MrSmith

So, if I buy that, do I get my choice of dessert? I'd like two scoops of salted caramel ice cream and a chocolate brownie, please. :D

She's six months pregnant. And there is no way she'll be completely drug-free before the baby is born. Unfortunately, this incredibly stupid woman has chosen to get pregnant for a third time (she explicitly stated that all three pregnancies were planned "because I love kids") and this child will also be born addicted to heroin. Dr Phil really pissed me off with how many chances he gave her to take the rehab he was offering. After all that hemming and hawing on stage, fuck her. Let her die in the street. She's had opportunities to make different choices when her head has been clear and not all drug-addled. She chose to go shoot up again. If she screws up in rehab, she should be bounced and no sympathy should be shown nor should there be any further assistance or resources wasted on this skinbag. I could not believe that her mother didn't have the guy arrested and prosecuted who raped her (now drug-addicted) daughter when she was 10. I know, I know. They said "molested", but anything you do like that to anyone (but especially a child) is a form of rape. And we and our legal system should ken to that and start prosecuting it as such (and more aggressively). That guy is just lucky that her father wasn't alive when he did that because if it had been my kid, my wife would only have been able to kick the guy out of the house one piece at a time. (Yes, if I were a superhero, I would be The Punisher.) And for her mother to facilitate purchasing drugs off the street while they were in Hollywood .... really? WTAF? She's a NURSE and she doesn't force her daughter to go to the hospital for help? Makes you want to slap the stupid right out of her. Also, why the hell didn't the Uber or Lyft driver call the cops on them after dropping them off? I would be seriously pissed (and may have kicked them out of the car) to be co-opted into a drug run like that. If I didn't kick them out of the car and refuse to take them, then I would have gotten on my phone with the police right after I dropped them off and given the cops their location and description. They would have had a very difficult time getting to the Dr Phil show for their taping the next day.

Yeah, they were pretty slow in creating this forum. I was also wondering why everyone was so up-in-arms over the rookie being shot. My wife and I both thought he should be mostly ok since he either would have been hit in the body armor or the shoulder (and opposite his heart). Besides, it wasn't really Reeves' fault that he got shot. If those cops had been chasing a suspect into that building without Reeves' involvement, that rookie would have done the same thing and still got shot. As for clearing his backstop, maybe they'll make a point of this later (like, he fails to clear it again and someone gets hurt).

@Lonesome Rhodes You make a good point about the importance of the boundaries of Precinct 13. As for a river being a natural boundary between precincts, I've never actually given it much thought before now. So, that had not occurred to me. And you are right that they've done a very poor job of defining the boundaries of Precinct 13. I may have to pay more attention to this in future episodes and see how they handle it. Even if they continue to do it poorly, I'll probably forgive them for it because I enjoyed the rest of the first episode quite a lot. We'll see, though, because new shows are always on probation for the first three episodes; this includes shows which change a lot between seasons, a la Sleepy Hollow (which has since been kicked from my TiVO). As for Murphy and her muscle memory, I'm still going to go with her muscle memory taking over. I just know how hard it can be to override that, even when you know on an intellectual level that doing that is no longer necessary. And I'm still disappointed that they solved his friend's murder in the first episode. I was really expecting that to be a story arc for at least the first half of the season, if not the entire first season. It would have given them latitude to show further dissension amongst the officers in Precinct 13 and afforded additional opportunities for this conflict with the mayor. I feel like the lead male cop is going to somehow double-cross Reeves (Reaves?), but I also feel like they haven't done enough character building with him yet for us to be certain that's coming, understand why (the character's motivations), or even care that he double-crosses Reeves. We'll see what they do, of course, but I'm borderline pessimistic here. @TDT I caught that reference/similarity immediately. In this case, it's supposed to be her first name, which doesn't really add up - especially since officers are usually referred to by their last names.

Since it was already "water under the bridge", I don't understand why you even brought it back up.

@QuiteContraryMoni Oy, women who play mind games and expect men to be psychic. Blaaaarrrrg. I had just gotten out of a terrible, horrible, awful relationship when I started dating my wife, one in which my then-girlfriend expected me to be psychic and would never communicate - not even after everyone was calmed down and could speak rationally. Nothing ever got resolved with her. (She never married. Bet you're surprised! LOL) The very first thing I did with my wife was to tell her never to play those games; that if she's got something on her mind, say it because I wasn't going to put up with her being upset and saying "I'm fine" when asked. And I told her that if she insisted on doing that, then I would eventually walk because I wasn't going to be in another relationship where there was no communication. There have been things she's wanted me to change over the years, too. Fortunately, she came to me and said so, and I was able to do something about it. It's so nice to be able to talk to her about anything, too. Really makes a difference. Maybe consider dropping a dime on her to her husband? Up to you. I'm not sure if I would, either.

Wow. I'm sure you have, but I'm going to ask anyway (so forgive me): Have you mentioned to her that she might be able to get her husband to make some changes if she put some effort into communicating with him? (Either with or without counseling.) I've never had an affair (and I'm not planning on it; my wife is the trifecta), but it has always seemed to me that people who are unhappy with their relationships could improve them (or reach a point where it's clear it's time to move on) if they simply redirected all the effort they're putting into their affair and invested it in their relationship instead. When it comes to a woman having an affair, I know it feels good to have someone want you and look forward to seeing you, but I would think that at some point it would make you really hollow inside to know that this guy is only interested in you because you're willing to bone. I mean, I don't know for sure since I've never been a woman, either. LOL. On the flipside, I don't really understand men who have affairs, either. I figure they're either getting this young, attractive woman who's only interested because he's established and has money, or they're getting someone more their own age who has the usual life-stage baggage all their own. Personally, I wouldn't want to invest the energy into getting to know someone the way I know my wife, and if I don't get to know them that well then I'm not really interested in the sex, either. It's one thing to fantasize about it (hello, Laetitia Casta!), but the reality for me would be "Yeah ... no, but thanks". Anyway, maybe remind your friend that life is full of hard choices and when we don't make them, we become a shallow, empty version of ourselves. And then we elect orangutans President. (Kidding! [sort of])

I don't really have any sympathy for her, still. At some point, you have to grow up and realize "There's something about me that I don't like. I can either do $this, which will not only be unproductive but could also be outright destructive, or I can do $that, which will net some positive results." She clearly wasn't willing to do the introspection required to get to that point. That's her own fault and warrants no sympathy. And before you go away thinking I'm a heartless bastard, I've been through terrible situations of my own making and had to do the hard work of self-examination and introspection in order to get it all sorted out. So, I can empathize with her that it's difficult and uncomfortable work, but she's the only one responsible for whatever happiness and goodness exists in her life. If she's unwilling (for whatever reason) to put in the effort to improve herself, then she isn't deserving of any sympathy.

I think they're just very close friends. You can do things like that with a close friend that you wouldn't otherwise do with anyone except your spouse. I had a friend like that years ago.

I'm looking forward to getting home even more than I usually am! :D

After watching the second half, I have to say that the guy who was leading the catfishing woman on really only did what most people would have done. I figure 80% of people would have lead her on in an effort to get what was supposedly left to him in the imaginary will. Some people would have said "Chuck it. I want the stuff [and believe I'm entitled to it according to the will], but ..." and that "but" would be followed by either "this lady is weird and something isn't right here" or "I don't have the heart to lead her on". And then there's me.... I would probably have figured out she was conning me and I would have made it cost her something (and probably more than what he got). And let's be honest: That guy was way stupid. I posited to my wife that the only way he could have continued to fall for that con is if he's got just three brain cells left, his brain cells are playing the telephone game, and the middle one always intentionally screws up the message. Otherwise, there was just way too much stuff there that didn't add up and he should have caught on long before coming on the Dr Phil show. I mean, she couldn't even keep her and her imaginary sister's names straight. Claiming that she's a twin that the imaginary sister's never even mentioned should have been enough to send him running. I've gone to school with identical twins, dated identical twins (well, not both sisters; you know what I mean), and my mother-in-law is an identical twin and there are some universal truths to identical twins: 1. They are always closer to each other than they are to anyone else. 2. The bond described in #1 is virtually unbreakable, even in the face of boyfriend-stealing. 3. They tell each other almost everything. 4. Telling new people they meet (especially people they are dating or considering dating) that they are a twin is almost immediate. So, he should have sussed out that something was way wrong with this situation just from that. Add to that the fact that the imaginary sister died from ovarian cancer and then the twin sister shows up with ovarian cancer and another type of cancer? Yeah, right; Might I interest you in this handy and beautiful bridge to my left? I don't know if he'd seen the "will" before the Dr Phil show, but if he had then once again that should have been a sign to RUN. There's also no way those emails were written by a 16 year old either. First of all, no woman or girl who is pregnant ever refers to themselves as "knocked up" unless they're making a joke about it with friends or things with the baby daddy have turned very sour, in which case they only use that term when they're feeling really down about the relationship. The only people who use the term "knocked up" to describe a pregnant person are people who disapprove of the woman having gotten pregnant. It's a derogatory term used to express disapproval and a teen is almost never going to describe themselves that way in this day and age. Second, why would that girl be homeless? Her imaginary deceased mother supposedly left her two houses to live in. Plus, she asks when she's going to get to talk to her aunt and in the very next sentence says "She says you make her happy." So, which is it? Is this supposed 16 year old waiting to talk to her aunt or has she already? Anyway, that's all the time I have right now. I'll post back again later when I have more time. I have to get ready for a meeting that starts in 50 minutes, and it'll take me almost 30 minutes to get there.

Well! So much for all their religiosity and their "sacred" beliefs, eh? Not that I'm surprised. Most people ignore their religious beliefs when it is convenient for them to do so. Why should the Browns be any different?

Only if Dr Phil immediately revealed to her that he knew she was catfishing the guy. Besides, it was a lot more fun as two episodes. You can't expect me to believe you didn't honestly enjoy watching them both squirm. LOL

See? That's what's neat about the APB app idea. I hadn't yet considered how it could exploited and you come along and you're like "Yeah, here's a weakness". SO. MUCH. FUN! I enjoy these kinds of discussions. When I have time, I'll have to think about how you would correct for that without simply throwing more police officers at the problem. As for Murphy trying to activate her microphone, ever hear of muscle memory? That's something that would become in-grained very quickly since you'd be doing it many, many times every day. Since she's not a rookie, then I figure it's safe to surmise she's been doing the job for at least two years (and probably more given her knowledge of the beat and its inhabiting miscreants). As far as I'm concerned, details like that make it more realistic - not less - and she should continue to reach for her radio for some time to come. I didn't see anything that indicated they were crossing precinct boundaries. The only thing they showed that indicated any of this went beyond Precinct 13 was the app downloads at the end of the episode. They never involved police from other precincts, except when the mayor sent two uniforms to collect Reeves. Now, if you're relying on real world knowledge of precinct boundaries in Chicago and if the show ignored them to fit its narrative, then that's a personal problem. No one that isn't intimately familiar with real world Chicago precinct boundaries is going to know the show is ignoring them, and the writers aren't having their characters violating precinct boundaries because - according to what's been shown and discussed - the officers of Precinct 13 are operating within their precinct. And if the writers are ignoring the real world Chicago precinct boundaries, so what? Does anyone really think this is the first show to do that? As for Murphy being a Cal Tech graduate and being a police officer in Chicago, the only thing I can say is that life takes strange turns sometimes. There are myriad reasons that could happen in real life. For now, I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt and see what they do with her backstory. As for the lead actor (Justin whats-his-name), I'm not sure what you mean by him seeming "altered". I thought he did a good job with the part as an engineer who owns several companies and gets over-excited about the newest technological thing he/his companies has/have created and who's excited about the possibilities for helping the police in his precinct work smarter and be more effective, efficient, and safer. Overall, I'm looking forward to what they do with this show in the future and I'm excited to see how it develops.

Agreed. I was trying to think of how to word my ... irritation (yeah, we'll go with that) ... at the condescension and arrogance toward - and disrespect for - the reader that was on display in the review. I just could never think of something that was printable. So, thanks for that, @walnutqueen.

OK. So, let's talk about yesterday's episode, shall we?!? It's a two-parter (again) that continues today. Dr. Phil tried to phrase it as a guy catfishing a woman in order to get the car and ring promised to him by his friend who supposedly died of ovarian cancer and was the sister of the woman the guy is supposedly catfishing. Except, of course, the fact is that the guy isn't catfishing anyone because he is who he claims to be (even if he doesn't feel about this woman the way he claims to in messages to her). And it turns out it's the woman catfishing the guy because her supposed sister never existed. The number of lies she's told this guy should make it pretty obvious to him that the whole thing is a set-up, but so far he hasn't wised up. Honestly, this pair of episodes is at least fun to watch, especially because the lady doesn't know that Dr. Phil knows she's catfishing the dude.

My wife and I thought the first episode was very good. The writing is pretty good and there were some very funny parts. The acting is pretty good, too, and it's nice to see Natalie Martinez again. I'm not sure where the author of this article gets all the "fascism" from because I didn't get any of that from actually watching the show. In fact, it's not even a dystopian world. The tech is only mildly futuristic and some of it would be a definite improvement over what we have now. The super-powered tasers and improved body armor definitely would be. (When it comes to the tasers, this assumes they wouldn't end up killing people by causing a cardiac arrhythmia.) Just that it would be nice if the police had something that was non-lethal with that kind of stopping power, because that could be their primary weapon rather than a standard firearm. I also liked the idea of the APB app. A faster, more accurate way to communicate with the police when you need them would be nice. It might actually reduce the "us vs. them" problem we have in the real world right now. I was a little disappointed that they caught the guy that murdered the main character's friend so quick. I was hoping this would take two or three episodes because that would let them develop the characters a little more before we got that pay-off. The show also did a bad job of indicating the passage of time (days, specifically) and they had to resort to dialogue to tell the audience that a day had passed. Overall, it's a fun, enjoyable, well-written (better than average, anyway), and well-acted show with enough funny and light-hearted moments to counter-balance what could otherwise be a very dark show.

I second this!

If you noticed, the wings weren't full of feathers like they were in the early episodes after angels were first introduced. They looked skeletal and not at all useful. So, it's not that they anatomically have no wings. Rather, their wings are damaged and useless.

Wow! Yikes! But clever way to bring it up. So, +1 for that. lol

I know I'm late to this, but other than the obvious problems with this, the other problem I see is that supernatural activity doesn't happen for every family - or, if it does, it may not be noticed by most in the household. Here's a perfect example: My wife is the oldest of 5 children. The house she grew up in was haunted by two ghosts, one that kept mostly to itself in the basement far from the stairs and would only make you feel uncomfortable/threatened if you invaded its space, while the other one freely roamed the entire rest of the house. Her family always had dogs, cats, and a rotating menagerie of other animals that you could more or less consider to be "pets" (ferrets, spiders, scorpions, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, etc). My wife and her two sisters (children #2 and #5) were aware of and experienced the hauntings, and acknowledged the truth of what was going on. Their brothers did not experience anything (that they recall) and to this day do not acknowledge the house is haunted. Their parents experienced things from time to time, but didn't give it a lot of thought or acknowledge the fact the house is haunted. (Her mother experienced things while preparing the house for sale and, since that time, has acknowledged that the house is haunted.) Their father in particular dismissed all talk and possibility of the house being haunted. In fact, much of what occurred while the entire family was living there could be easily dismissed or completely escaped notice, not to mention the fact that the number of incidences was considerably lower with 7 people in the house than with 3 people in the house. (While the house was on the market, only my wife, her oldest sister, and her sister's husband lived in the house and it was at this time that I started dating my wife.) So, if this had been a law at the time my parents-in-law sold that house, how would they have been able to be held responsible for failing to disclose the house being haunted? There was never anything that happened to my father-in-law that couldn't be explained away. My mother-in-law only had a few days' worth of experiences and nothing really overt (a tape her in stereo system was removed and a different one was put in - while the player was paused - and she heard some footsteps). So, she didn't have enough personal experience to present as evidence. And only three of the five children had experiences that they understood were supernatural in origin. And what about people who simply never have anything happen to them? The family that bought and moved into my wife's childhood home never had anything happen to them, and the house has since been foreclosed and re-sold. So, that family would have been truthful in saying "The house isn't haunted" even if the next owners experienced lots of things. Edited to add: If you want details on things that my wife, her sisters, her mother, her aunts, and I experienced in the home, PM me.

Watched yesterday's episode last night after work. I have come to the conclusion that girl's mother is both stupid and enjoys the drama. Why is she stupid? Oh, let me articulate the reasons... 1. She chooses to act on what her daughter tells her rather than paying attention to the doctors and following their advice and instructions. 2. She takes her daughter to a new psychiatrist and a. fails to give that doctor any background or treatment history*, b. lets the new psychiatrist prescribe different medications, c. fails to question the change in medication, and d. fails to question the change in diagnosis. 3. She fails to keep in touch with the doctors that have been working with her daughter for the last two months. 4. She fails to seek out advice from the doctors at Creative Care. 5. She seems to think that two months' treatment will cure her daughter of an incurable condition. *We know that she failed to do this because if she had said anything to that doctor about the fact her daughter had just been at Creative Care, then the new psychiatrist would either have said "Oh, let me get in touch with them and consult with them" or "I don't consult with other doctors in this kind of situation". If the former, then the medication and diagnosis wouldn't have changed. If the latter, then the mother would have been able to take her daughter elsewhere for continuing treatment. I think she enjoys the drama because of some of the reasons I've listed for her being stupid (1, 3, 4, and 5) and she failed to ask the staff at Creative Care for clarification regarding having phone contact with her daughter, and for playing semantics with Dr. Phil and the two people who were there from Creative Care. Also because of the degree to which she chooses to engage with her irrational daughter when her daughter is acting like a spoiled 3-year-old. As for the daughter, it's pretty clear that she is delusional. However, I'm pretty sure she plays it up, too. That seemed to be pretty obvious when she was talking to Dr. Phil on stage and, for me, it became devastatingly clear in that back room. Finally, I am so tired of them hawking/shilling Robin's face creams and whatnot in the last 12 to 15 minutes of the show. Makes me wonder if you were there in the studio audience, could you influence the people around you to chant "Dr. Shill" simply by chanting that yourself? Maybe it would take a group of 5 or 6 people to make that alternate chant loud enough to interfere with other people's chanting of "Dr. Phil". Certainly having a group doing it would make it more psychologically acceptable to people around you rather than being the sole crackpot chanting "Dr. Shill". Would make for a fun social experiment. At least, it would for me. This, however, would require me to go to California; I'd rather go to the dentist.

I am now right here with you all waiting for the ax to fall. My wife and I stopped watching after the third episode of the season. With Nicole Beharie gone, so went the real magic of this show.

Well, I'm planning to check this out, but I can still sort reality from fantasy. Plus, dystopian stories and worlds can be fun. Of course, usually life isn't imitating art quite as closely as it seems it will do for the next four years. From what I've seen of the previews of this show, this is definitely not how things should be done. Though, the app for reporting crime is really the thing that interests me the most and, to my mind, would be likely to help close the gap inherent in "Us vs. Them" - thereby helping to change it to "We". And to me it looks like the show intends to kit the cops out with more non-lethal means of stopping "the bad guys" and that's something the real world would surely benefit from.

Yeah, those episodes have been pretty rough. She's super frustrating and sometimes you wish you could just slap the stupid right out of her - and then I remember that she's broken and not rational. I hope she gets things sorted out and can have a good life. Looks like her mother is helping to sabotage her, which is why we'll be watching today's episode. And if her mother is sabotaging her, then hopefully she can get straight and get away from her mother so that she can stay straight. I don't see having her on camera as being entertainment so much. I actually do see some educational value in it. I mean, how many times do you encounter someone who's mind is genuinely broken? It's been interesting to see how such a person behaves. I've also found it interesting to see how her own family has dealt with her. Her sister clearly is/was of the opinion that merely providing empirical proof that controverts her beliefs would be enough to make the girl accept reality. I don't think either the mother or sister understood that the girl's mind is actually broken, as opposed to her having/engaging in Munchausen's syndrome type behavior (or just making outlandish claims that the girl knows to be false). So, I've been more interested in watching the family than watching the girl.