patty1h

Lord, give me strength. This sounds like something that would be shown on the new Judge Milian trainwreck of a show.

Michael Highley is the opposite of Higinio Gonzalez - not a good kid at all. Michael had an absent father, started drinking at 7 years old, full-blown alcoholic by 9, joined a gang, stealing guns and selling them. Spent his teen years using substances and lots of jail time. He mentioned that he was also "fighting certain intimate feelings". Highley says he has always had anger issues. When he got suspected of stealing petty cash from a bar one night, his anger simmered at the false accusation. When he left the bar and found that his bike was missing, he saw red and innocent bar patron Paul Harris was the recipient of his rage... he stabbed him to death after Paul said he didn't know/didn't care about his bike. Michael says he realized his many issues were because he was fighting his trans orientation all those years. Michael now goes by the name Ezdeth and says s/he doesn't deserve their 60 year sentence - they are not the same person now.

The new season is up: I just finished the episode with Higinio Gonzalez. His story fit the usual mold - disruptive home life as a child, violent father who sold drugs, gangs. His story veered in that he didn't get into drugs like his older brothers and was a pretty good kid. Everything goes off the rails when 16 year old Higinio is asked for help from 2 local girls who say they need to escape their own rough environment and suggested that he rob a convenience store for quick cash for them. To make it deadly, one of the girls hands him a gun, which she said was not loaded. Higinio says he pulled the trigger to scare the clerk and this "unloaded" gun goes off and kills the worker, a 27 year old father of 4. CCTV video is shown from the incident and a detective from the case points out that Higinio racks a bullet into the chamber and takes the safety off before pulling the trigger. The detective opines that Higinio has convinced himself that it was all an unfortunate accident and that the gun is the problem, not his actions. He got a life sentence with possibility of parole after 30 - he sees the parole board in 3 years.

I completely agree - we remember the day she waved her wedding ring in front of the camera and saying it was not going anywhere. All of that nonsense is on her back. I never understood it when people would blame Kevin for Wendy's decline. I can recall so many times during Hot Topics she would talk about some celeb who was in a bad marriage, cheating situation, etc. and Wendy would roll her eyes and pass judgement on "those people". She could hold up a mirror to others but turned a blind eye to her own issue.

Don't forget that the plaintiff was also suicidal! Cases like this make me nervous... I pray that HB is not going down the same tacky road as Judge Milian's new show. That show is a waste of time and so low class. Hot Bench, PLEASE don't go there.

I was a big fan of Veep - loved it until the last season when it got a little shaky IMO. Then I saw that a new series called "Avenue 5" by the some of the same people was coming to HBO, I got excited for more sharp comedy. Unfortunately, I HATED Avenue 5 and only got through 3-4 episodes. I am a little gunshy about taking a chance on The Franchise and came here to see what kind of reception it got. Guess I'll take a peek.... here goes nothing.

This one set off my BS Meter, as soon as the plaintiff mentioned they met in film school. The details of this case are so soap opera-y, crude and dumb for me to buy them. How do you get sexually assaulted in your sleep more than once? Why would that person still be in your home? Yeesh.

I know the back story on AH, listened to podcasts, watched the Netflix doc and news shows (20/20, Dateline) that covered the case. I liked some of the previous Ryan Murphy recreations of true events and being a true crime fan, this was a must watch. Overall, I found it well done. It dragged out some things, but the storytelling was fine. I like the AH actor - he was really good.

That explains the lack of furnishings, etc. -- I totally missed that part about the mice. I probably had zoned out by this time/hadn't unmuted yet.

Just watched the episode with Angel, the black woman with the shopping addiction. Of course she had a tantrum midway through the clean up, you can count on that happening during every show, which is where I lose my patience and mute their whining. I feel bad for the doctor(s) who have to put up with that. The only thing I took away from this was that for all of the stuff that Angel had, they left her place looking pretty barren. Did they decide that her furniture was not salvageable and I missed that part? The front room had a chintzy little side table and a mirror leaning against the wall... that's all I remember. No sofa, easy chairs, coffee table. The bedrooms looked pretty sparse too - a beat up looking bed with a banner stuck on the wall behind it. Those bedrooms also looked depressing, like something you'd see in an poorly run institution. Nice cleanup but they left Angel with a lot of open, sad space to live in.

In a fascinating coincidence to my previous post, a podcaster who is covering the Diddy saga dropped her latest chapter and goes into how Wendy outed Diddy years ago. Stephanie Soo, who has millions of followers to her "Rotten Mango" podcast is on Part 4 of her deep-dive expose on Combs. She spent about 20 minutes out of this latest 3+ hour episode on the history of Wendy/Diddy, showing clips of the time SC was on Wendy's show and (maybe?) made a veiled threat against Kevin Jr. The Wendy part starts about 28 minutes in.

I know that Wendy was quite vocal about Sean Combs back in the day - she used to heavily hint that he was gay and/or had sex with men regularly. There was also rumor that those statements got Diddy so crazy that he orchestrated WW being fired from some radio station. Hearing how SC was a puppet master with a lot of money, getting people fired AND shot, it sounds true now. I can only imagine what Wendy would be saying now as every day new dirt is coming out about Diddy, and she could feel vindicated to the people who thought she was just a hater making up stories for airtime.

I see exactly what you're saying @lovinbob. I watched a Netflix doc about AH, which had actual footage of AH speaking, etc. and he did not exhibit any of the softness and vulnerability the actor is showing in the miniseries. I agree that the actors doing a good job, but if you've seen the real AH, it takes a little imagination to see them as the same person.

I've encountered stories about Lois Reiss before... maybe Dateline or 48 Hours or 20/20 and at least one podcast. This HBO doc is the first one to bring up her atypical background and her saying that her husband was violent. All of the previous stories about Lois focused on the gambling being the impetus for her to murder 2 people. I'm only halfway through part one but I'm not on Lois's side (yet) that she was a battered woman. I've watched too many true crime shows and my gut tells me that Lois may have concocted the abuse story, but it seems a waste of energy because she's not going anywhere after killing that poor innocent woman to cover her own tracks. We'll see how this tale pans out and whether my opinion shifts.

I have zero empathy for hoarders so this is my opinion: This couple was tiring - crying about scrap metal when their house looks like a homeless gang was living there. Montie basically referencing various movies like Rambo when he starting crying about how vets came back from Viet Nam and got treated badly. I think he has that in his back pocket and pulls it out whenever he felt he needed the sympathy card or shut down negative feedback. Him screaming about a stinky blanket, oy my nerves. It may work on Sherry, the TV people and his daughters but I didn't care. I got the feeling that Sherry seemed stuck in "martyr mode", never stepping up to Montie, that he had broken her down years ago and she gave up on herself. Or was she "impaired"... she seemed a bit off to me. She's fine cooking in that kitchen? That bathroom... so nasty. Yet I keep watching, and just double up on the blood pressure meds. (j/k) I mostly stay to see the home after the cleanup. A lot of them are amazing. Someone mentioned that Dorothy is a lot to take sometimes... I agree. The doctor was a bit ass-kissy for my liking too.