#also alex will be a great bio for her drama when he comes out

[mobscene-london]

BASIC INFORMATION:

NAME: Olivia Coppola.  AGE: 29. PLACE OF BIRTH: Launceston, Massachusetts, United States. AFFILIATION: The Sovrani. The French Organization, loosely. OCCUPATION: Owner of Nomentano. FACE CLAIM: Adeline Rudolph.  AVAILABILITY: OPEN.

BIOGRAPHY:

They said that nobody dreamt of a life like theirs. 

The other women she spoke to (very much a community in their own right, no matter how much some tried to hide it) seemed to struggle.  

To be a mistress was an inherently lonely way to live, despite what the wives would guilt people into believing. They were lucky to spend dinner together more than a few nights a week, and even then, he would always return home to his family afterwards. They got secretive weekends away that usually ended up as business trips rather than the romantic vacations promised to them. Holidays were spent in solitude. Parties were attended with nobody at their side, because whilst they couldn’t claim a married man as their own, they sure weren’t allowed to show up with anyone else, either. Olivia could still remember being told by a woman who had been doing the same damn thing for two decades that they were property to be paraded more than they were half of a functioning relationship. 

So why the fuck did they stay if they hated it so much? 

Olivia never understood the negativity. Even when they patronised her, saying she was just young. 

Eventually she would want children, they told her. Eventually she would want to get married to Giorgio, and that was never going to be on the cards, no matter how much she wanted it. 

Sounded to her like they were fucking projecting. 

If she was going to pick any man to fall helplessly in love with, it sure as hell wasn’t going to be Giorgio Pecatti. Whilst he certainly ranked amongst the most charming men she’d ever met, the very fact they were together at all proved that he was a piece of human garbage. Olivia enjoyed what they had. She loved him without being in love with him. But she was not the type to eventually serve him the ‘it’s me or her’ ultimatum, and perhaps, that’s exactly why of all the women he saw behind his wife’s back, she was his favourite. 

The least complicated, and the most loyal. 

To his money, especially.  

That had been the initial draw. When they’d first started dating, not long after he’d arrived in Launceston, Olivia had been as close to a peasant as one could come in a place like Valence. Koreans were treated like the scum of the earth in their city, and her mother was too proud of her heritage for anyone’s taste. To the people of Little Italy, though, they somehow hated people like her more for tainting the fucking bloodline. Olivia got the feeling they wished any outside of their shitty Italian circles—despite the fact her father was from Naples—kept to themselves. They wanted pure Italians, and the only thing worse than a pure Korean were Korean genes watering down their marinara blood. Dicks. 

Still, her father had always supported his family in the face of discrimination. Giorgio had been unreasonably kind to her, in spite of it all, too. Olivia hadn’t had much of that in life.  

Maybe that was why she cared even though she knew she shouldn’t have. 

Olivia knew he had a family on the other side of the country. Maybe if she was a better person, she would have felt guilty about it. Sometimes, Giorgio spoke of them, though not often, and she always wondered if perhaps his blatant loneliness was the reason their one drunken ‘no strings attached’ night at the bar she worked turned into a reoccurring thing. Not that she was complaining. Olivia did not oppose his company in the slightest, maybe because she was lonely, too. For all the shitty men she’d had in her life, at least he treated her well. Looked after her when life seemed intent on keeping her the fuck down. 

For the two years Patrizia was absent, even when Giorgio had other women in his life, she was his priority. If he needed a date for a party, or he needed company to show off when he and Vincenzo paid visits back to Italy, he turned to his favourite. Most of his friends adored her. Whilst she was smart enough to know her place, she had just enough of a sassy spark to keep them interested. Giorgio bought her an expensive apartment near the beach. Designer clothes, handbags, a new car. Most importantly, though, she knew that if she ever had a fucking problem, with anything or anyone, he could always make it go away. 

For a woman who had spent all of her life until him with nothing, it soon became addictive. 

Even her parents eventually showed concern for her new lifestyle; particularly a penchant for partying she’d picked up as a means to flash her spending money. Anderson Island had always been her favourite part of Launceston, but it was also, rather notoriously, territory of the French Organization. They caused no issues. Olivia had already been briefed that they were allies, and she would always be safe there. But the cocaine they funnelled into the area absolutely did become a problem. So did some of their men she sought the company of. Any drugs were a no-go so far as the Italians went. If you weren’t clean, they kicked you the fuck out, no questions, no excuses. She knew all of that. Had been warned.  

But she just couldn’t help herself...

Hiding it from Giorgio was easy when he was so frequently absent. His nosy fucking bodyguard, though—one she suspected he tasked with keeping an eye on her specifically—picked up on her cocaine problem like a damn sniffer dog. Olivia didn’t appreciate the threats to stop, mostly because she knew that if push came to shove, her boyfriend would choose Rina over her. In the beginning she’d offered help, but why the fuck would she take it when she was having such a good time? 

Maybe, if she’d been smart, Olivia would’ve declined the offer to join him in London. 

Sorted herself out. 

She could’ve been rid of her watchful glare. The expectations and rules. Him. 

It also soon became apparent that Patrizia knew about their affair, and despite the fact his wife claimed she was ‘not happy, but understanding’ so long as they kept it discreet, she wondered if she’d spend most of the time in the new city looking over her shoulder. But reality quickly set in. Olivia’s life for the past two years had been built around him. Everything she owned, the lifestyle she had cultivated, the people she called friends; all because of Giorgio and his influence. How could she let it all go? What the fuck was she supposed to do with her life if she did? What did she have without him?

Evidently, he didn’t want to be without her, though, and that meant more than she’d expected it to. Even with his wife back in his life, he was still making time for her...  

Nomentano had been the same of the very bar they’d met at in Launceston. Foolish sentimentality on his part, she supposed, but still sweet enough that she wondered if there was more to it than an excuse to keep her around. Even when he had provided her with everything she’d needed, Olivia had never stopped working, and to be able to have her own place in London was something she never could have imagined. Not only was it the gift to end all gifts, but if things really did go south and she had to end things between them, she suspected the man cared just enough to let her keep it—a means to stand on her own two feet without him. 

Granted, with many reservations still nagging, she is not sure what to expect from the new city. Olivia doesn’t know what the declining relationships with Rina and Patrizia mean for her future. But, once again, Giorgio has done just enough to keep her wrapped around his little finger, and she can’t find a good enough reason to say no to a man she is, for perhaps the first time in their relationship, feeling genuinely indebted to. 

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS:

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Giorgio Pecatti (boyfriend) FAMILY: None playable. CONNECTIONS:

Alexandre Toussaint: Good friend. They first met in Launceston just over a year ago, and hit it off almost immediately. If she ventured to Anderson Island, it was usually for him. Though discouraged from keeping French Organization loyalists as company, especially ones who fit all of the stereotypes like he did, it wasn’t technically a no. Still, Olivia kept their friendship on the down-low from her Italian friends. Knowing Alex had already made the move to London certainly eased some of her hesitations about leaving home. It’s also something of a relief to know that she’s still going to be able to get herself a reliable fix, even in a new city...

Cristiano Messina: Friend. Perhaps her favourite of all those Giorgio’s introduced her to. Though most of his friends keep her at arm’s length, preferring instead to show loyalty to Patrizia (even if they like Olivia’s company, too) Cristiano never chose sides. If things between herself and Giorgio ever become turbulent, she knows that he’s always there for her. It’s certainly an unexpected friendship, and she’s heard things about the kind of things he does for the Sovrani that makes her wonder if keeping him close is wise, but she can’t help it. Olivia adores him, and doesn’t see that changing any time soon.

Rina Olivetti: Dislikes. Olivia knows that she’s Giorgio’s best friend, but the feelings of they both have for him do not extend to each other in the slightest. Ever since the bodyguard found out about her going against the Sovrani’s rules and dabbling in drugs, she’s been holding it over head like a punishment. Rationally, she knows Rina is just worried for her friend, knowing Olivia’s poor decisions could tarnish his reputation, but she’s such a fucking asshole about it, she doesn’t care.

[cherryxsimz]

delphi holiday for @simvicii‘s Alex Goth BC!

Neat / Perfectionist / Creative

26 years old / 175cm / Heterosexual / Libra

full bio under the cut

Backstory

Well, where to begin? You could say Delphi grew up in a pretty privileged home. Her Mother, Pearl, a successful jewellery brand owner and manufacturer, and Father, Michael, a (now) retired stockbroker, Delphi has pretty big shoes to fill. She grew up living the upper-class city teenage “dream”. Though her childhood was easy, not ever needing to do things for herself and always having someone do it for her, Delphi’s life wasn’t perfect. She is an only child, and her relationship with her parents was distant and almost cold at times as she often felt like priority number #847. Her Father’s continual unfaithfulness to her Mother made arguments a regular show under their big, beautiful, expensive roof. When Pearl wasn’t working or looking at herself in the mirror, she would be screaming at Michael about some woman she found out he took to dinner the night before and then took out on his expensive boat to drink champagne and forget about his family with. Pearl would often result to self medication with wine. Despite their bad relationship, Pearl & Michael wouldn’t separate until Delphi finished high school. 

Delphi tried hard in school, usually to escape feelings of being unwanted and “a pest”, and no matter how good her grades were, she never seemed to impress her parents the way she’d hoped. Though this didn’t stop her from always trying her hardest. She always loved writing, drawing and fashion from a young age, keeping countless diaries and raiding her Mother’s jewellery box and dresser. She also loved sketching outfit ideas with jewellery on models in her dairies.

Delphi also had a tough time making friends in school. She did have some friends, but no one she felt she really “clicked” with, usually falling out of touch with every friend she made. She always put school work first and rarely went out on the weekends, never having much of a love-life either (she didn’t have a great male model for men). She blamed her parents for her social habits and feared for a long time it may be due to her inheriting their heartless tendencies and perhaps she was destined for the same mundane future. It was when Delphi graduated high school she decided she would never let herself fall into the same toxic life her parents lived. The day she turned 18 she walked out of her family home and didn’t look back. She was dux of her year achieving exceptional grades, meaning she was able to get into just about anything, but she decided her passion laid in journalism.

After graduating at college with a Bachelor of Journalism, Delphi got a job and still works as a magazine editor at The Plumbob Times in the style & fashion sector. She lives in a small and stylish apartment in San Myshuno with her cat Jekyll. Now 26 with her career in full swing and still going strong, Delphi realised she missed a whole chunk of her life that could of resulted in a partner and a family because she devoted all her time to study and work. She is now very nervous but determined to get back into the dating scene, hoping to find the love of her life.

Facts

Delphi is very “set in her ways”, she loves her routine of getting up early, going for a run, getting a coffee (black, 2 shots), going to work, coming home, feeding Jekyll, writing a bit, making dinner, pouring a wine & watching a drama tv show or reading a book/magazine

Don’t be fooled with her neat trait being “good”, if she sees any kind of mess anywhere in the house, she wiLL NOT HESITATE IN THROWING HANDS

While fairly stubborn, Delph is always open to reasoning in arguments and likes understanding every perspective

Grew up in Newcrest, now lives in San Myshuno (big city girl)

She is very self-critical, and will only submit work she is 100% happy with

She’s a big cat person!

She is very inexperienced with men and hasn’t ever had a proper boyfriend, although she has had very occasional flings. Her view on dating is rather tainted, as the only role models she had were her parents, but she is optimistic she can find a good-hearted person.

Loves everything about pearls

Has 1 make it or break it rule: be honest & truthful

She’ll try anything once

Fave colour is black hehe

Don’t ask her to do any kind of physical sport or task because she WILL fail miserably, she is extremely unco

Doesn’t speak to her parents anymore (maybe once/twice a year on special occasions)

[mantra4ia]

OG Roswell vs Roswell New Mexico

I just finished rewatching Roswell (concluded/three seasons/streaming on Hulu) circa my youth from late 90s/early 2000s in order to compare it with Roswell New Mexico (new/ongoing/CW), and I have made the following conclusions so far:

Pros-

CW definitely picked the right actors for Max Evans and Liz (formerly Parker) Orcheto. I love Nathan Parsons - he has the soft-spoken, essense of puppy dog look that Jason Behr had in the role- and the chemistry between them is great.

That said, I think the original series did it better. Nothing beats the casting Shiri Appleby and Jason Behr and their goofball mariachi scenes, biology lab shenanigans, and alien 👽 ears. Sidenote about RNM: for as much as I love the unexpected twist of Alex and Michael together in RNM, nothing beats the casting of Majandra Delfino and Brendan Behr either. Their fantastic "at the same time I want to hug you, I want to wrap my hands around your neck" Michael-Maria dynamic is unbreakable, which I think the CW is trying to replicate with Alex but not with the same bantering charm.

RNM definitely comes out swinging with the political commentary/humor, and it makes the show feel of-the-times in the same vein as classic Roswell's "George Bush is an alien" t-shirt and the other references of the era to various 90s pop culture and music artists. The revival doesn't always stick the landing with the laugh, but the effort is there.

So on the subject of humor, levity in the original series is beyond compare. Yes it's corny, yes they pull out all the stops on hokie. But that's also what makes it so endearing. Seeing the main characters' relationships with their parents is also an unfortunate missing piece that RNM, by the mechanics of the "all grown up" plot, misses out on. Mrs. DeLuca, Mr. Evans, and the sheriff, had their fair share of laughs in Roswell and I miss that.

Alien special effects have far improved over the course of nearly 20 years. No more silver paint handprints, woooooohoo.

That said, nobody does 90s music transitions between scenes like Roswell. Nor jump cuts and cutaways.

I like Roswell New Mexico's homages to the OG show (the CrashDown, the waitress uniforms complete with antenna, and the ketchup are still priceless). More than anything, I like the fact that RNM paid attention to where Max's character left off in the original series, a little lost in purpose but wanting to help people, and so they made grown up Max a deputy, and likewise Liz became a scientist. And of course, the throwback mentions of Liz and Max in bio lab, Liz wiping hot sauce from his face...

But why have an homage when you can have the original hot sauce? Or, for that matter, half broken Jeep, fully DoA Jetta, and peach Snapple?

I'm thankful that so far there is no sight of the Tess character in RNM (I say, despite my love of Emilie de Ravin), and that they've seemed to pass along her mind warp power to Isabelle.

Cons-

How dare RNM backseat Maria DeLuca's character?! She was the beating heart and soul of terrestrial Roswell, her friendship with Liz is vital to the show in a way that the revival is not pulling off so far.

Roswell New Mexico has one advantage over Roswell for which I am grateful, and that's the fact that Maria, Max, Liz and crew are grown up and not keeping diaries anymore (thankfully I think TVD used up that plot device and the well has gone dry for the foreseeable future), which leads to fewer face-eating awkward make-out scenes in high school back rooms. Yet somehow the post-teenage angst is still front and center, go figure.

I like Michael Trevino. He's a welcome addition to any ensemble. But the CW plug to the Vampire Diaries/Julie Plec by putting a VD book on the shelf in Rosa's room is so cringy I can't take it. I am trying to black out the fact that Plec is EP on RNM and they make it impossible.

Roswell was kind of episodically self-contained with very few true cliffhangers, whereas Roswell New Mexico seems to stretch out the plot arcs a bit more. I can appreciate that added bit of complexity.

However, RNM also takes itself way too seriously. And I'm not just talking about the balance of drama and humor, for which the revival leans into the dramatic side heavily. I'm talking about the fact that the original Roswell, while it fully embraced the science fiction, was also self-effacing at times, like it was in on the joke that everything was just a little bit ridiculous. It embraced the cornball element. Dare I say it loved the cornball, and I think that's part of the reason why it's so rewatchable and bingeworthy years later. Roswell New Mexico has none of that.

I never understood the need for royal hierarchy conflict, love triangles, babies, and exiled aliens fighting a nearly unseen foe - Kivar - in Roswell (because more often than not the plots double back on themselves and come up half empty), so I'm glad Roswell New Mexico took a more worldly approach to the problems the protagonists are facing.

Sadly Michael Guerin and Isabelle, like Maria DeLuca, fall flat in the new series so far. In part I think it's because the story hasn't done a lot of relationship building between them and Max (it spends so/too much time building the drama and tension around Liz's sister's 'murder' plot that I'm not yet invested in) to highlight the sibling connection that made the first iteration charming. And that's a shame.

Lastly, who's disgusting idea was it to swap hot sauce for acetone polish remover? Never. No. NO.

Overall, I still much prefer the original Roswell vs. the Roswell New Mexico revival. It has a rewatchability and heart that the new series has yet to capture for me. I could give it time at least until I see the episode that Shiri Appleby directs, but I think that the new tone of the show is something else entirely and I'm not the biggest fan.

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Making Up by Helena Hunting

Shacking Up #4

Cosy Felton is a college student working in an adult toy shop to make ends meet. When Griffin Mills stops by the store to buy a list of items for a bachelor party Cosy makes a less than fun shopping trip a lot less embarrassing. As Griffin is drawn to Cosy he returns later to ask her on a date...and though she says no they do eventually go out. For awhile the eleven year age difference seems it might be a stumbling block but not for long...nope...soon other things seem to pop up that cause problems. There are ups and downs in their relationship but throughout the story it is impossible NOT to see them together.

What I liked:

* Griffin: WONDERFUL book boyfriend!

* Cosy: a nice balance to Griffin and his soul mate

* The meet cute

* The way the two usually ended up talking things out rather than giving up

* The steamy scenes

* Griffin’s family

* Knowing how the characters were feeling and what they were thinking – first person dual points of view

* How it all worked out

What I did not like: * Imogen – Griffin’s Ex-fiance

* Armstrong – Griffin’s cousin

* The drama of the ups and downs though they did allow for a lot of making up

* All the comments about the age difference although there were times Cosy seemed younger than 22

Did I like this book? Yes

Will I read more in the series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4.5 Stars

Synopsis:

A new standalone, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy by New York Times bestselling author Helena Hunting.

Cosy Felton is great at her job—she knows just how to handle the awkwardness that comes with working at an adult toy store. So when the hottest guy she’s ever seen walks into the shop looking completely overwhelmed, she’s more than happy to turn on the charm and help him purchase all of the items on his list.

Griffin Mills is using his business trip in Las Vegas as a chance to escape the broken pieces of his life in New York City. The last thing he wants is to be put in charge of buying gag gifts for his friend’s bachelor party. Despite being totally out of his element, and mortified by the whole experience, Griffin is pleasantly surprised when he finds himself attracted to the sales girl that helped him.

As skeptical as Cosy may be of Griffin’s motivations, there’s something about him that intrigues her. But sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas and when real life gets in the way, all bets are off. Filled with hilariously awkward situations and enough sexual chemistry to power Sin City, Making Up is the next standalone in the Shacking Up world.

Excerpt

We’re a couple of minutes away from my apartment, which also means we’re almost at the end of our date. End-of-date protocol often means a goodnight kiss.

And I’ve eaten onions. Lots of them. What the hell was I thinking? I feel around in my shorts pocket, hoping I have a random stick of gum. I find a tiny square packet and pull it out, along with an old tissue. I shove that back in my pocket and sigh with relief as I carefully open the Listerine Pocketpak. There’s one strip left. I pop it in my mouth, wishing I had water since my mouth is dry and I’m suddenly super nervous.

Griffin pulls up in front of my apartment building. I swallow a bunch of times, trying to get the strip to dissolve on my tongue and glance out the tinted window, seeing it from his perspective. I don’t live in a bad part of town, but I sure as hell wouldn’t leave this car sitting out here for any length of time unless I wanted it keyed or stripped down.

Griffin shifts into park and turns to me, one hand resting on the back of my seat near the headrest. “I had a great time, Cosy.”

“Me too, thanks for dinner.” I tried to fork over my share, but he was quick on the credit card draw.

“It was my pleasure.” He leans in the tiniest bit, a nonverbal cue that he’s going in for a kiss.

I mirror the movement, giving him the go ahead. My stomach flutters in anticipation. I exhale slowly through my nose. Even though the Listerine strip should be doing its job to mask the onions, I don’t want to ruin the moment by breathing that in his face.

His fingertips skim my jaw, and I close my eyes. And then his lips brush my cheek. I wait for them to move a couple of inches to the right, but after what feels like a lot of seconds—and is probably only a few—I crack a lid.

Griffin is still close, a wry smile on his lips and a smolder in his eyes.

“Seriously, that’s it? A kiss on the cheek?”

His smile widens, making his eyes crinkle at the corners. He’s nothing like the guys I usually end up on dates with. College boys don’t take things slow. If I were out with one of the guys from school, I’d be sitting in a beat-up Civic with some stupid music playing, and he’d be all over me with his tongue halfway down my throat, copping a feel.

“I thought all the onions you ate were the equivalent to garlic for vampires.” Griffin fingers my hair near my shoulder. I’d really like him to finger something else. Wait. I mean I’d like to feel his hands on me. Not in my pants. Okay, maybe I’d like them in my pants, but not after date number one.

“I wasn’t thinking, and I really like onions. A lot. In hindsight, it’s not a great date food. I feel kinda dumb. And I guess at first I wasn’t so sure about you. How was I supposed to know you’d actually be kind of normalish?”

“Normalish?”

“Well, you drink club soda on purpose, so you can’t be all there.” I tap his temple.

Griffin circles my wrist with his fingers and drops his head, lips brushing over my knuckle. “We can’t all be perfect, now, can we?”

“I suppose not, and perfect is boring.”

“That it is.” He hums against my skin, and I feel it through my entire body. “I would like to try that kiss again, if you’re still interested.”

Buy-Book Link: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250253378

Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of PUCKED, Helena Hunting lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her incredibly tolerant family and two moderately intolerant cats. She's writes contemporary romance ranging from new adult angst to romantic sports comedy.

Helena Hunting Blog Tour Q&A 

What inspired you to write Making Up?

I’d introduced Griffin in the previous Shacking Up Series novels, Shacking Up and Hooking Up—he was a bit of a mystery for readers because he was talked about, but not really present. I had a very clear picture in my mind of who he was, and the kind of woman who would end up being the perfect fit for him, and it was not his fiancé from the previous books.  

Introduce us to your main characters!

Griffin Mills is the oldest of the three Mills brothers. At thirty-three he’s had several very long term relationships and was formerly engaged, but that relationship went up in flames. He’s gorgeous, smart, loves the numbers side of the family business he’s part of—a chain of hotels he’s set to inherit with his brothers. Also, he’s a little awkward, which I love, because there’s nothing quite like a hot guy who doesn’t have all the lines and fumbles a bit when he’s dealing with someone he’s attracted to. It makes for some hilarious banter with his love interest, Cosy Felton. Our heroine is a twenty-two year old who has been a bit of a nomad for most of her life, but is finally finishing school and happens to work at an Adult Toy Store part time. It’s definitely not her favourite job, but it pays the bills. She’s sassy, not much of a planner and definitely more than Griffin bargained for.

Lots of aspiring authors out there. Any advice for them?

Just keep writing. Every day put words on the page and surround yourself with positive people who are there to support you. Ask questions, join book groups, be an avid reader and an observer.

How is Making Up different from your other books?

Making Up has a trope I’ve never really explored or played around with before, so it was a lot of fun to write. While I’ve written age gaps before, it hasn’t been a key part of the storyline, or had a significant impact on how the characters perceive the relationship. Griffin and Cosy are from two very different worlds and balancing their expectations and insecurities was one of my favourite parts of writing their story. Making Up has my signature quirky, sassy heroines and I love writing heroes that are sexy, yet a little awkward. While it’s a light read, there’s some drama, and some heavy baggage, which I think grounds the story and balances out the hilarity.

I know asking someone’s all-time favorite book is a loaded question so what’s your current favorite read?

I’ve been so lucky to read so many amazing books this year but I’m going to go with Broken Knight by LJ Shen which releases this August. I love YA/NA romance and angst, and she knows how to deliver both flawlessly.

Alright, the ultimate question: why should we read your book?

We all need a little escape from our own realities once in a while and Making Up is a fun, sexy romance that’s perfect for the summer. Also, Griffin is hot, and not particularly suave at times. I think we can all appreciate a guy who doesn’t have all the lines, especially if he looks like he should.

A famous movie producer wants to make your books into movies and they want you to cast your characters from Making Up. Which actors/actresses make the cut?

This is always a fun question and I’ll be 100% honest, I never actually look at actors prior to writing a story because I generally have a picture of the character in my head. But, I went on a Pinterest mission and Alex Morgan (she’s a soccer player, not an actress) would make a fabulous Cosy if she suddenly switched career paths. Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee) is super sassy, and could definitely play up the humor in this story, so she would be a legitimate actress choice. Gabriel Macht has a great smolder and can rock a seriously sexy suit, so I think he’d be great as Griffin.

Favorite quote or scene you wrote in Making Up?

Making Up is definitely a rom-com with some incredibly hilarious moments, but Griffin has some heavy baggage, which means there are also serious moments, and this is one of my favourites: “Talk to me. Fall apart on me. Show me your weakness so I can give you my strength.”

What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve always loved to write, but finding time was a challenge during university and then afterward I was building a career and we renovated a house down to the studs—which takes up a lot of time and doesn’t leave much of an opportunity for putting down words (but it was an amazing experience). When I gave birth to my daughter she struggled to sleep—or rather stay asleep—and that meant I spent a lot of time awake in the middle of the night. So I started writing again during those late nights, and finally penned my first full novel.

What is a typical writing day like?

I usually start with a run and then copious amounts of coffee while I manage the administrative side of things—ie emails, social media posts etc. But when I sit down to write I have a playlist I put on repeat, more coffee, sparking water (so I can stay hydrated) and my cat Pumpkin generally lies on top of my closed laptop and supervises me for the day.

Do you have any interesting writing quirks or habits?

I listen to the same playlist while I write a novel. So if it takes me two months, then I listen to the same set of songs for two full months. I’ve destroyed A LOT of albums for my husband over the past several years. I just need the background noise, and listening to the radio or unfamiliar songs can be distracting.

What has been one of the most surprising things you’ve learned as a published author?

I’ve only been in the industry for five years and there has been so much change, learning to adjust and adapt and just staying true to your personal goal is really the most important thing I’ve learned. I think when you start out there are just so many unknowns, and taking risks can be scary, but if you don’t take those risks, it’s hard to grow as an author.

Can you tell us about what’s coming up next after this for you writing wise?

I have one more book in The Shacking Up Series, HANDLE WITH CARE, which releases at the end of August! Griffin’s cousin and best friend, Lincoln Moorehead, is the hero and if you didn’t know, he is also Armstrong’s brother. Lincoln is the polar opposite of Armstrong so it was so fun to write. I can’t wait for people to meet Griffin and Cosy and Lincoln and Wren.

How can readers connect with you online?

They can connect with me all over social media! (add links)

Website→  http://www.helenahunting.com/

Amazon → http://amzn.to/1y6OBB7

Twitter → http://bit.ly/HelenaHTwitter

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/helena.hunting69/

Pinterest → http://bit.ly/1oQYRVN

Instagram → http://instagram.com/helenahunting Goodreads→ http://bit.ly/GoodReadsHH NEWSLETTER → http://bit.ly/HelenaHnewsletter

Bookbub → http://bit.ly/BookBubHH

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[itwasjustmisplaced]

Do you think if the reunion is in say February, do you think that means the kid is likely Roberts snd sticking around? Like maybe that leaves time for R to die and the rest to leave. Single dad Rob and Robron growing closer. Hey presto Robron back together & a 'robron' baby? I hope not. Maybe timing of the reunion doesn't mean this whenever it is. I guess I'm just losing faith in a satisfactory ending to the baby plot (tbf I'll only be satisfied if its revealed the kids not his). I'm intrigued

The only reason I don’t necessarily see this is because it’s sort of the same plot that’s running with Cain and then it will bring Moira back into him at some point to raise this kid. Like Cain is doing the doting single date routine to prove to Moira he can be reliable. He may be dating Harriet but she’s the clear second choice and the narrative has been super clear the reason he’s being there for Isaac is to address the bigger Coira issues. So would they really do that again? Have Robert be the doting single dad so Aaron can see how much he’s changed? I don’t know but it doesn’t feel like it works in this narrative like it does with Coira. That’s why I am baffled and intrigued. 

Again, I’ve said this so many times but they sort of tied themselves into knots in this story and I’m not quite sure why. They had Aaron have such an adverse reaction to the baby and then they made Robert do such extreme things to the Whites that them fridging Rebecca to just give Robron a baby seems hella wrong. It reminds me so much of Archie with Jai who they were never going to reward Jai for his vile behavior by giving him sole custody of Archie and fridging Rachel. It was just would have been so wrong, and this feels the same way entirely. You didn’t need to make Robert /this/ crazy and do so much damage to the Whites if we were to believe Robert was going to be raising the child. They could have had him do the Rug Tree Bonds thing and leave it at that, but no they went to such extreme lengths with his character. Plus inherently they’ve kept the narrative the Whites are the victims of Robert so why would he get their sole blood grandchild to raise and his husband back? Just because he’s finally decided to be a good person on his own. It just has fundamental flaws in the narrative. 

Just because it’s been brought up today I keep thinking about how Jimmy wound up with Carl and not the bio mother. They did the whole plot and had Nicola deliver him, then they even had Juliette name him Carl without her knowing about Carl King, had Nicola even kidnap Carl so Juliette couldn’t run away with him and when it was all said and done Juliette left with Carl for ages only to reappear and dump him on Jimmy. Like not only was Juliette not a real character they made a serious effort with Nicola and even the naming of him to hint that he would be back and be staying with the Kings. So it’s weird they cut the Jack bit about Seb and didn’t even pretend he was gonna be a Sugden and continue to have Aaron super far removed from the baby as a whole. He just, in general, feels like a White and he still doesn’t feel like something that fits with Robron’s future. 

So here we are again where the narrative is a mess. Most of the time it feels like we are stop-starting and almost stalling and repeating certain beats till we get to Christmas. It almost feels like at times that IM had a great vision for Robert’s character and wanted to do his own redemption arc for Robert that would culminate in this big episode that can’t really be done till the holidays, so we get stuck. You need to continue to create situations and things that both push and pull Robron back together. As he described it as two ends of elastic stretched to their limits but not breaking. Every time it looks like they might be pulling back together we need to stretch them back apart over and over again to bid our time.

That’s why Seb feels like such weird part of this because again it’s the thing that has been keeping them apart and yet they don’t appear to be doing anything to make that elastic come back together over him now that’s he’s here. Like, instead of having Robron grow closer and closer after the baby is born and maybe even have so moments where it appears Aaron is coming around to the baby they are bringing back Alex to show Aaron is ‘ready to move’ on or at least try. They are having Rebecca ghost at a crucial point in the narrative. So in the end, that doesn’t really work for them ending up with a baby in many ways because movement wouldn’t happen till after Rebecca may die and then we end up back where this whole ask started which is that it’s too similar to the story with Coira.

I don’t think the reunion happening in February if that’s when it is makes it more or less likely they end up with the baby. The story just has fundamental issues surrounding Seb, in my opinion, to end up this cut and dry. I’m just guessing the Christmas episode will tell us everything. Because IM loves big game changer episodes. He loves them for all the characters. He likes those moments. So I have no doubt so much will be answered on Christmas day and in the lead-up. But mostly, I can’t escape IM’s quotes about how good drama is knowing what the audience wants and giving that to them but not taking the easiest route from point A to B and the ones about how the reveal would tell us the direction of this story and satisfy our concerns and worries. Those fester in the back of my mind when you look at how much this story has tanked with not only the audience but also the press as well. And yes, dude is messy a lot but he generally means what he says and is pretty excellent at describing these big moments, so I just feel like till we reach the end none of this is gonna make sense. Like eventually we will look back on all of this and probably see the signs that were there and it will all be okay. 

Basically, what I am trying to say is we are back in our holding pattern and we can sit here as much as we want to try and solve for A but we can’t because we don’t have all the information needed in this equation to do that. So, we go around in circles, we drive ourselves a bit crazy and we all fall into bouts of negativity. We can’t let us get this down and we can’t let people like Eastie stress us out. We are just so close so we’ve gotta wait and see how this all plays out. This is like mile 23 of a marathon, our blisters have popped, we’ve run out music, we are slowly dying and don’t think we can make it but we can almost see the finish line. We can almost taste it. So just tell yourself to hold on because we can do this. Now we just have to trust our training (IM and the story team) that it will get us there all in one piece and with a time (ending) we can all be happy (okay) with. 

[ryanmeft]

My Favorite Films of 2018, part 1

Let’s make the introduction quick: these are my favorite films released in 2018. As always, the rules are simple: I don’t say they are the best or that you must agree, simply that I found them the most memorable. They are in completely random order, with no emphasis on one over another. Films released at festivals but not to the public in 2017 are counted as 2018, as are films that were not available in the United States. I apologize for not having the accents on certain people’s named; I don’t know how to reproduce them.  

 Many excellent films didn’t make the cut this year, and it was already difficult to narrow down my shortlist of 26 to 14. I had to stop there, as I could not bring myself to cut anymore. The list is in two parts this year to accommodate the additional length.

 Let’s get rolling.

Sorry To Bother You

While decent-but-ordinary films got lauded with undeserved reputations for being revolutionary, Boots Riley was quietly (okay…maybe not so quietly) sliding this biting, bizarre, hard-edged satire under the radar. Where most films have simple good guys and bad guys, Riley takes furious aim at everyone in sight. Black people are exploited by a white establishment. The hero only cares about his own advancement until he himself is taken advantage of. His girlfriend rails about purity but sells out almost immediately herself. A labor organizer is mostly doing it to get laid. The film is driven by Lakeith Stanfield, whose performance as a black telemarketer who finds tremendous success by kow-towing to his white bosses is a sterling and hilarious take on the classic everyman. Supporting roles from Danny Glover and Armie Hammer, in particular, contribute greatly. Nobody escapes unscathed, leaving the film with only one viewpoint: everybody in the world is a terrible hypocrite to one degree or another. Riley’s outspokenness didn’t help the film at major awards shows, but it likely would have been shafted anyway. Like other huge, overlooked critical hits, from Inside Llewyn Davis to Lucky, it is just too nihilistic to grab people’s attention.

Paddington 2

Iron Men and super spies are nice, but they can’t approach the sheer joy, creativity, adventure, humor and heart of the Paddington series, which started out great and got better with this sequel. All the cast you loved the first time around are back, but just like the Harry Potter franchise, it’s the new faces and what director Paul King and co-writer Simon Farnaby do with them that makes this one special. Most notable is Hugh Grant, who both honors and spoofs his own career reputation by playing a washed-up former celebrity who tries to frame Paddington to restore his lost lustre. Grant devours every one of his scenes, as he skips comically between costumes and disguises. Brendan Gleeson is one of those actors who is never unwelcome, and here he plays a tough-as-nails prison cook with a heart of gold. The movie gets as sweetly silly as turning an entire prison’s uniforms pink and as genuinely thrilling as a final train chase that is the most exciting action sequence of the year. The key to Paddington is that there’s not a cynical thing about him---his movies just consistently and unerringly deliver pure creative joy.

The Sisters Brothers

In recent years the western genre has moved hard towards social commentary. Jacques Audiard’s adaptation of a Patrick DeWitt novel, co-written with Thomas Bidegain, has such unconventional heroes that it takes aim at the traditional western strongman even when it isn’t trying to. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play a pair of mercenary brothers who are, respectively, too sensitive and too useless to have ever been stars in westerns of old. Jake Gyllenhaal is an eloquent bounty hunter and Riz Ahmed is the inventor they are all after. The wild west was definitely not a storied land of opportunity for all. The hired hands are out to kill Ahmed’s character because a powerful businessman feels entitled to his invention, and the film ends in greed, tragedy and brokenness rather than success. That’s not to say it has no trappings of the classics, as it may be the most beautiful western ever made; painstaking detail has gone into towns and saloon halls, while a wilderness stream lit up with a phosphorescent gold-finding chemical has a mesmerizing beauty. All these good looks serve to back up a dark comic story, and it is a highly effective contrast.

Capernaum

Nadine Labaki’s film about a 12-year-old boy in prison for striking back at his desperate poverty was criticized, in some circles, for not being bleaker than it is. Labaki and her team of writers, with a mostly non-professional cast, have painted a picture of life in the world’s slums that mostly foregoes easy drama in favor of being unblinkingly, ceaselessly blunt about the sheer offenses against human life that take place there. The focus of the film is Zain, named after the young actor Zain Al Rafeea, whose parents recklessly pop out kids despite barely being able to care for themselves. They enjoy themselves in a bed right next to the floor housing their seven children; in court, they insist that the existence of their kids is a burden on them. Zain ends up temporarily becoming a sort of custodian for a friend’s infant son, and we see three stops on a sad spectrum: the innocent baby unaware of life’s terrors, the broken boy he may become without help, and the adults that are the result of a life lived without hope. That the film’s bad guy, a human trafficker, is eventually foiled is not the catharsis it would be in a more multiplex-oriented movie, because we know there will just be another after him, and another, and another.

First Man

A bio-pic of a quiet man with no political message was never going to do well in the modern movie landscape, and that’s a shame. Ryan Gosling’s taciturn portrayal of Neil Armstrong is the fuel of a film that is not about the glory of space travel but about the risks and tolls it takes, all of which are recreated with bone-rattling immediacy. Damien Chazelle and Josh Singer ignore the political demands of the moment to portray one of our most important national figures exactly as he was: a reserved man more concerned with math than with press conferences, whose taciturn response to what he’d bring with him to the moon was “More fuel”. Yet what really sells the film is the time we spend in the various cockpits with Armstrong. Where Linus Sandgren could have gone for soaring vistas and patriotic imagery, he instead brings home the terror and uncertainly of space travel in a way that makes the stakes feel real and immediate. Chazelle eschews the need to see the past through the lens of the present, and an excellent movie results.

Annihilation

Some science fiction deals in lasers and spaceships. Some deals in thoughts and ideas. Alex Garland’s trippy sci-fi adventure, based on a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, is certainly the latter. A team of women, led by Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, enter a no-go zone where it seems the local scenery is slowly being eaten by alien vegetation. What they find there is up to the viewer to interpret, but Garland wisely decide to really let us think about it by pulling back on the horror and leaving much unexplained. The world inside the “Shimmer” is quiet and haunting, not packed with activity. When monsters do attack, it comes in small-scale, individualistic encounters, rather than wars between armies of CGi. It’s also notable that whereas a very specific kind of woman is often held up as an example of strong female characters, the women here are the opposite: ordinary people, more egghead than warrior, investigating rather than kicking ass; a movie that relegates Oscar Isaac to about 20 minutes of screen time certainly has the courage of its characters.

Roma

Another example of a film whose greatness is achieved specifically because it bucks the need to have a message or to conform to momentary fits of politics, Roma tells a simple story of a middle-class Mexican family in the 70’s and their working class servant. It commits numerous sins of modern cinema: the middle-class family is not seen as oppressors, the servant is not seen as a victim, nothing in the film is a veiled attack on systems of any kind or shape. Therein lies the beauty, captured perfectly by Yalitza Aparicio. She plays Cleo, the servant, and while the film is seen through her eyes---so that we witness only the snatches of family life she does---Alfonso Cuaron has never been given much to preaching, and that’s still true here, despite it being his most personal film. It’s also mournfully beautiful in black and white, with city houses shown as a tangle of balcony stairs and one-car garages, and an especially beautiful shot of woods on fire. The kind of film you think about for years after seeing it once, it’s also Cuaron’s most intimate accomplishment. Part 2: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/182988135292/my-favorite-films-of-2018-part-2

[userzara]

hey guys, it’s dani (-: i play elise too and this is my brand new child and i’m super stoked for them !! OKAY so this became longer than i thought it was going to be, practically their bio but the first two sections is background, it’s not until you get to ‘recent years/now’ that it’ll get to zara’s main point. um, right TWs: drugs, minor death. 

did i just see DUA LIPA walking down sixth street ?! oh, wait, it’s just ZARA SERAFIN, the 22 year old DEMIGIRL CASHIER/DEALER who has a reputation for being  SNARKY AND MANIPULATIVE but STREETSMART AND STEADFAST. let’s hope THEY/SHE prepared to take on the wild ride that is austin, texas. 

okay where do i begin, basically zara is inspired by alex vause as well as a variety of songs by phora ( check him out he’s great ) + an old character of mine that i never truly developed. so, to be frank, she’s a mess.com. i love her though, a lot and i’m going to try to break her down without writing an eight page essay mla format, so! here we go. 

BEFORE AUSTIN, TEXAS. 

zara comes from los angeles, california. the downtown area specifically, not the best area to grow up in but it was home and she never focused on how bad her city was doing because, for starters she only lived there until she was ten years old and the only thing on her mind is her friends. 

her parents divorced when she had turned eight years old, her dad wasn’t the best at commitment to his wife, he absolutely adored zara but settling down just hadn’t been his thing and he left. he kept in touch, briefly. at first, zara understood why he left, he was tired but he loved her so it was okay. but those calls slowly stopped happening until he stopped calling completely and she stopped waiting for them. it was one of the worst heartbreaks she’s faced. 

at ten years old, her mother remarried and they packed up everything to move to austin, texas with her new boyfriend that practically came out of nowhere. he wasn’t zara’s favorite person, in fact she felt betrayed and angry that he was now sitting where her dad used to sit and was taking over. her mother had two kids with this new guy and zara loves her siblings but she still holds a deep grudge for the guy who swept her mother up and ruined her life by moving to fucking texas. dramatic, sure but her friends were all in l.a and she had to start new. 

EARLY YEARS IN AUSTIN, TEXAS ( 10-18 ).

at first she didn’t want to make new friends, sulking became a thing. zara was supposed to loathe this place in hopes that if they didn’t make any friends they’ll pack up and move back to los angeles where she belongs. spoiler alert: that never happened and it dawned on her that this is her life now 

middle school approached and she knew she couldn’t face these coming years alone. it was hell, appearances were something they couldn’t give a shit about, sticking solely to wearing a signature black hoodie all the time, heavy eyeliner in attempt to make herself look tough but instead it got the label ‘basketcase’ stuck on her aka those mean blonde texas girls with the drawls and ‘my momma says…’ etc lmao.

POINT IS, near the end of sixth grade she got into fight with the girl who tried to torment her, finally snapping they fought in the quad of the school and zara let out of suppressed emotions and kicked her ass in front of everyone until they were pulled apart and she felt pleased as heck when she saw she made Beauty Pageant bleeding because good, that’ll teach her to stop running her mouth 

this caught the attention of what teachers like to call the ‘troubled’ kids. when zara came back from her three day suspension (and did she get a yelling at home oh boy) they took her under their wing, zara’s already average grades started dropping by influence, she soon adopted some of their characteristics and mannerisms, forging herself into something she wasn’t seeking their approval because holy fuck these people were great. hanging out every friday at the movie theaters, loitering at the ages of thirteen/fourteen in the streets feeling like kings of the city, it became addicting 

eventually this group formed into some of the ‘popular’ kids, no not the prom king and queen type of thing but they had a name for themselves. especially in HIGH SCHOOL. things started to get heavier, hanging out at the movie theaters turned into going to ragers, to trying weed for the first time, alcohol and zara fucking loved feeling rebellious and indulging in this new-found freedom. her first kiss was a drunk one and she wouldn’t be able to tell you who it was because she doesn’t remember, she just needed her first kiss because everyone was kissing everyone 

her home life didn’t get any better. she started to come home later or the next day. her grades were shit but zara didn’t care. 

soon enough weed turned to lsd. sophomore year became the year she lost her virginity to a guy that was feeling her up at a party, she didn’t care for him, she wasn’t attracted to him but all her friends were non-virgins and so she had to be too. she didn’t give a fuck with who only that it would be over quick and onto the next one. still, the first time left her feeling…weird. they didn’t enjoy it but, she thought it had to be done. not the best mentality to have. 

zara starter ditching school, making new friends with people they met at parties, picking them down the street from their high school. they had drugs, they held the key to a good time. these were…bad people for her. dealers that lured her into their world of easy cash and a fucking good time. they knew they were attractive, still growing into their body and they knew they could munch off of them. most of this was junior year and it’s still a shock her grades kept her in school. 

senior year they hardly showed up. senior year she saw someone die before her. it was one of the guys that provided whatever drug or bottle of alcohol she needed and it was an accident witnessing it. at this rate, zara went days without going home and they were on their way to the semi empty gas station for a drink before finally going home when she saw her friend through the window across the street and, it was a deal gone wrong and a gunshot broke through the chilly night causing her to drop her orange gatorade and spilling it all over the floor before she ran out of the store across the street and, well it didn’t really leave her the same. 

somehow she managed to graduate high school but barely. she felt lost but still indulged herself in bad habits throughout that last year, still free-loading off others, tricking people into doing stuff for her. sleeping with whoever the hell she wanted to fuck. just throwing herself into whatever she could. 

RECENT YEARS/NOW ( 19-22 ) 

at nineteen she was still lost, she didn’t know what she wanted to do. school was out of the question, she hated work but still did odd jobs, for a while they worked at a laundromat, taking care after the place. she still went to parties/clubs, snuck into bars. flirted with all the pretty faces and put on her faux personality. tbh zara is a goddamn two-face. 

ANYWAYS at nineteen she got caught with a gram of heroin by the police. the authorities were called when a party had started getting out of control and they arrested as many people as they could, among them: zara. charged guilty of drug possession, and since her parents couldn’t pay bail, she ended up doing 2 years of prison. two long years in the slammer. 

that was something. it didn’t hit zara that her life choices had her end up in prison until her first night in the women’s ward.  she didn’t cry until she was locked in a bathroom stall and that was the only time. those were the longest days of her life. she met people in there, good and bad. avoided getting into brawls and picked up a book here and there. in my head she had a relationship with someone in there, but not really? frequent fwbs, exclusive. zara doesn’t label shit, she gets bored and, just like her first time, on to the next. honestly help her.

NOW TWENTY-TWO and her parents aren’t welcoming her back. she isn’t allowed to see her siblings, her family hadn’t visited her at all during those two years. her mother only came once but it was short since she couldn’t beat the fact that her baby was in prison, blaming herself and asking where she went wrong in raising her. 

thankfully she had one single friend ( since i have a feeling not a lot of people kept in touch with her after she got arrested; connections anyone ?? and also connection for that ONE friend ) who hooked her up with a job to get her back on her feet but old habits die hard, working at a gas station just isn’t cutting it and is currently getting into the dealing game with her old contacts. 

in my head it’s been like, two weeks since she’s been out. back in the city and ready for Drama. 

SO YEAH THIS IS IT, WOW THAT WAS LONG IM SORRY !! wow i realized i haven’t really incorporated the alex vause thing apart from being in prison but personality wise i mean yeah, anyway !! hmu for those plots please and thank you !! or like this and i’ll come sliding into your ims !! (-: 

[newsfundastuff]

Updated May 30 at 1:46 pm PT with “Abby’s,” “The Enemy Within” and “The Village” canceled at NBC.Upfronts have come and gone, and that means broadcast networks have (for the most part) set their 2019-20 slates after ordering new series and winnowing down which current shows will return next season and which will come to an end.Below is every scripted (and a few unscripted) show that ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and The CW have renewed or canceled so far, along with those still awaiting their fates for the 2019-20 slate. We’ve also included descriptions of the new shows that have been ordered.Check back regularly for updates. Readers can find our pilot guide, which includes all the new projects that were in the running this season, here.Also Read: 21 Lowest-Rated Broadcast TV Shows of 2018-19 Season (Photos)NBC Renewed Series: “The Blacklist,” “Blindspot” (for fifth and final season), “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago P.D.,” “Ellen’s Game of Games,” “Good Girls,” “The Good Place,”  “Law & Order: SVU,” “Manifest,” “New Amsterdam,” “Superstore,” “This Is Us” (for Seasons 4, 5 and 6), “Will & Grace”Canceled/Ending Series: “Abby’s,” “A.P. Bio,” “The Enemy Within,” “I Feel Bad,” “Marlon,” “Midnight, Texas,” “Reverie,” “Trial & Error,” “The Village”Series Awaiting Decisions: N/ASeries That Have Yet to Premiere This Season: “The InBetween” (new series)Newly Ordered Series: “Bluff City Law,” “Council of Dads,” “Indebted,” “The Kenan Show,” “Lincoln,” “Perfect Harmony,” “Sunnyside,” “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”Also Read: 14 Highest-Rated Broadcast TV Shows of the 2018-19 Season (Photos)Here are the official descriptions for the new 2019-20 NBC shows:DRAMASBLUFF CITY LAW Coming from a famous Memphis family known for taking on injustice, brilliant lawyer Sydney Strait used to work at her father Elijah’s celebrated law firm until their tumultuous relationship got in the way. After barely speaking to him for years, Sydney is suddenly thrust back into the family fold when her philanthropist mother passes away unexpectedly. In the wake of her loss, hoping to reconnect with the daughter he loves, Elijah asks Sydney to rejoin his firm. She agrees because despite her lingering resentment and distrust, she knows that working alongside her father is her best hope at changing the world … if they can ever get along. Cast: Jimmy Smits, Caitlin McGee, Scott Shepherd, Barry Sloane, Michael Luwoye, MaameYaa Boafo, Stony Blyden and Jayne Atkinson. Writer: Dean Georgaris Producer(s): Dean Georgaris, David Janollari, Michael Aguliar Studio: Universal TelevisionCOUNCIL OF DADS When Scott, a loving father of four, has his entire life’s plan thrown into upheaval by a cancer diagnosis, he calls on a few of his closest allies to step in as back-up dads for every stage of his growing family’s life. Scott assembles a trusted group of role models that includes Anthony, his oldest friend; Larry, his AA sponsor; and Oliver, his surgeon and best friend to his wife, Robin. These men agree to devote themselves to supporting and guiding Scott’s amazing family through all the triumphs and challenges life has to offer – just in case he ever can’t be there to do so himself. Cast: Sarah Wayne Callies, Clive Standen, Tom Everett Scott, J. August Richards, Blue Chapman, Emjay Anthony, Michele Weaver, Thalia Tran, Steven Silver, Michael O’Neill Writers: Tony Phelan & Joan Rater Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed, James Oh, Bruce Feiler Studio: Universal TelevisionLINCOLN Inspired by the best-selling book “The Bone Collector,” former NYPD detective and forensic genius Lincoln Rhyme was at the top of his game until a serious accident at the hands of a notorious serial killer forces him out of the field. When Amelia Sachs, an intuitive young officer who’s got her own gift for profiling finds herself hot on the killer’s trail, Rhyme in turn finds a partner for this new game of cat and mouse. As the unlikely detective duo joins forces to crack the city’s most confounding cases, they must also race to take down the enigmatic “Bone Collector” who brought them together. Cast: Russell Hornsby, Arielle Kebbel, Brían F. O’Byrne, Tate Ellington, Courtney Grosbeck, Ramses Jimenez, Brooke Lyons, Roslyn Ruff and Michael Imperioli Writer(s): VJ Boyd and Mark Bianculli Producer(s): VJ Boyd, Mark Bianculli, Seth Gordon, Avi Nir, Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan Director: Seth Gordon (pilot) Studio(s): Universal Television and Sony Pictures Television in association with Keshet StudiosZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST In this joyous and celebratory drama, Zoey Clarke is a whip-smart computer coder forging her way in San Francisco. After an unusual event she starts to hear the innermost wants and desires of the people around her through songs. At first, she questions her own sanity but soon realizes this unwanted curse may just be an incredibly wonderful gift. Cast: Jane Levy, Skylar Astin, Peter Gallagher, Alex Newell, John Clarence Stewart, Carmen Cusack and Mary Steenburgen. Writer: Austin Winsberg Producer(s): Richard Shepard, Paul Feig, Jessie Henderson, Kim Tannenbaum, Eric Tannenbaum, David Blackman, Daniel Inkeles Studio: Lionsgate TelevisionCOMEDIESINDEBTED Young parents Dave and Rebecca are ready to reclaim their life after years of diapers and sleepless nights. However, things take an unexpected turn when Dave’s parents show up unannounced and broke, leaving Dave with no choice but to open the door to the people who gave him everything. But these boomerang parents aren’t great with boundaries and the question of who’s parenting who quickly become blurred in this multi-generational comedy starring Fran Drescher and Adam Pally as mother and son. Cast: Adam Pally, Abby Elliott, Steven Weber and Fran Drescher. Writer(s): Dan Levy Producer(s): Dan Levy, Doug Robinson Studio(s): Sony Pictures Television in association with Doug Robinson ProductionsTHE KENAN SHOW In this family comedy, Kenan Thompson strives to be a super dad to his two adorable girls while simultaneously balancing his job and a father-in-law who “helps” in the most inappropriate ways. Cast: Kenan Thompson, Punam Patel, Dani Lockett, Dannah Lockett and Andy Garcia. Writer(s): Jackie Clarke Producer(s): Jackie Clarke, Chris Rock, Kenan Thompson, Lorne Michaels and Andrew Singer Director(s): Chris Rock Studio(s): Universal Television in association with Broadway Video.PERFECT HARMONY Bradley Whitford stars in this comedy about finding inspiration in the most unlikely places. When former Princeton music professor Arthur Cochran unexpectedly stumbles into choir practice at a small-town church, he finds a group of singers that are out of tune in more ways than one. Despite the ultimate clash of sensibilities, Arthur and his newfound cohorts may just be the perfect mix of individuals to help each other reinvent and rediscover a little happiness, just when they all need it most. Cast: Bradley Whitford, Anna Camp, Tymberlee Hill, Rizwan Manji, Will Greenberg, Geno Segers and Spencer Allport. Writer(s): Lesley Wake Webster Producer(s): Lesley Wake Webster, Jason Winer, Bradley Whitford, Adam Anders and Jon Radler Director: Jason Winer (pilot) Studio(s): 20th Century Fox Television and Small Dog Picture CompanySUNNYSIDE Garrett Modi was living the American Dream. As the youngest New York City Councilman ever, he was rubbing elbows with the political elite, attending star-studded parties and was the pride of Queens. But instead of spending his time in office helping the people that got him elected, he lost his way amidst the power and glamour of politics. When his downward spiral got him busted for public intoxication (and downright stupidity), it was all caught on tape and ended his career. Now, Garrett’s crashing with his sister, Mallory, and wondering where it all went wrong. That is, until he’s hired by a diverse group of hopefuls who dream of becoming American citizens and believe he can help – giving him a new sense of purpose and a chance for redemption, as long as he remembers where he came from. (Single camera) Cast: Kal Penn, Kiran Deol, Moses Storm, Diana Maria Riva, Joel Kim Booster, Samba Schutte, Poppy Liu Writer(s): Kal Penn, Matt Murray Producer(s): Kal Penn, Matt Murray, Michael Schur, David Miner, Dan Spilo Studio: Universal TelevisionAlso Read: TV Renewals and Cancellations: 6 Broadcast Shows We're Still Awaiting Decisions on for the 2019-20 SeasonCBS Renewed Series: “Blue Bloods,” “Bull,” “Criminal Minds” (for 15th and final season), “FBI,” “God Friended Me,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “MacGyver,” “Madam Secretary,” “Magnum P.I.,” “Man With a Plan,” “Mom” (for Seasons 7 and 8), “NCIS,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” “The Neighborhood,” “SEAL Team,” “S.W.A.T.,” “Young Sheldon” (for Seasons 3 and 4)Canceled/Ending Series: “The Big Bang Theory,” “Elementary,” “Fam,” “Happy Together,” “Life in Pieces,” “Murphy Brown,” “Salvation”Series Awaiting Decisions: “The Code,” “Ransom”Series That Have Yet to Premiere This Season: “Blood & Treasure” (new series), “Instinct” (returning series)Newly Ordered Series: “All Rise,” “Bob Hearts Abishola,” “Broke,” “Carol’s Second Act,” “Evil,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Tommy,” “The Unicorn”Here are the official descriptions for the new 2019-20 CBS shows:DRAMASALL RISE A drama that follows the dedicated, chaotic, hopeful, and sometimes absurd lives of judges, prosecutors, and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks and cops to get justice for the people of Los Angeles amidst a flawed legal system. Cast: Simone Missick, Wilson Bethel, Jessica Camacho, Marg Helgenberger, J. Alex Brinson, Lindsay Mendez, Ruthie Ann Miles Writer(s): Greg Spottiswood Producer(s): Greg Spottiswood, Len Goldstein, Mike Robin Director(s): Mike Robin Studio: Warner Bros. Television in association with CBS Television StudiosEVIL A psychological mystery that examines science vs. religion and the origins of evil. The series focuses on a skeptical female forensic psychologist who joins a priest-in-training and a carpenter to investigate and assess the Church’s backlog of supposed miracles, demonic possessions and unexplained phenomena. Cast: Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Emerson, Brooklyn Shuck, Skylar Gray, Maddy Crocco, Dalya Knapp Writers(s): Michelle King & Robert King Producer(s): Michelle King, Robert King, Liz Glotzer Director(s): Robert King Studio: CBS Television StudiosFBI: MOST WANTED Series centered on the Fugitive Task Force of the FBI that tracks and captures the notorious criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Cast: Julian McMahon, Alana de la Garza, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Kellan Lutz, Roxy Sternberg, Nathaniel Arcand Writer(s): Dick Wolf, Rene Balcer Producer(s): Dick Wolf, Rene Balcer, Arthur W. Forney, Peter Jankowski Director(s): Fred Berner Studio(s): Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television in association with CBS Television StudiosTOMMY Writer(s): Paul Attanasio Producer(s): Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey Director(s): Kate Dennis (pilot only) Studio: CBS Television Studios Logline: When a former high-ranking NYPD officer becomes the first female Chief of Police for Los Angeles, she uses her unflinching honesty and hardball tactics to navigate the social, political, and national security issues that converge with enforcing the law. Cast: Edie Falco, Michael Chernus, Adelaide Clemens, Russel G. Jones, Olivia Lucy Phillip, David Fierro, Joseph Lyle TaylorCOMEDIESBOB HEARTS ABISHOLA After having a heart attack, a middle-aged sock businessman from Detroit unexpectedly falls for his cardiac nurse, a Nigerian immigrant, and sets his sights on getting her to give him a chance. (Multi camera) Cast: Billy Gardell, Folake Olowofoyeku, Christine Ebersole, Matt Jones, Maribeth Monroe, Shola Adewusi, Barry Shabaka Henley, Travis Wolfe, Jr. Writer(s): Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky, Al Higgins, Gina Yashere Producer(s): Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky, Al Higgins, Beth McCarthy Miller Director(s): Beth McCarthy Miller (pilot only) Studio: Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc. in association with Warner Bros. TelevisionBROKE When an outrageously wealthy trust fund baby is cut off by his father, he and his wife move into her estranged sister’s Reseda home, forcing the two siblings to reconnect. (Multi camera) Cast: Jaime Camil, Pauley Perrette, Natasha Leggero, Izzy Diaz, Antonio Corbo Writer(s): Alex Herschlag Producer(s): Alex Herschlag, Jennie Snyder Urman, Joanna Klein, Ben Silverman, Jaime Camil, Guillermo Restrepo, Gonzalo Cilley and Maria Lucia Hernandez (RCN TV and Resonant TV) Director: Victor Gonzalez Studio: CBS Television Studios/Sutton Street Prods./Propagate, with creative partners RCN TV and Resonant TVCAROL’S SECOND ACT After raising her two children and retiring from teaching, Carol Chambers embarks on a unique second act: pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor. (Multi camera) Cast: Patricia Heaton, Kyle MacLachlan, Ito Aghayere, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Sabrina Jalees Writer(s): Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins Producer(s): Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Patricia Heaton, Adam Griffin, David Hunt and Rebecca Stay (Four Boys Entertainment); Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor (Kapital Entertainment), Pamela Fryman Director(s): Pamela Fryman (pilot only) Studio: CBS Television StudiosTHE UNICORN A tight-knit group of friends and family help a widower move on following the most difficult year of his life, which includes being an ill-equipped but devoted single parent to his two daughters, and taking the major step of dating where, to his shock, he’s a hot commodity. (Single camera) Cast: Walton Goggins, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Omar Benson Miller, Maya Lynne Robinson, Ruby Jay, Makenzie Moss Writer(s): Bill Martin, Mike Schiff Producer(s): Bill Martin, Mike Schiff, Aaron Kaplan, Dana Honor (Kapital Entertainment), Wendi Trilling, Peyton Reed, John Hamburg Director(s): John Hamburg (pilot only) Studio: CBS Television StudiosABC Renewed Series: “A Million Little Things,” “American Housewife,” “black-ish,” “Bless This Mess,” “The Conners,” “Fresh Off the Boat,” “The Goldbergs,” “The Good Doctor,” “Grey’s Anatomy” (for Seasons 16 and 17), “How to Get Away With Murder,” “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Modern Family” (for 11th and final season), “The Rookie,” “Schooled,” “Single Parents,” “Station 19”Canceled/Ending Series:  “For the People,” “The Fix,” “The Kids Are Alright,” “Splitting Up Together,” “Speechless,” “Take Two,” “Whiskey Cavalier”Series Awaiting Decisions: N/A Series That Have Yet to Premiere This Season: “Grand Hotel” (new series)Newly Ordered Series: “The Baker & The Beauty,” “Emergence,” “For Life,” “Mixed-ish,” “Stumptown,” “United We Fall”Here are the official descriptions for the new 2019-20 ABC shows:DRAMASTHE BAKER AND THE BEAUTY Daniel Garcia is working in the family bakery and doing everything that his loving Cuban parents and siblings expect him to do. But on a wild Miami night he meets Noa Hamilton, an international superstar and fashion mogul, and his life moves into the spotlight. Will this unlikely couple upend their lives to be together and pull their families into a culture clash? Writer(s): Dean Georgaris Producer(s): Dean Georgaris, Becky Hartman Edwards, David Frankel Director: David Frankel (pilot) Studio(s): Universal Television and ABC Studios in association with Keshet StudiosEMERGENCE A character-driven genre thriller that centers around a police chief who takes in a young child that she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what has happened. The investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined, and the child’s identity is at the center of it all. Cast: Allison Tolman, Alexa Swinton, Owain Yeoman, Ashley Aufderheide, Robert Bailey Jr, Zabryna Guevara, Donald Faison, Clancy Brown Writer(s): Michele Fazekas, Tara Butters Producer(s): Michele Fazekas, Tara Butters, Paul McGuigan Director: Paul McGuigan Studio: ABC StudiosFOR LIFE A fictional serialized legal and family drama inspired by the life of Isaac Wright, Jr. about a prisoner who becomes a lawyer, litigating cases for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. His quest for freedom is driven by his desperate desire to get back to the family he loves and reclaim the life that was stolen from him. The show will also, through the window of his ferocious struggle and his complicated relationship with a progressive female prison warden, examine the flaws and challenges in our penal and legal systems. Cast: Nicholas Pinnock, Indira Varma, Joy Bryant, Glenn Fleshler, Dorian Missick, Tyla Harris, Mary Stuart Masterson and Boris McGiver. Producer(s): Hank Steinberg, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Doug Robinson, Alison Greenspan, Isaac Wright, Jr., George Tillman, Jr Director: George Tillman, Jr (pilot) Studio(s): Sony Pictures Television Inc. and ABC StudiosSTUMPTOWN Based on the “Stumptown” graphic novel series, the drama follows Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders) as a strong, assertive, and sharp-witted army veteran with a complicated love life, gambling debt, and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon. Her military intelligence skills make her a great P.I., but her unapologetic style puts her in the firing line of hardcore criminals and not quite in alliance with the police. Cast: Cobie Smulders, Tantoo Cardinal, Cole Sibus, Adrian Martinez, Camryn Manheim, Michael Ealy Writer: Jason Richman Producers: Ruben Fleischer, David Bernad, Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, Justin Greenwood Director: James Griffiths Studio: ABC StudiosCOMEDIESMIXED-ISH “Black-ish” prequel series “Mixed-ish” is set in the 1980s and stars Arica Himmel as a young version of Rainbow Johnson, the character played by Tracee Ellis Ross in the flagship comedy. The show will see Rainbow Johnson recount “her experience growing up in a mixed-race family in the ’80s and the constant dilemmas they had to face over whether to assimilate or stay true to themselves. Bow’s parents Paul and Alicia decide to move from a hippie commune to the suburbs to better provide for their family. As her parents struggle with the challenges of their new life, Bow and her siblings navigate a mainstream school in which they’re perceived as neither black nor white. This family’s experiences illuminate the challenges of finding one’s own identity when the rest of the world can’t decide where you belong.” (Single camera) Cast: Arica Himmel, Tika Sumpter, Christina Anthony, Mykal-Michelle Harris and Ethan Childress Writer(s): Peter Saji, Kenya Barris Producer(s): Peter Saji, Kenya Barris, Tracee Ellis Ross, Randall Winston, Brian Dobbins, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland and Anthony Anderson. Studio: ABC StudiosUNITED WE FALL A profoundly realistic family sitcom that follows the trials and tribulations of Jo (Christina Vidal) and Bill (Will Sasso), parents of two young kids, as they try to make it day-to-day as a functioning family. Bill’s very judgmental live-in mother (Emmy-winner Jane Curtin) and Jo’s large Latinx Catholic family will never hesitate to let our couple know they’re seemingly screwing up, but Bill and Jo will always have each other’s backs, united against everyone – other parents, teachers, doctors, specialists, coaches, co-workers, and especially their kids. (Multi camera) Cast: Will Sasso, Christina Vidal, Jane Curtin, and Ella Grace Helton. Writer(s): Julius “Goldy” Sharpe Producer(s): Julius “Goldy” Sharpe, Seth Gordon and Julia Gunn Director: Mark Cendrowski (pilot) Studio(s): Sony Pictures Television, Exhibit A Film and ABC StudiosFoxFox Renewed Series: “9-1-1,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “Empire,” “Family Guy,” “Last Man Standing,” “The Masked Singer,” “The Orville,” “The Resident,” “The Simpsons” (for Seasons 31 and 32)Canceled/Ending Series: “The Cool Kids,” “The Gifted,” “Gotham,” “Lethal Weapon,” “The Passage,” “Proven Innocent,” “Rel,” “Star”Newly Ordered Series: “9-1-1: Lone Star,” “Bless the Harts,” “Deputy,” “Duncanville,” “Filthy Rich,” “The Great North,” “neXt,” “Not Just Me,” “Outmatched,” “Prodigal Son”Here are the official descriptions for the new 2019-20 Fox shows:DRAMAS9-1-1: LONE STAR From “9-1-1” co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, “9-1-1: Lone Star” follows a sophisticated New York cop (Rob Lowe) who, along with his son, re-locates to Austin, and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life. Cast: Rob Lowe Producer(s): Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Tim Minear, Rob Lowe Studios(s): 20th Century Fox Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television and Brad Falchuk Teley-VisionDEPUTY A modern cop drama that blends the spirit of a classic Western with a modern-day attitude and gritty authenticity. When the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff dies, an arcane rule forged back in the Wild West thrusts the most unlikely man into the job: a fifth-generation lawman, more comfortable taking down bad guys than navigating a sea of politics. He leads a skilled team of ambitious and complicated human beings who won’t rest until justice is served. Cast: Stephen Dorff, Yara Martinez, Brian Van Holt, Siena Goines, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Shane Paul McGhie, Mark Moses Writer(s): Will Beall Producer(s): Will Beall, David Ayer, Chris Long, Barry Schindel Director(s): David Ayer Production company: Cedar Park Studio(s): eOne, Fox EntertainmentFILTHY RICH When the patriarch of a mega-rich Southern family, famed for creating a wildly successful Christian television network, dies in a plane crash, his wife and family are stunned to learn that he fathered three illegitimate children, all of whom are written into his will, threatening their family name and fortune. With monumental twists and turns, “Filthy Rich” presents a world in which everyone has an ulterior motive – and no one is going down without a fight. Cast: Kim Cattrall, Gerald McRaney, Aubrey Dollar, Benjamin Levy Aguilar, Corey Cott, Mark L. Young, Steve Harris, Melia Kreiling, David Denman, Olivia Macklin Writer/Director: Tate Taylor Producer(s): Tate Taylor, Brian Grazer, Francie Calfo, John Norris Studio: 20th Century Fox Television, Fox Entertainment, Imagine EntertainmentNEXT A propulsive, fact-based thriller about the emergence of a deadly, rogue artificial intelligence that combines pulse-pounding action with a layered examination of how technology is invading our lives and transforming us in ways we don’t yet understand. A Silicon Valley pioneer discovers that one of his own creations – a powerful A.I. – might spell global catastrophe, and teams up with a cybercrime agent to fight a villain unlike anything we’ve ever seen – one whose greatest weapon against us is ourselves. Cast: John Slattery, Fernanda Andrade, Michael Mosley, Jason Butler Harner, Eve Harlowe, Aaron Moten, Gerardo Celasco, Elizabeth Cappucino, Evan Whitten Writer(s): Manny Coto Producer(s): Manny Coto, Charlie Gogolak, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra Director(s): John Requa, Glenn Ficarra Studio(s): 20th Century Fox Television/Zaftig Films, Fox EntertainmentNOT JUST ME A story of an unusual family formed through extreme odds, exploring such hot-button issues as identity, human connection and what it truly means to be a family. An only child finds her life turned upside down when her father reveals that, over the course of his prize-winning career as a pioneering fertility doctor, he used his own sperm to conceive upwards of a hundred children, including two new sisters. As these three young women slowly embrace their new reality, they will attempt to form an untraditional bond as sisters, even as they must welcome a tidal wave of new siblings into their rapidly expanding family. Based on the original Endemol Shine Australia series, “Sisters,” from Jonathan Gavin and Imogen Banks. Cast: Brittany Snow, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Emily Osment, Mustafa Elzein, Mo McRae, Victoria Cartagena, Timothy Hutton Writer(s): Annie Weisman Producer(s): Annie Weisman, Jason Katims, Jeni Mulein, Imogen Banks, Sharon Levy, Lesyle Headland Director(s): Leslye Headland (pilot) Studio(s): Universal Television in association with Endemol Shine North America, Fox EntertainmentPRODIGAL SON A fresh take on a crime franchise with a provocative and outrageous lead character and a darkly comedic tone. Malcolm Bright knows how killers think. Why? His father was one of the best, a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon.” That’s why Bright is the best criminal psychologist around; murder is the family business. He uses his twisted genius to help the NYPD solve crimes, while dealing with a somewhat manipulative mother, an annoyingly normal sister, a homicidal father still looking to bond with his prodigal son and his own constantly evolving neuroses. Cast: Tom Payne, Michael Sheen, Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips, Halston Sage, Aurora Perrineau, Frank Harts, Keiko Agena Writer(s): Chris Fedak, Sam Sklaver Producer(s): Chris Fedak, Sam Sklaver, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Lee Toland Krieger Director(s): Lee Toland Krieger Studio(s): Warner Bros. Television, Berlanti Productions, Fox EntertainmentCOMEDIESBLESS THE HARTS Follows a group of Southerners who are always broke as a joke, and struggling for the American dream of status and wealth. What they don’t realize is that they’re already rich, in friends, family and laughter. (Animated) Cast: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Jillian Bell, Ike Barinholtz Writer(s): Emily Spivey Producer(s): Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Seth Cohen, Kristen Wiig Studio(s): 20th Century Fox Television, Fox EntertainmentDUNCANVILLE Follows Duncan, a spectacularly average 15-year-old boy, along with his friends and family. His high-strung mom, Annie, constantly is trying to prevent her son from ruining his life. (Animated) Cast: Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Wiz Khalifa Writer(s): Mike Scully and Julie Scully Producer(s): Amy Poehler, Dave Becky, Ty Burrell Studio(s): 20th Century Fox Television, Universal Television, Fox EntertainmentTHE GREAT NORTH Follows the Alaskan adventures of the Tobin family as single dad Beef does his best to keep his weird bunch of kids close, especially as the artistic dreams of his only daughter Judy lead her away from the family fishing boat and into the glamorous world of the local mall. (Animated) Cast: Nick Offerman, Jenny Slate, Megan Mullally, Paul Rust, Aparna Nancherla, Will Forte, Dulcé Sloan Writer(s): Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux, Minty Lewis Producer(s): Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux, Minty Lewis, Loren Bouchard Studio(s): 20th Century Fox Television, Fox EntertainmentOUTMATCHED A family comedy about a blue-collar couple in South Jersey trying to get by and raise four kids, three of whom just happen to be certified geniuses. (Multi Camera) Cast: Jason Biggs, Maggie Lawson, Connor Kalopsis, Ashley Boettcher, Jack Stanton, Oakley Bull, Tisha Campbell-Martin Writer(s): Lon Zimmet Producer(s): Lon Zimmet Director(s): Jonathan Judge Studio(s): 20th Century Fox Television, Fox EntertainmentThe CW Renewed Series: “The 100,” “All American,” “Arrow” (eighth and final season), “Black Lightning,” “Burden of Truth,” “Charmed,” “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Dynasty,” “The Flash,” “In the Dark,” “Legacies,” “The Outpost,” “Riverdale,” “Roswell, New Mexico,” “Supergirl,” “Supernatural” (15th and final season)Canceled/Ending Series: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Jane the Virgin,” “iZombie”Series Awaiting Decisions: N/ANewly Ordered Series: “Batwoman,” “Katy Keene,” “Nancy Drew”Here are the descriptions for the new 2019-20 CW shows:DRAMASBATWOMAN Follows Kate Kane, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter who soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, primed to snuff out the failing city’s criminal resurgence. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope. Cast: Ruby Rose, Camrus Johnson, Meagan Tandy, Nicole Kang, Dougray Scott, Elizabeth Anweis, Rachel Skarsten Writer(s): Caroline Dries Producer(s): Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Geoff Johns Director: Marcos Siega Studio: Warner Bros. TelevisionKATY KEENE A “Riverdale” spinoff, “Katy Keene” follows the lives and loves of four iconic Archie Comics characters — including fashion legend-to-be Katy Keene — as they chase their twenty-something dreams in New York City. This musical dramedy chronicles the origins and struggles of four aspiring artists trying to make it on Broadway, on the runway and in the recording studio. Cast: Lucy Hale, Ashleigh Murray, Jonny Beauchamp, Julia Chan, Camille Hyde, Lucien Laviscount Writer(s): Robert Aguirre-Sacasa, Michael Grassi Producer(s): Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Jon Goldwater Studio: Warner Bros. TelevisionNANCY DREW Follows 18-year-old Nancy Drew in the summer after her high school graduation. She thought she’d be leaving her hometown for college, but when a family tragedy holds her back another year, she finds herself embroiled in a ghostly murder investigation — and along the way, uncovers secrets that run deeper than she ever imagined. Cast: Kennedy McMann, Leah Lewis, Tunji Kasim, Maddison Jaizani, Alex Saxon, Scott Wolf, Alvina August Writer(s): Noga Landau, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage Producer(s): Lis Rowinski, Melinda Hsu Taylor Director: Larry Teng Studio: CBS Television StudiosRead original story Fall TV 2019: Every Broadcast Show Canceled, Renewed and Ordered So Far (Updating) At TheWrap

https://yhoo.it/2VU89Yo

[fanfics4all]

Who the Hell?

Request: Yes / No I know this might sound super cliche, so I’d understand if you choose not to write this, but can you please do #23 and/or #24 with either Barry or Oliver and a female!reader. Again, I will fully understand if you don’t want to do this since it’s been done, but I’d love to see your take on it. Regardless, I’ve been loving the fics you’ve been posting lately (and all your previous ones of course!) 💕💕 Anon

Request are closed <3 Have a nice day/night

Oliver Queen x Fem!Reader

Word count: 1656

Warnings: Oliver getting hurt

Y/N: Your Name

PLEASE DO NOT STEAL MY WORK, I WORK HARD ON MY FICS AND IT’S NOT COOL TO STEAL SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK!

If you want to be on the tag list for anything (My series fics, specific character fics, or just all of them) All you have to do is send me an ask and I will add you!

Masterlist

(Not my photo, credit to whoever made it!)

When I was in school they told us about soulmates. They told us about what soulmates were, and how they worked. So we would get the same injuries as the other person. So when you’re a kid it’s normal stuff like scraped knees or a random bruise here or there, but when you get older they could be more serious. Especially now with Metahumans running around.

As I was growing up I didn’t get many injuries from my soulmate. The most I got was a bruise once in a while. That was until 2007. I got so many injuries over the next five years that I was worried if my soulmate was still alive! My friends and family were just as worried, they thought my soulmate was going to kill me and there was nothing anyone could do. I was just trying to live a normal life in this crazy world and my soulmate was making that hard to do. I was in and out of the hospital, thank god my insurance was amazing. I worked at Queen Consolidated with my best friend Felicity Smoak. She was one of the many people that was worried about what my Soulmate was going through, I was just happy I could hide the scars. Besides, I was still alive so they were as well. Lucky for me my soulmate must have been safe because I haven’t gotten any injuries for a few weeks.

“Did you hear Oliver Queen is alive?” Felicity said the second I walked into our office.

“I did, I also heard his father is dead. It’s weird that his mother is still alive though, I thought when your soulmate dies you also die?” I said confused and sat down at my desk.

“Not everyone lives by the whole soulmate thing Y/N.” She said and I shrugged.

“I don’t see why not, they’re your soulmate for a reason right?” I said and she nodded.

“Trust me, I’m with you, and I’m sure you want to meet yours since they pretty much put you through hell.” She said and I nodded.

“You bet I do! What the hell could they be doing that they get hurt so much! I’m so happy our healthcare is amazing.” I said and she laughed.

“I know, maybe they’re a spy or something.” She said and I raised an eyebrow at her.

“They must be a shitty spy then.” I said and she laughed again.

It’s been a couple of days and I was back to getting injuries. Luckily not as bad as they have been but still not fun. There was also a vigilante in town now, it was all over the news.  Felicity and I were both working when someone walked in and cleared their throat.

“Felicity Smoak?” He asked and I looked up to see Oliver Queen. Felicity turned around and looked at him shocked.

“Hi, I’m Oliver Queen.” He said and I smirked at her.

“Of course. I know who you are, you’re Mr. Queen.” She said with a smile.

“No, Mr. Queen was my father.” He said.

“Right, but he’s dead. I mean, he drowned. But you didn’t, w-which means you could come down to the IT Department and-”

“Sorry about her, she sometimes doesn’t know when to stop talking or when not to say things.” I said jumping in and stopping her from saying something worse.

“I’m Y/N YL/N.” I said introducing myself.

“Oliver Queen.” He said and I smiled at him.

“What can we help you with Oliver?” I asked.

“I’m having some trouble with my computer and they told me that I should come down here.” He said and placed it on Felicity’s desk. The two of us looked at it confused.

“I was at my coffee shop surfing the web.” He started and we looked up at him.

“And I spilt a latte on it.” He said.

“Really?” Felicity said.

“Yeah.” He said.

“‘Cause these look like bullet holes.” She said.

“My coffee shop is in a bad neighborhood.” He said sticking with his story. Felicity tilted her head, she was too curious for her own good.

“If there is anything that you can salvage from it, I would really appreciate it.” He said.

“I’ll get right on that.” I answered before Felicity could ask anymore questions. I grabbed the computer and took it over to my desk.

“Thank you.” He said and I smiled at him. He came and sat next to me. I didn’t know he was going to stay, although, this wouldn’t really take that long. The contents of the compute flashed on my screen.

“It looks like blueprints.” I said.

“Do you know what of?” He asked.

“The exchange building.” I nodded and looked at him.

“Never heard of it.” He said.

“It’s where the Unidac Industry’s auction is scheduled to take place.” I said and he looked at me confused.

“I thought this was your laptop?” I asked confused.

“Yes.” He said with a nod.

“Look, I don’t wanna get in the middle of family drama.” I said.

“What?” He asked confused.

“Mr. Steele marrying your mother.” I said.

“I don’t see what your getting at.” He said.

“Mr. Steele is trying to buy Unidac Industries and you just happen to have a company laptop associated with one of the guys he’s competing with.” I said.

“Floyd Lawton.” He said.

“No.” I said confused.

“Warren Patel.” I said and he looked at me.

“Who’s Floyd Lawton?” I asked.

“He is an employee of Mr. Patel, evidently.” He said, I was even more confused.

“Well, can you put this on a drive or something?” He asked.

“Sure.” I said and put it on a flash drive for him.

“Here you go.” I said and he took it with a smile.

“Thank you.” He said and left our office.

“That was suspicious.” Felicity said.

“Tell me about it.” I said and went back to working.

Over the next few weeks Oliver had come in for more help. I of course helped him because I wanted to keep my job, I wasn’t stupid. It was late at night and Felicity and I were just finishing work. I felt a sudden pain in my chest and groaned.

“Y/N?” Felicity asked worriedly. I looked down and saw blood start to spread through my shirt.

“Oh fuck.” I groaned in pain. I fell to the ground and Felicity screeched in shock.

“I think I need to go to the hospital.” I said weakly and Felicity nodded. She grabbed both our things and helped me up. She took me to her car and sat me in the passenger seat then rushed to the other side.

“Okay, okay.” She mumbled to herself. We heard a groan from her back seat and turned to see The Hood. Felicity screamed in shock, I was in too much pain to be shocked right now.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, Felicity and Y/N.” He said.

“How you you know our names?” She asked. The man took off his hood and it was Oliver Queen.

“Because you know my name.” He said and both of us were shocked.

“O-Oliver. Oh wow. Everything about you just became so unbelievably clear.” She said.

“You’re bleeding!” She said.

“I don’t need to be told that.” He said panting.

“Felicity! Hospital!” I groaned.

“Right, yes, of course!” She said and started the car, but before she could start driving Oliver stopped her.

“My, my father’s old factory in the Glades.” He said.

“No, you, you need a doctor, not a steelworker.” She said looking at him confused.

“Felicity, you have to promise me that you are gonna take me to my father’s factory and nowhere else.” He said.

“Felicity, just drop him off there and take me to the hospital or the other way around!” I groaned.

“Is she okay?” He asked.

“She was fine until a bullet hole appeared in her chest and- Oh my God you two are soulmates!” She said happily.

“That’s great now fucking get me to a hospital!” I groaned, I really didn’t care about soulmates right now. She drove to the factory and ran inside after trying to help him. A large dark skinned man rushed out and helped get him out of the car. I could feel myself losing consciousness.

“Is she alright?” Was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

I expected to wake up in the hospital, but I woke up in a dark dusty looking room. I groaned and sat up. I looked around and saw Felicity wasn’t here but Oliver was and same with the dark skinned man.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” The dark skinned man said with a smile.

“Where am I? Where’s Felicity?” I asked, I noticed I didn’t have a shirt on either. I covered myself up and Oliver placed a blanket around me.

“Felicity is upstairs, she’ll be back down in a minute.” Oliver said.

“I’m John Diggle by the way.” The dark skinned man said.

“Y/N Y/L/N.” I said with a small smile.

“I should leave you two alone for a minute.” He said and left. Oliver was also shirtless and I noticed he had the same scars that I did.

“So your the person that’s been having me in and out of the hospital.” I said and he looked at me with a sorrowful expression.

“I’m so sorry, I never really thought about how this was affecting my soulmate…” He said and I sighed.

“It’s fine.” I said and he shook his head.

“It’s not, you almost died because of me. Multiple times.” He said and I gave him a smile.

“But we’re both alive.” I said and he looked at me.

“So tell me about yourself, Oliver Queen. Because I think there’s a lot to know.” I said and he gave me a small smile.

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30 Movies Worth Watching in Seattle This Weekend: Nov 15-18, 2018

Widows is a damn fun thriller from an artsy director.

You’ve got many options for movie thrills this weekend, from Steve McQueen’s spectacularly cast Widows to the creepy/comedic classic Beetlejuice. For artsier fare, don’t miss Frederick Wiseman’s new documentary on small-town America, Monrovia, Indiana. Follow the links below to see complete showtimes, tickets, and trailers for all of our critics’ picks, and, if you’re looking for even more options, check out our film events calendar and complete movie times listings.

Stay in the know! Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app (available for iOS and Android), or delivered to your inbox.

Beautiful Boy I’ve never been a parent or a junkie (yet!), but I found a lot that resonated in Beautiful Boy, a low-key film based on a pair of interconnected memoirs from father and son David and Nicolas Sheff. David (Steve Carell) chews himself up over son Nic’s (Timothée Chalamet) spiral into meth and heroin addiction, asking what he could have done to prevent it and wondering how he can fix it. Nic, meanwhile, copes with not only his body’s betrayal but with the disappointment he feels, both self-directed and from his patient, confused father. From Beautiful Boy’s perspective, Nic is really only guilty of having a curious mind, while David, a good father in every recognizable way, might have simply waited too long to show his beloved son some tough love. The performances make the whole thing sing. Carell and Chalamet both do expectedly good work, and they’re matched by Amy Ryan as Nic’s mother and Maura Tierney as his stepmother. Beautiful Boy is driven by the real-life horror of watching a loved one succumb to drugs, but it’s a family drama devoid of most of the genre’s manipulative qualities, substituting them with honesty, empathy, and fully drawn human beings. NED LANNAMANN Meridian 16 (Regal) & Oak Tree

Beetlejuice Newly dead Adam and Barbara Maitland aren’t down with the Deets family, who moved into the couple’s home after their unfortunate passing and don’t seem at all phased by the Maitlands’ attempts at scaring them out of it. Enter rotten, pervy Betelgeuse (“Beetlejuice”), who sells himself as a bio-exorcist capable of getting rid of their living pests, though he turns out to be a dangerous nuisance who’s more trouble than he’s worth. Tim Burton’s first film (and my first Tim Burton film, too) is on-point with vibrantly weird visuals, quick-witted comedy, and strong before-they-were-big-stars performances from (goddamn he looks young) Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis (extra dimply, woman-next-door funny), a teenage gothed-out Winona Ryder, and Michael Keaton at his comedic one-liner-throwing best—like, has he ever been this good? It’s bizarre yet delightful and still tons of fun three decades later. Even the dated special effects retain their charm. LEILANI POLK Central Cinema Friday–Sunday

Bohemian Rhapsody I heart Queen. The song this film is named for was on the soundtrack of my youth. But early reactions to the film biopic (that’s more about Freddie Mercury than the British rock band he led) have been mixed to bad. The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan tweeted that Bohemian Rhapsody “is a glorified Wikipedia entry but Rami Malek plays Freddie Mercury (and wears his wonderful costumes) with incredible gusto.” Our own Chase Burns was not a fan at all. (“The 15-minute long shit I took during the middle of the movie was more nuanced than the straight-washed hagiography peddled in that movie theater.”) In sum, enter at your own risk. LEILANI POLK Various locations

Boy Erased This film features the most prolific twinks of our time: Troye Sivan, Lucas Hedges, and Nicole Kidman. These three gays will dazzle the screen in this year’s most star-studded gay flick—oh wait, Troye Sivan is the only gay among them. Lucas Hedges has said he’s “not totally straight, but also not gay and not necessarily bisexual,” and Nicole Kidman, despite being the world’s most famous twink, is surprisingly a 51-year-old Australian woman. While think pieces on Hedges’s sexuality will probably dominate the conversation around Boy Erased, it looks like a cute holiday movie about gay conversion therapy. Go see it! CHASE BURNS SIFF Cinema Uptown & Meridian 16

Can You Ever Forgive Me? In Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Melissa McCarthy stars as real-life best-selling biographer Lee Israel. But this isn’t a life of literary glitz and glamour that you’re imagining after such a juicy introductory sentence! After falling on hard biographer times, Israel turned to a life of writerly crimes, forging letters from long-dead authors to make just enough cash to pay her rent, take her cat to the vet, and aggressively drink. This all sounds sad, I know, but there’s warmth underneath, thanks to Israel’s friendship with the charming, equally self-destructive Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant). McCarthy, who’s made a career of portraying loud women, is a different kind of jerk here—a real person who lashes out not for laughs, but because life is hard and she knows she’s making bad choices. ELINOR JONES SIFF Cinema Egyptian & AMC Seattle 10

Cinema Italian Style The Cinema Italian Style is a weeklong SIFF mini-festival featuring the best in contemporary Italian cinema. This final day, watch Euphoria, about two very different brothers who come together in difficult circumstances. SIFF Cinema Uptown Thursday only

Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch If you’ve ever wondered how the jammy vocals of Benedict Cumberbatch would sound coming from a neon-green Seussian monstrosity, you have your chance in this visit to Whoville. This time, the Grinch has a doggy sidekick named Max. Angela Lansbury voices the Mayor and Rashida Jones does Donna Lou Who. Various locations

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Twee hunter Newt Scamander returns for more J.K. Rowling-inspired exploits. Of the previous Fantastic Beasts film, critic Bobby Roberts wrote: “It is eager to please and amaze, but undersells its spectacle until that spectacle becomes perfunctory. It milks sentiment drier than the Arizona desert Newt’s trying to get to. It’s a goofy blast of kid-lit in love with Looney Tunes-inspired adventure—except when it’s a sour metaphor for child abuse and intolerance that owes one hell of a debt to Stephen King’s famous prom queen.” The new one has Johnny Depp as the titular dark wizard. Various locations

First Man The space stuff is great. When La La Land director Damien Chazelle’s biopic about Neil Armstrong focuses on NASA’s insanely ambitious and dangerous plan to put a man on the moon, it thrums with thrill and threat—from the astonishing scope of space to the claustrophobic confines of the command module, the best parts of First Man are worth experiencing on the biggest screen possible. Ryan Gosling offers an excellent turn as Armstrong, but even Gosling can’t liven up the story’s more pedestrian elements, which largely involve Armstrong’s relationship with his wife (Claire Foy) and his stoic mourning of his daughter. First Man bears the familiar curse of the biopic—it somehow feels both overlong and unsatisfying—and never quite escapes the shadow of The Right Stuff, Philip Kaufman’s remarkable 1983 film that told a similar story with more grace and smarts. Still: the space stuff is great. ERIK HENRIKSEN Meridian 16 & AMC Pacific Place

Free Solo This highly praised, dizzying documentary reveals the heart-stopping journey of Alex Honnold as he conquered Yosemite’s El Capitan wall without ropes or safety gear. You don’t need to be a climber to be thrilled at this glimpse into human accomplishment. Various locations

Hep Cats Cats in movies have symbolized everything from elegance to curiosity to evil, but sometimes they are simply their wonderful selves. Hep Cats delivers a handful of these ailurophilic flicks, like Harry and Tonto, a charming road movie about a man and his cat forced to leave their Upper West Side apartment. It stars Art Carney, who won an Oscar for the role. JOULE ZELMAN Northwest Film Forum Saturday only

HUMP! Film Festival The 14th Annual HUMP! Film Festival, the world’s biggest and best porn short film festival, premiers in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco this November! After the opening festival concludes its run, HUMP! will hit the road in 2019 and screen in more than 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada. HUMP! invites filmmakers, animators, songwriters, porn-star wannabes, kinksters, vanilla folks, YOU, and other creative types to make short porn films—five minutes max—for HUMP! The HUMP! Film Festival screens in theaters and nothing is ever released online. HUMP! films can be hardcore, softcore, live action, animated, kinky, vanilla, straight, gay, lez, bi, trans, genderqueer—anything goes at HUMP! (Well, almost anything: No poop, no animals, no minors, no MAGA hats.) DAN SAVAGE On the Boards

Meow Wolf The adorably named Santa Fe artist collective Meow Wolf caught the fancy of George R.R. Martin, who helped them take over a disused bowling alley for an epic art exhibition. But success comes with its own struggles. Enter their world and find delirious, DIY inspiration. Northwest Film Forum Thursday only

Mid90s Mid90s tells the story of 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic) who, after he’s rejected and bullied by his older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges), finds new role models in a crew of skaters led by the wise and magnanimous Ray (Na-kel Smith). Stevie’s willingness to repeatedly fall on hard concrete as he tries to maneuver a skateboard that looks half his height endears him to his newfound friends. The resultant feelings—and the film’s title—places Mid90s squarely in Hill’s nostalgic memory, where he both dramatizes and idealizes the kids’ adventures. SUZETTE SMITH Various locations

Monrovia, Illinois The amazingly prolific documentarian Frederick Wiseman (Ex Libris, In Jackson Heights, National Gallery, and 40 more films!) explores a tiny American hamlet steeped in old farming traditions and periodic ceremonies, like church services, Town Council meetings, Freemason rituals, weddings, and funerals. Northwest Film Forum Friday–Sunday

Mystery Train Exactly one year ago, I was walking down a street in Memphis, Tennessee, when I had what is known as a Proustian experience (or what literary critics call an “involuntary memory”). But in Proust’s novel Remembrance of Things Past, the involuntary memory sends the narrator, Marcel, to a town he visited as a boy (Combray). My memory, which was triggered by crossing a street, sent me to a film, Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train, which is set in Memphis and concerns young Japanese lovers who are obsessed with American popular culture. The couple walks around Memphis a lot. And while I walked around Memphis, I found myself walking, not through my Memphis, but theirs. This movie does not have much of a plot. CHARLES MUDEDE Grand Illusion Thursday only

Narcissister Organ Player The feminist body-shocker Narcissister, who carries out her performance art mostly naked and masked, muses on her Moroccan, Jewish, and African American roots and her intense relationship with her mother in this absurdist, experimental documentary. Northwest Film Forum

Night Heat They proliferated in anxious postwar America and still occasionally return to brood and smolder onscreen: films noirs, born of the chiaroscuro influence of immigrant German directors and the pressure of unique American fears. Once again, the museum will screen nine hard-boiled, moody crime classics like this week’s Night of the Hunter, one of the most unusual and thrilling films ever to come out of Hollywood. The veteran actor Charles Laughton took inspiration from the stylistic extremity of German Expressionism to film this hallucinatory tale of a psychotic preacher pursuing two young children who know he’s murdered their mother. Clear your Thursday night schedule for this one. Seattle Art Museum Thursday only

Night on Earth Five cabbies and five passengers around the globe share funny, weird, and intimate moments in Jim Jarmusch’s quirky classic—a little inconsequential, but charming and beautifully acted. Thanks to Roberto Benigni’s performance, you’ll never look at a pumpkin quite the same way again. Grand Illusion Thursday only

The Old Man and the Gun Based on a true story, the latest from David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) reteams the filmmaker with Robert Redford, who plays Forrest Tucker, the charming, handsome leader of a trio of geriatric bank robbers. Forrest’s partners in crime are Teddy (Danny Glover) and Waller (a fantastic Tom Waits). Like one of Forrest’s disarmingly polite robberies, The Old Man and the Gun starts out pleasant and sweet before revealing hints of darkness—each of these characters is deeper than they first appear, and one’s never quite sure what any of them are going to do next. Lowery is happy to tag along, capturing lives that are polished by time and dented by experience but remain bright and sharp with wit and passion. Watching Redford have this much fun is, as always, a goddamn delight. ERIK HENRIKSEN Admiral Theater

Overlord While carrying out a vital pre-D-Day mission, a ragtag bunch of American Dogfaces stumble across a small French village that’s just packed to the rafters with secret Gestapo experiments. (Note: In what may be a controversial move in this day and age, the Nazis are unequivocally depicted as the Bad Guys.) Genre mashups are often content to rest on their high-concept laurels, but this J.J. Abrams production is very willing to do the grunt work, solidly establishing its war movie bonafides—an early paratrooper sequence is genuinely alarming—before transitioning into full-tilt body horror. (This is an extremely moist movie.) If this sounds even remotely like your sort of thing, Overlord’s combination of heavy artillery and horrid creatures should prove to be pretty irresistible. When it comes to B-Movies, nasty, brutish, and short all count as positive traits. ANDREW WRIGHT Various locations

Ponyo You can pretty much guarantee that anything with Hayao Miyazaki’s name attached to it will be superbly wrought, fantastically animated, and delivered with a fine dose of poignant storytelling. He has left a fine legacy of films in his (no longer retired, for now) wake, including Ponyo, which has its 10-year anniversary this year and is being celebrated in a series of screening events across the country. This anime fantasy is loosely based on The Little Mermaid (Hans Christian Andersen’s version, not Disney’s), about an austere, potentially malevolent warlock/sea king whose young amphibious daughter runs (swims) away from her home. Sosuke, the little boy who scoops her from the waves, believes she’s a goldfish, names her Ponyo, and introduces her to a small slice of his world before her father finds her and brings her back to their underwater kingdom. But Ponyo’s taste of food and friendship fuels her next escape, setting off a chain of events that will change her (and Sosuke) forever. This film gets me choked up every time. LEILANI POLK SIFF Cinema Egyptian Saturday only

Prospect Is this the first major work of Northwest science fiction? Indeed, it imagines a moon that is like the evergreen forests that surround Seattle. The whole planet is green—gothic green. And the light on this strange moon is sharply slanted like Northwest light. The superb film is about prospectors (a father and daughter) looking for a root-made gem that will make them rich. The daughter, however, is keen to get off the planet because the line to it is about to be shut down. But her father is money-mad. If he does not make it here, he will never make it anywhere in the galaxy. Translucent insects float through the air. There are other money-mad prospectors in the endless forest. You do not leave this planet without paying a big price. Money is the root of all evil. CHARLES MUDEDE Meridian 16

Sadie The latest from local filmmaker Megan Griffiths (Lucky Them, Eden) has a perfect Northwest feel. Sadie is 13 and lives with her mother in a dilapidated trailer park. Sadie worships her absent father while being impossible with her harried mother. She is smart and precocious, trying to come to an understanding of how the world works, but the adults around her have their own problems. The film shows the way adults communicate with kids, never talking to them directly, trying to fool the kid and themselves. This leaves young people with half-ass ideas, and they run with them without really understanding the situation, with mixed results. The film has a great cast: The wonderful Melanie Lynskey plays the mom, with Sophia Mitri Schloss as Sadie. GILLIAN ANDERSON SIFF Cinema Uptown Sunday only

Seattle Turkish Film Festival The Turkish American Cultural Association of Washington will present the sixth annual edition of their community-driven, volunteer-led festival featuring a rich panorama of new Turkish films. For the final weekend, check out Something Useful, an intense drama about two women, one of whom has a grim mission, who meet on the train; The Legend of the Ugly King, about the Kurdish actor/director Yilmaz Güney; and Taksim Hold’em, about a man determined to play his weekly poker game despite the massive anti-government protests taking place outside. SIFF Film Center Friday–Saturday

SHRIEK!: Thirst The class focusing on women and minorities in horror is back with a screening and discussion of Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, about a saintly Catholic priest transformed into an insatiable blood-drinker and sex fiend by a risky medical experiment. Here’s an excerpt from the review Lindy West wrote at its release: “Thirst is a horror movie, albeit a silly one. Actual scares are few to none—instead, Sang-hyun’s painfully earnest consternation at trying to live as an ethical monster (losing his priestly virginity, daintily sipping a comatose man’s blood straight from the IV) make it a funny, cartoonish, and strangely sweet fable about ethics versus instincts: ‘Is it a sin for a fox to eat a chicken?’ Unfortunately, Thirst drags on for a punishing gazillion hours—ethical monster shacks up with manipulative harpy and the complications pile up like bodies (because, you know, they literally are bodies)—and you feel like you’ll never see your home or your mom or the precious golden sun again.” It might not be the most positive of reviews, but you’re guaranteed to get a good discussion out of it with organizers Evan J. Peterson and Heather Marie Bartels. Naked City Brewery Sunday only

Suspiria Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s reinterpretation of Argento’s film Suspiria is a precisely choreographed mindfuck, and progressing through the film’s six acts feels like peeling off layers of an onion until you reach the reeking core. It’s swift, brutal, and breathtaking, but it’s also frequently bogged down by overcomplicated subplots and distracting details. The original premise remains the same—ancient ballerina witches trying to live forever by sacrificing students—but this time around, the Markos Dance Academy is located right next to the Berlin Wall in post-World War II Germany, and Susie Bannion (a very meh Dakota Johnson) is a runaway Mennonite from Ohio. Whatever parallels Guadagnino hoped to draw between the traumatic aftermath of the Holocaust and the bloody chaos going on inside the coven ends up feeling more confusing than profound. CIARA DOLAN AMC Pacific Place & SIFF Cinema Uptown

A Star Is Born If you’re entering the theatre simply desiring a couple solid musical numbers, then your $15 will not have been spent in vain. Unfortunately, the movie falls flat as only a two-dimensional vignette of common misogyny can. Ally, the lead character played by Lady Gaga, is a woman who knows she has talent but needs to hear that she is sufficiently pretty to be an appropriate vehicle for said talent. Like any woman vying for a piece of the proverbial pie, she is just one man away from success. One man to lead her, to mold her, to push her through to the finish line. This man-shaped void is filled by her father, her husband, her manager, her producer, her choreographer, and her photographer, all of whom take credit or receive credit from other men for her creative output and appearance. A Star Is Born is a classic tale, meant to be mutable, fluid, to adapt within each age it is reimagined. But the flaws of the inherent narrative are too real, too every-day damaging to continue being told in the form of a cinematic fantasy. KIM SELLING Various locations

Voyeur Presents ‘The Prowler’ The November edition of VOYEUR brings “one of the bleakest noirs ever made,” Joseph Losey’s The Prowler, about a man who’s determined to get what he feels society owes him—an unhappily married woman played by Evelyn Keyes. Scarecrow Sunday only

Widows Arriving a week before Thanksgiving, Widows is an overflowing plateful of entertainment, piled high with juicy plot, buttery performances, and plenty of sweet genre pie. It’s a mash-up of pulp and prestige that shouldn’t work well on paper but plays out tremendously well on-screen. Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Shame) cowrote the twisty script with novelist Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects), and while the interconnected webs of Chicago’s crime underworld and its racially charged local politics contain more than enough intrigue, the performances are what’ll grab you. I mean, just look at this cast: Harry (Liam Neeson) leads a crew of career criminals (including Jon Bernthal and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) in a heist that goes disastrously wrong, leaving their widows Veronica (Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) with a serious problem when crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) and his enforcer brother Jatemme (Daniel Kaluuya) demand they return the stolen money. The real fun is watching McQueen, Flynn, and this ridiculously large talent pool of actors lay the groundwork for a slick, rich, tantalizing thriller, and then connecting all the dots. NED LANNAMANN Various locations

Also Playing: Our critics don’t recommend these movies, but you might like to know about them anyway.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web

Instant Family

Nobody’s Fool

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Venom

Stay in the know! Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app (available for iOS and Android), or delivered to your inbox.

Source: https://www.thestranger.com/things-to-do/2018/11/15/35633515/30-movies-worth-watching-in-seattle-this-weekend-nov-15-18-2018

[zayzaycom]

VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT Presents A Forrest Films and ESX Entertainment Production Film by Alex Ranarivelo

Theatrical Release Date: June 16, 2017 (DVD July 18) Running Time: 92 minutes Rating: “PG-13” by the MPAA Facebook: www.facebook.com/prayforrainfilm Twitter: www.twitter.com/PrayforRainFilm Instagram: www.instagram.com/prayforrainfilm

SYNOPSIS A young New York journalist returns to the idyllic Central California farming community where she was raised only to find it has been ravaged by drought and has become a place ruled by gangs, violent threats and greed. She is forced to investigate the suspicious circumstances of her father’s death even though it puts her in great danger

Q&A WITH DIRECTOR ALEX RANARIVELO

Q) You’ve made multiple films with ESX Entertainment. What is the process like for you when you decide which projects you want to direct? When deciding on what project I’d like to direct next, it all starts with the story. Does it have an interesting hook and does it have heart? Like the main character in PRAY FOR RAIN, I knew very little about the water crisis in the Central Valley when I first read the script. I had no idea how important this area was for the country and it made me want to find out more about what’s going on there. That is how I hope audiences will respond to the film.

Q) Did much change between the script and the production while on set? There weren’t many changes between the script and what ended up on screen; mostly some dialogue and adjustments for location changes.

Q) How did the communities in Northern and Central California react to the production? The communities we filmed in – Petaluma and Coalinga – were very receptive to us. John Harris of Harris Ranch was a tremendous supporter and gave us unlimited access to his properties.

Q) What was it like working with the main cast, including Jane Seymour, Annabelle Stephenson, and Nicholas Gonzalez? I had a dream cast on PRAY FOR RAIN. Everyone was perfect in their role. Jane Seymour and Annabelle Stephenson got so in sync as mother and daughter that at one point I stopped needing to give any direction. Maybe just small adjustment here or there. Nicholas Gonzalez was a total team player and brought strength and vulnerability to his role of Sheriff Nico.

Q) How do the themes in the film reflect our current environment following the election? President Trump said last year that the water problem is “insane” and “we are going to solve your water problem.” I hope he sticks to that promise.

Q) What should audiences know most about the film before seeing it? Audiences should know that we are not proposing a solution for the water problem. We want to present the argument and we want to raise awareness for what’s going on. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions, but in the meantime, just enjoy watching this story.

ABOUT THE CAST

JANE SEYMOUR (“Olivia Gardner”) A multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner, recipient of the Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the year 2000, which was bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Jane Seymour has proven her talents in virtually all media, the Broadway stage, motion pictures and television.  Her love of art and color has led to her great success as a painter in watercolors and oils and as a designer.

Seymour currently stars opposite Adam Sandler in the Netflix original feature film “Sandy Wexler” and co-stars with Malcolm McDowell in the stirring independent film “Bereave Me Not”, a film which she also produced.   She also made a stunning return to series television in the Sky TV drama “Hooten and the Lady” which debuted in the UK in September of 2016.

Most importantly, Seymour continues to raise much needed funds and gives through donations of her artwork to numerous local and national charities which help children in need, raising awareness for women’s heart health and various other important issues dear to her heart. Seymour resides in Malibu, is mother to six adult children and a grandmother of six.

  ANNABELLE STEPHENSON (“Emma Gardner”) Annabelle Stephenson was born in London, England. Her family emigrated to the Gold Coast, Australia when she was an infant. Her breakout role was in 2006, when she landed the role of ‘Miriam Kent’ in the hit children’s TV show “H20: Just Add Water”.

After graduating high school, Annabelle was one of the select few accepted into the prestigious school NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) in Sydney. She joined the alumni of successful Australian actors, such as Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann and Sam Worthington, and graduated with a B.A. in Acting. Since graduating NIDA, Annabelle has had a stellar career in TV, film, theatre and radio in Australia.

She is now based in Los Angeles. Since moving to LA her credits include Series Regular on ABC’s “Revenge”. Starring in Amazon pilot “Point of Honor”, working with Randall Wallace (Braveheart) and Carlton Cuse (Lost); Lead actress in MTV’s “Hot Mess” pilot. Annabelle also has another film “Escape Room” (Voltage Pictures) soon to be released.

  NICHOLAS GONZALEZ (“Nico Reynoso”) Nicholas Gonzalez continues to impress with a substantial list of current and upcoming projects. On television, he’s presently starring on Freeform’s smash hit PRETTY LITTLE LIARS as Detective Marco Furey, Netflix’s hit show NARCOS, and the new CW series FREQUENCY. He is recurring on Amazon’s critically acclaimed series BOSCH as Detective Ignacio Ferris, CW’s THE FLASH as Cisco’s brother Dante Ramon, and BET’s BEING MARY JANE. He can also next be seen on ABC’s HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER.

A graduate of Stanford University with a BA in English, Nicholas first burst onto the scene in the critically acclaimed Showtime series RESSURECTION BLVD. where he played boxer/medical student Alex Santiago. He followed that with a steady stream of roles, most notably as Detective Mike Sandoval in NBC’s LAW & ORDER: SVU and as Detective Luke Morales in Fox’s hit SLEEPY HOLLOW. Additional television roles include appearances on JANE THE VIRGIN, MODERN FAMILY, BOJACK HORSEMAN, BONES, BORDERTOWN, TRUE BLOOD, and GREY’S ANATOMY. On the big screen, he has been seen in THE PURGE: ANARCHY, ANACONDAS, DIRTY, SWAT: FIREFIGHT, and BEHIND ENEMY LINES II. He will next be seen in PRAY FOR RAIN, opposite Jane Seymour. He also can be seen as the lead in BATTLEFIELD: HARDLINE, the fifth installment of the celebrated video game series BATTLEFIELD from Electronic Arts (EA).

Gonzalez is originally from San Antonio, Texas, and currently resides in L.A. with his wife, actress Kelsey Crane. Charities dear to him include Friends of El Faro and Children’s Hospital LA.

  PAUL RODRIGUEZ (“Francisco Reynoso”) Longtime comedian Paul Rodriguez has been making audiences laugh all over the world (in Spanish and English) for three decades with his unique brand of humor that is a perfect blend of his Latin heritage, the American dream and his undeniable universal appeal. As an actor and comedian, Paul Rodriguez’s multi-faceted career includes starring roles and featured appearances in over 45 films and countless television series and comedy specials.

Voted one of the most influential Hispanics in America and awarded the Ruben Salazar Award by The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, Rodriguez has remained a constant force in his community and the world of comedy throughout his career.

Rodriguez’s film credits include “If” with Ryan Guzman, William Fichtner, and Columbus Short, “Mission Air” with Tom Arnold and Jamie Kennedy, “Without Men” with Eva Longoria and Christian Slater, “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” “The Deported,” “I’m Not Like That No More” with comedian Felipe Esparza (2010 “Last Comic Standing” winner), Disney’s blockbuster hit “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” “The World’s Fastest Indian,” “A Cinderella Story,” “How to Get the Man’s Foot Outta Your Ass,” “Ali,” “Tortilla Soup,” “Crocodile Dundee in LA,” “Rat  Race,” “Bloodwork,” “Chasing Papi” and “D.C. Cab,” among others.

  JOHN DUCEY (“Adam Campbell”) John Ducey arrived in Los Angeles in 1991 with a Chevy Corsica and a dream. That dream was to one day own a better car than a Chevy Corsica. Since that day, John has had starring TV roles in NBC’s Bad Judge, WB’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, ABC’s Oh Grow Up!, and Disney Channel’s JONAS. He has also guest-starred on many of your favorite shows, including Will & Grace, Bones, Castle, iCarly, How I Met Your Mother, Scrubs, Desperate Housewives, Ally McBeal, Frasier, and even Matlock. (He’s been doing this a long time, people.) His movie roles include Running Wild, Deep Impact, Space Jam, and the Christmas classic, The Search for Santa Paws (Spoiler alert: they find him). John has also dabbled in writing, including this bio, and Dirt, starring Kevin Dillon and the beautiful Christina Moore. John now drives a Toyota Corolla. The dream continues.

  JAMES MORRISON (“Patrick Waring”) Best known as the honest and stalwart head of CTU, Bill Buchanan, in four seasons FOX’s Emmy Award-winning series, 24.  He will soon be appearing in the much anticipated TWIN PEAKS reboot on Showtime.

James started his acting career as a clown and wire walker for the Carson and Barnes Wild Animal Circus in the mid-1970’s and served his theatrical apprenticeship with the Alaska Repertory Theatre during its 1977-79 seasons. Since then, he’s done about a hundred plays at theatres like Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Mark Taper Forum, the LA Stage Company, The Jupiter Theatre, The Salt Lake Acting Company, The Old Globe, and The Pasadena Playhouse with such wonderful directors as Emily Mann, Don Amendolia, Des McAnuff, Jack O’Brien, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jose Quintero and Harry Mastrogeorge, his acting teacher since 1982.  He also has appeared in the films The Meanest Man in Texas, The Jazz Funeral, Catch Me If You Can, The One, Falling Down, Raspberry Magic, Jarhead, and I Am I.

James and his wife and son are actively involved in charity work, raising money for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and Foundation ThinkAgain, which helps children who are cancer and brain tumor survivor.

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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ALEX RANARIVELO, Director A prolific, visual, and collaborative storyteller, Alex Ranarivelo has directed six feature films for ESX Entertainment since June 2014 (“The Dog Lover”, “American Wrestler”, “Running Wild”, “Pray for Rain”, “Dirt” & “Ride”). He graduated at the top of his class with a B.F.A in film production from Art Center College of Design. His thesis film was a 35mm short film about street racing called “The Last Race”, based on his experiences as a street-racer.

He made his feature debut with a rough-and-tumble romantic comedy from a guy’s perspective: “Alpha Males Experiment” (aka “Knuckle Draggers”). It played at multiple festivals and placed in Best of Fest’s top 10 Comedies of the year. In 2010, Alex’s script “The Girl With No Name” won the GRAND PRIZE at the Slamdance Film Festival Screenwriting Competition and was subsequently optioned by Co-Op Entertainment.

Alex went back to his street-racing roots for his second feature “Born To Race”, a teen action film centered around a father/son story. He co-wrote the script and was hired to direct it. Born To Race was a hit domestically and internationally in the home video market. A rip of the movie showed up on YouTube and got over 7 MILLION VIEWS before being taken down. Alex also directed the sequel, “Born To Race: Fast Track”, starring Brett Davern and Beau Mirchoff of MTV’s “Awkward.”

When producer Ali Afshar first teamed up with executive producer Forrest Lucas to create ESX Entertainment, Alex was brought on to direct their first film, the suspenseful, character-driven “The Dog Lover” (starring James Remar and Lea Thompson). Next came “American Wrestler: The Wizard” which follows a 17-year-old Iranian refugee who becomes the high school wrestling champion against adversity during the Iran hostage crisis of 1980. In this period piece, Alex directed Jon Voight, William Fichtner and discovered newcomers George Kosturos and Lia Marie Johnson. The film won multiple awards on the festival circuit including “Best Picture” and “Best Ensemble” at the Boston Film Festival, the audience award at the Austin Film Festival and the audience award at the Napa Film Festival.

Next came “Running Wild”, where Alex was at the helm of a picturesque, dramatic piece about a California Ranch Socialite poised to lose everything who creates a Prison Rehabilitation Equine Program after finding starving wild horses on her property. Dorian Brown and Jason Lewis go head to head with animal lover Sharon Stone. Tommy Flanagan also stars.

Alex directed Jane Seymour and Paul Rodriguez in “Pray for Rain,” a murder mystery set against the backdrop of the Central California drought. A young girl begins to investigate the suspicious circumstances surrounding her father’s death and discovers that the idyllic farm community of her youth has been replaced by crime and desperation. Newcomer Annabelle Stephenson leads the cast. Nicholas Gonzalez also stars.

He went back to the motorsports world for “Dirt”, his 5th movie with ESX Entertainment. “Dirt” is about a weathered race team owner (Kevin Dillon) who can’t quite get his team to gel when he is asked to take on a kid (newcomer DeRon Horton) from the hood that needs a work furlough to avoid jail time. He reluctantly agrees and the unlikely pair create quite a stir in the redneck sport of short course off road truck racing.

Alex just wrapped production on “Ride”, about a troubled boy from a Neo-Nazi family who is sent to a juvenile detention center after stabbing his dad who ends up being fostered by an interracial couple. Based on the true story of John Buultgens, the young boy overcomes his past and soars into his future on a BMX bicycle.  The film stars Chris Bridges (Ludacris), Sasha Alexander, and newcomer Shane Graham.

  FORREST LUCAS, Executive Producer By any measure Forrest Lucas is an extraordinary presence in U.S. entrepreneurial success stories. Born in Jackson County and raised in Brown and Bartholomew counties in Indiana, Forrest purchased his first truck, a 1948 Ford dump truck powered by a ’55 Thunderbird engine, at the age of 18. Three years later he bought a new 1963 Chevrolet, C-60 series with a 327-cubic-inch gas engine and signed on with Mayflower Moving and Storage, serving as the youngest owner-operator in the fleet.

For the next few years his life consisted of building up his fleet and manhandling his trucks from coast to coast carrying freight one way and furniture the other. But, his maintenance problems caused by the poor quality of available commercial truck lubricants nearly forced him out of business until he began to mix and match and then market his own formulas.

Today Lucas Oil Products, Inc is the world leader of High Performance Lubricants and Problem Solving Additives and produces and markets more than 100 unique products in more than 34 countries around the world, and is growing market by market every year. Today you can purchase Lucas Products in Asia including China, Mongolia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam; Western Europe including the UK, Ireland, France and Poland; as far south as Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand; throughout Central, North and South America including Mexico, Colombia and Brazil and are currently opening new markets in Africa.

  ALI AFSHAR, Producer Raised in Northern California, Ali Afshar grew up in the green Sonoma Mountains of Petaluma but relocated to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He learned from some of the most talented teachers available in Los Angeles and quickly booked principle roles in commercials and movies (credits include Three Kings, He’s Just Not that Into You), which enabled him to pay for tuition at California State University Northridge, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology.

While pursuing his acting career, Ali also founded Easy Street Motorsports (also known as ESX), an automotive performance and race facility that eventually lead him to race for Subaru of America for over seven years and achieve a certain celebrity racing status. Ali also created the exclusive and highly anticipated “Ali Afshar Signature Series” line of Aston Martin and Subaru vehicles that are sold directly through Subaru and Aston Martin dealerships across the nation. Ali also built the one of a kind, carbon fiber, full tube chassis, 1400HP, all-wheel drive Subaru. This Subaru set the record for the Worlds Quickest and Fastest All Wheel Drive car and the Worlds Fastest Subaru! This Subaru thunders down the 1/4 mile in 7 seconds at over 175 MPH!

In 2014, Ali partnered with Forrest Lucas of the Lucas Oil empire, including the Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl Stadium “Lucas Oil Stadium”, Lucas Cattle and MAV TV, to create a slate of four social issue drama feature films.  This slate included: “The Wrong Side of Right”, filmed in late summer 2014; and “The Wizard”, starring Oscar winner Jon Voight in a story best described “The Karate Kid meets Remember the Titans with a touch of Rocky, which is a heartfelt coming of age story of perseverance in the face of adversity that filmed Summer 2015; “Running Wild” starring Sharon Stone; and “Pray for Rain” starring Jane Seymour.

In 2016 Ali produced “Dirt”, a high-speed action car racing film with heart, and in 2016 he also produced “Ride”, a true story of an underdog and abused young man who became a BMX bicycle world champion.

Ali currently resides in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and is splitting his time between acting, producing, and racing. Stay tuned in for the most updated information from Ali by regularly visiting the following websites: www.aliafshar.com and www.esxproductions.com

  CHRISTINA MOORE, Writer/Producer Christina Moore, known for her success as an actress (HBO “True Blood”, The CW “90210”, The Disney Channel “Jessie”), has recently added writing and producing to her long resume.

“Running Wild” starring Sharon Stone and Tommy Flanagan was released in select theaters and VOD in February 2017. The film is a picturesque, dramatic piece about a Ranch Socialite who after finding wild horses on her property, risks everything to create a Prison Rehabilitation Equine Program. Moore co-penned the movie, produced it and stars as Stone’s evil sister, Jennifer Hutchins.

Moore also co-wrote and co-produced “Pray for Rain” starring Jane Seymour and Paul Rodriguez. The film is a gritty murder mystery set in Central California as it has been ravaged by drought.

Moore has another ESX Entertainment production under her belt called “Dirt.” She produced the film and plays the female lead as wife to Kevin Dillon. “Dirt” is a fun, action film set in the world of off road dirt track racing.  It will be released late 2017.

  PRAY FOR RAIN – Available on DVD July 18 VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT Presents A Forrest Films and ESX Entertainment Production Film by Alex Ranarivelo Theatrical Release Date: …

[junker-town]

‘Bachelorette’ Episode 3 recap: Shirts come off for Ellen Degeneres, the guys mud wrestle, Lee is truly awful

There were some lovely moments and some very troubling ones.

Hello, Sports Bachelor Nation, and thank you for joining me on this Monday night as we watch Rachel Lindsay search for love. Last week, after Rachel and DeMario had a fair amount of chemistry at the basketball date, DeMario’s girlfriend, or maybe ex-girlfriend, or maybe not ex-girlfriend, showed up and claimed she was still his girlfriend. DeMario pretended not to know who she was. He literally said, “Who is this?” Which is not a smart thing to say when it quickly becomes clear that you actually know who someone is.

Rachel sent DeMario home. But because this is The Bachelorette, DeMario did not go home. No, DeMario showed up at the cocktail party.

Which is where OUR party begins this week.

RACHEL SHUTS DEMARIO ALL THE WAY DOWN

Rachel agrees to hear DeMario out. DeMario proceeds to beg Rachel to take him back, as men who realize they have made mistakes with women are wont to do. Over the course of his speech, he says his Uber driver told him, “In order to experience joy, you need pain.” Rachel nods. Then she proceeds to deliver the most fire breakup speech I have ever heard.

“What I saw what you did in the gym yesterday? That was a boy. I’m looking for a man...I’m glad this has been a life lesson. I’m glad you gave me the quote about the joy and the pain. I hope the pain you’ve gotten from this gives you joy somewhere else, it’s just not here right now. Thank you.”

THANK YOU. She ends it with “THANK YOU.”

When Rachel comes back through the gates without DeMario, the other men, who’ve all been watching, look gleeful, like a large gaggle of car salesmen who each sold a brand new Chrysler with extra bells and whistles for at least $5,000 more than the asking price.

“He’s not coming back is he?” asks one of the guys.

“Fuck no,” says Rachel.

A few other things that happen at the cocktail party:

Jonathan, who lists his profession as a Tickle Monster, shows up with gigantic, stuffed hands. They have creepy, long fingers and look like something from a cartoon horror movie, except they’re real. Rachel laughs. I shudder.

All the guys are like, “I don’t think Rachel is one to be messed with.”

Let's give Rachel a big hand for standing her ground! #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/u7Nhv1Wdps

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 6, 2017

BLAKE AND LUCAS ARE REALLY SOMETHING, ALRIGHT

Before the rose ceremony, Lucas, the Whaboom Guy, tells Rachel he thinks Blake has a crush on him, because he says Blake stood over his head while he was sleeping and licked a banana. Blake tells Rachel there’s no way he could’ve done this, because he doesn’t eat carbs, because he’s on a ketogenic diet. And bananas are carbs.

I’m assuming that at least one of these two asshats make it through to the next round, because that’s what always happens.

AND THEN RACHEL KICKS THEM BOTH OFF

Rachel seriously dunks on the producers by getting rid of the two guys who ham it up most for the camera. Listen, the Bachelor or Bachelorette never does this. JoJo kept Chad, his protein powder, and his meat sticks around for way too long, and Nick met Corinne’s goddamn family.

But Rachel is like, mmm, let me think about this... NOPE. And gives them the boot.

Afterwards, Lucas is talking to the camera, and if his slurred speech and half-mast eyes are any indication, he’s beyond hammered. He reminds me of guys I went to college with who’d get wasted and be like, “So, dya like t’make outwith lacrosh playrs? I played in highshhool.”

Wha-Bananas?!? #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/oGRTCSuW3g

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 6, 2017

As Lucas is talking to the camera, Blake goes over to him.

“Sup bro,” says Blake.

“Sup,” says Lucas.

"I just wanna say ... fuck you, you're a piece of shit,” says Blake.

“Go back to your protein shakes,” Lucas says. “Go back to your steroids. Just go back to your fucking garbage clown life, dude.”

Incredible dialogue. I wish I could write shit like this. Blake and Lucas, who are clearly acting, will go on Bachelor in Paradise, which was definitely their end game. They’re probably best friends in real life. I almost respect how Wrong their Reasons were.

THE MEN GET NAKED ON THE ELLEN SHOW AND FRED GETS SAD

Rachel takes her big boys to the Ellen Show, where they all get naked (just kidding, they keep their pants on) and dance up on giddy audience members, including someone’s grandmother. They have nice abs. I respect Rachel for finding ways to view these men without their shirts on before the first pool party. She’s a real innovator.

Ellen Degeneres then asks the men a series of questions, which includes, “Have you imagined having sex with Rachel?” That first question feels a little obvious; I operate under the assumption that most straight men imagine having sex with most women they meet, let alone one they are actively trying to eventually have sex with, if all goes well.

During this course of questioning we also learn that Alex already peed in the Bachelor pool, and that Fred had sex with a forty-year-old when he was 21. Respect.

Speaking of Fred: Rachel was his camp counselor when he was little, and he’s clearly been in love with her since then in that soul-crushing, you’re-the-first-person-I-ever-realized-could-make-me-feel-this-way way. He asks her if he can kiss her, which is awkward. She tells him it’s awkward, he kisses her anyway, and I cringe. Then she says to the camera: “It was like a little boy was kissing me.”

Oof. Not great, Bob. Rachel very graciously sends Fred home when it becomes clear she cannot reciprocate his feelings. Fred, if you’re out there: I hope you’re doing okay, buddy.

ANTHONY’S HORSE DATE

YES! ANTHONY FINALLY GETS A DATE!

We haven’t seen enough of Anthony, but he’s a very handsome Fullbright scholar, so I have high hopes for him. He’s never ridden a horse before, which is too bad, because he’s about to have to: He and Rachel mount majestic beasts and parade down Rodeo Drive in front of a school bus full of people shouting “OH MY GOD, IT’S RACHEL!!!”

Just another day on Rodeo Drive! #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/JN3H0hwKGK

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 6, 2017

Why horses? I don’t know, but I fear its a play on Rodeo Drive. Rachel and Anthony ride their horses into a cowboy boot store. I’ve never been to L.A., so I’m not sure if this is an L.A. thing or a We’re The Bachelorette and Can Do Whatever We Want thing. They each purchase a red pair of cowboy boots.

There doesn’t seem to be a ton of chemistry between Rachel and Anthony, but I’m hoping the night date proves me wrong. Peter really screwed everyone over with that dog date.

NIGHT DATE

After a nice dinner on a hill overlooking the city, Anthony and Rachel dance together in front of a quartet. They both seem to have a nice time, and there’s definitely more chemistry than there was during the day date. I’m not sure the fireworks are there they way they were with Peter, but who knows — maybe this love will blossom more slowly. Speaking of blossoms, Rachel gives Anthony a rose.

LEE IS TERRIBLE

Back at the house, the night before the next group date, Eric says he’s invested in Rachel, but he’s not sure she’s invested in him. Iggy says he’s been listening to Eric’s insecurities all day, so he goes over to where Eric is sitting. He’s like, so you’re worried Rachel isn’t here for the right reasons? And Eric is like, no, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that she’s doing what she has to do to get what she wants. Iggy swears at Eric, but it’s so bleeped out that I can’t understand what it was.

Then Eric says this, which I think is a reasonable thing to ask someone you’re trying to marry:

“You’re not going to give a girl you’re not going to marry your all. It’s like, do you like me, yes or no?”

Iggy asks Eric if he’s going to ask Rachel that specifically, and Eric says “[bleep] yeah.” Iggy’s like, then what’s the point of this conversation? And Eric’s like, I don’t know, dude, you’re the one who came over here. Both men raise their voices. Then Lee comes over and starts trying to goad Eric.

We have to talk about Lee.

Last week, Lee’s alleged tweets surfaced.

Gotta love how @BacheloretteABC casts Lee...wonder how @TheRachLindsay feels about it? #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/RX6lkGpgyB

— Erika (@emesola) May 31, 2017

Lee’s account is private. His bio says “pleasantly offensive.” ABC declined to comment on the veracity of the tweets to Variety, but in them, Lee says he hates Islam, supports the “inhumane torture of terrorists,” doesn’t trust female liberals or men who own cats, and endorses a video that “destroys the liberal narrative on the Alton Sterling shooting.” One reads: “What’s the difference between the NAACP and the KKK? Wait for it…One has the sense of shame to cover their racist a– faces.”

An insider told Variety that ABC didn’t know about the tweets. If they didn’t, that’s a huge oversight in the vetting process. If they did know and let him on anyway, this is straight-up unconscionable. A guy like this doesn’t set the stage for fun reality show drama, like Chad, who merely ate all the deli meat last season. It’s setting the stage real, ugly and dangerous interaction.

RACHEL’S FRIENDS FROM NICK’S SEASON SHOW UP AND THEY GO MUD WRESTLING

Raven, Corinne, Jasmine and Alexis show up from Nick’s season to tag along on the next group date. I’m embarrassingly thrilled to see them (side note: you know it’s time to reevaluate some things when the contestants of this godforsaken franchise start to feel like friends).

Could it be Cheese Pasta Wrestling? #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/mMOThXGT7b

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 6, 2017

It must be so nice for Rachel to have some friends along at this mud wrestling bar. The part of The Bachelorette that always seems the worst to me is when you have to go on a group date with, like, eight dudes and none of your girlfriends to whisper to when the guys inevitably start being creepy or boring. Also, ten bucks that the majority of these dudes immediately started trying to date the ex-Bachelor girls after they got kicked off. I bet Raven and Brady are, like, married now.

Kenny is very excited about the wrestling, given that he’s a professional wrestler. He yells, “TIME FOR THE PRETTY BOY PITT BULL TO GET BUSY!” And then he barks. I love Kenny.

Bryce says he considers himself the most athletic guy in the house. Meanwhile, Brady reminds me of Toad from Mario Kart — it’s not specifically looks, it’s more essence:

See what I mean?

Anyway, Bryce beats Kenny at mud wrestling, which seems like a real hit to Kenny’s pro-wrestling brand, but I’m going to just chalk it up to an off day. I’m mostly impressed by Rachel’s continued ability to find ways to get these guys to take off their shirts.

KENNY!!!!

Kenny is a bright spot this season. During the night portion of the group date, he tells Rachel he used to be a Chippendale dancer, rips his tank top off, and starts dancing up on her. She’s laughing. I’m laughing. Kenny won’t win, but Kenny is my dude so far. What a world!

Kenny, a man with layers! #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/qnIi79m0WV

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 6, 2017

ERIC TELLS RACHEL HE’S VULNERABLE

Eric tells Rachel in a one-on-one conversation that he’s “been running from my feelings my whole life.” She says, “I see you, and I’m happy you’re here, and I’m feeling that.” She gives him the rose for the group date.

AND THEN EVERYTHING IS BAD

So it turns out that on the bus on the way to the wrestling bar, one of Rachel’s friends started asking the guys who they think might not be there for the Right Reasons. Two of the guys said Eric wasn’t.

Well, whaddaya know, the two guys who said that were Bryce and Lee. Rachel tells Eric she’s worried that if two guys said this, maybe it’s true, and that her antenna will be up.

Eric asks Lee why he said that. Lee smiles this evil smile and launches into this cruel back-and-forth where he tells Eric that Eric isn’t ready for love, and shames him for not having had a serious girlfriend. Eric is like, “Why are you doing this?” and Lee, between mean comments, is like, “I love you to death, and think you’re an amazing individual.” It’s the creepiest, most two-faced thing I’ve seen on this show before. You can tell Eric knows what’s going on, too. At one point he asks Lee, “Are you afraid of me?”

What’s also deeply troubling is that unless viewers read an article about Lee’s alleged self-proclaimed bigotry — which ABC has not confirmed, but has not denied — before tonight, most of America probably doesn’t know about it as they watch. From what we’ve seen so far in the show, Rachel doesn’t know at this point either.

To the camera, Lee says that Eric is “One kid with a bad issue. I think there are better guys for [Rachel]. Her best friends gave her information and she goes against them.”

He also says, in an aside, that the shit-talking is fun.

UGH

One of my friends texted me during the show to ask if the season was fun. It was for the first two episodes, I said. But Lee is a huge downer — it’s impossible to watch him as the standard Bachelor villain when he’s a real one of the worst variety.

I wish Lee hadn’t been put on TV, and I hope he’s gone very soon. Rachel is doing this show with as much integrity as you possibly can, and it’s a shame that Lee casts such a shadow over it.

[willpollock]

We haven’t had Tangerine Satan president even a week before the wheels have come off the American wagon.

Trump has so many conflicts of interest, so many defiantly ignorant and wrong ideas of procedure and tradition, that gaining focus to resist is not an easy task. Today we’ll take two: his cabinet net worth and treatment of the press.

Remember when Trump said he was “for the little guy?” Yeah about that… The combined net worth of Trump’s cabinet choices and other “important presidential appointments” so far exceed $20 billion. If you isolate just his closest circle (from the WaPo):

The net worth of the Cabinet Trump had selected as of Monday was at least $13.1 billion, based on available estimates, or more than the annual gross domestic product of about 70 small countries.

So when all the focus was on Hillary Clinton being beholden to Wall Street and too cozy with monied donors, he was projecting.

By comparison, by the end of his presidency George W. Bush’s team was worth “about $390 million collectively,” says the Washington Post.

Trump is in fact so corrupt, so full of daily lies, that the resistance to him could splinter since there are so many strands on the sweater to pull.

The one that is currently frying my rice? The reaction of D.C. poh poh to the constitutionally protected action of protesting—and covering those protests. Granted, some of the protestors became violent and caused damage. But that doesn’t justify rounding up whole swaths of people and throwing them in jail—some of them without charges.

I also learned a new word that you need to know: “Kettling.” Think of it as the opposite of law-enforcement restraint. In a nutshell, when police set up a perimeter around a group of protestors, all of the people within that circle are subject to arrest and detention. Here’s the problem: innocent protestors, marchers and, yes, journalists can get ensnared in a situation that could involve confiscation of cell phones and lack of access to communication, food and water, and bathroom services.

D.C. police ignored decades of precedent and “kettled” a large group, including approximately six journalists. All of them are subject to a felony sentence of 10 years in priz or a hefty fine. Sound outlandish? That’s because it is (ThinkProgress):

It’s a tactic known as overcharging, where prosecutors use the threat of long jail terms to induce guilty pleas. Even if Phillips ultimately drops some of these 200-plus felony cases after reviewing evidence more carefully, Hopkins-Maxwell said, he’s already sent a clear and ugly signal.

I don’t see our union can survive this. Setting aside egregious civil liberties violations of the peaceful protestors, our media and legal observers cannot and should not be intimidated into silence. We won’t be silent, either.

  We can thank producer Sheila Nevins for Bright Lights (HBO)—the greatest unintentional farewell gift imaginable. After Nevins had seen Fisher’s show Wishful Drinking (based on the book of the same name, which is great—highly recommended), she thought it would be perfect to adapt it for television.

What was uncovered in that process was the bond these two women shared, and Fisher’s desire to film her mother’s continuing performing verve. “In my heart of hearts, I think Carrie wanted to memorialize Debbie,” Nevins told The Hollywood Reporter.

Bright Lights would have been poignant and sad in its own right without the deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds a day apart. The doc’s producers moved up the release date from March after they sadly passed away.

Many scenes in this brilliant documentary (which, by the by, will win an Emmy) spoke to me, but most of all, the moment in the antique shop where Carrie was filled with enthusiasm as a collector. “I’m having a crisis of joy” she quipped wistfully. To me this encapsulated her as a person, surviving manic depression and addiction, only to come out on the other side shopping with gusto.

I had the privilege to be at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, and I attended one of the black-tie parties with some pals. Carrie Fisher was there, sitting quietly by the side of the stage, watching Cyndi Lauper sing with Rufus Rainwright. I didn’t know it at the time, but I captured a rare moment of Carrie enjoying the show, seated to the side of the stage—much like I imagine she did when her mother was performing.

I was so happy to dig this series out of the vault so I can share it with you.

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One final postscript: director Fisher Stevens played a bit part in Friends as Phoebe’s annoying psychologist boyfriend who analyzed the bunch, much to their chagrin. Stevens’ interview with Access Hollywood is actually quite good and gives some background on how the two women reacted to the film.

  Last week (CrankyYank Vol. 47) we had esteemed guest blogger and great pal Rob “Reenage” O’Connor review the first episode of Homeland (Showtime) Season 6. He wrote that this new season episodes have “some exciting possibilities in them already, and offer the taste of some real meat as they begin to intertwine.”

I offer a quick counterpoint to Rob’s review, which was largely positive. For me, the first episode landed like the thud of yellowpage books on your front porch. The writing and directing were spotty and vague—certainly not in keeping with past episodes that were built around suspenseful plot arcs and gripping sequences in foreign lands.

As I mention in my sidebar bio, I’m obsessed with the mechanics of filmmaking. In this case, there were many stumbles in the plot and directing that gave me pause. Why did Quinn have to visit the drug den? Why did that intruder come in and decide, “nah, I’ll wait” and pause on his robbery and get serviced by a hooker first. Huh?

I especially loathe when filmmakers do too many takes and try to overlap them to make sense in post-production editing. With a show so heavily reliant on storytelling, tell the fucking story in a single shot, rather that stunt the emotional impact by cutting to different angles. Single long shots ask more of the actors but, in the end, produce a way more convincing product.

Todd VanDerWerff over at Vox has the best take on the series in my view:

Most seasons of Homeland start slowly. Showrunner Alex Gansa and his writers want nothing more than to emulate great spy novels, which take time to build up steam.

  But even by those standards, the early episodes of season six are a patience-testing slow burn. The Quinn stuff is unnecessary, and every other storyline feels like it’s taking place on a different show. It’s not clear why Carrie, Saul, and the president-elect are all in the same series, except for the fact that they have been before. And even when Homeland tries to knit them together, the result feels slightly forced.

The show—even with a surprising course-correction from frantic thriller to build-as-you-go drama—is still one of the best on TV. I’m putting my trust in writers, directors and producers to take us on a ride that both mirrors and exposes political life as we know it.

  My friend Eddie Duke here in Atlanta gave me a heads-up about meditation audio on YouTube that can help you center yourself and encourage you to breathe. Do a search and find one that suits you, but this 3-Hour Reiki Music video above has a great selection of healing, meditative “soundtrack-y” instrumental music that will cure your crankies in no time flat.

  That’s a wrap guys. We’ll see you right back here next Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m.

Will Pollock is an Atlanta-based freelance multimedia journalist focusing on pop-culture, politics, journalism & media, retail, real estate, travel, politics, and human interest. 

He is the author of two books (Pizza for Good & Leaving Triscuit), with more on the way. Sign up for the mailing list, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram—and check out the book links below.

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  CrankyYank Vol. 48: Felony Journalism | ‘Homeland’: The Quieting | Carrie Fisher’s ‘Crisis of Joy’ & More We haven't had Tangerine Satan president even a week before the wheels have come off the American wagon.