Yesterday, I had to hold a review session for an exam in the late
afternoon, which mostly killed my TV viewing for Sunday. So all I really
got through yesterday was the Masters, and a soap:

soaps: DOOL - Fri's ep. Tedious - Vivian demands that she get her half
of Titan, etc. for forging the letter, and then demands that Philip and
Kate murder Xander to make it happen! At a romantic dinner(?), Sarah
doesn't deserve Xander (duh!!). Rex warns Roman about Kate's gun and the
fact that Kate may have shot EJ; later, Roman discovers his gun is gone
(it was taken by Johnny, though Roman doesn't know this). Sami goes
through her tawdry past to try to explain to Johnny how she ended up
with her rapist, EJ - Johnny seemed to buy it, but going through Sami's
past reminded everyone what a scumbag she was!!

The Masters - Wow! This wasn't the ending I was expecting! Poor Justin
Rose!!
I guess I should back up, and start at the beginning...
As the Final Round opened, I despaired, as Rory McIlroy
double-bogeyed the first hole, and I think Bryson DeChambeau birdied it,
and so McIlroy and DeChambeau were tied early on, and it looked like
Rory might throw it all away.
But McIlroy settled down after this, and retook the lead, while
DeChambeau basically fell apart on the final day (I think he finished... seventh?) - I've seen this show repeat at a lot of the Masters over the
years!
So it reset to the Day 3 picture with Rory in the lead, and
seemingly in the drivers seat.
Meanwhile, down the leaderboard, most of the challengers ended up
doing the same as DeChambeau, and falling back (Åberg triple-bogeyed one
of the last holes to totally take himself out of contention).
But one guy, Justin Rose, kept hanging in there (once again!), and
hit a clutch put on the final hole to come within one shot of Rory.
It looked like Rory was still in the drivers seat. But he missed a relatively easy par put on the 18th hole! His bogey putt him into a tie
with Rose!
Off to the sudden death playoff we go!!
This went exactly like expected - Rose couldn't hit the putt he
needed for birdie on the first playoff hole, while Rory's approach shot
put it 3-feet from the hole. Rory put his putt in to birdie, and win the playoff!!
Rory gets the career Grand Slam, the first person to have done it
since Tiger Woods in 2000!!
Poor Justin Rose - this is the third time he's finished second at
the Masters, and the second time he's lost it in a sudden-death playoff
(he lost a playoff in 2017 too!). Always a bridesmaid and never a
bride... :(

After my review session, I put on "Sins of the Bride", a 2024 Tubi
original that Lifetime was airing for broadcast, on as background noise.
It seemed like a weird one - because I wasn't paying full attention, I
couldn't tell if the psycho stalker dude was after the bride (sexually),
the groom (sexually), or both!! I had to go to bed by the time he was
holding both of them captive, so I'm not sure how this one resolved...


What did you watch?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 4/14/2025 6:06 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

Yesterday, I had to hold a review session for an exam in the late
afternoon, which mostly killed my TV viewing for Sunday. So all I really
got through yesterday was the Masters, and a soap:

soaps: DOOL - Fri's ep. Tedious - Vivian demands that she get her half
of Titan, etc. for forging the letter, and then demands that Philip and
Kate murder Xander to make it happen! At a romantic dinner(?), Sarah
doesn't deserve Xander (duh!!). Rex warns Roman about Kate's gun and the
fact that Kate may have shot EJ; later, Roman discovers his gun is gone
(it was taken by Johnny, though Roman doesn't know this). Sami goes
through her tawdry past to try to explain to Johnny how she ended up
with her rapist, EJ - Johnny seemed to buy it, but going through Sami's
past reminded everyone what a scumbag she was!!

The Masters - Wow! This wasn't the ending I was expecting! Poor Justin
Rose!!
   I guess I should back up, and start at the beginning...
   As the Final Round opened, I despaired, as Rory McIlroy double-
bogeyed the first hole, and I think Bryson DeChambeau birdied it, and so McIlroy and DeChambeau were tied early on, and it looked like Rory might throw it all away.
   But McIlroy settled down after this, and retook the lead, while DeChambeau basically fell apart on the final day (I think he finished... seventh?) - I've seen this show repeat at a lot of the Masters over the years!
   So it reset to the Day 3 picture with Rory in the lead, and
seemingly in the drivers seat.
   Meanwhile, down the leaderboard, most of the challengers ended up
doing the same as DeChambeau, and falling back (Åberg triple-bogeyed one
of the last holes to totally take himself out of contention).
   But one guy, Justin Rose, kept hanging in there (once again!), and
hit a clutch put on the final hole to come within one shot of Rory.
   It looked like Rory was still in the drivers seat. But he missed a relatively easy par put on the 18th hole! His bogey putt him into a tie
with Rose!
   Off to the sudden death playoff we go!!
   This went exactly like expected - Rose couldn't hit the putt he
needed for birdie on the first playoff hole, while Rory's approach shot
put it 3-feet from the hole. Rory put his putt in to birdie, and win the playoff!!
   Rory gets the career Grand Slam, the first person to have done it
since Tiger Woods in 2000!!
   Poor Justin Rose - this is the third time he's finished second at
the Masters, and the second time he's lost it in a sudden-death playoff
(he lost a playoff in 2017 too!). Always a bridesmaid and never a
bride...  :(

After my review session, I put on "Sins of the Bride", a 2024 Tubi
original that Lifetime was airing for broadcast, on as background noise.
It seemed like a weird one - because I wasn't paying full attention, I couldn't tell if the psycho stalker dude was after the bride (sexually),
the groom (sexually), or both!!

LOL

I had to go to bed by the time he was

holding both of them captive, so I'm not sure how this one resolved...

What did you watch?

I watched:

G20 (Amazon streaming) Viola Davis stars as the President of the United
States who is attending a G20 summit in South Africa when terrorist
(lead by Anthony Starr) take the world leaders hostage. Among the
hostages are Davis' husband (Anthony Anderson) and two teenage children.
Davis and a few others manage to escape. Davis, in addition to being
the president, also happens to be a former soldier, and she intends to
use her military training to rescue her family and the other world
leaders from the hostage takers. This is basically Air Force One set in
a luxury hotel. It's an OK turn your brain off and enjoy the ride
action movie.


The Town (4K disc) 2010 movie written and directed by Ben Affleck.
Affleck and Jeremy Renner star as bank robbers who during a robbery
briefly take a bank manager (Rebecca Hall) hostage. They soon realize,
thanks to the ID that they stole, that their hostage happens to live
close to their hideout. So Affleck tracks her down to see if she knows anything, but winds up falling in love with her. But the romance is complicated by his violently psycho friend, Renner. John Hamm also
stars as an FBI agent trying to track down the bank robbers. This is a
pretty good movie.


The Accountant 2016 movie starring Ben Affleck as an autistic account
for the mob who moonlights as an unstoppable killer who helps those in
need. Sort of like Batman. When his new friend played by Anna Kendrick
comes under threat for uncovering something at her job he decides to
solve the problem by shooting the people who are threatening her in the
head. I hadn't watched this in a long time and had forgotten just how
good this movie is. The other thing I hadn't realized until watching
this again is all the characters I see in the trailers for The
Accountant 2, are also in this movie.


The Last of Us (HBO) - "Future Days" - Season 2, episode 1. Things pick
up with Joel and Ellie now living in Wyoming and Ellie being annoying.
This feels like a show I could dump pretty easily and not miss.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Apr 14, 2025 at 1:45:51 PM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb" <[email protected]> wrote:

The Last of Us (HBO) - "Future Days" - Season 2, episode 1. Things pick
up with Joel and Ellie now living in Wyoming and Ellie being annoying.
This feels like a show I could dump pretty easily and not miss.

For me, it's all about Ellie. She really kills the show for me. And it's not the character, it's the actress. She's just off-putting to me for some reason. Same show with a different lead and I'd like it a *lot* more.

And because it's been so long between seasons, I've completely forgotten what Joel lied to her about.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

BTR1701 <[email protected]> wrote:

Apr 14, 2025 1:45:51 PM PDT, Arthur Lipscomb <[email protected]>:

The Last of Us (HBO) - "Future Days" - Season 2, episode 1. Things pick
up with Joel and Ellie now living in Wyoming and Ellie being annoying.
This feels like a show I could dump pretty easily and not miss.

For me, it's all about Ellie. She really kills the show for me. And it's not >the character, it's the actress. She's just off-putting to me for some reason. >Same show with a different lead and I'd like it a *lot* more.

And because it's been so long between seasons, I've completely forgotten what >Joel lied to her about.

At the hospital in the season finale, didn't they need her brain to make
the cure? I forgot what he told her.

Didn't Joel kill 30 people or so escaping?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 4/14/2025 6:28 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

BTR1701 <[email protected]> wrote:

Apr 14, 2025 1:45:51 PM PDT, Arthur Lipscomb <[email protected]>:

The Last of Us (HBO) - "Future Days" - Season 2, episode 1. Things pick >>> up with Joel and Ellie now living in Wyoming and Ellie being annoying.
This feels like a show I could dump pretty easily and not miss.

For me, it's all about Ellie. She really kills the show for me. And it's not >> the character, it's the actress. She's just off-putting to me for some reason.
Same show with a different lead and I'd like it a *lot* more.

I suspect you're right.

And because it's been so long between seasons, I've completely forgotten what
Joel lied to her about.

At the hospital in the season finale, didn't they need her brain to make
the cure? I forgot what he told her.

Didn't Joel kill 30 people or so escaping?

Something like that, yes. He had to chose between saving the human
species or Ellie and he picked Ellie. Then he lied to her and said
there was no cure or something like that.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Apr 14, 2025 at 7:26:01 PM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb" <[email protected]> wrote:

On 4/14/2025 6:28 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

BTR1701 <[email protected]> wrote:

Apr 14, 2025 1:45:51 PM PDT, Arthur Lipscomb <[email protected]>:

The Last of Us (HBO) - "Future Days" - Season 2, episode 1. Things pick >>>> up with Joel and Ellie now living in Wyoming and Ellie being annoying. >>>> This feels like a show I could dump pretty easily and not miss.

For me, it's all about Ellie. She really kills the show for me. And it's not
the character, it's the actress. She's just off-putting to me for some
reason.
Same show with a different lead and I'd like it a *lot* more.

I suspect you're right.

I forgot to add that the opening scene of Ellie training in the barn, where a 4-foot tall, 90-lb girl (70 pounds of it seems to be her face) defeats a
240-lb muscle-bound adrenaline-fueled man in hand-to-hand combat is taking the whole grrrl-power trope to a ridiculous degree.

And because it's been so long between seasons, I've completely forgotten >>> what
Joel lied to her about.

At the hospital in the season finale, didn't they need her brain to make
the cure? I forgot what he told her.

Didn't Joel kill 30 people or so escaping?

Something like that, yes. He had to chose between saving the human
species or Ellie and he picked Ellie. Then he lied to her and said
there was no cure or something like that.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Apr 14, 2025 at 7:26:01 PM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb" <[email protected]> wrote:

On 4/14/2025 6:28 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

BTR1701 <[email protected]> wrote:

Apr 14, 2025 1:45:51 PM PDT, Arthur Lipscomb <[email protected]>:

The Last of Us (HBO) - "Future Days" - Season 2, episode 1. Things pick >>>> up with Joel and Ellie now living in Wyoming and Ellie being annoying. >>>> This feels like a show I could dump pretty easily and not miss.

For me, it's all about Ellie. She really kills the show for me. And it's not
the character, it's the actress. She's just off-putting to me for some
reason.
Same show with a different lead and I'd like it a *lot* more.

I suspect you're right.

Someone like Cailee Spaeny (ALIEN: ROMULUS, CIVIL WAR) would have been perfect for the role and would do a much better job with it. Heck, if they'd cast the girl who plays her love interest (Isabella Merced) as Ellie, she would've been a vast improvement.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Apr 14, 2025 at 1:45:51 PM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb" <[email protected]> wrote:

I watched:

G20 (Amazon streaming) Viola Davis stars as the President of the United States who is attending a G20 summit in South Africa when terrorist
(lead by Anthony Starr) take the world leaders hostage. Among the
hostages are Davis' husband (Anthony Anderson) and two teenage children. Davis and a few others manage to escape. Davis, in addition to being
the president, also happens to be a former soldier, and she intends to
use her military training to rescue her family and the other world
leaders from the hostage takers. This is basically Air Force One set in
a luxury hotel. It's an OK turn your brain off and enjoy the ride
action movie.

I watched this last night and it was pretty much what I expected. They should have titled the movie "That's Not How This Works. It's Not How Any of This Works!"

The entire plot hinges on the U.S. government hiring a private security company-- a foreign one, no less-- to provide security for the entire shindig. The only USSS agents present are the PPD shift. Everyone else is a private contractor and the bad guys' entire plot depends on this being the case.

No, no, no, no, no.

No.

And in the opening scene, where the president is woken in the middle of the night to address "the capture" of what at first seems to be some high-value target, but in reality turns out to be the president's teen daughter who slipped her detail and went bar-hopping, why in the name of god were the director of the FBI, the CIA, and several generals and admirals (the Joint Chiefs, one assumes) all lined up in the Oval when the daughter was brought in to face her mother?

And this is in the middle of the night, remember, so all of these high-level government officials were presumably woken out of sound sleep, showered, dressed, put on uniforms, driven from their homes to the White House, etc.,
all so they could stand around silently while the president yelled at her wayward daughter? Why was any of this happening in the Oval Office in the
first place?

Ugh.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 4/15/2025 3:11 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

On Apr 14, 2025 at 1:45:51 PM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb" <[email protected]> wrote:

I watched:

G20 (Amazon streaming) Viola Davis stars as the President of the United
States who is attending a G20 summit in South Africa when terrorist
(lead by Anthony Starr) take the world leaders hostage. Among the
hostages are Davis' husband (Anthony Anderson) and two teenage children.
Davis and a few others manage to escape. Davis, in addition to being
the president, also happens to be a former soldier, and she intends to
use her military training to rescue her family and the other world
leaders from the hostage takers. This is basically Air Force One set in
a luxury hotel. It's an OK turn your brain off and enjoy the ride
action movie.

I watched this last night and it was pretty much what I expected. They should have titled the movie "That's Not How This Works. It's Not How Any of This Works!"

The entire plot hinges on the U.S. government hiring a private security company-- a foreign one, no less-- to provide security for the entire shindig.
The only USSS agents present are the PPD shift. Everyone else is a private contractor and the bad guys' entire plot depends on this being the case.

No, no, no, no, no.

No.

And in the opening scene, where the president is woken in the middle of the night to address "the capture" of what at first seems to be some high-value target, but in reality turns out to be the president's teen daughter who slipped her detail and went bar-hopping, why in the name of god were the director of the FBI, the CIA, and several generals and admirals (the Joint Chiefs, one assumes) all lined up in the Oval when the daughter was brought in
to face her mother?

And this is in the middle of the night, remember, so all of these high-level government officials were presumably woken out of sound sleep, showered, dressed, put on uniforms, driven from their homes to the White House, etc., all so they could stand around silently while the president yelled at her wayward daughter? Why was any of this happening in the Oval Office in the first place?

Ugh.

This is why you have to turn your brain off. Otherwise it won't come as
a complete surprise when later in the movie the teenage daughter just
happens to use the exact same technique she used to sneak out of the
White House to help foil the terrorists.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Apr 15, 2025 at 1:46:40 PM PDT, "BTR1701" <[email protected]> wrote:

On Apr 14, 2025 at 7:26:01 PM PDT, "Arthur Lipscomb" <[email protected]> wrote:

On 4/14/2025 6:28 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

BTR1701 <[email protected]> wrote:

Apr 14, 2025 1:45:51 PM PDT, Arthur Lipscomb <[email protected]>:

The Last of Us (HBO) - "Future Days" - Season 2, episode 1. Things pick
up with Joel and Ellie now living in Wyoming and Ellie being annoying. >>>>> This feels like a show I could dump pretty easily and not miss.

For me, it's all about Ellie. She really kills the show for me. And it's >>>> not
the character, it's the actress. She's just off-putting to me for some >>>> reason.
Same show with a different lead and I'd like it a *lot* more.

I suspect you're right.

I forgot to add that the opening scene of Ellie training in the barn, where a 4-foot tall, 90-lb girl (70 pounds of it seems to be her face) defeats a 240-lb muscle-bound adrenaline-fueled man in hand-to-hand combat is taking the
whole grrrl-power trope to a ridiculous degree.

This is how that sort of scenario would play out here in the real world where there is no "sassy grrl-boss" exception to the laws of physics:


https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1909586982940086272/pu/vid/avc1/720x1280/nSa-9Oya-Ae70KWe.mp4?tag=12

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