Chippings

Don't sneer, y'all, but the only episodes I am enjoying by now are the catfish ones -- at least they start at one point and end up at another one, and you can sort of believe (in most cases) that the catfish-ees "get it" and realize what has gone on. Sometimes I just see the episode description, and then check in eight minutes before the hour to see if it's Turnabout Ranch, or Onsite, or the P&P Center. Today I tried that and got six minutes of commercials and Robin's cosmetics. On the OWN network, I've seen some episodes from five or more years ago, and there really is a distinct difference in the kinds of subjects and the way he dealt with them. So - yeah - a good Catfish piece, show somebody who thought they were loved that they are not, and call it a day. Sad, but it needed doing. And it's educational, too.

I'm so, so sad for Jared -- He has had a bit of trouble connecting emotionally, and of course it would be Fiona to whom (which?) he would open up. And speaking of Fiona, amazing animation of that face -- Whew!

I was waiting too for someone to comment on it. I haven't watched these movies for more than a few months, but have seen a few 'Prince' ones, and it seemed to me as if they just took a dozen of the basic Prince bits from the other movies, shook them up, and made this one. (Snooty royal lady friend, loyal valet / assistant, walking over nearly the same bridge with scalloped railings, disapproving mother or father (usually) -- and Why in every case is the Prince about to be crowned when he has a perfectly good parent ruling their country, who is really too young to retire ?) In most cases, as in this one, the prince proposes after knowing the girl a matter of weeks (if that). The James Brolin one managed to avoid most of those cliches and had a nice, different, quality to it. I read that this movie was taken from a (non-Hallmark) novel, but even so it fit the cliches really well. Beautiful settings, though. I read it was all done around Victoria, B.C.?

OOOOhh !! Thank you for that ! That makes sense, but it's interesting that a bunch of interested viewers (who care enough to post about it) didn't make the connection. It would have helped to have a scene where Whoever bought the pin bought it - as said, maybe there was and it ended up on the cutting room floor. The Prince actor (named Will Kemp, I think) looked pretty bland and didn't let himself be that animated often (an acting decision) - But looking at some other photos of him, when he doesn't have that entirely geeky haircut, he's quite cute. There is a video of him talking (as himself) about living in L.A. &c and when he's animated, he's very appealing. (Check a short video of him dancing, like a sort of a madman actually, in a 2002 Gap commercial. Shows his range as a performer, for sure.)

My station repeated this morning the show about the lady who wanted to leave her husband of 18 years and four children, and marry a "pastor" in Kenya. The info said it was filmed in November (and I remember seeing it then), she wanted to leave in February when their income tax refund came in - but the Good Doctor asked her to wait and think about it for 90 days. Well, here's my question. It's March now, it's been 90 days and more, and how hard would it be to offer the audience an Update on what has happened ? Sometimes they will give carefully chose updates five or ten years later. If we're supposed to care about these people, and I sort of am wondering about this story, it would be nice to have a later version of "After the Taping". (I would post this question on the show's web site, but the access there to actually comment has shrunk to nothing.)

Speaking of the same castle, or interiors, I thought that the Throne Room they used in "Royal Hearts" much resembled the one used for the coronation in "Royal Winter" (which re-played this morning), and on seeing that again I realized it is the same room. Once you get acquainted in Romania, you can do that - maybe they got a bulk discount for going there twice. (Or, maybe oftener? Will have to keep an eye out.) Maybe the thing to watch out for is sites they *haven't* used before! It looks like a beautiful country, at least in parts.

I'm sort of new to the Hallmark Movies page here, but am glad to see a comment on it today. I thought it was a cut above some of the others I've watched in the last couple of weeks, a pretty unique plot and really fun settings - the castle and all the interiors were pretty great. On the Hallmark web site there are a few interviews with the principals (as y'all certainly have known all along) -- It was interesting to see James Brolin's actually, and it gave a pretty good idea of why he took the project on. He just really enjoys, evidently, running a big and complex undertaking like this and being in charge of the whole thing. Don't know how many opportunities to do that there are -- to be in charge of an entire movie, even a Hallmark one, and why not take the opportunity to travel to Europe on their dime, make all the artistic decisions, and act a lead role as well. It seemed as if he was having fun on all fronts. I enjoyed the whole thing a lot, really. And, I also did like Andrew Cooper, I think it was ? His acting resume' is pretty light, but he did good.

Now, That is good to know ! Thanks for the information !

The new episode last night about the Garden Shed, garden, and chicken coop, had me wondering about a lot of elements. One, they really "gooped up" that "shed" with expensive gew-gaws like the stone fireplace, antique windows, fancy light fixtures. In the real world I wonder what that structure cost? What ever it cost, it's disproportionate to its function, or seems like it. Then as to the garden, when everything was established and blooming, it seemed as if there were incredibly more flowers, herbs, and vegetables than one family could ever consume - it would be nice to know where those flowers would be going, besides into their own house ? And the food, both the grown stuff and also the eggs, is there someplace the surplus would be going? It seemed like self-indulgent overkill from here.

I don't recall if they suggested that William Penn Academy was a public school, but here's what I do know about this. Mister Chips grew up in Jenkintown (before the '80-somethings) and attended Penn Charter, which is a private school in Philadelphia (it's a serious trek from Jenkintown to the campus, I hear). As we've seen, Adam Goldberg grew up in Jenkintown and made the same commute into the city to attend Penn Charter. The school has been really proud of his connection to it; there was a reunion this year, and the alumni publications have been really touting it.

Even though A Royal Winter isn't a new movie, they did show it several times in the last few days so I guess it's okay to talk about it now. I couldn't find any references to it when it first appeared a year ago, so here I go. While most of these are *really* formulaic, I thought this one was different in a few ways, and I was really struck by the Prince Adrian actor - Jack Donnelly. He was absolutely charming and unique. Having watched a few of the other movies this week, just to see how they went, I could barely tell those lead actors apart; they could all be catalog models for Macy's menswear. I went and looked at Donnelly's previous work, and he did two seasons of a sword-&-sandal series called Atlantis, I think, with an entirely different look, and he was in a musical in London, very contempo & artsy. Given that I realized he did really create a character in the Adrian guy. I thought his acting was really very sensitive. Also, points to them for going to actual Romania to film this, and using a lot of beautiful exteriors there. It must have been interesting working with Samantha Bond, who played the Queen - she has a long bio of really good roles, including Miss Moneypenny in several James Bond movies. I thought Merritt Patterson was entirely likeable and believable, too. Even the little girl (selling souvenirs and shy to sing) was a good little actress, with a nice couple of bits. There were a couple of spots where, after spending all that money to go on location, take their actors with, and so on, they cheesed out -- As, in the final scene where the children appeared at the "coronation" to sing, they were still in their ordinary duds. I know it's only a matter of seconds, but couldn't they have given each of the kids a nice outfit to wear for their king's *coronation* ?? But on the whole I thought this one stood out for many reasons, and most especially Donnelly, who I hope will get more work in the future. He's good.

Whoa Nellie - those were two very un-likeable entrepreneurs, the underpants guys and the silicone bag lady. I certainly thought she would get the same ultimate response that several people have gotten before: "It would make me crazy to try and work with you" -- I never heard anybody say to a Shark who turned them down, "Great!!" -- Just kind of horrid. 'Bird Dog' guys reminded me of the wine entrepreneur with the individual servings who was so obnoxious, but somehow got to return and pitch again, and was officious again. Oh, and the nap entrepreneur -- so many questions. How many offices do you need to be adjacent to, to make a visit during a work day practical? I can't see walking more than a block for a 25 minute nap. Also he skidded past the cleanliness thing - did he really say they "flip" the pillows?? At least they could have paper-ish one-use pillow cases, but to just "flip" them is really icky. And do you really want to pull a blanket up to your chin that half a dozen people have also pulled up to their chins earlier that day? (Hmm, the analogy to airline blankets comes to mind.) And yes, the fry-wall was really clever and the guy was a decent fellow.

Oh thank goodness ! Thanks for passing that along.

Further about the Out of the Box shows, the couple of episodes I've seen were just entirely unrelate-able to me. Unlike regular HHs, these show a lot of ripped-up places that aren't homes. It's shown to be a good concept to show three houses that can be lived in and then rationalize buying one -- you can sort of project yourself into the places as well, and yell at the screen when they choose the wrong one. But I don't know how many of us can relate to renovating a well-located silo or firehouse. And, like y'all above, I was disappointed not to see how the renovations turn out. I don't see how this series can be sustained very long at all .. I'm certainly kind of tired of it already. (Are you listening, HGTV? Not lovin' it out here ..)

There's not much traffic on this page, I hope some others will put on a note. We are regular Goldbergs viewers, since Mr. Chips grew up in Jenkintown and went to the school that Adam Goldberg attends. Usually there are pretty nice stories, and pretty convincingly based loosely on something that sort of happened back in 1980-something. But this episode just rang very false -- behavior barely based on human behavior, so much yelling and real anger. We picked up on the references to Atari and 'Wall Street, but the people were just acting so badly, and even less realistically than usual. It was embarrassing. We just kind of looked away and tried out the Mute button a couple of times. Anybody else feel the same ?

My take on the episode is incomplete (sorry!) because I was trying to watch Jon Oliver at the same time. But that said -- my question of last week was answered, and Oh yay! Andrrrrei's occupation is: Bouncer in a night club! (I'm sure the producers put that in this week because they saw the question here last week. Thanks guys.) Now that we know that, we know he will respond very well to that hypothetical question "How will you contribute to American life when you live there?" I don't hang out at bars, but I do watch 'Bar Rescue' sometimes, so I've see bouncers. They sit in a corner and watch stuff, and push the occasional drunk around when it gets late. Excellent career choice, Andrrrei. But it seems to suit him, from what we have seen. And what we saw tonight was, I thought, pretty scary. Elizabeth was probably too pushy about "cramming for the test", but he was really hostile and misunderstood everything she said on purpose. Further, he was sort of planning to snap back, or walk out, if the interviewer "is having a bad day or something." Tastes differ, but I was surprised that a few of y'all thought him sexy; I guess in the "I've always liked bad boys" way. I just thought he was apt to blow up any time, and if the cameras weren't there, or in any other situation where things weren't going his way, he could easily lose it and smack her. Am signing in, of course, for the I Totally Hate Evelyn club, and the Nicole is a Miserable Human Being Club. (Gosh the internet makes us all Mean Girls doesn't it. I feel remotely bad about that.)

Thank you ! That tells us something at least about what the heck he's been doing, and he did find something to do in New Hampshire when he got up in the mornings.

3girls, Y e s !! I mentioned that last week when we first saw David Spain -- Those are all excellent and pertinent questions. The show has been careful not to touch on that at all; usually it'd come up in conversation. We do know Luis is a bartender, but what about the pouting dude in Dublin, who is also in his late 20s ? I'm kind of p.o.'d that the show is keeping those pretty significant facts off-stage, because it is a huge element of each story, actually. ("Fun fact": A long time ago I first discovered Television Without Pity by way of an article in Newsweek that said it was an internet resource where the comments were easily tracked, and pretty intelligent, and the producers of show actually looked at the site to see what their viewers were thinking. So, if that is still true: Producers: It's important - what do these guys do for a living??)

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't hear a thing about how these imported husbands (specifically Andrrrei from Moldavia / Dublin and David from Spain) are going to do for, like, work in the U.S. when they are able to work - and whether Luis will be bartending when he gets a work permit? Both Andrrei and David are in their late 20s and must have been doing some darn thing these several years since they grew up -- and can they do it here? I would've thought Elizabeth's father would have asked about it during that uncomfortable family dinner, but I didn't hear it. Evelyn's father seems blissfully unconcerned, The expression once was "Can you support my daughter in the manner to which she has become accustomed?" -- but that's definitely not a thing any more. Well, luckily Evelyn has that career in music, so that's good. (Snicker.) I have my doubts the show will ever get into that whole question, but I'll keep wondering.

I'm sorry. I had read the page immediately above my posting, but not the page before. But also -- the raised, asymmetrical collar on I think it was Amy's outfit reminded me, but only kind of lamely, of a piece that Chris March and Christian Siriano did in their season when they had gone to the art museum for inspiration, and they did a gi-normous piece, with a collar that rose over the model's head. It was FABulous. And because they were asking for something special (which Avant Garde should be), they gave them enough time. Of all the pieces ever on this show, that one stays in my mind. Those were designers, folks.

I was surprised when, after viewing all the Shopkin dolls and their outfits, wildly colored hair, etc., Amy went to Mood and came out with fabric that was black and beige. The was pretty much shooting herself in the foot to begin with. Hullo ?? I wonder if the final decision to choose the disco ball outfit as the winner, over the wild pink one (which they all seemed to adore) had to do with the ease of replicating it for the teeny-weeny dolls? I was thinking of those poor little stitchers in China or Japan cranking out a dozen layers of tiny pink ruffles for each little doll. Arg.

In the Paul / Karine drama in the park, I thought I noticed something odd that made me suspect how authentic it was - so I watched again in the re-run tonight, and I was right - from the time they are walking along, then sitting on the cement steps and he's telling her about his criminal past, through the drama up the hill and to the river, her hair changes a few times! First when they are just walking and looking at the phone, her hair was down loose. When they are talking on the steps, it's up in a knot. When she is chasing him, it seems to be a differently styled knot (lower down) (but I could be wrong there). When she is climbing over the wire fence to follow him, then her hair is down again , and still is when she gets to him at the river. But then when they are looking together at the phone, her hair is in a neat knot again. And I swear when she is mugged, the knot is different. I could be mis-reading the knots, but I am sure about the hair being down for parts of it and up for others. You can grab a scrunchy out of your pocket and put your hair up pretty quickly, but in those circumstances? Obsessed, much ?? Sorry. But we see producer manipulation in other places, and this one was just too odd, considering it is such a dramatic segment. (Can't believe I am wasting valuable minutes of my life kvetching about this!)

Not to give away the breadth of my tacky TV watching, but - the Dr Phil catfish stories have shown that those two phrases, and the quick "falling in love" are really typical of the serious catfishers out of Nigeria &c. It does seem to be because they are working on several targets at once. But the people these goofballs are "in love with" at least are actual people (even Antonio!) - Their web sites like "Filipino Cupid" &c may give them phrases to use and techniques. I wonder ..

Whoa ! How many message boards are there where you get references to Jean Paul Sartre ? And indeed, in how many network comedies? This was amazing. I'm embarrassed it didn't occur to me after seeing the episodes last night, but - Yes, exactly. Thank you Tennisgurl for making the connection.

Noted and noted again -- It was entirely rude of him. But, how fortuitous that when he had that little idea, there was a cameraman behind them to catch it. (Maybe I'm reading too much into that, I don't know how omni-present the cameramen are, but in such a small room - Hm.)