CeeBeeGee

I was impressed with her flicker at the end, it reminded me of Johnny being gracious in defeat at the end of the first film. But yeah, she has been a gigantic, criminal asshole and Sam has every right and reason to despise her. I have to say, Martin Kove's acting has greatly improved since the '80s. He was a little embarrassing in some of those scenes, the worst being "You're a pushy little bastard, aintcha? But I like that!" He's much more minimalist now.

Jesus, Kenny. Now I don't feel sorry for you. Now you've turned into just another Cobra Kai asshole, another bully. Poor Miguel. Johnny is simply not hearing him. "I blew it." At least Johnny admits it was his fault. Nie to see Danny finally realizing that Eagle Fang is just as valid a way to do karate as Miyagi-Do. Is Robby allowed to compete like that, without a belt, his uniform (gi?) flapping open? It seems like that would be a violation. Yayyyyyy Eli! Robby is the runner-up, two years in a row. Yayyyyyy, Johnny and Danny respecting each other again!!! Howwwww do these kids all not have MAJOR injuries? Getting kicked in the jaw? Is this exaggerated or are all karate meets like this? I mean, I'm afraid to learn the jumps in skating because I don't want to fall, this looks brutal. I'm calling it now, Terry Silver will be arrested before the end of Tory and Sam's fight. I can't see why they would've shown us Stingray waking up otherwise. Look at Kreese, finally learning and growing! God, I love the writing on this show. Plus, I think he genuinely feels paternal, in his weird way, toward Tory. And Tory showing growth as well! I love it. Okay, so maybe Terry won't be arrested during their fight--but surely he will be arrested? HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIII OMG, Tory had to have been devastated seeing Silver pay off the ref. Beautiful scene between Robby and Johnny. Silver with the truth bombs! "Your weakness is Johnny Lawrence." I KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!! Loved Kreese figuring it out immediately. "What did you do?" Oh shit, I think I know what's about to happen-- NAILED IT. Surely the police will be able to look at the forensic evidence (for one thing SIlver is noticeably taller than Kreese so his kicks would land differently) and tell it wasn't Kreese? I will say, there's a certain rough justice in Silver stealing Cobra Kai from Kreese, when Kreese did it to Johnny. Tory can ID Silver as a cheater and they can check the ref's bank account.

I believe oral agreements are legally binding, but you'd have to prove it. The problem is, even if it were laughed out of court, both Silver and Kreese are f***ing nuts and would probably burn down Miyago-Do and Eagle Fang. Remember in the first movie, Kreese openly threatened Mr. Miyagi and Danny if they didn't show at the Tournament. "It'll be open season on you--and on him." And whining about a little old man taking on five kids and handing their asses to them but ignoring those same kids nearly killing Danny. I assumed that was the case, just as that was the reason Kim Fields was on as Aisha's mother.

That was awesome! Because he's 14. Friends are everything at that age. Tory looks fantastic in that dress! Stingray, the character no one wanted to see again. (Although he is used effectively here.) I am firmly Team Hughes, I haaaaate noisy neighbors. Does he realize he's going to be arrested for assault? Every time I see Terry Silver, I want to say "Why the long face?" The writing on this show continues to impress me--love that finally Kreese is getting some nuance. Did not see that act of mercy toward Johnny coming. That last scene between Miguel and Johnny--WOW. That poor kid. That last scene--Jesus, show.

She's great! I happen to love Red Lobster (those Cheddar Bay biscuits!) but it's not at all what I would call a really good restaurant. You'd think Johnny, who used to belong to a country club and has presumably dined at very good restaurants, would know the difference. I never saw KK3 so I can't appreciate how Terry's character has changed but I do like his tempered, more nuanced approach to karate in contrast to Kreese the Psycho.

Yay, Aisha! Bring her back! And yes, debate girl is great. LOVED the montage of Johnny inappropriately talking to the teenage girls. The scene at the gym with the dad was hilarious. I like the introduced nuance to Tory's story. (And the scene with Aunt Met--wow.) If she can grow and refrain from going nuclear at the slightest provocation, she can grow on me. But still, Sam has every right to despise her. If Sam visiting Aisha means we get to actually see her, fine by me! The board montage was great as well. "God help us all" or whatever the last line was. Exactly. Everyone has a point here. Amanda is trying to do the right thing but Tory maimed Sam for God's sake.

1988 is forever ago. I get that supposedly clean athletes are sometimes later found to have doped but they do so at their peril, because their entire reputation is absolutely tanked, upon revelation, and they lose a shitton of endorsements. The US does NOT support dopers. The whole "everybody's cheating, everyone sucks" seems needlessly nihilistic. I don't believe that at all.

Yeah, they get tested constantly. Like, all the time. The US stands firmly against doping and here, a doping athlete is disgraced, not made excuses for.

Well, this is a take. https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/russia-gymnastics-international-ban.html My first thought is that she continually conflates Russian and Soviet--one is a subset of the other, and a huge part of the success of the Soviet system was due to non-Russian gymnasts. Olga was Belarusian, LilyPod and Gutsu were both Ukrainian, Bogi was Belarusian, Nelli Kim was Sakhalin Korean/Tatar, Omelianchik was Ukrainian, Chuso was Uzbek, Lysenko was Ukrainian. Second, her confident assertion that not only were the Russians clearly the superior team at the Tokyo Games but that even had Simone competed the full team final, they might've won it--I find that highly suspect. I don't begrudge the Russians their team gold at all--they performed the best that day, they earned it--but I also think the American team was reeling from the news, and of course after the first event, all three had to compete and hit every event. Had the Americans had even a day to process the news that Simone couldn't continue, who knows what the result would be? As it was, they were thrown into the mix and I am super proud they kept their heads and took the silver. The Russians haven't had a team gold in forever before this. The last one was 2010 Worlds and they've never had a team gold ('92 doesn't count, that was the Unified Team) in the Games until the Tokyo Games. Yes, there's a lot of talent but remember the dry years like 2008, where they were completely shut out of any medals. Contrast that to the last fallow years of the US team which was the late '90s-early aughts. We've been very strong ever since ca. 2003. Yeah, well, we thought the same thing about figure skating and here we are. Knowing that Russia herself sponsors the doping, I'm assuming they're all doping. Fuck Putin. His ego just haaaaaad to ruin everything.

The part in Snow Place Like Home where Kendra's grandmother and Hef are talking about how nice the snow is beyond weird--they're generational cohorts, for God's sake. In fact I'd guess that she was actually younger than Hef. Rebekka Armstrong (I haven't seen this episode yet but she was featured on earlier episodes--I remember there was a special out about her a long time ago (maybe Centerfold Babylon?), a documentary that talked about her modeling for Playboy and her AIDS diagnosis. I remember she talked about how an uncle took the pictures that they sent in to Playboy and I thought that was weird. Your uncle is taking sexy pictures of you? Some of these people come from very strange backgrounds.

I agree the miniseries portrayed him very respectfully. I can't remember that exact moment but I was impressed with his portrayal. In Simeon's book, he says He says the trial transcript backs him up but ultimately chalks it up to Mr. Hicks thinking "it would be more dramatic...to sound like a country bumpkin." Simeon says that Mr. Hicks was the source of other, shall we say florid, embellishments. It's a fascinating, well written book--highly recommended.

It's a great read. Not long (>140 pp.), simple, heartfelt language. It sets the scene very well, and actually paints a picture of a life that is in many respects quite idyllic...once you get past the brutal, systemic racism. But his sweet country life (which is something I thought the miniseries did well, those scenes of idyllic rural Mississippi life) is well depicted. It really does a great job of making you experience a completely different way of life. Mose was far from a country bumpkin, although he has been portrayed as such frequently. He was actually quite savvy and as such very prosperous. He refused to have any business dealings with racist white men, and had the wherewithal to avoid such. Simeon said when Mose ID'd the two murderers in court (one well known article had Mose saying "Thar he" but Simeon said Mose said "There he is"), he looked out into the sea of spectators and as soon as he saw the faces of the white spectators, he knew he'd have to leave Mississippi, which he'd never wanted to do. Most of the family left for Chicago within a few days, although Simeon's mother had left immediately after Bobo's (SImeon always calls Emmett this) abduction/murder. Simeon adjusted well to Chicago--he said his classmates knew of his connection to Bobo and were solicitous toward him. Simeon said that every day he thinks of Bobo--it's obvious he is still haunted by it. After the incident at the grocery store, Bobo begged the others not to say anything to Simeon's mom and dad--if they had, Mose would've put him on the first train back to Chicago. God, so many what ifs. Utterly, utterly heartbreaking.

First of all, thoroughly excited and thrilled for all the medalists. Vincent really came through here, as did Camden. I was trying to send encouraging words to Ilia from my couch, I was saying "It's okay, Baby Boy, this is just the beginning" (ILIA, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS I KNOW TEENAGE BOYS DON'T WANT TO BE CALLED THAT but I am An Old and to me, he is a baby). With experience he will be able to throw off mistakes like that. And yes, that quad lutz is *chef's kiss.* I watched Ashley's video, am very concerned for her. She doesn't sound okay. And finally--every time I've been on Twitter this week, there's an obsessive FanYu who's pored over the scores and compared them to Hanyu, bitterly concluding "don't tell me there isn't favoritism in judging." These people sound absolutely miserable. Do they know there are different judges at every competition? And that Yuzuru isn't even skating at Worlds? Who has time for that? The man won TWO OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS and they think he's underscored? Take a seat, hon.

Right? Like, I feel we're all still recovering from the horror that was women's singles in Beijing. We needed the balm of clean skates and happy athletes.

I just checked--you're right. What the hell? Way to treat your National champion, US. Who made that stupid decision?

And also...no dope! At least Mariah has the Olympic silver medal, though.

Yes, Alysa is now guaranteed a medal!

...yikes.

I did notice that the NBC cameras (or were they? Maybe it's a general feed?) which are often quite intrusive, gave Ashley some privacy. I was super impressed that Alexa and Brandon had the presence of mind, when they stepped out onto the ice, to take their time. To process how things had changed, come to terms with it, accept that they were going to have to skate earlier, and place their understandable worry about their teammate aside and concentrate on the task at hand. (I kept thinking of Tonya Harding's lace incident in the '94 Games and how that rattled poor Josee Chouinard, who suddenly had to skate much sooner than she'd anticipated.) They took their sweet time just pacing around the arena, and they needed that. They didn't hit their starting positions until they were ready to, audience clapping aside. Ilia is a little coltish out there, all long legs and no artistry. It'll be fun to see his artistry grow. I did like Camden's performance. Chris Knierim tweeted "My wife is a World champion!"

Yes. We haven't even been on the podium since 2002.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm a combination of tremendously excited for and proud of Alexa and Brandon and so worried about poor Ashley...I hope they update us on her status soon.

This (the interview) was long time ago--at least 20 years, it's definitely possible I remembered incorrectly. I remember they showed a picture wherein she had (IIRC) a blanket that she was holding up to her breasts and she was looking over her shoulder to the camera. Maybe what she meant was it was before they started showing more than breasts (the series referred to that, when they started becoming more hardcore, to compete with Penthouse).

She was utterly gorgeous, which is why she was able to shake off the Playboy stigma and have her own career. (Also I'm not sure how much she showed--I don't think she was a Playmate and I remember and interview where she said "back then, you could get away with showing some shoulder and not the whole business" (paraphrasing).)

So looking up the ISU channel (ugh, there's still no video of the full feed of the SP, just a few individual programs), I was confused about the term "small medals" but a little research helped me figure it out. They're now handing out medals for the top three in the SP and the free skate? This is a new thing, yes? That means Mariah is a Worlds medalist! And so are Alexa/Brandon and Ashley/Timothy!!!!

I honestly think it's a really unattractive look (although Holly sort of pulls it off). Compared to how Barbi Benton looked, or some of those earlier Playmates (like the one who killed herself in the '70s)--their beauty was so much more natural. I mean, nobody has that candy floss hair past childhood.