pookat

This episode rang very true for me. Like Empress1, I have felt much less safe, a fear which has been validated by an uptick in hate crimes: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/01/report-rise-hate-violence-tied-2016-presidential-election I feel for journalists and this episode really brought it home for me. This is reality being reflected, unless one watches Fox News or just can’t keep up with the fresh rounds of outrage served up daily from the current admin. This show is needed, if for no other reason than the fact that people seem more willing to believe fiction than reality these days. Another incident of violence against the press was committed by former Trump campaign manager and chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/us/politics/trump-campaign-manager-corey-lewandowski.html

I think there is a fine, but important distinction in saying "Trump voters are racist," which I have not and acknowledging that for those who voted for him, racism, misogyny, antiSemitism, Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiments were not dealbreakers. That worries me. Whether or not we have 4 more years of him as president, the veil has been ripped off and tolerance of discrimination and hatred is out in the open. It's not dismissive of Trump voters to say this. It is the reality of all marginalized groups in the US and a key reason why this episode spoke to so many of us.

I never liked Lucy. Her rationale is what I have heard from Trump voters, but still makes no sense to me since unemployment benefits were extended under Obama and opposed, IIRC, by the GOP. This episode was what I like best about Blackish. The conversations and feelings conveyed were spot on. I completely believe that Dre's boss and Josh supported Hillary because at the end of the day, even though they hold some highly questionable beliefs, if I am being generous, neither one wanted a madman in charge of the country. They knew it would be in their own self-interest to vote for the reportedly Wall Street friendly Hillary, much to the chagrin of progressives. Frankly, I thought Hillary would win exactly because of the Joshes and bosses in this country. It was a real eye-opener that a huge portion of people I work with (the Lucys) voted for Trump. It never occurred to me that decent people would even consider voting for that man after everything he has said and done. I can better understand the frustration of third party voters and I agree that it would have been nice to have that view represented. I could have seen Josh, Charlie or Lucy voting third party. Even Pop or Dre could have made a decent argument for voting third party given a number of policies enacted during the Clinton years when Dre was a teenager. But I believed that even the Hillary haters would suck it up and vote for her to prevent the great orange apocalypse. What I learned was that 53% of white women apparently hated Hillary so much that they voted against their own self-interest. Lucy represented exactly that. As uncomfortable as it was to watch, Lucy is exactly who elected Trump and still has no remorse except for the social stigma that's attached. ETA: Call it preachy if you want, but if we learned anything from this election, it's that people don't care about facts or real journalism. They care about entertainment and whatever supports their own beliefs, so preach away, Blackish. Maybe someone will consider this viewpoint since their fake news bubble won't offer it.

We probably see things differently. I think Candice is a superior actress who has had pretty thin storylines, while Danielle has been given meatier storylines but hasn't carried them off as well, in my opinion. DP has a larger fanbase I think because of her history as a Disney tween star. I used to believe that the world was more colorblind than it is. Maybe age, experience and learning others' diverse points of view has opened my mind a bit more to some of the inequalities around us. Not everything is about race (or gender or ethnicity or so on), but there is a lot to be said about implicit bias that affects the way we unconsciously make decisions about who is worthy, popular or beautiful. It takes A LOT to consciously refrain from acting on instinct, which is deeply seated in every one of us and is a result of societal conditioning. Acknowledging that we have this implicit bias doesn't make us racist or bad. It just means that there are many forces that shape our reality. There is a lot of evidence, both hard and soft, and plenty of history that shows why DP would be favored for a popularity award over CP. It's not a slam against DP or people who have grown up with privilege of any kind (even the unconscious kind). It's just a statement of the current reality. It's one of the reasons I cheer extra hard for the CP's of this world, knowing how much more they have to overcome to even be considered for lead roles like this one. If talent and hard work alone were the only ingredients for success and accolades, and implicit and systemic biases didn't exist, it would be a very different world.

I've decided that the only way to maintain WestAllen in my mind is to believe that Barry and Iris of the new timeline will most closely resemble their Earth-2 doppelgangers, Dr. Bartholomew Allen and Det. Iris West. It makes sense to me that Barry was the slightly cosseted, nebbish only child of a stable, loving two parent home who pursued an advanced degree as well as the woman he loved (and who probably protected him from a bunch of schoolyard bullies) while Iris had to grow up a bit tougher as a jazz singer's daughter rather than an overprotected cop's daughter. They never had the curse of the brother-sister dynamic having to grow up in the same house. The one thing that worries me, given Grant and Melissa Benoist's spectacular chemistry, is that with the CW/D multiverse combined and multiple crossovers already planned, they might dump Iris in favor of Kara as Barry's girlfriend. I don't want the writers to screw over Iris (or Candice) like they did with Abbie on Sleepy Hollow. Much as I enjoy Supergirl as portrayed, this would be a really shady way to go. Did anyone else notice some major sparks between Harry and Caitlin? I would not have predicted that, especially with such an age difference, but Harry's big grin and their bonding scene surprisingly warmed my heart. Who knew?

Who wants to bet that S3 opens with Nora Allen hitting the Scarlet Speedster with a table lamp for breaking in and terrifying her family (but really for viewers mad at Barry for torpedoing yet another timeline)?

They now have 6 free episodes, including Grant's episode, because I just checked the CBS app and I definitely don't pay for All Access.

If this spoiler article http://tvline.com/2016/05/18/the-flash-spoilers-season-2-finale-photos-zoom-captures-joe/ is to be believed, then OMG, no! I am already bored with the season finale. Does Zoom not have any moves beyond kidnapping and/or killing loved ones? Wells/Thawne was much more creative. This means that we either have lazy writing or a very lazy villain. I am also irritated that of Zoom's many kidnappees, only Caitlyn gets damseled. PTSD is very real, but I really hate seeing TV and movies put women in the position of being victimized and suffering emotional distress afterward. Even Jessie whined about leaving her friends after being held in Zoom's cell for months while Barry and Wally both seemed to come out of being kidnapped with a desire to be even more heroic. Get it together when writing women, show!

That's nice to hear, but I wish that the CW would just post all the episodes from this season so people could properly marathon the season. I don't really want to pay $40 to watch the entire season on iTunes, especially since it was lackluster (too much LoT and Patty), but I would be happy to legally "rent" access to all the episodes. Unfortunately, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime don't provide the entire season of Flash without permanently buying it. So annoying that Hulu used to carry entire seasons and now only has the last 5 episodes of some shows, which we can get for free anyway through the networks. #firstworldproblems

Still laughing about how not one, but TWO, of Black Siren's villain monologues were cut short because of those meddling kids.

So this means we'll get ragey Barry for S3 and probably no movement on WestAllen, because watching your family murdered doesn't exactly bode well for wanting to expand the family. Killing off Henry wasn't a surprise, but still supremely uncool. Worse that they toyed with a Tina McGee flirtation and Joe wanting to be called PawPaw, just to rub salt in the wound of things Henry will miss. Serious writer trolling with everyone who ever had to give Barry a pep talk basically trying to do the opposite in this episode. Sit, Barry, Sit, indeed.

Not cool, show, not cool.

Ha! I can totally see a male-heavy writing staff thinking along those lines, though personally, I see Barry as more of a bunny than a dinosaur. He hasn't reached WOOB status, but he is definitely a gentler soul than some superheroes. I thought the Runaway Bunny inspiration was a little odd since the little bunny in the story wants to change himself in order to get away from his mom, but ultimately realizes it's futile since his mom will always find a way to track him down. That is actually the opposite of what Barry has been doing, though maybe it's Barry's fate he kept trying to run from, not his mom. The Runaway Dinosaur, on the other hand, just seemed to want to change himself for reasons that were not explained, while his mom finds reasons why each dinosaur subspecies wouldn't work until she finally tells him that he and his mom are just the right kind of dinosaur for each other. I suppose both moms, in their own way, are pointing out that they will always be there, which supports Iris' point.

I was just rewatching S1 and I'm actually impressed by the many callbacks in this and other recent episodes to last season. Joe broke Barry's mug at the station ("I loved that mug!") when checking to see if Barry's powers had returned after facing off with Blackout/Farooq (who also killed Girder the first time). When Iris saw Barry's broken mug, she was like, "Barry loves that mug!" which was so cute. Joe also tries to break a flower vase in (a very high) Eddie's hospital room at the end of that ep, so apparently breaking things his kids (real, surrogate and almost-in-law) have an attachment to is his move when assessing speed powers. I also noticed that Joe tells Cisco to get behind him that (or one of the other S1 eps), so it's really cool when Iris does exactly the same thing to him here. Iris was also the one whose boxing skills at age 11 knocked Barry down when Joe was training him to fight Tony (future Girder). Side note: it is a whole different experience watching S1 knowing who Wells/Thawne really is. The evil is always there, but the way it comes out is pretty brilliant. Tom Cavanagh needs an Emmy. It's also Wells/Thawne who first tells Joe that Barry's biggest enemy is doubt in the second ep, which tells me they wrote Barry intentionally as a hero who needs pep talks. I can see how that might grate after the 20th time, but I kind of like the fact that he isn't an obnoxiously overconfident hero even if he had to be taught to look before he runs headfirst into danger (thank you, Oliver Queen, and the two arrows in the back. Ouch!) I'm not sure Teddy Sears is quite on Cavanagh's level, though once he was revealed as Zoom, he's been excellent. I'm looking forward to rewatching S2 for early clues. DP also seemed much more natural and interesting in S1. Not sure if it's the writing or the acting. Candice and Grant continue to be so talented and have such great chemistry. I hope they recapture the brightness and playful chemistry of S1 going forward.

This is for everyone who now has that Annie song (aka Smooth Criminal) in their head and remembers how a number of us first came to discover Grant's many talents. I still can't believe my sweet, pep-talk-needing Barry Allen was once the evil Sebastian. That is some major chemistry with Naya Rivera, though.