One Drink at a Time-Nashville 1X18

I'm prefacing this post with a disclaimer. This post may sound like I hate Nashville. I don't, it is the only new show this year that I continued watching. I think the acting is great and Callie Khouri made one of my favorite movies (Thelma and Louise). But it has been a long week and I'm in a snarky mood. Also, I think there are things to improve for next season. But I promise, I really do like this show.

Juliette
Today on Nashville, Juliette yells at her mom all while trying to climb the professional ladder in the world of country music. Just like every episode. Yay.

And I thought I loved champagne

Okay, I think the writers don't really know what to do with her. They had a really good storyline in her changing her music style, but that kind of fell away. Every once and awhile they mention it, but I'm interested in how changing her musical style will effect how she's marketing herself and what it's like for an artist to change themselves. Usually they are met with criticism; fans usually want people to stay the same. But they don't There was also the interesting storyline of her mother, and they tried to do something with it, but it has now turned into Juliette being angry at her mother all the time and not moving forward. In this episode they did touch on the genetics involved in alcoholism and that Juliette could be an alcoholic, so I hope they explore that. Mainly, I want to see some character growth with Juliette that sticks. Next season? One can only hope.


Deacon and Rayna

All the happy feels

Finally! Okay, it wasn't that long. But there was too much sexual tension for this to be dragged out for years. But Rayna has to tell him that he has a daughter and I think Teddy is really shitty for forbidding her to tell him. But she really doesn't have to listen to him and I honestly don't think she will. It will be perfect bliss for the next few episodes and the finale will be her finally telling him and him being FUCKING pissed. Maybe he'll punch Teddy? Come on writers, someone has to punch Teddy.

Teddy

Please go away. Forever.

That's really all I have to say about you. Why did Rayna marry you again?

Gunnar and Scarlett...and Will
I have a very complicated relationship with Gunnar. Half the time I like him and half the time I hate him. And right now, I hate him. It is 2013, get over the fact that Will tried to kiss you. Scarlett, go find someone else. I'm excited to see Scarlett actually going to do more things and possibly tour next season. She is a character than I think the series will be able to grow well and represent a more folk-y side to country than Rayna and Juliette.

I feel like there's a Three's Company joke in here somewhere...

Will has suddenly become an interesting character with this new revelation. At first I thought he was your stereotypical douche-y country frat boy who tries to kill himself every once and awhile. But the revelation of his sexuality has added a new dimension to his character. Country music has a persona of being very heteronormative and anti-alternative masculinities. I'm choosing to use heteronormative rather than homophobic because it is not anti-gay outright, rather it just assumes everyone to be straight. One of my criticisms of many country hits is that they are very general. Many genres do that, but country music has a lot of songs that talk about southern/country boys and girls and what they do. I'm not saying that every country artist is homophobic or anti-gay, but the area that influences this genre has a tendency to be very conservative and very homophobic. But they also are anti-alternative masculinities  This includes gay men, but there are songs make fun of men who dress well, or just dress differently than jeans and cowboy boots. So for Nashville to have a gay character, especially one that does not follow major gay stereotypes, is fascinating. I really want them to explore this character more and follow the difficulties of being gay in Nashville and I think this could be their most interesting storyline to date.


What are your predictions for the rest of the season? Will Rayna spill about her daughter's true parentage? Will I ever stop hating Teddy (probably not)?

Small hiatus

Just an FYI, I will not have access to tv or a computer until next week, so I'll be updating again in about a week. I hope all of you have a great week!

"I'm in"-The Good Wife 4x22

Oh Zack. I know you're trying to be a good kid, but why do you always find yourself in these situations? The Good Wife puts up another quirky case with court in the middle of the night to stop the votes from being counted. And what do they add to make it more awesome? Patty Nyholm. And her children.

She's back! With babies!

Seriously, the best exchange of the night was:
Will: Is that one new?
Patty: I don't know, I've lost track.

This case was something that could only happen on The Good Wife. It was so entertaining to watch Alicia, Diane, and Will have to switch sides mid-case AND join with opposing council. It's another example of what I talked about last week, where e show is more concerned with how the law works rather than if it is just.

Go home George

I really hope they bring the election cheating back next season. Peter may try to claim innocence, but leaving the decision up to Will was a jerk move. You don't get to be a good person if you let election rigging happen. Will clearly made the decision for Alicia's happiness, so he gets a little reprieve in my book. I feel like if Alicia finds out about e rigging, her relationship with both Peter and Will could be damages. But, I think her relationship with Will is fixable because he did not already lie and cheat on Alicia with prostitutes. And Kalinda. Peter's out of chances.

"My mother just threatened me?"

What did you all think outcome? In particular, there was a comment about how many votes Peter won by. I interpreted it as the place Zack voted at to be not the only place that the votes were changed, and that's why Peter won by more than he thought he would. However, I have heard other ideas that he never needed them in the first place and the rigging was for nothing. Thoughts? Post below in the comments!

Serious Alicia is serious.

I completely bought it. I watched this episode with my friend Emily (who has an awesome blog at loudemily.blogspot.com) and we thought Will was going to be on the other side of that door. We were literally jumping off the couch with excitement. But The Good Wife sucker punched us with Cary's face and Alicia's "I'm in". The last sequence of this episode was done so beautifully. Alicia comes home and has a glass of wine, does some laundry and waits. By pairing the daily events of her life with a HUGE life decision emphasizes the importance of this decision and Alicia's constant choice to remain a good wife. Or at least her version of it. Many people have been complaining (Tumblr, I'm looking at you) that Alicia made a cowardly choice or no choice at all by not leaving Peter. Now, I would like her to leave Peter as well. But I understand why she doesn't. Beyond him being the father of her kids, he represents something to Alicia. This season they introduced her mother, a woman that moves from man to man. Alicia doesn't want to be her mother. It has been previously mentioned that she didn't like that her parent got divorced. And then in this season her mother tells her that she should go after Will, and Alicia immediately pulls Peter into the bathroom for sex. I don't think she really wants to be with Peter, but Peter represents how Alicia can avoid her mother's failings. We have seen Alicia battle between what was expected of her and what she wants. In a flashback to their pre-cheating life, their relationship is almost stepfordish. There is a historical notion that women are supposed to be the keepers of virtue, expecting to forgive their husband's transgressions and make none of their own. Alicia still feels the pressure of the 50's notion of womanhood that she thinks she's supposed to conform to, and that means choosing Peter also means that her previous relationship with Will is a transgression to be forgotten and moved away from, hence the Cary choice. The Kings noted that even though Alicia is trying to distance herself from Will, who says that will work out? I'm interested to see how all this plays out, and I am counting down the days until the next season. Add your predictions and hopes for next season in the comments!

Princeton, Not Prison: The Good Wife's Take on Rape Culture

**Trigger Warning: Rape**

The Good Wife usually does it's ripped-from-the-headlines episodes, and this was no exception. Except, it's ridiculously timely. The actual references are Bitcoin, "women can't get pregnant from rape", Aaron Swartz, the recent rape cases such as Stubenville, as well as Anonymous. But Anonymous made headlines last week with the Parson's rape case (which you can learn more about here and here) in a similar fashion to this case. But this only happened a week ago and could not have been the reason The Good Wife included this storyline.  They are just so on the nose that coincidences like this happen, especially when it comes to news and events that involve technology. Unfortunately, The Good Wife gets criticized for how topical it is (an example is here)  I think this an unfair assessment  because the show uses popular media brilliantly and is not appropriating the storyline because they can, but rather they are making a statement on these events. . In the world of the 24-hour-news cycle, which has majorly screwed up recently (see: The Boston Marathon), The Good Wife shows us intricacies of these cases that are not just focused on "who?". This is not something the show should be criticized for, but celebrated. This episode really highlighted the writer's way of taking complicated, real-life situations, and making them into a great (feminist) episode of television.

But before I get into the major themes, I wanted to point out a tiny portion of the episode. A small detail that I liked is that the police officer asked if she said yes to sex, not if she said no. The difference between 'yes' and 'not saying no' is incredibly important when it comes to rape and that is something lost on the media. We often hear 'no means no' but really, it should be 'only yes means yes'.

The lawyers on The Good Wife generally win their cases. This was pointed out to me by my mother, and I realized that I hadn't paid attention to the firm's win-loss record. Although the verdict is important, The Good Wife is not about whether the client is guilty or innocent or if they got the justice they deserved. Every once and awhile, sure, the show chooses to focus on a client winning who deserves to win. But most of the time? We don't know. Take Lamond Bishop or Colin Sweeney for example. They are complicated characters who bring complicated cases to the firm and the writer allow us to decide if they are guilty or not. This perception is filtered through the lawyer who represents them, and it usually is Alicia. This means that we see the good side of people, even if they aren't, because that's who Alicia is. The important part is that the writers let us decide rather than try to one-up the viewer by having an innocent-looking client be guilty. In last weeks episode the focus was on whether or not Sweeney committed a crime, and we were shown fairly conclusively that he didn't. This week, the focus changed from if it happened to how it was covered up. The show does this wonderfully by telling us that the question was not if the client was raped. The first scene of the entire show sends the message: this was rape.  The show did not delve into a "maybe she was lying" portion. He did it. He got away with it. And now he needs to pay. This is such a refreshing change of pace from shows that either use rape as a story device or treat possible rape victims like they might be asking for it. The Good Wife is showing us what rape culture looks like in the legal system.

First Shot.

The show opens with Rainey being held in contempt for tweeting about what the perpetrator did to her. Then, evidence was thrown out on technicalities, even though it showed that the perpetrator was guilty and most of the evidence relied on technology. It modernized it (I mean, the title of the episode had 'modern' in it), by showing how technology plays a part in rape. We can see this in the Stubenville rape, as pictures played heavily in convicting the two boys. .(Sidenote: Because this episode relied so heavily on technology, here's a fantastic article by Emily Bussbaum at The New Yorker about how important the relationship between technology and "The Good Wife" really is.)

In that case, even though there is photographic evidence showing exactly what happened to the victim, people still believe them to be innocent. And that is a major part of rape culture. The episode illustrated it with the video discussing the perpetrator wanting to shove things into the victim's vagina. Yes, how Anonymous gave the information to the firm was questionable, but it was evidence of what had happened. At the end, we feel like we won, as we watch Alicia (longingly) watch Will hug Rainey in a slightly hopeful ending to this case as she is no longer held in contempt.. I hope The Good Wife takes this case us again in the future, because we still do not have a conclusion to this case. Even if we don't, The Good Wife has provided us with an analysis of rape culture in the legal system that needs to change.

Idealism vs. Realism-The Good Wife 4X20

I thought that the case in this episode was extremely timely and important, and will have a whole post dedicated to it. This portion is about the rest of the episode.

Diane/Will

Diane continues to be vetted for the Supreme Court position, and the investigator starts meeting with her. My favorite parts:

1. The concern over her business proceedings over her romantic life
2.  The confusion over the word 'partner'. I love that it was interpreted to mean romantic, not business. 
3. Kalinda's surprised face. It takes a lot to surprise her.

Surprise!

I'm glad that Diane defended Will. Even though on the outside he looks like a bad guy, we as the viewer know that he is generally a decent guy. The difference between Will and Peter is that Will doesn't pretend to be a fantastic person, whereas Peter thinks himself to be great. It does mean that Diane may not be on the Supreme Court, but I don't think the show is willing to give up Diane and she can't be a large part of the show and on the Supreme Court.

Cary/Kalinda/Staff

What are you up to?

I'm not sure if this new firm thing is going to hold out. I think Cary will be made partner at Lockhart Gardner instead to appease the 4th year uprising. They did it once, they could do it again. And I'm not sure Robyn os going to stay, I think she'll stay if the new firm is created because Kalinda would follow Cary.

I Will Be Your Pocahontas, Climb Into My Papoose-Parks and Recreation 5X18

Parks and Recreation usually gives me all the feminist feels, and this episode was no exception.

But first, Animal Control.
Based on my experience with animal control (which is little to none, only stories), I wouldn't surprised if it was actually run by two stoners. This explains the Raccoon problem!

It's a cat. Or maybe a possum. 

And this gave us insight into Jerry's educational status, Orin in general, and the creepiness of a few of the Pawnee residents. I love these side episodes that are almost an ethnography of Pawnee. We see why Leslie is the way she is and why Pawnee is the greatest city in the world (suck it, Eagleton).

Who gave Ron a Sharpie?

Ron trying to eat the banana may have been the comedy highlight of this episode. Having him and Ann pair up as often as possible is awesome, and I really love how they show Ron's dedication to his girlfriend and her kids. It would be so easy to have him be either Ross Gellar from Friends or have him be a twice-divorced jerk who puts no effort into relationships because he doesn't see the point. Instead, we get a well rounded character who just has a slight paranoia about the government.

P&R did a great job of mirroring what we have seen in recent congressional sessions, particularly those of Supreme Court Justice hearings. Men are not judged for their indiscretions, however women are scrutinized and asked extremely personal questions. Case in point: April vs. Teeth dude. Teeth dude had no qualifications whatsoever, and was only asked about that. And his teeth. April was bombarded with questions about emails sent to her husband and her personal life and not her qualifications. She was demonized as a pervert and a slut while Teeth dude was totally an idiot. I loved the moment where she suggested a change

All of the feels, feminist and otherwise

The shining portion of this episode was Leslie and April. I love that all the women in this show are supportive of each other, espeically Leslie with everyone else. My favorite exchange:

 April: How did you make this plaque so quickly?
Leslie: I had it made your first week here. I knew you were going places.

I love that on this show women are allowed to be proud of each other and appreciate each other and show their unabashed support of one another through personal and professional moments. Even though April and Ann have some sort of a feud, they still have a more positive female friendship than most shows on television. We need more portrayals of friendship like Parks and Recreation, cause I for one am tired of the fighting and girl hate that permeates modern culture.


Friends. Waffles. Work. We need to remember what's important in life.



Episode Grade? B. Solid, funny, good character development

What would you give the episode?

Like, Voldemort Bad- Lost Girl 3X13

Well that was one hell of a cliffhanger and now we have to wait until 2014 to get the answers. So all my character breakdown is going to be ending in questions because I have all of them

Tamsin
Tamsin in Valkyrie form is such a bad ass.

I want a back story episode for Tamsin where we see her taking out armies and the like.

 I knew that Tamsin what going to succumb to her concious that has been driving her to drink for the past two episodes. I want' expecting her to actually fight Bo. In all honesty, I thought she was going to get rid of the bottle and avoid the fisticuffs. I enjoyed her change from crying about her confusion to driving through The Wanderer, even though she then drove off a cliff. A part of me thought she was going to die, and I'm glad we get to follow this wonderfully complicated character for another season.Will Tamsin (and Dyson) get out of the car alive? Will Tamsin die? What happens when Valkyries die?

Bo
 I'm enjoying the crime-fighting duo of Bo and Tamsin. Maybe once everything settles down next season, we see them paired together more often.

Don't mess.

But only in a friend sort of way. The show has hinted to Tamsin having feelings for her, but I think that's how Tamsin's confused concious manifested itself. I think by the end of next season Lauren and Bo will be back together, because the show has coded them as the OTP, rather than Dyson and Bo. Bo's focus has been on Lauren since day 1, and they have that star-crossed lover thing going on. But Bo's family might get in the way of that. I enjoyed that they brought Bo's mother back especially with the introduction of her father. And of course her mother is still evil. It would be way too easy to have her die, and now Bo thinks she's A) dead and B) a martyr. But first we have to deal with "The Wanderer" a.k.a Bo's Dad.Who is Bo's father? Is she stuck in a card or in another plane? How did he have/start a relationship with Bo's mother?

Kenzi
First off, I love Bruce. Can he stick around next year? PhD, muscle-y AND totally in love with Kenzi? Brillinat combination. Also, if he has a PhD, why is he working for The Morrigan?

I'm sensing a dynamic duo situation brewing

I thought Hale put a key in Kenzi's pocket, I'm glad it was a protection-thing instead. So I guess the big question for next season is if Kenzi will become Fae? This episode proved it's possible, so what does that mean for the rest of the show. Will Lauren become Fae? Or has she already?

Lauren
My thought process for her arc this episode went a little something like this:
Beginning: She's totally fucking with Bo. She's still on our side, she won't hurt Dyson
Later on: Okay, maybe Lauren is evil. Is she going to die then?
Before surgery: Phew. Still on our side. That death glare has to mean that right?!
Seeing the newly formed half-human: Lauren. What. You gave him what he wanted. What. I don't know what is happening.
Dyson's reveal: *gigantic sigh of relief* I totally knew it! (No I didn't).

Death Stare 

I'm so glad Lauren's not evil. But the show had me going for a little while. Now where is she? Did she use the process to fix the 'human-fae relationship' problem? Will the light fae (and Bo) take her back?

Hale
Glad to see him back and like himself. He's been MIA all season and I hadn't realized how much I missed him. Will there be more Hale next year now that he isn't the Ash?! And who is the Ash now?

This isn't foreboding AT ALL. /sarcasm/

What did you think of the episode? Overall, I would give it an A.

What would you give the episode?