DRW50

I have a very hard time watching Hilary's funeral episode. There's just such a falseness, from the very camera-ready performance from Trent Jones (who is a very good actor and did wonderful work on Ryan's Hope) and Richard Van Vleet among others, to the strong undertone of "yeah it's sad, get over it now" in some of the writing choices for various characters, to how cheap the set looks (even though at this time they were more than able to blow out the budget on location shoots). Even starting the episode with Jonathan, rather than the Bauers. The main heartbreak I can feel is from Charita Bauer, and I have to wonder how much of that is her knowing how ill she was (IIRC the others at the show did not).

He was a fine actor. Ned could be a tough character to take at times but Leeze always made him seem real and gave him a heart...and he felt utterly true to the village and the fields, which is something many new characters by that point and after did not. @I Am A Swede did you see my post about the 1989 episode?

They are clearly confident enough in their voter suppression, and using rappers to try to push the idea that it's all about taxes and that you shouldn't bother to vote for Biden because both parties are bad. They can't even hide their bigotry, and they know they don't have to. The media is absolutely pleading for 4 more years and they know they can make it happen if they try hard enough. The Today Show actually ran with an out of context clip to try to convince viewers Biden has dementia. Even by the nonexistent standards of NBC News, I'm sickened.

Well well... Norah O'Donnell, who along with 60 Minutes did their best to try to push people to support Trump and go against Biden/Harris, is pals with Mike Pompeo. https://www.mediaite.com/news/pompeos-guest-list-for-lavish-madison-dinners-revealed-major-tv-hosts-gop-donors-and-more/

I read that about how Norah O'Donnell was pushing every GOP line against Biden and Harris. The media is just desperate for the comeback. There are so many voter suppression and harassment stories out now that it's just hard for me to trust any numbers or trust votes to be treated properly.

It's 2016 and 2018 that are guiding more on Florida than Politico, to be honest.

Mark Meadows is like some offshoot from House of Cards...he's exactly the poisonous chief of staff that Trump deserves. Looks like Republicans are catching up in Florida early vote. Biden has a slim chance due to his support from seniors, but after this, I really hope the party can find a way to move on from Florida in Presidential years and not look back.

An interesting article on poring through old images of flipbooks to find and reassemble lost Melies-era films. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/22/what-the-flip-the-chance-discovery-thats-uncovered-treasures-of-the-very-earliest-cinema

@DaytimeFan this probably won't help, but lately I have been using the CCleaner browser to download Youtube content. There is a little blue box on the upper right hand corner of the video that lets you choose the size, etc.

Speaking of the above: There's no way this isn't going to end in wide-scale violence. There have been too many narrow escapes recently. The PA stuff from Gingrich reminds me of 2012 when the GOP tried to claim Philly cheated and that's how Obama won. I guess they know how the setup goes. The Texas info is interesting as pundits (admittedly they are somewhat right-leaning) like Dave Wasserman have mentioned how the early vote numbers are much stronger in Trump 2016 counties, and also there are articles about Beto and Julian Castro being angry Biden isn't doing more. I never thought Texas would flip, but I hope that the rush of Trump support we're seeing that was inevitably coming through much of the country as we get closer to Election Day doesn't mean there is no chance they take back the Texas house.

How awful can one paper get???

Marco Rubio is a loathsome grifter who is still paraded around as some kind of sympathetic conservative hero for a new age by the press.

Thanks for all these updates and photos. Jo Weil is as handsome as ever. It's interesting to hear more about the precautions taken. I was watching some clips from a non-German soap, Rantabaari, and they still seem to have graphic sex scenes. I guess maybe that was pre-COVID, unless their country was never hit hard.

I could post so many others from publications that were once worth respecting, like the man who runs Mother Jones. These people need Trump so much and the narrative of their flawed but fascinating hero becoming a Real President. If he loses, they are going to do anything they can to kneecap Democrats for ending their gravy train.

Those were also Frank Luntz's talking points - people are disappointed and don't like anyone. Those are Republican talking points (most of his undecideds were Trump voters), but they register. So do a lot of the other tricks on display (CNN talking about how Biden will be mocked for looking at his watch, Politico saying this was the Trump we should have had in the first debate and he came out strong, the obsessive press focus on the oil issue, the press reminding Bernie voters that Biden distances himself from the left, etc.). Debates don't win or lose elections, but if some of the snap polls had about 41% supporting his performance and 7% undecided, that's probably not far off his level of support in voting. It's going to be a full court press for the media these last two weeks; ideally Biden can eke out a narrow win and Democrats can somehow win or tie the Senate.

Let me guess - they are still undecided, or they support Trump. Here we are with the media trying to help Trump with ideas (again). This will likely help Republicans in the House and Senate (I've been wary of Democrats picking up the Senate anyway), but Trump doesn't give a damn about this type of stuff.

Welker was actually highly praised by Republicans until the last week when they decided to dogpile on her and attack her parents to give excuses for Trump's poor performance in advance. Is it me or does that "pillows and sheets" sound like some Qanon code? Thanks for the synopses, @Vee . I can't imagine the media hot takes...

Enraging. (and this is not an isolated incident lately)

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/30/iranian-film-chess-of-the-wind-reborn-mohammad-reza-aslani-bfi-london-film-festival

I agree Fooliani has always been loathsome...but I don't have much use for Sacha Baron Cohen yet again playing these attention whore games with right wing grifters, sucking up media space for tricks that can inadvertently make them seem like victims of a setup or gotcha. He did this with Sarah Palin too a few years ago. He is just too exhausting and feels like he should have been left back to 15 years ago.

As you said, the premiere would have been a nice idea. Or one of the 30th anniversary episodes, if they wanted to use a large cast. I don't want to be ungrateful, it's wonderful to see these legends again...but...that was not an episode to go out on.

I'd rather watch the cast read the script for Showgirls than that finale.

Eerie how this has been two a day several times now this year.