#the love subplots this season as a whole are annoying

[jelestes]

My completely sane and hinged rant after rewatching the second season of The Bear 😍

• Carmy/Claire

OMG I want to like Claire so badly but her character is so fucking annoying and that’s putting my whole sydcarmy shipper personality aside, she adds nothing to the plot/show, nothing to Carmy’s growth as a character (not that she should be responsible for that, but as a part of his subplot she doesn’t do much), no new perspectives, nothing. She has nothing you can hold on to she’s just kinda there. Her personality is bland and she’s pushy but at least she’s nice i’ll give her that! All that being said, Molly Gordon (the actress) did a great job!

• Natalie

Natalie isn’t talked about enough and it makes me so angry because she’s such a fascinating character like what was ep6??? that girl needs a fucking hug. As a woman with mommy issues I get Nat on so many levels (like, my mom also has threatened to blown her brains out in front of me so many times lmao) we only got a glimpse to what her life was/is like and I was already bawling my eyes out can’t imagine what they have in store for the next seasons. Also kudos to Abby Elliot (the actress) for the amazing job, we got to see so many sides of Nat it was so refreshing. (Ps: LOVE her relationship with Syd, omg)

• Tina

I remember hating Tina the first two episodes but man how much do I love her now. Her character just warms my heart, love LOVE that they made her a sous.

• Richie

I love cousin so fucking much. That’s pretty much it. As a twenty something struggling to find my passion and my path in general his plot in the second season really hit me, also his growth as a character in general was so nice to see, the way he realized he had to change to love himself not tiff or anyone else, that was really really cool.

• Richie/Natalie

Now call me absolutely insane but why do I feel there’s a tension between them? the whole soda thing when she says she’s pregnant (there’s a parallel to when Tiff was pregnant in 3.06), when he apologizes (it doesn’t feel he’s just apologizing for something in the present), idk there’s been a tension there since season one and I think it might be addressed in season 3? idk I might be delusional but I can’t be the only one seeing it.

• Carmy/Syd

* sighs * BECAUSE IF I SEE SOMEONE CALL THAT SHIT PLATONIC ONE MORE TIME I-

Can someone rationally explain to me why is Sydney the only person who can calm Carmy down during a panic attack? How is this shit platonic be so fr right now!!!! Why was Sydney over explaining herself when she told Carmy she doesn’t feel jealous of Claire? Try to explain this to me. You can’t because saying this is platonic sound fucking stupid SPECIALLY after the table scene.

IMO, they both know it and they both refuse to acknowledge it but specially carmy. I feel like they gonna have a fall out on s3 so they can finally start building this in the right direction.

That’s pretty much it, thank you for coming to my ThebearTalk! I’ll be insufferable for the next few weeks <3

[nicetoseesofttotouch]

The audacity!!!!!

Book spoilers. Show spoilers, spoilers all around!

.

.

.

.

My expectations were low but holy hell! This Showrunner is awful, the skipping didn't do Polin any favor, they needed TIME to develop the friendship into more and not in like a scene snap, the friends to lovers of the book is well written and believable, this was... NOT. And why does it feel like they weren't the actual leads? Why make it about two leads per season when you write a million subplots?

She is like one of those fans that saw Benedict befriending a gay guy and said oh yes totally bi when CVD said explicitly that the storyline was to show how much he is tolerant about different kinds of love foreshadowing his future HEA. I have NO problem with anyone being queer as long as they don't change their book HEA, (this will be textbook queerbaiting to please a loud annoying internet minority) especially the ones who follow specific struggles, like infertility, not wanting their children to be bastards, the role and dangers of a woman in the working class, etc this leads me to the heartbreaking erasure of the best male written character on the whole Bridgerton series, you are not gender bending, you are erasing a whole book creating a fanfiction of what was the best and more complex Bridgerton book, Francesca married for love, she was completely in love with John and didn't develop feelings for MICHAEL until much later, she erase that, she'll erase the infertility struggle, of course she'll have John's baby, of course, of course it will be a boy who'll inherit the earldom.

And lastly I have no doubt that Jess Brownell will want to butcher TSPWL too... Maybe recast Phillip, maybe erasing him, who knows, but I know Eloise will also suffer from her awful writing.

[inell]

Possibly a dumb question but I saw you reblog a few leverage things recently and you're one of my favorite 9-1-1 writers so I was wondering what you think a 911 Leverage Fusion AU could look like if you were to think about it because their two of my favorite shows

Goodness! Thank you for the compliment. I thought about this during my commute home from work, and this is what I came up with.

We use season 7 of 911. Councilwoman Ortiz is obviously dirty, having used her power to force Gerrard into the 118, and to remove Mara from HenRen’s custody as well as revoking their foster status. That’s all canon.

We pick up with Toni, Hen’s mom, reaching out to these nice people she met when she lived in Portland years and years ago. They ran a gastropub but she also knew about their other business because Alec was a sweetheart who chatted way too much. She contacts the new Leverage HQ in New Orleans looking for Hardison, and she gets Parker. Who is very interested when she hears about the kid being removed and she shares it with the others, research is done, and, because it’s 911 (which tends to be racially cliche), Ortiz ties into the cartel subplot (her son died from illegal drugs, after all, and there’s also the people trafficking subplot that could be linked).

Cut to Leverage crew showing up in LA and meeting Toni, who hasn’t told Hen about her interference. Parker and Eliot fight over who gets to go undercover at the firehouse, because they need to get rid of Gerrard and figure out his connection to Ortiz. Eliot wins, obviously, simply by asking Parker to put on full gear and carry a 200lb weight.

Parker is Not Happy, but Eliot goes undercover as a new firefighter. He and Eddie hit it off with the whole military slash guilt slash PTSD slash dislike of firearms thing, and Buck is suspicious because they don’t have an opening for another member on their team and also why is this guy being so friendly with Eddie and who cares if he’s from Oklahoma which is next to Texas and they bond over TexMex and country music and Eliot tells Eddie he needs to keep his dog on a leash before it gets bit, and Buck really really hates this new guy who oddly has the same name as a character on Star Trek, according to Chim.

Meanwhile, Breana is sent to work at the city council as an intern who is assigned to Ortiz, while Sophie and Harry work on a cover to get closer to the whole drug slash trafficking thing, and Hardison is working on a project in Cairo but FaceTimes Toni and Parker a few times (showing off his muscles that he’s happened to get while geeking out and not because there’s a new movie role he’s filming in RL), and Parker annoys Eliot by being in his ear every shift, listening to everything and watching what he sees through his nifty camera lenses.

Parker loves Chimney, thinks he’s hilarious, and she doesn’t know why Eliot won’t tell Chim the dad jokes she keeps repeating in his earpiece because she wants to know if Chim thinks she’s funny. She’s also working on the whole foster revocation situation with help from Hardison, but bugging Eliot is a lot more fun. She especially likes to make popcorn for the times when he’s chilling in the loft with his new BFF and said BFF’s BFF. She might be neurodivergent, but she’s not even as fucked up as Buck and Eddie and their whole thing. Breana shares the popcorn when she isn’t working for free and trying to suck up to Ortiz.

In the end, they manage to catch Ortiz, the person on the foster system that did her dirty work, the main cartel players connected to her, and they link Gerrard to them. They give Toni the money they got from the deal, which she explains to Hen and Karen as a lucky lotto win when she gives it to them for Mara and Denny. Eliot quits the 118, but not before locking Buck and Eddie up in the supply closet and telling them work out their UST, damn it, and Bobby comes back as Captain.

[jaggedwolf]

Kate x Lucy

when I started shipping it if I did: pilot episode kiss, ngl, where it establishes that they must already be on-and-off hooking up in between sniping at each other about classified information. Lucy just shows up at her apartment!

my thoughts: when I watched this show I was genuinely bewildered by how this CBS procedural NCIS spin-off....just has a whole-ass lesbian romcom happening in its first season? The S1 finale literally ends on them getting together via a grand gesture with the rest of the team cheering.

anyway, they're so fun! they hit a lot of dynamics I like - Lucy loves loudly and openly while Whistler is brittle and contained, they have tension with a history, the height difference is cute, and man, maybe for a different ship all the drama in 1B would've been too much, but for these two I loved it, and not just because Whistler made the best kicked puppy faces while pining hopelessly

my random headcanons on when they each realize they're gay is that Lucy realizes in middle school and Whistler realizes in college, not too long before Noah's death. Don't think anything in canon contradicts that

What makes me happy about them: they're so ridiculously fond of each other. The consistent hearteyes they aim at each other while engaging in tropey shenanigans and still being individually competent agents makes me very happy. When it comes to the relationship angst, I like that for them it's never closeted/sexuality angst but their very different personalities, the usual fwb-to-lovers difficulties, Whistler's big mistake, and working together. They've been no less delightful as an established relationship in S2 and S3 - I love how much the show loves them, they literally got a ficcy-as-hell undercover-as-couple subplot last episode with all the usual gimmicks

Oh, I also did not anticipate how much physical fighting this procedural would have, and as someone who always wants my faves to get wrecked, I have been very well-served. Lucy almost dying while undercover right after Kate crushes her heart! Whistler getting injured while they're broken up and Lucy yelling at her for it! Such good food. (Show, you can keep beating up Whistler every season, I will never complain.)

What makes me sad about them: Their families, and the resulting loneliness. Lucy talks about her sister and brothers like a youngest kid who used to be close to them but isn't any more, last ep she commented that she knew from a very young age that her parents would never throw her a big wedding like her brothers', the way she gets set off by "financially responsible" as a rationale + her family's money has implications there. Kate's confession of how she shut herself off from the world after Noah's death.

But I like that they know about these things for each other (the way Whistler goes "Right. Right." at Lucy's comment tells us they've talked about this before), and the way they're navigating around and disarming each other's landmines here

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I understand that this is the danger of stepping back into another blonde/brunette live-action f/f ship but I cannot deal with those epithets. Or "taller woman"/"shorter woman" either, all of it always makes the PoV character sound like she has a complex about hair or height. It is okay to use the characters' names, I promise.

things I look for in fanfic: .....I've become such a hipster about characterizations for these two. Lucy is the one who broods and contemplates her feelings, Kate is the one who acts without thinking and gets surprised by her own reactions. Whistler is the one with better work-life balance and hobbies, who moved from DC to Hawai'i and stayed there despite the former being way better for a fed career, who goes surfing every Saturday morning without bothering to be contactable by work, and Lucy is the one who describes her life as consisting solely of "work, gym, and [Whistler]" and sometimes does paperwork on the weekends.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Gosh, I really have no other Lucy ships. For Whistler, I could 100% ship Whistler/Tennant if it was like, after the kids are grown. Why do they stand so close to each other in that 1x14 coffee conversation and say each other's full titles, or have Whistler demonstrate career-threatening levels of loyalty to Tennant, if not to make me contemplate this ship? I hope Sam Hanna's presence doesn't mean we don't get any Tennant-Whistler stuff this season.

My happily ever after for them: Just keep on being badass agents together and stay in Hawaii long-term. Don't really see them having kids, but I can totally see Lucy convincing Whistler of having a cat. ...Maybe get a shorter bed, does Lucy really have to climb that high every night XD.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: lmao I was going to make a comment about Lucy jetpacking because of course she does, but the bed comment reminded me that that they have 10 billion pillows on their bed. One weekend morning Lucy is going to sleepily think she's spooning Kate and find out she's actually hugging those pillows, having been abandoned for the Dreaded Ocean.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: does sparring really count as non-sexual for them it might really be meals at home? They both cook, they enjoy a quiet night in after their truly hectic cases, and they can put on GBBO or one of Whistler's preferred history documentaries afterwards.

[nikkiruncks]

How I would have written Ellie's arc post season 4 (degrassi tng)

Tagging @thedegrassidiaries, my Ellie enthusiast moot <3

Season 5: Ellie would have zero love interests. No being all gaga over Craig, no Ellie lowkey toying with Jimmy's feelings and this weird love triangle. She'd be 100% single.

Ellie and Jimmy would still bond over their love for art and become closer friends, making Hazel a little suspicious. But they'd both let Hazel know they're just friends and nothing more.

I'd also give Hazel and Ellie a bond too. Ellie would give Hazel relationship advice and help her understand the palex situation more. While Hazel would also help Ellie open up about Sean.

Another detail l'd add is that Sean and Ellie lose their virginities to one another the day around the shooting era. Like there is nothing that will get me to believe that Sellie didn't have sex while living together but that Sean and Emma were doing it while he was staying in her house, where her parents and brother also are.

Basically Ellie would be single just hanging out with friends.

Season 6: Ellie still lives with Marco and Paige, she still works at the Core. But she doesn’t date Jesse nor have feelings for Craig. Sean comes back for Ellie but Ellie would still be pissed at him for leaving but he’d eventually earn her trust and forgiveness. They’d get back together in Crazy Little Thing Called Love. The dinner scene in What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost would still be there, except Ellie wouldn’t be passive aggressive towards Cranny. Ellie would be annoyed because BOTH Craig and Manny are there and she’s still upset at how Ashley got fucked over.

Ellie would catch Craig doing coke and he’d blame Manny, but she wouldn’t buy it because as @delsrossi said, Ellie is a journalist and canonically observant. She’d notice that it’s Craig’s. So when Manny catches Ellie at the door, they’d have a short talk. Ellie would tell her that Craig tried to blame her.

Ellie would tell Sean and Marco. Sean would also be on the boat of 'yep this is Craig’s'. Same with Marco. Craig got to rehab and Sellie stays happy and in love.

Sean would have that army storyline, except Ellie would be supportive and the whole pregnancy storyline wouldn’t exist. Sellie would end up doing long distance.

Season 7: She’d just focus on the Core and her friendships with Paige and Marco. No Mellie hookup, no codependency. And Alex would stay in this version too, so I’d show more of her and Ellie’s bond. Maybe also show a bond with her parents. Her long distance relationship with Sean would be thriving. Sean would come back to see her again for a bit and they’d catch up.

In season 8, I wouldn’t even have the subplot with Marco-Paige-Ellie because it regressed both Paige and Ellie and Marco was thrown under the bus.

[cosmic-day]

Having seen the final season of The Umbrella Academy: I didn’t hate it quite as much as most of fandom seem to, but I also didn’t love it. Rambly thoughts and massive spoilers under the cut:

First of all, I don’t know how much the compressed episode count affected things, but I felt like adding  ‘could/would have worked better if fleshed out more’ at the end of every sentence in this review.

As far as positives go, I was OK with the ending. It has been baked into the show from the beginning that the Hargreeves siblings only break whatever they try to fix, and their erasure from the universe being the only thing that restores the timeline does make sense. I kind of respect the show for committing to that, rather than finding a last minute “they died but not really” cop out.

I loved Abigail’s role in it as well and think that is a really underrated bit of satisfying writing: Abigail who has been literally and figuratively fridged for three seasons gets to tell Reginald that she never asked for this and never wanted it, and most importantly gets to not only seize control of the narrative but end it. That part really worked for me.

Viktor had a decent arc and also got to confront Reginald about his shitty parenting which was also satisfying.

Unfortunately, there the positives end.

Most of the other characters got short changed. Klaus was stuck in an irrelevant subplot, as he often is, but here it felt more irrelevant than usual, and also gratuitously dark – I mean, it’s a dark show at times but this felt like trauma porn for the sake of it. Allison had some good moments, but not much of an arc. Diego and Luther were both reduced to goofy, borderline pathetic comic relief in a way that just felt mean spirited at times. Ben and Jennifer needed way more time to work properly.

And then there’s the Five/Lila of it all.

I love these guys. Not only are they my favourite individual characters, but I loved their enemies to chaotic besties arc, and I really wanted more of that friendship. The subway plot was a brilliant idea, and I could have watched a whole episode (I’m thinking the Last Of Us episode ‘Long Long Time’), following them surviving together and developing their friendship (and also maybe addressing little irrelevant details like Five being the killer of her parents). But they just had to shoehorn in a romance, by Steve Blackman’s admission, because they ‘had to have a love story’ for Five. OK, but why? Why does a character ‘need’ a romance? Also, protip, but if you do something because you feel it ‘has’ to happen, and not because you want to develop the characters in any way, it shows.

I should say I don’t particularly care about the age gap issues. Nor do I entirely agree with the argument that it’s ooc for Five, because our precious blorbo Would Never betray his brother like that. I love Five, but he’s a little shit. Also, I’ve seen many complaints that he spent decades in the apocalypse and never gave up so why is he giving up now, but maybe he gave up because he spent decades in the apocalypse. Maybe he’s just tired. Everyone has limits, and Five has hit his.

I just hate that platonic relationships are always erased, sidelined and overwritten in favour of romantic relationships because those are obviously more important and more interesting. Five’s friendship with Lila and devotion to his family are also love stories, and they’re not lesser because they’re not romantic. I also violently hate love triangles. This one was particularly annoying and not even properly resolved.

Overall the season just felt lacking. Where were the great big goofy, joyous setpieces, or alternatively, if such is your jam, the dark and deranged pieces of ultra violence set to a banger of a pop tune. Where, in short, were Footloose and Istanbul Not Constantinople. (Though I will admit Baby Shark made me laugh.)

Anyway. I wouldn’t say the show is ruined for me, but it was a disappointing conclusion and my least favourite season by far.

[anders-hawke]

what annoys me about people saying that benedict's threesome with tilley and paul took too much time/too many scenes is that it didn't. each scene was conveying important things about the relationship, about benedict. and people go, "no, i love that benedict is canonically queer!" but it's like, do you? because really what it sounds like is a lot of people liked the idea of benedict being queer in theory but now that he is queer are realizing but not accepting that in order to get that, he needs the time to have a fulfilling arc. i'm sorry to be the one saying this but no, benedict's threesome did not take away from colin and penelope. short happy endings with cute epilogues is how this show works. if that was not satisfying, it's certainly not because there were too many subplots.

and while i'm here: no, colin was not shafted. over and over again, penelope tells colin that he doesn't have to do anything special to have worth as a person, and when it finally sinks in for him after francesca's wedding, he takes a step back to literally bask in pen's light. and for the first time in his life, he's truly happy! he and penelope are in love and he isn't worried about ensuring that he is worthy of her love or jealous of her success or feeling purposeless. the whole point of colin's character arc is that he's been compensating for his lack of direction by adopting a hero complex and at the end of season 3 he's able to move away from that hero complex and be happy with who he is: someone who is loved just for being himself, not someone who is loved for who he thinks he must be.

and to end the post: the mondriches selling will's bar and cressida being sent off to live with her aunt joanna underscore the power of the bridgerton love stories. the bridgertons are the exception to the rule: they get to marry for love and happiness and don't have to really worry about their safety or well-being or money or whatever. meanwhile, we see very clearly in season 3 with cressida and the mondriches (but also elsewhere with simon's daddy issues, lady danbury's trauma at the hands of lord danbury, lady danbury's trauma because of her and marcus's father, charlotte being married off at seventeen to the fucking king of england and the fallout of all of that, the sharma's precarious monetary situation, violet's strained home life as a child, and everything ever with the featheringtons) that the bridgertons get and give happy endings, while everyone else doesn't. the mondriches sell their bar because not everyone gets perfect happy ending. cressida has to live with her aunt joanna because not everyone gets a happy ending. this emphasizes just how precious the love the bridgertons have is - both of the romantic and of the platonic kind. i mean, for god's sake, one moment of colin telling portia off for berating pen and proving his love for pen in the process causes the featheringtons to have a fairy tale happy ending! (and talking about this now also sets up the show to explore what it's like to be from the outskirts of the ton when it comes to benedict and eloise's stories.)

[nangbaby]

One of the more annoying parts about the whole sentimonster subplot taking over Miraculous Ladybug is how it resulted in the breakdown of the connection between the Peacock Miraculous and its associated concept - emotion.

With the Season 2 finale, we were given a glimpse of what the Peacock Miraculous could do, and with Season 3 we are introduced to what sentimonsters were. They were beings born out of a strong emotion and were, in many ways, the embodiment of that emotion.

Season 3 also introduced the seemingly now forgotten idea that sentimonsters, as the embodiment of emotions, can go amok just based on those emotions alone. Lollipop Boy rampaged because it was the manifestation of a baby's volatile emotional state. Feast went on a rampage even before Fu lost the staff because it was born out of Master Fu's resentment and hunger. Mayura creating a Ladybug sentimonster implied that creating sentipeople was not necessarily an easy or trivial task and required intense emotional control, possibly for the existence of the creation. While there were theories about secret sentimonsters, there were also still people who believed that Sentibug was a philosophical zombie and that she may have "run amok" even with possession of her own object. It was ambiguous for a reason and the whole point of sentimonsters were that they were emotions themselves made manifest that could potentially go haywire even without a Cataclysm.

However, with Season 4, creating sentimonster clones was as easy as pie for Shadow Moth. The idea that sentimonsters were born out of a specific emotion was replaced with the idea that this Peacock Miraculous could create replicants and it was made much more clear that these creatures were sapient. This led to Season 5 in which the ethical dilemma of creating life via feathers was finally given a few lines. That said, this has taken the Peacock Miraculous even further afield from its initial function. "Sentimonster" is a wholly unfitting name for a Peacock Miraculous creation, and not just because of the "monster" part -- they aren't even created from sentiment any more, but the will of the Miraculous holder.

To me, this makes the exposition given in Representation unsatisfying. Given the Peacock Miraculous contained the kwami of emotion, it would stand to reason that the creator's emotions would manifest in the behavior of the creations as they did with Feast. If the reason why Adrien was the "perfect" son and Felix was a troublemaker was due to Adrien being manifested out of true love while Felix was manifested out of envy and that formed their personalities, then this would still be tied to the idea of emotions creating life. (Felix could still reform, but he'd have to fight his very nature and own feelings to do so.) Instead we get "Colt Fathom was a monster and Felix had no choice." It's not necessarily a bad backstory, but the link between emotion and how it powers existence is lost.

[kepnerandavery]

Yea I honestly don't care at this point, it's just annoying to me that these folk who claim Michael is horrible, and how much they hate his guts, keep on using his tags, it's like they wanna force feed us this new Michaela version of him claiming that she's soooo much better than he ever was, and if we don't like it then we're all most definitely staring, homophobic white women, who are bitter that we can't use Francesca/Michael as our self-interests. (Newsflash I'm a woc who's been bullied for being a woc, I have black friends and trans friends all of whom I love dearly, and would bitch slap anyone who's disrespectful towards them. Also the Irony that this horrible male character is the one who provided the blueprints for their beloved Michaela.

I actually hate Bridgerton from season 2 because of how dirty they did Kate, with making it look like she stole her sisters man or smth. I'm a fan of Polin too but I hate season 3 because with the amount of pointless subplots, they don't get enough focus as as main leads, and honestly Polin spent more time arguing and being mad than in love which again I hate. The Michael getting gender bent part is just the breaking point for me, because now this show is officially not an adaptation, they have zero respect for source material and are basically making the show into a cheep wattpad fanfic version of everything it was.

Exactly! How are we supposed to be fine with it when most of us have waited years to see him on screen? I can understand the new fandom's pov, because Bridgerton does lack representation and some people are happy to see it in somewhere, and might feel fear that the backlash that this choice has gotten would make the creators undo it, but that's not our fandom's fault is it? And who even knows if Fran will get a season? This is most likely a way for the writers to pacify people who have been upset about the lack of inclusivity in the show. If they really cared about it, there would already have been lgbtq main characters from the starting point in season one. Why does one fandom have to suffer for the sake of another? Why couldn't we all get what we wanted? Why didn't they announce this before season three was released so we could have known this was coming and not have gotten our hopes up about seeing Michael once John showed up? (cause which fandom wants to be surprised and mocked like this?) Why does Fran now suddenly seem like she would emotionally cheat on John? Why is her character so wishy-washy? Honestly, the questions don't end.

And yes, I agree about the whole self insert accusations too. I respect the lgbtq community, and see the value of representation of it in media, and commend it when it is done right, but that doesn't mean I'm not sad that Michael was used by the writers of this show.

I too hate season two for how horribly kanthony was written. What was supposed to be an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story was reduced to a silly love triangle that took focus away from the main characters' journey and past trauma (mainly Kate's). Polin are the writers' favourite and therefore the best treated ship, but yes, I didn't like how the writing of them lacked depth in part two of season three. And don't even get me started on the whitewashing of Portia.

Yeah, I'm done with this show too. It's just taking me some time to come to terms with it especially when I see people attack the franchael fandom and one of my favourite fictional characters with vile accusations and sadistic language. Shondaland is known to ruin good things so it's really our fault for continuing to watch this show for this long tbh.

[anluz]

ok i have many thoughts about this season SO i will write them here, home it makes sense.

no formating, we die lie [CENSORED]

Some blanket statements about the season at all.

GOOD.

-The comedy is on point. The show jokes hit much better and harder this season. -Some scenes really are well framed. (aka the spitfire episode. holy shit)

BAD

The maltos are much more ‘battle thirsty’

The autobots are useless now

the flattening of the decepticons

Episode 1

Ok, so we are starting in the media res of the new conflict. slightly disappointed but don’t mind it that much.

What I DO MIND is the shift the maltos had about the whole Autobot-decepticon situation on Earth.

Like, correct me if I'm wrong, but the MALTOS were fighting in order to have their new family members not taken away, yes? to live on earth in peace? 

Why do THEY have to retrieve the emberstone shards? Why do THEM have to sacrifice both their safety and their time developing as well adjusted people (in the case of Mo and robbie) FIGHTING WITH WAR VETERANS?? 

WHILE THE AUTOBOTS

ARE

RIGHT

THERE

“oh but anna its a children show, of course it needed to have some action with the kids”

ok.

but how come there's not ONE autobot with them on the mission? its more in the autobots best intinterest  to keep the decepticons away from that fucking stone.

also good fucking job just ASSUMING the new terrans are evil from the get go. just from ONE fight where (where the terran in question was created. and theres a whole thing about the emberstone creating live in accord of the needs of the moment).

Aftermath is funny. i can give him that,

EPISODE TWO.

Not much to say.

its was good.

I am a sucker for the joke `dangerous individual tries to kill cinnamon roll, and cinnamon roll doesn't notice it/luck makes all the harm deflect on them” so i had a good time on that.

The `mosey` subplot was weak. it needed more build up and that annoyed me.

hOW NOBODY FOUND THOSE RUINS BEFORE THERE'S A BIG ASS HOLE LOOKING RIGHT AT THE MIDDLE OF THOSE RUINS COME ON. Don't even talk about drones (probably ghost emps against any of that for a long time) but how not ONE living person stumbled upon that???)

its was ok. 7/10

EPISODE 3

It was ok. Hashtag plot about `choosing` was ok. nothing special.

Hashtag and shockwave fight was pretty fucking awesome, as ravage escape.

I also love that shockwave optic gets redder as he gets angrier.

EPISODE 4

i didnt liked the idea of `human villains` before but…in a world where cybertronian tech exists since the 80`s, it surprised me there aint more people using that and committing to some gimmick for the shits and giggles.

said that…

swindle???

your whole thing is BEING A WEAPON SALESMAN. A CON ARTIST.

HOW DID YOU LET YOUR COOL SLIP YOU SO BAD????

WHY ARE YOU NOT BACK THERE TRYING TO GET THAT FUCKING STONE WITH FORCE??? WHAT???

also…didnt the ‘humans and terrans feel eachother emotions’ thing went away after the second batch of terrans came about?

Also yayy weird al

who care about the fusing gimmick. sure.

6/10

Episode 5

I like that wheeljack points out that this fucking and the enigma of combination are two different things.

Jawbreaker was…kinda annoying in this ep? i guess…it could roll in the sense that JB is excited to meet a possible new friend/family member and he wants to make a good first impression but….

Still very annoying.

we could have explored more about why aftermath is so angry all the time or why jb is always so careful and peaceful all the time APART from when he is in his alt mode!

there could be a thing there, but the JB partakes in some destruction seems more like a child not knowing any better than possibly something he bottles up in the daily.

also??i get the others are excited for the fusion thing  but JAWBREAKER IS GONE FOR A WHOLE DAY? MAYBE CHECK ON YOUR BROTHER?

EPISODE 6

the  shot composition in this fucking episode are CRAZY HOLY SHIT

Twitch going more on her ‘leader’ role. nice.

why…how the shard is just…lying there?

I like spitfire, and i think it makes sense for her to be a literal `evil twitch` as if, what if twitch didnt had a moral compass

now the thing that FUCKING ANNOYED ME

WHY,

WHY ARE YOU GUYS EVEN ENTERTAINING THE IDEA OF GIVING THIS NEW BOT. A BOT YOU DONT KNOW. A BOT SAID TO BE BORN THAT VERY DAY. A FUCKING IMPORTANT MISSION?????

Op Elita and Megs should have shut that shit down rigth there! there should have been a `sorry spitfire. i dont doubt your prowess, but twitch knows more of our MO but now. with some training i bet you will be taking a mission like this one in no time”

SHE STILL CAN BE FURIOUS

SHE STILL CAN CHALLENGE TWITCH TO A OBSTACLE COURSE

WHY DID YOU GUYS HAD TO DRESS UP AS A STUPID CYBERTRONIAN PRIDE THING???? MAKES NO SENSE

it was funny? yes. i loved the race per se. but?? the WHY? they are doing it?? stupid.

(((what if alex won the fucking race then Megatron?? Would you guys go through with it?? huh??? fuck off. ALSO WHY SIR. WHY ARE YOU WITH YOUR DECEPTICON BADGE? SHOULDNT YOU BE W AN AUTOBOT ONE? OF FUCKING NONE AT ALL?????))

EPISODE 7

Sure. ok. mind swap episode. sure

ngl it was rlly cute seeing aftermath consider Spitfire his true sister

i appreciate hardtop only arm getting fucking jacked (i bet he cant *afford* a new one because OF COURSE swindle your charge him lol)

ravage lil energon bowl (also…is energon solid? do they it in in chunks AND liquid? hmn)

i like the `bravado fight` with the seekers…i think it legit would have worked a bit if she did that towards skywarp of nova storm first lol

it was an ok episode. 

EPISODE 8

It was fun. zero substance.

since WHEN robbie likes optimus prime that much??? they always acted ok to neutral with him in s1

but sure. ok. serviceable.

EPISODE 9 AND 10

oh? do those kids GO to school? you could have fooled me.

i liked the slight ptsd/anxiety of hashtag in the cave.

more `chaos terrans` sibling moment. cute

(the first time watching i though it was unicron. happy it wasent)

to be fair with the quintessons i ALSO would be very mad if my god created me with the purpose of ‘helping’ (whatever this may entail) a race i never saw in my life, and discovered they did that with many many others.

hey shockwave? maybe if you had a problem w the plan maybe you should have SAID something? or made your counterplans? why wait the HOUR before the plan was going to be put in action to say anything?

also…how…is the titan bring a new cybertron to earth? Is he going to metalform the planet? is it a ship? is it just a `big gun` so you could threaten the USA and control earth somehow??

also, glad to see they ‘tried’ coming back to cybertron but couldnt figure how (yet)

this marks the point where….the dialogue gets really cheesy…unbearable cheesy and cliche ..ugh (when starscream has alex as a hostage)

im should have been happier that mo, hashtag and trash are the team for the last fight…they are my favorite maltos..ugh

i feel like there should be a more angry/emotional shouting match w hashtag and starscream…srlys

ah yes. the part where starscream kills the kids…honestly? in character. He always was `the end justify the means’ (unless his 2 brain cells are rubbing together and he thinks in a more long term form) and killing two brats that their main traits was destroying stuff and being a prideful lil shit? yeah. nothing to star to form attachments there.

he would NEVER take the ‘you are more cruel than megatron ever was’

not THIS starscream.

unless they try handwave it with `he was larping as villain so he could get through the plan he thought would legit help the decepticons’ but im not holding my breath on that.

oh wow, starscream going crazy with power again, who would though.

im really getting tired of this. 

more chest fucking dialogue

ARE ALL THE DECEPTICONS LOCKED UP AGAIN, THIS TIME WITHOUT ENERGON????? FUCK. I CANNOT BELIEVE WE ARE BACK TO FUCKING SQUARE ONE.

YES JUST HELP TERATRONUS. THE PERSON YOU JUST MET AND TALKED FOR LESS THAN A HOUR. 

fuck i'm upset.

i wish s1 didnt happened so i just could have this be another actiony-humor tf cartoon and not give me hope for something more.

[scriberated]

Bridgerton S3 Part 1 Thoughts

TLDR: Worst season to date.

Specifics/spoilers below the cut.

In no particular order:

The costuming is awful - and I don't just mean historically inaccurate, cause they weren't the 1st two seasons either and I wasn't expecting them to be. Pretty much everything is either ugly or blatant product placement or both, with very few exceptions.

The Featheringtons are funny as shit and possibly the greatest redeeming quality of this season.

Too many subplots. Way too many. Mondritchs, Violet & Lord Anderson, Benedict and his FWB situation, Cressida & Eloise, Francesca (I understand they're setting up her season so I get it but it's a lot of screen time to spend on someone who isn't supposed to be the MC this season).

Collin did not do enough groveling.

Debling and Penelope are both hypocrites and ill-suited to each other. Both claimed they wanted a practical match with someone they could be companionable with but inevitably didn't work out because Debling wasn't okay with Penelope being in love with someone else (odd for someone who wasn't seeking love) and Penelope claimed she was resolved to a practical match but was actually hoping for love the whole time.

Considering they're supposed to get glow ups for their season, Collin's… wasn't it. His hair was awful and so was all the botox/lip flip. The coat was acceptable but felt very out of place.

They did make me sympathize with Cressida, which I didn't think was going to be a thing. I like her and Eloise together. Even if they don' t make it canon, I ship it a little bit.

The Balloon was the DUMBEST thing this whole season. The whole scene felt forced and insanely slow - like Pen had a whole 84 years to get out of the way, and it did not feel nearly as dire as they tried to make it out to be.

The soundtrack was the best thing about this whole season.

While I appreciate the parallel between Cressida and Penelope - both in their third season, practically on the shelf, facing dire futures - it didn't land the way it could have. Felt like a wasted opportunity.

Benedict and his FWB situation is annoying and stupid and was given entirely too much screen time.

Mama Bridgerton is canny and I love her for it. The blatant "oh btw Penelope is getting proposed to tonight" to kick Collin's butt into gear is fabulous even if it was obvious.

Brimsley and the Queen's relationship is still my favorite. Besties 4 Life.

I love Francesca and John just sitting together in contented silence. <3 Big fan.

Collin's attempts at being a rake didn't land. Like, if they were intending to do it as a way of showing him trying to be someone he isn't, it felt very forced and flat. Collin's characterization this whole season honestly feels very flat. It almost feels like he is still adrift, not invested in the stakes of the season.

Eloise calling on Cressida during calling hour is Gay and I will die on that hill.

Collin writing regency erotica is eternally funny to me. I see many potential AUs of him being a romance novelist and Penelope being his unwitting muse.

The Queen's wigs getting more and more ridiculous just absolutely sent me. The swans?? How did that even work mechanically? Like I'm all for some creative license but come on.

The Queen striking out three seasons in a row with her matchmaking is hilarious but also kind of sad.

Eloise and Cressida in the box during the last ball? GAY. I like them together. I know Eloise is supposed to wind up with someone else (Sir Phillip?) but GD they have chemistry.

Idc about Danbury's feud with her brother. It's so out of left field. Like I know they're maybe trying to build up to Violet finding someone to... tend to her Garden (and that person being Marcus) but it just feels... bleh. Unnecessary.

Portia Featherington is a shit mother and she deserves to be slapped.

I'll give them props for the increased representation - it was nice to see HOH/Deaf & disabled representation, even if it felt a little... token-y? I'm hoping there will be more so it will level out.

The carriage scene. Was it steamy? Yes. I'll give it to them. Luke and Nicola have great chemistry. But did Collin earn that??? After ruining her prospects and then literally ruining her???? No. His proposal immediately afterwards felt impulsive and lust driven instead of love driven, maybe even duty driven since he 'ruined' her. And we saw way more of him being into her than we did of her being into him, I felt like.

Overall... rushed, too crowded by subplots, flat, and frankly disappointing. I really hope they bring it back around come part two but the teaser honestly just makes it seem like it's going to be more of the same. It's missing the charm of the first two seasons - or of the Queen Charlotte spinoff, which I really enjoyed.

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

Listen, I love Gravity Falls, I think it's one of the best shows ever made, but man is it ever frustrating listening to Alex Hirsch lament about not being able to give Wendy her own spotlight episode on the audio commentaries.

Wendy is my favorite character and even the most die hard Gravity Falls fans will admit that she was massively underutilized.

I think the biggest issue with Wendy as a whole was the fact that Hirsch and the other writers didn't have any long term plans for her as a character.

In season one she's just the girl that Dipper has a crush on, a lot of episodes revolve around Dipper's one sided crush on Wendy. Once Hirsch realized that there were plenty of folks within the fandom who unironically shipped the two, he quickly put the kibosh on that aspect of Dipper's character. As he clearly had no intention of Dipper's crush leading towards anything serious.

What's also annoying is that Wendy's break up with Robbie at the end of Boyz Crazy felt like a set up for a personal subplot for Wendy, but it doesn’t lead to anything.

She's just magically back on good terms with Dipper and Stan in Gideon Rises.

In season two Hirsch tries to salvage Wendy's character by having her play a bigger role in episodes like Into The Bunker and Society of the Blind Eye, but as the season progresses, she goes back to being a supporting character who only occasionally shows up whenever the writers remember that she exists.

[rise-my-angel]

The thing with R/L shippers and their annoying push back when anyone brings up the super dark undertones of that relationship is that they have convinced themselves the show depiction of R/L is more or less what will happen in the books/is GRRM's intent. Which is hilarious because the people who ship R/L are almost always Dany/targ stans who think Dany breaking bad, being the final villain, and Jon/the Starks being antagonistic to her and taking her down was complete Benioff and Weiss fanfic. Which...lmao...I have a bridge to sell them.

In general, I've noticed this with the remaining book fandom, there is very much an undertone in their 'theories' and 'speculations' of 'everything I liked in the last four seasons of GOT totally came from GRRM and will totally happen in the books, and everything I didn't like was total fanfic, not Martin's intention at all, and will not happen.' Which, once again lmaooo and good luck with that!

Side note, the show depiction of R/L was hilarious. The writers had to magic away Rhaegar's marriage in one of the dumbest plot points on that show, and then attempted to magic away Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon's existence/deaths. They also had to magic away Rickard and Brandon's existence/deaths. Gave zero explanation as to why and how and what happened between R/L. The writers really made R and L into two sociopaths who they wanted viewers to romanticize, but only the opposite ended up happening. The absolute dragging they received from the fandom was INSANE lmao.

Anyway, I think the lack of any development of R and L by the writers to the point where Jon didn't even state how he felt about their relationship might indicate that the book version Benioff and Weiss were told was problematic and they just didn't want to open up that can of worms. But instead their writing choices made R and L even more hated and worse than I think GRRM intended. Just the most hilarious writing choices.

The fact that where the first substantial introduction to the nuances of this plot was scrapped entirely tells me that Benioff and Weiss had no idea what kind of character they wanted Rhaegar to be. We don't truly see anything of the Tower of Joy until late in season 6 in some half baked Bran Greensight vision. But if they did it properly, that Tower of Joy scene should have been all the way in season 1.

Open episode 6 of season 1 with the Tower of Joy flashback as it is depicted in the books. Then slowly transition into Ned waking up in bed after his fight in the street with Jaime Lannister. That is how early in the books the seeds of that mystery were planted, but they never even begun to tackle it until the end of season 6.

Which is bizarre, beacuse they actually shot themselves in the foot already. Show Robert is so much more nuanced of a character in his book counterpart. The way he talks about Rhaegar and the way he lements a genuine heartache over Lyanna is so much more dynamic then what we got from book Robert.

What I could critizise from the books, should have been fixed in the show. They proved they could. They turned what is a pretty black and white unlikeable character in Robert to someone who is as problematic as he is tragic. He is so much more human and that should have been the perfect set up happening at the same time Ned is beginning to experience his traumatic dreams and flashbacks about Lyannas death.

That despite Roberts heartbreak, there is something so much darker then Ned is letting on that is now spiralling him into having consistent trauma reactions over it.

If this were a love story, why would Ned twenty years later be so utterly haunted by it in a way he had long since pushed down?

Also the annulment is...I don't have words for how impossible it is.

I'd literally have to make a whole separate post to explain why that annulment subplot literally could never have happened.

And like, Jon had no reaction because they did not care about using it properly. The revelation of who Jons mother is has always been about Jons personal journey with identity, and making sense the parts of his father he never understood and the sacrifices he made to protect him. It's supposed to be about Jon realizing he was never the bastard who accidentally ruined his fathers honour. It's about Jon realizing he had a mother who loved him and watched over him in their home his entire life, and that Ned Stark chose Jon to be his son all on his own.

It's about Jon learning his mother died loving him feircly begging to keep him safe, and that Jon wasn't Neds son by accident. He was Neds son by choice out of love.

But they only used it to fuel half baked drama about the Iron Throne because at that point all Jon was there to do, was act as an accesory on Danys arm. He was no longer his own character by then so of course he has no reaction. He wasn't told because it was meant to impact him. Jons secret was revealed soley to add drama to Dany's narrative.

R+L=J was never meant to be about Jon's Targaryean side. It was meant to be about Jon learning he had a mother who died protecting him, and that Ned chose to ruin his own reputation because he decided to raise and love Jon as his own.

It was supposed to be about Jon learning who his mother is, why she isn't here, and how that heals all of the hurt left behind that Jon didn't understand about Ned.

It was never supposed to be about Rhaegar or the Targaryeans.

But I mean the second I saw they aged Lyanna up to the the oldest in the show I checked out. I knew they did that beczuse they couldn't portray a 14-15 year old girl marrying a 25+ year old man without the obvious implciations of at the very least, grooming a minor.

They knew this wasn't a romance, but that is too hard of a story to tell, a forbidden romance is so much easier. It was done only out of convience. They had to do something about that mystery, and so they took the easiest route and only ever mentioned it when it pertianed to adding drama to Dany's personal narrative.

[skycat-unofficial]

She-Ra and The Princesses of Power is a magical girl show and I will die on this hill. It has literally so many tropes and hallmarks of a magical girl anime (this post contains massive spoilers, beware)

Aside from the obvious existence of a transformation sequence where the main character turns into a cooler version of herself with a sword and increasingly OP powers...

The main character's main companions are a literal sparkly princess, the normal guy with no powers, and a cat girl. The cat girl has extensive gay tension with the hero. There's also a pointless and slightly annoying talking mascot animal (I'm so sorry Swift Wind fans), and two less pointless companions later on.

There's a team of other characters with cool powers that all work in a very similar way to the way the main character's powers work but like with different theme colors and elements.

The world almost gets destroyed at least three times. Most of the villains get power of friendship'd into being not villains, including the hero's rival. There's also a whole season-long subplot about having to use the power of friendship and just a little violence to un-brainwash victims of the final villain's scheme, including a very painful fight between the hero and her rival/love interest. At the end of the show there's that anime thing where all the destruction and bad stuff is reversed in a world healing wave

The power of friendship appears to literally exist MLP style, in important scenes everyone starts glowing before unleashing some powerful combo attack that usually instantly wipes out the villain. This is never given an in-story explanation, it's just a thing that happens.

She-Ra is 110% a magical girl show

[devisrina]

the progression of carmy and [redacted] was one of the ??? aspects of s2 and why I have beef with so many romance subplots and romcoms in tv/film. they just never do a good enough job of showing why and how these two people love each other so much. like c&c are childhood friends/crushes, they meet up again, talk, go to a party together, and at the end of the season we're supposed to believe they're in love? especially with this happening over the course of a couple weeks with two characters who have insanely busy jobs? 🕴 alrighty

Yeah, the Carmy and Claire teen romcom thing.......was uhh......was...there. I don't know why I sat through it, it was odd.

It was worse for me to watch it at the time because I was already in a bad mood by the creator dismissing the Sydcarmy shippers by wanting the focus of the show to be on the family dynamic. But after reading that, just to sit through Carmy with a love interest, it was so annoying.

I was talking to a few other people and we came to the conclusion that Claire and Carmy were not meant to know each other that well. Claire even says, "We didn't really talk." so it's more of a thing where she is fascinated by him, and she had a crush on him back then too. When she says "I wanted to understand it." when referring to her friend's injury, it essentially was kind of how she took her relationship with Carmy. She wanted to understand him and why he was the way he was.

On the surface, and on paper, they could seem nice, but deep down it was never really meant to work/set to fail.

We don't see much of Claire and Carmy. We're not really meant to care about them. Obviously, we have to see the process of them getting together. Which, in other ways, makes sense. Because Carmy kind of craves a level of intimacy considering how lonely he got by himself after losing the courage to ask Syd to hang out during the locker scene. He doesn't have to have doubts about Claire, he kind of just gets her attention given to him. So it's not that hard to believe that he wants to be in a relationship, it was something he desired during his monologue in s1 ep 8.

It was really fucking hard to watch, I'm sorry. But, everything this show does is intentional. Carmy going off with Claire was him dodging his responsibilities. It may have felt free and thrilling for him in the beginning, but it was because he was just neglecting the struggles of opening the restaurant. And that eventually caught up with him with his panic attack, then when he started to see all the rearrangements that happened that he wasn't there to finalise, he disliked Nat's painting choice, Uncle Jimmy blatantly said "uh-oh" when he told him that he was dating someone.

And the final broken nail was when Carmy got himself locked in the walk-in because he didn't call the fridge guy.

So yeah, I see the purpose of the Carmy Claire story, even if I didn't like watching it. I just hope that it ends there, I just found their romance really annoying to watch. I try to maintain positivity, but like, I just didn't like that whole schtick.

What made up for it were the Sydcarmy scenes that we got after. I think after seeing the outcomes of the show, the articles should be taken with a grain of salt. So I'll just continue to root for their slow burn.

[ltwharfy]

"Bob's Burgers" Season 2 Episode Ranking Rewatch (Long Post)

So, I've been rewatching "Bob's Burgers" from the beginning and ranking the episodes using the spreadsheet that @babsvibes created! If you want to know why I'm doing this or how I view the 1-5 rating scale, you can check out my Season 1 post!

Now, on to Season 2:

Average (mean): 4.22

Mode (most common ranking) : 5

I hid the director and writer name categories when I took the picture to make it easier to focus on episode ratings. I will share my director and writer rankings when I reach the end of this project.

Season as a whole thoughts:

I really enjoy Season 2! I know everyone's got their own take on when "Bob's Burgers" really hit its stride, and many folks say Season 3 or later, but I'm going to say that for me, it had already hit that stride in Season 2. It was consistently funny, and I was surprised by how many lines from it were just burned in my memory- some without me even recognizing the source. (For example, before starting this project, the line: "You know what's free? Loading. Freeloading!" popped in my head. I did not know where it was from- not even what show. It's Louise in "Burgerboss".) "Mommy doesn't get drunk, she just has fun." "Don't feed a guy a sponge, Bobby." I could go on...

Seeing all the familiar faces who started showing up also really made it begin to feel like classic "Bob's Burgers" to me: we've got Zeke! Darryl! Sgt. Bosco! Mickey! Tammy! Honestly, I always think there is something fun in watching all the pieces of something begin to fall into place to create something wonderful, and Season 2 gave me a lot of that feeling.

In my season 1 review, I noted that if "Bob's Burgers" had been cancelled after that season, I would've been annoyed because I thought it showed promise but I wouldn't've viewed it as a tragedy (Season 1 of "Bob's Burgers" is no "Firefly"). But, Season 2 was really the beginning of the time period when I would've been outraged had it been cancelled. (Thankfully, it avoided being a two season wonder like "Joan of Arcadia" or "Saved by the Bell (2020 Revival)")

That said, the show was still figuring out some of the characters (especially Bob) and the overall family dynamic and show tone, which lead to the few episodes I didn't enjoy that much, including the only 2 I've issued so far.

Some thoughts on particular episodes:

"The Belchies": I remember watching this episode when it first aired and feeling like the show had clearly leveled up- it felt like it was beginning to realize the potential I saw in the first season. For some reason, I specifically remember watching the end credits- with Cyndi Lauper singing "Taffy Butt" and JJ dancing- and knowing that the show was capable of being more than it had been in season 1. Also, this episode is really the first example of one of my favorite "Bob's Burgers" episode types which is "the Belcher kids and their friends have an adventure!" And one of the great things about Season 2 is that the kids gain a number of friends- Hi Zeke!

"Bob Day Afternoon"- After this rewatch thing is over, I may try to do a top 20 or 25 list and this episode may be on that. I love it! In particular, the scene where the kids cling on to Bob as he is trying to take the burgers to Mickey and the hostages is one of the best of the series in terms of improv and the humor of talking over each other. And if I ever don't laugh at the part of Gene's Robot College fantasy where he walks in on his robo-roommate performing "routine maintenance" it's a sign that I am dead.

"Burgerboss"- This was a really pleasant surprise! While I knew those first two were two of my favorites, I just thought this one was kind of good- but on actually rewatching it, I found myself laughing the whole way through, so it gets a 5.

"Dr. Yap"- I generally enjoy Yap the character, as well as Gayle, but the two things I really love about this episode are the Gene and Louise jawbreaker subplot (it's fun watching those two get into a ridiculous competition over something stupid) and the Prince of Persuasia. The Prince is such a great parody of that horrible "pickup artist" style, and I find literally all his lines hilarious ("Never make her pancakes. Force her to make you pancakes- in the middle of the night.")

"Bad Tina"- Another episode that might make a top 25 list. Both storylines- the introduction of Tammy and Bob's obsession with "Cake"- are A+. They had already established a number of Tina's core traits throughout the first two seasons, but now with the addition of friend fiction and Tammy, her best of frenemies, it feels like they've fully got Tina down and we get the first great Tina episode (and Tina episodes tend to my favorites, even if Louise is my favorite character).

Okay, now the episodes I didn't like that much:

"Moody Foodie"- Why did I give this my first (and so far only) 2? Honestly, I thought it was overdone and dry.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I actually enjoy the first half of the episode. Bob's nightmare about working in an office is hilarious to me as an actual office drone. The scene where he and Louise just start yelling "overdone and dry" at passersby is great. And the farmer's market scene at the beginning has some great family banter.

And then it goes completely off the rails in the second half. The second half of the episode is "Bob Belcher and his friends and family hold a couple of dudes prisoner" which sounds more like a WTF fanfic summary than an actual episode of the show. And it's likely that this episode bothers me more now than it did when it first aired. I think they were still figuring Bob's character out and if they had ended up making him more Homer Simpson-like (prone to anger and hare-brained schemes) maybe this episode wouldn't stick out so much. Similarly, I think that all animated shows struggle a bit with figuring out how grounded in reality they are going to be. if BB had evolved into a less grounded show, this episode also might not stick out.

But it does stick out, for me at least. I just found the second half of this episode more weird and disturbing than funny (although it still had some good lines- I enjoyed Tina translating "Wet Willie" into Spanish for Pepe). If the hostage taking was a shorter part of the episode, maybe I would give it a mixed-review 3, but it is basically the main plot, and I'd rather not rewatch it.

"Beefsquatch": I don't love the physical confrontation between Bob and Gene at the end, but what stops this episode from being a 2 is that really the worst part of it (in my opinion) is actually a pretty small part of the episode. And both of them realize they were acting nuts, and their motivations seem kind-of in character to me (Bob wanted the cooking segment to be a chance to promote the restaurant, Gene wanted his performance as Beefsquatch to be the center of attention). And I just enjoy some other bits in this. "More Scotch!". Louise first enjoying than getting burnt out by her involvement in Gene and Bob's prank war. And Gene's flashback to accidentally gluing his wiener to his remote control helicopter- followed by Louise's "accidentally on purpose!" and them high-fiving. (The high-five cracks me up so much! It's such a silly thing to high-five over!)

Random thoughts (stuff that doesn't affect the ratings):

-It was fun to see the introduction of the exterminator van being different each episode after seeing "Rat's All Folks!" for all of season 1.

-Peter Pescadero is back- and he has his correct face after that weirdness in "Spaghetti Western and Meatballs"! Has anybody written a fic about why his face changed? Like "Face/Off" but with Peter Pescadero (just one idea)?

-Generally, I try not to nitpick about continuity on the show that much. I think they do a really good job, especially by standards of animated comedies (but honestly, really all comedies). But it does bug me that there is a whole episode in a later season about how Louise can only poop in her home toilet when in "Synchronized Swimming" she poops in public pool. She named it Jezebel for crying out loud! It's Bob and Linda's grand-doody! JEZEBEL CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN!

Well, clearly I've been writing for too long and have gone crazy. See you when I'm done with Season 3, whoever may be reading these!