[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

The way Jill talks about her kids is so patronizing that I’m surprised they don’t all want to punch her in the face. 

“Oh, look at Kaylee and her cozy little abode! Oh look at Timothy and his… sweet little courtship partner!* Oh look at obedient and industrious little Renee, have I mentioned she’s on the market?” It just reeks of this smug sense of superiority, like what she really wants to say is that Kaylee’s house is too small and Timothy’s fiancé is ugly and poor Renee can’t land a man, and she’s better than all of them because she has a converted aircraft hangar full of cheap crap and a “hunky” husband and why is anyone paying attention to them when all eyes should be on her, Jill, and her hoodie blouses and her dime-store stripper makeup and her hideous tsotchkes and her lazy-ass excuse for a husband? 

Are narcissistic bitches more likely to become fundie, or does something about being fundie make someone into a narcissistic bitch?

*I do take some solace in the fact that Heidi sees Jill and has zero time for her nonsense.

 

[Jessa, Ben and Their Brood: Making a (Diaper) Mountain out of a Mold House]

They have exactly the same thing, and what restaurant serves each patron half a muffin and 6 grapes? It looks like they ordered one meal and asked for it to be split between two plates. Maybe money is tight with the new baby on the way? Jessa doesn’t work, Ben can’t earn much as a pastor at a tiny IFB church, and I’ve always been suspicious of the theory that JB is wealthy enough to completely bankroll the lives of his adult children and their offspring, especially now that he’s tossed so much money into Josh’s defense. 

Ben looks miserable in all of these pictures, and who can blame him? I doubt his marriage to Jessa was ever a love match. They have no chemistry and nothing in common except the Bible. He probably married her because she was hot and he was desperate for sex. Now he’s stuck with no real job, no money, and four (soon to be five) kids and he’s not even in his thirties yet. Nothing ahead but a lifetime of cramped houses, dirty diapers, and teetering on the edge of poverty. I almost feel sorry for him. 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

On 9/27/2023 at 6:39 AM, oliviabenson said:

If the women dressed modest and wore no makeup they’d never catch a husband. They advertise their bodies because that’s they got, no education, no personality, no wit, no $. Hey sweet grunting hunk marry me because I have no education, can’t work and have no $. I need a man to support me and fill my open womb with 35 blessings! 

Which makes me wonder — what about the women in these cults who aren’t attractive? The Bates girls are all quite pretty, and the Duggar girls and spouses of the Duggar boys are all above-average in appearance, but there have to be some women in Fundieland who have less pleasing countenances. What happens to them?

These women aren’t allowed to be intelligent, educated, or interesting, and I assume they’re all equally capable of parroting bible verses and such. So really, to a depressing degree, their looks are all they have going for them. Do the ones who never catch a fundie guy’s eye just live with their parents forever? 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

On 9/27/2023 at 6:31 AM, oliviabenson said:

The top picture looks like the Not Nurie on the left is restraining that woman. Maybe Jill was afraid she would catch sight of David in his tie-dyed leggings and try to lure him away with a bag of Funyons. 

[Detective and Mystery Shows]

I finished the entire new series of Unforgotten (it’s available in its entirety to PBS Passport members).

I don’t mind the new DCI, who starts out pretty awful but over the course of the series develops a pretty nice dynamic with the team. I didn’t love the plot, though. It wasn’t quite as bad as the “surprise! I’m a serial killer!” mess we got in series 3, but it wasn’t great, either. No spoilers, but I’ll just say that with the exception of one rather confusing and nonsensical twist, I had figured out what was going on by the end of episode 3. 

I also found that the fact that PBS edits out 15 minutes of each episode to air them in the states was pretty distracting here. The main storyline was still easy to follow, but some of the more character-centric arcs were really confusing because they had obviously edited out many of the parts of the episodes that were devoted to those arcs. I don’t know why they can’t just air the episodes in their entirety, or at least edit them more carefully.

[Jill, Derick & the Kids: Moving On!!]

19 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Didn't they send Izzy to kindergarten? Jill only homeschooled him for preschool. Whether the boys sent to school after their last move to Siloam Springs remains a mystery. It's probably for the best that we don't know. Jill will eventually tell us if she's been homeschooling or not. 

She said in a recent interview that both Izzy and Sam are currently in school. 

[Jill, Derick & the Kids: Moving On!!]

11 hours ago, CalicoKitty said:

She didn't mention Sam in the book, but she did say how fun it was to take Iz to school.  Derrick is college-educated.   I really would be very surprised if his kids did not go to school.  It is possible that they don't want to advertise where the kids are attending.  The school may have requested that she not name the school.  I think (hope) that Jill has realized how different her live would be if she had had a good basic education.

I think that the issues with JB and Michelle, Josh’s trial and conviction, and everything that happened afterwards had a pretty significant effect on Jill. When they moved, Josh’s conviction was still relatively fresh, Jill was recently postpartum, and the whole family was trying to adjust to a new schedule and a new town. I can see why she wouldn’t have wanted to broadcast it to the world that her kids attended school, especially in a small community where it would be easy for a determined person to figure out where they attended school. Hopefully the fact that she’s revealing it now means she’s more comfortable with her new life. 

In the beginning, Derick was as gung ho about homeschooling as Jill was. I think the fact that one or both of them were able to reassess and realize that school was better for the kids than being home with Jill all day was is a sign of growth. The kids will get a better education this way. Also, given Jill’s comments in the book about how her insular upbringing made it difficult for her to make friends and function in “normal” society, it’s possible that they realized that going to school would be good for the boys’ social development as well. 

[Detective and Mystery Shows]

Season 26 of silent witness is on BritBox now. 

I feel like the stories have been degrading in quality for several seasons (including season 25 which just felt like one long, weird extra special episode). The plots are overly elaborate and the continuity in characterization is awful, and there are frequently questions left unanswered at the end of a story. Plus, I’m sorry, but there’s a reason that SW hasn’t launched David Caves’ career in the same way it has launched others, and that reason is that his acting is really, really bad. 

That said, I’m happy to note that so far, for me, S26 is the best season in several years. The stories have been interesting and easy to follow, and I really like both of the new characters they’ve added to the cast. I’ve watched 2 of the 5 stories and hope the trend continues. 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

I feel like so many of these fundie hate queens are just trying to make up for the fact that they have shit lives. The only reason to be pissed off that other people are happy is that you aren’t.

Jill (et al.) have such limited lives. No education, no jobs, no nights out, no mimosas at brunch with girlfriends, no movies, no music, no magazines. Just pregnancy and childbirth and breastfeeding and scrimping and saving and grifting and praying. They don’t even get to enjoy their kids! No impromptu dancing to Taylor Swift in the living room, or seeing the kids in a cute costume in the ballet recital, or buying them a present just to see the look on their little faces, or watching them discover something they love (really love!) for the first time. Just beating and preaching and drudgery and knowing, deep down, that they’re failing their kids by setting them up for the same shit lives they have. So they cling to Jesus and claim it’s all worth it because they’re holier than the gays or career women or the Methodists or whoever. How else would you go on? 

I abhor Jill but I also recognize that Jill’s the broken product of a fucked-up misogynistic system. She’s the symptom, not the disease. Or maybe she’s both, I don’t know. It’s just sad. It’s all just sad. 

[Michelle and JimBob aka J'Chelle and Boob]

4 minutes ago, MaryAnneSpier said:

I'm actually a little surprised JB publicly acknowledged this totally fabricated, sensationalized, smear campaign of propaganda against him and his faith. If it's so bad, why even take the time to acknowledge its existence? He has no show to save, no political career to salvage.

Because he’s still deluded enough to think one of his Army for Jesus (probably Jed!) is going places, and doesn’t want them to be tainted by association. 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

On 5/28/2023 at 8:50 AM, LilJen said:

She looks like she’s auditioning for an album cover.

Weird. I’ve always heard that the alcohol was important, since you couldn’t rely on water being clean. Alcohol kills a multitude of germs.

It’s rather a stretch to say that a house featured in a fictional movie is “history.”

She looks like she’s auditioning for amateur night at the Show Pony Gentleman’s Club. 

[Jessa, Ben and Their Brood: Making a (Diaper) Mountain out of a Mold House]

On 3/29/2023 at 11:55 PM, farmgal4 said:

I’m puzzled as to why you think homeschooled children would be smarter than those who attend private schools, but I feel almost certain that the homeschoolers would be safer, considering the tragedy that took place in a private school in Nashville this week.

They wouldn’t. While school shootings are horrific, they account for less than 1% of gun fatalities among American children. A child is much more likely to be killed with a gun in their home or neighborhood than they are in school, private or not.

As for pennyroger’s comment about homeschooled children being smarter… well, I think what you put in is what you get out. Some homeschooled children, whose parents are willing to devote hours daily to educating them and who are provided with appropriate curriculum and enrichment activities, are probably more academically accomplished than some privately or publicly educated children. Unfortunately, many of the “homeschool families” I know have their kids spend an hour filling out workbook pages while their parents sit and play on their phones and then spend the rest of the day goofing off. I’m guessing Jessa is in the latter group.

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

3 hours ago, YupItsMe said:

If I was Renee I would be concerned that he wants to remain anonymous until they are engaged. It feels like he wants the option to bail with no repercussions, thinking no one will know who he is if Jill doesn’t show his face. Doesn’t seem like much of a commitment if he’s not willing to put himself out there.

However, as myself, I totally get it. I wouldn’t want to be spread all over Jill’s social media either. I just wouldn’t say “until we’re engaged”, I would refuse it forever and for any children I might have.

He probably does want the option to bail. Even among fundies a courtship isn’t binding, right? I know they think of it as leading to engagement and then marriage, but plenty of fundies have had suitors take off, including Nurie. And poor Renee probably can’t afford to complain; it doesn’t seem like guys are lining up to try to court the Rod girls, who have no money, connections, or beauty to recommend them and who come with the baggage of a batshit crazy mother who expects regular paid trips to the nice Olive Garden. 

[Josh & Anna Smuggar: A Series of Unfortunate Events]

I have long thought that Josh is the only child Michelle truly loves. She had a couple of years with Josh while her life was still relatively normal. Then they made the decision to stop using birth control and it was a downward slide into kid after kid after kid and homemade prairie frumpers and one bathroom for ten people and living off love offerings, and each kid became less of a blessing and more of a burden until she didn’t even bother going through the motions anymore. I don’t think she ever truly bonded with any of the other children. I don’t think she hates them, but I think she only feels the kind of vague affection you feel for someone you are related to but don’t really know. Because, fundamentally, she doesn’t know any of them. It takes effort to get to know someone, and she wasn’t willing to do the work.

I also think that while they do believe the patriarchal crap they espouse, and both JB and Michelle would swear up and down that he’s the headship of the family, she directs a lot more of their actions than either of them would admit. She loved Josh, so Josh always came first. I think it’s as simple as that.

[Josh & Anna Smuggar: A Series of Unfortunate Events]

On 3/22/2023 at 8:22 PM, GeeGolly said:

I totally agree, that would be ideal, however the ideal response to situations like sibling abuse is unfortunately rare.

And yes, the last time the FF physically harmed his sisters. Josh's indiscretions and crimes after the fact happened when he was an adult living on his own.

I'm not in the, if everything was handled perfectly when Josh was a teen, he'd be an upstanding guy now, camp

That’s not at all what I said. I don’t think he’s capable of being an upstanding guy; due to nature, nurture, or a combination of the two, he was always going to be an asshole. I do think a timely, appropriate response by JB and M, including referral to appropriate services, might have helped curb Josh’s sexually deviant impulses, and saved his later victims (especially 5 y.o. Joy) quite a bit of trauma. 

And I’ve noticed frequent references to this line of thinking. “Most families don’t handle this well. JB and Michelle did more than a lot of parents.” So what? Do they get a cookie or something? A shitty response isn’t less shitty just because someone else’s is more shitty. 

[Josh & Anna Smuggar: A Series of Unfortunate Events]

On 3/17/2023 at 4:50 PM, GeeGolly said:

The way I imagine what went down was each time Josh was caught/confessed JB&M thought it would be the last time and eventually it was the last time. It seems as if they increased the severity of FF's punishments and did more to secure the sisters' safety as time went on. Hindsight is 20/20, I'm sure they had no idea Josh was going to keep doing it.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. After the second time, they should have realized that they were in way over their heads and gotten help, either from a licensed counselor or the penal system. After a while "they had no idea he was going to keep doing it" is not an excuse for inaction. 

And eventually it was the last time? Last time for what? He may have stopped molesting his sisters, but he was convicted of possessing videos depicting graphic abuse of a toddler. It's not like he saw the light and went forth to sin no more. 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:29 AM, Notabug said:

Doesn't she have the weird clotting thing that many of them have?  If that's the case, she is maybe being induced.  Most birth centers do not do inductions.  Looking at the pictures, she's sitting up in bed, hair and makeup in place, big smile on her face.  Doesn't look like she's actually in labor yet, which suggests an induction.

Also interesting that she needed iron infusions.  Those are for very severe anemia that doesn't respond to oral iron.  Many times, in young women, it is because their diet is insufficient.

I had to get them when I was pregnant with Mini Mistake because I had severe HG for the entire pregnancy and could keep almost nothing down. By the end of my pregnancy I weighed less than I did the day I found out I was pregnant. My ferritin level was 4, my hair was falling out, and I had to have three root canals after Mini was born because the vomiting had eroded my tooth enamel. It sucked so much that Mini is an only. 

No idea why I felt it was necessary to share all of that. Sorry. Alyssa is *extremely* thin, as are most of the Bates girls. They might be naturally thin, I guess, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she restricts calories to stay slender. I remember one of her influencer pics was her wearing a tank top from Athleta (I think) and the size XS was big on her. My cousin has the same top in a size M and it fits snugly, and she is 5’6 and 135 lbs. I think it’s possible that Alyssa is significantly underweight. 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

This is one of the many, many reasons that the Gothard system sucks so much. As a woman, you’re not allowed to pursue a guy, so you just have to sit and wait until a guy is interested enough to ask to court you and hope it’s a guy you don’t find completely odious. Meanwhile, you’ve only really got two forms of currency you can offer to attract a potential partner — beauty and family connections. And, if you don’t have those, the IFB guys who actually have something to offer are going to hold out for a girl who does, while you end up with Timothy Rodrigues. Or you end up an old maid who is expected to care for nieces, nephews, and aging parents for the rest of your life. 

I’ve always been surprised that the Duggar and Bates girls seem to have succeeded in finding spouses who can hold down a job to support their families and who seem to treat them reasonably well, at least by Gothard standards. But let’s face it — the Duggar girls benefitted from being reasonably attractive and having a high-profile, wealthy dad who was willing to make work for his sons in law, and the Bates girls benefitted from being gorgeous. This poor young lady just seems to be stuck. In the confines of her life, she might see Timothy as the best choice she has. 

[Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)]

On 8/15/2022 at 2:54 PM, ginger90 said:

Oh look, it’s Kaylee in an alfalfa field in her nightgown!

[Detective and Mystery Shows]

On 7/6/2022 at 1:35 PM, krankydoodle said:

I was so excited to watch the French version of And Then There Were None on PBS titled They Were Ten or Ils étaient dix, but I'm on the fourth of six episodes and it's so disappointing. They've changed the time period (modern day), setting (tropical island), and the characters' occupations and backstories. That would be fine except the characters are unbearably stupid and the killer is obvious from the first episode even before we know who's who. The action on the island is also clumsily interrupted by flashbacks to the characters' past misdeeds and--even worse--scenes of two bickering cops on the mainland trying to figure out what's going on. I'll still watch to the end to see if they change that too, but this is making me appreciate the 2015 miniseries even more than I already did.

ETA: To balance out the negativity, after being lukewarm on the first episode, I'm really enjoying season 2 of Grace on Britbox. It helps that Craig Parkinson is a regular now, that guest stars include people like James D'Arcy and Arthur Darvill, and that the relationship between Grace and his second in command is genuinely very sweet. I could do without the missing wife subplot, though.

Yep, I agree. I called the killer in the first episode as well, and I continued watching in the hope that I was wrong. Sadly I was not. I now mourn the 8 hours of my life I’ll never get back.

I was on a long plane flight recently and I watched the Amazon Prime version of “Death on the Nile” with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot. I thought he’d be terrible, but he really wasn’t bad. He brought the humor a bit more than David Suchet, which I liked because in the books Poirot is supposed to be a bit ridiculous. 

I’m having a hard time figuring out what to watch next. I’ve got so many shows on deck… Annika, S25 of Silent Witness, the new season of Brokenwood, the new series of Hidden, Signora Volpe, The Sinner… can anyone help me prioritize? Or suggest shows I’m missing? 

[Shetland - General Discussion]

On 5/9/2022 at 7:52 PM, laredhead said:

I'm a new watcher of Shetland, and I love the series.  The scenery is beautiful, and the cast is outstanding. I just finished watching Season 4, and hate to admit it, but I got very confused at times with all of the various story lines, and characters.  They certainly packed a lot of plots and sub-plots into that season.   

The first two series were adaptations of the books, although they took some pretty extreme license with the plots and characters, and I found the standalone nature of the 2-episode stories pretty easy to follow. Once they started S3 and switched to the 6-episode story format I also started having more trouble following them, because I never have time to watch 6 episodes in a row, and I find that waiting even a week between episodes makes me forget some details I need to decipher the stories. I was also pretty disappointed in the far fetched “soap opera” storyline of S6.

But honestly, I primarily watch for the scenery and Douglas Henshall, who is just pitch perfect in his portrayal of Jimmy as a smart cop and decent bloke who has some major trauma lurking just under the surface of his pleasantly cranky manner. I don’t think that’s an easy role to play, and he absolutely nails it. 

[Detective and Mystery Shows]

7 hours ago, mledawn said:

@mynextmistake I was absolutely thrown that Neil had a wife - and then that Sarah did!? I didn't remember those key bits of info from S1 and I was like "why is she upset he's married - SO ARE YOU!?" after the first ep or two in S2. 

 

I'm watching DCI Banks just now and Annie drives me up the wall.

Yes. I’m not sure either of the spouses were mentioned last year. I guess looking back at the episodes I can kind of see the progression of the relationship…

Spoiler

They’re mutually attracted, he thinks she’s going to die when she’s stuck on campus with the bomb, he realizes his feelings, they kiss, they both look like they’ve been hit by tractor trailers, he leaves his wife, they hook up, they both look like they’ve been hit by tractor trailers, he tells her he loves her, she freaks out, she thinks he’s going to die when he takes down the bomber, she realizes her feelings, she tells him she loves him, they agree to be together.

But I do wish it had been more explicitly laid out. I shouldn’t have to put this much thought into a TV romance. 😂

Annie is SO ANNOYING. And I find the actor playing Banks a little wooden. But the stories are good. 

[Detective and Mystery Shows]

On 3/23/2022 at 9:41 AM, mledawn said:

Just finished series 2 of Traces and I can’t imagine it will get a 3rd. What a mish-mash of plots. Michael Nardone was the only reason I stuck with it. Neil and Safi were a good team but the rest of the show fell apart. Particularly the uni/lab stuff. 

I agree, which is sad because it has potential. Laura Fraser and Michael Nardone have excellent chemistry and I like their characters, but the romance angle seemed to come from out of nowhere and I would have liked them to have had more than a handful of scenes together

Spoiler

before they have sex, declare their love for one another, and decide to leave their spouses.

And Kathy’s subplot was boring and just fizzled out.

I’m wondering if this is an editing issue? The episodes of some of the British series that are aired or stream here in the US are significantly edited for time. I wondered if we were getting edited versions of the shows and that was why so much of the context seemed lacking. If the originals are an hour that’s a lot of deleted scenes. 

[Josh & Anna Smuggar: A Series of Unfortunate Events]

On 3/25/2022 at 12:17 PM, SusannahM said:

And judges are only human.  I think this judge is already unimpressed with the Golden Boy and if lawyers get too cute and keep trying to delay things for frivilous reasons I wouldn't be surprised if he threw a few extra months, or years onto the sentence.  I mean who's to know?  I would think it would come under the same heading as "don't mess with the people who prepare your food".   

1) Asking for a sentencing continuance is a standard move in criminal cases. It’s not “get(ting) cute.” Josh has a constitutional right to vigorous representation at all stages of his trial, including the sentencing. If his lawyers need more time to prepare, they’re allowed to ask for it. 

2) It would be really unethical for a judge to give a defendant extra jail time because their lawyer is annoying. The remedy for inappropriate conduct by a lawyer is sanctions against the lawyer, not harsher punishment for the client.

3) As for “who’s to know,” judges have sentencing guidelines they have to follow and deviations from the guidelines usually have to be explained. Josh has the right to appellate review of his sentence, and an appellate court would frown upon an unusually harsh sentence with no reasoning provided to support it. 

[Joy and Austin: This One Time At Family Camp]

Just now, GeeGolly said:

Yup, like I said - we do. And Giddy may never apply for a job that will check - but he may.

Like I said in my original post, an asshole interviewer. But anyway, when we Google candidates we're not looking for anything in particular, we're just looking to see what pops up initially. All kinds of stuff pops up. And yes stuff from years ago does too. It all matters how posts are tagged.

Yes, but your example using this specific post of Joy’s being used to taunt Gideon in a future interview seems like rampant speculation about something that is very unlikely to happen. There’s enough real stuff to criticize the Duggars for — why do we need to clutch our pearls over something that is at most a distant possibility?

Maybe I’m just saying that because speculation that becomes fact makes me itchy. 🤷‍♀️