Demian

Buck's subsequent throwaway observation -- "Episcopalians don't have guilt, which I don't feel great about" -- is the low-key most hilarious line of the episode.

He really is a terrific addition to the cast. I'm wondering if he's deliberately holding himself back as a Guest Star to avoid signing a multi-year contract, because that's not what he wants for his career.

I'm calling it now: The Keanu Twins are going to entertainingly stumble their way into the finale. (I also reserve the option of being totally wrong.)

How many times has the franchise used the Wall Street victim's apartment as a shooting location? I swear to God, I recognize it from at least five other episodes. That place is almost as cursed as Hudson University.

Oh, for duh -- I completely misread your comment, and you are absolutely right. That night when it was announced that Shannen had been fired, though -- I still have PTSD from how those boards blew up. Hiya! And I actually kinda miss them, too -- it was such a smart, bitchy, and hilarious group of people on there (and the show richly deserved every single insult that group threw at it). I'm still sorry I lost payndz's vicious Harmed game a few laptops ago. Thank you very kindly, but I do look back on them now with a lot of regret -- I assumed the actresses had far more agency than they actually did. I directed too much of my criticism at them, personally, rather than towards the real monsters responsible for this garbage: Aaron Spelling, and most especially Brad Kern. I still remember one of the writers coming out and saying how infuriating it was to be forced to write a San Francisco-set show where every single character was straight and white. Edited to add: Eilish and her fucking hideous costumes should be up on the Real Monster Wall with Spelling and Kern.

No, news of her firing hit a few days after the Season Three finale aired -- I remember because I was editing the finale's recap when the shit hit the fan (and the forum boards on Television Without Pity). And the word at the time was always that Alyssa had Shannen fired. Also, how depressing is it that all of this happened twenty-three fricking years ago? I feel like I'm crumbling into dust.

Hope I got the title right. Coleman Hughes is new to me -- is his book worth a purchase, or should I see if it's available at the local library?

Forget "recent violent crimes" -- let's link tonight's deceased Hudson University administrator to every single violent crime connected to Hudson University since 1990! What's that -- about 87,532? Where's the cover-up? Is Dick Wolf complicit? How many criminals have gotten away? Shame on Law & Order.

Fun fact for the 2024 awards season: Sam Waterston won nominations for the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for portraying Robert Oppenheimer in a 1980 TV series. (And the only movie I really know him from is Serial Mom from John Waters, though I constantly recognize his distinctive voice in various documentaries.)

After more than 30 years of this show and its spinoffs, were you really expecting anything different? Subtle characterization is not this franchise's forte. Actually, now that I consider it, subtle anything isn't this franchise's forte. I keep seeing that monkey jumping out of the basketball...

Yes, but maybe the smoking, the drinking, and the partying (and the candies, and the rich food, and the stylish high heels, and all of the other indulgences) were integral to who she thought she was. If she dropped them all -- even after the strokes -- she might as well be dead, because she wouldn't be Princess Margaret anymore. I mean, is Princess Margaret Confined To A Wheelchair really Princess Margaret, especially to her? If you wore the sort of undergarments women were forced into in the 1950s, you'd also have a knockout bombshell figure. You'd also be uncomfortable in the extreme, and you'd probably wish you were dead.

The show appears to be screwing with the timeline. This season ends with Chuck getting married for the second time, which happened in 2005, but the inquest apparently happened in 2008: Grieving father with accusations aplenty Mohamed Al Fayed rips royal family over deaths of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed attacks UK royals as 'Dracula family' I'm not positive, but I think the press conference in the show is entirely fictional, though it does contain things Al Fayed actually said. Edited to add: There's also this contemporaneous piece from Sky News that might have inspired (along with other news reports at the time) the press conference scene.

This is probably the best episode of the season. Lesley Manville is magnificent.

I went to college with a bunch of richies whose parents made them take part-time jobs to pay for fraternity/sorority expenses, or books, or clothes they wanted but didn't need. Maybe it was something like that?

And now I'll be waiting for the housemaster to blow all of William's money on a scammy railroad investment scheme.

The money and power changed everything. As it does. (By the way, I'm still waiting for Verna to collect on her Fifth Avenue client. It's been decades.)

It is! They actually addressed it during the episode entitled -- lemme check -- "Turmoil" (Season 11, Episode 8). Dicke's best friend Shane goes missing, and because Elliot's such an asshole moron in addition to being a Bad Parent, Shane ends up dead. But before that happens, Shane's mom calls out Elliot regarding his son's preferred name. You know, as yet another example of how Elliot's so consumed by his job that he's completely neglectful and out-of-touch with his family. Cragen should've reassigned him at the end of Season One. (And any normal human being who named their son "Richard" in the 1990s would've given them a nickname like "Ricky" or "Richie." Never in a million years would they have opened their child up to the ridicule a "Dickie" would have received on the playground.)

I've been doing a weird rewatch of this series during the double strikes, and the absolute worst parent on L&O: SVU is -- always and forever -- Elliot Stabler. Jesus H. Christ, his naming his son "Dickie" in the fricking 1990s should have told us all he's a fricking sociopath.

Are we ever going to get an explanation for how the songs in the musical numbers are bleeding back into 1955? Last week featured "Who Will Love Me As I Am?" from Sideshow in 1997, and tonight had "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy, which premiered on Broadway in 1959. That said, I loved how they incorporated both Mama Cooper and Mama Blossom into that particular Gypsy montage. Also? The whole Reggie and Archie storyline tonight was extremely homophobic, because of the obvious parody of gaybaiting. Kiss Kiss Kiss! At least Alice has been consistent -- nearly everyone else in this glorious mess of a show has ping-ponged all over the fucking place. By the way, I love the costuming and production design on this season. Am I allowed to say that, or should I be shitting on everything?

Mary's dress shop is called "Perky in Peach"? Really? Wonder why the pageant gowns weren't as hideously fug as that prom dress she wore in the movie. And I'm not really buying WASP extraordinaire Alice Cooper making lasagna.

Veronica's bangs are quite simply evil. Camila Mendes must have multiple forehead-skin issues from that wretched wig. Like, "Remove! Your vigs!"-level issues.

Anyone else have weird sound issues with this one, or was it simply my local CW affiliate giving up on this show along with everyone else? Said issues pretty much ruined that little gay (in both the old and new senses of the word) South Pacific moment for me.

Unbelievable. My first Broadway show was Evita, when Patti LuPone was still singing the lead -- and I saw that as part of a south-central Pennsylvania bus-into-town group of idiot teenagers. At these current prices, who the hell can see these shows, anyway?

My sister is desperate for tickets to Sweeney Todd that offer a great sight-line at less than $500 per seat. If you've got a strategy, I'd love to hear it -- it'd be her kids' first Broadway show. Also: If you want to know why Alex Newell won, here's "Independently Owned." And here's "Better" from Kimberly Akimbo, to give you a taste of Bonnie Milligan.

Too bad the show's already closed, right?