TheOtherOne

I really didn't love the bit with the Russian preschool ("Single mothers are too busy to care where they leave their children and dump them anywhere, ha ha!" Ummm...no.) which seemed really classist and tacky, and the opening scene with Jimmy and the baby seat was too aggravating to be amusing (geez, he can be terrible), but fortunately the show still has a lot of charm and there were some legitimately funny parts, which helped carry it past the rough spots.

I haven't been loving this season--way too much of Wunch and the Vulture being more aggravating than amusing, or amusingly aggravating, for me--but this brought back the love. Yes, the plot was obvious, and like so many others, I didn't care. It was just so much fun, so sheerly joyful, in a way that not enough shows are for me anymore. It was particularly welcome after all the crap the characters have had to deal with this season. Santiago isn't even one of my favorite characters, so it wasn't fan service to me. I still loved seeing her win. Yay, Amy!

I still enjoy all the characters, and all this episode proved was that Sara was probably right not to tell him. He wasn't cut out to be a father, as he conceded. He couldn't even show up to kid's birthday party on time or throw a party that considered for a second what the recipient might like instead of what he would. That has nothing to do with not knowing how to be a father or grandfather. That says he doesn't know how to be someone who's not completely selfish and self-involved, and that type of person doesn't make a good parent. And the idea that, "Oh, he could have learned if he'd had a chaaaaaance"? Please. If he hasn't learned how not to be completely self-absorbed after fifty years on the planet, he was unlikely to learn it twenty years earlier just because he had a kid. Bad parents are one of my biggest pet peeves. Jimmy's a likeable jerk, but I don't believe for a second that the Jimmy we've been presented with would have been a good parent. If she saved her kid from a childhood of being ignored and forgotten, of afternoons waiting for a parent who couldn't be bothered to pick him up or come to see him, then good for her. Been there. It's not fun.

I really hate what they've done to Stuart. Remember when he was first introduced, and he was normal and funny enough that Penny agreed to go out with him? And now he's...this. Watching those earliest scenes and then...this is really depressing. Thumbs down to character assassination.

That little move Abby did when she saw Fitz in Liz's office and tried to run away? How old is she? That is not how an adult behaves. It's funny how outraged Fitz was at Olivia's treatment by the media when he's the first one to invite that on her when he first leaked her identity as his mistress at the end of season 2/beginning of season 3. She would have gone through all of this back then, and he didn't give a damn, if Mellie and Cyrus hadn't covered it up. Uh, Fitz is the worst. Just so, so stupid.

I think the East Coast version seemed a little crisper and the timing was better, so I preferred it (although I don't know how much of that is having seen it first). But probably nothing made me laugh harder than when they built on the gag with Leslie kissing TV's Scott Foley. First it was funnier when she really went for it more than she did the first time, then it was funnier when Brett grabbed him and kissed him, but by the time Shelley went for it, I had lost it. (And his reaction: "I'm all right. Happens all the time." Perfect.) Hilarious.

Yes, I saw that, and while plausible, what's not is that Dominic West would know in the first place. It's doubtful they invited him onset to watch other actors perform a nude scene. How would he know what he went down, and why is he commenting on it anyway? Who to believe, someone who was in the scene or someone who wasn't. I think the only person I'd truly believe is Maura Tierney, who may or not have had multiple dicks staring her down that day. I can see where it could have been faked, although I have to wonder why they even would have bothered. They didn't even get a clear shot. All the fuss of hiring a guy solely for his dick for a blurry two or three second shot, instead of telling the actor already on the payroll to sack up or not bothering with the shot at all? Nice work if you can get it, I guess.

According to the actor, nope: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/04/the-affair-josh-stamberg-full-frontal

They established in the Will Wheaton podcast episode last season that Leonard doesn't have much money. The fact that he was helping Penny pay for her rent, and utilities and food for years likely had something to do with that. He very much did have a dependent much of the past 8 years. (Of course, in the episode where Penny returned the car he bought her they put the money in a joint account, so technically they did have money for a counselor, unless it was spent off screen sometime.) I really liked Mandy. Great casting and performance there.

I LOVED the finale! Emily whacking Victoria in the face with a shovel. Victoria ending up in a mental institution while Emily strutted away in the final shot. Best Finale. Ever! What's that? The show limped on for another year of nonsense and ended with a far less satisfying ending? Nope! I can't hear you! Didn't happen!

This is a plot Joe Keenan did a million times on Frasier and made it work ("The Ski Lodge," anyone?), but maybe he should have realized he also helped run it into the ground and left it behind. My favorite character in the whole thing--rapidly becoming my favorite character on the show--is Emily, which doesn't speak well for Oscar and Felix, or the show.

I actually liked this one. It's still not a great show, but this episode worked and all four of the main characters were clicking. I also liked that the guy Dani ended up with wasn't the typical TV-perfect kind of guy that would be the norm.

Yeah, the bird didn't die. It was clearly flapping its wings outside the window as it flew away. The show just isn't working though. I want it to be good...but it's not. It may be marginally better than "The Millers" was, but it's still a long way from good.

I really liked this one, especially the unexpectedly generous attitude toward religion and faith (I'm not particularly religious, but I appreciate an open-minded--but not preachy--treatment of faith on shows). The final scene for Bonnie in particular was really sensitive and quite nice. Also nice was the producers giving Octavia some work after her Fox show got canceled. As wonky as the show's continuity can be at times, I'm glad they revisited Regina.

Executive producer Bob Daily (who presumably will be involved in the writing as well) also wrote for Frasier. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0197351/

I didn't mind Riblet, but I have to admit, I would have rather heard more about the haunted mansion in Staten Island story that he interrupted. That sounds awesome. As usual, the problem was the writing. I thought Dakota was fine with what they gave her, but not even the best, most veteran host could do much with the quality of writing here. It wasn't terrible, and there have certainly been worse shows this season. It was just...fine. Mildly pleasant, not particularly funny but also not terrible. Just kind of meh. Kate's pooping bit in the Brave video is the only time in the show I actually laughed. As someone who also saw the dress as white-and-gold, I was oddly disappointed/weirded out that Jost saw it that way. I'd rather not have anything in common with that guy.

Sheldon and Penny together is always a win. "Sweetie, I'm comfortable around you too." "Of course you are. I'm warm and soothing." Heh. Glad Mrs. Wolowitz's death wasn't resolved and forgotten in one episode. It's momentous enough it--and she--deserves to be remembered. Leonard, Amy, Raj and Emily...were there too, I guess.

I honestly think I enjoyed that the most of any episode in Capaldi's run. It was simply, wonderfully, breezily entertaining from start to finish. If it had ended with Clara's death, it would have been a nice bookend to last Christmas' special and a satisfyingly bittersweet way to end her story--yet I don't begrudge them the happy ending. In the end, I realized that after this episode, I would actually enjoy seeing more stories with Clara and this Doctor, which wasn't always the case over the course of the last season. They just felt connected in a way they didn't in much of Series 8, Clara wasn't annoying or dull, and the partnership was clicking in a way it often didn't. I think I'm back on board. Merry Christmas, indeed.

Yep, I think Quinn is easily one of the more interesting characters on the show. I'll take her over stupid Huck, or the increasingly monotonous Rowan (at least she doesn't do so many fucking monologues that make my eyes roll for hours after they're finally over!), and most of the time Abby--who had exactly one episode this season when she was genuinely interesting instead of just annoying as hell. She's a woman caught up in circumstances that she was in no way responsible for, rejected by her family, plunged into this world where no one actually cares about her--except for the man who was going to kill her. She's trying to make her way in this world, and unlike Abby, who often contributes nothing, she actually has some agency as a character. And unlike Olivia, who is stuck in repetitive family drama, repetitive boyfriend drama and many, many scenes where she breaks out the wobbly lip and teary eyes, she's getting stuff done. She's come a long way from the moron who pulled the knife out of Gideon in season 1.

Kind of a waste of Dean Stockwell, but the potential is there to have his character return. I haven't seen him in anything for a while, so I hope his appearance in the episode was mostly for the character, because he wasn't looking well at all. I know he's getting up there, but I hate to think he's not doing well, health-wise :(

Me: Take your gun out of your purse.... No, don't grab his gun, it's not going to work. Jake gave you a gun for a reason.... I'm serious, it's not going to work.... OK, it didn't work. NOW grab your gun out of your purse... ***SIGH*** All I wanted from the finale was for Rowan to die. Foiled again. On the other hand, I was really nervous the show would leave on a giant cliffhanger that would make for an unbearably long two months. But that? Meh. I think I'll be fine. See you in two months, show.

Olivia should have stabbed her father, just to shut him the fuck up. To just sit there and let him ramble on and on while she's working the watery eyes and wobbly lip again? Feh. Stab him, then fix it. It's what you do, lady.

Tyler Ritter is so, so pretty. The show isn't perfect, but it is likeable enough for me to keep watching (and this episode did make me laugh several times). But frankly, even if it wasn't, I'd probably still tune in, because I really just want to stare at him. It's weird, because I don't find John Ritter, even young John Ritter, attractive at all. But Tyler? So, so pretty.

I. LOVE.THIS. SHOW. I don't even care how stupid the flashbacks were to Fitz saying "Truman" and Cyrus feeding Michael "Roosevelt" after Mellie said it, because they evidently assumed the audience was so stupid we couldn't remember that--let alone didn't see it coming a mile away--and needed to be spoonfed it. Because everything else was SO GOOD. The sheer emotional intensity of all of Abby's scenes, and the Rowan/Olivia showdown--with Olivia not backing down an inch when I was convinced she would, and Olivia's final play--BRILLIANT. Olivia Pope Getting Shit Done Like a FUCKING BOSS! THAT'S why I watch this show. The only thing that would have made it better was if Abby had shot that fucker in the face.