Miss Scarlet

I don't think they'd ever do that but I would love someone else to play Rory. A lot of people seemed to have warmed to AB's acting over the years, but I still think it's terrible. In the OG there were so many scenes ruined for me because I couldn't stop focusing on how bad her acting was. Interesting that she didn't like what ASP did with the Rory character. I was curious to know if the cast sees the characters as ASP does (wonderful and sympathetic) or as many fans do (self-centred messes).

I see the Christopher/Logan parallel being different just because it seemed like Christopher was more into Lorelai than Lorelai was into him whereas, in this revival at least, it seemed like Rory was more into Logan than he was into her. And I'm not really a fan of Jess being Rory's Luke because I think that he could do better and also because I'm tired of the whole "every man Rory and Lorelai meet falls in love with them and pines for them forever. In real life people would find them charming and smart and fun for a little while, but would be turned off by their entitlement and selfishness. They would move on and get over them. It's really hard to believe that immature and selfish Lorelai was actually a better, stronger, more responsible person when the series started than what Rory is now and that Jess has shown the most growth.

With the Rory stuff, I have mixed feelings. I know a lot of people were complaining after the Winter, Spring and Summer how crazy it was that Rory was so aimless and didn't have her life together. For me, I didn't find that to be that unrealistic. I know a lot of 30-somethings that have unstable temporary work or contract positions, are single or in relationships that they're unsure about. I think that given what the economy is like and housing prices and the fact that people are generally getting married and starting families older, it's not so bad. There is part of me that wants a great ending for her. I thought the ending from s7 was actually pretty good because she had a great career prospect and it made sense to me that a 22 year old, Ivy League, aspiring journalist would choose to remain single. It felt realistic and also optimistic. But I also know that life doesn't always turn out the way we plan and there is something realistic and poignant about Paris and Rory, these high achievers who everyone thought were going to be such superstars, getting out into the real world and struggling a bit. So if they had ended the revival with her just working on the book and nothing else planned out I would have thought it was okay. But the cheating and pregnancy are really hard to swallow. It's one thing to be aimless and feel like you're not where you should be by your age but that kind of poor behaviour is in another level. I keep thinking back to the Rory from the beginning of the series and am so surprised that ASP knew all along that this where she was headed with a character she wrote as being so hyperresponsible, smart, kind and driven. It really does make you think -- all that time, money and effort at Chilton and Yale. I don't want to say it was wasted but it really didn't end up how she planned. I guess that's ASP's point -- you think you are or that certain people are on particular trajectories but we really can't predict what's going to happen. And looking back now I see the ASP did drop some hints that Rory would end up in a situation like this. I mean in the first episode she almost dropped out of Chilton for Dean. She got very reckless when she was around Jess starting in season 2. So in thinking back on it, she often didn't make intelligent decisions as far as her relationships were concerned. I have mixed feelings on the Christopher/Logan and Luke/Jess parallels. I feel like, yes, family members do often follow in each other's footsteps and so it is realistic from that perspective but I also just feel like it's an uncreative idea and ASP could do better. As is the whole "Rory writing her life story" plot.

I really liked the story that Lorelai told Emily about her birthday because it illustrated a very touching event in her relationship with Richard, but also because it explained a lot more to me about why Lorelai had Rory and ran away. We knew that she didn't like the very rigid, upper class society that her parents were a part of, but that was usually from the perspective of not liking her parents and rebelling against them. I don't remember hearing about how this affected her in school and the way she was viewed by the other kids. We mainly just heard about all the boys she fooled around with. Hearing that a boy she had really liked called her "loud" and "weird" made me realize how isolated she must have been not just from her family, but from other kids. It made more sense to me afterwards that she would have kept Rory after getting pregnant because of an idea that she wouldn't be alone anymore, that someone would finally understand her and love her and that it would be the two of them against the world. And it also make sense as to why she love Stars Hollow so much, with its "loud" and "weird" inhabitants. Of course this has been talked about before throughout the series, but this anecdote really emphasized it for me.

I was a big fan of L/L back in the day and I don't dislike them now but honestly, I found the scene with Luke declaring his need for her to be kind of sad. It's wonderful that he loves her so much and is so devoted to her but it's really unhealthy to be so dependent on one person to get all your needs met. It would really benefit him to get some friends or interests. And she didn't say any of it back to him. She said she thought they should get married but there was no grand declaration of love on her part. And the way she did it was in very self-centred, typical Lorelai fashion, saying she had already picked the date, had it all planned out, etc. It could be argued that that's because she knows Luke wouldn't want to be involved with wedding planning anyway but Lorelai is always like that. I completely agree with everyone who found it weird that Michel and Lane were there for the wedding and not Sookie or Jess. It was very obvious it was about availability. It would have been better to just have Lorelai, Luke and Rory. I thought the threeway dance between Luke, Lorelai and Rory was incredibly cheesy. I like Michel but to me he seemed very shoe-horned in for the whole revival. It had the a very obvious feeling of "we couldn't get Melissa back for enough days and Lorelai has no other friends". I hated the LDB. I thought it was incredible waste of time. I wish we had gotten Paris instead. And I don't buy that the guys in the LDB were so enamoured with Rory. It was just more of "Rory is a special snowflake and everyone loves her" that just grates. And I didn't even remember this but another poster reminded me that originally one of the guys in the LDB couldn't even remember her name. So we could suspend our disbelief and pretend that she grew much closer to them in the last 10 years but I don't think they'd be that level of close. It's really unfortunate that we didn't get more Paris. I expected her to pop up in the finale and after I recovered my shock from the "four words" the first thing I thought was "What happened to Paris?!" They left her story pretty unresolved. I loved the scene with Sookie and all the wedding cakes. That was so Sookie-esque.

I think if they do come back for season 2 it'll be with Rory's daughter (Lorelai III) being similar to Lorelai I. It'll be played for wacky hijinks, how sweet, serious, perfect Rory cannot contain this difficult and exhausting child and possibly for drama when Lorelai gets along better with Rory's daughter than Rory gets along with her.

Something I've always wondered about -- is ASP aware of how narcissistic and unlikable Rory and Lorelai are? Are they written this way on purpose, to be more complex or relatable? Or does she not even realize that's how they often come across and all their narcissistic qualities are just part of their "charm" to her? Because I've never understood this weird duality where on the one hand the characters are that entitled and self-centred but are still talked about by most characters on the show (pretty much all of them for Rory and everyone minus Emily for Lorelai) as if they're angels from heaven? I've also wondered, based on so many comments in the show from other characters about Rory being a "force of nature" and this apparent narrative that she is this dynamic personality -- then why does she come across as not very personable or dynamic? Is she really written to be so similar to Lorelai personality-wise and it's just AB's portrayal that changes that? Because again, like with the self-centredness, there's this discrepancy (for me) in the way the character is seen by other characters and the show and the way the character actually comes across with their own dialogue. I've tried to imagine a different actress playing Rory in a more dynamic way and I think I could see her as being more similar to Lorelai there, but it's hard to tell.

When Colin said on WU that Trump was like when the rich, cool jock gets elected student president I said "No. Trump is not cool, never has been and never will be. That's actually why he's such a mess." I was wondering if his tweeting had gotten to them but then the pre-tape came and eased my fears.

I like how Cathy Anne has become the mirror image of Girl at The Party -- Cathy Anne is someone who we're supposed to assume isn't "informed" and then everything she says is totally logical and smart, while Girl at The Party is supposed to appear informed at first glance and then comes out with incoherent drivel. Loved the sketch about the inside of Trump's mind. I haven't stopped trying to figure that horror show out since he announced his candidacy. I loved the part where Bobby said "we are your people, not Hollywood models" because it is so confusing how Trump both thrives on and is disgusted by his support from his followers. Loved Kellyanne as his mom. I think it would have been funny if it had included his dad calling him a loser, but it makes sense it didn't because it's not like his dad's ridiculous narcissism has been part of the campaign, minus a few backstory pieces.

The pool scene was probably one of the worst scenes on any episode of the whole series. Also, I found it highly ridiculous that Rory was shaming a woman for wearing a bikini despite the fact that she has now had an affair with a married man and an engaged man. But the bikini woman is the "slut"? Come on. And I know that people can have conflicting beliefs and behaviours, but it is weird to me how casually she has these affairs when she still seems physically uncomfortable around people in general and is very uptight about her body (e.g. not wearing a bathing suit in this scene). Maybe it's because she has these affairs with men she's already very comfortable with? Based on how she acts I would assume that she would have a lot of difficulty having sex and still be uncomfortable and awkward about it. I guess that sort of showed in the Wookie hookup. I don't buy that Lorelai would be so horrified by the musical. That's exactly the type of thing she's into. It's pretty much the reason she's lived in Stars Hollow all these years. It was interesting when Lane mentioned that a kid had called Rory "illegitimate" when they were younger and Lorelai threw brownies at him (or was it the kid's mom?). I feel like that's something we didn't see much of in the original series -- people judging Rory for having such a young mom. We saw it a bit at Chilton with the other moms, but not other kids. I guess that's because Lorelai was in her 30s by then and the teens Rory hung out with thought it was cool instead of weird.

I thought her voice (not the accent) sounded a lot like Kat Edorsson's. I still don't get Probst comparing her to Parvati. I think Michele is much more relaxed and isn't as concerned with being in the spotlight or making sure everyone else knows how aggressive her gameplay is. I'd like to think he compared them because they're good social players, but I really think it was because Probst thinks all attractive women with the same hair colour are the same person. I wonder if he was unenthusiastic for this season because the final 4 was 3 women and a gay man, or because he was rooting for Aubry and disappointed that she didn't win. And of course he didn't address the bullying this season. Maybe it's for the best, considering how he typically handles it. He only really laid into Dan because Dan had insulted the show, which personally implicates and offends Probst, of course. I'm telling myself that Survivor casts a disproportionate amount of jerks and that the majority of people are not like the assholes on this show. Is this just wishful thinking on my part?

Yeah, I think it's important to point out that both can happen. Attractive people may get some advantages for being attractive, but there are also so many situations where their intelligence, hard work, etc. are dismissed because of their attractiveness and that's unfair. It's interesting that people will talk about how pretty girls get their way and how they hate them for it, even though these reactions themselves are great examples of how things can actually be unfair for attractive women. And I know that no one wants to hear how attractive or wealthy or talented people can have it hard, but their problems are legitimate too. It's so hard to tell what happens on Survivor with the editing and the fact that Scot and Jason were assholes this season and Probst is extremely sexist and has undue influence on the show, etc. In terms of the argument that Michele played a better social game, I think she's someone who is a nice, normal, level-headed person and that doesn't make for good TV in terms of being interesting or showing gameplay. Aubry is good TV, but I can also understand why she might get annoying. And not in the sense of "she's an assertive woman and that's annoying", although that could be part of it for some people, but for others I could just see them finding her as being too quirky for them or not having as much social finesse.

This happens sometimes in life, but I feel like this effect is exacerbated in Survivor. I'm trying to figure out why exactly. I think a lot of it is in the casting. Obviously they cast attractive/stereotypical people, a lot of whom tend to don't value other qualities as much. So in real life you can find environments with people that have more values than just that and will judge others based on different values, but in Survivor you find that less so. And then of course there are the "themes" and leading questions from producers that indicate to the players what "roles" they want them to fill. And Linda Holmes (TWOP's Miss Allie) said it best when she said there doesn't seem to be a host on TV that is more resentful of intelligent people than Probst. And I think that's very much seeped into the Survivor casting, editing and universe in general. Which seems odd because it seems like there's a mismatch between what the show is and what people think it is -- like it seemed to be marketed as a show for strategic, analytical, psychology and sociology interested people and to an extent it is, but it's also sort of the reality TV version of Two and a Half Men.

It's so ironic given that Michele didn't want to be "carried" and had people assuming that she was going to be somewhat of a feminist player. About Gen X vs. Millennials -- Survivor should have learned not to do age based divisions from the disaster that was pre-swap Nicaragua with the lovely Medallion of Power.

I think this too, but it makes me wonder how Natalie A. won San Juan Del Sur. Based on this idea, it seemed like Jaclyn would have won. I remember a post in that finale on the AV club (I think) that talked about how the men wanted to vote for the most dude like woman, which was Natalie, because they thought that voting for a mom (Missy) or an attractive women (Jaclyn) was diminishing to them because it meant they gotten beaten by those "types" of women. I wonder what the difference is between the two juries then. I wonder if this is almost amplified in these Beauty vs Brawn vs Brain seasons. Of course Survivor casts superficial people and mactors every season, but it seems like with this theme they purposely tried to get a bunch of superficial duds for the Brawn tribe and then the Beauties seem to emphasize a theme of being underestimated and having to overcome that. So it seems like the season it set up to favour a Beauty or Brawn if they make it to the end, maybe more so than in a regular season and definitely more so than if they had a more "Brains" heavy jury.

This show is over the top sappy. I don't mind some sap, but it's basically in every scene. Melissa Benoist and Chyler Leigh are doing a great job, but the writing is letting them down. I feel like the repeat the same conversation of "I love you. You're stronger than me. I learned everything from you." in every episode. When they were doing that in this episode I thought, "I've heard this dialogue so many times." I think James just doesn't serve much of a purpose anymore. And yes, I find him to be quite flat as well. I just don't think Mehcad Brooks is a strong actor and I think it shows when he's in scenes with Melissa Benoist. The time that they're devoting to James and Kara could be devoted to way more interesting storylines. And their relationships just feels way too forced. I really like MM, but he does backup for Supergirl so often that it's starting to feel like the show should be called Supergirl and J'ohn J'onzz. I wonder if they were intending for him to play such a big role, or if it just developed organically as they were writing the episodes. I don't remember Superman having much backup on Smallville, but I could be totally wrong about that. Unpopular opinion - I don't think Calista Flockhart is doing a great job here. She's very monotone and lethargic most of the time. I know that it's probably partly how Cat Grant is written, but I don't know that it needs to sound like she's constantly reading from a teleprompter. I hope we get more Kara on Red K next season. That was fun.

Well she was friends with Helen on their original season, so it seems like she has good taste in prints, but not in people. Or maybe she's scared of Ken murdering her in her sleep.

Does anyone know what episode Christian was referring to when he said Hannah wanted Peytie out? It's so cute how Maya and her mom sound just like each other.

The sketches where they have political cameos are usually really bad. It's like they think "we have the cameo and that's all that matters" so the writing of the sketch falls by the wayside. Totino's was boring me a bit in the beginning because it seemed the same as the last Totino's sketch with a mashup of "Ooh Child" sketch from the Lena Dunham episode where every time she tries to sing the GPS cuts her off. But they brought me back with the X-files endings. That was great. I found the "going to synagogue for producers" joke on WU very stale and unoriginal. I also don't understand their point of view with jokes like that. Is it because they think it's true or are they mocking the "Jews run Hollywood/media" psychos? Sometimes I laugh at the "Colin is so bland" jokes, but I don't know. I'm not really into the WU chemistry of Michael and Colin being Michael crapping on him all the time. I don't find it that funny overall. At first I thought Jon came out in the wig solely to differentiate himself from Colin because they look so alike. I was entertained by his dance. It's hard to believe this is his first piece on WU. I saw similar potential in Jon Milhiser a couple seasons ago when he did that dance scene with Lady Gaga and well, we all know how he turned out on the show. The songwriting sketch I didn't really like, but think I would like it better if I watched it a second time. Last call was great, as always.

ITA. I was thinking the same thing while watching. I get why they feel designers should have a point of view for marketing and branding purposes, but why don't they ever applaud versatility? If a designer could design clothes that crossed several different styles I would be impressed instead of wondering what was wrong with them.

I agree with that. That's why I said it was "supposedly" diverse. The show seems to think it is more diverse, progressive and feminist than it actually is.

But isn't this show branded/cast/written to have more of a (supposedly) progressive edge to it than The Flash? I've never seen The Flash so I can't really compare the two. I think having diversity on the show is great, it's just these particular love triangles/quadrangles that suck.

This show is entertaining enough, but the writing is so clunky. The dialogue is really cheesy. A lot of the actors come across as wooden to me, but I think it's the writing not them. Although I thought Mechad Brooks' acting during the scene where he's kidnapped by Bizarro and is in chains was pretty clunky too. The "scared" faces he was making were very acting 101. Kara has bad chemistry with both Winn and James. I wish they drop the romantic plots. They're really cringeworthy. I think the reason they're pushing so hard for a James and Kara romance is because the show wants to brand itself as feminist, progressive and diverse and they like the idea of Supergirl being in an interracial relationship. That's fine, but this isn't the right pair for that. Supergirl/Kara looks like she's a teenager and Kara has a childlike naivete about people, whereas James is a full-grown man. Pairing them together just seems off. I have mixed feelings on Maxwell Lord's characterization. On the one hand he's sort of fun, but on the other hand he's clearly way too over the top. I think toning him down would have been better.

I like Hannah too. She seems kind and engaged and I find her awkward laugh endearing.

I get that vibe from her too. I also think that part of it might be just because she comes across as kind of cold, but that might be because she feels that people aren't going to understand her, so she protects herself by being distant and cultivating a special snowflake attitude. I like the idea of her collection, but it's nothing new. Masculine style clothing has been popular for women for decades. There are tons of loose button-up shirts with pockets all over the place in stores already. Love Maya and see some potential in her collection. I don't normally like frilly trims at all, but she made it work for the black and white outfit. I like the idea of a floral print, but am not a fan of the one she chose. The judges recommended that she add some colour, which is easily fixed by adding some bright accessories. So she doesn't really need to re-make anything. I like prints and have liked a lot of Peytie's work this season. But I sometimes feel like the designers that use prints get away with less creative silhouettes. The print does most of the work for them. I felt like that in the season that Dom won. Her prints were awesome, but her clothing itself was boring. I remembered what Peytie said a few episodes ago about being very shy in middle school. I guess it sort of runs in their family. But as long as being shy doesn't make them unhappy, it's fine. Shyness can help you to become a better listener and more sensitive to other people, so it's not always a bad thing. Zachary's blue dress was too prom-like. I liked the idea of the other dress, but not the beige fabric. I was glad that Aya pointed out that Zachary doesn't design for young girls and that this is okay. The obsession with everything being "young" on these shows is too much. Women who aren't young need to get dressed too and have a right to look fashionable without looking like they're trying too hard to recapture their 20s. I'd love for Maya to win, but I think it's going to be Samantha. I've gotten that vibe since the first episode. I think Aya, Kelly and Christian are drawn to her, not just for her aesthetic, but as someone who they would have hung out with when they were younger. I don't think they related as well to kids who they view as more "conventional". Not to say the other 3 are conventional, just that they appear more so to the judges than Samantha does. I also think that's why Hannah seems to prefer Peytie and Maya. Her clothes are more feminine and conventional and they probably also remind her of kids she would have hung out with when she was younger.