Jipijapa

Ever see the UK's version of this, "Threads"? Actually I think it pre-dated The Day After. This was all part of the "Let's Scare Today's Kids to Death via Fake Nuclear Holocaust" trend, it's a wonder my generation didn't emerge from adolescence completely nihilistic and scarred for life. Anyhow, "Threads" didn't really horrify with the explosion stuff, but rather with the utter sense of breakdown and futility that unfolded afterward. Like, "Ha ha, you think a nuclear war is survivable? You think your generation even has a future?? DESPAIR AND DIE!!!!" The last scene of Threads has a 13-year-old girl, who was born just after the nuclear holocaust, giving birth to her own baby... and we never actually see the (obviously horribly malformed) baby... just the girl's horrified face as she starts to scream, which we never hear either because... freeze-frame. Oh btw, everyone had to watch The Day After in school. There was no escaping it. Also, everyone had to watch WW2-films of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki aftermath. (My biology teacher fainted during one of these screenings.)

The first five minutes of Fringe. (Melting plane passengers) This has to be the most disgusting primetime TV moment of the decade. I still can't watch it again, and I rewatch most of the whole show once a year. (Distant runner-up on Fringe was the disintegrating hand in Season 4. I laugh about "The Hand" though because right before that scene, I was thinking, "Gee, Fringe has really sort of slacked off in the good old grossout stuff--- OH JESUS! GACK!!" ) Ironically, both those scenes involve my most cringe-inducing, disturbing scenario... which is where something horrible is happening to you and you are trapped in an enclosed space and can't get out. Along those lines, there was another scene in Season 4 that wasn't visually horrific, but was still pretty bad - the guy being slowly desiccated to death so Crazy Perfume Guy could steal his bodily fluids.

"Yoooooo don't want caaaaaaahpet... you want an aaaaaayyyyyyyyeeeeaaaaawug" (LOL! Simultaneous post...)

Last episode of Rockford was 35 years ago today. "Deadlock in Parma." I still haven't been able to bring myself to actually watch it. (Dammit, it's my obsession and I'll cry if I want to!)

I didn't think Archer Vice was so terrible, but I do think that it made a better preview clip reel (the end of the first episode) than it did an entire season. :-)

Indeed. Why were Sixties men so hot? I would never have guessed, by the way, looking at a young Rod Taylor, that he would have turned out to be such a convincing casting choice for Winston Churchill (Inglourious Basterds)

I just recently saw Rod Taylor co-starring with James Garner in "36 Hours." One of the few actors who didn't fade on screen next to Garner. He was a cool and confident pro.

Yeah, I too was totally clueless he was Aussie. He must be the original "Aussie Passing as American"! So many actors owe him that debt...

I think in general, people as they age, become less likely to filter their mouths. Hence, perhaps the *appearance* of becoming more curmudgeonly...

RIP Rod Taylor. DAMN, that's going to be a bulging Oscars "In Memoriam" clip reel... BTW, Taylor did have a short-lived TV series, called "Hong Kong." Episodes are on Youtube. (search "Hong Kong ABC")

Lucky you!

Totally agreed, proserpina65. Weir is one of my favorite directors, mainly because he is almost always dealing with interesting material that's different every time. But as a fan of film composers, I especially appreciate that he does not force a composer to mimic a famous piece of music he wants to use - something too many directors do. No, Weir just uses the actual piece of music he wants. And it's usually a great choice. In my view, hire the composer for their own music. Not to produce second-rate Gorecki. (Or even second-rate John Williams, as the case may be.)

In other words, she's aging realistically. :-) (Believe me, as your parents get older and older, you will understand.)

You know what will look strange to future audiences for today's shows? The overwhelmingly long, flowing hair on women. There's really no such thing as a stylish, distinctive haircut any more, which seems normal to us, but in the future will probably seem odd when stylish haircuts come back into style.

BTW, if you read Amy Acker's tweet during the East Coast airing about "a skit by Britanick" being similar to the "generic dialog" scene- here's the skit (actually a fake movie trailer). it's very amusing

Oh, let's see... so many... The episode of Quantum Leap where Sam leaped into a chimp. The episode of Fringe where Walter took brain serum meant for a chimp. (Hell, I just hate anything to do with monkeys, period.) Which may have been the same one where Olivia got into a hideous, shapeless evening gown while pointlessly going undercover at a fancy dress ball. (Anna Torv, love ya honey but I'm not sure sleeveless was a great choice for you.) The episode of Star Trek Voyager where they evolve into lizards. (I honestly would have preferred monkeys.) The episode of The Rockford Files where Jim's pity date is raped by an entire biker gang. (Might have made an okay Very Special Episode if only the writers hadn't slipped in a completely inappropriate comic interlude in the middle of it - and oh, actually came up with a plot) I just recently saw an episode of Mission: Impossible which featured a "good" neo-Nazi who wanted to rebuild the Nazi Party but leave all the horrible anti-semitism and Holocaust stuff out of it. First of all, anti-semitism was at the very core of Nazi-ism... and second, show me a neo-Nazi who isn't a Holocaust denier. (This unbelievable horseshit will self-destruct in five seconds...) The fake series finale of Magnum P.I. - the one where Magnum dies and walks into Heaven. OY! And, um, pretty much every episode of Sleepy Hollow this season... alas. So young, so full of promise...

Maybe another UO, but... I really don't enjoy graphic sex on TV. Or in movies. It's uncomfortable to watch. I don't understand the point of it. It's not like watching two actors simulate rumpy-pumpy ever really shows you anything about plot or character, that couldn't be shown before or after intercourse. I like sex -- when it involves me. Sitting there on my couch or in a theater watching other people do it (or rather, "do" it)... not so much. It feels like something that's being shoved in there to please some segment (probably relatively small segment) of a demographic that I don't belong to. And it used to be that TV shows were a reliable respite from sex scenes, but now as long as a show has "TV-MA" attached to it, jeezus, you never know what to expect. My mom had been interested in watching Salem, for example, and I turned it on too and suddenly, OMG, Seth Gabel's bare ass, thrusting, on regular cable. ("Uh... Mom?? You might... not be so interested in this show after all...") It's not like I want TV-MA shows off the air or anything, but increasingly highfalutin cable drama is all about Teh Sex, and there's got to be some intelligent, adult shows out there that aren't things I feel like rolling my eyes through and staring at the ceiling, waiting for it to finish.

But Fusco was not one of the Secret Seven, right? He didn't have a special identity loaded into Samaritan. (The Secret Seven were Finch, Reese, Root, Shaw, and Root's three Rootlets.) So all Samaritan needs is his picture. It wouldn't compromise the rest of them, but Fusco would be in danger.

I am grateful to live in a world where this cover version of The Rockford Files exists. (especially the middle section)

I have a theory about Fusco: although Samaritan may have ID'd him now, the fact is that Fusco is a member of the NYPD. If Samaritan eliminates him, Samaritan will then have to deal with the entire NYPD - who would certainly investigate the death of a senior cop like Fusco. And Samaritan may prefer to use the NYPD as a vital tool rather than, well, have to take out significant chunks of the NYPD as well. The difference between Fusco and Reese here is that Fusco is well established in the NYPD; he has many friends there. Reese (being a "cop from nowhere") has no friends in the NYPD. He could be more plausibly taken out than Fusco could. In some ways, Root, Finch and Reese are far more vulnerable to elimination than Fusco, because they were always "off the grid" anyway. No one would miss them. Their deaths would not create complications. Or, Fusco just may go underground, as a replacement for Shaw... but I don't think the writers will do that, or do it for long. Here's one thing I'd love to see: Bear needs to get out of that damn subway station. He should be employed - as Fusco's K9 partner. At least for a while. (I still want to see a Bear-centric episode...)

I don't think we've seen the last of Shaw, although I doubt Shahi will ever come back to the show full-time. It seems to me that the Machine miscalculated that Fusco would kiss Root in real life. He didn't, of course. (Fusco's line "This isn't a simulation" was very witty...)

I dislike anime. (And no, I don't even like Hayao Miyazaki stuff.) I mean, it's not just me who thinks it's all herky-jerky and samey-samey, right? Right?

Re Bess Meyerson being boycotted. I read the recent story about how a (light-skinned) black woman was not allowed to be one of the Rose Parade ladies in waiting or whatever they're called, back in 1950, when they found out her "true" race. It was enough to make me deliberately skip the Rose Parade this year. What burns my ass is that these things happened not because people actually hated Jews or blacks, but because they were concerned about what "someone else" would think. The lily-livered scumbags.

I watched some episodes of Breaking Bad and appreciated the quality, the acting and the black humor, but... am I a terrible person if I really don't want to watch a show like this? I'm actually really tired of "trainwreck" characters - people you're supposed to keep watching to see how mad, bad, crazy or dangerous they can get.

I think "terrestrial" is a Briticism for "broadcast" (as opposed to satellite).