sinkwriter

Why oh why did I click on that link?? That is so disturbing. LOL.

Absolutely. All the rest of it was not over-the-top at all, and fits the not at all over-the-top stories the designers come up with for their "girl." LOL.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAA Hold on... wait a minute, Kini needed a 10 minute break? No way! The story for the "girl" is totally destroyed with that bit of implausibility.

I think the overall idea had merit -- to have the famous mystery writer become the mystery that needs to be solved, that could be very interesting. Where has Castle been for 2 months? Why does he turn up unconscious, in a boat, with these strange details like that dengue fever thing (spelling?) and having been shot/grazed by a bullet? What happened to him? Why can't he remember? Was he drugged? What was the aim of whoever took him? Did they think he would die in that boat, never to be found, and no answers would ever be uncovered? Those are all very interesting questions to me as a viewer. However... I wish they wouldn't have made it so "Castle might be in on it! What's he hiding?? DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!" I think showing Castle dropping off the money was when things really started to veer, because then everyone started doubting him and the story became about that instead of about the grander mysterious possibilities. To have his own fiancé treat him like a suspect in her interrogation room, to have his friends doubt him so readily (well, Espo anyway; Ryan held out for a while), to have the entire episode be treated like an investigation instead of an emotional journey... that's what didn't work for me. So much seemed to be missing, and the emotional moments they did have felt staged. All starting from Beckett's overdramatic sitting on the ground in her wedding dress while the firefighters' water sprayed over her (seriously?), I wanted to connect but felt removed from it all. Rather than forcing the mystery by manufacturing all these melodramatic details about the tent and money drop, I would have preferred this episode be about Castle being missing and the emotional toll it takes on not only Beckett, but also Martha and Alexis and Ryan and Esposito. They all have specific relationships with Castle; I would have loved to have seen their losses and feelings explored, as they tried to find him. I would have also preferred that we saw a little more from Castle, how confused and weirded out he must feel, waking up and realizing he's been through all this crazy stuff and he has no memory of it. After that, in a separate episode, I would have liked the real investigation to begin, where Castle gets a chance to examine all the clues and see himself and his missing timetable as this ultimate mystery for himself and Beckett to figure out. And if it must cast doubt on Castle at that time, I would have liked to have seen Castle get defensive and stand up for himself and say "I DON'T KNOW but I think you should give me the benefit of the doubt!! I wouldn't do this to my family, not intentionally!" Unfortunately, as I've learned in my years of TV watching, I sometimes see things differently than the showrunners and they take things in directions I don't like or that I wish would have more emotional depth.

I don't know that I agree with this. No matter what age, be it Nina's age or a 20-something new designer, I think a designer should be well versed in the history of design and all its incarnations over the centuries, not only for inspiration but to expand upon or take something in a new and exciting direction, or to steer clear of certain designs that are hideous. So it shouldn't matter how old the designer is, they should be able to call something "dated" because they've been a student of design. When I went back to school for web design, one of the required courses was "History of Graphic Design." At first I thought I'd hate it, because I'm not a graphic artist, but it turned out to be pretty fascinating and I not only learned a lot but saw some fantastic designs and the evolution from one style to another. It definitely helped teach me to have a wider view of design in general and how I can apply it to my own work. I can see how the same would apply for a fashion designer. "The more you know" and all that kind of thing. *GRIN* Plus, I think there are certain designs that are simply "dated" and have never been "classic" or "vintage." They're just dated and ugly. LOL. Of course, it's all subjective...

I can almost hear Tim in my head: "Designers... it's time to take your models down to the Wet 'n Wild studio for hair and makeup." LOL. That is just so wrong.

The pen thing is something so small, but it really cracked me up. Tom's expression was like, "Are you fucking kidding me with this pen chain? Seriously? You don't trust your customers and you're chaining this pen to the table??" (Only he'd use more formal language, of course. LOL.) It was just this classic look of "this is the very last straw and I cannot believe it" and it made me laugh. I love little moments like that. I know they have to stay focused on the overall witnesses story and Headless and War and Death and all that stuff, and that can be interesting sometimes, but it's the character details that really fascinate me. I wish we could see more of Crane's development in that area, how he slowly learns to adapt to all of modern life's oddities and compares them to how it was "back then." It amuses me.

As a fan of The West Wing, I was like, "Danny?" *GRIN*

LOL! That's inspired, millennium.

That nod the Kindred gave her (like "I got your back, jack"), Crane's credit card rant, and his expression when he realized the pen was chained down... those were my 3 favorite moments from this episode. Good stuff.

Oh no, please don't remind me about Ken! He was getting on my last nerve, he was so rude. I'm trying to block that out. (LOL.)

Hmm... why should Korina be exempt from criticism? She's certainly not spared any of her competitors, as we saw all season and most especially in last night's episode. I don't feel sorry for her one bit.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAA. Yeah, you're probably right. I can still hear Jay's exasperated exclamations, every damn week, "MORGAN!!!" What a pain in the ass she was.

Oh man... I'd almost forgotten about her! Poor Jay. He had to put up with so much from her, including her destroying his work by wearing it out clubbing. I wonder what she's doing these days.

Who knew? I had no idea. I wonder which came first, the discount clothing store or the realtor company. *GRIN* Thanks for the info.

Realtors everywhere are probably very sad to hear this. *GRIN*

Somehow I doubt she would have. In the past when she was told something wasn't working, she was "at a loss" and didn't want to change it because she thought she was too awesome to be lumped in with the others. Even when Heidi HATED her green dress, Korina barely took their notes; she didn't understand what the problem was and still ended up making a 2nd horrible dress because she wasn't able to step back and change approach. If Tim had critiqued her outfit in last night's challenge, I have the feeling Korina would have dismissed him. She was so steeped in arrogance, she saw absolutely nothing wrong with anything she'd done in that trio of outfits.

YES! That's the first thing that popped into my head when I saw that scene. I thought, at least ONE person has to go running over to the vehicle and try to get it to stop being crushed. What if he's in there? Obviously, we know he's not because that would be the end of the series, but the characters don't know that. The logical (and emotional) response would be to try to stop the car from being crushed any further or to make sure Castle's not in the vehicle. This goes far beyond hand-wavable plot holes. There comes a point when it feels like the writers and showrunners aren't even trying anymore. Where they aren't stopping to consider believable behavior. This show offered that in spades in the beginning. Why do they have to forget that? They can go with the outlandish plotline, which this mystery feels like, I'm cool with that. But what grounds the crazy plots is the characters and their believable emotional connections and reactions. The Castle showrunners used to do it really well, and then they just... lost it. I don't understand why. How could they not bother with the impact of losing a son and father (for Martha and Alexis) and how they might bond with Beckett about that? I know Beckett tends to compartmentalize in order to stay focused and do her job, but at some point it would have been much more effective an episode if the writers had focused on the emotional rather than the investigative angles of this story. To skip over it leaves me feeling detached from it all, and I really don't think that should be the goal. I would expect showrunners would want people to be emotionally involved in the story and what the characters are going through.

I went back through the "Rate the Runway" features on the PR website because I was curious how many times Korina has used a "southwestern" theme (per Nina's frustration). Seems like it was an unfair call on Nina's part. These are the outfits Korina has made: ep1 long red sleeveless turtleneck dress with black belt ep2 bizarrely patterned black and bright green filmstrip dress ep3 long mesh duster coat with yellow top and beige cropped pants ep4 sleeveless red & black motorcycle vest & long red skirt ep5 dark green gown that Heidi hated ep6 shiny off-white pants and suit jacket with pushed up sleeves ep7 dramatic southwestern duster coat and black turtleneck dress ep8 WTF short black dress w/metallic hoops circling body & arms ep9 cute American girl outfit with red/white/yellow flaps ep10 black racerback dress with blue and black motorcycle jacket She's repeated herself with the motorcycle jackets. She's also repeated herself with the southwestern style if you count the mesh duster from episode 3, but she didn't really use overly heavy SW patterns except for tonight's design and that dramatic coat she made when she won the challenge. Nevertheless... looking over all her looks on the Rate the Runway, I can't say I loved any of them. Meanwhile, there have been looks done by Sean and Kini and other designers that I have thought were gorgeous or well made or just very creative. Not Korina's. Her looks left me underwhelmed. I think the one I liked the most was her American Doll outfit, just because it was very cheery and bright and fitting for the challenge. But beyond that, the rest were nothing special. So even though she may have been right to defend herself against Nina's unfair assessment that she's overdone the southwestern style, her overall attitude throughout tonight's episode was ridiculous. She was rude, insulting and outrageously arrogant. Looking over her 11 weeks of products I'd say she has no cause to be so full of herself as if she's the best of the best and no one else can touch her talent. Um... no.

Actually it's Lifetime now. But I totally understand the reverting to Bravo; at the start of this season I forgot that the show was on Lifetime and I turned the channel to Bravo on reflex. *GRIN*

I'd love to say I'm surprised that Korina and Char are paired up next week, given the disastrous display by Korina tonight. But I bet the producers were salivating for a way to keep the animosity going by bringing Korina back and pairing her up to work with the person she clearly cannot stand. What I find frustrating about it is that there's no way Korina would want to do any quality work, not if it means "helping" Char, so why on earth would they pair the two of them? It's not fair to Char and it's just stirring up shit. Nevertheless, I'm glad Korina went home tonight. I've not been incredibly impressed with any of her work, I certainly don't see it as awesome the way Korina declares it to be, and now with her vicious attitude on full display I'm just really glad they voted her out. She doesn't deserve to be there. I don't care if she's the best designer there (and in my opinion, she is NOT), that attitude would make me want to never buy a single garment from her ever.

Hmmmmmmm... you may be onto something. *GRIN*

Anyway... back to this episode! I think the writers are losing their connection to the characters and believable emotions. I was cool with Castle being a bit emotionally numb in this episode, mainly because he'd been unconscious and after waking up and hearing about all the things that had happened, I would imagine he's pretty shell-shocked. But I do wish so much that we'd seen him with his daughter, or his mother. I do wish that we'd seen some emotionally connective scenes between Beckett and Alexis, or Beckett and Martha, besides those fleeting impersonal moments. I just think there was something missing throughout the entire episode that could have made it so much better. Oops! I was typing as Wendy wrote her message. Apologies, Wendy. I've removed my comments that furthered the conversation that veered off-topic.

Not true. There are exceptions to every rule and that goes for actors as well. I've been involved in music theatre and other forms of performance for years, and some of my best friends have been actors. Creative people can be so much fun and open to the most marvelous conversations. And TJ Thyne from Bones is definitely an exception to your overly general rule. He's an absolute sweetheart, on screen and off. He even makes time out of his day to chat online with his fans. I know because I've been part of those chats. And we're not talking just a few minutes. We're talking one, two, sometimes three hours when he has the time. He answers everyone's questions (so long as they remain appropriate and not too too personal), he's genuinely interested in meeting everyone and hearing about their experiences, he's enthusiastic about his job and pretty much everything about life, the man is positivity personified. He is definitely not a douche bag.

I should have amended my statement to add this. I agree - Kini did a great job working with her figure, and she was more "real woman" than the others. But I do wish the designers overall would have been brave enough to step outside the box and dare to work with a variety of sizes, shapes and heights. The women may have been "average" compared to the usual models used on the show, but most were still taller and in great shape. Hardly a huge challenge for any of them to work with.