Chippings

Is this the right Forum for ION Christmas movies ? Just when I was getting into Hallmark movies this year (both channels) I realized there were also Lifetime Christmas movies, and then - splat ! -- ION as well. Tonight I saw a replay of the one with Maxwell Caulfield (?) as the King and father of the 'Prince' du jour, and then watched the new Cindy Busby one. If this is the right place to mention that one, it was interesting and I liked the flow of the story, but nice as he was I thought the 'Prince' was incredibly miscast. He seems a suitable guy for many roles, and his bio shows some nice range. But the undisciplined 'playboy' prince role bit did not suit him at all. Fine acting, but he's just not a romantic lead. I do like what only ION seems to do, which is to give a little plus at the end "and so later this character went to culinary school and opened a restaurant .." and "the little girl became a doctor' .. very satisfying. (If I should move this comment, pls advise.)

I check the Dr Phil website on Saturdays to see what the lineup is for the next week, and it's pretty much all out-of-control teens and I let them go. Like others mentioned above, I'm really done with those. I watch, as many of us do, for the next catfish show and it's been a while. What just struck me is, a sullen teen daughter is a whole lot easier and cheaper to put on than a catfish show ! For the latter you have to get your agent in Nigeria, research their servers, send somebody to their alleged address in Michigan or whatever, &c -- lots of trouble. For the teens you just need some videos of them pitching fits, and then send them off to a Center, end of story. I do look forward to the next catfish show, though.

Don't know if anybody is looking at this page much, but here is a sighting of a Silicon Valley actor that surprised me hugely -- we were watching again "I'll See You in My Dreams" with Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott. The story involves a perfectly nice widowed lady (Danner) who gets into friendships with two very different men -- Sam Elliott, and one named Ralph or Roy or the like, who is the guy who cleans her swimming pool. He is quiet but pleasant, they get into long thoughtful conversations, talk about their lives, and go out to a karaoke bar. Very sweet, really. I looked up the actor whose name is Martin Starr -- it's Guilfoyle ! Satanist, master of negativity, hater of virtually everything. Amazing. If the movie comes up, have a glance.

Ahh ! Not a mistake. One definition of 'mean'' is "low in status, rank, or dignity" -- and evidently it was a very common use of the word in that time. It's become very much less common over time, though. This episode was a really interesting trail of research. Probably there were a lot of stories along the way up where they could have stopped, but this was a very good one and good history lesson. They were lucky to come across such an interesting guy! It's always interesting when they go that far back for the 'main story' for a celebrity, and of course we take it very personally. Who wouldn't! But the numbers are clear about how remote ancestors are at that level. A 12th great grandfather is 1/16,384th of your makeup. You have 16,383 other people who were your ancestor at that level (except for the doubling up over time, probably - often mentioned here). Finally, I was a little put off at the very beginning when Jenn Utley of Ancestry had been flown to his home to show him the data, sat on his lovely terrace to see the specifics, and in leaving the long shot showed him walking four paces ahead of her, with her bringing up the rear. It just seemed very rude and put me off on him for a bit. Very soon he entirely got into the stories and it was okay. Bottom line, though - good finding of a good story and great documentation!

In the previous season I wondered on this board if somebody in Production wouldn't feel compelled to talk confidentially to the naive foreign person who was obviously in a very bad situation (as Lesia just said, above) - and someone who had read or knew about reality show production pointed out that the worse it gets, the happier they are 'cause it's "good tv". This is really sickening, though. Even if that is true, is there no human person on the production team ?? It doesn't seem as if this is producer-generated behavior, but Steven is the creep he seems. Help, somebody ??!!

This page has been much neglected for nearly a month, but I wonder if regular Lifetime watchers saw "A Very Nutty Christmas" ? Was that as weird as I thought it was? Did not get it **at all**. The 'enchanted' nutcracker guy was about as appealing as Jerry Lewis at his nuttiest (sic) in his goofy movies of long ago, and Melissa Joan Hart's character not particularly likable either. The script seems hopeless and even better directing couldn't have saved it. You knew something had to 'make it all happy' at the end, but the actually alive military fellow who turned up in the last four minutes was no more appealing than his nutcracker avatar. Hope I'm not the only grinch on this subject.

I'm used to being fibbed to in this show, but Hey - lived there since 2016 ?? That's a bit much, lie-wise. They were in my favorite part of London, but the treat for us was seeing Toby Brown again. I had come to love Richard very well, but Toby is equally lovable and I have missed him. (Haven't seen Toby in a couple of years; maybe they filmed this two years ago ??) I studied my map and could not figure where they were overlooking the large exhibition space that was leveled.

Not a usual participant here, but I wanted to chime in about two I saw this weekend, comparing 'chemistry' between the principals. One was the older one A Very Merry Mix-Up (perfectly dreadful title), but the chemistry between Alicia Witt and [insert nice-looking fellow here] was absolutely charming. It had to do first with the script they had to work with, but they really made it work marvelously. I've watched it a few times in bits and pieces. Then, oh what a disappointment - I had seen Merritt Patterson (yes?) and Andrew Cooper before and I actually recorded Christmas at the Palace on Thursday, and whew -- was entirely let down. As someone wrote above, odd script, weird motivations &c - and I just got no chemistry between them. The writing was so largely to blame. I had loved him with Cindy Busby in (was it Royal Hearts)? -- but his character was such a poop here that he had nothing to work with. And hers (as noted above also) was entirely rude to him at the beginning, and never seemed much into the relationship after that Further, I had been a huge fan of hers in Royal Winter, which was a somewhat similar story. (Also the same bit about sneaky paparazzi / photographers &c) But despite the beautiful Romanian scenery and castle, it just never got off the ground for me. Incidentally, speaking of cliches, is there a single one in which the two principals don't bump into each other inadvertently and are surprised .. ? (It was a part of both of the above movies .. spilled coffee in one, no coffee in the other. I think coffee is involved in about 40 % of them.) Those complaints aside, these movies are my fall-back viewing these days, when I'm bored to pieces with HGTV.

Ah, but you didn't have a camera crew and a producer with you ! Always a plus, we should try to consider this when traveling.

So glad to see that I'm not the only one who really only cares about the catfish shows ! Thanx guys ! Like you also, so tired of "my grown kid is a total mess but I can't kick him out". Every Saturday I check drphil.com to see if there's a catfish show - if there is, I make a mental note .. if not, I mentally tune out til the following Saturday.

I hope those who are interested in the show will read this -- pretty long but so many excellent details about the history of the show, how Mike Schur put it together originally, and the actors - both the pros and (Kristen and Ted D) and the people with much shorter resumes. There's a lot of insight about the production and it's philosophy (in every sense).

Somebody wrote above, but I don't see it just now. Are those two dog crates for actual dogs that Paul and Karine had ? It's a walk-up apartment someplace, do the dogs just spend nearly 24/7 in the cages ? Why would they even get one dog, let along two ? If someone would explain that again, I'd appreciate it.

I think Jon also said that when he has a salaried job, they take out a large percent toward his student loan; but the rent money from the rooms in his house, he gets to keep all of. But of course quitting the job as a money-saving strategy makes no sense -- less income is less income. Oh, Jon. He certainly didn't say anything about any entrepreneurial idea he has to make money without deductions. And does he not have to share the rental income with his Mum. Mum must've been delighted with this plan. And as someone said above, surely quitting the garbage job wasn't the only way to get the week (?) off for the wedding. I'd have to listen to his explanation of that part.

Somebody may beat me to this, but my memory is that last week she said their conversation about his coming over was sort of vague, so she didn't know what kind of events they would be doing (yes, really) and so she had to bring outfits accordingly. Oops, here's 6 new replies. Bet you beat me to it ! I was right !

On another topic but speaking of producer shenanigans, I just looked up on a map the trip from Jon's home (Weston Super Mare) to Cornwall, where they were driving for the wedding and festivities, and there's no blooming reason in the world to be going through the damn middle of London to get there ! (Oh there's the London Eye again!) Ridiculous. It's a general south/west shot, but London is due east. It's enough to see people's hair grow and pimples come & go, and time be all fuzzy, but this is a simple thing to check. Honestly producers, these people can get into enough trouble without your either (1) forcing them to drive three hours out of their way, or (2) editing in a car argument that happened months before. (So much else to chime in about up there, this is a very thoughtful page. Later.)

From Hazel's profile, the words "ACTress" "Bisexual and proud of it" - those are more words in a row than have come out of her mouth since we've known her. And, more attitudinal than we've seen, as well. If she is ACTing as a soulless shell, she is doing a good job. Otherwise, this is the right Hazel, yes ?

I tried to tune in (altho I haven't seen it before) because I enjoy a good catfish story. But I only got there in time to see 18 commercials, and the panel pouring platitudes on the poor lady. ("Love each other" "Forgive" "These girls love you.") Does it seem as if Dr Phil has passed on his catfish victims to this lot? I could judge better if I'd seen the beginning story and the explanation ("Aha!!") .. Which must have all been very rushed. I lasted about 3 minutes into the next episode and they were piling on in a sanctimonious fashion. Won't be back. I hope this doesn't last. It seems a waste of everybody's time.

You know, y'all, they have stirred us up this week with the (we hope) break-up of Jesse and Darcey -- and so far just a little bit has happened. But I am betting the farm that, like last week when the big preview was Pole running into the clinic, we will actually see it in the last eleven minutes of the show. I am pacing myself. It's going to be so nice to actually see her holler ("Get out of my LIfe!!") (not a spoiler - they showed it already, yes.) But it's a long time off, I'm thinking.

Oh heavens, you've sent me off to watch another side-site. I shudder to think. This sounds really awful. But, I think, thank you ..

Do y'all ever wonder, as I did during last night's show, what the producers on-site are thinking as these train wrecks evolve? Does nobody in the Brazil crew want to say to Karine "You don't have to do this, girl, it will work out really badly for you -- Get back on Brazil-Cupid whatever and find somebody else"? .. Or, ditto to whoever is chaperoning poor little Hazel through this mess? She knows her way onto the web site and how to work it - Wouldn't anybody with a conscience see how things are and want to save these poor people? I just wonder if they have any pangs of conscience at all. Or, if they just go back to their developing rooms (or whatever) and chortle "Wow, that's some great TV!" I wondered, too, when Jesse keeps walking away and then (with minimal sincerity) declaring as he returns (again) "But I love her with all my heart" -- Does his contract require a certain number of episodes and he can't walk out? Or maybe he thinks continuing coverage will be good for his Life Coaching / modeling business? As if. And about any moral standards at all, several comments today about the criminal records of such a high proportion of these participants (Jon, Pole, Angela, and Darcey) make us wonder: What is the network's policy on that, exactly. Maybe they figure it's like 'Catfish' -- a series of good object lessons. High moral tone aside -- Yet, here we are again. So ashamed.

I think every living one of us stopped for a moment at the Rice-a-Roni section of the store this weekend, I counted twelve (12) flavors (sorry, friend in Canada!), including Cilantro & Lime. I'm betting that one wasn't available when we were in college. On show-topic .. at this point in the week it's tough to come up with something that hasn't been analyzed already, but maybe this: I thought Tarik's brother Dean called, or texted, to say he was "in the bar downstairs", but then I was surprised that when they walked to meet him, they went along a long arcade past a lot of things, obviously not the lobby area of the hotel, and the place he was was obviously not a bar. I just like to see some Continuity here. We know the producers jiggle stuff around and we're used to it; but that did jar me. That's about it for the next 26 hours .. except, poor Ximena ! "He came to Colombia to see me.." Hope he pays dearly for that.

Oh my gosh ! I haven't been to this specific forum in months, so interesting that I checked it out just now. It had to do with moving the marijuana around in ways that didn't fit with the legal stuff in California, I suppose? I didn't see what he was charged with earlier. So (more spoilering) who supports Anfisa for one year and ten months?

Wow, thank you, Poetic .. That's hugely interesting, and the chances I (anyway) would have come across it on my own are nil. Yuck. He asked for it, I guess, but he got plenty more than he had imagined.

The good news is, I never have to see that child again in my life. But it's okay, the extra $150 over budget, because the water is included .. Ahh - there we are! While I'm up and ranting here .. the statement "Well you can't expect a child to understand budget" was so much malarkey. You sit down with a piece of paper, and write your net monthly income and your anticipated expenses -- whatever info you used to come up with your budget to begin with. And show the kid where it goes. Mutter mutter. And, as is often the case, not a word was said about where the child's school was. Near? Far? Was she going to a public school, which would depend on where you rented, or a private school already chosen in a specific place? Oh never mind -- little Sweetheart feels like a princess, so what else matters. Argh.

Worse yet, with a cameraman in the room ! How can that even happen ? And how can she show her face in public ever again.