zxy556575

The Knowledge Reports remind me of grammar school and the threat of any transgressions being added to YOUR PERMANENT RECORD. I assume mine have been etched on titanium plates and stored in those underground vaults with LRH's writings.

I'm getting tired of the lot of them, I suppose, because I just didn't care about all the drugged-out histrionics and hallucinations. I did notice the trio of bad wigs but chalked it up to poor costuming choices. I'm glad nobody tried try to turn John's texts into an amusing but heartwarming misunderstanding: "He was talking to someone in secret about Mary's anniversary present!" It seems like the show goes out of its way sometimes to film/light Amanda as harshly as possible.

Maybe his win will throw a few more viewers the show's way. Criminally underrated, I say!

I originally skipped this because as @candall said, senior citizens ≠ MTV, but it was recommended in another forum here and I'm glad I gave it a try. Love Ophelia and Harris except she really needs to be a better friend. I liked his hookup with Fiona the turns-out-not-a-ditz. I'm on episode 4 and while the actress is doing a terrific job, I'm not as much into Jules as a character. I guess I'd rather hang out at the record store than the sorority. I love that the show was created by a woman, not because of the subject matter per se, but because there are so few of them overall and we need more (says me). I came across an interview with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson where she gives some background on how the show came about.

Ach. I'd forgotten that Morse was pining over Joan but unfortunately the show hadn't. I enjoyed the mystery but all the main characters were so dour and sad, with Thursday and Morse at each other's throats and even Win messing up her sandwiches. Strange got his dig in about the sergeant's exam, too. I assume we'll find out who sabotaged it? Morse seemed to already know/suspect, but I can't believe it was Bright. At least we got a bit more of Miss Frazil. Trewlove is proving to be quite the smarty pants, outshining even Morse in certain areas. I'm keeping my eye on her.

Twelve adorable puppies gamboling on Dr. Pol! They so gamboled. Can you die from too much cuteness? I watched the first episode of The Guardians and was a little uncomfortable with the confrontations, but that's just me in general.

Goodness, I'm surprised she would take a role like that! Seems like it would stir up really painful emotions for her.

I was mainly very relieved they weren't Little People.

I like Kristen, but that wasn't one of the better episodes. In fact, I don't know if Jerry is deliberately trying to include more women or if he simply picks people he likes, but the non stand-ups have been some of the weaker episodes for me: Tina Fey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ali Wentworth, that horrible Miranda You Tube whatever. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss was good, not because she was particularly funny, but because she and Jerry have such genuine ease and affection.

As annoyed as I got with Sherri on the show, I'm fine watching her elsewhere (although she tends to play the same sidekick character over and over). Her destructive and hateful attitude towards her child might have made me boycott, except there are already a lot of stars I won't watch because of their drunken brawls, piggish phone calls, sexual assaults, extreme political views, Scientology beliefs, etc. It's a lot already! ;)

That's the height of social awkwardness for me, too. Everybody Loves Raymond did an episode about it and I was uncomfortable just watching! I cannot call anyone except my birth parents mom and dad. Cannot. It was definitely Not Allowed in our house. My mother's best friend kept insisting we call her Anne, but even that was a no go and my sister and I would earn a swat if we ever slipped. Weirdly enough, after my parents divorced, my mother would instruct us to call her boyfriends Uncle FirstName. I guess sleeping with them meant they were family. ;)

Who knows what's really going on with Rathbun, but my personal guess is that he's had a mental breakdown. Too much mindfuckery for too many decades, both in and out of the cult.

I particularly liked the scene of the Wizard wearily removing his toupee. I was wondering if the beard would be next, but so far the wig seems to be his only curtain. He's quite intriguing to me as a character. I assume D'Onofrio was told to play him broadly? Hopefully his performance tones down a bit as we go along. The inhabitants of Emerald City certainly have a wide array of accents! I trust we'll get to see the unincorporated people again, for their costumes if nothing else. Ojo seems like he'll turn into an ally. I keep expecting East not to be dead somehow. Magic exists and Mombi hasn't quite expired despite being sworded. Okay, only a witch can kill a witch ... but East was manipulated into shooting herself. I'm open to Dorothy being a witch, but think the creators have technically left themselves an out.

Ordered from several different restaurants because the delivery people fat shame her. It's the way they ring the doorbell and barely bother looking up. She can totally tell!

I'm glad I haven't read any reviews, then! I was transported and really loved it, particularly the glorious costumes, locations, and production design. As Adam mentioned in his recap, I don't plan to give a fig about previous iterations; any similarities and/or deviations can bite me. I'm delighted by E City but also wondering about life back in Kansas, with stormy night adoptions and trailer knife fights to the death. Can't wait for more and, being spoiled by entertainment these days, am miffed that the entire series isn't streaming. Weekly episodes, really? How quaint.

When criticizing their apostates, Scientology often sneers that they (including Leah) tried desperately to remain in the organization but were expelled. Politifact would probably rate that a True. But here's the thing. The exes may have become disillusioned and quit their staff jobs or the Sea Org, but they tried to follow the required steps and remain "in good standing" because they didn't want to disconnect from spouses, family and friends. It was only after they were declared, disconnected, spied on and harassed that they felt they had nothing to lose and began speaking up. Basically Scientology created its own enemies.

Yes! I'd also like to see more interaction with other Traveler teams. If I'm remembering correctly, they're not supposed to discuss their missions with each other, right? Screw that. I like the police woman more than I do Marcy and Carly, is what it is. I agree that she was likely wearing a bulletproof vest when MacLaren shot her. Shows like this with numerous interwoven and deliberately ambiguous storylines tend to benefit from bingeing. If there's a season two, I'll probably rewatch to sort things out a bit in my head (meaning, pay attention this time).

I'm coming from a point of being a little burned out on the show, but if the producers have been adding the (mostly unfunny) special skits and themes because they're concerned about being repetitive and one-note, I wouldn't mind if they changed to a weekly show. Or, you know, stopped being a show. 500 episodes was a pretty good run.

Jeez, I forgot how much I dislike 20/20 and their urgent, breathless narrative style. They sure bent over backwards not to appear to be favoring the people who left and repeating that Leah and Rinder as producer and consultant for the show were paid. Like any other TV producers! Even if the producers paid an appearance fee to some of the people who told their stories, so what. That Yingling is the best/only person Miscavige can get to respond to accusations these days is pretty telling. If he's got nothing to hide and all the people who left Scientology are liars and thieves, then show your own damned face to the world and say so.

I'd love differening viewpoints if the panelists were able to be civil adults. But conversations mostly just devolve into squabbling with nobody listening to each other and we're right back where we started. Nobody's points are made clearly and nobody -- panelists or viewers -- has been enlightened.

And so many Canadians! Smaller markets and all, but the U.S. definitely has a trade deficit. In fact, there tend to be small snits thrown if, say, an American actor is hired to play a British person. A few Brits may play Australian, but other countries are pretty insular with their own productions.

Do the instructors mean that someone quitting is worse than someone who failed on the water tests and was kicked out? I didn't get his point. It's interesting that some of the instructors singled #11/Christian out on the first day as someone they felt would go far. It's also possible they were filmed saying that about every recruit. ;)

Ex-members of the Church of Scientology who crusade against it; actress Leah Remini discusses her fight against the church and her goal of making it lose its tax exempt status.

They can't, but there are lots of Scientology centers around the U.S. Many are small with very few public members (parishioners, as Leah calls them), but the centers are kept open and staffed. Scientology has a church locator site, if interested. (If you live in a rural or low population area, you'd have to move.) There are also local "missions" that are privately run (like a franchise), but Miscavige upped their fee percentages and many have shut down now.

This was noted today on Tony Ortega's site: Next week’s episode featuring Lois Reisdorf and her son Brandon ... is the seventh of the original lineup and the eighth overall. A&E has chosen to refer to it as the season finale. But we’re told that another special episode featuring questions from Reddit will air on January 17. And the original eighth episode of the series, focused on Leah Remini herself, will air the last week of January.