend to first think of the dinner scene.
  15. As if she thinks Sutton cremated the man herself and just stuffed him her empty sandwich bag. The whole point is to scatter them--not start pouring cremains into things around the house. That's getting messy.
×
×
  • Create New...