FoundTime

After the Steve Harvey thing, there was a post from a graphic designer that I follow suggesting the whole thing would have never happened with better design. Why not print the winner's name and the category in the same size font? The presenter's going to be saying/reading all that anyway whether it's "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Emma Stone, La La Land," or "Best Picture, Moonlight." Why have the category in teeny-tiny print way at the bottom of the card? Don't make it more difficult than it has to be, people. I had been predicting a La La Land Best Picture win but was fine with Moonlight. That said, I was well and truly bummed that the Moonlight people didn't really get their proper "moment" in all the confusion. That was such a small yet artful film; I wanted the filmmakers to be able to really savor their win and I wanted to hear what they had to say in that moment, not after all the dust has settled.

I heard BD Wong (love!) say that Whiterose was a transfemale who has to present as male (what kat165 said), and that would explain why he resists the male persona. It would represent everything s/he went through and got away from to become her true self as a woman. I don't think the show ever presented this definitively one way or the other. It was just something the actor knew and used to play the role. But this is what aftershows should be giving us, this kind of information that is new and gives some insight into the show or a character that we might not get elsewhere. It made me see Whiterose from an entirely new angle.

Since this is set in the 80s and packed to the gills with references to films from that era, I assumed that Mr. Clarke had seen the movie Altered States* (1980) and geeked out on the isolation chamber enough to find out how to make one. *Great movie, btw. William Hurt plays a scientist who experiments on himself (hallucinogens + total immersion tank) and appears to revert to an ape stage as a result.

I have a friend who went into a career as a corrections officer before she retired, and for most of that time she worked in areas with male prisoners. So it didn't seem implausible to me that there would be a female CO in a men's prison. Hot Carla is the part that's stumping me. How does she fit into the prison setting? Agree. Maxine is perfectly explainable. And as someone else suggested, if Ray is a social worker or the like, she could he a therapy dog in that role. I loved the reveal. I had to get my head around the idea that all the scenes we saw take place on city streets (not counting Elliot's "Places in the Heart" dinner fantasy) happened in locations around the prison (everything else "converted" so easily) but the reveal was filmed so beautifully I had to rewatch it. I am wondering, if Elliot is in general pop, how his recent conversations with Mr. Robot have been received by his cellblock neighbors. Seems a bit odd for someone with DID to be placed in genpop, which is why I had been leaning toward the mental institution theory.

I know! #FindFlipper indeed :-) NPR did a story a while back on after-shows and mentioned "After the Black" (for Orphan Black - also, groan) and the Game of Thrones after-show, which they weren't big fans of. I commented that the bad after-shows make you appreciate how good Chris Hardwick really is at that gig. Apparently it's not as easy as it looks.

Mother is also quite the shrew in the movie, and not happy for Norman to be paying attention to loose young women like Marion Crane...which makes me wonder if the relationship between her and Norman will deteriorate over the next season and become less lovey-dovey than we left it.

Juno was a little dog Norman befriended and kind of adopted in season one (?) who was then run over by a car. Norman couldn't bear the loss and was just starting to learn taxidermy from Emma's father and so did a little "work" on Juno. Though I love Juno as a ...character, I guess... having just rewatched Psycho on Mother's Day (thanks, Sundance!) Norman goes out of his way to tell Marion that . But I'll handwave it 'cause this is such a great show otherwise. Speaking of which, though it squicked me out when Norman glued Mother's eyes open, it was not out of character, and I thought it set up nicely the lengths to which he will continue to go to keep Mother with him physically. Somebody posted last week that the show should end with Marion Crane pulling up to the motel in a driving rain. ("Twelve rooms, twelve vacancies!") That is my perfect ending too. We already know the rest of the story. I thought it was actually very smart to handle Norma's death as the show did, rather than leaving it as a cliffhanger. It left the last episode to show the immediate fallout. (I'm noticing other shows are doing this too, with the "big event" in the penultimate episode of the season, though I can't think of any examples right now.) I expected Mother to make her first post-death appearance by the end of the ep and was not disappointed. Norman digging up her body was interesting; in the movie, . Had to snerk at the song Norma was playing at the piano at the end -- "I'll be home for Christmas" -- check -- "if only in my dreams." Hee.

I must admit, when episode 2 started and motorcyclists were again featured negatively, my first thought was "Man, I guess motorcycles are just bad news period in this universe!" This is my first time watching this series, and thanks, dcalley, for noting that seasons 1-3 are on Netflix. I've read one of the Wallander books (don't remember which one, uh-oh) but I like Branagh and The Good Wife trainwreck was over, so I DVRd episode 401 and tuned in last night. I really love the way Branagh is playing the character, so quiet and internal. It's hard to do a lot with those characteristics and this portrayal is just a pleasure to watch. I will also admit some weakness for Gorgeous Scenery Porn; the overhead shots of the roads going on forever out in the middle of nowhere in both the South Africa and Sweden settings were just beautiful. The hooded figure was walking away from Hannah's caravan being set on fire. You could see the greenhouse referenced later to the left of frame. I read Still Alice recently and some of Wallander's symptoms are consistent with early-onset Alzheimer's -- leaving the papers on the stove, turning on the teakettle, and then getting distracted by something else and forgetting all about it; being right next to someone you should recognize but don't; leaving the gun behind. The blackouts/"lost time" could also be part of that. Not sure how the dizziness figures in to that diagnosis, though.

Up until now, when Norman is talking to "Mother," we're given a shot (often the POV of another character in the same space) that shows that Norman is, indeed, talking to himself. In this scene, we didn't get that -- just at one point some guy passing on the road who seemed to throw a quizzical look in that direction. So I don't know if the visual language of the show is changing (a k a they're messing with us) or if Norma really was there. I wouldn't put it past her to just show up without signing in either.

Thank you for picking up on this. I was just gobsmacked that it was a single take -- and when I rewatched just now it timed out at four minutes at least. Crazy. I didn't recognize this director but man, he has got it. Also as noted above with the copy shop scene, and some other shots, the legacy/continuation of the BrBa visual vocabulary was everywhere. So great.

Except Walt and Jesse aren't cooking yet. My money's on Tuco; I feel like we've been teased by VG & Co. that we'll get a little taste of him this season.

Okay, the actress playing Kaylee makes the character look older now than she was on Breaking Bad, which of course takes place in the future of BCS's story. This bothered me last season too but I let it go ;-)

I kind of enjoyed watching Maher get taken down a peg or two, especially by someone like SC, who I saw as teasing Maher, knowing how to get at him in a way that would provoke a reaction. SC has done so much to be a voice for faith and intelligence being able to coexist and Maher is so simplistic and dismissive and full of himself. The Acro-cats were fantastic. Agree with everyone above that I didn't know which was funnier, the cats being...well, cats; or SC adding to the routine, or the glee when a cat would actually do a trick. I was applauding and cheering in my living room, anyway ;-p

I just discovered this show today (while engaged in some activity avoidance) and wound up watching three in a row, taking a "break" to do what I was supposed to be doing, then watching another episode. I found it completely refreshing, maybe because I had been watching multiple episodes of Love It or List It in previous days, and this is like the antithesis of that: It's like on Love It or List It they instruct the homeowners to be as negative as possible, and on this show they instruct them to be as positive as possible. (It also turns House Hunters on its head a bit too: "Pick your favorite dump of a house!") I also enjoyed Chip and Jo as people and as a couple, and family life on the farm (especially the multiple shots of kitties!) -- they seem like nice folks and their clients do too. As a Houstonian, I did have to wrap my head around the fact that a show based in Waco (!?) found its way to HGTV, though ;-)

Wasn't Lou injured in what he referred to (in S1) as the "Massacre at Sioux Falls"? With 12 dead in this shootout I'm feeling an increased sense of dread as to what Sioux Falls is gonna be like.

The twins on Breaking Bad always gave me a chill. They were just inherently creepy. The Kitchen Brothers didn’t have that kind of impact for me, beyond the folk band possibilities, heh. I'm really struck by how I kind of don't like some of my favorite actors (Plemons, Dunst, and Donovan) in these roles -- and I mean that as a compliment to their abilities. Hard not to notice the wonderful framing in the final image -- Ed and Peggy boxed in by the doorway, and the way it was shot, showing the walls closing in.

This episode cracked me up because my maternal grandfather was a pretzel baker. Of course he had machines to do the twisting! I can see how that would be tricky to do manually. I'm fine with the results, though as I said last week, I thought this was Kimberly's to lose. I'm not sure Ruby could have handled the win; it might have done her in! It was great to see the other bakers at the garden party and I left this season with a big smile on my face. I just love the whole positive vibe of this show, especially compared to so many American competitive reality shows.

I gave up on Comcast On Demand watching S1 here (very inconsistent in putting up eps) and have been DVRing each week's episode this season. I'm glad it's available online too, though. I think this is Kimberley's to lose. She continues to knock it out of the park in at least one challenge every week and I love her sunny disposition. I don't mind Ruby, but I will miss Becca, as once I found out she was Welsh I would always send her a little extra love based on my trip to Wales several years ago :-) It does seem the technicals do occasionally (or maybe regularly) include instructions like "Make the custard." Which does presume a basic knowledge/mastery of certain fundamentals. This show doesn't have the same kind of KF (killer fatigue) that Amazing Race or Survivor does, but at this point, you've been living and breathing baking for two solid months (weekends competing and then practicing "in the week," as one of them said) and I think that would take a bit of a toll eventually, which might account for the state of the Opera cakes.

I too watched the US version and though I was underwhelmed, I think the characters and basic story are similar enough between the two versions that I can have some hope of keeping up with S2 of the original. That said, there were a few elements that I wasn't clear on (but not in a bad way), and man, you could tell five minutes in that this is a far superior version. And I don't think that's all down to subtitles snobbery ;-) Anyway, I'll look forward to checking in here every week for the best critiques around.

I haven't read Franzen but was curious to see his interview -- also, I am still kind of gobsmacked that SC is doing author interviews on a late-night network show; I'm not sure that's been done since Johnny Carson's days -- but I thought he came across as kind of a jerk.

Several years ago, a bunch of friends and I would get together once a month for dinner and a movie at someone's home, and one of them was on a wheat-free diet (before it became trendy). Back then the main way to accommodate that was to get a spelt-based product. Whole Foods was the only place that had them. How the times have changed.

Yep, in fact the scene where Lou is in line to get gas, I actually thought he had pulled up to a bodyshop to see what cars were in for work -- then I remembered about odd-even days for gas (which is kinda embarrassing to have forgotten since I lived through it). I'm hoping they find Skip, based on the final shot being his tie sticking up through the asphalt. Which character commented on it and said he was a patriot? (It had little American flags on it, I think.) I had just been starting to think he really should stop wearing ties, between getting one fed into a typewriter roller last ep and getting yanked around by one this ep like it was a leash, but I guess he won't need to take my advice :-)

I thought it was interesting how Molly's dad took on the perspective of Bob Odenkirk's Chief in S1, in actively being not suspicious of the possibly sketchy behavior of someone known to them in the community -- and of course we know Molly to be very skeptical of that, not taking it for granted that because you know someone, they couldn't be involved in anything bad. I don't need for the series to sketch that out any further, but I liked the contrast/juxtaposition, and am happy to draw my own conclusions as to how Molly came to have her perspective.

I was actually in tears at the difficulty of getting the custard tarts out of the tins. It was just heartbreaking. I had to wonder if they were given instructions not to grease the insides of the tins. It seems that would be the most foolproof way to get the tarts out. Even the parchment underneath (which was a great idea) didn't work 100% of the time. I can also see where there would be enough fat in the crust that they should be able to come right out, but again...not so much. Custard tarts were probably my favorite childhood dessert, but somehow I forgot about them completely until this episode, and then I had a "Proust's madeleine" moment ;-) Now I wonder how they got made. I suspect my parents (not "crust-from-scratch" people) bought the crusts pre-packaged and then made the custard from a box mix. Apologies to any custard tart purists, but they were yummy. (Also, I was a kid.) Glenn totally won me over with a comment at one point about baking -- I even paused the recording so I could get it down verbatim: "Baking's not 'food on the table.' Baking's a bit of love. That's why we do it." Yes! Exactly! I think part of what makes the judges’ critiques so drama-free is that usually the bakers know when their product isn’t up to snuff. This seems to be true on MasterChef Junior too, unlike other "creative" competition shows like Project Runway where a designer will put something horrid on the runway and then "have" to stand behind it, because "It's my vision." (Full disclosure: This now exhausts all the "creative" competition shows I watch.) Finally got around to introducing this show to a friend who can whip up anything in the kitchen and who insists that all reality shows are scripted. Felt it was my civic duty to share one where that is 99% not the case, and which is as lovely on all counts as folks here have pointed out. As we were talking, another friend was nearby and had stumbled on the show in a wee-small-hours rebroadcast and we started talking very animatedly about it. Hope our "love" was contagious :-)

Really interesting comments here about Colbert's interviews with Repug presidential candidates -- too many too quote! I still feel a pang of regret that Letterman retired before seeing out this political cycle; he was actually probably the sharpest political interviewer out there in his day. He would not let any BS past him. That said, I agree that Colbert is in early days with The Late Show, and we can't expect this Colbert to be the Colbert character of TCR. For those feeling a void with TCR and Jon Stewart's departure from TDS, may I recommend Rachel Maddow on MSNBC? Her show is more "news with the funny" rather than "the funny about the news" but she can be just as biting and pointed in her own way. She's also a persistent and respectful interviewer. Gah, my DVR cut out in the midst of "Rockin' in the Free World" last night. But it was awesome while it lasted ;-) Especially since The Donald got into trouble for using it as a campaign song. Heh.