[Marry Me - General Discussion]

 

First impression of this show: another romantic comedy about early 30s neurotics in the big city?  How many do we need?

 

That's probably my main beef with it too. It seems like every single new sitcom this season is about the blossoming relationship between some young, urban couple. Hollywood is a wasteland for imagination. But so far, out of the ones I've seen, this one appears to be the strongest.

 

 

The boyfriend is an idiot for not telling her that he lied to his boss about going to Mexico so it's his own fault that he got fired.

 

Somebody above pointed this out, but he did tell her - that was part of the joke. And in that respect, the show does in fact feel very much like Happy Endings - the lines come at you rapid fire, so you almost have to watch every episode twice in order to catch everything. And I liked that about Happy Endings, they didn't dumb it down. I could grow to like this show just as much. I just hope it doesn't suffer the same fate as Happy Endings.

[Manhattan Love Story - General Discussion]

I thought this was actually a pretty strong episode, although it might be too little too late. The leads are so watchable. I loved when Dana had the flashback and realized all the things she'd seen in Tucker's office that should have tipped her off to his being gay, including the photo of him with his boyfriend! (Although, to be fair, if the guy has a boyfriend, why did he think Dana brought him to the party to set him up with Peter?) I laughed at him slapping Peter on the ass, too.

[S01.E03: A Little Yelp From My Friends]

 

I'm really liking this show. Karen Gillan can't help but be endearing and John Cho is wonderful and sexy.

 

Does Karen Gillan have some sort of held over good will from a previous show she was on? I've never seen her in anything else and, for me, she's the problem with this show. I believe I've read she's actually British, or Australian, and doing an "American" accent, and that may be part of the problem. She sounds odd. 

 

This is the third episode I've watched, and I don't think I have laughed once. I did kind of smirk at John Cho tearing off the breakaway suits, but that's about it.

 

I think I'm done. I predict the network will be too once they burn through the initial order.

[S03.E04: Apologies Are Dangerous]

Yes, we've seen some extras milling around in the background. Heck, we usually only catch a glimpse or two of Severide's squad.

 

I just don't care about Shay's replacement. What a bland, boring character. They need to write her off. 

 

The part I did enjoy was the revelation that the chief had been screwed over by Herrmann's Energy Water scheme. Nice way to connect back to the first season. Or was that from the second season? Either way. His own dumb fault for buying a whole garage full of it though. What did he expect to do, sell it to retailers, or neighbors?

 

I can't help feel moved by Severide's plight, even if part of me wishes it was over. 

[S04.E05: Landline]

Another great episode, the show is really firing on all cylinders this season now that they've ditched the whole Nick and Jess thing. I couldn't help but crack up like a 12-year old at the name Ryan "Goes In You" - however they spelled it. Geauxineaux? Something like that. It was silly but just the kind of thing this show does so well. "British people like to do stuff!" "No, they don't!" 

 

I also loved CeCe trying to be as monotone as possible and still turning on Schmidt. Then he listened to her phone message a hundred times and  "touched his peen." Again, so silly and even a bit childish, but someone this show makes it work. 

[S19.E07: Week 5: The Switch-Up]

 

The few things that interested me last night were:  how much better and seemingly happy both Bethany and Sadie are when dancing with Mark B rather than Derek.

 

I kind of thought Julianne actually threw Derek under the bus a little bit, even if she didn't mean to, when she pointed out to Bethany that Derek and Mark have very different teaching styles. She said Mark prefers individual, side-by-side moves whereas Derek likes more moves in hold. Well, that's pretty much admitting what a lot of people have accused Derek of in the past: steering his partners around the dance floor to mask their flaws. Consider the fact that last season, Mark was paired with Amy during the switch week, and instead of holding onto her the whole routine the way Derek had been doing, he actually let her dance on her own next to him and do the steps without much support from him. Derek never seemed to trust her - or himself - enough to do that with her. 

 

I think Mark has taken a lot of heat for doing goofy routines with goofy costumes and drawing too much attention to himself, but I also think he does a better job teaching partners with real potential to dance, whereas Derek goes the safe route and does everything he can think of to hide any potential mistakes his partner might make.

[S01.E04: Just Another Normal Day]

 

In the airport scene, did anyone else wonder if the snow globe was a bomb?

 

Yup, that's the first thing I thought of too.

 

This one was better than last week's, but still - the idea of Elizabeth having to avert a war between China and Japan is somewhat ludicrous. They need to dial back the scale of these weekly crises. If not for Elizabeth, we would have World War III on our hands!!!! I think a crucial treaty for mineral rights is sufficient to service the plot without adding some impending nuclear catastrophe. 

 

I also think a big problem with this show is that, perhaps by necessity, they go out of their way to avoid issues the current SoS would actually be dealing with: namely, the middle east. So far it's been Russia, China, Japan and Pakistan. I know that last one is technically part of the middle east, but John Kerry right now is spending all his time trying to secure support for the fight against Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Russia, China and Japan really aren't top priorities right now.

 

I realize it would be repetitive and and perhaps depressing if every week Elizabeth was chasing after the latest ISIL crisis but the sheer lack of middle eastern terrorism, or the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, divorces this show from reality in a way that's almost jarring.

[S02.E03: Multiple]

 

What was the deal with" Young" Fred seeing a kids feet and tennis shoes and then his wife seeing a tennis shoe on the porcth?

 

I don't know, but whoever they got to play "Young Fred" was a dead ringer for Matt Craven, unless they used some special kind of CGI to make him look younger.

[S19.E07: Week 5: The Switch-Up]

I think a big part of Jonathan's problem is that he keeps getting the same kind of bouncy, party dances like Jive, Samba and Jitterbug and what he needs to work on is control. He needs a waltz or a Paso, not something where he's jumping around and kicking, because that's really his problem. He looks a little too wild and uncontrolled.

 

That said, he's still miles ahead of Michael, so it's going to really annoy me if Michael outlasts him. Michael couldn't even do a simple turn without looking awkward and clumsy. He's terrible.

 

The judges were just looking for things to criticize this week, and I thought they had an especially difficult time finding something wrong with Lea's dancing because she had a great solo part and kept up with all the pros around her. And then what did Julianne say, something about her looking hesitant? B.S. Same with Alphonso, there was really nothing wrong with that dance but they were determined not to give out 10s or even a lot of 9s this week.

 

I think the thing with Sadie's legs is that they look bowed sometimes. And I was surprised at how little Hip-Hop there was in Mark and Bethany's Hip-Hop routine.

 

Never heard of Jessie J in my entire life, I don't care how old that makes me seem, don't think I'm missing anything.

[S01.E01: Pilot]

 

The low wage high end lifestyle because they either married money or their grandparents bought property for a song.

 

That's especially problematic because even if she owns the house outright, a waitress's salary and tips isn't going to cover property taxes in the Hamptons.

 

I thought it was OK. I'm intrigued enough to keep watching but I'm not head over heels. I like the "two perspectives" gimmick, but I have strong reservations about the interrogation gimmick. That's definitely not something I want to see dragged out for three seasons.

[S02.E03: The Jimmy Jab Games]

I loved how Holt and Wuntch kept criticizing the way Terry was sitting.

 

From what little we saw of it, it looks like poor Boyle lives in a terrible hell-hole of an apartment. Or was that supposed to be his ex's basement? We never found out whether he found an apartment of his own.

[All Episodes Discussion]

One possibility is that the doctor, who we know was hard up for money, concocted the scheme with the "best friend/PA" so they could steal as many valuables from the house as possible and split the profit between them. Maybe his wife wasn't even in on it. Then the best friend chickened out and decided to stage a "discovery" and throw the doctor and his wife under the bus. That doesn't explain why the doctor still covered for the best friend though. Maybe he figured the best way to clear his wife was to take all the blame himself.

[S04.E03: Rocky Road]

 

Meanwhile, why can't Regina just add to Henry's book like August did?

 

Is that what August did? I was never clear on what exactly he did with the book. We saw him hanging pages up like he was drying them or something, I've read some posts that indicate people thought he made a copy of the book, some seem to think he changed it somehow or added to it. Clearly, no one knows, and I think whatever they originally had in mind has been dropped and/or forgotten.

It actually makes the most sense that August/Pinocchio himself wrote the book, since he came from the Enchanted Forest himself and grew up in our world. Who better than to put those tales down on paper?

 

WRT to the dagger - didn't Gold give the real dagger back to to Belle last week? I thought he switched it back so he wouldn't be living a lie. We saw him take it out of his jacket and put it into Belle's bag. Did he switch it back again? I've seen no indication of this.

[S02.E03: Multiple]

Oh dear, they really don't seem to know where they're going with this, do they? I suspected as much when they backtracked off the 1st season finale, but now it's really starting to look like they're just throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this show to see what sticks. I liked the story with the deputy having to put up with his bully of a brother no matter how many times he kills him, but at the same time, it showed that they just plan to utilize this premise to craft little mini-stories every episode. They're losing focus. 

 

Marty went way out of his way just to see his own dead body then barely looked at it before recoiling in horror. Just what did he expect to see? Also, how did he have the authority to order the coroner (through Maggie) not to take the bones? Isn't he officially with the Immigration department? 

[S04.E03: Rocky Road]

In spite of my reservations about the Frozen storyline, it could go a long way towards fixing what I thought was the biggest flaw in that movie: they never explained why Elsa had these powers. Hopefully they'll manage to do that here. I thought the casting for Hans was spot-on - the actor really looked like the cartoon version of that character. And I loved finally having Michael Socha back on my screen. They have a lot of backstory to fill in to explain how he got here, since when they left him at the end of Wonderland, he'd been turned into a genie. 

 

Elizabeth Mitchell excels at being shady and warm and stoic all at the same time, the Snow Queen reminds of Juliet from Lost.

 

Here's the thing about Elizabeth Mitchell: she's got this enigmatic smile and doe-eyed stare that make her seem so mysterious and deep you're convinced there's something enormous going on in that brain of hers. The problem is, once you've seen her do this on two or three different shows, you start to get the impression that she's kind of a one-trick pony, and it's not so much that she's some great actress, it's just that's she's got this "look" nailed, or maybe it's just the way she looks, all the time. 

 

It really frustrates me that the writers of this show seem to think they've got to spring another villain on us just as soon as the previous one is defeated. They need to slow the heck down and let the characters catch their breath. I know villains are an inherent part of fairy tales, but FFS, it seems like we've spent the last three years watching everyone run around chasing after villains, running away from villains, and trying to figure out how to defeat the last villain du jour. 

 

I'm not saying they should never have another villain again, but they could have used the first half of this season to focus on Elsa's search for Anna and introduce Will, while allowing the Charming family to settle down and interact for more than the collective five minutes they get while they're out in the woods tracking the latest villain.

[All Episodes Discussion]

I really think the doctor's wife and the best friend did it. I think the doctor just decided to cover for them. This was an interesting one, but at the same time a little disappointing, because they kept intimating there was going to be some big bombshell that someone different altogether was responsible but it turned out to be the people they were focusing on all along. Still it was left sort of open ended with the two women getting off scot free.

[S25.E03: Get Your Sheep Together]

I have no objection to "Tooth Fairies" as a nickname for Team Dentist. In fact if any of the other teams wants to insult them I'm fine with it. They've had spectacular locations so far this season and yet I'm still not warming up to any of the teams. Maybe the cyclists, thanks to their attitudes about not wasting a precious moment on this race, but we seem to see so little of anyone who isn't Team Dentist, Team Surfer or Team Boston Strong. I knew Tim and Te Jay were safe because we saw so little of them this episode until the end. You know if someone's going home, you're going to get a lot of their THs in that episode.

["The Daily Show": Week of 10/6/14]

The AIG story was hilarious all right, but depressing at the same time. How in the hell does something like that even make it to court? The colossal gall of Hank Greenberg is unbelievable.

 

So we've had Kristen Schall, Wyatt Cenac and Al Madrigal all this week - do any of them even work for TDS anymore? 

[S04.E01: Monsters Among Us]

 

I will admit that I miss Lily Rabe and I was extremely disappointed when I found out weeks ago that she wouldn't be in this series.

 

Whaaaaaaaaaaat??????????????? Booooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I actually thought the CGI with Sarah Paulson was pretty damn good. That's got to be a pretty tough thing to pull off and there were only a couple of shots where I thought it looked fake. That said, I think the two-headed character is going to be the toughest sell of this show for people who aren't automatically inclined to watch because of the previous seasons. They spoiled the whole thing in the promo spots  before the revelation in the pilot so they really ruined it, and I'm sure a lot of people who saw those promo spots sort of snickered and made their decision not to watch based on that.

 

Also, I don't know what kind of accent anyone is trying to do and I don't really care. Maybe it's jingoism on my part but the only time a fake accent really bugs me is when a foreigner is trying to do an "American" accent and doesn't do it well. I'm not all that familiar with other accents so I don't get nit-picky over whether a German, Spanish, French, British, whatever accent doesn't sound genuine to me. Hell, for all I know, Dick Van Dyke was doing a genuine Cockney accent in Mary Poppins.

[S11.E03: Got To Be Real]

 

Although Bailey got the board seat, Alex still has those share. Bailey is just a board members, she's not an owner of the hospital

 

Frankly I'm worried the writers do not understand that distinction and the shares Cristina left to Alex will never be mentioned again.  Because you're absolutely right - Alex is now an owner of the hospital and as a shareholder, the board has to answer to him. It's not the other way around. But I don't know if the writers really understand what "shares" are or what they mean. Cristina owned a percentage of the hospital - her shares of the investment - and she left those shares to Alex. Whether or not he becomes a member of the board, he retains those shares, they are legally his. I'm afraid the writers are conflating ownership of those shares with board membership, as if the board voting to elect Bailey to the board automatically entitles her to Cristina's shares.

 

This show really is becoming more and more absurd with the manufactured an unnecessary drama. How am I supposed to sympathize with Callie crying over wanting another baby when we haven't seen her interact with Sophia in ages? Hey Callie, you do know you already have a kid, right? And with both you and Arizona piling onto your already packed schedules, how do you think this is going to affect the time you are able to spend with that kid? They don't even seem to be taking that into consideration, it's all about some new baby which is being used as a symbol of their commitment together. Callie is upset because she doesn't trust Arizona's commitment to a family that Callie herself is dangerously close to neglecting as it is. Before there's even another baby.

 

I admit I did chuckle when Bailey took a selfie with the guy who was impaled by a tree, but then again, Unprofessional! And then, they give her a board seat. {Headsmack}

[S01.E02: Episode 2]

If the reporter works for a San Francisco newspaper, why is the phone number she gave to Chloe have a 707 area code?

 

Probably because 707 is to area codes was 555 is to the number proper. I always get a chuckle out of phone numbers that all start with 555 on TV shows and in movies.

 

I was on the fence about this show after the pilot but this episode really pulled me in. I feel like I have a unique perspective because I have never seen Broadchurch and have no idea what happened on that show. I haven't spoiled myself by looking it up online either.  There were several times when I gasped out loud so the story is definitely holding my attention. Is it groundbreaking TV? Maybe not but it's definitely a notch or two above a lot of other crap I've tried watching this season. It probably also helps that I watch it after the shit storm that Greys Anatomy has become over the last several years.

 

One thing I don't get is that they seem to be establishing that Danny wasn't even on the cliff, yet in the opening scene of the pilot we clearly saw Danny standing on the cliff as if he were about to jump. I don't know how I'm supposed to reconcile that unless it was supposed to be some sort of dream sequence or fantasy.

[Flip Or Flop - General Discussion]

Yep, new episode, and we got to see Tarek's sister. I love that her name is Angelique. I wonder if she's a Dark Shadows fan. Beautiful house, they still made a nice profit even after lowering the price for his sister. Her daughter and Taylor look like they could be sisters.

[S29.E03: Actions vs. Accusations]

 

I'm no fan of Rocker, but I do think it is wrong that he got voted out almost entirely for something he said 15 years ago.

 

That's just it - I don't think he did get voted out because of anything he said 15 years ago. I think he got voted out because a.) Josh and Alec realized he'd gone behind their backs WRT Val, making him an untrustworthy alliance partner, and b.) because he revealed he had the HII, which also made him a target, and c.) because the two girls wanted anyone to go but them. I think if the plan to vote Dale out was real, they would have gone for that. But Josh blabbed to Baylor that what John told her and Jaclyn was a ruse and he was really planning to vote out Baylor.

 

Also, note that John's plan was for him, Josh, Dale and Alec to vote out Baylor. He did not include Wes in that plan, and in fact Wes was the one to bring up the idea of voting out John to Josh, not the other way around.

 

I'm sure editing would like us to believe John Rocker's controversial past was a factor in voting him out, because they didn't cast this guy for nothing. But in truth I suspect it had little if anything to do with it.

[S04.E01: Monsters Among Us]

I didn't get that the Lucky Strikes were filled with opium. Lucky Strikes is a real brand (or was, anyway), and back in the early 50s plenty of people actually did believe smoking was good for your health.

 

Also, I didn't get that Twisty the Clown was wearing a mask. It appeared that his face had been torn off and some sort of clown make-up or tattoo had been applied to his skull. If you look at his forehead, you can see a definite layer missing just beneath it.

[S03.E03: Just Drive The Truck]

I think the point of the red light/green light issue is that, fire trucks cannot just plow through cross traffic when the light is red, and have to slow down enough to be able to stop in case the cross traffic is not clear. Since Welch's truck hit Casey's, it came down to which had the green light; if Cruz did, they had the right of way and Welch's truck was at fault. If Cruz had a red light he was at fault. So it wasn't just a matter of "can they run a red light."