Bastet

The first time this came up, I looked up old quotes. Now, it's just quicker to quote myself than go looking for his quotes again: I liked Benton and Corday together, but that relationship didn't exist in a vacuum, and I thus don't take issue with LaSalle's objections to it. There weren't exactly a plethora of black couples on top-rated prime time shows back then. I remembered the gist of what he said, but went back to look at old articles for specifics. He said he liked working with Alex Kingston and liked the relationship, but in context he just was not comfortable with the message it was sending to the show's large black audience: "As an African American man, it becomes a bit offensive if the negative things [in relationships between black characters] are all you’re showing. Because in real life, we romance and get on each other’s nerves and laugh and do all the things that any other race of people do. So if the only time you show a balanced relationship is in an interracial relationship, whether it’s conscious or sub-conscious, it sends a message I’m not comfortable with. “They were sending a message that I didn’t want to be a part of, which was the only time that this man becomes human and tender and vulnerable and open is when he falls in love with a white woman.” “[Of] the two relationships that I had prior to Corday, one was an adulterous relationship with Jeanie Boulet and then the next relationship I got into was with Carla. And unfortunately the writing there was, every time you see them they’re either fighting or fucking.” (In another interview, he said the same thing: "We have to take care of the message that we're sending as African Americans . . . that we have the exact same type of exchanges with our mates that we get to see our white counterparts have.")

Oh my, I don't remember Anna's anti-abortion shit at all; I must have repressed it because I liked her. Maria Bello is Catholic, too, but fiercely pro-choice, so I wonder what that was like for her.

As soon as we saw Brenda with Behavioral Sciences, I got giddy, because I knew that meant it was the episode where Pope tells her she's not psychologically cleared to go back to work, she protests, "That's nuts!" and he responds, "According to the department shrink, so are you." I also vividly remembered my favorite moment related to the shooting, which is watching the crime scene footage and seeing Pope dash out of his car and then just bend over in relief when he sees the carnage and that she's okay. I had completely forgotten the two SWAT guys staying with them and her parents; that was funny. Clay is just messing with him, but Fritz doesn't know that, so I like that his answer to Clay's "Why didn't you call and ask for my blessing?" is, "Brenda and I are adults." THANK YOU. Kevin Bacon directed several episodes; the first was the season two finale. He also directed one of the episodes with Brenda's niece Charlie (played by their daughter), so that one was a real family affair. Jon Tenney directed an episode, too (and then directed several episodes of Major Crimes).

You're a very nice sister, because I don't let anyone who snores sleep with me. I know they can't help it, but it's a horribly annoying noise that makes my blood boil.

Same here. It was the '80s when women with careers - not jobs, but careers - started making retaining their name upon marriage common. Not the majority, but far from rare. And, yes, this was Los Angeles. But I can't imagine in 200- (because we don't know when they married), living in/near Seattle or Portland or wherever in the PNW they were, by way of Chicago, it would be A Thing to retain her name. To me, while it's still far from unusual for a woman to change her name upon marriage at that time, declining is also far from something that requires us to establish evidence for why she's not to "justify" the writers' decision. She does or she doesn't change her name. To find out she's still Carol Hathaway isn't cause for question. Certainly no one is asking why Doug did not become Dr. Hathaway upon slipping that ring on his finger.

I agree, as it worked on me. Indeed, this sounds like a feel-good, simplistic or at least not at all probing film, aiming to delve into the rather boring man behind a dynamic event. But I love the space program, so I'd watch it on DVD or at least TV. But to counteract some bullshit protest like this, yeah, I'd hit the cinema.

Oh my, I hadn't heard of the "OMG, they don't specifically show the planting of the flag" controversy, and now that I have looked it up, I will be sure to see First Man (something I'd have gotten around to regardless, because of my interest in the space program). What a ridiculous thing to get riled up about (a sentiment shared by Armstrong's sons and the author of the book on which this is based, according to the article I read).

Max the duck is adorable, and I love that her owner drove her to the vet in a snowstorm. It's disturbing how many farm animals die during or as a complication of giving birth. And, again, there has to be something we're doing in captivity to contribute to that; between how often the mother and/or babies die and how often they would have died if not for human intervention, it seems like if such a complication rate was natural, these species would have died off long ago.

But she's grown up since then. Not that changing one's name upon marriage is inherently immature, but dreaming about being Mrs. Somebody is pretty teenager-y, and so much of their pre-show relationship was her swooning after him. Fast forward, and having gone through the difficulties of their relationship, having kids while living separately, and then ultimately giving up pretty much her whole life to move to be with him, I don't think she's walking around with juvenile goggles on anymore. And she doesn't need to change her name to reunite her family; moving to the other side of the country, leaving her other family, her job, and her friends behind, so they can all live together takes care of that quite thoroughly. I'm glad her name wasn't one more thing she gave up. Full disclosure: I dislike it when women change their names; you do you and all that, but it's rooted in an offensive tradition that I think lingers despite the changes, and I'd like to see the practice die off, but I'd be happy if it stops becoming an assumption that women have to come up with a reason to justify veering from. But beyond my general feelings, there's nothing specifically about Carol that makes me think she'd after all this time decide to become Carol Ross. I didn't even remember that we learned they'd married, but it doesn't surprise me to learn she kept her name when they did. She has an identity, not to mention a professional reputation attached to that name. I don't think she'd get angry if she met someone socially as Doug's wife and received a "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Ross" in response - I think she'd just say, "Carol Hathaway, and it's nice to meet you too" - or anything like that, but I also don't think she'd change her name.

That's just an Elvis's ghost joke. There has never been a shortage of nutters claiming either Elvis is really alive, or his ghost is wandering around Graceland, so pretty much every time a TV character mentions Elvis, there will be reference a sighting (and it's about a 50/50 split whether it will be of Ghost Elvis of Faked-Death Alive Elvis).

Oh, I’d forgotten that Fritz didn’t tell Brenda about his alcoholism, and am curious to see how that works out. How the hell do you have enough "I don't drink" conversations with someone you date, move in with, and ultimately propose to without ever once continuing, "because I'm an addict"? I’m glad they gave him an unequivocal bad act (to be clear, not the alcoholism, the lack of disclosure so that trying to get a family plan for car insurance was a high quote because he had two DUIs, which Pope had to be the one to tell her), since they’d explored hers so thoroughly. Not that he hadn’t done anything wrong until now, but it was more subtle – he treats her like a child sometimes (and, yeah, duh, since she acts like an overgrown toddler sometimes, but you either accept that or date someone else, not attempt to control her as would a parent of an actual toddler), he pushed the relationship forward at an accelerated pace out of insecurity/jealousy over Pope – while her flaws as a romantic partner were on full display. While it was definitely nice to a see a neurotic female lead with an accepting (well, mostly accepting) male partner instead of the usual reverse with the long-suffering or, worse, Stepford Wife woman subjugating herself to the heroic asshole that is her boyfriend/husband, it also risked making him a martyr to her selfishness. I much prefer that he simply loves her, and accepts that the less-appealing parts of her are part of the deal – as untold number of women on TV have done with their male partners – and giving him his own real drawbacks helps with that. So I'll be sure to tune in next week, as I don't remember this at all. No, The Closer is in syndication on Lifetime now, and will soon also be on Start TV. Right now, Major Crimes is the only one of the two on broadcast syndication, though, yes.

I completely support that, too, and I'd have to watch it again to catch the nuance, but I recall that Kerry truly did act based on numbers as dictated to her to reduce staff, rather than using those numbers as a pretext to fire a specific someone based on her HIV status (something that could not be said of Anspaugh and the rest above Kerry; it was absolutely motivated by her illness when it comes to their actions, but my memory is that Kerry had no discriminatory pretext). So, unless my memory is skewed (entirely possible; there's something about this show that has never stuck in my brain as others have - it was always just something I watched from week to week and then largely forgot about, and syndication didn't change that despite the compressed time frame), not only did Jeanie's behavior towards Kerry during the lawsuit ignore all Kerry's previous support of her (I will forever love Kerry as contrasted with Mark as they hashed out the vague and conflicting state/federal laws and what to do), which is understandable when asserting one's rights, it specifically shit on Kerry's lack of culpability specific to the termination at issue.

At the changing of the guard in Buckingham Palace, the band played Respect in honor of Ms. Aretha:

I don't get that channel (I looked it up already, because it's going to be airing Cold Case, which is one of the other in the rare handful of crime dramas/procedurals I like), but at 3 episodes per day, 7 days per week, you'll be caught up with the Lifetime episodes in no time! (And then shoot right past them. Damn, that is a crazy number of episodes per week! That's more than when Pop went crazy airing ER, and I couldn't even begin to keep up.)

Boy, they sure enjoy putting Brenda in jeopardy, don't they? I feel like I'm watching Hunter.

Fixed that for ya. ;-) She's stupefyingly awful. Unbearable, really. I almost skipped L&O: SVU because of Mariska Hargitay, I hated Cynthia so much.

More than 100 pink Cadillacs filled 7 Mile Road for an entire city block

It's rude and sexist, and I would not be dining there ever again. I would, however, be having a very pointed conversation with the boyfriend, who seems to keep subjecting you to rude people.

At his age, they're still pretty new to this, and haven't yet figured out where to draw the line on being an advocate for their child (because our society, laws, and policies/regulations have a very long way to go still, despite the improvement between the rest of the cast's generation and Rocco's), understanding that there are some things it's simply unreasonable and unfair to expect to be altered in order to accommodate him. I'm not entirely sure their line isn't drawn so far out there that arguing the Earth should stop spinning on its axis if that's what was needed to accommodate Rocco's special needs isn't just about the only thing across it. And I don't know how much it's going to change with time and experience; they seem the "oh, everything my child does is cute and damn anyone who doesn't agree" type in general. You know, the kind who sit in a cafe garden sipping lattes while their kids run around making nuisances of themselves, and think the other patrons who are irritated at having their own leisurely weekend breakfast disturbed are just haters. I don't think Kris needs anyone to make her look like a good mom (she's made and continues to make some obvious mistakes, but on the general scale of parenting, she is easily a good mom), but boy howdy, yes -- stack her up against Sean's parents, and she looks like a superstar. Kris enables Megan to be less independent than she could be, while Sean's parents enable him to be a sexist jackass.

I'd assume he lived off-campus and, yes, sent his laundry out during college. I don't remember whether the apartments he had or shared were prior Anna's time; I know in the beginning of the show he lived at home (where staff would do the laundry), and then somewhere in there he moved out. Ultimately, the timing doesn't really matter; I have no trouble believing he sent his laundry out, as plenty of people with far less money than Carter do that for convenience, and if that's what he was used to, when Gamma cut him off or whatever happened, it wouldn't immediately occur to him to start doing his own laundry to cut down on regular expenses. It's a TV cliché, to take the spoiled character and the "regular person" character to the laundromat so we can discover the spoiled character has never had to do their own laundry, but I also don't have any problem believing John Truman Carter III had not, prior to that day, done laundry.

The candles are flameless; they are "lit" via battery, not flame. When going over the pre-bed checklist, one of the parents included making sure any candles are blown out, and another pointed out they're not real candles, precisely to avoid that danger.

Calling a colleague who is his best friend, a professional equal, and another man by his first name in front of a patient is its own issue, but doing it to a woman who is a rung or two below him on the professional ladder is even worse, with larger implications, and that he engages in the former is not remotely an excuse against doing the latter. Good on her for standing up for herself rather than giving him a pass.

Yes, he was at the wedding. When Angelo arrives, he tells Dorothy she looks more beautiful now than she did on her wedding day. That could just refer to having been sent a wedding photo, but prior to that, when Sophia cops to why she's making Dorothy's favorite dinner and inviting Stan over, Sophia says, "Remember my brother Angelo? He was at your wedding."

He may have lived at home in college, just like in med school (it's a full-service mansion with parents who are gone much of the time). Or in a swanky condo. I don't see John Carter in a dorm (and schools didn't force freshman to live in dorms back then - thank the gods). He wouldn't still be such a sheltered rich kid when we meet him if he'd had the "typical" college experience.

Yes, Angel's grandma told Mariano she had concerns because Cristina said this was all moving too fast and maybe she wanted to date other people. When Mariano asked Cristina about it, she said she meant maybe she and Angel should keep dating, not that she wanted to date other people. I guess it got chalked up to cold feet, because her hesitation about getting married right now was dropped like a hot potato. Yes, it kept getting promoted during the commercial breaks - the wedding is the big finale for the season, and it airs next week.