Margherita Erdman

I do love Candis Cayne, have been a huge fan ever since I first encountered her on an episode of RuPaul's Drag U as some kind of posture or poise or general attitude coach for the contestants, and/or maybe the guest choreographer (and she was FABULOUS, of course). She deserves a show of her own in addition to more screentime as an Irregular. But perhaps she's too busy right now hanging out with Caitlyn? Mr. Bigglesworth!

Wasn't there some reason that Fiona couldn't have a cat of her own and that was why she frequented the cat café? True too that some cats, especially those of the more exotic breed types, are even more aloof and particular about their human associates than other cats. And while I am a fan of some of those exotics and their close cousins (Siamese, Tonkinese, Burmese, Himalayan, Abyssinian), the Sphynx particularly freaks me out: aside from its appearance and hyper-high-strung temperament, it requires, like the hairless dog breeds, or, say, a human baby, a constant and vigilant skin care regimen to prevent damage and discomfort. Bathing, exfoliation, moisturization, sunscreen, bug repellent, wash, rinse, repeat. Plus it feels like touching bare human skin, baby skin. Like a baby with claws and teeth. Anyway, yet another illustration why live creatures should never be given as gifts. I would like to know what else happened on Fiona's birthday date or if it was all about the unsuccessful match with the cat (an adult cat! again, knower-of-all-things-esoteric and highly-ethical-with-regard-to-animals-and-children Sherlock would hardly think it would be a good risk to get an adult Sphynx for his fair Fiona and think the odds would favor a happy connection between two such committed eccentrics — seems totally OOC). Morland tonight: super creepy. But I will consider the story more interesting as it unspools if it turns out that he is NOT responsible for the horrible triple (quadruple?) murder at the very end. Edited to correct typos and to observe that maybe Miss Whatsername the Sphynx could be interesting after all, as her high maintenance needs would seem to lend themselves to Sherlock's personality. But it should have been obvious that what Fiona needs [in a cat] is something uncomplicated and cuddly.

Another Salon article about the charter school issue.

Oh, I misunderstood before — this makes total sense & I agree 100%. I'd go a step further and say that with Axe's character, in this most recent episode with his "session" with Wendy, came off a degree even worse, which is that he repeatedly sees the damage he causes and repeatedly chooses his own success and profit over the welfare of others, and then covers up his own misdeeds. He actively resists self-awareness and change because it might mean being less successful at what he does. A personification of the amoral monster Wall Street has become? The doctor was completely compromised, answering only to Axe, you can see it in the scene when he examines Donnie. Which is horrible but makes sense if Axe is funding every bit of the doctor's research and basically owns him. If I were Donnie I would have been extremely suspicious of any offer from Axe to help with medical care after I made a deal with him dependent on dying in a timely fashion — but Donnie really did seem like a decent guy — so decent that I like that the show left it ambiguous whether, after his "3rd eye awakening," Donnie was going to go through with Axe's plan or come clean. We'll never know, and neither will they, because he started to vomit blood everywhere. I think it does points to her being more of a cipher and a device to advance plot than a fully developed character who makes sense. She only holds together because Maggie Siff is so awesome.

Ooh, thanks so much on both counts! I looked at and listened to clips from a few different songs called Mess Around and Messin' Around but they sounded nothing like the piano piece, and the only credits from the show given anywhere were "cast members." I too hope they work out a deal on "Sinnerman." This thread has got me doing a deep dive browsing my music library... I'd somehow forgotten how much I love Warren Zevon, have almost his whole catalogue and haven't listened to any of it in forever — he's got a bunch of songs that would fit right in. "Dirty Little Religion," "Indifference of Heaven," " Join Me in L.A.," "Life'll Kill Ya," "Sacrificial Lambs," "The Sin." I know there's been a Johnny Cash selection already but there's so much more there from the man in black and his constant struggle between good and evil. And how about Bob Marley's " Redemption Song"? His family is quite particular about licensing his music though!

I would love that too, much as I love Nina Simone and the original. The best artists give way to the best covers, I always think. I'd also make a small side bargain with a minor demon for a recording, audio and video, of a full-length version of the piano duel from A Priest Walks into A Bar (which is apparently an improv jam piece, or so all my Internet/electronic music research tells me — even Siri declares it's the cast of Lucifer just messing around, which is NOT the song title). Stupid Chloe ruins everything, interrupting it like that. Don't you know you stay in the shadows unnoticed when blues/jazz musicians have got something really great going on. Just enjoy it. DON'T intrude, don't kill the vibe. Thinking about that good artists-good covers rule above though — there *are* exceptions. Please don't subject us to some hackneyed version of "Hallelujah" when Lucifer and Chloe finally get it on. Yes, I love the song too and not for nothing it is right up there with the metaphysical poets in mixing sexual and spiritual longing. But enough already. Are there any amo alt-rock types left who *haven't* covered it? In fact, let's leave that song out altogether and leave them as friends, find Lucifer either a better suited mate or a circuitously non-monogamous narrative path to celibacy as part of his spiritual journey.

I'm not sure I'd assign higher virtue to a remorseless psychopath than to someone who knowingly does immoral or amoral things, and then suffers guilt afterward. I thought Wendy's point to Axe and the realization she brought him to was that maybe he cared for Donnie in the moment, maybe he didn't, but what trumped everything for him in the end was the plan and the agreement they'd made, and he wasn't going to allow anything (like the chance at a few extra months of life for Donnie) to screw that up. So whatever else he might have felt, any reservations or guilt, got pushed down, even if he didn't realize it at the time, and is maybe now coming back up to punish him in the form of misreading the market, losing a shit-ton of money, and humiliating himself in front of his employees. What struck me about the whole thing is that if it weren't affecting his business, his ability to make $ and maintain his badass reputation, he never would have come clean to Wendy. She's a performance coach to him, that's the only thing that will ever motivate him to reflect or change, to course-correct or improve performance. She's both an M.D. and a therapist — one of those increasingly rare psychiatrists who actually also does psychotherapy and doesn't just dispense pills. But she's private only, not bound by insurance, which is about the only kind of psychiatrist who practices real therapy any more. So her obligation to treat and maintain confidentiality is only to her patient, Axe, a confidentiality she can break only if she becomes convinced he is going to do bodily harm to someone else. Which, even if he had told her about the Donnie situation beforehand, it wouldn't have met that threshold. The oncologist didn't commit malpractice or withhold treatment. Clinical trials are crapshoots — experimental treatments, which, depending on the phase, the patient may receive a placebo without knowing (and depending on the study type, without the treating doctor knowing either). Ethically, medically, scientifically, your informed consent means acknowledging that as a participant you do not view your participation in the trial as treatment but as volunteering to help advance scientific knowledge with no expectation of treatment and full understanding of risks. What Axe and the oncologist did was still fucked up, and they should still feel guilty, because it should have been Donnie's crapshoot to choose, based on Axe's promise to get Donnie the best, most cutting edge options available. I thought the actor playing the oncologist had a wonderful little moment at the funeral when Donnie's husband thanked him for doing everything he could and the doctor couldn't even meet his gaze. So many juicy things to discuss and respond to! (1) Chuck & his father deserve each other. No matter how much they may fight and say nasty things to each other, they are cut from the same co-dependent cloth and need each other desperately in order to fulfill their personal and shared ambitions. I'm surprised there was even a pro forma apology. If Chuck's kids turn out any different, it will be Wendy's influence entirely — although she herself is a pretty cold fish when it comes to intimacy, and even though we haven't seen their life with their children, she seems more intellectually insightful about family relationships than particularly warm or intuitive. (2) I agree this is a fascinating question — so many people with so much to gain from having dirt on him. I didn't find it surprising he was too freaked out to follow up, though I do think he's too smart to have gone there in the first place. There are exclusive private clubs and services for the elite in cities like Washington and NYC to serve people like him with his particular needs. I thought the same when he went to the club in Iowa, though I gave it a hand wave because Iowa. (3) Totally agree. No warmth, no chemistry. She treats him like a patient at best, when she's not literally pissing on him as a dominatrix with a client. [How hilarious was it when the dominatrix at the sex club praised Wendy's dom skills and how quickly she caught on at the "workshop"? Didn't she say she was "a natural" or something similar?] Wendy had more chemistry with the head of the women-run hedge fund. (4) No kidding. If she's such a great chef, get out from under the shadow of her rich sister and brother-in-law and go make it on her own. (5) Yuck, right? It's Lara's one and only character beat, it's been beaten into the ground, and it doesn't even feel true. My husband and I were trying to think of actresses who might have given this paper thin character some life, but we were having trouble thinking of anybody in the right age range. Marisa Tomei maybe? Eliza Dushku? Or if they had to go blonde, I bet Mena Suvari would appreciate the work, and she can go pretty dark (character-wise). (6) I think this has been covered, but it's been said from the beginning CT. (7) That line (has she said it more than once?) sounded to me like a euphemism out of a mob movie for putting a hit on someone. Not true to Lara's one-note "no-BS" character at all. She'd just say something like "I think she's a threat" or "I want her gone" or whatever, not this mealy-mouthed corporate speak (or alternately ambiguous "kill her" in case someone is listening lol). In any case, I agree, ridic. Even sillier when she then sees her husband going off for an extended "session" during which she can be reasonably sure he will spill everything about the Donnie scheme. She certainly has a point, just in that short scene, there were several examples of finance guys acting like assholes. But she prefers to cook for "gastros," those insufferable foodies? I haven't watched Top Chef in ages, but her disdain reminded me of contestants getting pissed off during challenges when they were expected to cook for diners and (gasp) judges with pedestrian palates. You know, normal people.

True, I see and cede your point (and I say that as someone with half my family in the deep South and Southwest) — the only way I can imagine it could work is with the not-so-surprising twist that Lucifer would *pretend* as long as possible, protecting his chosen image, to be a shiny-suited Brit snob about the violin vs. the "fiddle," only to be forced at the end into some kind of showdown/hoedown (in defense of some innocent soul in peril of course), demonstrating that he's a virtuoso at bluegrass/roots/folk as well. To drop the cherry in the Shirley Temple ;) — his Mephistophelean visage could begin to glow through as the fiddling became faster and the strings began to burn hotter. But there's plenty of better music to get through before they resort to something so obvious and overdone. One can only hope. Please let the show go on long enough for a soundtrack album or two, or just regular releases on iTunes after every episode. That piano duet (is it a duet if two people are playing at the same piano?) — I would love to have a full version of that. And then Robert Johnson — for example! They could squeeze (no pun intended) a lot of very good music and storytelling and winks at blues folklore from bringing him in. Just a mysterious traveling guitar-playing stranger perhaps, one who knows Lucifer from waaaay back. Or a mediocre bluesman who wants the same deal, and Lucifer tries to dissuade him...

So here's my dream Lucifer show crossover: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend! Dementedly inspired by the painkillers I'm currently taking — or just plain inspired? What might Lucifer make of West Covina? Acres and acres of smog, freeway traffic, strip malls and office parks — they must have all of that in hell, right? I'm thinking original songs, clever lyrics in a Cole Porter/Gershwin mood, a little dancing, some Lucifer-style truth-telling and advice for the man-children, and who wouldn't want to see Rachel, Chloe, and Maze tie one on together? — those girls all need some more friends, and Chloe really needs to loosen up. Plus Tovah Feldshuh might finally get some, and who better than with a direct connection to the Almighty. Maybe Amenadude? [Yes, I know, different network, blah blah, who cares, it would be fun.]

Although it could be funny in the right context, say Lucifer and his bespoke clothing finds himself investigating a case at a country&western bar amidst the sawdust and line dancing and is moved to disavow the song and its story, loudly and with great dismay. Different tones, different purposes, for sure. The XTC original isn't in a "voice" or mood that aligns with Lucifer's personality, but I could see it fitting with a storyline involving disillusioned/despairing children or a child or family that is a victim of the crime of the week, for instance.

Thanks for creating the thread! I just came to do the same thing after a conversation got going in the last episode thread and here it was already. I hope everyone who has made suggestions in episode threads will repost them here as well. My modest (and some somewhat obscure) suggestions so far: "Sleeping in the Devil's Bed" - Daniel Lanois "The Devil You Know" - Joan Armatrading "Me and the Devil Blues" - Robert Johnson "Hellhound on My Trail" - Robert Johnson "Crossroads" - Robert Johnson (the song most associated with the myth that he sold his soul to the devil for his musical gift — but it has no explicit references) "Heaven is a Place on Earth" - Belinda Carlisle (well, that one won't be obscure to any child of the '80s!) "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" - Eurythmics "Angel" - Sarah MacLachlan I also stumbled on an interesting compilation on Salon.com, and of course there is a ton of suggestions in the comments: http://www.salon.com/2014/01/25/the_18_best_songs_about_the_devil/ Edited to add — why not the original XTC version of "Dear God"? So awesome.

Chiming in on the WTF happened to the lovely Rebecca de Mornay? The original actually would be good casting as Lauren Geman's mom, with the high cheekbones and sleek hair, but who is this puffy generic looking woman? I haven't seen anyone so unrecognizable since Renée Zellweger. Also, is it just me or does it seem like the Drybar menu has completely taken over the styling of women's hair on TV? "Rebecca de Mornay" clearly has the Cosmo, which wouldn't have suited her original face and doesn't do much for this one, and Lauren German, when she finally let her hair down (finally! but why does she have to be drunk to do it?) was in the slightly disheveled Mai Tai, usually the choice for the starlet with chin-length or shorter hair, but I guess it works here. I would sooo totally go out with them for a night on the town. Seems like just the right balance of yin & yang with whom to have, um, pardon the term, hella fun. Amen. More dark, less dull. Really? I thought that was the original? The episode is deleted from my DVR and I don't think I want to wait through commercials to listen again, but does anyone have the episode recorded still or have the music credits? Curious because that song is definitely part of the soundtrack to my misspent youth, and either I'm losing brain cells more rapidly than I thought now, in my early dotage, or I spent more time back then impaired than I should have (or both! also possible!) — or I just wasn't paying enough attention as my thoughts wandered to dreamy doomed Michael Hutchence and his shirtlessness on at least one album cover. Also (and again I may be blinded by my abiding Michael Hutchence lust-crush or lingering traces of the questionable choices I made in fashion and music in the '80s and early '90s, and the fact that all of my girlfriends from that time continue to be on board), but why do you think INXS has been underrated? Maybe I don't want to know — but I feel I should! I know the pleated, pegged acid-washed jeans, color-matched tights, crazy poofy hair, slashes of "contour" blush, and ruffly ruffly formal dresses were indefensible, but I do I really need to make the case for "Suicide Blonde"? Suggested musical selections would be a fun thread to create on its own! Offhand, I was thinking Daniel Lanois' "Sleeping in the Devil's Bed" and Joan Armatrading also has a wistful love-lost-you-know-is-no-good-for-you song called "The Devil You Know." On a whimsical note, there's Belinda Carlisle and "Heaven is a Place for Us" — I can imagine a good ironic use for that one somewhere. Edited to say: Turns out storyskip beat me to it and such a thread already exists: go forth and share! EDIT: Updated answer on Über question because I was curious if anything had changed in last 6 mos, as I know Über and the other ride apps are always morphing to change circumstances, and because we just had an extremely unpleasant and time-consuming experience with an Über driver making an illegal left turn right into the side door of our family minivan (thankfully nobody inside but my husband driving and he wasn't hurt), and you would.not.believe the insurance headache. Anyhoodle, back on topic and how plausible is it that Trixie could Über herself to a Hollywood nightclub using Mom's phone?, Minimum age for either app user/member or unaccompanied rider for both Lyft and Über is 18, no exceptions, in all states and countries where they operate. California legislature is considering making this law, but for now it they are just company policies — although it is clear from many "lifestyle" articles in various publications that many families use the services to get their kids to/from school, after school activities, etc. There is a service called Shuddle in the SF Bay Area and another called Hop Skip and Ride in LA, both with heightened security, much more stringent background checks (and much higher prices to go along with), but Über and Lyft will disavow and break ties with any driver or app user who puts an unaccompanied minor in a car for violating the driver contract or TOS (app user/member must certify when signing up that s/he is 18+). So it looks like if your Über or Lyft driver is cool with it, you can do it, but in case of an accident, neither the driver's personal insurance nor the company insurance will cover anything, since it is in violation of the terms of both insurance policies.

Paul Giamatti on Seth Meyers Late Night: http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-seth-meyers/video/paul-giamatti-talks-working-with-a-dominatrix-on-billions/2972723 Maggie Siff on Seth Meyers: http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-seth-meyers/video/maggie-siff-talks-playing-a-dominatrix-and-life-coach-on-billions/3010527

What a snore, all around. Characters and relationships about which I do not care, mostly, and didn't we know that Chuck would get caught at a sex club eventually? Someone as canny as he wouldn't be going to public sex clubs on his home turf anyway. So dumb. Privileged communication between a therapist and a patient, illegally accessed? I don't think so. Although I guess we knew that the Chekhovian "couples who trust each other exchange passwords" bullshit was going to go off sometime. Plus I don't buy it, given the erosion of trust between Axe and Wendy, that he would confess everything about Donnie to her. I know we're supposed to believe that he felt compelled to confide in her because he thought it was the only way to avoid another billion-dollar mistake, but the foundation wasn't there, not for me. Nor was his concern that he might be a sociopath (psychopath? what's the proper clinical term these days?). Ugh, and way too much Lara. The previous episode should have been the season finale, IMO.

Oh yes please kill Dr. Halstead. I don't care if it's a crossover episode, in any way integrated with the other Chicago shows, or makes any narrative sense at all. I don't care if we see any reaction from his brother or any other character. He could die offscreen and we could all pretend after the hiatus he never existed. Or he could just go back to Los Angeles.At least spare us all the long angsty minutes devoted to his storylines. I feel like there's a new, extra boring mini show Chicago Law: Malpractice Edition now tucked in every episode set in Goodwin's office when we have to watch bickering about strategy and deposition prep over the stupid stupid DNR case. Oh and now that he's discovered he hasn't "saved" her, he's going to magically flip his poor abused former patient from the control group to the group receiving the experimental treatment, in a double blind study? Good luck with that. I'm in a clinical trial at a major teaching/research hospital for an IV-administered biologic drug seeking FDA approval, and the facility for all patients participating in new drug/treatment protocol research is totally separate from the main hospital. Separate building, separate staff, including separate pharmacy & pharmacist — I can't imagine there isn't a similar setup at other major academic medical centers. And the Maggie arrest — I think my eyes rolled out of my head. Plus, am I the only one who remembers that Voight committed a number of felonies including stalking, menacing, and attempted murder, and actually served time in prison, trying to get his own son clear of a DUI? So maybe he's not in the best position to pull strings getting Maggie out of trouble (however ludicrous) for an action that will result in a drunk and reckless driver going scot-free. And and, as long as I'm ranting, bland and dumb Dr. Manning with her condescension about the poor (in all senses) stressed out single mom, tut-tutting that there will be no support for her, then going back to whatever else doctor-y she was doing at the computer — I wanted to give *her* a good shake! If the show is going to be all preachy and provide public service announcement-style storylines about vaccinations and endogenous depression and the various manifestations of veterans' PTSD, then it has an obligation to note that once an infant or child is diagnosed with an illness, injury, or disability affecting normal childhood development, the child and family have access to a whole host of no- and low-cost supports and services, not just medical. The hospital social worker(s) would have been all over it, hooking the mom up with respite care, in home therapies and other interventions, an ongoing case worker, etc. By the time the baby was discharged, that mom would have been *plugged in*, not alone at all. Oliver Platt is still my favorite thing about this show, and the most watchable, and probably what keeps it on the DVR list despite the awful redheaded troll. I have mixed feelings about the reveal that he is himself living with major depression (at least). Clichéd, boo, but explaining deep empathy and consistent with many gifted mental health professionals deriving insight from their own struggles, yay. Undermines his role as the wise man and mentor of the hospital (grubby stained shirt and going off meds on his own say-so), boo, but Nora Dunn as his psychiatrist, yay. I guess we'll see how it unfolds.

That's just not true. It's based on the "reasonable person" standard which is explicitly NOT a quantitative standard, and it is specifically intended to be different from the elimination of all doubt. For example, here are the model jury instructions regarding reasonable doubt for criminal trials in the Ninth Circuit:

I agree - LEGALLY there was reasonable doubt. Though anyone with half a brain and common sense knew/knows OJ did it. It's not clear to me whether or not there was reasonable doubt to any legal standard. We are privy to all kinds of stuff that the jury was either not supposed to know or not legally allowed to consider. The standard and criteria for reasonable doubt are subject to wide interpretation and can be specifically defined for each case in the final jury instructions given by the judge just prior to deliberations (something I've always wondered about in this case and hope they might cover next week). I'm so sorry for your family's loss, and for the victim blaming that must have made it even more difficult. I agree with you — it does no good to assign crime victims more or less importance by their perceived virtue, or lack of it. Proving the crime, being the victim, that's all that should matter. Edited to clarify earlier statement about jury instructions on reasonable doubt.

I agree that it's not explicit (but it *is*, inarguably, in your face! — sorry, I know that is terrible) (also, now that I had to add the word to my dictionary, so the post wouldn't keep showing up with "box cake" or "pickaxe" instead,I fully expect to have a major autocorrect fail involving "bukkake" in the near future). I'd guess and hope that kids will probably associate that scene more with Nickelodeon's sliming of celebrities even more than with demonic pea soup. But I rewatched the trailer to figure out exactly why my reaction was what it was, and here's what I saw: the peculiar, particular — viscosity, volume, and velocity of the slime — combined with the angle of the shot, the concentration of the goo on the face, and the gender of that face — followed right away in the trailer at least by Kristin Wiig's comments of unmistakably sexual discomfort — well, that's how it added up to me. YMMV. And thank you, NumberCruncher, for saying what I was trying to say about overall tone and characterization so much better than I said it. Another thing I noticed on rewatch of the trailer is that Leslie Jones appears to be a NYC transit worker. So, no secret scientist or other academic there.

Ah but then they couldn't have an UnSub who was some crazy exotic with extreme facial piercings and a grass skirt who's reverted to his *primitive* roots. Because we don't have those on local farms outside DC. And because naïve altruistic 20somethings always need to be taught some kind of lesson Also, I am dubious that this kind of random volunteering on a private farm is a thing. Is it?

I'm really wanting to like this show but it's just making me miss the previous spinoff with Forest Whitaker and the hot British guy. I keep seeing the title as Criminal Minds: Beyond Boring Plus it does worry me reinforcing the whole Americans-in-peril-for-daring-to-leave-the-safe-and-cozy-confines-of-home trope. Just a whiff of xenophobia so far, but it seems like it may be difficult to avoid given the nature of the show.

I think you may be on to something there though. You know who would make a great new love interest for Manic Pixie Genius Lab Girl? DJ Qualls Maybe even as more or less the same character. Minus the B-movie zombie apocalypse of course. Though who knows what's hiding in the next tattoo — the DNA sequence for that bioweapon gone awry could be right there!

I'm just worried that "municipal historian" is what passes for a clever euphemism for street smarts. Although it would be great if she's the one who knows the history and mythology and occult significance of the city architecture. I agree with most of what you're saying here, although I still think an inordinate, appalling amount of the knee-jerk negative reaction was sexism pure & simple, no nuance. The Ghostbusters movies are a cherished bit of the 80s for me too, a decade which covers tween-teen-college, so, pretty much the nostalgia years. I saw the "original" Star Wars movies when they first arrived in theaters and hate the Star Wars prequels so much I've only seen them on DVD and only to humor my own child. I get it. But I've enjoyed other remakes and reboots without experiencing them as violations of cherished memories. A really good point you make that's implicit in your post, though — and that I think explains why I was so deflated when I saw the trailer for this movie — is that the heart of Ghostbusters was its earnestness, the dead seriousness with which Harold Ramis spouted his pseudoscientific findings and the team went out to save their city from destruction. It wasn't just one sight gag after another, which is how the trailer reads (funny wigs! And! a visual bukkake joke? really? that right there should keep all of us women away in droves). On another subject I haven't seen raised — I just wonder how the dramatic climax of the movie works in a post-9/11 world. Seeing Manhattan crushed into dust and skyscrapers fall still doesn't seem like good comedy material.

OMG thank you! It has been bugging me where I had seen her before and that was it. She was the fragile single mom right? I had my son look her up on IMDb while we were driving home from the movie but I guess he was only giving me her film work and she has only been in the kind of genre movies I don't generally see (Final Destination etc.). I guess my tastes run more to gloomy pointless remakes of French existentialist-supernatural psychodrama LOL. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would — John Goodman was amazing and there was that little bit of humor at the end. But I was kind of shocked they got away with a PG-13 rating. I got talked into taking my 12-almost-13-year-old to see it (instead of Zootopia) after looking it up on a parent media rating site that is usually pretty reliable, and once assured that it wasn't gory and that there wasn't sexual violence, I said OK — but I thought the constant level of menace toward a captive girl and the psychological violence/uncertainty/explosive anger from John Goodman was pretty scary, plus the shooting Emmett in the face? flesh-dissolving acid? I would have said NO WAY if I'd seen it beforehand. Yes, I *have* turned into Tipper Gore (you young'uns will all totally miss that reference). I have also, since my son has begun pushing the envelope on wanting to see PG-13 and even R movies, learned some of the ridiculous criteria for the ratings... the cutaway when Emmett was shot probably had more to do with avoiding an R than any artistic choice, and both my son & I noticed that the movie used exactly its allotted two "really bad" words that keep it under the R threshold — one "shit" and one "fuck." Never, ever, more than one "fuck" or it's an automatic R apparently. Because 13 year olds are much more likely to be influenced and emulate such language if they hear it twice right? He hears worse than that from me driving on LA freeways. I thought John Goodman's ongoing presence as underground bunker jailer, conspiracy theorist, angry dad figure, and all around creeper was much worse than any of the individual incidents of violence or whatever. You can't measure that kind of presence. Thankfully it freaked me out more than it did my kid. I think.

That *was* awesome. They sold the shit out of it but also looked like they were having a great time. Also I didn't know that a glass fishbowl office could be so completely soundproofed. I don't know how that works either, but I think that guy and his hair are also awesome. Of all the characters on the show, he and his musician wife are the only people I think I'd actually want to spend any time with. I used to enjoy Wendy but she's become less and less interesting as she's become less and less relevant. Sure, she's beginning to put some pieces together, but what difference will it make? Don't care any more. [speaking of hair though, Wendy's looked totally amazing at the funeral. Like shampoo commercial/Quantico amazing, so long and shiny with perfect highlights and just the right amount of curl and bounce.] Yeah, I know this has been mentioned here before but aside from the miscasting, the way she's styled is all kinds of wrong. I like boho chic myself but not all the time, I live in Southern California, and even I wouldn't wear whatever the hell that was she had on at the funeral. Seriously, what *was* that?

Not to mention, I couldn't get past the idea that the catalyzing event for the dad and cop to begin their hot affair was the dad passed out dead drunk on cheap beer having pissed his pants. He must have smelled really sexy that next morning after sleeping on her couch. Ewww. And then maybe he took a shower and brushed his teeth, but he returned home in the same clothes. Still would have smelled like beer sweat and urine. Yum.