Tim McD

Victor French as Curtis was the only time I preferred the second actor in a role (Ned Beatty originally played Curtis in The Bicycle.) George Dzundza taking over the A.J. Covington role from David Huddleston in The Abdication was jarring and made no sense; Covington transformed from an easy going, laconic midwesterner to a fast-talking, much shorter Brooklynite. Fun fact about that episode: it featured James Karen as the movie director and Stephen Collins as his assistant. The two later appeared in All the President's Men, with Collins playing Hugh Sloan and Karen as his attorney.

Here's what I think is really going on: The previous SoS and Elizabeth's spy buddy became aware of some misdeeds by President I'm Easy, who is a very bad man. President I'm Easy had the two of them killed, the SoS in a plane crash and the spy in a car crash. BUT, the spy survived the crash and faked his death, or something. The Assistant President Who Constantly Looks at His Phone is actually a good guy, some sort of agent (or he's working with agents) who is trying to get the goods on President I'm Easy. He is working in cahoots with Spy Buddy Who Isn't Dead, Bebe and Arm Candy. German Chess Guy is at the heart of this murderous conspiracy. The story Arm Candy gave Elizabeth about his NSA work is total BS to protect Elizabeth.

I like how the NSA drops Arm Candy off at his assignments in a huge black van with no windows. Nothing conspicuous about that! Also could he have handled that chess game more clumsily? "Uh, even though we're almost done with the game I need to stop right now because I'll need all my energy for the 15 minute drive home."

The Assistant President sure does look at his phone a lot. And I love how he was just standing around while POTUS and his buddy were skeet shooting. Couldn't someone give him a gun and let him shoot too?

It was a period show set in the rural south so unlike, say, "Columbo," they couldn't just shoot a scene on Hollywood Boulevard somewhere. Early on they did venture out frequently to shoot scenes in the actual mountains (which was great IMO) but in later seasons they largely stuck to the Burbank set. In the World War II episodes they even tried to pass off the same Waltons Mountains exteriors as war-torn Europe which was unfortunate.

After JB split for New York, Jim-Bob built a V-2 rocket out of the printing press.

When two TV characters talk about having sex with each other, my brain can't help but immediately visualize it. In this case it makes for a bizarre visual. Bad-ass Marine fighter pilot, hotshot popular college professor, and you got all straight A's in school: screw you Tim Daly. Sure would love to have a scene where POTUS acts like something resembling a human earth creature.

Yeah, between Gerald McRaney and Rachel Brosnahan the cross-pollination with House of Cards is getting serious.

I liked Hell School, the other two were sub-par, though Comic Book Guy in the Kubrick one was good ("Even I don't know what I'm referencing!"). Loved the brief glimpse of Adventure Time Simpsons at the end.

That's what I thought at first but when she returned home to Charlie he was looking pretty bummed (because Abby wouldn't plant the papers) and when they heard the MPs arrive outside, Charlie looked like he knew it was all over for him. When they saw it was Elodie and Dickhead being taken away, Charlie looked genuinely surprised. Having said that, next week's episode is bound to prove me totally wrong. My guess for who the spy is: Fritz. Because his name is FRITZ, duh!

I got the impression that whatever Paul delivered to Akley was what implicated Elodie and her husband. That's definitely not what I thought as the scene played out, I thought for sure that Paul was sealing Frank and Charlie's fates. Abby did not have the papers with her when she visited Elodie; the part where she eyes the trap door was a red herring for the viewers I think.

What purpose does President I'm Easy serve here? He has about one line per episode which is usually either "Let's go with Elizabeth" or "Let's go with the bald guy."

Do all covert agents have GoPro cameras mounted to their dashboards so their bosses back home can enjoy their panicked expressions as they flee scary foreign would-be captors?

Unless Walton's Mountain was an uncommonly progressive community, I doubt blacks and whites in 1930s rural Virginia would have socialized at all much less go on turkey shoots together.

Overall I like her but the way she just threw herself at Harley seemed out of character, like she was desperate for a man and all; goes against her proud independent nature. One moment that stood out for me was when Verdie described her church to Olivia as "my people's church" and the viewer is reminded that Walton's Mountain was a segregated community; it was probably illegal for Verdi to attend the Walton's church.

They loved that hospital hallway set. It was also used as Boatwright University hallway, nursing school hallway, government building hallway...

I think referencing a real-life event like Benghazi while it's still in the news cycles is a dumb idea. It breaks the suspension of disbelief and the show becomes a kind of Philip K. Dickesque alternate-universe presidency. Why not start introducing actual cabinet members into the storylines while they're at it? Tea can have terse phone conversations with VP Biden. Same goes for using actual CBS News personnel in the fake news coverage, I hate that. I too am annoyed at the misunderstanding at what the CoS can and can't do. Reminds me of the Patricia Arquette show Medium where the district-attorney was being bossed around by the mayor.

Not great but I'll give it a chance. I was deceived by the promos, I expected the SoS to be more biting with some piss and vinegar as well; kind of a smarter Basil Fawlty. Carradine as the POTUS is bizarre; THAT'S the role they should have given to Bebe.

This whole idea of Jim-Bob building complicated machines and cutting edge electronic communication devices entirely from scratch is preposterous. He can do that but he can't fix the saw mill motor?

I'd love to know how that worked. "Turn it to the Boatwright channel, John-Boy's on."

I caught a few moments of the episode where John-Boy 2.0 starts a TV department at Boatwright (whatever) and everyone's gathered around the set watching him on TV and WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE? I only recognized maybe three of them, the rest were a mystery. Oh and the evil mining guy who bought John-Boy's meadow is now the sheriff? F--- you late season episodes! Where was John-Boy broadcasting from?

It's hard to get past the opening credits; "Starring Jon Walmsley." NOOOOOOOOO. Actually I watched it long enough to see Guy Who Played Hank Kimball on Green Acres do a pretty bad Hank Kimball impression.

Watching this episode I noticed for the first time how much Helen resembles Bailey Quarters from WKRP in Cincinnati.

Did Ike really have an extramarital affair or was that a misunderstanding by CoraBeth? I started watching the episode but I stopped because it seemed terrible.

That art teacher looked a little too much like the Scorpio Killer from Dirty Harry.