taragel

Why have Diyoza pregnant (presumably by McCreary) at all? It was a good twist but a weird choice in terms of storytelling. This episode kind of bored me. Diyoza doesn't seem totally tyrannical or unreasonable, so I don't understand why she won't negotiate at all. I wonder if they'll really pull the trigger on pairing her and Kane as they seem to be leading towards. Abby's a real mess.

Wow what a lackluster opening episode. Except for Vik's collapse, the entire hour was a mundane rehash of parent-teacher meetings, unruly classrooms, and nervous anxiety. It's amazing to me this show has managed to eke out 4 (so far) seasons with such a meandering, unfocused ethos.

The national tour launches in Spring 2019 in Providence, actually. It's on my season ticket schedule for PPAC. I was really surprised it announced a tour so soon after the Broadway opening but I guess it's just that good!

Wow, this season seemed way darker than S1 with all the child violence. The killer seemed a little out-of-nowhere, and I kind of wanted more of those other storylines to tie together in a meaningful way. And I'm not sure what to make of the reveal about Marcella and the baby. I kind of wished (sad as that would have been too) the rotten ex had did it and was gaslighting her all along. They certainly did set it up for a huge reboot though.

So I'm guessing all these doubts amount to nothing and they do end up getting married because three episodes centered around a wedding that doesn't happen is a real bummer note to end a warm/fuzzy series on. Then again, we have zero reason to root for Eliza (and Brandon), since we barely know her. Mr. Taragel said he thought someone else would get married but the only real possibility seemed to be Jesus if Emma suddenly shows up---but then Jesus slept with the bridesmaid presumably. I'm thinking the door thing is a fakeout this time. I can't see them opening that can of worms again now. Right now this finale feels pretty pointless to be honest--just a way for the show to have a nice finale on-location in a beautiful place.

I loved the ending (I was a bit worried it was going to end with them both laying back on the bed and saying they were tired, and that would have been a little unsatisfying and anticlimactic) and thought it was great that the "twist" was that Eve isn't just obsessed (perhaps romantically, perhaps not) with Villanelle, so much as her wanting to know what it feels like to take a life. That's why she would stab her and not shoot her--it's more intimate. I also don't think the answers of who the Twelve are or what they are after would be nearly as interesting as this relationship/interplay. It would be kind of funny if they never tell us who they are, I think. Just another way to subvert the usual crime drama expectations. The old lady spying on Villanelle was also a nice and unex.ected reveal. I like that for as quick and brutal as she can be, Villanelle does get outsmarted sometimes too--she's not superhuman. I too wondered about Eve saying her marriage to Nico had been sacrificed though. I was also surprised we didn't get to see Elena after they left London and they didn't find a way to incorporate her.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION In pursuit of the ring, the Bumblers don new identities under Maddie's tutelage; Ezra forms an unlikely relationship with a Toby Jug collector; Max and Sally try to dig up dirt from the Doctor's past. Since there was no episode thread, I started one. Well, well, well. That escalated quickly and went south fast with Maddie and Ezra. Interesting twist at the end--how did Sofia end up finding them? I assume she's been watching/tracking them for a bit...or maybe she's working for The Doctor too. I was a little surprised there was no Patrick this episode. Have they lost him? Finally, the promos were surprising in that they seemed to give a big twist away.

The least charismatic, most wooden cult leader ever. This whole show makes less and less sense as it goes on (and on, and on.) If they wanted to rip off TomKat, why not just go whole hog and make Kyle be secretly gay (or bi)? None of this really makes sense. The only reason you need a fake spouse is to cover up something with your sexual/romantic life. Not an anger issue or a history of prostitution or whatever Kyle is supposed to have that must be kept under wraps at all costs. Terrence leaking to the press that Meghan spent the wedding night with that other dude is a "calculated risk?" WHAT? That makes zero sense. If you're supposed to be trying to protect this fake marriage illusion/Kyle....why on earth would you purposely leak that? The show can't even figure out, never mind follow, its own internal logic. I don't mind Josh H. in general but I feel like he's honestly outlived his usefulness. Give me a show where Meghan, DeAnn and Leslie just plot to take down Terrence and it'll be 10 times more interesting. Hopefully that's exactly where S3 is headed. But that ending didn't give me any hope they have a clue what they're doing. Kyle threatens to be a total control freak with Meghan and she has prime evidence right on her phone that she could expose Terrence/take down IHM, and she doesn't mention/use it? WHY?

So Frank's mother was actually a Russian intelligence agent? Or was that lady pretending to be (probably killed) Frank's mother? I read that next episode is going to be crazy explosive, but this one was considerably tense. I love the nuances this show deals in--like how the speech Frank gives about Bill is so wrong/clueless. Fiona Shaw in the butcher shop was also just great. Her concern for the sausages and that Eve keep well fed. Lol.

Seriously? Only a couple of hours? That seems kind of crazy. (I couldn't figure out how to delete the spoiler box above, sorry!) Sigh. I'm a Bellarke fan so a whole season of Becho (even if it is just a couple hours) is very meh to me. Seems like another way to stall and waste some good chemistry with Bob and Eliza. I don't understand why Rothenberg is so afraid of giving those two a romantic relationship. They're already as codependent and loving as two people who aren't getting horizontal on the regular (and aren't related) can possibly be. This season is clearly going to be super violent/all about fighting and I'm not really feeling that. I worry they're going to focus on war so exclusively they forget all about character bonds and development. The Octavia/bunker fight club doesn't seem promising. Clarke's screaming in the desert was painfully bad. This is so negative. Okay, what did I like...? Spacekru's team spirit and the ribbing between Raven and Murphy. I am excited it's back even if I have a lot of reservations.

Wow, so staying together when you have no loving connection anymore is the right thing to do so you can just magically hope it will fix itself someday (while doing nothing at all to fix it) instead of divorcing and moving on with your life? These people are so delusional. What more would need to (could possibly) break? Kody doesn't even like to use the word "hope." Get the frak out of there, Meri. Geesh. And the stupid host "commending" them for staying together. (She may have been my least favorite "tell-all" host. Awkward questioning and very little follow through.) I've never related more to Tony than he was wild eyed with amazement in the inset shot while they were showing Maddie screaming/grunting her way through labor. Why was that filmed? Dear lord. So this tell-all ended rather abruptly, eh? And now they're playing some Q&A thing? Sigh. These questions are so dumb. Who cares about how they do the laundry, honestly?

For all Kody kept saying he was "done," he also kept saying Meri (alone) had to decide what she wants to do/how to handle this. Does he expect her to move out of that house? Maybe he's hoping she will go buy and live in that B&B? I know they're actually already divorced, but he's awfully placid about this situation where he's got this person he doesn't like or trust living in a house he's presumably cosigned for... It's just so weird to me. SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT, people. I know filming the show probably requires her to stay on, but what a mess. Maybe he's just waiting for the show to be cancelled and then he'll never really deal with Meri again? I don't get living this way at all.

Not even three weeks! 13 days or some such? Crazy.

This is pretty much the same situation with Meri and Robyn on SisterWives. She introduced someone she thought would be an awesome addition and then (probably) regretted it later. Ashley's heading down that same path fast as she can. These ladies think they will feel better if they pretend it's their choice/they can have some control in this situation they likely DO NOT WANT deep down. It's really sort of sad.

I'm way late to this discussion but pulmonary embolism means blood clots have filled your lungs, usually having traveled from your legs or some other body part. (When I turned 21, I had a very severe double PE --after starting birth control pills; it's a side effect-- and 97% of my lungs were blocked, I was told.) I thought I had the flu in the days before I was hospitalized--I had a runny and/or stuffed nose (likely allergies) and trouble breathing -- the breathing issues were because my lungs were blocked. That being said, they installed a filter in my vein so more clots wouldn't travel and made me take a blood thinner for six months afterward. I was in the ICU for a week, and then in a regular room for a few days more. After I was released I went back to my senior year of college and I was fine. I never felt any different physically after the hospital stint. So it's not really something that is...ongoing, if that makes sense, that would really affect you being able to hold down a job. It is a stealthy illness (that bit about he could've went to sleep and died if ALL of his lungs filled up is true) because you don't usually know it's happening to you. For me, I had pretty intense pain in my leg where the clot must have been -- but I thought I had pulled a muscle. It eventually went away after a few months (I didn't see a doctor because I was away from home working) and I had one very brief incident where I got extremely short of breath one day, but it was passing so I didn't think much of it. It wasn't till 4 or 5 months later that I woke up one day, thinking I had a cold/flu and suddenly kept losing consciousness/couldn't breathe/lips were turning blue. At any rate, I don't think they're telling the full story here about his "illness" causing them to move home. More like, they didn't have insurance and couldn't afford the medical bills an impromptu hopsitalization saddled them with. (But...they've both been featured on the show for years--presumably they get money for that, unless Kody holds purse strings and doesn't give them any of it.)

I recommend checking out the live show if you can get tickets. Saw Rachel, Adam Schlessinger, Jack Dolgan, and Aline Brosh-McKenna last weekend in Fairfield CT and it was so much fun. Aline came out and did JAP rap battle and Let's Generalize About Men with her, and Jack did a few songs including "I Could if I Wanted To." They did a version of the cat puppets song that was on this past episode, as well as Shitshow, You Stupid Bitch, We Should Definitely Not Have Sex Right Now, Tap That (during which Rachel tapdanced), Strip Away My Conscience, Diagnosis, The Math of Love Triangles, Greg's Drinking Song (Adam solo), Period Sex, Heavy Boobs (which Rachel removed her shirt for), Remember that We Suffered, Oh My God I Think I Like You, The Very First Penis I Saw (Adam on lead), and a slowed-down version of Stacy's Mom (in tribute to Adam). Good times.

I really don't think Santino/Greg is ever coming back. That door seems pretty firmly closed (from his side at least). Is the twist too obvious to be Rachel owning up to the fact that she's been shitty to all of them? Maybe she's going to decide to move away.

I see they've clarified he's only doing one episode of Grey's. But I guess he's still leaving AK. I don't love his storyline, so I wouldn't mind him moving on, but it is surprising to me to leave a steady gig. Wonder if he didn't really gel with the cast.

I get why they wrote Jack rushing around to save not just the dog but possessions as well. Because they needed to show him as a really over-the-top hero at his moment of (or just moments before his) death. It's part of why his family has been able to build this sainted legacy surrounding his memory. He did a lot/everything for his family all his life but on death's door, he did even more! Of course, his heroism also lead to his death. I'm not sure how going to the hospital sooner would necessarily have helped with them preventing the cardiac attack. It was massive and instantaneous but just before it, the doctors told him he took in a lot of smoke, but not that they were doing anything special to combat that (as far as I recall). I really loved the candy bar moment. And the wrong tree. Those are the too-real-to-be-fiction bits that keep this show from falling into just completely manipulative dreck. Although the performances are really fantastic all around too. Mandy, Justin, Sterling, and Chrissy all had very good monologues/speeches/moments here. And the Tess twist was great--about as good as the end of the pilot honestly. Well done, show, well done. They're really on quite the streak in this middle section of S2. The last five or six episodes have all been very good.

I'm watching for the first time, near the end of S2 and Schneider always felt like the wrong guy to play that part. Maybe Paul Rudd would have worked? He just doesn't have the hint of slyness almost all the other characters have (maybe except Jerry) at one point or another.

Interesting. I just read that Aspyn's fiance is the little brother of Vanessa from that new Seeking Sister Wife show.

I got curious enough about Jocelyn and Melina to do some twitter searching and while I didn't find much about them--Ashley had a big Insta post talking about how people tried to sabotage her family and hurt them this year (2017), so I wondered if that meant Jocelyn was bad news... (ETA: She also has a post here saying that she tried to be authentic as possible but what aired is as "far from reality" as it gets.)

Regardless (or...irregardless), it takes some kind of balls to even ask for the family to buy a house for your mom to live in like the previews show, especially when you already promised another wife's mother that SHE could live in the house.

I kind of love that Meri's not even halfway pretending to give a damn anymore--and clearly none of the others mind that she's missing! I thought it was pretty hilarious that we got not one but TWO "Oh sorry I missed this family event. How disappointing!" confessionals. Esp now that she'll be flitting down to the B&B going forward, I imagine that's the way it'll be for the rest of the time this thing is on air. I missed why Kody gave CALEB an expensive watch from his ridiculous collection for Maddie's birthday? Or was that their gift for making him a grandpa (gag)? Aspyn's fiance seemed super uncomfortable to be on TV in that little commercial announcing their engagement. The fact that he's a "longtime family friend" also seems very sketch. I wonder if he will unseat Caleb as favored son-in-law if Kody's known/liked this dude longer. Their amazement that people would give lingerie at a bridal shower... Lol. Almost as funny as the 50 Shades discussion. This bullshit about not having enough room for Maddie and Caleb, when they have at least two bedrooms that are empty 90% of the time... SMDH. Christine's overwhelming guilt about not liking FT (then...or now, IMO) is making her overcompensate like whoa. That claddagh ring was a lot. Cutting up her own wedding dress (although honestly that quilted satin blanket needed to be cut up), doing that terrible song an octave too high (shame on that music teacher!). Relax, Christine. Just relax. "We're like a divorced couple living on the same block!" No, you ARE a divorced couple! Honestly, I'm surprised they're even talking about/acknowledging the lack of relationship between Kody and Meri. Because that means it's an arc and it needs to be resolved. And unless they're working towards Meri actually leaving, which I highly doubt, that means they have to work toward a reconciliation probably...and I don't see that happening either. Although I don't understand what made Kody and Christine like each other better suddenly. (The fact that he really didn't like her/wasn't attracted to her/wasn't into it....is so weird. Christine honestly seems to be the easiest to love out of all the wives--so it's always been surprising that he wasn't into her.) So now the B&B will no longer be a B&B just a home for Meri's mom that they're going to buy? That's...something.

I hope she wins and they stay strong against the lure of TLC $$. :)