The SO & I have a friend who was living in a rural part of Georgia. About 5 years ago she told us that the hip place to go to meet people in her area was Applebees. So the SO & I decided we would go to Applebees late one Friday night to see if that was also true for Portland. Turned out it was not.

So you’re saying the movie was shameless fan service? And that it didn’t tell a good story?  Are you sure you’re posting in the right thread?

Was it supposed to “stand alone” though? Given that it’s mission is to wrap up some threads left hanging by the premature cancellation of the series?  

In IdealUniverseLand that was probably the way to go but in the real world, where an expensive production like this has to be commercially viable, they had to go with English-speaking actors.  

He’ll always be David Robert Jones to me.  

I think that’s a better analogue to Chernobyl than Katrina.  

I’m not really clear what you’re advocating for here. 

Which is sort of what Game of Thrones did. Roughly. 

Apparently in the podcast Mazin said that they started out having the actors do Russian accents but so much of their energy went into the accent, it detracted from their performances. (Outlander viewers get to see this played out whenever poor Sophie Skelton is on the screen.) Also, he was afraid that they would sound…

I’m generally surprised to find out about famous people who aren’t assholes, to be honest.  

Yeah, that’s probably where I got that feeling.  

He’s kinda religious, or at least he was.  I’ve always gotten the sense that he was probably an asshole as a person, but none of that is ever evident in the show so I don’t worry about it. 

I’m glad that we’re finally getting back to tipping etiquette.

I love butter as much as the next chubby girl but in deviled eggs? I don’t know about that. 

I watch a lot of shows that take place in the UK and some that take place elsewhere in Europe.  Since I am not super-familiar with what the area around Chernobyl looked like, I’m not aware of geographic discrepancies.  It’s never fun to watch a tv show or movie set in an area that you know well because they never get…

Which is weird, because I have no trouble with remembering where they are.  

I actually bailed in the middle of the third season.  I’ll probably go back and finish it but I didn’t love it the way I did in the first two seasons.

We usually bought ounces. They were like $30-$50, so not too pricey.

What can I say?  Most restaurants don’t have the technology for that.

I used to steal McDonald’s trays for that.  Just tell them you’re eating there and walk out with your tray.