Wiendish Fitch

Thank you. I would be a grade-A hypocrite if I sang the praises of Rivers's "legacy" simply because she's dead. I never found her witty, insightful, or even mildly amusing. It was sickening how she fat-shamed other women who dared to be themselves instead of nipping and tucking themselves into oblivion. I'll never forget how, at the 1998 Oscars, she said that Helen Hunt weighed less than Kate Winslet's arm.

Yay, another person who prefers Clara to the monumentally annoying, useless, and overrated Amy! I am not loving this season of Doctor Who, because they're trying to make Clara the Meg Griffin of the show (the Doctor constantly mocks her looks, Madame Vastra viciously rakes her across the coals for imagined sins). Seriously, why does everyone despise her now? And why does Steven Moffat keep trying to imply that Amy was superior? If I asked before, I've asked a million times: what the ever-loving hell did Amy do that was so wonderful?? And don't say "look good in a miniskirt"!

Thanks for backing me up, lyric. I thought it was a flawless, textbook example of understated acting done right (I'm sick of how "understated" now means actors mindlessly droning their lines with vacant expressions). Again, I try to judge an actor by their acting, not their lifestyle, but if their antics destroy their career, they usually have themselves to blame. Now if an actor has been dead for decades, then I can forgive their salacious activities. For instance, I will always cherish The Adventures of Robin Hood, in spite of Errol Flynn's unforgivable actions, but since he's been dead for 55 years, I don't feel too guilty enjoying his work. Who knows? In 50 years I might finally watch Chinatown or Rosemary's Baby, but since Polanski is currently alive and well (as is his victim), I'm going to pass.

Count me in. I refuse to like Cage even ironically, and when Ethan Hawke said, in all sincerity, that Cage was "the greatest actor of our generation", I just wanted to tie him to a chair (after bitch-slapping him), prop his eyelids open, a la A Clockwork Orange, and make him watch Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave, Peter Saarsgard in Shattered Glass, and pretty much any performance by Daniel Day-Lewis and then demand he say it again! I get so annoyed when the go-to defense of Cage is "but he's fascinating!" Yes, he's fascinating, the way a bleeding ulcer is fascinating. I feel for Anne Hathaway. I mean, if you think she's a bad actress, fine, but the hatred towards her is so irrational it's scary. Even if her personality is irritating… who cares? She's not my friend, co-worker, or neighbor, what difference does it make? I still like a lot of Gwyneth Paltrow's movies, but you'd have to pay me pretty damn handsomely to spend an hour with her in person. I still like Benedict Cumberbatch, even though he sounds like kind of a dick, but no one ever gets on his case, so what gives? Now, if an actor goes beyond the pale of moral redemption, especially if it's fairly recent, then I say feel free to loathe them with a fiery vengeance. When my husband and I found out about what Klaus Kinski did to his poor daughters, we vowed to never, ever watch anything with him in it ever, ever again. Kinski is dead, but his daughters are alive and still bear the scars, so, yeah, Kinski is on my permanent shitlist (right up there with that reprehensible excuse for a human being Roman Polanski).

I don't know if I should post this here, but here it is anyway: Someone should have told Joss "Blah, blah, I'm a feminist, you're not, blah" Whedon that Inara didn't have to do a damn thing to earn Mal's respect, especially get gang-raped. Mal should have respected Inara to begin with. Someone should tell Joss a real man knows how to treat a lady. A real man treats people with respect, even if he doesn't agree with them (see Mal's treatment of Inara and Simon). I think I'd like Joss's "strong women" better if he'd learn how to write strong men first. I don't mean men who know how to use a gun or who have a good, slow-mo swagger. I mean a real man, who is flawed, but who is also brave, kind, and isn't riddled with archaic madonna/whore issues. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Marcus Cole from Babylon 5 would kick Mal and Jayne's asses to next week. He was heroic, witty, charming, and above everything else, he knew how to treat a lady. That, to me, is a real man.

I love the ending to Innerspace, because, really, it's not Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid's story, but Martin Short's.

I don't hate the unpopular Sixth Doctor. Sure, he could be kind of a jerk, but if I had to travel with a useless, whiny drag like Peri, I wouldn't be a peach, either. It helps that Colin Baker is a great actor (and I love his voice), and I also have the UO that the Sixth Doctor's technicolor nightmare coat was kind of badass. It enhanced his alien nature in the best way.

Re: the "Nobody Poops" trope. I'm more than okay with it. Hell, I don't want to think about real people taking a crap, why would I want to picture fictional characters doing it? That's one of the reasons the second season of Orange is the New Black turned me off, because they relied waaaaaaay too heavily on scatological humor (I like Daya, but I sure as hell could have done without that episode dealing with her constipation). I know it takes place in prison, and prison is gross, but they really overdid it. Also, real life, when it's not being depressing, is more often than not duller than tombs. TV is entertainment and escapism. Works for me.

Every time Chris Hargensen is onscreen in Carrie (the 1976 original, all those sequels and remakes can jump off a cliff), I go into insta-rage. It's Chris's fault that Carrie was humiliated in the locker room, it was Ms. Collins who banned Chris from the prom, but who does Chris blame for her misfortune? Carrie! Look, normally I don't make excuses for anyone's crimes, real or fictional, but let's face facts: Carrie snapped and killed hundreds of people because Chris organized that sick prank at the prom! People are dead and it's all because of Chris! If she hadn't dumped the pig's blood on Carrie, it never would have happened! Yes, yes, I know, we also wouldn't have a story, and it's a good one, too, but what really chaps my ass is Chris's vile, mean girl mentality, the fact that she's lashing out at someone who is not only weaker than she is, but who has done absolutely nothing to her. Just look at the news: how many times have we read about popular, seemingly perfect kids who are who reveal themselves as sociopaths? I also really have to give mad props to Nancy Allen, because, boy howdy, did she do a brilliant job playing a despicable, slap-worthy little bitch.

The only reason I didn't mention that scene was for fear of going into an even more expletive-laden, spittle-flecked, rage-filled tangent (I was already on one after being reminded of The Family Stone). I also grind my teeth into powder just thinking about the aftermath of that little demon-child Briony's lie in Atonement. Nobody, but nobody, messes with my darling Robbie and gets away with it (okay, so I'm biased because he's played by James McAvoy, what of it?!)! Even worse

Oh, I agree, harrie. The Heiress would be nothing without Dr. Douche, but I just take issue with people who think he was right in his treatment of Catherine. I really need to stop going on IMDb message boards, anyway, I think it does things to people.

Damn skippy about The Family Stone. What a loathsome, cruel, hypocritical, self-aggrandizing bunch of worthless, bullying pigs those people were, each and every one! Yeah, I'm even going to be a jerk and throw in that nauseatingly perfect deaf brother and his dull boyfriend in the mix, too! Meredith's only crime was being a little uptight, and those hateful bastards treated her the way you wouldn't dream of treating a raccoon that wandered into your garage! Had this been a better movie, written by smarter people, it would have been a satire on how society is so forgiving towards abusive boyfriends, murderers, drug addicts, and dictators… but people who are quiet, reserved, and-horrors!- kind of boring are considered beneath our contempt. Sorry for my tangent. As you undoubtedly noticed, The Family Stone brings out the worst in me. Moving along... The Heiress: One of my favorites, but, hoo boy, Dr. Sloper (Ralph Richardson) is another movie character who brings out the worst in me. Again, people who are shy, awkward, and not sparkling conversationalists are basically on his shit list, on who in particular is on his shit list? His own daughter, Catherine (Olivia de Havilland, never better). Catherine is sweet, kind, loving, and would go to the ends of the earth and back to win her father's approval, but he withholds it because she isn't like her late mother, who Dr. Sloper has idealized into this almost monstrous image of perfection. He is condescending and passive aggressive to Catherine, and one early moment really sticks in my craw: Catherine has purchased a red dress to wear to her cousin's engagement party. She models it for her father, then reminds him that it's cherry red, the color her mother used to wear. Now, a good father would have simply said, "Very nice," or "You don't have to wear such and such color to impress me, you look lovely in anything." Instead, he says, "But Catherine, your mother was fair. She dominated the color." Then he blithely announces it's time to go, oblivious (or worse, possibly not oblivious) to Catherine's fallen face. Say it with me now... DOUCHE! P.S. Want to know what's scary? There are a shocking number of people on IMDb who think Dr. Sloper was a wonderful, misunderstood father who was just trying to get his "boring lump" of a daughter to be a "normal person". Wow.

We're only two episodes into the season, but I think I already hate the Twelfth Doctor. I absolutely hate his disdainful treatment of Clara (coldly mocking her looks, her wardrobe, her age, her figure, etc.), and I really don't like the implication that Amy was a superior companion, while Clara's just some useless load (Clara did things! What the hell did Amy ever do?!). The Twelfth Doctor is so petty and abusive, he's starting to make Colin Baker's much-hated Sixth Doctor seem downright cuddly by comparison! And it's a shame, because Peter Capaldi is a fantastic actor.

Even though I actually loved The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (that rare sequel that improves on the first movie's flaws), it does have two unintentionally funny moments for me: 1. The new cat to play Buttercup. Funny because, oh, dear, all the many possible scenarios! Did they realize how utterly unlike the book's Buttercup the previous cat was, and replace it, thinking we'd be too stupid to notice? Did Katniss make good on her promise to cook Buttercup, and did she get Prim a new one to make up for it? Or is sweet little Prim actually a budding sociopath who killed the last cat in order to get a new one? We may never know. 2. That poor old guy getting shot in the head in District 11. No, nothing funny about getting shot in the head… seeing his clean, whole, bloodless corpse get dragged away was. I know, I know, this is PG-13, but, good lord, couldn't they have pulled that off a little better?

While I don't find Peeta wildly compelling as a character, I think Josh Hutcherson does a great job playing up the character's strengths, and I think he's a darn good actor. In fact, his reaction to having his name called during the reaping in the first Hunger Games movie is one of my favorite examples of understated acting done right. Seriously, watch the scene again, he reacts the way anyone in real life would: briefly stunned, then horrified, then devastated (and almost sickened), then sadly resigned… all in the space of seconds. That's no small feat, but Hutcherson nailed it.

Fred Astaire was never, ever considered handsome by any means (he once complained he looked like "a plucked chicken"), but whenever he dances, well, I sure don't care what his face looks like!

Sorry, wrong thread. My bad.

Mrs. Baker from Boyz N the Hood was a lousy mother. Lavishing praise and attention on Ricky while showing nothing but bitter contempt towards Doughboy, even when he was just a kid. Doughboy made some crappy life choices, but given his toxic environment and his verbally abusive mother, it's little wonder he turned out the way he did.

Me, too. Logan was a destructive, self-indulgent, shockingly uninteresting, unrepentant creep. My opinion of Veronica went from 10 to -2 because of that shitty movie, so maybe those two losers are meant for each other.

As the Nostalgia Chick said, "Jeez, lady, look where you're going!" Sorry, Meg, but you get a shiny Darwin Award for that.

The only reason I don't like the end of Do the Right Thing is that Buggin' Out didn't get the horrible, bloody death he so richly deserved. God, but I hated that miserable shit-stirrer.

I don't blame you, I adore Claude Rains, too. Scarily talented, immensely charming, and he had those nice, dark eyes, too. Another Classic Hollywood crush of mine is Ronald Colman. Those gorgeous, heart-melting brown eyes, those gray temples that would make other men just look old, but he rocked the hell out of them, that velvety voice… so dreamy.

Praise be, I thought I was the only one! Ramona was duller than tombs. I was once griping about this to some random guy, and he said he liked Ramona. I said, "Don't you find her boring?" His response? "Yeah, but she's so hot!" Huh. Basically the screenwriters' thoughts in a nutshell. I preferred Kim and Knives, at least they had personalities. Speaking of textbook Sexy Lamps (link is for those who don't know what I'm talking about), I desperately wish the character Sandra in Big Fish had been at least a touch more interesting. Instead, she has no agency, no identity outside of being Edward's Love Interest, and the personality of a tablecloth. And Will was trying to find out the truth about his father's life, but wasn't getting it from Edward… why didn't Sandra fill him in?! She's Will's mother, for crap's sake!! Why didn't she sit him down and tell him the truth, rather than beam approvingly at all Edward's bullshit?

Random UOs: I'm sick of Jon Snow. He bores me. I also had no sympathy or love for Ygritte (though I do like Rose Leslie). Henry Francis is the only man on Mad Men who doesn't nauseate me. I will always think Amy Pond was one of the worst companions on Doctor Who. Since when is "waiting" an act of heroism? Likewise, I think Clara is just fine and dandy. I never got the appeal of Samurai Jack, and never thought the animation was anything to write home about. Shirley MacClaine's appearance on Downton Abbey was a huge letdown. Her character was uninteresting and did absolutely nothing for me. Emily and Julie were both head and shoulders above Rachel on Friends.

I love The Avengers, but never got what was so wonderful about Agent Coulson. He was just… there, to me.