moonorchid

Not my favorite aspect of the book. It all feels rather dated now a days so I’m glad shondaland ditched it. Both Kate and Edwina in the show are massively beautiful and the only reason Kate isn’t heavily pursued is one, she’s not out for the season and two, she’s too old for their standards. For the time frame I can accept that. I know this aspect met with mixed reviews but I liked how there was the added mix of needing Edwina to marry a British man for the inheritance to she and her mother would be taken care of. It still falls under the umbrella of Kate feeling tasked with making sure her family was taken care of without it just being about marrying her off to do so. Oh! I forgot my favorite detail the show scrapped. Anthony sucking out the venom of Kate’s bee sting and then getting caught in a compromising position and then having to marry her. It’s a retread of “the Duke and I” and I’m thrilled we didn’t have to see it, lol.

I broke and bought “The Viscount who Loved Me” and wanted to read this before I watched the show. I knew in advance this book was usually touted as the fav of the series and that the show was different. I really like what the show did. The book was great, read it in a day and a half. But the show gives the women so much more agency then the book does, and the shows Anthony is less angry than book Anthony. Im also glad they went away with Kate’s “plainness”…in a million years you’d never convince anyone that Simone Ashley is anything less than statue esque lol.

I loved it, and I do think I liked it a little more than the first season. It’s soapy and exaggerated and down right trope at times but dammit, sometimes that all really works, lol. Anthony and Kate were fantastic, I kept wanting the show to go back to them. The only thing I could do without is the Feathertons, but I guess every show needs a foil. Eloise is beyond petulant, lol. I get how she doesn’t want to play the role society sets for her but dammit, your brother just got jilted at the alter, your family is in shambles, can you put aside your snide remarks and be a little sympathetic. She acts like she’s the only one who suffers from the era she lives in. I really enjoyed the family dynamics. Benedict and colin are just good guys and good brothers. Anthony took on all the duties of the family so they wouldn’t have to. Their stories were mostly filler to me but not a waste of time. Edwina is a much more fleshed out character here than the book. I really liked her even when she held her grudge for too damn long. She was hurt and angry. She’s the baby of the family but no longer a baby. She’s a woman with her own mind and her sister whom she loves dearly didn’t respect her enough to let her form her own opinions about all matters. Edwina could have been a villain, but instead she’s a human being. One who was hurt so she lashed out, but in the end saw that what was happening between Kate abs Anthony wasn’t about her and she was no longer going to be the reason they didn’t marry. She loved Kate so much that she essentially, got over it. I loved how daphne was used this season. She’s now the wise old sage in matters of the heart lol. I know that Simon doesn’t have much of a role in this story but it still would have been nice to see him even in a cameo role in the end. He is family after all :) im really curious to see how they progress from here. It might do them well to mold this as an ensemble (like they have been) except maybe only bring in some of the books. It seems they’ve already twisted things to where it might not make sense to have an entire book be a season. I think they might be heading that way, cause I definitely want to see more of Anthony and Kate.

I heard the critics and it’s honestly just sounding like a bunch of boys who found out this is a movie featuring a woman’s menstrual cycle and they freaked out and turned it off. This is seriously the story of anyone who experienced being a teenager and loving anything to the point of insanity.

This isn’t acceptable. The ONLY way this even remotely comes close to okay is if only Ariana is there from the cast, Spielberg, and maybe a couple other people. Even then This sucks. The cast should be there.

Honestly none of that really bugged me cause Maria is for all intents and purposes, still a kid whose experiencing very intense emotions and situations very quickly. Im more perplexed how Anita didn’t get in another slap or two on Maria when she was going on about loving Tony and how it’s like Anita’s love for bernando and begging for understanding. Anita’s entire life has just been flipped and she’s gotta listen to this? She’s a better person than I. That part hit really hard. I was glad Valentina called them out for what they were at the end.

Never seen the show before nor the original movie. Decided to give it a shot yesterday…maybe cause I didn’t know what to expect (i know of the story and it’s beats) and I was completely absorbed and was so emotional. Spielberg really outdid himself here. It’s shot so beautifully and cinematically. It gives the feeling like I was seeing in on Broadway. It’s just so beautiful. I can’t stop thinking about the line in Maria, “say it loud and there’s music playing, say it softly and it sounds like praying”…the way Ansel sings it is like a dream. That line made me believe him. I know about his SA allegations and I feel weird about it but honestly, he was one of my favorite things about this movie. I thought he really sold all the different facets of Tony really well, and I definitely believe he looked at Maria as a salvation for his sins.

I read the synopsis but still, I did not expect how emotional it was. “The Adam Project” hit on every single emotional note and gave them all time for us to sit in it. I cried pretty much off and on all movie, starting with old Adam telling young Adam how 30 years later he still gets sick to his stomach when he thinks about how he treated his mother. Movies now a days spends more time with moms and I liked how this movie carves out where the mom falls into adams grieving ie his anger. It was all really well done. Jennifer Garner is a little bit wasted here but she shined so much in the bar scene with Ryan Reynolds. They both did to be honest. Really well done. Ryan Reynolds has carved out his own brand of acting with humor and this movie delivers on it, luckily he can also act and he really delivered on how a man who lost his father at a young age and never quite dealt with that trauma would behave as an adult. Really the most believable is seeing old and young Adam and seeing the line straight through. Im most impressed how this wasn’t a typical “save my father” story. How Adam never thought for a second to do that. How the movie let it still be in the end. It’s bittersweet but such is life. Mark Ruffalo continues to be a treat. The kid really nailed Ryan Reynolds mannerisms. But he also nailed the humor and the emotion. He did superb but I liked how the heavier emotional moments were still on Reynolds and Ruffalo. Best thing I liked? This movie was under two hours! Hahaha. After sitting through Batman, it’s nice to be in and out and entertained all the same.

They really went with the “leave you to protect you” route with the end of this movie and I’m not sure how I feel. If this is the end of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies…it freaking sucks. But if it’s a transition then it makes perfect sense cause this would be the middle of his heroes journey. His journey into adulthood so to speak. Im not sure Tom Holland gets the credit he deserves for his Peter Parker. I’ve never read the comics so I respect the opinions of others when they compare TH to the comics but what Holland has continued to express through these movies is the optimism and naïveté of youth. The end of this movie, the death of May and removal of his entire support system, marks the end of his youth so to speak. I don’t like the idea of all Peter has now is Spider-Man but I imagine if/when we see him again it’ll be the start of his new journey to discovering who he is now.

I’m one of those that despise how much people want to find out and pick apart spoilers way before this movie came out. I decided long ago I wasn’t going to dedicate a lot of time finding out anything about this movie. I had thoughts and heard things but I just moved on cause movies like this can really disappoint you if it’s not like the movie you built up in your mind. With that said, this movie delivered on everything I had wanted and what I knew about it. I was also in a theater that was very emotive. We cheered when we saw Matt Murdoch. When Andrew Garfield took off his mask people were ecstatic! He got the biggest cheer and applause but that might be cause when we saw him we KNEW tobey was next. There was almost an emotional collective intake of breath when we saw Tobey. I was 17 years old when the first Spider-Man came out. I’m now 37 and saw this movie with my 12 year old daughter. Seeing Tobey in the suit hit me in a way I didn’t expect. I liked how Tom was very much still the lead in this movie but Tobey and Andrew aren’t just here in service to Tom’s Peter Parker although they very much did. They played in so you knew they’ve been through things since we last saw them. They’ve learned things they want to instill in Peter. Plus I just really liked how well the three played off each other. This movie literally gave me every moment I wanted as it was happening. Especially that last hug goodbye between the three. I was begging for it when he was awkwardly thanking them and trying to leave so when he kind of lunged into them and they were all hugging and smiling…it just made me so happy, lol. Goes without saying, Andrew Garfield’s Peter saving this universes MJ was what we wanted to see and it delivered. Andrew delivered. You can tell he’s been carrying around this guilt and anger since we last saw him and how saving MJ in that moment might be the thing to give him his own peace. Andrew was an underrated Spider-Man and If we never see him in the suit again I’m glad this is the last image we have of him. Like I said, worst kept secret that still surprised the hell out of me, lol.

Saw the movie today…I liked it, but it’s not even close to cracking my top ten. The first half of the movie feels like a huge info dump and it’s clunky and the dialogue is clunky and nothing feels smooth or natural…there’s a lot we need to learn and it tells us all of it but it’s def a lot to get through. Once we get to Phastos and his family, things seem to really click into place. The acting really saves this movie for me. This movie gave me a new appreciation, or maybe it just reminded me of what I love about Angelina Jolie. The first time we see her fighting and she poses and flips her hair a bit, all I could think was “damn she gives good FACE!”. Sometimes it’s not only okay, but it’s imperative to just look cool, lol. And she’s just freaking cool as hell in that moment and then the rest shows you why she’s as good as she is. My mother had a lot of criticism over Salma Hayek’s performance but I had zero problem with it. To be honest she gets the least to do. It’s one of the flaws of the movie and having such a huge cast and so much to get across. From the moment we meet Ajax till she dies she knows why they are there, what they are supposed to do, and what the endgame is. Then six days before it’s all supposed to go down, 5000 freaking years since she released all of them, she changes her mind and tells Ikaris they have to stop them. She explains why she came to that but we don’t see that moment, it’s told to us and doesn’t hit the same. Hayek didn’t have the chance to show that. I buy Madden and Gemma Chan’s chemistry. It’s what makes that moment where Ikarus can’t kill her so powerful. I buy their love, or at least his love for her. In a movie where madden is mostly the vehicle to move the story along, he sold the shit out is his love for her, the anguish over the decision he has to make, and the despair and regret over what he’s done up to that point. There’s so much to digest I can’t even fit it in one post, lol.

I don’t dislike it but I wanted to like it more. Just felt like they took too long to get to safin and then they don’t really do anything. Credit to Rami Malek who does the most with what he had but it felt like the potential there never gets achieved. Feels like there were a lot of things they wanted to hit but none of it really hits hard. It’s all just meh and then the end, while emotional, and Daniel Craig is great…but the tragedy of being poisoned against Madeline and Matilde is kind of irrelevant cause he’s going to die anyway. He couldn’t have gotten off that island anyway. So what’s the point of that? I will commend them for going through with it. I liked the action and the storytelling and the interactions between everybody. There’s a lot to like, I just wish it felt monumental being the last one with Daniel Craig.

I watched this recently from beginning to end and I couldn’t believe how differently I feel about the ending. Before I always, 100% felt that Dottie let go of the ball on purpose. I thought it was so obvious. On rewatch I was like, “oh my god, she didn’t, she got it knocked out of her”. And the movie actually lays it out clearly that Dottie wanted to win. She wanted to win that game. Kit just beat her. Changed the entire movie for me but not how much I still adore it.

My kids and I just watched tonight and we were all BUZZING! This is easily in my top five and honestly it’s battling Black Panther for 1 and 2. Im so excited for this movie, it’s own series, and how it fits into the larger MCU universe. This is the first time in a while I’ve been this excited after a marvel movie. I could feel how much every single person involved cared about this movie. It was so apparent all through out. Disney does not deserve Simu Liu. He’s a gift to marvel and they should be kissing the ground he walks on.

I didn’t follow much of the speculations but I did catch on to Solomon Goode being the one who stole the book and set a curse on the town right before Sarah did. someone else said it perfectly, just because it’s a little predictable doesn’t mean it’s not satisfying and when it’s written and portrayed well it still works really great. So many horror movies try to surprise the audience, it was nice to have a story just unfold with character we cared about. I liked how even in 1666 some things were always the same, like teens sneaking off and partying and drinking and taking some drugs. The entire series sets up the dynamics between characters quickly and efficiently. Maybe 1666 gets it easier cause they used the same actors from the first two but I still liked how the movie started. The theme of women who get screwed over by cowardly men should be old and over played but it really isn’t when you see it play out in reality. I just really liked these movies so much. I didn’t expect to honestly. I definitely wasn’t sure if they could end the series in a high note but they really did.

More and more Sophie is blossoming as the leader of this group and I am loving it. Brianna is such a wonderful addition and I wasn’t sure I would be open to her cause I love Hardison and the core group but I love how she’s is the newer viewers stand in. I also love that the writers aren’t *trying* to make us like her. Other shows would have her be vastly better then hardison and making him look dumb to prop her up, but she doesn’t need propping. She’s just as smart and her individual talents make her a stand out. Plus she makes mistakes and learns and the others love and appreciate her for her. I love how they brought her in. and she made me cry at her speech. It brings up my emotions about fandom and all the beautiful things that come with it. the villain reminds me of the guy who bought the company that makes insulin and price scourged and I just wish there was a scene where he got punched in the face. I love how Sophie is still a bad bad actress till she’s working a con. That bit will never get old

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a cast gel as well as the Leverage cast. Leverage is the show I still rave about when asked what my fav tv show ever was. It’s just such a damn joy to have new episodes. I love that they loved the show enough to come back. im assuming we are sans Nate cause of Hutton’s sexual harassment accusations from a few years back. I think the show did a good job of setting it straight that he’s gone and what happened to him. I completely believe and accept it. Nate punished himself for a long long time. It’s a tale as old as time. My feelings about his death are mostly in connection to how it’s affecting the rest of the team. The only time I really felt it in my gut was when Sophie (in reference to Harrison) said, “he’s his fathers son”…just damn! I like the introduction of Noah Wylie’s character and how he’s fitting in so far. LOVE knowing that Parker, Harrison, and Eliot have expanded their operation. They’ve grown and yet are still the same. Character progression and staying true to it and them has always been this shows biggest strength to me. I love it. I love leverage. I’m down for what they are giving!

BUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

I…really enjoyed myself, lol. Look the FF franchise isn’t here to reinvent the wheel or being the next great American cinema and I love that they know exactly who they are and what they want to do. This franchise started with stealing blu ray DVD players and now they are in outer space, I mean what?!?!? And it works for me! I’ll always be in awe of a major block buster franchise that isn’t marvel, Star Wars, superhero or based off books. They just kept going at it and upping the ante every time and we are all in for the ride. I wasn’t bored for one second and that’s not something I can say for a lot of movies, including some of the marvel ones. One of the things I do appreciate and think they do well is honor the emotional beats of their story. If your going to have a long lost brother, Mia has to be involved. She has to! And she can’t be a bystander. I know the conflict is between Dom and Jacob but she’s their sister and they both love her and I like how there acknowledged when Jacob sees Mia for the first time. It’s short but he walks in all cocky and then that drops when he sees her cause he wasn’t expecting it. When everyone sees Han for the first time, when Tej practically launched himself at him near tears, that’s so true to the moment and I love Han and Sean’s reunion. Even if most never watched that movie, it’s true to those characters and it means a lot. Those little things they get right everytime. But more than anything I love how they are keeping Brian involved without him being involved. It would have been easy to kill him off when Paul Walker died and maybe they should have but they wanted to honor him and Brian and this is prob the best I’ve seen anyone handle something like this. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years, and I’m still down for more.

My thought after the episode was over was: I can finally let japril go. I hadn’t really been able to. Been bitter and resentful all this time. Now I have closure. Not exactly the kind I wanted but the best I was gonna get given the circumstances. Sarah Drew was amazing! Just slipped right back in as April Kepner like she never left. This episode gave me so much of what I always wanted: real self reflection from Jackson. Jackson asking the big questions. Conversations between Jackson and April that showed they actually really knew each other. So much of their time was spent just not talking or just barely saying what needed to be said or double speaking. It was frustrating and the only thing that ever saved it was Jesse and Sarah’s chemistry. Not surprised about Matthew and April splitting up. The reasons she gave were the exact reasons fans gave at the time for why Matthew would never go for April a second time but Krista wanted to be a jerk and rewrite history. Jackson’s dream of what he can do on the board is beautiful and I love that he’s accepting what was always destined to be but on his terms and in a way that fits his own ideals. The glimpses into the family unit they can truly be and what I’m going to believe they will become was beautiful. y’all don’t know the energy spent being a fan of them. This is the first I felt like I can finally put them away. Really let them go. Have some closure and feel good about it. It’s been a wild ride and for a time a really devastating one. But in the end it was alright :)

Sam and Bucky wanted the shield. They didn’t want it in the governments hands again. That’s what I took away as the meaning of the fight.

This episode was much more emotional that I expected. After the fight between Sam, Bucky, and Walker...when Sam tried to clean the blood off the shield...I don’t know if it’s meant to be interpreted like this but I def keep thinking of Steve Rogers when I see that shield and that scene just all of a sudden made me sad. Sad for the friend that Sam lost. Anthony Mackie is doing some of his best work here. They kind of touch on this later in the yard between Sam and Bucky. The talk they had was amazing and long over due. I love that Sam is going back to his counselor roots with Bucky, cause honestly I think outside of Steve, Sam is the only person he’d really listen to and digest what advice and guidance given. I like how they are trying to figure out what their relationship will be with out Steve but that they know they’ll have one. It really felt like they were finally letting Steve go. Recognizing that Steve wasn’t perfect and didn’t think of everything completely. He wasn’t wrong to pick Sam, but Steve def never thought of the implications of a black man holding that shield and I like Bucky acknowledging that and apologizing for being resentful of Sam not just jumping at the chance to fulfill Steve’s wishes. In some ways, sam has the same naïveté as Steve, I like how he’s not cynical, but he always thinks there’s justice to be had, and for Isaiah Bradley, that ship has sailed. He’s valid in how he feels about the shield. Sam isn’t jilted enough to see a possible bigger picture. He knows what it’ll mean for the next generation to see him hold that shield. I’m glad Sam came to the decision in his own time. The cameo doesn’t mean anything to me yet. John Walker...I side eye anyone who watches what he did last week and like him better for it. Marvel isn’t ambiguous about how the audience is supposed to feel in that moment. But Wyatt Russell (who is so distractingly similar to his father whom I’ve been attracted to my entire life, lol) does a really good job of having layers. He very much got punished so harshly because it was public and he was recorded cause I don’t think anything major would have happened if it wasn’t. As a spouse of a navy vet, I literally said “oh shit” when they said they were stripping him of his benefits. That is rough! John Walker keeps reminding me of guys who all their life was “good” till they weren’t. It’s a life of privilege and entitlement that is walkers downfall. He truly believes in what he did. For a show that is more in marvels wheelhouse, it’s depth is refreshing.

Am i the only one who thought the Dora Milaje were going to kill Not Cap and Lamar? That’s why Sam and Bucky intervened...literally when they are about to deliver the death stroke!

I was mildly spoiled for what John did and I was still left gaping watching it. I didn’t hate John walker (still not my captain America) but man he is such the anti Steve. He’s so agro about how he deals with people. Thinking he can walk up to Ayo, a warrior of the Dora Milaje, and pat her on the shoulder and say they can come to an aggrement like he’s settling a tab at a bar just shows how so unqualified he is at this. Being captain America is more than being a solider. To be fair to him I think he knows that, and he also knows he doesn’t have that in him hence why his go to us aggression. Sam is just everything Steve Rogers is and what he stood for and marvel is making it explicitly clear he IS Captain America. Whether he takes on the name and the shield or not. The writing can be a little choppy at times but I did appreciate the bits of humor, my favorite being Sam telling Bucky to lay off Zemo cause he’s gonna do his weird head tilt thing, and then zemo straightens his head, hahaha. I can’t believe we are headed to the finish line already, I’ve enjoyed this so much.

I am loving “Falcon and The Winter Soldier”. It’s just as emotional and intricate as “WandaVision” but in a different way and I applaud marvel for being different then their usual fare. What I love so much about the MCU is there is so much equity built in, we don’t need flashbacks or even dialogue to wonder why Bucky and Sam are so devastated about Fake Cap. We’ve seen it for ourselves how much they loved Steve and what they went through for him and Vice versa. It’s all just right there and doesn’t need to be said. Bucky is incredibly self aware here. In ep 1 he tells the therapist he never had a chance to just “be”, he was always fighting he never had time to adjust, and in ep 2 he comes right out and tells Sam that if Steve was wrong about Sam then he was wrong about him. John Walker reminds me of the average middle class white man. I know plenty of them and not in a bad way. They are good guys, work hard, try to do the right thing, would give you the shirt off their back. But when they start facing some push back is when things start to get muddled and that’s exactly what happened here. Walker was introduced in a way that makes viewers who are never gonna go for it think for a second cause we see him being unsure about living up to the mantle of “Captain America”. That would ideally be the first step to actually stepping in but then he just exemplifies a man whose worked hard but has never had to struggle over and over and over. Steve Rodgers was a good man. At his core, at his heart and soul. He never let the power corrupt him. John Walker will be corrupted by the power that comes with being Captain America. The point that started the turn for me is when he’s talked to Sam and Bucky in the car. He’s talking to them like he’s actually done something. Sam and Bucky have fought battles he couldn’t even imagine. He lost me right there. Anthony Mackie, I am so excited for him. He’s already knocking this out of the park. I think he’s a fantastic actor and I’m excited for him to get his shine. I feel like he WILLED this show to happen. Watching him and Sebastian in their interviews, like a buddy cop scenario between the two practically wrote itself, they have amazing chemistry together. It’s interesting how this was supposed to air first because I think it’s benefitting big time from the popularity and success of WandaVision and also for being so out of the box that viewers appreciate the back to form “marvel” experience. But it’s still intimate. They are really going for it. I not only don’t mind but I applaud marvel and Disney not shying away from the obvious racial politics going on. I hope they dig in harder. Isaiah Bradley broke my heart and it broke sams too, and it would have destroyed Steve. I don’t even know what reparations would look like for him. Money is so trite but recognition as the first super human feels weird cause he was tortured for it for decades. I’m looking forward to learning more about him and seeing him again cause he can definitely still kick some ass.