truther

One of the things I have learned from watching this show is that kitchen appliances literally do not work unless they are stainless steel. Apparently the stainless steel somehow makes the food edible. I didn't know that but it's the only explanation for the fact that any other kitchen must be completely gutted and rebuilt.

Yes. "America." (I kid!)

I have some experience with European craftsmen and can totally see what you're talking about. Wasn't that the same discussion about the stairs? That the dimensions were very clearly laid out but that the stairmaker just went ahead and built something else instead?

So what do people think became of Huub, the project manager guy? I thought it was a little awkward that he didn't have any screentime after the dad yelled at him and that he wasn't around at the ending. It was just the couple talking about their house to their guests. I thought the dad's comment, during the yelling, about "we keep specifying certain things in the plans which your guys keep ignoring" (or whatever it was) seemed remarkably sincere. It didn't feel scripted at all. That, coupled with Huub's disappearance from the episode afterwards, gave me the impression that he'd actually done something of a crappy job supervising.

I'll be honest with you -- I could have watched her all day. And not to sound like a pervy old man or anything, but from the angles and closeups they used I'm pretty sure that the camera operator and the director were on the same page as me. I'll agree that when they first showed her and she had all that jewelry I thought she looked like she was trying too hard, just as you said. But she went a little more basic in the latter two outfits. I've watched enough morons on this show that I feel like I've earned an episode of eye candy.

Beyond my dislike of Clara, this is the real problem plaguing the show right now. They're not even trying. And the consequences of their actions don't even make it to the end of the episode anymore, let alone beyond.

Because for some bizarre reason, the show has decided to subordinate characters and story to some season-long arc about a triangle of tension between the Doctor, Clara and Danny. So instead of these characters all doing things that are coherent and plausible, they do whatever is necessary to establish the next stage of this story arc. It's entirely bass-ackwards storytelling because it means nothing these people do makes any sense or is in any way relatable. They're puppets being dragged this way and that by a largely unseen puppetmaster who seems to get bored easily.

It says something about this episode that after all these great comments I can still find something else to bitch about. The cavalier way Clara and Danny kept losing Maeve, almost like it was one of those funny things that happens to people who are dating. You count the kids! No, you count the kids! And then the way Clara kept having to be reminded that she was responsible for these students of hers and couldn't just up and wander off to do something about trees or something. It means she's a lousy teacher (and, frankly, human being). Which once again makes no sense. I also want to second (or third) the comments upthread about the audio. My eye rolls and sighs might have contributed, but I definitely couldn't follow everything they were saying. I'm honestly at the point where I don't even care about what comes next. It'll be something stupid, I know that, and frankly I don't need the hassle.

On the bright side, at least the Moon stayed in one piece.

But if Lawrie actually killed all three victims the first go-around then the alibi is fake, isn't it? I thought the whole point of the missing alibi was that it showed that Lawrie wasn't the killer for at least one of the murders? That's one of the evidentiary screwups that got Lawrie's conviction overturned and got him released from prison. If the alibi was fake then that whole controversy is moot and the court wouldn't have cared any more than Lewis did. The alibi's only important if it's relevant to Lawrie's guilt or innocence.

I don't recall where they said they were from but it's a 9-hour drive from Little Rock to Gatlinburg without stopping. Tonight's episode was newlyweds in Denver. We turned it off after 3 minutes, once we learned that he wants a giant house for all their kids but she wants a small fixer upper because they don't actually have any kids yet. Next.

Oh, perhaps I missed that, which shows how closely I was paying attention (or how much sense the resolution made for me). But either way my point pretty much still stands -- Lewis didn't even know she existed. Whether she murdered two cops and was the accomplice for the other two murders, or murdered all four herself, Lewis failed even to uncover her existence let alone competently rule her out as a possible suspect.

I enjoyed watching this episode but the more I think about it the less sense the story actually makes. That final policeman to die -- the one who was murdered in the present -- was basically killed because Lewis et al absolutely completely bungled the first investigation. They sent the wrong man (however detestable) to prison because of a lost alibi, which is bad enough. Then Lewis actually admitted, once they'd nabbed the printer lady, that he didn't even know she existed back in 2003. She was the murderer! She killed four policemen, and almost killed Maddox, and killed Lawrie, and you did such an awful job you didn't even know who she was?!? In my world Lewis would be drummed out of the department faster than you can say "breathtaking professional incompetence."

The psychic paper didn't work on him because he was so devoid of any imagination there was nothing to project. Pretty funny, actually. Didn't it wind up as a 2-D image along the tunnel wall? On a separate topic, it occurred to me as I was thinking about the episode again that I wish they'd tone down the sonic screwdriver just a tad. It's really getting overused to the point of being the essential solution to every problem.

Yes, and everyone who volunteered to fight for the Union when the Civil War first broke out thought they'd be home by Christmas 1861. Things change and people have to adapt. That's the difference between being a grownup and being Clara. You're of course right to point out what Clara may have thought going in, but frankly it's annoying as heck (to me) to see someone continually put their own petty demands ahead of the actual storyline. Besides, she loses the right to be consistent on this issue once she gives the Doctor an ultimatum on leaving and then LIES to continue traveling with him. Having her take a phone call from her boyfriend in the middle of scrambling to safety in the hanging chair, after the policewoman has just been killed in the very same room, is just annoying, consistent with her character or not.

I've been there a couple times myself for family events. Bought my favorite shirt in Gatlinburg. The town parts are pretty frustrating to drive through (the husband called it "Branson on steroids" IIRC) but you're right those mountain cabins are great. It can get pretty scenic up there. I honestly have no idea what was romantic or not about any of those places. Though it seemed the wife perked up as they looked at the one place that had a bar, pool table and 6-seater hot tub. Nasty.

Please tell me some of you are watching the Arkansas woman house hunting in Gatlinburg! What a voice!

I did not like those people, to put it mildly, though it was at least refreshing for the husband to flat-out call his wife's bathroom obsession "insane." It makes no sense and the bathroom situation from her childhood (what is it with house hunters and their idiotic childhood phobias?) has nothing to do with anything. They should have side-by-side episodes where people like these two look at these mcmansions and then people who grew up in a refugee camp in Vietnam or something look at them as well. The different perspectives would be interesting.

I've noticed that, too. He wants a split-level fixer-upper in the suburbs! She wants new construction in a downtown condo next to skid row! He likes wood! She likes plastic! Who will win? Who will lose? For me, I'm less likely to watch those episodes because ugh, we've seen this contrived pseudo-drama before and it's rarely, ever, interesting. Partly because it's unbelievable and partly because it makes the house hunters look like contemptible morons. There was an ep the other day that started that way and I immediately stopped watching. While it takes slightly more effort from the producers, I'd much rather they present actual, interesting people and then show a selection of homes that may or may not fit with what they're looking for.

I thought she and Hathaway were terrific for each other. She's exactly what (I think) he seems to need -- a well-educated woman who would challenge him without being in any way intimidated or put off by his profession. And yeah, I spent the whole show trying to figure out why I recognized her and for some reason couldn't place her as Annie Cabot. You really can do a six degrees of separation for these British shows. Andrea Lowe was in DCI Banks and when her character went on maternity leave in that show her replacement was played by Caroline Catz . . . who stars in Doc Martin . . . which also features Ian McNeice as Bert Large . . . who plays a recurring Winston Churchill character in Doctor Who . . . which featured Catherine Tate as the Doctor's companion . . . and Catherine Tate starred in her own show which was narrated by Rebecca Front . . . who plays DCI Innocent on Inspector Lewis.

You mean the "raised ranch"? That term was a new one for me.

Who was the engineer supposed to be? There seemed to be some kind of tacit understanding between him and the Doctor. When the engineer was leaving the Tardis at the end the Doctor was watching him with a look that suggested "now I'm going to reveal your true identity, Gus!" but that never happened.

Nice to see some positive early returns. This was a good episode and, for me, pretty much the only one that actually felt like a full-on Doctor Who episode instead of some lesser Doctor Who-like ripoff. My only big complaint, not to beat a dead horse, was with Clara. I seriously rolled my eyes a few times early on at her pouting and sulking, and I was sorry to see her stay at the end. I can't stand having a Doctor Who episode interrupted by Clara having a chat on the phone with her boyfriend.

Yeah, it can get dreary in the winter, and a lot of places don't have much heating so those 45 degree overcast winter days can feel pretty rough. You're right though about the guys themselves. Overall they seemed very pleasant. Just suffered from the usual HHI storyline.

Yeah those guys were bizarre. They kept going on about the massive culture shock of moving halfway around the world, and how they needed to treat themselves to a fancy home to compensate, without seemingly realizing that going from San Diego to Melbourne is like moving from the Upper West Side to the Village. I suppose you'll have to find a new bagel place but otherwise no, it's really not a big deal. And Melbourne is one of the most livable cities on the planet so they've really got nothing to complain about. Which also went to the episode's subtext that Melbourne was surprisingly expensive. Why wouldn't it be? It was as though these two just assumed that the farther away, distance-wise, one got from America the lower the standards of living would be. I, too, kept thinking they were jerks.