Night Cheese

I thought the last episode was the season finale, so this is a pleasant surprise!

It look me three days to watch Fishes. I felt like I was getting anxiety just watching it and had to turn it off twice and return the next day. Kudos to all actors and writers involved, but man, that was a difficult episode to sit through.

If you're not feeling it now, in season 2, it's probably not going to get any better as you go through the remaining seasons. All of the criticisms that you identified aren't going away and the comedy aspect of the show, while subjective, doesn't usually age well as shows get into their later seasons. I won't say it's not funny after season 2 (again, subjective), but if you don't find it funny now, you probably won't find it funny later.

Yes! This is exactly what I love to wake up to! I can't wait to tell Mr.Nightcheese--he may be even more excited about this news than I am. *queues up Bashir with the Good Beard on repeat*

I think this is the perfect characterization of this show. I'm not sure what this show wants to be. There were two dance interludes/music montages in this episode. I don't know if that was lazy wiriting or just trying to fill time. The interactions with the women are the same every episode: they argue about their petty generational and/or ideological differences, but at the end of the day they're all just women trying to balance love and families and their careers. I think they want to portray strong women that we can root for despite not seeing ourselves in these women, but all four of our ladies are basically reduced to stereotypes each episode. At least the political stuff progresses from episode to episode. I agree that I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop with Mayor Scot Foley. He seems like he's supposed to be a Pete Budigeg (mayor, war vet, limited political experience, but very likeable/relatable), but there wasn't much scandal around Pete. But this show seems to be setting up something to knock our likeable underdog down a few notches. Perhaps I should read the book, but nothing about this show suggests that the book would be anything I'd be interested in spending my free time with.

As a former Delawarean, I'd argue that we spend more time defending the Mid-Atlantic region's existence, than arguing whether we're Northern or Southern. That aside, in Isaac's time, Delaware was still mostly seen as Pennsylvania's "lower counties", so I'm not surprised he'd consider it cheap and lacking value. I doubt he's been brought up to date on Delaware's history and present geo-economical value.

The Jacob/Melissa friendship storyline saved this episode for me. The librarian storyline got me a little worked up in how poorly everything was handled. If the district was piloting a librarian/library program, there should have been training for the teachers well before it kicked off. The teachers should have been introduced to the new librarian and the new policies and procedures ahead of time. Someone should have been there to ensure all the teachers know how to request books, library, etc. (Google docs or anything else) beforehand as well. As the pilot program progressed, they'd be collecting feedback from all the teachers and making changes and improvements as needed. *Or*, based on feedback, determine that the librarian program won't work, and squash it. Nothing the librarian implemented seemed unreasonable to me, but if it had all been introduced ahead of time, it would have given the teachers the opportunity to learn the changes and ask questions. I thought applying the three book max to Barabara who only wanted the books for a short time and wouldn't be leaving the building with them seemed a bit much, but why not bring the kids to the library for independent reading time? That way no books have to leave the library and every kid could still pick a book of their choosing (or from a selection curated by Barabara). The tension/conflict of that storyline just had me rolling my eyes, but once the other district guy basically implied that if Barbara's not on board, the program is not going to continue, I was like "oh hell no!" That led me to think that the moral of this story was going to be something like, "sometimes you have to realize that doing things the tried and true way is better than trying to change too much, too quickly." With a wholesome montage of Barbara just doing whatever she wants because she's Barbara and no one can tell her otherwise. Typing all this out, I realize I shouldn't get so worked up over this, but mannnn it was annoying. I love Barbara and she truly reminds me of my own kindergarten teacher (who has been teaching for over 50 years now!!), but sometimes she needs to learn to be a little flexible and willing to adapt. That all said, I really hope Cree Summer sticks around! She's great! I also loved the Rita's reference!

It's always such a relief when you check the media thread of a show you love, expecting the news to be that the show was abruptly canceled, but instead find that it has been renewed for a final season. I'm glad they will be able to wrap everything up,and hopefully close to how it was originally planned. The third season wasn't nearly as strong as the first two, but I'm glad they're ending it on their terms.

In the "Outlander adjacent" realm, Diana posted a blog update about the prequel series, Blood of My Blood, revolving around Jamie and Claire's parents. Filming began in January. https://dianagabaldon.com/wordpress/2024/02/prequel-tv-series-begins-production/

I caught the 3rd film on Peacock today. I thought it was fine. Nothing special, but nice in a catch-up-with-old-friends-you-haven't-seen-in-a-while way.

I don't dislike DHP in this, but boy, two of him was a lot. I feel like they played up the kooky twin thing too much. But I also didn't know Paul had a twin, so perhaps if I did, I wouldn't have found it so jarring. Avis and her beau dancing in the kitchen was nice to see. I'm not sure how much of these characters' private lives are based on fact, but her being happy is great. And speaking of happy, is Julia ever happy? I get that she has a lot weighing on her from the conversation with the Fed last episode, but man, she really has a habit of taking her internal conflicts out on other people. Does she even like anyone when they're not working for her and acting how she wants them to act? Her fights with Simca seemed realistic because they're both strong-willed women and despite their long friendship and shared interest in all things French cuisine, they seem to mesh like oil and water most of the time. But picking little fights with everyone in her orbit seems like Julia's MO and it doesn't make her very likeable. She also comes off as hypocritical and somewhat self-righteous. She insists on breaking into a man's world (going back to both her culinary school days and the war before that) through her brand of trailblazing feminism, but doesn't seem to like when other women do it. Similarly with Avis, Julia loves to show off how in love she and Paul are, but seems to not want anyone else to be happy and in love. I don't dislike this portrayal of JC because the biographies and memoirs of hers that I've read always paint her in the brightest of lights, so this is different and refreshing, but man is it hard to root for her in this show.

Thank you so much! Gosh I miss these two and the rest of the TL crew. But holy cow, I knew Hannah could sing, but the times she sang on TL didn't do her talents justice. I got chills watching this.

I just finished my season 2 rewatch this morning and man, they really went a different way from the last scene of season 2 to season 3. Not that I would hold the writers to every detail of the cliffhanger of season 2, but that whole scene was drama that was never really fulfilled. Ben telling Oliver it's the "other guy" he has to worry about, Charles's "stay away from her" threat, and his "I know what you did" weren't really anything at all. Ultimately some minor tension with Ben and Loretta and Charles punching Ben, but a lot of nothingburgers. I remember everyone speculating that the "her" Charles wanted Ben to stay away from could have been Lucy, Lucy's mom (with Ben being the guy she married), Mabel, or even Joy, but ended up being just another person in the cast of their play. All of that makes me extra curious now how the Charles/Sazz death is going to play out. Oh, and I had completely forgotten the fake stabbing that Charles endured. So that's two finals in a row with a Charles death fake out. Funnily, I really thought Charles was dead in 2.10, but immediately knew there had to be some switch or fakeout with him being shot in this episode.

Can you elaborate on this? Genuinely curious because I remember the show well from my childhood but was too young to know any behind the scenes stuff. And Google was a dead end.

I'm late on catching up with these two episodes, but thank you for confirming this. I thought I remembered it had been renewed for 2 seasons, but these series finale comments made me wonder if I was misremembering that it was renewed for 4&5 together, not 5&6. Hopefully FX/ Disney doesn't rescind their early renewal of Season 6 in light of the strikes. That would be awful, not to mention adding insult to injury.