aradia22
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But hey, my track record of liking the winning song is very low.
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.
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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.
QuoteEven if men like him do end up failing upward there are consequences even if they are just social ones.
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.
QuoteI was not expecting the small twist about her German trust manager. I'm really surprised that Alan didn't bother to do a video chat to verify the man's identity.
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.
QuoteDid I need to see Vivian peeing on a toilet? No, no I did not. Are her vulgar, hostile comments to her husband and constant groaning about her pregnancy contributing to the story or making her a more sympathetic character? No, no they are not.
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.
QuoteAlso, Alan's daughter sounded exactly like Anna (I'm trying to discover my passions; I'm too good for a boring, conventional job), and I thought it was interesting that Alan didn't make that connection despite finally seeing through his daughter's BS talk and fake histrionics.
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.
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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.
QuoteI don’t like this girl, but I had to laugh at her buying things with the credit card, when this woman was sucking up to her boyfriend, and treating her like a personal assistant.
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.
QuoteI was laughing at the calm and collected Anna loosing her shit over several phone calls to Chase.
I wish it had been part of a different show. It didn't really seem to fit here but it was a fun idea.
QuoteI was a little surprised Bergdorf's wouldn't have followed up with her at some point. She seemed like a valuable client, and surely they would have noticed that her spending skyrocketed beyond whatever her usual amount was.
I was also confused about Nora's relationship with Chase and Val. Were they just freeloading off of her? Was Chase providing other services to earn his keep?
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).
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This scene, combined with the yacht scene where rich people constantly fawn over how supposedly amazing she is, while she’s not actually all that interesting, is just painful to watch.
I felt the writers there. And yes, it was cringe.
QuoteGorgeous scene in the guest cottage - it made you feel and smell what being ultra-rich is like, in a way most shows don't. I'd love to stay there.
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.
QuoteVal still seems to admire Anna, which is odd. The way Anna and Chase treated him in Paris was terrible.
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.
QuoteKudos to the costume team, from the outfits to the jewelry and accessories.
I can tell that everything is not expensive, but they're trying and I respect that.
QuoteOn a positive note, I enjoy the group of older writers banished to the "Scriberia" section of New Yorker ... I mean, Manhattan magazine. I would rather watch a show about them, the caftan mogul lady, and Val and Nora's unusual relationship.
The more I watch this show, the more I wish it were following other characters. I would also watch all these other shows.
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This is a complete Snoozefest. I’m not sure how these people text is really interesting story and turned it into this.
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.
QuoteBut this story is a completely true, except for the parts that are totally made up. That is one of the completely true parts. When you look at interviews with the real one, she really is like that. That might have even lend her authenticity. People thought "she must be rich, otherwise she couldn't get away with being so rude and annoying".
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.
QuoteYeah that's a mixed russian-german-accent. That is not what Julia Garner is doing. I have no idea what she is doing, actually. Sounds like half the accent she has on Ozark (is that her natural accent?), half something I can't place, with occasional sprinkles of an english accent in there, with the occasional irish.
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.
QuoteI really hate the journalist character. As a journalist myself, I can say we are not all self centered blow hards who would scream at an ultrasound nor expect my coworkers to spend their time making me feel important. Perhaps Vivian shouldn’t be having a baby if it makes her so angry.
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.
QuoteI chuckled at the one male friend saying that Anna having a "peasant face" made it more believable that she was rich. "Peasant face"!
I want to see every inch of her lawyer's brownstone. I also want to wear his wife's pink tulle gown.
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.
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I knew when Sophie 'found' the crown that it was fake because Parker talking about the 'pressure points' at the end of the last episode had to be a major hint.
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!
QuoteI'm just not clear on why they screwed up the timeline like that - because they wanted Astrid to be young rather than cast her as a 40yo, or because they wanted Sophie to seem younger than she actually is?
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.
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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.
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The only way that makes sense is if Sophie knew this was going to happen and they are triple bluffing but I hope that's not the case as I feel like that whole make the audience think they've been had when it was part of their plan all along thing has lost its sparkle at this point. They've done it too many times for it to be fun and interesting.
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.
QuoteEliot can put on his fake accent and make them this he's still the bomb guy.
True. Eliot is one person with an easy out.
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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.
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The romance novels that Carole (I think this name I got right... LOL) had on her shelves were mostly fake, except the first one, it was a Mary Balogh novel that I actually read (quite good).
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.
QuoteThe assistant mark's Hallmark fetish was hilarious, as was Harry as the LumberDuke. ("My father wants me to take over... the farm.")
I thought he said his "grandmama calls it The Firm" as a reference to the British monarchy.
QuoteDespite Jenna's ambition, she didn't hesitate to do the right thing.
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.
QuoteAlso I thought for sure the lumber jack was going to be Elliot then was surprised when it was Harry.
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.
QuoteI was disappointed that Carol turn out to just be bitch. Like I really thought it would turn out that he sexually assaulted her too. And she was actually looking out for the young assistants as that was once her. And it would have explained her obsession with romance novels as she still isn't over what happened to her. Maybe it was to deep for this show, but I think it would have been a better ending. The have her be involved with the financial fraud which would be why she wasn't saying anything.
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.
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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..."
QuoteParker vanishing at the beginning was my favorite bit though. When the assistant (I watched it an hour ago, I'm really, really bad with names) walked past, stopped and turned and Parker was gone. It was hilarious. I was a little surprised that she didn't recognize her in the safe video after seeing her "fix" the light in Perv's office. I'll just chalk it up to her being so freaked by nearly being molested that she wasn't really looking at random maintenance lady.
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.
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Is anyone following Eurovision this year? I feel like it's getting close but I'm not that excited.
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https://nystagereview.com/2023/03/23/bad-cinderella-a-musical-that-turns-into-a-pumpkin/
QuoteIs it too late to rename the show “Great Stepmother?”
Not that the stepmother in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical is virtuous, not by any means. But thanks to three-time Tony nominee Carolee Carmello’s uproarious performance, she becomes the dominant force in Bad Cinderella.
It’s one of the few saving graces of this campy exercise in fairy tale exhumation which inexplicably received favorable reviews in its original London incarnation but will require a genuine Fairy Godmother to make its spell last longer than midnight on Broadway.
It’s hard to know exactly to whom the show is pitched, except perhaps bachelorette groups or their male equivalents who are bored with Chippendales. Indeed, there are so many hunky shirtless men parading around the Imperial Theatre you think the show marks the return of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, minus Charles Ludlam’s wit. There’s even a lengthy scene featuring them fencing while bare-chested, because everyone knows that when you’re fencing you want to expose as much skin as possible.
The sophomoric book is credited to Emerald Fennell, who won an Academy Award for Promising Young Woman and seems intent here on belying that film’s title. Alexis Scheer is credited with “Book Adaptation” on the program’s title page and “Additional Book Material” in the bios, so it’s anyone’s guess what she actually contributed. The musical’s title seems to refer to the fact that Cinderella (Linedy Genao, underwhelming in what should have been a breakout turn) is introduced while defacing a statue of Prince Charming. She’s also rather petulant, but “Petulant Cinderella” but wouldn’t look as catchy on the marquee. In any case, the character doesn’t make any sense. Nor is she appealing, which presumably explains why she disappears for long stretches in a musical revolving around her.
Since Prince Charming has disappeared and is presumed dead, the next in line to the throne is the hapless Prince Sebastian (Jordan Dobson, recently seen in A Beautiful Noise), apparently a childhood friend of Cinderella’s (you’d think they would have traveled in different circles). They live in the town of Belleville, ruled by the maniacal Queen (Grace McLean, another bright spot in the show) and populated by lots of beautiful people looking like they do their clothes shopping at Frederick’s of Hollywood.
Naturally, Cinderella doesn’t exactly get along with her domineering stepmother (Carmello, the show’s MVP) or her two stepsisters (Sami Gayle, Morgan Higgins) who look like they’ve stepped out of Vanderpump Rules. The stepmother and the Queen seem to have shared some sort of checkered past, as not too subtly hinted at in the amusing song “I Know You.” That number, incidentally, constitutes one of the show’s highlights, as it allows Carmello and McLean to let it rip with the sort of comic gusto suggesting they know they’ve got some heavy lifting to do to keep the show running.
There is, of course, the Godmother (Christina Acosta Robinson, somehow maintaining her dignity), a plastic surgeon (what?!?!) who transforms Cinderella into Storm from the X-Men, or at least that’s what she looks like. And, spoiler alert, Prince Charming returns near the show’s end, making it very clear that he has no interest in marrying…a woman, at least. He’s played by Cameron Loyal, who packs so many muscles on top of muscles that you fear the stage will buckle under his weight.
Webber displays little of his gift for melody, purloined or otherwise, in the blandly generic score, which features enough power ballads to stop the show dead so many times the stagehands should be equipped with defibrillators. Weirdly, many of them are sung with the stage turntable in constant rotation, as if the performers were attempting to get as many steps in as possible. Of course, they may also be trying to outrun the atrocious lyrics by David Zippel, by now making it clear that his superb work for City of Angels is but a distant memory. On the other hand, you have to admire his chutzpah, if not sophistication, in rhyming “Cinderella” with “salmonella.”
So relentlessly vulgar and campy that it would make Ron DeSantis’ head explode (now there’s a pull quote), Bad Cinderella is the sort of terrible show whose defenders would describe it as “fun,” as if anyone looking for genuine quality in a Broadway musical for which tickets costs hundreds of dollars is a cranky spoilsport. The sheer cynicism of the entire enterprise, designed to capitalize on the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for irreverent fairy tale adaptations, is enough to turn a carriage into a pumpkin.
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Anyhow, I enjoyed this episode but I do feel like it would have been more interesting to somehow have past students (and the team) take him down. As oppose to the usual "amazing business" opportunity.
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).
QuoteBut this hit a lot of great notes. I appreciated Harry wanting to do it the "right way" and Breanna pushing back that just because the system worked for him doesn't mean the system works.
QuoteTBH, I was hoping that Harry would actually be able to (writers would) have them correct this one through the system this time.
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.
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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.
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Also... a daughter?!
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.
QuoteNo way in hell is the reference to a daughter just a throw-away line by a slightly less gifted grifter. If you listened closely you could hear the sound of Chekhov's gun getting loaded.
Yeah, that seems like too sophisticated of a misdirect for a TV show like this.
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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.
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I think McShane recognizing Eliot from a previous job was just a fun little off-remark for the audience. He had had a lot of concussions, so anything he said was dismissed by his partner anyway.
What was the hot sauce protest? They just didn't want anyone to have hot sauce? Weird. I don't like hot sauce, but I certainly wouldn't protest anyone else using it.
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.
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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.
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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.
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So cute. Just tell me when I have to resubscribe to Hulu.
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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."
QuoteI didn't like Sophie's accent. I have no idea what it was supposed to be in terms of region, class or anything else that an accent is usually used to indicate/suggest.
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.
QuotePop's conversation with Breanna made me smile. It made me wonder what the future holds for her.
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.
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Predator and Prey: Assault, harassment, and other aggressions in the entertainment industry
in Everything Else TV
Does this count as the entertainment industry? Either way, WTH?
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/10/1168962589/dalai-lama-apologizes-tongue-kiss