luna1122

I get it. I've been thru a divorce but was considerably younger than Loreen at the time, and it's terrible. I also hated people saying I'd get married again (I was always like: 'that's the meanest thing anyone could say to me. I just got out of a bad marriage, why would I want to do it again?'), so I get her being enraged by that. It's her idea that withOUT being in a relationship her life is nothing is what bugs me. I hope she'll come out of that, but she strikes me as a kind of bitter person anyway, so I'm not sure. I also suppose having a husband shock you (and she did seem genuinely shocked, I think?) by declaring he was gay would add extra elements to the anguish over a breakup, and him already finding someone else too. My ex sister in law's dad came out as gay late in his fifties, and his wife literally never got over it, and often said she just wished she'd never known and they could have stayed married, and both of them died within three years after the whole thing blew up, and it was all really sad. (the deaths had nothing to do with him being gay, I only mention them because..well, they happened, and it just all was tragic, and she died bitter and unhappy and devastated). So anyway, I sympathize with her situation, but Loreen makes it very hard to like her. At least, I don't like her. Elijah is a bitter little bitch too, but Andrew Rannells is magic. His face just after he says that terrible thing to Hannah, and then she begins to cry: he briefly crumbles, knowing he's said something unforgivable and he's sad he's made her cry, but only for a second, before he's back to cold, narcissitic bitch. He's so good.

I am one (of the apparently few) who likes Jessa and Adam, so yeah, this kind of very clear foreshadowing that Adam and Hannah will wind up endgame now (I really hope we're wrong) disappoints me. For one, Jessa knows Adam and Hannah were in love, even if they were dysfunctional and weird. For another, I get her feelings of insecurity and jealousy--I doubt anyone would feel completely unfazed by seeing your significant other's former love affair play out in front of them--but while I could see her losing her shit over it later with Adam, I also think that Jessa would be too cool for school to show all that in front of the crew. I'm maybe just projecting there. I also can't believe she didn't bother to read the script. I in no way think Adam and Jessa are actually a healthy couple, or destined to last forever, but I believe them together, more than I ever did him n Hannah. Jessa looked crazy-beautiful last nite. And crazy. Daisy Eagen is a brilliant Hannah doppelganger; great job, casting people. How does one live in Brooklyn on less than 24K a year, even with a roommate, especially one who has very few actual means of support himself? I adore Elijah and he made me laugh out loud several times, as always, but he was brutal with Hannah, even if he's right. Have we ever heard Hannah say she wanted kids? She told Elijah she'd always told him she did, one day. And I kind of do see him and Hannah raising the baby together, eventually, if Adam and Hannah do not do the predictable thing and wind up together. Loreen bugs the hell out of me. A lot of women her age have had their marriages end, and it's terrible and hard and devastating, but they don't all become bitter shrews about it. I feel sympathy to a point, of course, but her absolute, dogged insistence that her life is over without a man is infuriating. Marnie is the worst. I really do hope Ray's breaking up with her sticks. Well, that's just crazy. Tangentially, I saw Adam Driver in 'Paterson' this weekend, and it's a perfect little jewel of a movie that most people aren't going to see, and most probably wouldn't like if they did: it's one of those little films that deal with the minutiae of life where not much really happens but everything happens, like life. Driver is lovely and lyrical in this; I choose to believe Girls Adam is that kind of actor, tho I'm uncertain just WHAT we're supposed to believe about his talents.

I recently read both of these as well. They're both pretty effective, nifty little reads. Currently on Tigers in Red Weather. So far, the title is the best part of the book, but I've barely begun it, so hoping it will grab me more as I read.

And do it in front of co workers, who were there in the office working at 1030 at night, and probably really had no time or energy or sympathy for Randall's entitled grandstanding. That really bothered me more than any of the rest of the scene. He's quitting a cushy job that afforded him many luxuries; he's not goddamn Norma Rae.

But don't we know he died when the kids were teens? Jail time and cirrhosis would take a pretty long time. I can't see them going that way, or suicide, but I guess we'll find out next week. Or not.

I'm with your wife. I love cold weather and would really prefer more if it, and lots of snow, which we rarely get here.

Ha, and I was more upset the animal deaths. I'm psychotic. I loved the stand, even as long and overwritten as it was. The updated version too. My fave short story collection of his is 'night shift'. Scary but not gruesome. I particularly recall one titled 'strawberry spring'. Eerie and tense and twisty without a hint of the supernatural. I think king can be a great writer, but only when he knows when to stop.

I read that one. And you're right, they're very very dark. Rape and murder and torture. There are four novellas, and the last one is based on the BTK killer.

I gave up King after Pet Sematary for a LONG time, I threw that book across the room, sobbing, and didn't finish it. I can read about fictional violence to people with little effect, but hurt an animal, and I'm toast. I did start reading him again much later, but sporadically. He is in great need of a very severe editor, and nobody's gonna edit him anymore, so his stuff is just almost literally endless sometimes. I did like 11/22/1963.

it always makes me think of 'karass'...that Vonnegut word that means, basically, the same thing. I'm a sucker for that, even tho I usually hate cheesey stuff.

I don't think I'm straw manning anything here...I'm not attempting to twist any fan's words or thoughts about why they like the show...I'm just stating my (unpopular, hence the thread) opinion. For me, it IS television comfort food. Which I like, but not the best or most or all the time, and it can get pretty bland. I get that that is not the perception of it for everyone, that they'd argue that it's not that AT ALL, but it's mine. Nashville is still very soapy. I was gratified by the first episode or so that Herskovitz n Zwick had their hands on, it felt fresher and newer and more modern, but it quickly devolved back into soapdom. But they had to contend with the death of a major character, so maybe it was almost impossible to NOT be soapy. I like soaps sometimes, so I don't hate it, and I like the cast, and I still have hope that it will find its place somewhere between soapy melodrama and actual good storytelling. We'll see. I loved once and again too, would love to watch it all again, but yeah, I read about the DVD issues. (And you brought up Family...I remember that, mostly, since we also talked about actors in small parts making impressions, as the first time I ever saw Micheal Keaton. He had a small role as a Christmas tree salesman, and I remember being, like, jolted awake by him. It was like watching electricity crackle across the tv screen, and I recognized him instantly a few years later when he got famous. Maybe that mailman's career will really take off now). Winston9-DT3, I like Unreal too, tho yeah, it got kind of bad, and I loved Lost, no matter how off the rails it got, and it did. And here's where I'll eat my words about not liking predictability: I saw the final shot of Jack lying, dying on the island as the plane flew overhead coming a mile away, but when Vincent the sweet yellow lab came and laid down next to him, I cried harder, longer and snottier than anyone watching TIU. I could cry just thinking about it.

Tonite's episode was incredibly cheesy but damned if that 'coming together as a family' thing between people who are not technically family, as the whole cast assembled to finish Rayna's album...well, damn, it almost made me cry. Juliette looked really pretty tonite. Avery looked even prettier. Shut up, Scarlett.

Ooh, fun. I've liked plenty of sentimental but well done shows--I loved thirtysomething back in the day, and my so called life and I faithfully watch Nashville now (and I bring these three up as they share DNA with 'this is us'.....the showrunners of thirtysomething and MSCL are now the showrunners of the rebooted Nashville, and of course, Ken olin and timothy busfield both cut their teeth on thirtysomething.) I don't hate those kinds of shows (tho I never saw Parenthood, which this show seems to be most often compared to) and I did not intend to watch this one, based on the ads, that correctly conveyed the kind of show it was, and was intended to be, as it's just not my thing. but I got so curious about the twist in the pilot everyone was talking about that I couldn't help it, and then I liked the cast, so I stayed, whether I maybe should have or not. But the shows I love are not sentimental. Which does not mean they don't evoke emotion. My fave of all is Hannibal, which is the most beautiful and brutal and artistic show to ever hit network TV, which is also probably why it also died there. That show shook me to my core, every week, and when it ended, I mourned it like a death. And it's not JUST because I'm obsessed with Mads Mikkelsen. I also love(d) justified, fargo, dead like me, veronica mars, bates motel, six feet under, the days and nights of molly dodd, mr. robot, search party, arrested development, etc..and I'm always and forever the X-files bitch. I'm currently flirting with Legion and Riverdale. I won't argue that all of these shows are better than TIU, tho I believe they are. I just know they speak to me more. I see a lot of people praising, in the main thread, the actor who played the mailman in the scene that made my eyes roll, and I won't take anything away from him, cuz I guess he was good, and I just wasn't detached enough from my scorn to appreciate him. But a scene in an earlier episode that I found superbly acted, and by an actor I DID find utterly, completely riveting, was mostly dismissed and disliked on the main thread: the co worker, played by an actor I admittedly already loved, Jimmi Simpson, on the roof, about to jump, til Randall talked him down. I found that scene kind of breathtaking, tense and almost like a play....and the chemistry between the two actors (who are real life friends) was palpable to me. But it got mostly a confused 'meh' in the thread. Which all means...I don't know. That we like what we like, I guess. I like to be a little caught off guard. I don't want to be able to predict what's about to happen. I want unexpected magic and some incongruity and a little WTF-ness from my entertainment. But I do see a lot of folks saying that the world is WTF enough, so they just want something comforting and warm and touching in their TV shows and movies. I get that, too, tho I don't (usually) feel the same way.

I'd really like to know what the show you're talking about is, if you care to share.

That one I don't get either. I see it all over the boards, and it does seem like a waste of time, but there must be some pleasure derived from it. (I don't hate this show, I like it, I just don't love it.) There are shows I have a love/hate thing with, tho, so maybe I get it somewhat, now that I think about it. They're usually shows like Sex and the City and Girls and Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce, all of which offer things I admire and like and relate to or just get the guilty pleasure thing from and watch faithfully, but I often hate the characters, and come to the boards to vent and rage about them, which is....weird, really, but I do it.

All art is inherently manipulative, as the artists or creators are attempting to evoke a response or a reaction, often a specific one. It is, as I feel has been explained a lot here, the sledgehammery unsubtle kind of manipulation most of us in this thread object to. As also has been said, subtlety is not in this show's DNA. They don't attempt to hide that, either, or the fact that they are indeed hoping to manipulate us into being 'wrecked, brought to our knees, unable to breathe, needing a grief excuse to call into work the day after' blah blah blah. That works for some people, it doesn't work for those of us here. It's all heart, no art, IMO, as I've also said a few times. Nothing wrong with that, for many, for most, apparently. It just happens to generally leave me cold. And I'm not cold and heartless, I am moved to tears by art all the time. This show just does not do that for me.

I don't think most people are questioning that you can be friendly and have rapport with the mail person, the barista, the sales clerk, the whoever-you-encounter-on-a-daily-basis-person-whose-name-you-might-not-actually-know, or that they might ask after you if you're sick, or be sad about it, or vice versa. That's not what most of us who objected to the scene with the mail guy actually objected to, it was (what some of us saw as) the overwrought cheesiness of the scene. Even some of those of us not moved by it might actually talk to service folks or neighbors or random strangers. Or not.

Pretty sure that's NOT what they were talking about. Hated the fish jokes, not funny. Loved Rainer thinking Cam was Manny. I literally did lol.

I'm pretty sure no one is arguing that some people know their mail carrier. Well. Or their UPS guy, or the guard in their office building lobby, or their favorite barista. Or that they find that someone they've lost knew people and interacted with people and touched people that they weren't aware of. It's the predictable way the mailman scene played out that I think some--including me--are eye rolling over, not the premise of an interaction with a mail carrier. Kate's snottiness to 'tammy' on the phone can be explained by her anxiety over getting it right for the girls and her lasting grief over jack, but it doesn't excuse it. I'm unfailingly nice to any customer who calls, even the nasty, pushy ones, but I'm sure less likely to actually bend over backwards to help them if they're going to act like that. Unless Kate apologized for being so snotty and told me a little about what was going on, I sure wouldn't have been going outa my way to get her balloons (which, yeah: how hard is it to find plain old run of the mill balloons in New Jersey? So weird). She came off like one of those stereotypical 'let me speak to your manager' soccer mom types with one of those awful Kate gosslein haircuts who demands extra special service cuz Panera is out of her favorite blueberry muffin and she won't stand for THAT. (Yeah, that was weirdly specific, yes, I work with that woman, yes, I hate her). Anyway. I liked Kate's boots last night, as well as Beth's dress.

Didn't opie say his niece was visiting them? So maybe he lives in NYC. Or was he visiting his niece? Either way, he was in NY. I like Ron Howard and think Kevin should take the job but I'm not sure it's a sure fire career maker or that Howard wields omnipotent power in Hollywood anymore. What's the last true hit or moneymaker he had? I can't remember. Still, he's opie Cunningham!

Ugh, apparently now the mawkish mailman scene is twitter-inspiring people to seek out and force hugs on their mailmen. I'm all for random connections and kindness but I just keep visualizing all these poor postal workers trying to duck forcible embraces from This is Us zealots. It's like the Oprah book club pod people, reading a book only cuz it's Oprah endorsed. 'Hug the mail man! This is Us says we should!' I'm a bitch.

Now see, as someone who has been, at least in part, basically in customer service my whole life, my first reaction was 'what a fucking bitch'. She hadn't spoken to 'tammy' yet, so to be so nasty and combative right outa the gate seemed really hateful and entitled and out of line.

I cry like a baby over a million things, I'm not averse to emotion, like, at all. I just cried watching an old 'what not to wear' repeat. But your point about authenticity and glossing over is good. I like this show but I do not love it, because for me it doesn't feel authentic a lot of the time, and the emotion doesn't feel earned. It clearly does for many, maybe most. So I'm probably harder on it than a show I completely love. I absolutely get the mailman bit, and the very obvious reasons/intent behind it, it just didn't work for me The cast is what keeps me coming back, despite its Nicholas sparkishness. And I really like Sophie, but I just seem to like the actress, having seen her in several other roles, including sexy slutty misunderstood red headed ghost-maid. She and Kevin are so pretty together, and their chemistry is sweet, not sizzly, but that seems right, considering their long history. I do want scenes between her and Kate, and a little more backstory on their friendship and its apparent end.

Ugh. Spending that much on a watch seems obscene to me, but I'm poor and petty. I was also attracted to the double wrapped strap on it, but pretty sure I can achieve that without spending a paycheck on it. We have gone back n forth on whether Beth is a working attorney at this point. Do we have a definitive answer? I took Jessie's phone call to be a 'sorry, I can't come to the memorial' one, not that he wasn't invited to it. And no, denis o'hare is not actually British, and yes, he's a very good actor. And this family sure likes to top load event days. Williams memorial on the same day as Kevin's play opening? That's an awful lotta family time. Yes, all tv shows are somewhat manipulative. Some just do it with a little more subtlety. It makes me mad that this show doesn't trust its audience to not need the anvils and lead fist heavy handedness.

It definitely wasn't Ingrid Bergman. Susan Hayward, I think.