Wax Lion

I loved seeing Chris keep shutting down that dbag about that "Sharing Economy" nonsense. Its bullshit. And most of the innovation comes down to finding another way to dodge regulation and risk, putting the onus on customers and local government infrastructure.

Oh, wow. Laibach. That is such a college flashback. They are so weird. John actually didn't get the whole story, that wasn't their only cover of Sympathy for the Devil they did 6 - 8 very different cover songs including a catchy club version with vocals from whisper-voiced female vocalists. They also did a cover of the entire "Let It Be" album. That's amazing that John and his team found that the whole "Food Safety issue" legend is bunk. I've heard it so many times and it's probably a legacy of the conservative "Lawsuits have gone out of control and are ruining everything" meme. ETA: A business I used to see at the farmers market used to sell peaches and stone fruit part of the year and jams and pastries the rest. I'm a little surprised they were the only ones I've seen like that. And I have totally bought the last item at the grocery store or farmer's market. If I'm looking for daikon, I'm getting daikon when I find it. Never looked that hard for chard, tho.

Actually, I meant the Australian soap Neighbours, which is running on Hulu. The Australian soaps tend to be surprisingly clean cut (considering that in the 70s they were known for being really racy).

You really don't I do wonder which is it the writers have never been in a happy functioning relationships so they have no idea how that works, or the skills to pull it off, lazy or think the audience loves all the drama,brewing, miscommunication and etc. Or all of the above or some of the above. It really shouldn't be that hard. American soaps used to be good about this. They'd have couples that have been together forever. They usually dealt with their children's lives (as functional family sitcom parents do) or their jobs (they'd often have key roles in their small town), in the end they'd be there for each other. Nowadays they're constantly being thrown against each other, often get put in opposing jobs (General Hospital loves putting cops and mobsters together). But soaps don't do their infamous coffee scenes (where two friends discuss their lives over coffee, admittedly the talk was "I'm so worried about Dan now that he's with Jenny's evil twin, what is he thinking?") anymore, too. I only see that in the international soaps. I've only been watching Coronation Street since it showed up on Hulu but it has plenty of couples who feel like they've been there forever and people look to them as an idea of the stability that's possible. (Corrie also has characters that just seem to be around to chat with the characters who have storylines.) Neighbours has a ridiculously small cast but it has room for two stable couples, when they're not being supportive of the other residents, they've often got comedic stories like when a guy gets his online shopping mixed up and switches his anniversary and his mother's birthday present.

Thanks for the recap MaryMitch! I agree they're an interesting couple, I do miss when Amy was more of a female Sheldon that was a fun combination.

I feel like the only one who enjoyed this episode but I figured every with Elliot after they arrived at the hotel was a dream. Did we see Mr Robot interacting with someone other than Ellot? It looked like he yelled at the man who spotted Elliot as a junkie about to go through withdrawal to leave.

I don't think they've identified him as asexual but Sheldon has been written as being uninterested in a romance. As I recall, he and Amy both ended up on their first date to shut up their friends and they initially kept seeing each other for a totally unromantic reason (I can't recall the specifics). However, I think they softened Amy and she became less antisocial (I think it was from having female friends?) and started wanting a more traditional relationship out of Sheldon. I watch BBT very infrequently, so someone could probably fill in better. Amy was a great character when she first showed up, she was just as abrasive as Sheldon. I don't know when it changed but it was sad when it didn't last.

I liked how Coronation Street played with this recently. Two women in the neighborhood are planning their wedding and they get competitive about how extravagant their weddings can be. One of them owns a struggling shop, the other works in a clothing factory. When the factory worker stops to look at all the costs and think about how many hours of overtime she and her fiance would have to work (and how much time they'd spend apart), she decides she'd be better off having a small wedding where everyone dresses as 80s pop stars. And this being a soap opera, the amoral shop owner who goes forward with her plans ends up having her wedding disrupted when her fiance is arrested for murder. The thing I liked about Ugly Betty -- in theory at first and eventually with the finale, was that it subverted the trope and this time the premise was that the guy shold learn to look past looks and appreciate a woman for her personality. (Of course, America Ferrera is as ugly as Patrick Dempsey was in Can't Buy Me Love.) The stars kinda derailed that by trying to shut down the idea of Betty and Daniel getting together but the series ended saying they should end up together (even if they don't).

That was an In Living Color sketch. I think it ended with the Irish story but the also did a part with a German accent (for a story about a Der Weinerschnitzel being robbed by a man who got away in a Volkswagon) and one more I can't remember. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out the right search terms to find it on YouTube.

I don't have a problem if Mr Robot turns out to be Tyler Durden. It's feeling pretty obvious (even though I know people who haven't thought that and I'm trying to keep them unspoiled on the idea) but if it obvious then the important thing is that there's not too much weight put on the eventual revelation. It's a problem if there's a fairly obvious twist that relies on us being surprised by it but the show keeps adding the WTFery that there could be an interesting way they come together. First it felt a lot like Fight Club, this episode invoked American Psycho. What critique of capitalism will come next?

Sometimes I think the time is ripe for someone like Bridget Everett to pitch a Comedy Central show where she's married to a patient, responsible man who is cleaning up the messes created by her lovable playfulness and is played by someone like Ryan Paevey or Robbie Amell.

Also, younger players are more easily manipulated. Is anyone watching UnReal on Lifetime? It's a scripted drama about the production of a Bachelor-type reality show... except it's more like Big Brother because episodes are airing soon after they finished filming and they're reacting to media coverage of the show. The producer lives up to a lot of the ways I imagine AG to be. She uses the viewers to justify the show's racist tendencies, she refuses to adapt to changing circumstances (in the pilot, the bachelor eliminates the woman pegged as the season's villain, her response is to try to find a way to keep that villain on the show). I think that's how AG approaches the casting, too. She tends to look at everyone in these simplified roles that presume her viewers are idiots, so there's no need to find someone a little different like a WeHo muscle queen or a black woman who isn't angry or sassy. I remember during Evel Dick's season voting with the house was a big deal. When there was one person who didn't vote with the house there would be screaming witchhunts with accusations being thrown around.

I don't see it as an attack on Fox. Rachel has long history of liking "underdog" candidates (she might be happy that Sanders is doing well because he's closer to her politically but his success plays into the same part that followed Rand Paul back in 2008). There's a tendency for the media to try to dictate to voters who the "serious" candidates are and what the "serious" issues and she is clearly thrilled when realty makes itself too hard for them to ignore. Rachel always likes to see that blown up. I think Rachel sees this as a battle over who the Republican party belongs to. Fox is a national media outlet and would rather voters just take their cues on how to vote in their state primary/caucus from them but there's a reason two small states are the first in the primary election. They're small enough that you can do well from actual on-the-ground campaigning and you don't have to have the money to buy a media campaign if your ideas are that compelling. So is the Republican party just for the people who can build a national campaign? Or do the state parties still matter? That's a topic Rachel always finds fascinating, especially when it was a matter of the progressive wing tearing down the DLC. At least, based on how she covers it, that's how I think Rachel sees this story.

Did anyone catch Frontier House when it was repeated on a cable channel recently? (I think it was on DYI.) Surprisingly, they chipped in for a catchup segment.

I got a laugh at how they inverted the "It's just a cat" trope. Usually we get a fake scare where there's a human threatening to kill the lead. We hear a noise, there's something in that other corner... oh, whew it's just a cat. But this time the guy is being stalked by lions and... whew it's just a person.

Ever since Jeff Zucker was put in charge. When he was in charge of NBC Universal, he got the MSNBC schedule filled with Lockup which got good ratings and could be repeated endlessly so it's cheap way to fill the time. Documentaries are a better way for CNN to fill its schedule without paying people to be on TV.

I think Being Human got out at the right time. Apparently, the show faced budget cuts every year and by the fourth season producers decided to wrap things up instead of trying to make more budget cuts work for the fourth season. Apparently, the budget was so tight that the cast would have guest actors from out of town sleeping on their couch (something that apparently happened because everyone was so passionate about the show). But yeah, the cast was amazing together. The producers Meghan Rath's new show should work to get one of the Sams on.

Okay, I actually liked this a lot better thank Jordan did. At least, I felt like they weren't going for the most obvious jokes but challenging the audience. I wasn't sure at first how to feel about Garfield being raped by Poussey. At first I thought the joke was playing on the idea that the idea of a guy being raped is inherently absurd and hilarious but after the initial crying montage I thought the POV was how horrible everyone was for dismissing Garfield's trauma. Overall I think the humor is trying to undermine how we romanticize the era and all that talk of "ravishing" as a when they're clearly talking about rape. Still, I agree it could have been funnier if Poussey were more over the top and a little more obviously a gender switch for the idea of the mysterious stranger coming to visit the estate and creating a romantic whirlwind. Jasson Ritter's face for when Poussey introduced Frederick to a prostate massage was hilarious. ETA to add paragraphs and: Did they quietly recast the show? I was on IMDB and it lists Lauren Ash as playing Hortense and when I looked further it had Artemis Pebdani playing Hortense in one episode. Too bad, Pedbani's hilarious but Ash is due for some credit after being so good on Super Fun Night.

Demary's tweet strikes me ass oddly misdirected since it seems angry that a lot of people don't educate them on important issues until John features them. I can get the frustration but why express bitterness that people are now paying attention to these issues? I mean, I'm aware of most of the issues highlighted on LWT and I'm thrilled to see them explained so well (and entertainingly) and hopeful that something will be accomplished from it. Is Demary looking down on people for leaning about these issues from a comedy show with crude language instead of reading the right kind of journals? It kinda feels like "I was caring about all those issues before John Oliver made them cool."

I think it was Guy who said that. He can be very funny, he's often very thoughtful, too. I liked what he had to say about Trevor Noah's tweets. I wish Comedy Central's Standards & Practices department had their shit together enough (or was it the other way around?) to come up with a song that would be cleared. It was weird having a song bleeped and I had a hard time following it. In general I like Jordan and he had a great comment in Monday's panel, but it's odd that they keep having panels with two people who have a personal connection to the issue being discussed and a Nightly Show staffer who is on the sidelines of the issue trying to find something to say.

Actually, I suspect that was a situation like Katie Couric. I think he wanted to do a talk show but didn't realize how much the business changed and that stations won't allow another Oprah to happen. They require talk shows have 4-6 different segments per episode (IMO that's the problem with Dr Oz, there's so many topics to fill he has to turn to quackery) and don't think their viewers will watch a show that spends the whole hour on a topic or guest. Couric's show quickly ran into trouble because her segments would go overtime and they'd spend extra time editing it down. I suspect the addition of guest hosts in Anderson's second season was an effort to sneak a way to talk to one guest for the whole episode while having several different topics. Couric thought she could spend her show spending a whole hour on a topic and I wouldn't be surprised that's what Andeson expected when he signed up.

Well put, netlyon2. I'd add that MHP also has a tendency to rebel against people dismissing someone as "crazy," pointing out that runaway slaves were once considered to be suffering from some sort of mental illness if they ran from the protection of their owners. She's defended the tea partiers from that word and I expect she'd have a similar reaction to Rachel D. being dismissed as crazy.

Is Meghan Rath's brother still on the show? Of course, he's covered in white makeup, which literally erases his color.

I only got to watching the episode today off the DVR and I ended up saving that part to watch again. I listened for it and didn't notice her calling him the late Billy Graham, just that the younger Graham inherited his evangelical empire.

It's possible. IIRC, the debut ratings for Devious Maids was bad. Not this bad but they were bad but they grew over the season.