I have finally gotten around to binging Downton Abbey in anticipation of The Gilded Age. I guess I should not be surprised by this, but Downton Abbey is in fact a pretty good show! At least the first couple seasons, which is how far I am.

Yeah, occasionally I find Snowpiercer a little tedious, but mostly I have enjoyed it. Particularly Connelly’s Cavill, so I was glad to learn she had not in fact been written off.

I agree.  I thought she was excellent in Party Down . . . and since then she has done a fantastic job picking projects I have no interest in seeing.

I am sure it will be every bit as essential as Cruella . . . .

I gather you would prefer a rainbow necklace?

Sploosh!

“To” might be the wrong preposition for what that dude plans to do to that bag of M&Ms.

“Taste the rainbow” is in fact a pretty hot slogan . . . .

Jamie in particular has also been a child star, also had a lot of nasty narratives told about her (particularly but not limited to her teen pregnancy), and so on. So in her case this is not just an abstraction, she has a real stake in publicly presenting her own story, meaning an interest that is not just monetary.

It isn’t great, but I also think it is interesting in some ways. A lot of mediocre things are not even trying to do anything interesting. I see this as a show trying to do something interesting, but with mediocre success.

I’m OK with it having more serious themes, and the related serial rather than episodic structure. I would not say it is the best such attempt I have ever seen, but I find it at least good enough to be a positive experience overall for me.

After my parents divorced, my Mom met her old HS boyfriend at a reunion. His wife had passed away, they reconnected, and then they got remarried. And it was a successful remarriage for both until he eventually also passed away.

I know it has come under reconsideration of late, but I don’t think Buffy was THAT greasy . . . .

Yeah, I taught introductory college classes when I was in my 20s. On a couple occasions some attractive students hit on me, and I politely made it clear that nothing between us was possible. It wasn’t that hard, because it was obviously wrong to me.

Yeah, that trailer was very promising.

Unemployed Americans from coal country?

Ha, I personally identified SO strongly with Mike on my first watch that I kinda hated the movie. It eventually became a personal favorite, but it took some doing (and actually getting married myself, I suspect).

Agreed.  Take your possum.

Absolutely.

Given that setup, no. You are just going to see the other characters going all the way to 11. So if you found them annoying already, I can’t imagine having much fun with the show in general. Indeed, I think simply enjoying the characters is intended to be a huge part of the appeal (for those of us who liked it in the…