Orbert

Thank you for that! I only knew the "noisy ghost" definition, and thought it was a little bit cheesy how they'd come up with their own definition, apparently just for a pun on the word "guest". But if the attachment angle is also part of the original meaning of the word, then I'm fine with it. Whew!

That's all I really meant. I said "bad guys" but I didn't mean criminals per se, just not exactly nice people. I can buy Antonio being taken aback by his friend's verbal attack on Will, to the point where he didn't get a chance to react before Will stepped up and defended himself, but the friend jumping on Will like that was not cool.

That's possible, too. I think it was weird either way, because Antonio brought Will there to meet his friends, and it seems like Antonio would tell the guys ahead of time that Will is a GBI agent, if that's something likely to cause an issue. On the other hand, it felt to me like Antonio was specifically meant to be "kinda like Will". Dyslexic, dog lover, and perhaps a bit socially awkward and/or unaware. Everyone has their quirks, and Will has some trouble reading the room sometimes. Maybe Antonio is the same way. It may not have occurred to him that his buddies are cop-haters. Or maybe it's just the other two, or just the one. I guess we'll see. At least I hope so, because that was too weird of a scene to be swept away.

I'm not sure if it was a red flag for me -- I mean, I don't suspect Uncle Antonio of being a bad guy or anything -- but it was definitely weird. I think it was just another example of the writers not working things all the way through. It seemed like it was an opportunity for Will to deal directly with Antonio's friend, which he did. But that meant that Antonio and the others just stood there while Will gave his little speech. There was no reaction from anyone other than Will, and there should have been. I don't think it was meant to cast Antonio in a bad light; I think it was just poor writing and/or directing. In the best shows, characters without speaking lines are still "involved" in what's happening, reacting visibly to what the others are saying or doing. They don't just stand around because the conversation is between two other characters.

Yeah, I didn't remember hearing that before either.

I'll echo what everyone else is saying, that this was a great episode, possibly the best so far. Even Ormewood was okay this time. Maybe they're giving him a redemption arc? The French braids issue was real, and I liked how he tricked the protester/vandal guy into confessing by pretending to be on his side. Simple yet effective. Everyone working together on the same case still didn't quite make sense to me (why would GBI and APD be working together? Because it was a judge?) but I handwaved it because it was still better than Angie and Ormewood being off on their own case, and it did give us the car scene. When Will met Uncle Antonio's friends, and one of them immediately called will a "dirty cop" -- what was that all about? Was he just a cop hater? I would've liked Uncle Antonio to have defended Will a bit, or at least give his friend some shit about jumping on his nephew like that, but Will just dealt with him head-on. Yes, I shot a guy just last week. Three times. Followed all the procedures, but he's still dead. Maybe the friend (I forget his name) didn't expect an actual response, because he seemed to back off a little bit, but Will had to go be a "dirty cop" so we didn't get a real resolution there. Luke seems to only be around to be Faith's love interest, and a reason for Amanda to whine about something. But that's a relatively minor thing I guess in an otherwise really good episode. I liked the family theme showing up over and over in various forms.

I gotta be honest; I'm not sure if this is good news or not. For me, part of the charm and attraction of the first few seasons was that the so many Arconia residents, and in a way the building itself, were integral to the stories. The occasional well-known guest star was fun, but not really required. Season Three bumped that up a notch or two with Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep both in prominent roles, and the story also shifted away from the building for a lot of the season, and the most of the residents were mostly absent. Now they're adding even more characters to the cast? I did enjoy Season Three. I suppose the only "requirement" is that the murder take place in the building; perhaps they feel that it's time now to give the show a broader scope, a bigger feel. Also, of the seven new cast members named in the recent posts, I don't know most of them. I like Richard Kind, though he's not exactly an A-lister. The rest I'm not familiar with, but it still makes me wonder why we need them when we already have a half dozen or more established characters other than our dynamic trio.

Well, I didn't hate this one, though I didn't love it. The biggest thing I liked was that Ormewood and Angie were actually working on the same case as Will and Faith. It's unrealistic that they'll come up with ways for all of them to work together every week, but the way this played out with the GBI director insisting that it be investigated by APD made sense. I don't know how realistic it was for that to happen, but I could buy it. But there was still so much wrong, all of which has been mentioned already. The murder weapon was this huge thing that Amanda somehow supposedly snuck out of there and hid in her laundry at home. The SWAT team converging on her when she's obviously not some crazy woman with a gun threatening kids. The way those random APD unis seemed so happy that Amanda was under fire (why?) A lot of things were just plain weird. I continue to not care about Ormewood's home life. Ormewood has been an ass to Will since day one, and continues to be an ass, so I don't really care that his family is falling apart. Yes, it's sad. But it's a character I actively dislike and it's all just TV anyway, so I don't care. The characters I like, I care about. That's normal, right? Why make the most unlikeable character on the show be the one with all the personal problems, and why should we care? I can understand Will and Faith not being thrilled to find out that Amanda planted evidence 30 years ago when she was just starting out, but I thought their reactions were over the top. It was 30 years ago when she was just starting out, it was a shitty situation and she was getting no support, so she took a scumbag off the streets the only way she could. As far as we know, she has been consistently by the book ever since, yet Will and Faith both acted like she's a raging hypocrite. The characters and actors all deserve better writing. This show has so much potential, but still somehow feels like they don't know how to make it work.

Okay, I guess I'm rethinking the reality show murder B-story. It did add some lightness, which was nice because the Boo Hag story was pretty dark and serious. It's just that any time any of the "ex-wives" was on screen, I just wanted to hit the FF button (which I really try not to do). Also, I'd forgotten about the "pudding" convo, which was fun, and the point about Ormewood being single now as character development and maybe we're done with his home life for a while is a good one. Between two cases each week, the ongoing arc with Will's uncle, and seeing his younger self, and the glimpses into everyone's private lives, I still think they're juggling more characters and stories than really necessary, but I do have to give them high marks for their juggling ability.

I liked the Boo Hag case. Of course the "witch" was never going to turn out to be guilty, but the twist was kinda cool. Amanda being stalked will hopefully turn out interesting. Angie and Ormewood are still on their own show, doing their own things, and Ormewood's wife finally left him, which we all saw coming so I'm not sure why that was supposed to be shocking or whatever. The whole "reality TV" B-story was tedious. I find people like that to be obnoxious, and don't get how watching a bunch of obnoxious, self-centered, backstabbing people is supposed to be entertaining. I avoid them in real life; I sure as hell don't want to see them while I try to escape real life. They're not funny, they're not interesting... why am I watching them?

I hadn't thought about that aspect of it, but it makes sense and seems like a potentially interesting thing to explore. Carol carried on for nearly 40 years after Pete died, but Pete (with an obvious visual reminder or two) is in some ways exactly as he was the day he died, including mentally and emotionally. She has a lot more life experience than he does, which would color the conversation they hopefully eventually have about her affair. I mean, to her it's ancient history; her first husband who died way back before her much longer second marriage. To Pete, it's still fresh and still hurts.

I must have missed that. If it's been six months, then it's not unreasonable for Angie to be back on the job.

Wow, good news! Even though the season is just starting for us because of the strikes, there are probably some decisions that have to be made by certain dates, and renewing some shows that are obviously pretty popular is a pretty safe bet.

You're right. I'm just willing to let it go because they had to say something or people wouldn't back off, and I understand the rationale for them saying what they did.

That could be an important distinction, and possibly the loophole allowing basement cholera boy to be the one. Which still contradicts whoever said that it was one of the main ghosts (or something like that), but if it was someone on the actual production or writing team, I'd be willing to allow that as a bit of misdirection. Obviously they meant for it to be a cliffhanger and/or hadn't figured it out yet anyway, but in either case I could understand them trying to deflect speculation by saying that. I'd personally get tired of people asking "Who was it?" all the time, when the whole point is that we don't find out until... whenever they choose to reveal it. If they don't saying anything, people won't stop asking. If they say that it's not a main cast member, then the amount of care drops dramatically. So they say it's a main cast member and that keeps people interested over the break. And it doesn't bother me how much or little truth there is in that answer, because I wouldn't ask or want to know in the first place. I don't even read episode synopses before broadcast because I prefer to stay as spoiler-free as possible.