Brigette Watches Homeland, S4/Ep05: "About a Boy"

Seriously? They titled this episode "About a Boy?" Sigh.

What we learned:

* Carrie and Aayan actually didn't have sex last week…right? He just "received." Well, okay.
* Saul thought he was one step ahead of pony-tail guy who ordered Sandy's death, but Pony-Tail was actually one step ahead of Saul, so much so that he KIDNAPPED SAUL. OH NO SAUL.
* That one guy and his wife don't like each other and he's being forced to stay where he is or something and then he was snooping through someone's apartment in the dark but kept the CAMERA SOUNDS ENABLED ON HIS PHONE.
* Fara is gaining confidence, and Quinn is well-aware of Carrie's manipulation abilities.

Alright, I should really know and understand the storyline with that guy with the loud phone, but I just don't. I haven't been paying attention and hoped he would go away, but he didn't, and now I feel like he's probably important. I'm assuming he's the double agent who was communicating between Sandy and Pony-Tail. Is this obvious to everyone else, or am I totally wrong? Do I even care? All I know is he needs to divorce his wife because that relationship is soooo depressing.

The car check point scene seemed impossible. Quinn & Fara were in "Taliban territory," and Fara was supposed to put a tracker on Pony-Tail's car? With no one noticing? And was it even his car? I'm so confused. I'm assuming it was, since at the same check point, a trunk is opened and there's SAUL IN THE TRUNK. How CREEPY was that when the guy saw Saul there, and just closed the trunk? Like, "Oh, there's a white American looking guy. He's probably gonna get murdered. That's totally cool." Mad props to Mandi Pantinkin for conveying such desperation and fear with only his eyes in an extremely short shot. I was sufficiently traumatized.

Okay. On to Carrie and Aayan. You guys, I don't even know where to begin.

I understand that when Carrie was telling Aayan about her daughter that it was complete manipulation. Not only did this "sharing" humanize her, but it implied that she wanted to give him-- and owed him-- some piece of her personal life. Pretty low, yes? When Carrie brought up Brody, I think that began as manipulation, but the emotion turned real. How could it not? All of this "bonding" made Aayan want to get busy with Carrie again, even though five minutes before, he was ravaged with guilt. I'm not saying this was unrealistic, I'm just pointing it out.

Question of the night: Why was Carrie crying while she and Aayan had sex?

A) She was starting to feel guilty for manipulating Aayan.
B) She was thinking of Brody. (It's safe to say she probably hadn't been with anyone since him.)
C) Aayan wasn't doing a very good job.

I'm guessing the answer is probably a combination of all three.

The most surprising development for me was that Aayan actually confessed to Carrie that his uncle is alive, which is making me re-think my previous theory that he is actually in cahoots with the terrorists. I'm not completely giving that idea up, but I'm becoming more convinced that maybe he is as innocent as he seems. I hope this isn't true, because it makes the whole storyline less interesting to me. Let's not forget though that after Carrie's convo with Quinn, Aayan was no longer in bed and had disappeared to the balcony. Did he actually hear what happened? I hope so. Which brings us to...

…the best moment of the night.  Quinn shows up at Carrie's and this exchange takes place:

Quinn: Why don't you tell me just what it is you're doing in there?
Carrie: I'm recruiting someone.
Quinn: Really? 'Cus to me, it looks like you're f**king a child!

OHHHH!!! NO HE DI'IN'T! NO HE DI'IN'T! OHHHH! SOLJA BOI SOLJA BOI HEY!

Too good. Then of course, they had to tease that Quinn loves Carrie thing with a typical, "what's it to you anyway?" and "nothing!" response.

Something I've Noticed: Carrie likes to sleep with the enemy, which reminds me of how some cops say, "If I didn't become a cop, I'd be a criminal."Is there a fine line between this type of person versus that type of person? OR is there something artistic or symbolic about how Carrie keeps physically and emotionally "joining" with the same thing that she is supposed to destroy? Does Carrie have a Freudian death wish, desperate to destroy herself while at the same time, striving to preserve her ego and sense of power???? Hmmm.



Dream Time Jump: It's thirty years later. Carrie's daughter is taking care of Carrie, who has been a complete invalid for some time for purely mental reasons. The rest of the series is Carrie's daughter having flashbacks/arguments about all the times Carrie used her to get to others and almost drowned her in bathtubs. It would sort of be like Gray Gardens except they would mostly hate each other, but maybe love each other just a little, because they are a part of each other after all. I would be totally fine watching that series instead of this one.

So what do you think? What will happen to dear Saul?! Is Aayan as innocent as he seems? What's going to happen after those three days that imaginary preparations are being made to go to London? Do you still care?

Brigette Watches Parenthood, S6/Ep05: "The Scale of Affection is Fluid"

What we learned this week on Parenthood:

1) Julia's boyfriend wants to "out" them, and he doesn't regularly buy groceries.
2) Joel has really bad timing and hates basketball.
3) Jasmine won't let Crosby ride his motorcycle.
4) Zeek almost fell on a treadmill.
5) Drew is now the official relationship guru for Amber.
6) Max likes a girl at a 5 and she likes him at a 2.5.
7) Where the heck was Sarah?

Let's begin at #1. Adam has annoyed me many times in the past, but never has he been this stupid. HE wants to hang out with Julia's boyfriend, for some reason, so he demands the guy come in the house knowing full well that Julia's CHILDREN are there. Having your kids meet your boyfriend--even if you just introduce him as a "work friend"-- is a really big deal, and Adam should be smarter than to decide for Julia when that moment should happen. I also really don't understand why he was so eager to bring Boyfriend into the fold. Relationship transitions in families are usually kind of depressing and require much adjustment time, but okay.

I get why Joel was mad about all of this and why he hates the boyfriend and everything the boyfriend stands for. I AM confused though as to how--in the short time that's supposed to have passed since last season--Joel seems to want Julia back. I can't tell if this is realistic, since people's perspectives/minds often change after getting some distance, or if the writer's didn't know how to make this leap, so they just didn't.

#3: What is with this motorcycle storyline? Why do we keep going back to it? I get that Crosby is taking his Dad's illness particularly hard. Zeek basically IS Crosby, just on the opposite side of the coin, thirty years older, but I thought the motorcycle crash was just a dramatic moment in the surgery episode.  Right after that one aired, my friend texted me, "I think Crosby's going to die from internal bleeding." Now a few episodes later, I'm like, this is probably impossible, but maybe she's right. Maybe it's a slow bleed. Just kidding. (Am I?) The motorcycle probably has to do something with Crosby's "freedom" and Jasmine "grounding" him. Or maybe it's nothing at all. Maybe everyone's just wasting their time with it, including me.

But seeing Zeek trip on the treadmill-- that was upsetting not just for Crosby, but for us all. The aging process is sad and terrifying, and watching it happen to your parents is morbid as all get out. Still, Zeek is just lucky that it wasn't worse….

Harrison vs. The Treadmill. Never forget. #Dexter

#5: Drew wisely told Amber not to get back together with her ex just because she's having his baby, and now he wisely told her not to keep the baby a secret from hipster coffee house boy with a Holden Caufleild-esque touch of gray. Poor Drew, this kid, between his sister and his mom and the abortion. Oy.

Okay, Amber was dumb for thinking she should keep her pregnancy a secret from Holden Coffehouse. What was her plan, exactly? "Maybe he'll fall so in love with me that he won't care that I'm having someone else's kid!" Really, girl? And was I the only one who was aware that she sort of lied when she finally did tell him the truth? The father isn't in the picture at all? She's doing this on her own? I'm sorry, I thought she and Ryan agreed to not be a couple, but I distinctly remember Ryan saying he was going to be in the baby's life and Amber saying that was great. She basically acted like the baby daddy was a ghost, but uh, once the baby comes, Ryan will most likely be very much alive.

#6: I can't tell if the scene where Zeek, Adam, and Crosby talk to Max about Dylan was cute or horrifying. Is it normal to talk to your grandpa about his libido? For your uncle to go through a list of what all the "bases" mean? All in front of your dad? I don't know. Maybe it is normal, but a family conversation like that would have made me cry. Anyway.

I think all of this will play out a little differently than how Christina thinks. An unexpected touch of sensitivity and tactfulness seemed to come across Dylan's face when she realized that Max was telling her he liked her, and after his, "I've got a decade to change your mind" statement, she made the point of telling him that he went up by 0.5 on her like scale. A statement that implies you're in it for the long-haul is always the way to a girl's heart. I'm not saying I think they'll fall totally in love, but I wouldn't be surprised if something happens with the two of them.

What did you think about this week's episode and all of this biddness? I wanna know!

Brigette Watches Homeland, S4/Ep04: "Iron in the Fire"

This past Sunday, on Homeland we learned:

1) The terrorist guy who we thought was dead ISN'T DEAD.
2) The "sweet" medical student kid knows his Uncle isn't dead & is talking to him & possibly smuggling medical supplies/drugs.
3) Sandy was killed by… the government?… of the country they are in? Where are they?
4) They bugged the pony-tailed mob instigator's phone & house, but he probably figured it out because someone called and said "your laundry's done" or something and he deleted or destroyed his phone or something? I don't know.
5) Carrie seduced little med student, for reasons we will all try to figure out.

If you can't tell by now, I usually half understand everything that's happening on Homeland. Usually by the end of the episode, I've got it pretty much figured out. I can't promise that's going to happen this week, but this is still worth your time, okay??? (Okay?)

A lot of people were mad about this episode, namely Carrie's behavior. Would a C.I.A. member actually seduce a person they wanted information from? Isn't it unethical? Is Carrie still likable?

Let's remember that Carrie is bat-shit crazy and always has been. I know that's not a politically correct term, and I'm not making fun of her bipolar disorder, because her character is on meds right now (we've seen her off of them). But she's always been a live wire. She will do ANYTHING to win, to distract herself from her personal life, and to get outside of herself. Sex is just a negotiating tool for her. Not a big deal. And know one has to know, so she thinks. If she can get this kid attached to her, she can get him to …give up information about the Uncle? Is that what she wants? Or put a positive spin on the bombing? I'm so confused.

Let's also remind ourselves that Carrie recently saw the man who she loved hung to death in front of an angry mob. Not shot in the head or something else quick and painless, but hung. We ALL had to watch Brody's slow death, and it was awful. So maybe we could be empathic towards that trauma.  Still, we could argue that the likability of Carrie started to waver this season when she nearly drown her baby, Brody's child. Perhaps it was salvaged when she fought her way to leave the country so that she could be safely away from that child (GOOD CALL). Personally, I don't really need to "like" Carrie to find her interesting, and she certainly is. Carrie may seem very steady and in control in front of others, but she's lying to everyone as well as herself. How long can she keep it up this time?

Best casting ever goes to this weird baby who looks
exactly like Damian Lewis.

Theory: In the first episode, we saw Carrie peacefully going to sleep after bombing the wedding. Before little med student guy awoke, she was sleeping in her bed. They sure are showing her sleep a lot, right? I feel like this isn't a coincidence. Around her, others are dealing with their conscience, namely Quinn, but Carrie is able to sleep at night, alone, surrounded by darkness. I'm wondering if the end of this season will address this issue, if Carrie will "wake up" and question what she's doing with her life.

Theory: Little med student guy isn't so innocent. He's playing them all. He's not communicating with his Uncle out of familial obligation or pressure from the terrorists his Uncle is associated with, but he believes in the cause himself. Hmm. We shall see. (I'm so sorry that I don't know that kid's name. I mean I could look it up, but…)

Points of Confusion: What's up with Saul? I thought he retired and they made a big fuss of that at the end of last season? But he still works for the C.I.A, just a different branch? What country are they even in? Huh? Didn't that scene with that 9/11 conspiracy theory guy really make you want noodles? Who was that guy anyway?

We are four episodes in to the "new" Homeland, or shall we say the "Brodyless" Homeland, and I don't know how I feel. It's clearly not the same show, but I still thought the premier was pretty exciting. Since the premier…ehh. I'm confused as to why they're teasing this Quinn loves Carrie thing when I feel like it's kinda out of nowhere except that they work together and are the same age. Am I missing something? It's not really the same without whiny Dana and Brody's alien wife. (She was on that V show, right?)  I don't know, guys, but I don't give up on shows that easily. I'm gonna stick this one out for a while.


What do you think about this week's Homeland and where the show seems to be headed?

Welcome to Our World…of Television!

Hello! If you watch T.V., then you are in the right place, because Stacie and Brigette want to talk about T.V., and they want you to be part of the conversation.

Stacie and Brigette have been best friends since they were fourteen, and one of the reasons that they bonded was over television, namely Days of Our Lives and Must See TV Thursdays. As the years went by, they may not have always watched the same shows, but each understood how important television was to the other, and would listen patiently as the other described with excitement or sadness or anger or confusion about a storyline from her favorite show that the other didn't watch. They never had to say, "I know it's just a show" or "It's lame of me to care" No. NO. IT MATTERED. And the other understood.

It's kind of amazing that it took the two of them this long to start a blog to express all of their TV feels to the masses, but better late than never, right? Between the two of them, they'll recap about 17 different shows, as well as occasionally write think pieces about shows from television past.

Stacie and Brigette believe that when it comes to our obsessions, sometimes it's okay to indulge, especially if it's a project, like a blog, like this, you know? Like an excuse.

Bookmark and check back regularly, and please, talk with us about your favorite shows! This is going to be fun, I promise.

STACIE AND BRIGETTE WILL RECAP:

Homeland * Parenthood * Dance Moms * Bates Motel * American Idol * It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia * Girls * One Upon a Time * Castle * NCIS: LA * The Mysteries of Laura * Red Band Society * Criminal Minds * Law & Order SVU * Grey's Anatomy * Bones * Days of Our Lives (when Brigette can stand it)  

And maybe MORE!