"Exodus"

25 May 2025: Finally getting caught up on the last season of The Handmaid's Tale and though there are lots of legitimate criticisms to make of the show, darn it if it still doesn't get to me. One line in "Exodus," the episode I just finished, made me tear up (even as I was annoyed at myself for being taken in): 

"We're rising up because in each and every one of us is this immaculate soul that was given to us by God that is just crying out for dignity and freedom."

Pretty good writing, especially in these hard days.

"To Ed"

4 November 2024: I realized on tonight's rewatch of "To Ed," the finale of Season 2 of Somebody, Somewhere, that the show encapsulates so much of what makes me love America. 

It gives us a world of flawed, beautiful, ordinary, extraordinary people, making mistakes but doing their best. It's about the families we are born into and the families we make--and how they sustain us and strain us and make us better. It's about what it means to have and live a good life. It's about how to be alone and how to be with others. It's about how to go on after unimaginable loss. It's about how values aren't "small town" or "city," but ways of living and relating to and caring for each other. 

After a long day at work, I hit "play" with so much weighing on my mind. And as I watched, I laughed out loud, teared up, cheered to myself, and just felt warm and full of love. 

Perfect Election Day Eve programming. 

(The completion of my rewatch also means I can now start the third and final season of this perfect miracle of a show.) 

2000 vibes...

23 June 2024: Twenty-four years after everyone else, I just started watching C.S.I. The Again with This podcast discussed an episode in which Mary Margaret Humes guest-starred, so I watched that one. And then I thought, "A pretty decent, well-respected procedural with 15 seasons? Maybe just what I need?" About six episodes in and it's working: soothing, fun, distracting stuff. 

The disrespect!

5 May 2023: We were so disappointed in the three Jeopardy! contestants who failed to identify Veronica Mars Hanrahan's namesake. 

Orphan Black finale

13 August 2017: “I survived you. We survived you. Me and my sisters, together. This is evolution." --Sarah to Westmorland, in the Orphan Black finale, a moment that made me cheer. Farewell to a great show. Can't wait to see what Tatiana Maslany does next...

iZombie is back!

18 April 2017: "It's called being supportive. You should try it some time." --Major, on iZombie, really feeling the teenage-girl brain he ate earlier.

Look, I am not even going to pretend that what I wrote above will make a lick of sense to someone who never watched iZombie, but trust me when I tell you that this line--and the entire scene it was a part of--was terrific. Laugh out loud funny. And Major has never been a character that made me laugh before. I actually missed that this show came back, so I had to catch up on the first two episodes on demand, and I am glad I did.

All hail Kelly Bishop!

1 February 2016: Today's good thing is this interview with Kelly Bishop about the Gilmore Girls revival. The part that really made me smile? When she said, "This is how I explain it to people: 'You look at a room. And then you just tip it sideways a little bit.' That’s Gilmore Girls. It’s a little tip." Can't wait for these episodes.

Connie Britton interview

This woman can do no wrong. I'd watch her do anything. Anyway, check out this interview. Worth noting (in no particular order of interest):

• She still keeps in touch with members of the FNL cast (all the cool ones, of course) and had to close her eyes while watching Taylor Kitsch in Savages. (Aww!)
• She also has to close her eyes while watching parts of American Horror Story. (Me, too, but mostly for those uber-creepy opening credits.)
• She was worried about what FNL fans would think of "Mrs. Coach" in such a different role on AHS. No worries, Connie: you rocked it on AHS.
• Nashville will feature original music from folks like Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, and T-Bone Burnett. How amazing is that?

Time to watch some GSN...

Sad news about Richard Dawson. Beyond watching him on Family Feud when I was a kid, my last years of college involved lots and lots of Game Show Network watching with my housemates, including Match Game. We even used to make our own silly Match Games for late night ummm...study breaks. :) Richard was always my favorite.

Roanoke folks: I propose a game for old times' sake the next time we get together.

Three quick links...

1) Fancy Fast Food. The posts at this blog are certainly creative, but they also kind of make me want to throw up.

2) Vanity Fair's executive literary editor, copy editors, and research department take on Sarah Palin's resignation speech. This is all kinds of awesome and I kind of wish they would do it for other political speeches--from both parties, because this kind of poor writing is definitely a bipartisan problem.

3) Les Lye, who played Barth and just about every other adult male character on You Can't Do That on Television, just died. This show was a favorite for my little sister and I when we were kids.