absnow54

Yes, when so many showrunners are priding themselves for plot twists that are subversive and unexpected, I enjoy the predictability of Hallmark Christmas movies. Completely low stakes, albeit contrived cotton candy for the brain. (And yes, snarking on them is a lot of fun too, because nobody on this planet has that many winter coats.)

We're Scrooged on Up!TV was kind of decent. Former high school sweethearts get trapped in a retelling of A Christmas Carol while attending their class reunion. It drags a bit near the end, but I thought it was more engaging than most of what Hallmark has offered so far this season.

I like them, but I think my enjoyment of Hallmark movies has more to do with basic tropes (Fake dating! Second chance romance! Enemies to lovers!) found in summer beach reads.

I agree with others, Santa Summit was quirky in a good way. The three friends seemed like actual friends, and it felt like there was a lot of ad-libbing, which made the dialogue feel less cookie cutter. The actual love story was pretty weak, and I found the scenes where the love interest met Hunter King's friends to be really forced, and kind of weird. Like with friend number two he immediately offered to buy her a drink (yes, it was funny when he said he'd expense it!) and was asking her all of these personal questions. If I'd encountered him in real life, I'd be enforcing the buddy system for the rest of the night to avoid him.

In the comments, The Ashley is standing by their reporting that it was a boy and a girl. Kail's Instagram announcement says it's three parts, and she's only released the first two so far, so there's speculation that the third part will reveal the twist that one of the twins was a girl.

These are separate issues, though. Streamers are generating as much content as possible hoping that something will stick, and to do that, they are running on bare bone budgets. The amount an actor makes upfront was included in these negotiations, and I believe they got raises, but that's not where all the money is at. It was critical to define how residuals would be calculated off subscription fees, especially since many shows which existed before the advent of streaming are featured on these platforms. Actors aren't expecting to take one job and live off those royalties forever, but they do depend on the small income stream to help keep their benefits active during slower working periods. Regardless, it seems like the residual issues have been resolved in negotiations. It's AI that's holding things up. Residuals just seem to stick out more to the general public because few earn their income that way. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a strategy from the AMPTP, because AI is what should be scaring the general public too. It's not only actors who are threatened by the emerging technology.

I thought those two actresses were the ones with the most chemistry. Never Been Kris'd was fine, but it's not one I'll bother watching again. My DVR is already packed to the gills with holiday movies, and it's only the first week of November! I hadn't realized they started airing new movies in mid-October this year, so I'm playing major catchup. I agree with others that Mystic Christmas was enjoyable, but there was zero chemistry between the two leads. I think Chandler Massey is a fantastic actor, but he has a hard time generating romantic chemistry with his love interests. I think his best pairing has been with Lyndsey Fonseca in Next Stop, Christmas. The script for Checkin' It Twice was really bad. I cringed through most of it. But Kim Matula is just so charming, she made it watchable. I thought Kevin McGarry was good in this too, and their romance was believable.

For a guy who is so anti-streaming, why would he want to make sure the theater going experience is as miserable as possible? This also ensures people dart out of the theater the second the credits start to roll.

Poor Josh Hutcherson having a relatively successful comeback film (Five Nights at Freddie's) on the cusp of the Hunger Games prequel coming out, and he can't capitalize on it due to the strike.

If the strike is resolved before Tuesday, I hope Halloween costumes are attributed with ending the strike in the same way Dancing with the Stars ended the WGA strike.

I was full out bawling by the end of the Len tribute, then saw Edyta was in her usual micro scrap of fabric for a costume and it somehow made me feel better.

There's a second table for "remainder of coverage" at the bottom of the page, and it looks like Peacock is covering everything, although it's just a blanket statement per event without events/times.

I’m confused. Did they preempt for certain markets? I’m in the DC metro region, and they played the episode with Lois today, although the middle was missing due to Biden speaking.

Yes! I keep waiting for this. Acknowledging that Ahsoka was a child soldier was the closest I’ve seen to pointing out the Jedi Order’s flaws. The Jedi are recruited as infants with no agency and isolated from their family so that the Order is all they have. That’s pretty messed up. Obi Wan trained Anakin, and knows his fighting style better than anyone. Anakin was the greatest warrior of his time, but he was also an emotional fighter, which made him sloppy. Obi Wan only ever bested Anakin by anticipating his mistakes.

I agree. I think it's fine to drop into the middle of a story and get to know the characters as you go along, but I felt this show depended too heavily on already watching Rebels. They tried to properly introduce Sabine with her motorcycle chase on Lothal, but the only character beats they seemed to cover with her was a brat who doesn't respond the authority. Her backstory was that her entire family was killed in the purge, but that was always mentioned as secondary to Sabine disobeying orders again. On paper: Sabine desperately wants to rescue Ezra because she couldn't save her family seems like pretty good character motivation, but in execution, came off really blasé. This was my primary thought through the finale. I was trying to think how many lightsaber battles there have been in the Star Wars television series. The Mandalorian has had a handful, but Kenobi is the only that's had several duels, and in those cases, the choreography was secondary to the emotional punch of the acting. The fight choreography in Ahsoka was abysmal. Rosario Dawson always looked like she was marking a rehearsal. There was an elaborate fight sequence in every episode, but they were performed so clunkily, I wish they'd only focus on a few. For example, the fight between young Ahsoka and Anakin was incredible, and I think it was partly due to it being their one great scene. Meanwhile, Rosario Dawson had to train for like 16 different fight sequences, and it showed.

Patrick Adams is the latest actor to fumble the terms of the SAG strike. It's a bummer for him that his former show is experiencing a resurgence during a period that he's not allowed to talk about it.

Didn't SAG-AFTRA even delay their strike authorization by a week or two? It felt like all of Hollywood wanted Barbenheimer to succeed.

I was thinking the same thing. I think most of the controversial talk show returns were syndicated. DWTS seemed to be the first network specific target, and the major breakthrough for negotiations happens 48 hours before the show was due to return.

Is this their way of saying this movie is never going to happen?

I think it was more about facing her demons. Ahsoka has been cagey about her past, and has stated that she and Anakin have unfinished business. If you hadn't watched the Clone Wars or Rebels, all you really know so far is that Ahsoka was trained by Anakin at some point, so I think this episode was important for giving an overview of Ahsoka's role in the Clone Wars. She was a kid, assigned to an unhinged prodigy with rage issues who was let loose on the battlefield. Everyone in Anakin's circle blamed themselves for his turn to the Dark Side, but in hindsight, there were red flags all along. I thought the point was for Ahsoka to see Anakin with a more nuanced perspective, so she could overcome her trauma and be free of her guilt over Anakin's fate. She could face the rest of eternity battling her demons, or she could live.

It seemed like she knew in the Boba Fett episode. She fondly compared Luke to his father, which I don't think she would have if she thought he died as Vader. Which just reminds me that we were deprived of Ahsoka learning about and meeting Luke. I had thought we might learn more about it in this series, but...

Yes, it was very marble mouthed and distorted.

I swear, Chad Duell is the walking embodiment of "Bless his heart."

I've noticed that she's been fighting while wearing her robe, which looks heavy and restricts movement. (Dropping the Jedi robe was so frequent in the prequels, it became a meme.) But I think the point is, Ahsoka hasn't faced a worthy enemy, so she doesn't need to do anything fancy. She can predict her enemies movements, so it looks telegraphed on her end. It wasn't until she faced Baylen that she shed her robe, although we still haven't reached prequel caliber choreography.

I know! I couldn't have cared less about Anakin during the prequel trilogies, but The Clone Wars made him one of my favorite characters, so I'm excited to see Hayden's take on Dave Filoni's version of the character. This is where the lack of Han and Leia's presence is glaring. If you're about to piss off your superiors, surely the Organa-Solo's would have your back and watch your kid. They could have even saved CGI bucks by having Hera dump Jacen on Chewie.