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I am going to have to disagree with your interpretation. David had figured out what is going on from the moment he finds the champagne in the backpack so he is already processing and preparing for the moment. I think Dan Levy was perfect in this scene but each to their own.

I'm glad they are wrapping it up on their own terms, NBC have given them space to execute their vision and aren't demanding endless seasons beyond what the concept can sustain. It is a great outcome as much as I will miss it.

Teri Hatcher, it is a testament to my love for Felicity Huffman (at least until about 10 days ago) and Dana Delany in the middle of its run that I got through eight seasons of Desperate Housewives.

I adore The Sopranos finale. The fact that my sister and I still occasionally discuss what the likely outcome was tells you that it was effective and memorable. The Cheers finale is excellent. I like the little callbacks to the pilot and the life goes on aspects of it. I am still hugely bitter about HIMYM. They are screening the final season here on cable again at the moment and I am so mad at it. Cristin Milioti and Josh Radnor have such amazing chemistry and the mother/Traci is the best character that show produced. She deserved better than Ted.

A question for the Maui Moisture fans. Priceline (which in Australia are a pharmacy chain for clarification) have started stocking it and I wanna try. I’m using CPR’s Frizzy range right now and I’m not 100% happy, sometimes it leaves a film on my hair which I don’t like at all. My question is does anyone using it have coarse, wavy/curly, treated hair? If so which formula are you using (a bottle of shampoo and conditioner will be $AU40, comparable to the CPR so I want to make sure I’m getting the best formula for my hair).

I adored this movie. I graduated a year ahead of Christine/Ladybird (and in Australia) but other than that so much of our lives were similar, I am Catholic educated (all-girls though), I grew up in a family that had just begun to gain a bit of ground socioeconomically at the time I graduated high school (we moved out of our starter home at the start of 11th grade) but related deeply to having parents who were really having to work hard for not very much (legit, my dad is a psych nurse) and were trying to give their children the best lives possible, even when said children were pretty ungrateful about it (guilty as charged there). I also deeply related to Ladybird's desire to be where, as she put 'where culture is.' I grew up in an exurb of Sydney that was at least a two hour trip from anything remotely cultural and I resented the crap out of that as a teenager. I wanted to go to college in a big city, even though there was a perfectly good university literally five minutes drive from my house (which I eventually did but as a mature aged student who had saved up some cash to fund it) and I felt very trapped as a young person in the environment I was in. It was just such a relatable set of circumstances to me. I also super admired Gerwig's writing and directing and her restraint in both. As has been mentioned further up the thread, it would have been so easy to have Ladybird find Timothee Chalamet's character in bed with another girl. It would have been so easy to have Jenna go full Regina George but the characters were developed in far more realistic and interesting ways. I also was really impressed Gerwig's direction. I felt that she did a really good job of making a small film feel visually interesting and not making the obvious shot choice. The performances were great, I am still annoyed that Laurie Metcalf lost to Allison Janney (though I also thought that Janney's performance was very good). Finally, the music was spot on. Particularly the repeated use of Crash Into Me. I feel like every 17 year-old of that era had a Crash Into Me phase. I sure as hell did.

RIP Stephen Hawking. As a young person in the sciences with a disability, he was incredibly personally important to me.

I totally agree. I have two sets of friends who have 'rescued' the teenage boyfriends of their children from horrible home lives, one of which has done it with two different boys (they had the first boy with them for about three years, at which point the daughter and the boy broke up but he was an adult by that stage and had benefited hugely from the years of stability he was provided, this was about three years ago and I am still friends with him on Facebook, he is doing really well. Their daughter, who is now in her early 20s has a child with the second boy and they are both at home at the moment but looking to move out soon). When I was a kid watching the show I felt like Roseanne accepted David into the home way too easily but now as an adult who has had these experiences in their own life, it feels very real and true to life.

Japchae (Korean sweet potato starch noodles) with beef, carrot, bell pepper, spring onion/scallion and a maple, soya sesame sauce. Delicious!

I saw Beautiful at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney in early February. It was a highly enjoyable show and the lead actress, Esther Hannaford was incredible. However, theatre audiences, especially for musicals in Sydney are the worst. I live in Melbourne and I usually see shows in Melbourne, which is the biggest theatre city in Australia. Audiences in Melbourne are typically pretty well-behaved but in Sydney, oh boy. At Beautiful, a group of approximately five middle-aged women sitting behind us talked through the whole show and continued to do so even after an usher, following several complaints came over at intermission to tell them to STFU. Several members of the audience loudly booed the actor (can't remember his name) who played Jerry Goffin during his curtain call because they decided they didn't like the character. My parents said that the same thing happened when they saw Beautiful too. My mom and a friend went to see Mamma Mia and she had to tell her friend, a guy in his 50s not to sing along. As someone who loves theatre, it is extremely frustrating. I am going to be seeing Book of Mormon in Sydney in July and I am hoping that I'll get a better audience this time around. End rant.

Another thing I really appreciate about Roseanne is the frequent hairstyle changes Roseanne, Jackie, and Becky, in particular, go through over the course of the show. It is a weird thing to admire but it really adds to the realism of the show for me. People change hairstyles quite frequently in real life but on TV almost everyone has the same hair all the time. My favorite example of this is Jackie and her bangs. I have bangs but my hair also grows like a weed so for the last two-three weeks of my six-week hairdressing cycle they are too long to wear down. I also have naturally curly hair and some days I can't be bothered straightening my bangs so I just sweep them to the side. I enjoy that the characters are allowed to do the same thing.

I love the opening credits! Roseanne wearing the Chicken sweater and the sweater Jackie is wearing is seriously nostalgic.

I've been doing a rewatch in preparation for the new episodes and damn, this show from the last 1/3 of season 1 through to the end season 7 is one of the best depictions of working-class life to have ever appeared on television. I think the first 2/3 of season 1 is weaker because Roseanne Barr is essentially learning how to act on the fly and her performance is much less nuanced. Season 8 is patchier and the less said about season 9 the better but both still have their moments. I was in primary school and early high school (I'm Australian, primary school = K-6, high school = 7-12, at least in the jurisdiction where I attended school) when this show aired and I remember being aware at the time that this was pretty much the only family on TV that looked like mine. My parents were overweight and particularly around the time Roseanne premiered were in a similarly precarious financial situation (though as a general rule we were probably 3-4 rungs higher on the socioeconomic ladder than the Conner's were, we were struggling, my parents both worked two jobs for most of my childhood but we were also less precarious, my parents are nurses so they had better job security). They were sarcastic and sometimes mean to each other and they fought and there were years of baggage in the relationships but they still loved each other and that was very much my family. I love that the show depicted a reality where people have to make the best choice possible from a whole array of poor choices. I love the fact that people are allowed to be frustrated and angry that their economic realities constrain their choices because as an adult, this is very much my reality. I had to drop out of law school (in Australia where education is much, much cheaper) after two years because it had become apparent that I would not be able to afford to complete my post-degree, pre-qualification requirements (more school, paid for up front and in full and an internship) in spite of my best efforts. I had to change my plans for my whole life because of my economic reality and that is something that Becky in particular experiences in the show (I ended up falling on my feet and I'll be entering a PhD program in public health next year). I am so thankful that this show exists and kind of nervous about the new episodes, I really hope they can capture the reality of working-class life in America in 2018 the way they could in the 90s.

Roseanne (seasons 1-8) ER Parks and Rec Cheers Frasier Arrested Development 30 Rock Seinfeld Law & Order (mostly the Jill Hennessey and Angie Harmon seasons) Law & Order: SVU (the Stephanie March and Diane Neal seasons) Gavin & Stacey (Britcom) Catastrophe (Britcom)

Oh Thorgy how you disappointed me. I really enjoyed Thorgy the first time, I am always into the more alternative queens but this time her persecution complex was just too much. Also I have been waiting for someone to do Stevie Nicks since the start of RPDR and I was so excited when Thorgy got to to do her but it was just so meh. Stevie is someone who I adore and someone you could potentially have a lot of fun with especially early-mid 80s coked up Stevie or by playing up the witchy aspects of her persona but Thorgy played it so safe. The material she was given was not great but so much more could have been done even with the limited material.