spaceghostess

OMG, this--thank you! I couldn't believe she went down there like that, and yeah, I was always scrounging for quarters to do my laundry when I lived in my first apartment in Yonkers in the '90s. Beyond worrying about creepers and floor-borne illnesses, I'd pretty much convinced myself she was feeding a rat (or a colony of them), rather than a cat. Sure, she heard meowing, but c'mon: leaving food in a subterrenean building hole is going to attract roaches at the very least and, very likely, furry creatures that are rather less cute than kitty. She's lucky ants were the worst she had to deal with. The whole setup was so weird, it distracted me from the deeper messages we were, no doubt, meant to unpack.

I thought this was an interesting choice, from an album ("Cold Spring Harbor") that Joel hated because the tracks were mistakenly recorded too high, making him "sound like a chipmunk". "She's Got a Way" is from that album, although the radio version is one he re-recorded. I've always liked it because I think it has some really good songs, including the title track; it was a flop when it was released in 1971, though. Was it on the radio, or was Rebecca playing a tape?

I just saw him on a BBC comedy series called Grandma's House, originally aired between 2010 and 2012. He played an actor on whom the main character (an ex-t.v. presenter) has a huge crush. He's really quiet, shy, and mumbly, to the point where people keep shouting at him to speak up and he sort of just sits there cringing and peering out from under his artsy haircut. He's SO adorable in it.

Gah, why am I not surprised re: the prostitution ring? So grim--but then, this show has never exactly been a laugh riot (gallows humor notwithstanding). Just like you, I was all raring to go for episode seven--Who was knocking at Robin's door? Would she continue her affair with nebbishy Pike? Would Miranda recover? Would we ever see New Zealand again--only to have my balloon deflated when Hulu rolled me into episode one of something called "Cardinal". I'm pretty pissed off that they effectively slammed the book shut on the actual Lake, as I'd love it if Robin had a reason to go back there (maybe with Mary in tow) should there be a third season.

Nah, Robin wasn't supposed to marry Johnno in Season 1. They reunited after not having seen each other for 15 years, but when the series began she was engaged to a guy named Steve in Sydney who we never saw onscreen. He got tired of her leaving him hanging and ended the relationship. Robin was fine with it, as she and Johnno were going at it hot and heavy by that point.

Meh, I missed The Lake, TBH. The New Zealand travel porn was one of the main attractions of season 1 for me. Season 2 seemed filmed deliberately to make Sydney as generic as possible. Take away the accents and it could have been LA or any number of other beachy city locales. Also, the way Johnno was hustled off so ignominiously? I just didn't buy it at all after the intensity of their relationship. It felt like a cheap and clumsy way to make Robin single. Mary's hard lean into rebellion got on my last nerve and made me dread the prospect of my almost-twelve-year-old turning seventeen. The Alexander/Puss actor did a great job making my skin crawl, though, so kudos to him. I wanted to KILL the cafe-porn-John-nerds every time they were onscreen, and the waitress who appeared not to know/care what they were doing made it even worse. I wanted so badly for that one guy to fall victim to grisly murder. Overall, this season pushed it too far with the misogyny tropes. So many of the guys were creeps that even Pike--who maybe wasn't supposed to be a creep?-- was a creep to me because he slept with his adopted daughter's birth mom when he knows Mary is all kinds of fucked up already. But the medical examiner, I loved. He was the best all the time. It was fun to see Gwendoline Christie in this, even if the role wasn't worthy of her. I'm another one who thought Robin's brother was gay, so I was like, "What the hell?" when it looked as if he and Miranda had hooked up. The ending with the surrogates was so grim. I'd like to think Puss just moved them to extort more money from the "parents", but the fact that he literally took all the moms out of the country makes me believe those babies are doomed. :( Kinda hoped it was Johnno knocking on Robin's door in the end. I know, I'm the lamest.

Heh, I had the exact same reaction when I watched this one a little while back. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jon is my Iron Woobie, and I am not ashamed of my lack of coolness re: him.

Just had to chime to say that I, too, think of that episode every time I have an eye exam. Or jump into a pool, if I'm thinking of the same ep you are. There can't be two Hart to Hart's like that, can there? Heh, I seem to remember every episode of Hart to Hart involving jumping into a pool. This, I think, is because the pool was in the credits. Also, I literally haven't seen Hart to Hart since its original run.

Just spitballin', but is Sandor Clegane not the "little" brother of Gregor? Maybe The Hound wraps his hands around Cersei's throat pre-(or post-) CleganeBowl. Maybe he's the valonqar.

Didn't see your post before I wrote mine, but yup, that's what my mom had with her first. I respect her so much for saying "never again" to that. Claire knew exactly what was happening with her body; it was so infuriating to see her put under and to think about the generations of women that had to go through that. The book Birth by Tina Cassidy is a great exploration of the history of childbirth and what led up to the type of experience we see Claire having in this episode.

My mom gave birth to her first baby in 1956 and they put her in some sort of twilight sleep, which was awful. The doctor kept telling her to push, and she felt like she couldn't feel to push, she was so out of it. It was a horrible experience for her which prompted her to have the rest of us naturally, starting with my older sister in 1961. Even in '61, Mom was getting the side-eye for not wanting gas or anything else. Her example had a lot to do with my sticking to my guns about having an intervention-free VBAC for my second kid. Thank god for my midwives and the awesome OB-GYN at the hospital (a VBAC veteran herself). I really felt for Claire dealing with Dr. McPatronizing during the delivery. That whole sequence was really well done, especially when she woke up terrified that the baby was dead. Lost it over Rupert. Heartbreaking and so well acted by all.

I'm three quarters of the way through something called Injustice, from 2010. It stars James Purefoy (Rome), but more importantly, we've got Kate Dickie (Lysa Arryn) and Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm) in smaller roles. KD has only had one scene so far, but JA appears in every episode as a belligerent, mouthy teen incarcerated in juvie.

Don't know, but I can't think of poor Rickon Stark without hearing Peter Falk's voice yelling "Serpentine, Shelly! Serpentine!!".

"It's Dickon." Sorry, couldn't resist.

Oasis--that's the one I was talking about! Still no word on whether it'll be picked up. Thanks for the heads-up on the Electric Dreams episode, which I should be able to get. Sadly, I cannot get Lady Chatterley (Doing it with Robb Stark) for hell or high water, as it's not available to stream. Same with The Frankenstein Chronicles, although at least my Roku acknowledges its existence, which affords me a shred of hope. Madden seems to have had no trouble getting interesting in work the last few years, which is great. I hope the rest of the younger end of the cast is as successful after next season.

Oh, my. Thanks much for that. Richard Madden is responsible for my having sat through that preposterously overstuffed and soapy Medicis thing on Netflix. It's really sad what I'll do for these GoT hotties. I also saw the pilot of an Amazon sci-fi thing he's in, which I can't for the life of me remember the name of right now. That wasn't too bad; I'm hoping they'll make more episodes. ETA: I flove James Norton, too. Enjoyed the full range of his talents by watching Pleasant Valley and the first season of Grantchester back to back.

Ooooh, nice! Also nice: the prospect of Madden as Mellors. I'll have to track that down with a quickness.

I'm going to be starting a re-watch soon. Problem is, I want to spread it out over the year-plus until season 8 starts, but can't figure out how to prevent myself from madly bingeing it in a matter of weeks.

You had me at "Penny Dreadful shaped hole". That show broke my heart . . . and I miss it SO. MUCH. I'll check out The Frankenstein Chronicles (how did I not know about this??) per your recommendation and because I like Sean Bean well enough that I may have recently binged 1993's Lady Chatterly . . .

Yup, and things went pear-shaped for her in a truly memorable way.

That's what I thought, too. Joan has officially lost any good will she had coming from me (and I did like her up until this season made me realize that she's been gone for months without a word to anyone who cares about her). What she's doing is incredibly self indulgent. You need some "you time", okay. But don't leave your parents wondering if you're alive or dead. It's just an ass thing to do, and Morse was super-weak in how he brought up with her. He should have said something to the effect of "Your parents are shattered. Whatever you're going through isn't their fault; tell them you're alright or I will." I found this week's mystery somewhat meh, although it was funny to see Mrs. Shrimpy keepin' it elitist and bitchy on yet another show. Has anyone here besides me seen Phoebe Nichols in season 1 of Fortitude? To say the role is a departure from all these period pieces would be quite the understatement.

Yeah, book Jon is definitely more complex, but I think his essence carries over better than many of the other characters'. IIRC, show Jon seemed as if he was fully prepared to continue beating the tar out of Ramsay until he was dead, but then looked to Sansa and understood that she wanted to finish the job. Still, point taken--I'd forgotten about the rage blackouts. Maybe a re-read is in order between now and next season. Lord knows there's plenty of time . . . Back on topic, the Dragon Pit scene (before, and especially after Daenerys arrives) offered stink-eye exchanges of epic proportions. Like, I don't think I've seen daggers stared like that since The Women and All About Eve. Awesome. But Sam's response to Bran's declaration that he's the Three-eyed Raven--"Oooh! . . . .I don't know what that is?"--brought me unparalleled joy and may have been my favorite thing ever.

Heh, I feel your pain re: the reading issue. My full-time career was in publishing, and I've been a freelance copywriter for the industry ever since my kids were born. Getting to read something I choose is rare as hens' teeth, so I try to cram my reading into dry spells between jobs (read the whole [so far] ASIAF series a few years ago during the slow season). Problem is, when I have a chance to read what I want, I'm sometimes too sick of reading to do it! Still, I can't get into audio books, except to listen in the car. I get antsy if I can't retain character names and stuff, and I only manage to do that successfully if I'm taking in the information visually.

You just made me imagine an ending scene in which Arya and Sansa look at the baby lovingly and smile at each other. Together, they'll teach him/her to be a noble-yet-shrewd leader and deadly fighter and become closer as sisters in the process. Not gonna lie; I'm verklempt. ETA: The fact that this could only happen if both Dany and Jon die is a huge downside to this scenario, IMHO. But if one or both of them must go (and I have the sinking feeling that my Iron Woobie, Jon, is marked for his permanent demise next season), this ending would make it a tad more bearable for me. And yes, it is, in fact, all about me.

As well she should!