wisteria

I just watched that, and "wife" was barely audible. I wouldn't put it past ABC to bury that in the sound mix. I really appreciated that when the Sharks tried to push her into revealing one of the sob stories they love so much, she didn't fall into the trap. Very professional overall... except for how she dressed like she was heading to Target after the pitch. I hate the higher standards for female entrepreneurs, but that's taking "casual" too far.

And I can't pick up a link right now, but Chris Sacca announced today that he's retiring from investing and Shark Tank. Now I shall go console myself with my wine sippy cup while one perfect tear rolls down my cheek.

Seems like I've read somewhere that they do film the episodes over the course of several days. I've also noticed Lori in that colorblock dress all season. In addition to scheduling, I guess this would make editing easier, in case the producers want to rearrange the businesses that appear on each episode without being so obvious about it. Of course, the chunked filming would really suck for the businesses that filmed last summer but have to wait until March for the advertising and to let their clients know they got a deal. Kevin crowing about how all his companies love him made me wonder: do we ever hear from companies that regret their Shark Tank deals? And unless I'm mistaken, the federal loan forgiveness programs only apply to people in public service professions. You actually have to prove that your job helps the community or whatever (so unless the ophthalmologists are giving free Lasik to poor people, they wouldn't qualify.) They're also very restrictive. I've been a public school teacher for 20 years -- including 3/4 of those in low-income schools -- yet I don't qualify because I consolidated years ago when I was young and stupid. I'll be paying that $20K loan for the rest of my life.

I'm surprised that the swimsuit discussion didn't mention women who might want full-coverage suits for modesty reasons related to their religion. That could be a huge growth market.

Ha! It was actually the very, very cool Bellwood Quarry, also seen in S1 of The Walking Dead, the singing scene in Mockingjay, and half the other movies/shows filmed in Atlanta. I tried to take a tour last May, but it was shut down to film Captain America. Re: Betsy Ross. I posted in the spoilers thread that I went to the ATVfest screening of this episode last week. In attendance were Greenwood, Appelman, Camacho, and Reed. Nikki said that she actually filmed four separate scenes with the Lafayette character, and she even spent hours learning French pronunciation so she could say her lines properly. It sounded like most of her scenes this season have been edited out. Reed sounded a little disappointed (though NOT bitter, for the record) but said that it's just the nature of the business. She also said that from the start the writers intended the Betsy-Ichabod relationship to be platonic -- even if it didn't always come across onscreen -- and that aspect is more clear in some upcoming episodes. Overall, the screening and especially the Q&A were a lot of fun, and it was neat to see the actors' camaraderie; I only wish Beharie and Mison had been there too. And yeah, they do apparently have a standing date to watch the episodes at one of their houses. I'd love to finagle an invite one Friday night!

I just got home from ATVfest here in Atlanta, where they screened next Friday's episode. It's very Abbie-centric, reaffirming the partnership between her and Ichabod. By the end, she's back in the fold, though the actors (Greenwood, Appelman, Camacho, and Reed) at the post-screening panel said that Abbie's experiences will definitely take an emotional toll. Still, she was strong and determined and very much the Abbie I adore. BTW, Nikki Reed also said that when she started, she was concerned about a potential Betsy/Ichabod affair or flirtation, since she didn't want him cheating on Katrina. Apparently the writers told her that their scenes take place before Ichabod's marriage, and Reed said that there are some upcoming scenes that confirm their strong platonic "partnership". After last night's episode, I was curious whether the writers had originally intended for Betsy Ross's arc to be much bigger, but they'd changed their mind for some reason -- you don't bring on an actor as a series regular only to have her play small, inconsequential scenes in every other episode. Reed said that she has actually filmed many more scenes this season (including maybe four? for 3.09), only to have most of those scenes get edited out of episodes. Huh.

I know this is becoming a broken record, but where can I legally stream S3? Comcast's OnDemand and the FX app have clips but no full episodes. The only place I can find it is to purchase individual episodes from Amazon Prime for $1.99 each, which I'd rather not do for various reasons. I know that FX made the Amazon deal for factors that probably helped the show stay in production, but it's a huge reason why it's having such a hard time attracting new viewers -- especially now when it's appearing high on so many top 10 lists. I really wish I hadn't deleted most of last season from my DVR. At least I still have "Stingers" and the season finale on there. *sigh*

Disclaimer: I'm a high school English teacher who has never worked an office job, so I could be totally wrong about all of this! If so, please be polite when you tell me I'm full of it. ;) I'm more interested in the repercussions beyond the consumer debt industry. Erasing 70% of debt overnight would probably cause many businesses to collapse, leaving thousands or even millions of people without jobs. As the Bloomberg article said, the government and private industry would have to find some way to replace all that money, so taxes would skyrocket along with cost of living. On a personal level, I graduated in the '90s and am STILL paying $400/month in student loans. Wiping that away would be heavenly... but my TRS and 403(b) pensions would also evaporate. It would be hellish for people like my now-broke retired parents who have no mortgage but also have no savings. I'm a staunch liberal who supported Occupy Wall Street and totally believes in wealth redistribution... but I think Mr. Robot has been way too starry-eyed about the hack. Sam Esmail has totally earned my trust, though, so I'm assuming that season two will deal with all the real-world ramifications that fsociety never even considered.

Bloomberg has an interesting post on the financial implications of the E Corp hack. Two caveats: 1) consider the source, and 2) the writer doesn't seem to understand how E Corp works within the show's universe. Still, I agree that fsociety's plan will have some not-so-rosy repercussions, since wiping out debt doesn't mean that those of us with credit cards, mortgages, and/or student loans are now free to do whatever we want. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-09/the-caper-in-mr-robot-is-no-robin-hood-scheme

For some silly reason I can't quite articulate, the idea of Tyrell=Elliot or vice-versa really bothers me. (And I'm not targeting you, Avaleigh, as I've seen lots of spec on this topic both here and elsewhere!) I've been 100% on board with all the twists and turns so far, but this one would feel like Esmail pushing things too far, especially after the Mr. Robot and Darlene reveals. Aside from the fact that other characters who know Tyrell don't recognize Elliot, it just seems like we're meant to take some aspects of the reality of the show's world at face value. Every hero -- even if Elliot definitely doesn't fit the hero or antihero mold -- needs a foil, and Tyrell has been set up as that. I definitely believe that Joanna is far more complicated than the show has even hinted at so far, but her scene with Elliot is another that I want to take at face value. Plus, Esmail has said that season one is meant to be the first act, setting the stage for everything to come. I think that all the pieces are in place now, and I don't think he's going to change the game in that particular fashion. I can see Esmail setting up Tyrell as a psychological mirror of all of Elliot's issues, but I just have a gut feeling that them actually being the same person is NOT part of that mirroring. Maybe I'm wrong. Season two could open with another huge twist that blows everything we think we know out of the water. But this particular twist would just feel like overkill, and this show is much smarter than that.

This is the best explanation I've read, from Todd van der Werff (who has seen the episode) on Vox:

Unless I just missed it, I'm surprised he didn't even mention Scientology, which is a great big shining example of the call-yourself-a-church tax exemption scam. (Or maybe HBO figured they'd already punished CoS enough with Going Clear?) And thanks for the DwB heads-up, TheAbsolution! I thought I might send him a dollar bill just for a laugh, but now I might bump up that amount.

Or his tweets. I pasted them into Twitter, and they're all slightly under 140 characters. That's possible, though I have no idea how all that works! The person writing them would need to have access to the episodes in advance in order to get them posted to OnDemand in time. Or, heck, maybe they're written by Esmail and/or his writing team, but the USA marketing team uses the formal descriptions to make the show sound more accessible? (Which is rather silly, since if you're watching Mr. Robot, you're already probably fluent in textspeak. ;) Slightly more on-topic: I'm intrigued by how the show blends real-world names and fake ones. They'll name-drop Apple and other brand names, and they'll hang a photo of President Obama and in the pilot cited Jeh Johnson, the current Secretary of Homeland Security. But as far as I can tell, the computer screens seldom show real companies, like when Elliot was researching himself this week. And when he hacked Gideon's email, it looked identical to Gmail but had a different name I don't remember. I didn't recognize any of the services he used, though they appeared just close enough to sites like Google and Twitter to pass muster. Could it be a copyright issue, akin to how, say, L&O:SVU looks up perp profiles on "Faceplace"? (Then again, I seem to recall him visiting real-world sites like Instagram and Eharmony when hacking Krista. Maybe I'm just totally wrong on all this, but the blending of real and fake is really fascinating, especially given how the show plays with this being an ECorp-ruled alternate universe that has so many elements of our own universe.)

I've been rewatching the show via OnDemand to bump the ratings, and I've noticed that the episode descriptions are different. For example, here's the 1.08 summary from Comcast's episode guide: "Allsafe is controlled; the Dark Army is ready to meet Elliot; and Tyrell and Joanna's plan goes into effect." And here's what shows up in the OnDemand listing: "allsafe gets pwned -- & dark army is ready to meet elliot. is it @whiterose? tyrell and joannas plan goes into full effect." Is anyone else seeing these on their regular channel guides? No idea why the descriptions are different, but whoever's writing these has a sense of humor. This from last week's ep: "elliot MIA. mr. robot gotta pull fsociety back together. future depends on it. angela goes head to head w/ old nemesis. IMO risky as hell."

I suspect the producers told the student in Malaysia to play up the hair thing because it was funny and cute. It was not funny or cute. I suppose that some of her demands were reasonable (water pressure, overcrowding, air conditioning, etc...), but I didn't give a damn because I was so annoyed by the hair thing. My favorite part was the ending when her housemates in headscarves rolled their eyes while she boiled water to wash her damn hair.