possibilities

It would be easy to launder money through the vibrator business. I am not sure I want to see the show turn into a show about money laundering, though.

They're seeing hundreds, but you probably a lot of them/it's a small community? Okay then.

That's what I thought was happening all season, but then recently I started to think he actually was just a doof. I guess we'll find out next week.

Darnell told Gene to "ask Dean" why ... he didn't say directly that Dean was the one who planted evidence, but he implied that Dean was involved in the corruption. I don't know whether Gene believed him or put it all together, but I think we're supposed to be in suspense about whether he did or didn't. He went to talk to Dean after that, which is when he accidentally spilled to Chloe that Dean hadn't gone to work. I think Gene ought to realize Dean is corrupt, since he told Gene not to bother with warrants. So... I don't know what to make of Gene anymore. Why did he hero-worship Dean in the first place? Dean wasn't even polite to him most of the time, tried to cut him out of the investigation whenever he could, and didn't actually come up with any great detective work. It's not like Dean was friendly, a good mentor, wildly successful at the work, or anything else. Gene makes no sense to me at this point, which I guess makes him unpredictable. Maybe Josiah will kill Dean. But I don't trust Josiah to leave the 4 friends alone even if they do turn the drugs over to him. Why would he not consider them a potential risk, if alive? I was going to say that somehow tipping Josiah off to Dean would be the best move for the 4 friends, but my guess is that actually Josh will somehow save their asses, but then break up with Murphy. I really like Josh and his partner, but I don't think he will want to be involved with someone who lied to him, and was part of the whole criminal mess.I don't know how they keep him as a character, unless he becomes an aider and abettor or an adversary, at this point.

My listings say it was the finale. I expected that while Robin was away looking at the wrecked house, Larry would tell the rest of them about the Crab Shack, and by the time she got back they'd have solved the problem. But I guess they wanted to leave a cliffhanger in case they got renewed. This was the kind of show that I like for a while, and then it just goes too far and pushes the emotional drama too over the top, and then I just can't watch it anymore. So, at the moment, I liked it and feel sad it's gone. But I am pretty sure that very soon I'd get sick of it and stop watching anyway. That's what happened to me with This Is Us and with A Million Little Things. I liked the people, though. I liked the setting. I liked the kinds of issues they were struggling with. On AMLT, it was hard to like anyone, and their problems were mostly the self-indulgent bullshit kind. And on TIU, I felt like the show was so relentlessly trying to overdo the plot twists and timeline manipulation, that it went from "an interesting device for storytelling" to "just bullshit, knock it off already!" With COD, I feel like it was more of a straight up drama, but it was just a little too soapy in that you never had a single moment that wasn't a crisis or meant to make you cry either with joy or sadness. If they had dialed it back just enough to make it a family/community drama, great. It could have run for years. But they took it a little too far over the top to be sustainable. Robin always played every moment like she was about to shatter, even when nothing much was going on. I don't know if the actress is like that all the time in reality or if it was a device she used to play the character, but it was part of the whole way that everyone was always so over the top. The little kids were earnest every second. Theo was angry/angsty every second. Luly was always on the edge of bursting. Even when I liked them, they were exhausting.

Thank you for having Josiah let Pretzel go immediately. He didn't seem to have any intention of using the dog as leverage. Making Pretzel the cause of Sam hearing them bummed me out, but at least no one was threatening the dog. Do we know what happened to Chloe's mom? Maybe Dean killed her, too. I do like that this show has a nebbishy villain. I was amazed when Sterling went to the cops. I want to know what her story is, now. I didn't think she'd trust the police. Why did she trust the police? Weird. I guess she lucked out in that the ones she talked to seemed to be actually not corrupt, but I for sure didn't see THAT coming. The gang of 4 yelling about "the drugs" all the time-- on the phone, in the warehouse, at the dumpster-- wildly stupid. I can't take seriously Max's pouting about Josh. Go ahead, feel whatever. But the inability to focus on the job at hand, and the petulant way he was expressing himself-- he seemed like child. At the same time, Josh is TOO sweet and I personally like him but I don't think Murphy is good for him. But even with all the silly, I am still totally absorbed and feeling the suspense, so kudos, show. You got me.

Yes, people of all colors and cultures existed in the 1960s. The ad world of NY was not the only story that could be told. Moreover, the ad world itself could have been told from the point of view of Dawn (the Black secretary) or some other person in that world who was there and not ever given the primary focus for the TV show, but could have been.

I think Mad Men is somewhat of a litmus test. For instance, when there were viewers who loved Don and hated Betty, I think that said something about those viewers. Or if it made anyone long for that time, well... if you wanted to live in that hell, then I guess that tells us who you are. But there were also people who genuinely did not know what it was like, and were horrified and learned something. And there were people who watched it and were disgusted, but appreciated that it was finally being admitted to in public, and saw it as a confession rather than a glorification. I don't know what the majority thought, or what the producers intended. I've been afraid to find out.

I never saw the GG episode, so I don't have a personal opinion about it, but I have seen some Black activists on twitter also saying that episode was not blackface or offensive. Some examples: Also, this should probably be noted: https://twitter.com/ashleyn1cole/status/1277261519470751744

Decades ago when I was studying French literature of... I forget what century, but one of the ones where you could go to jail for writing "smut" -- there was a loophole where you could write entire novels about people sexing it up and being "immoral" as long as, by the end of the book, everyone either died of a sexually transmitted disease or was marched off to jail or in some other way was made to suffer terribly for their "sins." Many of these books became "classics" of French literature that are taught in universities, and let me tell you-- it made me really wish I hadn't become a French major. I'm not anti-smut, but those books were terrible. I don't think sex censorship and blackface are the same thing, but I do think that blackface jokes that are done under cover of "isn't this character terrible-- tee hee, so funny!" is kind of a similar hedge. It's only funny if you don't think that blackface is a big deal in the first place. Making it into a joke kind of implies that yeah, we know it bothers you, but we are going to do it anyway because we don't understand or respect your feelings, and regardless of what anyone else may say, we think it isn't THAT bad, and we want to find a way around the prohibition. Like those French novels, it posits that as long as you punish the person you can get away with it, because you found the loophole. Doing this communicates that you personally aren't bothered by it enough to take the prohibition seriously, and that you really want to talk about how you feel as the person who wants to use blackface, rather than that you are listening to or caring about how blackface impacts others. I think it's genuinely true that the people making some or possibly all of the shows that are being discussed here did not understand or take seriously the degree of pain and offense attached to blackface, and felt comfortable subverting the prohibition rather than being respectful of it without pushback. It wasn't done out of a desire to cause hurt, but it was hurtful because it was done to minimize the feelings of those who are hurt by it, and to re-center the issue on the feelings of the people who've been asked not to do it. It's not that they WANTED to cause pain (I hope), but that they didn't take seriously that it would, and felt comfortable ignoring how it would likely feel to others. I'm sure all of us have been guilty of that mistake, if not with blackface then with some other issue, but I think it's great that it's being looked at again, and a greater understanding and respect is being followed by making changes. It's sad that some otherwise good things get lost in the shuffle (like a suicide prevention message), but that's weighed against the hurt caused by NOT pulling them, and is really just all the more reason to avoid this kind of mistake in the first place, and seek advice if you're not sure-- before you film it. I'm really curious if the writers' rooms and network overseers for those shows had diverse representation on board, or how those things got past them if they did. SO MANY things get axed in edit because they're considered "controversial" and networks don't want to offend. It's interesting what widely acknowledged to be offensive things DO get to air. Apparently who is potentially offended is a bigger factor than just whether someone might be offended. And I do hope that the conversations that come out of pulling various episodes out of rotation will lead to more awareness and fewer missteps going forward. When we read those French novels, we didn't read them because they were wonderful. We read them to understand the times, and to discuss the issues they raised. But the place for that would be a seminar, and not a randomly encountered episode in syndication.

Chris never did say what his favorite animal was, did he?

How does a cow with a broken jaw eat??

I came over to give am updated opinion about "In The Dark" which has a blind character. The show has gotten much better in its representation. In addition to the main character, they've also got another blind character, plus one who's losing his vision and has recently started to need a cane to navigate. All three of these folks have distinct personalities and issues, and I really like that the show decide not to just have a token. One thing I like is that Murphy (the blind lead character) is not in any way being treated as a damsel in distress. The show is full of dangerous situations, and she's portrayed as being right in the mix, not in any way more of a victim or less of a perpetrator than anyone else. For example, in this week's episode I still have complaints, like the way she treats her Guide Dog (yanking on his harness, leaving him behind a lot), but I'm appreciating more of the things they are doing than I did at first. There is just zero pity, zero infantilization, and zero sanitizing the situation. It's the rare show that doesn't resort to inspiration porn, misery porn, rescue fantasies, or minimization of the disability in order to drive the agenda. Her blindness is part of her, but it's not the only thing, or the main storyline. A few years ago there was a tv show about a blind detective. And it really was all about how "He Is Blind and Also A Detective-- how does he do it? And look how people react to him!!!" In The Dark doesn't do that at all. She's doing a whole bunch of shit, including solving a murder, and she's dealing with cops and drug dealers, but it's not about How The Blind Girl Does That. It's about how Murphy does it. And the people who react to her are mostly reacting to things other than her being blind. I want to see more characters with disabilities, where the disabilities are part of their lives (not ignored), but where the plot is not about the disability itself. This is one of the rare shows that does that.

Why did mom have SO MANY shovels, anyway? When the bodies are found (I figure it's inevitable), will Chelsea get blamed, since her bar's St Patrick's Day banner is used to wrap the bodies? And will the drugs then be found when the Linsmore is searched? So... Chelsea gets accidentally framed? Or will "everyone" assume Ben was dealing, Chelsea didn't know, and someone else killed both him and Nia? Would be fun if the gang can frame Josiah for the murders, somehow. I hope Josh doesn't show up at Murphy's apartment while they're all being threatened by Josiah. I'm surprised by how caught up I am in all this crazy. I still love Chloe. I don't know how we get to see Dean taken down without her getting hurt, but I also really think Dean has to be dealt with. I'm not giving him a pass just because his daughter is awesome. Gene's willingness to be like Dean has made me dislike him. I imagine this is how Dean started-- cut a corner here, disregard an order there, and after a while it becomes okay to do whatever you want, because you believe you ARE the law, not a servant of it. So... I see bad things for Gene in the future. I don't know what I want for Josh. Or Sterling. Why did the henchman they let go and who was subsequently killed by Sam not have a weapon, though? Did he drop it? I must have missed something. It looks to me like Sam wants to take over Nia's operation. I don't think Darnell would want to, but I could be wrong about that, I suppose. I thought he genuinely did want out, after losing his love and his brother. The problem might be, though, that he doesn't have an easy answer for what else he can do next, or where to go to start over, without resources or friends. And when/if both Nia and Josiah are gone, there will be a vacuum that someone will fill. People will still want to buy, and I predict Dean will want to take over, for the money. I'm not sure how he'd manage it, but that seems like what he'd want to do.

From watching tv, you'd think women never give birth unless there's a storm, a traffic jam, or a broken elevator....