CeeBeeGee

He is my favorite eye-candy on Blue Bloods. *Rowr* And yes, Harry and Charlotte are the best. Loved their sotto voce conversation at the shoot. THIS!!!!!! What a colossally stupid move! An apartment in Hudson Yards? With such an uncertain future??? WTAF! What an unforced error! And co-sign the rest of it. What a selfish, selfish creature. As did I. In fact I too raised my hand... She definitely was, although her "frothy career girls having sexy fun" rhetoric was a little dated by the early '90s. Around that time, when people first started talking about sexual harassment at work and the idea entered the public consciousness for the first time, she issued this hideously tone-deaf editorial shaming women who had come forward as killjoys and harridans and shared a very strange anecdote about her days as an office girl. She talked about how the men in the office would chase the girls, corner them and pull up their skirts to see what color underpants they were wearing. (Mad Man shows this happening in an early episode, it might've been the pilot. I recognized the behavior immediately.) Pretty much everyone was like "uh, that's assault." But HGB thought it was just all sexy good times. Caarrie sliiiiiiding off the bed was hilarious, just eeling her way out of there. OMG, that was great, Seema turning up the volume. Cry more tears, manboy. Who the hell scolds someone over using a vibrator when they weren't able to get their partner off? You got your so fuck the rest of the world? Really? CN, please know that MIranda's stupid rant--which made even Che cringe--just makes us laugh harder at your self-insert fan-fiction. Che and the new lobotomized Miranda suck. I can't even wrap my brain around such juvenile behavior. How do they accomplish anything when they're sleeping until noon every day? They want to make their pilot a success, yes? The career of an actor takes discipline. You're getting headshots, submitting yourself, shooting reels, editing them--it's exhausting.

I cannot stand Mother Wexler. As someone posted--her shitty, toxic rants aren't fun. Or funny. That sitcom--the '80s called, they want their painfully theatrical, three-camera setup staging conventions back. Sitcoms in the '80s suuuuucked. Whoever broke down the shittiness of Che's behavior (the poster above says Penman 61 but that's not showing up on my drop-down menu when I try to ping them)--thank you. I mute the audio and cover up the video with my hands whenever Che Che Binks and Ayn Randa are doing anything sexual with each other, so I missed that. I would've been livid. Utterly disgusting behavior by Che. When someone expresses doubt or hesitation--listen to them. What a selfish, selfish person. WRT to weed--I don't care if people smoke weed on their own time. But the people who "do a lot of weed" (in Che Che's words) often turn out to be only about "doing a lot of weed." IOW that becomes their whole personality. So much so that they don't realize how atrociously rude it is to light up in an elevator. And Seema's constant smoking is also disgusting. It's a terrible habit to break, I get it. But she smokes everywhere--in hotels (which isn't plausible, most if not all hotels have a strict anti-smoking policy. No one wants to smell it in their rooms) and worst of all, in her car. This is against the law--the car is her driver's workplace and the crux of Bloomberg's anti-smoking ban was that you couldn't smoke in a workplace, because people aren't free to leave. Smoke at home if you must, Seema, but don't expose your driver to it. I loved Harry and Charlotte in that scene! I loved how excited Harry was when she made the offer: "But it's not even my birthday!" They're adorable together. Most actors know, you tend to have the best chemistry with people you haven't done anything with. In Season 2 of The X-Files, when Dana Scully was out for a few episodes because Gillian Anderson was having her baby, there was an interim episode called 3. The producers cast David Duchovny's GF to play a is-she-or-isn't-she vampire. The common consensus is that their chemistry (as actors) was nil. So now we're left to wonder if something isn't going on IRL with CN and SR. Because they have no chemistry. At all. Along with that beautiful, moving reunion scene on the Brooklyn Bridge in the first movie...it was so well shot, so well acted. All that beautiful character growth for nothing. Steve and Miranda moved to Brooklyn (which was shocking enough at the time. Brooklyn! The horror! But even now moving to the Bronx wouldn't be done, not for 2004-era Steve and Miranda). Truman Capote, disdainfully, about Jack Kerouac's stream of consciousness style: "That's not writing. That's typing." When Miranda claimed to the groupies "I'm the girlfriend," Che Che clearly wanted to say something and looked very dubious. Naturally the writers weren't going to expand on that opening--that would be characters having an important conversation and we can't have that. She doesn't deserve Steve. @luna1122again your avatar looks so much like my aunt and godmother but with brown hair instead of blonde. Every time I see your avatar I smile. She would've loved this community's snark--she was the original snarker!

Maybe if you were a better fucking producer, Chloe, your podcast wouldn't have tanked. Good luck getting another job with that mouth.

That shot is an instant classic. (Am finally watching Season 2 now that I know Steve finally hauled off on fucking Miranda.)

Kirk Cameron, we're looking at you, the guy who bullied a girl off the show just because she'd posed for Playboy. The guy who called the producers of his show pornographers. (If you're going to go after the producers of Growing Pains, take them up for the constant fat jokes against poor Tracy Goldman and triggering an eating disorder in her. But otherwise that show was squeaky clean.) Yes, Lisa has always struck me as a thoughtful and questioning kind of Christian, willing to admit doubt--very rare in conservative Christians, IME. I remember seeing a blog post where another conservative posted something that was clearly homophobic and Lisa pushed back. (This was a very long time ago, nearly 20 years, IIRC.)

Okay, I haven't read through the entire thread because I don't want to spoil myself too thoroughly. But I just have to say this: YESSSSSSS Finally, finally Miranda is getting some richly deserved pushback. (I read a recap.) Finally Steve told her to her face what a selfish, life-destroying POS she has been. FINALLY. I think I can actually watch Season 2 now, knowing that Steve regained some of his dignity.

I met her a few years ago--a close friend of mine was doing a project with her. I have a picture of the two of us somewhere on my phone, I'll dig it up and post it. And yes, she was very gracious and kind. Blair is my favorite character but I have to say, the best written episode of the series (IMHO, of course) is Natalie's--the one about the abortion and the newspaper. It's such a great episode, especially considering this was the '80s. (The bar was very low for '80s sitcoms.)

That's...actually a pretty good point.

Is the second season noticeably improved? I keep seeing encouraging headlines. I refused to watch it because I cannot stand Che and Miranda, and their actors' and MPK's shrill insistence that the audience is the problem, how bigoted and anti-tras and whatthehellever we all apparently, is such a turnoff. Like, own your mistakes. And the only weapon I have is my lack of viewership. But I'm weakening. Has it gotten better?

He's lucky he's still alive. He also was stabbed twice in the neck. Ten wounds in all. Frankly I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.

I hope not. They're such a beautiful pair together. I'm so proud of how they kept their composure at Worlds last year after the accident.

Okay, I have to share with you my experience re: Star Trek Continues. In the winter of 2019-2020 I was rediscovering Star Trek TOS. Podcasts, rereading the very first fan novels, rewatching the remastered versions--the whole works. I came across a couple of fan-produced episodes on YouTube (including one that had been written by David Gerrold (writer of The Trouble with Tribbles)) and through that, discovered Star Trek Continues. I start watching it. I'm thinking hey, this is pretty good. Production values are excellent, it's competently filmed, scored well. And I notice the same name over and over--Vic Mignona. He plays Kirk, he's a director, a writer, a producer. Even composes some of the score. And I'm thinking, he's pretty talented, I wonder if he has a website? I look him up and find a resume/bio. And I see he graduated from Liberty University in Virginia, which is just down the road from the women's college I attended. And I see the roles on his resume and the truth dawns on me--I know this guy. I remember this guy! He was a very controversial cast member in a couple of productions we needed (we had to be creative--if the role was at all ambiguous, you could cast a woman as a man, or just be ambiguous about what gender it was (I played the Emcee in Cabaret for example). But sometimes we cast male actors in the community). He was controversial because he was a huge in-your-face Christian bigot, not at all shy about his evangelism. Most of us disliked him, although he is certainly talented. He and I got into a huge argument at a cast party about the English language (my major)--he was taking the unoriginal, unsupported position that the English language has "degraded" over the years "since it was first established." I won the argument simply by asking him over and over to define his terms. "When was that? When Johnson wrote the first dictionary? When Anglo-Saxon turned into Middle English, a process that took hundreds of years? When the work f*** first appeared in print?" He didn't understand that languages are constantly changing--there's no such thing as a single origin point. And he was very firm that everyone not an evangelical Christian was hellbound. After this realization I also found an old AV article--apparently there have been a ton of complaints about his behavior at fan conventions and the like. Lawsuits were traded, he lost and his career kind of evaporated, as far as I know. I will say, I quite enjoy Star Trek Continues, and they've gotten some major talent to sign on.

I absolutely love that montage. The sheer craftsmanship of patiently (so many movies hurry through things) showing all the major players, how they're dealing with the death of the old year, the birth of the new, how they're dealing with loneliness, how maybe they're not dealing at all, they're just asleep (Steve and Brady), friends showing up for other friends, even struggling through the snow and the subway just to be there for their friend, to laugh over Chinese food. And I love that shot of Big--I love the movie giving us that glimpse, letting us know his story isn't over, nope, we've got unfinished business with this guy. We'll be seeing him again. Just wait. Be patient and wait. And all scored with that brilliant, wistful cover of Auld Lang Sang. It's just brilliant. I love it so much.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

I did love that dress. That whole scene is--wow. I've never understood why so many seem to hate the first movie. I think its long slow journey to forgiveness, starting with that scene in the street, Carrie wailing "I am humiliated!" and Charlotte leveling that look at Big, standing him down like a lioness, the montage on New Year's Eve ("You're not alone") and ending with Steve and Miranda's lovely reunion on Brooklyn Bridge and Carrie coming across the emails Big sent to her--is positively Charlotte Bronte-an.

Only a pathological narcissist would say something that profoundly self-serving.

I'm trying to not blame Che on Sara Ramirez but that article makes it difficult. This comment: nailed it. Calm. Down. Sara.

Bunny was like the WASP version of Ethel Kennedy who was once (brilliantly) described as "more Kennedy than thou." She'd married into a big, well-known family and tried way too hard to fit in and be the quintessential Kennedy. Whereas Jackie remained her authentic self and gained everyone's respect. Similarly Bunny is over-invested in her identity as a MacDougal--because she wasn't born one and feels she needs to prove herself.

Dear God, that's what they've reduced Miranda to.

UGH. Worse and worse.

Watching the last episode now. Did not realize that Josh's charges were federal. Man, he is fuuuuuucked. That sleazy mug shot of his... Boob's audacity at running for state office while his shitty child molester son is on trial for downloading child pornography! Dude, read the room! His lashing out at Democrats, "cancel culture" whatever--dude, you and Josh are the problem. Not the boogieman of cancel culture. You and he are the problem. And your shitty wife. Tia's story--Jesus. Jesus. I have had that "I heard a voice in my head" experience. (In my case a random dude flashed a knife at me and told me to go to the staircase and I remember hearing/thinking "And now is the time to scream out loud and fight back" just as though it were a flowchart.) I am so effing glad she listened to that voice. I feel so tremendously sorry for Anna. She's in a very difficult position--she is expected to fight back against the husband she has been ordered, by every authority she recognizes and has been trained by birth to obey, to submit to, and fight back with tools she doesn't have. I really, really hope at some point she'll recognize the threat to her children--and to her self-dignity, and her sense of self--and leave.

This is fandom, sadly. This fandom and that of SVU, the scrutiny on the women characters is insane. See also: Harry Potter, Star Wars, Game of Thrones...hell, even fans of the British royal family. The scrutiny on female royals is so much worse, like, to a granular level.

Thank you for your kind words. I find myself so enraged about this. Who the hell gives a board game about going to Hell to children? They must've been terrified playing that. Just imagine being 5 or 6 and playing that. I absolutely believed in Hell at that age and was always very scared about doing the wrong thing (saying a swear word, for instance) and going there as a result, and I was always very scared at night. And I grew up in a normal family, I just got that idea "in the air," no one force fed it to me. Why would you plant that idea in the mind of an impressionable child? Why would you deliberately terrify these children? (Children are acutely aware of how powerless they are and it takes little at some ages to scare them.) And for God's sake why would you hit--all day--a baby??! The blanket training is especially cruel. First of all, a child that young can't form a thought or recognize a pattern of "if I do this [crawl off], then this [being hit with the spoon] is going to happen," not in any conscious kind of way. They are completely in thrall to their impulses. As soon as they get the urge to crawl, they've forgotten about the punishment, so you'd really have to keep it up for a long time. (Stopping a baby from crawling--really think about how stupid that is. That is an inherent part of their development! You're retarding their growth! Just put them in a playpen, let them crawl and keep an eye on them! Oh wait, that would mean Michelle and Boob actually have to parent.) And then, tempting them to crawl off by putting a toy off the blanket--tempting them to crawl off, so you can hit them again. I just--this is staggering cruel. What kind of sick f*** gets pleasure out of hitting babies? People who hurt the most vulnerable members of our society--old people, children, developmentally challenged people and animals--deserve Hell, or prison.

I don't know anything about Texas but the Triangle Trade refers to trade between the Americas, Europe and Africa (of which the Middle Passage refers to the leg of the triangle from Africa to the Americas). The phrase has been around for a long time and there's a song about it in the musical 1776. How is Texas using the phrase? And FLDS.

Working my way through the series. Jesus. This is beyond depressing. I'm in the middle if the second episode and the woman who tells--with a GIANT smile--about spanking--spanking--her 14-month-old "all day long"--JESUS. I work with kids. This is just completely depressing. And the lives (other than beatings) these little ones lead! (To say nothing of the fact that your own parents couldn't pick you out of a lineup.) They can't read any books that aren't GOD GOD GOD, they can't watch any TV, their interactions with even their siblings is severely curtailed and made weird--how are their brains supposed to be engaged if all they're doing is reading those "Wisdom Booklets"? Where are the colors, where are the dolls, where are the games? I am weeping at how poor their inner lives must've been, how unengaged these kids must've been. They should've been playing hide and seek (with both brothers and sisters), climbing trees, reading any book they wanted, smarting off to their parents, giggling with their parents--anything but this meek, toes-on-the-line brand-savvy anodyne blandness. I just want to sweep in and wrap them in huge hugs. I hate these parents. How dare you make 11 year olds become parents because you're too fucking lazy? Every time that woman looks adoringly up at her worthless husband, an angel loses its wings.