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What Did You Watch? 2020-02-25 (Tuesday)

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Ubiquitous

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Feb 26, 2020, 6:58:51 AM2/26/20
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I watched:

VANDERPUMP RULES:
"Ex-Best Man, Ex-Best Friend". Jax kicks Sandoval out of his wedding party
and may disinvite him from Kentucky altogether. I think I'm going to have to
watch this one again b/c I am having trouble remembering much, other than the
dramatics over whether FI Tom will be a groomsmaid and everyone prattling on
about who should apologize to whom.

What did you watch?

--
Watching Democrats come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like
watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.


Ian J. Ball

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Feb 26, 2020, 8:34:43 AM2/26/20
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On 2020-02-26 09:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:

> What did you watch?

Yesterday wasn't as long as my usual Tuesdays, but it was long enough,
so I only got through:

Dare Me (recorded) - "Scorched Earth" (ep. #7). This episode was
noteworthy for two things: 1) they finally *showed us* the
cheerleaders' routine (though the "music" choice for it was awful...)
as the team competes at regionals, and 2) they finally revealed who is
"killed" and it's incredibly disappointing because it was the most
obvious character possible. They also have Addy be incredibly cold and
mean to Beth is a way that pretty much contradicts everything we've
been shown up to this point.
In short, I find this show to mostly be a mess, but I keep watching
because I find the performances of Willa Fitzgerald and Marlo Kelly
(and to a lesser extent Rob Heaps, Paul Fitzgerald, and Alison
Thornton) to be compelling, I guess.


Recorded for later: NOTHING - Tuesdays are a wasteland... :(


--
"Three light sabers? Is that overkill? Or just the right amount
of "kill"?" - M-OC, "A Perilous Rescue" (ep. #2.9), LSW:TFA (08-10-2017)

Ian J. Ball

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Feb 26, 2020, 9:15:17 AM2/26/20
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On 2020-02-26 13:34:39 +0000, Ian J. Ball said:

> On 2020-02-26 09:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
>> What did you watch?
>
> Yesterday wasn't as long as my usual Tuesdays, but it was long enough,
> so I only got through:
>
> Dare Me (recorded) - "Scorched Earth" (ep. #7). This episode was
> noteworthy for two things: 1) they finally *showed us* the
> cheerleaders' routine (though the "music" choice for it was awful...)
> as the team competes at regionals, and 2) they finally revealed who is
> "killed" and it's incredibly disappointing because it was the most
> obvious character possible. They also have Addy be incredibly cold and
> mean to Beth is a way that pretty much contradicts everything we've
> been shown up to this point.
> In short, I find this show to mostly be a mess, but I keep watching
> because I find the performances of Willa Fitzgerald and Marlo Kelly
> (and to a lesser extent Rob Heaps, Paul Fitzgerald, and Alison
> Thornton) to be compelling, I guess.

This tells you something... - I forgot that I also watched:

Batwoman (recorded) - "Drink Me" (ep. #13). A truly wretched episode
with Kayla Ewell as a "vampire" Villain of the Week, and more bullshit
(frankly) with Alice (and Kate). Worst of all, they shoved the horrible
Kate/Sophie relationship down our throats. (Why is Kate giving that
bitch the time of day?! And is anyone actually *rooting* for this
pairing?!?!!...)
I also love how Jacob Kane was sprung from prison with almost zero
explanation after the previous episode. (And I also love how they just
ignored he got *stabbed*, multiple times! in the previous episode too!!)
This show is going in exactly all the wrong directions. I guess put
it down to another case of "Berlanti-itis". (This keeps up, and
Berlanti is going to have as bad a reputation for ruining shows with
potential as JJ Abrams!!)

Arthur Lipscomb

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Feb 26, 2020, 9:59:50 AM2/26/20
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On 2/26/2020 6:15 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> On 2020-02-26 13:34:39 +0000, Ian J. Ball said:
>
>> On 2020-02-26 09:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>>
>>> What did you watch?
>>
>> Yesterday wasn't as long as my usual Tuesdays, but it was long enough,
>> so I only got through:
>>
>> Dare Me (recorded) - "Scorched Earth" (ep. #7). This episode was
>> noteworthy for two things: 1) they finally *showed us* the
>> cheerleaders' routine (though the "music" choice for it was awful...)
>> as the team competes at regionals, and 2) they finally revealed who is
>> "killed" and it's incredibly disappointing because it was the most
>> obvious character possible. They also have Addy be incredibly cold and
>> mean to Beth is a way that pretty much contradicts everything we've
>> been shown up to this point.
>>    In short, I find this show to mostly be a mess, but I keep watching
>> because I find the performances of Willa Fitzgerald and Marlo Kelly
>> (and to a lesser extent Rob Heaps, Paul Fitzgerald, and Alison
>> Thornton) to be compelling, I guess.
>
> This tells you something... - I forgot that I also watched:
>
> Batwoman (recorded) - "Drink Me" (ep. #13). A truly wretched episode

I still have this sitting on the DVR.


I watched:


Mixedish - "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" - The parents goes overboard trying
to make friends when a Black family moves into the neighborhood.
Meanwhile Bow doesn't know how to handle it when her boyfriend announces
his family is moving away. I wonder why did the writers write the
character out. Did the actor find a new job or are they simply going in
a new direction.


Blackish - "You Don't Know Jack" - Jack joins the robotics club. Given
how Jack has been portrayed in the past, this plot line was *not*
believable. At all. However, since they kept saying robotics over and
over during the episode, I kept thinking of the theme song to a 80s
show. And now it's stuck in my head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ve7IoBZaUU


This Is Us - "Clouds" - Randall goes to therapy to deal with his anxiety
issues and completely freaks out during the therapy session. I'm going
to double down on what I said about Toby from a couple of episodes ago.
As someone pointed out during this episode, Toby is doing the best he
can, and to paraphrase a line from this episode, Toby *should* be able
to honestly express his fears and concerns to his wife without getting
his head bitten off for it. Otherwise what's the point of marriage.
Sure he should support his wife, but his wife should support her
husband. It's not a one way street.


The Flash - "Grodd Friended Me" - Thanks to some techno mumbo jumbo that
I'm sure doesn't make any sense, Flash winds up in Grodd's mind. To
escape all Flash has to do is run really fast past someone who can only
move at normal speed and is standing in front of a portal. So of course
Flash is trapped. Because how can Flash possible get past someone who
is standing 10 or 20 feet in front of a large wide open portal he needs
to get through.

anim8rfsk

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Feb 26, 2020, 1:08:35 PM2/26/20
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Wed, 26 Feb 2020 06:34:39 -0700 Ian J. Ball<IJB...@mac.invalid> wrote:

> On 2020-02-26 09:30:41 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>
> > What did you watch?
>
> Yesterday wasn't as long as my usual Tuesdays, but it was long enough,

It was Leap Tuesday

> so I only got through:
>
> Dare Me (recorded) - "Scorched Earth" (ep. #7). This episode was
> noteworthy for two things: 1) they finally *showed us* the
> cheerleaders' routine (though the "music" choice for it was awful...)
> as the team competes at regionals, and 2) they finally revealed who is
> "killed" and it's incredibly disappointing because it was the most
> obvious character possible. They also have Addy be incredibly cold and
> mean to Beth is a way that pretty much contradicts everything we've
> been shown up to this point.
> In short, I find this show to mostly be a mess, but I keep watching
> because I find the performances of Willa Fitzgerald and Marlo Kelly
> (and to a lesser extent Rob Heaps, Paul Fitzgerald, and Alison
> Thornton) to be compelling, I guess.
>
> Recorded for later: NOTHING - Tuesdays are a wasteland... :(

But what of .. DA FLASH?!

--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/

anim8rfsk

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Feb 26, 2020, 1:26:22 PM2/26/20
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Wed, 26 Feb 2020 07:59:41 -0700 Arthur Lipscomb<art...@alum.calberkeley.org>
wrote:

> The Flash - "Grodd Friended Me" - Thanks to some techno mumbo jumbo that
> I'm sure doesn't make any sense, Flash winds up in Grodd's mind. To
> escape all Flash has to do is run really fast past someone who can only
> move at normal speed and is standing in front of a portal. So of course
> Flash is trapped. Because how can Flash possible get past someone who
> is standing 10 or 20 feet in front of a large wide open portal he needs
> to get through.

So much deeply burning stupid here.

It starts out with somebody I've never seen before manning the comms ... he
has the run of Star labs, works the coms and yet ... doesn't know Barry Allen
is the Flash. What the Hell? It's unclear throughout this episode who
remembers the Crisis as well.

So Barry is searching every cemetery in town trying to find his parent's
graves (carrying flowers, and on foot, at normal speed). It never occurs to
him to, oh, I don't know, check the newspaper morgue for notices. Hell, how
does he even know they're dead? And he searched everywhere except where they
were buried pre-Crisis first.

A Meta crime alarm goes off! It takes Barry minutes to run there while he
talks to the new kids on the comms and they throw backstory exposition they
all know already past the audience. It's the Pied Piper, but not quite the
one Barry remembers! Given the dialog, it's pretty clear the Piper is
watching along with us; otherwise his responses make no sense.

Later at Star Labs, the new guy fiddles with Gideon without permission and
screws up stuff. Barry ends up trapped in Grodd's mind. But not before Gideon
tells us that she has cataloged all XX trillion changes in the post Crisis
world, and can sort them by various categories. So why the Hell is Cisco out
doing this on foot?

Barry and Grodd mind merge. Barry gives Grodd all his powers and the
knowledge of how to use them (gee, that doesn't have any potential of coming
back to bite him on the ass, does it?) and yet they STILL can't beat a lone
enemy ape.

Then they can't escape through the portal while merged, so only the new guy
in Comms can hack Gideon to separate them at the millisecond they enter the
portal because ... hey, why don't they saunter up to the portal, separate,
and then go through one by one?

The new guy is only there to remind us that it's black history month, and boy
are they ham handed about it "Nobody ever gives people like us a second
chance" Sigh

Meanwhile Evil Iris is a bitch to her father, and real Iris and the chick
trapped in the mirror ... well, none of that makes any sense at all.

This wasn't as awful as the other CW shows, but it sure as Hell wasn't good.

BTR1701

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Feb 26, 2020, 2:01:53 PM2/26/20
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In article <r3614v$q5r$1...@dont-email.me>,
Arthur Lipscomb <art...@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

> The Flash - "Grodd Friended Me" - Thanks to some techno mumbo jumbo that
> I'm sure doesn't make any sense, Flash winds up in Grodd's mind. To
> escape all Flash has to do is run really fast past someone who can only
> move at normal speed and is standing in front of a portal. So of course
> Flash is trapped. Because how can Flash possible get past someone who
> is standing 10 or 20 feet in front of a large wide open portal he needs
> to get through.

I kept asking the TV that and just assumed I missed something that
explained why something so obvious wasn't happening. Apparently not.

suzeeq

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Feb 26, 2020, 3:29:09 PM2/26/20
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You said it was beyond stoopid...

Ian J. Ball

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Feb 26, 2020, 3:50:02 PM2/26/20
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Yeah, but I ended up watching "Batwoman" which was even dumber!! :(

anim8rfsk

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Feb 26, 2020, 4:50:07 PM2/26/20
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So why isn't Ian watching it?

Adam H. Kerman

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Feb 26, 2020, 7:37:37 PM2/26/20
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Arthur Lipscomb <art...@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

>This Is Us - "Clouds" - Randall goes to therapy to deal with his anxiety
>issues and completely freaks out during the therapy session. I'm going
>to double down on what I said about Toby from a couple of episodes ago.
>As someone pointed out during this episode, Toby is doing the best he
>can, and to paraphrase a line from this episode, Toby *should* be able
>to honestly express his fears and concerns to his wife without getting
>his head bitten off for it. Otherwise what's the point of marriage.
>Sure he should support his wife, but his wife should support her
>husband. It's not a one way street.

Oh, gawd, I agree with you about Kate and Toby. Kate is horrid and the
writers just continue to make her worse. And who the fuck but a
fictional woman cares about whether her friend might sleep with her
brother? This isn't a real life thing.

The stuff with Kevin and Rebecca was pleasant, if not entertaining.

Next's week's episode's teaser make the episode look unpleasant.

Dimensional Traveler

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Feb 26, 2020, 8:27:23 PM2/26/20
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Because Ian's always wrong?

--
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?"

Jim G.

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Mar 1, 2020, 4:54:46 PM3/1/20
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Ubiquitous sent the following on 2/26/20 at 3:30 AM:
> What did you watch?

PROJECT BLUE BOOK / 2x06 / Close Encounters

[Hynek visits the set of the film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'
while he reflects on his various experiences dealing with the Robertson
Panel and a peculiar extraterrestrial contactee whom he willing to risk
everything for.]

A flashforward provides the opportunity for a flashback when an
interview conducted with Hynek on the set of the eponymous Spielberg
film is used as a framing device for the Robertson Panel of 1953. Along
the way, the guys deal with a crank and learn that not all new friends
can be trusted, especially if they work for the CIA. In the end, Quinn
saves the day in this one. All in all, it was an interesting and new way
of presenting one of their cases and I appreciated the novelty of it.

And elsewhere, Pocket Gal gets a chance to talk to her daughter before
taking care of a duplicitous Russian problem.

Grade: B+

--
Jim G. | A fan of the good and the bad, but not the mediocre
"I'm really glad we're at this place in our relationship where we can
dig up graves together without having to talk." -- Major Lillywhite, iZOMBIE

Jim G.

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Mar 1, 2020, 4:57:29 PM3/1/20
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BTR1701 sent the following on 2/26/20 at 1:00 PM:
Do you think that the actors question the scripts when stuff like this
happens? Do you think that they're too stupid to catch it themselves? Or
do you think that they're just at the "F&%k it, as long as the direct
deposit happens, I couldn't care less" stage of things?

anim8rfsk

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Mar 1, 2020, 5:50:23 PM3/1/20
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Sun, 01 Mar 2020 14:57:27 -0700 Jim G.<jimg...@geemail.com.invalid> wrote:

> BTR1701 sent the following on 2/26/20 at 1:00 PM:
> > In article<r3614v$q5r$1...@dont-email.me>,
> > Arthur Lipscomb <art...@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
> >
> > > The Flash - "Grodd Friended Me" - Thanks to some techno mumbo jumbo that
> > > I'm sure doesn't make any sense, Flash winds up in Grodd's mind. To
> > > escape all Flash has to do is run really fast past someone who can only
> > > move at normal speed and is standing in front of a portal. So of course
> > > Flash is trapped. Because how can Flash possible get past someone who
> > > is standing 10 or 20 feet in front of a large wide open portal he needs
> > > to get through.
> >
> > I kept asking the TV that and just assumed I missed something that
> > explained why something so obvious wasn't happening. Apparently not.
>
> Do you think that the actors question the scripts when stuff like this
> happens?

no

> Do you think that they're too stupid to catch it themselves?

yes

> Or
> do you think that they're just at the "F&%k it, as long as the direct
> deposit happens, I couldn't care less" stage of things?

More the first, but some of the second

Jim G.

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Mar 3, 2020, 1:05:57 PM3/3/20
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anim8rfsk sent the following on 3/1/20 at 4:50 PM:
> Sun, 01 Mar 2020 14:57:27 -0700 Jim G.<jimg...@geemail.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> BTR1701 sent the following on 2/26/20 at 1:00 PM:
>>> In article<r3614v$q5r$1...@dont-email.me>,
>>> Arthur Lipscomb <art...@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The Flash - "Grodd Friended Me" - Thanks to some techno mumbo jumbo that
>>>> I'm sure doesn't make any sense, Flash winds up in Grodd's mind. To
>>>> escape all Flash has to do is run really fast past someone who can only
>>>> move at normal speed and is standing in front of a portal. So of course
>>>> Flash is trapped. Because how can Flash possible get past someone who
>>>> is standing 10 or 20 feet in front of a large wide open portal he needs
>>>> to get through.
>>>
>>> I kept asking the TV that and just assumed I missed something that
>>> explained why something so obvious wasn't happening. Apparently not.
>>
>> Do you think that the actors question the scripts when stuff like this
>> happens?
>
> no

Agreed. In most cases, anyway. And really, it makes sense to keep quiet
when they see it. It's not their purview, really, and it won't affect
any reviews of THEIR work on a given project. And the last thing that an
actor probably wants is a reputation for being high-maintenance.

>> Do you think that they're too stupid to catch it themselves?
>
> yes

Agreed again. In most cases, anyway.

>> Or
>> do you think that they're just at the "F&%k it, as long as the direct
>> deposit happens, I couldn't care less" stage of things?
>
> More the first, but some of the second

My guess is that the last one is VERY common among those who have enough
brain cells to notice script problems on a regular basis. Life is too
short, and all that.

anim8rfsk

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Mar 3, 2020, 3:35:17 PM3/3/20
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It's the former part of the latter that's uncommon.*

*actors with brain cells

Jim G.

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Mar 4, 2020, 10:42:19 PM3/4/20
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anim8rfsk sent the following on 3/3/20 at 2:35 PM:
We're definitely on the same page on that point. :)
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