stillshimpy

Hee!! Perhaps in the ultimate plot twist the real culprits will turn out to be a Felt Gang formed by the Avenue Q Puppets, out terrorizing the town.

I've been wondering, is it possible that Amabella is doing these things to herself? The psychologist said that she felt Ziggy was being bullied. We saw him staring at Amabella in what seemed an unfriendly way but I don't think Ziggy is doing this. The previews show Amabella having a bite mark which would be much more difficult to inflict on herself. Mind you, I have no idea, whatsoever why she might be doing that and I may very well be completely off base. It's just so freaking weird that this stuff is going down in a school setting and there are no witnesses. I truly can't think of reason she would do that but it almost seems more plausible that she's doing these things to herself in the girls bathroom than being strangled and bitten in the open and no one seeing it.

Her grades had dropped to a 3.8 so they weren't bad, they just weren't perfect any longer. That's just as easily stress rather than abuse or molestation and Madeline is actually pretty stressful. I think what Abigail told Madeline is likely true: Maddy was trying to undo her mistakes (as she perceives them) by living vicariously through Abby's success. Abigail had to have perfect grades prior to having a 3.8 and that's still a high GPA, it's just not a perfect one. She had a perfect one and then expressed feeling pressured by Madeline to be perfect all the time. Again, it's possible something is going on with Ed but that did not look like a sexual situation to me and her explanation actually fits when all that happened was her grades slid from perfect to nearly perfect. Something about which to be concerned but not necessarily anything more than what Abigail talked about. We've seen Maddy trying to make Abigail's big life choices for her and wanting to be involved in a way that would help really guide the outcome to her preference. That's not unusual, just combined with everything else about Madeline, I find Abigail's explanation plausible. But I also agree, that was a really weird shot....however, it's in a show where we're supposed to be constantly guessing who got murdered and who that person's killer was...I think that explains the directorial choices too. Almost all cuts are going to be to a "Zounds!! What's going on there??" vibe because that's part of the premise.

Thank you, Winston9-DT3 and Irlandesa, I missed that detail. Frankly, I wasn't expecting to like this series as much as I do and so I wasn't paying enough attention and that got past me. Thank you for the brain assist. That adds a really intriguing aspect to their relationship because there's usually an inherent power imbalance when it comes to age disparities.

I think it is before, but I'm just working strictly from memory. Perhaps we're supposed to view that time as her decision-making time? Or evidence that she is feeling stressed out in that house because of her mom. The other thing that occurs to me is that it is what we have seen Madeline doing, again, almost as a character trait so perhaps Ed was just struck by the similarity? I agree, my inclination is that Ed is just a good guy and a good stepdad. I didn't get a sexual vibe I got a slightly wary vibe from Ed. More of an "What's she doing out there? She looks one crucial inch from dressing all in black, wearing eyeliner up to her eyebrows and self-injury" because she really did have an oddly intense energy to her but that is actually just the way I'd describe the character from the first seconds.

Sorry about that, I was actually just using the quote function. I think I just have some kind of hyper-specific quote box curse. I managed to remove the name at least and nothing in the room with me is on fire, so I'll call that a win. Also, here's part of why I hope Ed isn't lusting after Abigail: that would literally make every guy in this story some form of complete jackass and he'd be the third "well, that's wrong on a pretty much psychotic level" between Perry (the worst), Ziggy's father, whoever he may be is probably the actual worst but of the guys we currently know, Perry is winning that award. Then we have family abandonment specialist Nathan with his inappropriately young wife who is embodying a few cliches of his own. If Ed is molesting Abigail then that would leave only Gordon as anything resembling a not-some-form-of-male-cliche character. They could be going there but that's an awful lot of monstrous men with no one who has decent intent. When Gordon's your only shot at "well, at least they gave dudes a chance in this story" the tale lacks balance. They've been so good about having balance in the other characters, I hope they aren't just bowling with cliches for the men. I do agree that the shot was a little weird as a setup for that exchange but I think it had to do with continuing to treat the view of the ocean as a presence within the narrative. Lots of people staring at the sea. I'm prepared to be wrong but I hope I'm not. Might be because I just like Adam Scott and I immediately hesitate for a moment because I've kind of wondered how he ended up in this show, how he ended up reading for the part and I realize, he played a high school teacher who was sleeping with teenagers on Veronic Mars years ago, so maybe that's how the part crossed his path? I hope not. I think that he's just supposed to have been wondering why she was staring at the sea with a decidedly pensive look on her face but every time the actor playing Abigail has an exchange with anyone it kind of comes off as a bit loaded. I think her character is just there as a catalyst for nearly every character she interacts with is all. She's the truth-teller, the all-seer, the super astute adolescent that people are always startled to realize has very clear and often adult insights into who they all are.

Yet another "I was in the gifted program from first grade on" person here and I'm sorry that was your experience. However, it's going to be like any other segment of the population: some will be spectacular shits and others will be sweet and kind. There will be the same diversity of personality in a gifted program or an athletic one or a musical one, or anywhere there are individuals. In this instance, though, I thought that Renata was perhaps projecting her wishes along with her insecurities. Amabella seems a sweet kid but she's in the regular classes with everyone else, so we've no reason to believe she's even been designated gifted by anyone other than Renata. I like that they balance each other out in that capacity. Renata seems a tiny bit obsessive (understatement) and Gordon seems to recognize the signs. Although, sorry to continue to rave about Laura Dern's performance, but the biggest laugh in this series for me came from her mania-tinged "They have ones that dress up like clowns" ....way to shoot for "gifted and now terrified of clowns" Renata. Go big or go home. In this instance, maybe stay home. Jeez, now I'll have nightmares about therapists dressed as clowns and clowns don't even bug me a little.

I can't tell if Celeste is supposed to be older than Perry in the story but it would be interesting if she was. I'm aware that Kidman is older than Skarsgard but within the story, I don't know if the characters have an age disparity. It would be an interesting note if she is meant to be older because relationships with substantial age gaps always tend to start out with some kind of power imbalance as it is. Has the show said one way or another? I've been finding this all an interesting exploration of domestic violence specifically because it isn't a simply Beauty and the Beast sort of presentation. Celeste is aware that she's engaging in really unhealthy behaviors too. It's a really balanced attempt at showing more to a story we've all seen before.

No, I certainly don't. They can just claim that whoever they are claiming is the Panchen Lama has named _______ as the next in line. They wouldn't risk dealing with someone potentially driven by faith to do as their conscience demands. Poor kid. Hopefully, he went on to an awesome incarnation. I'm hard pressed to think of what that might be, at present, but a really delightful one with...teddy bears and bunnies and...we're not limited to this planet in this stuff, surely? Ah John, thank you for that refreshing spirit cleanser. Sadly, when I rewatched, I had to watch the Evil Keebler Elf do all but yodel, "Cheese it, the cops!" directly into the camera and while funny? Oh man, hopefully my next incarnation is not limited to this planet either.

I have the closed-captioning on for this show because regardless of what I'm doing, it's necessary. They aren't winning any sound-engineering emmys for this one. Holy audio levels, hearing man.

Well, and seriously, I don't want to be all dog with a bone about it either but I thought it was a significant character trait. She clearly does have insecurities. Her daughter's successful birthday party is not universally successful if six people are lured away from it. That's not the mark of a secure person. Then we see her charging through her day, making a really gutsy call given that industry. There are implications from what she was saying. That's why that dialogue was in the final cut. It illustrates something about Renata that is significant. She doesn't hesitate. If you dig a little deeper on it, it is actually an unblinking and really self-assured thing to state unequivocally, no exceptions, that's how it is. It feels like Renata has taken every natural fear and insecurity about her actions and projected it onto everything in her daughter's life. It's the area she gets to be insecure in and second-guess herself and really kind of want to curry favor. But then, as soon as she isn't getting the intended result from the communication, out comes the cut-throat. I am enjoying the hell out of Laura Dern's performance but it's partly because Renata's a character that actually has a lot of nuance. All of these characters have a lot of nuanced characteristics. It's freaking delightful!

I thought so too about Perry's annoyance being justified (not violently justified, but justified nevertheless). Is there more to the story with her not telling him? Is she embarrassed by him? Insecure about this sexy looking wealthy but younger man being around her friends? It seems like there is something more there but not sure what. I thought that was a plot choice, to make it kind of a reasonable thing to object to if one was being in any way reasonable. That it starts with the seed of something normal. The normal kind of stuff that husbands and wives would actually bicker about. Why didn't she tell him? She knew he was rearranging travel plans, did she really think he was doing that with the expectation that he'd be in the drop-off line? In the average, or healthy, marriage, that's a completely reasonable thing to have be a bone of contention: Jeez, you knew I was canceling flights and rearranging my work schedule, the work that makes all this fabulousness possible, could you maybe have mentioned that there was no reason to think it would be worth it? In a healthy relationship: Oh crap, you're kind of right. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about it from your perspective. <-- pretty much the immediate result. In most relationships? An hour worth of, "I'm just saying, you could have mentioned..." "I thought you would have figured it out by the detailed explanation of what we did do that day...that I may have forgotten to give you, shit. Shit. Okay, well, I will kind of cover my ass for a bit here before allowing that, yeah, you have a point but no need to make a thing out of it...we'll both try harder..." to get to a resolution and all manner of shit gets brought up as an incidental. It was really kind of neat writing decision, to make it something that almost anyone could recognize in their own relationship dynamics, even with a coworker, friend, etc. We all fall victim to assuming the other one gets something without our saying anything. Just a breakdown of communication. That's what made it scarier, it wasn't psycho "you didn't face the labels on the canned goods! MURDER IS IN THE AIR!" [/Sleeping with the Enemy] ...it was the stuff of normal relationships, complete with communications breakdowns. It scared me so much more than the usual psycho abusive guy things because I've essentially had that fight, not down to the details but in spirit, with vastly different results. It made Celeste's reality feel like one I was momentarily inhabiting for a moment. So I got scared, right along with her.

Right, but the part you're not factoring in is that news of the merger spreads...and so does interest in your talent. She's in an industry that needs a particular type of talent that is in somewhat limited supply. Competitors in the tech industry will then make job offers to the executives they want in the wake of a merger. You're right, she's offering something standard. The reason it is brave is that mergers at that level (stock, publicly traded company) will be covered in the news...and anyone who wants your assets (again, in the tech industry...which is really competitive) will swoop in with opportunities and offers. Renata made a point of saying that was for everyone. Not negotiable. She's cutting off counter-offers. In the tech industry, in California? I get paler every time I type that. That's not the mark of someone who hesitates or lacks nerve. Gutsy.

No, it actually is gutsy stuff, even if it isn't unusual. The fact that it happens a lot doesn't make it anything less than really gutsy call, in the tech industry where you want to attract talent. That's gutsy. We're in SoCal and on a re-lo part of the deal was a bonus of stock that would vest after one year, that was something negotiated. Now, he's in a different industry but three years is standard there too. If you offer options that can be bested by other companies looking to poach talent in the wake of a merger? Sorry, sticking by gutsy. That is not work for the meek. Edited to add: And smart, by the way. What she's doing will yield the result she was seeking. She will only keep the people who are true believers and really invested in that company's purpose because the other executives who are worth a damn? Will get poached and offered, among other things, better vesting options. She's in the tech industry, isn't she? Man, that is seriously brave.

I tend to agree. I think that the reason this story has been praised for the way it approaches the complexity of domestic violence is that it isn't as simple as "monsters do and say this, follow that pattern, push this button....and they do it all knowingly!" I think Perry is actually afraid that Celeste will leave him because she has so many options in life. She mentions leaving her family and friends to move there to be with him (giant red flag), Madeline says Celeste used to be a high-powered lawyer. So I think it's a multilayered thing: Perry is absolutely making that therapy about his fears and he definitely wants reassurance that Celeste won't leave him. But he is the one that brought it up. Even though he's sick and an abuser, that doesn't preclude his wanting to be better. Everyone probably does leave that guy, he fucking chokes and hits people he loves. He probably has a long line of women who beat it the fuck away from him. Celeste is co-combative. She said it herself, she fights back. There's a part of her that associates that violence with passion with evidence that he really loves her. It's a really well told tale because they are both very unhealthy people, it's just that his form of being wildly unhealthy will land her in the hospital if she's lucky and in the morgue if she isn't. In all of this though, that doesn't eliminate the possibility that Perry would like to be a better man but they feed off each other with this stuff. Also, my god, Nicole Kidman looks great. She really just looks so delicately beautiful in this. I've never really thought that she was beautiful before, certainly, very pretty but I would have stopped short of calling her beautiful. Here she really is, at least in my eyes. Also, more evidence that Renata views most of her interactions, whether she chooses to or not, as business dealings that must be aggressively negotiated. Laura Dern is fantastic in all of this and clearly, she is projecting her own insecurities onto Amabella. However, it's not as if Madeline is wrong about her either...it's the trappings of success Renata seems to crave. She wanted everyone to WANT to come to that party and was willing to invited Ziggy to save face. Poor Amabelle. I do have to give it up for Dern though, she interacted so easily and well with the little girl playing Amabella that for a second, I completely lost track of the fact that she wasn't interacting with her own child. That's a serious acting achievement, when the emotions seem so grounded and real, a viewer can just forget "Oh wait, those are actors, she's not really that little girl's mom..." because Dern just looked at her with that mix of adulation and fear that you're somehow failing your kid. I love that -- again, Perry notwithstanding -- I get to like and dislike characters throughout this. That no one is so completely defined by their presumed role in this that I am set against them. When Renata was charging around, talking about how the stock would vest after three years, that she only wanted the committed people to benefit. That's really gutsy stuff. Then when she stopped at the top of the stairs to admire everything. It was such a human thing and I weirdly like her relationship with her husband. I like Madeline too, though. I like that once she decides she cares about someone, that's it. She's riding to the family tree rescue for Jane and being an awesome friend to this person who is clearly complicated. I liked that she heard Abigail and was an awesome mom about it, rather than be a guilt-wielding Mommazon. She's a force of nature and the character she seems to have the most in common with is actually Renata in terms of personality types. When Abigail said that Madeline was trying to live out all the things she never got to do through Abigail, I wondered if that's why Renata bothers her. Madeline could have possibly have been a Renata if life had served up slightly different options. Man, I'm starting to worry that Ziggy is going to shoot someone while sleepwalking. That's a terrible place to keep a gun on so many levels. We're sure just one person dies, right? Because between that gun, Nathan wandering around being a complete twerp -- yes, Ed was looking at him with thinly veiled hostility, it's because he doesn't trust you, Nathan, and rightly so -- but by the same token, Ed was the person who observed that Madeline was drawn to damaged (was it damaged?) people. That would presumably entail him, also? I swear I thought Nathan was going to tell Madeline some version of "this isn't a good time for us, I'm sure you understand, you'll explain it to Abigail, won't you?" and instead, he wanted Abigail to come and live with them. So even freaking Nathan seems to have humanizing qualities. I still have pretty much no idea who dies but I got really nervous when at least one of the Greek chorus referred to Madeline in the past tense. But then I also think that no one would risk being all, "Yeah, she sucked..." about a recent murder victim unless they were awfully sure that they had an alibi with a note from God attached to it. But waiting to find out why Jane really moved to that area is killing me. She moved to a place that would constantly remind her of her terrible morning-after-being-raped daily and there has to be a reason why. There has to be a reason why she has yet to bring up leaving town, I'm assuming?

Yeah, they're sort of in a dead heat for the cruelest mother of the pack, that's for sure. You never do that, invite an entire class except for one child because it would crush that child in almost all circumstances. On the other hand, Amabella (good grief, that name), is also a feeling being who doesn't deserve to be crushed because her mother's success apparently came at the cost of confusing all interactions as having a cutthroat business edge to them. Renata doesn't appear to have conversations, she has discourse as a means to delivering a stabbing wound, as near as I can tell. But I agree with you, for all that, I can still feel for the characters. For me, the fact that neither is any champion of all that is right and good for the sake of it, they are both working a power agenda with some worthy side causes attached, is the part of the show I'm really finding fascinating.

I'm pretty torn on this one. Who the heck leaves their wife and infant daughter and proceeds to loiter in the area for a decade and a half? Commit, you feckless man, commit. So there's that issue, of course, Madeline is going to be twitchy about having to watch him live out the part of a family man when he bailed on her. Having a front row seat to the "stuff I promised to do with you but am instead doing with a lithe, younger woman...and seemingly going out of my way to bump into you..." show can't be comfortable. On the other hand, both Nathan and Bonnie appear to be trying to build a family relationship with all the girls, going so far as to erroneously refer to Madeline's youngest daughter as their daughter's half sister. In terms of Abigail and birth control: I think it's her right to decide and that pretty much everyone concerned had a completely understandable reaction. I didn't think Bonnie was so solidly in the wrong but I did think that Madeline illustrated why Abigail wasn't beating down her door to talk to her about taking that step. Talking about how she had never heard a woman say she wished she had sex earlier, while probably an entirely true statement, is a passive-aggressive way of replying "don't have sex" to the issue of "talk to me about having sex, first". Madeline made it clear how that talk would shake out. Again, that's not an issue of right or wrong, it's just a well-layered scenario when I can see everyone's point of view and everyone seems to have behaved reasonably, even in being ticked off. Also, I did think that Nathan was giving off not-very-subtle bully-bro vibes when he was talking to Ed. Starting by mocking Ed's little safety mirror in a way that made him sound like he was complimenting it, when really he was practically calling Ed a pencil-necked geek with almost everything he said. It wasn't the sentence right before the "it sounds like you're threatening me" that made for that entire vibe, it was everything. Including summoning Ed to some kind of "chat about my ex-wife...oh yeah, your current wife and I want your help in manipulating her" confab. When Abigail backed away from seeing her mom and Ed having a moment, I thought it was actually her way of encouraging them to get along well. If Ed was having sex with Abigail, it makes more sense that she'd barge right on in, cock-blocking with abandon, not withdrawing from the scene, at a guess. That's certainly something that is recommending this series, everyone is both good and awful, sort of like people in real life can tend to be. Except Perry who is just kind of wearing on me but I've gotten used to reacting to Alexander Skarsgard that way. He always chooses roles that pretty far into the fields of jackass lore. They do seem to be making it clear that Ziggy is a product of rape and that Jane worries that he is manifesting some kind of genetic violence against women. I'm sorry I didn't pull all of the quotes for things I wanted to reply to but in regard to Amabella asking about "does he want to be hugged?" that felt like a way of setting the stage for "and now poor Ziggy will be on the hook for a sexual assault 'tried to kiss her' because it's clear that Amabella has been schooled on consent (good) but may not really understand the intricacies of it (wondering if the inanimate object has given consent) and thereby setting the stage for how a conciliatory gesture could just get all of the kids in more trouble.. Laura Dern continues to impress the hell out of me here because whereas I don't feel like we know Renata well at all, it feels like Dern has created an entire personal universe for her. When she screamed "Thannnkkkk yooooooouuuuuuuu!" at the secondary character who seemingly exists to stick her oar in and make things worse, it was awesomely unhinged. That she is actually a very active participant in this war with Madeline makes it more fun. Threatening Madeline at the cocktail firepit and performing that passive-aggressive "Oh, hi!! Just saw you here, I'll now act like I'm delighted and pretend I think you'll be delighted to see me....and then I'll hiss like a cobra, it will be fun" dance was damned impressive. I love that Dern has made it clear that Renata views friendship and social acceptance, as well as peer approval of her mothering techniques to be just another acquisition. It's all about power plays and appearances, padding out the successful woman's resume. Madeline's in-your-face confrontation style is one that I personally favor and like. Renata's more calculated maneuvering that includes outright threats (she threatened Ziggy also) is just a hair's breadth from fully unhinged. Really good performance, I think.

I really enjoyed this and was so intrigued by the performances. I think that makes sense, though. I think there needs to be a point of empathy, a defining aspect to a character's struggle that an audience finds compelling in a way that feels like an invitation. Our compassion tends to be stirred first by elements of pain we can recognize, that commonality, that thing that unites people from different backgrounds and allows people emotional access to characters or situations. Since most of us can relate to fear for our children, or being held back by our circumstances at some level, something like Moonlight contains that emotionally uniting experience. The struggle to find joy and safety in an often hostile world. We can relate to the barriers people face but it's more difficult to relate to people who have what appear from the outside, to be self-created barriers to happiness. So stories about people who have so few reasons to feel preyed on, or pursued by, the difficulties of survival that define existence for a lot of people, can be a tough sell. I'm assuming that's the point of Shailene Woodley's character, she represents the real-world access to the rarefied world of privilege. Luckily, the actors in this are all of a high enough caliber to render their struggles interesting, even if watching this has that giant stumbling block: Gee, your life looks like Disneyland compared to the reality of the vast crushing majority of the world. All of the actors here have that ability, I think, to provide an emotional bridge to their reality, even if the details of their lives are primarily foreign. It seems like the series really understands that struggle. There's a really quiet moment that I thought was perfectly played for gentle comedy and a completely relatable moment for most people in long-term relationships: When Renata's husband walks out onto a deck that wouldn't look out-of-place at a luxury resort and she's there, having a brood and drinking wine. He asks her if she's okay and the way she waves him off, there's a moment where he recognizes the "Oh shit, I know where this is heading..." of it all and tries to flee before she launches into the least compelling emotional struggle of all time but Dern just commits to it fully. The struggle of wanting your friends to approve of your success and then finding it distancing when you become too successful. I thought that moment combined with her, "I joined the board of Paypal...like I need another commitment?" statement that anyone with ears would find off-putting. So she advertises this very rarefied accomplishment in a way that tries to dismiss the success and at first it just looks like a humble-brag-fail. Then the later scene allows access to why she would do that. That she has a deep insecurity about being accepted and liked, plus, it's so familiar to her husband he tried to get the fuck out of Dodge the second he heard the verbal cues of where it was headed. I thought Dern did the best work with relatively tiny amounts but everyone seemed to be trying to add that access to pain. People only ever live their own realities, so whereas they are apparently never questioning if they will still be safe a year from then, their difficulties define their existence as much, as if not more, than their blessings which is actually kind of a universal experience. I did have to laugh at Alexander Skarsgard playing a jerk. I get it, I do, the actor has no interest in being viewed solely as beefcake and who can blame him? He's so good-looking that about the only way to have his looks not define his character is by playing a series of monsters. It did make me laugh that in a show that really relies on people swiftly moving past the "Okay, so they have lives of great financial security but I'm open to exploring their emotional pain....even if a big part of me thinks they should just get a really good therapist because they can sure as shit afford it..." there's Skarsgard with his career long struggle against being viewed solely as pretty.

There really are a lot of potentially interesting stories having to do with economics. I really hope that John tackles some things that are peripheral to 45. By the way, one other thing that I was sort of fixated on and cracked me up: Guys, Putin has terrible exercise form. My husband compared it to a 1980s gym rat, when no one knew what the hell they were doing. Between the track suit and the freaking Nautilus machines (it's the way back machine for exercise!) and his truly horrific form I kept expecting some bomchickawowwo time of music to start playing. It had that cheesy, fictional setup look to it which I'm sure is partly because it was a cheesy fictional setup. Maybe we will all be delivered from that crazy man when he herniates three disks at once and spends the rest of his days in PT. I can dream.

I wouldn't normally say this but maybe send that in as a suggestion to the show? I was talking about this elsewhere but I repeatedly drove through Kansas for a four-year period, stopping overnight along the way in one of two or three historic towns (Hays, Abilene, Salina ...or once, horribly, Topeka) ...and I swear to god, I could see the state economy collapsing dramatically in the course of those four years. It broke my heart. That would be a really interesting piece, I think. By the way, that song is still popping into my head and I wanted to mention: Way to make the absolute most of your opportunity there, Middle Dancer who everyone would focus upon. That woman was all in. It was entirely wonderful. It's potentially international exposure, so good for her. She even gave the hair flip her all. It was endearing.

Yeah, I sort of didn't even get it as a "Whooooooaaaaa, they're sending a message there!" Don't get me wrong, it's gross and disturbing, I just don't understand it as a tool of political pressure brought to bear. "Well, my mind was made up...but I have a horror of all things scatological, therefore..." It's weirdly juvenile for a guy who has also had someone poisoned...repeatedly.

I think we might be making separate points, Danny Franks, the piece was about the proliferation of negative depictions of Russians in films and TV, so it was acknowledging them and I was saying that whereas there are good people everywhere, I'm beginning to understand that they may also always have been based on people in real-life . Putin acts like the cliche of a villainous Russian. Other than drinking. Personally, that makes him seem scarier. Also, it's horrifying but I still have the tune to "A Man Like Putin" stuck in my brain specifically because of that lyric. It's just the implication would be the "doesn't drink!" makes him practically a unicorn among Russian men, if the song is to be believed. Or maybe that's just called out because it's just considered that virtuous. Between that and the Russian newscaster best described with a rare and yet still appropriate use of the word lugubrious, I'm about ready to go sing some unnervingly patriotic song like America the Beautiful because I'm just that glad that my TV lineup doesn't feature that festive evening. I was just sure Justin Trudeau's defeat of the 45shake would make it on this week's show. Not that I blame him for leaving that off. It wasn't exactly a slow news week [/dry font]

Well, that was diverting and visually appealing, even if the plot was a bit Lifetime-By-the-Numbers. I liked the cast a lot and the clothes were fun. Gorgeously shot with a lot of gorgeous people to boot. Some things that weren't quite as gorgeous: Okay, I get why they didn't want to script everything in French and subtitle it but it got confusing as hell. Between Sabine's American wife and the photographer, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to believe that everyone was speaking French and we all just had bable fish thing going on or if we were meant to believe that everyone was speaking French. Difficult to believe the photographer or his "I'm from central casting, or at least my performance suggests so!" journalist were running around speaking French. I was glad to have these distractions to keep me from thinking about how multiple people basically perched near -- or atop -- a murdered gay sailor without smelling the damned corpse. I can barely go out for sushi without coming home smelling of tempura everything, so that little girl with the morbid imagination must have come home every night smelling like my lab-cross dog does every time she finds something insanely stinky and rolls around in it for kicks. We can barely get her to the washing station without hurling, so big-dead-murdered-contrivance just hanging out near anyone's nose was distracting to me. Also, I'm a fairly peaceable person, but I'm fairly certain I could think up a better body disposal area than directly in front of a the doorstep to any home. Seriously, all of France around you and Stabbers McDrives and Sulks stuck the dead guy under a pile of rocks, no dirt and within sight of a domicile. No way for anyone to have called that going wrong, I guess (good grief). I also don't really understand the whole plot with the drawings being of such great value because they all look the same to me but I admit to have zero understanding of how they might represent more than "Oh, yes, another terribly vague design in which it appears that...Eureka! A woman wearing a dress of ....some ...description!" But it was super low-stakes entertainment and fun in its way. I'm now also tremendously grateful for the modern day brassiere.

Two things: I weirdly appreciated that John acknowledged that whatever form of dance Putin's daughter was doing there, it was sort of cool and despite how retro that looked since Putin's daughters are both in their very early thirties, that footage did not actually come to us via a time link to 1984. Also, this morning the Russian Ambassador to the UN collapsed and died, stated cause was a cardiac event. After John's show, I felt like suggesting that investigators check the hood of his car. Godspeed to John Oliver on trying to navigate the ultimate weirdness of commenting on Trump's words about Putin and just kind of leaving the whole "why's he doing this...well, er, um... who can say ..." out there because truly, motivations and ties aside, no matter the reason it is freaky for any leader to be openly admiring a guy who is globally acknowledged to be the sort of guy who murders his enemies in sometimes weird and inventive ways. Awesome, kudos to the Bond Villain? A few months back I remember listening to a report on NPR about media representations and how in TVs and films Russians aren't depicted as anything other than criminal and how unfair that is. I agree it is unfair because there are decent people everywhere, I'm just a little less confused now as to where all those negative impressions start. Damn. Also, I'm now really worried about the hood of John's car.

I have to admit, this is the only thing that's made me consider the two ways out of that: Sling TV or just caving and getting cable back. I'll be over here brooding over my choice but it's looking like Sling might be the answer, even though we do have service interruptions with streaming and net neutrality has a bit of a cold (understatement) at present. I'll be over here drumming my fingers and trying to decide. I think Sling will win for the moment because it's the path of least resistance (no having to juggle my dogs and the installers, who all act as if they faced Cujo at their last house so my incredibly gentle, docile dogs are a big threat to them...truthfully, only one acted that way since my dogs are seriously well-behaved...but I don't actually want a tech here for hours) . Well played, Comedy Central, nothing else has made me blink on the Sling issue.