Mr. Simpatico

I agree that Rob probably won because he was the most consistently good all season (the one time he was off -when Mel was sent packing - his overall record probably saved him there too). It looks like he did get the underdog/winner's edit from last episode (when he thought he was over his head), but I can't disagree with the results. I thought Melissa's possessed victim (with the branches sticking out of his head) wasn't that scary and perhaps because he was overlit, Walter's well-made demon/monster looked more like a gourd man than was intended. Rob's two make-ups (which were re-worked more than the others to the director's specifications) were both "on" target. One of the problems I had with the challenge though was that it really was the luck of the draw in which director, with which different vision the 3 were going to get. Different people mesh differently. Last season, even though there were different scripts, Patrick directed each short film. Even a matter as slight as an approach to lighting the make-ups (which is out of the contestants' hands) could make a difference (I guess that was why the judges were there for the shoot). And yes, it was nice to see the models acting. Makes me hope they do more of that in the future. Matt and Megan looked pretty good. So, at least 8 months before next season.. I guess the show got the message and doesn't want almost every contestant in a season to be a newbie make-up school grad again.

I don't really think any actress - past or present - really typified "girl next door" more than Joan Leslie (well maybe Dawn Wells/Mary Ann comes close). She was as cute as a button but seemed very unglamorous (and was apparently very sweet person and a lifelong devout Catholic in real life). I remember the film Hollywood Canteen, a for charity WWII propaganda piece of perfectionary (which was filled with WB stars, since the other studios wouldn't allow theirs to appear - even though all types were at the real Canteen) Ann Sheridan originally went on suspension rather than appear in the lead since she didn't believe it was realistic to show a regular G.I. falling in love and getting involved with a real movie star (and it was against the actual Canteen's roles). So Joan Leslie filled in, playing "Joan Leslie" (and I believe her real sister played her real sister, though her on-screen parents were actors) having a romance with Robert Hutton's "Slim". Ann Sheridan was right. It was unbelievable. The only movie actress I could see pulling it off was Joan Leslie. She's also a great example of the Hollywood "Star" system at its best and worst, in manufacturing and discarding actors. By the time she was 20, Joan had been the leading lady of Gary Cooper (Sergeant York), Jimmy Cagney (Yankee Doodle Dandy), Fred Astaire (The Sky's the Limit) and the object of Humphrey Bogart's affection in High Sierra. All these actors were old enough to be her father. She was also paired with Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson and the above mentioned Robert Hutton in several lesser films. Yet by 1947 at age 22, she was gone from Warner Bros, billed fourth in Two Guys from Milwaukee, and was out of work for over a year since Jack Warner had blackballed her for getting out of her contract legally. She eventually had to sign with the near-Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion and then did several westerns for Republic. By 1957 (age 32) she did her last film (a supporting role in the Jane Russell bomb in The Revolt of Mamie Stover) and basically retired to raise her family (though she did a memorable episode of Murder, She Wrote in the 80s playing the spinster sister of fellow spinster Teresa Wright). And yet not only was she incredibly photogenic but could sing, dance (and keep up with Astaire) and had a great flair for comedy. Take a look at her impressions of Cagney, Ida Lupino (both of whom she worked with): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH3L2DBPju0 I never felt she did anything wrong. She didn't owe Bogart's Mad Dog Earle anything. That was all him projecting. He didn't see what was in front of him - Ida Lupino's character - until the end. Ironically, when Raoul Walsh remade High Sierra into a western in 1949, Colorado Territory, with Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo, he had the Joan Leslie-analog character played by Dorothy Malone, actually curry the hero's favor and more actively betray him, rather than just being a girl with a deformed foot. Speaking of which, two of my favorite of Leslie's former WB contractees, Dorothy Malone and Janis Paige are still with us (and they are older than Joan). I now worry about them. It seems especially in the last couple of years a lot of old Hollywood has past.

If I was a contestant on the show I would pick Megan every time and fight people over getting her. You KNOW she's going to sell the make-up even if it's so-so (and the contestants in the last several seasons who also watch the show have known that going in as well). Thought Ben's was the best though, and the model completely sold the creepy side. I knew Ben was in as soon as Ve was creeped out. I have no idea how Evan made it over Scott (who had the better overall make-up of the final 3) or Jordan (who thought outside the box the most and who seemed to do more work in the last hour). At least this time they didn't have the semi-finalist losers go through the faux ritual of having them being filmed packing their kit, only to return minutes later when the finale starts.

I agree. Maybe it shouldn't have been that skin tone, but human skin definitely wouldn't have evolved into fish tones in the period of time. Of all things Stevie shouldn't have been penalized for that. I'm not sure what Ve was thinking. But I'm guessing Stevie went home because Ben was better overall this season (I think his idea was fine but the actual work was a mess). On the other side Scott would've been totally gone if he had kept his original idea and the Westmores saved him by coming back a second time.

I think Clara would work for me more if the show/Moffat acknowledged more cleanly that she is a smug, arrogant know-it-all (or thinks she does at any rate). She's been written this way since the whole "Impossible Girl" thing (which has been dropped quickly and never acknowledged since) started. It's never entirely clear what the heck the Doctor sees in her. If she's not "the Impossible Girl" anymore what makes Clara special to the Doctor (as we clearly are supposed to believe). I know Moffat (and Davies before him) has this thing about Doctors being attached to their first companions after regenerations (Amy, Clara) or the directly previous companion (i.e. Rose) but that was never the case in Classic Who (who both writers are fans of). For instance, Two didn't have much of a pang at Polly/Ben leaving (and they were the first companions to witness his regeneration) and Six at first was disdainful and obnoxious to Peri. It doesn't HAVE to be that way, Moffat! And it's not like JC's fault. I still believe either Dalek!Oswin or Victorian!Clara would have made better companions and they were played by the same actress. I did like this episode though. It had an old-school feel of being a self-contained (in the olden days when the show was half-an-hour it would have been a three-part serial) adventure. It was weird to see a tough, female, pilot/leader called Cass, willing to die for her crew and have the Doctor not even raise an eyebrow considering that name and background has significance to him (i.e. "The Night of the Doctor" also written by Moffat). It's not like's it a common name? On the plus side, I do think this season they've finally gotten a personality down for Capaldi's 12 (though the sonic sunglasses are dumb). He has the older no-nonsense and not caring what anyone thinks of 1, the thirst for adventure and braggadocio of 3, and the arrogance of 6, and occasionally the guilt of whether he is a "good man" of 9 (although why we don't know since this incarnation knows he saved Gaillfrey). If you go by multiples of 3, he makes perfect sense. I think Capaldi's Doctor is what Colin Baker's could have been with a better outfit and the support of the BBC. A jerk with a heart of a hero.

Can't disagree with anything this week. I would have given it to Ben's Peacock and sent Meg's Inside Out Man home. I think Nora is a cinch to make the final 3 but I'm not so sure about who else. Evan seems like low hanging fruit at this point. It's just seems like a matter of time. I wonder if we would have gotten better make-ups if it hadn't been random (and the contestants had been able to choose) or if they had been given more leeway in choosing their own character from a Freak Show. Nora was right when she was talking about how many times can you see the same Lobster Guy on the show and though the make-up was bad (I did laugh at Glenn's "Party City" comment) "Inside-Out Oscar" was going to be tough for Meg in any case.

I don't blame the actors (and Capaldi's the best thing about the show currently) but anyone can see the Moffat and the writing team are to blame for the flaws. Every other episode is about timey-wimey stuff (hey remember when the Doctor just explored space and time without being responsible for every single thing in that universe/time period) with an over-reliance on pressing the reset button so nothing bad ever really happens. How many times has the Earth ALMOST been destroyed or Clara seemingly killed but actually....not dead after all? And that's just in the last few years. Making the Doctor all of a sudden responsible for Davros is like that as well? Why does the backstory of every villain HAVE to involve our protagonist? Maybe Davros is evil...because he is evil. Speaking of which I just can't take Missy seriously as a threat or an ally or anything or the show asking us to do so. It's not MG's fault. The dialogue is basically asking her to ham it up (this is not Jon Simm/Eric Roberts level but far ahead of Ainley). Delgado's Master was cold-blooded, deadly and had charm. Every Master incarnation since then has just gotten crazier and more over the top hammy and generally the actors have been TOLD to act that way (certainly Ainley and Simm said as much). Except for the brief moment of Derek Jacobi's Prof. Yana I don't think we've seen a Master that wasn't a self-parody of a villain since Delgado. When we go within minutes of Missy casually killing innocent UNIT officers just for kicks and giggles and then becoming Clara's ally and traveling companion and casually trading barbs on how she's the Doctor's BFF, while at the same time the show want us to think there is a serious moral conundrum in letting Davros, the genocidal creator of the Daleks, responsible for the deaths of untold billions, live - then it's the show/writing itself that has a moral conundrum.

I would have loved to have seen The Gauntlet on another season (maybe the All-Star one? with Laura, Tate and Roy) with stronger contestants. There have actually been several really good challenges this season but the final quality of the make-ups....eh. Here it was clear (like with Nora) who was going to be on top and who wasn't. I knew as soon as Stevie and Evan were praised in the final that it was going to be Jasmine (although I hadn't realized how similar Meg's make-ups were until it was literally shown to us and its obviously something the judges have picked up now too). Heck, they didn't even bother to show some of the make-ups (beyond a blink and you miss it) in the first two challenges or the judges response to them.

This is a very good point. I think they should have either gotten a special group of models (young boys or specifically feminine looking men) or had a gender switch of transforming the female models into some of Shakespeare's male characters. Pretty much all the make-ups were pretty bad (though I probably would have sent Evan home rather than Ricky), Meg's worked mostly I think because she got to do a scary otherwordly make-up (which is in most of their wheelhouse sculpt wise) and not just a Ophelia or Lady Macbeth "regular" woman. I did like that BUT...maybe because I am a bit of a Joan of Arc fanatic but that make-up was one of those that impressed me least. WTF with the scar across the face? There have been so many pictorial/sculptural/media versions of Joan of Arc from her time to our own that I thought Kevon lucked out beyond the rest of them. She WAS an actual historical figure so we do know a bit of what she looked like - dark hair, short, stocky build (perfect for a MAN!), and she was a teenager. The thing was Joan wasn't a woman trying to look like a man (though she was accused of that by the English), she cut her hair short because long hair got in the way of battle and the page-bowl cut (which Kevon didn't give her) was type of the day for the military and she wore men's clothing because it prevented her from being molested. Her fellow soldiers and the enemy never confused her with a man. If I was Kevon I would have highlighted the two most obvious feminine things about Joan that could have been made with make-up - the fact that she was only 17 (so would have looked like a young boy with a very smooth face - not a badass scarred adult man) and by historical accounts had a very feminine body (with "beautiful breasts" as one comrade put it) and that could have been made with prosthetics. I know that's nitpicky but his Joan looked like a generic soldier with bad hair and bad skin. A wasted opportunity. I was surprised that Jasmine was the ONLY one of the contestants who seemed to dramatically alter the body shape of their male models to look like a woman's (in this case a pregnant one). Maybe they were all spooked by the judges going off on Jordan's fabrications from Star Trek week?

The weird thing is that Cogman and D&D are supposedly huge fans of the books (so they always say). The Northern storyline and Manderley are usually held to be the absolute best thing about ADWD. Wylla Manderly confronting the Freys, Wyman telling Davos he has a fleet built and Rickon's whereabouts, Frey pie and "It could have been worse, he could have been a Frey" are some of the greatest 7Hells!Yeah moments in the entire series. So what do these uber-fans do? Cut it and have Sansa raped (not going into whether Roose - a character who was warned Ramsay about his treatment of a fake Stark - is chill with this) and basically give Sansa ALL of Jeyne Poole's storyline (presumably including being rescued by Theon and Brienne replacing Mance and the Spear-Wives). None of this benefits Sansa. None of this benefits the narrative of the show. Having her learn from LF how to destroy the Boltons has been replaced by making her a sexual pawn and victim - again. With all due regards to Sophie Turner (who's making the best of things) and her seemingly positive thoughts on this, there is no way anyone involved with the show should be proud of this storyline. It's insulting to the source material AND the character of Sansa.

There is no logic in the Ellaria plot. Revenge on little girls is NOT the Dornish way. GRRM said it. Heck, Show!Oberyn said it. Why they just couldn't go with the crowning of Myrcella idea is beyond me (but why they ditched Arianne entirely but still kept the Sand Snakes is beyond me). The treatment of Mel bugs too. I'm not a huge fan of the character. But she doesn't have sex with every dude she meets in the books. But on the show she is all about sex to get what she wants - Stannis, Gendry, Jon. She hasn't even made advances in the manner towards Jon in the books (even though we know she's interested in him). It's ridiculous. Oh, and another bit of foreshadowing I didn't mention. Meryn Trent is going to Braavos. Hmmm, I wonder if there happens to be a girl there who wants to kill him?

So what did we learn in this episode that they so clearly foreshadowed: Jaime will eventually die in the arms of Brienne (or Cersei depending on how you view things and Mel and her mother are going to attempt to burn Shireen (no offense to D&D though but there has never been a sign Book!Mel wants to burn the Princess, no? and of course Book!Selyse is overly protective of her) and then they had to move Mel/Jon from subtext to actually text in the TV show? Stannis is getting sympathetic airtime - that means he is on the Death Watch. Also, I thought LF knew things and was a good reader of people - he really think Roose is more dangerous than Ramsay and that Sansa can "handle" Ramsay or that Ramsay is capable of loving anyone (and we really have no scenes with Sansa/Ramsay to prove this - it's all tell and no show). Same goes for the Dorne plot, replace Arianne with Ellaria and give her a simple revenge plot to kill Myrcella (I thought that's not how things are done in Dorne, according to Oberyn). I hate the death of Barristan Selmy, one of my favorite characters. I'm just starting to get confused at this point - it's not only that they are moving past ADWD but they are putting things in such ridiculously out of order that its hard to tell what is going on when?

King in the North perhaps? I agree. LF is not angling for the Iron Throne - he knows he can't get that for himself at least. And while he's in control of the Vale, this is only as Regent for Robin. He has no ancestral claim to that either. BUT he can marry Sansa off to the Boltons (or attempt to), then kill the Boltons (saving himself a messy invasion) and have Sansa take the North where she will have huge support and then marry her himself. Then he crowns her Queen in the North with himself as King and Baelish is the next dynasty and he can marry off his kids to the Iron Throne. LF is the type, like Varys, who plans things in the background. I doubt he would present HIMSELF as the next King of Westeros. Of course this made a lot more sense in the Books when as far as anyone know Sansa is the last living Stark (save Jon). But in the show Brienne and Pod know Arya is alive and Sam and Jon know Bran (the next Lord of Winterfell) and Rickon are alive. I do love how the show handwaves away Sansa's marriage to Tyrion as if it was no big deal when it was unconsummated in the books the idea of a "Sansa Lannister" is enough for Robb and Catelyn agree to disinherit her. I will be upset if D&D just do away with the whole Northern uprising plot which is the absolute BEST part of AWDW. Manderly and "The North Remembers", his grandaughter telling off the Freys, a fleet being built in White Harbour, the Northern lords (including Alysane Mormont) allying with Stannis to return the Starks and destroy the Boltons, Davos retrieving Rickon. Great stuff. But there's not even a hint of it, while the show is moving ahead of ADWD. Also the Freys have vanished off the face of the earth. Even without Lady Stonheart, the hatred of the Freys in Westeros, and especially in the North and the Riverlands is a huge background part of the books post-RW. But we haven't seen a hint of Walder Frey, the Blackfish, Edmure or any of the Riverlands plot. Brienne is in the North, Jaime is in Dorne and Lady Stonheart doesn't exist on the show (and the Brotherhood haven't been seen in over a season). I don't get it.

Yes. In the books Margery's motivations are in the dark and a lot of it seems fueled by Cersei's paranoia (given we only see Cersei's POV) but I'm not sure making Marg as big a schemer as Cersei does the character any favors. The real question I have (other than praying to the Old Gods D&D haven't removed Manderely and White Harbour from the show) is how the Sansa plot makes sense. I realize it's easier for the show than a) ignoring it or b) introducing Jeyne Poole as Fake!Arya but in the books Roose's direct involvement with Robb's murder is not known (guessed at sure but if it was known he would be labeled a "Kingslayer" which we see is one of the worst name in Westeros) and many of the people at the wedding know Fake!Arya is not really Arya and has no choice but to do what the Boltons say (and those who don't help Stannis to free "Ned's girl"). Here we have a very real Sansa Stark with EVERYBODY there (including Sansa) knows Roose killed Robb and betrayed him and with Littlefinger there they have no way of forcing the marriage to happen. So how does this happen exactly? What if Sansa says "no"? What will Roose and Ramsay do? Why the heck is neither one of them worried about Roose's involvement in Robb's death being known to her (in the books Roose hardly talks about it and neither does Ramsay). Why the heck, given Roose's betrayal is common knowledge, even think she's OK with either of them? And what does she have to gain (yeah, we know revenge and whatever LF is planning but the Boltons don't know that)? And do the other Nobles in the North (which this episode itself admits are not with the Boltons) really think Sansa Stark would marry the son of her brother's murderer? How does this plot make sense?

All three of these things. Someone help me here - how old is AgedUp!Tommen supposed to be on the show? Still far younger than Margery, no? And it just a few years ago (still in show time) he was dandled on Cersei's knee? I'm not sure why the show needed to go there - Margery's virginity (or lack of it) is one of the things Cersei uses against her. Now that weapon is taken away for no known reason? I too worry about Sansa. Of course Ramsay will try to abuse her just like he did Jeyne in the books - he's a psychopath. The question is whether Roose will stop him. He really didn't do much beyond warning Ramsay about not abusing Fake!Arya in public in the books but here it is not only not a Fake Stark but a real one. And if Littlefinger sticks around I can't see him letting Ramsay do anything physical to Sansa. Although because of his guilt I can definitely see that being the one thing making Theon lose his servileness. As for Ollie. Of course they are setting up him to be one of those who stab/kill Jon. I'm not even sure that's a question at this point. A few other things that stuck out were: Jonathan Pryce was so good. I felt the High Sparrow so much more likable (to begin with) than I ever did in the books. Stannis got some good moments here. As did Davos. Maybe the closest we've come to Book!Stannis, the only King concerned with repairing the realm. And he's marching on Winterfell already! Will we see that by the end of the year? Great acting by Maisie W. with Needle. For a minute I thought D&D would actually have her through it away (they've changed so much already) but no....