SnarkySheep

Yeah, that's pretty awful...AND may also bite Katie in the butt one day, as it seems that her favoritism is largely centered upon the fact that Anna-Kat is the youngest, so her problems are still easy and often even cute. That won't last forever, of course, and before you know it, she'll have another kid who's rolling her eyes at her and being snarky. I wonder how much of a "favorite" Anna-Kat will be then. But, that aside, I had mixed feelings about the episodes, as I could see both sides. Yeah, it's not good to start and never finish things; but at the same time, it's not good to force a person to continue with an activity she has given a chance and still doesn't like. In that respect, it was apples and oranges, comparing Katie's half-finished baby blanket and scrapbooks, which are a one-time thing, versus Taylor's being in a regular ongoing activity. I could understand the parents pushing Taylor to TRY different things, as we saw recently when she was so adamant about synchronized swimming being for losers but then ended up enjoying it when she actually gave it a try; there are many things in the world that all of us might like, if we only stay open-minded enough to try. But, if she did try something for a while, long enough to have a full sense of it, such as the drama club, and wasn't enjoying it, then what's the point in having her stay and be miserable? Plus, who's to say that the time she is wasting in that group might not be used to find some new activity that she DOES enjoy? Taylor is 14! That's the time in life when you get to explore the world around you, not when you have to balance a career, household and kids.

Playing devil's advocate, I'd guess that Voight has been responsible for covering up a lot of Erin's "oops" moments. But, it has also crossed my mind more than once, would she even have the job she does if it weren't for him? It seems that most/all people in the district know about their relationship, so even if it isn't nepotism in the strictest sense, I would imagine there would have been some comments, if not outright forbidding, from TPTB. Along those lines, how fair do you think Voight would be if any suspect ever hurt Erin on the job? I'm sure he'd pull a Burgess too, and certainly Crowley & company would have to know that.

The friends we could explain away by saying they popped in for a short time during visiting hours, then left. But I would agree that there should have been Mama Burgess, or at the very least some mention that she was coming/would be coming. We know she exists, as Burgess fairly recently made reference to the fact that she would be flying in to meet Ruzek. Certainly something like this would be important enough that she'd come back to sit with her daughter and care for her granddaughter?? But when Burgess said she would take that leave, she said that the two of them "had no one" besides each other. Huh.

When I first heard about him moving to Justice, I was happy for him, thinking he'd get a bigger role. But no, his part there is really no bigger (if not actually smaller) than on PD. I don't get why he'd want to move, unless it wasn't his choice. Among the things forgotten: Antonio's boxing gym. We haven't heard any mention of it all season, let alone seen him or anyone else there.

I too wondered if we'd get some kind of explanation, e.g. "Thanks for bailing me out! The guy I've been seeing had to work and I hate going to these things alone..." ANYTHING. Because in my experience, you don't typically take a random colleague to a family reunion...

I think part of the problem is that - as least as far as I can see - Tate really has nothing going on in his life aside from April and his son. We know he retired from a successful sports career, so presumably has enough money to not have to work. Of course, it's possible that he IS doing some kind of work somewhere, but as it has never been mentioned, I'll presume he isn't. But clearly, he's a young enough guy who could use some focus on something non-April. While he was telling April she should quit her job, it was her perfect opening to suggest that he GET one, ha.

Count me among those who think that maybe Robyn has been exposed to some kind of weird bug or virus; I doubt this will be a pre-existing mental illness. I agreed with Goodwin about not giving in to the hackers, for all the reasons stated. I know they had to move the story along and all that, and that Latham being the mystery donor was a nice element of surprise; but I'm also a bit disappointed in him. Having Asperger's should make him all the more logical and objective in such matters, so I would have thought he'd be vehemently anti-payment. On a side note, I literally LOL'd as Goodwin stormed around asking everyone about the mystery payment, i.e. "Well, at least she can cross Will right off her list..."

Yes...we know that Will's mother died of cancer some time ago (perhaps as long as a decade ago) and that he and Jay are both estranged from their father (for reasons yet unknown but likely to be divulged in "Generation Gap" this week). So it does make sense that Will would attach to older persons who showed interest in him and his work. Re: Will and his ladies - Personally, I don't mind him with Natalie. The thing that does bother me,though, is that the whole Nina relationship seemed set up to fail from practically day one. He admitted outright that the whole moving in together thing was happening way before he was ready; but due to his finances he essentially had no other choice. Then we get this whole "backstory" about Nina supposedly having dated half the hospital before Will (like he wouldn't have heard about this, especially given how gossipy Med is?) and then Nina (who works in a whole different part of the hospital) conveniently walking in on Manstead every time they have a personal moment (which isn't even all that often)? It's so ridiculously stilted, to make Nina want to break up with Will and thus leave him free for Natalie.

I'm not familiar with the actor who will be playing Dad, so I really can't even put together a mental scenario of what he might be like with his sons. But yeah, it should definitely be interesting to see.

Huh? Where did you get that idea? I'm 100% Polish and I'm pretty dark - as is my dad, and many other Polish people I know. I do have the round face, but I also know quite a few people who have very narrow features. In a nutshell, Poles run the gamut of looks, so Jo could definitely fit, even if she weren't supposedly half Italian. I can see how they had to do that, too, but only where the college-aged girls are involved. I could never quite understand how/why Tootie and Natalie also moved in over the shop. Why would their parents want them living off campus when there are perfectly nice dorms available at Eastland? Would the folks at Eastland even be ok with such an arrangement? (It wasn't as though they were living at home and just coming over for classes; they were living with a third-party, one who wasn't even a current employee of the school. Would Mrs. Garrett have had to sign en loco parentis forms to be considered a guardian? etc.) The whole matter was conveniently glossed over and never really addressed, of course.

IMO the real irony of Justin's relationship with his father is that neither man realized how alike they were - in both good and bad ways. Perhaps that's why they couldn't ever really get along. They were basically just an older and younger version of the same person.

IF Voight actually hooked up with Bunny, do we know if Camille was already in the picture at the time? Considering the age difference between Erin and Justin, I'm going to say no - but it's also largely because I don't want to think of Voight as a cheater. Re: Erin's friend at the bar - Yes, that was Annie, the same friend who was in the Charlie arc. You might not have recognized her, however, as her hair was blonde in those episodes and now it's dark.

Wasn't Halstead wired the whole time? Remember, he showed Ellie on the landing to get her to believe he was really a cop? It would have been rather difficult for him to do anything unseemly with any of the girls, or it would have been recorded...

To me it was simultaneously out of character and completely within. That little moment showed just how much Voight has influenced Lindsay over the years. IMO Halstead and Lindsay are a prime example! They've been together a couple years now and we aren't seeing any ridiculous drama. They do have their issues, of course, but it has more to do with their individual backgrounds/traumas, not with the stereotypical minor misunderstandings blown out of proportion you see so often in the land of TV. Even better, we've never seen their personal relationship factor into their work relationship at all. As Burgess once said, they function so well that it's easy to forget they even have a romantic relationship.

As a side note, I noticed that Olinsky said he had TWO daughters...yet the whole Michelle storyline seems to have been dropped. Personally I don't really care, as I wasn't too invested in it. But the least they could do is somehow wrap things up (i.e. saying she and her mom moved away). I get really bothered when they start plots they never finish.

I'm on the fence about that...but I WOULD like them to give Tate some kind of negative quality. Right now he seems 100% perfect, constantly wanting to swoop in and take care of everything for April, bringing her balloons and flowers for no reason, stopping by the hospital with a forgotten lunch so that she eats properly. Yes, I get it, he's a good guy...but no one is THAT good. That said, where's his little boy? It's been ages since we've seen him. They don't even mention the kid when making their plans, just act like it's only them and the coming baby. Same here! I was left a bit baffled...but also amused, as I'm Polish and it isn't often you hear a character speak Polish on a mainstream drama.

My beef was that we didn't see any sort of consequences for Latham. I get that they're trying to show his various outbursts are the result of his Asperger's; but sorry, that doesn't excuse it. He's supposed to be a professional. In NO workplace is it acceptable to throw things at your colleagues! And heaven knows we've seen Goodwin go after Halstead for every little thing (even in this episode she said they'd "have a little talk" later). Yet something so major by Latham and we see nothing. What would happen if some patient suddenly angered him and he threw a tray at him/her? Major lawsuit just waiting to happen.

IMO the writers wanted a reason to have Jeff and Natalie break up. That's the sole reason for her ridiculous over-the-top reaction. But hey, if you're going to go down that road, at least have fun with it - let him confess he's got his ex-wife's body in his basement, not something so inconsequential and downright boring as simply having liked her. On a side note, anyone else reminded of Taub from House whenever they see Dr Stohl??

That struck me as a bit odd...would they really not have discussed such a thing up til now, especially if her exes were colleagues/people that Will would know? It also made me wonder about Original Will versus Current Will. If you recall, when he was first introduced on PD, he was really into one-night stands (actually bringing a random girl home while crashing at his brother's apartment, which IMO is both unspeakably rude and rather dangerous, as it's a total stranger, Jay has his police weapons on hand, etc.) It was also insinuated that one of the reasons for Will's leaving NYC was getting involved with a partner's wife. Yet in these two seasons we haven't really seen any real proof of these behaviors. So I'm left thinking that perhaps it's one of those ret-con sorts of things, where TPTB adjust a character's personality and traits after their initial introduction. But IMO whatever it's supposed to be kind of makes a difference in interpreting Will's reaction to Nina's disclosure; if we're supposed to still go with the whole Mr. One Night Stand thing, then he's hardly in any position to object to her having actual relationships with numerous guys.

This was my major peeve. Especially considering that this is CHICAGO, a city that is well versed in extreme winter conditions, it just seemed a bit too contrived that they wouldn't have been better prepared for the storm and that someone could have gotten more supplies in. After all, the patients themselves were somehow coming in, weren't they?? IMO it might have been more interesting if the two boys had been brothers instead of cousins. What would the husband have said then? Right. But the man himself just recently said that he can't deal with change very well...making me wonder why on earth he's working where he is. IMO a place like the ED would have something unexpected happening every day, making it extremely difficult to have any sort of predictable routine as Latham seems to want and need. I don't know about that...I think the dynamic between Reese and Dr Charles is interesting in and of itself. That said, I still don't know how Reese is able to be a practicing doctor, considering all the hoopla last season about how she was breaking her agreement by not working in the lab. So how is it ok for her to work in psychiatry but not in the ED? Was it simply because Dr. Charles took her as an intern and not an official doctor? If so, that can't go on too long.

I just recently got into CB - I've long been a fan of Mama's Family but then someone told me they stemmed from the sketches on this show, so alas! Here I am :-) I think the true appeal of "The Family" sketches is that they're so relatable. Who among us hasn't had some version of essentially ALL the sketches? And as annoying as it can be when it's happening to you personally, it's just fascinating to watch (in that proverbial car wreck kind of way) when it's someone else's.

I was born in 1980, so I can't speak firsthand. But judging by the show and what I know about history in general, I think a large part of the way Bob's clients were depicted had more to do with the need for humor and amusing plotlines than anything else. Don't forget, it IS a sitcom, not a drama. Even if BN was on today, I'm sure we would have focused on wacky patient hijinks more than anything more meaningful, much in the way that we focused on Howard's wacky hijinks more than any more average neighbor. (Remember in Season 1, Emily had a female friend in the building who used to pop in occasionally? She was quickly and quietly phased out.)

Oh, and in regard to Noah...I wasn't 100% sure, but I thought what he was doing was selling "hangover cures," e.g. IV fluids and oxygen, to help the athletes keep partying without side effects. If so, that's an actual thing; I recently learned of it through my co-worker, whose nephew is a doctor that set up shop in prime spring break geography offering similar services. It's also done these days at celebrity weddings, so their wealthy guests can have a REALLY good time. It's totally legal, as it's really nothing more than replenishing people's fluids and such. However, to be legal, this service has to be provided by an actual doctor, not just "almost a doctor," as Noah said.

My biggest peeve with this ep was how we learned about the dad's underlying medical condition and it was presented, not outright of course, but fairly understood, as a "reason" for his heroin addiction. I'm sorry, but there is NEVER a reason for that kind of thing, especially when you are a single parent. Also, judging from the daughter's adamant rejection of all drugs even under horrific pain, it's pretty reasonable to assume that she must have witnessed some pretty terrible things over the years because of her father's drug use. So I find that end scene, of the two talking quietly like she had a better "understanding," a bit farfetched. Would she seriously be more forgiving of a no doubt horrific childhood simply because her father had a "reason"? I'm sure that many, if not most, drug addicts initially got started for some reason such as depression, mental illness, battling a trauma like sexual assault, etc. As for Halstead, I don't understand why he simply didn't turn over his former classmate's care to another doctor immediately. The two brothers basically started giving him crap the moment he stepped into the exam room; couldn't he have said right away there was a conflict of interest? Why would he let it get to that point, especially when he JUST got released from a medical lawsuit?? Re: Manning - My GOD, is being a mother going to be her main characteristic from now on?? I don't have any kids myself, but I basically would've given the surrogate the exact same advice; it was pretty basic logic that she was just not allowing herself to see in her desperation. Could Choi not have said the same? Also, Manning may be a single mom, which is certainly a difficult task that no one would envy. But unlike many other women that come into the ED, Natalie has the luxury of knowing she has parents just a flight away, and a mother-in-law nearby who is willing to help care for her baby (most likely physically and financially). Natalie has the benefit of much education, which will allow her to support herself and her child comfortably. Just because she is a single mom and so is a patient she encounters doesn't mean they will necessarily have ANYTHING else in common. I doubt that Natalie has ever, or will ever, struggle to stay out of a shelter, or have to essentially sell her body to take care of Owen. But the show already seems to keep going back to "Hey! Single mom too! We all in the same boat!" It's a bit of a copout that keeps them from better writing.

Same here. It's only been a few episodes but I'm already bone weary of this storyline. The long and the short is, this isn't a political show. If I want to see campaigning and dirty politics, I'll tune into Good Wife. We watch this show to see firefighters and their friends/families.