fishcakes

I know people have asked for this before and it looks like it was never resolved and then just forgotten, so I'm going to request again the return the alphabetical divisions to the shows we list on our custom homepages. This was standard before the latest update and there didn't seem to be an answer as to why it was removed, or if there was, I missed it. Without having the list of forums broken up alphabetically, it can be difficult to find the show you're looking for because it's just a mass of words that shifts every time you add or remove a forum. I don't even follow that many shows compared to other people I've talked to about this, and it's still an annoyance to have to scan nearly the entire list to find something that begins with anything that's not close to the beginning or end of the alphabet. For anyone who's neuroatypical or has a reading disorder, I would imagine that the custom homepage is very nearly unusable.

From the LA Times: ‘Mrs. Maisel’ cast reflects on the early days, their bonds and ... a shark encounter?

In the first episode, Caroline had a problem with Lan, who was kind of dumb but wasn't doing anything wrong, and now she has a problem with Megan, who also wasn't doing anything wrong. And if the previews are accurate (granted, probably not), next week she's going to have some kind of issue with Precious. So I'm thinking Caroline might want to start looking inward. It's not as if she's done anything impressive yet, and her presentation last night was embarrassing. Luther saved it and he wasn't even prepared. At the same time, Lan isn't too dumb to know the difference between a noun and a verb, Jake. And I liked that during the grilling she owned her mistakes, including the socks in the wineglass, instead of trying to pass them off on other people or "the group" the way Jake and Tony did. I do think Jake was the right person to go.

I haven't read anything about alternate endings, but I would be surprised if there were any. The Palladinos, Amy in particular, are known for having a particular vision for their work and insisting it be done their way. Actors have even said that there's no ad libbing, and that the script has to be followed word-for-word.

Sharona's return in season 8 wasn't too flattering to the character either. When Monk started to suspect that her uncle was murdered, she wanted him to forget about it so that she could still collect the civil settlement from the country club for his supposed accident. It wasn't as horrible as it could have been since she didn't know the uncle that well, but still made her look pretty callous. That whole episode was kind of nonsensical though since they had Sharona flying out from New Jersey saying she was her uncle's only family, conveniently forgetting that her sister Gail exists and presumably still lives in San Francisco.

I love Mr. Monk and the Kid, but my favorite appearance by Brooke Adams is in Mr. Monk Visits a Farm, as the local sheriff who keeps brazenly flirting with Adrian. The scene where she wants to square dance with him and he says he can't because he's married never gets old for me. Sheriff: Where's your wife? Monk: She's dead. Sheriff: To be honest, I've got mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I'm sorry for your loss. On the other, [pulls him out to the dance floor] here we go! She's so great there, but the way he says "she's dead" is hilarious. He has a way of making things funny when they shouldn't be. And the flirting reminds me that I also love how appealing Monk became to Natalie in Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank when he was wearing the security guard's uniform. I would never, ever ship Monk and Natalie, but I got a huge kick out of how him in a uniform was really doing it for her lol. I own the series, so if I'm playing my copy, then I actually watch it, but when it's airing on COZI, I mostly keep it on as background while I'm doing something else. I do get sucked in a lot though because every other one has me going, "oh I love this one!"

They did name her husbands in the 60 Minutes interview: Paul Simon, Robert Evans, and Quincy Jones. The interview took place when she was still estranged from Susie, so it was sometime before 1990. I don’t think there was mention in other episodes of additional marriages between ‘90 and ‘05, but I may have missed it.

I don't see it at all! I did see a photo of him with a beard a while back and it had a lot of gray in it, but he just looked like a prematurely gray 35-year-old to me. I think he's got that Dick Clark/Bob Costas thing going on, where he'll look young until he's 75 and then age all at once.

Someone on reddit posted several photos from the filming of the reunion movie, which is happening right now in Toronto. They all look fantastic, but Monk, Leland, and Natalie look exactly as you would expect them to look 14 years later, while Randy hasn't aged at all.

They even used a photo of Paul and Carrie to photoshop Midge into. The big spangly belt and collar make me think I've seen the outfit that Midge is wearing before, but I can't place where it's from.

@shapeshifter Thanks, I actually got all that before, but sometimes I just space out and click where the edit button used to be and end up quoting myself.

I'm not trying to edit anyone else's post, just my own. But because on the new layout, they moved the edit button from the bottom of the post to the pulldown menu at the top, a few times now, I've absentmindedly clicked on the quote button and ended up double posting nearly the same thing.

Also, I think it's a mistake to think that a person's happiness is completely within their control. There aren't a lot of people who get to live their ideal life, and maybe there aren't any. From the Glamour article that @shapeshifter linked to above is this from Alex and Rachel: That's been the arc of the show. Joel blew up Midge's life in episode 1 and we hear Abe reflect on that in the penultimate episode of the series: other people would have crumbled, but she picked herself up and found a new and different way of living. Had it been entirely up to Midge, Joel wouldn't have left her, and it might even be Joel with the successful standup career (though having seen his set ... uh, doubtful). But it wasn't up to her any more than it's up to any of us, yet in the end, she still had a good life.

Crap, on this new forum layout, I keep quoting myself when I mean to edit the original post.

I saw this yesterday and I'm still crying a little (I cry all the time, so don't go by me) and thinking about the end, which to me is the sign of a good finale. I liked the flash forwards all season and now that the finale has aired, I really appreciate how much of the heavy lifting they did. Giving us bits and pieces over 9 episodes is so much better than a linear season followed by a "here's what happened"-heavy final episode. Does Midge end up happy? I think mostly yes. She knew early on that trying for fame was a choice that was going to exclude other choices. And we know in the intervening years, that idea was reinforced for her when she tried marriage again and again and it didn't work out, so I think she's finally made her peace with it. It's certainly poignant to see her walking through that huge, unpopulated apartment and eating in the kitchen with a only a magazine and her kitchen staff behind her for company, but at that point, she's 79 or 80 years old. Being a woman alone at that age is not that uncommon. This article is about whether Midge and Joel ever reunited and what happened to Joel and the short answer is no and he's dead. But I'm a firm believer in the audience being able to contribute whatever they want to the empty spaces, so if anyone's preferred version is that they remarried and lived happily together for years, then that's okay too. A couple of things I really loved: first, Rose's petulance about Midge not calling her to tell her about the Gordon Ford appearance. When we first met Midge, she aspired to have her mother's life, right down to the weird bedtime routine of cold cream and rollers after the husband is asleep and removing them before he wakes up. When Midge rejected that life, Rose seemed to take it as Midge rejecting her, causing her to question her own place and value in the world, as we saw in the Paris episodes. So it was touching to see how much it meant to Rose that Midge had everyone call her for hours on end to tell her to be at the show. Also another nice moment was Abe telling Midge he was proud of her before the show (even though it wasn't nearly as funny as him in resort wear staring stone-faced at her Catskills standup routine way back when). The second really nice bit was Gordon calling Midge over to the couch after her set. Being on Johnny Carson's show was what all comics aspired to, but the holy grail was getting called over to the couch after. They were all instructed to look at him after the set and if he waved them over, then they'd get another few minutes on the couch, but more important, it meant that he liked them and would have them back for future appearances and that was huge back in the days of only 3 networks and no cable or streaming. So Susie and Mike's "holy shit!" reactions were apt, especially since Gordon had been such a bag of dicks over her appearing in the first place. A of little things too: Shirley and Moishe in the shower, Susie chasing Mike through the offices, Susie and the birds, remembering the dumbness of Penny Pann. It just hit all the right notes for me. I loved it.

I would have voted against Heidi just because she opted to make fire. I understand why Chris did it in the Exile Island season because he had spent almost no time in the main game and needed something on his resume, but for Heidi, it was an unnecessary risk. She was in the game the entire season and everyone knew her game; fire wasn't going to make a difference. Even so, I was pretty sure she would beat Carson at it because the one thing I knew about her came from the first episode when she made fire quickly on the first day out there. Then she became almost invisible for several weeks and every time I saw her, I'd go, "who is ... ? oh, right fire girl." So it was a dumb move by her but a nice callback by the editors. I would have been happy with any of the Tika 3 winning, and I am happy about Yam Yam, especially after how sweet and helpful he was when Carson was losing it over trying to make fire, but I feel just the tiniest bit let down that Carolyn didn't get any votes. She was a good player, and I thought her jury performance was not great but better than Heidi's. Heidi was mostly giving a prepared speech and trying to flatter the jurors, which at least worked on Danny whose question was pretty much, "you rode my coattails to get to the end, right?" and Heidi's response was basically, "yes, I used you as a shield because you are so much more awesome than me. Thank you for your question." The reunion show was fun. Jaime being absolutely delighted over the fake idol, Yam Yam and Carolyn finding out about Carson's connection with NASA, Brandon regaining the power of speech. You can tell this is a group of people that genuinely like each other.

I haven’t seen a time listed anywhere either, but since they’re also showing the finale in a few theaters around the country, I’m guessing it’s at least 90 minutes.

The problem for Lauren/Jaime is that they burned their bridges with Heidi. Last week was the second time they voted together against her, and Heidi was pretty adamant that she had no reason to trust them so I'm not surprised that she didn't tell them she has an idol and that the three of them could use it to take out a Tika. Heidi might still be in a good position, if Carolyn is seriously thinking about voting Carson out (which I kind of doubt, but despite her openness, Carolyn can be hard to read), then she could use Heidi, who trusts her, and Lauren, who has no other options, to vote him out next time, assuming he doesn't win immunity. And if Tika sticks together, I think Lauren goes before Heidi, but I'm just guessing because it seems like Lauren's name has come up more and has been seen as more of a threat. Nice poncho, De Niro.

Or Heidi! Her montage was pretty badass.

If De Niro were ever to see that, he’d take Danny out with one punch.

I always said I'd watch until the bitter end, but 90 minutes might be too much on a weekly basis. And the same for TAR. Both shows became stale years ago and none of the changes have made them better. I doubt that "still bad and now 50% longer!" is the answer. I wonder, though, if this is just a temporary thing in anticipation of the WGA strike continuing on into the summer.

I'm not sure I have this right, but I think what's going on is that Emma quit the CIA altogether, and she, Mason, and their old boss (who has been reassigned to a different section) are going to investigate the guy who replaced her old boss to find out who he's covering for within the Defense Department regarding the illegal arms sales. And they're going to finance it using the crypto she stole from Maguire.

I'm watching Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees and I love so much his sex talk with Julie. "All of your dreams will come true, but they don't have to come true this weekend. Now stop crying and let me out of here."

Completely agree. Finding out he was going to be on the show was the only reason I started watching in the first place, and I doubt we'll see his character again. But I should have figured. He and Polly Draper have been friends for decades, and he often takes on small parts in friends' projects that he's really too good for.

I do like this show, but everyone was being so irrational in this episode. Emma knows she's being followed by someone in the CIA, so she pretends to take some time off, but then she and Charlie arrange a meeting with Daphne at the bar where both the agents tailing her and Mason see the three of them go in and can figure out that something is up. Birdie and Simon act as decoys for Charlie and Emma so they can leave without being tailed, but then they all go to the same place. David doesn't want to be a politician so much that he walked out of the final debate before it was over, but then he won and was like, "oh okay, I guess I can do this thing that disgusts me for six years." Leo and Fran sell their bar for what has to be 2 to 4 times what the building is worth to real estate developers and then are shocked, SHOCKED, that the developers are going to tear the bar down and put up a mixed-use building. However, it was all worth it just for this: First FBI Agent: Maguire is dead. Second FBI Agent: [zip-ties Maguire's hands behind his back]