queenanne
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Posts posted by queenanne
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I thought the Evans house had fallen into disrepair and no one remembered Beverly because the town has tesseracts or time jumps, but they clearly killed her in real time so now I don't know what to think...
...or DID they???
Isn't Melissa Leo the voice at the "FBI switchboard"? That lady's voice is pretty distinctive.
Is the first question tied into the fact/part where Beverly stopped herself in mid-walk, portentously hanging suspended between the gates of the open cemetery (if you're dead you can't leave)?
Why does Ethan keep returning to the hospital, and why do they let him walk out? I'd expect some more urgency after Nurse Melissa Leo was just chasing him around trying to drug him. Overall I kind of like the feeling of being caught in one of those nightmares where you keep getting sidetracked by fun-sounding mundanities when you're supposed to be running for your life and then remember "Oh yeah! These people want to kill me!", but I also wouldn't mind some definitive answers.-
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Ah, what a pretty piece of filmmaking. Norman’s teenaged tantrum reminded me of mine for the first time – “maybe the mental institution people can come early”… Norma told Alex true truths with no coquetry or flying into a passion, which is what he wanted more than the sexual intimacy I think, possibly something about professional pride mixed in (“always knew that kid was a little off”…).
Max was SO GOOD in the basement scene, ditto Freddy’s Vera-esque eye-cuts in the “Mother” scenes (I think the incest creep factor is infused because at the end shot, Freddy kept Norman staring at Norma’s lips in a horribly loverlike manner).
I too used to think Peltz was a pretty bad actor but oddly enough, I saw the Transformers sequel on a bus and now, I think it’s just Bradley, because I found Nicola rather tolerable in that type of an Everygirl role; I must admit it, even likable. Perhaps she just can’t do mysterious, or perhaps it is as suggested, that Bradley’s motivations are too muddy. I too in retrospect, remember thinking she was very capricious and all too ready to toy with Norman.
Ugh, can it be next season already??
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I feel like Bradley primarily came back to be a catalyst for the Norma/Norman conversation. I also feel pretty sure she's real not because of any specific cues she got, but because of the specific cues they are now giving us for Head!Norma - specifically, the one where she disapparates on Norman quite clearly in mid-frame during their scenes, making crystal clear that Norman is talking to himself. Now, if Bradley starts doing that...
That was great writing and acting both for Normero, with their intentions at clear cross-purposes. Alex's is begging, "Somebody recognize and love me for being a Good Man, unlike my father." But Norma, who would be a normal shoo-in for nurturing Alex, can't spare his heart-wringing any thoughts, because her brain cells are all taken up with saving (and nurturing) Norman. That non-kissing was hotter than the kissing would have been. Smart, smart, smart.
Are seasons so short because of Freddie's term time?
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I thought it was good that Norma was trying to keep Norman from feeling embarrassed but then she had to go and take it a step further by falling into bed with her kid who is telling her that he feels like he might be sexually attracted to her. Basic common sense tells me that a hug is fine but there's something a little squicky about turning it into a nose to nose fall on the bed in each other's arms sort of scene.
I also can't help but think that part of Norma trying to brush this off and make it seem like it's "normal" and that the excuse that Norman is just hormonal is a way of letting herself off of the hook when it comes to her own need for their extreme closeness. If Norma acknowledges to herself that they are too close and starts taking boundaries more seriously then she's putting her chief source of comfort at risk and I don't know that she's necessarily willing to do that based on everything that we've seen. Norma likes cuddling and all of that stuff with Norman. I agree that her perception of the relationship isn't even close to being as messed up as Norman's is but it's still unhealthy and I don't think she often really faces how unhealthy it really is at times.
I feel like that's why we had the confusion about Norma/Caleb, and whether Norma did or did not lead Caleb on. They wrote it in. And they did so specifically because they want a parallel with how much Norma is willing to forgive and forget in Norman, specifically because of how she wants to be close and connect. That's how the boundaries blur.
I also think it's way intriguing in retrospect to consider that while Norma's caroling to Norman that his sexual feelings for her are perfectly hunky dory, everything's normal, normal normal normal; she was singing the complete 180-degree-tune opposite when he was peeping in windows at Annika. "That's just WEIRD, Norman!" She of course is not wrong - Peeping Tom is a psychosexual disorder - but, she's basically teaching him that, sexual feelings for women who are not-Momma, are weird and perverted; but sexual feelings for Momma, well, that's just normal human behavior on the level of animals.
Oh, and I'm not sure I'm letting them walk Norman back for me at all, after the specific and clear lingering ogle of Norma's ass. Having Norma say it's normal, isn't mollifying to me; and has nothing to do with Norman, in fact.
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Holy cow, nice dinner party ending shot with Norman all alone at table, Future!Norman is really gonna romanticize this dinner in his memory once everyone's gone.
Also one of those rare instances where I don't think it's wrong for characters not to share things with each other, how would a near-stranger (James-the-therapist) broach this issue with "nice single mom whom I've met like three times"? He was simultaneously 100% truthful and 100% unhelpful. "Get him help, stat!"
And so... Alex has got some moves, heh. I don't know how Norma didn't just jump him. I think she thought about it when she was strapping him into the seatbelt, I know I would have.
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I don't know a lot about CF, but aren't you supposed to pound the person on the back to loosen up the mucus?
I'm not sure. I think you would for croup, complete with having the person hang over the edge of a bed at 90 degrees as you do so... but, one of the Bates writing staff is said to have cystic fibrosis, so I'm trusting they'd know.
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Though to be fair, Dylan and Norman had no way of knowing whether Norma is leaving them forever. Even Norman probably wouldn't have freaked out if he knew for sure his mommy just wants a little time to herself and will be back the next day.
Oh, true, but in between the bursts of attempts at decent motherhood, Norma simultaneously selfishly "wants to be needed" and acts out accordingly. Also being a major drama queen. She has been selfish. Norman broke my heart too, his temper tantrum reminded me of when Marge got the bright idea to get rid of Maggie Simpson's pacifier, and she gets so enraged she starts toppling the dining room chairs.
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The brothers racketing around together at the end, unable to deny force-of-nature Norma, were totes adorbs. Norman: “Why does she have this car?!”, in appalled fascination. Dylan (paraphrasing) “Shhh… don’t mention it.” Any special significance to Norma regressing in particular, to seventeen-ish, eve-of-Massett marriage, in the bar? Were there previews? My feed cut out when Norma was hugging Caleb. (Also, I think we can finally chalk this plotline up to “an attempt to heal Norma”, as juxtaposed with the 10-year-old siblings together under the porch, I now believe Caleb’s “mutual comfort gone wrong” scenario.)
Freddy is so creepily like Anthony Perkins in his fixed fugues I can’t believe it. Nestor/Romero is his own force of nature, totally awesome. I thought his goofy body language at the end of the IV stand attack, when he was manhandling the corpse around the car, was borderline Norma's rubbing off on him. What a great midpoint for the season, hell, the series. Norman even had Norma's "wrapper" tied tight and high on the neck, like Norma would/does when feeling vulnerable.
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I have a problem with the bar-dealio partly because it makes Lena's circle seem like bores. I don't know how heavily "barflies" factor into French culture, but in general in my experience in small towns in the U.S., early twentysomethings who aren't going to college, appear to have no jobs and no interests other than getting drunk, tend to become uninteresting fortysomethings still living in the same town and frequenting the same bar talking about their twentysomething-hookups like they were (a) of current interest; (b), of interest at all even when they happened, which is a stretch. They may not have to all be separate self-actualized adults and characters in their own rights, but I'd at least like something of non-navel-gazing interest to have grown up in and around Ben (? the blond guy that both sisters are supposed to be in love with), at least.
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I figured out that everybody who returned was hungry because Simon was desperate enough to dine-n-dash, but shouldn't Lena and her peers have more of a life? I get that this is probably one of the things that can't be ditched from Les Revenants/French setting, but shouldn't some of them be in college? That talk about Rowan tutoring for the (?P?)SAT's... I mean, I simultaneously get that there are small towns where there is "nothing to do but drink", but the show's youthcore all strike me as oddly aimless. It isn't even really just "that" they drink; it's that they seem to have no conversation and nothing in common other than the drinking. Somebody, please be an aspiring cartoonist... a tattoo artist... a handmade jewelry designer, novelist, SOMEthing other than "amateur fish". At least Lena and Camille have their dad as excuse though I guess.
Also, I'm completely over the sheriff after the cameras-in-ceiling reveal. I can't imagine liking or trusting the guy for and with anything.
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Nice interview where some of the actors share character motivations:
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No, I rent, thanks; but the Whites are clearly not meant to be seen as rolling in it, that's the point of the entire series IMO. Skyler eBaying, don't use Credit Card XYZ, look at our 1970's wooden paneling we have never updated, but clearly YMMV, lol.
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I just missed its charms wholly the first time around; too bleak, too depressingly lower-class, RJ Mitte spent that entire scene in the store (and maybe even the first 4 episodes), just drifting around silently, I thought they were going to tell me he was mute and/or mentally retarded, which would have depressed me further about the portrait of Walt. Not only did I hate Jesse until about the midpoint of second season (once he
fell into the chemical toilet
I actually felt quite good-humored about him), but I wished they had traded him for Krazy-8 whom I found more charming, so further doomed to disappointment, lol.
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I only watched the first few episodes of BB. I thought the moral struggles of the chemistry teacher were well-written and intense, but I dropped out when it looked like those issues were resolved in favor of the drug dealer anti-hero persona. Since I don't have any idea what "Saul" is like in BB, I hate to go digging through the BB/BCS thread, so can someone just tell me: Was BB as good as this show?
Oh dear me, yes. The way I think of/grew to see BB is, it's a story about the inexorable drumbeat of hubris dragging down a well-meaning man, more than "bad guys always prosper". (And I'm a person who gave up after Episode 4 on disc the first time around. For some reason it just struck me wrong. I wholly missed the enchantment my friend experienced; he wore me down a second time around by sheer repetition. "I can't believe you didn't like Breaking Bad. It's so good!") Though I should clarify, I gave up partly because I hated Jesse after the first 4 episodes; it wasn't Walt who bothered me, so our perspectives are already different. By the end Jesse was one of my favorite characters ever, and I think that's the personal charm of Aaron Paul.
But BB itself? Sheer artistry IMO. Especially when you think about all the myriad of ways a group of people could put a foot wrong telling this type of story.
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I don't think Romero and Norma will get together until the very last couple of episodes that Norma is alive. A, the "will they or won't they" is too much fun for the viewers. B, I think they are both leery of each other. Romero is leery of Norma because she makes poor choices and constantly gets herself into scrapes. Norma is leery of Romero because he can read her like a book and isn't scared off by her *ahem* emotionalism. I think that Norma likes feeling safe, but she also needs to feel that she's a couple of steps ahead of any man she's with. That's not going to happen with Sheriff White Hat/Black Hat, yo.
This week he literally held her off at his place by grasping her by the upper arm, which I thought was pretty clever.
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The beautiful thing about Better Call Saul is that we can both be right. As ItsHelloPattiagain said upthread, we all watch the show through the lens of our individual experiences. To me, telling a grown-ass man, "see, I've written it right here on the box" is condescending. To old tinfoil bastard, saying "thank you" makes him a standup guy. And I can only hope that Chuck has developed even a shred of gratitude for everything Jimmy's done for him during the past year and half.
Chuck: All the originals need to be copied and filed. See, I've written right here on the box, "copy and file." That's to make it as clear as possible.
Ernie: Got it, Mr. McGill. Anything else?
Chuck: [Clears throat] Well, on the grocery front almost everything was right this time.
Ernie: Great.
Chuck: Almost. Um, it's a small thing, but to my taste, the, uh, Granny Smith apples are a bit too tart.
Ernie: Those are the green ones, right?
Chuck. Right. I prefer the red ones, but not Red Delicious—those are generally tasteless. Fujis should be in season. [Chuckles] It's not a major issue, but—
Ernie: Yeah, Fuji apples. OK.
Chuck: Oh, and I'd like to try soy milk, so maybe a half gallon of that.
Ernie: You got it.
Chuck: Well, thank you, Ernesto. I appreciate your attention to detail. Do you need to write any of this down? 'Cause it's okay if you do. You know, just to be sure.
Wondering in retrospect if Chuck's condescension is supposed to be part and parcel of his lawyerdom - because I've worked for older lawyers, and while Chuck is one up on the "thank you" realm, this is also a strong contribution to the portrait of the older lawyer, one who very much thinks that "my work" exists, and over in the other realm, is "menial women's work" (because only women are secretaries, don'tcha know). It's only since the advent of personal computing that it became chic for lawyers to be able to do their own work (though the jury may be out on what happens for these young attorneys as they age out and become senior partners with more demands on their time). I have very, very much had old fart attorney bosses who have treated me like a maid with a keyboard attached to my fingers. (This may be stretching as "that man" might write "copy and file" on boxes; on the other hand, "that man" is also capable of thinking the half of me that he doesn't think is idiot, is a savant; and expecting me to be able to troubleshoot and explain the technobabble of an email bounce-back string, though he has no expectation of thinking I'm an IT tech). Because this would all be "the same guy" - the type of lawyer who wouldn't ever dream of running a TV commercial, billboard, or any other type of advertising, because to harken back to an older post of mine, he'd have that trailing-Dickens-era attitude towards what "the genteel lawyer" does.
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Bob Paris (he'll always be Ted Chaough to me) talked as if he and Alex Romero grew up together and Bob felt sorry for Alex because of his crappy home life.
I think that's totally the implication (can't make the speech work in my head otherwise unless Bob was speaking about himself, and even that interpretation's tortured), but that's an interesting choice for fleshing things out, because it could explain very well why we haven't seen any ladies hanging out for Romero - he doesn't think he's good enough. (I've actually been wondering about this for a bit, because even in a town the size of White Pine Bay, and a show where they have to control the cast, I'd expect some woman on the horizon or in the past, not no woman, and not for Romero to just be hanging around spare waiting for Norma to pick up.)
Also forgot to mention in my earlier post, how brilliant a storytelling choice I thought it was to write around describing the Head!Norma scene, as opposed to showing us in lavish flashbacky detail.
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It was the "he's sorry, he just wants to apologize" and then Norman throwing in the "he's his dad" because sure, remind Norma of that fact - that is, he's Dylan's dad because Caleb was sexually abusing her. Because that makes it better. I actually thought that moment was so brilliantly played by Vera and Freddie. Seriously, watch it again to see how Norma so subtly stares daggers while still sitting calmly, when Norman says this.
I thought that potentially said a lot though about Norman, precisely because Norman has no father either. Maybe despite the badness of the one he had, part of him would take any father he got at this point. Maybe part of Norman recognizes the truth in Norma's "Dylan is A Grown Man; and thus, knows what it is appropriate for Grown Men to Do (with their mothers), something which we both lack".
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I too don't think we've seen the last of Kim, TPTB spent too much time caring about Odenkirk and Seehorn's chemistry for 10 episodes, in that case. (I wouldn't say she's not going to wind up with Howard either - now that he's been shown nice to Jimmy there's room for some renewed betrayal - but I don't think they have that kind of relationship now, at any rate.)
I'm also looking very forward to Jaul/Saul eventually I think. His "evil" never bothered me because it was skillful as a chess grand master, or someone plucking the strings of a marionette, so my morals can be bought for some entertainment, lol.
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I thought this ep went a little long if anything (I watch on Amazon, but I thought it was something like 49 minutes).
It was 1:07 with commercials, so longer than AMC's default for Mad Men.
I dunno, I liked it though I agree it didn't flow well from the remainder of the season's Jimmy, but I think the point is that Jimmy consciously decides to veer away and take the road more traveled. Not because someone else wants him to, but because he wants to. He's finally acting to please himself. Finally deciding not necessarily to "be less moral", but "not to fight against morality" anymore.
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I think Norma hopes it has info that can help them with the pass thing that is gonna leave them without customers. She probably wants to give it a look and knows that if Romero takes it into evidence she might not be able to.
Yes, precisely. Norma thinks Annika snagged some anti-bypass material there on the flash drive. She may not even be wrong, as I think Norman did tell Annika about the bypass woes when they were driving around. And even if Norman didn't, Norma strikes me as just the sort of person capable of magical thinking in this light, that Annika would somehow just know that she was having trouble with the bypass, and act accordingly.
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Oh, that's really good knowledge from Gould; thanks. (Though it still, IMO, skirts the issue that Jimmy is good at practicing law and it's almost mean to try to stop him making a living at it.) I didn't... think that the team of TPTB was not respecting law, per se; but that "the practice of law", is partly different animal from "law and order". We mean and have been discussing them together, but maybe Odenkirk is being TOO good, and instilling too much essential glowing decency and vulnerability in Jimmy, for the producer-intended outcome. Because I think I get what Chuck thinks, and they're not talking about him being afraid of a re-occurrence of Slippin'. I mean he is, but Gould is not talking about it in this speech, unless it's snipped. And we get lost in the forest of Chuck's personal struggle, so maybe we can't see the "worrying about Jimmy disgracing him" trees. At least I wasn't. I just following the story along for the ride and trusting what they unfolded at the time. At this point I'd almost forgotten about the neighbor's-paper gambit.
If Chuck is objecting to "the gentlemanly practice of law" being sullied by Jimmy (which I think he partly is), I guess it's compelling; but I'm so used to looking at it differently based upon my past informings. It isn't that long ago in the grand scheme of things, that to be "a lawyer" was to be a tradesmanlike swot looked down upon by the gentry, as opposed to an elite educated member of society - you have to work for a living, imagine that, how quaintly grubby - and you only regretfully and under great duress, dared to dun "a gentleman" for his law bills, after the first genteel reminder. I'm sure they still took people to debtor's gaol, but it was considered a veritable sin to nag Lord Whomever to give you the lucre you'd earned in the commission of his work.
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For a little general perspective, some individual stories I found:
Not clear if felon, but here’s a drug addict and former gang member (and Bingham McCutchen was a top-drawer firm):
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/felon-back-in-court-mdash-as-an-attorney/
Appellate clerk and lawyer-to-be:
I think the point is it's unusual and they'd really have to justify it, but it has been done.
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I did understand it. Things with Norma had been going a LOT better. She told him he was the only one she could trust (when the drive thing). He told her he didn't want her to get hurt and she hugged him. It's safe to say this is probably the best they've been in a long time, if not ever. I mean, hell, she's confiding in him and not Norman, that's pretty huge. And now he's gonna lose her. Poor Dylan.
Frankly, this week is the first time around I felt scared that possibly the way they're going to usher out Dylan, is by Norman's hand. :(
Peaky Blinders - General Discussion
in Peaky Blinders
Agreed, I don't understand why we've got Grace now that she's a civvie, I think they made a mistake not making her a female agent (or whatever women could be officially in those days, which wouldn't be much, but still). "Domesticity As Opposition" isn't doing much for me as a plot point, in fact at this point Tommy's obsession almost ruined the season.