cali1981

I figure that either this "Abby is the kids manager" is pure, fake bunk or it's part of the enslavement contract that these foolish women roped themselves into. Melissa and Jill are complete morons so I'd expect them to sell their souls to make them, er, their kids stars. Holly and Kira appear to have much more on the ball so you have to wonder about them. I didn't see the first two seasons so I can't say whether Abby has always been this much of a miserable shrew or things have changed over the years. If Miller has been this way all along would anyone in their right mind sell their children away to her and that terrible company that produces this mess?

I don't think that most are saying that Maddie is not a good dancer. She obviously is. The problem is that Abby's stank has rubbed all over her and that she says nothing when Abby uses her to constantly and publicly denigrate the other girls. Maddie may only be 12 but that doesn't mean that she shouldn't a have an early moral compass and some ability to put herself in the other girls' shoes. It's really quite simple "Maddie how would you feel if Abby used another girl to repeatedly tear you down and make you doubt your own abilities?" Any 12 year old should be able to give the correct answer to that. What this also means is that Melissa hasn't reached the level of a 12 year old yet because she would probably wouldn't even understand that question and would sit there with the typical smirk on her puss. It makes you wonder about how Melissa would act if her kid wasn't the teacher's pet and was being verbally assaulted all of the time.

We all knew that 3XK wasn't killed by Castle and that he would be brought back for a brief story arc. They'll do the same with Senator Scumbag and the widespread, convoluted conspiracy that he's part of and that killed Beckett's mother. One thing about 3XK though, Michael Mosley is freaking great in the role. When they gave him those glazed eyes in the interrogation room, it was creepy as hell and he really looked like a far gone psychotic. The eyes reminded me of a SciFi pic in the late 1950s "The Brain from Plant Arous". In it, when John Agar, possessed by an alien being, is about to blow something up his eyes turn into pools of liquid black while he laughs maniacally. Some makeup effects never grow old.

Agreed. The woman has a PhD in Education yet her actions seem to be the opposite of everything about children that her many years of training should have taught her. If I'm interviewing Dr. Holly for a high powered job in education, her participation in Dance Moms and its level of what most would call child abuse, is absolutely fair game. The first question would be in regard to her own daughter and the ongoing, routine degrading comments and treatment that she has been subjected to. Let Holly try to BS her way of that one. Maybe she would say that none of it was real or that if it was, she was locked into a contract and could do nothing about it. Give me answer number two and I'd just "thanks, we'll be in touch" and eliminate her from consideration. I hope that Holly is being paid enough to make this crap worth it to her.

I kind of figured that Kurt was still CIA inserted into TKG to get a handle on their dealings and information sources. Isn't Sid (James Remar) a black ops guy who works for TKG? So because he has a soft spot for Charlie, he kidnaps Kurt for her? Wouldn't that put him in jeopardy courtesy of Victor? I will admit that I did not see Fatah being the #1 man coming and that the alleged Sheik is just a front man (not very durable employment though). Fatah has been playing Nick and Charlie for how many years? Why he must be the smartest man on the face of the planet. And per the tease for next week, Charlie "resigns" from the agency so she wage a one woman operation to find and kill Fatah? I have liked this show but, after last night, I'm so sure about it anymore.

We've been given no evidence that Maddie can sing a note well, let along a song. Of course, if the standard is her younger sister, why Maddie might be the next Jill Scott or Megan Hilty... NOT! In order to make a Broadway ensemble you have to be an excellent dancer, a good singer and an OK actor. Somehow I don't see Maddie being the Donna McKechnie OR Bebe Neuwirth of her generation. Abby constantly blows this BS smoke up Maddie and Melissa's rear ends.

And, unfortunately, the Grammys appearance will just be one more thing that Abby can beat to other girls over the head with. I feel very sorry for the kids and for their mothers who are actively delusional most of the time.

I have liked the show from the beginning despite some its medical inaccuracies. I thought that the send off was excellent, hitting all of the right emotional cues. Octavia Spencer is a joy to watch. She is just a wonderful actress who can bring depth to any role that she plays. It was nice to see Mandy Moore back on TV as well. I did find some parts of the cancer story lines difficult to watch at times. I've had cancer touch my family too many damn times and felt that some of those sequences hit close to home. When Leo was told that his cancer had reoccurred, his reactions were not atypical for many, which I know from my own experience. Some patients react with a "whatever it takes" battle cry but others can go into a depression because the news is so devastating. While the conclusion was hopeful for the patients, one died and one knew that his cancer might kill him despite treatment. That's realistic enough for me.

Well, I guess that I'm in very small minority but I enjoyed the show last. After the last two disastrous episodes, it was refreshing change. I've always accepted Glee as a part Jukebox, part fantasy show without analyzing every departure from reality and last night's show was much more in line with that. It did, as did the first few shows of this season, harken back to the first two or three seasons of the series. In the name of full disclosure, I have been an avid Burt Bacharach fan since his early days with Hal David, Dionne Warwick and so many others. His music is so good that it's hard to screw it up and I didn't feel that the cast did that in anyway last night. I don't mind Sam and Rachel at all. They are both rebounding from a breakup and a tragedy respectively and have known each other for a number of years. Why wouldn't they gravitate towards each other? It happens every day. The conversation between Sam and Mercedes was one of the better ones over the last two years. It had rings of truth and reality to it and was well played by Cord and Amber. The scene with Jennifer Coolidge and Ken Jeong as Brit's parents was hilarious, primarily because the two of them are expert comic actors. The only sour note for me. as others have said, is Rachel getting the Broadway audition. Her Funny Girl producer (Michael Lerner) warned her about what would happen if she had another misstep and along with suing her back to the stone age he said very bluntly that she would never work on Broadway again. If you're blacklisted, you are not going to get near a Broadway, off-Broadway or even a major regional theater. Of course then the fantasy wouldn't hold up so there you have it. I don't think that Nya Rivera has looked any more beautiful than she did last night. She was absolutely stunning. Becca Toobin was as well. I've also felt that since she had her baby, whatever Heather Morris' skills are right now, there is a glow about her that I'm sure is the result of motherhood.

Another very enjoyable episode. I laughed out loud when Sherlock was enjoying the company of one and then two lovely ladies. You go son! It was good to see more of the old repartee between Sherlock and Joan. While the Kitty story arc was very well done with a top notch acting job by Ophelia Lovibond, getting the show back to its roots is most welcome. It was also nice to see Brian George as Andrew's father. He's a wonderful actor, probably best known for Seinfeld but who has done guest shots on a lot of TV shows over the years.

I'm beginning to agree. This story arc is so idiotic that it's almost unwatchable. So let me get this straight. Somehow, the entire Secret Service Presidential detail, and who knows how many White House staffers are part of this war cabal? Why? The Secret Service angle is so patently absurd that it shatters the show's creditability. There is no way in hell that something like that happens. A rogue agent like Tom, who is an embedded V613 operative is one thing but the entire detail? Give me a break. Even the thought of Fitz sending countless American troops to their deaths in a pointless war in a dink water nation to save his precious Olivia is insane. When Fitz said to Mellie that he was going to kill Olivia by not going to war, he was being true to his oath of office and his role as Commander in Chief. Why would he pay any attention to anything that Mellie had to say on the matter? Fitz should have remembered the immortal words of Mr. Spock, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one" Get that man some Star Trek DVDs. The writers have created a storyline that is so implausible that their only way out of it is to up the ante on the "drama" by adding more absurdities to it. I love this show but right now it has definitely jumped the shark. Please make next week's show the conclusion of this nonsense.

What was great was that after Nia really did a far more "extemporaneous" and effective reading of the part and Abby Lardbutt tried to, as usual, ruin her chances, the casting agent handed Abby her hat by saying that putting a different spin on the character was not a bad thing and could be very good. Of course Abby knows far more about casting than the casting agent, especially if it's casting children who she can abuse and victimize. That, she's very good at.

It looks like Kathrine McCormick, a SYTYCD Alum and a fabulous dancer who has done extremely well has a prominent role in the film. Good for her. I was a bit taken aback by the declaration that second place is like losing and "when you don't win, it's like a stab in the heart" from the girls. It was refreshing to hear McCormick say that while she doesn't regret competing, the competitions have a negative effective on the dance industry. LOL!! Ah yes, Abby Lee Miller, the Norma Desmond of the dance world.

On the glimpses we get of Kalani actually dancing you can see that the kid has got it (as many of her YouTube clips also show) but she will never be allowed to take Maddie's spotlight away. It's not that Maddie isn't a very good dancer. She is but this ongoing dirge of "Maddie is the bestest, most wonderful dancer in the whole wide world" is absurd and not true by a long shot. You have to wonder about what sort of contract Kira agreed to, one in which her clearly very talented and very good looking daughter, is always playing second banana to some one that she's probably equal to and possibly better than. As far as the contract goes, I wonder if it's as air tight as is purported. Maybe it's not analogous but when Clay Aiken realized how ensnaring his contract with American Idol's production company was he hired an entertainment lawyer from Atlanta who was able to extricate him from the almost slavish agreement. Philip Phillips, an Idol winner a couple of seasons back has also now filed suit to get out from under 19 Entertainment's yoke. Clearly, there are times when such contracts can be voided but would any of these Mama Roses on DM do that? Probably not because, like Holly, they are convinced that their kids are going to be big stars thanks to the show and are willing to have them subjected to what can only be classified as child abuse in order to achieve that. It's all really quite sad and depressing.

Did anyone look closely at the judges when the camera panned on them? They looked awfully familiar especially the guy wearing the cap. Is it possible that the show uses the same "judges" at its phony competitions and that insures that Maddie will win? I actually thought that Maddie was very good last night but it was still the familiar set of movements and the "Maddie face" that seems to be a constant. I would have liked to have seen more of the other group numbers because they would have exposed how Abby's rote and lame "teaching" isn't close to what real studio owners and choreographers are doing out there. As far as Nia goes, listening to Holly babble on about how Nia is going to be a "star" and she's going to do whatever it takes to make that happen, makes me believe that she has drowned in a bucket of the kool-aid and is now as actively delusional as the other fools that she sits with. Does she realize how absurd she now looks and sounds on this show?

That was one reason but the other probably was that Rachel (and Kurt) wanted this new, raw group to have the experience of performing for real on a stage in front of an "audience". That was as valuable as not being embarrassed.

But is this the way that Murphy and Falchuk really want to go out? I thought that the entire elevator/Sue doll sequence was outright crap. It was lazy, stupid sloppy writing by a bunch of people who seem to have no clue as to how the close out the series. God knows what Darren and Chris really thought when they were handed this drek in the script. The show is at a point where in order to score cheap laughs (not!) they have given Sue mystical powers worthy of Lord Voldermort. She can materialize a fake elevator with trap doors and all sorts of mechanical wonders in the middle of a high school? Any fantasy or sci-fi has to have a sliver of reality behind it in order to work and this had none. The song set by ND was pretty good. The newbies can sing and the ensemble sounded good together. Hopefully they'll get good songs to perform. How long is Will for VA? They clearly detest him and I'm sure that they and their well heeled parents will push for his ouster. It does happen in real life. For the first two years of her high school band career, my daughter's band director was one of the most brilliant guys I've ever known. The school couldn't allocate much to the band program and we weren't a wealthy community so he made up for that with a degree of musicianship, creativity and showmanship that let our 80 kid band compete with and, at times, beat bands that were 2-3 times its size with much more financial resources at their disposal. As much of a genius as he was, our director was corny and a strict disciplinarian but the kids adored him and would perform beyond their limits for him. He was just perfect for our school and these kids. He left for another HS band program in a very upper middle class+ city with kids who were not used to his style and resistant to the kind of band program that he wanted. Well, guess what? Before the school year ended the students and their well heeled parents mounted a well coordinated campaign to pressure the school board into action and sure enough, his contract was not renewed. Will Schuster is facing the same problems and it will be adios Vocal Adrenaline. The question will be where does Will end up? Would Sue have to gone for him to return to McKinley and if he does what happens to Chris and Rachel? There are some good plot possibilities there but the potential for this group of writers to completely botch them is there.

You notice how Kalani seems to be nothing but background noise now? Hopefully Kira didn't foolishly lock her and Kalani into another of those slavery contracts.

So now Abby is the girls' manager? When did that happen? Why would Holly or Jill or Kira ever agree to that? Maybe it's just another phony plot device by the scumbag producers but who knows? I was hoping that Abby did pull Nia for JoJo because it might have finally pushed Holly over the edge. JoJo's mother is a horror but frankly no more so than Melissa who would pimp her kids out in a New York second. I love the way the Abby keeps proclaiming that LA is the the place to be to get jobs in the industry. Of course that's only if your last name is Ziegler. If not, the best of luck to you and have a nice day. Why was Abby so shocked at how the divisions were determined in yet another bogus competition. As the studio owner, it's her responsibility to know everything about any event she is competing in. I guess she was just too busy to notice. In the real world that's usually known as gross incompetence or negligence.

I have to admit that this one doesn't sit well. If Kurt breathed a single word about Fatah and Bellerophon to Victor he would be revealing information having the highest security classification and should be arrested and locked away for a very long time. There is no way in hell that Agency policy doesn't make that crystal clear to ex-employees. If Kurt is that stupid, he deserves whatever nasty stuff comes his way. You would think that the CIA, through the FBI, would have eyes on Kurt for quite some time given his apparent prior double dealing.

Even with all of the implausible aspects of the show, I did enjoy last week's episode and feel that the series has gotten stronger as it's gone along. Sure some of the mechanics and logistical issues are a bit much but, OTOH, the show last week did cover ground that could be "ripped from the headlines" . Sleeper cells of disaffected young people susceptible to social media and propaganda? ISIS anyone? A highly placed "terrorist" actually a CIA asset? It could happen (and possibly has). All in all, I choose to downplay the more over the top faults and just go with the story lines that are increasingly getting closer to the edges of our current realities.

I recorded it and took a quick look at it today. The overrsized History "bug" in the lower right corner is annoying enough but now you have to see a damn idiot static hashtag in the top left corner as well? What the hell is History Channel thinking about? Do they really think that the prime audience for this series is going to be teens and those in their early 20s? Those of us with Plasma sets are always concerned about static logos causing image retention. My Panny VT60 set has, fortunately, not fallen prey to IR but why push my luck?

Anyone think that Becky wearing the lobster suit during VA's performance was idiotic? What they've done to Becky's character over the past two years is really obscene. For someone who is always ramming "lessons" and PSAs down our throats, you would think that Ryan Murphy might have something worthwhile with Becky, like showing her growth as an independent early adult. Maybe if she was gay and had Downs, RM would have scripted her differently.

Like everyone else I was looking forward to Black Sails returning. The Season 2 opener was smashing. It covered so much current and past ground (via Flint's flashbacks) that I had to rewind the DVR a few times to make sure that I heard all of the dialogue. The writing during season 1 was very good but if last night is any indication, it's going to even better this season. When Silver pulled his "give up Flint" feint on the Spaniards and then pulled his chestnuts out of the fire, I was truly surprised. It was well played and the subsequent "escape" was exciting and hilarious. Toby Stephens and Luke Arnold really work well together. Oh and Max and Anne getting it on was OK by me. Jessica Parker Kennedy is one of the more intriguing women on TV these days. It's nice to have a quality show to look forward to every week.

Some of the worst writing and acting in the history of this series. Multiple Sue extended tirades? Really? What a novel idea. I wonder what Jane Lynch must really think about dredging up dialogue for Sue that is just recycled crap from four and five years ago. Sam being portrayed as a complete boob? Wonder which of the shining lights in the writer room came up with that. Except for VA's performance, everything about this episode was terrible.