candall

Irony!

I don't ordinarily watch this, but I kept on going through Intervention, Intervention:Then & Now, straight into What Would You Do:Intervention. Good Lord, what is wrong with those people sitting there watching a woman being roofied?! My friend was roofied, woke up the next day in her own bed, bloody, gang raped, purse gone, half her apartment stolen--no memory of anything after ordering her first drink in a pub and going to the ladies' room. She and a classmate had stopped by a pub for a beer after a nighttime college class and the other woman stepped outside for a cigarette, started talking to people she knew and just thought my friend had gone on home, since she lived so close. (The second woman's life is messed up, too, with guilt about being so casual that night.) Do you really have to know someone who went through something that horrible before you step up to stop a woman from being drugged and frog-marched out of a bar between two men? .

I was so happy when I noticed my PBS station had a Vicious episode. I assumed they didn't want to do full seasons any longer and decided they'd just get together and do an hour when they felt like it, so I'm confused about why this must be the "series finale." A cast of this caliber can undoubtedly write themselves any ticket they like--don't they think they might feel like revisiting these characters again sometime? They didn't rule out the possibility with a death on the show; I wonder if one of the actors is ill. Nice that Ash strode off into the future to better himself and that Vi was the one to encourage him. The "card from Downton Abbey" story was lovely. The ending with dotty woman and the brother was very sweet. Little bit odd to find Vi snuggled in at the foot of the bed--I guess that was their way of giving the actress full parity with the two main characters in the closing scene. Well, goodbye and take care, all; we'll be here if you ever change your minds.

I know it's a *M*I*K*E*F*U*C*K*I*N*G*J*U*D*G*E* production, but did they replace all the writers? I depend on people here to fight the tech world inaccuracies, but this former liberal arts major objects to the inconsistent characterizations. The change in Jared from sad sack to lothario is nice, but why is Season Three Richard's first impulse to be such a dick? Remember last season when they were all worried that some guy who was mad at Guilfoyle might hack the system? That happened because Richard met with him (TWICE!) and broke confidentiality so the guy wouldn't blame himself and feel bad. (And the guy went nuts and vowed revenge on both occasions, which was hysterical.) Now Richard hears a rumor from a stranger and immediately flies into a rage that Monica has betrayed him. Then it's Erlich who betrayed him--bye forever, fucker. Also, I miss Team Guilfoyle & Dinesh who sat around spitballing the pros and cons of some dude wiping out his car due to a math error. The Guilfloyle who asked his awkward friend if he'd ever spoken to a women before (at the convention) would now be more likely to humiliate Dinesh somehow, right in front of her. Monica's incapable of expressing herself, but Laurie finally throws a spark--because she screwed Erlich, yay. It's a puzzlement.

Zowie, that was quite the lush mane of artificial hair on Hal Linden. I had a relative whose toups grew fuller as he shrank beneath them, into his nineties. There's a niche market out there if some wigmaker ever wants to do a line that's a little thinner and more realistic for seniors. Keller?? Who cares about that donkey's butt? I knew that was a Steif bear. My little (four-inch) Teddy still waves at me every morning from a shelf in my medicine cabinet. He only has the one arm, but he does okay. Why is Hank getting all nesty about that big house right before he goes sprinting off after Jill? I always thought the guesthouse was fabu.

I have this on the DVR, but it sounds like the value is limited for someone who didn't watch Lost. (I was disappointed when the polar bear angle went nowhere.)

This is not the thread topic, but I saw Lee Tergesen last night in the latest episode of Outcast and, as always, my first thought was "such a shame he has to live with that swastika on his ass." Tergesen made Beecher a character that sticks with you.

All good points. Sounds like the locations have a much better balance of dis/advantages than I realized. I let too much time go by between the first two episodes and the last two. Now I can't remember what was happening to which person from back when they were all an anonymous jumble. No brains, no headache!

Watching now, tentatively. I like my evil in a tidy two-hour chunk format where there's a chance the good guys might triumph. I don't understand a serialized version of The Omen, where Damien is guaranteed to keep on going. (I still think Gregory Peck can beat that bullet if I just send enough energy his direction.) And poor Kyle's deck is really stacked against him, which is kind of depressing. What if Rick Grimes couldn't rally a team because all the non-zombified people believed he was a child molester? Good cast, though. I guess the kindly neighbor who regrets not helping young Kyle is doooomed.

Cheerful, upbeat Nicole is blessed with a good spot, but when I try to mentally switch the players around to the different campsites, I just can't feature Nicole ever sitting there trying to collect the energy to pull on her other sock. Or the men with less fortunate campsites waving hi to the bears on their way to score some licorice root for a tummyache. I agree, though, there's a lot of disparity between the locations--maybe too much. I remember from the first episode, thinking the man stuck on the steep incline got really screwed from "the luck of the draw." And the configurations where no gills ever come within a mile of your gill net are pretty harsh as well. Do people still mention what a shame it is the shellfish are off limits because of the red [something] toxins? Since hunting/trapping game doesn't seem like much of a winner, the extra food rations didn't really compensate for losing the shellfish, in the long run. Looks like success largely depends on being able to catch a fish. Adding: oops, Holly just scooped me that Larry was the man with the hilly terrain. Good for you, Lar!

The inverse: I've read exactly one Dean Koontz book and I was extremely impressed because I had NO idea which character was the villain. Turned out--surprise ending--it was supernatural creatures all along. Slam! Book hits wall (right next to the mark left by Shutter Island.)

Not your problem--his. I think that deliberately being vague about the significance of the characters is part of Martin's "hook." Pre-television show, I bought the first book and snuggled in. Right off the bat, there were ten or twelve men who were all identified by name. I thought, "Okay, I'm in this for the long haul so I'm prepared to do the groundwork." I paused, checked the map, familiarized myself with the names, doped out the connections. Five minutes later, half of them were dead. Naming your cannon fodder felt somewhat manipulative to me, but it gets worse in the later books; many people complain about "major" characters who get a big introduction and serve no purpose except to surprise the reader by being killed.

I spotted this post on the Recent Comments page and spent 20 minutes making my way here so I could give you a heart-click. When I hear "between you and me," I feel my shoulders relax just a little bit.

Thanks, what a quick response! I think another option might be wrapping up this season with the current system and changing to episode segments for Season Three: Patagonia. I'm excited about Patagonia--it's beautiful and harsh in all different kinds of ways. I was there once and reached down, just to gently stroke the leaf on a little ground plant. There wasn't much vegetation around and I admired it for surviving the terrain. Yeah, no kidding--it sliced my finger open like a razor blade.

Okay! Watched both the last two episodes twice and read the last five pages of comments--I am up to speed. Wow, Nicole's really living large if she's confident enough about consistent food sourcing to let that big fish go. I shared her happiness at being able to be so generous with sparing a life, though, and . . . karma's a thing. I enjoyed all the speculation about what the Mike-Barbara dynamic might be. I'm thinking Barbara is probably home luxuriating in the rare opportunity for privacy and will be stunned to learn it had a three week expiration date--I was going to take a pottery class!--but I have a history of trying to scrape my SO's off me occasionally so I could breathe. If they're both sad lobsters, then that's very nice. Aaand, in other ways I am not such a great person, I mostly just wanted Randy to shutty and go already. (My notion of a sweat lodge is different from seven minutes sealed in a giant cloud of vapor.) The individuals who remain are a good composite. I wonder why everyone isn't wearing anti-cougar caps with eyeballs painted on the back?

Solitaires! Represent! ******************* 19 pages?! For Season Three, how about dividing the comment threads by episode? It's almost impossible to find the talking points correlating to any particular episode if you wait an extra week for the annotated version or you save up a couple of episodes. There's so much thoughtful viewer response inspired by this show--would the free flow be stifled by breaking the discussion into segments?

And did you recognize Richard Blais? He was prettier as a glam rocker than I'd ever realized from his usual hipster-intellectual look. The first time I baked a quiche, the eggs had been accidentally omitted from the recipe. Did not turn out well.

I was trying to imagine what this country would be like if there had been automatic weapons back then. A vastly different ecosystem since all predators and large mammals/birds would have been wiped out immediately--no wolves, cougars, bobcats, coyotes, bison, elk, eagles, hawks, vultures. (So maybe bubonic plague from rats would have killed everyone, the end.) Maybe several animal species evolving to survive nocturnally against human artillery. Lots of rumors and theories about indigenous people and tribal culture, based on mysterious artifacts. . .

I'm okay with Dion, but I feel the petulant Ross Geller vibe creeping in. No bueno. I hated the whole "Screw you, Randy" pep rally and oh, look, they named the episode for it. You know what I love? Every snarky article ever written about sophisticated wine experts failing their blind taste tests. Bonus points if there's an eyemask and they confuse reds and whites.

Nude Genevieve behind those flowers was worth the price of admission. Posing seductively for a man who walks in with a date is Classic Scenario 1.0, but I've never see anyone maintain the pose instead of mortified shrieking and rushing to cover. Probably not likely to happen to me at this point, but I made a mental note, just in case. Zoila's the only one of the main four I can stand--why have they made her stupid? Her little ruse is over at the very first cocktail party or public appearance.

Before last week, I'd never seen this show. Then Maleva and the synchronized drone act made me think, "Wow, there's some interesting stuff here I've not seen before." This week, not so much. My main takeaway was "Stop treating anyone who collects social security like they have special needs--it's so fucking insulting." But three minutes of boneless skinless Cirque du Soleil made the whole two hours worthwhile, so. . . still in!

I'm not a fan of percussion music.* I never met a drum solo that didn't irritate and I thought Stomp was boring after the second number. But Maleva, YEAH! (*Once at a Womyn's Festival I saw a taiko drummer that made me forget to breathe.)

My favorite line was from Julia. "Hannah, you have done not. one. thing. wrong. today. You made a little error, but. . ." Ben. I can't say I like him much (except, you know, Brit accents always buckle American knees.) I've never seen his food rise very far above standard generic, so I don't understand why he always thinks his "vision" should supersede the guests' preferences or the established theme for the evening. But I'll give him credit that he gritted his teeth and got the job done, saving the hissy fit and the tattletale dramatics until the guests were fed and happy. He seems to always deliver a graceful apology the next day--maybe better if he didn't need to do that so often he developed a good technique.

I'm still holding out for the Blackfish, too. People were extremely reluctant to concede Stannis because his head didn't tumble across the screen, but the only evidence we have for Blackfish Down is one sentence from a shady-looking foot soldier, following a suspiciously pregnant pause. Hmmmmm. I think Jaime's continued interaction with, and respect from, the unimpeachable Brienne indicates redemption is still on the table. I expect something will finally cause him to have an epiphany about Cersei. Agree. I thought the episode was boring, but I was amused to learn The Hound has a community, of sorts--at least some men he knows well enough to indulge in some bro smacktalk. Every reference to The T-Waif 1000 cracked me up because she did Robert Patrick to a TEE--the aerodynamic flat hands, the piston arm motion, the blank invincible robot face. That homage was not wasted, though--I felt anxious, even while I was laughing. Yeow, how do you get away from a thing like that???

Monterey, heeee. "I know someone who admires what you do!"