Bastet

I don't relate to the "It's just me, so I don't need a dishwasher" crowd. I cook two meals a day, and while I certainly employ shortcuts, I mostly cook from scratch; I generate far more in dirty dishes than a pan, plate, and fork in a day. I have dishes, flatware, and glasses for eight, so I'd never have to run a non-full dishwasher because I was out of plates or something. There would be nothing inefficient about my single self using a dishwasher, and in fact it's an inefficient pain in my ass to do dishes by hand (my house was built in 1938, and I'm not yet ready to remodel the kitchen, so no dishwasher yet). I absolutely hate washing dishes, and complain to my cat about it every single night. I just want to go to bed, and I've got the damn dishes to do. I get up in the morning, and the first thing I have to do is put the damn dishes away (because I hate drying dishes even more than washing them, so I leave them to air dry overnight). First world problem, indeed, but I will do the dance of joy the first time I can just scrape my dirty dishes, toss 'em in the dishwasher, push a button, and walk away. (A convenience I took for granted when I had it.)

As she told Cheyenne, when Cheyenne fretted about Reba not being partnered up, she was happy with her life. Happiness for a woman is not dependent on having a man. She'd found a career she enjoyed, seen two of her kids grow into decent, increasingly-independent adults and still had one to actively parent, made peace with her ex-husband, and developed a close friendship out of an incredibly ugly beginning. She found out she could not only survive one of her worst nightmares, but wind up thriving. Sounds like a payoff to me.

Based on Christine's interview posted in the media thread, I don't think they'll do much more than the "I certainly remember you" or whatever she said singling him out in that initial "Holy Emily Valentine" meeting; when asked what she wanted her character to be, her main thing was what she didn't want, which was for "Christine Elise" to be all about being "Jason Priestly"'s ex-girlfriend. So I think that brief acknowledgment is all there is going to be.

Yes, Christine Elise mentioned him when she was giving Tori shit for all the things she promised her castmates, asking her if she'd spoken to Joe E. Tata, maybe he'd like to be president of FOX. Looking at his IMDb, he's 83, and his last role was a guest shot on Tori and Jennie's show Mystery Girls five years ago (prior to that was the 90210 reboot, and before that a short film and a guest shot on the Aaron Spelling show Charmed). They didn't include Nat in Jason's nightmare about Brandon still running the Peach Pit, which would have been the natural place to use him if they wanted a little cameo, so I tend to think that mention of him is all the nod we're going to get, but we'll see.

I went down a rabbit hole of headlines, and found he's always sharing information like that - they have sex every day, his son walked in on them banging when they first started dating, etc. - and rags like People give him the publicity he wants by "reporting" on it every time he does. (Also, Dean, in the wise words of Rose Nylund (The Golden Girls), people who talk about sex all the time usually aren't having a whole lot of it, so the useless grifter doth boast too much, methinks.)

I may very well be a party of one with this, but I think the actors play the dynamic between She Shed Cheryl and her husband perfectly. I don't think he burnt down her she shed, I don't think she spends all her time out there because they can't stand each other, any of that. I think she's a little excitable and dramatic - e.g. jumping to arson rather than a lightning strike when she finds it on fire - and he's low-key, and they're totally used to each other. They play liked a couple, and that's not easy to pull off in 30 seconds. I'm amused by all the Cheryl's She Shed memes, yes, but I also enjoy the commercial on its own (a feat, since I think "man caves" and "she sheds" are ridiculous). Her line delivery on "Well, my she-shed's on fire" is great, and his on "That's wonderful news" is even better.

Thanks for the details. Ben can't go away fast enough for me, and I don't want Darlene with David, either, but have to accept it's all but inevitable since Sara sees that relationship quite differently than I do, so as long as there continue to be great moments of character interaction like there were last season and nothing straight-up offensive to her or women in general, I'll roll with it in order to enjoy the family dynamic. I don't give a shit about Becky's baby storyline on the surface, either, but her relationship with Dan has been one of the highlights of this series, so that it yields more of that will likely be its saving grace.

Yes, but I can't remember the name of it to create a topic/request a forum (I think it falls under the former, but I haven't read anything about it to know for sure), so if you can, go for it!

I'm not afraid of them, but I find them creepy - not in the "I'm scared of you" sense, but in the "You're a freak I so thoroughly don't get I'd rather not be around you" sense - so the commercial falls flat for me. Like the one that understands geometry, I'm missing the gene that finds clowns funny.

As far as I know, the last time Cagney & Lacey was on TV was a few years ago, on a network I don't get, and I'm not sure how long it aired. I have the whole series - the Loretta Swit pilot, season one with Meg Foster, the Sharon Gless seasons that sometimes get remembered as the entire series (not without reason), and the "menopause years" reunion movies - on DVD; that 30th anniversary boxed set is wonderful, and I recommend it if it's still available (what I have is a limited edition, and I'm not sure what the wide release includes). I wish it also made more appearances on TV, but it's not the type of show that tends to attract syndication deals or audiences, unfortunately.

I know I said this in the other thread when you brought it up, but it's just so striking to me -- I talked with her backstage before a Tina Turner concert (this was during the time Reuben was living her dream singing back-up), which is generally a frenetic environment, and couldn't believe the calm energy radiating from her. I've never experienced it so palpably with anyone else.

The thread itself is spoiler tagged, which means no tags in the posts within it -- here be spoilers, so enter at your own risk. If you want another thread for non-spoiler speculation only, I guess you can just create one, and then the mods will remove it if they don't think there should be two, but it's probably better to PM a mod and ask first.

But that's why it bothers me, because she didn't know she needed to implicate others. The only reason the neighborhood got up in arms in the middle of the night, leading to SWAT being called and Major Crimes being assigned the case, was because Jeremiah was killed. If it had only been Tamika (who nobody but Stephanie, Emile Fisher, and the Price brothers knew had been "the third guy" during the Reese murder), which is what Stephanie thought at the time, there would have been no need to send the cops on a wild goose chase, because they wouldn't have given a shit -- just another drug/gang killing, no witnesses, mark it unsolved, and move on. So to use a gun that's going to resurrect three murders, including two she committed, is really stupid under the circumstances she believed existed. I'd have been really bummed if it had ended then, but season five's finale - which was written to serve as a series finale as well, should they not get renewed - would have worked for me as a series ending, with Sharon having finally been made a commander, Julio being appointed guardian of Mark, and Rusty doing the most mature thing he'd ever done in telling Gus to take the Napa job, despite knowing a long-distance relationship was going to fall apart. I love her line delivery there. I also like Andy's little what, I was just trying to be nice shrug when Rusty groans and walks off. As I understand it, GPM indeed didn't like it, so they wrote it in. Pretty much everyone, because for some reason Major Crimes gets the special black gloves and the other departments use the regular gloves (something that no doubt annoys Winnie Davis, heh).

This show is kind of a palate cleanser when I watch it after Dr. Pol; I like both shows, but seeing a clinic I'd actually let my cat enter adds a layer of enjoyment or relieves a layer of consternation or something -- I find it soothing, and am quite enjoying having it back in the rotation. Even goofy for-the-show stuff, like the Office Olympics, has grown on me, because now I "know" them well enough to appreciate it as a staged example of genuine characterization; the interaction between the three is great, so Dr. Lavigne as the wise older brother watching these two clowns come up with ways for them all to compete saves it for me. Plus, it was pretty damn funny when Dr. Lavigne did the last two legs with his jump rope tangled around him. Dr. Fedke speaking pig with Piper was hilariously cute, and her "Are you kidding me?!" reaction when Dr. Blue dropped the slide was funny, too. "I already had Piper yelling, and I didn't need Dr. Fedke yelling, too" made me laugh. Lily is adorable with that patch by her eye being pretty much the only coloring on her (other than her nose); her face is so expressive. I love that she was a foster fail. She was SO happy to see her family post-op. Even cuter was Lucky the min pin, with the way his poor self just laid there sore and tired, held like a baby. He just looks so delicate, and when he was shaking a little at being examined, I wanted to snuggle him (and, while I love animals in general, I'm a cat person, and much more drawn to big dogs than little ones). I don't normally like dogs in clothes, but his little skeleton shirt was cute. Kayla's "a real man, wearing purple" response to his splint was great. Becky to the dog making snoring/grunting noises: "You sound like my husband when he sleeps. Except you're way cuter." LOL.

This needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I have a friend whose partner (with MS) has been receiving care for years - which is integral to both his quality of life, and hers, as the primary caregiver - and we talk often about the widespread misconceptions about the differences and overlap between palliative and hospice care, and what each of them mean. And, yes, that fundamentally there is this The end is near! reaction that makes people - patients and family members - resistant to hospice care, when it would be the best thing for everyone.

Reba is incredibly unlikable in her entitlement at times, and the blended family logistics indeed do not make sense sometimes, but I guess give them points for consistent characterization? Because she's regularly awful about such things. And it's realistic, in that she's the one who was left (and the one whom they'd agreed would be the primary parent while they were married, with her staying home with the kids), so she has a Why should I have to give this up, when you're the one who split the family into two homes? attitude, but at some point you have to adapt to changed circumstances for everyone's sake and, yeah, she's pretty damn slow at that.

It's the spoiler thread. Please share.

Thanks. I don't want to look at the vaulted forum, because I don't want to be spoiled to that extent, but you reporting that reactions were very mixed gives me the general sense I was looking for. I don't stream, so I think I'll see if I can rent the DVD from Netflix and, if not, just go ahead and buy it (and if it turns out I love it, I'll donate the DVD and treat myself to the expensive Blu-Ray, assuming it has exclusive features).

Here’s my fundamental problem with Stephanie Dunn as the killer in “Hindsight”: Why did she kill Tamika with The Uzi, so that the old case would be brought back up, rather than with a gun that has no bodies attached to it? Yes, because Jeremiah was killed, too, it became a major crime and the connection to the Reese murders effectively distracted them for a while. But Stephanie didn’t know she was going to need a smokescreen; she didn’t think Jeremiah would be in the car that late. If she had “just” killed a black drug dealer in that neighborhood, which is what she thought she was doing, it would have been largely ignored by the LAPD, just like all the other homicides of its kind, and she’d have gotten away with it. Even once she killed Emile, too, because Tamika’s connection to him/the Reese murder was unknown. So Tamika’s murder would have gone unsolved, considered just another drug/gang killing in a bad neighborhood, Emile’s would have been accepted as an accidental OD or suicide, and Stephanie - having eliminated the two people who could say hey, the murders of her husband and Rachel Grey weren't actually part of the Reese murder - would be set for life. But I like the way they set her up – I like Little Weezy not knowing the phrase “hook, line, and sinker” and really like that we can see Julio going over to Steph’s desk and then coming back and putting something in his. It’s subtle, and I didn’t notice it on first viewing, but whenever I watch it knowing that he switched her gun, I'm tickled that we can see him doing something, we just don’t know what until after the fact. And I love Sharon telling Taylor, no, that’s not why men follow the women who break up with them. My first time watching, I didn’t figure out Stephanie was the killer until Julio realized there was corn starch on the gloves. In subsequent viewings, I can see I should have been onto her once they started laying out their case against Hickman; if it wasn’t him, it had to be someone with all the same access – we can rule out Mike, so that leaves Stephanie Dunn and Sherry Hickman, and Dunn is the one who is also privy to all the present-day information and works in Narcotics. Or maybe I should have suspected her from the moment Julio was interested in her, heh. Poor Julio, for his first foray back into actual dating to end in such disaster, but “as first dates go, it was pretty bad” makes me laugh. I think my favorite part of this episode is the scene at the condo, with Sharon gathering her stuff for work while Rusty goes on about his other mom, and Gus walks into the middle of it to get ignored by Rusty and welcomed by Sharon. I love the sorry about him look she gives Gus when Rusty is short with him, and that she gives him a hug good-bye after giving Rusty a kiss; it’s such a sweet, natural moment indicating Gus’s growing integration into their routine that I almost like Gus and Sharon’s relationship better than his and Rusty’s, ha. (But it contains one of my few irritations with product placement on this show: Sharon Raydor would not drink Maxwell House coffee.) And I like Sharon prompting Rusty into setting Gary up to confessing his way into a mandatory life sentence, and Rusty’s glance at the camera and parting line when he gets it done. In the midst of all that, though, it’s sad that Rusty fixates so much on who hit him and whose idea it was to leave him at the zoo; his mom had the far greater obligation to him than Gary did, so there isn’t a lot of difference between what she did and what she went along with, but he’s always looking to lessen her actions. I’ve really liked Sherry Hickman throughout this arc, the various ways they show that, because she used to be a cop, she knows all of “our” people. I like Andrea noting people tend to forget she was a good cop. And I love her saying in this episode that Mike and everyone else who decided to keep Mark’s secret took sides; they were both fellow officers, so screw this “it was personal, I didn’t want to get involved” stuff – both Sherry and Mark were these people’s friends and co-workers, and everyone decided to let her come into work every day looking like a fool. The wedding is nice, and I really do think Patrice will be the last Mrs. Provenza. I like the mayor’s reaction to how they met, the cute little moment between Provenza and Andy when Provenza hands him his hat to hold and Andy shakes his hand, Morales noting the minorities feel safer clumping together, and Mike being left with his hand hanging in the air when the mayor doesn’t know who he is. “Present Tense” isn’t great; I find season five takes several episodes to really get going. I hate the Ponds, so the various reactions to them are my favorite parts of the episode. Given her history with Rusty, Sharon’s reaction to learning they stopped the adoption process of Tucker – the child they’d had for years, loved, and who called them Mom and Dad - ¾ of the way through is obviously terrific, but Mike is just as horrified, because it’s just that horrifying. We don’t even need to add on them calling homeless people “vagrants” and theorizing their daughter helped them just to irritate her parents to say these people seriously suck. I’m also quite irritated with the head of Care First, with all her complaining about the lack of attention paid to Amanda’s disappearance and lumping it in with the LAPD’s overall lack of concern over what happens on Skid Row. Because it’s bullshit. This is a young white girl. The only reason Missing Persons initially sticks to policy is that she has a recent runaway history, with the same boyfriend she’s presumed to be with now. Once doubt is cast on that scenario, they in fact ignore policy and investigate before the usual window has passed, going so far as bringing in Major Crimes. There’s also TV’s usual presentation of the homeless population. Sharon’s interaction with “the Admiral” is amusing, but overall – and especially including the deleted scene with the men living at the Pond’s other home – it’s just a lesser version of the usual crap. The timing not matching up is also a niggling irritation to me; Amanda went missing Friday night, but there are several conflicting indications of whether we’re joining the story on Saturday or Sunday; it should be Sunday, and sometimes it plays that way, but sometimes it plays like Saturday. But Julio’s discovery of Amanda’s body, and brief refusal to accept it is a body, is well done. And, while Tucker’s confession is incomplete (they wouldn’t let him skip over how “things got out of hand”), I like how it highlights the plight of kids who age out of the foster care system, and the specific circumstances of how what is quite naturally annoying to a privileged kid like Amanda is a home someone like Tucker can’t imagine being unwanted. And I like Sharon’s exasperation with the youngsters’ means of communication, suggesting Rusty write Gus a note (and that it works). And Rusty shutting down Gus’s contention that because Andy spends the night all the time, he should be able to, by saying she’s the one who pays the mortgage and he’s not going to wake her up to ask. (But it’s really funny that Gus doesn’t specify Andy, instead saying, “She has overnight company a lot” like Sharon has a revolving door of men spending the night.) I’ve always been amused by Patrice labeling Provenza’s lunch container with “Louie”, thinking in terms of their refrigerator at home – who else’s lunch would it be, since she doesn’t have to pack a lunch for herself, being retired – and tonight it finally dawned on my dense brain that it’s for the refrigerator at work, to distinguish his meal from that of any of his coworkers. Andy responding to Sharon acknowledging they’ve been taking things slow by saying “any slower and we’d come to a complete stop” coupled with some “finally” comments of Provenza’s to come do still puzzle me, though; I don’t think their trajectory is unusually slow. They’ve both gone a long time between serious relationships and there’s a lot at stake, so I don’t think they’re overdue for moving in together. (And I love the deleted scene that is a different take of the final scene, with Sharon's WTF am I getting myself into? reaction being more overt; I find it more true to the character [as did Mary McDonnell].)

Oh my, the deer farmers playing vet have no clue what they're doing. That kitten looked horrible! What a rough start in life. Like Dr. Emily and the rescuer, I was glad to see him make a fuss. I'm annoyed we didn't get an update. I cried along with King's owners; like Dr. Emily said, they come in thinking they're just dealing with a sprain or something, and soon find out their dog has cancer that effectively cannot be treated. It was unequivocally the right decision to euthanize then rather than try pain meds/steroids to see if they could get him feeling well - if it worked, it would probably be weeks rather than months, and it probably wouldn't have worked, because his quality of life was already pretty bad; he was just too far behind the 8 ball. The way the girl's leg started shaking when she found out really got to me, and then when she just buried her face in his fur and cried as they gave the shot I had no choice but to cry along with her. Poor Phoebe being dragged in and out for her check-ups; if she wasn't walking at home, either - poor thing! It seems horrible to only splint a compound fracture, but if goats don't do well with anesthesia, I guess surgical repair wouldn't even be possible? I'm glad they finally made good progress, and hope she made a full recovery. The owner of the Yorkie with seizures, Owen, looks familiar; we have seen her as a client before, haven't we? I was surprised to hear Dr. Pol say he was borderline diabetic; given the day he'd had - five seizures! - the elevated blood glucose was more likely a stress response (if he has an infection, that can also raise the blood sugar; there are causes other than diabetes). Dr. Sharkey cuddling Tia, the dog who ate a sock, upon putting her in the cage after surgery was cute. Dr. Emily's daughter looks a lot like her. I hope she asked the clients if they minded before bringing her in the exam rooms with her, but assuming she did, I like how the girl wanted to see the gross stuff. "Am I going to say 'Ew'?" was funny. As were Dr. Emily's total mom half-listening responses to her series of questions.

I'm a Los Angeles native, who's always gone to school with kids of actors, had friends whose parents worked behind the scenes in the industry, etc. and who worked for a record label for about five years when I was first starting out. So it wasn't my daily life, but seeing and even talking with celebrities wasn't ever anything new to me. But the first time I met Gillian Anderson (I've met her a few times at charity events), I stood there like a tongue-tied fool. I have no idea what actually came out of my mouth, because it was something of an out-of-body experience, but she didn't look horrified or perplexed so I guess I managed to come across as just mildly nervous. The next time I met her, she complimented me on my necklace, and I had to resist the urge to wear it daily. (And, on the subject of celebrity compliments, Katherine Helmond once told me I had beautiful hair.) I also kind of froze when I met Gloria Steinem. It was after a protest march and rally in San Francisco, and I turned a corner and damn near ran into her. She was carrying a takeaway bag from the deli I was heading to, so I babbled a bit about sandwiches before getting myself together and talking about the protest. Getting back to charity events, which is where a lot of my celebrity encounters have occurred (those, airports/airplanes, and grocery stores make up most of them), and sticking with celebrities I have been really excited to see, I was at a Feminist Majority Foundation event in the late '90s, milling around before the program started, and spotted Tyne Daly, whom I knew was going to be there. She had her mom and daughter (still a kid) with her, so I did not approach her. But I soon heard her say to her mom, "I talked to Gless, and she's coming" - something I had not known - and proceeded to quietly freak my shit at an impending Cagney & Lacey reunion (and, indeed, when Sharon Gless arrived, the assembled press went crazy for shots of the two of them together). That was a great night all around; it was also the night Sidney Poitier touched me. 🙂 This was after the program (in which he had participated), and we were in a somewhat crowded corner of the room the theatre exited into. He put his hand on my back to keep me from getting jostled, and then pardoned himself with that terrific smile on his face as he made his way towards another area. I was giddy.

Did anyone like the revival season? Because I finally re-watched the original series and movie, and, wow, I'd forgotten just how off the rails it went. No one I know who watched season three as it aired liked it, and the Blu-Ray of it is ridiculously expensive, so no way I'm springing for that, and I'm not even sure if I want to spend $17 on the DVD at this point. As bad as things got, though, the "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" batch of episodes are really great. I had forgotten so much, but who did it being one of the few things I did remember did not at all lessen my enjoyment watching it all unfold the second time around. My favorite thing about the series, that existed all the way through, is the relationship between Dale Cooper and Harry Truman. I love that they never once went down the tired road of friction between local law enforcement and the FBI (like they did in the movie, to a ridiculous degree with the deleted scene of a fistfight), that Sheriff Truman was happy to have him there from jump and Agent Cooper was charmed by the town and population. I mean, I enjoyed Miguel Ferrer's character coming in and complaining about everyone and everything, too. But I love that the fundamental relationship of the show is one of professional cooperation that quickly grows into friendship. So that Michael Ontkean isn't in the revival is one of my hesitations about it. (That Lara Flynn Boyle is also absent thrills me, though - she bugged!) I'm sure curiosity is going to win out and I'm going to want to see it, even if I wind up not liking it any better than my friends did. But it's disconcerting how universally disliked it was among them, so I'm curious if the same holds true here or I just have a particularly negative circle of viewers in my life.

I don't remember why I hated the Manhattan episode, but I distinctly remember that I did. Oh, wait - wasn't there a scene with Monk on the street that went on forever? That was one reason.

I, too, am a Yankee Julia Sugarbaker -- and a drinker, so I need to know where these bars are!

Yes, a friend of mine. The sleep guy told her what she needed to do to sleep better was sleep alone (duh). She said she had no problem banishing her husband to the guest room, but she couldn't kick out the cats.