S05.E08: Camp David

[Ellaria]

9 minutes ago, ganesh said:

It would be expected that would happen, so I'm hoping for something different. 

Such as?

[ganesh]

Well, I'm not a tv writer, so I don't really know. Selina isn't an unpopular politician. Katherine isn't particularly competent either, so I could see the documentary making her look sympathetic or something. 

[radishcake]

On 6/13/2016 at 1:21 AM, pivot said:

I have never laughed as hard during an episode as I did tonight when Ben was laughing at Jonah getting shot in the foot.  His genuine glee made me so happy.

I swear that was just Kevin Dunn losing it. He was the best! 

[ChicksDigScars]

On 6/15/2016 at 3:06 PM, Enigma X said:

I just realized my problem with Katherine is that she is whatever the storyline needs her to be for that moment. If she needs to be emo to get a laugh, she is for that episode. If she needs to an activist to thwart Selina, she is for that episode and so on. I wish that I could say that they were making the character all over the place on purpose, but I don't think they are. I don't really think Katherine has a personality, and I don't mean that she is drab. I literally mean that they have not given the character three dimensions. It stands out when all of the other characters are three-dimensional.

Way too much Katherine. And I think she is drab and has no personality. Either Sarah Sutherland is a REALLY good actress to pull this off, or she missed out on the charisma gene that her father and grandfather have in spades. Plus, you have an entire cast of loud, sarcastic, hilarious f-bomb droppers. Katherine in comparison, is dull as dish water. 

[peeayebee]

She's very drab, but of course that's the point. The hard part is making sure a character who's boring does not bore the audience.

[aemom]

On 2016-6-15 at 0:42 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

 

And then I heard "Exercise book" or "exercise bike" neither of which make sense to me, but I'm not a great "hear-er".  Anyone?

 

On 2016-6-15 at 10:51 PM, hoodooznoodooz said:

I rewatched with the closed-captioning on. She said, "An exercise book."

So I am wondering if the Chinese person used a non-specific word to describe someone who is on a boat in the ocean, meaning, sailor, and Minna translated that as "pirate." And maybe exercise book means composition book with the horizontal lines to write on?

I just started watching the show on demand a couple of months ago which is why I'm late to the party.

It totally means a composition book.  I think that perhaps the term exercise book is regional, but I cracked up the moment she said it because it was so true along with the prisoner and pirate comparisons. 

[piccadilly83]

On 6/12/2016 at 10:21 PM, pivot said:

I have never laughed as hard during an episode as I did tonight when Ben was laughing at Jonah getting shot in the foot.  His genuine glee made me so happy.

I think that this was also my favorite moment. The actor who played Ben was laughing so hard his face turned red and white. He looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel. That level of Jonah hate gets my support.

On 6/15/2016 at 5:41 AM, ganesh said:

Quote

I think Minna is always being straightforward

Me too. She clearly just doesn't get subtext. 

The thing is, I think Minna does get subtext. I mean she advised Selena on the Chinese talks and correctly predicted every reaction the Chinese were going to have right down the the inappropriateness of Selena's outfit. I think when we saw her in the earlier seasons she was also pretty astute at understanding cultural nuance (I can't think of any specific examples though). I just think she and Selena are two different people when it comes to both politics and personal matters. It drove me crazy when Selena couldn't just have an honest conversation with Minna about going through menopause. Selena's so obsessed with being thought of as young and cute that she can't bear the thought of someone saying she's entering menopause, even though if we're to trust Gary's reaction, she has definitely entered menopause.

I think Minna for the most part is more direct than Selena because that is Minna's preferred style of communication, but if she needed to be indirect or subtle she could probably adjust. Maybe she couldn't. I don't know. What I do know is that she had to be aware that on some level greeting Selena with (paraphrase) "Hello Madame President, I have not seen you since you failed to vote for me to win such and such seat on the IMF board" was going to make Selena feel awkward.

I like Minna though, I like her a lot. Her directness is pretty awesome in my opinion.