Carrie Ann

Also Buffy. There is no single character or relationship or team configuration or season on Angel that I love as much as my favorites on Buffy (for the record: Giles; Buffy/Giles; Original Scooby Gang; S3--and those are just my very favorites, even my second faves are on BtVS, not Angel). And while S6 & 7 are almost entirely garbage, there is enough in the first five seasons to outshine the five seasons of Angel, IMO.

DD and GA have both talked about the tension between them during certain seasons of TXF, so it wasn't just baseless gossip. They've really only become friends (very adorably) in recent years. That doesn't say anything one way or the other about the Castle situation, but I don't think anyone has tried very hard to deny it over there either.

That photo is so cute.

^ Yep. Or shoot her from a distance, only in profile, from behind, etc. Same way they obscure her during fight scenes! I was going to say something in my first post about how it would be pretty hilarious if they did this--brought back BC for an inspirational vision--and only used the stunt double and not KC, but I was trying not to be petty.... Whoopsie, I failed.

Hey man, I don't love it either, but I would personally prefer it over Baby Canary. I don't really care about her in 419, but then I want that character to go off with Nyssa, traveling to whatever part of the world is farthest from SC.

What a very healthy attitude you have there! Mind passing it around to a few other fandoms??

For now, until we know for sure that MMc was filming too, I'm going to cling to the idea that Oliver has been knocked for a loop and sees a vision of BC that makes him get up and keep fighting (a la Tommy in 209), or leads him somewhere, or is just a vision at the end of battle like she was watching over them, blah blah.

Or he shouts "we will survive this," and the crowd repeats it.

I only sorta shipped Kara/Lee and part of it was because they made them so awful to their other partners that I ended up liking their SOs more, and liking them less, if that makes sense. #JusticeForAndersAndDualla basically. My biggest BSG ships were Helo/Athena and Roslin/Adama, and Callie/Airlock. ;)

I think the point isn't that the show can't do it, it's that I don't think you're providing any narrative reason for why they WOULD do it, or evidence from what we've already seen. I just don't see any narrative purpose in having most of the season's flashbacks being not-real, aside from a pretty weak "gotcha." If you can suggest narrative reasons for why the show would want some portion of this to have only taken place in Oliver's mind, I would consider it, but just "to get him to Russia" isn't enough for me. And in any case, I don't think there are any spoilers out there that back this, so maybe the conversation should move to the Hopes/Fears thread?

I say The One Hundred, because that's how it reads to me, but I think the show says The Hundred.

(maybe a better discussion for the Social Media/Appearances thread?)

I thought her mom/brother were the weakest pieces of S1, so I was pretty relieved they kinda whisked them away in the first episode. I'm sure it'll come up again...sometime, but I'd be happiest if it happened off-screen. Bro can go to college and Mom can move away. As for the first question: Liv's cellmate (who returned in that coffee shop ep) was a pretty offensive stereotype, regardless of the attempt to make an homage to Orange is the New Black. Then there was the Trophy Wife episode, the social media maven episode, the stripper episode, the romance author episode...in some of those cases, they ended up subverting a few expectations, but not every time and not before spending 99% of the episode denigrating certain types of women. I'd be more likely to give the benefit of the doubt if I didn't have RT's history in the back of my mind (the bungled VM S3 campus rape arc, with the evil feminists trying to frame the frat boys, for example). I think RT/DR are good people and have no intent to harm, but I just think they lack the sensitivity to thread the needle on iffy topics and I'd prefer they just stop. Or hire some people who will call them on their crap and save them from making dumb choices.

We just watched the finale last night, and now I can say officially that iZombie is one of the only shows I watch that stayed great/improved this season (instead of taking a nosedive), and actually the best show I watch right now. I am so impressed with the storytelling, and the way RT/DR made me love every regular/recurring character. I liked Major earlier than most people, I think, but I really, really loved him this season. I think one big reason is that he started to seem more like Robert Buckley, who is pretty charming and hilarious. Plus, the cast is all really good friends, and I think that chemistry comes through with all of them. I do have some qualms, though. I think they could use a little more internal consistency regarding how the brains affect Liv/other zombies. Like, Blaine is almost always Blaine, regardless, except when convenient to the plot. But the bigger thing is: RT has always had some issues with sexist/racist motifs, and um, those don't seem to be getting any better. So many unforced errors, with zero story function, and it's just like...I wish someone would get in there and tell them it's not cute. But otherwise, they just take so much care with the writing and direction; there are so many callbacks, and the audience is rewarded for paying attention. I think it's the best comic book show on TV (yes, including the Netflix ones, JMO) and one of the best in general.

Kat is coming back for Season 8, but said that would be her last. Apparently Ian Somerhalder said somewhere that Season 8 would be the end of the series, but that isn't official yet, I don't think?

"Out of respect, BC's spot on the team should stay open because they can cope with only three fighters versus four. But Felicity's place should be filled immediately, because her role is critical in a way Laurel's never was." Cool, I totally agree.

I...really don't care to consider their tax implications or how they choose to spend their money or where they choose to live. And I certainly don't blame Tom for staying on with the show, at all. I think most people would do that. My point was: saying that Tom is continuing to work on the show because he needs money, where Nicole was willing to leave the show because she doesn't, really doesn't seem based in fact, to me. When I say that I think she made less than Tom, it's because of facts like these. If she were to have made more than him, she would have had to be a star, not just a bit more experienced than him. That's the business. Would people dare to say things to her that indicated that Tom was the critical part of the show, not her, if she were respected so highly that they would pay her more than him? I doubt it. Would she really feel so slighted if she were being paid at a level that indicated the studio's respect for her? I doubt it. Anyway, we can agree to disagree, that's fine. I just don't feel comfortable seeing Nicole treated as though she just jumped ship because she's privileged, when she's a part of a demographic--black women--that is compensated at the lowest rate compared to every other in this country, and when she's been treated like dirt by TPTB. Yes, Nicole obviously had to make a choice between her regular SH paycheck and her happiness, and she chose the latter, but that doesn't mean it was an easy choice or that any of us know the first thing about her financial situation. She may be in a tight financial place for awhile and maybe that was worth it to her to preserve her own mental health.

My gut feeling is to disagree that NB is in some sort of sweeter financial position than TM, and therefore feels free to leave because she doesn't "have to work." She hasn't had super high-profile gigs outside of this, and what she did have came before SH. But more importantly, it's because I would almost guarantee you that Tom's paycheck is higher than hers. I base that on the reality of Hollywood, where men still get paid higher rates than their female counterparts almost 100% of the time. David Duchovny made double what Gillian Anderson made for The X Files, and when they wanted to do the revival, Fox tried to pull that shit on her again. Even though she has had, IMO, the better post-TXF career. Even though she was the one who stayed through the end of the series run. The only reason she found out and ended up getting paid what she deserved is because David told her himself what he was getting paid to make sure she got the same. My point is that I think neither NB or TM were very high-profile prior to SH, so they were coming in on fairly equal footing, and my assumption would be that Tom's salary is higher than Nicole's. I don't think she walked away because she is in any more of a comfortable financial position than he is. In fact, I'd say it's more likely to be the opposite. JMO, and of course no way to know, but I feel that way given how slighted she seems to have felt, and things like how emotional she was about this: Seems to me that TPTB found one member of that team indispensable and one...not as much. Imagine if it had been Tom expressing his frustration and desire to leave during S2 through S3. Imagine what they would have done to keep him. Consider whether you believe they went to those same lengths for Nicole, because I highly, highly doubt they did.

Same. I like Season 4 about 500% more than Season 3. In the run up to 309, I remember saying that there wasn't a single thing I was looking forward to for the rest of the season, and that instinct was basically correct aside from a few good moments. So I mean, I've had major frustrations with 408, 410, 415 and 16, but otherwise I'm pretty content with things, and especially the general future of the show. I'm not trying to dance on the grave as it were, but LL has been such a square peg for me for such a long time, and more than just dropping one bad-fit character, it's an indication to me that the show can go in the directions that make the most narrative sense instead of just trying to hit specific beats because of some ill-defined canon, or because they have to find something for someone to do. On the other hand, I truly have no clue how the rest of this season is going to go, so maybe it'll all just be a weird mess. But I can almost guarantee nothing in it will be as bad as BMD or most of S3, so...I feel good about things.

The official show Twitter wasn't even following Nicole until a few weeks ago when she called them out on it.

Definitely do not bother. I've been a casual viewer at best since midway thru S2--fast-forwarding through a good portion of the show (I pretty much only watched Crane/Abbie, Joe/Jenny, Jenny/Abbie scenes and everything else was FF'd), and I don't think there was much of anything worth seeing, and especially not at this point, knowing how it ends.

That was a different BI than the one we were talking about earlier today, though it doesn't exclude that one also being about NB.

Wow. I never watch live, and now I'm so grateful, because I can delete this unwatched, as I did last week's ep after I watched the opening breakfast scene. Garbage. I'm sorry for Nicole, and for all of us, that we never got to see the show as it should have been, all the unrealized potential after Season 1. See ya never, ever again, Sleepy Hollow.

Report and ignore, and make our mods feel like Happy Baby instead of Ragey Baby!

I fundamentally disagree with your first statement here, which is why I responded in the first place. It's tough to prove a negative, but I certainly do think that "they" (and here I mean celebs and their teams, studios, networks, etc.) are able to keep problems under wraps, to a point, because that's how the business works. It's why many celebs' rehab stays come as a surprise to the public (but then often, people pop up to say, well duh, there was that anonymous post on ONTD or whatever), and some manage to go without the public ever knowing until they choose to reveal it later (or not at all). As for the other bits about the other shows, "we were hearing things" or things coming out in the "papers" at some vague point in the shows' runs or in the months/years after the fact is exactly what I was talking about, and exactly what is happening here, and has been happening for some time, as Morrigan described. People are already saying things or have heard things, true or not. That's the place we're at right now. So as for your second sentence: precisely. Again, my point is just that "not public" does not equal "not true." It just means that IF something IS going on (which you do not have to believe, obviously), it's happened relatively quietly so far, and that's exactly how I would expect it to be. (And, I don't think I can or should explain myself further, so I'll tap out now.)