DRW50

I hate to go "the books" because I know that upsets people, but in the books, her time on the road is spent meeting locals who have been affected by the horrors of the Boltons taking over the North. GRRM writes the tragedy through her eyes. On the show, there is no particular horror, because most of what we see of the North is Ramsay's pectorals. On the show, it's just - why are we seeing her? She's looking for the Stark girls, but nothing happens during this until the climactic moment. The rest is pointless. It's the same scene over and over and over, and it's not even an interesting scene - it's just her verbally abusing a dumbass. That's Cersei's role, not Brienne's.

James had some really bad health problems so he's never going to be where he was on Twin Peaks, but I think aside from the hair he looks decent enough.

Her sister is Holly Valance, a brief pop star and former soap actress who is or was involved with a filthy rich luxury property developer, so I guess it is soapy in a way.

Thanks. What was the mother story? Didn't you say she was a drunk author?

She spent all of season 3 on the road arguing with Jaime. She spent most of season 4 berating Podrick, and it was the same in the premiere. They mix in some occasional comments about her appearance and some talk about her honor and duty, but for the most part it has all blurred together. I didn't mind it until the premiere, where 2-3 minutes were taken up with nothing more than the 50th sour rant in Podrick's direction. I have the same reaction to this I had to the 3 straight seasons of Arya making sour faces and snapping - I got it the first time, and the second, and the third...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s14/neighbours/news/a641983/neighbours-first-look-at-real-housewives-star-gina-liano-on-set.html

Iris was there. I think I remember a screencap of them hugging...

Wow. I hope someone interviews them about this. It must have been surreal. This is the type of thing SOD used to care about. Oh well.

I think Judi had more chemistry with Tom than Cali did (Jake/Paulina at that time felt to me like Paulina being vulnerable and being used), but I thought Cali played the broken girl to a tee and had a lot more chemistry with Rachel, Iris, even Amanda. I don't think it was ever the same with Judi and the Corys.

I read some stuff on Previously TV about the lawsuit and I think they said that the friend's daughter or something, when she went to call for medical help, Kim tried to stop her? If that's true - just ugh. Unimaginable.

The rumor/spoiler said Kerry was staying behind and Dan was torn over whether to stay or go.

Georgia also seems to be going again for a while, which I will say "yay" to...

I can understand how you feel. I don't think it's a horrible comment. I just mentioned it because that's one of the reasons I don't care much for her. Not because I think she's a bigot, but because I think she doesn't practice what she preaches. I actually think Porsha would be interesting on some other type of show, just not this one. But I think almost all the Atlanta cast could go at this point. As played out as she became I'd much rather see Sheree back.

I never had any interest in Claudia, to be honest. I wouldn't really have a ton of interest in Porsha either if she weren't always made into some type of odd martyr figure solely because she hates Kenya. I think the idea that people only hate her because of Kenya gives Kenya too much power over fan opinion. I don't hate Porsha, but I do think she's an idiot who has said many stupid things, and I'm not sure why she deserves a job just because of Kenya. It also continues the odd double standard in fandom that it's OK for some people to make quasi-homophobic comments, but not others.

March 1969 Afternoon TV

Ketty Lester's quote breaks my heart, because it's so true. I had never heard so much detail about the Sharon story, beyond synopses. It sounds like something DAYS should have just avoided. When I was bored and coming up with story ideas a few years ago, I wanted to bring in a young niece for Julie, by her brother, who would be a lesbian and very rebellious and have a lot of issues, and it would force Julie to address what happened with Sharon all those years ago.

Is Ben missing (Stephen Yates)?

Disgusting. I'm sure people are already saying she did this herself as a sympathy ploy. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/hillary-clinton-father-tombstone-toppled-116993.html?ml=po

To me things like preaching against gays while supposedly selling her ass for handbags or what have you were more of an issue.

What upset Debbie was when Carly threw in her face that she'd been a teenage mother.

This storyline makes James look like a huge idiot, but then he is a huge idiot. I'd feel sorry for him over Chas shutting him out, but they barely interacted for months before this storyline. Carly gets so nasty in how she talks to people. I don't mind it, as I prefer the in-your-face to passive-aggressiveness, but I hope it hasn't turned fans off the character permanently. I do like her sparring with Brenda. What was that huge extended closeup of a gravestone obscuring James and Emma while they were talking? Please tell me this means death for one or both of them, and not the act of a work experience director and budget cuts.

It's sad, and also not the most original portrayal (the woman who can't be a mother to her child because she has lost so many babies and her husband doesn't love her), but the tragedy of the whole thing moves me rather than annoys me. The woman who plays Selyse is a terrific actress, and she balances the bitterness of Selyse with the brokenness. She needs Melisandre and needs to believe in her. And it's not a story we get that often with arranged marriages on the show - other than Lisa Arryn, most arranged marriages either end in the woman being strong and winning (Cersei) or the couple falling in love (Dany/Drogo, Catelyn/Ned). This is a marriage that has never been and will never involve love, so instead Selyse looks to Melisandre to guide and please Stannis and to guide her, even if she deep down has some resentment toward Melisandre. Melisandre and Stannis (who wants none of the power or glory and just operates 100% from duty) and Selyse are so complex and Davos is such a teddy bear of a man. They're my favorite group on the show. Brienne is a character we see too much of for the near-invisible amount of character development she gets. I wish they'd killed her off in season 3.

The black smoke monster killed Renly. The leeches were to kill Balon, Robb, and Joffrey, although whether she caused it or not is up to interpretation. Loras was a lot more than just Margaery's brother in the first two seasons. Bronn was only ever just there so he and Tyrion could have smirkfests about how much they love whores.

Ygritte (Game of Thrones)

Yes, but Loras is the only gay man on the show. There's more they can do with him in spite of that - he's a well-respected knight, he's Margaery's brother, he's betrothed to Cersei. Yet in three seasons, his scenes have amounted to: season 3 - gushing with Sansa about how much he loves to plans weddings, rolling around in bed with a whore, having one or two awkward conversations with Cersei season 4 - making sex eyes with Oberyn for no apparent reason, other than to remind us yet again that he is gay and Oberyn is bisexual (the show seemed so unsure we wouldn't remember that that they mentioned it in about 5 straight episodes). Having a snappy encounter with Jaime that amounted to "lol gay" and "lol incest" season 5 - a brief awkward scene with Cersei; rolling around in bed with the same prostitute who sold out his entire family, telling Margaery that he doesn't care whether or not anyone knows he's gay, because he's not marrying Cersei anyway Compare this to a character like Bronn, who in spite of having no relationships on the show other than Tyrion, still got several strong scenes with Jaime and a lengthy goodbye scene with Tyrion where we learned about his new plans and new wife. Even saying he's not equipped for King's Landing or that he has a good, kind heart is basically fanwanking at this point, because he has none of that type of material onscreen. They spent more time showing an ugly birthmark on his leg than they have in actually writing for him. I think the show has a very stereotypical view of gay and bisexual men and they choose not to break out of that. Even Oberyn was just treated as someone to leer at until his last two episodes. If there were more diversity on the show it would not bother me this much, but speaking as someone who is not a crazed "how dare Loras betray Renly" or "how dare they forget Loras' true characterization" fan, I'm still disappointed to see him having little to do beyond dicking the most duplicitous whore around.