Bec

I have to admit Joel arranging to have a song from Midge's favorite musical play so they can dance to it when he proposed was pretty romantic. The lead up to it, not so much, though. What with the reason for the proposal being he wanted to have sex, and the way he put pressure on her to say yes right away. If I had someplace to be, and there's some moron stopping traffic so he can dance in the middle of the road, I would not be amused. But it's fun in a fictional scene like this. Very theatrical.

That Chicken Fat song made me laugh and laugh. Those lyrics are so fun - "give that chicken fat back to the chicken and don't be chicken again". Oh man, I need to exercise to it from now on. I just looked it up and it is available on iTunes (it's labelled "From the iPhone 5s 'Strength' TV advert - remastered"). Huh. Somehow I completely missed that ad back in 2014. Too bad it's not part of the Mrs. Maisel season two soundtrack. Oh, but it is available for free here (sounds like the "not remastered" version, but hey, freebie!) Watching ASP's shows has introduced me to some of the best and weirdest music. Heh.

One scene before the scene with Joel hitting some balls and moping about wanting to be forgiven, he got pissy at Midge about "handing off" his children to another man without asking him (he just learned that Ethan met Benjamin), and while they were arguing back and forth, she yelled "I didn't leave you, you left me!", showing deep down inside she is actually still pretty damn angry at him, despite the amicable exterior. (And then Joel whined "you left me back!" like a petulant child.) Honestly, I was like "go Midge!" for throwing that in his face. I've got zero patience for Joel's self-pity. He brought all this on himself. She didn't "leave" him - she gave him another chance when she didn't have to, and he blew it. I don't think he grovelled nearly enough yet to earn Midge's forgiveness. She's been far too nice to him and gave him far too many chances as it is. He's got some nerve getting so bent out of shape over Ethan meeting Benjamin for a minute, when Midge let Ethan stay with him overnight back in season one, even though his mistress was living with him and it was a just an unpleasant surprise sprung on Midge.

I agree it was rushed. But the show took the effort to write Benjamin as such an independent thinker who refuses to conform to society's expectations. So it confuses me that Midge would just assume he wouldn't be cool with her going on tour with Shy Baldwin. I know it's the 1950s, but it couldn't hurt to at least tell him and see how he reacts. She never told Benjamin, right? I didn't just miss a scene somewhere? Sure would be ironic if Benjamin would have been completely supportive of her rising stardom, but they break up because she cheated on him based on the assumption he wouldn't be supportive. And cheated with a sad sack who will always be in her life because they have children in common, no less! If the show was trying to present a situation in which she must choose between marriage and career, they didn't do it very well, because while we saw Joel tell her she can't have both, we never see Benjamin do the same. Not even a little!

The only thing that bugged me was Midge making Zelda hold back the food. It's gonna get cold and people are hungry! Why won't you let the people eat?! Isn't it somewhat easier to drop your truth bombs while people are happily munching on a nice meal, instead of cranky from hunger?

WTF, Noah works for the CIA? I mean, I figured his job had to do with some kind of super secret science project, not the kind of thing where you'd need to carry a gun around. Now I'm googling like mad trying to figure out what Cold War thing this could be a reference to. Sand in his shoes? Maybe it's Project Horizon. Would be hilarious if it's Acoustic Kitty, but it's a bit too early for that.

When that lady gave Midge the number for Sylvia Plath's shrink, I did a double take before I remembered this show takes place in a time before she stuck her head in the oven.

I liked the Paris scenes. But then I'm not watching the show just for the comedy acts. I enjoy the look of this show. It's like they exist in a world of eye-candy. I could just sit here and stare at their costumes, sets, and location shots all day, it's that good.

At least the full-frontal male nudity in this wasn't the kind of guy you would not want to see naked. There's a real disparity when it comes to on-screen full-frontal nudity. Almost all the women who are ever shown fully naked on screen (and there are so very many) are super gorgeous. Almost all the men who are ever shown fully naked on screen (and there are so very few) are - how should I put this - the type that'll make you want to shield your eyes from the horror. Midge can seem a little too perfect, too good at everything. So as cringey as that wedding scene was, it was necessary to put her flaws on full display. Apparently she is terrible at tact. Not good at reading the room. We got hints of that earlier on, but this took it to a whole other level.

Could have been worse - at least we didn't get a surprise reveal that none of what we watched actually happened, it was just dreamt up by Steven for his novel. That's where I thought things were headed when Steven was suddenly back at home staring at his computer screen. I can see how keeping everyone in the red room forever would have been too bleak, but the choice here isn't necessarily either "full dark no stars" or "full sap". Just a few tweaks could have cut the overly saccharine tone without being cruel to the characters. It's okay to let about half the family survive. It's okay that they can feel a sense of closure and move on with their lives. But Steven didn't have to get back together with his wife. Was anybody rooting for them to get back together? I relate to his reason for getting a vasectomy. Yet I still think he broke the trust with his wife too badly for their relationship to be salvageable. Besides, I'm not convinced he's cut out for fatherhood. Theo didn't have to stick with Trish, either. I care about the siblings' relationships with each other. It's enough to show they're there for each other. That already drives home the point that they're no longer emotionally "walled off" like before. I don't need to see nearly everybody paired off and pregnant to further confirm this. It's overkill. And I would have preferred closing on music that sounds less like they're trying to make an episode of This Is Us. If the music was just a touch creepier over the part where Mrs. Dudley decides to let her soul be stuck in the house forever so she can be with her children, it would have seemed a little less like our takeaway should be "Yay! The house is the best thing ever now! Everybody should want to die there!" Cut out that "whatever walks there walks together" bullshit. I never even read the book and even I can tell messing with "whatever walked there walked alone" is not a good idea. You just come off like a pale imitation trying and failing to be deep. They could have just used their nice piano music score right to the very end, with no Steven narration. He's my favorite character, but even I wanted him to shut the hell up. The show is tantalisingly close to sticking the landing. Just a few adjustments could have made all the difference.

I think "ass" is the word here, not "badass", just "ass", or "jackass" if you want a more fancy choice of words. Heh. Team Cole all the way in the Cole vs Billy fight. No sympathy for that jackass Billy. He had it coming. Until this episode, Billy never did get any comeuppance for messing up Cole's hand so that he can't draw anymore, did he? Douchenozzles who revel in causing destruction are the reason we can't have nice things.

Anne was an odd duck and "kindred spirits" with the misfits even in the books. It's why I love this character so much. And why the later books got a little disappointing because adult Anne became too conventional for my liking (I hated Anne of Ingleside). So the show's penchant for changing things around might become more of a plus for me if it ends up covering the adult years. (At the rate they're going, it'll take forever to get there.) I'm on board with having Aunt Jo be a lesbian, and I like Cole (yeah, he does remind me of one of Anne's sons from the books), but I did think the show hit us a little too hard over the head with their "look how gay these characters are!" moments. As if we're stupid and would have missed it if they were subtle about it. "Love comes in many forms" was a lovely sentiment, though. I like that it goes beyond making romantic love out to be the be-all-end-all. It's a wide world and there's more to life than just that. I already thought last week had amazingly imaginative sets and costumes, but this week went even more fancy! Bravo to the people designing these things!

The line "it could be an inside man... or woman" made me laugh. Cheesy! I knew Craddock was shady as soon as she coerced David into spying on Julia by implying his family would be kicked out of the safe house if he refused to do it, a whole bunch of episodes ago! What surprised me was that Anne Sampson wasn't in on the conspiracy as well. But then, even though both Sampson and Craddock wanted him to spy on Julia, Sampson didn't take part in coercing him into it. I thought everything - bombings, murders and all - was going to be some huge conspiracy involving all the politicians from the Prime Minister on down. But okay, that would have been too predictable. It's a bit disappointing they were just red herrings acting shady because they were trying to get the tablet so they can keep their dirty little secrets. But they wouldn't murder, no! That was some criminal's doing! Some criminal who came out of left field! I didn't understand why Nadia would admit to everything, conveniently before the end of the show. But I guess it makes sense if she feels her whole plan is complete, she would want to "take credit". Here's why I didn't suspect her of being some kind of mastermind - those aren't the people who gets sent out to blow themselves up! They send the idiots, not the geniuses with mad valuable bomb-building skillz! It sure wasn't because I didn't think a Muslim woman could be an engineer. I did think it was suspicious that she can speak English. That was a hint all along that she's well-educated. I did wonder at the time if she only said Longcross supplied the bomb because it looked like David really wanted her to say that. But I thought it would be because she wanted to "help" by saying exactly what he wanted her to say, I didn't think she wanted to kill him this whole time! So wait a minute - does Nadia know David is still alive? I'm guessing she assumed he died. If she knows he's alive, then she shouldn't feel like her plan is all done and it's time to take credit for her work. Unless she considers toying with him instead of killing him close enough! In a different story, maybe Nadia could have been a compelling and fascinating character. Here, she's a plot device doing whatever the plot needs her to do. Hey, I was entertained, so can't complain too much, but it feels a bit thin in the end, as if the story didn't completely live up to its potential. It's like the show was so focused on obfuscation, it valued the "big twists" so much, that actually telling a coherent story became unimportant. I liked the sappy ending with the happy family though. It's silly but it feels nice. I get a bit tired of so many other shows ending on down notes (even though that's often a smarter way to go).

What the fuck, she's dead? It's only the 4th episode! Unless... she's pulling a Tom Sawyer. Are we supposed to be suspicious of David? If he wanted her dead, he could have let the sniper shoot her - that wouldn't have raised as many eyebrows as blowing her up with a bunch of other people at a big speech. Unless... he has some kind of split personality, so he only wants her dead part of the time, but that would be so hokey. Is it going to turn out everyone from the Prime Minister down to the staff is in on it, because they're all hiding stuff that they're afraid would come out if RIPA '18 passes? This is already feeling far more convoluted than it needs to be.

It almost seems like it would be too facile to see Julia as some kind of sociopathic manipulative villain because of her politics and the way she's not-so-nice to people. More likely Julia actually believes she's doing the right thing, and she sincerely has feelings for David. Sometimes well-intentioned people can still hold dangerous views and be unpleasant. David's police superiors seemed nice at first, but his police boss was not-so-subtly threatening his family's safety to get him to do their bidding. They want to bring Julia down, but they're not exactly good people either. Am I just slow or are we supposed to not know who the bomber is? It's not Tahir (the poor new aide that the old aide obviously set up to get chewed out by Julia), right? Or was it him? David checked the case and apparently didn't see anything wrong. Unless... it was a bomb that was hidden really well. Or David saw something but deliberately ignored it because he wanted Julia to get blown up. I'm confused.

Fallon might act like a bitch, but she's a softy on the inside. Why else would she ruin her chances at a business deal with Liam's mother by calling her out on her shit? Fallon's the one I root for, I think she has layers. In fiction, I'm always more partial to her type of character than the boring "nice girls". Alexis, on the other hand, no layers that I can detect so far. Nor any for NuCristal. I liked Blake better when he wasn't trying to get with a woman his daughter's age.

Oh, I completely understand that perspective. I thought the show was trying too hard to shoehorn in modern day concepts. So much so that it doesn't feel true to the time period this is supposed to be taking place in. It was particularly glaringly obvious in this episode. I'm not ready to quit the show yet, but it is trying my patience. They need to try a thing called subtlety. Okay show, you don't have to show me more or less the same flashback every five minutes. I swear I don't have the memory of a goldfish, I can manage to remember Anne was at an abusive orphanage. Anne repeatedly complimenting Diana on her beauty reminds me of Lindsay's weird compliments to her friend Ann on Parks and Recreation.

Oh my god, yes! Damn you, Dynasty, for having Fallon wake up just before it was about to get good! Can’t Fallon just keep a harem of hot men? She can make all our dreams come true and do them all in the shower at the same time, for a gratuitously long time. I’m liking both of Fallon’s guys right now. I hope the show can manage to get through this whole love triangle thing without it becoming super annoying. Culhane is clearly end game. I’m liking how he’s so cool about her having to pretend to be married to another guy. Kind of a dick move for Liam to be all smirkily “you don’t trust yourself around me” to Fallon. But the guy is so damn charming it still works out okay. Loved the season premiere! Show came back strong. That 1920s party is the best party on this show yet. Loved that Fallon sang a jazzy version of “Bizarre Love Triangle”. So 80s and so 20s at the same time! Plus it’s the perfect song for the situation she has gotten herself into. Most LOL moment of the episode: Anders saying “what fresh hell is this?” "23 skidoo!" Blake is the best Blake. Edited to add: they should release Fallon's jazz version of Bizarre Love Triangle as an iTunes track or something. I would 100% buy it.

I can relate to Marilla - I'm the practical type, not usually one to get all out of sorts over a man. But still, sometimes it is nice when someone makes you feel attractive. Just because you get older and more sensible doesn't make you completely immune. Besides, these people live in a more simple time - a time before there are criminals trying to pull con-jobs on you every day over the phone and over email (and occasionally in person). Sorting through scams like these helps keep your bullshit meter finely tuned. They don't have this. I'm actually pleasantly surprised there were at least some townsfolk who questioned whether this is real. They were too easily convinced, but at least they didn't accept the con without question.

Oh man, I remember Christopher Gorham from the short-lived TV show Jake 2.0. I loved that show. This show is going for new heights of ridiculous in coming up with ways to make him take his shirt off. I'm not complaining. It's so confusing to me that the pageant coach's name is Bob, and the DA's name is also Bob. I wonder if the show named them like this for a reason?

I didn't think about what happened to the nanny, but thanks to ApathyMonger, now I do wonder. Aw, she's going to be so sad that the kid is just gone. She should have been the one to adopt her. Now the two leads have a kid in tow for the next movie? Meh. Oh well, could have been worse, at least it's one kid and not two this time. And this kid is relatively less stupid compared to the average kid in these movies. More importantly (heh), who inherits the Lockwood fortune? Technically the kid is still the next of kin even though she's a clone, right? That's why the bad guy wanted to be her guardian, isn't it? It wasn't just because she's a science experiment? Speaking of, it's quite a leap from dino cloning to human cloning. Human cloning opens up a whole new can of worms. This better not turn into Orphan Black levels of convoluted tangled web of conspiracies and secrets! I'm enjoying Chris Pratt's character. Sure, there's not much depth there, but I don't expect deep characters from a summer popcorn flick. Would a typical action hero lead have scrambled away from lava in as much of a hilariously undignified fashion as he did? I loved the part where he was like "If I don't make it back... you made me come here." Every other movie might have dropped an "I love you" in there instead, I'm so glad this one didn't. I wouldn't mind seeing the vet and the tech guy again in the next one. They were pretty funny. I don't see the tech guy agreeing to go on more adventures after this, though. But then again, how the hell did Claire convince him to go with her to a dinosaur island that's about to explode in the first place? The Lockwood manor is gorgeous, with all the wood panels and stained glass and cast iron, and the huge library and private museum(!). That's a dream house right there. It's a nice change from the usual theme-park setting. I dig the friendship between Owen and Blue, as much as it's a cliche of every animal movie ever, I'm a sucker for that stuff. Too bad the friendship's over. Or is it?

I will forever associate "I'm All Out of Love" with this scene in Brooklyn Nine Nine. And even Deadpool didn't manage to change that. Heh.

At first I thought Vanessa broke up with him or something before they showed what happened, or maybe it was just a ruse to trick some bad guy into thinking they're dead so they can go into hiding. I couldn't believe they actually killed her - made things way too serious for my liking. The opening "credits" mitigated it a little. But I was too shocked to read them at first, so I missed the first few. I loved that he time travelled with "If I Could Turn Back Time" playing, though. That was perfect. It was nice to get a couple of scenes where we got to see Ryan Reynolds' actual face. Damn that special-effects makeup really is hard to look at. When I first saw the music video with Celine Dion... I thought that was some kind of parody with a fake Celine Dion because no way would the real one do a song for Deadpool. How wrong I was.

I don't care who Fallon ends up with. The show just needs to keep putting pretty people on my screen. Would be cool to have a main female character who is sufficient on her own and doesn't need to be paired up, but that's never going to happen on most TV shows. I don't see Fallon moving on from Culhane any time soon, either. I'm not sure Culhane going into the fire was all for Fallon, though. He's the kind of guy who would do the heroic thing for anyone. If it was Monica in there he would have done the same. And didn't he run off to save Alexis and Cristal even though neither of them are exactly Fallon's favorite people? While I don't doubt Fallon's feelings for Culhane, getting entangled with her and her crazy-ass family and all their drama is hardly ever good times for Culhane. I point and laugh when Blake's having a terrible time, but it's not fun at all to watch Culhane have a terrible time. I thought Cristal was going for a "Che Guevara" look. Patty Hearst totally copied Che Guevara's style anyway. Hee!

Yeah, Culhane turning Fallon down so many times might have created enough baggage to sink their ship. I completely buy Fallon's feelings for Culhane, I'm just not seeing that much interest from his side. I just hate seeing Fallon get rejected when she's letting her walls down and baring her soul to a guy. It's not very much fun. Blake sucks, so it's fun watching Cristal mess up his stuff. I also enjoy Fallon in CEO mode. Oh, they're dismantling the old Dynasty to make a new Dynasty, I see what you're no-so-subtly hinting at, show. No wonder they apparently burned through (no pun intended) most of the old Dynasty plots already. Anything can happen when they come back! Didn't it turn out Monica was putting on an act to fool the old guy while secretly tipping off Fallon about what cards he had? I thought that was a good episode for Monica, she was standing up for herself and telling it like it is all episode long. Plus she had a decent relatable story about whether her brother and/or her friend deserve any of her help when they were being so terrible.