mstaken

Woo hoo---so glad someone else is voting! Factoring in noieblue's votes and casting my own: CW -- TDDR -- KaT -- (GONE!) 21 - The Third Lorelai 19 - Double Date 19 - Concert Interruptus 19 - Rory's Birthday Parties 17 - Emily in Wonderland 17 - Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers 15 - Forgiveness and Stuff 15 - Pilot 15 - Lorelais' First Day at Chilton 15 - Love and War and Snow 15 - The Breakup Part 2 13 - Kill Me Now 13 - That Damn Donna Reed 11 - Cinnamon's Wake 09 - The Deer Hunters 03 - Christopher Returns Eliminated! Love, Daisies and Troubadours P.S. I Lo... Paris is Burning Kiss and Tell

Right there with you, theredhead77. (Since we'll be spending a lot of time together here, may we call you 'red' for short?!) The original movie feels like a fifth rate Indiana Jones to me, and, like you, I couldn't connect with the characters. I like all of these a lot. Nox is the one with Daniel and Sam finding themselves in some sort of barn, right?! I've only seen the series once and am in desperate need of a refresher.

Adding in Taryn's votes and casting my own! TDDR -- Cinnamon's Wake -- The Third Lorelai ++ 21 - The Third Lorelai 19 - Double Date 19 - Concert Interruptus 19 - Rory's Birthday Parties 17 - Emily in Wonderland 15 - Forgiveness and Stuff 15 - Kill Me Now 15 - Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers 15 - Pilot 15 - Lorelais' First Day at Chilton 15 - Love and War and Snow 15 - The Breakup Part 2 13 - That Damn Donna Reed 13 - Cinnamon's Wake 09 - The Deer Hunters 03 - Christopher Returns 01 - Kiss and Tell Eliminated! Love, Daisies and Troubadours P.S. I Lo... Paris is Burning

Agreed, normasmom! One of my main regrets about Elle departing so early in the series is not getting to see how her relationship with Reid might have developed. And, like you, I definitely don't necessarily mean that in a romantic way. (Though if you told me that Reid was going to have a relationship with one of the female team members, I always saw more connection and I-get-you chemistry with Elle than I did with JJ, who IMO has always treated him with dismissive, snotty condescension more often than not, and even more than I did with Emily.) Elle, while often somewhat rude and cold with others, had this way of joking with Reid in a way that felt totally relaxed and affectionate to me rather than patronizing (ahem, Morgan) or snotty and too-cool-for-the-room (JJ, I'm looking at you). When Elle and Reid bantered, it felt more like Reid was in on the joke. And while not exactly the most sensitive of the team members overall, Elle always seemed really attuned to Reid's feelings about things. They seemed to just truly, instinctively 'get' each other, as trite as that sounds, and I don't always feel that way about many of the team members. As many of us have said, on paper they look like two of the team members who would have bonded the least, but in reality it was one of the series' most natural, believable and likable connections for me.

It says that you're awesome!!! Hell House ++ Home -- Devil's Trap -- 29- Pilot 29 - Scarecrow 25 - The Benders 25 - Skin 23 - Devil's Trap 21 - Faith 21 - Dead in the Water 21 - Something Wicked 17 - Hell House 17 - Phantom Traveler 17 - Bloody Mary 15 - Shadow 15 - Asylum 13 - Route 666 15 - Nightmare 15 - Salvation 11 - Wendigo 07 - Home GANKED: Bugs Provenance Dead Man's Blood Hook Man

I generally disagree with the popular idea that procedurals are automatically inferior to "character-based" dramas. I've always found the best procedurals to be incredibly compelling and even thought-provoking, offering subtle but surprisingly effective characterization, interesting commentary on ethical and sociopolitical issues, and often calling for far smoother pacing and tighter, more intricate plotting than many meandering prestige dramas. I think Modern Family is one of the most overrated sitcoms of all time. I just started watching Once Upon a Time, but I already adore Emma beyond the telling of it. I'm told that's quite unpopular :) (Interestingly enough, I disliked Jennifer Morrison in what little I saw of House, so my expectations of her were comfortably low.) Cosigned!

Oh, god, I hate Parenthood and want back the hours of my life that I wasted on it! It's funny, because in theory this family-centric dramedy would be dream TV for me, but in execution I find it a mawkish, heavyhanded, thoroughly unpleasant mess, with neither the comedic nor dramatic elements executed well and characters who are unlikable in thoroughly uninteresting ways.

As a general rule, I hate the relatively recent wave of determinedly grim, depressing, Emmy-seeking dramas which seem contractually obligated to show us relentlessly terrible people doing relentlessly terrible things and reminding us over and over again that everyone and everything absolutely sucks. I don't need (or want!) cheerily flawless characters or a show that takes an artificially idyllic view of the world, but I don't watch TV to feel wrist-slittingly depressed and dislike the idea that shows with joy and basic likability aren't genuinely 'quality' TV. This one is admittedly weird and stems from having spent most of my life in NYC, but I tend not to like a lot of shows that are set in New York...maybe because I watch TV in part to 'visit' other places? And I especially hate the cooler-than-thou NYC-based shows in which everyone is a fashion-fixated party girl (Sex and the City, I'm looking at you!) or snotty hipsters (as someone else mentioned, How I Met Your Mother.) I also tend not to like shows that are all about the 'ships. Romance is a part of life (granted, not MINE, but many people's!), and it's not like the presence of relationships or even necessarily an obvious 'will they/won't they/get on with it already' couple will turn me off to a show. In the hands of the right writers, that stuff can be poignant, relatable, amusing, etc.. But shows (and accompanying discussion among fandoms!) which seem to revolve ONLY around the romantic relationships, existent and otherwise, neglecting familial relationships, friendships, other themes, storylines, hopes, goals, fears, etc. tend to get really tiresome for me.

Home -- Dead Man's Blood -- Hell House ++ 29- Pilot 29 - Scarecrow 25 - Devil's Trap 23 - The Benders 23 - Skin 21 - Faith 21 - Dead in the Water 21 - Something Wicked 19 - Hell House 17 - Phantom Traveler 17 - Bloody Mary 17 - Shadow 15 - Asylum 15 - Route 666 15 - Nightmare 15 - Salvation 11 - Wendigo 07 - Home 01 - Hook Man GANKED: Bugs Provenance Dead Man's Blood

Ah, this one I know...I think :) Arabic, Russian and Italian! If so: Name four episodes where the BAU has had to travel outside the U.S.

Heh---I don't love the townies as much as you do, but I totally share your love for this episode! Sweet, warm, charming, and with a very 'Classic GG' sort of feel for me.

Same here! I love Our Mrs. Reynolds beyond the telling of it. I can't argue that it's objectively the 'best' episode (like many of you, I'd go with Out of Gas or maybe even War Stories for that honor), but I find this one endlessly rewatchable. Then again, I feel the same about Trash...I seem to have a troubling fondness for Saffron :) I just find this episode so smoothly paced (not a given for this show!), a perfect balance of humor, action, twisty plotting, sneakily interesting ideas and stabs of poignancy, and just one of those episodes that makes me excessively fond of all our characters. This may actually be the episode of the series during which I most like Inara, who I find sharp, more down-to-earth, funny and even genuinely flustered and vulnerable here...apparently, I find her most endearing and relatable after she's been knocked out for awhile ;) I love being reminded of how Wash is so devoted to Zoe and Saffron's amusingly snarky eye rolling as he waxes poetic about her. Oh, and Jayne in a bonnet! Mal: "You've got all kinds o' learnin' and you made me look the fool without even trying, yet here I am, with a gun to your head. That's 'cause I got people with me. People who trust each other, who do for each other, and ain't always lookin' for the advantage." Me: "Awww...." Saffron: "Promise me you're gonna kill me soon."

Woo hoo---way to kick us off, Taryn! Is this the part where I have to attempt to answer my own question?! You'll be pleased to see that we agree quite a lot here :) Let's see... S1 Two to Keep: Double Date and The Third Lorelai (Though it kind of hurts not to include Rory's Birthday Parties!) Two to Discard: P.S. I Lo...and Love, daisies and Troubadours S2 Two to keep: Can I pick 19 instead of two?! No? Okay, then Like Mother, Like Daughter and Lorelai's Graduation Day, but this one is especially brutal for a S2 lover like I am! Two to Discard: Sadie, Sadie (I'm SO with you there, Taryn!) and...hmm...I'm tempted to pick The Ins and Out of Inns since I dislike Mia and the Sookie/Lorelai fight or It Should Have Been Lorelai, but I'll go with Nick and Nora. As much as I enjoy Jess overall, he's a little too over-the-top awful for me here, and I hate the Luke/Lorelai fight here beyond the telling of it. S3 Two to Keep: TSG, DT? and TAS,P (Argh---it hurts to eliminate Lazy Hazy Crazy and Let the Games Begin!) Two to Discard: Keg!Max! (easiest selection ever for someone who likes neither the keg party nor Max!) and...hmmm....I'm torn between Application Anxiety and Take the Deviled Eggs, but I'll go with the latter. For now. Maybe. S4 Two to Keep: The Lorelais' First Day at Yale (there are aspects of this episode that really annoy me, but I'm weirdly attached to it anyway!) and The Fundamental Things Apply Two to Discard: I love that someone else is as meh on the Booms as I am, Taryn! I'll eliminate them as well, though Girls in Bikinis is a REALLY close dishonorable mention :) S5: Two to Keep: But Not as Cute as Pushkin and Women of Questionable Morals (glad you like this one as well, Taryn!) Two to Discard: There are about 10 S5 episodes I'd happily bid farewell to at this point, but I'll single out But I'm a Gilmore and Kropogs as particularly loathsome. Heh---yup, pretty much! S6 Two to Keep: I Get a Sidekick Out of You and...er...We've Got Magic to Do, if only because of Paris Two to Discard:The entire rest of the season, please, but I'll single out AVV and He's Slippin' 'Em Bread S7: Two to Keep: That's What You Get Folks and Farewell My Pet (though it feels somehow wrong not to include BV, and I do love Santa's Secret Stuff...) Two to Discard: I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia and Go Bulldogs

Heh---your list of S1 favorites is remarkably similar to mine, though I love Broken Mirror even more than Plain Sight and am annoyingly obsessed with Compulsion :) This is one of my all-time favorite scenes of the series! Honestly, you did such a fantastic job of identifying so many of my favorite S1 that I have sadly few to add! I love Jason hanging up repeatedly on the increasingly angry Unsub in Broken Mirror; it's such a tense, well-executed and fascinating scene. I love Hotch suggesting that Reid be the one to speak to the college kids in Compulsion since he's closer to their age and the amusingly awkward results. I love Jason knowing that Hotch had to report back on his stability and conveying it's okay. I love pretty much anytime we get to see Gideon and Reid playing chess, which I think is at least 2-3 times this season...?! I like the sparring and grudging respect we get between Hotch and Blackwolf in the Tribe. I like when Jason overhears Morgan (who I actually really don't like in Extreme Aggressor) referring to Jason as being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Reid rather irrelevantly pointing out that they're no longer called nervous breakdowns. I love Reid initially denying he's a genius and then revealing by his IQ, eidetic memory and the fact that he can read 20,000 words a minute that, yeah, he's totally a genius. I love Elle trying so hard to figure out why the footpath killer stuttered. I love Reid bonding with Cory in Popular Kids about the book he was reading despite Cory turning out to be, like, a homicidal maniac ;) I love the scene where Morgan initially denies claiming Reid knows everything, only to have Hotch and Elle confirm that he's forever claiming Reid knows everything. I love Hotch knowing exactly why Gideon introduces Reid as "doctor." I love the team eating Chinese food in New York during A Real Rain and Reid totally being as incompetent with chopsticks as I am :)

So unlike most of you Once Upon a Time experts, I just discovered this show and have seen a grand total of just three episodes so far. So I really shouldn't make any judgments about Emma either way yet, but of course I totally will anyway :) I can't even explain exactly why, but I absolutely *adore* her. I find her incredibly natural, relatable, and a wonderfully well-defined mixture of strengths and flaws. And I was actually predisposed towards meh-ness on her, because I didn't especially like what I saw of Jennifer Morrison in House. (To be fair, though, I just didn't like House in general.) There are many reasons I fell so instantly in love with this show, and Emma is surprisingly high up on that list. There aren't actually that many current TV female characters who I just instinctively look, root for and click with, but Emma Swan is one of them.

How about just ONE (or, okay, two) favorite and least favorite episode from every season? Or is that too mighty a challenge?!

Updating the list and casting my own votes: CW -- F&S -- KaT -- 19 - The Third Lorelai 19 - Double Date 19 - Concert Interruptus 19 - Rory's Birthday Parties 15 - Forgiveness and Stuff 15 - Kill Me Now 15 - Cinnamon's Wake 15 - Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers 15 - Pilot 15 - That Damn Donna Reed 15 - Lorelais' First Day at Chilton 15 - Love and War and Snow 15 - The Breakup Part 2 15 - Emily in Wonderland 09 - The Deer Hunters 03 - Kiss and Tell 03 - Christopher Returns Eliminated! Love, Daisies and Troubadours P.S. I Lo... Paris is Burning

Home -- Scarecrow ++ Dead Man's Blood -- 29- Pilot 29 - Scarecrow 23 - Devil's Trap 23 - The Benders 23 - Skin 21 - Faith 21 - Dead in the Water 19 - Hell House 19 - Something Wicked 17 - Phantom Traveler 17 - Bloody Mary 17 - Shadow 15 - Asylum 15 - Route 666 15 - Nightmare 15 - Salvation 11 - Wendigo 09 - Home 03 - Hook Man 01 - Dead Man's Blood GANKED: Bugs Provenance

..Does anyone want to throw out some of their favorite seasons from each season, starting with S1? It doesn't have to be a systematic episode-by-episode thing; just throw out whichever scenes leap to mind as being among your favorites! I just rewatched Extreme Aggressor and am feeling sentimental tonight :)

Amen, sister friend. And one of a few reasons I hold the very unpopular opinion of not particularly liking those last episodes of S4 is that I loathe the way Jason was made a pitiful stalker to pave the way for Luke/Lorelai. Ha! Okay, this settles it---you're my separated-at-birth TV twin. I've gone on Luke-esqe rants about how strangely devoid of non-Lorelai interests, ideas, passions etc. Luke was. I think it was particularly glaring on a show where the other characters are brimming over with interests and passions and a general zest for life: Sookie had her cooking, Lane had music, Lorelai had movies, TV, music, pop culture and making clothes (and I'm convinced she would have spent a lot of time on websites like this one, haha), Rory had reading, journalism, political issues, music, general learning etc...even Jackson cared a great deal about his produce, and the almost-as-negative-as-Luke Gypsy seemed to genuinely love being a mechanic! Luke cooked and owned his own business and fixed/built things and very occasionally watched baseball or went fishing, but he didn't seem to actually *like* these things. Maybe since he hated them a little less than he seemed to hate pretty much everyone and everything else, that's supposed to be construed as enthusiasm. And as off-putting as I find his anger issues, as a fictional character being that dull is an even more egregious sin for me. I could never imagine what he and Lorelai would actually *do* in their free time. They seemed to have literally zero interests in common. We've Got Magic to Do actually drove that home quite effectively---it seemed either they'd have to engage in totally separate activities, or that one would have to constantly do something he/she didn't like doing, no doubt complaining all the while. ;) And it's not like they exactly seemed so swept up by passion that it could mask their glaring lack of compatibility, either, because those two looked pained when they had to exchange even a quick peck on the cheek, Yes, yes, yes...and yes, especially re. April, which he's always somehow absolved for because he was 'stressed.' And don't forget him storming out of Emily and Richard's vow renewal, leaving Lorelai stranded without a ride or even cab fare (what a gentleman!) and then proceeding to ignore and freeze her out (a pattern with him) before even allowing her to explain her side of the story so that he could fairly think things over. He was like a judge retiring to render a verdict before bothering to hear any evidence. And this was over something that was very CLEARLY more Christopher and Emily's fault than Lorelai's anyway! Or how about that totally vicious, uncalled for insult in Nick and Nora about how he wouldn't trust the judgment of someone who got pregnant so early in life? (Although I think he put it more meanly than that!) Or how he ignored her profuse apologies and desperate attempts to make amends for literally *months* following the time she lost it on him while frightened after Rory's car crash, but he expected her to always forgive him immediately and without question despite never, ever even bothering to apologize?! Or... *takes that deep, cleansing breath right along with you* By the way, it's funny that you brought up him showing up at Christopher's to sucker punch him in the face, because while the general reaction to that seemed to be a combination of amusement and a sense of vindication since Christopher supposedly "deserved" it (like anyone deserves to be physically harmed), I thought that was cringe-inducingly awful and made Luke look far worse than Christopher for being such a dopey, temperamental, boorish brute. I'm certainly not trying to claim Lorelai was blameless in their conflicts, by the way, and lord knows I don't think being in a relationship with her would be a proverbial walk in the park. But I'm always kind of surprised all over again by the very popular opinion that Luke was a "great" boyfriend and some sort of male ideal. He was a generous guy and didn't have a bad heart underneath, but I can honestly claim that of the popular 'leading men' I've seen on TV, Luke is easily among the ones I'd least want to date. Or want my friends to date. Heh---those are the exact adjectives I use to describe Dean but, yeah, I often think they apply with even more depressing accuracy to Luke. And I totally, completely agree about how much I hated that much-loved kiss in R&R. In addition to your astute observation above, it's such a tiresome 'rom com' trope to fight and bicker over some grand misunderstanding right up until the moment they finally kiss. (As a general rule, AS-P seemed to hold the rather disturbing viewpoint that anger and jealousy are supremely sexy and romantic!) Anyway, I'll shut myself up about him now, but thank you so much for letting me know I'm not alone!

I'm always torn on ratings issues. On one hand, I obviously want the show to do well enough to continue on (...and on...and on!), but that's more about my hope that the show will return to some of what I once loved about S1-S4 than because I particularly like what the show has actually been giving us in recent seasons. And getting consistently high ratings seems to indicate to The Powers That Be that they're totally on the right track, so why would they ever have any motivation to reassess the current tone of the show and do things differently? And while I'm not usually someone who allows my dislike of one character to ruin an overall show for me, I'm honestly not sure how much longer I want to keep watching if we get such a heavy emphasis on JJ. She's IMO a boring, flat, unlikable character played by a poor actress, and I can honestly say that the more we see of her, the less I like her, which I'm guessing is not what the writers are going for.

CleoCaesar, I feel like you must be my long lost TV soulmate :) 'Sparkle' is the perfect word for it. Lorelai just always seemed so genuinely happy and animated and life-loving around Christopher, who instinctively got her and wasn't forever squashing her enthusiasm and taking the darkest possible view of every little aspect of life. My mom saw the series for the first time last year, and kept remarking how Lorelai/LG seemed to "light up" around Christopher and how naturally they seemed to click. She thought Lorelai just seemed so much more genuinely happy around Christopher than she ever did with Luke and, no, I swear that I hadn't biased her beforehand! While some perceive Lorelai and Chris's connection as a purely superficial one, I just saw so much instinctive understanding, commonality and connection between them. I actually think the casting directors did too good a job, as odd as that sounds; while they knew all along that Christopher/Lorelai weren't 'end game', they cast Christopher with an actor who IMO had about a zillion times more chemistry with LG than Scott Patterson did. You know, I always wonder how most of us would feel if genders were reversed here: If Lorelai were the cranky, temperamental, joy-stomping misanthrope while Luke were the vivacious, enthusiastic rambler, would so many people be as eager to see them paired together? I feel like a lot of us are kind of conditioned to find moody, temperamental, angry, monosyllabic guys 'sexy' and desirable while those same traits are frowned upon in females. Personally, I'm not wild about them in either sex, and while I get that Luke's temper was often exaGGerated for "comedic" effect, I found it really off-putting. He'd have bored, exhausted and depressed the hell out of me. (And, granted, Lorelai would grate on me!) Similarly, I think a lot of us fiction addicts are taught that opposites who can't seem to stop clashing and bickering for ten minutes at a time are 'soulmates', but for me these two were just so depressingly incompatible. And this is an even more controversial one: I think the degree to which Christopher was truly a 'deadbeat dad' is often exaggerated. I've known deadbeat dads. Christopher, while obviously immature and not as involved as he should have been, tried to marry Lorelai both while she was pregnant and again in S1, planning to live with her and Rory if Lorelai had agreed to it. (And I understand why Lorelai didn't want that, but that's another story!) The show was also wildly inconsistent, telling us one episode that Christopher called faithfully every week at the same day and time and then sloppily intimating a few episodes later that they hadn't heard from him in 'months.' Similarly, the show was awfully ambiguous (and occasionally outright contradictory) as to what extent Lorelai, protective and admittedly even possessive of Lorelai, actually blocked Christopher's efforts to be a bigger part of her life as opposed to him just never making those efforts at all. I'm certainly not claiming that Christopher was a great father or that Lorelai should be 'blamed' for the ways in which he fell short, but I do think the 'deadbeat dad' thing is an exaggerated vilification of him.

This is one of the most brilliant CM-related analyses I've ever read. Thanks for posting it! Exactly! I'm glad you get my take on Hotch/Gideon, which in its own sneaky way was easily one of the most interesting intra-team relationships of the series to me :) And while I like Rossi well enough and have always adored the actor who plays him, I just don't think Rossi has been a uniquely, deeply or even consistently enough defined character to have equally layered and interesting relationships with the team. At the risk of beating that same 'but the earlier CM seasons were so much BETTER!' drum, I just don't see most (any?!) of the current intra-team relationships as even remotely complex or well thought out. They all seem relatively interchangeable to me now: They're all equally awesome and get along equally well and have more or less the same professional niches and very little differences in personality...*yawn* And I agree so much with how the Reid/Hotch relationship has devolved from something really interesting and at times even touching to something that's...just there. You know, I don't really see as much Prentiss/JJ chemistry as most do. I guess I just never quite felt that BFF-y 'click' between them that we're supposed to, in large part because I don't feel they did a good job of defining either character as an individual. (Though you guys know I loved Emily anyway, due almost exclusively to Paget Brewster rather than the writing!) I guess JJ wasn't *as* condescending, eyeroll-y and cold-even-when-we're-supposed-to-think-she's-warm around Emily as most others so, er, maybe that was JJ's best intra-team relationship by sad default?! ;) It's kind of sad that even though Elle was on the show for less than 1/8th of CM's total run, her relationship with Reid was by far one of the best intra-team relationships of the series to me.

Voting again and hoping others join me! :) Cinnamom's Wake -- Star-Crossed Lovers -- Kiss and Tell -- 19 - The Third Lorelai 19 - Double Date 19 - Concert Interruptus 19 - Rory's Birthday Parties 17 - Forgiveness and Stuff 17 - Kill Me Now 15 - Cinnamon's Wake 15 - Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers 15 - Pilot 15 - That Damn Donna Reed 15 - Lorelais' First Day at Chilton 15 - Love and War and Snow 15 - The Breakup Part 2 15 - Emily in Wonderland 11 - The Deer Hunters 07 - Kiss and Tell 05 - Paris is Burning 03 - Christopher Returns Eliminated! Love, Daisies and Troubadours P.S. I Lo...

Some of my favorite lines happen to come from this episode: Mal: "See, morbid and creepifying, I got no problem with, long as she does it quiet-like." and Zoe: "Captain will come up with a plan. Kaylee: "Well, that's good." Zoe: "Possible you're not recalling some of his previous plans." and River: "Little soul, big world." and River: :They weren't cows inside. They were waiting to be, but they forgot. Now they see sky, and they remember what they are." Mal: "Is it bad that what she said made perfect sense to me?" Simon: "I'm sorry, dad. You know I would never have tried to save River's life if I had known there was a dinner party at risk." (Aside from maybe Mal and Jayne, I think Simon gets the best snark of the series!) Still, I agree that this is a somewhat uneven episode with some absolutely amazing parts and some decidedly less than amazing parts. I love it overall, but I find myself tempted to hit the fast forward button more often than I do with most other episodes.