Wax Lion

Yeah, same here. I think my problem is that this is the kind of panel you might see on a cable news channel and CC should be doing something a little more. If I want a good panel discussion, I can get four hours of it watching Melissa Harris-Perry. I'm not sure Larry can be CC's MHP and since I rarely have time to watch MHP anymore, TNS isn't really good enough to justify pushing her off my TV schedule. Back when Stephen resigned I said that if they want to do the next Colbert Report they need to do a panel show since panel shows are the current trend on cable news the way pundit shows were when TCR debuted... but this is an old school Politically Incorrect panel show, not something that makes fun of shows like The Five and Outnumbered (or even The View). But, again, that would be a show with several hosts, I don't know if CC will pay for that.

At their earliest days I had some sympathy for the anti-vaxxers, while I am completely pro-vaccinations. Back then there was the insistence that there was a preservative (timriasol, IIRC) that was added to save money and wasn't properly tested. A lot of the fuel was corporate distrust and we certainly have seen enough to get the idea that there are plenty of CEOs who won't look at the human costs in order to get a bigger profit in the quarterly report. However, that ingredient was removed and the anti-vaxxers just jumped on to another reason to distrust vaccines. And I think when the anti-vax mom made her comment about corporate profits, I wish Larry didn't go for the easy snark and saw the opportunity to ask, 'Is there a level of government regulation that would make you feel safer vaccinating your children? If the US made vaccinations a government service and took out that profit movie, would you feel better?" I think her answer would be no, but that could have taken the discussion in a more interesting place than the usual. (Though a black man bringing up Tuskegee in a discussion about not trusting medical authority certainly did offer a refreshing perspective.) But overall, I would have liked a discussion of anti-vaccination views that wasn't immediately dismissive and tried to break down the anti-corporate paranoia and find the spot where it becomes irrational. Maybe that's because it's the left-wing version of climate change denial and I'm trying for a reassurance that I'm not being knee-jerk about my politics and that includes my disagreement with the anti-vaxxers. Mars477, I found that snopes page. Thanks for the pointer, I figured her claim was bullshit but I wanted to know more about it.

Ugh. My problem with Jo isn't that she's so angry, it's that she's irresponsible in the same way Lyla was, not thinking about the potential consequences of her actions. Lyla didn't care about how a DUI would affect their children and Jo can't stop and think about how yelling in a house would create a problem for others. Phoebe's story was stupid. First she can't carry vegetables for two hours to the point where he back is bothering her so badly she's begging to go home but a few yoga lessons later she can work three hours without showing the slightest bit of discomfort?

The irony is that in 2008 there was an effort to establish a story that Pailn's teleprompter died midway through her RNC speech and she went on like a pro. (Except, reality killed that story, as different documentation of the speech showed the teleprompter kept working.)

I think in general it's hard to find good conservative guests. The ones who do a lot of media mostly get on Fox News where being insightful is nowhere as important as taking the level of hateful rhetoric to the next level. I like Michelle Bernard who is a black conservative whose opinions don't fall down some kind of party discipline checklist. I think the first steps is to remove the barriers like rules that say you can't talk to other employees about your pay (since that's how you find out the men are starting at a higher rate than better-qualified women) you go after court rulings that say that a group of women can't say that a pattern of discrimination has to be handled with dozens or hundreds of individual court cases instead of a single class-action suit. There's also the Lily Ledbetter Act which widened the statute of limitations on a pay discrimination lawsuit. (Ledbetter proved her case in court but SCOTUS rules the statute of limitations ran out before she ever knew about the pay discrepancy.) I'm kinda liking this show but I'm a little disappointed the panel doesn't try to be more of a parody of all the panel shows currently on the air like The Five, Outnumbered, The Cycle and whatever CNN might have where there is a panel of regular hosts with different niches. That might be too expensive and complicated. Still, that could have been fun, especially if you let a variety of comedians try to come up with their own fake news persona.

That was a real white privilege moment, I thought. As a PoC if my car broke down in the middle of nowhere I'd be afraid of pretty much any of the locals. Not that every person who might see my car would be an intolerant bigot, but "two bubbas" are more likely to be someone to greet me with a "what's someone like you doing in these parts" to see me than someone that went to college. A couple years ago we went on a road trip that took us through Arizona and we were extra watchful to stay under the speed limit to minimize any chance we might end up begging for the chance to prove our citizenship. You're right, though I personally don't want to see Jon be a gotcha interviewer. He's actually really great at having conversations with people who disagree with him and he's great at articulating his view on some of these issues... but a lot of times with conservatives he overlooks those differences to let a conservative throw out their talking points. For the longest time, the Daily Show viewers I knew all had a hard time reconciling the Huckabee who showed up in the news for saying theocratic stuff with the Huckabee who appeared on TDS.

It seems early to say that they're pulling focus away from Iris as Barry's love. In the comics, Iris and Barry have such a history that it's going to be hard to keep any comics reader from seeing them as endgame. It's like watching Lois flirt with Lex.

I was way too amused by Chris' fake advice column.

Back in the day, Kathy Beale was one of my favorites on EastEnders but I'm feeling mixed about Gillian Taylforth returning. I'm excited she's on a show I watch again but they never gave Sandy Roscoe anything to do but express shock and outrage upon learning about what her sons (and Fraser) have done lately. I hope they have actual stories in mind for her other than being clueless.

Speaking of "Starved" who remembers "Lucky" about gambling addicts?

It's funny to look back and think of the shows that are now considered huge hits that almost ended up on this thread. I remember rooting for FX to renew "Always Sunny" (not over "Starved", just for them to let a promising comedy get a second season) and similarly worrying if AMC would order a second season of "Breaking Bad" (which had its first season shorted by the writers' strike).

Different Stroke had an episode like that. Kimberly was bulimic and I think she passed out too. Weren't there a few episodes like that where the kid was stressed out and the family didn't realize it until they passed out? Those episodes fucked me up as a kid, whenever I got stressed with a lot of schoolwork I'd wish to pass out so I could lighten my load somehow. Speaking of shows that tackled homelessness, I remember liking the special Kate & Allie where Allie ends up spending the day feeling like a homeless person? (B/c circumstances she ends up far from home without her wallet and wearing shabby clothes. She tries to ask people for help, but they keep turning her away like she must be lying about needing the money just to get home.) I wonder if it holds up or if it comes off as preachy.

The season premiere aired just before Christmas with the Jane the Virgin winter finale... and went immediately into hiatus. Ratings were flat, which isn't good considering that Monday night ratings are much better without HoD on.

Remember, the guy who was in charge of NBC Universal when Lockup took over MSNBC is now in charge of CNN.

I think it's just a matter of shifting business realities. Long term, the money used to be in syndication and shows without a lot of continuity did well in syndication. Now the money is moving towards streaming, where serialized shows that encourage you to binge watch are big, so I think USA is trying to make more Netflix-friendly shows. To some degree, I think they're missing the point. Not every popular show on Netflix is Breaking Bad-dark.

As a counter argument, I'd say Happy Endings as a huge example of a show that benefited from airing out of order. Sure, it was confusing but the show got so much better the more they ditched the plot about Alex being a runaway bride that it was really wise for ABC to air the later episodes first. Those were so good you didn't care why the continuity was mixed up. Unfortunately, as a huge fan of the Vertigo Comic, I couldn't get past Human Target ditching the entire point of the character. Once they ditched the core premise, they should have changed the name.

Yeah, from where I'm watching, the people disappointed in the lack of diversity in "Mindy"'s writing room are the same people rolling their eyes at all the shows depicting diverse cities as all-white. I find it disingenuous for Kaling to call it a double standard, especially since it pretends that shows like Friends, Girls and Sex and the City didn't get critics (a lot of that criticism did get erased by media ignoring it). And it ignores how shows with white (IIRC) showrunners like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Community and New Girl did get praise (and some criticism in New Girl's case) for diversity. However, I do think there's some extra disappointment in Kaling because 1) there's the hope that someone who had to work harder because of her race and gender wouldn't be satisfied shutting the door behind her and 2) at least part of why her fanbase supported her from those early "Office" days was the thrill of having an Indian-American woman's voice on TV -- it's a little disappointing that a voice that was thrilling for being different gets a bigger venue and ends up offering even less of what made her exciting.

Syfy's corporate sibling USA does the same, if you want White Collar reruns you turn to your MyNetwork TV affiliate (IIRC), you want to see Monk you gotta go lower on the NBCU chain and turn to Cloo. I've seen some old Syfy shows on Chiller but Chiller likes to schedule a full day of a show at a schedule I don't get. From what little I understand, I think it comes down to how those shows are bought. Usually, a channel like Syfy only buys the rights to air a show from the studio that makes it and those are usually pretty limited (like they can only air a show x number of times until the expiration date, at which point there's another negotiation to make). I think reality shows end up being owned outright, which is why you'll see so much Ghost Hunters (plus it gets good enough ratings) but after a certain point, neither side thinks its worth the effort to negotiate a new contract to put it back on the air. I'm sure someone can explain that better, but that's the gist as I understand it.

I can see the DUI set up working on a comedy that would air on a British channel, FX(X) or HBO where the character are really awful and do awful things to each other. For example, if The Waitress did that to Dennis on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia it would be hilarious. But this isn't that kind of show, the main couple are trying to be mature about this split so it just makes her awful. (And putting "Bitch on Wheels" on her car just seems like a feeble comeback, maybe because he's smart enough to realize why its a bad idea to sabotage the mother of his child's income earning potential, unlike JG's character.)

The last time I watched was when the McQueens were just getting introduced after the Dog burnt. It was pretty together then but now I don't get how this mess beat Corrie for best soap. The plotting either moves too quickly, repeats stories (like Mercedes, Grace and Freddie's schemes against each other which would all end in someone switching sides) or takes forever. They struggled to give Blessing a decent storyline (even though the actress tried to make it work) only to suddenly write her ous but she was way more interesting than watching Sinead or Diane yell at people. I guess writing her out was better than killing off Dennis. (I"m guessing the actor who played Dennis quit.) Is there some weird fandom interaction to this show? Is like Sinead somehow ridiculously popular even though I find her unbearable? Can people not get enough of Sienna's schemes even though it makes little sense anyone would trust her long enough to do anything?

There are parts of this show I like. I liked that it's a relatively -- relatively -- nuanced look at divorce. I like that there's bitterness and anger but they're trying to be above it for the kids. This show isn't doing a great job with that but the rest of pop culture is either all bitterness or an easy split, which makes this show different. However, I don't like some of the extremes like when Janeane Garofalo's character sets her ex up for a DUI. That might work on a show that's more silly but the rest of the time it's not an OTT farce, so I think of how much a DUI can fuck things up, especially if you're starting over. I do find the gender issues interesting even if its a matter of how they play with the tropes. It's interesting that both of the exes dropped out of work after hitting a stumbling block. I'd say something was missed there but JG's character is leaving which opens a new possibility to have a different kind of ex-househusband. But it's annoying that it seems like ex-wives must always be portrayed as demanding nags, whether they made less money and are demanding alimony or if they're the ones who have to support their exes and demanding their ex be more responsible.

Sigh. In discussing the Sony hack, Ari was talking with two cybersecurity experts. When one turned out to be from the Heritage Foundation, I initially scoffed and almost dismissed everything he said before hearing him. However, I convinced myself to give him a chance since that kind of expertise probably means he'll have to say things other than stupid Fox News blather. I should have listened to my first instinct since he seemed largely concerned with calling Hollywood hypocrites for not criticizing North Korea more. (I wouldn't be surprised if he used the phrase "liberal Hollywood" he was such a cliche.)

Two people I was disappointed not to spot: - Jane Fonda, the woman who made Stephen come home with apology flowers - Rachel Maddow, partly because I hoped Stephen's send-off would be enough to get her to meet up with Keith Olbermann again But that was a perfect send-off. I need to go buy more tissues now.

I remember trying to watch Wiseguy when I found it on Hulu. There's a woman with Tawny Kitan hair that makes the pilot hard to take seriously.

It's just so sad to see him jump the shark when he's so close to a triumphant finale.