Chippings

Am watching, and just not sure if it will be continued past Episode 3. They sure are doing that TLC thing of repeating the same bits over and over. If they can connect a few people it will be worth the waiting. But with some prudent editing this two hours could've been done in about 40 minutes.

1000 points to you PM, that was awesome.

Not even an indication of what the title is, or the highlights of the stories? Very odd. It's kind of hard to wait all the way til Sunday.

It strikes me that if you were in a restaurant with a person acting like Darcy, you would gesture toward the other diners and say "Umm, try to tone it down, these people are starting to stare .." -- except in their situation it's "Umm, you do know that we're surrounded by a camera crew that's going to be sharing your major snit with millions of viewers across America, you do know that ??" Except I suppose there's also a producer saying Ooo, good stuff, go with that .. Shudder.

Now you're thinking like Darcy !

There are way too many elements to have caught on one viewing, and your comments have been a huge help. One I had was that Janet seemed flummoxed by being asked to create a popcorn river. Really ? She has always been able to create the most enormous things without breaking a sweat. This caught my attention; might it have some repercussion later?

Again .. communication. In all these blissful days, has Rebecca never said, "So, how's your work? Did you take time off for my visit, or will you have to spend some time at work?" Or before the visit, "When is a good time for me to come? Can you get time off of work?" Oh sigh. Blinders on, much?

Not the most compelling story of this episode, but I wondered as I was watching Tiffany and Ronald -- does no one on this show ever carry a conversation to its logical conclusion? In this case .. they seem to have decided they'd rather have the baby born at a private hospital. Ronald: "I'll see that there is enough money." Tiffany: (Silence. Scowls.) Wouldn't the next thing be to say "How do you propose to do that? What is your plan? Can you afford it with what you make at the rehab centre? Can you make some extra money delivering packages for Amazon? Be specific." Just a scowl and silence. Off the top of my head I also remember Jihoon saying "Don't worry .." And Deaven just looked vague.. Jenny could have asked Sumit a few more questions too. The Tiffany / Ronald caught my attention this time.

I rarely watch an episode all the way through, but stayed long enough for the 'breakthrough' of the Instagram queen. Did anybody else think it was nearly too convenient when the dark-haired girl listened to one simplistic analysis and suddenly burst into "You're right! I'm terrible! I'm lonely and have no friends and it's all empty and hollow" -- with appropriate crying. It looked really suspicious to me. And, I was guessing that later that day her Instagram would show her saying "Hah! Did you see how I did that? I played them big-time. Pretty good, huh?" 75% of me doesn't believe her.

Having finally figured out how to find and watch the early feed of this Sunday's episode, one reaction I have is that I get a strong sense of producer shenanigans in the Darcy / Tom scene in the Albanian restaurant. Tom's discomfort was really distressing, and Darcy's utter lack of sympathy was annoying as hell. I just suspect the producers here.

There are so many good theories above, and it could take weeks before 90DF spells out the whole story. I am a little puzzled by the pic of Jenny being hospitably treated by S's family when she went to India in 2013, but (that being said) I see three possibilities. (1) is that Sumit has been married for a pretty long time - either since Jenny's visit in '13 or before she went there, which is hard to imagine.. Or, (2) that in the years since 2013, his parents said 'Enough is enough' and arranged a marriage, which he entered into but kept on encouraging Jenny and even having her come back and saying they would marry. Or, (3) figuring that there was no period after the words "I'm married .." but a comma, which will be followed by : but .. .. "in my country .." this, or that, or some other technicality which would have let him figure he could go on with the whole Jenny thing. "Married to my work .." whatever, something equally lame. I even thought in passing, is it correct that, nuns are said to be married to Jesus? Some Hindu thing like that? Also (and I see spoilers aren't wicked in this area) people speak of seeing recent instagrams or something on line from Jenny, still in India and smiling -- which tends me toward the unknowns of possibility #3. Meaning that TLC is diddling with our minds, again ??

Well said, everybody, and here's another thought I haven't seen above .. In the brief scene with Zied and his mother hanging up laundry, I was surprised that I actually sort of liked him, from the way he spoke with his mother and looked at her. He seemed like a genuinely nice kid. The whole temper thing and jealousy etc - not to mention the whole greasy hair thing - are utter turn-offs. When all's said & done, I don't like him. But I was surprised at how "sweet" (sounds odd, but have to say it) he was with his mother. Meanwhile his True Love is searching his room, while commenting about it to the camera rolling as it's happening. Anybody else actually find Zied likable in that moment ?

Possibly it was producer foolery, but they did film her (hmm .. ??) trying to buy things from vendors who didn't speak English. They are likely banking on viewers who (like me) haven't traveled outside of the U.S. much. But if indeed most there do speak English, they were messing with us.

There was just a whole lot of negativity coming off of Vienna lady. Anything she liked was quickly overwhelmed by things she didn't. Also, so foolish to not have gone any further learning the language. She knew she was going there for some period, weeks? months? -- lots of ways to study a language these days. (pathetic note, if anybody here sees '90 day Fiance' they know the example of Paul, who after a year or more in Brazil still communicates with his wife with an instant-translating-app on his phone. Lady could get the App, at least.)

I can't really address how *good* an actress she is - she seems okay to me -- but a dear friend of mine was in her class at Juilliard, and following him and the class, I think she is absolutely the most successful member of that class. She was in the series about Army Wives before this, and I know she did one show on stage at The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis ("Importance of Being Earnest"). As an acting career goes, she has one. I read that an alarming number of Juilliard grads (in acting and the other disciplines, dance, music etc) do not end up making a living in their fields. (If anybody knows anything about other Juilliard grads from that period who are also making a living, it would be interesting to hear.) (Other note, she not only got into Juilliard, she got in as a high school graduate and not having gone to any college, or so I recall.)

Oops, important news ! I just opened my yesterday's New York Times, and the cover story of the Arts & Leisure section is a very long piece on '90 Day Fiance', and how the producers choose couples and how they film it. The focus is on a couple not to be seen on screen til the next season. There's also a fair amount of reflection on how it reflects current attitudes toward immigration. If you can access it by going to nytimes.com and doing a search for 90 Day Fiance, it's very interesting indeed. (Especially about how they maneuver Fights ..how the crew and producers work around the activities of the couples &c. ) This link may work: www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/arts/television/90-day-fiance-immigration.html (or if it doesn't, you get the idea.)

And a whopping lot of decorations.

Because we have the ability to juggle several topics at once, this: Fairly early in the loo-ong two hours, there was a preview moment of the host saying to Azan "So what did you do with the $6000?" - I assumed, naively, that this was a preview of something further down in this episode. Because I was tuning in and out, I'm not sure if that part never was shown last night? My impression now is that that exchange won't actually turn up til next week. I'm sure it would have been much discussed if it had been shown, and he had made even a very sketchy answer. I did see him answering about why they had not had a visit ("That's private so I won't say.") But as to that money ?? Thank you to anybody with a stronger stomach than I, who stuck with the entire thing.

The unabashed pimping for 'Family Chantel' was really repulsive. I have figured from watching the promos (which included old bits from previous fights &c) that TLC had to have said to these people "Do you think you can keep on fighting for, say, nine months or so? 'Cuz if you can, we can scrape another series out of this." And the answer was "Why, Yes, we believe we can. The possible future of this marriage, which will only survive with some serious calming down and probably frequent therapy, certainly takes second place to rehashing the same stupid fights and the glory of being stars on reality TV."

Me too ! He had a very specific good energy which is hard to match.

Oops, I almost forgot - Did anybody else scream out "Oh no Please!" at the end of the episode, when Laura arrived at the airport and Aladin was not there to meet her ?? Oh No What Ever shall I do, All alone here in a strange land, with nobody to help me, except two producers, a camera man and a sound guy ? Seriously, TLC Yawn. How shall I ever stand the suspense til next week's episode.

The above answer the puzzle very nicely. That Quickie thing doesn't exist in CA (or didn't a couple of years ago). The Service element is slightly different there. It is still unclear, really, if she was just serving Jay or asking him to sign off on whatever terms she wants. There are no kids and no community property (house, savings, cars &c) - but is he entitled to any support that he would be waiving? In the law hardly anything is Simple. Well I have belabored this question enough. It was a slimy way to handle it, Ashley, but no surprise there. Thank you for your answers, Colleagues!

I just watched this in bits (couldn't take the entire thing) but one thing that caught my eye was Ashley "serving" the divorce papers on Jay herself. Don't know about Pennsylvania, but I was in this business for years in California, and a party cannot serve their papers own on the other party. Period. It has to be done by a third person, either in person or by mail. Also to complete the divorce (and this seems something that should be pretty universal) there has to be a Proof of Service filed, and the Court will glance at who did the serving. It just doesn't float. We suspend disbelief a lot around here, but that really jarred. (If anybody knows that Pennsylvania is different in this, let me know!) Beyond that, these people are all pretty loathsome, so I second all the above-mentioned notes about that.

Hullo --- No thoughts about the new movie last night, "Sister of the Bride" ? Mine are that it was entirely boring - no real dilemmas, resolutions that I didn't care much about. Except I did resent big-time that 'Ben', the Economics professor, turned down (is this a spoiler, since it already aired?) his dream job at Oxford for a pale facsimile. But the house was very pretty, and it was nice to see Michael Gross and the '55 T-bird. Otherwise, zzz-zz-zz.

I am kinda puzzled about Jenny's resisting wearing the Indian clothing -- "I'm an American woman, they can't tell me what to wear" -- because in the intro to that segment, I swear I heard her say something like We are going to buy an Indian outfit so I won't be so conspicuous -- or stand out so much -- when we go out. I had recorded the episode and now have deleted it, but did she not say that? And if so, it was entirely weird that she then got completely resistant to the idea. (Or, do I remember it wrong?)