Peter J. Mello

VIP

8

@danio1972 I don't see how it could be, manslaughter being homicide without intent. Either the state produces a witness who heard the husband tell the wife he'd want surgery, in which case you've got murder II, or the husband survives without the treatment, and has a soon-to-be ex-wife. I seriously doubt they would have even been able to get a judge to appoint a guardian ad litem with just Claire's affadavit. They bluffed and won because most people naturally acquiesce to authority figures, even when they're operating outside their domain.

@rolivaw Yeah, definitely not one of the better scripts that Hepburn and Tracy had to work with, it played more like an exercise on how to use serial clichés to get out of doing any real writing. I'm always frustrated by how the character of the Greek orphan boy is tragically underused, too. Anyone who's seen Captains Courageous knows how well Spencer Tracy can portray a paternal role to a young child, and it would've been a far more redemptive character arc for Tess to have come back to be with both of them than just Sam alone. Perhaps that too is an artifact of the times, no doubt it would've been a hard sell to that orphanage had Sam wanted to be named the boy's sole legal guardian.

In the end, the tragedy shown in the story almost perfectly mirrors the one experienced by the audiences who watch it: so much wasted potential, with no sense of what the true end of the story will be...

@yngtadpole @millie_akers SOAB! Actually no, some of us managed to sidestep that mental association somehow...that is, until some people on Trakt had to talk about it and now it's ruined for me forever too. FML. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

That said, I was impressed with how Sam just dived right into that shit. With all the gagging over the chamber pots I expected it to be a pretty tortured affair for them both. I couldn't have attempted something like that with even a tenth of his aplomb.

@freemynd78 I hate to be "that guy," but the adjective form of the noun theonomy is theonomous, not theonomic. Still, a fantastic choice to apply the concept here to describe Gilead; few other choices could be so exquisitely well-suited.

@the_argentinian Hey now, say what you will about the narrative shortcomings, but leave Coldplay out of it. The world can never have enough covers of Fix You, and thus one was really good! I was actually on my way to identify and pirate it when I saw your shout and felt duty-bound to respond.

For what it's worth, I liked the ending of this one. I thought the juxtaposition of the naked avarice of Aunt Lydia and Commander Lawrence with June's obvious relief at Jeanine's return was poignant and worked well, leaving a lot of empty space on the Etch-a-Sketch for the rest of the season.

@aya-bakr I could be completely wrong, but from what I can see the point of it is, in fact, the fucking.

An even more pressing question is: Who at FX greenlit this series, what were they smoking, and is there any left? :wink:

@goutham3113 We've known all along that his fate was to die young, per TBBT, though I can't recall if a cause was ever canonicalized. Honestly, the way they've written the character lately, my money would be on suicide at the moment.

I feel for the guy, too: if I was married to Mary I expect I'd end up in the same headspace. Looking past the fact that her life is wholly consumed with motherhood and religion, that whole Goody Two-Shoes routine gets old quick, and at her age it's bordering on pathetic. He's got it doubly bad too considering how often he's around his mother-in-law who's got orders of magnitude more sex appeal than her daughter, despite needing to borrow Sheldon's telescope to glimpse her best years in the rear-view mirror.

Honestly, with the humor continuing to ebb from this series, I'd love for them to intentionally pivot into a full-on dysfunctional family drama rather than the current method of doing so only tacitly.

@khaled-123 Don't mean to sharpshoot you on an obvious typo, but for the sake of those who have yet to read this thread, the movie came out in 1944, not '94, obviously. Fred McMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, both punching above their weight classes, honestly, under direction from Billy Wilder.

It's honestly not one of my favorites from the era or the genre, but I love its selection here because it is 10,000% certain that it's the kind of movie Frank and Claire would both enjoy enough to want to turn into an Election Day tradition. With the naked avarice on display and the fast-paced dialogue that demands your attention, it's essentially a reflection of their own characters, plus who doesn't like a supporting performance by Edward G. Robinson? Beau Willimon can be kind of clunky with inauthentic dialogue at times, but when it comes to selecting little touchstones like this one and the mandala from last season, I struggle to think of anyone better.