Aethera

Don't forget to burn the hamburgers.

Ha, that is awesome. I do love me some Chris/Jerry L&O. Stephen is great, but I do also still love Eli. I was hoping his daughter would be around all the time now. Oh man, I heard it but was so absorbed by Alicia's awkwardness I didn't put it together. That's adorable!

I was yelling "SquareOne" at the radio this morning (and then da-da-ing the theme). My favorite show as a kid. They should so bring that back. My votes for streaming are Designing Women and Sisters. Golden girls and Designing Women are linked in my head for some reason, and while I love GG, I don't understand why Designing Women doesn't get more airing. Then again, I wrote a paper about Julia's rants for my Politics and Television class in college, so I might just be biased. Sisters, I barely understood when it was on, but I have fond memories nonetheless, so I'd like to watch it and understand it. And if they give us ER on Netflix, can we get Chicago Hope too? Editing to Add: The Yeardley Smith case on Mathnet was always my favorite. A gorilla who likes pizza, I seem to recall!

Obviously rooting for DHP to win State's Attorney, so he can be on the show permanently. Let's hope he doesn't turn out to be a slimeball. Otherwise, bygones on this whole episode. Poor Cary. I'll go watch him as Logan instead.

Brian Benben elevates everything he's in. This was all insane, but he (and Bitsy, who was awesome) saved the episode for me. It's not good when I'm watching a show for one-shot guest stars. I would watch a Mellie/Bitsy spinoff web series, absolutely. I was hoping the President would be listening to Rowan's little speech. But that would be too easy. Man Fitz is so dumb. Really, really tired of this storyline. Fitz sucks. He's not complicated. He'll do anything for Olivia, even when he hates here. Simple, stupid writing. This show is getting increasingly cookie cutter. The Rowan speeches were great the first 3 times and then increasingly repetitive now. So are the Olivia speeches, by the way. She says things the same way every time too. Runs in the family, I guess. "There's hope" was the worst line in a while. "That is why our judicial system isn't based on looking into people's eyes" was the best.

It's bothering me that there's been no reaction to the SA race from FAL. "Here, have the best office Alicia, even though you'll probably be leaving the firm soon!". What? Yes, the moment at the end was good, and I've always loved the relationship between Diane and Alicia. But otherwise, bleh. Especially the retread of Perotti destroying evidence. So boring. I think having Alicia and Cary start their own firm was a mistake, and they're just not sure what to do now.

Is it "apropos of nothing"?

Yeesh I dunno about this episode. I wonder if it was gauging interest for an Elsbeth spinoff - I know there was some talk about it in the Spring. I have to say, this Elsbeth, no way. The old Elsbeth, maybe, although she probably is better in small doses. I really do feel like this was not a solid progression. She's supposed to be awesome and quirky, not bad and quirky. Jill Hennessy did look really rough. Not good. And Diane is not that stupid. Does JM have some kind of blackmail material on the Kings, causing them to assassinate all the other female characters? What the hell, character nonsense all over the place. Edited to add: I totally forgot about Kalinda. It's bothered me for several seasons now that Lana and Rawlins show up and just expect sex, and that she can't just say "I'm in a relationship" or "I don't want to". It seems like she's always being guilted into it. She didn't try to use sex to get Lana to give her information. Lana brought it up.

I think people are talking about the living sister, Molly (Lexie's younger sister/Thatcher's daughter). However, Maggie has no relation to Thatcher's children, as she's not Thatcher's daughter. So I'm not sure it's relevant, especially as Meredith has no relationship with her. Derek did reference the whole thing when saying Meredith was bad with sisters, sort of. I'm a little tired of the "no I have to talk to you about something but you assume it's something else and walk away before I can explain" trope. Seems to get used a lot in Shonda-land.

Pile of Ugh. "I just saw the worst sex tape I've ever seen" - that rant was so terrible. Tipped too far toward cheese and melodrama, with the helicopter and everything. How about we kill Liv, Jake AND Rowan? That's sounding good to me right now, and I used to love Papa Pope. Tom killed Jerry. I just got that. Oh man. Also, I expected we'd see Penny again. What happened there?

Yay Kyle Secor! I love when he shows up on shows I watch. Good guest star ep, with Penny turning up too. Poor Abby, keeps winning and losing and winning and losing. Of course he brought up Liv. Oh David Rosen. The wrong things for the right reasons is how everyone gets into messes, remember? Mellie is the best. Honestly. I was watching that scene with her and all the bigwigs through my fingers. Quinn actually isn't annoying me as much this season. She's right that they should care that she vanished. That whole thing with Charlie was super-weird though. Do not care. Can't we let a few characters go already?

I don't even know where to start commenting on this episode; I'll just wind up in a giant rant. So I'll just say I'm done with this show. Christ, that was absolutely horrible. I'm going to go watch terrible Season 5 West Wing instead and find appreciation for something I took for granted.

I think that wasn't the captain Rollins was talking to - she'd asked where he was, and he'd left just before she showed up, I think the guy said.

Having just rewatched the end of West Wing yet again, seeing Matt Del Negro like that freaked me out. He's Bram! Nice to see 2 late-season WWers in a single episode, though. Bellamy Young is awesome. She's really doing amazing work with weird material. Most of the rest of the show, just shut up already. I actually would vastly prefer Fitz & Mellie make it work, Liv matures in any way but I don't see it happening. And I am sick of B613 even though we haven't even heard them much.

Richard Schiff really does some great work in his final scene of the show. He got so screwed by the writers in the last season - I was so gratified they let Toby be Toby in that next-to-last episode, with CJ.

I was wondering why there were no comments earlier, ha! Didn't even realize it was locked. I thought this ep was ok. Some great guest stars elevating the material. No baby drama, no Amaro, thought they were going to go into Rollins gambling stuff but they didn't - works for me!

I'm watching the penultimate episode, Institutional Memory, and giggling over the whole Frank Hollis bit. Lately, I've been just re-watching the last half of Season 7, as if somehow, Netflix will magically present me with a season 8.

So they straight up mention Benghazi - very odd. I guess that means they acknowledge Hillary Clinton as a real person, somehow? Like this is the administration directly after Obama's? I find it interesting, with political shows, where they diverge on continuity with current events. Like, West Wing acknowledged everyone through Nixon, and then some made up guys instead. You have to have some distance to make a show like that work, it feels like, or you'll be hamstrung too much by recent events. Seems like coming so close to the present could cause problems. This episode was...not great. I too cannot believe BeBe still has nothing to do. Very, very odd, even if she is the bad guy. An affair between her and Ivanek would be a great improvement. The daughter was meh. I didn't think she was awful, but again, so contrived.

Oh man, Pornstache and Ned Flanders. Yep, and Yep. I would really like Liv to stay on her own for a while. Barba is great, but not in a romantic plot. And I still can't remember the Amaro/Rollins thing from last year…I'd better go read some recaps.

Oh Romano. I don't miss you. Richard is probably my favorite character, so I'm happy to see James Pickens Jr. get to do some good work in this ep. I don't know when he'll reveal, as that whole scene at the vending machine was so contrived, but someone will have to eventually. Maybe Mer will tell her, since obviously she'll know right away. I wouldn't advise thinking too hard about the 'younger sister already a department head' thing. It's one of those 'just accept it, it's TV' items. I actually enjoyed the episode, though I hadn't expected to. Predictable, but still good. I don't like Meredith much, but I think the younger sister was rather overreacting. Doctors can have those arguments, and Maggie was the one who didn't insist on what she thought was best for the patient so that Mer would like her. That's not something she can blame Mer for, especially since Mer did actually hear and respond to her requests, whereas she just childishly played the "I can't hear you" game. Mer also stopped arguing and moved aside to let her work, though she wasn't happy. So far, not enjoying Maggie. Maybe she's around to make us dislike Cristina-less Mer less. I'd really like to see Bailey get a non-annoying, super-competent get-it-done storyline. I feel like Shonda has been terrible to her the last few seasons. Maybe that character has outlived the original role (mother to the interns) but Richard has transitioned well into new storylines post Chief, so I don't see why she can't. Geena Davis' drop-in did not fit well into the episode. And she did look rough. Do something else with her hair, maybe? I thought April was fine, and not annoying at all, in this episode. I think Jackson did good work too. The two of them are far better when they aren't fighting. Honestly, I know this is a soap, but there are about 7 characters I vastly prefer when they aren't having any personal drama. Amelia included - I like quietly competent Amelia. I watched PP in its entirety only after it ended (I'm a latecomer to GA too, having watched the whole thing last summer.) and Druggie Amelia was irritating, but I like this Amelia fine. And it might give Derek something new to do.

More Barba, less Amaro, please. So I skipped one of the episodes last year, and just read the recap. I was so sick of that Big Bad, whatever his name was. So I think I missed that Amaro and Rollins were hooking up? Or I've blocked it out. Ick. The new guy, eh. I thought there was supposed to be a new guy in charge of the squad, not a weird guy who has bounced around SVUs. And I couldn't tell if he was supposed to be good or crappy at his job in all his scenes. All he accomplished was making me crave zeppole. I miss NJ.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't find Tea Leoni at all compelling. She only has the one volume and tone, and it's boring. I love BeBe Neuwirth, and I have to imagine they're going to give her more to do. I too tire or Zeljko Ivanek always being the bad guy - he really needs to find an against type role. And tropes and bad lines everywhere. But I didn't HATE it. And I'm a complete West Wing freak, so I kind of expected to. Perhaps I just had my expectations set very low. I don't think BeBe could play the role as written, but man I'd love to see her in it with different writers. Let's hope she gets a lot to do. Her as President in SOME show would be good, but not this one, paired with Tea. It would not work well. West Wing's COS also had a large amount of control, access, and influence on policy. And there was that whole storyline of CJ fighting to keep Hutchison in line. And a pile of White House advisors on the show. I don't think having the COS affect policy is out of line. I don't work there, so I don't know, but it doesn't bother me. I kind of want to go back and find the specials they aired about COSes earlier this year on...History Channel maybe? I wonder if that would shed some light. I'll probably watch a few episodes of this to see how the supporting cast develops.

Sorry, I totally missed that. This is what happens when I half-watch that show :)

I felt deeply meh about this episode, maybe because I don't have the hots for Matt C. Yes, he did look better scruffy, but it doesn't outweigh my dislike of this storyline. I don't like Finn, I don't want to see more of him. And there were so many big plot holes, to me. I will say the CarEy theory is my only hope for this story line. Great thoughts there. BUT only if it's resolved in 3 episodes, max. And I'd say Kalinda was ignoring Cary on purpose for reasons that will soon become clear in a Kalinda Knows Best sort of way. What I enjoyed about the episode was everything involving Eli, including his daughter. I'd watch a spinoff where the 2 of them started a firm and did their thing. Honestly, if Diane and Eli left the show, so would I. Also, I too missed Clarke. I'm glad Nathan Lane is busy for his sake, but disappointed for my sake! Also, poor Samantha Mathis, her career makes me sad, for some reason. Maybe because I love Little Women so much (don't judge me!) I didn't watch Gilmore Girls regularly, but I plan to rip through it on Netflix next month!

Finally caught this On Demand. That voting thing made no sense - who wouldn't vote for themselves with $5k on the line for the helpers? But otherwise, this was absolutely delightful. It was great to see their personalities and their work. Even MacKensie showed more personality than usual! My opinion of Glenn definitely improved, and I don't even care much for cats. My vote would have gone to Ve, but all the work was so good, it didn't really matter. I would definitely watch more episodes like this one. And I'm very glad Neville is around, because I think Patrick would have been much less fun, somehow.