absnow54

I know that they had to film the episodes out of order, but my favorite part of the episode was the implication that, while on the road, Claire chopped off 5 inches of hair in anticipation of her triumphant return to Leoch. I'm guessing she had Murdoch cut it. He's the only one of the group I'd trust with such a task.

Last night seemed to be the first explicit mention of Randal's sexuality, which raises another point of contention I had with the first two books, which was the portrayal that all of the villains are homosexual pedophiles. Diana, of course, goes on to write the complex and interesting Lord John, but the portrayal of Black Jack's and the Duke of Sandringham's sexuality to demonize them always made me uncomfortable, and I'm curious how the show will portray it, now that the Duke will be introduced soon.

I'm so glad they dropped the dubious consent scene. It really had no place in the episode, and in the book, just continued to drive home the idea that Jamie was a misogynistic jackass who didn't care about Claire's opinion now that she's his property (I HATED Jamie so much between the rescue and him presenting Claire with the ring. He was like pod!Jamie to me. This character I didn't recognize who stole Jamie's identity then thankfully disappeared a few chapters later.) I liked their makeup scene much better in the show, because it showed that the two could still like it a little rough while keeping full consent between both partners.

Wasn't the original a Steve Buscemi Christmas one? Where he went through his ornaments and Kristen Wiig hung them in bizarre places? It's a funny sketch for actors who can go full creep. I LOVED the Scientology parody. Colin Jost won it.

And, of course, it's still Claire's fault that the red coats found her, when Jamie left her in a thin forest 100 yards away from where British troops were leisurely passing through. I appreciate exploring Jamie's POV, but Claire's was so incredibly lacking after their argument. Jamie had to watch Claire almost get raped twice in 24 hours. The horror! You know who didn't seem to have an opinion on it at all? The woman who was almost raped twice in 24 hours. It was sort of jarring that Claire's attitude was "Wow, what a fun adventure! Glad that's over!" The writing was very sympathetic to Jamie to justify the spanking, and Claire's perspective completely disappeared to support it as well.

I've always been critical of the spanking scene, but I think it played well, because Jamie seemed genuinely remorseful about it. The tone in the book always made his actions seem completely justified, like he was right and Claire was wrong and his way goes. Period. And I always felt that it went against Jamie's character, but the Jamie we saw in this episode seemed far more in character. He did his duty, but he's a progressive thinker, and he immediately realized that while his father beat him to make him learn, that wasn't going to work between him and Claire. I thought the vow of fealty was a brilliant compromise. I'm just really satisfied with how it went.

While I liked the episode, I wasn't thrilled by the switch in POV. It was interesting to get more into Jamie's POV, but without Claire, there was no one to interpret the thick Scottish accents, and I was completely lost during all the political plotting -- I'll have to watch again with subtitles. Why was everyone fighting in the CGI snow? I was so confused! Otherwise, it was a lot of fun! The rescue scene was brilliantly choreographed. Kudos!

I can't speak for them personally, but I feel like a lot of the younger people in Hollywood that are involved in Scientology were born into it. A lot of people are raised to follow a certain religion, and when they're older, find they don't believe in the practices. Some still associate with the religion, but no longer follow the teachings or go to mass. These people aren't a part of a cult though, so when they denounce the religion, their family doesn't shun them and abandon them completely (not to say those who worship other religions aren't guilty of that.) Again, I can't speak for these people who identify as Scientologists but never talk about their affiliation, but I'm sure the whole disconnection thing keeps them sipping on the Kool Aid so they don't lose contact with their loved ones. Not to absolve them, of course. I'm a huge fan of Jason Dohring's and Elzabeth Moss's work, and it pains me to see them involved, and really makes me question their characters.

Apparently Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig secretly filmed a Lifetime Movie together. Although the news broke on April Fool's day, Lifetime has confirmed that the story is true. I wasn't the hugest fan of Spoils of Babylon, which they were both a part of. But I have high hopes for campy hilarity.

I haven't gone through the tinfoil hats in a while, but weren't there huge conspiracy theories surrounding Suri's birth? I remember there being rumors that (a) Katie Holmes was already pregnant when she met Tom (and then went on to wear a fake stomach for a few months and held off on releasing photos for the longest time) or (b) Suri is David Miscavige's spawn (which I find very hard to believe.) There were also rumors that Tom shied away from custody battles because Katie threatened to do a paternity test. Basically, I really hope there's an expiration date on any of Katie Holmes NDAs because the tell all would be epic.

I don't know that I'd put Roth in the same category as John Green. John Green seems really passionate and collaborative about the adaptations. Roth seems like she's happy to cash the paycheck and let the people do what they want to do. Good for her for slamming the book 3 split though.

I really liked the psychic game show contestant sketch. The cast chemistry there was incredible.

The problem is, is that Roth wrote Tris as the specialist of snowflakes, especially in Allegiant. Tris's only flaw is that she

They went through such efforts to ugly Rachel up, only to have her step out during the original DSB to show how gorgeous Lea has always been.

They could have timed the labor by having Jesse sing "Bohemian Rhapsody Reprised"

So are Rachel and Will endgame? Because that's the vibe I'm getting right now.

Goddammit "Don't Stop Believing"! I should just turn the show off now before I lose this loving feeling.

Lionsgate is just plugging their ears and chanting, "Lalala, we made The Hunger Games and Twilight, we can't fail when it comes to YA female heroine driven franchises. The numbers be damned!" as they shell out more cash to prop this series. The first movie wasn't a dud, but the audience didn't grow in the same way THG and Twilight did. I do feel bad for poor Theo James, between this film and the last, Shailene's, Ansel's, and Miles's careers really took off, and that's evident through the promos, which seem to focus more on them, while Four, the second lead, is sort of chilling in the background.

I don't doubt this. Lack of promotion didn't scare viewers away, the show did. At the start of season 6, there was a huge push for this show, and I saw promos everywhere drumming up the fact that we'd be seeing these characters for the last time, but looking at the ratings, they still couldn't break past 0.7, so they obviously weren't wooing many people back. I just find it surprising that I haven't seen a peep of promotion for a series finale, because I personally, check in to series finales of shows that I've dropped or only casually watched for closure, and since Glee was once considered a phenomena, I would think that there are many other former watchers who fell in love with the early seasons who would do the same. The ratings for the first episode of the season, which were heavily promoted proves otherwise, so I understand why Fox isn't wasting the money.

Fox is the primary network I watch, and I've been kind of surprised by the lack of promos for the series finale. They promoted the season premiere quite heavily, so I guess they've decided to cut their loses. You'd think they'd try to drum up some amount of nostalgia for a show that was such a staple for the network, because I'm sure a lot of people would tune in again to see how the show ended... if they actually knew the show was ending this week.

Did they record it before "Another One Bites the Dust"? I've loved all of Groff's numbers, but the rock songs are the ones that stand out the most to me. He's still a power house in that higher register. I loved his "Highway to Hell" too.

The best part of James Franco's roast was Bill Hader laughing hysterical through Andy Samberg's entire bit, to the point that Andy thanked him.

I really liked the pilot! The characters are fun and the cast is great. Compared to the Veronica Mars pilot, I don't think they've fleshed out Liv (there's a zombie pun in there somewhere) as well as they did Veronica. Because of this, there was sort of a disconnect when Liv became determined to solve the murder because I didn't really understand her investment. Veronica had faced this series of traumatic events that really shaped her as a character and made her impulsiveness and passion understandable. Right now from Liv, all I'm getting is "goddamn boat parties, am I right?" I do look forward to seeing her develop because I trust Thomas/Ruggiero, and Rose McIver seems really talented.

I think Robert shouldn't have been killed off until the end of the episode. 30 seconds of establishing the family dynamic wasn't enough to sell the cataclysmic shift that Robert's death was supposed to cause. Throw in some flashbacks or something. Make us care about this faceless character, since obviously no one in the family does. His death was treated with the weight of being out of milk and having to run to the store before you can eat your cereal.

I think Panem origins or even exploring Haymitch's generation (which includes Katniss's and Peeta's parents, who have their own history) could make an interesting TV show, but not necessarily a movie. The country of Panem was 75 years old, and I don't think Snow was meant to be over 100 years old, so his rise to power was probably years after the dark days had ended. I don't think these stories appeal as much to the YA crowd, and adults may not eat it up as much with a kids book attached to it, but I'd probably watch it. I think Peeta and Katniss were each other's buffer and that the Capitol was more interested in them in a voyeuristic way. I think that Snow also wanted to push the image of Katniss being this wholesome, dumb-in-love girl to the Capitol so they would never see her actions as an act of rebellion. Snow had more use for her as one of his puppets (forcing her to toe the company line through the Victory Tour and marry Peeta) than selling her. And she was a wild card who acted too impulsively, even when she was risking her life to protect the ones she loved, she was still inadvertently putting them in danger, so it was impossible to keep her on a leash. I think Peeta was in a far more vulnerable position of being sent down Finnick's path because of his charm and quick wit and ability to say and do the exact right thing at the right time. And I guess I've probably read way too much THG fanfic, because the idea of sexual violence in the arena and the prostitution side of being a victor is something that's explored a lot.