snarktini

Now I really want to make biscuits. Need to pick up some buttermilk! (And leaf lard, apparently.)

OMG yes. I thought Vance was going to get cracked over the head when he found the bandage at the farm. Didn't know if sidekick was going to get hit too or if the sidekick was going to do the hitting, but it felt ominous. Good job building suspense there! In addition to the Bulgarian talk about calling for his mother after he wakes, prior to that the torturers said he was reacting differently from the others (and he almost died which they did not expect.) I inferred this was due to a two-way connection with Cal. Maybe Cal's cancer made the Bulgarian more vulnerable. I think this is because they were too far away and she had to max-zoom. That could blow out the pixels like we saw. And to another poster's question, I believe her using a camera was meant to signal her time loss. 6 years ago I still carried a digital camera even though I had an iPhone, because phone cameras weren't up to the task of good photography yet.

I missed this nuance, and it's a great point. While watching, I assumed he knew Donna had faked her death and was living under an assumed name, but must have glossed over / didn't hear / handwaved the part that he knew Donna had a daughter that she bailed on and let believe she was dead. The former, many people would overlook. The latter? I hope not. Maybe this is how we're not supposed to feel bad for Dave. They both suck and deserve each other. (Not that the girl deserves any of it.)

This floored me. WTF?

Me too. In the first episode of the season, Debbie stepped in to offer a ride to Ruth just as the cameraman asked her out. I saw that as conscious sabotage, 100%. Debbie knew Ruth couldn't resist a ride home with her and a chance to talk, and that would stop Ruth from her hookup. Yet my BF read it totally differently, he thought Debbie was being helpful and saving her from a possibly creepy guy and an ill-advised fling with a coworker. He's so naive :)

I thought the guys got a "save the date" in advance (the camp was still a surprise), and the phone pings were just reminders? That doesn't explain why everyone forgot or didn't look at their calendars, though.

Last night dinner interrupted me halfway through the episode, which was good since the spiders were really, really creeping me out. (And I'm not even particularly afraid of spiders.) Based on the comments here, maybe I'll just skip the rest!

Totally this. I can't figure out why we're not seeing Grandpa more, in both directions. Finding out your mom died, wouldn't you want to spend time grieving with Dad? Overall, the ridiculousness doesn't bother me as much as it seems to others but the timeline and "returning from the dead" is being handled very poorly. Mileage varies, so for me the thing with Olive and Danny is realistic and I didn't hear what he said as creepy. It may have been written badly, but I got what he meant that losing a partner sucks but you can live with it, but losing a kid? That's worse. Yes, it's not actually his child or step child legally but clearly he saw her that way. And I don't think that's weird or unnatural. I'd actually been waiting for the writers to address this. Even if Grace and Danny had to end, it isn't fair to Olive to just cut him out of her life too. She has her own relationship with him, and a breakup with a parent doesn't necessarily mean you break up with their kid. I know several people who have been in this situation (minus the missing-on-a-plane-for-five-years part), and some kept a relationship with the child of an ex-partner. Those that haven't are heartbroken and never got over it. And even if she thought her dad was coming back, that doesn't preclude bonding deeply with Danny, who was there during all some very formative years. (And I'm not clear if she thought Ben was coming back -- I remember her saying she felt Cal was alive but don't remember if she included Ben in that.)

I wish I liked it better! I don't mind the "preaching" -- I was a fan of the original and am totally in their partisan choir. For me it's the style of the show, not the content, which feels too dated to be enjoyable. The applause sounds artificial, the writing and acting feel awkward, too many punchlines. I think the multi-cam / live audience sitcom style just doesn't work for me anymore. (Stopped watching the W&G reboot for similar reasons, and non-reboots like Big Bang Theory also bug.) Maybe I'll check in again later this year. I'm glad there are people enjoying it though! Murphy is a good character, and I like the addition of Avery a lot.

I thought Ben missed some good opportunities to understand Olive. She said she's a screw up, doesn't deserve a second chance etc. I felt like in his rush to be all "no you're wonderful and I'm totally a cool dad" he missed opportunities to ask follow up questions and learn why she's being so squirrely. He just papered over her concerns with positivity. Not good active listening, Dad! My BF and I have a hard time finding mutual TV shows but from what stacks up in the Tivo he keeps choosing this one...so we're in for now.

He can sit with me! Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is one of my silly favs. I typically prefer alien-of-the-week standalones to the big angsty arc stories. Side note: As the ship was crashing down, they tried to outrun it. On the flight path, in the direction of the ship. Doesn't seem like sound strategy. Wouldn't running at the ship be better? Or at least sideways?! At any rate, I'm still pleased with the new incarnation. I thought I was done with DW, and so relieved it was just a single Doctor glitch (for now).

Hi everybody! My BF and I have a ritual of watching Jeopardy! every night it's on, it's our little geeky bonding time. I'd not gotten into it before because it's hard to regularly answer as fast or faster than the contestants. So it felt like a spectator sport -- fascinating, but not participatory. But with Tivo, we pause and see if we can puzzle it out on our own first. I realize that's not cricket, but it's more fun this way and it challenges us to dig into our memory banks. Between the two of plus a few extra seconds we get (or at least guess) a whole lot of them. And we're getting faster! Oh, and really glad to see that GFY is a drinking game. He sounds so patronizing when he says that. For me that's up there with "young lady". Yeesh.

Yay! I'm back in. I had to stop watching during Capaldi's run -- I had begun truly hating the show. Adding Bill didn't help one bit. I tend to think it was the Twelve character that just didn't work for me, but maybe it was the storytelling. Doesn't matter, I suppose. For a new male Doctor I may not have tried again, but I was curious to see this character and I like her a lot. I like the companions, too! Because I had checked out I knew absolutely nothing about the new companions so for me it unfolded nicely. (And I didn't foresee that Grace was red-shirted). When we met Ryan, he was clearly the new companion. Great, he seems fine. Then we met Yas and she clicked into place and I thought, awesome, two companions! I like when there are two. They'll be a good pair. Then after Grace dies and Graham started telling his story I sensed potential companion and got confused for a moment -- was he actually the new companion?! A trio didn't occur to me. So it was helpful not to know what was coming. It was nice to be surprised. The alien story itself was lame, but they often are. :)

Totally. When Cole was arrested I was shocked -- who would press charges (for a totally minor assault that was not unreasonable) after finding out it was a cop whose child lives in the house he was climbing over a fence to get to? And why would the ex go along with calling the cops? Later, the ex implies boyfriend called the cops without knowing who Cole was. Lame writing. IRL, he would have gone into the house and told her some crazy dude just tackled him, and she would have explained. I like this new version, it's definitely brought more of the fun back. Too bad there's so much bullshit behind the scenes.

To me the sketch looked more like "shadow" than "erased". It felt really clear to me that it was mom's lover when we first saw it based where the figure was in the drawing. I assumed they were making Cal a bit psychic. (Esp since he's now Jesus or something. He is Risen!) Where I switched to "shadow killer" was how they framed the shots leading up to the murder. They carefully zoomed in on the shadow in the family pic, then cut to the person-shaped shadow on the wall behind the woman, creeping up on her. That parallel was unmistakably intentional IMO. If there is a shadow killer I'm guessing it's not a general threat to survivors. While the presence might be with all of them now, per the drawing, It felt like she was killed for making up theories and going on TV. They were saved to do good, and she committed some sin like vanity or greed. She stepped out of line and was struck down for it.

Eddie backed himself into a corner by telling the guys he'd fallen in love with a mother of one of his students. Based on on a post here, that isn't an actual lie -- he said something about Jon owing him for lessons? (which I didn't hear) -- but that's definitely a lie of omission. What's his next move? Did he want to feel out how they'd react to an affair before admitting to who it is? Weird. As noted, he lies readily. But perhaps not very strategically. I'll give it couple of weeks. The cast is great. A few weeks ago I lost a friend to an unexpected suicide so that's weighing on my mind a lot. And it seems like most of the men around me, including my boyfriend, don't actually have any real friendships or intimacy outside of their SO, and that's terrible. So I'm here for this kind of storytelling. I don't watch many interpersonal dramas, so I appreciated the tension-breaking jokes and the seeds of mystery. I could do without melodramatic love triangles.

I don't actually know his music, but he's a big reason I tuned in -- he was so goofy and charming on his guest appearances / cameos I was eager to see more. (Especially since this was from Monk's creator.) But while his character is fine, his charms feel underutilized. He's more of the straight man.

Seeing these showstoppers after just having seen Series 3 is crazy! The bakers are working at such a higher level now. I barely noticed the hosts, especially Sandi. But that's a good thing. I'm sure they know we're wary of the new crew, and keeping it low key while we warm up to them is smart.

If this is how the next few episodes are going to go, it may lose me. I'm interested in the external story, what happens to Annie and Owen in the real world. Not sure I'm interested enough to watch their dreams. I'll need to see quickly how this advances their story rather than just being a writer's excuse to indulge in fantasy.

I'm quite glad they haven't focused on what would happen IRL if people evidently traveled through time and reappeared after 5 years. I don't want to watch a show about the science/politics/detainments! Or even a world freakout, really. A bit more freakout would make sense, but I'm more interested in watching a story about the displaced people than the world reaction. Then the voices showed up and now I'm not sure what we're getting. But I'll give it a go, with a wary eye. The fact that only some of the passengers were there at the end doesn't bug me, or even require handwaving IMO. Why does every single one of them have to be affected? Maybe the force selected those that need help, or can help. They all went through the time shift, but perhaps not all of them are important.

Meat-free, yes. And a limited pantry is good, that forces creativity. But I don't like when they get stuck with processed/packaged/sponsored foods, or when they have to make something in a microwave. They're chefs, I want to seem them cook beautiful things with beautiful ingredients! I say challenge them at the super pro level, not the home level.

It's not bad! It's light. It's fluffy. It's got some cute moments. It's not a challenging show, but sometimes that's a good thing. Until the fall season kicks in, I have time to kill because my boyfriend is busy watching football. :) I've watched the first two episodes. Danza and Groban are likeable but not super relatable. They haven't sold me totally on them being father and son. I liked the first ep a bit better than the second -- I'll watch a couple more before deciding.

My impression is these are very different companies/services. With FriendProxy, you pay them to rent a friend. With AdBuddy, they pay you to listen to their ads. (Or, based on the cigarette store exchange, it may be more accurately an alternate currency -- in return for them paying for things, you have to sit through someone reading ads at you. Ugh.) No, Annie, taking armpit pics isn't funny.

It sounds like they plan to unwrite out of the corner and bring them back to NYC, but I wish they wouldn't. I'd rather they just do the next / last season in London! They've been given a fresh start, Joan says it feels right, and it could be a lot of fun. I like when shows take chances and reboot. Even when it means losing beloved characters, it can brighten up an older show and create new dynamics. It's also more true to life. Sometimes things change. In the end I more or less trust the writers to do this well, just stating a preference. To be clear, I love the cast as is. I wish they'd never have written this arc this way, so we could keep our nuclear team intact. But now we're here. Marcus should be moving on to the Marshals and I wouldn't want a contrivance to delay that. Gregson is compromised. Let Sherlock and Joan have new adventures. Maybe they'll find a way to bring them to NYC to consult on one big case and not move them back. (Even though I hate Big Bad season arcs, I'd prefer that to relocating them again.)

I found it funny when Paul said that Brendan's presentation "was a bit much". Funny because we know in future seasons the presentations are going to get way more "much" than that! Everything will get more cute, whimsical, decorated. Brendan has nothing on Frances!