JessDVD

Marisa- WTF? Chunk- LOL COTW- OK, so I'm not by any means an expert on mental health, guardianship, legality, etc, and all my knowledge really is based on the two different families I know who have walked this with their now-adult children who recently turned 18. So if I'm wrong, politely correct me. But as far as I've been able to tell with them, the point of legal guardianship is NOT to micro-manage your adult children's decisions, up to an approved lunch with a friend. The point of legal guardianship is so that you, the parent, can advocate on your adult child's behalf and actually be considered in the legal determinations, so that the parent can legally step in if the adult child has medical needs and is unable to handle them (which HIPPA would block otherwise), that sort of thing. The fact that the dad wanted to be guardian so he could sell her company against her wishes, had her practically under lock and key, used money from her company to pay off that guy without her knowledge (I'm not saying doing that was the wrong call, but without her knowledge??) - suggested that there's something unhealthy going on with his desired level of control. Not that he just wanted to keep guardianship in case her mental health suffered and then he could step in without having to deal with twelve miles of red tape. I did appreciate that it wasn't super black and white (despite my above complaints).

I think a vow renewal makes sense when there's some sort of redemption involved, separation or infidelity or something, followed by reconciliation. Or if the couple eloped or only had enough money to do a courthouse wedding, and wants to do the "wedding thing" later on, I understand that. Some people in religious circles might do a vow renewal if they didn't have a Christian ceremony when they first got married, but then at some point converted and want to do a Christian ceremony. Occasionally I have a fleeting moment of thinking "I could plan my wedding so much better now at 35 than I did at 22" and wish for a do-over, but then I let the moment pass. I think for Erin and Whitney, it has/had something to do with the more modest approach of their weddings, as they weren't rolling in it as they all seem to be now. Maybe Whitney is a bit of the whatever with her parents/bio-parents/whatever. But otherwise, it does seem to ring of "The only way to get attention around here is to have a wedding or a baby", and I still suspect that not all of them really want to continue annual pregnancies into their 30s and 40s, so a vow renewal is the best shot I guess.

I don't mind Writer's Hand in the sense of Arizona trash, everyone from Florida is bad, etc, but the toxic male character is falling flat for me since they've really already done that with the Shaun and Trevor. We've been bingeing seasons 1-3 in prep for 4 and those sort of jokes have come up several times before, some of them twice (I had forgotten that Trevor uses the "You should smile more" line in season 1 and again in season 3). Like we get it, you can't stand toxic masculinity, none of the rest of us can either, but let's find some different material. Watching the whole series in quick succession has made me appreciate all over how good the writers of this show are, and seeing them come back to what IMO is low-lying fruit, is disappointing. Hopefully it will redeem itself in future episodes.

Behind again... too much bingeing on The Good Place in prep for last night's premiere. I liked this episode more than I expected to based on everything I'd read here in advance, but it was very, very weird. Though as weird as the ending was, I preferred it to a schmaltzy delivery room scene. I appreciated how the daughter specifically yelled "Dad" and "Uncle Benny" in case we didn't figure out on our own that she was Bull's daughter from the conversation about how the case (that I totally believe they were still talking about 27 years later) turned out. This show is weird (did I say that already?) but I still find it enjoyable.

Aisha: Something something Broadway star. Me (a person with a cursory knowledge of Broadway stars): Oh, I wonder if it'll be someone I'm familiar with [this rarely happens, most of the guest stars I've never heard of] Aisha: ...and the part of Chunk Palmer on Bull. Me: OMG THEY GOT CHRIS JACKSON. (to Mr. DVD) I have literally been waiting my entire life to watch Chris Jackson and Wayne Brady sing together. Yeah, that was quality. I hate Helping Hands and rarely watch it, but I actually did this time. It was maybe a little better than normal. 🙂 And I don't pay much attention to the credits usually but that was amusing also. Please bring him back, CW.

I didn't like Millie on my first watch, but on future re-watches, I liked her a lot more and felt like some of her comments were legit - Amita DID dress less professionally than she probably should have in her position, Larry SHOULD NOT have been sleeping in the steam tunnels no matter how "cute" and "quirky" he is... Charlie spending his spare time on cases for the FBI is none of her business, but I do recall her asking him to not use CalSci's big computer or something when others needed it, which is legit. Regardless of where one comes down on those though, I thought they should have kept her and Alan together, had her make periodic appearances throughout the rest of the show.

That, really, is about the only way they could take this that would get me to be interested. I skipped all the Ziva episodes of this past season for reasons that everyone else has stated better than I could, and will likely skip this one and the opener. But if they go that way? I like McGee and would tend to root for him and don't want him to crack, but I think this approach would actually be interesting. (Writers, are you paying attention?)

My hypothesis is that the actor has some dirt on someone in the higher-ups of NCIS and so whenever the actor is running behind on his yacht payments or something, he calls up the guy and demands another Hernandez episode so he can get caught up.

I'm pretending the last scene didn't happen. You cannot make me believe that none of three adults and a pediatrician office caught pica in that kid. My kids are ages 10 and under and are they routinely eating anything that's not food is always something I've been asked or been told to look for, in every parenting book, brochure at the pediatrician, the pediatricians themselves. Pica, at least in my experience, is rare but it's one of those things that is quickly mentioned as a thing to keep an eye on. I don't know if I'd say it's easily diagnosed, but as soon as the parents or pediatrician noticed the kid eating stuff that's not food, they should have known. We need a condition that's harder to diagnose, thanks. Also, what three year old likes and eats onion soup, that right there should have been a big clue. I initially thought it was something like undiagnosed diabetes, but it was obvious from the getgo that there was some undiagnosed medical issue I've said it before, but I really don't like these cases where the prosecutor seems so eager to stick it to the defendant. If the prosecutor were representing a person, against another person, with negativity between the two, I get that, even if I think a good lawyer should still not be trying to stick it to the defendant. But in this case, the prosecutor was representing "the people" and as far as I could tell, didn't have any emotional attachment to the stepmom losing, but yet still seemed so eager to stick it to the stepmom. I don't like infidelity among anyone really, and not the leads in a TV show, and I'm really tired of this Izzy coming and going thing, so I'd like her to go permanently or stay permanently, please.

Finally watched this one. I felt like one set of writers wrote the first act and a different set wrote the second act and they forgot to check with each other on the other's work. First act writers dropped all these asides about the higher-ups not answering their phones, the building having a new roof and supposedly being water-tight, etc, and second act writers completely ignored what I expected would be some kind of collusion among the builders and the higher-ups. Still, whether the guy's reasons for leaving were noble or not, I think they're hard-pressed to get twelve jurors to all call him guilty of manslaughter or whatever the charge was. Also, he could have moved the inmates in a third of that time, if those other two guards had stayed.... I love how Marissa declares that jurors have turned from red to green like it should have the super Mario level up music and not like jurors change how they feel about a trial all the way through depending on what they're hearing or even, gasp, just listen to testimony and then decide how they feel at the end.

"I've got one with a swan, one with a kid, one with a plant" was probably the best line of the season. (And McGee: "Are you talking about Palmer?") I think the show has a new writer who floved Ziva all those years, and is now writing all this nonsense about Ziva. Like Elsa, you all need to Let. It. Go. kthxbye

I think this is one of those episodes that clearly shows that different writers, write each episode and don't consult each other on what the others have written. We went from Gibbs/McGee heart-to-heart in the basement, to McGee throwing Gibbs off a case and going on about how Gibbs doesn't trust him after 16 (and a half!) years. Retcons look good on nobody but I'm mostly just glad it wasn't the girl's dad who offed her because that's where I thought it was going in the middle. Torres, you are a jerk and can show yourself out, please.

Ugggh I hate every "Member of the team has evidence pointing against them" plot in every procedural ever because ALWAYS the accused goes into a pearl-clutching "I can't believe you don't trust me!" and alleges that he/she would OF COURSE trust the other team members if it were one of them. 1) Bullshit on that. 2) News flash, plenty of criminals seem like nice law-abiding people. Which is not a news flash because any law enforcement professional is VERY AWARE of that. Don't look too sad, Ellie, you're better off without him. I'm glad Vance's subplot is wrapped up, and also glad that it did so without too much screen time, but I agree with the above that it would have had more impact if we'd had any idea how it got to where it was. The scene with Vance and Psychologist talking about the jewelry, I assume they were aiming for misdirection to make us think they were just talking about him buying a nice piece of jewelry when it turned out that he was on to her, but it doesn't work that way either. Last time we saw her, he had just asked her out and at the beginning of the episode, they were at the sleepover and then some point. Also, I refuse to believe that it is ever necessary for CIA agents or anyone else to go as far as a sexual relationship with someone they're trying to get information from. Also, I'm not sure who's more incompetent, Vance who got played (even if he did figure it out), or CIA lady who didn't realize the necklace had a bug in it.

1) Diana couldn't find a single person to ask Bull to come on her behalf so that if asked who got him there, he could be honest and not implicate her? 2) Of course Bull gets the girl to open up when nobody else could. 3) Grandpa's dalliances were completely irrelevant and it should have taken three seconds of continued witness testimony for the jury to get that. And really, he never thought to mention it to his wife? That's like basic level we're talking marriage material. 4) It should have been base level investigating to see that dead lady had a phone call from the daughter 15 minutes before death. Assuming she had her own phone and didn't take her dad's, anyway, which seems more logical. And if not-Cable could easily pull up security footage and lip-read, one of the good people at the Katy police department should have been able to also. 5) The moral of the story is, if you need to remove your daughters from your douchecanoe ex, do it without turning your back on him, and maybe just not in front of him at all. 6) We've been watching The Bush Years on CNN and tonight we watched the most recent one (W's election and 9/11, mostly) and I didn't realize we'd finished the episode and Mr. DVD put this on, so when I glanced up after the commercial, I saw the Texas license plate on dead lady's car and assumed we were still watching Bush years and then it's the two of them arguing. I believe my exact words were, what the hell is this?!

Hannah's Tortured Past's Resolution ep: Sebastian: I can't believe I made that shot from this far! / Gregorio: That was me - was probably the best line of the ep. Hannah: (fries Mr. Bad Guy with exposed cable thing, nearly expires, allows Pride to take cable thing) / Mr. DVD: That was an exposed ground wire (or something like that, whatever he said, I know is accurate because he knows electricity) so Pride and (rewinds episode) yeah, and Hannah too, are now dead too but good try. It would help if I'd ever paid attention to anything in the Hannah's Tortured Past leadup episodes, but I had literally no idea who any of those people were, up to and including Hannah's husband (ex? Not sure, other than I said "Oh, just make out, you know you want to!" at the end). I know my American is showing when I say this, but it didn't help that they all seemed to be of the same Vaguely Ethnic section of the appearance factory. Thanks, Chekhov's mirror that the camera lingered on for longer than 2 seconds, making it clear that it would save Pride moments later, when Vaguely Ethnic #5 actually was a bad guy and not Vaguely Ethnic #6/morally ambiguous who was in the hospital at the end, because I spent those moments trying to figure out which one he was. And now hopefully we can be done with Hannah's Tortured Past and perhaps she and her husband can reconcile, before his inevitable demise at the hands of whoever replaces Mr. Now Neck Fried Bad Guy.

My kids love this show and I paid a little more attention this season. We were all Paige for the win so that turned out nicely for us. I want to eat that cake, please. Davis's thinking the 80s is hippie caused me to age about ten years. (Sob sob)

I generally take the line of actions have consequences and doing the right thing means doing the right thing even when it's hard. So I think it would have been appropriate for the kid to face some level of consequence for what he did. But there has got to be some kind ethical boundary for FBI agents that doesn't involve practically stalking a kid to try to get him to do something illegal, to then turn around and arrest him and get promotions. THAT might have been a more interesting case to watch, where the kid were suing the FBI agent or something like that. Watching people who are normally friends compete against each other like that is boring and uncomfortable. I'm not even sure it falls outside of conflict of interest to have a law student and a law student's boss managing cases that intersect like that. All of that to say, I enjoyed watching Chunk be a lawyer and I'm hopeful for more of that. Of all the things that the writers do terribly while I continue to watch, the one area they shine IMO, is writing Benny's arguing in court (his own testifying's legal standing, notwithstanding), and I think there's a good chance they'll write Chunk well also.

That episode was superb. I don't know what it is about the "Young ____" episodes, but those almost always are the best by far, like they can only afford the good writer once or twice a year and he/she chooses to come out only when they do a "Young _____" episode. That actor got young McGee perfect and I loved the actress playing the girlfriend. Didn't as much care for the actress playing the girlfriend as an adult but I can let it slide. Delilah! The whole scene in their apartment! I have to confess though, that the whole Delilah-in-wheelchair thing, I don't know, something about it bugs, and I think it may be since the actress herself is not a paraplegic, she doesn't carry it off as well as Daryl Mitchell/Patton (who actually is a paraplegic) on NCIS NOLA? Not totally sure. But I don't love it. I never cared for the Delilah paralysis plotline originally, as I felt like it added nothing to the plot, and I still don't care for it now. The other part I really, really didn't buy was that the Admiral apparently aspired to be a tap dancer also? Right. I also would have found it more realistic if they hadn't had the nice moment with the Admiral at the end - I felt like the rest of his appearances prior in the series led to a "Well, I'm highly disappointed in you" rather than a "You have to choose your path" end.

Guest Starring Geordi episode: LeVar Burton's character asking out Loretta was telegraphed from a mile and a half away but fortunately by the time he actually did it, I didn't find it as irritating as I would have 15 minutes prior. A scene with the dorky lab rat turned agent not knowing about regular social conventions like not washing a lady's underwear for her? This is literally unprecedented TV! You sneaky trailblazers, you! /sarcasm out. That said, I find Gregorio less annoying when she and Sebastian are doing their back-and-forth thing. I did find myself wondering if we're leading up to some sort of will they-won't they arc with the two of them. I was pretty sure Grassley was the eventual perp because of the H!IKTG, and then questioned if I actually did know that guy when I found the actor's name, but a quick scan of his (Raphael Sbarge) bio shows that it was probably his character on Once Upon a Time (I watched season one and the first couple of season two).

Housewives episode: Only on NCIS does Pride get shot 4 times in the chest point-blank and live, but random criminal #37587 gets pegged in the side once and dies in 5 seconds. They made it look like Stepford wife #3 died also, I was a little surprised when it turned out she got through surgery. Gregorio: your husband is on a C-130 plane from Dubai. Mr. DVD: A C-130 from Dubai? Plan on him getting there sometime next month. (Apparently that's an old, slow plane) And because I'm sure you wanted to know, he did the math while I was typing this, and it would take 22 continuous hours to fly from Dubai to NOLA, stopping to fuel 3 times. It always looks so much faster on the show...

What I can't get over (and this is not the first time at all for this show) is that a situation like this would actually go to trial when there is literally no SHRED of evidence linking the husband to the murder until halfway through the trial. I keep thinking of Blue Bloods when Danny (detective) goes to Erin (ADA) asking for a warrant based on a hunch and she's like, you're crazy. Unless I blacked out somewhere in the first act, there was nothing, NOTHING implicating the husband other than convenience, and I can't believe that The People would go all the way to prosecute based on "Well, he's got to be guilty because he's the husband and look how shifty he seems". ADA Erin Reagan does not approve. Also, shouldn't the investigators have already seized phone records, seen those texts, and interviewed the assistant and the bodyguard? I've said it before (and yet I still enjoy the show) that the show is way stronger when we're not intended to question the guilt of the defendant, but rather what outcome the trial should have. I thought that pregnant lady who shot her abusive asshole husband while he was asleep was a good example of this. These shows where the investigators do nothing other than arrest the most convenient suspect and the DA takes it straight to trial even though there wasn't even enough evidence to grant a warrant, and thank goodness that Bull's people know how to investigate...

My phone told me yesterday that Nailed It Mexico is now available. It's dubbed in English but we're watching it in Spanish because we were in Costa Rica last month and some of my college Spanish emerged by the end of the week. With English subtitles so my husband has a clue what's going on. My favorite part so far was the lady who didn't know how to use a can opener. No Nicole but the camp is still there.

I could live with the "I just can't quit you" thing if she weren't, you know, married. Initially I thought that the vic was going to be a perp in some sort of something with the guy whose computer he was using at the beginning, where he wiped off the keyboard, I was thinking "removing fingerprints" before "germaphobe". But yeah, about ten seconds later it was glaringly obvious that the death was something to do with all the hand sanitizer.

I thought for this show, that was a surprisingly well-written episode. No obviously shoddy police work, the only one that came close was Auntie Attorney willing to throw the husband under the bus rather than investigate further - which while wrong, was at least understandable. I thought the "Oh, that moment that I never thought about at the time and am just now remembering" came off as actually realistic, rather than ridiculously convenient. I don't like it when people who should obviously know better make idiotic decisions, but a young couple who's like, I don't even know how I ended up in this situation and I don't know how to defend myself, is realistic. Could not be bothered to remember or care what the history with Diana was, or about how things are now...

I watched these! The crafting one was really boring. I appreciated that they did all areas of the holiday season, from Jesus Christmas to winter to Hanukkah and so on. Someone should tell Nicole she already got the job, she doesn't have to keep auditioning for it. Jacques Torres lost some weight and about 20 years in the process. I almost didn't recognize him. As far as I know, not being a cake artist myself, but having watched various cake shows for the last 10 years, the words buttercream and buttercream frosting are interchangeable and refer to a specific type of frosting, made with butter. As opposed to whipped cream/whipped topping, or fondant, or etc. I've never made a cake pop but I'm pretty sure you mix crumbled cake and buttercream until it's mold-able into ball shapes. The short time bugs me too. I know that nobody is expecting them to actually come up with a decent product and the prize is more awarded for "least awful" than "best", plus the contestants are less than amateur and probably don't have the stamina for a standard cake show time period of several hours, but it'll be 45 minutes for something that surely took Jacques over 2 hours, maybe we could meet in the middle???