Carrie Ann

It is sort of baffling that the creators didn't take advantage of the 5-year gap for Laurel's BC journey. She should have been in training that whole time--disillusioned with the legal system along with everything else in the world--maybe with a shady mentor who could have been a future villain and source of conflict between L/O or BC/Arrow. Obviously, there was going to be a five-year differential in skills and strength with her and Oliver--why would they want that? That's the kind of question I'm trying to figure out--maybe the idea was that Oliver was going to be her mentor, and she'd have a five-season journey toward becoming a vigilante? That's really the only thing I can figure, and it sounds terrible. The other question is what changed between Seasons 1 and 2 in terms of their plans for her. Bringing Sara back was not their original intention, so why make a perfect BC with a perfect origin story, if you're still planning to do that with Laurel, and you know hers will never measure up? I'm not asking that rhetorically. I assume they actually did bring Sara back with a plan in mind other than to cause drama in the Lance family, and I assume that plan had something to do with Laurel's long-term prospects. So now what options are left for Laurel and/or the BC? Option 1: The writers are going to super-fast-forward the training required to become strong and skilled enough to be a superhero, and Laurel will just magically become BC by the end of this season, probably after Sara's death. Option 2: Sara is the BC for the majority run of the show, while Laurel is in a support role OR is primarily an antagonist. Over the course of many seasons, she is training, getting stronger, going outside the law. I could still see the writers getting their way in the end by killing Sara or having her hang up her boots, and actually passing the mantle to Laurel at that point. Boooooo, but at least I wouldn't have to watch it for long. Option 3: Laurel supports Sara and Oliver, and is training to become a hero this season, but is struck down and KC leaves the show. Laurel's death is further motivation for Sara and Oliver, but maybe they take that motivation in opposite directions--one getting darker, while the other tries to keep them in line. Obviously I don't want Option 1, and I do fear that's the direction we're going, but I'm still willing to hold out hope for Option 2 or 3 because I've been impressed with the writers' willingness to change course in the past. If they don't...well, the BC and Laurel are not the reason I watch this show. So I'll continue to FF her scenes, and if it turns out that it's too much and she really does drag down the whole show for me, then I guess that's where I jump ship.

Well...he was looking at porn that apparently included people who were underage, right? Or that was the implication? So I think that, on top of the fact that he'd probably been lying to her for months about what he did all day at work, and probably just feeling like things weren't great in general with them is what did it.

I think Emilia is one of the weakest actors (at least of the major characters), and this season the writing did her no favors. But she also didn't do much more than make smug or solemn faces and over-enunciate each word. She doesn't play Dany with any layers anymore.

Mara could also have been a fairly decent person who got pulled into William's thrall, and corrupted by him and by the process of creating the Troubles. It does seem like there is something elemental in "Audrey" and her other personalities that one would think would be present in Mara too.

(I meant shrieking in a good way.) (Shoulda said squeeing?)

BRB shrieking forever at paragraph 4.

I agree that I haven't found any of the canon romantic pairings very compelling yet, but I basically ship all the characters with almost all of the others. So maybe all the ships just die when Jeff actually writes them romantically? My one exception so far is Stalia, and I think that's down to liking those actors the best. I don't know. I go back and forth on Stydia too. Currently, I'd probably say I'd be most excited if Scott and Lydia was explored at some point. But that might be tough on the Scott/Stiles friendship, which would be unacceptable. Which leads me to the fact that while TW struggles with romance, I think it excels with friendships/familial relationships. You mentioned the Stilinskis and the McCalls, and I'd add Scisaac, Sciles, Allydia, etc. Basically any iteration of the kids with each other brings out an interesting dynamic.

I loved him on Bunheads. He's so much better without the Ethan PermaSmirk on his face. He did all right on The Originals too, and I think he's back next season there. It was kind of funny to have so many Aussies/Kiwis on one show, all trying to cover their accents, with varying levels of success.

There was actually one scene where I thought KC acted with her whole body instead of just standing and saying lines, and it was in Blind Spot. At the end, she's at the police station after the man in the skull mask is revealed not to be Sebastian. She's wearing very little makeup, and drab casual clothes. She's sitting on a chair with one leg pulled up to her chest, and she looks very small and young and scared. It's just a moment where her physicality is so different from the way Laurel usually presents that it really stood out to me, and at that point in the season, I still had hope that they could do something about the Laurel Problem. But I just rewatched it and even in that scene, KC holds the exact same position, throughout a conversation with her dad, and the arrival of her boss, and his explanation of her termination. It's not until it becomes clear that it's really final that she finally gets up, in desperation. So even that little thing that made an impression on me amounted to some wardrobe/makeup decisions and an unusual posture. But still, I wish she would do more of that type of thing, because at least it conveys something to me about Laurel's internal state. (And superficially, I wish they would ease off the makeup on her, because in my eyes, she was much more striking with a more natural look.)

Are you referring to her deal with Paul? The deal was that she got Sarah and Kira and he got Helena.

I heart this whole comment, but these parts especially. It's actually helped me reconcile my usual feelings about Sara with my irritation with her in that episode. I'm gonna blame the writers here (which, of course, these are all their creations after all), because I just think they screwed up by not capturing the best/most organic reactions from the characters in that episode. They just didn't hit the right tone, for me. One correction--Sara does actually make the claim that Felicity saved her life. She says "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. Thank you." (In a very schoolmarm tone that makes me crazy.) (Sorry, I said I was going to let the irritation go, didn't I?) Unless you meant that Felicity never makes that claim, in which case, that's true! Anyway, I found Sara's reactions to Felicity condescending for almost the entire episode, and that irks me because I never saw her put herself above anyone else at any other time (unlike, say, her sister). But I agree that Sara is not used to dealing with "regular" people anymore, and probably not used to experiencing kindness or trust from most people. So I will go with your idea that that's why she sort of head-patted Felicity, when really she was trying to reach out to her in the same way Felicity did to her. And I love your thoughts about how she took care of Felicity's wound. I just wish she had done what you suggest, and said something about how it made her feel to have people caring about her again, instead of talking about Felicity being brave when that was so obvious that saying it becomes condescending. At the same time, I do think Felicity needs to start understanding/believing that she is brave. She has so many normal fears--heights, needles, landmines, whathaveyou--that I think she is/was convinced she's not very brave. But she obviously is. I just think the basis for her bravery is selflessness, as you say, instead of confidence in her strength or an innate lack of fear.

Oh man, I love this episode so much. Audrey's reaction to each death, her increasing desperation and exhaustion, her sadness and feeling of failure at the end. I love Audrey, and this ep is a great showcase for all the things that make her her. This is why I had a hard time

I was excited to see Kirk Acevedo in the trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, even though I've never seen a single movie in that franchise. Just happy he's working. Looks like he's also in that 12 Monkeys miniseries (?) on SyFy.

It looks like the song from 6B was "Feelings" by Perry Como. I found it on this site.

I would hate it if they got boos, because it's rude and would ruin the tone of the event. On the other hand, I think they know that they have problems with the reception of the Laurel character (to say the least), and therefore the reaction would be tepid at best. So I hope they wouldn't play that up or have it be a big centerpiece of the panel, because, yeah, I think that would be a bummer. On another note, SA's Facebook note about this indicates he'll be doing a few other big things at SDCC and it leads me to wonder whether he really might make an appearance in an upcoming DC movie.

I think the attractiveness differential in that marriage was intentional. I think it fits his "profile."

I like S3 too. On rewatch, I actually found a lot of S3 easier to watch than S2. I think they had a lot of kinks to work out moving from a season-long arc format to a multiple arc format, as well as from high school to college. It wasn't perfect, and they made a lot of mistakes, but the end of S3 made me think that they were figuring it out. I think if we'd had a season 4, season 3 wouldn't seem so bad in retrospect. I love Logan and Veronica, but I am Team Veronica above all. They both have flaws, but her misdeeds don't come close to his in my opinion. In some ways, I'm relieved the show didn't go on for much longer, because I did/do ship them, but I don't think they were capable of being in a healthy relationship with each other at that stage in their lives and I would have hated to see Veronica's character ruined just to pull them back together again. They both had a lot of trauma that they never dealt with. Instead, they built their lives around indirectly confronting or running from that pain. On his side, he was reckless and destructive, and needed Veronica to fill every hole in his life and for that reason he was intolerant to her taking risks. On her side, she went after the truth at any cost to herself or others, and she wasn't ready to trust or rely on anyone else. Fundamentally incompatible. We'll see where RT takes them post-movie and Book 1, but from my perspective, I think they'd have a chance now. Hopefully time has healed some of their trauma; Logan's career path has hopefully curbed his destructive and reckless tendencies while also providing him with a greater sense of self and purpose. Veronica is the wild card now. I still don't have a good sense of where she is when it comes to trust or forgiveness, but the fact that makes me think she might have done some growing in that area too.

My first ATK disappointment was their oatmeal cookies. I should have known not to bother when they started the segment by saying that the recipe on the lid of the Quaker canister is pretty perfect as is. They were right--it is. Their recipe came out bland and the texture was drier.

Ooh, Season 1 is tough. But not that tough. :) My votes are: Credit Where Credit is Due (Paris Hilton = No.) Return of the Kane (Just not into it.) Drinking the Kool-Aid (Not a great Case of the Week)

I love Cat, aside from her treatment of Jon, and it's actually for that reason that I hate Lady Stoneheart in concept and practice. I hate that Cat wasn't just allowed to die, and that as Zombie Cat, she is so unlike her live self. To me, Cat was fiercely defensive of her family, but would never have been so merciless. She would never have gone straight to executing Brienne, without being willing to listen to her side. I just feel like if Cat had a choice, she'd rather be dead than to be this silent, monstrous killing machine. And that bugs me. Also, I just don't get it, because Beric pretty much seemed like himself, if a little haunted (heh). Not sure why Cat just turned into a vengeance demon when she was resurrected. (And you can try to tell me that it's because of the Red Wedding and believing her children had all been killed, but I don't buy it.)

I've only seen the first series too, but I'm pretty sure Jack is getting divorced or has already gotten a divorce. There was that one episode where he had business at the courthouse and Phryne kept fishing to find out what he was doing there, but it was strongly implied that it was related to his marriage.

Oof, she was my least favorite part of Alphas, by a wide margin. This is not an equal trade for Jennifer, in my opinion, but I will hold out hope that she's better here than she was on Alphas. Also, if gene therapy turns out to be the solution for the troubles, I will never stop laughing.

I caught up on the last week of eps in about an hour thanks to the fast-forward button, and I have to double-down on the failure of the Rafe character. JD is just all wrong for that role. I think they wanted a broody, old soul type (like Michael Easton, honestly), and they hired a Cabbage Patch Doll to play him. I wish they would recast him, because I agree that the idea of the character has potential. But it will never work with this actor, and I'm sick of him dragging down his scenes with Sam, TJ, Molly, anyone and everyone. Other than the Rafe/TJ and Rafe/Sam scenes, I opted to fast-forward through everything aside from Nathan & Maxie, Britt & Brad, Sam & Patrick, and Alexis & Molly. Don't feel like I missed much.

Yeah, I can imagine that if this show went on like 10 seasons and Phryne was never shown to have any weaknesses, it would get a little tiresome. But so far, it doesn't bother me at all. I think one reason is that she shows a lot of genuine love and concern for the people in her life, and the people who cross her path. She never seems to put herself above anyone, but manages to also come across like she knows how awesome she is. I don't even care if she is a Mary Sue, she's a damn enjoyable one, and I just like having someone like her on my screen.

I think the photoshop job on all the women is bad, but KC got it the worst. They all look a little bobbleheaded.