aradia22

Since I started paying attention in 2009, Jamala has been the only one I've genuinely liked. Netta and Kalush Orchestra were tolerable. At least I didn't actively dislike them. I'm going alphabetically and so far I've listened up to Latvia so I'll chime back in when I've heard all the songs.

This was a little boring but it gave me some hope for the writers. Maybe it was just Anthony Edwards, but I was finally invested in a character and a storyline. I cared about his daughter and I was invested in how he was getting scammed. I mean, my heart isn't breaking for the real person, but the writers finally managed to produce something that felt genuine rather than just fully being generated out of old tropes. I rolled my eyes at all the girlbossing in this one and that TV clip at the end (avoiding politics). Like sure, all of that is true, but it doesn't change the fact that Anna is a criminal who intentionally scammed people. People of all genders can be terrible. I was curious if this was actually true. In Rachel's book all this stuff is conducted over email, which seems like a much simpler scam though phone calls would be more believable. Were real people actually fooled by voice distortion or was that just something they invented for the show? The stuff I've heard always sounds like a robot speaking. I know AI has gotten more sophisticated now with mimicking celebrities but she would have to have a "Peter" to base the voice on, not just distorting her own voice. It sounded so good on the show, I thought there was going to be a reveal that she'd brought someone new into her con. I truly think the writers must believe this is hilarious content. There's no other explanation for why they keep putting this stuff in the show. I think the point was that this was a version of his daughter he could help and save. Anna played a substitute for his daughter that he could be rewarded for believing in. And she also gave him hope that his daughter would also find her way in time.

It's honestly kind of offensive at how poorly they handled Chase's character. In casting a South Asian actor, they should have been prepared to talk about race. Instead, it's all white feminism, he's suddenly patronizing (I wouldn't even say it gets to the level of misogyny much as they hint that), and they completely write off his race and how he navigates through the world and all this relationships because he was adopted by white parents? A MESS. I enjoyed Donna Murphy and the club of rich women who were dismissive to their assistants but the show wasn't brave or smart enough to really dig into that once Nora was convinced to champion female entrepreneurs. That basic credit card theft and needing to keep outrunning the lies is way more interesting to me than the bulk of the show they insist on presenting. The mercenary grift and petty revenge is something I understand from Anna. I wish it had been part of a different show. It didn't really seem to fit here but it was a fun idea. I think Nora spent around $27k before Anna added Chase's shirts. And Anna only spent $17k on subsequent visits so it probably didn't send up red flags. The $400k was spread out among other stores and all kinds of other expenses (e.g. travel, online shopping, etc.) I think Nora just liked having attractive young men around to escort her to events and fawn over her. She wanted the companionship but she was competitive with Anna and also saw her as lazy until she started to pursue ADF (unlike Val who works and Chase who was pretending to work on the startup).

I felt the writers there. And yes, it was cringe. They stepped up the locations. The lighting is still bad but I'm satisfied with having some things look expensive. I did think Vivian getting sucked into the glamorous life was a cliche I didn't need. Hopefully they don't keep going in that direction. I have seen this same rather pathetic gay best friend character before... down to the bad relationship with his mother. I don't like him being recycled here. The actor is doing what he can but it's a disappointing choice from the writers. Actually, a series of disappointing choices. I can tell that everything is not expensive, but they're trying and I respect that. The more I watch this show, the more I wish it were following other characters. I would also watch all these other shows.

Honestly, I think the biggest problem with the show is the writers had something they wanted to say, and that just doesn't fit with the actual Anna or the facts of the case. They're going so hard on the girlbossing, they're forgetting she was a scammer. I don't need her to be a master manipulator. It's okay if the rich people end up looking dumb, or at least easily fooled. I would prefer if the show leaned into that instead of pretending she was a brilliant grifter who knew how to manipulate people. They really seem to want to do a kind of a serial killer thing with all the jail interviews. Let this show be shallow. I came here to look at expensive things, see rich people be fooled, and see Anna stay one step ahead of detection until she finally makes too many mistakes. She sounds like Tommy Wiseau at her worst but I think the accent softens in other episodes. It seems like she was figuring it out as she went along. It's weird; I like Anna Chlumsky even though the writing for Vivian is so bad and cliched. I like her backup team of older reporters but it feels like the writers are giving them a lot of the vulgar language that they must think is hilarious. Like, you don't have to curse to prove you're a jaded adult. I wish they'd leaned into how baffling it was that Anna fooled people and how odd people found her more than trying to make her charismatic (especially because that didn't seem like part of her con). She was a weirdo who pretended to be rich, not someone who could read people and pretend kindness. Also, yes, loving the locations though the lighting on this show sucks.

https://variety.com/2023/legit/news/bodyguard-musical-halted-mini-riot-audience-singing-along-1235577476/

I got distracted by both crowns looking like they came from Party City. The death masks were at least a slightly plausible prop. And you can get good fake jewelry! Sigh... it's okay for women to age. It's okay for Sophie to be older. It's okay for Astrid to be older. It's even okay if their characters are older than they are. (Wikipedia says Alexandra Park is 33.) I could maybe see the argument that a younger Astrid would be more forgiving but that seems like a very tiny reason to mess up the whole timeline. I agree with the tone and invincibility issues and I've said as much on other episode threads. For me, it's also pacing. I don't mind a silly tone if the bad guy isn't that bad or the situation demands some levity. I expect them to win in the end but with the invincibility it feels like any old nonsense, including wacky hijinks, can happen on the way from point A to point B because none of it matters. Pacing is part of this. It's okay for things to be silly at first if they then hit a wall and have to take the case seriously. I think that happened a little with the MLM episode but only on the part of the blond woman facing off with Sophie. The husband stuff stayed pretty silly throughout until he was actually trying to attack Harry, which was still mostly played for laughs. Another work around is taking the case seriously but leaving room for charisma. Not silliness, but an enjoyable grift whether it's a glamorous party or manipulating someone as part of the con. I don't know that there's a lot of budget for glamorous parties (I'd rather they splash out on one or two rather than cutting corners on so many) but Harry romancing Carol or Eliot befriending the security/janitorial staff at the college feel like charisma plays. It was a tiny part of the episode but Breanna as a reporter flattering the museum director was a version of this. I'm too tired to keep unpacking this but basically I feel like if the structure of the episodes was altered, you could have levity and seriousness and episodes would still feel tense because most procedurals manage to feel tense even when you know they're going to figure out who did it by the end. While they weren't the same as the original series, I think some of the reboot season 1 episodes did a better job with the pacing.

I would actually love to see a museum exhibit on Indian jewelry. The speed (or lack thereof) with which the team moved after Arthur's call was just ridiculous. So much dithering... they deserved to be separated by the security gate. Harry panicking in the vents was very silly but I did laugh. Eliot's speech about still feeling unredeemable felt like a darkness that hasn't been cloaking Eliot for a while. I haven't really investigated who is writing the episodes but there does seem to be a mix of stuff that's very loyal to the original series and characterization that either feels like character development or else sloppy new stuff from writers who aren't as familiar with the characters. Breanna doing an impression of Harry wasn't particularly accurate but it was a fun idea. It would have been better if she'd adopted Harry's touch and go New Orleans accent. Breanna as Eliot was funnier. lol, what? Astrid is supposed to be THIRTY? (10 years old + 20 years) OK, if Astrid has been looking for Sophie/Charlotte all these years then it's even more unbelievable that she didn't recognize her. Clarice Starling? Come on now... that movie won an Oscar. Breanna drugging the tea was brilliant. No useless details. And FINALLY we get Leverage International as backup. Arthur wasn't a great villain (and I still don't know how he managed so much of the con on his own) but he was appropriately smug. I really wanted Eliot to punch him in the face. I guess that counts for something. I'm disappointed that no one did punch him in the face even if the score is settled. With all the focus on Astrid and Sophie, it was easy to ignore how TRULY AWFUL the portrait of the Duke was. That barely looks like a person. Oh, NOW they mention Sterling. And I was a little sad McSweeten and Taggert got no mention when the FBI swooped in. I did find it sweet that Astrid called Sophie family at the end. I wish the onscreen reconciliation had been part of the flashback. I'm glad they wrote in that second reconciliation in front of the painting. I suppose I can buy that Astrid trusted Sophie enough to go along with the plan to catch Arthur and decide how to proceed afterwards. Anyway, they found a good actress. I hope Astrid returns.

Yeah, one benefit to this is getting the infallible crew caught in a sticky situation. But it's just hard to believe that Arthur was the one clever enough to do it. It should have been someone like Sterling. True. Eliot is one person with an easy out.

Woof. The painting bore some resemblance to Astrid but none to Sophie. Honestly, it could have been any random brunette. It looked like a police sketch more than a professional portrait. I immediately recognized the Princesse de Broglie painting in the Hanover gallery. Did they take over a real museum or did they use a normal set filled with prints of real paintings? They also had the Anne of Cleves in the lobby which definitely looked like a fake. lol at the idea of a British museum actually giving back artifacts Billy felt like a terrible person to trust. Weaselly. I'd expect him to tell Ramsay everything as soon as he left that room. I guess we're supposed to chalk that up to Sophie knowing how to read him and knowing he was really trustworthy in the end but it felt like a writing convenience. I was surprised that Astrid didn't recognize Sophie/Charlotte. I did not predict Eliot having to deal with a REAL bomb. That was fun. The actor they got for Ramsay wasn't bad but it was difficult to have too many feelings about a Big Bad we've never actually seen on screen before. He was pretty easily conned even with all his blustering. And did the building have metal detectors? Why not bring a gun or some other weapon? Anyway, bringing back Arthur helped a little in giving us a foe we'd seen before but it lacked the drama of original show takedowns of a bad guy we'd been following for a long time, or even the evil organization RIZ last season. But as I said in the Arthur episode, that actor is boring and anonymous-looking so... meh. I did like the foot race between Parker and Astrid though it was a little anticlimactic for Astrid to not actually figure anything out and just be given a gift from Sophie. I think they found a solid actress for Astrid. I'd be happy for her to come back in a future episode.

I saw the Mary Balogh and just assumed they bought some romance novels to dress the set. And given how Hallmark movie actors already tend to look like stock models, I assumed all the movies were fake. I thought he said his "grandmama calls it The Firm" as a reference to the British monarchy. I think I've been watching too many mysteries. I was worried at first that she was only going to April so she could bring the evidence back to the bad guys. Jenna talking to April and also talking to Carol at the end read as grifter scenes so it felt a little odd coming from a completely genuine character. I could not place the voice at all. I thought it was Hardison and it was just going to be an audio cameo. I was expecting Harry to appear at the very end to do some lawyering but I guess if you set off a fire alarm, you can just have the police show up. I agree this would have been stronger. Maybe she wasn't trying to protect the assistants but she could have at least seen the error of her ways, realizing she hadn't processed her trauma. But Carol and Hank were great bad guys so I'm not too mad. They might be my favorite bad guy team of the season next to the MLM couple. Blond e-sports guy and the professor have been the best solo villains so far.

This was a cute idea for an episode. It was nice to see a civilian involved in the case who was almost competent enough to get things done on her own. Also, it gave us time to enjoy the chemistry building between Jenna and Keith rather than just watching the established chemistry of the crew. I didn't quite buy Breanna as a great singer or a music label really wanted to pick up a classic jazz act. I thought it would be a ploy for the bad boss to harass Jenna... just pretending to go along with things to get close to her. I couldn't believe he actually wanted to sign Breanna. I kind of wished they saved the roasting of romance novels/Hallmark movies for another episode. I was amused when Harry turned out to be the Flemish guy. One time when a ridiculous accent makes perfect sense. Still, as fun as this was, I wish they'd been able to spend more time on it. Maybe they'll bring that world back for another episode. I need a gif of "What? No... My secret..." I was surprised to see another case where they slipped up on using one of the team twice. Now that Leverage International has been introduced, it really doesn't make sense not to call in an assist if it's just a small thing. Jenna played along but she could have EASILY blown the case when she recognized Sophie. Also, they used Parker as the maintenance woman, the bartender, and then the safe cracker though technically she was a safe-cracking bartender in that youtube video so the last two could plausibly be the same identity.

Is anyone following Eurovision this year? I feel like it's getting close but I'm not that excited.

https://nystagereview.com/2023/03/23/bad-cinderella-a-musical-that-turns-into-a-pumpkin/

I thought this was where they were going when Eliot was driving that student in the golf cart. It would have been great if they somehow found all of the students he had stolen from to appear and throw him off his game of explaining the research (rather than just stress him out because he couldn't find a quiet, empty room). Breanna didn't acknowledge it but they found an in-between solution. Gray's downfall is not that he wasn't able to sell the research but that he was discredited in front of the dean who was forced to abandon him. There have been other jobs where they just make a mess of someone's life. Gray goes down because he loses institutional protection. Also, Breanna concedes at the end that there is something to an academic life even with all the institutional problems though they play it off as a joke about ultimate frisbee so Harry doesn't get a win. Breanna isn't wrong but the writers have fashioned her as a morally superior, uncompromising idealist.

tbh, I wasn't excited about the case when we first met Emma. But there were some advantages to the con (like being in a situation where you can't draw attention to yourself by beating people up). And I loved how Eliot making friends with Floyd the security guard actually helped with the con. I feel like a physics scientist who would go on TV and argue that kind of stuff is more likely to be employed by a think tank than a university. But I liked the actor they got. I liked that moment when Sophie clipped in those bangs. More onscreen quick changes. Hilarious that they managed to work in Hardison being in space into the con. Complete with floating orange soda. Emma magically being ready to explain her theorem to the billionaire is not how CLINICAL ANXIETY works. It takes more than a pep talk if it's really that serious. The set up was obvious but I do like that they managed to work around to Breanna deciding maybe college wouldn't be the worst thing. While I would like Hardison back more often, I'm also open to rotating members of Leverage International.

I thought they were going to jump to the daughter being Miranda but evidently that's too simple. If they're really introducing a character like that, I hope they were smart about the casting. I can't imagine Sophie's daughter won't be a recurring character if she exists. Yeah, that seems like too sophisticated of a misdirect for a TV show like this.

Virginia Williams and Christopher Gorham were great guest stars. The MLM scheme was one of the more realistically written evil organizations this season. I almost hope they find a way for those two actors to come back in different schemes. Or at least her. Why shouldn't Debra level up to a different sort of evil organization? The lighting was not great but otherwise, this was one of the better episodes. The costumes weren't distractingly bad, the acting was good, the writing was solid. I don't know if it fully supported 3 plotlines (Harry's con and Sophie's backstory got a little lost in the shuffle). I understand why it doesn't come up every episode but I liked Harry's earpiece falling out. Glad things are working out for Ronald and his jazz trumpet dreams.

Assuming McShane is new to the show, I think this is just a hint that they're tackling other cases around New Orleans that don't get covered in one of the episodes. Honestly, the Leverage crew should be more recognizable around town but they are traveling around a bit. I feel like Redemption does "ripped from the headlines" a lot. I'm assuming the hot sauce thing is a reference to sriracha factory from 10 years ago.

Strong episode. Loved having Sarah come back. They've been really good about recurring characters. I do feel like the bad guys in the original show had a bit more finesse. Maybe they feel like they have to make the crimes obvious for the audience. The female cop was obvious in planting the evidence but through the rest of the episode she seemed a little smarter and more grounded. Yeah, I continue to be uncomfortable by them insisting on Sophie's "ethnic ambiguity." They don't do this with the other characters. They made some smart choices this episode with the limited budget. Lots of nighttime sequences, keeping to a simple con in terms of the characters, etc. Breanna finding the real stash house for Romero was a nice twist.

Another change in the new series is that the cons feel more purely altruistic. I remember in the original series there were enough episodes where you remembered they were all thieves because they would get a cut of the con they were pulling. The girlbossing seems a little out of date but I guess there were always be hustle types on social media. The siblings were cartoon villains like out of a TV movie for children but I can buy them as slightly exaggerated versions of actual nepo kids. Janice balanced them out. Jamie and Jamie were goofy but I liked Eliot's and Sophie's contributions to this episode. This episode didn't have the best writing but the truck stunt was solid and there were a lot of callbacks. Solid B. I did find it funny that Sophie's sparkly green bag didn't look all that different from Paige's pleather bags. Um... costumes and props? Might want to work on that before calling out fast fashion.

So cute. Just tell me when I have to resubscribe to Hulu.

Keith David! I did NOT see him being Eliot's father. I was thinking old football coach and then Eliot's father would be the B or C plot. They did find someone with an iconic deep, gravelly voice. Honestly, I do not remember enough about Eliot's backstory to know if all the Oklahoma stuff fits. For some reason, I thought the implication on the original show was that he had a bad home life and enlisted to escape it. I'm betting there's some fuzzy continuity though you'd think they'd consult a show bible before writing something big like this. "Welcome to the cookout. You in the family." lol, what was that voice for Aubrey? Sophie sounded like the Theranos woman. The way Billy walked into to see all the screens and threw his hands up and walked out again was very Eliot. I hope they bring Keith David back. He really elevated this episode with his acting. The two big emotional scenes (the backyard and the goodbye) were fantastic. I feel like they're leaving some room for Breanna to be written out or for the actress to at least take a break. Assuming any of the actors had other projects, it would be good to establish sooner rather than later the possibility of other members of the international Leverage crew swapping in.

The Orpheus Grove set was weirdly racially diverse for a secret society of rich people wearing white robes partying on a former plantation. I thought they went soft making it more like the Elks Lodge (which also apparently has a racist history) and going very goofy on the Blackwater guy. Yeah, he kept pulling out a gun, but I would almost say Fury (the e-sports guy) was more intimidating. I didn't see Dr. Paul faking his death coming at all. It just felt like one of those Elliot plotlines and I've stopped nitpicking explosions on lower budget TV shows. Anyway, he was a good guest actor. The writing was solid this episode. They found good ways to weave him in and out of the story and involve him in the resolution rather than just relying on the con/robbery. Finally, a mark being able to identify someone on the team they've seen twice. It did feel sloppy to use Sophie twice in such obvious roles so I'm glad it was acknowledged within the episode. I know Sophie is the grifter but it's a little weird she still gets to play every ethnicity in this iteration of the show. Harry doing his best impression of Elliot was funny. Basically the Christian Bale Batman voice. The safe was pretty low-tech for Parker but it posed a different kind of challenge.