JasonCC

I like Lisa, the actress and her family. But let's face it: Charlotte's PTA mom friends were more suited to a Back Door Pilot that could have happened in the old days. One episode introduced and then their own show. It's not mixing in well at all here. Miranda's date: it felt like a funny, old self-contained episode from original recipe SATC actually! Miranda meets a hero/girl crush from jogging Audible and gives it a try. But with all the Che, Steve destruction/LA move and other out of character stuff with Miranda it kind of ruined it. As others have said had AJLT opened with the time jump Miranda had been separated or divorced from Steve for years? And THIS was her first foray into dating men or women? I could have bought it (again, but as a stand-alone comedy/drama encounter). Take away the cat? That tiny, crowded flat was how Carrie should have been living in SATC to make it more realistic (although less books) The Human Growth Hormone injection? Agree @Roccos Brother. Nice to acknowledge the open secret in the community.... but Anthony should have walked in accidentally into a restroom and caught it. Or busted a bread boys' steroid deal in the breakroom. No one would just do that mid-conversation. To play for laughs, they could have had a hunky bread boy caught say something like "Duh Anthony! We expected you to start adding HGH to our employee medical/dental benefits now that we are a success thanks to these muscles"!

This is pure speculation but--while a critically weel-received show with a devoted online fanbase--the show isn't a ratings smash. Can they quantify how many people added on the Showtime option to Paramount Plus just for this season like I did? The picking up of the pace happened so much these last couple episodes for good or for bad. I think perhaps (with the writers' strike also contributing) maybe instead of the mentioned five seasons we get one more for a total of 3. Ideally one that's 13 or 14 episodes long instead of 9 or 10, but Showtime only guaranteed three the writers just said they could do five. Somewhat related to that "picking up of the pace" to full on Antler Queen and Pit Girl society I think one of the big questions to unfold isn't as much "how do they get so witchy and cannibalistic?" anymore but "how the hell are Travis and Coach Ben going to fit into this new norm?" Remember they still have another whole winter to go. Right? 19 months would be May-ish 1996 to Feb 1998? That's a lot of time still. Or do they take a hiatus from the ritual, killings, and Lord of the Flies stuff over the summer and revive it in a much more streamlined fashion the next winter? Also, things could get dark sexually with a broken Travis being passed around (Lottie?) and that plays into the modern version with those three (Travis. Lottie, Natalie).

Reading the boards and a rewatch. The episode was superb. On the topic of pacing and how "fast they went" to ritualized cannibalism I have to say it was missing one beat--or going too fast--and it could have been fixed one of two ways with like two short extra scenes this episode or last. Showing how desperate and hungry and even hallucinating was done well but it felt "too fast" how ritualized it became. Like, we barely heard about the drawing of the cards to choose who empties the shit bucket to now it's a whole witchy ceremony culminating with throat cutting? There should have been more exposition over this season of the cards taking on symbolic importance and ceremony. Or, they could have had the first kill for food be less full blast intentional and blood-thirsty killing pack. Like they went straight from an accidental situation cannibalism of deep freeze Jacky to "let's slit my friends throat in the common area of the cabin". There should have been a beat in the middle RE intentionality. What they were going to do to Natalie (albeit thwarted) was like 8 and Pit Girl is a 9. I feel there should have been a death (or an intended death) in the 4,5, or 6 range. That little almost-played-for-laughs scene of Jen and Melissa acknowledging finding a dead, frozen Crystal might be a net good? Another scene or two in that vein could have taken us there. For example, before the (weirdly brief and perfunctory) search for Crystal an agreement/pledge by all the girls in a circle (resonating with the card ceremony to come): the goal and group consensus is now explicitly to find, roast, and eat. Maybe with some "wilderness provides" language thrown in. Again, just a few little middle-ground steps getting us from Jacky to Level 8.

I agree the identity of the pit girl isn't the be-all and end-all mystery. It's more (for me anyway) how they got so witchy and cult-like with the animal skins etc. Right now they are acting like there is NO small game whatsoever but aren't some of those S1E1 opener teases showing girls with rabbit and fox skins? Or am I imagining that? Add me to the group who thinks Mari is being portrayed a little less sympathetically--but two months later in winter would start to take its toll. They should just name and introduce all the background girls now. Even though 5 seasons (one too long in my opinion, but I'm giving benefit of the doubt) there are only 9 or 10 episodes a season. Let's just name and know who is who (Crystal, Gen, et al...) NOW (even if they get minimal screen-time) and avoid any gimmicky Nikki and Paulos being saved for later.

I'm getting a little confused about the 1996 background redshirts. Mari we knew, and Akilla (sp?). How many others are there? And yes, I'm trying to count who might be up to be eaten before poor Coach Ben. We saw it coming--Jackie was the logical choice although part of me didn't think it would happen this soon. The technique of the Roman feast (heavily borrowed from Donna Tartt's "The Secret History") actually left me with mixed feelings. I don't want to vomit from a TV show, but it also kind of glossed it over. I'm conflicted! I still think they should acknowledge some sort of rodent trapping ability. Squirrels? Rabbits? Maybe not good enough to feed everyone--so they are all still hungry and frantic about nourishment--but I don't like the implication only "big game" is edible. Were they stretching out the last of the bear in that pot? Or are there some small hunts happening (but not enough).

I too could see them going to Seattle once rescued--which wouldn't read visually as snowy winter in January necessarily. I live there and it's like always just hoodie or a flannel. Snow? That's what is 2+ hours outside the city in the mountains to ski or snowboard in.... I am under the impression they were closer to their destination than leaving point, but far off course to the north (and during the 1998 flashback didn't a reporter say something about off-course?). I bet the rescue searches for the crash site were Washington State and Idaho and maybe the close-to-the-border parts of BC and/or Alberta. For some unknown reason I think they ended up much further north than they were meant to be...

Poor DD/Paul Williams. Has there been any confirmation that he still wasn't recurring at least in theory? I'm kind of surprised they didn't bring him back for the photo and maybe like one episode. Even Snapper Foster or Lori Brooks gets the occasional "one and done". I wonder what date they took the photo. It's pretty impressive though herding all the cats for one big photo. Also--and sorry if this is the wrong spot to ask--which day was the Lauren-centric episode with the clips?

Good for MM--they screwed her over as Hillary and should be grateful for her coming back at all considering the dirty deed they did the character. I loved seeing the talented actor again, and loved she got that Emmy, but Amanda never took off with me like Hillary. I hated everything about the twin BS. I honestly would have preferred a convoluted storyline about her being alive and that evil doctor Ashley was with being a part of it/

I never watched OLTL. TSJ is a handsome 50ish dude. He can't be Tucker though. That's wayyy too much of a stretch. Dylan? Okay. We're stuck with that cult baby storyline like it or not. He can't be worse than the acting Jar of Mayonnaise Steve Burton. Tucker and Jill are the SAME AGE. It has to be to even squint, spit, and throw logic to the wind to work between Liz Foster and Katherine Chancellor legends and all those retcons. They were born in the 50s when Katherine was married to Gary Reynolds--father of Brock right? It's core to the show (as a retcon already!). Even Lauren's Dad knocking up a poor high school girl back then was a stretch in retcon tale telling.....but at least it fit the timeline....

If they do it? They should do them all at one fell swoop. Although I've liked watching Faith grow up I always felt when they SORASed Lily's twins (do they even mention them anymore?) it would have been a good time for Faith too. Have them all in High School together.

Victor/EB can be infuriating but at 81 he's doing pretty good and looks younger than his age! I thought he was like 73. RE Victoria & Billy's home. Yes--t was defintely in a neighborhood with a street and other houses visible from the yard but I think it was supposed to be more suburban and not walking distance to downtown or anything. Remember when Chelsea was going on the lam with Conner and Christian? She had second thoughts on the way out of town and dropped Christian off on Victoria's front door and rang the doorbell....

WOW Thanks for that clip I never saw. MS CAN bring it...she really can...but it is so exhausting somtimes.

I feel like writers in the past have attempted different ways to make Phyllis age out of just doing love triangles without making her a matriarch. Matriarch won't work for the character of Phyllis. Do they make her business-like with GT? Remember when she was town gossip? WIth a blog and inserting herself in other storylines? It was kind of working. With MS we remember she was the groupie with Danny Romalotti--over the top, kind of drag queen. I think in small doses, a bit comical, a bit slutty older aunt is the way to play her. I think being Goddess of the Grand Phoenix was an attempt to give her a mature --but still a shit-stirrer--role.

Agreed about that dress Phyllis had on. MS didn't seem comfortable in it at all. Y&R is pretty much my only soap, I figured having everyone dressed up in cocktail dresses on weekdays was maybe a general daytime TV thing? Or does Y&R take it even further? I know nothing about fashion or style, but I can't believe those huge plastic-y looking belts are back. Just shows everything EVERYTHING comes back around again but yuck... ETA: You know Julyolo I've always thought Victoria's not-perfect smile kind of gave her a little edge! One friend of mine whose not a soap watcher but was staying here while I had it on in the background saw Victoria and said something like "she is gorgeous and beautiful...but did she come of age as a model in the Kate Moss waif days of the mid-90s?" I kind of get what she means.....and I told my friend she was in a 1995 Everclear music video so her instincts were correct. AH is stunning but I think as you get older sometimes a little more thickness is okay to tone down the sharp edges a bit.

I liked Phyllis and Sharon's gowns! Yes, they were more clubby 70s and less Boho 70s. I forgot that storyline when Chloe was ashamed of her mother being a maid!