Florinaldo

Tom's first reaction when waking up hurt in a hospital is to hurl collective and individual insults at the people treating him. And he thinks so highly of himself that he believes the girl guiding him to safety is hankering for a roll in the hay with him. He is as annoying as his blubbering father ("My boy is missing! My boy is missing!!") Webster and his aunt are probably written as blinded by a false sense of security that their nationality will protect them and those close to them. Events are starting to disillusion them fast. Let us hope it is not too late for Albert and also that Webster does not do the "noble" thing by marrying the nurse to save her. Was it explained how Webster's brother is Canadian? I know that some US men went up to Canada to enroll under a flag of convenience before their country officially entered the war, so that may be the case with him. I had a rewatch during the afternoon rebroadcast and I can confirm the error in the major's French dialogue at the urinal which I reported upthread. What I did not catch the first time is that Harry's reply in French was gibberish. Another failure by the dialogue supervisor. Which is strange because the French in the scene at the manor with the Senegalese soldier was very good. I suppose having a guest actor who really knows French helped and the actress also seemed more at ease with the language than the one playing her son.

She was completely in over her head and could not figure out how to extricate from the situation. On the other hand the plaintiff had a part in creating that situation. Instead of being wary when being quoted an amount below what other businesses usually charge him, his only reaction was probably "kaching!" Whenever a supplier quotes a price that is below the norm or average in our city for some product or job, it usually raises red flags for me and I double check. Also since it was established that they did part of the work (gathering a good chunk of leaves), I could not understand the full refund. In the motor sale, the plaintiff is one of those people who thinks that by talking loudly and roughly he can get others to ignore the facts and agree with his theories and opinions. It may work for him in his daily life, but thankfull not in TPC. Which is one sign that there is a chance he is indeed working on his problems and is staying away from kiddie porn (he did not mention child molestation); aren't there drugs and treatment that can help with that? The unhealthy interests may still be present, but can't they can be controlled?

I think the mother's behaviour explains it all. I am certain that she acts the same way in all situations, and not only when she is "nervous" as she said. Her daughter probably interprets her little giggles as sign of approval and forgiveness. At least we know where the plaintiff got her airhead ditziness from. Too bad there is no law against stupidity; JM could have thrown the book at her. But she probably would have brushed it off with a toss of her so-sophisticated hairdo. And then to further extend a rather thin gruel of cases, we get an overlong "as-is" car sale, with a plaintiff making the same mistakes all others have made before her. How can poeple be in such a hurry to buy a car that they do not take the most basic precautions before shelling out the cash? Any subsequent offence of that nature should warrant him the harshest punishment possible. He may not have had sexual contact with children, but his distribution of such material aided and abetted the people who produce it and encourage them to keep making more. But as long as he has done his time according to the rules in place, he now has his chance to reinsert himself into society as a regular citizen. If those statutes and the sentencing standards are too lenient, it should be taken up with the relevant legislatures or governing bodies.

Not to mention that in the process of making the final edit and producing copies for projection, there were other steps like an interpositive, an internegative or answer prints. They would have to destroy all of those to make the movie truly disappear. But of course that would be too much detail to use in a TV script. Modern-day restorations of damaged or once-lost films are often made from such surviving intermediary elements when the original negative of a movie is long gone.

I rally despised the plaintiffs, for some reason. I think they probably were premature in getting the car back because such treatments, involving various chemicals and steps, do take time to set. I disliked that JM did not intervene to ask hatchet-faced mom to stop staring down the defendant and to quit interjecting directly to him. Doughboy son was entirely forgettable. But the defendant had no records or proof, so he was his own worst witness. She seemed to think that just because she needs a washer-dryer, someone else had to pay for it, and why not daddy. As JM pointed out, everyone needs such appliances. But we pay for them ourselves. He paid his debt to society, he did his time and he is owning up to this past actions, contrary to so many litigants on these court shows who try to find all sorts of excuses to weasel out of personal responsibility. So I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is reformed. He also did not mention having sex with chidlren, but distribution of kiddy porn, also an awful thing as he said. From his appearance and the length of his incarceration, I think he must have been rather young when he committed the offences in questions. So many young people do not grasp the severity of some of their actions on the Web.

TMITHC is certainly a classic alternative history; I did not mention it because my list of examples was already long. The point of divergence in the Philip K. Dick’s novel is rather brutal: the assassination attempt on FDR which failed in our reality, succeeds in that world, which means he does not even get to be inaugurated. I am certain that many US readers (and viewers) would be offended by a premise based on a long-serving President being killed before he can accomplish anything. It's certainly much more radical than anything that was done with the real-life Hollywood characters in this series. Although in neither case do I do not find that way the real-life characters, FDR or the actors and others from Hollywod, were used in this series disrespected their real history. DC's character is not very spectacular in this series. The truly dramatic sub-plots mainly involve other characters (professional rivalry, infidelity, crushing business opposition, etc.). He does not get to do much drama or angst. As a matter of fact his role exists more to establish conditions that will propel the active plots involving other characters and then give them a few pushes along the way to help move them along. That is essentially what his movie directing assignment turns out to be: a catalyst or pretext for other characters to play out their story. The kind of character for which one author coined the expression "fifth business", to convey that they are far from being a central protagonist. He did a good job with it, for instance Raymond's devotion to his girlfriend and his loyalty to his friends, but it was not a meaty part beyond that. By contrast, other roles are more showy and generate more buzz. Willson for example is given an abundance of one-liners, but not much else; watching Parsons do them reminded me of Sheldon Cooper delivering his zingers, only in this case with bitchiness and vulgarity. I was half-expecting Willson to add "Bazinga!" after each putdown. The rest of the cast was variable. Some old-timers had better material and did an excellent job, like Taylor and Reiner, but Lupone was very good in one scene and then overplaying for the rafters in the next one. Amongst the younger cast, I found the actress playing Camille rather forgettable; both her performance and her character paled besides her rival Claire.

Even if we were to accept this premise regarding RM's intentions, he failed in this particular instance to satisfy the supposed fantasies that allegedly induce drooling in the presumed target audience. I think the only truly naked males were seen during the pool party; it is well known that Cukor’s pool parties had a reputation for being pretty raunchy, as did those Hudson hosted some years later. Overall, the series showed ar least as many female boobs as male nudity as I recall. Actually, the guy this is based on (named Scotty Bowers) did run his gigolo service from his garage in L.A. at the time; on-line reference sources even usefully provide the address it was at, 5777 Hollywood Boulevard, at the corner of Van Ness Avenue, just a few blocks from the Pantages Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This was an alternative history, something science-fiction readers are rather familiar with since it is a frequent literary device in the genre (it is also called "uchronia"); some authors have even made a career of writing practically only that. The points of divergence can be rather minor, as was the case in this TV series, where the premise is that a few people were ready much earlier than in our reality to stand up for diversity, with a certain success. In SF the differences are often much more radical, like the numerous fictions having to do with Hitler dying young or emigrating to the US right after WW I, Louis XVI correcting his foolish blindspots and preventing the Revolution, or Lincoln not being assassinated; I also remember one dealing with Ancien Greece winning over the world and the Roman Empire never emerging, as well a one where Muhammad becomes a Christian saint instead of founding a new religion. And as another poster mentioned, there are examples of the colour divide being obliterated or even reversed in the history of slavery. The use of real life characters is useful and probably often necessary to anchor the story with familiar points of reference, which help the reader or viewer understand where precisely things are different in this other reality for characters that are already known to them. One prominent current example is the TV adaptation of Roth's The Plot Against America, with Lindbergh and other contemporaries being central to the modified history of US politics during WW II. It’s most often an intellectual game of speculation, an exercise in "what-if". It can be simply an amusing diversion or carry more serious implications and messages (which RM and his team probably aspired to, but did not quite achieve). The portrayal of real-life people in uchronias can be open to criticism. In this present case, from what I remember reading Rock Hudson was indeed reportedly a bit naive when he came to Hollywood, but perhaps not as much of a hick as in this series. I do not think real-life characters were used to deny the harm that was done to Wong or McDaniel for example; these facts are fully acknowledged. It does not change their past history nor does it cheapen their negative experience to speculate for a few minutes how things might have turned out later in life if things had been just a little different. Anything that causes SL to tie his panties up in a knot is doing a worthy civic duty in my view. I think a good argument can be made that the happy conclusion came about through a coalition which cut across lines of gender, colour and sexual orientation working to bring about the happy conclusion. Fiction’s function can be to challenge and even shock. Although I know that today it is fashionable to avoid anything that might offend anyone; knowing full well that someone, somewhere, will unavoidably be offended, since people have such thin skins today, especially the numerous habitual pearl clutchers. I see a lot of that in the LGBT community for example and it exists elsewhere. The plot was perhaps a little simplistic and overly optimistic, although they were realistic enough to show that even Meg’s success did not miraculously eradicate all prejudice. Which might be explored in a second season, although they would have to dig deeper into darker material.

During the urinal job interview, the recruiter called himself a "general" when speaking French (unless I misheard) but a "major" otherwise. It's obvious that some of the actors had to learn their lines phonetically when speaking another language than their own, but you would think someone in cast or crew would know enough French to have caught that mistake. Or perhaps they did and thought it was not worth reshooting or looping the scene. At first I thought it was a deliberate mistake to test Harry's language skills, but neither character picked up on it afterwards.

Yes, it would be difficult to get a patent for what I described earlier as "stretchy kid-size long johns". So no real legal protection as long as the copycats make a few cosmetic changes; and they may not even need to do so because any lawsuit against them would not be worth the cost or trouble. But she obviously thinks she will be moving to Millionaire Boulevard thanks to this thing.

Cute anecdote (although JJ would probably screech "that's hearsay!"). So the main thing we can take from it is that a gay man likes to stand in front of a group of handsome guys. Quelle surprise... But he got what he wanted, even though he lost the case: he displayed his naked chest and ugly tattoos on national TV, although only on photographs. I agree that his "I need my chain to feel a complete man", with a comparison to Samson and his mane, was embarrassingly silly. I understand he needs every prop he can use to appear moderately attractive, but there are limits. It just goes to prove that some men can be as self-centered and over-invested in their appearance as some women. Which brings us to the other case: JM called the plaintiff a "genius" for her invention. Her standards for that designation are disturbingly low. Unless she meant "ingenious" and got confused by the near homonymy. Those things looked like stretchy kid-size long johns. The case just proves that in a project like that you need a clear sign-off at every stage; do it electronically if you must, but a physical signature is mandatory for the most crucial phases. Each party was partly responsible for the miscommunication, although I got the impression that it was more the plaintiff's fault because her instructions were at best unclear. Not in our viewing area; we got the "no-drool" version. The TPC editing staff is certainly being kept busy with those variant edits for different markets.

I think HL is equally likely to call on the ditzy young women in the peanut gallery, perhaps even more so. He also often asks the more mature people. If there was such a regular cornucopia of young males in tight shirts in the background, I certainly would have noticed it. Or perhaps we get the "no-cute-boys" edit in my viewing area. Plaintiff is so hampered by his missing or injured eye, he had to bring the bills up to his nose in order to being able to identify them correctly. And yet he has a car. Would he be legally allowed to drive it, on the open road where there are other vehicles around, with such poor vision?

You are misjudging her. You see, she analyses our world in non-Euclidian terms, far above the geometric abilities of us mere mortals.

I could not buy the cockamamie little scheme concocted by Jack to recruit Archie. First of all, wouldn't Ernie already have guys on staff who would have no reluctance to service men? Also, would he not handle the recruitment himself, if only to avoid the bother of having to fire an unsatisfactory find who does not meet his standards? Also, no way the film joint would have let in an officer in full uniform without warning the patrons. I believe the usual method was by turning on all the lights in the screening room, letting customers know they must rearrange themselves to look more proper. Much like during the Prohibition speakeasies used to have ways to warn the people inside when the cops turned up unexpectedly. I also doubt that the meek little cashier would have been the only person on staff in an establishment prone to incidents of various sorts. I suppose it was just a expedient plot point for Jack and Archie to meet cute, as friends, and for the former to show he can act. I agree that McDermott is great to watch in his role. He obviously relishes the meaty material he is given and works hard to make the most of it.

This episode continuss to present a rather jaundiced (and probably rather realistic) view of how business was conducted in old Hollywood. Sex is just a commodity, used to sell scripts, recruit actors or keep important people satisfied. All very mechanical. Even the most "regular" committed couple in the bunch does it, with Camille seizing the opportunity of an intense coitus session with boyfriend Raymond to convince him that she should get the lead role and to pitch a rewrite of the script. Talk about hard negotiations! Were the actresses playing Tallulah Bankead and Vivien Leigh the best they could get for that job in all of SAG's rolls? The former made not attempt to replicate the raspy 12-pack-a-day voice that TB displayed for most of her career; listen to her in Hitchcock's Lifeboat, already shot when the dinner party takes place according to the dialogue, to get an idea of how she really sounded. I have heard much better impersonations of TB in drag shows, where she has has been a staple for years; perhaps they could have hired a drag queen to dub the dialogue. As for VL, she did not talk or look that way. The Cukor actor looked more like the original, even though he had no significant lines. His pool parties were indeed notorious for their raunchiness.

Old biddy defendant was the saner of the two. She should be happy not to have to deal anymore with that emotionally hyper-needy plaintiff; others will now have to bear that gleeful burden.

His high claim may have been, in part, retaliatory due to exasperation at the defendants' inaction and their refusing the certified letter he sent. I can't say that I blame him: the mother seems to be an habitual liar who thinks that shirking one's responsibilites is a normal way of life, a lesson her no-good daughter has apparently well learned. The latter did not talk much, probably because she was still under the shock of having stuck her fingers in an electrical outlet just before the hearing, judging from her hair. Daughter's behaviour is so consistent with mother's world view that in the hallterview, mommy found no reason to be mad at her darling offspring and was very approving of her actions Plaintiff was lucky that the cleaner's testimony and evidence cooked her goose; she was rather lackadaisical in her procedures for handling lost and found in her store. JM was much too generous in her award though, trusting the careless guy with no real proof as to the value of the items. The usual greedy homeowner who wants an exorbitant amount of compensation well beyond the cost of the limited damage inflicted and even of the fence as a whole. I would have let the 100 $ stand, to teach her a lesson for being so rapacious.

The young actors were part of the series of daily cast interviews on Stars in the House, benefiting The Actor's Fund charity. You can view it here on the site, or on Youtube. I have just sampled bits of it, so I do not know if there are any revelations or if they say anything about a Season 2. It's about an hour and a quarter long. If you explore the archive of interviews, you will find many other interesting groups from musicals and TV shows. It's usually a mix of anecdotes and fond teasing.

It looked as if he hacked his toupée off that most rare and elusive species, the rarely seen bushy-tailed beaver. A truly odious depradation inflicted on such elegant animals. 😉 And a slight correction: he is a "child-baby". Nothing mature about him. In the alleged theft at work case, it was clear from the start that she was suing the wrong party, since the action of docking her pay is the employer's responsibility; if it stems from an abuse of power or a mistake by the frontline manager, it's the employer who can take action against him or discipline him. But I understand why she went on the show and was so happy even though she lost: she gets half of the award kitty, i.e. 5 times the lost pay. As a bonus, she got to display her big-ass fugly earrings she must be soooo proud of. Another instance of watering down a case by extending it well beyond the limit of human ability to maintain interest.

There was already plenty of conflict and unrest in France before the war and the invasion. The far right (like L'Action Française and other groups) was very active and even got some candidates elected to the French Parlement; they were openly sympathetic to Hitler and supported the puppet government of Vichy under the Occupation. In this series, their only involvement was to beat up the musician, a plot device so he can meet the doctor, and then paint hate graffiti on his door, both times offscreen. There would have been as much potential there for plot elements as with the other characters, not to mention room for more details as to how the guys' relationship evolved and managed to work out in that context; it seemed mostly idyllic and they even got to hold hands and kiss in public, rather unrealistically.

That guy could be the poster boy for a possible campaign to change the cliché salution to vets and make it "thanks for your service, as long as you are not a complete and deliberate asshole". JM was very tolerant of him, letting him wear his ugly Marine pageant sash (obviously intended as a challenge and provocation), putting on a show-and-tell with his props, shouting his testimony even when not trying to talk over her and others, etc. She may have fallen victim to the Pavlovian deference towards military vets often displayed in the US, or else she decided to let him hang himself by fully displaying how much of a dick he is.

It feels like the storyline with the two gay lovers comes across as a tacked-on afterthought and that they don't really know what to make of it; the two guys were even absent from the previous episode (unless they fell victim to PBS's frequent editing to fit British shows into a more standard US length). So after realising that their killing of an SS officer led to reprisals and the execution of a good number of civilians, Kasia and her associate decide that the best course of action is to kill more Germans soldiers, with the predictable consequences? Impressive logic. Same here. She is either the worst journalist ever or is deliberately turning a blind eye to reality because she enjoys her stint in Europe and wants to stay there no matter what.

This should get into gear once the young director makes his appearance and launches his idealistic movie project mentioned in the trailers and the press.

Yesterday's two cases felt watered-down, as if they are not editing them as tightly as they usually do; they may need to make the most of what they had in the can before the confinement and are trying extend their stock of cases before having to switch to full repeat mode or perhaps in expectation of sweeps, assuming these are still on the schedule for May despite the special circumstances. Unless they are in the process of adjusting their format to hear cases in some virtual manner, without an audience. Even if he was correct legally, that lawyer managed to look a little foolish, making grand legal arguments that went beyond the framework and context of small claims and overreaching in his demands. Too bad that the landlord was not careful with keeping records and written correspondence because he probably deserved more for the mess the kids left. Also, he semed a bit obsessive compulsive with regards to neatness so I find it very plausible that he did come in to clean up during the tenancy. As I have said before, he makes relvant legal points, even if they must appear self-evident to well-informed common-sens poeple (like all of us on these boards). Too bad that judging from the general quality of litigants on TV court shows, those who could make use of his information are for the most part too dumb to understand them or to simply listen.

There was another project that DC did not mention in the interview linked to above: this summer, he will soar up up and away, vocally anyway. Considering the release date, a chunk of the movie must be already int he can, like the animation and perhaps some if not all of the voice work.

And still a few more reviews, like this one, that one and this other one; and why not a fourth one. I am certain there are others out there, all full of spoilers of course. As usual with any movie or TV show, opinions differ, and are sometimes contradictory: one person says Parsons' perfomance is Emmy-worthy another one say it's mostly vulgar one-liners. The look and art direction seem to garner near-universal praise. Also, an interview with Lupone and one with Criss. And for an amusing little change of pace: the young lead characters try out their own personal hustle on an off-screen producer. We will very soon all get a chance to make our own minds about it.