SnarkySheep

For some reason, Griff snapping at Tucker to stop laying around "like a Renaissance nude" struck me as especially hilarious. It's the kind of retort most of us could only imagine coming up with on the spot.

Was anyone really surprised by the Griff/Vivian hookup? Really, Vivian seems to spend more time with Griff and Sam than Pyne. I find it really hard to believe that marriage lasted eight years, given all the factors we've seen in just a very short time.

Yes!! I had totally forgotten about that. I guess they decided to cut that for whatever reason.

I love how Halstead apparently has this wide array of questionable cousins we never get to see - Moira who dated the shady Dr Cooper, Kevin who's angry that Will won't fund his dispensary dream, etc. At this point in the season I'd rather watch an episode full of Halsteads, all ragging on Will than anything actually at Med...

Well, but he may come back next season (if there is one). The actor just took a leave this season because his partner was expecting a baby during the time of filming and he didn't want to leave her. More curious to me is how they keep mentioning Abigail, after being so adamant they didn't want LL back. I can understand them kind of having to mention her in reference to the Canfields buying into the cafe, but having Henry write her letters and visit her, or her calling to wish Elizabeth a happy birthday? That's going out of your way to keep the character relevant.

Definitely...but Uncle Theo was in the trial going on and on about how he's Makayla's family, yet apparently didn't even know she existed until a few months earlier. If you don't know your own brother had a kid, then you don't really have much of a leg to stand on about how blood is more important than the people who have actually been caring for her.

I enjoyed seeing Gloria's home - and the fact that it was fairly small and cozy, a bit older in style, etc. In other words, unlike lots of other TV characters, Gloria lives in a regular place, just like many of the viewers might.

I'm just waiting for them to tell us Bill is dying! A few episodes back, they had him coughing up blood into a handkerchief - and that was classic TV shorthand for tuberculosis. But then he's going around randomly trying to hold in his coughing and insisting he's ok for several episodes since...AND he's continuing to cook and serve food in the cafe. If he really does have TB, so will half of Hope Valley.

I loved how Olu and Tunde were trying so hard to be supportive, though they had absolutely zero clue how to do it.

IIRC. didn't Fiona originally come from San Francisco? I could swear she said her family was there, or else maybe it was just where she started with the phone company?

Not to mention, back in those days a trip to pretty much anywhere was rather costly, as it involved trains, boats, etc. Few people had the means to ever travel, let alone so often. Has Fiona found herself a sugar daddy we don't know about? Or is being a barber just that lucrative? It also made no sense as to how Rosemary just happened to have a man's costume available. I could kind of handwave her having some old costumes from her previous roles (though most likely she'd have returned them after the performances) and lugging them to Hope Valley out of nostalgia, but also for Lee?? I'm not, because seriously, would it have taken Ned TEN YEARS to mention it?? Especially given the way there were so many Christmas specials over the seasons, if they really had put any thought into it, he could at least have mentioned his own traditions. This just felt like they wanted a pat on the back for sticking something in. But was it community funded? As Mike told Fiona, in the past it had been subsidized by the mining company. I would imagine that people just paid for medical services out of pocket after that? Remember a few seasons back, the traveling salesman (forgot his name, but he was a young black man, who gave a ride to Carson when he was stranded, and Carson insisted on giving him his coat and also medication for his cough?) At any rate, the guy initially refused, saying he couldn't afford to see a doctor and had never been. Sadly, I imagine that would have been the case for many people back then, and especially for people of color, who might have been refused even if they did have payment, e.g. Angela Canfield. I took a moment to Google the subject - apparently Canada officially started free universal healthcare in 1957.

When Hope Calls did a better job of this. Like Grace, who was a young woman that had grown up in an orphanage and spent her early twenties waitressing and doing similar jobs, had like three dresses to her name - which she wore repeatedly. That said, they were just as bad as WCTH with hair - every woman, including Tess who spent her days herding cattle, very clearly used a curling iron. I know one season way back Elizabeth mentioned having some town woman doing her laundry. BUT, even with that luxury behind her, you'd think all those long pastel skirts of hers would be rather impossible, given the dirt roads and the fact that she's the mother of a very young child.

I love the Alexa commercial with the woman telling the cowboys in the movie she's watching that she's hard of hearing, so they helpfully start holding up caption signs and arguing amongst one another as how best to describe the music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqqJrt3k-ck

I know I've complained about them before, but the Daisy sour cream commercials are still coming at me, and they're still just as baffling. I get it - it must be hard to be clever and memorable when your job entails marketing sour cream. But are people surrounded by all sorts of delicious foods going to lose their minds the minute the sour cream gets passed around? And not just adults - one commercial shows a little boy around eight looking equally delighted. In my experience most kids aren't thrilled about sour cream.

On what planet would it be considered ethical for a psychiatrist to see his wife's ex-husband as a patient?? Even Griff called it, but Pyne was like, no, we aren't family, it's fine. WTF??

Presumably they meant the newest book in the Anne series. I Googled it - the 5th book, Rainbow Valley, was published in 1919. Is Rosemary now wearing a corset? She's a slender woman but seemed ridiculously so in this episode. Does Laura babysit around the clock? We know she's there the whole school day, but then Elizabeth seems to have a lot of leisure time for spending evenings with Lucas or at the saloon.

Yes - Bill is divorced. When Nora showed up in Hope Valley, she was kind of dating Henry for a while.

Hallmark didn't let Lori Loughlin back - they sold the When Hope Calls spinoff to GAC. That network just announced that Daniel Lissing will be doing other stuff for them, including a Christmas movie.

Sorry to double-post, but I figured my thoughts on last week's things could be separate from this week's... - For a town that is quick to notice every little thing and gossip about it, did literally NO ONE notice Fiona is now blonde?? - When Fiona told Faith she wanted her to try this new hairdo that's all the rage in San Francisco, did anyone else immediately think she meant a bob? (Or would that be the show admitting the '20s are right around the corner??) - Too bad Nathan couldn't pull Henry into the barber shop with him! All that facial hair is not a good look for the man. - Florence finally learned to keep her mouth shut!

Actually, back in the Victorian era, it was more than that - it was considered a matter of impropriety. They actually had these weird stethoscopes that allowed several inches between the doctor's ear and a woman's body, because many women (and/or their fathers/husbands) thought it was scandalous to have a strange man touch them that intimately. The feeling may have been changing by 1919, but as Henry is an older man, it's right on target that he would have been raised differently. I thought so too, especially since the Coulters visited the orphanage and seemed to enjoy all the kids. Also, they have shown other characters adopting (Nathan with Allie, or Abigail with Cody and Becky) so it definitely seems they think it's a good thing. The title really bugs me, because I really don't think anyone back in that day would have said "single mother" - that is a modern phrase. IMO it would have been "widowed mother," because "single" would imply never married, which of course was frowned upon at that time.

Quite possibly. Remember, at the end when Sam and Griff were coming to a small truce, Sam literally said she knew almost nothing about her own father other than the medical aspect. Hmm, interesting idea! However, didn't Vivian say in the first or second episode that they'd been married like eight years already? If he had ulterior motives, chances are he'd already have done whatever it is he'd planned to do. Not to mention the imbalance of power - surely Lex has seen what this man is capable of, toward his own family. Just what does she imagine will happen to her medical career if something happens in which she loses his favor??

My initial thought was that Sam had been adopted - perhaps via some former patient at the hospital - and the paperwork was there. Not that it's impossible, but IMO it would be rather improbable, given Griff and Vivian's ages versus Sam's, that they would have had a child right when they were both simultaneously going through med school, residency, etc. They both seem like real go-getters, that combined with starting a hospital. Had there been an "oops", I could definitely see them getting an abortion, especially with Griff pushing the issue.

I think I'd like that plot a lot better, if we hadn't already seen it way back in the day with Dr. Quinn... Agreed. There are currently such a myriad of characters, it's already hard to keep track. And I know they had to make up a story about why they left, because the actors wanted out, but IMO the two of them would not have left Hope valley. And, yeah. Lee is the boss of a fairly large operation there. I know Rosemary meant well but just when is Lee supposed to have time for the newspaper? And does he even any personal interest in being part of one (aside from supporting his wife, that is?) Well, don't forget, Abigail was only appointed mayor by default after Henry was forced out - at the time, Canadian women still didn't have the right to vote, let alone run for office. By this point, they could, but literally just a hot minute ago. So I found it a little odd that the women were so casual about voting. You'd think Rosemary or somebody would've mentioned it was high time they had a voice in their own town...

LOL, as though a woman like Tess, spending long hours in all kinds of weather doing grueling outdoor work, would have her hair curled?? 😃 Honestly, I think a lot of it (on both shows) has to do with the actresses' preferring to look good, versus authentic to their time period. Which of course don't have to be mutually exclusive things... One thing I do like is that Grace wears the same few outfits repeatedly, such as that blue dress she's literally always in. It's definitely realistic that a young woman who fairly recently aged out of an orphanage and worked fairly low-paying jobs such as waitressing would only have a few different things.

IMO it's like they are just following a stock character formula for everyone's dad - Halstead's, Choi's, Rhodes', etc. Show them as these awful people who can't get along their own kids...