MicheleinPhilly

I watched this over the weekend and found it so unbelievably sad. I always found her to be a very talented young actress and her death was one of those that hit me hard. I didn't know a lot about the circumstances other than that she was married to a shady, older schlub and that he died shortly thereafter. The number of prescriptions they were both on was mind-boggling. I know it's not difficult to find pill mill doctors in Los Angeles but given the sheer number and combination, it's a miracle either of them were able to stand up, let alone function. I'm reluctant to criticize someone who experienced such tremendous grief as her mother did but for me, she belongs alonside the Lohans, Spears, and Markles as truly abhorrent people who used their daughters and contributed mightily to their mental health struggles. She can rot right alongside Simon...in the same bed. 🙄

Bette and Tina were my very first television OTP so I get where you are coming from. I have unfairly hated every single woman either of them has been with in both this series and the OG. But what killed it for me in this season was how badly the women they were paired up with were written which subsequently trickled down to B&T's characterizations. Will I be happy when they inevitably reconcile? Of course. But I won't be quite as swoony as I was after one of their 37 other reunions. *insert old lady emoji*

This reminds me - does anyone who has done a deep dive into this know what you receive in return for the $5,000? Like how many pieces of clothing does it buy you? Because for $5,000 I would expect them to send me 1,000 pieces of their crap but I suspect it is SIGNIFICANTLY less.

No, and I will sit at this table with you.

This is my problem with this series - everyone acts like an insecure, emotionally immature idiot. But I blame that on the writers. They clearly have NO idea what to do with these characters so they just write reality show drama around however many sex scenes they can cram into an episode. If they do continue with a third series, they need to completely clean house in the writers' room and hire some folks with actual series writing experience. I've read more competently written fan fiction.

Nope because that's exactly what I thought too. I mean it's not like they gave us any background on why they had divorced. But if they had better writers, once Laurel decided she DID want back in, they could have at least come up with something more organic than this constant "will they or won't they?" and spared us from Rosie O'Donnell. I'm not going to lie - I was kind of hoping that was the last we'd see of Finley. Her character does nothing for me except make me wrinkle my nose and say, "I bet she smells" every time she is on screen. The whole thing with Dani and her father's trial was beyond dumb. I know there are differences depending on criminal vs. civil trials and different jurisdictions, but any time I watch a tv show where future witnesses are sitting in the courtroom watching the proceedings always makes me grind my teeth. And the climax of that was laughable. I'm so sure the U.S. Marshal's service would come busting into a private room at a fancy restaurant to perp walk a missing witness. 🙄 Color me perplexed as to why Shane and Tess can't at least TRY long distance too. I've done it and it was a hell of a greater distance than LA to LV. I love how in Alice and Tom's relationship, Tom is the one that is acting like a lesbian. A RING? ALREADY? Slow your roll there, buddy. I will continue watching if this gets renewed for a 3rd season because I am a masochist, but I won't be upset if it gets cancelled.

Damn my sense of nostalgia and loyalty for forcing me to continue watching this hot ass mess. And here I thought the OG was the gold standard for running a beloved series off a cliff. These storylines are so contrived and immature and basically just exist to show more bed-hopping. Baby gay Michele wanted this level of bed-hopping and drama 17 years ago. Approaching middle age Michele is now like, "Ugh, give it a rest, ladies." Alice being bisexual has been canon since season 1 of the OG so I'm confused as to why there is suddenly this concern about revealing that she is dating a man??? Did the interviewer read her book??? Has Alice been identifying publically as a lesbian??? I know that there are issues with biphobia within the larger LGBTQ+ community but this was just a very clumsy way to address that. I hate Carrie, I've always hated Carrie. I'm glad she didn't attempt to insert herself into the whole "meeting Marcus" incident and thrilled that she didn't show up for the prom send-off because she would have found umpteen ways to make it all about her AGAIN. And I think she's starting to rub off on Tina because this episode was the first time in 17 years that I actually rolled my eyes at the prospect of Bette and Tina getting back together again. Bette, go live your best hot ass life with Pippa. Finley needs to go away. Gigi needs to go away. Dani needs to grow a pair. Micah and Maribel and Tess and Shane can live happily ever after. *end grumpy old lady rant*

They just looked like giant glasses of ice to me. I couldn't even see any liquid. My issue with the Sophie/Finley relationship is how they're retconning that they don't really know each other that well. Haven't they been friends and roommates for years? Also I distinctly remember Finley having a problem with alcohol last season but maybe I'm not remembering correctly.

From episode 1, I could just tell that these people were full of 💩. DeAnne acted like because she flew "standby" that somehow negated the fact that she just told us she was dirt poor and now she's flying somewhere. You still have to pay to fly standby - it's not a free ticket lottery. And that story about her mother was just total BS. I don't really know anything about the tenets of Mormonism but I assume it's like other religions where telling outright lies is frowned upon. 🤷‍♀️

I always assumed it was just hideous leggings until I once stumbled across a retailer's social media account and saw her "styling" outfits. I'm certainly no fashion plate but these were just so horrendous my only thought was "why?" I feel fortunate that no one in my circle became involved in this because I wear my heart and my thoughts on my face. 🤨

OMG, I literally said out loud, "Where's Alice's damn chart when you really need it?" It's seriously getting ridiculous.

I'll admit I had a little something in my eye when the Marconis were saying goodbye to Zach. I have no problem with the tidy little bow they placed on everything. I found the entire show REALLY messy and pretty poorly fleshed out so I appreciated the little bit of happy closure. As I've mentioned before, I really hated the book so I think there was only so much that could have been done with this. But given the pedigree, I expected a LOT more. If Kidman continues optioning and adapting Moriarty's novels, I hope she considers partnering with someone other than David E. Kelley as I don't think he is the right showrunner for these stories (season 1 of BLL excepting.)

Finally watched the final episode last night. A $4.5 million settlement seems pretty paltry when you consider how much money they were raking in. I can only guess that their attorneys watched the playbacks of the depositions and told them that a jury would crucify and bankrupt them. Here's hoping the plaintiffs in other suits use this entire documentary as an exhibit in their lawsuits. Did their son Justin join a boy band before his depo? Derryl's remarks re: Kelly Clarkson literally made me laugh out loud. I doubt Kelly or her team knew anything about LuLaRoe other than that they sell hideous clothing. And Sam mentioned earlier that they paid Katy Perry something like $5 million to perform at an earlier convention. Celebrities get paid huge sums all of the time to perform at corporate events. It doesn't mean they endorse all of their business practices. Assuming they're even aware of them. Dude, enjoy your Jason Aldean duet - you'll feel much better. Mark and Deanne are the perfect representation of the old adage "Money can't buy you class."

It's not sung by Nicole Kidman. The song is called "Strange Effect" and is by a group called Unloved.

That whole anecdote about his father immediately set off my BS detector. He claimed that his father wasn't going to spend his life bringing in $412 a week? I don't know how old Mark is but say that conversation happened in 1965-ish. The equivalent in today's dollars is almost $3,500 a week. $412 a week is basically what a family of 4 has to make nowadays to be considered at the poverty line in the United States. It most certainly was not when Mark was a child. 🙄

There is a 2nd season available via Showtime. Just binged both seasons over the weekend and while it took me a couple of episodes to warm to it, I became quite fond of it. But I'm a sucker for dark comedy. I won't say too much in the hopes that others will discover season 2 and come back to chat about it. But I will say that despite having spent 18 years in prison, Miri seems to be the most emotionally well-adjusted person in the bunch.

I've reached the point where I'm watching this for comedic relief. The more "dramatic" the plot point, the harder I laugh. My S.O. has started referring to it as "Nine Crazy *expletives*" when we're discussing what to watch at night.

Yes! I feel like the writers wanted to develop an episode where the entire cast was essentially in one location for the whole thing and then thought, "And what should we do with them once they're there?" 🤷‍♀️ Every time one of the cast members makes reference to "17 years ago" I feel old as dirt. But I already sort of feel that way because everyone behaves like children.

BINGO. And I won't go off on an OG tangent but the "reunion" had NO emotional resonance for me. I had forgotten her character even existed. I also find Rosie O'Donnell's casting to be terribly gimmicky but I'm sure I'll have more to say about that next week.

Eh, this episode felt like a filler or an LGBTQ+ episode of Melrose Place. So much romantic drama! 🙄 I hope Sophie sticks with her choice and we're not subjected to a drawn out love triangle. Let Dani hook up with Gigi to get it out of her system and then move on. Even if Finlay bugs the CRAP out of me. Shane and Tess' chemistry is 🔥 IMHO. Cherie was bad news from the jump in the OG so I'm hoping that is the last we see of her. But I'm going to need some of these folks to stop playing musical beds and SETTLE on someone or just be single. I'm going to need more on what is going through Maribel's mind because that was the very definition of mixed messaging. The less said about the karaoke scenes, the better. 😖

😩 I've been obsessively checking Britbox every day this week for a new episode. Thanks for confirming.

Me too! It's completely silly at times but I love Dodds' quirks and think he and McDonald play off of each other very well. Shame it gets so few episodes each season.

This was easily the best episode of the series thus far for me but I feel like the bar is rather low. I still find it all rather silly but it's an okay enough summer diversion. I would like to see them delve deeper into Carmel's psyche a bit because right now I'm getting a whole lot of "unreliable narrator" vibe from her. There's no way she and Masha weren't aware of one another beforehand so it came across as pretty cheesy to me that they dropped this bombshell out of the blue. Everyone just needs to get the hell out of there ASAP, especially the Marconis.

I've only just finished this and feel like I may need to re-visit as a binge as my sporadic viewing left a lot to be desired. I enjoyed this a LOT more than many others but some of that may have been attributable to my time as an admin assistant to the Dean of our college of Arts and Sciences when I was an undergrad. I was able to witness so many of these shenanigans close up and it was almost scary how well Amanda Peet translated it here. I'm familiar with Peet as an actress but don't know anything else about her so I'm curious as to how she was able to pull this off. I adore Sandra Oh and would watch a season of The Bachelor if she was on but I actually felt like she was somehow under-utilized here (again, a binge may be in order.) Not in terms of screen time, but how every single thing she did seemed to revolve around fucking Bill. 🙄 I loathed Bill with the fire of a thousand suns and hated to see this seemingly professionally competent woman derailed at every turn by this disheveled buffoon. Admin isn't for everyone and I was thrilled to see her so in her element teaching at the end, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise? 🤷‍♀️ JuJu is a budding psychopath. Ji-Yoon should just give her to Bill and pay them to move away. Holland Taylor was the show's MVP for me. I really enjoyed the explorations of ageism, sexism, racism, cancel culture, etc. but feel like the show gave those topics short shrift in this 30-minute, 6-episode format. I would 100% follow this for a second season but feel that it wrapped up nicely enough and isn't necessarily needed.