The TV thread

Baby Reindeer. Oy. If Quiet On The Set brought back the first ten or so years of my work in mental health care, Baby Reindeer is an extension of my current work days.

Jessica Gunning is amazing as Martha. The series was hard to watch because she nails how awful erotomania is for the person suffering from it and the people who are caught in their obsessive loops. My two issues with it right now are 1.) Her victim is a jerk and would have still been a jerk if he'd never met her. He tries to couch his own actions as research when he has simply trauma bonded with her. 2.) Real-life victims are sufficiently fascinated by this show to want to poke the bear, so to speak, ending up with people who have been pulling themselves together now dealing with texts, calls, letters, etc. from individuals they were ordered by the courts to avoid. Shoring up people who have been told for years that the attachments they built up were all in their heads and then getting messages that point in the opposite direction is not karma. It's just cruel.

Thanks for the warning.

I'll watch it because Kitty and Red made the show, IMHO.

 

Debra Jo Rupp carried That 90s Show on her back - I think she deserved an Emmy nod for that show, but it's not the kind of show that normally gets them. I'm glad its coming back, even if it hadn't quite found its groove like the original did just yet.

 

Very happy to see 3 Body Problem has been renewed.

3 Body Problem renewed for season 2 — and however many more seasons it needs to wrap

 

Oh, Missy... (BTDT)

 

Young Sheldon ended up being a hell of a lot better than it ever had any right to be

 

I was a late arrival, only watched the last few seasons as Sheldon got older and became the least interesting character on the show.

The penultimate funeral episode was fantastic and the cast was outstanding. It was the kind of episode that won Emmys in pre streaming days.

 

My daughter, 10, exclaimed “why do I feel so sad I know its just actors he’s not really dead”

 

You kind of already know where he's going to end up, so everyone else ends up more interesting by default. It helps that they did have interesting or good actors for most of those roles, though. And pretty much all Lorre shows are at least decent, even if they start with weird premises.

 

If I had to compare Young Sheldon to anything as a way to describe it to someone who has never seen it, it would be Raising Arizona. There is a degree of decency in every character. No one is carrying the burden of being that person everyone hates to watch. As Lorre has mentioned, George as he was written on TBBT was an alcoholic philanderer. The George we got to know on Young Sheldon was a good dad. Not only that, there was the continued evidence that he liked being a dad. He wanted to be there. There was no edge or resentment. There was just George being Dad. I think that resonates with a lot of us.

 

To be honest, I'll give the spinoff of the spinoff a try come fall -- "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage." I like both the main characters and Will Sasso.

I was determined not to get into "Young Sheldon" early in the series. But I began watching it in the last three seasons. Pleasant show. And the assistant coach and principal at the door two weeks ago hit me, too.

 

Have three bigger lumps ever made it to the final in Survivor? Kenzie was the best.

 

Kenzie or Charlie would have been worthy winners in what was an overall terrible season with a terrible cast. No one knew how to play the game.