SadieT

I'm annoyed they're wasting Fiona's last episodes with this dumb repetitive downward spiral storyline. Also if you're going to do a retread of a previous storyline at least acknowledge the past and play it off as part of a pattern for the character. Instead of Debbie bitching about the money Fiona owes and Lip screaming at her for shit that's not actually her fault, how about someone reminds her that last time she went down this road she almost killed her baby brother. Do they think we forgot Fiona's last downward spiral? At least the first time I actually had sympathy for her, now I just don't care.

Still kind of bummed this show has yet to be canceled and is currently airing new episodes. Not sure if they’re waiting to ride out the season or what not before making a decision but it looks like Weatherly’s going to get a pass for being a creep. I guess CBS is only willing to make moves behind the scenes while letting the talent slide as long as ratings are good. Anyway Vulture published an article on some more trouble at CBS, this time concerning NCIS: New Orleans and a couple of executive producers/writers who have been fired for shitty behavior. Michael Weatherly and Eliza Dushku and the problems at Bull are mentioned throughout. https://www.vulture.com/2019/01/adam-targum-fired-ncis-new-orleans.html From the Vulture article: So Les Moonves apparently made it known that he wanted to sleep with Eliza Dushku prior to her being offered a role on Bull and this producer guy Kern made that known to anyone who would listen and basically ensured that Eliza would be treated with zero respect when she finally did land a gig at CBS. I feel like it’s not much a stretch to think Michael Weatherly took his cues from the top concerning Eliza, considering he and Moonves are supposedly close so I’m sure he was aware of Moonves’s interest in her (not that it sounds like it was much of a secret). If the president of the network views an actress as a sex object and random producers are discussing her as such, it's no wonder she was treated so poorly on set. Another quote from the article: The previous Vulture article investigating sexual harassment at CBS published last year even mentions Moonves wanting to hire an actress because he wished to sleep with her, but she isn't mentioned by name. I wonder if Eliza was made aware that her name had come up in a human resources investigation prior to her ever being hired at Bull. And for those people who think she was making too big a deal out of MW’s “jokes” or being overly dramatic, this just goes to show everyone knew what kind of atmosphere she was walking into and yet no one did shit make sure she was treated professionally. ETA: Just to add to my rant because I forgot to mention the actresses that went out of their way to publicly support Weatherly on social media, indirectly trying to diminish Eliza Dushku’s experience....you know maybe MW was nice to those particular actresses on set and maybe they all got along swimmingly and were great friends.... but maybe, just maybe, he behaved differently towards Eliza because of the talk that surrounded her and her hiring at the network. Maybe he figured that’s what she was there for and he didn’t feel compelled to show her any respect because his boss didn’t and he knew he’d get away with it. Maybe he objectified her because she was in a vulnerable position and it was easy. Maybe he’s not the type of guy to treat all people poorly, maybe he’s selective and it would be nice if people would realize that just because person X is nice to you, doesn’t mean they’re nice to everyone.

She stated to him directly that she was uncomfortable with his line of joking and instead of respecting that, he doubled down and retaliated in a cruel and vindictive way. That shows that his intentions were never light-hearted. It seems that one way or another he was determined to demean and undermine her when all she wanted to do was perform the job she had been hired to do.

I don't get it either. It's not like this is a case of he said/she said. This is a case of he was caught on tape saying and doing exactly what she said he did. Where exactly is the gray area people are so determined to see here? What are Sasha, Pauley and these other actresses supporting exactly? MW right to sexually harass his co-stars, as long as it's not them on the receiving end of his antics?

Yeah, I keep comparing this situation to ABC's handling of Roseanne and it's interesting to see the differences. None of Roseanne's co-stars came to her defense, in fact, most of them publicly condemned her statements and the network axed her almost immediately. Not only did Weatherly get flowery shows of support from female co-stars about how wonderful he is, but not a single person at Bull or CBS has spoken out against the documented prolonged harassment Eliza was subjected to. It's truly baffling but it's becoming clearer with every passing day that even with Moones out, the toxic sexist environment he helped create at CBS is not going to change anytime soon. Bull is doing well in the ratings and that's all that matters.

I've been waiting (and hoping) for news that the show has been canceled or that Weatherly has been fired but considering it's been a few days now, I'm starting to think the network is planning to just ride out the storm and wait for the media frenzy to die down. Eventually, someone else will screw up and the attention will be off CBS and Weatherly and they'll just carry on with the show as if nothing happened. Otherwise, why have multiple former female co-stars come out with pro-Weatherly statements in an obvious coordinated attempt to humanize the guy if CBS wasn't planning on keeping him on board?

http://deadline.com/2018/05/13-reasons-why-katherine-langford-wont-return-potential-third-season-1202398304/ Not surprising considering the season 2 finale didn't really leave much room for Hannah's story to continue.

The fight scene was pretty great. Porter’s WTF when the Coach came at him like they were just another couple students made me chuckle. And Zach jumping in to deliver a beat down was pretty awesome. I know Chloe’s a victim but man was it disappointing seeing her back down on the stand. Moms of boys like Bryce tend to be some of the worst enablers so seeing Bryce’s mom calling him out for being a creep and not buying any of shit is refreshing but also kind of jarring. The dramatic pan down to Bryce’s hard on while he fondly reminisced about raping Hannah was seriously disturbing. Do we really need to see multiple boys’ erections on this show? First Alex and now Bryce. One criticism I've had for this season is that they seem to be trying hard to make every character sympathetic, no matter how shitty they acted last season, but thankfully there's no sympathetic backstory for Bryce. He's just a privileged violent predator who gets off on hurting girls. I was half-expecting Clay to shoot ghost Hannah at the end to make her stop describing the rape.

While I appreciate Shari's new skill, you can't really detox someone from heroin with a bottle of Gatorade. Opiate withdrawal is extremely dangerous.

Exactly. I loved seeing them together but being some popular boy's "secret girlfriend" is pretty much exactly the type of shit Hannah was talking about on those tapes and it would have been very hurtful for Hannah to have a guy she trusted and cared about be ashamed of his relationship with her. They should have had Hannah be the one to decide she didn't want the relationship public for the whole thing to be more believable. If she was worried the people at school would continue to give her shit for "being a slut" or didn't want Clay to find out cause she knew he was into her, that would at least explain why she left it off the tapes. And Clay continues to be the worst.

The trailer looks decent. It's going to take a lot to get me interested in the new characters but I like that Alison and Mona seem to have a lot of scenes together. I think Sasha might have spoken too soon about us seeing the twins, it's possible things have changed and been re-written since she was told that information because I believe she said that before seeing the first script. Then again the trailer only includes clips from the pilot since that's all they've filmed at this point so it's possible the twins appear at a later point.

How did Jack get the piano in the house without Rebecca seeing it? I thought Rebecca's gifts to Jack were actually really sweet and thoughtful. It's a shame she felt she couldn't match Jack's gifts just because she didn't go big. I hope we get more Kate and Beth in future. Beth seems like fun, and they have an interesting dynamic. I also like Madison and all her nicknames for Toby. I admit I didn't care much for the Deja drama the first time around so I'm not terribly invested in her now. I went from not liking Toby to being annoyed on his behalf that his future brothers-in-law were behaving like self-involved asses and screwing up his bachelor party.

Is she really considered a big name though? I've never heard of her but then again I'm too old to be watching the Disney channel. I suppose they could very well be attempting to draw young viewers with this casting if she's popular, or they're just keeping things in the Disney family. And it's pretty standard practice to try to capitalize on an actor's popularity if possible. It's why Lucy Hale was cast on PLL and why Bella Thorne was cast on FIL. I'm interested in seeing how they work Alison and Mona into the story and how big a role they each will play though. Alison obviously moves there to teach, but what the hell is Mona doing there when she's supposed to be hiding out in France with her real-life dolls?

Thanks for the crockpot of death, George. Going to unplug all my appliances now before I go to bed. Never thought I'd have something in common with Toby but I too have lost myself on Petfinder a time or two. Would have never forgiven Kate if she didn't go back and get that dog. You could see bits of Jack in both Kevin and Randall tonight so in a way, he lives on. Nervous about next episode. And now I'm going to have rush home from a super bowl party to watch a beloved fictional character die on TV but I guess that's what this show wants.

Really enjoyed that episode. Kevin’s feelings about not being the favorite are so real to me that it’s actually painful. And I love that Randall finally admitted that it wasn’t necessarily about Kevin being mistreated as a child, but about Kevin’s perspective. Because to Kevin, it obviously hurt watching his mom bond with Randall and his dad with Kate, even if he did have good moments with his parents (like his mom getting out of bed to sleep with him on the floor), but it sucks when people try to gaslight you into believing your pain isn’t real. I’ve tried explaining that very same concept to my siblings in regards to the “your mom’s favorite” conversation, that it doesn’t mean "mom was mean to me", it’s so much more complex, but my siblings always get so defensive—just like we saw with the Pearsons in that therapy session. It can be so hard for people to accept that even though you all grow up together and share certain experiences, each individual sibling experiences those things differently and has different memories and feelings about them so I was really happy to hear Randall acknowledge Kevin's perspective in that Big 3 sceen. And Rebecca admitting that Kevin didn’t seem to need her as much and that it was just easier with Randall couldn’t have been easy but I was happy to hear her actually acknowledge that Kevin’s feelings were valid as well. My mother used to always say the “squeaky wheel gets the oil” when we were growing up when one of us complained about not getting the same attention or treatment as another sibling. And in a way it makes sense, especially when you’re trying to manage and care for multiple children (and my mom had 4 of us to raise basically on her own), but man, sometimes it sucks being that non-squeaky wheel, as I often was, and I definitely remember feeling like things would be better if I squeaked a little more and acted out. So I feel Kevin, and we see Kevin act out to get that attention, so I’m really impressed with how the show explored the nuances of “favoritism” in the family, because we all know most parents love their children equally, but there are complexities involved that can make it seem like that’s not the case in a child’s eyes. On another note, Beth and Randall annoyed me this episode, with Beth acting like Kevin intentionally put their daughter at risk and Randall dismissing Kevin’s addiction, but Randall at least redeemed himself by the end.

I think the girls' endings all revolving around their significant others was due largely to fan pressure and certain characters/ships being too popular to ignore/piss off. Marlene wanted to keep everyone on twitter happy and that kind of handcuffed the writers a bit. And despite sacrificing the characters to make all the endgames possible and please the fans, Marlene still managed to piss off a large chunk of the shipping fandom because Spoby fans felt they got the short-end of the stick in comparison to other ships since their endgame was open-ended. In addition to general pressure from fans on social media, Marlene also mentioned that Ashley Benson wanted Hanna to have a baby with Caleb and said she decided to give Ashley what she wanted and thus Hanna and Caleb desperately needing to have a baby at 24 despite not being on solid ground in their marriage. Apparently, Ashley also really wanted Hanna to have twins and Marlene likely would have given in on that too because she's close to Ashley but thankfully we didn't get that far. As for Aria suddenly freaking out over babies, that was just a product of bad writing method. Marlene mentioned in a post-show interview that they needed a reason for Ezra to walk out on Aria right before the wedding so that she would suspect he got cold feet on the wedding day and not that he had been kidnapped, so she said they needed a conflict and because the writers are hacks the conflict they came up with was Aria not telling Ezra that she possibly couldn't have kids because when in doubt go with pregnancy I guess. Essentially they just plugged in a random source of conflict in Ezria's storyline to create the outcome they wanted and didn't care how they got from point A to point B.

Randall and Beth adopting an older child makes me think of when Julia and Joel adopted an older child on Parenthood and I didn’t love the drama that storyline brought on that show so I’m sure I won’t love it here either. Kevin and Kate’s relationship is one of my favorite things about this show so I don’t want to see it change but I could, theoretically, understand why a significant other might feel threatened by their close bond. Still, my issue is that Toby isn’t just upset that Kate and Kevin are co-dependent, he’s upset that Kate isn’t dependent on him. So it’s not the unhealthiness of a co-dependent relationship he has an issue with, it’s that he doesn’t benefit from it and doesn’t get to play Kate’s hero and savior and that’s a problem. I know teenage Kevin is kind of a dick but I kind of feel bad for him, even after he made that snarky comment about Randall and their mom during the movie. It’s obvious Kate is a daddy’s girl and Rebecca and Randall have a very close bond and Kevin doesn’t get to feel that close connection to either parent so he acts out.

Teenage Kevin played football right? And Jack likely went to every game I'd assume. Maybe the broken leg is meant to show that even though it was football season, Kevin wasn't playing because he was hurt so Jack was at home when the fire occurred. Perhaps with Kate and the dog. And maybe Randall also stopped playing football and was out with the red-haired girl who might be his girlfriend.

I'm cautiously excited about this. I love Sasha and Janel and they were both great in their roles and Ali/Mona is an intriguing dynamic when you consider all they've been through and all they've done to each other. If they can ground Mona a little bit more in reality and strike a happy balance between old bitchy Ali and new boring Ali, I think it'll be interesting. There are obviously some issues that need to be worked out like the Mary/Alex locked in a basement thing and the fact that Ali is engaged/married to a character that may only exist off screen but we'll see how creative they get there. But are Ali and Mona going to be leads or is the show going to center around a group of students with Sasha and Janel recurring as secondary characters?

I always thought it was interesting that in 7x01 when the group was trying to save Hanna and voting on who they thought killed Charlotte, Mona votes for Spencer and not Alison like most of the others. Obviously she knew it wasn't Alison but she could have left it blank like Emily did or just hop on the bandwagon and throw Alison under the bus again but she chose Spencer, probably because she knew no one would take Spencer seriously as a suspect and also because Mona being Mona probably knew Spencer was going to pick her so she wanted to return the favor.

Vulture ranked every episode of PLL. Don't necessarily agree with their rankings but it was kind of fun to be reminded of the more ridiculous things that have happened on this show, like Caleb and the fireflies. Also reminded me of some small moments I loved, like the time Emily asked Ezra to give her essay to a real teacher. All 160 Pretty Little LiarsEpisodes, Ranked From Worst to Best

In season 1, Spencer says Paige has been bullying people since JV and that they named a field hockey penalty after her. I never said she was on the same level as Alison, just that she was a bully in her own right. But you keep stating your opinion as fact and not accounting for your own bias, so I don’t really see this conversation going anywhere, but I’m glad you found a character you relate to and feel so strongly about.

In my opinion she was, but it's just that, an opinion. I'd say Mona was one of the most complex characters on the show and she was a fan-favorite even though she did a lot of horrible things to the girls, so I don't think the fandom hisses at complexity. I think some characters are just better liked than others for various reasons. The hypocrisy surrounding Alison/Paige runs both ways though. Paige fans can't let go of the horrible things Ali did as a kid, and Alison fans remain stuck on the drowning incident. Both characters were dealing with difficult things in their lives that caused them to act out but they both grew over time and changed for the better (and they probably have more in common than their fans would like to admit). Paige was a bully in her own right with a history of aggressive behavior that caused her to lash out and do things like hold Emily's head under the water to intimidate her. But she apologized and once she accepted herself, she started to grow as a person and I have no problem acknowledging that she was a mostly mature, well-rounded, decent human being at the end of the series...I just never liked her. And of course no one disputes the fact that Ali was a horrible bully when she was younger, but she eventually starts to understand where her behavior was coming from and the impact it had on people and is eventually able to turn her life around and become a better person too. And my issue with Paige was never the drowning or even her aggressive behavior because I understood where that was coming from and do believe people can change, especially people as young as the girls were at the start of the series, a concept I also apply to Alison who was dealing with some serious personal issues of her own. Paige's personality just never clicked for me. There were things about her that I found grating and she was never a character I enjoyed watching or felt connected to. But I've disliked plenty of characters on this show so it's not just Paige, there's just a lot of irritating people in Rosewood.

Same for me re: Paige and Paily. I’ve never cared for the character and it had nothing to do with Alison, she was just a bit too intense for my liking. And I never saw a real connection between Paige and Emily because their relationship always felt incredibly one-sided to me. Emison’s chemistry was definitely best in flashbacks which is odd when you consider how young Sasha was when they filmed those, but maybe that made her less inhibited in those scenes. I agree that the time-jump definitely hurt the group’s dynamic. I don’t know if it was just that they didn’t have the backdrop of high school to rely on, not that the liars ever actually went to class, but the structure of school forced them to be together and they were very much involved in each other’s lives. But when they came back together after the 5 year time jump, they had drifted apart to the point where it seemed they hardly saw each other or spoke during their time apart and they were all keeping secrets again, which I guess was the point of the re-set, but it was kind of disappointing to see this incredibly close-knit group of girls fall apart like that and I don't know that they ever recovered.

Chemistry is subjective. Some people see it, some people don't. I know Haleb is hugely popular and people think Tyler and Ashley have great chemistry because they're so close but over the last couple of season, Hanna and Caleb seemed more like brother and sister to me than lovers. I just don't see any chemistry between them, maybe because they have been together so long and their relationship kind of grew old to me. I thought Caleb and Spencer had much more chemistry than Haleb because it was new and fresh.