Bastet

I love her snark about "apparently, the last time Scully relaxed was reading Breakfast at Tiffany's." Seriously, show. Also her, "Are you fucking kidding me?" about what word she uses too often. But my favorite is her answer to what Scully and Stella would talk about.

Ha - I recognized the voice immediately; she's the one who did those really short - and really funny - recaps for each episode using her action figures.

Holy shit. Nothing anyone had said prepared me for the experience of watching that film. I just finished it about an hour ago, and I am gutted. What a wonderful group of people Andrew had in his life, and Zachary in his short life, and that horrible, horrible person took it all away from first one then the other. It was quite well done, with repeating over and over the "she's not a danger/no evidence of a psychological problem" language while laying out her evil deeds. And turning it into a letter to Kate and David instead at the end was beautiful. "You still have children" got me back in the beginning, so for it to circle back to that was perfect. My heart aches for those people. All the crap they swallowed, having to be in Shirley's life in order to remain in Zachary's, so that when the system finally worked and Zachary could be theirs, it would be a smooth transition for him. But, of course, the system never did.

Yeah, that dancing scene is the only part I'll watch because I find PMP so offensive (they were raped, but, hey, they got babies out of the deal, so it's all hunky dory), but I would watch it on a pretty long loop. So adorable. And I have a real thing for my TV couples dancing, too. She's one of the reasons I'm not terribly interested in the episode. She was decent in a great episode of Law & Order: SVU, but otherwise she has bugged the crap out of me in everything I've seen her in. And for no specific reasons.

This makes me realize I use the phrase "blow sunshine up his ass" a lot. Back in my first career, I ended a conversation with a Sr. VP - in which I'd spent a long time going over and over and over a situation that he'd screwed up but tried to blame on my assistant, and which we had already corrected, but he still wanted ... I don't even remember what - by telling him, "If you're looking for someone to blow sunshine up your ass, you've dialed the wrong extension." He complained to the Vice Chairman, who said I was right (he was already aware of the situation that had precipitated this) and then called me, laughing, to say I should have that engraved on my office door. Every once in a while, you do get upper management who value the people who get the job done over those who play the game, but it's rare.

I fault management as much as the parents in this situation. They have an obligation - to their servers whose jobs are hard enough without having to dodge a feral child, to their patrons who are not irresponsible, rude assholes and are now having their meal interrupted, and to their employer who is not going to enjoy being sued when Little Darling causes an accident and gets hurt - to go ask the parents to keep their kid at the table or leave.

Yes, I find Lily Tomlin lovely, too, in fact more so now than I did 30 years ago. But Jane is the one who jumps out at me; she has such a polished, put-together, classy but not stuffy look to her that I find appealing despite being less classic and tailored in my own look. And while I do think the work she's had done is obvious, I also think it's very well done and she looks like herself.

Twin Peaks is fabulous - two seasons of quirky (well, let's be honest -- outright weird), beautifully shot. And there's a revival of that coming, too. I didn't see XF until The Host, and I don't think I got a hold of season one episodes until after I'd finished season two. So by the time I watched the pilot, I was already ensconced in the show. But I think if I'd watched it in real time, I'd have come away excited. It's got all the inherent flaws and limitations of a pilot, but made clear this was going to be something interesting.

I've been watching Grace and Frankie, and, wow, is Jane Fonda beautiful. This is not new, of course, but I haven't seen her in a while. (Yes, I know she has the help of a damn good plastic surgeon.)

Since you have the Blu-Ray collection – are there special features on there that aren’t on the DVDs? I know there’s the WonderCon panel, but since I was there I certainly don’t need that. Anything else? I don’t even watch all the seasons, so buying the whole series on Blu-Ray when I already have seasons one thru seven on DVD seems silly (the quality difference doesn’t much matter to me since my Blu-Ray player up-converts). But the only reason I’m thinking of going ahead and replacing my DVDs with Blu-Ray discs is they take up so much less space. (With the added, but minor, benefit of continuity since I’m going to go ahead and buy season 10 on Blu-Ray because of the Were-Monster episode [i’ve liked the revival overall, but that’s probably the only one I’ll rewatch].) But if there’s a special feature only available on the Blu-Ray discs, I’d like to know. Also, if there are any special features on the DVDs that are not included on the Blu-Rays.

It's still up on Gossamer.

I cracked up when Kwame said, "I understood [Philip]," and either Marjorie or Karen replied, "I didn't."

Aw, I’m bummed about Karen. She was my last pick of the three, because I figured she had a tasty dish that didn’t fit the challenge. I thought it was going to be Marjorie, which would have bummed me out even more. So, yay? I like the food (to the extent I can evaluate it through my TV) of all the remaining chefs, so I’ll be a little sad for each of them to go. Carl rapping has just surpassed anything Philip did as the most delusional moment of the season. It was interesting to learn Marjorie is from Ukiah, as I have spent the entire season marveling at how she sounds just like a friend of mine – who is from Redwood Valley (pretty much next door to Ukiah).

Had she worked with Dory before or otherwise known him previously? I can't remember how they introduced him. My favorite of her boyfriends is the ACLU lawyer (David, I think).

That is literally the only thing I remember about the episode. Yes, and the implication her fear of cancer is why she reached her boiling point of frustration (not to mention got it on with a hot-ass man) - when we've just watched four years worth of reasons - has pissed me off ever since. I really like that episode, too. And, of course, Small Potatoes -- you should watch that again. And again. And ...

And every time I read a post referring to it, it gets stuck in my head again for a good 5 minutes. Which doesn’t seem terribly long, except I know precisely two lines of the song, and that’s a long time to hear the same two lines over and over in your head. Especially two lines that stupid.

Y'all know there's a forum for The Fall, right? :-) I have only seen season one thus far, so I stay away. I agree that, as much as I adore Scully, Stella is the most interesting role Gillian has played (and she has said the same thing). I also love that it got Gillian to switch from that, "No, I'm not a feminist, but ...[insert litany of feminist positions]" stance that makes me crazy to "Yep, I'm a feminist." I've seen a few people say they like Gillian better as a redhead, but I've always thought the blonde suits her even better (splitting, well, hairs, as she's gorgeous, regardless). Perhaps because she's a natural blonde (although not that shade of blonde), it just looks that extra level of perfect with her skin and eyes? But the red works well enough I buy Scully as a natural redhead. I love that she seems to have achieved some real contentment with herself and her life that was a struggle in her younger years. Her interviews give off a palpable desire that her daughter, and young women in general, take an easier path to self empowerment and acceptance than she did. I've met her a few times over the decades at charity events, and I just really dig her as a person (the little I can truly know of her) as well as an actor. She's just living her life as a well-meaning person, and being pretty open about the mistakes along the way while still preserving privacy for herself and her family.

She's an interesting mix of serious and goofy. When she’s serious, she is deadly serious, and when she’s goofy – look out.

Ninety eight! I’m sorry for his loved ones, who are hurting regardless, but two months into this the year of abbreviated celebrity lifespans, this is an obituary I’m almost happy to read.

The line delivery on, "He was getting some of his mj on the street" was just delightful. I turned to the cats and said, "Oh, gross" when Martinez showed up, but he wound up not bugging me as much this time. I still don't want to see him again, mind you. Other than that, I just have some nit-picky comments, so I want to watch again; I was glad to have the show back, but the episodes didn't really grab me (and two in a row didn't help; I couldn't take time to process the first one when the second started seconds afterward). So I'll see how I feel after second viewing.

No, that's pastrami.

Me too, and I liked the line about his migraines being Mulder-induced. Indeed.

Yeah, and he waltzes out there as a rumpled discharged patient rather than an agent and just says, "I know her." I don't think he even flashes his badge. But that's enough to allow her in to a hospital that's on lock-down.

Well, I didn't think this was crap, but I certainly think it was clunky. And as a not-so-backdoor pilot to get me interested in XF: The Next Generation, in which Miller and Einstein investigate and Mulder and Scully make guest appearances? Epic fail, because Einstein is like some junior high parody of Scully. She had her moments, and I think the actor tried her best, but that was pretty much awful. It really proves how much of Scully's greatness comes from GA rather than CC. (Miller worked better, but nothing to base a show around.) So is this another show in which someone pays lip service to the fact most Muslims are not terrorists, but you walk away thinking the writer believes most Muslims are terrorists? I truly give CC the benefit of the doubt here, but I'm sort of worn down by media representation (in which the overwhelming majority of Muslim characters are getting ready to blow some shit up) and this is either the first group or among only a few Muslim characters on XF, and all but the mother wanted to, you know, blow some shit up. At any rate, CC's keyboard should probably be fitted with something like those devices multiple DUI offenders have on their car, where they have to blow a sober breathalyzer reading before the ignition will start -- when he starts typing about religion, his computer just shuts down. My main objection: We have six episodes to work with, and we're going to spend one splintering M&S off with random new people? I didn't watch seasons eight or nine, but this reminds me of hearing fans scream about the fact that in at least one of the few episodes in which DD appeared, one would be with Reyes and the other with Doggett, instead of showing M&S working together. Since that's, you know, why people watch the damn show. One of the things I most praised in the second episode of this revival (so the first since they started working together again) was seeing them actually working together the whole time. That's what I want (sure, they're going to split off to do things separately from time to time, but it's mostly a duo). And while production can certainly lag behind over a full season so you need to play catch-up by sending one off with the first unit and the other with second to make up some time, this is episode five of six (and, I think, was filmed second or third). Come on! The dialogue in the final scene was painful, but I'll watch that scene on mute many, many times. GA and DD are just nailing the modern-day M&S relationship! It's beautiful. And, hee -- the updated version of a Mulder slide show. Scully saying she's waited 23 years to say that (repeating Mulder's "nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted" line from the pilot) made me grin, and there were several more nods to the past that made me smile (e.g. the emphasis on "medical doctor"). But, on the whole, it was forced. Such a contrast to Darin Morgan's shout-outs to episodes of yore. CC was trying too hard. Mulder's mushroom plan was ridiculous, even for him. The hallucinations themselves? At first, they made me laugh as a glimpse into Mulder's strange mind and as a clear bit of fun for DD (and, yay - the Lone Gunmen!). But they dragged on, and then just got dumb. No one actually does anything about a cardiac arrest in ICU, just waits five seconds and says, "Gee, sorry"? And, yeah, can we stop with the constant "there's a flight to Texas" and "I'll meet you in Texas" crap -- they'd be using city names.

Her being in her bra and underwear was. I can't remember about the rest.