sd dude

I’m giving Lucia (the 12yrs old) a pass on that The first poster actually had it right. Valentina is 12. Lucia is 16.

So, on to S8. I had read a review online by one critic who characterized the return something like this: "Yet another unnecessary series update." Overall, I have to agree. I enjoyed the nostalgia of seeing the characters again but the episodes were not up to the standard of the earlier version. General thoughts: Since everyone else has commented on Hunt's face, I guess I should get my two cents in. Yes, the marked change in her appearance was distracting. I give credit though for the cold open in the first episode, which I saw as a total meta commentary about the work she had done to her face, which was ballsy to do and brave of Hunt to allow it. I had noted in my post about S1-7 how much I liked the attention to timelines and continuity. I was hoping that S8 would continue that trend, including respecting the flash forwards and future reveals from the S7 finale "The Final Frontier", but I'm afraid they fell a little short. First off, Mabel was born in 1997, so unless S8 is set in 2014-2015 (with no reason to think it does), they've compressed the timeline by 4-5 years. I didn't see anything that directly conflicted with any of the flash forwards in TFF, in fact, the troubles that Paul and Jamie ran into in S8 and caused them to start therapy again (in 2019 I presume), could foreshadow the eventual temporary separation that occurs in 2021. On the other hand, the "where are they now" segment that Janeane Garafolo narrated over the closing credits of TFF seemed to be ignored at least in part. It was mentioned that Ira and Marianne had 8 children, 1 from each continent and 2 more from New Jersey (I could've sworn there were 7 continents, but maybe Antarctica doesn't count, unless one of their kids was a penguin). In the S8 episode where he meets his biological son, it is a missed opportunity that there is no mention at all of the other children he raised. I appreciate that they stayed consistent with the Buchman's purchasing their neighbors' apartment and building a bedroom for Mabel connected through their bathroom (although they maintained the bathroom floorplan from S1-7 as opposed to the updated floorplan revealed during that flash forward in TFF). I'm curious what they did with the rest of the second apartment. Perhaps they walled off Mabel's room from the rest of the apartment and rented it to a different tenant. Combat pay to Jerry Adler. 90 years old and looking frail. Nice to see him though. One small continuity issue that may be on the sensitive side, but if we are talking about Helen Hunt's face with impunity, I suppose this is fair game: With Lisa's reappearance in S8, I was wondering if she would still have breast implants. Not that I am overly obsessed about it, but it was one of the final episodes of S7, where she reveals to Paul and Jamie that she had augmentation, let's them both feel the goods, and leads to Paul having some temporary sexual attraction to his sister-in-law until her usual zaniness quickly cures him of that infatuation. Kind of weird plot element TBH, but in the episode Ramsay's chest was noticeably larger and left we wondering if the actress had actually had the surgery or if it was just a one-off gag for the series using prosthetics. Really, I was just curious. Well, one thing is for sure Lisa in S8 does not have breast implants. In fact, compared to how the actress appeared during S1-7, in looks very much like Ramsay has had her breasts removed at some point in the last 20 years, although she appears otherwise very healthy. Thus, the sensitivity of the initial comment. I did a cursory on line search to see if she had any history of cancer or other mention of mastectomy, and I found nothing. Actually, there is exceedingly little personal information about Anne Ramsay on line. One site that talks about celebrity relationships and family info actually noted that it is presumed she has never been married nor had children, but acknowledged that there is essentially no info as to the actor's relationship status, orientation, or anything else of a personal nature. So as to her appearance in the new episodes, your guess is as good as mine.

I had a very busy holiday season, doing a complete rewatch of all 7 seasons over just a few weeks, before watching the new episodes. That's a lot of episodes to binge! Given that the series was produced well before streaming and binge-watching became a thing, it may be that the series is not overly suited for that kind of rapid digestion. The situation of the week may change (somewhat), but Paul's over the top whininess, Jamie's over the top rigidity, Lisa's over the top self-absorption, Ursula's over the top ditziness, etc. can be hard to take over and over and over back to back to back. In spite of that noted limitation, this clearly must have been a strong series, as I found myself overall enjoying very much my revisit to this show. I cannot recall ever watching it in syndication, so I hadn't seen any of these episodes since they first aired in the 90's. I quickly discovered a couple of things. Many of the episodes I remembered vividly, while others I had zero recollection of at all, leading me to conclude that in fact there are many episodes from the original run I had never seen. Always a pleasure to experience some classic TV for the first time. The second thing was that I realized I did not discover the series until midway through the first season. I could not recall any of the first dozen or so episodes and wondered why they had made so little impression on me back when. I also did not find these episodes all that funny. I even posted above a few weeks ago that I wondered why I liked the show so much given the limited enjoyment I was getting from the rewatch. Then I watched S1 E13 "Togetherness" and recalled most of the episode. I realized this was almost certainly the first episode of the series that I had watched and I had been very impressed with the clever and witty dialogue. I would wager that episode is the first and last time in TV sitcom history that "Estes Kefauver" was a punchline and not once but several times. My watching of MAY began with that episode, which is why Selby was completely unknown to me. A couple of other interesting tidbits that were brand new to me from the first dozen episodes: Had no idea that Cosmo Kramer lives in Paul's old apartment and that the two shows share a universe (of course the fact that actors Jerry Seinfeld and twenty years later Jason Alexander appear as themselves in the series sort of puts a question mark on that). Another interesting piece of trivia is that shortly before meeting Jamie, Paul was set up on a blind date by Selby with none other than. . .(wait for it). . .Lisa Kudrow (as someone other than a Buffay sister). One of the things that impressed me greatly with the series overall was the tight attention to character timelines and continuity. This is something that will come back to bite them in the newer episodes. More generally, it had a comedic style that was still very non-traditional and innovative for the early 90's and was not afraid to take creative chances with how to pace and tell a story within the 22 minute sitcom format. I loved how often they broke character and went meta in the closing credits segments. Surely, other shows around that time period were doing these same type of things and MAY was probably not the first to try them, but they did do these things well. I also can hardly think of another show which had so many awesome guest stars (Lucy Ricardo in Hollywood, maybe, and that is going waaaaaay back). It is clear how much Reiser worships pioneers of TV and film comedy. To get Jerry Lewis, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Carroll O'Connor is quite a coup just to name a few. I note that every time he was on the screen with Brooks, Reiser couldn't help but smile at everything Brooks said or did. It was pretty clear that he idolized him, and what's not to idolize. And Yoko Ono, for God's sake, and she was actually funny??? Nuff said. There are some outstanding questions about the original run of the series that I remain curious about, mostly regarding cast changes over the years: I wonder why the decision was made to switch the buddy character from Selby to Ira. I thought Pankow did a great job with the Ira character so I don't know if there was a choice made to change actors, but the truth is there was never an attempt to develop the Selby character into anything much so it's hard to blame the actor. (The one-line shout out to Selby in a season five episode is one of those little continuity things that I loved about MAY.) I wonder why the decision to ramp up the roles of Paul's parents and sister significantly to the point that they were added to the opening credits for S6 and the parents for S7. Cause adding a baby to the story isn't that big a deal just on it's own, ya know (sarcasm). Why was Fran/Leila Kenzle's role reduced so much in S6 and S7 to the point she was removed from the opening credits in S7? And the most curious of all: Why was Lisa/Anne Ramsay completely absent from all of S6 only to return to opening credits/supporting status in S7? My first instinct is that the actress was working on some other project during S6, but hard to know. I have numerous comments on S8 but will put those in a separate post.

I see a bit of irony in this episode. It seems like Dottie will always be seen by some as the villain in this series, due to some insulting things said to Abishola a number of weeks ago that will have her forever branded a card-carrying irredeemable racist no matter what she says or does moving forward. I acknowledge the woman is prejudiced and has said offensive things (and I presume believes what she says) but has been written a bit more complex than that in the succeeding episodes. The irony here is that in suggesting the prenup, it is another example where she can be seen as demonstrating her suspicion and mistrust of the "non-white immigrant". However. . . Since the very first episode when the aunt and uncle were introduced, they have absolutely looked at Bob as a potential cash cow who will support all of them and improve their lot. It's been a running joke since the pilot. That is not Abishola's agenda, but it has been the primary motivation for her relatives. I acknowledge that that characterization is also over-simplified, particularly for Uncle Tunde who has shown much more depth. He clearly has warmed up to Bob, which at least in part is related to the fact that he sees that his niece prefers him and he probably has realized that Bob is someone who cares for and values his niece for the person she is and will go to great lengths to make her happy. That doesn't eliminate the additional motivation that Bob is indeed a good catch economically for all concerned, just tempers it. The aunt's motivation remains more questionable. She clearly is expressing kindness to Dottie in bringing her homemade food and spending time with her to cheer her up, but regarding Abishola's prospects and what it means for the family, she seems to still be fairly non-partisan. She doesn't care who marries Abishola as long as it is someone who is successful and will improve all their lots. In fact she may still lean a bit toward Chukwuemeka, due to the cultural convenience of having Abishola marry another Nigerian. Anyway, it's sort of like that old saying it's not paranoia if they're really out to get you. Part of Dottie's insistence on the prenup may be her reverting to longstanding prejudices and reacting to stereotypes, but if the family really is after the money. . . On the other hand this may be nothing more than a culture clash. Prenups are common enough in the U.S. that there is nothing outrageous in Dottie's presumption that there will be one prepared. To the aunt and uncle, it may be virtually unheard of in Nigerian unions and the height of obnoxiousness to suggest such a thing. I don't know if this is true for their culture, but I do know that there are ethnic cultures where marrying an individual essentially means automatically becoming a member of their extended family with all the family obligations that includes. The principal difference may be in the answer to the question of wouldn't Abishola be a family member if she married Bob. The aunt and uncle may believe yes, regardless of any money involved, that is simply their perspective. Dottie answers, "sort of", which is probably a fairly common perspective in the U.S., that is a relative by marriage is not equivalent to a blood relative. And the fact that all her children are divorced fuels and supports that perspective. I suspect that this issue will be solved when the topic trickles down to Bob and Abishola. Since they are barely dating at this point, they will probably dismiss the idea as being quite premature. If/when the two turn to talk of marriage, I'm not sure if Abishola would be willing to sign a prenup, but I do believe Bob will decide it is not necessary and not pursue it with her. Lastly, lest anyone think I am willing to give the ignorant old white lady a pass on everything, I recognize that her decision to take the aunt and uncle to the private (nearly) all white club was hardly a neutral decision and full of ulterior motive. It is pretty obvious she wanted to zing her snobbish white lady "friends" who bragged about having a new black member, and show up with her own Nigerians in tow to demonstrate just how woke she is all of a sudden and create a little bit of shock value for her friends and the other members. Quite frankly, that is what should have offended them, not talk of a prenup.

Thanks for bumping the thread, Hiacios. Well, it was not the classic "Hollywood ending" since the "bad guys" did win it all in the end. On the other hand, it is hard to say that Kyle and Shay did not earn their win. They were definitely the best players strategically as well as strong players athletically, so their victory was disappointing but not an outrage. Sort of like Richard Hatch. Overall, I congratulate the producers for creating a very engaging series with decent interpersonal drama and a believable and overall satisfying arc. Re: Jaret and Christina and that final competition - I know this is probably a little before their time since they look quite young, but I would have granted them lifelong membership and special mention in the reality TV hall of fame, if one of them had yelled out in complete exasperation and frustration, "Our medicine balls are broken!" Re: Robbie and Jessika and the errant paddle - I realize this is unkind but Jessika proves the theorem that fit does not equal pretty. I can't help but feel that there is something poetic about being hit in the face with the paddle given her history of being struck with the ugly stick. Lest anyone think I am being too shallow, I'm happy to share she is a dimwit too, since Shay played her like a finely tuned fiddle regarding knee brace-gate that led to the models getting eliminated and perhaps ruined the best chance to get rid of Shay and Kyle for good. Re: Michael and Heaven - I was not a fan of either but I thought Heaven was drop dead gorgeous and I have to agree with which ever of their competitors made the comment after their elimination - "best proposal ever!" I couldn't help but be happy for them both. One other quite random thought: Super fit people sure eat a whole lotta pizza. . .I eat a whole lotta pizza. . .so, uhm, what am I doing wrong?

I see no reason to doubt this claim, but it is yet another nail in the coffin that demonstrates that the events and the outcomes on the this show that the viewer actually sees are carefully orchestrated, far from spontaneous or organic, and hardly reflect "reality". Another great example mentioned somewhere above in the thread is that the viewers saw Rick at a bonfire watching a clip of Ashley and KB in her bed in flagrante delicto only for us to find out after the show that Rick was shown a completely different clip at the bonfire that left him confused as to what really was going on between those two. I think everyone on this board knows intuitively that there is nothing real about reality television, but nevertheless I find myself often getting caught up in the manufactured drama and thinking that what is happening before my eyes actually played out the way it is portrayed, and assuming the characters of the individuals being portrayed reflect who they actually are in real life. Generally, none of that is true. I can't say I won't watch this show again, because honestly, I love it and I hate that I love it and I love to hate that I love it. It's the cheapest and most sordid of shows on TV and undeniably very entertaining. I'd like to commit to just enjoying the show moving forward for what it is - a partly unscripted relationship drama, and do my best to avoid forming judgements about the real-life "actors" who appear, since their motivations for being there have little connection to the purposes claimed, and the way they are portrayed bears only partial resemblance at best to what actually happened. And the "actors" do have very little control over how they ultimately appear on my TV screen. That being said, this is the reason I prefer to have no exposure to Reality Steve and other interviews, SM posts, etc. that the "actors" engage in while the episodes are still airing. I'd prefer nothing interfere with my fantasy reality until the full story plays out. Once the final episode airs, hell, let's tear the house of cards apart.

Yes the former was the part where David not only lied, but then tried to rely on wordplay to defend the fact that he had never lied. He responded to Kate's probing at the reunion by saying that he told her everything and was withholding nothing that happened during filming. The kiss with Sam happened when the two of them were in the producers audio room off camera waiting to get mic'ed. This of course only irritated Kate even more, after which she probably went home with him and had sex in order to calm her nerves.

That's pure genius. Thanks!

I think she has the same breasts at the reunion as she had during the time on Maui. But they could be implants.

I also love David playing the "exact words" game and using that as evidence of his rigorous honesty. "I said that I didn't do anything with anyone else while we were filming." Unspoken piece: "you never asked me what happened in the audio room off camera and off mic. I mean jeez Kate, unjustifiably call me a liar why don't you. It hurts me terribly and unfairly but I'll let it go because I know you'll let me bang that rockin bod no matter who else I screw until I'm done with you. You too Samantha."

Oy! Bringing those successful couples from S1 out at the end only hammered home what a dysfunctional mess S2 was all around. No one (almost) has grown anywhere near the amount they think they have. Esonica - can't own up to the fact that she crossed a line on the island. Gavin - very emotionally shut down. Cant admit how hurt he is. Both of them are hampered by their pride. David - sociopath is a good word Kate - cant accept the reality that David is a sociopath. She may move on one day but not today. Ashley H - I believe Ben's version of things. She probably does need to be alone for a time. But eventually she'll end up with Casey. Casey - not showing up may be part of his master plan to get Ashley back Cuz its Casey's world and we are all just pawns in his game. Ashley G - rude ugly person. She and KB deserve each other. It's probably hard to tell but I don't like her. Sorry if folks are giving you a hard time on SM. Thanks to you showing your true self at the reunion I'm sure that will no longer be a problem. Rick - you da man Singles - few surprises. The shit stirrers on the island are shit stirrers in real life. Shut up Payton! Shut up Samantha! Shut up KB! And because it cant be said enough - Shut up Payton! Okay Medinah and Toneata - you two at least behaved maturely and respectfully at the reunion. Slight redemption. Rachel seems like a kind and decent young woman. But do something about the super dark eyebrows with the platinum hair. Very distracting. Was this the first TI reunion special ever? It was definitely entertaining but in some ways does not serve the show well as it starkly displays how nothing happening during the course of the actual show is real. It's all a fragile house of cards that collapses quite quickly once these people return to the real world. The Wizard didn't seem quite so impressive once Dorothy pulled back the curtain and ruined the illusion. The success of Reality Television depends in part on no one pointing out the oxymoron.

But why would the network interruptions affect what the actors were doing live in the studio in Hollywood? They would be oblivious to the news interruptions. The experience of the television viewers who were dealing with the interruptions would obviously be affected, but for viewers like myself watching the west coast feed of the tape delayed "live performance" without the news interruptions, neither the viewer nor the performers would be affected, so if the performance quality suffered and it was obvious to the viewer, I'm not sure how the interruptions could have played a role in that. Or am I misunderstanding what you were trying to communicate? Were the performers directed to pause in place during each interruption and those pauses were then edited out of the west coast feed? It certainly didn't appear like there were cuts in the middle of live scenes.

Re S3 E11 "Crossroads" How can an "I sold my soul to devil many years ago and now he's here to collect" story possibly go off the rails? Do it the Room 104 way! Actually, this was not as painful to watch as most of the earlier episodes this season, but they simply can't seem to pull off an ending. Even when the build up is decent, the absence of a satisfying conclusion leaves a dissatisfied feeling overall. Fail. Re S3 E12 "The Specimen Collector" I enjoyed Smulder's performance and actually thought the plot was rolling out at an appropriate pace and kept me engaged. Again, it's the ending that left me flat. Do they remove everything in the room to another location or destroy it all? We'll never know. Thanks, show. I lean toward destruction as the government would tend to see the new ecosystem as a threat that would need to be contained first, and studied as a distant third or fourth. If they did destroy it all, that is tragic, but not wry or ironic at all which is the type of ending that could have produced some satisfaction. Fail. I am incredulous that a fourth season has been ordered (and filmed). I'm even more incredulous that I am virtually certain to watch all the episodes. I fail.

Re S3 E10 "Night Shift" The big hole in this one for me is what happened to the vampire who created the split between the partners in the first place. Perhaps she had been killed in the intervening years, perhaps she chose to move on from the partner she chose - but if she was so important to both of them that her presence changed the course of both their lives so dramatically, one would think the snubbed partner would have wanted to know what happened to her. Fail.

I had to watch the original AITF episode on youtube after I saw this performance just to remind myself how superior COC was as Archie Bunker. It was a great episode though either way. I remain perplexed about the dialogue choices, especially since they posted the caution title card at the beginning of the broadcast, and Kimmel said before the GT segment started that these episodes were being performed exactly as they were originally taped back in the 70's. Except where they weren't the same. So, the truly offensive racial/ethnic slurs that would be least acceptable on today's broadcast air remain intact and they leave it to the network to bleep the offensive term (the Chinese slur last night as well as the N word in the last edition of this show). Yet, the original script and broadcast in which Archie refers to that "goddamn war" was not used and rather they went with "rotten damn war", which is an overdub of the original and how it has played in syndication for many years. I feel actually quite fortunate to have seen the original episode in 1976. It's been many years since I've heard the original line recited. The expletive is quite tame by today's broadcast standards so I really don't get why they didn't take this opportunity to restore the original script. I was not as regular a viewer of Good Times as I was of AITF, so there are probably a number of episodes I haven't seen, including the Politicians. I wasn't able to find the original episode on youtube so I won't be able to compare, but the performance last night seemed way off in terms of timing. Just seemed like the actors were missing their marks multiple times, and it seemed to me that it was primarily John Amos who was either forgetting his lines or missing his cues, but I think the rest of the cast did the best they could to protect and cover for him. I also read elsewhere that Andre Braugher flubbed his dialogue a few times but I didn't catch it myself. Marisa Tomei's an American treasure, and Kevin Bacon gives us all a Christmas gift, now being one degree from Norman Lear and everyone else in the cast. ETA: Although I appreciated another opportunity to see that award-winning AITF episode, I have to admit I found this edition of LIFOASA much more underwhelming than the first special, mostly because now that there are twice as many of these episodes, it is far less novel an experience than when there was just one. Although I was impressed with some of the performances, and was pleased to see the John Amos surprise casting, along with the brief appearances from some of the other original GT actors, I would not mind if this was the last time they did this.