Night Cheese

Wow! This is a pleasant surprise. I'm very happy that it was renewed and moving to Netflix, because I think that will help it gain some traction and bring in more viewers. This show deserves more people watching it and talking about it! Also, selfishly, this is one less streaming service I have to subscribe to, so it's a win-win for me. Truly. I'm surprised that it's lasted as long as it has, but I don't know how losing original programming to other streaming services can do anything but hurt it.

I liked the little bit of continuity with Amber. Last year she was was dropping her son off in Gregory's first grade class and now she's dropping him off in Janine's second grade class. I really appreciate the little things like that in this show.

I howled! That might be one of my favorite one-liners from this show. I need to rewatch this tomorrow because I got a phone call halfway through, but I really enjoyed seeing everyone's costumes, including the kids'. Janine's James Harden was especially inspired.

That's a great point, I can see that too. I really like how they've given Tariq some nuance. When they first introduced him I thought "of courrrrrse Janine's got a deadbeat boyfriend who drives her car without paying for gas and happily eats her breakfast and wakes up at noon." But despite not being right for Janine now that they're not teenagers anymore, he's not a totally bad guy. They could have gone that route, but they didn't and that was a pleasant surprise. He's going to make a good partner to someone one day. Most likely a partner that doesn't need a 50/50 relationship, but will be happy with an 80/20, but he'll find love with someone. As will Janine.

I really enjoyed Melissa and Janine's storyline. Those two are like oil and vinegar, but they have such an interesting dynamic that isn't explored very often. Melissa has her own brand of nice and she doesn't always show it, but it's great when she does. Inviting Janine into her home to personally teach her how to cook is very sweet of her. I also noticed the actress has incorporated the long "O" sound into her speech, which is one of the easiest characteristics of a Philly/southwest PA accent. I wonder if she heard the criticism that her accent was too much of a broad NY accent than Philly. Either way, I'm glad she's making the effort to make her character seem more genuine.

I'm bummed that they've recast Jenny, but I suppose that means Laura Donnelly is busy with other projects, which isn't a bad thing. Better to recast than drop the Jenny/Ian stuff altogether. Not having Jenny meet Brianna in season 4 was criminal. Didn't Graham already play Buck Mackenzie a couple seasons ago? I wonder why they've recast that role. Maybe they think people will be confused if he's playing both Dougal and Buck at the same time?

I'll join you at the cranky table. I'm pretty much over people making light of women (or men--anyone, really) getting harassed in DMs and other social media platforms. Is it funnier when it's a well-known celebrity doing the harassing? No. No it is not. Overall, I thought the show was meh. WU was good. I really loved that MT brought SNL re-enactment home videos with him because somewhere in this world there are very similar home videos of me and my sister and friends around that same age re-enacting SNL sketches (as well as the Stuart sketches from MadTV).

I said out loud, "Pina colada? For the guy that eats boiled chicken sandwiches? Really?" But I agree that it was sweet.

Sheryl Lee Ralph was on NPR's Fresh Air today. https://www.npr.org/2022/09/12/1122411712/actor-sheryl-lee-ralph

Same. I usually recognize his voice before I recognize his face. I easily knew he did a small voice-over part in an episode of Ted Lasso because of how recognizable I find his voice.

I'm just getting around to House of the Dragon, and in addition to Graham, as mentioned above, I was also happily surprised to see Bill Paterson aka Ned Gowan!

It's been a while since I saw this episode, but I'm pretty sure his ex-wife, Rina, is there because it's their daughter's bat mitzvah (don't remember what she was wearing) and the younger woman showing Deborah around is Marty's girlfriend.

After the last four lackluster episodes, I thought this was really funny! I haven't found much of the Nick storyline(s) very funny or enjoyable, but Grace having to pretend to be an invalid for his home visit was hilarious. Reminded me of zany Lucille Ball-esque plot plotline. I ff'd through most of the awkward meet the parents scenes because I hate that trope. I'm going to try to take this season slow and enjoy these last remaining episodes.

I may be misremembering, but I think Dorothea and William being in love was a ruse. Dorothea was in love with Hunter, but she couldn't tell her parents for some reason (social standing? His being a Quaker?), so she and William pretended to want to be together so that Dorothea's parents wouldn't try to marry her off to another suitor.

So Miranda gets to be Meg Ryan in a rom-com with a new relationship while Steve gets to never move on, wear his ring until he's dead, forever love Miranda and want her to be happy above all else no matter what she's doing or who she's with? Not an ounce of anger or resentment that your spouse of 20 years had an ongoing affair and then ended your marriage without even discussing it with you first? The scene between him and Carrie was really nice and poignant until I remembered that Steve's not a widow wallowing with Carrie about "death do us part". He was dumped and is supposedly totally fine with it and will never get over Miranda for as long as he lives. Give me a freaking break, show/writers/CN. Miranda should not get to be the "good guy" in this storyline and the writers should not be pushing us to root for her. The fertility storyline feels like a backdoor pilot for a Nya and husband spinoff. I don't know how the writers think this is an organic storyline, because it's really coming off random as hell. Ugh I was really looking forward to this episode and some Che/Miranda reckoning. Instead I got to watch Carrie painting in heels, spineless Steve, like 20 minutes of agonizing over a tampon (seriously wtf was that?), Miranda and Che working on their [not a] relationship in a way that shows the writers really want us to see them as an OTP, Brady perfectly cool with the fact that his parents are splitting up and mom is banging a celebrity, the old ring-down-the-drain trope, holocaust denier jokes (although Anthony's immediate reaction was absolutely perfect), and a fertility storyline that's stretching on forever. I'm going to assume next episode will feature Miranda and Che's commitment ceremony with Steve as Miranda's best man. 😒 But I did really enjoy the lunch scene with the three at the beginning. Bringing up "smug Charlotte" and Charlotte just carrying on like she did felt verrrrry SATC and I loved it. Too bad the Charlotte menopause thing had to devolve into the getting your period while wearing white pants trope.

Che: I've done a ton of weed. How old are they supposed to be exactly? Because that sounds like something my [long-since passed] grandmother would say, not something that one who smokes weed/THC regularly would say. I don't know why I wake up every Thursday and watch this show. With all the obligatory checks in the box and self-aggrandizing tone I feel like I'm watching a satire or parody, not a sequel to a show that was once a huge part of the cultural zeitgeist. I don't know what's more frustrating: this hot mess or the fact that I keep tuning in every week expecting it to get better.

I actually thought menopause was a fair take at the beginning of the episode. She was yelling about being too young and then being hot and I thought they were going for mood swings and hot flashes. I even said to Mr Night Cheese before Frank said it was menopause, "wow are they really going to have 40-something Dee go through menopause? That's an interesting storyline choice." I loved everything about Dee becoming an acting coach and wished they'd kept that. She's just so ridiculous and everything she was teaching her students was gold. Those poor unsuspecting people.

As well as Sam Richardson, aka Edwin Akufo.

My husband and I watched the episode together and neither of us realized that she was naked. I don't know what that says about us. We both grew up with Forrest Gump (I had it on VHS as a kid), but I didn't think the Bobbie Dylan scene was so iconic that it should be honored 30ish years later on SNL. But that might be an unpopular opinion.

Lots of laughs in this one. It's nice to see that the Doc is warming up to Ted. I'm with her about him scheduling some one-on-one time with her when he gets a chance. She's clearly helping the squad and would obviously help him through some things too. There's enough fodder just in the fact that he more or less ran away from his separation from his wife to coach a sport that he knew nothing about that the doc can dig into and help him with. I also think Coach Beard could benefit from sitting down with her. His relationship toils are often played for laughs, but I'm sure there are some underlying issues there that he can get resolved. I'm happy that some of my questions regarding Jamie were cleared up this episode. He went on the reality show because he was cut up over finding out about George Harrison's death he wanted to expand his brand his dad was putting too much pressure on him when he was playing for City. That's understandable, especially for a guy like Jamie who has some pretty serious father issues. I don't know how I feel about him being back with Richmond so quickly, but I will give props to the writers for creating a plot that made it [somewhat] understandable how a star like Jamie would leave a great EPL team to play for a relegated team. Let's hope he gets an appointment with the doc soon to work on some of his issues. Roy continues to be awesome. I thought last season that they'd go the obvious route and have Roy come back as a coach for Richmond, but I'm looking forward to seeing him try his hand as a pundit instead. He's been around the game forever and has a great football IQ, and although he relies pretty heavily on foul language, he's actually pretty well-spoken and insightful for a footballer.

This is a great take, and I could definitely get on board with her regaining her sexual self esteem as part of her character growth. I just don't want her dating exploits to monopolize her storyline this season. Rupert did a number on her in more ways than allowing his affairs and womanizing to be splashed across the tabloids. And we learned from Sissy that the person she turned into when she was with Rupert wasn't all Rupert's fault. We're seeing the character growth from the end of last season continue, I just hope we also see her reconnect with her best friend and goddaughter, continue to figure out how to be a [successful] football club owner, build on newfound friendships, etc. I also want Ted to find love and happiness after his divorce, but wouldn't want it to monopolize his storyline either.

Like others have said, this was a weaker episode, but a sufficient set up and look into "where are they now" after the time jump from last season to this one. I'm happy the psychiatrist is helping the players, even if Ted isn't on board with her or her practices. This seems like a weak and shoe-horned conflict point for Ted, but if it gets the players' heads right and helps them to get promoted back into the EPL, I'm sure Ted will come around. He's a hopeless optimist, but I think even he understands that not everything can be fixed with simply, "be a goldfish". Rebecca calling Wiggins by his first name was weird, but I'm happy they've remembered to continue that little bit of character growth for her. I appreciated that no one else started calling him Leslie, though. Rebecca dating John Not Stamos and then dumping him for just being "fine" was...fine, I guess. I'm all for her finding love and happiness, but if her whole story arc is going to be her searching for her Prince Charming--the antithesis to everything Rupert is and was as a partner--I'm probably going to call BS. That really shouldn't be the be-all, end-all for female characters. I loved catching up with Roy. Of course he and Keeley are still doing great and of course he's coaching Phoebe's U9 team. I'm most confused about what Jamie's up to now. In the States, celebrities don't usually do shitty reality TV until after they're washed-up or desperate for money and/or another shot at fame. Is it more common in the UK for people at the height of their fame to do reality TV? Or is Jamie spinning his wheels without Keeley around to make good PR choices for him? I did love Roy's little pleasure at seeing him in such a low position, but then put off by how much the yoga ladies love him.

Peacock at least does a 7-day free trial. You just need to remember to cancel on time. I had signed up for the free trial to watch Girls5Eva and forgot to cancel in time, which was how I ended up watching We Are Lady Parts.

My husband and I binged this last night and really loved it. He was practically heart-broken when ep 6 started and I said that I was pretty sure it was the last episode. I really loved that all the characters were Muslim and from different backgrounds and varying levels of devoutness. The only sense of "otherness" I got was from the main character who didn't really fit in with the Ladyparts ladies at first, and by the end, didn't really fit in with her older group of friends. Her otherness was never about her religion, or clothing, or anything, which was refreshing. The songs were great too. None of them were really knock your socks off amazing, but I feel like that was pretty true to punk music in general. Punk is catchy and the lyrics are usually about what no one else is singing about, but it's also usually raw and unpolished as well. I got that same vibe from the music in this show, which I thought was pretty cool. We were both signing Bashir with the Good Beard by the end of the series. Super catchy.

Elisha Cuthbert had that show where she was pregnant with her best friends baby which was really bad. Casey Wilson had that show Marry Me from her husband/ the HE creator that was better but not great. Zachary Knighton had that Weird Loners show which was probably the most interesting of the 3 but still not that great. The only thing I have seen any of the cast members in that was really memorable was Adam Pally's character in The Mindy Project. Damon Wayans Jr. went back to New Girl after Happy Endings ended. He was in its pilot episode but then had to leave because Happy Endings was [unexpectedly] picked up for a second season. Eliza Coupe recently starred in Future Man on Hulu. I don't think it ever gained much traction, but was well-received from what I remember. It was pretty raunchy at times, but quite funny nonetheless.