tv echo

I confess I have not been a fan of Thea. I've found her bratty and spoiled. After she fails to sign those papers that would've saved the Queen family fortune, she never has to struggle to earn a living because she goes off in the stretch limo with her rich bio dad, Malcolm Meryln (wearing her expensive black leather pants, no less). I hope that this season will see her grow up and mature. As yet, I don't think she's earned anything. However, I do like WH based on her interviews.

Before this episode, I thought the competitiveness between the sisters was one-sided (on Laurel's part). But I can't believe that Sara didn't realize how insensitive and hurtful it would be to bring Oliver to the Lance family dinner. It was, consciously or unconsciously, a dig at her sister. Here's your ex-boyfriend who I slept with and am now sleeping with. The dinner was meant to reconcile the Lance family.

For snarky forum fun, I go with sci-fi/supernatural shows that have "magical" science and some ridiculous plot threads... so I recommend (in addition to Under the Dome) The Lottery, Dominion and Falling Skies. Also, coming up this season, The Scorpion looks like it'll contain lots of fodder for snark. On the other side of the coin, I really wish I had Starz so that I could watch the new mini-series Outlander (debuting August 9) The opening title credits and trailer for that show (both viewable on YouTube) look amazingly beautiful.

I don't think this has been posted yet - I don't recall reading this spoiler before... http://www.tvguide.com/News/Mega-Buzz-Once-Sons-Greys-Spoilers-1085057.aspx

Outlander | San Diego Comic-Con 2014 Panel | STARZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQXVWBWrJ8

EBR posted this really cute pic of her, CL and KC on Instagram: http://instagram.com/p/q60yu4CKY6/?modal=true

I forgot to say that I actually liked Henry Cavill as Superman I recently saw him in the movie Immortals and thought he was good in it as well (although the movie was terrible). Sometimes, though, the movie can make a difference. For example, I disliked Chris Evans as the Human Torch in The Fantastic Four, but I love him as Steve Rogers in the Captain America movies. TO CLARIFY: When I say that I like, dislike, love or hate an actor, it's different from when I say the same about a person in my real life. Obviously, I don't know the actor personally. My opinion of an actor stems from mainly two things: (1) their professional work (such as acting performances) and (2) their public persona (formed through their media appearances, their interviews, and what they themselves post on social media like facebook or twitter). In addition, if they do charitable or humanitarian work, then that's plus; but if they commit a crime or go on a racist rant, then that's a negative. There is such a thing as the Q rating that measures a celebrity's popularity and likeability with the public.

After watching "Time of Death" again, here's my take on the sister relationship between Laurel and Sara: I think they've always had an unspoken competitive thing going on since they were children, where their actions were partly reactions to what the other did, perhaps on a subconscious level. So when young Sara got interested in Oliver and wanted to hook up with him at a party, young Laurel sabotaged that attempt. Laurel's hanging onto Oliver as a boyfriend was partly due to her imagined fantasy future as Mrs. Oliver Queen and partly due to a desire to thwart her sister. Sara's subsequent hooking up with Oliver and agreeing to go on The Gambit was partly due to her desire for Oliver and partly due to her wish to get back at Laurel. In the present, when Laurel discovered that Sara was alive, rather than welcoming her back with a grateful, loving hug, she had a hissy fit, didn't care what happened to Sara, and threw a glass at her. I think she resented Sara's return on some level. When Sara begged Oliver to go with her to the Lance family dinner, I think she was getting back at Laurel (maybe not consciously) for the latter's less than warm welcome home. On some level, she knew that her relationship with Oliver would come out and that it would hurt Laurel. (Oliver, on the hand, was just being his usual oblivious self.) The two sisters have a love-hate relationship. While they love each other deep-down, they also try to outdo and hurt each other.

The only thing I liked about this episode was that Felicity used her brains to outsmart Tockman in the end. I actually felt sorry for Laurel because I thought Sara & Oliver going together to the Lance family dinner was a really thoughtless move. And Oliver's attitude to Felicity in this episode was terrible - first unreasonably hostile ("What are you wearing?") and then condescending ("You'll always be my girl") - cringe-worthy.

Women Who Kick Ass panel from San Diego Comic Con 2014 featuring Katey Sagal, Sarah Paulson, Tatiana Maslany, Nicole Beharie, Maisie Williams, and Natalie Dormer:

I think "many people" may be overstating. I can only speak for myself and my friends, who watch both Arrow and The Walking Dead. We have no problem separating characters and actors. We disliked Andrea, but liked Laurie Holden because we thought she did a great acting job portraying Andrea and also came off really nice in interviews. We dislike Laurel. but am lukewarm about Katie Cassidy for reasons already stated. I also feel that the comments in this thread are getting perilously close to the kind of posts not allowed by the Mods.

From now on, I'm going to try to be more careful not to let my dislike of the Laurel character bleed over into equal dislike for KC. While I may think she is not doing a good job portraying Laurel or is miscast as Laurel or sometimes says things in interviews that are not the most politic (for reasons that have been discussed ad nausem in these various topic threads), I recognize that others may disagree. However, I wish to clarify that, while I often hate Laurel, I don't hate KC. I just don't like her acting or some of the things she says in interviews. However, I think we're all guilty of doing something similar. I've seen criticism of Felicity and/or EBR that I feel is unwarranted and, in my opinion, stems from a resentment of that character due to a preference for Laurel/KC. But again, everyone is entitled to their own opinions and favorites. Agree to disagree, as they say. EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION

Under the Dome still has about 6.6 million viewers - why are so many people still watching this dumb show? Oh wait - I'm still watching this dumb show. WTF?! Big Jim and Rebecca planned to kill off a significant portion of the population, but now all is forgiven? Self-righteous Julia is now running this town? Rebecca, a high school science teacher, is an expert in all things scientific? All of Chester Mills' people can fit into that little diner? Why, oh why am I still watching? I must be influenced by the Dome.

Here's my take on Man of Steel. I really liked the origin story and even how Clark tries to hide himself in menial jobs all over the world. I thought Henry Cavill and Amy Adams had little or no chemistry together (and I like Amy Adams). However, I hated most of all the big fighting sequence toward the end, especially when he and Zod destroy tons of buildings (and probably kill hundreds of people) while they're fighting from Smallville to Metropolis. Clark agonizes over killing one person, Zod, at the end - but he probably killed a lot of people when he was flying through and destroying those buildings when he was chasing Zod and then fighting with Zod. That's what I remember, anyway. I'm in the minority, but I liked Thor. I thought Chris Hemsworth is a good actor and added depth and layers to a very colorful character that could easily become too cartoony. A big flaw of that movie, in my opinion, was the miscasting of Natalie Portman, who acted like a giggly school girl and had zero chemistry with CH.

https://www.facebook.com/colindonnell Odd that Colin doesn't mention KC, considering that she played his love interest when he was on the show. Maybe she wasn't on set when he was shooting, but stuff like this just contributes to the rumors that KC didn't get along with the rest of the cast.

I agree that Felicity has had some character development (as analyzed above), partly due to EBR's acting, but needs more back story. What I don't like is that, if she has reduced screen time, she's criticized as being a 2-D character or comic relief, but if she gets more screen time, she's criticized for that as well. (If you like Jensen Ackles' development as an actor, watch his early work in Dark Angel, Season 2. He was compelling even then.)

Thanks to shadow2008 for posting that "Arrow: 31 Things To Know About Season 3" article link. That was a very nice compilation of Season 3 spoilers. I too find that Laurel identity theme rather puzzling. Laurel's the older sister to Sara. It's usually the younger sister who either tries to be more like, or tries to find a separate identity from, the older sister, not the other way around. I do like the statement that Thea and Felicity may each get their own centric episode at some point. A Thea-centric episode will probably be universally loved, while a Felicity-centric episode will probably have some fans complaining about "pandering." It's funny but Thea, Diggle and Sara are not in the comics either (from the Green Arrow/Black Canary era), yet when they get character-centric episodes, there's no such complaint. I found GB's comment about BR's being Cary Grant to SA's John Wayne really interesting. Personally, I like the opposites attract theory. Post-island Oliver is broody, stoic and reserved, while Felicity is chatty and funny (one dark, one light). Barry and Felicity were too much alike (two lights). Ray sounds like he'll be too much like Felicity as well (two lights). I also find that MG statement quite ambiguous. After 5 nightmarish years (half of which we haven't seen yet), Oliver probably still has a lot of anger and rage buried inside him. That won't disappear overnight. Maybe he realizes that he himself could be dangerous to Felicity and tells her that she should not put her life on hold for him. There was a spoiler that after Oliver and Felicity have their talk, she goes off to Central City. Maybe in reaction, she goes off to see if there's anything with Barry that will help her get over Oliver and they end up talking as friends, and he helps her reach a decision about what to do about Oliver. After two seasons where Oliver goes from woman to woman while Felicity kinda pines after him, will we now have a season where Oliver nobly steps back and has to watch Ray pursue Felicity? Well, J.R. Ramirez is certainly attractive. Yes, Ted Grant probably will train Laurel and be her love interest. With his underprivileged kids, he'll be a great guy and will probably make her more likeable. Maybe he'll get killed (and bequeath his gym to Laurel), thus spurring Laurel's superhero journey forward. I agree that Orion's PR analysis is brilliant and makes a lot of sense. Yes, I'm also now being suckered into wanting to buy the digital comics when they come out in September.

Backstage with the Cast at Comic-Con: The Walking Dead: Season 5

A bit spoilery... "Walking Dead" Season 5 Preview at Comic-Con 2014 - TVLine

I don't think these have been posted here yet - the vids below were published on YouTube by 3HeadedMonkey on 7/26/14 (sorry, I don't know how to reduce these videos to a word link): Comic Con 2014 Once Upon a Time Panel Clip 1 Comic Con 2014 Once Upon a Time Panel Clip 2 Comic Con 2014 Once Upon a Time Panel Clip 3 Comic Con 2014 Once Upon a Time Panel Clip 4

I really hope that they don't use the Lazarus Pits and make Ra's al Ghul a younger guy - who could then be a potential love interest for one of the ladies on the show. That would just make it too CW for me and completely diminish the Ra's al Ghul character.

Equal time for DC from SDCC 2014 (two different videos of same intro). Ben Affleck must've been working out because he looks bigger than Henry Cavill, and Gal Gadot looks like a cross between Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd... TFP Comic Con 2014: BATMAN v SUPERMAN (Panel Footage) BATMAN V SUPERMAN Panel, Comic Con 2014; feat: ZACK SNYDER, BEN AFFLICK, HENRY CAVILL

John Barrowman Interview - Arrow Season 3 John Barrowman "Arrow" Interview at Comic-Con 2014 - TVLine

A little spoilery... Some video clips from the Sleepy Hollow panel at SDCC 2014: Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie "Sleepy Hollow" Interview Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison on the overwhelming fan response for 'Sleepy Hollow' Comic-Con 2014: Panel | SLEEPY HOLLOW | FOX BROADCASTING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxdU7rxuPnM

Lenny will probably win, but I still find him and Sarah really fake.