[S02.E13: The Word]

I HATE that June didn't let herself get rescued for "reasons," but at least with Emily escaping, she now has plausibility that Crazy Emily killed Lydia and stole her friend's baby before running away, and June somehow had nothing to do with it. June had better kill the fuck out of Fred when she goes back to the Waterford house though, otherwise, what the fuck is the point of her not-escape from the house? Serena is going to be wicked pissed at "her" baby not being with any of its mothers now though isn't she? Just hopefully not pissed enough to send someone after Emily to get her back. I think I'm ready for Season 3 to be the end of Gilead and this Tale though. There's only so much of Offred the Martyred I think we can handle. 

[Season 2 Talk]

i see a lot of people comparing female rape to male rape here, but the difference between Tyler's rape and the other rapes wasn't male vs female, it was anal rape vs vaginal rape, it was rape with a foreign object, it was rape that caused bleeding for hours, it was rape after a brutal assault, it was rape in front of multiple people, it was rape over a toilet bowl on the bathroom floor. There was a lot going on in that scene that made it brutal, that had nothing to do with Tyler's gender. In fact NONE of what made it brutal and honestly more awful than any of the other assaults we saw on this show had to do with his gender. Even if he were female and he had been vaginally raped in the same way, it would have been horrific. Everything about his rape was horrible, to the point that it actually made me want him to gun down the entire fucking school. I was mad at him for not going to anyone when it happened, but I totally understood his rage. 

 

I also don't understand why people felt he seemed rehabilitated? But maybe it's because I'm a psychiatrist- he seemed like he was faking well from the very moment he came back. 

[Jesus Christ Superstar Live! (NBC) - General Discussion]

I  have loved JCS the movie since i was a kid (over 20years ago?!), and I was struck by how this staging seemed to really focus the story so much more on the relationship between Judas and Jesus for me, with Judas being the real lead character here, where the movie seemed to be more focused on Jesus to me. I'm sure a lot of it also had to do with just how amazing the actor playing Judas in this production was compared to everyone else. Jon Legend is an amazing song writer with an incredibly emotive voice, but his face has no emotion whatsoever. I really got very little from him until the very end when the emotion level was supposed to be at 110% (and his face reached about 60%?). I also was very disappointed by Alice Cooper's performance. He sounded great, but he barely moved. And Jon Legend barely moved. That song was a hoot in the movie version, and in this version, if it weren't for the dancing girls hamming it up, it could have just been a performance by two cardboard cutouts!

[S02.E09: Number Two]

What I learned from this episode is that Kate has had almost no real character development. Why else would the first half of the episode literally be mostly her walking around to sound clips from past episodes, followed by her wanting to eat (but not. yay?), and her fighting with mom but making up. This seems to be all there is to her. Toby, food, mom drama. Kevin has become more fleshed out as the series has progressed, and Randall has always been a well-developed character (bordering on "magical Negro" trope, since he seems to just touch everyone's lives in wonderful ways, all full of wise tales from his past). I did like the Rebecca/Kate interaction at the end, but I attribute that to Rebecca's character, not Kate's. This whole episode I found myself wondering how Kevin was doing....

[S07.E14: The Other Side]

I totally missed Jesus saying he was gay. when did that happen?

[S07.E06: Swear]

Gobi- yes, that was TOTALLY Dirty Three playing at the end. I was so excited when I recognized their sound, and when I looked it up, the song was called "Everything's Fucked." Very appropriate title for what Tara learned while the song was playing.

[S09.E01: Celebrity Dish-asters]

I was actually fairly disappointed by how many of the original dishes got "not that bad" comments, or "looks nice." And also at how many did well at the steak and eggs challenge. These are supposed to be THE WORST cooks, not just mediocre cooks. What happened to the first season where people were randomly throwing gummy bears into their entrees to liven things up, or serving completely terrible, inedible food? That's where the real humor is on this show. I'm glad Barbara Eden was kept, because she seems to be a truly bad cook, and I hope they can make her a good cook. Her Curry Chicken Casserole I think truly was a reflection of her age though. That generation casseroled everything!

[S04.E03: Little Bill Primm's Big Green Horseshoe]

my favorite part was actually Bridget impersonating Abby. such an asshole kid thing to do, but she did Abby's thick accent so well. I kind of loved it.

As for Bunchy and Teresa, part of me is happy he's found love, and part of me feels like he's in an abusive relationship (not just a BDSM relationship like it kind of seemed when she first came around as a Luchadora). I don't know what to make of them. She seems to legitimately care about him, but also treats him like shit a lot. And Bunchy is "special." I'm surprised she'd want to be with a guy like that.

[S06.E12: Brynn's Big Moment]

I tuned in right at the end, and then watched the whole episode. So after hearing Jess say they'd switched the numbers, I listened during the performances for the numbers, and they did NOT switch the numbers at all. Brynn's group was 25, and the winner was 25. No mix up at all. Pure drama. I still can't stop watching though, and I have noticed recently that the group choreography has gotten much more mature, which is nice to watch.

[S06.E05: Abby's Replaceable]

Did others noticed how very heavily spliced the Debbie Allen speaking segment of the show was? They often cut away from her while she was talking, and some lines were repeated more than once while the camera was on Nia and Kalani. I felt like it was spliced to make Debbie Allen seem much more inviting of them than she really was. Watching the whole segment, I saw Debbie Allen as nice, but not particularly connected or invested in either of the two dancers or Holly, but Holly interpreting Debbie Allen's advances as whole-hearted interest in Nia, and sincere invitation for the Abby Lee girls to come train with her at her studio instead. Maybe I'm just being skeptical, but this seemed more like a superficial "hi, nice to meet you, thanks for taking my class, keep dancing, learning different genres is good for you" introduction to both girls, followed by "oh? you guys need a place to dance? we can offer you studio space [for the low-low price of....]." I did NOT hear anything that sounded like Debbie Allen had an interest in training the girls herself.

[S01.E06: The Good Man]

I kept thinking to myself that perhaps Salazar was the true cause of the Zombie Apocalypse. What if things would have been containable with the military killing everyone with any hint at all of disease, but then Salazar had to go let out thousands of zombies all at once to roam willy-nilly, biting and turning everyone they met?! Maybe that's too simple of an option, but that man is more evil than the more nuanced "we did what we had to" kind of guy they started him out to be. Letting loose thousands of zombies because you're pissed your crushed-foot-gangrenous wife was taken from you is a little bit of overkill when you already know what the effects of that is going to be. Plus, count me in with the others wondering how he so casually walked ahead of them all, and got them to just hang out until he needed their dramatic entrance at the military gates!

 

Also, someone upthread had the same idea as me: I thought it would've been awesome to end the season with every single main character dying, and then starting next season brand new somewhere else, or with different people. That would be a great idea, having each season be a case of not knowing if the cast would actually make it or not. At least with Walking Dead, we've learned that no one person is safe, but we also know that the whole cast will never be wiped out at once either.

[S11.E01: Auditions No. 1]

I was quite upset that SYTYCD included Bieber in the show. Not only has he gotten so much bad press lately for his very bad behaviors, but his red, puffy eyes made it fairly clear that he was actively high during the filming. Seriously, even the makeup people couldn't make him look less stoned? It was just shameful to me. And it's not like Bieber is known for being some incredible dancer- he's not relevant to this show in any way!

 

Other than that, I'm very happy to have my show back. I wait all year for this :)