PJ123

After an awesome episode last week, I should have expected a mediocre one this week. I hate the forced Phil slapstick and Claire cant take criticism again. Yawn. Even Victor Garber and Payton couldn't save it. :-(

Wow Josie Lawrence (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) is the synth marriage counselor. Haven't seen her in years! Nice. Wondered where they were going to go with Season 2. Still not sure yet. Hope it advances everyone's story instead of repeating the same plot as Season 1 but with different settings.

Show is much more tolerable when I skip the downstairs portions. Glad Albert found a notable purpose before the kids came along. Off Topic: Yes Moffatt stayed too long with Doctor Who. Clara should have left during the Christmas special the year before she actually did - perfect ending for her. Total shame Capaldi is leaving at the same time. Would have loved to see a Moffatt-less Who before leaving.

So any thoughts on Tampa? Premiere episode last night. Interesting EMT is with the Fire Dept on this one.

Still using the fast forward for downstairs and it appears from the comments I'm not missing much. I loved Eve Myles in Torchwood so it does pain me to miss her performance but I just cant stand the story lines shoehorned into this series. Oh my Peter Bowles! To The Manor Born is one of my favorite BritComs. PBS seems to make these weird cuts on the British import programs. Call The Midwife is one that comes to mind. Its been mentioned it was for "time" or "content". All I see is that is for PBS to promote its own shows and I think by watching these shows we are more sophisticated to handle any "content". I wish they would stop it.

I am soooooo sad to hear the NO crew is going away. I liked them all. At least they closed with the EMT's off the clock having some fun. Guess we will see what Tampa has to offer. Dont supposed any of them have FB or Twitter accounts? Would like to see what is going on with them from time to time.

Yep..skipping the "downstairs"....zzzzzzzz. Don't care. They bring nothing to this show. Yes that camera angle introducing Albert was not very good. Instead of swooning I laughed. I really want to like this series but I guess at this point its just "meh". :-(

Totally agree. Shades of Mr. Selfridge too - the young dresser and the chef in particular. I'm almost at the point to fast forward through the "staff" parts. This is where The Crown is far superior - it stuck to "upstairs". Victoria ruled a long time - surely there are tons of things that happened to her that could be dramatized? They have fast tracked some of her story already (coronation done a year after she took the throne, Lady Flora died soon after coronation, Lord M resigns 2 years into her reign, etc.).

Guess I am the only one annoyed by the Beau house hunt thing. Rest of the show was great but the whole thing with the realtor/co-sign drama was not amusing.

This is Arkansas so of course they will be granted custody. Sadly Arkansas doesn't have a good track record for placing children in homes. They article says they have signed papers but I would be real curious if they were real legal papers with full custody. I'm sure they would have preferred a girl because they will be down another J-slave soon. The Jinger courtship story is cooling off (well not in Jinger's mind - lol), so they needed something to keep viewers. Now that the timing is perfect for the cameras and a new story line (I see JB pitching to TLC now). I thought with Jessa expecting blessing #2, she would shut up about adopting. But nope. We will have multiple scenes with her blabbing on how she will be doing this too in the future (always her "dream"). Of course the followers and leg humpers will be all about how they "saved a child" and "opened their hearts". How soon will this poor child be shoved in front of the cameras? Of course there will be a party after the judge signs the papers planned by Joy or someone else (not MEshelle because paperwork is hard and she is too tired). Will they change his name? How soon will he be forgotten (again) after the ceremony and attention high wears off? This child has a loss of his parents and he doesn't need to be thrown into an orphanage. Guess they will just pray the hurt away...worked so well in the past...grrrrr.

That's probably the only time that kid has worn that outfit because the cameras were on.

Also agree 100%. And sadly this is an attitude of most in the fundie-community who adopt (or considering it). They think they get points for adopting (i.e. "saved God's gift") and extra points if its of another race. They say things like "God knew we were meant to be" - er, no, a tragic situation happened and the birth family could not take care of said child (or in some cases, coerced/kidnapped). They ignore the child's lifetime loss (no matter how old when adopted) and especially their race and connections (i.e. "whitewashing"). But yet they continue to do so, treating that child like a circus side show. Then when the youthful cuteness wears off as they get older, kids are shunned and ignored. Fundies then have the attitude and shock that how DARE this child not feel more grateful and be submissive and conform. This is usually when abuse (mental and physical) can start to happen. Children grow up confused, resentful, and hurt with race identity issues. Praying it away will not work. I wish there was some way to weed these pathetic excuses of "parents" out from adopting. As an adoptive parent of a child of color, I am so glad I did not see this or I might have thrown something at the TV.

Really? I thought this last season of Endeavor was horrible. It was like a whole new team came in without any knowledge of the characters, timeline or story up to that point. I'll put Grantchester in that category as well. Whats going on with our beloved Mystery shows? :-( IL this season was meh and it was time to hang it up. Strange seeing Foyle's assistant. Sad the actress is going though some personal issues as of late.

Maybe but also Trevor is younger and CC wants to appeal to Millennials and younger demo.

This was one of the most boring specials I have ever seen. Could easily have been a 2 hr special not 4. I fast-forwarded through part 2 because it was so boring and all over the place. That poor guy spent all that money with no results.

Just read the Yahoo! article listed above. Why couldn't this have been the Duggars getting the boot?

Sadly, it wont be that easy. Especially for the show she will be back up in AR talking about wonderful married life and such. Conversely, JB will have to "visit" with whatever children are available (thats at least 2-4 eps right there). Lets not the forget the immediate pregnancy to boast about soon after the wedding. So much for a photography career. I would hope that she would be allowed to venture up to San Antonio and experience some sort of "city" (about 2.5 hr drive away from Laredo). There are a lot of Catholics to convert! Oh maybe she can go further up to Austin. Nah, she wont leave the house unless its for the "ministry". I'm more disappointed to hear this show is going to continue. I was hoping the silence of TLC not showing repeats was their way of quietly bowing out. But I guess they are still somehow making money. And so it goes....

Excellent episode. Funny with the TV executives discussing the preemption of soaps. One can say this was the beginning of the end of soaps on TV.

Ugh. So it is true. I would so fire the lighting person. Everyone looks washed out even with those "thank goodness we still do not have to work a real job" smiles. I wont believe this is a different show until the girls wear pants and go by themselves to wherever they feel like going. Now there is a plot! Otherwise it will be more trips to Starbucks then claim they have no funds and have to shop at another thrift store until the next baby arrives (I have little to no hope for any courtship/marriage). I guess Jill and Dullard will have to make a visit.."tonight on a very special episode, please give us money for our very important mission as Spanish lessons are like expensive" crap. How can they stretch this out for a season? They barely had any material for the specials. I really do think JimBoob has something on TLC management to keep this going. Speaking of the makeovers...if the girls cannot go out why bother with the whole makeup thing anyway? Some of them will be mandatory spinsters (sadly) to take care of all the baby siblings, nieces, nephews, etc. so what is the point? Also, why is there not more media on the whole growing lawsuit against their supreme leader Gothard? Sorry for the ramble...just really disappointed this is happening.

Oh boy - that whole claw machine could have been a good lesson about sometimes we do not always get what we want right this minute, but nope. I seriously suspect the show producers staged it so that Will got something. Story time was my favorite. I do wonder if Bill really has these "guy nights" or if it was "hey Bill needs something to do outside of the kids" staged bit. Still love the show but seriously this needs to be 30 minutes not an hour.

Enjoying the fact that they split Bill with Zoey and Jen with Will at the children's museum. Zoey was just like my kid all scared on the slide at first then afterwards you could not get her off the thing. I like the fact that that they remind the audience how far they have come. Dog show? Meh. But I guess they needed filler and to show Bill "working".

Adoptive mom here. Please remember these kids have experienced trauma, abandonment, malnutrition, etc. It doesn't just magically go away when they have a birthday. Kids that live in orphanages have their emotional/mental/physical growth stunted. It takes them much longer (in some cases if ever) to be age-appropriate in language, emotional maturity, etc. So yes Zoey is 4 and Will is almost 6, but they are much younger in many aspects. I saw Zoey's behavior very normal - typical for a toddler. This too will pass. As with all these toddler birthday parties, its more for the parents than the kid(s). The whole tea party theme was definitely Jen's idea. I dont believe that Zoey is much into it, but I think its more of Jen trying to relive a part of her childhood who may or may not have that experience herself. Now about the show...it really needs to be 30 mins vs hour. Like last year simple events are artificially drawn out to where it becomes a bit boring. However, I will take the "boring" over shows like The Duggars any day.

Ugh...children are not things you pick up at the store as an impulse buy you idiots. They are human beings with their own thoughts, feelings and such. That poor child, she will always be referred to as the "different" one and how she should be soooooo thankful that these white knights rescued her. Look how wonderful we are! Its all about them and not ever the child. Disgusting. TLC is so doing a disservice to are adopted or even trying to adopt with this flippant display putting more children in jeopardy, IMO. As far as funds the other "trendy" thing is to ask fellow church members for money or use a GoFundMe or similar account. This I would not put past the Duggars. The fundraising all but worked for the missionary trip. Its very easy to guilt/sucker people into giving money "for the children" with some Bible quote attached.

Bingo. Adoptive mom here. After this "story line" gets milked for all it can it will just be ignored or a simple "it was not right at this time" and never brought up again. Guatemala has not signed Hague and international adoptions from there came to a screeching halt, so Jill and Derrick are out of luck there. There were too many cases of children being kidnapped to feed the adoption game. International adoptive parents have to adhere to regulations the country they are adopting from, US Government and any local state laws. Also some have multiple visits to that country of a few weeks each. Too much work for them - filling out paperwork, writing letters, doctor's clearances, etc. Along with the age requirement (for China the minimum age is 30 - no exceptions), the vast majority of kids that need homes are older, special needs - Downs, Heart disease, missing limbs, deaf, blind, etc. Those will require constant medical intrusion and that takes too much time away from whatever they do. The only way any of these pathetic people will be able to adopt is privately. Although I'm sure JB will nickel and dime so he has to pay very little if anything. I'll say it again there is a big push from the ultra religious right to adopt so that they can get brownie points with their deity and church community and ignore the child's needs (RAD, malnutrition, etc.) - just pray it away...worked for Josh, right? Quantity over quality of life as someone mentioned earlier in the thread. Because of this selfishness some kids get re-homed (esp after they have grown out of the cute stage), some endure abuse and some even die.

Didnt watch it but thanks to those taking one for the team. What I want to know how many and how long were the commercials? Guessing lots of TLC promoting their own shows. Did someone generate a list of who did advertise so we can hit them up before the next "special"?