Ottis

Karen’s a fool. And she left Foggy hanging. And she is self righteous about Matt not immediately telling her he is alive? I really do not enjoy her character.

I was mystified that everyone was happy for Becky. She gave up on the surrogate job, and now has no boyfriend, not much of a job, and now she is having a baby? Why is that something to celebrate? She proved that doctors who thought she was too old, and drank a lot, were wrong... so she can have a difficult pregnancy? Uh, OK. On top of that, now we have baby tropes to deal with. Well, at least this carries on the Connor family’s long tradition of poor choices. Still dig Darlene. Jackie was much better overall. Less whacky and more funny.

After a fantastic opening four episodes, some aspects of this season are beginning to disappoint. First is Karen, who is so courageous and yet so emotionally silly when it comes to Matt. So accusatory, so willing to blame instead of ask questions. And her dramatic looks, and wave to her newspaper colleague. She always seems a half step from either a breakdown or a song. And for pete’s sake, will someone stop her from crying? Dex is way too unstable to be an FBI agent. I guess he becomes something... a villain? But he can beat Daredevil, so... yay? Daredevil needs a power up. Fisk so far has returned to his first half of season one self. So relentless, so thorough. My only disappointment is that physically he isn’t as strong as he should be, IMO. Making Matt a pretend bad guy is incredibly annoying. And I know these fights are a key part of DD’s character , but no interest in the long ones. Let’s just get to the impact. The nun is a great addition. As is her interaction with Matt. Even with its flaws so far, this season of DD is far superior to Iron Fist and JJ season 2. And a bit better than Luke Cage. So the female FBI boss has been bought by Fisk. Has to be, right? Man, one thing you don’t want is for Fisk to tell you a story.

And... the show blew it. If there is any trope I despise, it’s the “good guy falsely accused and has to prove he isn’t guilty” trope. It just ensures a lot of wasted time as characters prove something we the viewer already know... the good guy is a good guy. Dex has really good aim. I did miss Matt. And still miss the red suit.

Fisk is so good. He arranged for his own shanking. Nice. I really enjoy trying to figure out his long game. Had a hard time buying all the cops, who were already annoyed at Foggy, signing up after one short speech. I’m not sure why we are getting so much about Naddem and his personal life. Don’t know if it is the actor or the acting, but I am not invested in him or his family. Everyone sure gets mad at Matt. Guy has a building fall on him, is gone for a few months and all his “friends” care about us why he hasn’t told them he is alive. They don’t even ask him what he was doing. Can’t wait to try to get rid of someone by suggesting they go get a cup of coffee- my treat!

I don’t understand all the angst over moving Fisk. Nadeem said last episode that ten intel brought down the Albanian leadership. Where is the news coverage of that? And why aren’t we seeing more intel from Fisk? The “penthouse” is an empty big room. The show is ignoring logic for the sake of plot. That said, I love Fisk. What a much better villain than anyone else on these Marvel TV shows. I like how he isn’t a moustache twirler. And if Matt really knew Fisk, he would know what Fisk’s motivation is. That’s what makes Fisk so different. And who is this Dex guy?

For about four, maybe five, episodes this last season it sort of worked. Then it went off the rails in the ep where Claire starts blaming men. At that point, the plot diverted from anything that made sense and became a crazy person’s fantasy.

Wait... so Claire’s message is that people want her finger off the nuclear button because she is a woman? Uh, what about the crazy town show she provided last episode where she went fetal position and everyone knew it? I would think most Americans would be more concerned with that. OK, show, your agenda now IS the plot. i thought when she was wildly searching her office that she was looking for cigarettes they had hid. Didn’t Hitler say something about being mother and father to the nation?

Shades of the final scenes in The Godfather, when Michae l has all his enemies removed. To what end Claire is doing it, I don't know.

Why does this episode have Claire constantly bringing up she is a woman? Complaining about men who have tried to control her, and the “high crime of being a woman.” “As women we have to fight back,” with Kelsey. And the complaints with Angela (?) about “male arguing.” And yet every scene I see with the bad guys (though they are not all guys) are them responding to her actions, not complaints about her being a woman. You can claim that feeling is institutionalized I suppose, but it would be helpful to see it. Claire seems to be waging a feminist war against people who don’t think she deserves the presidency because she received it when her husband died... and they want power. It’s an oppprtunity, not a societal bias. Many shows have an agenda. This show’s agenda is sinking the series.

Geena was irritated Mary hadn't gone to church in two years. DJ was expected to take her to church. Mary plus DJ = "people." Geena did not give the impression in any way that anyone who *didn't* want to go to church was A-OK.

I agree, and I didn't even mind her comment a couple of eps ago about everyone going to hell, either. That felt like a long-running family debate that everyone hears, says their part, shrugs off/laughs and moves on. But this past ep, insisting people go to church because Geena does, that was crossing the line for me. Too much Whacky Jackie. A little is OK.

So it *was* supposed to run earlier? OK, that explains it. We kept saying that it was weird how Dan was now so upset at Roseanne's passing, when he seemed better with it in earlier episodes. I know that grief has stages, but the way this was portrayed came out of left field. She has improved since the reboot. Her comment about getting her jacket was the LOL line for us. Overall, this ep had some good content but seemed really uneven. The church plot revolved around a totally different reason to go, driven by other characters, while Dan was trying to find answers. Seems like the connection should have been more to Dan, even if he rejected it. And then the election voting thing was from a totally a different show, starring Barney Fife. Geena and her church attitude would work my last nerve. You can go if you want, for whatever reason you choose. But don't insist everyone else should agree with you. Mrs. Ottis and I are on different sides of Geena's POV (she is more Geena, I am more Darlene), and we have had that discussion for our kids. It wasn't fun, and Mrs. Ottis is nowhere near the fanatic that Geena is.

So am I stoopid for asking if this show is sort of progressive? I was talking to a professor friend of mine (big on feminist structures and dialogue) and he said he watched part of an episode and was so disgusted he quit. Meanwhile, I'm watching an admittedly crude show about puberty and how difficult it is for *everyone* and thinking, actually, isn't the bottom line message pretty sensitive to both men and women's concerns? The entire episode about the school sleepover was about boys feeling important because they told their friends they touched a girl's boob, the feelings of the girl whose boob was touched and the reactions of other kids around them (which, BTW, were generally more thoughtful than those of kids I knew when I was that age in the 70s). It's pretty shallow, because it's a cartoon. But here I was thinking it was being fairly representative while my professor friend was horrified. Who is right?

I don’t find any plots about babies of interest- and we have two kids. And I think it is strange that all the parents can’t wait to get away from their kids to celebrate Halloween. And yes, a mattress store open all night, what? Loved the X-files stuff.

"Don't Bugs Bunny me!" Heh.

Honestly. The show went to great lengths to have Potter say how no one is minding the store. So whack him already. Back after the second or third ep, I noted Dita is Gemma, EZ (and parts of Galindo, with his making the business legit push) is Jax and Emily is Maggie. You can keep going with the SOA comparisons. I love EJO, and like his character a lot. But it's hard to buy this "family is most important" theme he espouses, and his sons have taken as their own, when ALL of them are so quickly OK with murdering their own cousin. The show needed to do more with that. For instance, have Potter lie and tell them all that Jiminez was a rat or something, or killed someone important to the MC, and AFTER they kill him, they all learn Potter lied. That would have made way more sense. That seems like such an obvious and more consistent way to go. I thought the show was OK. I don't really care much about any of the characters. I felt for Felipe but the cousin murder cooled that. Angel? Maybe, given the position he has put in. But I overall enjoy the interactions and themes. I never in a million years would have guessed that Happy, of all the SOA characters, would be the one to come back and play a key role in Mayans.

This is where the show has started to lose me as a viewer. I don't know what that was about, but I have no interest. Claire can carry the show, and I get that some feel she stole the office and don't like it, and I'm on board for her (and her team) vs. the world, but this stupid sorority ballet feud with Angela is pointless. It actually makes me more interested in Doug's looniness.

I'm not sure we know enough about her to know whether she is dumb. What we know is that she was Ok benefiting from bloodshed as long as she was wealthy and safe. And now she has been forced to become more involved, and is inexperienced. Leaving the X-ray behind was clever, but also, if she knows how to manipulate anyone it would be her husband. So not sure that was an example of any more intelligence than she had already shown. We'll see how she does becoming a bigger part of a wider strategy. I knew he was gone as soon as Emily touched his shoulder in the study. Devante already had protested too much, and then the X-ray showed he outright lied to Galindo. No way he comes back from that. Add on the sacrifice to Adelita, and it was a done deal not long after this ep started. Potter is an idiot. If your goal is stability, and to profit from that, why have EZ kill an (ex?) federal agent? That's just stupid. Get your pieces set on the board, have the system up and running, and then, at some later date, go after the ex-agent if you have to. That lesson from SOA came roaring back to me after 2-3 eps of Mayans. These guys are *in* an MC *because* they all do stupid shit. They can't control themselves, and some are just not very bright. There aren't many other places for them to go in society. Hell, they are suspicious of EZ because he clearly has a brain. So in effect, we are all watching a show about dimwits, bad tempers and misfits. And yeah, yeah, they are smart in other ways, like fixing bikes. I don't mean they are unable to function. I just mean they are outcasts because they don't fit anywhere else. This caused me endless issues in SOA with Maggie and Jax. I liked about 45% of this ep, where we saw some strategy from Galindo and Potter. The MC members are just pawns. At least until Sutter pulls off his patented "MC miraculously outmaneuvers the smarties in ways that make little sense" move.

Mixed feelings. I like well-done MF farce, and this was close, but during a lot of it I cringed. The best part was the twist at the end with Paige actually liking Phil. The issue was the silly premise for Phil actually encouraging it just long enough to keep his class. Really? A married 50yo man encourages a 20ish student just so he can keep his class? In the Me, Too era no less? That would never end well. While I admire Cam for being who he is, I don't think I would be able to stand him IRL. Being unabashedly you is OK, but doing it when you know that others you like have issues with it is annoying. So you make noises during a msaaage - fine. Then let Mitch have his own room. Shouldn't be an issue. Yet somehow it is. As for Jay, it's irrelevant how attractive he is. People like other people for all sorts of reasons, and to some, he is attractive, too! The more important point is that to most, Gloria is a 10/10, that they seem to have a great relationship (a bit inexplicable, as I am not sure what Jay offers Gloria beyond security and perhaps citizenship, but the show has never cared much about that), and Jay would be insane to risk that - and Gloria knows it. At the end, they head up to the bedroom, so yeah, he's living the dream. That other woman was attractive, but no reason to roam.

I didn't understand the point of this plot. I expected the school to stop Mark because of a gender issue with the costume, which would have been stupid and the Darlene and whomever else could have rightly made that point. But it was due to the character being Hispanic, which was somehow not stupid and so Darlene made some comments and left? Is the lesson that we are now only allowed to dress like people who are like us, or like how others perceive us? It felt like the show backed down in the middle of making some kind of point. At first I thought Jackie's date was someone was dressed as Mathew Broderick as a costume - and then realized it was Mathew Broderick. It's strange to see him at his current age. I still picture Ferris. Dan needs someone to talk to. He is surrounded by people whose only purpose is to try his patience.

Those are basically the only eps we watch. Prices less than $500k, generally ($500k is typical in much of our Denver area), and we prefer it if the prices are less than $300k. We also don't watch any episodes in NYC or Chicago, because cost/size ratio. The Boston couple STUNNED us. She liked white cabinets, and her cabinets were indeed white, but they were clearly older and not the kind of white cabinets that most buyers insist on. They loved their house for what it is, appreciated it, and didn't seem to think twice about the compromises. That was amazing to watch. All these decisions boil down to a couple of questions. 1) is location your primary concern? 2) how much space do you need? Everything else can be fixed later.

It's getting harder to make it through these episodes. I have to try 3-4 times before I finish one. It's just not very interesting. The only story line I find riveting is EJO, and his trek through his past. The Galindos seem to be the most powerless drug cartel characters ever.

I’m shocked people are so bothered that characters on a sitcom about a relatively shallow family didn’t act grief stricken enough. I thought there was too much grief about a bit character we hardly saw and mostly didn’t like. Second that Cam in his Markle outfit was disturbing. It seemed very half assed for Cam. That Dede doll... was it something left over from Cheers? Dylan dying would have been more significant, given Haylie just chose him. I was with Jay. Where’s my sandwich.

It would (should?) be about far more than sexuality. That's what I meant by not handling it in a cliched way. The fact that Mark seems to like boys is a result of who Mark feels he is, and that part can happen at 13 or younger. I am not trying to state anything political. I'm only saying that this is a sensitive issue in our society, and like All In the Family did with similar issues, The Connors could explore it. I'd like that, and i would like it even more if they did it openly and a bit raw, like AitF did. get it out there and show different perspectives.