One Imaginary Girl

A lot of people are envisioning an ending where Rebecca meets people from This Is Us world in the afterlife, but to me that would be incredibly corny. A newspaper TV critic once said that a major point of the show was that the definition of Us has expanded over time to encompass in-laws, children, birth parents, uncles, and so on, so my guess is that the finale will be about the next generation and its expanding circle.

First time I've watched in a while. Did I hear Fran Lebowitz correctly that she thinks Americans aren't interested in the war in Ukraine? That's just crazy talk--it gets huge coverage in the news, and at least in my neck of the woods, there are lots of benefit events, Ukrainian flags flying, and other shows of support. It might be greater in Sweden because they're closer and more concerned about ripple effects. On the other hand, I don't know anyone who gives a damn about the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial, but Bill seems to be weirdly way into it.

I remember Keith Robinson fondly from American Dreams, so if Rome is going to be teaching at Dre's school, how about admitting him to the circle of friends, show? On the other hand, he may want to keep his distance from all the drama.

Ha. How accurate--and don't forget her flatmates who all have out-of-the-ordinary jobs. Yes, it couldn't have been any less subtle what would eventually happen. I was confused early on in the episode--the caption said that they were in Liverpool, but Marion and Caroline mentioned that they were in London, and then the girls did, too, even before the caption did. This episode and the last have been stangely moving to me, though--I really like the topic of someone connecting to their family's old country. Phyl certainly seemed so alive when talking about England.

I was turned off by that sketch at the end of the show. It seemed jarring to go on--correctly--about how bad interrogations can be and then turn around and make them into a joke.

A BB callback I noticed was that the police detective with an ADA (I think) whom Jimmy is talking with in the courthouse is Hank's friend who asks his advice, during Hank's mineral-collecting convalescence, on the Gale Boetticher murder case--the first domino to fall in Walt's undoing.

Though I wondered about Danny running off to the concert while his eggplant parmagiana was still in the oven, it sounded like. OK, maybe he had just took it out. That and Regina abandoning game night to go meet up with her dad seemed weird, but those were my only problems with this episode. My favorite thing--Gary to Colin after he came home from getting the good news about the cancer scare: (mock sarcastically) "No, don't get up."

I wonder if the Elon Musk of the cold open was inspired by the cast's experience with him last year. That's what I'm hoping.

I wish John had warned viewers about answering those questions on Facebook from random pages, since they exist to collect info. My sister is aware of that yet apparently can't resist the temptation to announce that our dad was the person who taught her to drive.

Though American football is not that close to soccer, as Toby said. That bugged me, but I need to remind myself that that was just a throwaway line to end the scene. Anyhow, I think the whole shoehorning of Kate and Philip into marriage isn't really because she is a Pearson and therefore irresistible but because TV shows in general don't know what plotlines to give women characters over the long term other than to marry them off and give them children.

I feel heartened that other people are thinking that the series has gotten pretty repetitive. I felt kind of guilty for thinking it, but a lot of the stories are so similar. I don't know if the show recruits guests or if the celebrities approach them (as Sean Combs did), but I wish they could get some with different ethnic backgrounds. Some that don't seem to have turned up much are Netherlands/Belgium/France, non-Jewish eastern Europe, or British people in the colonies that weren't in New England.

I don't know if it's intentional, but I wonder if there's a point being made in showing how different Sam is from her offspring. For example, she likes food and elaborate cooking and even has a fun time going to a different supermarket and inquiring about items she's not familiar with. She's gregarious and interacts with people at the supermarket, and she's apparently made a new friend in Danny Trejo. Oh, and the baseball cards--she had a hobby when she was young and even now still had an organizing system in mind, even if she did eventually decide not to keep them. The kids, though, seem mostly interested in focusing on their phones. (Yes, I am old.)

Still not buying that there are departures late at night, and between, say, Scranton (if the cabin is indeed in the Poconos) and Boston, there's going to be a transfer somewhere, possibly NYC at the Port Authority terminal. But would there even be a bus to Boston from there in the middle of the night? I guess I'm missing the point that the writers needed an excuse for a Rebecca-Randall road trip, so I need to overlook any realism.

I always assumed that the cabin was in western Pennsylvania, not the Poconos--this would make more sense for people who lived in the Pittsburgh area. Either way, I don't see how Deja, a teenager who presumably doesn't have a credit card, would get to Boston that quickly, and in the middle of the night, no less.

Yes, that's what I was saying in reply to the post above mine.

I think there was some reference to their being Anglican when Nancy was brought to Nonnatus House, a differentiation between them and the Catholic nuns.

Only just finding out about this. I have to say that I probably wouldn't have resumed watching it--keeping track of the same characters in different timelines made it exhausting. Maybe it it were about 3 college roommates whose lives took these different paths with different people but still intersecting as old friends. I know that would be like a conventional TV drama, but that's OK with me.

What surprised me a lot about the finale was that so many of the invitations to the ball and acceptances of these invitations seemed to occur at the last minute. Was that proper back then? I would hate it even nowadays, and I don't even need to have elaborate hand-made gowns for the kind of social events I attend.

For the Eurovision curious: it might be on Peacock in May. I stumbled across it there last year, and it was cheesily enjoyable, although the scoring isn't comprehensible (maybe it was explained earlier during the beginning, which I missed) and the scoring segments are interminable.

Me, too, for the most part (I hated the opening of Orange Is the New Black so had to skip that). It's a shame how often the end credits are rushed or compressed nowadays. Anyhow, I was looking at IMDB recently and only just then discovered that Reggie's last name is Jackson, which is amusing to someone old enough to remember Mr. October.

The whole time Kevin was at the hospital, I was talking to the TV: "The twins. What about the twins?" I think I was more concerned about them than he was. Instead of that long speech to the guy in the waiting room, that episode time would have been better spent showing him asking Edie to mind the babies and explaining what supplies he had, and then the next morning he could have called the cabin and checked in. It'd be a better comment on what kind of father he's becoming to demonstrate how he'd balance things.

I see that Maureen isn't a popular contestant around here, but she sort of reminds me of the comedic actress Rachael Harris, and I like the idea of her being on Jeopardy! and doing well at it.

I thought that Kate and Toby's arguments over food this Thanksgiving were just a proxy war for deeper problems they're having. One or the other would have just let things go temporarily and discussed the matter privately after they got home or at least not in front of everyone--or maybe that's what I'd prefer.

Yeah, it seemed like it was parodying Dr. Gates, and I didn't enjoy that.

Oh wow. The town where Nathan Lane's ancestor died in a workhouse was where my great-grandfather was born, also in the late 1860s. I wonder if anyone in my family ever crossed paths with him; I don't know if you were confined entirely to the workhouse if you were sent there. I try to look at the records in each episode to see if there's any connection to my trees, and just seeing the name Ballinasloe seems close.