Eolivet

To me, Tracee Ellis Ross is the MVP. I loved her in the Pilot and love her even more here. I think she has the inflection of a mother down perfectly, if that makes any sense. Anthony Anderson is extremely funny, but he sometimes sounds like he's reading the lines of a dad.

When I was younger, my parents told me and my siblings to have "real smiles" for the camera. Lily was likely old enough that I think she knew what she was doing ("fake" smiling). I was unaware that was "controlling" -- more like "proper socialization." The puns on this show get me every time. "It's our job to support Haley." "For the rest of your life," and the one between Mitchell and Cam about "not using a tone" (referring to the picture, then Mitchell's attitude). Gloria smashing the bunny was also kind of funny. Though while Jay was taking a pottery class, she was clearly taking a "glue pottery back together" class because that thing looked darn near perfect after having been smashed on a counter!

The only good thing is I don't believe TA gave them $5K for that task being "completed." Didn't they show all the completed tasks (the rumor, the fake rat, the scavenger hunt)? I was glad they didn't -- I thought they used that task to do the alliance's dirty work, and I'm glad the show saw through it.

That's so cool, WendyCR72! I was underwhelmed by her new show, but seeing "Badge" again has encouraged me to give it another shot. She's really an amazing talent. Just finished "Tuxedo Hill" and wow, what a great way to wrap up the season. Clearly the Bernie Madoff case (I think?), but a couple clever moments I loved: Bobby figuring out the witness had arthritis so he couldn't pump his own gas. And the play on words that cracked the case: "buying a collar." I thought the actor playing Jack Crawley (named Bruce Altman) looked familiar, and sure enough: he's the veteran of seven Mothership episodes over 10 years. Can't recall any off the top of my head, but it was definitely a Hey It's That Guy moment. What a strong S1 the show had. It was a privilege to watch them all over again (and see some for the first time!)

Absolutely brutal ratings for this last night. I'm thinking it's gone by November unless they move it and it miraculously catches on: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/10/01/tv-ratings-tuesday-selfie-manhattan-love-story-premiere-low-marvels-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-forever-drop-person-of-interest-the-mindy-project-up/309151/

Touche! Darn it -- I saw him in All Stars, and felt comfortable enough with seeing his game there (and they may have shown clips) to make a judgment. But you're right, of course. I put Will in parentheses as I saw him play the second time, but not the first. One of these days I should watch BB2. I have a feeling it's wildly entertaining.

To me, that's an example of casual sexism, and also how that kind of behavior is perpetrated. People thinking "I don't have to say anything, I don't want to make waves" and having that be more important than a joke or comment that degrades other people. "Come on, lighten up, it's just a joke!" Derrick had these contestants eating out of his hand and didn't lift a finger to stop this behavior because he was afraid it would hurt his game. Choosing strategy over ethics is exactly what allows this type of behavior to be accepted and laughed off. Winning money was more important. Something else will always be more important. I take your point about the fact that he's not a cop in the house. I still find the hypocrisy pretty striking, considering the guy did cast himself as a family man, with an emphasis on having a young daughter -- and he'd be the first person to punch someone in the face if someone insinuated it'd be pretty funny if a robot took her virginity. That's the epitome of casual sexism -- it's not OK to joke about "my" women, but those "other" women...well, he can't be expected to sacrifice his strategy for ethics. There's a line there! You can't hang your hat on "I'm doing this for my daughter! My daughter! My family! My daughter!" and then when a tasteless sexist joke comes up...eh, no big deal. Because it's OK if it's not about your daughter, right? I absolutely expect Frankie Grande -- social media mogul, desperate for fame, attention and notoriety, someone who wants to be a part of the Hollywood machine and absolutely craves drama -- to make a joke like that and laugh at it. But Derrick the dad laughing right along tells me all I need to know about his "strategy."

The episode was funny, as always, but I also enjoyed how well it was scripted. I loved the idea of the 16th mobster getting away, because (presumably) that will come back soon. Also it didn't put too neat (or unrealistic) a bow on Jake's undercover experience. Solid storytelling. Making Boyle/Gina a running gag seems silly -- although to the show's credit, I almost forgot about it when Boyle never brought it up, even with Gina's self-humiliation. I hope they're not thinking of making them a "serious" couple, though I wonder if they'll become the Dwight/Angela-type of the show.

I'm going to have to recuse myself from seasons 1-5, as I only started watching BB in season 6. So, I'll only be ranking 11 out of 16: Top tier (Will -- saw in All Stars, but not his winning season), Dan, Maggie Middle tier Jordan, Derrick, Rachel, Hayden Bottom tier Ian, Boogie, Andy, Adam, Dick As stated previously, I have a real issue with putting Rachel in the bottom, since she engineered no alliances, was basically part of an alliance of two (her and Brendon), had no social game and got there by winning comps alone. She still had to win the comps to advance. If she'd lost that comp, she or Jordan would've gone home. Again, not one of the best winners by any stretch, but not one of the worst. I still put her above Hayden "I joined the Bridgade, won the final comp and was less offensive than the other guy." I give points for degree of difficulty (i.e., a large alliance organized against you) and deduct them for coat-tail riding or assuming power in a vacuum. I also deduct points for "Other people did a lot more than me, but I'm up against a stupid girl, so obviously I win." Adam was useless, but didn't seem to believe his own press based solely on a generous edit. And also didn't duck out of a second chance to prove he could compete against his veteran peers due to an "emergency." (yeah, I'm sure it was legitimate -- it was also awfully convenient)

Oh man, I can't wait for Cody's stirring performance of "I Got No Strings" from the beloved children's classic, Pinocchio. Maybe now that he's out of the Big Brother house, he can be a real live boy again!

I'm so sorry, my mistake! I thought his accent was subtler on "Prison Break."

I was pleasantly surprised we weren't subjected to entire months of "I have your wife, MUAH HAH HAH." Then again, I guess she didn't have that many body parts to spare. Kind of disappointed Peter Stormare is such a caricature -- he had more nuance on "Prison Break." Maybe it's the over-the-top fake accent.

Did someone mention the judge who knows Denise Grobman (the woman whose husband paid someone to shoot her because his little furry feelings were hurt that she was more successful than he was) personally in "DNR?" Balancing her professional opinion with her personal interest was wrenching to watch. And when Denise Grobman cries, "Lisa!" (using her real name), it's hard not to be moved. That judge did a great job in that small, but crucial role.

I think Elissa proved last year that you can call people out on doing awful things and what will hurt your game more is not having an actual alliance. Why I hold Derrick to a slightly higher standard and find his inaction a little more difficult to swallow than say, Caleb or Cody, is not only the fact that he's a husband and a father (and thus, an adult), but that his master manipulation skills mysteriously vanished in this particular instance. He could get houseguests to say or do or agree to pretty much anything to help him win money, but when it was standing up for another person (a tenet of the police force), his ability to manipulate others just...magically disappeared! And suddenly, Derrick -- who could get houseguests to agree to go up on the block, who could get them to love him even as he sent them out the door -- was simply powerless to stop another person from being degraded? Talking people out of wanting $500,000 for themselves was easy -- but shutting down talk about one rape joke was simply beyond his control? Really? For someone playing in the service of such lofty ideals (to feed his daughter), they seemed to disappear at an awfully convenient time.

Just finished watching "Badge," which was prodigious timing -- given Viola Davis' new show. WOW, was she good. I don't think even in the early years of CI did we have such a developed murderer. She did so much with really basic dialogue -- I felt like I knew Terry Randolph inside and out when it was done. And then her breaking down about her girls -- such good drama. If the best villains are ones where you can understand their motivations, she was one of the great ones. And I LOVED Goren getting into the act with her -- the exaggerated New York accent, the smoking, the loud, brash stereotype of every detective. You could almost see her wheels turning: "I'm smarter than you" -- and that was just the way he wanted it. Great, great episode!

I don't want to get too far off topic, so this will be my last post on the subject: I didn't mean the nurses didn't have guns -- I mean the patients don't. I have family members who are nurses. If they are being threatened by a patient, they get backup -- another nurse or an aide to come and help them. If they are being threatened by a family member, they call security, who can remove problematic family members. Undercover cops can't do that. If Derrick is being threatened by someone in his profession, he has to talk his way out of it. He cannot "call for backup" -- he is the backup. He is the only way to save his life, if they don't want to compromise the undercover operation (or so I'm told from too many hours of Law & Order). This is why I think Derrick had it so easy in the Big Brother house and one reason why I can't rank him among the top tier players. He's used to staying alive (or unharmed) by talking his way out of things. That's his job: to infiltrate, gather information and talk his way out of things to accomplish an objective. Which is literally the template for winning Big Brother (as a micromanaging strategist). It's not a nurse's job to talk her way out of things, nor is it a high school teacher or coach's job. Maggie and Dan could compete in the Manipulator's Olympics as amateurs, but Derrick would be disqualified. An undercover cop is a professional manipulator by trade, in service to his community. He got a paycheck for playing Big Brother with bad guys every day. He could've been in the house with clones of Dr. Will, Dan and Maggie, and as long as they didn't have guns, he might've done equally as well. Because it was what he got paid to do before he went in the Big Brother house and...well...he got paid to do it again.

True, but the patients don't have guns. Nor do the high school students (I suppose I always think of Dan as a teacher instead of a coach -- I mean, a high school basketball coach isn't exactly Phil Jackson here). As an undercover cop, Derrick was presumably infiltrating criminal organizations (not the mob, but at least loosely formed groups of bad guys). These criminals were likely armed and dangerous -- hence, the undercover work. So, if Derrick was good enough to manipulate armed criminals for three years, "Beastmode Cowboy" and a "social media mogul" and literally a kid probably weren't that big a stretch for him.

Mary's love triangle reminds me of a comment Simon Cowell made a long time ago about the difference between UK and U.S. viewers. He said in the UK, people enjoyed seeing a favorite do well, because he/she was the most qualified and it only made sense to celebrate their success. He said in the U.S., people rooted for the underdog -- they wanted to see a favorite fall, they wanted to see a come-from-behind victory. To that end, I've started seeing Mary's love life as a "Pretty in Pink" situation, with Mary as Andi, Blake as Ducky and Gillingham as Blaine (with the possible option to be James Spader, whose character name I can't remember now). I don't think Fellowes does "triumph of the underdog" stories. Case in point: ...Edith's life for the last five seasons.

I disagree, only because who was Derrick's opposition? Donny? Nicole and Hayden maybe? Jocasta? Maggie had a group of (Sovereign) Six all gunning for her, an organized alliance with a couple competition beasts in the mix and she beat them all with...Jennifer, April, Ivette and Beau. Derrick had Cody and Caleb in his back pocket (who were good enough at comps) and Frankie as an ally (another comp beast). I also feel like Frankie wasn't "snowed" by Derrick so much as couldn't marshal the forces to get him out, because they were all aligned with the same people and those people were more loyal to Derrick than Frankie. And again: an undercover cop manipulating someone doesn't strike me as difficult as a nurse doing it, in my mind.

So, Mrs. Hughes killed Green, huh? And framed Bates by putting the ticket in his pocket? That's...awesome. (...Or not -- she's probably just upset that Bates might get caught. I like my theory better.)

You will never see a sexist man talk poorly about his family. That's what makes sexism so insidious. It's the "other"ing of women. There are "my" women (my wife/daughter/mother/sister) and there are those "other" women. "My" women are put into a special category, never to be judged, while the "other" women are fair game. That's what allows it to perpetrate. As long as I'm nice to "my" women, I can't be sexist. I haven't heard Derrick's comments myself, but they sound pretty textbook. The flip side to this is people who identify so closely with celebrities, celebrities who don't care about them and don't know anything about them, and appoint themselves the personal protectors and defenders of these celebrities. All kinds of projection occurs, including but not limited to the characterization of the celebrity as a "regular person" -- all the better to more closely identify with him or her. I can't say with absolute certainty that Derrick is a corrupt cop who beats people for confessions. I also can't say with absolute certainty that Derrick isn't a corrupt cop who beats people for confessions. I judge Derrick by what he has showed me on TV and the Internet as a celebrity: the image he has chosen to project. I can draw my own conclusions, but if mine are negative, it does not invalidate them nor does it make me have "issues" for thinking that way. Someone who thinks everything Derrick does is terrible is no more disturbed than someone who thinks everything Derrick does is wonderful, in my book.

No arguments there -- I think Rachel is better than Hayden. Her social game in BB13 was inferior to her social game in BB11, but I'd argue even in BB13, it was better than Rachel's. "Jeff and I are good people" is better social game than "Nobody comes between me and my man!" I loved Rachel in both seasons, so my opinion is even more unpopular. I saw her immediately as someone who wanted to make good television -- and I have no problem with that, especially since she was a competitor and came to play. She demanded you take a side: "Floaters, grab a life vest!" was a great moment. I cannot even begin to think how incensed she would be at the game play this year: the giant alliance, throwing comps and "doing what the house wants." Degree of difficulty for a win is another reason I will fight tooth and nail against someone like Derrick being better than someone like Maggie. I found Maggie to be a vile person, but her game was impeccable. She had maybe the only mostly female alliance I can remember (Beau was the only male member of the Friendship), with all the men plus competition beasts Janelle (who I loved) and James on the other side of the house. She faced competition every week from a large, organized alliance who were gunning for her, and she outmaneuvered them all. In retrospect, her game is so impressive, even though I hated it at the time. Derrick led a large alliance with no organized opposition around by the nose all season -- Maggie had to fight every week. There's no contest there.

Big Brother certainly has a thing for men playing the game for their daughters. At least Danielle was in no danger of starving. (for the record, I hated Dick, and as a winner, I find him thoroughly mediocre, benefiting both from good editing and a cult of personality that made him into a self-dubbed guru of the game on the Internet). I also find Mike Boogie thoroughly mediocre -- benefiting not only from riding the coattails of one of (if not the best) social game player of all time, but also from the privilege of casual misogyny, where if a man is sitting next to a woman at the end (at least lately), it is automatically assumed he did better than she did. Hayden is a tough one, because I think he had social game and won comps when he needed to, but benefited tremendously from The Brigade. He was a well-rounded winner, but the Brigade had eliminated all their threats earlier, so it was a question of who would benefit from their work. I suppose I give points on degree of difficulty, and "All-male alliance member wins in season where all-male alliance dominated" doesn't seem that impressive (my respect for him went up on Survivor, though). The reason I give Rachel a lot of credit, and put her higher than these men (though lower than Jordan and now Derrick) is she had one aspect to her game and still managed to win. She had a terrible social game and she wasn't very strategic at all. But she was a competition beast. She won when she needed to. Yeah, Pandora's Box benefited her -- but she still had to win that comp. And nobody set out to rig the season for her. Remembering BB13, I think the newbies were keeping her around as a goat (wanting Jordan and her superior social game out first) and yet, she still won. Heck, she was probably the last veteran they wanted to win and she still won. That's impressive, to me. (And I agree with peachmagosteen -- judge each season individually. So I don't mark Rachel down for her performance in BB12, just like I don't mark Dan down for not winning BB14 or Will for not winning All Stars. They're all winners, and I judge them based on the seasons where they won).

Great post, DianeDobbler. Love your point about "engine stories," and the contrast with short arcs. I still feel like Fellowes sees Robert as the male lead (and Mary as the female lead), but I'd be hard pressed to find more serialized stories for Robert than for Bates. Mary and Bates really do drive the upstairs and downstairs stories, respectively. What I find interesting about the groundwork that was laid for Mary's romance this past episode is that Fellowes has never written a love triangle where a person is torn between two love interests. Never. It's always "One person loves another, and a third person loves the first person." That was Bates/Anna/Vera and Anna/Bates/Moseley. That was Daisy/Thomas/William and Alfred/Ivy/Daisy. Matthew/Mary/Edith in S1, and Mary/Matthew/Carlisle and Matthew/Lavinia/Mary in S2. Likewise, I see nothing to indicate Mary's current triangle isn't Mary/Gillingham/Blake. There has only been one time in the show's history where the first person has rejected the second person in favor of the third person (Matthew/Lavinia/Mary) and that was only because the second person died! If Mary and Blake end up together, it would be unprecedented. It doesn't mean it can't happen, but it would be vastly different from anything Fellowes has ever written.

Ugh, that made me so uncomfortable -- especially since their gang of three white guys targeted the only two black contestants. This happens every year (remember how the red team hated Barbie?), and I can only describe it as "casual racism." Some dissension on the team = the team automatically assumes the black contestants are responsible/disruptive/weak/the cause of all discord. Really wish Steve had gone home tonight. Maybe this will be a wake up call for him to abandon this ridiculous "alliance" next week.