The TV thread

Pretty thoughtful takedown of Homeland, Scandal and other shows that feature empowered women who turn to goo around attractive men:

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/10/10/tvs-strongest-female-characters-share-one-stupid-flaw/?xid=newsletter-daily

 

Let's be fair... Carrie is batshit insane and Olivia turns to goo around the leader of the free world.

 

I don't watch most of the shows mentioned, but it still seems like a very strained criticism to me.
Making bad decisions as a result of romantic love is a time-tested literary mechanism for drama and tragedy. It is used consistently with male characters and female characters.

In GoT, the only show mentioned in the criticism that I watch, Dany was becoming a strong character but was not yet at the time she made her terrible choice. That tragedy was a step in her character's transformation from weak to strong.
Further, in the same show, Robb Stark is an example of a male character making a terrible choice because of romantic love.

I don't think it's a case of sexual bias in characters.

 

I'm completely over the whole Wo Fat storyline. I hope they tie it up soon. But I'm convinced the old Navy SEAL buddy who used to bang Catherine and just offered a job is somehow involved in all of it.

 

Nice comeback episode for Parenthood tonight. Not nearly as annoying as the first two, and a really nice ending with Crosby and their baby.

 

Sunday's Eastbound & Down was amazing.

 

I think I would look at that show a lot differently if I didn't watch the first one expecting it to be a comedy.

 

This is somewhere between a tangent and a threadjack, but last night I went to the Loeb Drama Center and saw Bryan Cranston as LBJ in a play called "All the Way." Play had problems, but he was fantastic.

 

I'll be curious what his career arc looks like after Breaking Bad. He was joking on one of the shows that several years ago he was worried about being typecast as a goofy dad and now he's worried about not playing a bad guy all the time. It probably helps that Cranston doesn't actually look like Walter White.

 

He can do what he wants. This play is headed to Broadway, and he could have a good run there. Other cast members including Michael McKean as J. Edgar Hoover and the guy who played Bulldog on "Frasier" as George Wallace!!

 

That's weird. It wasn't marketed as a comedy. It wasn't on a traditionally comedy-heavy night until this season. Also, it actually has plenty of laughs.

old_tony, I agree this was a particularly strong episode. The conflict between Joel and Julia seems more real this season than in past disagreements. And I could get used to happy Ryan, though I'm sure that won't last.

 

Does it feel like "Parenthood" is ridiculously overlooked sometimes, given the gravitas of the cast and the quality of work?

I think this might be the only show on earth that could make me like Dax Shepard for a little while.