pasdetrois

When Candy allows kids into the intervention, I am prepared for heartbreak. But I hope that giving these helpless victims a voice empowers them to feel like they tried to help their parents, and a teeny bit of closure if the intervention and rehab fail.

Will and Molly have great actor chemistry. Can't stand Rutina Wesley, so her casting is a mis-step for me. Plus, I know that some blind people have enhanced senses and one would think the character would pick up on the weirdness emanating from Dolarhyde. Maybe they are going for the "attracted to danger" angle in this series. Emily Watson sold the clueless sweetness better. Otherwise, our show is back to firing on nearly all cylinders. I loved watching Hannibal lovingly handle Abigail during the murder re-enactment. And he must be experiencing profound rage and boredom, being caged (and deprived of his fabulous kitchen and wardrobe), yet Mikkelsen expresses it only with the turned back, the downcast eyes, and the slight swallowing. As Alana taunted him about the toilet and indignities, he gave a little swallow and I thought "Alana, you in danger girl." I think her comment about Hannibal being only five doors from escape will come back to haunt her. The lab techs' fussy argument about killing pets was note-perfect. I could watch Hannibal and Will torture each other all day. And hopefully we will get more seasons somewhere.

I'm so bored and irritated with the ongoing Jeff Lewis pissiness. A meltdown over pillows, really? It says a lot about the people who choose to stay with him - as others have noted, why would anyone work for such a jerk on a long-term basis? Vanina, get out of there and use your talent elsewhere. When someone buys others expensive gifts, it makes the recipients grateful and probably willing to do one's bidding. The lordly gift-giving can be a control gesture.

Gandhi was hilarious.

I cannot stand Carly. She's a narcissist who is not thinking of her son. She's coolly smug and dismissive. She elicits confidences and pretends to listen to him but doesn't actually offer any empathy or compassion. If you don't fall in line with her determined vision of her new life, she cuts you off. She steers all difficult conversations back to herself. ETA: I have the impression that she has checked out of her relationship with her family and has moved on emotionally and was going through the motions on TV while gaining publicity for her new status in life. And I think the transgender situation was a bit of a red herring - if she was a depressed alcoholic for many years, then she had problems dealing with relationships long before the transgender phase. I think this history is why Ben's family speculates Carly will not be happy despite the surgery and transformation. My neighbor transgendered and left behind a former wife and children (moved far away but pays child support). The former wife has been very angry and bitter for several years now. I understand it, but like all of life's devastations one has to move on at some point. I hope Ben's parents find peace and happiness. And I liked Dan and his family. I wish them the best also. All of these folks were quite polished and camera-ready. Did Ben's actor sister hook everyone up with the series?

I'm glad he got fired. Maybe he and his smug toadies will learn a little humility. They acted like immature brats, regardless of the cause. People make big mistakes in the workplace all the time - that's no excuse for trying to humiliate a person on television. They were relentless instead of shutting up and just figuring it out.

She comes across as demented. Between her and the actress who plays the prostitute, and other annoying features such as the shoe-horned characters and story lines, this production is causing me to lose my interest.

I believe the relative who abused her when she was a girl is the one who went to jail. The church leader got off. Poor Olivia was sexually abused by two different males.

The Satan voice was uncanny, and creepy. I guess he learned how to do that and rolled it out as his party trick. I wonder if he has brain damage. His affect post-duster was extremely flat, almost robotic. I pay attention to the religions, as I have seen the damage some of them have done to some of my family members. They commented that Olivia had a church deacon and elder in her family, so that made me assume fundamentalist. I wonder why her abuser got off scott-free? Did the family want to hide the second go-round of abuse, or feel pressure to let a powerful church member go free? Loved Candy's side-eye at Drama Mama.

And we're back and all is right with the world. Although the presence of Molly confused me, and I shall miss Hannibal's fabulous wardrobe. I think Mads has been wearing a modest toupee until now and we saw his real hair in this latest episode. There's something odd about Alana's face. At first I thought it was the wigs or hair styles, but I think the actress' face is puffy around the jawline. I'm interested in the story again, only to wonder every week how much more of the series we'll be able to enjoy.

Despite her dramatic pleas for him to spend more time with her, I don't think Kathryn wants a traditional marriage. I don't even think she wants to live with Thomas, unless it's to be close by so she can try to control his philandering. I think she wants the reflected position that comes from being a Ravenel wife. She probably likes the idea of them occasionally getting together, showing up for functions together...while she spends the bulk of her time shopping, living in a beautiful home, and hanging out with friends. All on the Ravenel dime.

I think what we have going on here is two dysfunctional people, who imbibe way too many substances and who have the maturity of adolescents, grimly determined to play out what they started - merging the Calhoun and Ravenel bloodlines and producing a male heir. Kathryn is essentially a willing brood mare, counting on getting some financial security out of it (which remains to be seen). Maybe a marriage if she pumps out a boy. ETA: it's the Calhoun bloodline Thomas is interested in. He could care less about the Dennis name.

Savannah wears as much makeup and hair spray as a Vegas show girl. She looks like she's 40 years old. But I like her. I kind of like Chase, but I wonder if behind his TV facade he's a nervous, germaphobic kid. I kind of worry about him. But the friendly horse scaring the crap out of him and Todd was hilarious. I don't like all the sexual bantering between Todd and his family. It's really bizarre, given Todd's emphasis on manners and "being a lady."

"Shit fire and save matches."

Zoila is playing a character for the cameras. In earlier years she got a lot of attention for playing the sassy housekeeper, so that's the role they have her play. It is very annoying. Jeff's design is pleasant enough, but I've seen it a million times. That's true of a lot of design. None of them are geniuses, despite what they and their minions tell themselves. Speaking of which, I didn't like the Channa bashing. It wasn't clear to me that she was sabotaging Jeff, especially the way her editing was truncated and clumsy. Maybe she was disorganized or someone else was responsible for the precious accessories; there were better ways to handle it. The Jeff Lewis Sycophant Team taunting her within her hearing was pretty ugly, not to mention Jeff running to her boss and complaining about her on national television. What was really going on was that Jeff was having to share the job with her, and we know Jeff doesn't play well with others. He just had to passively-aggressively go after her. For all we know he jeopardized her career. She's not a spoiled TV personality, with a Bravo paycheck and a paint line and other offerings to fall back on. In this episode, Jeff and his gang of sycophants were especially smug and self-congratulatory. I notice that Jenni usually very carefully tries to stay out of it and preserve her reality TV reputation.

Sing it. Mads really brought it. I will miss him as this character when the show is over. This latest episode made me hope that someone will pick up the series. I had been willing to let it go. Random puzzlement: why was Will on a foldout bed? I thought we'd seen him in his own bed in earlier episodes. Guess the writers knew a legion of dog-loving viewers would be wondering about the dogs and threw us a bone. Will: "I miss my dogs."

I'm dismayed that the two codependent idiots are procreating. They have the immaturity of young teenagers, and their constant bickering will damage a child. Not to mention, I don't think either one of them works. They were sponging off of her father. I suspect Raven got pregnant on purpose to maximize her reality TV opportunities. I hope CMT sends them packing. Any substitute would be better.

No way is the church-going sincere - it's a calculated PR move, as is the rest of her persona in the latest season. Side note - when this series first aired, Vicki constantly referred to her faith, sacred marriage vows, and so on. There were very strong religious overtones. Now...not so much.

My take on this episode - Teddy is fundamentally entitled and experiences rage and resentment when he doesn't get his way. We saw him overstep boundaries with Tawny early in the series, and try very hard to manipulate her with pressure and guilt and anger to get his way. He knowingly did it with the promiscuous teenage girl -- steadily manipulating her and pressuring her to have sex until she gave up and gave in. (I'm not judging her; I'm describing the impression the story gave me of her - the teenage girl who is known to have sex with boys.) He stops just short of committing actual crimes, such as battery and rape. I don't feel sorry for him, but I am interested in the character because the actor really pulls it off. I wouldn't have been able to listen to the long monologue otherwise. So we have Teddy acknowledging his flaws and I'm wondering whether he will do something about it, or carry on the usual selfish way. There's a lot of ugly simmering just beneath the surface. Daniel is experiencing joy and relief at having reached a decision about the plea deal and (he thinks) putting it behind him and moving on. He may even be relieved to be out of his mother's home. He expresses his happiness at cooking a simple nostalgic meal for his sister. She's lost so much and has nothing to show for it and nothing to replace it after 20 years of a hard fight to prove Daniel innocent. He plead guilty, she's in a dead-end job in a small town, probably very little money, and her boyfriend's gone. So Daniel is experiencing some happiness and hope and everyone around him is going to pieces.

I think one reason Matthew M. was so good in his role was he was kind of playing himself. He's always projected a kind of loopy knowingness. The bongos and so on. I suspect that privately VV may be the opposite of his rom-com character. That's why I hoped he'd be able to pull off this new role. But I remain disappointed. The others are doing so well and I'm watching for them. Even the guys who play the other law enforcement characters pull it off - irreverent, jaded, dark. The bloodbath, while very well done, ruined the story a bit for me. Too unrealistic.

Not to mention his friend declaring proudly that they are not riding any family coattails. Please.

I haven't watched the housewives in years but have been dipping in and out recently due to the 100 episodes stuff. I only mention this because I think watching regularly inures a viewer to how god-awful some of these people are. Dropping in again after all these years, some things jump out at me. I initially thought Vicki's reaction to her mother's death at the bunco party was staged because it was so over the top. I no longer think that. Now I think she's one of the most needy, narcissistic people to grace reality TV. I actually wanted to slap her when she was screeching all the mommy stuff and staggering around. She should be ashamed. Brooke is using her and is playing her like a cheap fiddle. No surprises that participants work the reality TV angle. But Tamra does it so visibly and clumsily. She struggles so hard to stay on top. You can see her eyes watching what the cameras are doing, and she marches in and out of situations to deliver her lines like it's bad community theater. Heather is practically screaming that her husband's desperate drive for money and celebrity is driving her crazy and threatening her marriage. Plus, I suspect Terry might be gay. Plus, I wonder if some bad stuff goes on behind the scenes in that family. Megan's use of her stepdaughter's pain - her mother's impending death - to secure camera time is one of the worst things I've seen on TV in a long time.

Some pretty good acting in this episode, despite the soap opera bent. Thanks for the reminder on where I'd seen Sam West before - Howard's End. All those boys going off to be slaughtered. At 24 my father was known as the "old man" in his WWII unit. It's heartbreaking. Charlie's going off with a kiss on his lips. The whacko villanous nurse reminds me of Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched. Poor Prentiss - such agony from which he'll probably never recover.

Puppy-killing brings my normally peace-seeking temperament to this thought (taken from Dolly Parton in the movie 9 to 5): "Let's hire some wranglers and go beat the shit out of him."

I binge-watched to catch up. I haven't read the books (and don't want to be spoiled by this forum's postings about what happens in the book please). I'm enjoying this more than I expected. I like that we are seeing the mining as part of the story. Such a difficult way to make a living now and then, yet the miners were so thrilled to go back to work. Also interesting to understand the importance of fishing (did these people ever rest?), and to watch Ross try to build his business and lure investors. However I do keep wondering how Ross is paying for his own servants' wages, food, new cloaks and so on, given the estate's financial woes. Perhaps the estate generates a small income? Or he received something for being a soldier? Sad to watch Warren Clarke's death throes, knowing that we lost him. From certain angles Jack Farthing (George) resembles Hugh Grant. Farthing is quite good as George - in earlier episodes he struggled just a little with his evil ways. As a gentleman, why does Ross never wear the wig? I think the wild curly black hair is meant to evoke the brooding Heathcliff look. Is it acceptable (in that environment) that he never wears the fancier clothes while mixing with landed gentry? Doesn't he have some laying around in a box? In earlier posts someone mentioned AT resembling Liev Schreiber. That's the first thing I thought back in episode one. They have similar deep voices, too. Also, wouldn't he and his wife ride to the winter party? Maybe they only have one horse. I noticed the tavern prostitute's obvious, modern makeup and hair color - raspberry lips, fuschia hair streaks, a perfectly clean dress...and yet they gave her dirty hands and fingernails. And Demelza's eyebrows don't match her red hair. The dog is really attuned to the actress who plays Demelza. He's constantly looking at her rather than off-camera at a handler.