MerBearStare

It's crazy how so many people got away with it too. No internet, credit card use was not that frequent, less surveillance. When my sister and I were born (1977 and 1982), you weren't legally required to get your baby a social security number, so we didn't get one until the mid to late 80's. Adults back then could just go in and apply for a new social security number and it wouldn't be seen as odd. One thing I learned from the OG UM was just how monstrous early to mid century social services was. One story that made me cry was this old man talking about how when he was a kid - in the 20's or 30's, I don't quite remember - his mom put him up for adoption in NY and NY social services just put him and a bunch of other children on a train headed to the west coast and the train would make stops through out the country and adoptive parents would just show up at the train station and pick a kid they wanted. And they got to take the kids home with them! Seemingly no background checks or being able to follow up on the child's welfare. This poor man was looking for his sister, who his mom did not put up for adoption, and sadly he died without ever meeting her.

God, that scene between the queen and Diana. Someone who is clearly struggling is reaching out to you and you can't even give her a tiny bit of kindness? I've seen more kindness and empathy between strangers at a bar (particularly drunk girls in the bathroom) than she showed Diana.

This episode could have been titled Shithead Children. Or more accurately, Shithead Children Don't Fall Far From Their Shithead Parents. Mark Thatcher - shithead. Margaret Thatcher - shithead. The entire royal family - shitheads. I used to think Peter Morgan was too enamored of the royal family and the queen in particular, but this season he's really pulling no punches. Now I'm wondering if he's a small-r republican. The royal family is a toxic mess and they really embody the phrase "hurt people hurt people." And they just keep repeating the cycle.

I'm at the part where they came down dressed for dinner. You must be a massive dick to make *Margaret Thatcher* sympathetic. I do like Denis Thatcher, though. And at least they're self-made.

I had somehow never seen this episode before and it was so good! I got the sense that the first defendant, the one who parked in the driveway, was the prettiest girl in a small town when she was younger and that's why she thought she could charm the judge with her potato chips story and seemed to think that it was cute that she broke into a home and stole a car. I've seen multiple comments on here about Judge Judy seeming meaner and more over her job this year. That's not something I've noticed until this episode today, which I think was from 2012 (the dad defendant said something like "last year, in 2011"). She yelled, because that's her thing, but way less than she has in the newer episodes. She didn't repeat the same insults over and over. Her comments were still biting but much less mean-spirited.

And Ted Lasso has been renewed for a third season! https://news.avclub.com/apple-hit-ted-lasso-gets-a-super-early-season-3-renewal-1845513460 ETA: And I learned from the comments section that there is an AFC Richmond website - https://afcrichmond.com/

The Jack Wheeler case reminds me of the Elisa Lam case (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam), mostly because of the odd, slightly creepy surveillance videos that have been released in both cases. And because both victims had mental health issues. With Elisa Lam, the shocking but totally inaccurate theory was that she was being tormented by ghosts at the creepy murder hotel Cecil Hotel. In Jack Wheeler's case, I think the shocking but totally inaccurate theory is that it was a hit. That's awfully sloppy for a hit, both how his body was disposed and the manner in which he was killed. I mean, beating the shit out of someone wouldn't necessarily kill them. My guess is that it was either a random killing - they kept saying that if it was random, the killer wouldn't have put his body in a dumpster, but I don't get why. It wouldn't be that hard to throw one body into a dumpster and it's not like he was dismembered and put into a bunch of different dumpsters; now that would be a lot of work for a random killing - or that he ended up in that dumpster for whatever reason and was killed when he was tossed into the dump truck.

One thing I really appreciate about Murder, She Wrote is that it was actually pretty progressive for the time. And in some ways progressive even by today's standards. I think a lot of other shows would have paired Jessica and Seth, but I like that they remained friends because I feel like friendships between grown men and women are rarely shown in entertainment. She also didn't have children (though she did have a million nieces and nephews and cousins and sorority sisters), which I thought was a pretty bold choice. They alluded in one episode that maybe it wasn't her choice not to have children, but still; I'd be interested to know why she wasn't given children, especially since even today women who don't want/can't have children are judged. And lastly, she was also pretty non-judgemental about other people's sex lives. Even when she found out her former student was a sex worker, she was taken aback, but she still had an open conversation with the madam, who let her know that not all sex workers come from broken homes and bad families. And of course there's classic If It's Thursday It Must Be Beverly, where Jessica has to talk to Beverly about her relationship with Amos' deputy because Amos and Seth are uncomfortable talking about sex with her. And this has been my Ted Talk about Jessica Fletcher: Feminist Icon.

Oh God I forgot about that Mimi abortion storyline. Good for Heather Tom. I made the conscious decision to stop watching Days regularly when Mimi was sobbing and said, "I killed my baby. I killed *our* baby." All My Children did a more progressive abortion storyline in 1973 than Days did in 2005 (I think that's around when it happened).

David O. Russell (who I know is pretty ugh) actually loves soap opera actors - https://www.vulture.com/2015/12/david-o-russell-loves-soap-actors.html. There's also a pretty great catfight scene between Natalie and Erica on All My Children in that article. Soaps today may not be as good as they once were, but there have been some really good storylines with top notch acting in the past. I think a big part of the reason they haven't been give the respect they deserve is because the audience is largely female. A lot of entertainment largely enjoyed by women is often derided as "chick lit," "chick flicks," and "guilty pleasures," which is such bullshit.

I might rewatch the granddaughter episode to count how many times she said betwixt. She said between at first then quickly corrected herself to say betwixt and I was like, "She knows that between is an actual word, right?" So both her mother and grandfather filed false police reports against her? She reminds me of the line from Justified: You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day, you're the asshole. One of my favorite Judge Judy moves is when she emotionlessly hands Byrd a tissue to give to a crying litigant. (Although occasionally the litigant has a good reason to cry and I feel for them.)

I did tear up a little when Sami and Allie said their tearful good-byes. Mothers and daughters making up after a fight always gets me right in the feels, probably because I was such a shit to my mom during my teenage years (standard teen girl shit, not soap opera level shit). I've never really been a Sami fan - though I do love Lumi and I love seeing characters (and actors) with such a shared history interact with one another - but during this visit I've firmly become #TeamSami. At least for now. Everyone teamed up against her for no good reason and were so reflexively "Sami's wrong about this" and overreacting to everything she did. And at least once an episode it felt like someone talked shit about her. Even random people, like Abby in today's episode. I almost screamed at my tv, "Give it a rest, you guys!"

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people refer to Africa like it's a country and not a whole-ass continent. It's not just on Days, and it happens in real life, but it's been annoying me on the show the last few days. "I'm going to Africa." Cool. Where exactly in those 12 million square miles are you going? Is Lani aware of how many women in prison are mothers? Or does she only give a shit about Kristin and to hell with all those other moms?

I tried to watch this show, but once the three assistants showed up in the first episode and I saw that all of them looked the same - medium length to long hair, side part, beachy waves, all black outfits, young white women - I was immediately turned off. It was like a creepy home organization cult/sorority. After reading the comments, it sounds like I just would have gotten progressively angrier while watching, so I'm glad I didn't watch past the first five minutes.

I googled it because I also love this show and have watched each episode more than once and it's already been renewed for season 2! But because of covid, obviously, they don't know when they can start filming season 2. Whenever I rewatch the episodes, I pick up on little things I missed watching it the first time. Like in this past episode, Roy mouthing the words to Let It Go, probably because of his cutie patootie niece. I also recently learned that the actress who plays Rebecca played the "Shame! Shame!" nun on Game of Thrones.