candall
-
Posts
7.1k -
Joined
Content Type
Blogs
Gallery
Downloads
Discussion
Posts posted by candall
-
-
I just saw Nancy Grace fuming with righteous indignation (for a change.) She said:
"Dr. Phil, this crime LITERALLY makes my blood boil!"
I waited, but the top of her head did not blow off
.
-
1
-
9
-
-
Agreed with the folks that think the show should be more Max. I'd like to see a show that was entirely from his pov with the others revolving around him. It would feature his voiceover comments. So in the first episode, he'd be working at the froyo counter.
VO: And there's Carter. She's a great girl, really easygoing and friends with everyone. That's her mom with her. She likes us to call her Lori. They're more like buddies than mother and daughter, don't you think? Sometimes, though, i think Lori is trying a bit too hard, like she's trying to forget something that's worrying her.
Then the amusement park. VO: Yeah, we're just a bunch of bored kids doing dumb things for fun. But we never let it get out of hand. Oops-- looks like this night is over!
Then the police station. Max: Hey Carter, do you know when your mom is coming? Carter: They won't tell me. They say i've got to talk to some people about something. The cops hustle her off.
Next day. Max and his family see Carter's story on the news.
Then the next few episodes could be about Max helping out other friends of his, or just lending a sympathetic ear. This would be punctuated with a scene of him getting a call from Carter, who would talk about her new experiences, school, family, new job at a yogurt joint. VO: In spite of herself, i think Carter is starting to fit in over there.
Episode 4 will have a news story about Lori coming to Carter's workplace and almost getting caught.
Episode 6 will have Lori approach Max and beg him to see Carter on her behalf. So he gets a temporary transfer to the other town's yogurt place. He talks to Carter about Lori's somewhat fuzzy plan for getting them both away. But he also meets the other5 half of the cast. He starts to get a connection with Taylor, helps the brother out with some adolescent crisis, consoles Bird on her issues, and deduces that the father is up to something.
Then he goes back home. Etc, etc.
You're not a Pepper, you're a Pepsi Max!
-
1
-
-
Yeah, it's just a little MTV summer thing that attracted a lot of attention because the original premise was novel and interesting.
I, too, would have preferred it if they'd spent more time on the problems of reintegrating a lost member into an established family structure.
But I wanted Revolution to be about daily life in a world without power. And Under The Dome to be about the crisis of suddenly limited resources. Someone in The Walking Dead should have died of an abscessed tooth by now. Always with the damn zombies.
(Why don't they ask me this stuff? I'm not that hard to find.)
However, in this forum, each episode has a couple of pages of comments, with one or two thousand views, so the show seems to generate a decent amount of discussion just the way it is.
It's not setting my world on fire, but I like it well enough to be curious about what happens next.
-
3
-
-
Am I the only one who, every time they mention the town of Zenith, thinks it must be an asteroid near Venus or something?
I'm so disappointed! I had a huge guffaw because I thought they went to Drownsie's house in Zenith and so Zenith was ALSO under the Dome. Perhaps a small cluster of buildings down a dirt road off Route 14. Out past the pig farms. Same zip code as Mare Winningham's place.
Yes, I know this would mean it's crazy no one ever bumped into fake dead Mrs. Big Jim and "Mysterious Stranger" Barbie would have had a place to sleep that first night besides his car. Obviously I've been successfully conditioned to accept ANY level of nonsense this show hands me and I'll just laugh and say, "Oh, it's The Dome!"
-
I didn't hate the scene where Carter asks, "Lori?" She and Max were talking about various friends and he chose that moment to slip in the "Lori" topic. Not a totally ridiculous stretch that Carter would automatically start flipping through her two sets of classmates before her mind jumped to the woman she refers to as "Mom" and not "Lori.". It was a bit hamhanded, but I think it was just meant to show Carter loosening her deathgrip on the past as she starts to relax in the present. I'm not marching the writers up to the wall at the firing range because of it.
For me, the blindfolds and cigarettes come out when two troublemaker teenage girls turn down an empty apartment stocked with vodka in favor of hustling on back to the crib for some family-style mac 'n cheese.
Which reminds me: Has the phrase "Not on a schoolnight" gone the way of "The car ate my tape" and "Fetch me the butterchurn"?
-
4
-
-
Still loving it. This is the only summer show that makes me close down the Solitaire and turn on the CC.
Sheik Rashid is a convincingly charismatic old lion in winter, isn't he? When the crowd fell still and parted, I totally bought it. Looking forward to more of him.
And to more of poor Nusrat--I have some hopes for her as an insider informant with a bent for revenge. But probably not, because I'm batting zero on Nusrat predictions. So far I've been surprised a)Ahmed hasn't forced himself on her, b)her father supported her instead of pushing her head under in the swimming pool and c)Leila didn't narrow her eyes and give Nusrat the "wifely duty" speech. It's almost shocking that no one's rebuked her for what Jamal did to her.
-
Annabelle probably wouldn't be in a second season. The only two storylines centered around her were the public fashion show and the public race. If she hadn't gone flying off that horse, the glimpses into A's private life would have been zero.
I worried a little bit that a lovely young woman with a privileged background really had NOTHING to offer other than her affiliation with a dead designer. But more likely she found the whole experience gauche and chose to keep her personal life private. She may have had second thoughts or she MAY have only signed up to get some coverage for the designer she was mentoring.
-
Imagine your own mother's alive, but you can't reach her for some reason. (She lost her cell phone again.)
A stranger shows up at your door and starts telling you your mother has a double identity and she's been engaged in criminal activity for decades. He has proof!
At what point do you say:
"Okay, I believe you and I don't feel the need to double check that information with her in person. She's lost her cell phone but here's her address for the arrest warrant."Answer: you would never say that.
.
-
2
-
-
Well, that was pretty interesting, enhanced by the comments above.
--If patron loyalty makes it impossible to siphon any clientele from the established places with local cuisine, Tuscan's not a bad alternative. A simple bistro menu would probably be sufficient for a small boutique hotel; guests can venture out for fine dining.
--That pool's the moneymaker. Nice pool + bar = $$$. Sell local pool memberships and give members a hotel discount. (Encourages them to drink.)
--The vinyl tablecloths were DISGUSTING. I don't even like to touch those things in the greasiest of greasy spoons--they feel slippery with other peoples' leftover goo.
--Always nice to see a treacherous employee and his bitchy wife get the boot.
But the main thing seems to be that Cali didn't really have an interest in being a hotelier or a restauranteur--she just wanted to be a performer. Is there not some way $3M can make that happen? What's the name of Countess LuAnn's music producer?
.P.S. Speedo Ramsey holding in his tummy made me snicker.
.
-
1
-
-
I didn't realize this was the last episode, let alone the series finale.
That's disappointing. I enjoyed the manor houses and polo matches. You can't tell me people would rather get a peek at Vicki Gunvalson's time share in Cabo?
We haven't even seen Juliet spit out a petit four during afternoon tea at The Dorchester!
I appreciated Noelle for saying "OMG, what have I started?" in her talking head segment. That's an admission I've never heard expressed in a reality show. Ditto Capper's husband's (?) observation--something like, "Well that was a lot of drama you created over nothing." Ha!Caroline, you're welcome on my tv anytime. PM me.
Fun while it lasted. Cheerio, all..
-
If I moved to another country, and I became friends with a particular group of people in that country, I would be SOOO appreciative that one of them cared enough to give me an "etiquette lesson." If I'm being rude by pointing at something or insulting my host by showing him the soles of my shoes when I sit down, somebody please tell me!
I suppose the producers set it all up, but on the face of it, Caroline was being an excellent friend to those two. She didn't sit around with the other "Ladies" and make snide remarks about how Juliet and Noelle conducted themselves like barnyard animals at the Manor of Sandwich. She arranged for a third party private tutor who gave them some pointers that would help them be accepted into this culture that's somewhat different from their own.
The online Oxford Dictionary defines "good manners" as "Polite or well-bred social behavior." Seems rawther important for anyone with the goals that Juliet and Noelle have in mind.
I understand feeling defensive about being criticized for one's table manners, but do they not grok that something like walking in and bellying up to the table before they're invited may seem insignificant to them but not to the hostess who invited them? The debate about whether these social rules should matter is irrelevant because I've never heard any of these women say, "I'm just me and I don't care whether the society nobs like me or want me around." They do care.
-
1
-
-
I think a lot of people would have forgotten, especially someone Samira's age.
Look at the way the anniversary of the Tiennamen Square massacre went unnoticed by most Chinese.
I don't think the gas attack has been forgotten by the populace. The man set himself on fire to mark the anniversary of that event and the visitors to his house called him heroic and seemed to suggest his death was some sort of catalyst for change. (I was waiting to see the cheese and fruit turn up for the kids, but no.)
But I don't know--I'm totally confused about Abbudin. In the first episodes, I was thinking "western-friendly, oil, global gateway, Queen Noor figure, independent anti-government media bloggers suppressed but not arrested." Then in this episode, the maid freaks out that someone caught her watching the news. And suddenly there's self-immolation and war crimes.
I feels stupid. I might need this place explained to me in simple terms of scales from 1 to 10.
-
I see this much differently. Drawing this out is what makes the show interesting. Can the way Westerners view social mores and rights work in a country and region like this? Can anything work when the people have been broken for decades? This is Russia after glasnost, and the Middle East pretty much all the time. What effect can Barry have? What can Jamal actually achieve? Does a Quadafi end have to be inevitable? What can Barry and family learn from the ME perspective? Is there a middle cultural ground? Layer on top of all of that the individual stories ... Barry and his past, Sammy and being gay, the rebels and what they want (is it just power, or actual justice?), the reporter and whether he can still make a difference with his reporting, Tariq and whether his way has been passed by in modern society, and on and on.
IMO, once Barry becomes the tyrant, this show ceases to be interesting. At that point, it is a soap opera about a royal family.
Those are exactly the issues I wanted to watch unfold, too. Unfortunately, I think the gas attack backstory was too huge and effectively puts the kibosh on most of the "compromise" plotlines.
So the people have been forced, for years, to hide their bitterness and resentment over an atrocity of that magnitude, perpetrated by THIS family? There's little chance anything short of a complete overthrow would salve that kind of festering wound. Jamal could make a hundred public appearances trying to explain how he's different from his father and no one's going to say, "Well, he seems like a decent enough chap; let's give him the benefit of the doubt."
I have to agree with General Tariq--the only way the Alfayeeds can hope to continue in power is by keeping that foot firmly planted on the peoples' throat. Tyranny, indeed.
P.S. I hope the title refers to the concept more than to Bassam himself. Genocide father compared to Jamal (vicious rapist; open to sensible advice!) compared to White Knight/Inner Demons Barry/Bassam.
-
I hated everything about Teddy. Her back story in Iraq with Hunt, the way she treated Cristina, her (well known) insurance fraud with Henry, and her overall meanness when she felt slighted by anyone. To top that off, I couldn't stand to watch Kim Raver's mouth. Her bottom teeth never showed, her upper teeth were at a weird angle, and she moved her mouth like she was chewing. She wasn't so much a badass as she was an ass.
But she has those huge doe eyes--she's always the prettiest one in the O.R. when they're all wearing masks. (After Addison left.)
And that long graceful neck! I'm pretty sure she got an extra inch and a half of neck that was supposed to be mine.
I agree with you that she isn't the most endearing character. : )
Edited to add: Binge-watching this show from the beginning for the first time, I'm struck by the level of disregard and downright betrayal among these friends/lovers/colleagues. In tv world, they take it all with a grain of salt and move on, except Teddy--she's a grudgeholder. (Also Derek.) It's kind of a realistic character flaw.
-
1
-
-
This is the kind of show where the emphasis will be on the thrilling action but it would be more interesting to me if they explored the world without children, and if the mystery was how this infertility came about. Kind of the way that the more interesting thing to me about Revolution was, what did people come up with to cope - not, how did the band of electricity-seekers get the power turned on again.
Exactly! Revolution had a fascinating concept, largely wasted. (We're walking. And walking.) I wouldn't mind if The Walking Dead spent a moment or two on apocalyptic basics, either. After they stumbled across the country club pro shop, you'd think everyone would be wearing fresh Izod polos and madras slacks. No one has been killed for his family-size tube of Crest.
Surely there's some meat on the bone in a reverse Logan's Run scenario, besides the high-tech angle.
-
I'm calling shenanigans on Lenny and those sea urchins.
If he'd had any experience with uni in the past, I don't think he would have been glomming up the plate with "cauliflower two ways and [shudder] truffle oil."
But then how was it he prepped like a pro? Sea urchin is not exactly intuitive. (It's one of those unfortunate creatures that's alive when it arrives in the kitchen.) You have to break through all the softer toothy bits at the bottom and try to extract the two uni globes without breaking them up. Lenny had his ice water bath all set up and everything.
*****************
The inequitable distribution of proteins was outrageous. "We're giving this team steak, duck and frog legs. We're giving the other team sea urchins, a huge pile of crustaceans and a kind of pork that's different from any pork you ever heard of."
-
4
-
-
But, but, but. . .it's MTV!
The channel which has spent 22 years progressing from "let's put ten kids in a house with one hot tub and a hundred cameras and see what they do" all the way to "Sixteen And Pregnant."
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here (seeking thoughtful exposition.)
-
1
-
-
This is how I'd address the (to me) ultimate actor of this type, John Wayne. No matter the character or genre, it was always JOHN WAYNE you saw on the screen. I also thought he was a better actor than many gave him credit for.
This made me wonder whether John Wayne might have wanted to stretch his acting chops and was prevented by the studios. "People pay money to see THE DUKE, damn it!"
There was a point when Elvis Presley wanted to be a serious actor and I've read--based on Flaming Star, Wild in the Country, Kid Creole--various critics maintain he had the potential for greatness.
But his one-dimensional troubadour character made tons of money and apparently Elvis was incapable of fighting off Colonel Parker's control. Makes me kind of sad for the lad.
I meandered off-topic. "Unpopular Opinions," page 10!
-
Of course kidnapper mom is going to have a backstory twist! Why waste a tasty morsel like that?
After reading Karen3c, above, I could get on board with bad dad impregnating both women and Lori subsequently changing her mind about letting Elizabeth raise the babies as twins.
My own spec is that Elizabeth knows more about the kidnapping than she admits.
When multiple characters, including Carter herself, tell Elizabeth that her singleminded pursuit of Lori is killing any chance of forming a bond with the long lost daughter she claims to care about, there needs to be a reason she doesn't dial it back.
Unless they're all under a dome.
-
3
-
-
I did wonder if that was a real thing, because it seems pretty inefficient. Who's hauling the sick and elderly up the trees? Why don't the sick and elderly fight back? And if they're too old and sick to fight back, why bother putting them up a tree - isn't that pretty redundant? Damn, I'm more fascinated by this than anything going on in the Dome, not that this will stop me from watching this stupid show apparently.
HAHAHA! Me, too. I think I'm ALREADY too "old & infirm" to shinny up a tree--What if my life depended on it? Can I pick a magnolia?--but if someone boosted me up there, I could hang on like a mo-fo.
And yes, that accounts for 100% of the time I've spent pondering anything "Dome."
-
2
-
-
EVERY teen girl is a horror around age 14-16 (and they should all be cryogenically frozen until the crazy phase passes.) Ha, but there's actually a psychological basis for this, having to do with the need to establish an identity separate and independent from their mothers'.
This Carter girl is shown to have been raised as an indulged only child by a "best buddy" type of single mom with nary a disciplinarian in sight. When she wound up overnight in that massively dysfunctional version of the Cleaver household, I'm surprised she didn't BURN DOWN THE FREAKIN' HOUSE.
I disagree with all the posters above who found Elizabeth's food court experience beyond the pale. Every pineknot in the world can see that she needs to disassociate from the manhunt for kidnapper mom. She could have spared herself by 1. obeying orders from her boss, 2. pausing for two seconds as she rampaged through the house to let husband know why she was so frantic or 3. putting her daughter's needs over her own agenda.
She's obviously a graduate of the Olivia Benson School For Detectives. "Determine your goal. Proceed like a heat-seeking missile. Disregard anyone in your path."
-
2
-
-
Is it too much to hope that The Devil could become a recurring character?
Good call!
He's Declan Gage more than Mr. Luthor to me, but I've loved him since Love! Valor! Compassion! The man only gets finer with age; I don't know why he's not a top-tier name.
-
Am I really the only one that was thinking/hoping that when the locker door was opened there would be a whole community of tiny aliens living in there all Men In Black style?
I forgot about that! That's hysterical!
-
1
-
-
I'm obsessed with any small flashes of cultural insight I can glean from House Hunters International, so this show suits me fine. Just seeing their summer place, with "the small building for smoking fish" over here and the toilet building over there, are enough to keep me coming back.
I hope they can find enough humorous points of cultural diversity so they won't need to rely on "your parents caught us having sex." It would be sort of refreshing for a comedy to be a "smiler" instead of a "rib-splitter."
(Case in point: as I'm writing this, poor Andrea Martin is popping up out of her own coffin on The Engels. Yikes.)
-
1
-
Why Grammar Matters: A Place To Discuss Matters Of Grammar
in Everything Else
Dear Countess LuAnn,
Please refrain from using the following sentence structure:
"He opened the champagne for Ramona and I."
You're royalty; set some standards.
.