pasdetrois

I will really miss Alfred if Uhtred heads north next season. Fantastic acting.

Let's not forget the fetching pink dress and hat Dawn was wearing. In all my years of conferences, it never occurred to me to wear an outfit looking remotely like that. I struggled a little with this episode. I think it was so jam-packed and frenetic that there wasn't time for me to savor each moment like I normally do.

When Iseult dropped her clothes and gave her noble speech about sacrificing her gift and virginity, I snorted. It was a scene out of a bad romance novel. After they did the deed and were perched in that uncomfortable pose, I thought "well, there's the novel's cover." Monty Python would have been all over this. The battle scene was very well done. We got to see the commands they might have used while crouching to hold the shield formation. And the shot from above, when the solid wall of shields withdrew, and revealed all the carnage, was clever. I enjoyed the series and hope it will be back.

Unless his job prevents it, I think Donn would do this in a heartbeat, for the money, but not with the true intention of a real reconciliation. He'll take the money and appear on the show as long as they want him.

"Bitch" has entered the American vernacular in an almost casual way, especially when people say it jokingly to each other and not in anger. "Whore" has not. When used in anger it usually is in situations where someone is lashing out to attack a woman's morals. We didn't see Connie sleeping around, so it's interesting that Emile still used this term in smarting off to her. While she was very wrong to call him a bitch, his language was more offensive. I think it showed a lot about his low opinion of women and insecurity. For what it's worth, I try to avoid gender-based insults. It just bugs me as a long-time feminist. Years ago when I worked with young soldiers in the field, I noticed them referring to their malfunctioning M-16s and other equipment as "bitch" and "whore." That was the first time I thought about the issue. Random comment about Connie: I admire her skill and avoidance of drama (mostly), but I do think there's some stuff lurking below the surface. Also, the food-smeared boobs were just odd. I think production encouraged it, but it came from left field and made her look weird.

Late to this party; just finished watching Season 1. My brother hounded me for years to watch the show and I finally found the time over the holiday. Love it, of course. I like that the accents aren't cartoonish. Even some of the passing-through characters are realistic, like the mother of the boy who is interviewed while standing in her home's front doorway. Physically she projected that mix of harried-mother-on-a-busy-day-not-really-wanting-to-be-bothered-by-the-cops. Huffing and puffing and scuffing her feet across the floor. I just looked up Walter Goggins and am not surprised to learn that his production partner is Ray McKinnon - Rectify is another southern show that I love. Walter was originally slated to play the lead. On to season 2!

This was the only episode that actually held my attention. I didn't even finish watching the first season. I was in a Thanksgiving food coma as I began to watch and assumed I'd FF through some of it, as I often do. But the acting drew me in, and the episode pulled together a few story threads, which I needed to remain interested. Interesting that Patti returned to her abusive husband even when she had the money to leave him, and that Kevin followed Patti into the well even though he could have walked away. I like the show's theme song. I was raised in the midst of very aggressive Christianity -- "Have you been saved" was practically an every day greeting in my community -- and the song's lyrics speak to my experience personally.

I just read three biographies/autobiographies that featured English middle-class and upper-class society between 1900 and 1960ish (they all became available in my library queue at the same time, so the common topic was coincidental). I was surprised at how much drinking and carousing and bed-hopping and divorce went on, especially in the supposedly conservative upper classes. The women were not home-bound and docile.

I can't believe it. In the first season the writers confused Hispanic and native culture, and they've just done it again. They clearly conveyed that Pablo is pueblo Indian, yet he and his mother have Hispanic names and one of the characters says "gracias" to them, as if Spanish is their native language. While there has been some mingling between Latinos and pueblo people over time, the pueblo people retain their own culture, speaking English and their own dialect.

The song is by the great Ralph Stanley, a renowned bluegrass singer and songwriter. I just realized that the Coen brothers have focused on two states where I have deep family roots: Minnesota and Mississippi.

For what it's worth, when I heard these, I assumed Kate was "cleverly" trying to call Rocky a whore, prostitute, slut, etc. without actually saying the words.

I meant to ask earlier about the crime behind the mugshot. When I followed the link, it just said they picked her up because she was wanted for something else, but it didn't say what that was. Anyone know? Maybe Lee suspects her of drinking on charter but hasn't seen any proof himself. He almost sounded as if he was warning her during the reunion: "If I have proof of drinking on charter I will deal with it." ETA: maybe she was arrested for the hair.

Yeah, she's a horrible human being, and one would hope the powers that be would leave her behind. But the advertisers love ratings too. I mean, entertainment is really only about ratings and advertisers' dollars.

I think everyone - Amy, Lee, Ben - knows how spiteful and controlling Kate is. They just manipulate her right back. She strikes me as someone who cannot sustain any kind of long-term friendship, with anyone. Oh, and I wish someone would hand her a jar of heavy duty hair conditioner and a gift card to a hair stylist. I don't like her, despite her chief stew skills, but I tolerate her when she's being clever and pleasant. But she showed her true character with those sexist nasty tweets about Rocky. Her facade can only last so long under pressure. Maybe Rocky will slither back to some other form of reality TV, because she got played in this one. I think she assumed she would be portrayed as the kooky-but-beautiful charmer, and instead she came off as an annoying demented child. She probably never envisioned a reunion where everyone piled up on her. I think she's shocked at how things turned out and is trying to brazen it out through to the end. I'm surprised she didn't storm off the set after all of Lee's sermonizing. Someone talked some sense into clueless, arrogant Emile, because he cleaned up his act for the reunion.

Bravo will keep Vicki if it means ratings. It will have nothing to do with Bravo having an opinion about how abominable her behavior has been.

This is how you do great television. Everyone has covered the great moments, so here are a couple little things I noticed: When Floyd says she's going to smoke, one cop pushes an ash tray to her. Lou pulls it back, because he knows she's a pipe smoker. Nice little touch that shows he and Floyd have known each other a long time. I liked the moment we saw of Mike sitting alone in his hotel room, with defeat and fatigue on his face. I also liked the quiet phone call between Betsy and Lou. Despite an imminent Mob war, they made sure to connect with each other. He seemed to really need her in that moment. What was The Breakfast King quietly intoning to Molly while they were sitting together and everyone else was bustling and talking over them? My close captioning didn't catch it; it sounded like a quote from something. I love the quiet steady smart strength of Hank and Lou as a small-town team who are not giving in to some pretty formidable forces. Maybe the writers are setting up the next season, with the UFO-ish discovery?

I was distracted by the sudden appearance of the boardwalk in the swamp.

I thought I saw a touch of madness in Ralph last night. The actor very skillfully shifted between sincere affection for his loved ones and sociopathic calculation. I wonder if he's meant to be driven slightly mad by the duality of life in India for a British citizen, especially if he's half-Indian (although they aren't developing that angle of the story, so I may have misjudged that). He secretly loved Jaya (as it was spelled on my close-captioning), appears to love Bhupi his servant, is drawn to Adam...all while striving to climb the political ladder and keep the white folks happy. He certainly has confusing emotions toward other characters. We've seen the quasi-incestuous tone toward his sister, and I thought I saw homoerotic vibes in his treatment of Bhupi. He appears to be fond of Aafrin, yet would probably throw him to the wolves to save his own skin. His regard for Cynthia is really confusing. Could he be HER son? I thought for sure he was going to thrown her down the stairs and blame the alcohol. And by the way, perhaps Alice's child is from another man? (Mind veers crazily between the possibilities and all the drama) I don't understand why the club members were mean to Aafrin's daddy if they unanimously voted to admit non-whites to the club. Whatever, I wanted to punch some smug faces in. That poor little boy, going off to school, after bonding with his father. Very cruel system.

I wondered about that too. Could it be he was mimicking one of Dawn's in-laws - the two men with disabilities? If so, I don't think it was meant cruelly. My family member has difficultly pronouncing certain words, and within our inner circle we use her pronunciation instead of the correct one. It's meant affectionately. Stephen King did this in Dreamcatcher, where a child with Down syndrome pronounces his name, Douglas, as Duddits.

When I was a young teenager a boy loaned me his copy of I Am Legend, and I read it straight through. The original protagonist really had to use his wits to stay alive, without all the modern gimmickry that Legend had in Will Smith's movie (which I also enjoyed). Then I tried to find other, similar books, to no avail. I never forgot it and was tickled when all the vampire movies started coming out. I also loved Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

I knew that some had been given away, but I'm wondering about the details. Hopefully Andy and Kate worked hard to find the right owners. Some dog-sled owners regard them the way farmers regard farm animals. I also wondered what Kate is up to, including whether she had an income after 10 years in the bush. Here's part of an interview she gave to dailytwocents.com in August 2015: "When asked how she is doing after leaving her home in Calico, Alaska on January 2, she states that her life has been in a type of limbo while waiting for court dates and settlement hearings that seem to go nowhere... After discovering Kate had left, fans who watch the show expressed concern that she was a victim of domestic violence and she alleges that she suffered a lot of verbal and emotional abuse... Since leaving she hasn’t stayed in any one place for very long and says that, 'Being displaced without having a home of your own is overwhelming and daunting for me but I am honored to have the love in the support of my loving and supportive friends, without them this would be unbearable. The hardest part is understanding why I stayed so long in an abusive relationship. I do know I love the land, I loved the lifestyle but I could not love the man he really is. I lived in a fairytale belief that someday he would become a kind, faithful, loving person. That fairytale was not to be mine.' Now she is busy reconnecting with family and friends as she regroups and decides on her next course of action. So what would she eventually like to do? 'My plans for the future as of now is to move to a small town in British Columbia, Canada and to be near my youngest daughter. I want to start sculpting again and spend as much time alone as possible. I love life, I love people but I am not the person I was so I feel I need my own space and time to recover and find myself again. And I need to rebuild all that was broken over the past 12 years and stand strong once more. After that I hope to be able to help other women who have been in similar situations but I can’t help anybody until I have helped myself.' By that Kate explains that she would like to write at least two books dealing with the issue of abusive relationships, and perhaps in the future do speaking engagements as well. She plans to write about her life and experiences at Calico, and would also like to do a book featuring other domestic abuse survivors, telling their stories from their perspective and discussing their own road to recovery. When asked if she had any final thoughts she said, 'During my time on Life Below Zero, through social media I have met some beautiful people so for that I am grateful. During my time since then I am overjoyed by every day that passes and nobody has screamed at me for being stupid.' On a lighter note, Kate is spending some quality time with family and friends this summer, and doing some traveling. Fans may have noticed through the photos she posts that at times two little gnomes often accompany her and a friend, and want to know more about them. 'My travels have been limited to accompanying my dear friend to her appointments in Anchorage and trips back to Eagle. We have our gnomes to make us laugh and people really seem to enjoy them wherever we go. We call them our alter egos. In a dark time it’s nice to have a little levity it is good for the soul.' After what she’s been through, it is nice to see that Kate can still laugh and find joy in life. In case fans were wondering if Kate would do another television show again, this is what she had to say. 'Who knows what the future will bring. I would be very reluctant to do it again unless it was about something extremely positive and true to reality.' National Geographic did contact her after she left, but at this time she would rather not comment about what was discussed, which makes sense after all she’s been through."

I was watching For Your Consideration last night and spotted Derek Waters in a scene near the end. Catherine O'Hara's character, an actor, is teaching a class and he's one of the students. No lines, just part of a brief shot of students listening to Catherine.

There's a reality show about rich kids in Beverly Hills, which uses that same text bubble format. I've assumed they are simply recreating text messages for television using a graphics package (or making them up).

I wonder what happened to all of Andy's and Kate's dogs. Too many for one guy to take care of. I'm sure he kept some, for company and for chores, but what about the others? I worry.

I speculated in an earlier post that I think he's part-Indian. If that's true, I wonder if it's part of the hold the vile Cynthia has over him.