The only kind of gender reveal shenanigans I approve of is the ones where you serve a cake with icing that is some color other than pink or blue, and then the cake itself is colored pink (girl) or blue (boy). I still think it’s stupid as hell, but at least you get to eat cake. :-)

I don’t love the way she wrote her statement, but Jesus Christ, y’all: can we please focus on what Joss Whedon did to her, and not the fact that she writes funny?

I agree. I’m old enough that I had read the original version, and then when the expanded version came out of course I had to read that. The part with the Kid was just unpleasant, and kind of boring. On re-reads, I’ve skimmed that part.

First: I totally agree about the downgrade from early-to-late 60s to 70s, in terms of the characters’ hair and clothing. I do love the 70s house, though. I don’t even mind the ugly green couch. :-)

Second: Did anyone else notice the eye roll Wanda gave Geraldine when the doctor said she’d be a great nurse? I loved…

Ewwwwwwww.

I too hate that song. Fortunately, I’m older than you -- graduated high school in 1987. The song was already out at that point and I hated, hated, hated it, but I didn’t have to listen to it every morning at school. It did get played at my school, for sure (suburban high school in the Tulsa, OK area), and I too was an…

I agree about the shift in tone with the Cittagaze kids, but my heart still broke when the little girl asked Mary for a hug.  

Since no one seems to have complained about this yet: I really, really hate the special effects in this version. It seems like they found a good way to give everyone a swollen neck, and they were so excited that they overdid it. Full disclosure: I have a really hard time with body horror. But between the grotesque…

Well, see, in the book Harold was fat. And fat people eat chocolate all the time, and leave their wrappers around. Skinny Harold can’t be shown eating candy. (Please detect my sarcasm.)

Also, Larry *was* an asshole. That had been well-established by that time. And IIRC, he spent some time after Rita died feeling shitty about the way he had treated her.

I thought book Frannie was in college?

For me, the 1994 miniseries wasn’t that good. But oh man, that opening with “Don’t Fear the Reaper” was so promising! The rest didn’t live up to that promise, but still .... 

I’m a middle school para, and the scene where Depression Kitty and Tito convince Jessi not to go to school was one of my students in a nutshell. I wish I could show her this show, but obviously I can’t. I kind of hope she finds it on her own.

I loved it then. I re-read it a few years ago and found that it wasn’t as fun as I remembered; on the re-read I found it bleak and kind of boring, and the references seemed a lot more rote than they had the first time. I got the ebook of “Ready Player 2" from the library and read the first few pages last night, but…

I have to say, I liked Tommy Lascelles less after watching him yell at a little girl. 

I thought the Black people in “Rhodesia” looked stone-faced and as angry as they could get away with, during Margaret’s speech in season 1. Was I reading into that?

Yeah, I had to go back and watch that scene again to make sure I had really heard what she said about a small white colony among the savages. Jesus. I know it was the 50s, but it’s still gross. The show did a good job of showing all of the Black residents of then-Rhodesia, especially during “God Save the Queen.” 

OMG, World War Z was so bad. I always felt it should have been done as a Ken Burns documentary series, but I can understand why that would never happen.

Indeed. I love both Laura and Hermine. Laura clearly beat Hermine *this week*, which is all that matters when the show is judged on an episode-by-episode basis, not cumulatively. The people who are making nasty comments about Laura are trash. EVEN if it had been totally unfair (it wasn’t), it wouldn’t be her fault. 

Yes. If you’re going on The Amazing Race, you learn to drive stick. If you’re going on RuPaul’s Drag Race, you learn to sew. And if you’re going on The Great British Bake-Off, you practice goddamn choux pastry. I love Linda, but choux should have been a piece of cake for her.