candall
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Posts posted by candall
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Part of the problem is the large cast, and the fact that every cast member appears in every episode. (And on top of that you have patient stories.)
It doesn't matter how significant the issue is, it's going to be dealt with in a few short scenes, with just a few lines. Too much is left out, and it makes the characters look like idiots.
I think this is a big reason why the stories on this show have become so unsatisfying.
I take your point. I watched it from the beginning recently and it was richer, with more depth to the storylines when it was only MAGIC, their superiors and the patients.
But, it's Season 11. Meredith would have a string of surnames longer than Erica Kane's by now. All in all, I think they've done a good job rotating people in and out while still maintaining the baseline. I never tumbled to the "new interns" so it's fine by me if they get wiped out in the next vehicular catastrophe, but Geena Davis has the power to make me love her.
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This was certainly more violent than it needed to be, and that turned me off. I might watch it in rerun season during the midseason holidays but otherwise, no.
I'm going to bring up something that will probably get me flamed here, so I'm hesitating to say it, but here goes. The interaction between Dylan McDermott and Maggie Q regarding her breasts was unnecessary and offensive. But the conversation where he said that he thought she might be open to physical compliments because of the way she was presenting herself wasn't, well, completely wrong. Of course every woman should dress to please herself and make herself look good. That's a given. If part of that look means your bra is visible under a silk shirt then that's great, you look great, but don't get on your high horse about how inappropriate it is for a man to notice when a beautiful woman exposes her underwear. Men look at breasts. If Betty White was walking around with her bra showing, men would look. Because boobs. And now I'll go put on my asbestos hazmat suit.
No flaming here--it's an interesting point and something I've been pondering lately. When "Utopia" started, many of the women chose to be naked and a couple of the men were uncomfortable with that. So the first post suggested "cover up." But the next post was: "In a new and hopefully improved society, wouldn't it be nice if women could dress as they chose and men could just accept personal responsibility for keeping themselves under control." I liked that one a lot. The third post said "but these guys were raised in the old society, plus there's the consideration that some of the men in the compound are black and there's the whole horrible history associated with black men who were accused of looking at white women."
It was one of the very few thought-provoking discussions to come out of "Utopia" before the whole thing turned into Carnival of Crap, about six minutes after it started.
Re this show, I personally don't believe a woman of that rank and position would get within a hundred miles of the silky/bra combo. With no version of the handy businessman's suit, professional women are always struggling to find some point between "too feminine" and "too masculine." It's an additional hurdle men don't even have to think about.
I liked the show itself. I quit Criminal Minds when it turned into weekly torture porn, but I think it's true that "stalking" has taken on an entirely new definition with the rise of social media and that makes it relevant to most of us. Who hasn't checked out the whereabouts of old boyfriends? I have looked at my friend's FB page to see if there's a clue about where she is that she's not answering my phone call. Hmm. . .
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If you are going to let people have a 24 hr. 'live feed' (over now apparently), then you have to edit the ACTUAL SHOW to match the action on the feeds.
It's totally ridiculous, but no, they don't think that's necessary. None of the feedsters have ever met or will ever meet any of the two dozen people still watching the television show!
I just now got an email saying they hope I enjoyed last night's (Tuesday's) show and now it's time for me to cast my vote for which of the three nominees I want to see banished.
Look, I signed up for a "Passport," so obviously I have a computer and I know how to navigate their website (with the feeds.) But for some reason they still think maybe I'm going to vote for something that happened yesterday. . .because it's not real until they put it on tv day after tomorrow?
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I just received this email from The Project Utopia Moderator:
"It's Time To Banish A Pioneer! Cast Your Vote Now!"
Dear Candall,
We hope you enjoyed last night's episode! Now that 3 Pioneers are up for banishment, we'd like your vote on who should pack their crate.
Click here to cast your vote today!
******************
Spoiler alert: Anyone who cares already knows what happened and YOU are the stupidest production team in the history of television.
These people must all be on the pipe.
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That Benefit They're Real mascara mention with Tabasum and her friend was odd. Great mascara, don't know that they needed to show it or talk about it.
Well that extreme closeup of tumorous caterpillars over her eyes sure didn't SELL any of it.
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What started out as a brilliant concept never grew into anything greater than an entertaining fiasco and finally bottomed out as an object lesson where cameras made it possible to observe opportunists hatch their schemes and cover their tracks.
Now that the producers have decided to block the feeds, mute the audio and censor any controversy that doesn't fit into their storyboard edit, there's nothing left.
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Damn, I was hoping to post the good news! Oh, and that reminds me, I need to go check out "Gotham". :) But yeah, their Tuesday ratings aren't likely to crack 1.0 any time soon since they look to be gradually declining, and their Friday ratings were a .70, .50, then back to .70, so as you say that's basically their ceiling. The suits must be thrilled!!!
At this point, nothing short of a complete show overhaul and new marketing blitz would have any sliver of a chance of bringing this dead meat back to life.
But INSTEAD, the Einsteins decided they were having a rough time selling their edit with all those 24/7 cameras, so now they block the feeds and mute the audio. Any controversy diverging from the storyboard is now censored.
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--"Kerry, has your mother changed her mind about my son not being good enough for you?"
"Oh, [tee hee] that was really just my way of saying I'm not sure he's good enough for me."
--Tabasum hosts a big (open bar!) party. . .in honor of herself? Every year? :** (
Ericka: more hand-painted black silk car coats, less Lee.
Joey: everyone has now been made aware you're The Petri Dish Project.
Brian: who?
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1. I would have picked yoga elephant over smudgy elephant head.
2. Like the rest of the universe, I was gratified to see Emily humbled.
Let's hear it for "female Native American lesbian" tattoo artists!
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Great minds, candall. I just broke down and programmed the DVR to record this afternoon's episodes because I love that scene, too.
Hahahaha! But we're not going back on the pipe, right?
My next appointment viewing is Sara Ramirez singing "The Story." Still gives me goosebumps.
See you then?
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I snuck back to watch the episode where George dies because I loooove Prom Dress Izzie and Soldier George staring at each other from opposite sides of the door to the Elevator of Afterlife.
I had forgotten that the next episode starts out with "Who said that was George?! That's not George!!!"
So mean.
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Call me crazy, but--once the animals are removed--I would actually be very interested to see a screen shot of Utopia ten months down the road. Based on their hygiene and candy consumption, I'm thinking there would be one person with teeth instead of one without. Is that cemetery some kind of money-maker project or strictly for Extopians?
But since the pin is already out of the grenade, I propose we all meet back here on April 1st for some closure on what became of these fools. (And also because the posters here are passionate and extremely funny, so let's have a reunion.)
Meanwhile, what do you think their futures hold? Who got another reality show gig and who got jail time? Is Bri the star sugarbaby of SeekingArrangment.com? Did Mike get any closer to the District Attorney's office than an arrest warrant with his name on it? Is Red the medical marijuana Kingpin of Kentucky? Will Josh build Amanda a house in Jersey for her baby?
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Alex and Richard are my favorites. I'm so happy they let Alex mature into a top notch baby doc. Glad Richard didn't marry Catherine and I hope he gets that father-daughter thing going sooner rather than later.
Which will put Mer's nose out of joint because she's supposed to be Richard's ersatz daughter.
And speaking of nose joints, my take is that Mer was out of sorts because Derek made the personal sacrifice she was unwilling to make.
Nice redux glimpse of that terrific Sandra Oh scene-- "He's certainly dreamy, but he's not the sun. . .you are the sun."--except please, no more telling Meredith Grey the whole world revolves around her!
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Yes, thanks for the response, Marco. I hope the lazy one is not planning to collect the big reward?
It makes me feel better to hear that Utopia Netherlands operates at the same level of dysfunction as Utopia US. : )
I think our show will be canceled soon, but I would actually be very interested to see what happened to our people ten months from now. (Don't tell anyone I said that!)
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Does anyone know how Twitter works at all? Can a person delete a tweet sent to them? Kroll has never responded to my tweets, in fact, I don't even see them in his list, OR the others that I know were sent. I have a very bad feeling that this Kroll guy is very much like Bri. He LIKES all the negative publicity and just spins or ignores the comments.
I'm sure I know less about Twitter than you, but I would guess someone can block another person's tweets. Kroll probably has a production assistant block people after they send the first critical tweet. (I was shocked when the Joker feedster reported that Jon Kroll ran out and welcomed the visitors to Utopia. I guess it's the big man himself in the air-conditioned booth hidden in the barn. I hope they're having a fly problem in there.)
The HFA--Humane Farming Association--is a fine organization and a reputable 501©3 charity. (Please consider a gift!) They investigate and battle abusive farm animal practices/situations that are truthfully far more desperate than our Moo-topes, but they do have a FB page and if you figure out how to CC the name in a tweet, it might catch a PA's attention.
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Oh. Much less dramatic or interesting than I thought. That's a stupid reason to have to go home over. Just deny, deny, deny!!
Fairly dramatic, if the Joker feedsters have it right. The explanation there is that Kristen said (lied) to Aaron that she and Josh had hooked up in sequester and therefore her friendship with Aaron has caused Josh to dislike Aaron. (Possibly threw in some untrue racial slurs from Josh as well--not sure.)
So now Josh has heard that Kristen said this untrue thing, confirmed by two sources, and wants to know why. Kristen denies (unsuccessful,) can't remember, "must've been angry," scramble, scramble.
Didn't Zahdii blog, when Kristen first arrived, that one of her stated goals was stirring up trouble? It was such an outrageous assertion, I've been waiting for someone to mention it--maybe I dreamed it.
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Someone at Utopia is confronted by the fact her bad behavior was recorded, fails to lie or twist her way out of it, and is so embarrassed she considers leaving?????????????
My whole day is suddenly brighter!
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After reading the report from the Joker poster guy who visited, I'm seriously alarmed about the fly swarms he observed on the cows. (Also in the kitchen--these people are disgusting.) I know they have fly-off powder--are they saving it? Too lazy to apply it? Too cheap to replenish the supply?
As I posted in the live feed thread, animals overwhelmed with flies are utterly miserable and it's not something that would show up clearly on the feeds. Does anyone know if they've dusted the cows lately?
I'd feel better if Red would come back.
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It's odd that their most polarizing character has just **poof** disappeared and everyone's toeing the somewhat questionable "infected finger" line. Conjugal visit, maybe. (I'm thinking back to Pastor Jon's finger situation, which was thoroughly documented.)
Whack-a-mole, you think better of people than I. Secretly seeding the vegetarian dishes with animal protein sounds exactly like a deliberate Aaron move to me.
About the flies: I've seen neglected farm animals who needed a dusting of fly-off and didn't get it. Horrible. The animals shake themselves and swish their tails until finally they're overwhelmed and they give up. (I won't go into detail about when the flies take over.) Whether these people are too fucking lazy to do it or they're debating the expense, this is right at the top of the animal mistreatment list and it's not something that will show up clearly on the feeds. Unless someone has spotted this situation being corrected, it's time to reload the animal protection cannons.
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I just looked at Joker. Notes from there say that Hex has a swollen foot, Red has an infected finger (right--gone two days?) and there's a bit of discussion about Aaron putting beef bullion cubes in the vegetarian dishes: moron or saboteur?
One of the Joker people visited Utopia and posted a five part report--mostly about how much he liked the people he already liked from watching the feed, so it was semi-interesting, but no expose', except that flies are swarming all over the cows and in the kitchen. He didn't talk to Bri or Aaron, notes that Taylor is "no Ben Stein." Hee.
If the link doesn't work, it's in the Joker site under "In Depth."
http://forums.jokersupdates.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=UtopiaInDepth
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So Hex is there and she's fine? It's unlikely a cow mashed down on her flip-flopped foot a few hours ago. Something else must have happened besides what they posted in their official update.
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Don't know zip about Frozen.
When Elsa walked into the barn talking and the reindeer was snort-talking back at her, I thought the sister's fiance' was the reindeer. ("He even trimmed his beard for the wedding!")
Now that would have been fun.
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Supposedly Huntress Hex was wearing flip-flops when the cow stepped on her foot--which makes her an idiot--but of course the last thing before blackout involved a mad scramble to pull an eagerly nursing calf away from a thousand pound cow, so who the hell knows what really happened?
The 24/7 live feed was the ONLY popular element the show had left, so all this desperate, clumsy censorship will no doubt finally deal the death blow to The Great Experiment.
Gracious, the producers never missed a single opportunity--if there was a poor choice to be made, they jumped on it. I'd love to see a Michael Moore documentary called "$50M: The Making Of Utopia." I'm sure it would be hysterical.
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I'm only a few minutes in and it's all just too frenetic. In an hour, they're going to visit six more cities, hunt some fresh alligator, make a commercial, shill on Duval Street. . .and there's still time to recap the sympathetic family backstories? Too much, Show.
Happy to hear Middle Feast took the win. Catch y'all on the rebound. : )
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S01.E01: Pilot
in Stalker [V]
Me, too. I went into a word spill earlier, but my point was that "stalking" could cover a lot of interesting ground besides the women-in-peril angle.