DoctorAtomic

I never bought that. I wish they were just honest about it. I didn't have any skin in the game so I didn't care. "It's the journey" is the lamest excuse there is. No, it's not. It never is because then you'd have no plot. Also you wouldn't have pulled the 'we have to go back' if it wasn't about the island. You knew you didn't have enough chops to write a compelling drama without it. I mean, I liked the sideways world but wow that was pulled out of nowhere. I don't really get the need to insist everything is planned out either.

Did she ever say anything about it?

I mean it's weird that he would just take off for days on end and his family didn't know where he was and that Michael Jordan's dad would sleep in his car. 'Michael, I'm going to visit my friend in Charlotte. Can you put me up on the way?' I get playing hard in practice, but you're trying to get your teammate to fight you. That's issues. I remember Burrell from UConn because I was in college when he was in the area. Guy sounds like a saint. I do like Pippen, but it's hard when you're showing Kukoc hitting several game winning shots. It's also kind of ironic that the whole success of the Bulls dynasty was fundamentally based on Jackson convincing Jordan that he had to give up the ball more. I don't think it's fair to ask Jordan about being a 'nice guy'. Like I've said - all he has to do is point at the banners. I certainly am all in on having a high standard and challenging your teammates to rise up to that level. In this sequester due to the virus, I've learned who the people are that are willing to put in work and who just want to punch a card. It's a timely commentary watching this documentary. But - is Jordan's way the only way to do that? Always belittling people, trying to get your teammates to fight you. I don't think so, and I think he clearly knows it because he broke up at the end of E7. That was probably the most insight I've seen in the series to date. It's interesting that he referred to himself as a leader. I'm not really seeing that. It's not like the team built around him wasn't the top players in the game.

That's the thing though. TPTBs said they threw everything at the wall, literally. It's a quote from the EW article after the show ended. I don't expect a show to have itself planned out from the jump (though B5 for real). However, you have to be honest with your audience. Breaking Bad and the Sopranos didn't have anything planned out from the start - but they did start each season and storyboarded it out. Again, to be fair, when they decided on the fixed number of episodes, they did a good job telling a consistent story. Which is even more egregious because they could have done that from the start. The bottom line is that they had a great *great* idea for the pilot, and didn't have anything after.

I'm still not clear on how Jordan's father passed. I don't remember when Jordan retired (as in - where were you) because I was in college and just didn't have access to tv, but I knew when he retired. I didn't know about all the conspiracy theories. I don't really give much credence to conspiracies in general because they're always so elaborate and require people to not be stupid, which we are in general. I can't see why Stern would legally bar his cash cow in Jordan from playing in the league, but a mutual decision isn't that outlandish. I have a hard time believing that Jordan, as tired as he was, wouldn't want to go for 4 in a row. He literally said, 'Bird and Magic never did three in a row.' I could be significantly underestimating his relationship with his father. I'm also finding it hard to grasp that you're so burnt out and emotionally drained so you go play pro baseball. I mean, by now, he had to know the media sensation it was. That's how you move on? So, of course, he never speaks to Sports Illustrated again.

I don't remember at all that Claire took notes from Gellis. That's even worse that we're not privy to any of that.

Alas no. I'm only one man.

I am pleased to announce that I purchased a baguette at the grocery store and when I packed my bag, the bread was able to stick straight up. As you all might be wondering, I can confirm that my ride home was accompanied by an appropriate level of music of a whimsical nature.

That's correct. But Roger drew conclusions on the only data he had. And he was correct. You can't really expect anyone to know what they don't know, and nothing happened outside that frame of reference to cause him to question whether his conclusion was wrong. I don't really get the point. We know that Gellis could control travel by killing someone, but I don't see that applies because they were planning to return to 1972. And it has been clear cut that you go back when you go through the first. *Every* traveler we've seen has gone back first, and every one of them that has returned, has gone forward 202+time spent iirc. In fact, given his logical reasoning, it's actually more dumb that they were all like, 'oh I guess it was because we were thinking of home and this is home now?' I don't see why the show needed to violate its own internal consistency when there was a way more simple and direct answer. I would go so far as to say, there's more drama in Roger realizing he *can* go to 1972, but can't bring his family, and next season comes to terms with 1772 finally being his home. Or instead of him whining all season, you give some stronger direction for the actor to actually show that character development. I'm baffled as to why they deleted the scene about him having to try twice to get through the stones the first time because that ends any bitching I have about it. I genuinely like the show. I don't know why this irks me so much. I don't know if it's because I think it could be way better with a little forward thinking or what.

Yeah I was just going to say. She murdered her husband so I can buy that human sacrifice gives you some control. Otherwise, the show has been consistent in just having a gemstone and going back the 200 years. I'm not sure Roger knew that. I mean, they showed the burned body right there as Gellis went through. I think she actually explained it beforehand. The whole 'thinking' is a fanwank. It's a reasonable one, but a show shouldn't have to fanwank itself to get where it needs to go for plot.

The actor is doing well with Kai being confident that she's good at her job. Being the only woman lead is kind of a thin line, unfortunately, because it's too easy to just fall back on being a bitch. She was legitimately pissed because the chief was giving them shitty cases, but she worked the case professionally. It's a credit to the writing but the actor still needs to work in between the dialogue. I also like that she just has tattoos and it's not any deal about anything.

It never crossed my mind that Vader thought Ahsoka was dead.

'They way crazier and way richer.' One of the thing I liked about Leverage was that they were ripping off rich, greedy people. I don't know if any of you all watched Hustle, but it was the same premise. A little larger scale, but both show employed the same cons. Anyway, I don't really care that much that Uncle Danny wanted to rip off rich people. I did have a good laugh at the welching joke. And, again, great job to have Kai put her foot down to Walker. The show is doing well with the dynamic between the three. Whoa I actually thought they killed him until they returned from the break because Walker would have taken a swing at Ernesto. Nice that it was a con in the end.

I think Walker actually mentioned the daughter in the second episode. It was when he ran out of water, and he went undercover as the cowboy.

I think that's part of the fundamental problem. With TPTBs having no idea what story they're trying to tell, the actor has to make it all up. It unfairly lands on them because you see the actor every week. The show itself was an absolute mess, but I will give them credit that once they said - we're doing X more shows and that's it - the show did get better. Granted, the plot was dumb af, but there was some internal consistency. I will give them credit for a multicultural cast. And I think you can say that the pilot alone just by itself is the best one in tv. But I knew from the jump that nothing was going to hold up just from watching the X Files already, so I didn't have much investment in the show beyond enjoying the locale. I like Mad Men even if the characters are awful people. That never bothers me. I liked when Don had his 'honest' moments - showing the daughter where he grew up, etc.

Richard Kind must golf with everyone.

Holy shit yeah. Motherfucker. I did like the Dirty Dancing bit in the play rehearsal. I buy that Louis is into fem boys though. I like the episode, but wow.

But they sit on the chair backwards all the time and want to 'rap'.

I don't remember that.

That's where I first saw her. I think that was for a movie. For sure. That's why I brought it up. The gang leader in his first scene with the cops at the soda machine in the hospital was hardcore. And then he was all dancing with *everyone*. It's a whole other level of us v them.

Well, what kind of cocktail is it? I liked the Sopranos, but I do think it gets somewhat of a bump in that it wasn't actually as great as people remember because it was *the* show that paved the way for our current viewing landscape. (I've said this before). There wasn't shit on Sunday nights on any channel back then of note. And tiny cable outfits putting out genre or high quality drama was unheard of.

To be fair, people can be entertained by those kind of shows too.

Did they ever show how Bob and Linda met? Or when they were dating before the kids?

To be fair, for every traveler, you basically go into the past. For Claire and them, it seems like it was about 200 years. For Gellis, she went farther back, but I can at least cite that she needed the blood sacrifice to control when she wanted to land. She was researching the stones. She could have info dumped to Claire on plenty of occasions on how they work and just get it all out of the way. I don't think they should be getting into the physics of the stones, but on the other hand, just a modicum of consistency is just being respectful to the audience. Like, I don't care that there's a bunch of people that 'hear' the stones and need a gemstone to travel. That's fine. Those are the rules. I can roll with that. The simple and direct explanation is that you can't go forward from your origin - so the baby effectively blocked them. That's all they needed. We all said as much here because we actually watch the show and pay attention. That and it was the guy from Galactica producing the show. I don't mind that it's not actually about time travel per se. I do like Claire using her advanced know-how to make medicines or Bree making the needle; I wish there was more of that. Or knowing how the revolution is going to turn out. What I don't like is that these characters are actually smart and capable, and now just act kind of ignorant to move the plot along. I mean, come on, traveling back to the ridge, neither of them had any discussion? Or, before they left, Claire didn't talk about whether the baby could go forward, when she literally said, "I don't know if you can go forward with the baby" when Bree was pregnant? I know it's a minor nit, but it's a symptom of a larger problem with the way the show is written that really just sucks out what could be so much of a better show with a little more effort.

Richard Kind shows up in nearly every TV show.