I just finished watching ABC's Summer show, Still Star Crossed and I don't quite know what to say.  For me, the show has potential but it's nowhere near where I thought it would be.  I figured the best way to go about this one was a Pro/Con list


Pros:

• Costumes
• Anthony Head & Torrance Coombs
• Subject matter
• Sword fights
• Expansion of the Prince's family

Cons:

• Iffy dialogue
• Character additions without backstory
• Took too long on the set up, we know what Romeo and Juliet do, we don't need 20 minutes of backstory for them
• Inconsistent accents.  If these are noble families who have warred for centuries (in Italy), it might be wise to have everyone attempt a similar dialect
• Inconsistent speech patterns--sometimes it sounded like they were going for Shakespearean, other times Old English, other times current English

Honestly, they nearly lost me at one point where Olivia is shrieking and having a tantrum aimed at her sister Rosalind.  She was upset that the wedding had been kept a secret from her.  Two seconds later she was tearfully telling her sister she'd lie for her and that she was happy in her life.  It was painful.

I'm leaning more towards not keeping up with this one, especially considering my summer TV list that's still pending.  I am willing to give it another shot despite the preview for next week.  It was a terrible preview and poorly edited but I'm still intrigued.  Plus, with my unwavering affection for Anthony Head, I want to give it another episode or two.  I'm not recommending it to you, but I'm not NOT recommending it.

Mostly the whole thing just made me miss Galavant.


What did you think? Did you watch?

I'm struggling with some of my shows lately.  Partially because I’ve been a binger.  Partially because I’ve felt like they’ve been dragging.  Partially because I’ve been wanting to read more.

Mostly, I’ve just been frustrated with the story-lines.  Here’s why:

Supergirl

They’ve been all over the place this year.  I totally understand that with a new network they are able to explore a little more outside of the box than they were during Season 1.  I arguably liked this season better than the last.  That being said they introduced Mon-El to us (the delightful Chris Wood) and made him a major part of the beginning and the end of the season…but let him fall into being Supergirl’s boyfriend in the middle.  They gave Winn a girlfriend for about a minute. 


The Flash

After an entire season of yet another masked speedster being the villain, they finally reveal that future Barry is Savitar and then they finally get into some really great and heavy themes.  The ending?  Ridiculous.  They kill off a main character and then take it back.  Then they send real Barry off into the speedforce and make us cry.  There are no stakes here, they can’t continue without their lead.  What would have been more dynamic?  Sending the real Barry into the speedforce but letting Savitar/Barry run around on Earth 1 for a while.  The episodes where Barry loses his memory and when they go back to get Captain Cold were excellent but those are the only two from the entire season (aside from the musical), that I even really remember.  Did they even bother to battle other villains?


​Arrow

I have to admit that I stopped watching Arrow several episodes back.  Around about the time that Chase decided to torture Oliver and make him admit that he liked killing people I was done.  It was already a long time coming.  The Russian flashbacks were boring to me and at this point I just had an incredibly hard time believing that Oliver managed to accomplish all these things in such a short amount of time.  Five years doesn’t seem feasible.  I’ll go back and binge the rest of the season later but in the moment I just couldn’t do it.  Add to it the introduction of basically an entire team of new people and I lost my emotional connection to the show.  Oliver as mayor?  Black Canary is gone but we get the occasional Black Siren.  The only one I enjoyed was Curtis but the braids to no braids conundrum drove me crazy.  You know what I’m talking about.  I adore Stephen Amell, I think he’s one of those rare actors who understands the mantle he wears and that fans are fickle creatures.  I haven’t seen the finale yet, but I read a brief description of it so I know what to expect.  Not sure I’m ok with how it ended but am cautiously optimistic about where it could be going.

Don’t even get me started on Legends of Tomorrow.  How do you destroy the timeline but have the other cities be fine in the other shows?

So what’s the point of all of this?  The point is that I’ve been unhappy with these seasons.  Not to the point of stopping watching altogether, but close.  I don’t have a solution for the issues I’ve had.  I just need it to be fixed.  Why not go for the more dynamic options? 

What do you think?  Am I crazy or was this season rough?

I have a Sunday morning tradition.  I start my day with Saturday Night Live and a little breakfast.  I don't remember when this tradition started for me.  Somewhere along the time that I realized that I could no longer stay awake until one in the morning I suppose.  Regardless as to when it started, it's always a great way to start my lazy Sunday.

This week was no exception.  McCarthy's monologue paid tribute to the mothers in the audience.  She took a random woman from the audience and took her on a backstage tour of the studio.  They ran into various cast members being their wonderful and weird selves as well as surprise guests "the Livelys" Ryan and Blake. They wrapped the tour around to where the woman was placed in front of the door where the hosts come out onto the stage.  

The first sketch of the night was a game show called Just Desserts in which McCarthy went all in on looking ridiculous by taking pie after pie to the face.  This is one of the things I've always admired about her.  Her willingness to be silly and absurd and even flat out gross out times is something that I find profoundly liberating.  It's difficult sometimes to be one's true self in public.  To be able to put yourself out there and have the confidence to be ok with being part of (and the butt of) the joke, is a skill that I do not possess but always wanted to.

Where SNL always shines is in their revamped product commercials.  This time is no exception.  Check out the Amazon Echo "Silver" Commercial below.

One of the more interesting take aways of the evening was that underneath the humor of McCarthy's Spicer impression, was an undercurrent of the idea that Spicer is in an abusive relationship with Trump.  I still haven't fully unpacked how I feel about that, though it was funny to watch the Russian doll explanation of the week's events.

Other notable items?  The band Haim performed sounding almost like Wilson Phillips.  Kate McKinnon as the fading old Hollywood starlet and Cathy Anne on Weekend Update.  My favorite Weekend Update joke this time was from Colin Jost saying that James Comey "looks like "gosh" became a person".  It was tame and a little dumb but I got a kick out of it.  Then of course, the nuanced and hilarious update on the relationship of Leslie and Andy had me cracking up.  Lorne  "I don't usually condone cat members shooting each other buuutt.."  Too much!  

I'm always so refreshed after starting my day with a laugh.  Do you have any Sunday morning traditions?

​Riverdale KILLED it last night.  I realize that the season has been a little all over the place.  Characters forgotten or misused.  Too many storylines…
 
But last night was an amazing episode.  I am constantly blown away by the depth of the emotion portrayed on this show.  Yes, it’s a CW show based on comic book characters.  And no, they aren’t sticking to the personalities we knew from the books but at this point it doesn’t even matter.  Somewhere along the way I forgot that this was even a show based on the comics.  It just became a damn good show.
 
With everything they’ve done leading up to the finale there was no way it wasn’t going to be completely epic.  Spoilers are abuot to start so if you want to avoid them, I would stop here…
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At this point I’m almost unsure as to how the episode even started because the second and third acts were so dynamic that the first act doesn’t seem to matter anymore.  You had Veronica stepping up and telling Betty that she and Archie were a thing, Archie and Veronica independently asking Betty if she was really OK.  What was interesting watching this play out was that Archie and Veronica seemed less OK with everything than Betty did.  Even Archie telling Betty, “I always thought we’d…”  You’d what Archie?
 
Then you have that unbelievable scene with Cheryl at the frozen lake.  I need to take a moment here to mention that I am pretty sure that none of these kids are wearing warm enough clothing to be in that kind of snow.  Why is Archie wearing a thin hoodie?  Do his abs keep him warm?  Anyway…I loved that even though Cheryl had been rotten almost all season long, the group went after her.  When she went under the water they ran out on the ice without even thinking about it.  Then Archie, finding Cheryl starts punching through the ice.  And punching.  And punching.  And oh my god that was intense.  Blood everywhere.  Turns out that the actor actually broke his hand during that scene.
 
There were of course other things too.  Polly going back to school which was weird, the trashing of Betty’s locker, Betty’s secret older brother, Hiriam is coming home, Josie and the Pussycats made a random and unnecessary appearance (with Josie still being a ridiculous human)…
 
But nothing compares to the epicness of the last few minutes.  Cheryl sets fire to her house.  Covers that abomination in gasoline and lights it on fire, watching it burn calmly and with a small smile as her mother loses her mind in the background.  Then you’ve got “Bughead” admitting that they love each other and about to consummate their relationship when there’s a knock on the door.  Best line of the show?  Jughead: “Is that your mom?”  Hilarious.  The Southside Serpents are at the door offering Jughead a place in their ilk because FP wasn’t a rat.  Cole Sprouse is practically magic in the subtlety of his facial expressions.  He goes from terrified to pensive to amused to happy to worried to confused (when he sees Betty looking at him like he’s a stranger) in about five seconds.
 
Lastly we have Archie, fresh off his night with Veronica going to meet his Dad for breakfast to talk about something important.  You’re thinking, Fred’s going to tell Archie he’s shipping him off to Chicago, or that he sold the business to make sure that Jughead could stay with them, or some other random thing.  You feel something coming as Archie is washing his hands because he’s clearly smiling too much.  I almost thought it would be Archie who gets attacked. Archie comes out of the bathroom to find that the diner is being held up.  Everything moves in slow motion and Fred stands up.  The gunman raises his gun and Archie goes flying in the direction of his father and cut to the outside of the diner and all you see and hear is the flash and a pop.
 
This is where, as a fan I am both upset and not upset.  As a fan of the show itself, I am incredibly glad they showed who got shot.  As a fan of TV?  That was your ending guys.  Right there.  Flash and a pop and cut to black.  Who got shot?  That’s a TV cliffhanger right there.  As a fan of the show, I’m glad I know who it is.  It’ll definitely be an excellent catalyst moving into next season.
 
What did you think?  Did you watch the madness last night?