KerleyQ

The Austin & Ally episode did go a lot farther in terms of the bullying. I thought it was kind of interesting, though, that both A&A and GMW decided to also focus what seemed like half of the episode on the friends wanting to retaliate against the bully (with reverse taunting on A&A and violence on GMW). I feel like the bullying episodes even do venture into the "wish fulfillment" aspect of DC shows. Part of what makes bullying such a problem is that nobody (especially not the "popular" kids steps up and tries to stop it. Here on GMW, we've got Lucas (the guy whose "flaw" is being "perfect") standing up for Farkle to his own teammate. Over on A&A, the girl being bullied for her looks has two music stars among her BFFs to stand up for her. In both cases, the victims had a protective circle of close friends who would go the mat for them. I think that most of the kids who are bullied (especially to the extent that Trish was) and get to the extent where they refuse to show up for class, wish they had that tight knit circle of friends around them who will defend them and shut down the bullies, especially if those friends were the popular kids that Lucas, Austin, and Ally are (the kind of kids whose disapproval of the bullying would carry some actual weight with their peers).

I agree that DC shows aren't going to do gritty - we won't see them tackle sex, specifically between teens or unmarried people, for example. But, they do address some controversial issues in non-confrontational ways. The biggest example I can think of is that, in its last season, Good Luck Charlie had a same sex couple. The younger daughter's friend had two mommies who came over for a play date. They treated it as completely normal except for the parents deciding how to divide the two mommies up (since, typically, the dad would take the kid's dad to the basement to watch the game while the moms hung out together). I actually appreciate that Disney doesn't get really over the top when addressing these kinds of issues, because it's helping to not teach young kids that there's something "abnormal" about it. And a large part of that is that, while they know that older kids and parents are watching, they still have a lot of young kids in their viewing audience, and they want parents to feel like their shows are "safe" for their kids to watch. And, actually, I appreciate that GMW addresses something that a lot DC shows seem to shy away from - where the absent parent is. You look at Dog With a Blog, for example, and the family is a blended family, but you don't hear where the other parents are, or that they even exist. It's like the parents each just magically produced their children without another parent involved in any way. The only way the absent parent gets addressed is if they died (Hannah Montana). And, it seems like not only are they willing to acknowledge that Maya has a deadbeat dad, but it also seems, to me, like it's likely she was conceived out of wedlock. And Lucas, while they haven't come right out and said it, also seems to be the product of divorce, as it seems like he lives in NY with his mother while his father is still in Texas. (Although they haven't firmly put that into play, so it could be that his parents are still married but work keeps them in different areas for chunks of time.) The one DC show I can think of that kept the divorced parent in play was Suite Life, and I think that was only because they showed that the parents still loved each other. (Also Suite Life, and its spin off, seemed to do a pretty decent job of slipping stuff in that you wouldn't expect on a DC show, for whatever reason. Maybe the other shows just need to try a little harder?) Anyway, I appreciate when they just treat stuff like it's just a normal part of life, especially when it comes to the whole family relationships thing. I'd bet that most of the kids watching these shows know kids who have divorced parents, remarried parents, same sex parents, etc. Hell, some of those kids watching are the ones with families like that. So it's nice for them to see that reflected on the shows they watch without it being treated like it's a big deal. In other words, I'd rather not see various things given the "very special episode" treatment. I know DC does still do it to some extent, but, as much as I enjoyed the cheesy good fun of, say, Saved By The Bell, I don't think it would work now, and I wouldn't want the DC shows to try to duplicate that. And, now that I've said that, one of these shows is going to pull a "very special episode" on me. I know GMW came close in the bullying episode, when they moved from the bullying to the kids trying to "save" the bully. But, I don't want to see a full on one. Just...no.

It jumped out at me right away because my son was born in 2002, and I'm already dreading that he's going to be a teen this year. Where did my baby go??

If she had him Halloween 2001, he'd already be 13, turning 14 this year.

Ron doesn't believe that women exist who aren't scheming bitches. I made the mistake of reading the responses to that, and came across this gem: I've lost a little hope for humanity.

I want to see the big hook come out and drag her off screen, kicking and screaming.

I think the issue is that Quinn is an "outsider" like Deacon, but, if he can have Brooke, then he's "accepted" or some such shit. (But, I swear, if he starts talking about being the "patriarch"...)

I didn't think it was possible, but today was worse writing for Liz than the bulk of Niz. I refuse to hate the character, no matter what shit the show saddles her with, but, good Lord. Don't have her bother to take a breath between Jake's "wife" showing up and her considering taking Ric back. And, of course, it's solely so that, when the truth comes out that Ric hired Greenlee to pretend to be Jake's wife, Liz can get mad and dump him again. This stupid, stupid show.

And then we had the hideousness that was the Luke/Carly exchange. I can't even bring myself to quote it.

And now I'm ridiculously grateful that Luke was too old at the time of these events for NB to play young Luke.

A live NB episode would be amazing. For my own twisted humor purposes, of course, not from a quality standpoint. Also for my own amusement, I really want to see MS do the live show. For some reason, I think she'd turn that dial up even higher. And considering that she's already at an 11 on the 1-10 scenery chewing dial, she might just bring the set down around them. There's not a long list of people who I think will be just fine live. I'm thinking LW, FH, BH, JE, MW, RH, maybe JT. I really hope they aren't putting the kids on live.

I'm not even going to try to say that Ron is writing good story, because, well, no. But, I don't have a problem with the story today contradicting the story we had established in prior years for what happened to Luke's parents. If Patricia and Bill covered up the real events (including Tim's death), everyone protected Bobbie from what was going on, and Luke had blocked it out, then I can buy that, all this time, Bobbie and Luke have believed that their mother died when her appendix ruptured and then Tim got drunk and took off. I agree that the people playing Patricia and Luke in the flashbacks were great, as was LW. Bonus, I could pretend it was Carly taking a bat to the skull for just one beautiful moment.

I've often said that shows should just give their audience enough credit to realize that an actress is pregnant in real life and move on. We don't need every pregnancy to either be written in or result in the actress spending 5 months sitting at a desk or hiding her stomach behind the purse that ate Manhattan. I'm surprised that Carly going all Cujo, wanting to run Jake's life didn't stir some memory (of the PTSD variety) for him. Or at least some vague sense of "I could swear this is not the first time I've had some blonde snarling as she tries to set the ground rules for how every other woman in the world is allowed to interact with me." Olivia, just admit the truth and be done. Until you do, though, do not accept any giant gaudy pieces of jewelry from Franco. What, exactly, is MS going for in her portrayal of Nina?

"He told me all about it while he had me over his desk, in between panting out how much hotter the sex is with me than it was with some blonde chick he was screwing last year." So, Deacon is either playing Brooke (maybe he hopes to score points with Hope by being the one to clue her in as to how messed up her mother is right now, while professing to want to help her?) or he just really wants to make sure Brooke really wants him before he cuts off his current meal ticket to replace her with Brooke. Where will he live if he breaks it off with Quinn without securing room and board at Brooke's house?

I'd actually start reading his Twitter again, just to see the epic ranting and raving.

To me, Sonny's "big heart" has always been solely based on him throwing money around to make himself feel better about what a worthless shitty human being he is.

I assume it's a combination of Sarah sending her into the second to last dome and then sending Johnny/Nany in against her and Leroy in the last one instead of giving them Jay/Jenna.

I believe they didn't know it was a 2 day final. I think Sarah said something to the effect of realizing it was going to be a 2 day event when they got to the camp site. If they do know ahead of time it's a 2 day, it would definitely merit consideration of eating up those 30 minute time limits and avoiding something that will make you puke (more) or wear you out. From what I remember of the 2 day finals they've had, the advantage to finishing first is fairly negligible. You can completely smoke the competition and still get a 5 minute head start in the morning, rendering the first day's tasks almost pointless.

Lucky probably already knew. The rocks told him.

I remain convinced that the producers are trying to kill these people. Watching Sarah, who had been puking non-stop on day one, and Jordan, with one hand, climbing that mountain, with no safety equipment, made me a little woozy. They didn't even have TJ hanging out up there waiting for them this time. And then I kept thinking "and now, to collect your winnings, you need to get back down. Good luck!" TJ's "have you ever watched this show?" cracked me up. While Leroy has annoyed me in the late weeks of this season, and I was genuinely happy to see Sarah win, a part of me wanted to see Theresa win, just so she could lord it over Nany.

Jenna, Jenna, Jenna. When she said something about how her boyfriend was cheating on her, like it always happens, I said to my TV "then start picking better men!" And now she's with Zach. Honey, did you see how he treated his ex all season long? Did you hear the story about how he woke up one morning, decided he was disgusted with Jonna, and unceremoniously dumped her, refusing to speak to her for a couple years, before showing up on this challenge to emotionally abuse her all season? I don't care how good his body is, he's a misogynistic, emotionally abusive asshat. Elevate your standards. I will say that Nany had one good line - "we're terrible women." Yes, yes you are. The slut-shaming and internalized misogyny are not good looks. Johnny was a big old baby. Get over it, ass. You've screwed people over to get to the win before. So have others. I love that Sarah refused to be apologetic and reminded everyone "we're on a game show!" He really does seem to think that everyone owes him a trip to the final. As he was saying that Sarah can never do another season because she's revealed herself to be a traitor and no one would trust her, I was thinking that maybe everyone would also keep in mind moments like him telling Zach that it's not enough to not send him in, you need to stick your neck out for him, or him telling Sarah and Jordan to send his "best friend" Leroy into the dome. (And I really, really wish we would have gotten more focus on that moment in the reunion.) I'd rather take my chances with Sarah, knowing that, when you get to the end, you're on your own, then be part of Johnny's circle of enablers who are expected to jeopardize their own chances in the game all season long before he throws them into the line of fire. And, really, how is Sarah throwing him in any different than him telling Sarah to throw Leroy in? Both moves were "betraying" a friend to preserve their own chances at winning the money. Both moves were designed to keep Jay and Jenna in the game as an almost lock for third place. So why was Sarah the worst person ever but Johnny isn't? Not to mention, Johnny's move had a side dish of sending in his "best friend" to do his dirty work (eliminate Wes). You hate the guy, you want him gone, you get your ass in there and do it. I did crack up that Leroy seemed to spend most of the reunion looking like he wanted to vault over the arm of that couch to get away from Nia.

So, Greenlee stops right outside Liz's door to call whoever hired her, to let them know she has done her job, then says "I won't say anything else here, since she could walk out at any minute"? Gee, maybe you should have waited to make that whole phone call until you were more than a foot away from her front door?

I think she loves him, but, if he hadn't spent years basically shaming her for not being attracted to him, she would have been perfectly comfortable slotting him in as "friend" long ago. Spinelli has always made it a point to make it sound like it's some flaw of Maxie's character to not be attracted to him, and then he started that whole withholding his friendship if she won't be romantically involved with him thing. Now he's back and pulling more passive-aggressive bullshit on her. He clearly has a whole assload of issues over his physical appearance. But, yet again, it is somehow some flaw in both Maxie and Nathan that they are conventionally attractive people, and they should feel shamed, because, apparently, since he's not attractive, he's somehow on the moral high ground. And they're just shallow pretty people who aren't as deep as him, or some such shit. I so wish Maxie would grab a spine with him and recognize his manipulative bullshit.

Yet. Give it time. I'd be shocked if she and Carly both didn't do their shifts in the "who's this Greenlee bitch?" rotation.

I think Sarah really genuinely has fun doing this stuff, though. I have zero doubt that she wants to win, but I think she also really just has fun doing this. I could see her viewing it as a cool summer vacation where she gets to do fun challenges, travel to cool places, and possibly make some money.