bantering

I agree that she doesn't take ownership of who she sleeps with. Even if Analise thinks people should do whatever it takes to win, she doesn't really strike me as the type to be interested in "her kids'" sex lives the way that old mother who caused her own fake death attempt seemed to be. I think she leaves it up to them to do whatever they want with their bodies. They all clearly like having sex -- their cases and/or guilt seem to be a pretext for acting out on their hormones (like when Connor slept with Pax) rather than instructions given by Analise, imo. "Use your boobs" sounds no different to me than a restaurant manager saying to use your charm to get more tips -- while I do find that advice kind of questionable/problematic for women, more so for some reason than when Analise says it, I still don't think he's actually telling his crew to go and sleep with the customers.

I think the actual murder/manslaughter of Sam tracks back to Rebecca, which is ultimately what they've all been trying to hide. It's the murder that got them into the life situation they are now -- not just avoiding jail, but also dealing with the guilt of killing someone indirectly. The messes prior to his murder are Sam's fault (yes, I agree). But none of that had anything to do with the Keating 5. They never would have been busted for that since they had no connection to what he did. They didn't know him then and there's no way a court of law could point to them having a connection to what Sam and Frank concocted. However, I think the murder of Sam could have been avoided if Rebecca hadn't been in that house at such an odd time without any kind of extra help to get her out of the jam when she got caught (if you know the guy is a murderer, why are you going to that stinking house alone? I'm not faulting her for wanting to get the goods, but I am faulting her for how she went about doing it. Heck, I think even Nate should have had common sense and maybe given some instruction to Rebecca on how to get the material without getting into an altercation. Was Nate so angry at Analise he forgot how to instruct Rebecca how not to get trapped in the clutches of a murderer? Maybe finding a reason for a warrant would have been too logical). I also remember Rebecca thinking up the dumb idea to pin the murder of Asher by getting his footprint in the blood. At that point, I wondered why Wes wanted to help her so badly -- she was never really worth the trouble. And at that point it really wasn't clear what Analise was going to do about her husband. Everybody just assumed she'd save him, but we don't know that. We've seen her time and time again do her job, and I suspect she would have done the same for Rebecca. Analise is complicated morally and ethically, but she has common sense and logic. The rest don't, not even Nate. And especially not Rebecca. It's like we don't even care that she was murdered by Bonnie because logic seemed to elude her so much (and yeah, I pin that blame on Bonnie, not Wes or Rebecca herself. But I also don't pin that on Analise since I can't recall Analise giving dumb instructions like that. As I said in my previous post, it's when these people go off and do something on their own that they mess up.) On some level, I also think the others wanted to follow Analise's advice. I think Connor has been the closest to breaking, but ultimately none of them seem to have enough of an attack of conscience to want to break away from what she had been advising, and I'm not sure if that's because they fear the inside of a jail cell that much. She's now inside a jail cell, but seems to be taking it better than any of them would.

After seeing Laurel go at it hard with Frank, I find Wes and Laurel weird to watch. At the same time, I wish Rebecca was around to see a girl talk nicely to Wes. Rebecca needed more manners.

I think I'm jealous of Laurel's ability to pull men so easily. Sure, some of them are murderers, but she does appear to have game.

Michaela still has agency though. It's not Analise's fault that Michaela was dumb enough to sleep with him. It's not like it's impossible to control one's self when it comes to sex, especially when the person is your client with whom you're having professional discussions, not some person you started kissing while drunk at the bar. Annalise suggests that lawyers use their charm. It's part of the job to some extent to get the information you need (they've all done it, including Connor when he needed to get the old lady who was abused to admit to the Board why she killed her husband). But I think that's the extent of most mentors' advice. All of these people are running around doing things she never told them to do (i.e most recently, Wes lied to the police about the blonde guy being at the scene of his father's murder; Frank randomly murders people). And yet most of them, with the exception of Frank which is probably why I have some sympathy for the half-sociopath/half-human and Bonnie, have the gall to blame her. Most of the time she's giving advice that makes sense. It's when they decide to improvise and deviate from what she told them to do that they all land in trouble.

Yeah, Wes was in love with Rebecca which I feel is why they're all in the mess they are today. I didn't get it when Connor was blaming Analise (don't even get me started on Michaela blaming Analise for sleeping with Caleb. Wtf). Wes and Rebecca's inability to follow instruction properly are the reason Analise had to keep wiping her floors down. Duh.

I didn't say she wasn't in style magazines. I'm saying that the looks she uses on the show fit a very narrow subset of people. You don't have to be pretty like she is to pull of those looks, but I think you do have to be a little unconventional in some way. Cindy Crawford is a supermodel, and I don't think even she would look good in the stuff Julianne Hough is styled in.

Julianne Hough is traditionally pretty in that all-American way and has a very good body, but I think her face may not actually be interesting enough to pull off the looks that she does. That's probably why her looks fail. A lot of these looks fail even on other celebrities. You usually have to be an actual model or Tilda Swinton to pull them off.

Yeah, it didn't seem like a big deal. Which is probably why her package seemed to be the most boring. I think she has a great personality, but she's still too young to have an interesting life story. Even Locthe's life story seemed more interesting, and everybody thinks of him as a 16 year old trapped in a 32 year old's body.

Yeah, I was like "Is that real or staged?" How did Val manage to end up making an Olympic gymnastics gold medallist with a consistently happy emoji face cry? However, I did think Laurie herself was genuine about the pressure on her shoulders. I imagine she must carry a lot, despite how secure she often seems.

I think it's a little dumb for Oliver to tell Connor to act like a grown-up when he's the one who hacked Stanford to make sure Connor didn't see the acceptance. That's not exactly mature. Everyone, except for Analise (and Nate?), is working my last nerve this season. I do think the actress who plays Michaela is good at playing angst though. She seems super-stressed. I feel like maybe that's how Wes should be reacting. It's like his dad getting shot was just another day at the office for him. I can't tell if Wes is just a bad actor or if he's supposed to be in some comatose state from all the shock. If it's the latter, I don't think he'd be interested in having sex with the medical student though.

She better be working a long con because I have no idea why anybody would want to deal with him mooning after Laurel.

Babyface seemed nice and humble, so for that reason alone I was sad to see him go.

I've seen the other gymnasts perform at the Olympics. They're within the same age range of her, but even their personalities don't seem quite as "adorable" as hers. That's all I meant. Maybe Simone Biles is the other gymnast who is "cute" but I vaguely remember thinking the other ones were young and had that going for them, but not necessarily the same level of charisma. Would I notice her personality when she's 30? I have no idea. But at her present age, I suspect I'd notice her personality even if she weren't famous. She has a certain lack of fear which helps with dancing whereas someone like Maureen McCormick seems stifled by fear. McCormick seems like she'll wince just uttering the word "dance." Even Ryan Lochte as an Olympian has a certain nervousness and apprehension,and he's down as the stoned fun-loving guy. Gymnasts bounce around in tumbling passes -- in that sense, it's unclear to me how her gymnastics helps her as a dancer. I get that she performs in public, but I've never really thought of gymnastics as related to dancing. Even their floor routines don't look like dancing to me. I don't think she would have taken dancing lessons the way Mery Davis might have to help her with her ice dancing (which is on blades). Gymnasts do generally perform well in this competition, but some of that I attribute to their determination and competitive spirit. Athletes of all stripes in general seem more competitive on this show.

I suspect Laurie would have been a good dancer even if she weren't a gymnast. She has an uninhibited and sparkly dimension to her personality which translates well to dancing. Even if she weren't a gymnast, she'd still be that cute girl down the street whose personality outshines everybody. While her cuteness might have been nurtured and encouraged by her family or maybe she's just genetically wired to be adorable all the time, I don't think that aspect of her personality was necessarily taught to her solely by gymnastics. Despite wearing more provocative clothing, Amber's dance this week seemed as boring as last week's. I actually think Ryan Lochte can dance better than her.

I've seen the line "I'm sorry you interpreted it that way" criticized when other celebrities do it. It still puts the onus back on the person who was offended (i.e "you interpreted") rather than the person who said the offending remark. That kind of wording makes it seem as though you feel sorry for the person for taking the words the wrong way (and in a way unwittingly belittles the person for their feelings), rather than feeling sorry for actually saying the words. I could see that line landing her into trouble too.

But wasn't there a moment when she talked directly to the camera about what Julianne said? What she said to Peta and Maks indicated agitation, but then she seemed to elaborate on it when directly interviewed. I'll admit I could be wrong though. I would have to play back the package. If she's mic'd and knew she could be heard, I would have probably not said anything in that instance either, because that gives the camera people fuel to directly ask a question, and then you're put in the awkward position of saying something about the judges.

I didn't think Amber should have been put on the spot. But I'm also not sure if she was dumb enough to actually make her comments to the Dancing with the Stars camera people. Initially, I thought she had simply spoken to the media. But if she used the word "shamed" in talking to the camera people, which I'm now thinking she may have been foolish to do, then I guess I can see how that could have been used to confront her on the show. There wasn't really enough context from Julianne's comments to figure out what she meant, imo. She could have meant anything, but we can't know. Amber may have been projecting; she may have not -- but this is one of those situations where, if you want to make your feelings public, you go talk to Entertainment Tonight, not the Dancing with the Stars camera people, because clearly they will spring the video of you saying the words onto you before you enter the ballroom. Normally Julianne Hough annoys me, but I'm not sure I would have apologized either if I really didn't mean ill-intent or malice with a word like "uncomfortable" (it's not a slur or anything like that -- it's a word which is very broad). Giving out an apology might have erroneously implied that she she really did mean to body-shame Amber when using the word "uncomfortable" (which, imo, I don't think Hough intended -- though, I'll admit I've come to this opinion because we don't have any context to prove what she meant and that's not where my mind would have gone. I probably wouldn't have registered the word simply because this is a dancing show and it's the early weeks, and most people's dancing is uncomfortable to watch. I feel uncomfortable just listening to Maureen McCormick speak about dancing.)

Laurel bugs me but I can't figure out why. I thought that perhaps Analise made Oliver break up with Connor.

The judges sound so much less annoying when they're not trying to play to an audience. Juliane Hough sounded so much more normal when just speaking to a cameraman. And, uh, she seemed to dress better too. The previous weeks her outfits were hurting my eyes. If dances are going to be replayed, I just realized how stupid it is of me to watch on a Monday night.

I would not want to pay legal fees to defend myself over disliking the idea of Ryan Lochte being on Dancing with the Stars. Maybe they don't mind, but I'd rather use that money for something else.

Yeah, 2 hours of results sounds worse to me than 2 hours of competition.

I feel sooooooo ashamed to say this (well, out loud anyway) but I did think Ryan Lochte was a very attractive pole last night. The shaaaaaaame....

Compared to Rick Perry, I feel Ryan is doing steps/footwork (sometimes it looks like Rick Perry is just doing hopscotch or something). Ryan is a bit taller than I expected. I wonder if that affects his movement (he looks so tall next to Cheryl in particular). Then again, the football player (I can't recall his name) is tall, but he looks fluid. I think Ryan's face looks determined. He does seem very competitive. The stoner look seems to go away when he's concentrating. I wonder if that's the problem -- he looks like he wants to get it right so badly and not lose, and maybe that affects how fluid he can be. On another note, Laurie Hernandez clearly has the most personality out of all of the contestants. I had this impression that Marilu Henner was supposed to be some kind of vivacious bombshell (maybe that Who's the Boss episode tricked me) that I'm a little surprised at how somewhat "reserved" (I don't think that's the right word though) she seems to be. To be fair, she is older now, so maybe that affects how she comports herself. But I could have sworn she wrote a book about the lovers she had, so maybe that coloured my impression of how I thought she might come off on this show. Rick Perry's politics annoys me so I don't care if he's the grandpa of the show or that he's struck up the respect of Vanilla Ice by doing that hand-thingy well.

I just like watching the dances. I think I've realized that I don't really want to listen to Julianne Hough talking. Just stick her on the dance floor instead.