SourK
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Posts posted by SourK
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3 hours ago, chocolatine said:
You didn't miss anything. When Moira first arrived in Canada, she moved in with Luke into a small apartment he was sharing with multiple refugees. He didn't have his own room and was sleeping on the living room couch, which I thought was realistic (I myself spent a few years sleeping on a couch when my family and I were refugees in the early 90s.) Then, when June arrived, Moira, Luke, and Nicole were living in this nice single family home, with no explanation how that happened... So this is the typical TV trope of people living in houses they could never afford in real life, which is even more ridiculous in this context.
The context makes it ridiculous, and also I think the housing crisis IRL makes it more annoying than it used to be.
I feel like they're probably trying to set things up so that June is choosing between returning to the "normal" domestic life she had with Luke vs swan-diving into her PTSD and fixating on Gilead, so setting them up in a middle class single-family home with stable finances, etc is either consciously or unconsciously part of that. But it's out of touch with the fact that fewer and fewer people can afford a life like that, and that having these things increasingly makes you look wealthy.
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re: Serena -- she's my favourite character partly because the actor's giving my favourite performance in the show, and partly because she's positioned in the most interesting way, IMO. Sometimes a villain, sometimes a victim -- lying to herself about her own motivations for the things she does.
21 hours ago, chaifan said:Now, Commander Lawrence's role in all of this, I just can't figure out and I have no good theories. I don't know why he would want to go along with this, unless he thinks the publicized funeral will spectacularly backfire and make Gilead look even more batshit crazy to the rest of the world. But I love that I can't figure Lawrence out. He's the second best character, next to Serena.
I was also confused, but then I remembered that they had that awkward scene in the church where Serena told them she knew they helped June. That would be a super weak claim without evidence, but I think we're supposed to believe that Lawrence and Nick are getting on board with the funeral arrangements because she's blackmailing them with their secret. She originally told them they needed to make the funeral a big deal if they wanted her to be quiet -- and then they said they couldn't -- and then they spontaneously started to support her in the meeting.
21 hours ago, chaifan said:My one criticism of this episode is, as almost everyone else has mentioned, they failed to give the viewers a plausible explanation as to how/why Canada would go along with any of this. Why does she get to leave the country and mingle about Gilead relatively freely?
This seems weird to me, too. The diplomacy around people moving in and out of Gilead seems like it's always just whatever's most convenient to the plot.
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So, early on, this show had a problem where it would just dramatize horrible, depressing situations where the characters were helpless to do anything but suffer, and it felt really scary and disempowering to watch. Now, it has a problem where it's a wish-fulfillment fantasy about shaking your fist at your oppressors, and the main characters are insulated from ever facing the (just or unjust) negative consequences of their actions.
The joke about paying a fine online was funny -- but should it have been? Should this story take place in a universe where the country June has refugee status in is okay with her dipping out to murder someone now and then? Does that add something to the narrative, or is it just an escape hatch because the writers retroactively don't like how they ended things last season?
Also -- putting everyone back in Gilead is the most boring possible choice, IMO. I'm not actually interested in seeing that. I hope nobody goes.
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Sometimes I get complacent, and I'm like, "This is as weird and dumb as the story can be -- it can't get weirder or dumber than this," and then Riverdale surprises me.
On 7/31/2022 at 9:16 PM, madhacker said:And I’m done…..that last 4 minutes just finished me and shows that the writers are completely out of ideas. Hopefully they’ll say because of the time reversal means that some of cast will be spared from the insanity of this show and won’t be back (like Casey who’s basically been screwed over since season one playing Kevin in my opinion)
At first, when they said that Cheryl burning the comet would randomly make side characters disappear, I thought that was their way of writing people off the show. Very surprised none of the secondaries got a heroic send-off where they died to save the town.
On 7/31/2022 at 10:00 PM, thuganomics85 said:It leads to Abigail giving them away to break the barrier to escape Riverdale: they just... need to untie a lot of knots on a rope? I have no idea what was going on there.
See, I would have thought that the A-plan would be to get everyone together to try to untie the rope, and then jump through a portal when it was ready. Like, yes, do the comet plan if you can't untie the rope on time, but try the rope first. The rope doesn't make people die.
I was shocked that it was apparently just Nana Rose and Heather, and the only reason they untied it was so Cheryl could fight the comet.
On 7/31/2022 at 10:00 PM, thuganomics85 said:Archie with the "I will bring down the barrier for our love!" moment which naturally ends with him just trying to whack it with a pole until his mom tells him to chill. Love you, buddy, but you really can be a dim bulb at times.
I think the writers think he's manly or something, but literally all he ever does is hit stuff out of frustration. Nothing will ever beat the time he hit himself to try to get smart, but randomly hitting the magic barrier because that's his "plan" is pretty close.
On 8/3/2022 at 5:32 PM, tennisgurl said:And the gang is in high school again? Despite our cast looking more adult than ever? Even by this shows standards that seems pretty ridiculous, especially if they actually plan on staying that way all season.
Yeah... if this were a comic book it would kind of make sense, because you could just draw the characters young, and everyone would forget about the disconnect pretty quickly. But I feel like, in the year 2022, it's kind of weird to ask 30-year-old actors to play characters frozen at 16... especially when I suspect, based on previous experience with this show, that it will involve posing them in unnecessary sexual tableaus.
On 8/3/2022 at 5:32 PM, tennisgurl said:I thought Rivervale was unironically a lot of fun, the cast seemed to get some life back in them, the show became more interestingly stylized, and the wildness seemed to fit the macabre tone, the show is clearly at its best when its doing horror and it shows, and while the show lost its charm again when we left Rivervale, the last few episodes have been better, or at least a fun sort of ridiculous and not an annoying ridiculous.
I agree that Rivervale was good -- IMO, maybe some of the best episodes this show has had. I didn't care for the super powers stuff as much, but I at least found it interesting.
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When was the high five? I want to seeeeee.
Given that I missed that, my favourite part was when Toni was like, "If you age up baby Anthony, we'll miss his whole childhood, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." ❤️ She wants to be rid of him just as much as everyone else.
Otherwise. I don't think I've ever seen power creep happen this fast. In the space of one season, we went from nobody having supernatural powers to tons of people having multiple god-like powers that do whatever they need to do at any given moment. Gone is the simplicity of "Tabitha can see the past, but only if she stays in Pop's" (which I liked) -- now it's "Tabitha can do absolutely anything involving the concept of time, and also she is an angel (literally)."
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So... in principle I can get on board with most of the ideas in this episode, and I think a lot of them could have been entertaining stories in themselves, if they were developed more, so I'm kind of bummed out that they're not -- but also happy that this was at least interesting.
- I like the idea that Percival is a villain transplanted from an alternate, supernatural universe and that he realized he was the only one with magic powers in Riverdale and saw his chance to take over -- that's a really neat concept.
- I like that Riverdale is a comic book written by Rivervale Jughead, and now he's being confronted by the characters who ask him, disbelievingly, why he would give them such terrible lives -- also a very nice concept, with or without the part where he made a pact with the devil to only write things that make the world worse.
- I like the idea of Worst Jughead in the bunker between worlds, somehow continuing to make the worlds collide because of his human vulnerabilities.
- I like the idea of a bunch of people signing on with Percival and then realizing what they actually got on board with only at the moment when it's too late to do anything, and he feels confident enough to be openly fascist.
I could do without the biblical stuff, but maybe that's just me.
IDK. This season is frustrating, because it feels like it has a bunch of scattered pieces of what might have been a cool story, but they never got assembled into anything -- they're just sprinkled randomly among the pieces of much less cool stories.
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On 6/29/2022 at 3:03 PM, tennisgurl said:
Speaking of Cheryl, of course she gets to officiate Fangs and Toni's wedding two days after she almost killed their baby using black magic in a jealous rage, because character consistency is for other shows. Its why Kevin can randomly decide to join the side of good again out of nowhere and everyone is just fine with it. They sure are a forgiving bunch, especially towards Kevin, who I am sure will be betraying everyone for some new gang leader or anti Christ by next week.
There seems to be a law in Riverdale that you always have to appoint the most inappropriate person to a job. Betty's estranged mother gets to interview her on stage at the fan convention -- Toni's estranged ex-girlfriend gets to perform her wedding ceremony.
Honestly, in the scene where Toni and Fangs sat down with Kevin to tell him he was invited to their wedding, I was half expecting them to make him Best Man.
On 6/29/2022 at 3:03 PM, tennisgurl said:My biggest laugh was Archie walking around with that giant thing of wood under his arms. Gee show, are you maybe going for some kind of symbolism there? Why don't you just stick him in a crown of thorns like in Rivervale and be done with it?
I enjoyed that as well. I also thought it was weird that the show tried so hard to flip things around so that Archie had no stake in this, couldn't be blamed for anything that happened, and was taking off his shirt completely selflessly -- via those scenes where he suddenly decided they should end the strike for everyone else's sake, and then everyone else was like, "No, no, Archie. We want to keep striking -- in fact, we insist." Because I guess he wouldn't have been a good martyr if he did this because he felt responsible when people got punished for the strike he started? IDK.
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I'll be honest -- I barely paid attention to this. I got kind of interested when the second Jughead showed up. And I LOL'd when Tabitha was the only one who cared whether Jughead was dead. And when Jughead ate the evil burger. And when Jughead was amazed that there even was a burger there when, I presume, Tabitha has been bringing him food?
Since this seems to be a burner universe just like Rivervale, I think it might be possible that we end up with Betty and Veronica together, or Betty/Archie/Veronica together after all. You know, before the apocalypse comes and destroys everything. Otherwise, I don't know what the point is of all of these scenes where Betty discovers she's bi and encourages Veronica to third-wheel her relationship.
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15 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:
I really do love that I'm watching a show where it's suppose to be a good thing that a freaking baby is going to be "initiated" into a gang. In the real world or, hell, most other television shows, this would be the origin story for some kind of villain. But in Riverdale, you know it's actually going to be the right thing because when the other option is an easily manipulated guy who is basically working with the devil, biker gang parents are the way to go!
I forgot about this, but it was really funny when Percival revealed that Baby Anthony represents hope for the future of Riverdale... you know, considering how inauspicious his life has been so far.
Maybe that also answers the question of why Percival is so bad at taking over -- Riverdale is just the kind of place where everyone and everything's incompetent. Your greatest hope, your greatest villain -- both very lackluster, brought down by the energy in this horrible town.
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Man. There was no part of me that expected Riverdale to understand the basic principle of how unionization works, considering how it doesn't understand the basic principle of how any other human endeavor operates, but can I still be frustrated?
Also frustrating: Toni gets mad at Fangs for almost punching Kevin, and then she actually punches Kevin, in front of a witness. Like, this custody dispute is stupid from all angles, but come on.
I'm interested to know what's up with Heather.
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Man. Veronica and Jughead didn't even do a trick that requires mind-reading powers. They just copied a con from Nightmare Alley and, I guess, had to use mind reading to accomplish it because Jughead can't hear. Why not do something more impressive?
I think they're testing out the chemistry between Betty and the supernatural detective whose name I don't remember, but the costume department is not making any effort for her, so I doubt she'll stick around. Also, I'm so confused by Betty's power. They went out of their way to establish that the serial killer gene blocks it, which would suggest that, when she sees Alice's aura and her own that means they don't have the serial killer gene after all... but I have to believe Betty's looked in a mirror before now. So, is her power changing? Why is it changing? What's going on? I don't know.
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On 5/16/2022 at 5:35 PM, ruby24 said:
Also this whole season's very likely to be somebody's dream in the end, I think. The weird random flashes to the other universe are still occurring, so that means something. Even if it turns out to be something stupid.
The way I feel about Riverdale in general is that I expect it to be stupid, but I want it to be cool. I feel intrigued whenever we get a flashback to the other universe, and then I feel pre-disappointment for whatever it turns out to mean.
4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:I guess the best way to get Reggie and Veronica to stay apart is to have Reggie join Percival for no reason and for Veronica to give him a very narratively unearned fuck off speech, which it feels like she's had stashed away for quite some time. Wasn't their break up pretty mature in the last episode? Why do they hate each other all of the sudden? Can this show please keep its character motivations consistent for at least three seconds?
I'm not joking at all: there was a moment when I thought, "Okay, so her power is verbal abuse."
4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:Alice having the serial killer gene and knowing that Hal is a murderer all along is clearly a retcon, but it is at least very in character for Alice.
I feel like it's also retreading a plot line that already happened. IIRC, Betty and Alice had to get rid of a body -- also from the kitchen -- because one of the Chics murdered someone.
I also feel like maybe the obvious conclusion to draw -- which I'm surprised neither of the characters drew -- is that Hal just lied and told everyone they had the serial killer gene, too. Also, now that Betty knows the word "grooming" she uses it for everything.
3 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:Meanwhile Archie tries to at first "Superman" his way through his palladium weakness, but after it doesn't work, he turns to Cheryl for help. Cheryl tries to use the Rasputin method instead and almost just kills him, which is kind of funny: mainly because I knew that Archie was never actually close to dying. Instead, she uses another spell to "reforge" him and it seems to be working for now. Even might be immune to palladium now. We shall see!
Actually, now that you mention it, it would be really hilarious if Archie challenges Percival to another fight without checking to see whether he's immune to palladium or not, and then Percival just beats him up again. I mean, Cheryl's other advice has only been so-so. Maybe she's wrong about this, too.
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My hope is that this somehow becomes the OT3 solution to the Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle and Jughead just stays with Tabitha. Or, I guess, dies when they save the world?
Meanwhile, Archie's solution to everything is to endure extreme amounts of physical pain because enduring pain = ennoblement = triumph over evil. So, first he injures himself with the magic metal, and then he drinks the poisoned soup, and then he lets Cheryl burn him with her magic, and the whole time he's just like, "There's no way this much pain can't work."
And Veronica's solution to everything is to make everyone watch her do a dance. I loved how Percival was just shaking his head like, "Man, she really outplayed me. Now the investors will super believe in her company."
Finally, I sort of buy everyone asking Cheryl for advice about magic because it's not like there's someone else to go to. But why is Veronica asking the coroner for advice about her weird poison abilities? Like, is there any chance he was going to say anything other than "I bet it'll kill you"?
Oh, also LOL at how Veronica's powers will be totally fine as long as she can control her emotions.
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I enjoyed the part where Veronica told Reggie she wouldn't have Heraldo over, and then she called him a few hours later, like, "Thanks. One of your spiders bit Heraldo. Now he's dead." That was funny, and I'm pretty sure it was funny on purpose. Good joke.
5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:Silly me thinking Kevin was actually starting to rise up when he began questioning Percival, only for it to end with him making out and pretty much being seduced by him instead. Oh, Kevin, you silly little dolt!
Yet, also so in-character for Kevin. His nice, normal ex-boyfriend starts circling around, acting like he wants to get back together, and Kevin's like, "What should I do? What should I do? Oh, let's make out with the devil."
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There were so many amazing moments in this episode, but the funniest one was definitely Betty and Archie having a heart-to-heart that starts with her saying she hasn't been on birth control since the trash bag killer held her hostage in a well "Not that I'm blaming TBK" and then him going, "How long were you with TBK? In the well?" as if he has to specify where, and then ends with her describing how she had to dismember a corpse Dexter-style and him being like, "Yeah, we've all been through some shit."
Second funniest: "... ever since that horrible night when my dad dressed up as the Gargoyle King to try to scare us while we were having sex."
Third: Tabitha gets mad at Jughead for reading her mind and then gets mad at him for denying that he's reading her mind, because that's the only way they can communicate. What do you want, Tabitha?
On 5/1/2022 at 11:52 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:The trouble with Tabitha having undergone 1384 versions of the scenario they are now in is that there's no reason why she is not able to tell Our Heroes exactly what Percival's gameplan is and what led to the victory the two times that they got one.
I think the idea is that she popped back to the past, changed something, and then popped to the future to see how it turned out, so she doesn't necessarily know the details. But I don't know why she didn't just stick with one of the scenarios where they won. Or maybe she did, but she didn't mention what she changed?
On 5/3/2022 at 1:31 AM, thuganomics85 said:Did like how they made sure to work in an aftermath of a TV-14 strip poker session though, because I imagine someone burst into the writers' room and was like "Listen up! You know how many episodes it has been since we've seen Charles Melton shirtless and Camila Mendes' ass in tight underwear?! Rectify this!!"
Without joking at all, I'm creeped-out by how transparently the show runner treats these actors like dolls in his weirdly sexual dollhouse. This would have been an extremely awkward thing to film, and there's no reason it needs to exist.
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My favourite part was when the angel burned everyone's eyes. So holy.
I wanted to hate Tabitha's power, but I kind of like the restriction on it -- travel anywhere in time, but only in Pop's. I think it would have been cleaner if they'd just made a rule that she could only change things that happen in Pop's or she couldn't leave Pop's while she was time traveling, so it would explain why she couldn't effect world events without all of the convoluted reasoning, but it's an okay power.
This episode also briefly reminded me that I wish Betty and Tabitha had scenes together.
On 4/26/2022 at 1:58 AM, thuganomics85 said:If this was a normal show, I would wonder if Veronica being separate from everyone else was due to something going on between Camila Mendes and the rest of the cast, but since it's Riverdale, it's probably just the show doing its normal, weird keeping the characters for whatever reasons. Plus, I really won't be surprised if Veronica eventually gets powers. Toni too. Hell, maybe even Reggie.
I mean, Veronica's power is being rich, which I wouldn't underestimate. But I had forgotten until this episode that they didn't just tell everyone they had powers -- so, theoretically, nobody bothered to even inform her of what's going on, which I find really weird.
On 4/26/2022 at 3:44 PM, tennisgurl said:Show, could you please leave the real world tragedies out of your ridiculous tawdry soap opera please? Watching Riverdale trying to deal with real issues like racism and the assassination of MLK (or all things) just feels so awkward, its such massive tonal whiplash and they are so clearly out of their depth.
The thing that bugs me is that I don't think they have anything to say about racism -- they just became aware that their show was racist, and now they're trying to be un-racist in the most basic, grade school way by saying positive things about black people and condemning white supremacists. Like, it's hard to disagree with the message, but the message is extremely superficial.
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My favourite part was the look of disgust and betrayal on Veronica's face as she realized that Toni and Tabitha had cut in on her territory by forcing all of their customers to watch them do a dance. Also, I can't figure out if the dace was bad on purpose, or it that was just an accident, but my head cannon is that Veronica saw this and silently realized what she looked like to other people when she used to gyrate on that very stage.
My second favourite part was when Archie knew that Percival had just discovered that Archie could resist his mind control and that Archie was invulnerable, yet still, when Percival challenged him to a fight, it did not cross his mind that Percival might have a plan for how he would win the fight. I also loved that this whole thing was Jughead's idiotic idea and then he's just hanging onto the ropes going, "Stay down! You're done!" like staking his whole reputation on one fist fight is some random headstrong idea of Archie's.
Also, I love that they just decided that the way to win people over and make friends is to let someone hit you with a sledgehammer.
17 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:Okay, so Percival actually could use his powers on Archie, Jughead, and Betty after-all? ... Same with Tabitha and Veronica. It feels like he could easily just use it to make them quit being a thorn in his side, but he's now acting like they are major obstacles (especially Tabitha.) His power seems to be all over the place.
This is a good point. In Veronica's case, especially, it's confusing why he didn't even try to use his mind powers on her. Based on the rules of this episode, we would have known, because we would have heard the echo effect.
I don't want to make excuses for this show, but Veronica and Tabitha were also immune to the weird goings-on in Rivervale, for various reasons, and originally everyone made a Whole Big Deal about how Veronica's ancestors weren't in Riverdale when all of the curses got handed out, so maybe they're going somewhere with the parallels between all of these stories. I mean, I'm not seriously expecting this to make sense, but I would love it if it did.
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I liked that one moment where Toni suddenly flashed back to Rivervale. Otherwise, my only fun came from playing a game called "Imagine it turns out none of these people have powers, and all of them are insane."
That said, the supernatural stuff frustrates me less than the realistic stuff, even when it's dumb. Like, is a glass cabinet a good place to keep the haunted doll? No it is not. But I'll take it over drawn-out scenes of a town council meeting where no one in the room understands even the basic idea of how town councils work.
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4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:
I thought the exact same thing, the hitman was so vague about "a woman" hiring him who was backstabbing Veronica, it seems like we are setting up a twist that it was Hermione. She probably didn't expect the hitman to really kill Veronica, just freak her out to give her reality show some extra drama, but who knows on this show. People's morality does have a tendency to switch at the drop of a hat.
They also went out of their way to have Hermione talk about how Veronica was always the only person Hiram cared about & she knew she could never compete for his attention, etc, which is a gross dynamic. It makes me hope Hermione doesn't turn out to be the one who tried to kill Veronica, but she probably will. :(
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LMAO the devil spent four days in Riverdale then wrote an essay about why it was the worst town.
Cheryl's dream world was creepy, and I feel personally attacked by the scene where she had a bad haircut. Not all of us "got" how to do our own layers during COVID, okay?
I loved the scene were Veronica was like, "When we started this business, I just assumed we'd run scams and do crimes -- but what if we went legit, so I could really rub my thumb in the town council's eye?" I would be so happy if this is the start of a story arc where she follows in her father's footsteps and declares some random teenager her enemy so she can be the new villain of Riverdale.
Props to the characters and the show for remembering that other people exist and not just abandoning all of the homeless people. However, I think they also might be dead?
re: Jughead's hearing. Being able to read minds seems like it's sort of helpful in conversations, but he would still not be able to hear traffic, or the television, or anything else that didn't think about the sound it was going to make ahead of time. I feel like it would be obvious to the people close to him that he still couldn't hear.
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Ooo -- I didn't know this was back on. I'm okay with staying supernatural, but I'm worried that we're going to re-tread the same story over and over, just changing the circumstances slightly.
I have not seen The Sound of Metal but I also wonder if Jughead's doing a Sound of Metal.
I was legitimately surprised and scared when that random construction worker hit Archie with a wrench and turned out to be the trash bag killer.
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On 1/17/2022 at 7:09 PM, DearEvette said:
THE WEENIES: Two levels going on here with what I feel is an important conversation. ... their inclusion here is important conversation about masculinity and cheer that was completely absent last season with the Navarro (primarily black) male cheerleaders that were heavily featured being flamboyant. Cheer has never, ever been coded as a masculine endeavor and it is understandable they have internalized that long held (and honestly still held) belief. And having Netflix cheer showcasing Ladarius and Jerry so prominently was entrenching that belief even more. But this season having Vontae as a coach and modeling that it is ok to perform and still be coded as masculine is an important part of their development and perception of the sport.
I agree. In general, I'd like it if cheer allowed for a wider range of gender expression than being super feminine (as either a male or female or nonbinary athlete). What I liked about this story line is that it basically resolves with Dee finding his own way to look excited at the end of his act, without compromising his whole sense of self and acting like someone he's not.
On 1/17/2022 at 7:09 PM, DearEvette said:Meanwhile we have Monica. Her explanation vs Khris’ analysis was very telling. She very simplistically looked at the raw score and called it ‘confusing’ … I don’t know if she was just doing it for the cameras and didn’t want to get into it or if she was just a bad communicator or if it was how Netflix decided to present it, but as a viewer it felt like she wasn’t as knowledgeable about the numbers and data and scoring he was.
The way I interpreted that sequence was that Khris was surprised by the score, because he expected them to lose more for the pyramid, but then they didn't, and that's the basis for why he told his team the judges "wanted" them to win. I think Monica ALSO expected them to lose more points for the pyramid, and that's why it was "confusing."
On 1/17/2022 at 7:45 PM, RachelKM said:In retrospect, you had the more prescient response not just because he was in fact a predator; but because, even now, if Monica's description of his letter to her is accurate, he continues to be maniacally optimistic in a disturbing way.
The letter was disquieting. The whole situation was, obviously, but the fact that his main thought was apparently, "I can turn this into a speaking opportunity," was disturbing.
On 1/17/2022 at 7:45 PM, RachelKM said:What bothered me was that Monica didn't actually address Maddy's complaint. Instead she told Maddy not to question her decisions for the team. Maddy hadn't done that. She only objected to the manner and timing of delivery; which, as you say, is Monica's style but that was not necessarily known to Maddy as a rookie. Even if she had witnessed it a handful of times it may not have really registered.
I don't necessarily think that Monica had to change (though if she had made the decision before practice, a quick aside to Maddy that they were changing her role would have been appropriate), but her ignoring the issue altogether and pretending that Maddy was questioning her decisions about the routine was obnoxious. And I have a lot more sympathy and room for the 18 year old in that exchange than the 40/50 year old woman.
I agree. Also, if there wasn't time to be polite, look how much time it took to be rude! They spent ages talking about it, when they could have avoided that by stepping into the hall for five minutes while people were having water.
On top of even that, if we imagine that they had to change it in the moment, with no time for discussion, then the way you do that is by saying, "Guys, I don't think the pyramid's getting better, and I want to try putting so-and-so in instead, so we can see how that goes." You don't whisper to all of your assistant coaches that you're switching the positions and then just have somebody realize what happened when they get told to move.
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19 hours ago, Moviesnob said:
I am REALLY interested in what's going on with Khris. When his friend said they "brought him into the family" I was like 'wut does that mean?' I thought they were maybe in some kind of poly relationship, but then he talked about that girl he broke up with, and it feels like there's something there I'm missing. But ultimately it's no one's business but his.
I think he's just the Uncle Joey of the situation. IE, your best friend from college whom you've stayed close with, and he moves in and becomes part of your family like Full House. It's not super common, and it usually doesn't last forever, but I've heard of people doing this before.
3 hours ago, thehorseofpower said:The more that comes out about elite/high level sport of any kind, the more harmful I tend to think it all is to the athletes taking part. ... I saw basically all of these issues playing out across the two seasons of this show, and as much as the first season gave me warm fuzzies to see what appeared to be a tough but good-hearted coach bringing a feeling of family and success to so many young people with difficult childhoods, by the end of the second season I was left feeling super uncomfortable with the "coach has too much power over her athletes" issue standing out to me quite a bit.
I also feel kind of weird about it. On the one hand, it's great that kids from rough backgrounds are able to find something they love that they excel at and have the opportunity to develop from participating. One the other hand, it's kind of creepy.
The thing I found most off-putting was the way that no one was allowed to have time or space to process their emotions alone. That may have been partly because there was a camera there, but it seemed like every time anyone was even a little bit not in the hive mind, everyone else started buzzing around them, literally chasing them from room to room, pressuring them to confess what they were feeling and process it with the group.
I also didn't love the thing where they all stand around in a clump and take turns passive-aggressively complaining about how other people don't have the right spirit, and don't love the sport enough, and have the wrong vibes.
I guess what I'm saying is that there was a very poor sense of boundaries, at least on Navarro, and I found it kind of weird how deeply people were being absorbed into the group.
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I just binged season two -- partly because I wanted to talk about it without getting spoiled for the ending. :)
I thought this season was really interesting, but I also felt a lot more frustrated with the way people were behaving -- which I guess is what happens when you spend two seasons watching them instead of just one.
Both Monica and Vontae have this pattern they go through where they bully their athletes, and then the athletes get upset and cry, and then suddenly they change to Good Cop and go, "I'm not mad at you. I don't know why you're crying. Why R U upset??" as if they don't know.
It bothered me every time it happened, but the time it bugged me most was with Maddy, where they kept looping through a conversation where Monica was like, "You have to learn to accept my decisions," and Maddy was like, "I accept your decision, but I wish you would have told me privately instead of doing it in a way that made it shocking and embarrassing," and Monica was like, "You have to learn to accept my decisions."
Anyway.
I feel the guy who didn't want to smile, and I don't understand why the girls can't just wear shorts when they compete.
6 hours ago, auntiemel said:I feel like I understand the breakdown of the LaDarius and Monica situation. She told them that she was going to be gone for a few days and then she was gone for the entire semester. For most people, that wouldn't be as big a deal, but this is a kid whose mom went outside to answer the door and then never came back. That's obviously going to be triggering as hell when his "new mom" does the same thing--but this time, by choice, and starting the whole thing off with a lie.
...
I'm not saying his perspective is reasonable. He needs therapy, that poor guy has been through so much trauma. I don't think he's very skilled at putting himself in other people's shoes and seeing things from their perspective. For instance, the whole Kaylee situation. He said, "I'm always so nice to her, telling her the way Monica would do things..." He genuinely thinks he's being nice because he's forcing himself to use a "nice" tone.
I agree with everything you said, but especially these two points. It seemed like Monica actually did care about LaDarius and consider him a family member more than an athlete, so I don't judge her too harshly, but I can see how he would feel like she abandoned him, or like she was treating him like he was no one special when he was supposed to be special to her.
At the same time, I laughed out loud when he described how he'd been "nice" to Kaylee.
6 hours ago, auntiemel said:I felt for Jerry's teammates and for Monica SO much. It is so incredibly heart-wrenching to think that you know a person, to think that you're close in a way that is soul-deep and significant...only to find out that that person has a whole other side they were hiding all along. It can make you feel like you can't trust anyone in your life, like you can't even trust the world, or your own judgement. It can make you feel like life is upside down.
I also appreciated that they showed how complicated the feeling is -- especially when Gabi said that she can't just magically turn off her feelings and stop caring about someone who was her friend. It would be so hard to try to process something like that.
5 hours ago, meatball77 said:It seems pretty absurd to have so much drama with being national champions when you are just beating one team. Makes for good TV though.
I literally didn't understand that there were only two teams until I read this thread. That's hilarious.
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S05.E03: Border
in The Handmaid's Tale
Thank you to the Previouslies for reminding me of my favourite moment from last week, which I had forgotten: it's the part where Luke finds out that June cut off a man's finger and sent it through the mail, and he incredulously asks, "How does that help our family?!"
My favourite moment this week was when Lydia had two rooms to visit, and she chose her first stop as the one where she gets to slap someone, and her second as the one where she promises God she'll be less angry.
Yeah, I feel like they've already passed, "Don't ever touch my daughter again!" Like, wasn't that where we were the first time Serena touched her daughter?
I was scared for her when she walked into the meeting. It was set up so perfectly, with her being super confident, and sending her protector away, and then, boom -- they pass sentence. And the sentence is, "You go free & have a nice time somewhere else." Okay.
Like everyone else, I'm also super, super confused about how Serena is allowed to decide that she's just staying in Gilead, but also she's still in custody.
Same. I thought that monologue was really uneven. There were parts where she succeeded in conveying the idea that she was barely speaking through sobs, and parts where she really did not. I think she was probably reading the dialogue as written, but it didn't work for me.
I can come up with my own idea, but I don't think it's been adequately explained in the show. The scenario I can see is that these women have never been to Gilead and they don't fully appreciate how horrible it is, so their POV is like, "Serena is just super Christian and she's trying 2 live according 2 her religion and do what God wants her 2 do, and she's being persecuted for that."
I can easily see Gilead being held up as an ideal by people who've never been there but wish everyone were forced to live according to their values.
I don't think they're officially making her an ambassador. I think they're unofficially returning her to her original job, which was to be a mouthpiece for their politics and have it sound better coming from her because she's a woman. So, I think they're saying they'll support her with resources if she keeps spewing her propaganda in Canada.
I hate the way these plot points all played out, but I do find it interesting to return to the idea of Serena preaching against women's rights to other women -- that was always an interesting part of her back story.