MerBearStare

This is maybe a dumb question, but if there's an NBA game where the referees are clearly favoring one team over the other, is there like an opportunity to appeal after the game? Or at least file an official complaint? If the last shot hadn't gone in and the Lakers had lost by one point, I think an argument could have been made that they would have had more points had the referees called proper fouls and they had gotten some free throw opportunities. Though I suppose if the refs hadn't been so awful and the fans hadn't been such dicks, then the team - and Paul - wouldn't have gotten as fired up and wouldn't have done so well that late in the game, so the Boston folks ended up biting themselves in the ass.

What's ironic is that Will Ferrell's falling out with Adam McKay had to do with him casting John C. Reilly as Jerry Buss because he thought Will Ferrell didn't look enough like Jerry Buss (and because Adam didn't bother to tell Will about it, John had to do that). I didn't even know who Jerry Buss was before this show (I'm not a big sports person), but even I know what Pat Riley looks like. It's also distracting because Adrien Brody is a good ten years older than Pat Riley would have been in 1980. God that sounds so painfully boring. Like I said, I'm not a big sports person, but if I had to pick a sport it would be basketball because it's continuous action and doesn't have all the starting and stopping of football or baseball. That slow pace sounds even more boring than football or baseball (YMMV on that, obviously).

I definitely thought Irving's storyline this episode was the least compelling. Towards the end - after Cobel found out - I was fast forwarding through his scenes to see if Helly was going to be able to tell the truth about severance while she still had time and if Mark was going to see a picture of Gemma. Irving trying to find Burt just seemed inconsequential compared to the other two storylines. But on the other hand, Mark and Helly at least have someone to tell them, "Don't go back to work! You're in danger!" Burt and Dylan, if they even let him leave, don't have that, so I worry what's going to happen to them. I didn't think about this before this episode, but it seems like who you are the first couple of days you're severed is who you are naturally, as in nature versus nurture. You're kind of a blank slate; you exist in a vacuum (though obviously your experiences at work would eventually shape your personality at work). Without the years of Eagan brainwashing - having to recite the nine principles every night - Helly is, it has to be said, defiant. It's ironic that the person on the team who hates severance the most is being used as propaganda for it. I just realized I'm never going to be able to watch Clueless and hear "I'm outie" the same way again 😆

@TheWereCow there's a pretty active subreddit about this show and a popular theory for the last few weeks is that Ms. Casey is such a tragic character. I hope Mark is able to rescue her from the testing floor somehow. I want my next office party to have a deviled egg bar.

Someone in the comments of the Vulture recap also wondered this and I really like this theory. I think it makes sense given 1.) there are no coincidences on this show and 2.) it would explain why Helly R.'s outie is so adamant against her leaving, even after threatening to cut off her hand and trying to kill herself. I haven't minded the slow burn quality of the show so far, but I'm glad the pace started to pick up this episode. I can't wait to see the last three episodes of the season.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I 100% agree with everything you wrote. Adam McKay is too clever by half. Breaking the fourth wall made sense for a movie like The Big Short, where they had to find a way to explain economic concepts most people know nothing about, but here it felt totally unnecessary and a bit lazy. There were also scenes, like where Gaby Hoffman's character takes her hair down before going into the owner's office, where it was pretty clear what was happening and then the characters give a knowing look to the camera just in case we were too stupid to pick up on what was obvious. In spite of that, I really enjoyed this first episode. The show's also really well cast. I read in the Vulture recap that the actor who plays Norm Nixon is Norm's actual son (and Debbie Allen is his mom!).

At one point during this week's episode there was a shot that lingered on Mark's turned-off TV, so I wondered if that was bugged or somehow used/will be used to spy on him. This show's aesthetics are so good that I worried the story itself would be bad, but so far I'm loving it. Patricia Arquette is perfect as the boss who is both predator and, after seeing the scene with the board call, I'm thinking prey. And there's just enough humor for the show not to be 100% bleak. His brother-in-law's book 😂😂😂

I was talking to my sister this weekend and found out that Kelvin's God Squad is based on a real group called Power Team, who performed at her high school (my family lived in the Dallas suburbs when she was in high school, so that's pretty on brand). I was shook. I thought it was totally made up and played up to be homoerotic because it was Kelvin. And then I went to youtube and there are videos: But Power Team is less homoerotic than the God Squad.

There's a great interview with the show's costume designer on Tom and Lorenzo - https://tomandlorenzo.com/2022/02/an-interview-with-inventing-anna-costume-designer-lyn-paolo1/

What I liked about this show is that most of the characters were completely unlikable. It makes things more interesting that way. Anna's obviously the worst, but Vivian sucked, Todd sucked, the rich people sucked (except Hamptons caftan lady, I liked her). Neff, Kacy, Rachel, sucked, sucked, sucked. (I kind of liked Kacy up until she confronted Rachel and was like "You turned your friend in?" Her friend? She stole $62,000 from her!) The only people who seemed the least bit likable were the spouses. Good for Todd's wife for walking away. Vivian and Todd's devotion to Anna is just bizarre. They know she's a fucking con artist who doesn't give a single shit about them, yet Todd's willing to throw his marriage away over her? I'm like Mugatu yelling "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" I hated how judgey Vivian and Todd were about Anna's parents. I'm not a parent, so take that into consideration, but I think a lot more parents should be honest with themselves about how their grown-ass children have turned out. Maybe they shouldn't go so far as completely cutting contact, but at least they can acknowledge that their daughter is just rotten.

I read the NY Magazine article this show is based on before starting to watch it and this section near the end stuck out to me: "During the course of my reporting, people kept asking: Why this girl? She wasn’t superhot, they pointed out, or super-charming; she wasn’t even very nice. How did she manage to convince an enormous amount of cool, successful people that she was something she clearly was not?" I don't think those questions have been answered four years later.

I like the idea of the Lissons being behind the cycle ninjas, but I think whoever it is is also behind the murder of the reporter and the other people who were on his rental property. It seems like it would be a pretty big coincidence to have two unrelated murders in the same small-ish town. (Unless the Lissons were behind that too, but, I don't know, to me that seems too convenient.) IIRC, the reporter said he was looking into Aimee-Leigh, so I hope we find out what that story was going to be about. For a character who broke his own son's thumbs, Eli is still the best (living) Gemstone in my opinion. Judy and Kelvin occasionally show redeeming qualities, like Judy comforting Tiffany in her own way, but I see none in Jesse. The best thing he's done is help the liberals and Catholics get clean water to the Haitians, but that's only because he was trying to win back his wife after cheating on her. But watching Jesse and his David vs Goliath posse slowly back away after threatening Junior cracked my shit up. BJ being so happy that Eli shook his hand was just the sweetest scene. If it weren't for him and Keefe, I don't know if I could watch this show every week. They're the characters with the most humanity.

That dinner scene was so funny to me because one pair of people would fight then stop. Then another pair would fight then stop. Then a different pair would fight then stop. Like they were all taking turns to start a fight with someone else. One thing that's really bothered me this season is the cast members...I can't think of how to word this. Meredith will say that she doesn't want to be at events with Jen and get angry when she's at an event that Jen's also at, but we all know she signed a contract with Bravo and she's obligated to film with all the other women and that's why she can't just avoid Jen. Or with this trip; they're pretending the husbands came up with this trip idea and are paying for it, or that Jen is paying for dinner, but Bravo's paying for it. It's like they're pretending they're not on a reality show, pretending we don't know they're on a reality show, and pretending none of us know how these shows work. Mary is such a miserable asshole. She clearly hates being around the other housewives, hates going the these events, and she isn't fun to watch, so put us all out of our misery and just fire her!

Let it out, honey. Write it in the book.

Valter just stands in the corner and looks on unapprovingly. Honestly, that would be better than Jen's shrieking and Mary's...whole vibe.

Narrator: It was not good vibes only from here on out.

This episode wasn't fun to watch at all. Jen and Mary are the fucking worst and not in a fun way. They're both unhinged and dangerous (in different ways). They seriously need to get rid of those two.

I don't normally post during the episode, but I just had to say...I can't fucking stand Seth. He's creepy and just a dork who thinks he's super cool.

That would have been awesome! Jessica should have had at least one enemy, given that she's a bit of a busybody and has busted hundreds of people for murder. Occasionally there'd be a police officer who didn't want her help, but of course by the end of the episode he's changed his mind about her. Or that episode with Juliana Marguiles. I don't remember how that episode ended, but I'm guessing her character ended up forgiving Jessica.

I don't normally watch Days live, but I am today and can I just say - I really want the devil and Jan Spears to get their own spinoff.

Everyone arguing in front of Jen about who talked the most shit about her was absurdly hilarious. If it were anyone else, except Mary, I would feel bad for them, but Jen stole money from old people so...🤷‍♀️ I do kind of feel for the other housewives in regards to Jen. If someone were right in front of me crying and telling me how scared they are, I would have a hard time not sympathizing with them. And I'm sure they have no choice in filming with her (which is why Meredith's "don't invite me if you invite her" rings hollow), so it's probably easier to just pretend that Jen's arrest is all a mistake and a misunderstanding. Mary...just...goddamn, is she ever *not* an asshole? Good lord. Even her husband/step-grandfather seems to hate her. Not that he's a prize himself. Although I did laugh out loud at her, "I'm praying that you're guilty." Talk about a Freudian slip.

Patton Oswalt has my favorite Christmas Shoes takedown. I was hoping this sketch would be more like Patton's bit, but alas, it was not.

He's the Jussie Smollet of Salem.

Mary is a truly fucked up person. A psychiatrist would have a field day with her. I think Lisa hates Whitney so much because she thinks Whitney is stupid but she's continuously getting outsmarted by Whitney and it angers her. I feel for Jen's family members who had guns pulled on them by law enforcement that day. As young black men, they were in real danger. But there was one person responsible for putting them in that position and that person was Jen, so she can miss me with her tears. I've said it before and I'll say it again - my loyalty to my friends ends with federal indictments (fortunately I don't hang out with scumbags, so that hasn't been an issue so far). If Jen were smart, she would have stopped filming as soon as she was arrested. But she went on this show knowing she was doing something illegal, so it's not surprising she didn't stop.

Lisa is soooooo bad at shit-stirring. Does she not know everything she says is being filmed? Good lord, woman, just stop. Whitney is the smartest of all of them. Well, outfit choices notwithstanding. Heather is a close second. No amount of overpriced handbags or shoes is worth hanging out with Mary. What a miserable asshole.