blackwing

I wanted to like Jennifer Lewis but she seemed so much worse this time than last time. It was almost like she resorted to speaking/shouting instead of singing. The Seal isn't good either. Opening number... can they please please please stop having Ken and Jenny sing, or pretend to sing. They are not good. I've decided that I don't really care for Robin's singing either. Rita Ora, on the other hand, was amazing. Just let her do all the singing until Nicole comes back.

Supergirl isn't so super these days, is she? BTW speaking of Supergirl, wasn't Summer at one point deathly allergic to peanuts? Whatever happened to that? Did she outgrow it or was it just never mentioned again? If this were Bold and the Beautiful and Bradley Bell was writing this show, Claire would just disappear, not be mentioned for months, and then one day show up again with no explanation. Everyone would act like she's been there the whole time and no one would ask her what she's been doing.

The Winters family on this show, at this point, it's really the Barber family. Only Lily is a biological Winters and Devon is an adopted Winters. But Lily, Devon, and Nate are all Barbers (Devon being an adopted Barber). Mamie's sister married a Barber. With Mamie back, I wonder if Olivia will ever come back.

But she's "legendary", why not? 😁

Ugh, how did I miss that the first book in the Gethsemane Brown series, Murder in G Major, was turned into a Hallmark Mystery movie and aired last fall? They bill it as the "Haunted Harmony" mysteries. Going to have to see if they re-air it sometime.

I've read all seven books. I love most historical dramas but especially those set during Tudor times. I'm stupidly excited for this show. I really really really hope the showrunners don't screw it up.

I agree with surfgirl completely in this instance.

I think the issue here is that the hairstyle is common and popular amongst Black women and very much a part of their cultural identity. To me, calling her Medusa because of her ethnic hairstyle is similar to making up a nickname for her that refers to or incorporates some characteristic of her skin colour.

They never explained who the second person in the van was. I'm assuming that Lana wasn't lying. There had to have been a second person in the van, the van stops and fairly immediately, the clown jumps out. No way could someone have navigated from the front seat out the side door that quickly. Nor abducted her and then the van drove off so quickly. I'm assuming that Caleb and his friend weren't in on it. They stole the money originally and obviously Caleb's wife and Lana knew about it. The whole storyline doesn't make a lot of sense from a planning perspective. If wife (I forgot her name already) was so unahppy in the marriage, then why doesn't she say "hey Caleb, I want a divorce. I know you and Friend stole $3 million. I want $1 million and a divorce. If you won't give it to me then I'm going to tell NCIS about it." Then nobody dies. I get that Yasmine Al Bustami may have other jobs, but it's a bit jarring that they don't even mention Lucy. At the end of the episode, Boone could have easily told LL Cool J that he was going to wrap up and then join Kai, Kate and Lucy at the bar. Why can't they even include a throwaway line?

I was away for a bit, last I saw, Finn kept going on and on to Stuffy about "you killed my mom you killed my mom you killed my mom". And Stuffy was all "I had no choice what should I have done please believe me I had no choice I had no choice". Looked like they were done-zo so Liam could swoop in. I tuned in the other day and Finn and Stuffy are all schmoopy again. Not that I ever want to see Liam win anything, but what happened? I am utterly shocked that Bradley didn't turn to his tried and true storyline of waffling back and forth. IIRC, they were both fully clothed in costume and masks and it was up against a wall. Still though, you would think that Brooke should have been able to tell the difference. You would think that Oliver should have been able to tell the difference too. RJ actor makes the actor who plays Finn (also fairly terrible) looks like a Shakespearean trained actor. He's awful, and his body is overinflated. Those actors were just painful to watch. Then when Zende and Poppy left so RJ and Luna could talk it out, I was thinking that all of them should have left so we didn't have to hear any of them.

I enjoyed this episode for the most part, despite the implausibilities. Why would a Chinese sleeper agent seek out Robyn instead of, you know, someone actually with the CIA? Whatever explanation he gave her doesn't really hold water since she wouldn't be in any position to solve his political issues. The wife being an agent as well and meeting with that other agent in broad daylight was ridiculous. But of course the most ridiculous part was Robyn getting onto the plane unseen, throwing the agent out of the open cargo door, holding on with just her hands. Then what? Surely the plane had a pilot or two. In most movies, the pilot would have put the plane on auto-pilot and gone to investigate why the cargo door opened. Did Robyn force him to turn the plane around? I can only imagine that she parachuted out of the plane because if she had forced the plane to land, why wouldn't she have had both cases with her? Why did she only take one vial of the antidote? There were diamonds and a handful of other vials in that case. Weren't those all antidote as well? I find it ridiculous that there was only enough antidote for one person. Surely those other vials were antidote as well. The mom didn't deserve to die from the illness, she deserved to go to prison for treason. What is the dad going to tell his kid now? "Ummm sorry kid, I worked for the Chinese government but had a change of heart after they tried to kill me. And it turns out your mom was a Chinese agent too but she was actually bad, she betrayed the United States, and China poisoned her to death. I'll ask my friends if they know any good child psychiatrists." The Delilah story was extraneous and unnecessary. I like when Dee and Vi do things together and sometimes the story is interesting (like when Vi got arrested in the clothing store) but this protest was such a bad idea from the start, obviously it wouldn't end well.

I think Dick Van Dyke for sure will win the Guest Actor Emmy, but I'm happy that Ashley Jones was recognised. Honestly, Bradley Bell treats her like shit. From her Instagram posts, it always seems like she's so happy when Bradley deigns to call upon her. She was so appreciative of all the fans who are always writing in and saying they want to see more Bridget. It seems to me that she would love to be on contract again. I would rather see Bridget than 75% of the current cast. I'd love to have Bridget back full time and pair up with Finn. But having Bridget around would take away the spotlight from Bradley's precious Jackie Wood, so I don't think it's going to happen.

It must have been the "Phyllis faked her death" storyline. I think she's a bad actress and I don't think she's at all believable in her role. Bryton James, he's won before three times I think, so I guess he's one of those that get nominated just for being there. Kind of like how Christian LeBlanc always used to get nominated as Lead Actor (8 times in 12 years) without ever doing much.

I agree, they spent so much time discussing the fact that Mr. Wu's eyewitness account was not reliable. Why wasn't there more discussed about Palmer's motive? He very clearly had a lot to lose if the victim came forward with his story about losing $9 million of a $10 million settlement to his lawyer. His law practice would be discredited and his dream of being a judge would be done. They should have looked more into this. Why was it so inconceivable that he hired someone to do the killing? I chalk up a lot of this to the fact that there isn't enough time in the episode, but Yee or somebody should have done a deep dive on his finances, seeing if he made any large cash withdrawals or wire transfers, checking his email to see if he contacted any hitmen, checking text messages, social media etc. Then when nothing comes up, check the bank accounts of the firm, and maybe there are some unexplained expenses. If nothing still is discovered, then the detectives should have been experienced enough to know that the wife was acting funny. Look into her movements. Also, Wu described an Islanders hat. Was it the same one we saw on display in Palmer's house? Wouldn't there be blood spatter on either the coat or the hat? Test those. So much that wasn't done. If there isn't enough time in the episodes, then make each case last for two episodes.

The call was made using the jail's phone. We see Yee listening to a recording and it's clearly marked as coming from the "Department of Corrections". The guy is a defence attorney, surely he has been visiting jails and prisons hundreds of times. He should be well aware that there is no expectation of privacy when using any phone in the jail. It does seem convenient to the plot that he used the jail's phone considering he should have known that it's not private. You would think that he would have used his lawyer's cell phone to talk to his wife. Ah ok. If that's the case, why couldn't they have followed the car all over the city, and surely there was at least one camera that got a view of who was inside. I call BS that this traffic cam evidence conveniently appeared at the last minute (defence attorney claims it was the day before, but yet he still could have notified Price). If there hadn't been this evidence, it seems likely that Palmer would have been convicted. If he was aware that his wife was killing the victim, then surely he could have arranged to have been seen somewhere else at the time. If he was unaware, then it seems convenient that he just happened to be driving around. Didn't he say he was at some charity event? Or was that someone else that said they were at a charity event? If it was him, why wouldn't the police have corroborated that he was there, and wouldn't they have asked who he was there with? Knowing that his wife wasn't there could have led to investigation of the wife a lot earlier.

Was the waiter really the only one who witnessed the murder? I know it was said that there were no security cameras inside the restaurant, but what about CCTV cameras? Witness said the killer jumped into a black BMW, are we supposed to assume he was wrong? Because otherwise we have both the lawyer and his wife getting into separate black BMWs? How can the witness be that high that he can't tell the difference between a man and a woman? I was disgusted by the revelation that the lawyer took $9MM of the $10MM judgement. He claimed his fee was 55%. And then what? He said he was allowed to bill for the paralegals and investigators. That amounted to another $3.5MM? I would have thought that his paralegals and whatever resources he needs to hire should be included in the 55%. Clearly he knew it looked bad and clearly they knew the public would think it was wrong if they were trying to hide it from the public. He won't get to be a judge now, and hopefully there is an investigation into the allocation/use of the $10 million. I refuse to believe that the lawyer was innocent. Surely he must have known about what his wife did. I agree that the evidence was flimsy and that there should have been more evidence acquired before going to trial. How come they didn't canvass the CCTV cameras in the area looking for the black BMW? They do in every other episode. Any shots of Palmer or his wife wearing the green jacket? I am not so sure, I don't think inmates have an expectation of privacy for phone calls from the jail. What I want to know is why they suspected the wife? I thought she was shady as well. Was this the first time she confessed to Palmer? If he knew about it, I hope he gets charged with concealing a crime or obstruction or accessory after the fact.

In the Supporting and Guest categories, only Jennifer Gareis (Supporting) and Ashley Jones (Guest) were recognised. Both were great during the "Eric almost died" storyline. I also think John McCook has a chance to win Lead Actor, if not him, it will surely be Scott Clifton, who Emmy seems to love.

The Supporting and Guest nominations: Supporting Actress: Courtney Hope (yay!) and Alison Lanier (ugh) Supporting Actor: Bryton James (really?) Guest Performance: Linden Ashby I don't see anything award worthy about Alison Lanier or Bryton James. I would have included Trevor St. John and Mark Grossman in Supporting Actor and Susan Walters in Supporting Actress. Susan Walters was good in the "Diane got framed" storyline, but the only person recognised is the ubiquitous Michelle Stafford. Ugh.

My understanding is that he writes a general outline of the plot. Then the co-author writes almost everything. He probably reads it and perhaps makes some edits, but it seems the actual writing is almost entirely done by the co-author. He puts both their names on it. With his name on it, it is almost guaranteed to sell well. I am very curious about the profit split, but we will probably not ever be privy to how those negotiations work. I guess for the co-author, it works, because otherwise the co-author may not have been able to get a book contract. So for a newbie author, it's a matter of giving him a large portion of profits or not getting published at all. What I'm wondering is that some of these people have been co-authors with him for years and years and have many books now with him. Can't they break off on their own and secure their own contract? I wonder if there are provisions in the contract that Patterson signs with each co-author that prevent that. I find it disingenuous that he continues to insist that he is the world's most prolific author when he actually doesn't do the writing. I suppose in his mind if he edited one paragraph in the book, that's enough to justify that he "co-wrote" it. I suppose his ego won't allow the co-author's name to be listed first. The only books that he seems to solo write alone are the Alex Cross books. I've long wanted to read James Clavell. As a kid I always looked at my dad's copy of Shogun and thought that one day I would read it. Still have yet to do so, I'm probably turned off by the extreme length. Too much to read, too little time!

Pretty much describes her every single day. Ridiculous and horribly acted. I have absolutely no idea why voters think she is so great. She makes me want to change the channel as soon as she opens her mouth.

Nominations for Lead Actor and Lead Actress for this year’s Daytime Emmys were released a day early. For Actress, Katherine Kelly Lang and Annika Noelle were nominated. Notably absent is Jackie Wood. I’m happy for KKL but she will probably lose again, perhaps to her onscreen daughter who I think is a pretty bad actress. For Actor, Scott Clifton, Thorsten Kaye and John McCook. I wouldn’t mind seeing McCook win but I really don’t like the other two. I have no idea how Thorsten Kaye won last year… he is such a bad actor.

I am a little surprised that Mark Grossman didn’t get a nomination as Lead Actor. His work on the loss of his and Sally’s baby was great. What about Susan Walters and Courtney Hope? It’s possible some of them could still get recognised in Supporting No surprise that Michelle Stafford was nominated again. Have no idea what she did that was Emmy worthy. I thought this was finally going to be Melody Thomas Scott’s year to win. Not even nominated. Stafford will probably win, this will be her 10th nom and she’s only won once. Don’t know why the voters are so enamored of her. At least Jaqueline Macinnes Wood was omitted this year. Maybe Katherine Kelly Lang can finally win instead.

Thanks for posting this! I am looking forward to it. I hope they don't screw it up. I remember so looking forward to "Three Pines" and the adaptation of the book series was fairly abysmal. I just finished reading C.J. Sansom's Tombland. I enjoyed it overall, even if I thought it was a bit too long. While I appreciate historical detail, I do feel like some of the details about Kett's Rebellion could have been shortened. I know that Sansom has had some health issues. But on the internet there is a description of an upcoming book 8, Ratcliff, and a small summary. I can't find any further information or whether this book is still in progress or if his health issues have precluded it. I also just finished Peril at the Exposition by Nev March. This is book 2 in a series that started with "Murder in Old Bombay". This time, the couple Jim and Diana have gotten married and moved to America. They were in Boston when Jim (who is working as a spy/operative/detective or something) gets sent to Chicago to investigate the disappearance of another agent and the death of a Pinkerton detective. The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition is occuring there. Jim disappears and Diana goes to find him. I absolutely hated the first book in this series. HATED. It was too much romance and too little mystery. This book wasn't quite so hateable, but I found it particularly boring. For a book with its setting as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, I was amazed at how little of the fair was incorporated. Characters visit briefly and there are throwaway descriptions, but that's about it. I really thought this book was going to be a mystery set during the World's Fair and that we would get lots of descriptions of the various booths and exhibits. Instead, the book seemed to mainly be about an anarchist plot involving bombs that just happened to have the fair in the background. Really disappointing. The book was also way too long and could have used an editor. The third book in this series is set on a cruise ship. I really want to read it and like it but given the track record of this author, I am prepared to be disappointed. It's James Patterson, I doubt he had anything to do with this book besides put his name on it and take a large percentage of the actual author's profits. I'm kind of over James Patterson and his claim that he is the "World's Most Popular Storyteller" when he doesn't write 95% of the books that he takes credit for. The co-author writes the entire book and yet he gets top billing. Why pretend? Why can't he have his own pubishing house where the authors publish the books as the sole author but they are from "the James Patterson Publishing House". Like a stamp of approval by him, like Oprah's Book Club or Reese's club or whatever. It just kind of disgusts me how he takes credit for all these books that he doesn't write.

Goldfish is a strong contender to win it all. I like her better than Clock and she is way better than Poodle Moth. I like Vanessa Hudgens so I hope it's her and I hope she wins. I'm only sorry that Nicole is away from the show this season. Nicole has guessed her in the past and I think Nicole would have loved to have seen a fellow Filipina-American be on the show and possibly win. What a joke that Kate Flannery made it so far. It's ridiculous that she beat out the amazing Charlie Wilson. I don't get the hype about her... Nick was using words like "legendary" and "most beloved" to describe her. Really? I don't know her from anything besides "The Office" and I absolutely despised Meredith.

Community service? What a joke. If I'm Diane, I would have filed a civil lawsuit against Phyllis. There's a whole slew of tort actions there. Defamation/slander, intentional infliction of emotional distress, maybe false imprisonment, etc. How is it that Jack and Diane didn't pursue this further? I have no doubt she is going for the Emmy, and she will probably get it, which is a joke. If anyone on this show gets a Supporting Actress Emmy out of this set of storylines, it should be Beth Maitland. But her role on this show is a calm and supportive voice of reason. It's not flashy or showy, and it's a shame that Emmy always rewards flashy and showy over subtle and nuanced.