freeser

It was hard to believe that he actually thought Missy was telling the truth. The thing I thought was also unbelievable about that scene was that Sheldon was doing any sort of physical manual labor. He always pushes things like that off on others.

I have never warmed up to the Mandy character. She is not really funny or quirky or even interesting to me. She seems sour and gloomy most of the time. And since Georgie has become a father and engaged to Mandy, his character seems to have 'flattened out'. His funny appealing side seems to have vanished. I guess it is good he is serious about his new family, but I don't find the character entertaining any more. I wish the Mandy and Georgie show well, but I don't intend to watch it a show mainly about them.

“Of course the door is always open,” said Binder. But, the EP pointed out, “When we bring him back, we’re not going to bring him back for two minutes” a la Weatherly’s cameo. “It’s got to be something special.” _________________________________________________________________________________________ That statement is just a bunch of BS to me. What could be more special to Gibbs (or the show) than attending Ducky's funeral. Plus, by mentioning that Weatherly's cameo was for two minutes, it sounds like Harmon could not be bothered to take just 2 minutes of his time for his appearance. It sounds like a put down of Tony's character. As others have stated also, just a final shot of a woman dressed in black holding a black parasol standing next to a silver haired man would have satisfied most of us. They did not necessarily need Harmon to actually appear.

I beg to differ - I don't think Gibbs showing up would have taken the focus away from Ducky. Tony showing up only added to the story for me. Tony was a plus and did not detract from the affection shown for Ducky. On another web site, I read an interesting thought. They said that it would have been a nice finale of the story to have shown Ducky's burial from a distance. We would have seen Gibbs and maybe Abby from a back view at the grave. That way neither actor would have actually had to have been there in person. Just a thought.....

I was surprised and disappointed that Gibbs didn't put in a brief appearance as Tony did at the end. Mark Harmon is still listed as an Executive Producer of the show so he seems to be involved in it. A cameo by him would have really concluded the tribute nicely.

The episode with Emma's first birthday was shown today. It got me wondering about Ben. Were there episodes with both Emma and Ben together? Ross it seems would have wanted his two children to know each other.

I thought his son was relatively unemotional about the whole thing (except for his kind thoughts about his mother). I couldn't really tell if he really thought his father was guilty or innocent. I also wondered about the two daughters' feelings about the situation. I thought Remy was just a despicable person. I am not sure what his children thought about him, but he did not seem to have concerns for them. I don't think he mentioned missing them or frankly caring what was happening to them because of his trial. In all his ramblings, he never talked about how his the kids were doing or that he missed them. I did think it was rather interesting when near the end they talked to the inept lawyer who defended him and the lawyer said that he personally always thought Remy was guilty from the beginning. Hey fella, so did all of us!

"She's just there" really says it all for me also. I don't find the character interesting, funny, smart or entertaining. Mandy is just very dull. I noticed in the opening sequence where they step away from the cow that Mandy is now included holding the baby. That seems to suggest that she will be around for a while possibly in a spin off. I guess never say never to watching such a show, but they would have to do something to make her character a lot better for me to watch.

I guess since they are taking on much bigger projects, it was to be expected that they would need a lot more workers. But it makes me miss the older shows where they were doing simpler jobs and it was just the basic crew plus a plumber or a few extras and some dogs. I felt I knew those original folks. They only seemed to appear sparingly in the new shows. During the lumber company show, Chase kept mentioning the restaurant. I didn't know they had expanded into food service. I was not very interested in the lumber company show or the one with the geodesic dome. It felt like a big production instead of a more simpler show about rehabbing old cabins (or should I say 'camps').

I can't make out what the little boy is saying to Santa when he gives him the slippers. What does he say?

I can't believe the powers that be didn't know that we tuned in to Castle because it was NOT a gritty show. We want the Castle who says "I am ruggedly handsome", the Castle who plays cards with fellow writers, the one who dresses as Elvis in Atlantic City and the one who wears a bullet proof vest that says WRITER. If we wanted grittier, we would change channels to Law and Order.

It is obvious the bakers were not given the proper amount of time. As everyone has stated, when they ALL fail the problem is not with the bakers, but with the powers-that-be not giving them the correct amount of time. Also, wouldn't it be interesting to know how much time the baker/bakers who made the desserts that Paul and Prue eat took to create their samples. Paul and Prue go on about how they want the bakers to make theirs look as perfect as the samples they are eating. Not only should we assume the Paul and Prue samples took much longer to make than the time the contestants were given. But from what I have read many times about cooking shows - there are quite a few of the same recipes made - not just the final one everyone sees. They make many copies so that if there are flops, they will show only the best one. The samples could have taken much longer time, were made by people who had experience and who had the ability to make flops and have them discarded. The contestants get just one chance and can't hide their mistakes. It is just a TV show of course, but his particular time it seemed very unfair to the amateur cooks.

There is one good thing about all of the recapping of the story. When I am flipping around and land on one of these 20/20 or Dateline type of shows, I can start watching at the halfway point of the show. I know that after the next commercial they will summarize the first part of the story and I will be up to date and won't miss a thing.

Watching Raylan's daughter, I couldn't help but compare her to the teenaged Loretta in the original Justified. She was so fantastic and made such an impression on me, I remember her clearly to this day. I'm not thrilled with this new Justified. It is too dark in several ways - the story is very violent. Plus it is literally a very dark show as far as scenes. The city and bar are darkly lit places. I do miss the open outdoor scenes of the original. The quirkiness of Boyd, Dewey, Mags, etc. just can't be duplicated. As with just about everyone, I love Timothy as Raylan. But if he was not the star of this new show, I don't know if I would give it much more of a chance. I'll hang in there for a while.....

I think the main reason the team won the cake challenge was that the one lady identified it as a 'cut away' cake by looking at the marks on the empty cake stand. She was very observant to recognize what it was by seeing the triangular shaped marks that were left. Even if all teams had made the actual cakes the right flavor with the correct icing, I think not making it a 'cut away' cake would have eliminated the other two teams. When the winning ladies saw the extra clue being the shape of the cut outs, they knew they had gotten it right.

I thought I also saw one of the teams have a piece of paper. I wondered if it was the recipe and where they got it.

I have always wondered about this also. Even if the dessert is a regular cheesecake or a key lime pie or whatever - I wouldn't think they are expected to know the exact ingredients for every possible recipe. They would know there is sugar, flour, vanilla, baking powder, etc - but it would be a bit much to expect them to know the exact amount of everything that goes into the dessert. Maybe they are allowed to look it up on a web site or something?!? I also wonder what ingredients are in the cabinets and fridge in each kitchen. Not knowing what dessert the contestants will try to make, how is it determined what items are available for them to use. I would like it if they took a few minutes on an upcoming show and explained these things to us.

I am also glad to see this show return. I find it fun and interesting. I was wondering - when the cooks think they know the mystery food (be it a cake or pie or whatever) are they expected to know the correct recipe by memory or can they look up the ingredients somewhere. Even if I knew the dessert was for sure an upside down cake or a key lime pie, I personally would not know exactly what went into it without checking a recipe.

The only adults who seem to have a sensible idea of what a marriage would be between Georgie and Mandy are George, MeeMaw and Mandy's father. Those three seem to see the practical obstacles of a marriage. Mandy's mother lied and told people that they are already married to make things look proper. Therefore Mandy decides to have a big wedding to show her mother up and let everyone know they were not already married. Mary only wants a marriage to satisfy the church and members so she (Mary) will look good. Neither Mandy's mother nor Mary seem to take into account what will be best for Mandy and Georgie or how sensible a marriage would be for a 18 year old and an almost 30 year old. Georgie lives in a garage and Mandy and the baby live with her baby father's grandma. Georgie still feels he needs to borrow a lot of money from MeeMaw to buy a ring as it is 'important' for the ring to be a real diamond. Even before the tornado ruined the garage, where would Georgie, Mandy and the baby live after marriage? No one appears to have any money or solid plans for a realistic life after marriage. These are not two people who are totally in love and crazy about each other. I do think they both love the baby, but they are not mature enough to jump into a marriage. They both are needy, but marriage is not the answer for them at this time. It will be interesting to see where this goes.....

Frankly, I don't think Mary could stand the thought of being without Shelly for a whole summer! She would not have gone to a lot of trouble to accompany Missy, Georgie or George on a trip, but Shelly is her true love in that family. I think she would have been too worried that Shelly was not being taken care of properly if she did not accompany him. When the kids commented about how nice and quiet it was when Sheldon was in the hospital - she didn't like it. When Sheldon went missing from the psychiatrist's office and George said something like 'don't worry if someone had kidnapped him, they would return him when they realized who they had' she gave him such a dirty look. She just will not come to grips with his very difficult personality and all she does is coddle him thereby encouraging him with constant excuses as to his behavior. I don't think she would have let him go to Germany without being there to oversee everything.

Thank you for the word "wooden"! I couldn't come up with a better description of Iain's acting now. He appears and just seems to spout off whatever dialogue he has - then turns away. What happened to a little bit of emotion? But frankly so much of the dialogue he is given makes the poor kid seem more obnoxious each time he speaks. The combination of his wooden acting and the way they are writing his part, makes for a very forgettable character. I like just about everyone else in the show better than Iain. He started off so interesting. It is sad it has come to this.

Thanks for the info - I remembered the laundromat and casino, but I forgot about the video store. Speaking of jobs, did George get officially rehired as football coach?

The whole Sheldon/life on other planets story line felt very 'forced'. It seemed like they were really stretching the episode to try to have some sort of story that would enable Sheldon to have some air time. Something else that occurred to me - are we to assume that MeeMaw is paying for the baby's expenses? I remember Mandy told MeeMaw that she did not have any health (or even auto) insurance so MeeMaw told her not to worry about it. I guess that means that she paid for the hospital bills for Mandy and the baby. Is she still paying for the baby's clothes, formula, doctor visits, etc? Does Georgie have a job anymore? Does he still work in the laundry/casino or anywhere?

Of course Missy had to be punished for running away and stealing the truck. But it was disappointing to me that it didn't seem that neither George nor Mary took any time to try to find out what Missy was feeling and why she did what she did. All Mary said was NO tv, NO music, No magazines, etc. The poor kid is really ignored so much of the time especially now that there is a new baby in the mix. Sheldon gets a new computer and Missy was told they could not afford a new book for her. They forget to pick her up at school and she walks home. Anything that seems to upset Sheldon is met with a "What's wrong, Baby?" from his mother but then Missy is told she can't wear certain clothes or go to a dance. Sheldon can be terribly rude and nasty in his conversations with his parents, but he does not get told to shape up or stop it. It might be hard for the parents to have a serious talk with Missy as they might have to admit that they are a big part of the reason for her situation and feelings. When Sheldon was having emotional problems, they took him to the cut rate psychiatrist to try to help him. With Missy, they just take things away, threaten her and get mad. I really feel for Missy in this situation.

I just checked and Reagan turned 15 last month. No wonder she looks older than 12!!!