Peace 47

I agree. My main issue with it was that it seemed like it was “artistic brutality” in an almost cliched way. Like with the contrast of the dead Romanov bodies with the game shot by the carefree English sportsmen: that type of contrast seems like it’s an artistic shorthand for the brutality of man that gets used enough in entertainment. You could consciously feel the writer manipulating your emotions, instead of you being able to get lost in the story and experience the visceral emotion of the scene. Margaret going off on Elizabeth after Windsor Castle burned was exactly what I thought of when Philip started going to town in Elizabeth in this episode. Same structure, same dredging up the old wounds of past seasons when Liz was at a down point. Very repetitive. All I know about the real Penny and Philip is that they were close friends who shared a hobby. I guess for this show to go there, there must have been whispers about some improprieties between them, but (1) I think the show missed an opportunity to tell a nice story of friendship between them (separate from all the other romantic relationship drama happening in the storyline) and (2) to use that relationship as an excuse for Philip to go to town on Elizabeth for not puffing him up like Penny did just made the whole Penny/ Philip relationship seem icky. I burned through seasons 1-4 of The Crown, but I’m finding this season to be a slog. I’m getting why the reviews have been less than glowing.

Kevin Conroy was “my” Batman, too. I remember my brother and I watching the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Heart of Ice” (I don’t know if it was the premiere, but it was the first episode we ever saw) and knowing that this was truly special, an animated show unlike any other we had ever seen, and Kevin Conroy was a huge part of that transformational experience. He was also a gay man who had to hide it most of his career due to negative repercussions, so he was very brave to come out a few years back. I know that people get cancer for every reason and no reason, but in that clip above where he mentioned cooking meals for relief workers after 9/11, it made me think that he probably lived in lower Manhattan and wonder if his intestinal cancer was related to other cases linked to the horrible air effects there (which weren’t just limited to lung effects and included a high number of digestive issues). It’s probably unknowable, but it just makes you think.

I agree on the discomfort (and on the strength of Sarah’s WU bit), although I think part of my own discomfort stemmed from being on edge, worrying what Dave might say next. I was so relieved when he at least didn’t mention gender or sexuality this time. I was also trying to articulate my discomfort with one aspect of the monologue, and I guess this is one way I can frame it. One subtext of Dave’s monologue that came across to me is that Kanye is right that Jewish people control media and entertainment, but you’re just not allowed to say it in “polite company.” For example, how Dave said that you could observe all the people in show business and adopt the “delusion” (which was a good word choice to distance himself from the viewpoint) of a Jewish conspiracy, but then Dave also said it’s not crazy to think that, but it is crazy to say out loud. It came up again in the barber shop sketch where the white guy remarks on the fallacy of Kanye’s anti-Jewish tirade, and the black patrons just look away because they don’t take issue with what Kanye said, just that he shouldn’t have said it aloud. There were some funny concepts in the monologue (that mentally ill Kanye would tweet something crazy about his revenge plot against Jewish people and then go to sleep, while sane Dave stayed up all night worrying what Kanye had planned). And I liked that he said that a lot of black people in Ferguson doesn’t mean they control the place: that was sharp and funny. People who are fans of Dave might say, “Why so sensitive about any aspect of his monologue when he was overall taking Kanye and Kyrie to task for being so stupid?” But Dave hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt with me, either, so I don’t know. I’m just glad it’s over.

My favorite portion of the episode was the montage showing the Duke of Windsor tutoring Sydney on English culture contrasted with older Sydney doing the same for Mohamed Al-Fayad. It was really well-edited, directed and acted. It was this montage where the episode really took off for me. The actor who played older Mohamed Al-Fayed was really compelling. The characterization of QEII continues to be brutal (which I’ve felt was the case since S3, although it’s on another level this season). Barely featured, and when she is, portrayed as out of touch, disinterested in her job and racist(?). Oof. The Queen had her many flaws, but this show seems to be making up new ones for her.

I used to hate shopping (love it now), but when I was in Europe on business with a couple of work friends when I was starting my career, we compromised and did both museums (which they found kind of boring) and shopping during our 2 free days. It’s not hard, Charles, to make people happy and included, and we only had 2 days, not 2 weeks. I read a non-spoiler review of this season that said this season was sympathetic to both Charles and Diana, but it’s hard to see that on the horizon when this is how Charles is introduced. I’m surprised that more commenters here aren’t writing that they know Johnny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes in Elementary (or his ancient history marriage to Angelina Jolie, lol). That show was on CBS for years. Agree that he is killing it as John Major. I will also go against the grain and say that Elizabeth Debecki is working for me as Diana at that stage of Diana’s life.

Can we even call PJ a fourth stringer anymore? The Panthers quarterback situation is in such disarray, I think he may now be their first stringer, maybe. I think some Panthers fans are conflicted about the win because on the one hand, it’s a win against the division rival Falcons, and on the other hand, not getting a top 2 draft pick won’t help solve the quarterback situation anytime soon. Both the Panthers and the Falcons are kind of a mess right now. Amazon must loved having that as their TNF game.

When I quote this post, it only quotes your link and not the excerpt of the article you also included on the previous page, but I just wanted to say how bad I feel for poor Christina after she has already gone through so much health-wise and personally (her cancer, her mother’s cancer) before having to face this latest diagnosis. I had no idea. She is such a great comedienne. Even though I have never been able to get through an episode of Married … with Children (not sure why, because I do not have highbrow TV standards at all), I have always followed her career afterwards and always thought she should have been an even bigger star than she was (even though she has had a great and varied career).

When news of Leslie Jordan dying last week broke, I thought about how my very first exposure to him was via this show. He had a guest role in S1, but I best remember him from his S2 role as “Resplendent Man,” who at heart, just loved his mentally ill sister (played by Cindy Williams!). He was such a charming and funny performer. 😔 The thing is, they had the right idea in the first couple of episodes in S3 in how to continue to do a romantic comedy show with Lois and Clark being together (including L&C taking a superpower-free vacation), until they profoundly lost the plot and ship-stalled all of S3 and into S4. But after the “an angel officiates their wedding” episode (thanks, I hate it), they did settle down and do some stories in S4 with them happily married that weren’t bad on the relationship front. But the overall quality was way too uneven and God-weddings are tough to come back from. Superman & Lois nailed The Dynamic (tm) in their S1, and it was almost everything I ever wanted to see in a live-action Clois established relationship. See, wishes can come true after 25 years, lol.

That is the most memorable line of the season so far for me. It’s so clever! No way, really? I’d never heard that one. Separately, I thought that he looked very lean in the AA sketch to the point of being a little on the gaunt side. Like, for the 2021 SNL Christmas show that he pitched in on, I thought he looked fab having lost some weight, and here, I was like, “hope he’s well.” It was a lot of fun to see David S. Pumpkins tonight with Mikey and Bobby alongside. Drunk Uncle made me miss Bobby even more. He’s one of the few cast members that I felt departed before his decline from peak. RIP, Ass Dan. ✊

There have been stories circulating for awhile now that he is kind of a diva-jerk who let stardom go to his head. He most prominently has been roasted publicly as a jerk for attending a Writers Guild of America meeting to advocate for a pay cut for late night writers, which would have obviously impacted his show staff and wasn’t a great look. I would of course never be abusive to restaurant staff, but I also wasn’t sure what the Balthazar guy’s angle was in publicizing the story that Corden got upset upon finding a hair in his food. That’s pretty gross, and I wouldn’t expect a customer to be happy about that. But I get calling Corden out about the egg yolk omelette drama (why did Corden even go back to that restaurant??). I also didn’t know that there were yolk-only omelettes. Between omelettes and salad dressing, it’s been an eventful week on the celebrity food front.

She was quite good. And I liked Sarah Sherman’s Chuck Schumer. It wasn’t as dead-on an impersonation as Alex Moffat’s but I thought it might have been a little funnier. I didn’t think the cold open was anything special at all and blends in with the dozens of other congressional sketches they’ve done, but I thought those two did the best job. I was having a hard time hearing the show, too, in many spots, and I’m at least glad to know it wasn’t necessarily my hearing getting even worse. Nothing “wowed” me tonight. There were some good ideas but I just didn’t feel they fully executed on them. Like the deer sketch: it was funny when they had actual footage of a bunny riding a deer, but the deer coming inside the house was kind of a meh way to level it up. Or the “Brought Along” song: very relatable idea, but it just didn’t hit for me. Megan had great energy, though, and I liked her first song, which I had never heard (Anxiety?). Talk about relatable.

I found the show very below average. I did like the Try Guys sketch, but it seemed like the sketch was taking a point of view that it was overblown to fire the guy “just” for having an affair when the reality of the situation is that Ned Fulmer was having an affair with a subordinate while he was supposedly the acting HR director for their company, while his cheated upon spouse was also working for the company, which all seems to be a pretty fireable offense. So it’s like, I don’t get the fascination with the story, but I also don’t think the guy suffered any unfair consequences, either. From what I’ve heard, Blonde is some kind of torture porn based on a work of fiction, not fact, that gave Marilyn Monroe no real credit for her professional achievements, and that sketch was such a lame, toothless way to take on any of it. That and maybe some Melissa McCarthy in the mix, too, with some of their exaggerated vocal stylings.

Yes!! That’s exactly what I was coming here to post. Miles had Peyton down cold. And I really liked that they did something different with the cold open than a straight up political sketch. Very creative and funny. Jon Hamm’s line about special guests being brought in to deflect from an inexperienced host was clever. I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the show. Monologue was charming; Miles was killer in the game show sketch (although I felt the writing fell off by the time they got to Bowen); Longfellow’s WU bit was ultra-relatable to me; Kendrick was awesome. ”It is what it is.”

I don’t “do” Twitter, but I’d love to see (former writer) Bob Odenkirk host. Or Sheryl Lee Ralph. Pedro Pascal would be cool in early 2023 because he will have several projects to promote then. I saw on SNL’s YouTube channel that they return on October 1. I wonder who will host then?

I think there are at least some rumors floating around that the February date may have been pushed back. I saw a few references in breakdowns of the D23 coverage that the Comic-Con version of this trailer still said “February 2023,” but the D23 version of the trailer just said “2023.” Somehow that has people chattering that it’s been delayed months. It’s a great trailer that has me hyped. One thing that I haven’t seen anyone discuss relates to when Bo-Katan asks Grogu, “Did you think your Dad was the only Mandalorian?” Grogu saw Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians in Season 2, and saw the Armorer in Season 1 (I think?), so I wonder what the context of that line will be. There are GIFs from the trailer that diligent GIF makers posted to Tumblr and that show better detail of how Din has his bandolier strapped around Grogu like a seatbelt, how he kind of has to push Grogu’s head down when they’re doing that barrel roll and how Grogu is snuggling up with Din at the end there. It’s super cute stuff.

I’m a recent avid listener of the SmartLess podcast. Will Arnett, Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman are very well-connected among their Hollywood contemporaries and have long histories with a lot of their interviewees, including Bradley Cooper, and Bradley’s comments were made in the context of talking about his insecurities and trying to fit in in the industry. I thought it was an extremely interesting interview, and Bradley was very honest about how he remembers all the slights that he took personally and all the slights that he made towards others that he was ashamed of. (Bradley told the story of how he, at some party years ago and on drugs or alcohol at the time, thought he was being funny and was just being insulting to someone, and Will Arnett pulled him aside to tell him he was being obnoxious, and it served as a wake up call for Bradley to focus on sobriety.) I do think Bradley comes across as extremely insecure about his professional position (and the SmartLess hosts display their own weaknesses, as well, from time to time), but I agree with others here that it’s kind of refreshing to hear that kind of honesty in interviews instead of comics doing bits or actors reciting canned PR stories. Just my two cents.

I did not follow the trial firsthand, but I thought that I read around the time of opening statements that Depp’s specific asserted damages were that he lost the next Pirates movie as a result of Heard’s defamation (and that not even the lost Fantastics Beasts film role (for which he was paid) was part of his claim). Did his attorneys prove that the op ed was the proximate cause of his lost Pirates role? Are his awarded damages equal to his approximate estimated lost salary for that film (which isn’t even in pre-production yet)? I remember reading that Amber’s attorneys had mentioned that they had evidence that Disney did not consider the op ed when compiling evidence of Depp’s bad behavior. But then I never heard much reported about that because the coverage I followed always ended up focusing on the stan culture around Depp. Just wondering how the jury reached the damages number.

Tough crowd here, haha. I was actually very much charmed by it and would probably give it an A- (although I don’t think it has much of a rewatchability factor). It was an absolute dream for an 80s/ 90s kid, with all the references. And the (Uncanny) Valley stuff and Main Street being home to stinky cheese trafficking was pretty cute. John Mulaney is really an excellent voiceover artist. Chip working for “Coercive Insurance”? Funny. And Chip’s concern for Millie when they thought they were going to die was oddly touching. The cameos that delighted me the most were Paul Rudd and his enthusiasm for “Aunt-Man,” the quick shot of Randy Marsh in the Russian bath and Darkwing Duck at the very end. I would strongly caution parents to heed the PG warning. I would never show this to my 5-year-old nephew because it would scare the living daylights out of him.

Love to have seen that footage: thanks for posting. It looks awesome. When I read yesterday that the show wasn’t coming back until next year, I was thinking that this is why I don’t get super excited for TV shows anymore: years-long waits defuse the excitement. But then I saw that trailer, and I’m like, “wooo-hoooo, give me all the Mandalorian content now; should I do a rewatch?” Lol. Well, good to know that even though I’m getting old, I can still hyperfixate like no one’s business.

I remember a few years back (like in 2018-2019) that there were some articles about a small number of U.S. tourists who died or were sickened at Dominican resorts under unexplained circumstances. The deaths were generally chalked up to “natural causes,” even though two of those deaths were a couple that both died of pulmonary edema and respiratory failure in their room, which seemed strange. Vox had an article at the time that contained speculations about everything from pesticide exposure to contaminated minibar alcohol, but I don’t think anything ever came of it and no tests showed anyone was poisoned by environmental factors. When I heard that Ray Liotta had died in his sleep, it made me think of those other cases, but I haven’t really seen anyone talking about it. Maybe there is nothing to it: millions of Americans visit the DR every year for work and play, and some of them will unfortunately die while there; Liotta was a bit older with a history of smoking behind him. It’s not exactly shocking.

I don’t know what it is about John Mulaney, but comedically, he just speaks to me. He’s so funny. I don’t know how he maintains the punishing schedule of his stand up tour (he was touring on the East Coast this past weekend) while also promoting the Rescue Rangers movie (which I must watch, having grown up with the Disney Afternoon), but I hope he is sober and stays that way. I saw his stand up on Sunday and it was really good material that I think people will respond to when it hits Netflix. Significantly better than Kid Gorgeous (his last special), in my opinion.

This was the first time in as long as I can remember that I had no idea who the host was. In his current stand-up tour (which I got to see on Sunday night!), John Mulaney name-checked her as someone who was at his intervention, and that was all I knew of her. I read her Wiki page as I was watching the finale via YouTube clips last night, and she sure has had a harrowing personal life. I really didn’t care for the finale much. With a few exceptions here, it seems most posters like those alien abductions skits, but I have never really cared for them. The first one was very funny because of all the breaking, but since then … eh. I recognize and appreciate Kate’s contribution to the show and have certainly found her funny many, many times over the years, but I actually have not connected with her comedy in the same way that it seems most viewers overwhelmingly have. It was a good sendoff for her at the end of the abduction sketch, though. Overall, I liked this season better than last season, so a little disappointing to finish on a meh note. The only things I really liked in this show were the meth baseball announcer and Aidy and Bowen’s bit.

I’ve been catching up on the posts in this thread from the past few days, and just in light of the fact that there has been some extensive discussion of Naomi Judd’s death by suicide, I think it may be important to share that if you are in crisis, there are telephone and web resources to provide immediate help. In the U.S., you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at: 1-800-273-8255. Google also has a list of resources for people in other countries, as well. It’s my understanding that research has shown that providing these types of resources when suicide is being discussed is a recommended best practice to offer support to people in crisis who may be reading about this issue.

The other two times Sarah did those Colin Jost Weekend Update “hit pieces,” I never liked them quite as much as the audience seemed to, but she did win me over with it tonight. Having an affirmation that Colin is “The real king of Staten Island” on his dressing room mirror was really funny. That Aidy Bryant/ Steve Martin sketch was pretty funny. I at first thought it would be a one-note fart joke, but the way Steve said that Aidy was “the most viciously unlucky person he had ever met” (or something like that) really spun it off in a fun and absurd direction. I found Selena’s flat affect kind of painful. I didn’t think she was very good here. I do agree that the show overall got better as it went on.

They did a “Creating SNL” featur-ette a few years ago where she was interviewed and talked about grabbing the host’s hand and dragging them to quick-change areas (she’s part of the wardrobe department). It’s always so interesting to see how the behind the scenes actually stuff works.