alexvillage

My library had the book - Fosse's biography - so I decided to read it. For m=someone like me, without any real knowledge of most of the characters, and not really knowing much about Fosse - the man, it is a treat. Very well researched, well written biography. I am enjoying the series, but as far as biographies go, I prefer reading them. And even then, when it is about a "celebrity", it often falls into the unauthorized and/or gossipy category (refer to all the books about JFK Jr for example). This one is neither. When I finish the *massive* volume, I will watch the series again, for sure.

I just started watching this on Hulu and now it gets cancelled... I like the cast, I hope to see little Pat somewhere because that kid has excelled timing for comedy. Want to see if it is luck or real talent.

The underage drinking is a problem but it is not so dramatic. It is cultural. Obviously, Nicole was easy too young to be drinking and smoking but in other cultures, in Europe and some South American countries - mentioning this because I have seen it - children can taste wine and beer at home, and it is not a big deal. I don't think there is qualified and accurate, if any, research about the effects of alcoholism being higher in such countries if you consider only this factor. The problem, imo, is not parenting as much as the environment the kid finds itself in.

It has to be a ll about Max. But I still stand by my speculation that the blood we see in the final scene is Georgia's blood because something happened and Max is delivering his daughter. So we will see her again, probably a whole episode about her.

Because suicide is an act of desperation, for lack of a better word. It is hopelessness and human beings don't like to deal with lack of hope. On the other hand, nobody should be left so isolated from support that ending everything is the only thing they see as viable. It is too complex to even try to understand. There are studies (or maybe theories) that show that people who survive suicide attempts are grateful for the failure. I am comfortable with the default being trying to save people. In the episode it wasn't even a suicide attempt as a hopelessness thing, it was a protest, extreme as it was, but a protest. Much like monks setting themselves on fire. Not far from prisoners hunger strikes that seek to call attention to serious issues - the inmates don't really want to die, they want to make people know what is going on and pay attention, or get the system to change, at least a little bit. They actually want to be able to live but they don't have nothing else to lose. Those girls in the episode felt the same way, for whatever reason, but that's how they felt.

Armchair diagnosis does not count, that's stigma and bias. Even if she was mentally ill, people who do have a medical diagnosis don't automatically lose their rights. Self-determination is a right. It is an absurd and dangerous situation when rights are simply stripped from people based on what others want them to look like or act, as absurd it might sound to the majority. There is a process, it is violated all the time, but it exists. And the episode showed how people who do have a real diagnosis are abused for the convenience of others. What the cult was is not very different from some people in EVERY major religion. They are not sent to the psych ward for professing so assertively things that science tells us to be untrue, for example. Just because the character belonged to a cult that is on the fringes, it does't men it was less harmful. Besides, some religious people do hurt others in the name of their supreme being - and get away with it with not even a slap in the wrist. The characters were not hurting others. How to judge which one is worse?

I wasn't a loyal follower of the show because I don't watch TV at the times the shows go on, and until I signed up for Hulu I missed several episodes. I had a few problems with the show in the beginning. There is a very well known divide in the disability community: some physically disabled people, including some who are very well known, openly reject the inclusion of developmentally and intellectually disabled people in the conversation, events, and even in the community itself. They are generally known as the "our minds are fine" group. Ableism exists. I was holding my breath that the show would go that way, and in the first episodes they did fumble. But I know some reached out to the producers and they did listen. They didn't fully included the most marginalized - and the show wasn't about that - but they did tackle a number of issues that are important to all disabled people. Really appreciate the show.

This sucks.

Yes, they do. The thing is, in the beginning, the social worker immediately went to OMG!this is abuse! Which is something that happens a lot in the U. S. - Americans are a bit uptight about sex, at least the mainstream TV America (I grew up in a very different culture and there are is evidence of increased sexual assault towards children between there and here, just as an information towards my point). Anyway, fine, it is a fair concern when you grow up in a country where children kissing each other can become a drama, or adults hugging children tend to be seen as pedophilia, the social worker needed to ask. But then they turned the story into Iggy questioning himself about his work and how good a therapist he is. I can go with that to a certain extent but I wish the writers had gone a different way, or at least referencing consent in general terms: do not touch people without asking first. Not because it may seem sexual, but because people need to have the right to bodily autonomy. Even children who are somewhat coerced to hug their parent's friends, or relatives. I know a lot of people who are very clear about not wanting hugs, ever. I am a hugger and had to learn this boundaries, it became something I now ask everyone, every time. And that's not only about hugs, even hand shakes sometimes. If someone avoids that, I don't feel like it is a dismissal. It is a personal boundary. It may seem "extreme" to some, but it is about personal differences for reasons that are not my business to question.

These people have no business being doctors. They don’t respect patients, are arrogant pricks. Dr. Charles: Natalie, you need to respect the patient’s choices. She has self-determination, knows what she is doing. Also Dr. Charles: hey, Monique, lets dope her and make her incapacitated, then we can violate her body autonomy. Dr. Charles again: see, Natalie, that’s how you do it. You pretend you will respect the patient’s choice, lie to them, make them sleep, declare then incapacitated to make decisions. Then we can walk all over their agency. Natalie: oh Dr. Charles! I’ve learnt so much from you today! I am sorry I didn’t ignored the girl’s right more efficiently! I hope the the girl comes back with a cake loaded with thallium for those two asshats, to thank them for saving her life. That would be a good episode.

The whole thing with Iggy was weird. It went sideways. I guess it is important to ask for consent before hugging, touching, and this is true for everyone, including little children. But of course the writers had to go all sexual, just to turn it into a whole strange thing that does not address the main point: consent.

Yes, I disagree 😛 Doing the right thing is not the same as doing it in (this case) an adult way. That was my annoyance with the scene. Either bad directing, or bad acting, or both.

👏👏👏

You made me curious and I went to check the actors. "Max" is only 34. A baby! "Iggy" is only 41 "Reynolds" is only 38. I am so OLD!

I thought the reaction was a little too dramatic. Maybe it was the acting but his storming out was a little too much. Reynolds needs to be with his family every Sunday, no exceptions, and this has been happening since he finished college. This means that he was an intern and a resident who made his own schedule, wasn't subjected to anyone, didn't have to to rotations int he ER, is a doctor who can never be on call. Nice. I think it is important for shows that claim diversity to show people of color, specially black man, as family people, to put an end to the trope of only while people being family oriented. But that was the wrong way to write that in. I agree with everyone: Max should not be working. Not only he needs to rest, he is a liability to the hospital. The reality of cancer is ugly but if the treatment is working, should the decision of continuing versus not be at least debated and the survival chances considered? I thought that when a case of TB is confirmed the CDC needs to be informed. Would the hospital make that kind of arrangement - months of isolation? Is it confirmed that the actress who plays Bloom (Janet Montgomery?) is leaving the show? I think Max is bloodied with his wife's blood and that he is going to deliver the baby, with Bloom's help.

And this still happens, with added levels of exploitation. How many "dream couples" are nothing more than a PR stunt? Women marrying powerful men (the whole spectrum of power) to give a boost to their careers or, to a lesser extent, men marrying powerful women for the same reason? However Nicole felt about her parents, at least publicly she seems to have come to terms with it. She was with her mother to the end, she runs the businesses that carry their names, she tries to make sure their legacy stays true to what she believes it should be. So she seems to be just fine.

The subtle (or not quite) observation by Bell, about hospital controlling costs was a rare moment of - harsh - reality in this show. Hospitals do control prices, by hiking them up and making health care even more expensive. Then Bell "seeing himself" on a patient and allowing the surgery to move forward. Not sure if it was intentional, but the writers got a few points from me... ...just to lose them again with the Super!Resident! bullshit. Conrad bursts into the OR - seriously, he and Nic barely had time to wash their hands, wearing non-surgical gloves, ignoring the surgeon in the room (who apparently was all too happy to be ordered around or having the whole thing saved by Super!Resident!) and saving the day. Is Conrad an ER resident, a surgery resident, a neurology resident or indeed the Super!Resident! ? Because he is all over the place, solving all the problems, not really doing what "normal" residents usually do, which is work a lot and be under an attendant supervision. He has time to watch a surgery, he orders tests without an attendant overseeing it... So much bullshit! I am meh on Mina and Austin. Why do shows have to pair people up all the time? Can't Mina be the old arrogant, self-assured, awesome Mina from before? Back to Bell: I agree with an no thread comment that Bruce Greenwood is killing it. He is a waste on this show. The subtleties of his acting should be explored. But I guess then we wouldn't have time to see the kidney family drama. I bet that, whoever dies, it will be a one episode big drama, Nic will feel guilty for a minute, then all will be forgotten. Adding: if you haven't watched The Sweet Hereafter, you missed one of Bruce Greenwood's finest acting moments.

I didn't either! It is not the first time this happens. I don't remember which movie or series but Paul Reiser seems to have this ability to go unrecognizable. I have to go back and rewatch. Another part of the latest episode that reminded me of All That Jazz - when Nicole was singing, it reminded me of Michelle singing "Some of These Days" to Joe Gideon. Only that Michelle was dressed up as an adult, and Nicole looked like a younger version of herself.

I finally watched the episode. The little montage sex/drugs/suicidal ideation took me back to All That Jazz with the montage of cigarette/cough/eye drops/pills. Yeah, I was intrigued by that too.

Agreed. It is also the patriarchy, the sexualization of women that we still see on TV and movies. Maybe it is just me, and I don't consider myself a prude, but the amount of scenes where young women MUST be showing or almost showing their breasts is annoying. And I believe many of those actresses just think it is natural, it is "for the art". In some cases, maybe. But in many cases is gratuitous, and even though a man might be also there, the woman is the one sexualized - which is an extension of sorts of the extreme sexualization of breasts. It is more complex than that but I can see all the connections in my head. I just cannot be very coherent. This is also true and there is an even more complex set of attitudes and perceptions that cloud everything to me, maybe because the culture I grew up in is very different from the one in the show. Without diverting too much, it comes down to how men have always got away with a lot of things in the past - still do - because they are seen as "boys" and women are seen as objects.

Thanks, for the clarification, first time I hear anything like that. Good thing, I guess. I am still confused about the type of care Iggy gives to the kids (counseling, but why at a institutionalized situation), and what would qualify a child to receive the care. Do you know more about it? Or maybe this is yet another fantasy-ish plot?

Yeah, I guess with medical shows we need to just pretend that HIPAA is optional 😕

My guess is similar only that Max and the baby will be in the same room, Max will be dying, then miraculously recovers, the baby is fine, the wife decides she cannot live with Max anymore, leaves with the baby. Cue: some cliffhanger. Back (?) next season: Max is in remission, is super Max again, will brood over his child being so far but the writers will slowly - or rather quickly, who knows? - forget about that. The thing with Iggy is so weird and I have been puzzled by all those kids in the hospital since the beginning of the show. Jemma was a traumatized foster kid, Iggy was then shown working with an anxious foster kid, now a kid who "lost it" and was sent to some not-quite psych ward at the hospital? It is true that for disabled kids, especially disabled kids of color, the involuntary commitment is far too common, even when the family does not want that. Schools just send them to the 3-day hold instead of following the IEP. But that kid had been bullied, and became a patient, apparently for a long time? And foster kids getting top notch mental health care? I wish it was even close to the truth. Even if the social worker had concerns, which is total bullshit, wasn't the kid like 17 or 18? Did I hear it right that he was about to graduate from High School? I agree with everyone who thought Max was insufferable. He should have been fired.

Maybe All That Jazz didn't show him as suicidal because he was one of the writers and didn't want to go there? Just a guess, I don't know much about his life or if this series are accurate enough. Being part of the series, I hope Nicole did have a say on how her parents' story is told. I don't really care if it is 100% accurate on the deeply personal stuff - like suicidal ideation type of stuff. Some things can and should be kept private, I don't think it would change much of what I think is what they want to tell us. I am in for the entertainment, the stories behind how all the movies and musicals tell the couple's trajectory.

This was a mess of an episode, even more than usual. And half of it was too boring - the kidney saga. Like many, I am so over the drama. I was so sure that to be placed on a transplant list a lot of things need to happen and the decision is not up to one person in one hospital. What did I miss? Even if Bell had said "ok, if the kidney arrives, Nic's sister can have it" but the list is national, and what difference would it make if Chastain "allows" it or not? So many people need organs and I think the system is all messed up. I disagree with some here that think the sister shouldn't have the kidney. I think anyone who needs an organ should get it. Of course, that's impossible since donation is an opt in, instead of what it should be, an opt out. But the way the show is going about having a kidney go to her, while the hospital is in ATLANTA and I am sure there are a long list of people who needs a kidney in that huge area, is pretty pathetic, no resemblance with reality. None. I will not be surprised if Conrad himself finds the donor, transplant the kidney while ordering all the surgeons around. I don't think he had to give up anything. The writers have already let us know who is the real boss in that place. The Resident! He rules! (ugh)