sd dude

Answered my own question - Isabel Sanford said "Two can play at that superior jazz", not "superior crap". They didn't exactly perform the original script.

I was out of town when this aired live but was able to set my DVR and was able to watch it several days later. Since then I have been unwilling to delete it and have watched it all or in part a number of times. I'm still not sure if it "worked" (not referring to ratings of course - they were high; more referring to how well it compared to the original), however the opportunity to see these recreations of classic episodes of two of my favorite childhood shows clearly was greatly nostalgiac and satisfying for me - perhaps that's all that matters. Furthermore, I enjoyed seeing how much fun the cast had in doing these episodes and getting to work together. I felt throughout like they were just as much fans of the original cast and productions as I am and were thrilled to have the opportunity to portray these classic characters. Best part: JHud performs the Jefferson's theme song. Harrelson and Tomei in the AitF intro do deserve honorable mention. Best character portrayal: Marisa Tomei as Edith - eerily on point without being over the top imitation or mockery (looking at you, Foxx). Like others, I initially thought Tomei a very strange and inappropriate casting choice. Fortunately, that woman can act. She paid great homage to a great character and did Stapleton proud. The N-word controversy: I would have preferred to hear the original script uncensored, but I appreciate that the production did perform it as written. If the network chose to bleep the word, that really wasn't something the producers had any control over. However, I haven't read anyone comment on Weezy's (Wanda Sykes) use of the word "crap" at one point. More shocking than "nigger" being bleeped in 2019, was the implication that "crap" was part of a sitcom script and broadcast on primetime network TV in 1975. I haven't watched the original Jefferson pilot in many many years. I know I can find it on youtube or elsewhere and can check for myself, but does anyone else recall whether the word was used then or was that a Sykes ad lib? As a 10 year old, I imagine I would have been a bit shocked to hear it on broadcast TV in the mid-70's. I don't recall it being in the show and don't think that word was used at all on TV at that time. Foxx being Foxx: I think one other person mentioned this, but I'm surprised more weren't put off by Foxx breaking character and the fourth wall in order to recover from his flub. I thought it was distracting, self-indulgent, unprofessional, and not particularly funny. I acknowledge Foxx is a very talented award-winning actor, but so were most of the other men and women performing on that soundstage. Other actors occasionally stuttered or stammered around some of their dialogue but they didn't feel the need to draw everyone's attention to themselves. I was disappointed. But I have always had the impression that Foxx has a rather huge ego - maybe I was right all along.

I had exactly the same thought. The other thing I rewound and paused to check out was to confirm the relative ages which becomes canon with the headstone inscriptions. Oliver was born in 1985, Emiko in 1989. So she was 29-30 during this season and was 17-18 when she was presented with the plans to sink the Queens Gambit. An angry adolescent as I suggested in a prior episode thread, plus an angry adolescent who had been under Dante's influence for several years at that point. I can sort of cut her a break for the huge mess she only partially created for herself.

Now Gary has three nipples!??!?! Too funny. I see a drinking game in the making. Do a shot every time Gary's nipple(s) are mentioned in some fashion. This season it seems you are guaranteed to drink at least once in every episode.

Yeah, it's out there. I've gotten lots of posting mileage the last couple of weeks off Gary's nipple, which is so outrageous that I do find it funny, but I only realized today what a truly zany call back it is. His nipple was bitten off by a ferocious unicorn way back in the early episodes of this season and then dropped as a sort of one-off - a rational viewer might have thought that would be that. For the literal nipple from hell to reappear several episodes later and play an integral part of the plot near the climax of the season is just LOT outdoing itself. Did the writers actually have the nipple plot line sketched out all the way from start to end of this season? I'm quite sure that no television series has ever had a season long arc about a disembodied, hell-powered, nipnotic areola. And it will never happen again.

Wow. That ending was surprising. I must have imagined it but I thought I saw or read something from the creators acknowledging that they knew this was the last season and that the final episodes would bring some closure to the series. Clearly not so much. The gun cliffhanger is a bit peculiar and underwhelming to me. The badlands and surroundings have powerful explosives at their disposal, so the re-emergence of firearms doesn't seem like such a stretch to me. I tried to do my own mental fanwanking/worldbuilding to explain why it would be such an enormous threat to the world. We don't know precisely how the badlands came into being, but presumably it is a post-apocalyptic world that might have emerged after a "war to end all wars" with the deployment of devastating weapons. The convention of the badlands to revert to samurai style weapons and warfare perhaps was a way to prevent such an armageddon from happening again. But none of that is canon, so it is all my own mental masturbation, and as I wrote above, the factions in the different conflicts seem to have and use impressive chemical explosives at times, so not sure what makes a gun such a big deal.

Nipnosis for the win! So over the top, it's almost too much, but it's Legends of Tomorrow, so not. And if I'm being honest, there were probably a few experiences in my youth where I found myself completely nipnotized, so I guess it can happen! I didn't consider this and just assumed that Mona succeeded. They didn't really have a follow up with Gary after she attacked him, did they? So, the suspense as to what happens to Gary's left nipple by the end of the seasons remains. SPOILER TAGS, please! And the term "possessed nipple" never really stops being funny. This show is by far the most fun of all the Arrowverse entries. I hope CW is inserting some sort of subliminal nipnotic suggestion into their ads to raise viewership. I do not want to see this show cancelled anytime soon. And I can't for the life of me figure out how to fit the word nipnotist naturally into this post, so I guess I'm out.

When Kara was standing behind Lena with the glasses whipped off in her classic SG pose, and Lena started talking, "Oy vey, all my betrayals, no one knows my pain," I knew it would be yet another tease. And a very GD annoying one at that. And completely unnecessary. Just a little earlier in the day (episode), Lena had apologized profusely again for keeping her collusion with Lex a secret for as long as she did, which seems to be a much bigger and more dangerous secret than someone being cautious with her personal identity. But Lena did confess and ask forgiveness (twice now) and it was granted graciously. She could have, should have, and probably would have extended the same grace to Kara for holding onto her secret identity as long as she did, lest Lena be dubbed the biggest hypocrite to ever crite. If Lena did express some annoyance/sense of betrayal, Kara could have played her ace in the hole to indicate how protective she is of her secret - "even my own adopted sister doesn't know!" And when you get down to it, the number of people in the universe who do know is relatively small, so Lena might actually feel honored to realize she has achieved a level of confidence where she can be brought into the trusted circle.

Well, you may be right about that. There has been little clarity about their relative ages. I guess the only thing we know is that Oliver is older than Thea, and even then has it ever been specified how many years are between them? I've been working on the assumption that Robert had his affair/love child after he established a family having sired Oliver at least, if not Thea as well. Not sure why I came to that conclusion. If I'm wrong and Emiko is older or similar age to Oliver, it doesn't change what I wrote that much, other than to delete the term adolescent and teen. She still made a rash, angry, selfish and profoundly impactful decision when she chose to ignore the intel she received about the Queens Gambit, but it doesn't make her directly responsible for anyone's death, just a person of rather weak character, and a person that by the time one reaches young adulthood would hopefully act on more noble principles than spite. We all make rash decisions at times fueled by powerful emotions and often wish later we could take things back. Sometimes the negative consequences are greater than other times. Her real pathology seems to be in the complete lack of remorse she feels all these years later about allowing her father and other innocent bystanders to die, plus the "five years in hell" her also innocent half-brother experienced. However, let's recall that the vacuum left by Robert was filled by Dante, perhaps the only thing resembling a father figure she had during some formative years, and it appears Mike Brady he was not (nor was Robert). So, maybe not a shock that her values are completely screwed up. None of this can really explain why she hates Oliver so much.

I agree that the Emiko character and vendetta are very poorly developed and supported, thus I'm not even sure the actress is to blame. So, I am not in any way going to defend the character or her actions, but I will comment more on her specifically at the end of this post. Meanwhile, there is one major issue I have with this episode that it appears no one else has touched on. Oliver began the series as a true lawless vigilante; a cold-blooded murderer. But he has long since redeemed himself from that dark side and had emerged as a hero who did his best to adhere to standard hero ethics. There are still times he fell short and reverted to deadly force (e.g. Damien Dhark), in violation of the classic trope that the hero never ever kills. Ever. In a sense, the occasional lapse from perfect ethics injected the Arrow world with the tiniest bit of realism (admittedly very tiny) compared to some other superhero shows. When lives are literally at stake, choices are difficult. Nevertheless, the expectation at this point is that the Green Arrow is a hero and should be behaving with a strong code of honor and ethics and should not deviate unless it seems like he literally has no other choice in order to save lives. Thus I am shocked to find out that Oliver and ALL his teammates, including the friggin' chief of police easily and gladly conspired to not only cover up the identity of a perpetrator of a brutal double homicide (because he's "family"), but also conspired to frame another person for the murders who they all know to be innocent of the crimes (who actually is family, ironic), because she's their enemy!!!!!!!! I don't know if this situation will be developed further, but based on the quality of the episodes lately, I expect it will never be addressed again. This is not how I expect my heroes to behave. I'm disappointed in all of them, but particularly the title character. And Dinah has no right to wear a badge. Feh! In other news, if I was Oliver, of course I would be enraged to learn that Emiko could have done something to stop the sinking of the Queens Gambit and did not. But putting emotion aside, let's remember that she is not responsible for their deaths. She had to have still been an adolescent teen when the boat sank, still very raw and angry about her and mom being abandoned, and she made a very impactful and fateful decision. Baby girl was mad at daddy, and she elected to say and do nothing, until it was too late to do anything. Daddy died and a whole lot of other lives (Oliver, Sara, etc.) were profoundly effected. Can't say she made the most ethical decision, but I can understand why she did not act to save her father in that moment, and regardless she did not directly cause any of those things to happen to any of those people. Now, how this gets f'd up is any person who made that decision and is now 12 years older than their adolescent self, and not only feels absolutely no remorse for her earlier decision, but still has so much anger and hatred for anyone even carrying Queen DNA that she will go to great lengths to destroy them, is quite simply insane. Her current attitude is just not rational and can't be defended. So, I don't hate the character for failing to act more than a decade ago. I hate the character because the writers/showrunners can't create a cohesive, believable one. Again, there could be a redemption arc in store for Emiko, where she at least gains the ability to feel/express remorse for what her anger has wrought, but again, based on current storytelling quality, I'm not holding my breath.

When Mona was first introduced as the delivery girl, I thought she was fine as possibly a recurring character. The actress is cute and her characterization was entertaining in small doses. Now I find the character really annoying and I just feel frustrated when she is part of any scene where she is given dialogue. I hope that she does not continue on the show for long. Major question: when Gary is freed from Neron's influence, will his nipple be "clean" (original Poltergeist reference). IOW, will he get to keep a matching pair, or will he have to sacrifice the offending headlight again in order to be dispossessed? The suspense! Please, if you know, SPOILER TAGS! I'd hate to have the entire season ruined. . .

TY, Ubiquitous. This was one of the more awkward points that stood out to me in the episode overall. The fact that Dreamer identified herself as a "trans-woman" not once but twice in the confines of the same brief television interview seemed to be social justice overkill from the producers to the viewers, to be sure. Beyond the unnecessary repetition, the factoid appears to be irrelevant to the purpose of the interview and sounded like a non-sequitur both times it was stated.

John's story on WWE was a welcome surprise and fairly well executed. One detail that surprised me very much in its absence from the segment was the lack of mention of Chris Benoit, arguably one of the most horrific and tragic stories of a professional wrestler meeting a premature end. For anyone who does not know, near the height of a very popular and successful pro wrestling career, Benoit murdered his wife, his young son, and then hanged himself over a two day period in 2007. Post-mortem showed his brain demonstrated severe signs of CTE, and he was positive for multiple drugs, including anabolic steroids. It is presumed he was experiencing dementia, and probably in the throes of a depressive psychosis at the time. Whether that was primarily related to the brain damage, the drug use, or both is not completely clear. Oh, he was 40 years old, BTW. Now, I suppose one could argue that the tragedy in all its details is not necessarily relevant to a story about how WWE exploits its talent. After all, no one has argued that Vince McMahon had any culpability in Benoit committing murder and suicide, although there have been decades-long allegations that he promotes and even supplies steroids to his performers (he was prosecuted in Federal court in 1994 and acquitted of all charges). Perhaps the Benoit story would be better aligned with investigations on the effects of repeated head injuries/concussions, and not so much a tale about labor relations and misclassification of independent contractors, except for. . . I vividly recall the day in 2007 when the deaths of Benoit and his family were announced on television news (the circumstances of the deaths and who was responsible had not been released at that time). That evening the live RAW arena show was not broadcast as planned. Instead the entire broadcast was dedicated to Benoit, with numerous testimonials from WWE leadership and performers and some classic Benoit matches rebroadcast. It is not an exaggeration to say that from start to finish his memory was honored and his colleagues expressed admiration, love, and authentic grief at his death. Twenty-four hours later, there was a clearer picture of what actually happened and news outlets reported that the situation appeared to be a murder-suicide. From that moment forward, Benoit was virtually erased from existence in regards to WWE. Any mention of him has been removed from WWE website, publications and products, and from all future broadcasts. Talk about treating your talent as an afterthought - how about a non-thought! What a contrast to the attitude of just 24 hours earlier. Just seems incredibly cold to me. Benoit made the McMahon family a lot of money over several years, and literally gave his body, his brain, and his life. Continuing to acknowledge his hard work, talent, and the very tragic circumstances of his death at a young age would not be inappropriate and would seem at the very least human. How mercenary. Now, the only question remaining is: who actually saw the CM Punk match where he shit his tights? Just wondering how in the world the wrestlers/ref/commentators handled that one.

I had the same inference and thought it surprising that it was never referenced in the script, especially when the rednecks were initially accosting him and later when confronting him at his home, it would have seemed natural and unsurprising (though not justifiable) if epithets of one sort or another were tossed around in that context. What further confused me on the issue (and I could have heard or be remembering wrong), was later after the shooting (at the hospital maybe), I thought Hays referred to Woodard as a "cracker" which I would not think would be an epithet an African American person would target toward someone else who is recognized and understood to be Native American.

I actually am in agreement with the judges for a change. The Miles/Mackenzie duo/fusion dance is also my favorite of the entire series thus far. Good choreo, good performance, high energy, just plain fun to watch. I actually watched it three times. I simply enjoyed it. Which is very much what was missing from the entire season 27 of the adult series. It was just never fun. I never really enjoyed anything about it. Sure there were some impressive and memorable performances (the Cheryl-Juan Pablo AT comes to mind), but I wouldn't call it fun. And if nothing else, a silly show like DWTS should at least be fun. A hiatus of DWTS from my TV screen really is in order. Brief note to Skye: Dear Skye, you are an adorable, precocious, and impressive young woman. Now, enough with the speeches. Please. That's about as sensitive as I can do it.

I could have done without seeing HBB (aka Alana) on my screen again last night. It was a surprise reveal to be sure as the troupe even choreographed same. Problem is - she still doesn't dance - sort of the Grocery Store Joe/Bobby Bones of the Juniors set, she just stands, bends a bit, and strikes poses. Having just her and the experienced kids in the troupe side by side didn't do her any favors. I kind of wonder what the back story was behind that brief reappearance - seemed odd.

I agree with those who would like the return of Dance Center, although I admit the last couple of renditions had gotten somewhat dry. However, the comedy bits that never cease to leave me in stiches are the outtakes that show Lindsay and Witney appearing as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to any common knowledge outside of dancing. I know it sounds mean spirited but dammit it's funny as hell.

I've been an avid viewer of DWTS since S1E1. Honestly, I think I have missed possibly one episode in 27 seasons. After what happened this past Monday, I would be fine with the show disappearing for good. I went to some significant lengths to remain unspoiled (more on that below) but when I caught up on the finale last night, I'm sure my mouth dropped open more than Alexis's when the winning couple was announced. I was extremely disappointed that JP and Cheryl did not get to dance in the finals, however I had come to terms with it and decided I would be perfectly satisfied to see either Milo or Evanna take the trophy with the other hopefully taking first runner up. I just didn't want to see Alexis win as the showmance was gagworthy. The fourth couple in the final was not of any consequence, obviously. Right. I was just as shocked at that outcome as I had been at another vote back in November a couple of years back, another outcome that seemed simply inconceivable. So the irony is the lengths I went to catch the ending unspoiled. I watched the final on my DVR late Monday night/Tuesday morning but because Monday Night Football went 5 minutes over it's scheduled end time, DWTS started 5 minutes late in Los Angeles. In other words, after sitting through the 30 minutes of content and 90 minutes of extraneous boring crap, my 2 hour recording ended 5 minutes early, that is I was watching these four couples be serenaded for some pointless reason (yeah, that's part of the 90 minutes, not the 30), when the recording abruptly ended. ARRRGH! So after avoiding SM and the web to the best of my ability all day Tuesday, I started the on demand feed as soon as I got home from work; the on demand feed that includes all the commercials and does not allow FF function! Granted, I went to another room and did something useful for about the first hour and a half, but came back to rewatch the last half hour including those final 5 minutes. When that result was announced, I was glad I had kept myself unspoiled. If I had read that result on SM for example, I honestly think I would have figured it had to be a mistake or a joke by the poster. No joke. Just a travesty. Along with the travesty of me spending nearly 4 hours of my life just to get to see that ending. Feh!

The ABC affiliate in Los Angeles broadcast the episode in that ever popular timeslot of 1:06 AM - 2:06 AM Tuesday morning (No, really. I was up then and accidentally chanced upon it in real time.) How could anyone have missed that?

What doesn't make sense is why Jesse's ploy to hide the original Humperdoo among the clones is a good plan. If these are clones, then they are exact genetic duplicates. They don't need the original. They just have to grab the first white jumpsuit they find and that is the default Messiah. Of course, he may need to be trained in the old softshoe, but that seems like a reasonable workaround to me. And now I am trying to impose logic on the Preacher universe. LOL.

Pardon my ignorance of matters deaf and hard of hearing, but why would a person with completely normal hearing and diction for the first 40 or 50 years of her life, almost immediately develop severely impaired speech upon abruptly losing her hearing? Is the presumption that the character's vocal cords were also affected by the explosion? I can't see why that would be the case.

I type corrected. I may have forgotten, but did Oliver credit Deadspin? Somehow I was left with the impression that his staff put it together.

The part that was glaring for me and left me annoyed was when Bill credited "someone" with putting together the clip of all the Sinclair anchors reading the same copy, but didn't or couldn't take the effort to mention it was John Oliver. Is there some significant rivalry there? Does Maher have some resentment toward Oliver? If so, could it be because LWT, as compared to RT, is actually. . .uhm. . .funny, entertaining, and informative? Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but Bill names other hosts and personalities all the time, so why not credit Oliver for what he admitted was very clever and effective investigative journalism? I mean, they're both on HBO, FFS!

So, is the implication that Amaya the character takes the time to straighten her hair when she gets into uniform? Or should I infer that the character (not the actress) is wearing various wigs and changes wigs from curly to straight when she changes to Vixen? Not much of a disguise really, so doesn't make much sense either way. I hope I'm not exercising a double standard. When Laurel Lance as Black Canary in Arrow would suit up with long blonde hair, I never assumed she was dying her hair back and forth several times an episode. And again, just changing hair color and style does not make for a great vigilante disguise either, but it is a little more effective than hair of the same color and length simply going from straight to curly, and Laurel did wear a mask as well.

To paraphrase a tagline from Superman - the Motion Picture "You will believe a demon can cry." Well, there is no denying it that Maze the demon has a full range of emotions beyond her usual hedonistic passions that are fulfilled by inflicting pleasure and pain on the damned. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the first time we have seen the character produce tears. We know she was experiencing emotional hurt and jealousy over Ameninda (wasn't that Lucifer's contraction in this episode?) but it was expressed purely in anger and rage, which was probably the best she could do with her limited experience and emotional range at the time. Now we see a pure expression of sadness and despair at the knowledge that she will never be the most important thing in Lucifer's life. I felt quite sorry for the character in the scene. The other inference that I take from these events, and I don't know that it has ever been made explicit before, is that Maze clearly is in love with Lucifer. Whether Lucifer created her with those feelings already in place, or he made her only to serve and she fell in love with him at some point since the dawn of mankind is unclear, but the depth of her feelings certainly seems clear to anyone paying attention, except the object of her affection himself, although it is quite possible he is simply not paying attention. In that way, all these other characters, both her intimate partners like Amenadiel and her besties like Linda and Chloe are really her consolation prizes, since she is denied the real relationship that she pines for. I don't expect that the show will ever follow up on this or explore those feelings to some sort of conclusion, but TBH, I would be much more interested in watching a developing relationship between Lucifer and Mazikeen, compared to Lucifer and Chloe, which has just become completely stagnant and boring. OTOH, Lucifer lately has started to become as boring a character as Chloe, in the fact that the character simply won't grow at all in terms of his all-encompassing self-absorption. For any apparent step forward, the next episode shows two steps back. There may be an arc to the plot, but the two main characters have none. Meanwhile, we are seeing Maze, Linda, Amenadiel, Charlotte evolving significantly since they were first introduced, which is why they are all more interesting characters than the leads. I know it's weird, but while composing this post, I had a Sopranos flashback, in that a major theme that emerged by the end of the series was "people don't change". Once a sociopathic mob boss, always a sociopathic mob boss. Once a selfish, narcissistic lord of hell, always a selfish, narcissistic lord of hell. In this case, it's not a very satisfying theme.