Elbow

But it’s, also, a strange shift, production-wise, as casting choices. Ealy and Smulders aside, they really kind of went out of their way to not cast cookie cutter talent, even in teeny guest bits, and these choices swing so far in the other direction that it almost feels like a bird flipped to an exec note about ‘more pretty people’.

Seriously, I zoned out so hard on the Portland scenes I didn’t even realize they’d introduced Tookie’s wife, lol. News to me! I get including people who look like that in the LA scenes, because they’re all over the place to the point that sometimes you forget what normal faces look like, but it doesn’t make much sense to put them in Oregon. I took that as being about how he seemed to be acting as a good father to his new son, but you’re right that it was more a commentary on the entire package. And it does say, not particularly flattering things, about how much alike Grey and his father may be.

That house was clearly in the Valley. No one wants to drive there, much less live there. I did love that they gave Grey’s dad a plastic surgeried trophy wife, and all that tells us about his (lack of) character in one glance. But I guess if you find that look hot, the Kenny Rogers’ eye job included, you’re not joking about your belief that Dex needs to look like a porn casualty in order to find a partner.

I hated the scene with Johnny and Patrick. Hated that even in the wine scenes, without Patrick, they had to ruin the scene by talking about Patrick. Huge waste, again, of Catherine O'Hara to be stuck propping up David's show swallowing plot. And why isn't Patrick's family welcoming David into their lives? Wish the whole episode had been about Alexis and the girls and the cult. That would've been funny and worth watching. I still just keep hoping they'll kill Patrick off so, at least, the last couple of episodes will have a chance of being good again.

Rewatch the first couple of scenes. Her pupils are *gigantic* and she’s doing weird shit with her mouth/jaw. She even gives her nose a coke check during the scene on Hollywood Blvd.

I liked that much more than most of the episodes, despite Cobie looking high much of the episode. So, did Dex’s parents join WitSec? The actor playing Grey’s dad got *old*! I remember him playing a bar slut in a Rodrigo Garcia film. None of the stuff happening back in Portland held my interest at all.

Shooting is afoot. Leila George posted a clip of herself in costume with the kid actors playing Pope and Julia. What's gonna happen next??!

I think she did take the test and that it is his, but that's worse, in a way, than it being Owen's. If it was Owen's, Linc deciding to leave or stay would give her a clear cut answer about whether he really loves her or not. If it's his, and I think it is, she's never going to be able to trust that she was the person he wanted. Also, I thought, despite the steady tenor of his voice, that the look in Linc's eyes as he said, "I love you, but…" made it pretty clear that, no, he doesn't love her or, at least, isn't in love with her.

That all sounds way too complicated to provide exposition for, without Alex or Izzie or Alex's mom or anyone involved first hand explaining.

Drinking coffee, eating and exercising don't seem too outlandish of activities to work into a self-created schedule to me. She grew up on a reality show and her entire generation films every single thing they do, so, Mariah making the mundane public and preserved for posterity, also, seems simply part for the course. That she's, also, gotten herself certified as a yoga instructor lends more pragmatism to the yoga vids, i.e. something for potential clients to look at. I grew up in academia, my parents and step-parents and all of their friends and lovers were professors. It's not unusual for people to take their time completing these advanced degrees and it's, also, not unusual for people to drive themselves to nervous breakdowns by spending every waking moment working on their thesis until they collapse and are forced, for health reasons, to take time off. She seems to be working at a pace that works for her and is being careful to not get so one-track that she loses her psychological footing. It looks to me like she's learned some of the most important things her major could offer and is practicing what she'll be preaching as she gets those clinical hours in, which she very well may be doing right now.

Getting a Master's doesn't involve class schedules like undergrad or even grad school...

Same! My favorite brand, Even Sewn, went out of business so I’m back in Diesel, which fit almost as well, but unfortunately still have more elastic in the material than is at all necessary. I would really like to see more than just one random boyfriend jean cut per brand be actual denim instead of basically elasticized maternity wear. And for waist sizes to be measured in inches that correspond to actual inches, rather than vanity make believe sizing. The only people high waisted pants look good on are those with unusually outsized asses. They give everyone else, even the fittest women on the planet, the appearance of bulging FUPAs. I’m also completely out of patience with women’s clothing having no, faux and unusuably sized pockets.

Skinny jeans with holes? They never really went out of fashion, but were overtaken by those horrific high waisted pants, which did thankfully go out of style this past summer. You can finally buy low cut jeans again after 3 years of high waisted terror. I blame the Kardashians, surgical ass enhancement and the obesity epidemic for that mini-era of pants that go up to a normally proportioned woman’s armpits.

Completely disagree. Janelle is the only one of the wives who repeatedly, overtly and rather inappropriately (per their own family rule of none of the wives & Kody displaying sexual/romantic affection in front of the other wives and, presumably, per the conservative mores of the AUB/FLDS for women to never speak lewdly) sexually objectifies Kody. She's remarked upon his ass with a level of reverence, often brought up how his hair in a pony tail turns her on and has made a variety of other comments specifically about how much she likes his body. She's completely into him sexually. He may view her as more of a buddy, but she's made it perfectly clear that she finds him dead sexy. What she's, also, made clear is that she much preferred working to taking care of children. I don't think she actually much likes children and, now that her youngest is a teen, she sure doesn't seem to have much drive for working. Obviously, they did (and should still…) need money, but I think her lack of any discernible "real" job for the last couple of years goes to show that she had much less of a desire to work than she had an aversion to dealing with kids. And, it seems to me, that her enthusiasm for the one big house idea is multifaceted, but that none of those facets have anything to with a love for 'living the principle': 1) She can get on & stay on Kody's good side by outspokenly supporting what he wants; 2) She's frugal and one property, even with building expenses, is cheaper in the long run than all these ridiculous McMansions; 3) She's on the verge of being an empty nester, has seen how Mariah leaving played a big part in cutting Meri out of Kody's rotation and is canny enough to realize that a shared house will prevent him from being able to get into a pattern of ignoring her, except, like Meri, when they might see one another in a crowd at family events. She's being smart and protecting her own interests. I don't think she minds being alone, the way Meri clearly does, but I do think that Kody is the draw for her and has always been the draw for her in this situation, enough so to agree to become a polygamist and that she will not let go of him without a fight. Even when she moved out on her own, he was coming over to where she was living to spend quality time with her, while Meri and Christine were still in the shared house elbowing each other out of the way for scraps of affection. She broke up with the family during those two years, but has explicitly stated that she and Kody were not separated.

This show feels like it’s written by a homeschooled sixth grader. What a tease to have greasemonkey Inbar Lavi never hook up with Dex.

Like the majority of the content of this and the previous season, 'David having babies' is a subject that should be banished to romantic fan fiction, rather than actually scripted as yet another forced diversion from the comedic ensemble upon which this show is supposed to be focused.

I'm just catching up and woulda posted in a 'general s4' thread, if there was one. Unlike some, here, I really enjoyed the flashbacks. I think Leila George did an excellent job and I don't mind her, at all, as a replacement for 'Current Day' Smurf. I do think it's sad, if true, that Barkin misbehaved her way out of this job. I will admit skepticism, however, given that she was likely to have been the only woman on set much of the time. Also, I could be wrong, but the frequently noted issue with her mouth appears to be nerve damage to me. She appears to have dental implants on top and dentures on her lower jaw. It's, unfortunately, not unusual for tooth pulling to result in nerve damage that can result in the droopy lower lip she's had for however many years now. And I imagine it'd be a pretty difficult thing for any actor, but particularly an actress whose employability is largely reliant on her appearance, to deal with. Medical impairments, of course, don't give anyone license to throw things in frustration at coworkers, but I suspect Barkin had many additional stressors than most of the young-ish guys she was working with, both on the crew and whom she had as scene partners. I really found Emily Deschanel not up to the task at hand. I didn't buy her as a junkie for a second and could barely buy her as a human being, with many of her atonal line readings. Terrible casting choice and kind of baffling, given how many actresses could have played that role well, even if only because of their own histories of addiction. It's not like LA is lacking for packed AA/NA meetings. Her performance was so bad that it's almost impossible to even address Angela's actions apart from it. The Neo-Nazi cousins are definitely coming after the Codys and I'm not sure if the brothers are up to the task of defending themselves against them, at this point. The best bet would have been to rush back in right after the shoot out. But now they're sitting ducks and can be picked off one by one. Basically, everyone should have moved to Mexico with Adrian. It would be nice if J had been written/directed/performed as having anything resembling charm so that hating him wasn't so easy. There's no grey in his characterization. Even just giving him a sense of humor would have gone a long way to make things ethically more murky for the viewers. But he's just a black hat bad guy and pretty much impossible to even reluctantly root for. It'll be interesting to see who else Smurf was paying off on the regular and how they complicate things. And I'm really looking forward to seeing who they cast as Pam. Loved the suggestion of Khandi Alexander. She's phenomenal. I'm, also, excited to see more of Leila George's Janine evolve into Smurf. This shift in the structure of the storytelling creates the perfect opportunity to illuminate a lot of things that have been elided over and the biggest of those blank spots is, of course, Julia. And, lastly, I've been a huge fan of Shawn Hatosy since he played the younger version of Nick Nolte's character in Simpatico and I'm hopeful that this change in the family dynamics will give him a little more space to show off.

I haven't even cracked a smile at what's been onscreen this season. The first two years were absolutely hysterical. What they're doing now is not comedy. It's a 22 minute evening soap.

Did Dan Levy write those lines for Patrick about how "amazing" his own skin is? This is not a comedy anymore.

I am finding this season to be completely laughless. Patrick is like an albatross who has tanked all the levity of the show.

As someone who generally adores Irish accents, I find McWidow absolutely repellent. The actor is one of those charisma-voids who has me looking anywhere on screen he isn't because he's so unappealing in both appearance and personality. I feel similarly towards Pompeo so I'm kind of hoping they do shove them together so I can just fast forward through their dreck. Count me as one who hates the textversations with the ghost of Christina and who found the shoelace untie simply mean and another reason to hate Meredith. The longer Mer and DeLucca were together, the more and more I liked him, but that may just be because in comparison to her everyone seems likable. McWidow will surely test this theory. I agree with whomever it was upthread who said they couldn't care less about the current interns. Not a one of them is compelling. I don't care at all what happens to any of them. Every time they're on screen I'm just reminded of what a huge mistake it was to get rid of Arizona and April. I like the Richard and Maggie stuff. Maggie is grating, but it's nice to see her grappling with her innate fallibility, as a human, and I love how Richard has stepped up as her father. Catherine has always felt like she wandered in from some other show and I won't mind when she wanders off again. In a perfect world, she'd take Owen with her when she goes. I don't blame Linc for being upset to learn that the baby might not be his. I mean, c'mon! He's had to rethink his whole idea of himself, as a result of this pregnancy, and, in his own words, he'd fallen in love with the baby, despite having previously committed to an elaborate litany of reasons he never wanted to be father. His whole world was turned upside down. And, now, Amelia has completely pulled the rug out from under him. For the record, Amelia is probably my favorite character on the show, at this point. It's impossible for me to reconcile the ridiculous writing of a surgeon who has previously given birth and who is sexually active being unaware that she's pregnant again until she's nearly halfway through her pregnancy. I don't buy it in any universe, which leaves the options of either deciding she's a denialist to the degree of having a severe mental illness or assuming the same level of denialism and wholesale refusing to acknowledge this as part of the plot. The writing with this is just awful, unbelievable and incoherent. Someone elsewhere noted that a miscarriage at 20 weeks is a pretty serious deal, which involves having to deliver the fetus. I can understand why some might oppose showing this onscreen (including, possibly, the network), but I think it could have been educational for many viewers, affirming and even cathartic for others, a great showcase for Chandra's talent and a really powerful episode, had they chosen to take this experience seriously for Bailey. To reduce it to Tom mansplaining her own trauma to her really missed the mark.

I think the brows may be tattooed on...

I think they started out with the idea that she definitely was an alcoholic and changed their minds about taking that seriously, for the time being. Once she hits bottom, the doors close on a lot of convenient plot options and maybe she hasn't caused quite enough damage yet for a redemption arc. Also, in general, this show chooses to sanitize many things that would benefit from a grittier portrayal. Happy Go Lucky Delirium Tremens just doesn't work. I think the show runner really needs to decide what this show is supposed to be. As of now: it's not a drama because there's no emotional depth; it's not really a crime procedural because there's no suspense or mystery or even clues being followed to big reveals or through clever plot twists; it's not a comic action series because it's not funny and the action is minimal and entirely realistic, when it's even present; it's not a family drama nor an evening soap romance because the two family members never do anything together beyond having brief affectless exchanges and Dex is in love with a dead man no matter how many people she dates or sleeps with. As with Dex's drinking, those in charge seem unable to commit to the type of story they're actually telling. If you want to see a good alcoholic, female detective, I'd suggest Holly Hunter in Saving Grace, though the show, itself, has a ridiculous premise.

What's funny about pasting Jessop's head over Kody's and pretending it's a real photo?

So, it's a composite. But...why?