Dandesun

Speaking a life-long horse crazy girl... if I had known that boarding school with horses was even an option in my life, I very well may have tried to push for it. It wouldn't have worked because my family moved every two years due to my Dad's work but that would have been a gigantic temptation for me at a young age. I desperately wanted access to horses as much as humanly possible. That being said... am I supposed to believe that Reyna's girls don't have access to horses now? That they couldn't get a horse if they asked for one for Christmas or something? I thought that once you reached a particular level of Country Stardom you were obligated to get a ranch/farm/acreage upon which you had horses! (Quarter Horses most likely, too.)

I'm inclined to think that the FBI will be about the Gunner/Micah story. Perhaps the grandparents take him back or Gunner 'kidnaps' him to hold onto him? Does that pregnant Juliette double suggest some Juliette/Avery shower sexy times? Because I'm down with that.

I still don't understand Judge Plot Contrivance being a dick about Maxie and Nate. I mean, other than being the obvious plot point. At least Alexis seems pissed off about it now. That's minimal progress but still progress. Hopefully there will be a Christmas Miracle for Maxie being able to be with wee Georgie at last.

There's a certain amount of comedy in the idea of all of Sonny's children getting retconned into not being his... except for the cop. And, if I ruled the world, Dante would simply be disgusted by that... and lament the cosmic joke that had been played on him. Oh, and also refuse to acknowledge Sonny as his father at all. (Right that wrong.)

The writers disparaging people with cats is not going to put me on their side for anything. I own a black house panther who climbs Christmas trees with such mulish determination that even spraying the crap out of him with water doesn't deter him... he just sits in the tree, wet and defiant. He caused such a ruckus last night running back and forth across my bathroom and bedroom that the dogs, kenneled for the night downstairs, started barking up a storm wondering what that noise was and my sister even went to get her gun to see what the problem was... thinking the dogs were barking at a possible intruder and not just a cat making noises they were unfamiliar with. Anne has cats? Anne rescues cats? Fuck you, Show! It just makes me love her more! And anyone who says anything bad about cats in Salem will earn my well deserved ire!

But their totes amazeballs chemistry! It trumps all! It is the stuff soap writers dream of!! (Or dream up, as the case may be.) Everyone is a complete Philistine for not seeing HOW AMAZING THEY WERE!! [/Ron temper tantrum]

It's a MANLY love! Because it's from war! It's totes okay to say you love your brothers in arms after you've been carrying guns and being bombed together. Ah, the fifties.

Melissa Fumero is killing it on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Great ensemble and once they shifted Amy from 'always trying to prove she's tough' to a totally ambitious, straight as an arrow detective (who is desperately trying to get in good with her commander and hugely awkward about it) who also happens to be deathly allergic to dogs it's worked out VERY well.

I believe it was. That was when I first started watching but I remember Luke going to Tiffany and saying 'Hello Elsie Maye...' in this real sorrowful, regretful tone. I think they made a sort of peace but it Luke was very much involved in Sean's shooting.

"You made one mistake, Potter! You double-crossed me and you left me alive!" I mean, come on... for all that George gave up over the years, no one can tell me he wouldn't unload on Potter at the end.

Marlena's face is made from SCIENCE! Of course she hasn't aged!

That I can buy... I have yet to buy Serena because she seems very unaffected, thus far, by what was in Africa. But, seriously, if they're going to specify the Congo I just cannot believe this sweet, 'you still have the most beautiful smile' romance that they seem to want to sell. I don't expect a documentary on the troubles in the Congo but... maybe don't use that particular country unless anyone who comes back from it is deeply, deeply emotionally scarred.

All of this is true. I grew up at a time when 'It's A Wonderful Life' was played relentlessly on television from Thanksgiving to Christmas. (We counted one year and I think it had over twenty different showings within that month... and while this was in an age of cable television, it wasn't close to the sheer number of channels we have now.) It was such a part of the Holiday Season that I don't think anyone ever actually sat down and watched it because it was just... constantly present. It wasn't until the last fifteen years or so that I actually sat down and watched it. (My Dad was still alive and he died 10 years ago so... wow, longer ago than I thought.) The point is that after accepting for so long that this movie was all Holiday Feel Good type stuff... no... not really. It is dark. Hell, they even did a bit on Friends where Phoebe gave up before finishing it because it was so bleak (I'm not going to go into detail about the plot line in that episode) and she's all "They should have called it 'It's a Sucky Life and Just When You Think It Can't Suck Anymore, It Does!'" As for the ending... yeah, it's nice and all but I have a tendency to totally accept the SNL sketch about the Lost Ending to "It's A Wonderful Life" as canon. Where Uncle Billy figures out what happened to the money and then someone else says that Mr. Potter made a deposit for that exact amount right after and the whole town goes and kicks the crap out of Mr. Potter... who, by the way, was faking the need to be in a wheelchair. Perhaps it's not very evolved of me to be okay with George getting screwed and no one paying for it... especially the corrupt miser that essentially robbed him and then went after him for not paying the money he knew very well what happened to... but I don't care. I love the SNL Lost Ending and will always know that it happened after the credits roll.

So Serena and Eric were with each other in the Congo? The Congo?! And they're somehow able to smile and laugh and reminisce about the good times? In the Congo? Do the writers not realize that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is its own Moral Event Horizon? (Thanks Europe! Especially you Leopold II of Belgium!) You know, I could totally get someone going there and experiencing what goes on there and deciding to dedicate themselves to God... but I don't get two people being all 'Yeah, I'm used to the heat of the Congo, right? You know what I'm talking about, I know you do.' And recalling the days there with any kind of fondness. "Remember when we were covering a nasty bloody civil war? Or the aftermath where starvation and murder and horrible horrible rape was just normal, every day occurrences? Good times..." So two reporters go there and aren't completely and utterly scarred down to their souls... especially if they were there in, say, the early 2000s or something. Here's the thing, I like GV and I am deeply fond of Melissa Archer as well but their flashback story is already rubbing me the wrong way. It troubles me. Deeply. I think I could probably make some parallel to the rapey aspects of Salem (which are plentiful) to what goes on in the Congo but... I can't. I can't! I need to go listen to some Christmas music. Also, Show? I know you don't much care for the concept of letting the audience make up their own minds about characters... but to see Theresa get legitimately excited about the possibility of having a new friend and then a) have it be Melanie and b) have Melanie attack Theresa over Brady... I am finding myself not on the side you clearly want me to be on (not Theresa's.) Also, having every single person in town freak the fuck out over Melanie's arrival was a wee bit of overkill. At first, I was all "Gee, it's so nice that someone's return actually gets around town and people recognize that family members will be happy and blah blah..." but, as usual with you, you blasted so far over the line I can't even see you anymore. Here's a hint... stop trying to push people to like the characters you want them to like. Maybe just write the damn story and let them come to their own conclusion.

I'm kind of hoping that, at the end of her rope, Eve just comes right out and says "He's not the right guy for you because the second he thought you were done he jumped into bed with me!!" I know I'm not going to be lucky enough to get Eve to drop this bomb but that would be the most entertaining for me. I wonder if Paige's broke face will look any difference from her sad face or her studying face or her happy face or her suspicious face?

Compared to the rest of Port Charles, Jason is Annie Oakley. I still find it laughable that a guy who can fairly consistently hit his target (as opposed to the rest of the town where the safest place to be when they're shooting a gun is directly in front of them) would be labelled as an 'exceptional talent' by Helena. You'd think, with her resources, she'd be able to hire anyone... but then Cassadines live to over-complicate things. They are the quintessential super-villain... lairs, decrepit island mansions, nameless goons, ridiculous Doofenschmirtz type doomsday weapons bent on global domination... "I call it Dr. Doom's Doom Ray of Doom!" Honestly, I fully expect the next showdown to have POW! SMACK! BAM! pop up on the screen a la 60's Batman. (Although now I just want to go home and watch Captain America beat the crap out of entire ship full of Algerian mercenaries... culminating in the one on one with Batroc. THAT is a fight scene!)

Well, in our family White Christmas is a staple. It's kind of funny because it's really only the very end that's Christmas-y at all. Also, The Bishop's Wife because it's Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven. My mother loves it and it took a good long time for the rest of us to see it because it certainly wasn't a regular movie during the Christmas season back in the day (read: the 70s and 80s.) But it's sweet and even for one such as me that has little use for organized religion I find it more feel good than LOVE JESUS DAMMIT! Elf is a fun one particularly because most of my family didn't think they'd like it and ended up LOVING it. I can't wait to play it this year and point out Peter Dinklage. "Look! It's Tyrion Lannister!!"

Oh and then pull the 'Well, if you hadn't embarrassed me by arresting me, I wouldn't have come back!' reasoning for wrong-doing. Praise Odin that the drag queen enforcer didn't buy a second of that. "You're blaming us for you breaking the law?!" Also, as a plus, we don't get any more shots of Melanie caressing gigantic stacks of money. Does make me want to watch all the Oceans movies again, though. The bizarre stink of 80s still hasn't lifted from Melanie for me. I remain weirdly transfixed by it despite her being rather annoying simply because I cannot figure out what it is about her that just screams We Love the 80's! at me.

Well, the director is definitely a horror genre director... me being a big weenie I'm a little nervous but I actually like the concept of it. I think it has been interesting the way they've been working to bring in specific aspects of the Marvel Universe to the big screen. Thor opened up the cosmic aspect and that was furthered by Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Strange bringing in the magic aspect... right now in the comics, Dr. Strange is in a very very dark place indeed so the fact that they may be skirting the borders of a horror genre in the magical realm makes sense to me. With one of the post credit teasers in Winter Soldier being about 'We live in an age of miracles... and there is nothing more terrifying than a miracle' I can see them taking that view with the Sorcerer Supreme. I'm interested, what can I say?

Patrick having anything to do with Carly much less having friendly and supportive conversations will never not rub me the wrong way. It's not that Robin and Carly can't stand each other that's the issue... it's the way Carly treats Robin. If Patrick loves Robin I cannot ever see him having anything good to say about a woman who is constantly sneering at her and coming right out and saying that she's not a complete person because she's got HIV. It goes beyond schoolyard bullying. If someone treated me the way Carly treats Robin I would very definitely not be okay with my husband having any kind of positive relationship with that person. Carly's attacks are deeply personal and they all stem from the fact that Jason loved Robin and would prefer to remain in a relationship with her than continue to have sex with Carly. Jason loved Robin. Period. And because of that, Carly says truly vile things about Robin's health... it says a lot about Carly but I cannot abide Patrick having anything to do with that bitch at all. It's just never going to be okay with me.

Samuel L Jackson plays Nick Fury because when Marvel did the Ultimates universe they fashioned Nick Fury specifically after Jackson. They wanted 'the most bad-ass motherfucker' and Samuel L Jackson was the image they agreed on. The man himself went into a comic book store and saw himself on Ultimates #2 and was all 'I don't remember giving anyone permission to use my likeness...' so phone calls were made and it was agreed that Marvel could continue to use SLJ's likeness as the Ulti-verse's Nick Fury as long as SLJ would be cast in the role if the movies were made.

You mean stick me in a tree, right? Hanging me in a tree suggests you may desire to lynch me. As for Keyser Soze... yeah, but you know, someone will guess that in the Interwebs because that story is out there and it's famous for being one of the ultimate GOTCHA! endings ever. And then Ron will see someone tweeting 'They're so doing a Keyser Soze set up with Josslyn!' and he'll pitch a fit and then try to feverishly rewrite the ending so NO ONE guesses it... it'll fuck the whole thing up and not make sense and it will be awful. See: What he did with Eli on OLTL. And, God, enough with the brain-washing! Comics don't use brain-washing as much as GH does. (Granted, Marvel in particular is a little too in love with Wanda Maximoff's majorly amped up 'reality warping' magic powers to alter things these days but everyone has their crutches.) For that matter, if Ron's going to go the route of 80s super-villains on this show... the Cassadines, Faison... then he needs to step up the heroes on this show BIG TIME. Villains need heroes and vice versa but if you just have Helena and Faison and Jerry and Victor and Ava and Fluke just running rampant and having their way at every step then the ending isn't going to come off very well because he's missing the heroes, you know, figuring shit out and teaming up and working together to defeat them. It feels like any victory the heroes get on this show is purely accidental. Not cool.

First of all, I don't believe for a second that Ron didn't consider that Sam and Patrick might go the road of more than friends. His fucking job is to come up with that shit... and if he didn't consider that pairing then he's even more incompetent than I thought. Which is saying something. As for fan service... the problem is that he seems to want to have it both ways. You can't be all 'Oh the fans gave me this amazing idea about pairing up Sam and Patrick' and then be all bent out of shape when fans guess who Fluke is and then start muddying the waters and padding the story to stretch it out with a bunch of useless folderol to mask it. Days of our Lives has a similar situation where Eve and JJ slept together and the audience called it from jump but neither one of the actors knew that's where the story was going and the writers wouldn't tell either one of them that's where it was going until much later. Here's some information soap show-runners: Your audience knows the tropes. Seriously, stop trying to throw wrinkles and wrenches into the works and just write a solid fucking story. For as long as there has been storytelling the audience has been trying to figure out the ending. It happens in mystery stories all the time, it happens in romances, it happens everywhere. Stop trying to outsmart your audience and just write the god damn story!

That woman is straight out of Uncanny Valley to me. The hair, the make up, the expressions... everything about her reads 'not quite human' to me and it creeps me the fuck out.

Interjections show excitement or emotion. They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong. So... Duke might be made useful after all. (Ron will never make me hate Duke. Just the writing for him. Suck it, Ron.)