MilkMachine

100%. I thought the community theater part of the doc was a little much, too, but the payoff was worth it. Here's my thought on this. We all want to believe/hope that our family members are going to make the safest choices 100% of the time, but you really never know what a person is going to do in the moment. We really can't know what Brian said or did to coerce her into opening the door. Maybe they'd met before, or maybe he was a scammer who exactly what to say to convince her he was the maintenance man. Or some other thing we'll never know because they're both dead.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but if you go back a month or two Betsy's daughter Mariah has some things to say about the show, Dateline, and the trauma she experienced because of her mother's murder. Most of her more recent posts are about her adorable new baby.

NGL I'm tempted. I hate arena events but if a friend twisted my arm...

Unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed this. I am drawn to slow-moving, character-driven, "slice of life" fiction. I think it works especially well for the 5-episode format—even I probably wouldn't want to watch 20 episodes of this. It felt very disconnected from the original Master of None. It's been so long I don't remember much about that show, but I know the tone was very different.

Despite my mixed feelings about how everything went down (on both sides), one way that I heavily related to the mothers is that there's no way in hell I would put my kid on a plane and send them to the other side of the country to spend a week with another adult. I understand in certain custody situations that's not always preventable. But I could envision my MIL asking for something like that (thankfully she moved closer to us before that ever happened) and that would have been a hell no from me.

I'm a little surprised that, with Russo and Tom both being lawyers, they didn't have some kind of written agreement from the beginning. (Maybe they did and I am forgetting?) I know that sperm donation was virtually unprecedented at the time but you'd think they would have foreseen at least the possibility for a conflict down the line.

I know the thread title is "Beyond the LA Times," but this story in the LA Times is really the only way I've been able to make sense of what I've just watched. To watch this series, Betty was as model of charm and composure both publicly and privately up until the time she began to suspect Dan's affair with Linda. This did not ring true to me; I get that things escalated quickly past a certain point but based on my (limited) experience there is usually some kind of precedent before an escalation. To that end, I wasn't surprised to read some accounts of trouble in the past: locking Dan out of the house, hitting and emotionally manipulating the children, and getting all dressed up for an event and refusing to go. I feel like this was just barely touched-on in the series.

I stopped watching the TV show a long time ago; before Counting On, probably. I hadn't seen a pic of Josie since she was a toddler, so I just Googled her and she looks an awful lot like Jill.

After looking at the pics on Zillow my first thought was that house was not inexpensive to maintain.

Whoa, I totally forgot he was in that.

As a 1996 high school graduate, the music is hitting the nail on the head for me. “Whip-Smart” was an especially nice touch. I’m tiring of the weighty, stripped-down covers. I liked them the first couple of times but now it’s getting stale.

I really need to go back and watch Season 1 again. Downside of binging and long breaks between seasons, even though this one wasn't as long as some. Based on the little I remember, I think I'm feeling better about the end of this season than I was about the end of last season--although, sheesh, both are just too short. Last year ended with her deciding to stay with Ryan (right?) and I remember feeling super confused that we were supposed to be happy with that because he was terrible. After this season, I think I understand why she had to try having a relationship with him and why it had to end (thank God). I think it was a transitional phase and it was something Annie needed. Annie has struggled with embracing her physical self and understanding how she fits in the world. One thing Ryan did well (after he "got over" making her climb over the back fence, ugh) was appreciate Annie's physical being. He wasn't the path to self acceptance for Annie but he certainly loved her well (in the physical sense) and provided supporting evidence that her body was good and meant to be treated reverently. I struggled with Annie trying to fit Ryan into her world--the salon, in particular. It would have been so much easier for her to have taken Fran, who would have been way more into it anyway. At first it felt like a plot device that she took Ryan at all--but after some reflection, I think I get why she did it. I think she did it because she wants the whole package (someone who suits her both physically and intellectually) and for a hot minute, she wanted to believe that was Ryan. She tried it and it didn't work, but now she knows she's worthy of someone who fulfills all of her needs, not just some of them. So, byeeeeeeee Ryan. Don't let the door hit you.

Even if they did, I doubt this is the end of things with TLC and Kate. It sounds like a marketing campaign to make them look like they give a care about the permits when it’s clear they didn’t at the time of filming. And a nice hook for their next special with her whenever that comes around.

I’m a grown ass adult in a two-income household with several decades on Chloe. An extra $400 a month in housing costs is not chump change. I seem to recall back in days of olde, you had to prove that you were making 3 or 4 times the cost of rent, gross, to qualify for a lease, so maybe they wont be approved. Although max’s dad is almost certainly dumb enough to co-sign. I don’t like the guy but he keeps saying he wants his son to live. Co-signing a lease might be literally one the worst things he could do for his son’s recovery.