Bastet

I don't see how having a baby in their mid-50s would be a good thing, but I've pretty well reached "whatever" point with this whole thing. I may just stop reading spoilers, watch the remaining episodes, and then put it all behind me. The weremonster episode still makes the revival worthwhile, but this show is such a shadow of its former self to me that I've lost my excitement.

I might have liked this more as a straight case file, but I have never had a single shit to give about William, so that’s to be expected. Bless what Gillian did with it, and David, too, especially in the final scene, but I still just wish this little plot point had never existed, and I don’t know whether that’s why this didn’t grab me, or if it was just the script, but it didn’t. (And even without the William tie-in, there wasn’t much to it as a MOTW – this was just blah on every level.) Skinner expositioning about alien-human hybrid experiments and this whole Project Crossroads thing felt shoe-horned in. Okay, fine. But Mulder and Scully’s emotions, the chase sequence at the hospital in the end – I wanted to get invested in that, but I couldn’t, not properly. It was just blah when it shouldn’t have been. Not bad, but blah. That's the word I keep coming back to. This was like a lesser version of Wong's Founder's Mutation to me - the M&S interaction is on point, there's the DoD and secret experiments, there's William stuff that drags it down, etc. Miles Robbins doesn’t, from this, seem to have inherited his parents’ acting chops (but he has the young version of his dad’s floppy hair thing going on nicely), but a) he’s young, and b) who can really tell from a weak script. I assume we'll be seeing Jackson again - and now that the poor kid has lost his parents, I'm not as resistant to that as my usual - so we'll see. “You See What I Want You to See” – the season’s record of altering the tag line, and the alternate universe theme of those changed versions, remains intact, I see. Ugh, a VO. At least no stock footage this time, so Wong is one step ahead of Carter. But the snowglobes gave me Vegreville flashbacks. Mulder using Bob as his name at the coffee shop amused me (even though it was another fake universe thing this season is hitting us over the head with). And “How is it possible the only updates I’ve received have come via complaints from other agencies?” made me laugh out loud. This is how I like my Skinner. I’ve only read discussion of seasons eight and nine, but I thought the Van de Kamps were farmers. And I thought it was a super-secret adoption for William’s safety, so how do Mulder and Scully know the parents’ last name (but Skinner -who arranged the adoption, no? - doesn’t)? Isn’t Scully’s DNA on file a hundred times over, so she doesn’t have to swab her cheek? And why did she just cut off some hair; you need a root to do the best DNA test on hair, so when that’s available, take it. If whatever that girl was offering Scully was a throat lozenge, she should have taken it. Don’t variations on “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” pre-date Malcom X? Maybe he was the first to phrase it exactly that way. That guy Scully kept seeing looked at first like the same actor who was Dr. Yonechi in Synchrony, but then I realized it wasn’t (and IMDb confirmed). Why did Jackson make his two girlfriends see the monster? As a prank? What an ass.

Buccaneers doesn’t get you to Pirates of Penzance? The Little Foxes as a TS kind of surprised me, but that missed DD in the stage category really did. Moulin Rouge as a district? Not coming up with Rubik after being spotted Rubiks? Flop and defeated in the loser category seemed far too easy clues for DJ. Same with showing a picture of the Pieta in the European art category and of Ramses in the pharaohs category. And I’d never given a moment’s thought to the origin of Ore-Ida (I don't eat their products [I hate potatoes], but I have heard of the brand just based on cultural osmosis), but FJ was an instaget. Learn something new every day, sure, but that was stupid easy with the visual clue. I didn't see yesterday's show to hear the puppy story, but I didn't like the little pencil-necked guy on Monday's show and he bugged me again tonight; after reading about the puppy story, I officially hate him.

I watched the unrated extended version of this, the version that was released on DVD, rather than the version that aired on the network. I assume “cocksucker” was not included in the broadcast version, and I like that they didn’t get crazy with the unrated version. Moore and the writer said in the commentary that initially they had the typical, “sex and violence, yeah!” reaction to being able to do an unrated special, but then it just felt gratuitous and they wound up not doing much of that. I found the special a little odd, but I suppose inevitably so – the home video division of the studio asks for a stand-alone movie or sorts that will air before season four starts, but season three ended on a cliffhanger and season four is going to start where it left off, so the only thing to do is tell a story set back in time. But centering it around a character the audience has never so much as heard of before just furthered the different feeling. And they don't just go back in time, they go back to three times - the "present day" search and rescue mission, the day of the cylon attack on the twelve colonies and the weeks after that, and the last day of the original cylon war - and weave in and out of them a bit. Plus, these are rather significant events to have happened – finding out the hybrid Bill encountered during the first cylon war still exists and those old-school centurions continue the experimentation program on that ship, plus Lee choosing to sacrifice Kara (I think he’d have ordered Mathias instead to stay behind and detonate the nuke) -- and there to have been no indication (obviously, because this backstory didn't exist at the time season three aired) the characters went through these things. I had to watch twice, as I didn’t fully understand the “present day” stuff the first time. But, by the end of that, I liked it. On one hand, it was an action/adventure with lots of CGI, and that’s not my thing - plus, it had minimal Laura, and that's not my thing, either - but it was still the character study the show does so well: making you examine the similarities between Cain’s actions and those Laura, Adama, and Lee have taken. They’re all varying degrees of the brutal fact sometimes you have to sacrifice a few to save the rest; where is the line drawn? There’s an extent to which Cain is what Adama would have been had he not had Laura in his face, and it’s not insignificant that, for a while after the attack, Cain believed there were no other survivors than the people on that battleship, while Adama was very quickly confronted with a civilian fleet in the tens of thousands. But Cain’s mindset does not change a bit once she learns there are civilian survivors. Would Adama have stripped the ships and left the people behind, let alone executed the families of people who’d refuse to be drafted into service? When he wanted to leave the civilian fleet behind at Ragnar Anchorage and, loaded up with weapons, get back in the fight, he thought they would be safe from the cylons hiding in that cloud or whatever it was. Would he have shot Tigh in the head for saying he couldn’t, in good conscience, follow a bad order? I think the answer to that one is no, too – the brig, sure, but dead? (And while not the decades-long relationship Adama and Tigh have, Cain was close enough with her XO that he invited her to spend shore leave with him and his family, who wanted to see her again.) Anyway, it was an interesting morality study and I enjoyed it on that level. I even enjoyed some of the action/adventure stuff, but young Adama and the centurion shooting at each other as they freefall towards a planet had me rolling my eyes. I understand from the commentary that, by going back to the original cylon war, they were able to incorporate a number of shout-outs to the original series, and even though those are lost on me, I think it’s cool that they were there. Apparently, they tracked down the vocoder used to create the centurions’ voices in the original, so that when the “by your command” line came, it sounded as it had back then. I also think it’s interesting that some big things happen that only the audience knows – the surviving characters don’t learn what Shaw did, or what the Hybrid said about Kara. It reminds me of the Baltar trial a bit, in that there are things we know he did that the characters don't know he did. And the stuff at the end certainly makes heading into season four interesting! The hybrid says a lot of things we can verify as true, so is everything he says true? If so, he’s told us that the six models will implode, the four who’ve just realized their identities will emerge, and humans and cylons will work together to find Earth. And then the final one “still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering.” Pretty big plot points, if true. And then there’s him saying following Kara will lead to the destruction of the human race. I don’t even understand how she’s alive, so I assume when she gets back to Galactica as season four opens, they’re going to think she’s a cylon, and certainly not be inclined to go where she says they should go; that pretty much has to be a big plot point. So it’s funny that this was a stand-alone set in the past – but the final ten minutes give all sorts of information about what’s going to happen in the final season. There were a few little things I really liked: - I am irrationally pleased that when Shaw gives Gina her access code, that code is indeed what Tricia Helfer types rather than randomly punching letters/numbers on the keypad. - It’s interesting, given Kara’s feelings about her mother and the fact she respected Cain in a way no one else on Galactica did, that she thinks Cain and her mom would have been two peas in a pod. - Young Adama beating the centurion to death was like Old Adama doing the same to Leoben in the miniseries, which is a strangely nice touch.

No, I'm the opposite - it has always taken me at least six months (last time it was nine) to be ready to adopt another cat after one passed away. But even though I am not someone who is ready right away, I am outraged on behalf of those who are that they are accused by some of "replacing" the dead pet and otherwise treated as if they're wrong for adopting quickly. So I always like hearing Tia say everyone is different, and ready in their own time - that it had only been a month didn't say anything negative to her about the adopter.

That's why I was asking - I hadn't heard that, but I read only a small amount of what's out there. My first reaction is having a hard time picturing D.J. in the military, but quite honestly I have a hard time picturing anyone in the military. Once I sit back and think about how young he was the last time we saw him, I acknowledge almost any career/education path could be considered in character for him.

I don't remember the last time I had a soft pretzel, but now I am craving one. There's a local brewery that makes a good one; guess I'll have to stop off for beer and pretzel. Oh darn. I've never tried Auntie Anne's - just the smell as I walk by at the mall tells me they're way too sweet for me. I don't think we have Sonic around here.

I know the child's mother is in the military, but have we heard that D.J. was as well?

We met her in season two; she was the nice one among the old circle of friends Grace met up with. Then we saw her again in season three as part of the focus group Grace and Frankie convened when they first developed the vibrators.

@Zola, I do hope you'll save all these lamentations on your "advanced age" somewhere so that if the site disappears in the interim, when you hit 35 or so (if it takes nearly that long), you can have a good laugh at your young self fretting over being a slightly less version of young. Humor aside, quite frankly there is something rather sad about a woman who has accomplished more at your age than have most of your contemporaries being so distraught at advancing into your mid-twenties. I hope that 10 or 20 years down the road, you are indeed laughing at this mindset, rather than having perpetuated it all that time.

Holy balls, I have tuned in maybe three times in the past year or so (for a variety of reasons, and I do hope to add this show back into my routine at some point), and each time it has been to a giant clusterfuck of stupidity. I hope I have just happened to catch anomalies, and this isn't an indication of how far the quality of contestants has fallen. FJ was a total instaget, but given the contestants' performances, I expected some "flag" and "book" answers. Color me surprised they had a rudimentary grasp of American history (I think my shock was earned, given the Treaty of Paris TS) and did, indeed, come up with the obvious. But I have to out myself as saying I had no clue where Mayberry/Andy Griffith existed; I fucking hated that show and couldn't ever get through more than a few minutes at a time. I also didn't know a single one of the "freeze frame" films the contestants came up with, but did know The Ice Storm that was a TS (great performances in that film!). And Ur I totally pulled out of my ass; I truly had no idea I knew that.

"What the actual fuck just happened?" That was me to my cat last night upon completing season three. It went from Law & Order set in space to ... I don't even know what that was, with four of the final five cylons being summoned by All Along the Watchtower and Starbuck returning from the dead, by way of Earth. At first I thought she was the fifth cylon, because how the hell else is she alive after being blown to bits, but then I dismissed that because her attitude is so different from the others. So I don't know. I'm glad she's back, but this is some weird shit, so I'm curious to see how it's explained. Sam sure didn't take a lot of time between drinking himself silly over Kara's death to flirting with Seelix and frakking Tory, did he? Back when I was pondering who among the final five D'Anna was talking to when she apologized, I thought of Tigh, because of what the cylons did to him on New Caprica, and because of the specific interaction she had with him on Galactica while making the documentary, but then I laughed at myself for thinking Saul Tigh could be a cylon. Of course, according to Moore's commentary, they didn't decide until writing this episode - and late in that process - who the final four were, and were going back and forth right up until shooting as to whether they should really make Tigh a cylon, so back when D'Anna saw the final five, the writers didn't even know who she was looking at. The commentaries have been a bit frightening in how much of the second half of this season was decided or altered at the last minute; I appreciate leaving room for things to evolve differently than how you'd originally seen them, but a showrunner not having a road map for the major plot points generally does not end well. Between that and the "off the rails" in the thread title for season four, I'm nervous. Getting back to the trial part, the trial was a zoo and I had to keep reminding myself it looks like the American judicial system, but it isn't, so all the "You can't do that!" reactions I was having needed to stop, and just accept that in the Galactica world, they can. It was interesting to know Baltar is guilty, including of things the characters don't know about, but to know he has to be acquitted because the things they are charging him with they cannot prove. And for Adama, who never even wanted to give Baltar a trial to begin with, to be swayed by Lee's closing argument testimony and vote to acquit. The scene when Lee outed Laura about the chamalla, and then she outed herself about the cancer, was incredible, especially the reminder of the relationship they used to have when he was "Captain Apollo," and it turns out that part was all Mary McDonnell - brilliant. I also love, love, love the "Get your fat, lazy ass out of that rack, Roslin" phone call. And "How long do you have to live, Karen?" when the reporter asks Laura how long she has to live. Moore said in his commentary the connection between Caprica Six, Athena, and Laura will continue to be explored next season, and I'm excited for that. I think I should re-watch the final three episodes before moving on, though, because that was a whole lot to take in.

Are there those who didn't? :-) Admittedly, he looked different enough (damn, we get old during this time frame) that I wasn't sure at first it was him, but, yes, that was Chuck, from several previous episodes (and not just Darin Morgan episodes).

I think they had to take the chance with Bella. If it didn't work, as it didn't, it only extended her (poor-quality-of-) life by a couple of days. If it did, though, she'd have had extra good months (not just extra months, but good months). Having tried gave the owners the peace of knowing they'd given her the best chance, but didn't require Bella to endure a prolonged death to give them that.

Last season, in The Burglary (when - following a break-in, Grace blew the head off the Frankie dummy).

I agree she should have changed the date format to the one used in the country in which the party was being held (duh!), but I'm surprised several of you thought a birthday party invitation received in January (or December?) referred to an event in October. Wedding invitations that far in advance, maybe, but birthday party invitations? I'd have thought the "Why am I getting an invitation now to a birthday party that isn't happening until October?" weirdness would have, especially given the known problem of some applications defaulting to the "wrong" date format, triggered a "Hey, is this party really in October or did you mean January 10th?" email.

As someone who never wanted kids, and who will probably continue until menopause in a few years to endure fuckwits who are convinced I actually do want them but just haven't A, B, C, or D, I will take Mariah at her word - especially surrounded by gestating sisters and sisters-in-law - that she does not want to breed. If she changes her mind, I wish her fertility. If she doesn't, I wish her a less annoying experience than I've had with the "No, it's really [X situation] and you, if left to your own devices, would procreate" crowd. Watching those little puppies, already the lone survivors of a bad litter, push themselves to walk was just adorable. I'm glad Caleb finally kicked into gear, and hope he lives a fulfilling life. I liked Tia again talking about how the grieving process - in terms of when a mourning owner who has lost a pet is ready to adopt their next family member - is wholly subjective. There's a lot of shit thrown at those who are ready in short order, so it's great to see the owner of a special needs pit opt to heal her heart by giving a great home to yet another special needs pit. And I loved Earl being referred to as "Uncle Earl."

I just re-watched this, because the first time I was struck by how much great dialogue there was packed into one episode - even for this show - but I was paying attention to the plot. My favorite: "Have you forgotten what this house means to us? This is where we put our lives back together after your dumb, gay dads ruined it all." I didn't notice the first time that the kids downloaded that checklist the night before their "intervention." That, plus the fact almost everything that applied to Grace and Frankie was a temporary condition, was annoying, but the women treated it with exactly the respect it deserved - by flipping them off (and, in Frankie's case, smacking her kids). It's so maddening the kids then manipulated them, by having Frankie's kids tell Grace they knew she could take care of herself, but Frankie can't, and vice versa, but I continue to like the difference from the usual storyline that the kids are idiotic, but not malicious, in their motivation. Usually when we see something like this, it's because some cold-hearted adult child wants to get his hands on the parent's money. I can't wait to see their punishment, however.

They are the producers; Magical Elves is the production company of Top Chef (and quite a few other reality shows, but this is the only one I've watched).

Yeah, those would be unpopular likes, probably. I loved my aunt's pickled okra, but she's long dead, so I haven't eaten okra on its own in quite some time (I'm okay with it in jambalaya the few times I eat that, but by itself I only ate it pickled, and only hers).

Oh, hell no. By all means, make a cop show starring two women as partners, especially if written as a feminist show like the original was, but invent new characters. That might replace Major Crimes as the only cop show I watch. Casting new people and calling them Christine Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey? Screw that.

Okay, I wouldn't count the follow-up conversation in that episode as a third instance, just part of the second, so that's why I said I could only remember two. But now you know why you were thinking three, so it can stop bugging you; I know how annoying it is when some little thing like that sticks in your mind.

He didn't call her Sugar Tits; Sugar Tits is what Mel Gibson called the (female) police officer in his infamous rant (the one in which somehow only the anti-Semitism and racism gets discussed, with the sexism usually overlooked), so that was the reference, but this being network TV, he called her Sugar Boobs.

Was having to do nine dishes as crazy as it sounds? How many have they done in previous Restaurant Wars challenges -- I think they usually had two choices for each course, not three? I wonder if they required more this year just for the the "bringing back an eliminated chef as a sous" element, which fits in with the twist of bringing back a LCK chef early this season. Common Place as the team that couldn’t come up with anything in common was kind of an amusing train wreck. I set out rooting for the team where the two women took the jobs that usually lead to elimination (especially as up against to two bears in those roles), but damn. First course: Fatima’s tartare, Mustache Joe’s oysters, and Mustache Joe’s chicken all seemed lacking in significant ways, and mistakes no chef of their caliber should have made. Second course: Claudette’s bone marrow, Mustache Joe’s dumplings, and Chris’s pork shoulder did as well, in the same “how’d you screw that up?” ways. Third course: Chris’s donut, Claudette’s sundae, and Claudette’s skyr – same thing. No points for consistency, either. Because, again, damn. Good gods, they couldn’t come up with a concept, and they couldn’t execute their individual dishes in a way that would overcome that. Then they were in denial about it. They were awful on every level. Fatima of the delightful personality even failed as FOH. Claudette did her usual thing at JT. Between trying to claim she was just an expediter and admitting she didn't taste the food, her being the one told to pack her knives was a given. And her stomping off without saying anything to anyone, and then ranting in her talking head – I was slow to jump on the bandwagon against her (I didn’t watch LCK), but it was a steady, gradual thing, and between the last challenge and this one, I hope to never see her again. Random note: Mustache Joe apparently has a cat, and now I can’t dislike him as much as I had been.

There was an f-bomb deleted from that film, but it wasn't "Fuck you, Mulder." I'm fairly certain it was "I don't fucking believe this," and I think it was near the train tracks, somewhere in the corn and the bees and the chasing part of the film. I also love the blooper when Scully had her gun on X (I think), and was supposed to say, "Don't tell me you don't know, you lying [TV-appropriate insult,] and Gillian, caught up in the moment, said instead, "Don't tell me you don't know, you lying sack of shit."