Peanuts. Charlie Brown. I've heard of them, I'm just not conversant in them. I know there's a dog.
How I Met Your Mother 6x01 Big Days
Six seasons?! Wow.
"a little ways down the road" -- what a great little time stamp. Why do you keep sucking me back in, Show? Why so charming? TPTB know they screwed up last year (and have said so) and I can only hope that they fix it this year. The thing is, I love the characters, the actors are amazing (NPH can do no wrong), the writing is often good -- it's the direction of the show that tends to make me nervous. There's also a guest-star coming up for many episodes as a girlfriend for Ted . . . and I'm not thrilled about the choice. She . . . irritates me. Granted, I haven't seen her in many other things but I know she does sanctimonious "well" -- and it sounds like that is exactly what she'll be doing. Not really looking forward to it.
Ted? If you want peace? Don't grade papers at a bar. Oh, Show, sucking me in with the great brOTP. Damn it. "Robin, seriously, I love you, but it's like you have squiggly cartoon odor lines coming off of you right now." BEST LINE. I love that he needled her the entire episode. MORE OF THAT, PLEASE. They could shoot dirty looks at each other all episode and I'd love it. (Their scenes in The Chain of Screaming, particularly their first "argument" about calling shotgun? some of my favorite brOTP scenes "You can't just call things, Barney. / I called it. I can call things!"). Marshall and Lily fighting behind Robin? Too funnny. Oh, is this real!Barney coming back? Thank you, Show. I prefer this Barney (and I enjoy the serious Lily/Barney conversations, too).
"You sundressed up." She brought a book! And Robin so wore a sundress after listening to Barney's thoughts on them all last summer (plus, she's Canadian and can handle the weather :D). She did that all to get back at Barney, too ("Fourteen seconds!" to Barney; so competitive). LOVE. "Wow, Robin, you do look super hot. / Oh, do I? / Yeah, you do. / Thanks." Awww, such a nice turn. DAMN IT, SHOW. THEY'RE TOO ADORABLE TOGETHER FOR ME TO RESIST. Boo.
"High six" is not going to be a thing. Aww, I like the happy ending for Cindy.
Ted meets the mother on a day of a wedding -- probably later, in the rain, with an umbrella. But . . .
WHO'S WEDDING IS IT?
It's an actual church. The sign says "To everything there is a season." TED IS THE BEST MAN. Marshall is a groomsman. Ted is nervous. He wants the toast and the whole day to be great. It looks like Lily is a bridesmaid. Ted's being "summoned" and he's like, "what now" as if being the best man has been time-consuming. And where is Barney? where is Robin?. What's going on?! And HIMYM was that confirmed blind item which is freaking me out. Why must show screw with my head like this?
Bones - 6x01 The Mastodon in the Room
Also six seasons? Cool. Bones is making me tired. I loved last year's 100th but . . . I tend to lose patience. It's partly because I break my rule and read interviews and it's partly because I've never had a lot of patience with this show. In the Pilot, there's an establishing shot with a card that reads "Dulles" but it has a plane with the Capitol in the background. NOT Dulles. Now, I'm all for not using "Reagan" at all, believe me, but Dulles has a very nice main check-in terminal that has actually been shown in many, many movies. (Hell, the baggage claim in Dulles has been replicated). When I actually gave it a chance and watched . . . many seasons in a row, I liked it. ED is amazing. But I still get tired, because I don't like being jerked around and manipulated by the show's powers that be and then criticized by said powers that be because I was so taken in by their obvious manipulations. Not a fan. At all.
But ED as Brennan sells it. And I love Hodgins. I love Hodgins a lot. I love Cam. I like Angela. Most of the time I like Booth.
Part of me, a small part, kind of doesn't care if they ever get together anymore. I'm tired of caring but ED as Brennan makes me want to care, unfortunately. Damn it.
Oh, Brennan and Daisy in Maluku. So amusing. SHE'S NOT AFRAID OF SNAKES WHEN BOOTH ISN'T THERE TO JUMP ON. Go with it, Brennan. And she's being badass. I hope this Brennan stays around all season. Oh, Daisy. She has days of the week underwear (except Sunday? :D).
Booth in Afghanistan bugs. A lot. And the woman's English is remarkable. And that line isn't too on the nose at all. I may be delving into sarcasm.
It pissed me off when he left last season to go to Afghanistan and his son was all, go, Daddy! Miss a year of my life! Miss a birthday, a Christmas, a Little League season. Maybe because BB Booth never had to deal with his father going to a war zone but it's a BIG. FUCKING. DEAL. Everyone was a little too cavalier about the whole thing. Also problematic: training in a war zone. See, the DOD thought of this and realized, wait! We should train our people before we ship them off! They've been doing this for awhile now! And for Afghanistan/Iraq, they actually built a model village stateside just for training purposes! It was in the NY Times and everything! It's built next to a base (fort) that they've used for desert training for decades. It's in the middle of nowhere, too! Still a hellhole but less dangerous. SO, Booth realizes all of a sudden that he can't stay away from his son any longer. No kidding, Booth. Saw that coming. And is he going to have brain damage? All the stuff Cam's been talking about? Or at least some PTSD combined with his brain tumor in season 4?
SPEAKING OF WHICH - and this is actually serious, so feel free to skip this paragraph to get back to tv - all veterans can now claim PTSD under the Obama Administration's new VA rules; they no longer have to show that they've seen actual combat just that they've been deployed. Fuck yeah. Reason #3436 I'm a Democrat: actually supporting the troops (with evil socialized medicine. Fuck you, Republicans).
BACK TO TV - Oh, they're waiting for each other at the Plaza of Sadness. I don't know where this is supposed to be. HE'S STILL IN HIS FATIGUES AND NO HAT. YOU WEAR YOUR HAT OUTSIDE. YOU CARRY YOUR HAT INSIDE. DB would look hot in a regulation hat; why do they resist this? Oh, Brennan's happy and the hug! Nice. And they somehow had to agree to meet there, yes? And Bones got there first.
Odd, because she's always running a little late when it comes to Booth. But you're not too late Brennan, even though Booth's found that irritating girl from House's One Day, One Room.
Oh, Sweets. What the fuck, man? Why the facial hair? Why did you go nuts? Why am I swearing so much? I'm loling at the fact that he's playing the piano. I SEE YOU, HART HANSON, bringing in allusions to The End in the Beginning. CAROLINE IS AN EVIL GENIUS AND I LOVE THAT ABOUT HER. MOAR CAROLINE, MOAR. I love that Sweets jumped right back in for Booth. Oh, duckling!Sweets.
PLAZA AND STAIRCASE OF SADNESS. Oh, he's lying to her. And Brennan: "I had to, you weren't around to save me." I thought hurt!Booth was bad, hurt!Brennan is going to kill me this year, isn't she. Oh, Brennan, so obvious to everyone but you--and Booth. "Remember when you arrested me?" *hugs* (and he had to arrest Hannah, new gf? she's going to be more than a little irritating, isn't she?). "Good to know it wasn't just me." Oh, Booth. HEART CRUSHING. grrr.
Cam gets mad at Brennan for her selfishness. ILU, Cam. You've had a crappy seven months.
Wendell as a mechanic. WENDELL. Brennan bribing him because SHE NEEDS PEOPLE. Huh, she probably hasn't been writing in Maluku, either. Her publishers can't be too pleased with that.
Caroline kicked people out of Booth's office. LOVE. "Takes the emotional pressure off, I guess." Caroline sees all, knows all, and Booth's tap-dancing as fast as he can. I'm happy, I've moved on! Sure, Booth. This is the exchange that saved Booth for me, talking about Brennan - Caroline: Well, we'd all like for her to find that [the missing link to humanity]. Booth: Right? me, too. Oh, Booth. *hugs*
Oh, Daisy and Sweets. Way to explicitly state what was going on between Brennan and Booth. Sweets found someone else, Daisy was completely faithful. "I was emulating my mentor, Dr. Brennan, and she was wrong which means I was wrong, too. I was led astray by my brain." Daisy, sweetie, I love you, but since YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PUSHED BRENNAN IN THE FIRST PLACE, YOU REALLY DON'T HAVE A LEG TO STAND ON.
Look! Brennan's giving a compliment!! What the hell happened to her in the jungle?! I love that it isn't awkward between Angela, Hodgins, and Wendell. I LOVE that Hodgins and Wendell are still friends.
BOOTH: ABSOTIVELY, THAT'S NOT A WORD. Seriously, Booth?! WOW. AND BRENNAN IGNORES IT AND ANSWERS THE QUESTION. WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE PEOPLE???!!!! And doesn't comment that she was nowhere near Timbuktu? Impressive.
Sweets: Can I ask you a personal question? Booth: Depends. About you or me? Sweets: Me. Booth: Sure. Booth is still hurting. "Give yourself a chance to be happy. And move on." Yes, Booth, if you keep repeating it, maybe it'll happen. Hey, what do people know about what happened between Booth and Brennan? Sweets might have guessed (but I doubt they told him specifics). Did Brennan tell everyone? Or does everyone just notice the mastadon in the room. See what I did there? :D
I love it so much that she's actually having lunch with Wendell. Has she ever had lunch with an intern? And in Maluku with Daisy doesn't count.
"I love you like an actual sister. I assume, not having an actual sister for control." Brennan goes to "are you in love with Booth?" She's having a hard time with this but doesn't know why. Everyone's a little bit in love with Booth. ANGELA'S PREGNANT. YAY!!!! More Angela/Brennan scenes!
Huh. White lab coats. I don't think they've ever worn these before. Heh, the hard wood/soft wood comments led me on a memory walkabout to the West Wing (what else) -- "And spruce is a soft wood. Soft wood burns out quickly. You know what we need for a slow-burning fire? / A hard wood? / That's right." <3
CAR SCENE! Wear a seatbelt, Booth, for crying out loud. LIKE A FLEA. "The way my use of accurate similes makes you uncomfortable?" Find the keystone. Heh. Bones knows that Booth left because she left. Neither Booth nor Brennan could ever be seen as invisible; they are clearly not the lynchpin. "It's not easy being the lynchpin now is it? / That's true."
Again, way to be specific and open, Daisy and Sweets. I love you two. Going in to kiss her? Probably not the safest thing. Making out in front of coworkers? Not the best decision (from a work perspective). It's okay, I love you two anyway.
"Founding Fathers" is a much better name for DC than "Royal Diner." "Royal?" In DC? Seriously? "Caroline's a nice person under the whole not nice thing." BECAUSE SHE'S THE LYNCHPIN. Oh, Booth: Why do we only solve crimes when we have a dead body? Cam: Seriously? Because I'm a pathologist and she's a forensic anthropologist. Fresh dead, long-time dead.
Oh, Brennan. "I find I would like to strike him." "Well, let's hope he runs, alright, and I'll take him down like a flea." LOVE THIS LINE. LOVE IT. LOVE BRENNAN'S THRILLED SMILE AFTER HE SAYS IT. That little boy is very, very cute.
Oh, Hodgins, I think I love you most of all. "If you cry, then I'm going to start crying." Then I'm going to start crying.
Scooby gang! Concentrate the magic!!! Look at Brennan's growth, people. She wants to hug someone?! Such a switch from last year's season premiere where the only person she hugged was Booth (Hodgins hugged her and Cam's offer of a hug was rejected :D)
Brennan did all of the things on her list. Cam is still the boss! Why the Smithsonian, excuse me, Jeffersonian used it for a mastodon is beyond me.
Not subtle: Hodgins. Also Sweets. Also the great big mastodon. Booth is back!
And the word of the episode: METAPHORICALLY. Damn it, this season is going to tire me out but Brennan and Hodgins keep pulling me back in. Damn it.
Mad Men
4x10 Hands and Knees; a bit of 4x09 The Beautiful Girls
Who am I going to talk to? The girls you work with.
Forget HIMYM, Mad Men is making me nervous. Joan and Roger! I love their glorious fucked-upness, but then all of this. Damn it. "Greg dying is not a solution to this." Eh. I don't want him to die but I do want him to pay for being a fucking rapist immature fuckwit who's making Joan's life worse. It's been seven weeks but he's not a great doctor; would he really know? Especially since he's going straight to Vietnam after basic (and he's in San Antonio for basic, damn it; stay away from Brooke Army Medical Center even though I know that's exactly where you are). Roger actually brings up an "us" for them. Doesn't want to start with scandal. She never wanted them to start with scandal; him leaving his first wife for her would have been scandal (nobody thinks you're happy). He finally left his wife when she got engaged; for him to leave his (ridiculously young) second wife for Joan? Also scandal. I don't see avoiding scandal in any of this. Which is the point, I suppose. She's not sorry it happened but she's married and he's married. They're respectively married to inappropriate people but they're still married. Why is Joan's life so tragic? She's not getting anything that she wanted.
Don's not going to take her to see the Beatles, is he? Damn it, Don.
A time when they didn't want to emphasize defense spending. Don't forget the moon! I didn't catch the bombs they were talking about in particular; why do I feel like they're significant.
Whoa. Lucky strike? Roger's life is spiraling. He takes his heart medication. I love Roger; I don't want anything to happen to him.
Men suck. That's what this series keeps showing me. All the women are awesome (even Betty! her problem is wanting what was expected of her, like having kids when she shouldn't then marrying a man who thinks the ideal furniture for her is a fainting couch) but the men absolutely suck. So much has changed . . . so much has stayed the same. I could be more eloquent, perhaps, but not right now. I actually liked Betty and Don on that phone call; they both grew up a little and knew immediately what the other was getting at. I liked that.
Did not see that coming. Not as bad a Guy walks into an Advertising Agency, but shit.
Trudy is extremely pregnant.
Joan. JOAN. *hugs* That doctor sucked, ignoring her completely. More or less judgmental than her own fuckwit doctor? Toss-up, really. Passed around like a tray of canapes. You're not, though, Joanie. You're not. But the whole situation is fucked up. And he doesn't know what to do because he never knows what you want to do; you're the strong one. And, ngl, they showed Joan on the bus in the previews and I thought she was on her way to San Antonio.
Roger tearing the card is the funniest thing so far in this episode.
And the first ex-Mrs. Draper is dead so she can't vouch for him, either. "I'm tired of running." Shit, really? WOW.
WOW. He tells Faye and she takes it in stride. Amazing. Thought Peggy would be on the list to know next. Why don't people like Faye? I like that her accent fades in and out under different circumstances, I like that her father ran a candy store and knows . . . certain people that can guarantee her a table in restaurants! And she's a career woman in the 1960s (with PhD); give her her fucking props.
Pete. Be good. He was flagged?
I wish you would talk to me about these things.
Oh, that's a picture. He looks at her, through the glass. Too much glass in this office. She's tearing up as she's talking, but just slightly. CH is amazing. "Life goes on." "I wish I could hold you." Killing me, people. And she's wearing bright pink.
Some names were left off a document. How could that be? It's because I didn't pay enough attention.
This is going to be a prickly scene. Has she ever called him "Roger" in public? The usage of first names and last names are very important this season.
Lane folded. Lane! Roger's spiraling.
Who am I going to talk to?
Oh, the closed door versus open door conversations. Nice bookends. So light for 8pm.
Stop fucking up, Don. And stop fucking your secretaries (please don't fuck Megan, she seems nice. not that you listened to me the last time). Please, please, please take your daughter to the Beatles. She has enough issues as it is and she's the one who has to live with Betty and Henry Francis.
Do you want to know a secret? Doo wah doo. Do you promise not to tell? Instrumental. LOVE.