LuvMyShows

I watched Crimetime: Freefall. Meh. The two leads have a playful banter and buddy-buddy chemistry, but I don't sense any romantic chemistry. (I also couldn't get past Hadley's unflattering curly bangs.) I knew it would be the security guy, because they didn't delve into him at all. One thing that was laughably bad was when the victim's mother sat down with Hadley and in total sincerity, begged her to get involved because of her crime-solving success on the TV show. It also didn't ring true that Hadley couldn't stop yelling out the trivia answers. This is a woman who is an actress, and as such is very used to taking direction, and she is not that long removed from those days. I also don't think they could decide if they wanted her to be down-to-earth or a my-assistant-will-handle-that diva. Hadley's mom looked so much like a Black version of Lily Tomlin. And I was confused as to what the mom was apologizing for at the end, that had something to do with that fan guy. I was also confused because I'm pretty sure Hadley said at one point that the move was temporary. I definitely noticed when the kids were complaining about having moved, she said that if something good came up back in LA (or words to that effect), she promised they would move back. As soon as she said that, I knew that something good would be offered but she would choose to stay. However...making a blanket promise like that is a terrible idea, and breaking that promise just makes her promises look cheap in the first place. It's now the next day after I watched, and I can't remember why the security guy killed the victim, so that's not too good. Can anybody fill me in? One thing I absolutely loved, was when she went to the house where the victim's business partner and the ex were, and she asked them some busybody nosy crime-solving question, and they explained something about how nothing good came of when they spoke to her before, so they closed the door on her. That was hysterical, because in other Hallmark Mysteries, the heroine crime-solver asks all these questions of people who have no need or reason to answer her questions, but they do, and barely ever ask her why she's asking!

I sort of thought maybe I heard a reference to that, but I'm not sure...when did either of them say that he uses condoms but that he doesn't think they were enough? Also, when she talked about not wanting to use hormones because her body is stable right now (or whatever she actually said), I wondered if that was a veiled reference to not wanting to gain weight. Plus, there are other non-hormonal options, like an IUD or the female condom. Regardless, if he is already using condoms, and they don't think that's enough, and there are no other options for him, and the inability to have sex is getting in the way of developing their relationship, then there are only two options: break up or have her find some additional form of birth control. They need to bottom-line this situation and stop vaguely dancing around it.

IIRC, he literally talked about the importance of his ego twice in the pods...and that's just twice that we saw. There was probably more mentions that we didn't see.

I thought the one who got Botox was the one who looks sorta like Chelsea, but is more conceited....Sarah Ann? I am still stunned that someone with a child would consider marrying a stranger, and then essentially forcing their child to accept the person sight unseen as a step-parent.

There is one aspect of See No Evil that I've really been struck with, and that is the no-win task of trying to make looking at video footage into compelling TV. It always follows the same format: "Bring up the tape to just before 11:10 pm." "Where is he?" "There he is!" "Where is he going?" "Wait, who is that?" "Rewind and play that part again!" "What is he doing?" "Can you get a close-up on that?" And then the narrator concludes, "The footage was too grainy to make out the license plate."

OK, so here's what I wondered about, regarding lying. Remy stated that he had done 26 marathons this year (whatever year the interview was taped). I got curious about how he did, especially doing so many...essentially one every other week, which is quite a significant running accomplishment. I scoured the entire Internet, and the running race results web sites, and found nothing, nada, not a thing for ANY marathon, let alone 26 of them in a year. Interestingly, the only mention of Remy and racing that I found, was a narrative from a close friend, who did mention Remy training and having about a 10-minute mile pace, but for shorter distances. We know that there genuinely was running training, because of the mistress talking all about it, and the running-clothes-buying thing. And the anecdote that was shared about Remy deciding to do a marathon with no water (WTAF!). But the fact that there are zero race results with his name, just adds further shade to an already shady-AF guy.

Not sure if anyone here also watches the Hallmark Mysteries, but I just found out that Andrea Canning was the impetus for the Ruby Herring Mysteries series! Turns out that she has written thrillers for LIfetime, and mysteries and Christmas movies for Hallmark. She had been a fan of Lifetime and Hallmark movies and thought she could probably do that, especially given that she was working for Dateline and had a "wealth of information swirling around in her head". So she contacted a Lifetime producer and it took off from there.

I finally got to see Mystery on Mistletoe Lane. It was slow at first, but it picked up and was very enjoyable. I was so pleasantly surprised at the chemistry between the two leads. I had only seen Victor Webster in the Matchmaker Mysteries with Danica McKellar and there was zero chemistry, probably due in large part to her wooden acting in the series. I had never seen Erica Cerra before, but she was very good. Have to agree with chitowngirl about the instant unpacking from the move. The other thing that bothered me was that given how long it had been since anyone lived in the house, it sure had an updated look!

I was watching an episode of TVOne's Fatal Attraction true crime show, and saw Steve Spingola from Cold Justice. The episode featured a case that had been worked by the Chattanooga PD, but went cold. Then they were contacted by Cold Justice to see if they had any cases Cold Justice could help with, and they came in and helped solve it. The funny part was when they showed Spingola, the chryon underneath said he was the "host of Cold Justice". Wonder what Kelly Siegler would say about that?😉

Her name is Joanne Carducci, and she is an on-line political commentator from New Jersey, known as "Jo from Jerz". She became known for her anti-Trump commentary during his administration, joining Twitter at the time specifically to denounce Trump.

I wasn't referring to the times when she was getting to know him, and she thought he was trying to interview her, and she would cut him off or run away. I was referring to once everything was out in the open, she said something implying dishonesty on his part, but other than giving her a false name, he never actually said anything false about himself. She's the one who concluded he was a reporter, but her wording made it sound like he had misled her about it and he didn't correct her about it. Maybe he was just being a gentleman.

Once Hallmark Christmas movie season started around October, I guess I thought all new mysteries had stopped. So I only recently realized I had missed some things. In case anyone else has as well, this is what is coming up: Wed. Feb. 14 9:00 - After All These Years. This is actually a movie from 2013, starring Wendie Malick. I saw that the young man playing the son is Adam DiMarco, who played the sweet, naive son/grandson in White Lotus season 2. Sat. Feb. 17 9:00 - Mystery on Mistletoe Lane Fri. Feb. 23 5:00 - True Justice: Family Ties (repeat 3/2 7:00, 3/15 5:00) 9:00 - CrimeTime: Freefall (repeat 2/25 7:00, 2/28 7:00) Sat. Feb. 24 9:00 - Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Vows We Have Made Fri. Mar. 15 9:00 - Crimes of Fashion: Killer Clutch Also, I finally got to see what I believe is the last in the Garage Sale Mysteries series: Searched & Seized. If you missed it, it will air again Sun. Mar. 3 at 7:00. It was nice when they actually used to show married couples!

I'm glad to know I wasn't imagining this. Every time I looked at her wardrobe, she looked like a shopkeeper who had gotten some second-rate "fancy clothes". I know that they made a point of pointing out that money was an issue, but no way would someone like her have been in clothes like that. You're not alone, and 1000 times yes to the part in bold. Interestingly, she was the only character who I felt that way about; even the young girl playing Gertrude didn't have that same modern sound to her. The other thing I had a problem with were the historical inaccuracies. Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877 at age 82. In this movie, he was portrayed as being middle aged, so that would be around 1840s-50s. Yet they also made a point of talking about how the person who stole the plans was shopping them about by phone, even though Bell didn't even get his patent until 1876. Also, a very early incandescent electric lamp was first made by Edison in 1876, but this movie clearly had table lamps that were not gas. And finally, the phraseology sounded completely contemporary...almost nothing they said would have sounded out-of-place now. In fact, the lead character said something about how someone loved drama. That is a turn of phrase that we weren't even saying as recently as 20 years ago. And finally, the police guy absolutely would have been watching her like a hawk at the end when she was talking with that heir guy at the door, seen what looked like an intimate conversation, and definitely had some words with her. I also found it odd that the heir never bothered correcting her when she said he hadn't been honest about who he was. IIRC, he never said he was a reporter...she is the one who (falsely) concluded that he was a reporter. I will watch future installments, if there are any, because I'm a sucker for Hallmark Mysteries, but I was still disappointed.

Not related to a current Dateline ep, but certainly to prior ones...just found out that the LA Innocence Project is representing Scott Peterson, as in, the 'murdering-his-wife-Laci-and-fetus' Scott Peterson. As I posted in the General True Crime forum, with all the evidence against him, I'm not sure how he could be innocent. I generally have a lot of faith and respect for the Innocence Project, but this has me shaken.

It happened to me, with emergency responders. It was late on a Christmas Eve and they were knocking at the door, so I opened it. They immediately barged in fast and hard without saying anything, and I asked what was going on. That's when it became clear that they had the wrong house; it was really the next-door neighbors'. [coughChaceyPoyntercough]

Just learned that the Los Angeles Innocence Project is taking up the case of Scott Peterson's conviction for murdering his pregnant wife Laci and their unborn fetus. With all the evidence against him, I'm not sure how he could be innocent. I generally have a lot of faith and respect for the Innocence Project, but this has me shaken.

I did not know specifically about the IFB world. Just awful, absolutely terrible. It got me curious about what the IFB churches are up to now. Apparently, there is a NIFB, which stands for New Independent Fundamental Baptist church. Their website says the N, for New, is "because the 'Old IFB' got stuck in their backslidden, wicked ways". And yet, right beside that explanation is a picture that I guess shows 11 church leaders...and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what gender the 11 people are. Yeah, "New" my a**.

I was fascinated by the concept of them moving the location of the cue cards, especially for the 'up' ones...it really did look like Washington was pensively gazing.

In the latest Dateline, "Down the Basement Stairs", I really didn't feel like there was enough evidence to convict her, and I wasn't actually sure if she did it. But at the sentencing hearing, when the daughter was pleading for Cara to get no more jail time, and basically in a huff said that she didn't know her mom Ann (the deceased) at all, I was disgusted. First of all, if Cara is guilty, then the reason the daughter didn't know her mom Ann, is cause Cara killed her! But more importantly, that statement was such an indictment of Cara. It seems like in all the other murders where a young child remains, the family does everything they can to tell the young child all about the deceased, even when it wasn't the child's mother!!! But in this case, apparently Cara just excised Ann's existence out of their lives entirely, which does make me lean towards thinking she was guilty. Plus, pretty much any time that two or more people together happen upon a dead body in a home, you can bet that one of them did it (and disgustingly, it's often the child who is the unwitting second person).

I've been watching Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler, and I had assumed that the existence of this new show meant that Cold Justice would not be returning. But according to Kelly, there will be a season 7 of Cold Justice in 2024. The most recent Prosecuting Evil episode, "The Cop Who Wouldn't Stop", was interesting because it featured a very young Johnny Bonds, who is one of our Cold Justice peeps. It's a pretty amazing story in terms of his unshakeable persistence to bring justice in the case.

Once again, Accused: Guilty or Innocent shines a light on cases that NEVER should have made it to court. This one, "Party Killer or Innocent Bystander" was insane. In fact, the original prosecutor got so mad about the lies that the police department told, and the obfuscations, that he resigned. And what's 'funny', is that the stuff the police department was covering up by lying about the existence of body camera footage, was far less damning to the case, than the fact that the original prosecutor actually ending up testifying for the defense because of his outrage at the body camera footage lies! There was literally no evidence...not just no physical evidence, but no circumstantial evidence, no eyewitnesses, nothing. There was only a perceived motive and a physical proximity at the time of the shooting. I think the defense lawyer kept getting more and more stunned as the case progressed, about the developments that just fell into their laps. The second prosecutor even suggested that the charges should be dropped, but the police department insisted on going forward. Thankfully the (wrongly) accused was found not guilty. Unfortunately, nothing has happened to any of the police department staff about anything that they did.

Also, given how many times they reiterate that the breakup was due to their work schedules, you know that it definitely was NOT due to their work schedules!

When I was talking to my husband about the proposal pressure part, he said something about how the guy could get down on one knee, and right when he starts asking her to marry him, just give a quick wink to let her know that this proposal is for the publicity/clout/whatever. Well, I swear to God, when John Henry got down on one knee and started to propose to Kat, his right eye winked. I rewound it 4 times, to see if maybe it was because sweat was getting in his eye or something, but nope, it was a wink!

The Chicago brick episode was re-broadcast this evening. I had seen it the first time, but I guess it didn't make as big of an impression on me as it did this evening. I have to say that it was one of the ugliest renovations I have seen on any show. (I almost feel like this episode should be a PSA about the pitfalls of having too many overly-specific requirements that hamstring the designer.) I cannot say enough bad things about the fireplace. It was supposed to look modern, but it looked half-finished, bland, and bare, with absolutely no style. I suspected it would turn out badly when they talked about taking down the built-ins, but not replacing it with anything of visual interest. For the fireplace, it looked like there were a few lonesome wood slats slapped up against just bare expanse, and then maybe a variation of those wood slats were somehow incorporated into the windows...you could barely see the very light-colored wood in the windows in the reveal, but the lightness of the wood stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Almost as bad was that the front door entered right into the dining room! There was barely any room to maneuver before bumping into that ginormous (albeit beautiful) table Ben made. The problem was compounded by the also-ginormous island, that basically exactly mirrored the table. And the alignment/placement of the two tables kind of made it look like you were walking into a dining hall when you walked in the front door. Having the refrigerator all the effing way across the kitchen also seemed odd and very impractical, as did the "mud room" that was not connected to an outside entry and seemed to require a lot of traipsing through the house to reach (sort of defeating the purpose of a mud room, yes?). Anyway, I don't usually post about home improvement shows, and I usually love Ben and Erin's work, but this was just so spectacularly awful that I couldn't not post!

Yes! His acting is usually so awful that it takes me completely out of scenes. Maybe he's just much better when it's not live?