Vee

Lecy requested Sarah come back:

Yeah, the pilot sounds rocky, but pilots usually are. I'm glad it's an hour event. They've also only screened 3. Wow: Even Alan Sepinwall likes it.

Hmm:

Well, I'm officially optimistic.

Oh, I think she means it. I also think her recent public appearances have indicated a fair amount of embarrassment mixed with stubborn old person pride. Both Kimmel and John Goodman roasted her on it and she barely fought back. She even urged people to vote him out if they wanted. I think/hope the reunited cast and crew have had an effect on her. And yes, I do think it was borne out of a frustration with 'political correctness' with her - and too many other people like her, who the right radicalized from the far left when their privilege was threatened. Some can be won back, some can't. No amount of political correctness can excuse her vote or her behavior, but it is a trend we see again and again. Alienation in a changing world makes some people easy pickings when they can't adjust.

Vulture digs it and says it's still progressive.

Fantastic!

Tom Arnold reviews the show! (He likes it.)

Same.

Backed into a corner.

Not news about Politico's leanings, but this info is still important:

People mock Trump about the crowds at various events so much because, like Daniels, it's one of the things that can really cut into him personally. I don't think it does cloud the gun control message - it's stronger than it's been in decades right now, AFAIC. Meanwhile:

Wow, Crystal and Chuck made it into a promo: Lecy talks to the NY Daily News. She doesn't say it outright here, but she's right that the writing for Becky changed with her gone - it was nonexistent. Sarah Chalke is a fine actress today but back then all she did as Becky was play the pretty blonde bimbo. That's on the writing.

It'll make a dent in soft support among women who don't tell their husbands on the right. Also, as Maggie Haberman says, it hurts Trump personally because he can't stand ridicule, especially about his masculinity.

Meanwhile, in the Trump Legal Olympics:

An interesting and largely positive review from Buzzfeed. It still sounds like the pilot is the rockiest given growing pains and handling the Trump issue, and I'm glad they move on. That being said, this is the part that really interested me: A brief piece from THR in which the cast and crew (sans Roseanne) passes on screening the revival for Trump:

It's not planned, though. It's not some strategy. It's just a spontaneous tantrum because he doesn't want to sign it. Meanwhile! Sure, John Dowd is gone and Ty Cobb may be fired, but Trump's new legal team is on the case.

Very sorry to hear it. Meanwhile, more on Cambridge Analytica and other stuff:

I think Nancy Curlee might have been able to help OLTL, for awhile anyway.

A good piece on how Ivanka and Jared's world keeps collapsing, and a suggestion that if push came to shove she would choose Jared over her father, while her father would absolutely cut Jared loose to save himself (something his once and perhaps future lawyer, Kasowitz, has reportedly suggested to him before). I never believed that Ivanka would choose anything over her father, and I'm still not convinced - as the piece notes, her devotion to him since childhood is pathological - but this isn't the first article in the last few weeks that is highly critical of her but also suggests that she might now have more loyalty than the once-stable life she had with her husband than to the aging Trump.

A good interview with Roseanne and John Goodman on Kimmel. Kimmel playfully grills her about Trump (and Goodman needles her a bit as well), and tbh Roseanne seems defensive but also sheepish. As I suspected, she seems secretly embarrassed despite her wounded pride - and interestingly, earnestly urges people to vote and "change it if you don't like it."