DanaK

It seems a couple of my posts got lost in the ether, so I’ll just repeat some major points that hopefully stick to just this episode. I was in my 30s when this went down and kept up with news, so I remember the events fairly well and most of the players, including Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones, though I don’t remember much about Paula’s husband. They are portraying Paula about as naive as I expected (and the same with Monica), and at least as portrayed here, Paula was used by the right wing to try to get Clinton on something. For me, the scandal wasn’t just about consensual sex. Clinton was the president and should have been much more careful. His opponents were clearly after him and he would seem to give them ammunition with his affair with Monica. Plus Willey was indicating to Linda that something non-consensual apparently happened between her and Clinton and Paula accused him of coming on to her and showing his thingy. And Monica could have snapped and harmed or killed him. They are portraying Linda Tripp about as nasty as I expected though I didn’t know that much about her personally at the time, but her behavior was pretty bad. And I’d like to point out that I was a Federal employee for 32 years until I retired 2 years ago, so I know Linda as a civil servant could have gotten transferred to some other agency if she was so unhappy with the Clintons, but it appears she liked being close to the power. Unlike a political appointee, civil servants can’t be fired just because a new administration’s coming in, which is probably why they just simply transferred her to Siberia, ie the Pentagon, instead of doing the real work of documenting her poor behavior and then firing her for it. I was pretty unhappy with the Clintons at the time but I was in an agency that was fairly well distant from the personalities of the White House. If I had been more up close and personal, I probably would have rage quit with several administrations. It did appear that there were more accusations against the Clintons than actual evidence, including Whitewater, ie more smoke than fire, at least within the Administration and at least up to the point of this episode. The affair with Monica, as depicted here in this episode, appeared to be real, and as depicted in this episode, you just know Clinton’s opponents will perk up their ears at anything they can get him on, so it’s clear where this is headed. Needless to say, I somewhat enjoyed this first episode, even if it was a little long and there was a lot of setup. I do agree that they could have done a better job to identify the players for those not familiar with all the personalities

Phyllis was a gun toting badass until she wasn't. I think on Monday, Mike will probably walk in on Peter, or Jax might do it if he’s still in town It certainly seemed like the tearful goodbye to Jordan signified a permanent exit by the actress. But if the actress is pregnant, maybe it will be a few months for her maternity leave

Looks like the special Sunday telecast following football did the show's ratings some good (I don't think the episode was delayed by football, but if there was the final ratings will be adjusted down). It got a .05 in the 18-49 demo and 1.971 million viewers in its first half hour and 0.4/1.833 in its second half, whereby it got 0.24/1.45 in its previous Tuesday episode

Set for October 11 nationally, "Cured", when homosexuality was considered a mental illess, gay rights activists fought back https://pressroom.pbs.org/Programs/i/INDEPENDENT-LENS/Cured

I loved the show when I watched it in the 70s and CBS had great lineups back then. I started a rewatch in the past year or so via Hulu and I’m somewhere in Season 5, and honestly, I don’t remember many of these episodes. I guess it was just the most well-loved and best critically received episodes that I remember best. I’m enjoying my rewatch, but yeah, things like what people were wearing are definitely very dated

Air date: September 22, 2021

This looks very interesting

This looks so dumb, but I love scifi, so I'll give it a chance. Though it will likely be canceled quickly like most Broadcast TV scifi is

This looks so intriguing yet so possibly soapy. I hope the soapiness doesn't overtake the importance of telling this kind of story

I finally watched the 3rd episode of Worsley's Royal Myths and Secrets and she did a good job of breaking down the myths around Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution. Too bad about the French Revolution as it devolved into a killing spree, then the French got a new monarchy with Napoleon, though to be fair, that was through a coup The second episode of the "Future of Work" series was much more downbeat than the first, focusing on workers and how they can navigate this new world of non-lifetime and shifting employment and how hard it is for them, especially gig workers who don't have secure employment, good pay or proper benefits

FYI from the TV Critics annual Summer press tour

I really think 13 is more manic, talkative, group consensus type than the previous few Doctors in order to differentiate her from her immediate predecessor as 12 was unlikable for a time (at least to some number of viewers including me), grouchy, secretive, etc. To some I suppose, 13's manic more child-like manner and large amount of talking comes across as dumbed down for children, but I think, as I said above, it was probably more to be the opposite of 12, plus, it may have been partly to match Jodie's personality (or Chibnall hired Jodie in part because her personality matched what he wanted for 13) As I've likely said before in other topics, I love this era and Jodie and her interpretation of the Doctor, though I sometimes get annoyed with the amount of talking she does. It was my first time watching Doctor Who, and while Series 11 was running, I watched Peter's era via streaming, and was like "yikes, 12 is very mean and I don't like him and I don't really like a lot of these episodes", though I grew to like him somewhat by his 3rd season. If I had started with him in his first season, I'm not sure I would have continued watching his era

The lady character that recommended to the Royals how to proceed with the press and how to deal with Harry and Meghan was so awful. She was probably a composite of people or fictional, but I hated her as she clearly had daggers out for Harry and especially Meghan It's interesting that they made Kate somewhat sympathetic and trying to find ways to smooth things over with the brothers. It seemed like William was on the verge of softening at times, then just stiffened his spine. I really think in real life, William is caught between a rock and a hard place because he's going to be King one day and wants the monarchy to survive in order to do so and for his children to rule some day and has to do what the Firm wants. Harry was no longer needed as a spare King after William had several children, so he was easily ignored by the Firm. Really unfortunate given how popular Meghan turned out to be. The parallels in the movie with Diana were well done, though in Harry and Meghan's case, their marriage stayed strong

The Futon Critic has a press release that says the season finale (Episode 10) is on September 23 http://thefutoncritic.com/listings/20210907abc10/ It also appears that the move to the earlier time of 8pm improved the ratings just a bit

Hopefully if there is a renewal, it will have a bigger budget to regularly do two fantasies, and it will start earlier in the Summer with more episodes