#far from heaven 2002

[orpheuslookingback]

Watching 1 movie everyday for pride month 13/30

Far From Heaven (2002), dir. Todd Haynes

[tourneurs]

Far From Heaven (2002) dir. Todd Haynes

[of-fear-and-love]

Dennis Haysbert in Far From Heaven (2002)

[thyme-in-a-bubble]

a list of some autumnal movies/series 🍂

i am nothing if not an organised little goblin who can not stop themself from making a good list. this is just in case you want something with that fall vibe but can't think of any. just close your eyes and point somewhere on this little list, or even put the numbers in a generator and go with whatever the result is ♡

winter | spring | summer

🥧 ‧₊˚ ⋅ movies ⋅˚₊‧

nosferatu (1922) 

sabrina (1954)

the creature from the black lagoon (1954)

psycho (1960)

rosemary’s baby (1968)

the rocky horror picture show (1975)

halloween franchise (1978-)

friday the 13th franchise (1980-)

an american werewolf in london (1981)

dark crystal (1982)

a nightmare on elm street (1984)

ghostbusters (1984-)

ronja rövardotter (1984)

clue (1985)

princess bride (1987)

the witches of eastwick (1987)

elvira mistress of the dark (1988)

dead poets society (1989)

when harry met sally (1989)

ghost (1990)

the witches (1990)

death becomes her (1992)

hocus pocus (1993)

addams family values (1993)

interview with a vampie (1994)

the craft (1996)

the first wifes club (1996)

the scream franchise (1996-)

halloweentown (1998)

practical magic (1998)

you’ve got mail (1998)

the blair witch project (1999)

sleepy hollow (1999)

chocolat (2000)

amelie (2001)

the lord of the rings franchise (2001-2003)

scooby doo (2002)

school of rock (2003)

mona lisa smile (2003)

peter pan (2003)

pirates of the caribbean franchise (2003-2017)

north & south (2004)

pride and prejudice (2005)

the descent (2005)

just like heaven (2005)

the devil wears prada (2006)

the lake house (2006)

penelope (2006)

el orfanato (2007)

juno (2007)

ratatouille (2007)

bridge to terabithia (2007)

the edge of love (2008)

twilight (2008)

the curious case of benjamin button (2008)

julie & julia (2009)

jennifer’s body (2009)

dorian gray (2009)

coraline (2009)

true grit (2010)

the cabin in the woods (2011)

jane eyre (2011)

wuthering heights (2011)

perks of being a wallflower (2012)

the odd life of timothy green (2012)

hotel transylvania (2012-)

the conjuring franchise (2013-)

what we do in the shadows (2014)

the riot club (2014)

as above so below (2014)

john wick (2014-)

the age of adaline (2015)

the witch (2015)

far from the madding crowd (2015)

the edge of seventeen (2016)

paterson (2016)

20th century woman (2016)

the love witch (2016)

mary shelly (2017)

murder on the orient express (2017)

get out (2017)

a quiet place (2018 + 2020)

the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society (2018)

on the basis of sex (2018)

knives out (2019)

ready or not (2019)

the lighthouse (2019)

little women (2019)

the gentlemen (2019)

emma (2020)

ammonite (2020)

the dig (2021)

fear street trilogy (2021)

good luck to you, leo grande (2022)

the batman (2022)

fresh (2022)

bodies bodies bodies (2022)

mr malcom's list (2022)

totally killer (2023)

slay (2024)

🧦 ‧₊˚ ⋅ series ⋅˚₊‧

moomin (1990-1992)

twin peaks (1990-1991)

x files (1993-2018)

buffy the vampire slayer (1997-2003)

gilmore girls (2000-2007)

supernatural (2005-2020)

vampire diaries (2009-2017) / the originals (2013-2018) / legacies (2018-2022)

downton abbey (2010-2015)

the walking dead (2010-2022)

once upon a time (2011-2018)

american horror story (2011-)

teen wolf (2011-2017)

peaky blinders (2013-2022)

outlander (2014-)

how to get away with murder (2014-2020)

the magicians (2015-2020)

izombie (2015-2019)

poldark (2015-2019)

critical role (2015-)

stranger things (2016-)

ghost files / buzzfeed unsolved (2016-)

lucifer (2016-2021)

shadowhunters (2016-2019)

anne with an e (2017-2019)

the good fight (2017-2022)

riverdale (2017-2023)

manifest (2018-2023)

killing eve (2018-2022)

succession (2018-2023)

you (2018-)

a discovery of witches (2018-2022)

the chilling adventures of sabrina (2018-2020)

dickinson (2019-2021)

virgin river (2019-)

carnival row (2019-2023)

the witcher (2019-)

the umbrella academy (2019-2024)

sanditon (2019-2023)

good omens (2019-2025)

the haunting of bly manor (2020)

i’ll be gone in the dark (2020)

queens gambit (2020)

the great (2020-2023)

shadow and bone (2021-2023)

the nevers (2021-2023)

wednesday (2022-)

interview with the vampire (2022-)

vikings valhalla (2022-2024)

lessons in chemistry (2023)

my lady jane (2024-)

[orlaite]

Thinking what? That one person could reach out to another? Take an interest in another? That maybe for one, fleeting instant could manage to see beyond the surface? Beyond the colour of things?

FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002) | dir. Todd Haynes

[astronicht]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is a basic tenet of traditional cosmologies that— wait hold on a minute no this is a 2002 anthropology paper on the necessary human act of trying to collectively describe the universe, though in terms I actually take issue with personally from a cosmocritical perspective— wait here you can read the opener—

—because prior to the Enlightenment (or maybe the Renaissance, I’m never clear on what early modernists decided here) in Europe and colonial North America, and pretty commonly in times and places outside that particular sphere (ie most known times and places), people would not necessarily consider the cosmos something outside of their community’s borders anyway, and in part bc that’s observably not the case, to the point that modern physics has already had to move far past that concept you know? like Stephen Hawking said “I have changed my mind. ‘A Brief History of Time’ is written from the wrong perspective. We are not angels, who view the universe from the outside.” All for ppl to be like “nature is dying” ma’am you are nature you are an animal we are all in an ecosystem. It includes space it includes Mars and the Moon which we should know and care for too. Do you know how 11th century writer Ælfric of Eynsham defined “middle-earth”, the word Tolkien borrowed? It’s not fricking England or whatever. “All that is within the firmament is called Middle-earth. The firmament is the firm/physical/rotating heaven set with many stars. The heaven and sea and earth are called middle-earth.”

[addictivecontradiction]

Far from heaven, 2002

[theunderestimator-2]

"See you later, Joe…": On this day, Dec. 30th, 2002, the Punk Rock Warlord Joe Strummer’s funeral was held in private at West London Crematorium where he was cremated (from a Los Angeles Times clipping dated January 1, 2003).

The funeral was held on a dark and grey Monday with rain belting down in bucketfuls and the service was attended by his widow Lucinda and two daughters, the rest of the Clash, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon, Chrissie Hynde and Jeannette Lee (formerly of PIL, then co-managing director of Rough Trade), Jim Jarmusch, Bob Gruen, Rat Scabies, Pearl Harbour, Joe Ely, Don Letts, the Clash road manager Johnny Greene, some more close friends and relatives, according to Chris Salewicz, who wrote 'Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer'.

He remembers that he heard about Joe’s death after Don Letts called him and when he called up Mick Jones, who in between sobs was his usual funny self, he told him

"… how glad he was he’d played with Joe at the benefit for the Fire Brigades Union five weeks before. -‘I don’t even know what religion he was,’ Mick said. -‘Some kind of Scottish low-church Presbyterian, I imagine,’ I suggested. -‘Church of Beer, probably,’ laughed Mick, tearfully. "…Joe’s coffin slowly comes in, held aloft by half a dozen pallbearers. It is placed down at the far end of the chapel. Keith Allen, the actor and comedian, steps forward and positions a cowboy hat on top of it. There’s a big sticker on the nearest end: ‘Question Authority’, it reads, then in smaller letters: ‘Ask Me Anything’. Next to it is a smaller sticker: ‘Vinyl Rules’. On the sides of the coffin are more messages: ‘Get In, Hold On, Sit Down, Shut Up’ and ‘Musicians Can’t Dance’. Around the end wall of the chapel are flags of all nations. More people are ushered in, like the kids Joe would make sure got through the stage-door at Clash gigs, until the place is crammed. …‘Wandering Star’ [by Lee Marvin] begins to play. ‘See you later, Joe,’ someone says. Yeah, see you later, Joe…" (from Chris Salewicz's 'Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer'.)

Soundtrack of the day: ‘Wandering Star’ - Lee Marvin (1969) "When I get to heaven, tie me to a tree/ Or I'll begin to roam, and soon you know where I will be/ I was born under a wandrin' star/ A wandrin' wandrin' star…"

A detailed rundown of Joe's funeral from Chris Salewicz's book: https://www.litres.ru/book/chris-salewicz/redemption-song-the-definitive-biography-of-joe-strummer-39768017/chitat-onlayn/

[sybill-the-seer]

A Bath or Two

Read on AO3

Summary: Bathtime at Number 4 Privet Drive in 1984 is very different to bathtime at Harry and Ginny's house in 2002. Harry plans to keep it that way.

Note: Thank you so much to @turanga4 for her incredible beta help, and to the TTB discord server for their wonderful wizarding bath toy ideas (all credit goes to @not-steve42 for the Grindylow idea)!

TW: Child abuse

Harry sat, stiff and cold in the tepid bath water, trying to cheer himself with the thought that his ordeal would soon be over. Aunt Petunia scrubbed his arm roughly, then let it splash back down into the now nearly opaque water. As she reached for the shampoo, Harry only just stopped himself groaning in despair.

“Please don’t let it get in my eyes this time!” he whinged, but he knew it was useless. Aunt Petunia never listened to him.

Sure enough, Aunt Petunia merely pursed her lips at his words, scooped up some water with the plastic cup she used for bathtime, and dumped it on his head unceremoniously, wetting the dark unruly strands in preparation for a scrub.

Harry screwed up his eyes as the water poured down his face, bracing himself for what he knew was coming next. Now he felt Aunt Petunia’s bony fingers on his scalp, rubbing the shampoo into his hair none too gently. Harry felt her fingers leave his head, heard the splash of the plastic cup in the water behind him, and reached up to cover his eyes, but it was too late. The soapy water cascaded down through his bangs, straight into his eyes before rushing down the rest of his face and dripping off his chin.

“Ow!” Harry cried, as the stinging began, his fingers flying to his eyes automatically. But rubbing only made it worse, and Harry began to cry as another waterfall of water and shampoo fell over his head.

Harry was crying in earnest now – he was blinded by the soap and the stinging, and Aunt Petunia’s dumping was only making things worse. Now he could taste the foul, bitter soap in his mouth.

“Stop!” Harry wailed, pushing Aunt Petunia’s hand away in an effort to make the water cease. It worked for a moment.

“Stop this nonsense, boy, I have to get the soap out of your hair!” she snapped, scooping up another cupful of water.

Still blinded by water and soap, Harry thrust out his hand again to block the water cup, but missed. At least, he didn’t feel his hand make contact with anything other than the slippery side of the bathtub. And yet he still heard Aunt Petunia screech at the same time as a splash – but the splash didn’t land on his head. He heard the thump of what he thought was a crouched Aunt Petunia losing her balance and hitting the floor before –

“What in heaven’s name do you mean by it, boy?!”

Harry tried to open his eyes to see what had happened, but he was too late. Aunt Petunia’s hand had grabbed his hair roughly, and now he was face down in the water.

He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t come up for air, the hand was holding him down and Harry tried to yell at her to let him go but only bubbles came out…

It was only a moment before his aunt’s grip loosened abruptly, though it felt like an eternity, and Harry sat up, gasping and spluttering, blinking the water out of his eyes in shock. He looked over to see Aunt Petunia staring at her hand with astonishment and horror, water splashed all down the front of her blouse, the plastic bath cup far away from the tub on the floor. He wanted to ask what had happened, but stopped himself, deciding it would be unwise in Aunt Petunia’s current state. Instead, he watched her warily until she seemed to come back to her brisk self, ordering him out of the bath and tossing him a faded towel. He thought he heard her mutter something about “unnaturalness,” and “abnormalities,” before he scurried back to his cupboard to change into his pajamas.

________________________

Almost a lifetime later, Harry sat near his own bathtub looking down at the small boy splashing happily in the water. He held up a rubber duck to show Harry (a gift from Ginny, who found Muggle children’s toys delightful), chattering away about the story he was creating with all his bath toys. As he did so, his hair turned exactly the same shade of yellow as the duck.

“- he’s just crashed into that ship, see, and now the ship’s sinking – uh oh –” Teddy reached for the small ship, snatching it up into his little hand just before it hit the bottom of the bathtub.

“Saved it!” he cried, now holding both the ship and the duck in the air victoriously.

“That’s good,” Harry replied, “because we’re nearly done, and I don’t think we’d want to end bathtime with a shipwreck.”

But Teddy had already turned away, his mind lost to his imaginings once more. Harry filled the bath cup with water, cupped his hand to Teddy’s forehead, and poured the warm water over his bright hair. Teddy hardly noticed, now muttering an imagined conversation between the rubber duck and some sailor figurines who were shaking their little fists furiously.

While once Harry’s unpracticed hands had moved tentatively and unsteadily, unsure of how to angle the cup and his hand to avoid Teddy’s eyes, afraid of somehow slipping up and making him cry, now they were well used to the bathtime routine. In fact, Harry quietly prided himself on the fact that bathtime was never protested whenever Teddy came to stay.

Harry reached for the shampoo now, poured it smoothly into his other hand, and began massaging it gently into Teddy’s vivid hair, which slowly changed from yellow to black as he relaxed at Harry’s touch. Bath toys momentarily forgotten, Teddy tilted his head as far back as it could go and grinned up at Harry, his hazel eyes sparkling.

“That feels good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

And with a little hum of contentment Teddy rolled his head back, Harry’s hands following his movement as he continued to massage in the shampoo. Teddy then reached for his little enchanted grindylow figurine that had been swimming lazily through the bathwater. As his hand approached it, it darted quickly away, and the boy laughed.

“Ok, time for a rinse,” Harry said, reaching again for the bath cup. “And then we’re all done.”

“All done?” Teddy whinged. “But I’m not done yet!”

“I’m sure Ginny will be waiting for us though – she probably has a game for us to play before bedtime. And don’t you want to try the hot chocolate we made?”

“I forgot about hot chocolate!”

“I thought you might have,” Harry chuckled, as Teddy turned away, now waiting impatiently for him to finish rinsing his hair.

Soon, Teddy had been helped out of the bath, into a warm towel, and finally into his pajamas covered with tiny custard puffskeins.

“Ginny!” he cried, rushing into the sitting room where Ginny sat, curled up on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate. “Where’s my hot chocolate?” he asked, looking intently at her mug.

“Hmm, are you sure I didn’t drink it all myself? You were in the bath a long time…”

She grinned over at Harry, who shrugged helplessly. He had never been good at getting Teddy out of the bath promptly – it always took more than one coaxing to get Teddy out of the tub when Harry was in charge, and Ginny knew it. He didn’t mind though, as long as Teddy was having fun.

“No you didn’t! That cup’s not big enough for it all! I’m going to go check.” Teddy turned to race into the kitchen, Ginny getting up off the sofa to chase after him.

“You’ll have to beat me to it!” she called, and Teddy squealed happily.

Harry grinned and followed after them into the kitchen.

Note: I have a feeling I might get questions about this, so I’m just going to address it now: Petunia was NOT trying to drown Harry! It was an act of both rage and fear after the first instance of accidental magic, and an attempt to startle him out of crying. Still a completely unacceptable thing to do, and blatant child abuse, but no, she was not intending to drown him and I can’t see her ever attempting to go that far.

[tomorrowusa]

Extremist fundamentalists of different religions seem to have more in common with each other than they do with moderates of the same faith. They are invariably intolerant control freaks who feel they have the right to impose their wills on others. MAGA Mike Johnson would fit in well with Iran's theocrats.

Since his fellow Republicans made him their leader, numerous articles have reported Johnson’s religiously motivated, far-right views on abortion, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights. But that barely scratches the surface. Johnson was a senior lawyer for the extremist Alliance Defending Fund (later the Alliance Defending Freedom) from 2002 to 2010. This is the organization responsible for orchestrating the 303 Creative v Elenis legal arguments to obtain a ruling from the supreme court permitting a wedding website designer to refuse to do business with gay couples. It also played a significant role in annulling Roe v Wade. The ADF has always been opposed to privacy rights, abortion and birth control. Now Roe is gone, the group is laying the groundwork to end protection for birth control. Those who thought Roe would never be overruled should understand that the reasoning in Dobbs v Jackson is not tailored to abortion. Dobbs was explicitly written to be the legal fortress from which the right will launch their attacks against other fundamental rights their extremist Christian beliefs reject. They are passionate about rolling back the right to contraception, the right to same-sex marriage and the right to sexual privacy between consenting adults. Johnson’s inerrant biblical truth leads him to reject science. Johnson was a “young earth creationist”, holding that a literal reading of Genesis means that the earth is only a few thousand years old and humans walked alongside dinosaurs. He has been the attorney for and partner in Kentucky’s Creation Museum and Ark amusement park, which present these beliefs as scientific fact, a familiar sleight of hand where the end (garnering more believers) justifies the means (lying about science). For them, the end always justifies the means. That’s why they don’t even blink when non-believers suffer for their dogma.

There was recently a big experiment in rejecting science with the far right campaigning against COVID-19 vaccinations. That may have cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the US. MAGA Mike would like to apply that to all sectors of life in the US.

Setting aside all of these wildly extreme, religiously motivated policy preferences, there is a more insidious threat to America in Johnson’s embrace of scriptural originalism: his belief that subjective interpretation of the Bible provides the master plan for governance. Religious truth is neither rational nor susceptible to reasoned debate. For Johnson, who sees a Manichean world divided between the saved who are going to heaven and the unsaved going to hell, there is no middle ground. Constitutional politics withers and is replaced with a battle of the faithful against the infidels. Sound familiar? Maybe in Tehran or Kabul or Riyadh. But in America?

By doing anything other than voting Democratic in an election (i.e. voting Republican, wasting a vote on a loser third party, writing in a dead gorilla, not voting at all) people help pave the way for a fascist theocracy in the US.

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson is already second in line for the presidency. That is WAY too close.

Voting may not always be convenient but theo-fascism is far less convenient.

[fuckyeahcostumedramas]

Julianne Moore as Cathy Whitaker in Far From Heaven (Film, 2002).

[womansfilm]

The Reckless Moment (1949) / Mad Men 4.13 (2010) / Far From Heaven (2002) Daddy's Gone A-Hunting, 1958, Penelope Mortimer

[of-fear-and-love]

Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven (2002)

[thyme-in-a-bubble]

a list of some summer movies/series 🌞

hi hi hi!! it's just me, your friendly neighbourhood little organisation freak of a goblin here to give you yet again a list of some seasonal movies and series. this time, say it with me folks, summer! as always, just close your eyes and point somewhere on this little list, or even put the numbers in a generator and go with whatever the result is ♡

autumn | winter | spring

🐚 ‧₊˚ ⋅ movies ⋅˚₊‧

roman holiday (1953)

jaws (1975)

friday the 13th (1980)

Indiana jones (1981-)

dirty dancing (1987)

the princess bride (1987)

paris is burning (1990)

point break (1991)

jurassic park (1993-)

before sunrise (1995)

a goofy movie (1995)

clueless (1995)

birdcage (1996)

boogie nights (1997)

i know what you did last summer (1997)

my best friend's wedding (1997)

parent trap (1998)

bilboard dad (1998)

tarzan (1999)

the talented mr. ripley (1999)

10 things I hate about you (1999)

the mummy (1999)

cast away (2000)

almost famous (2000)

our lips are sealed (2000)

charlie’s angels (2000 + 2003)

holiday in the sun (2001)

the wedding planner (2001)

the fast and furious franchise (2001-)

princess diaries (2001-2004)

lilo and stitch (2002)

blue crush (2002)

crossroads (2002)

how to lose a guy in 10 days (2003)

under the tuscan sun (2003)

the lizzie mcguire movie (2003)

pirates of the caribbean franchise (2003-2017)

sisterhood of the traveling pants (2005-2008)

monster in law (2005)

aquamarine (2006)

she’s the man (2006)

the cheetah girls 2 (2006)

high school musical 2 (2007)

camp rock (2008)

vicky cristina barcelona (2008)

fool's gold (2008)

mamma mia (2008 + 2018)

adventureland (2009)

bride wars (2009)

hannah montana the movie (2009)

the last song (2010)

letters to juliet (2010)

eat pray love (2010)

one day (2011+2024)

a little bit of heaven (2011)

soul surfer (2011)

the impossible (2012)

magic mike (2012+2025+2023)

the big wedding (2013)

lovelace (2013)

endless love (2014)

chef (2014)

the longest ride (2015)

mad max: fury road (2015)

the shallows (2016)

it (2017)

girls trip (2017)

baywatch (2017)

jumanji: welcome to the jungle (2017)

gifted (2017)

call me by your name (2017)

crazy rich asians (2018)

adrift (2018)

ibiza (2018)

every day (2018)

bad times at the el royale (2018)

tomb raider (2018)

the red sea diving resort (2019)

midsommar (2019)

we summon the darkness (2019)

spider-man: far from home (2019)

the devil all the time (2020)

palm springs (2020)

the last letter from your lover (2021)

raya and the last dragon (2021)

luca (2021)

uncharted (2022)

glass onion (2022)

do revenge (2022)

the lost city (2022)

the gray man (2022)

death on the nile (2022)

barbie (2023)

bottoms (2023)

anyone but you (2023)

la passion de dodin bouffant (2023)

road house (2024)

the challengers (2024)

players (2024)

twisters (2024)

🍦 ‧₊˚ ⋅ series ⋅˚₊‧

the o.c. (2003-2007)

america's next top model (2003-2018)

project runway (2004-)

h2o: just add water (2006-2010)

gossip girl (2007-2012)

private practice (2007-2013)

rupaul’s drag race (2009-)

the walking dead (2010-2022)

new girl (2011-2018)

the fosters (2013-2018)

black-ish (2014-2022)

jane the virgin (2014-2019)

grace and frankie (2015-2022)

critical role (2015-)

stranger things (2016-)

the durrells (2016-2019)

big little lies (2017-2019)

she's gotta have it (2017-2019)

the bold type (2017-2021)

queer eye (2018-)

station 19 (2018-2024)

euphoria (2019-)

roswell, new mexico (2019-2022)

valeria (2020-2023)

911: lone star (2020-)

outer banks (2020-)

bridgerton (2020-)

sex/life (2021-2023)

the white lotus (2021-2025)

daisy jones and the six (2023)

[frazzledsoul]

So let's talk about my favorite arcane subject... historical TV ratings! In this case, historical Gilmore Girls ratings in the aughts.

As a reminder, everything discussed here will be in the 18-49 demo preferred by advertisers. Also, the WB/CW were less universally available than the other networks, so their numbers were lower.

2000-2001

In the debut season of Gilmore Girls, the highest rated show was Survivor, with a demo rating of 16.9.

As you can see, all WB shows are towards the bottom of the chart. Gilmore Girls had a 2.5 demo rating, 8th in the network and 127th total out of 157 shows. The top rated show on the WB was 7th Heaven, with a demo rating of 4.4.

So respectable but not a smash hit.

Why was the show on several times a week? Well, it originally aired on Thursday, during the same time slot as Friends (5th ranked with a 12.6 demo rating) so the network wanted to give it another shot. During that first season, they used to air a recap after the first half of the show in case people switched over after watching Friends.

2001-2002

The highest rated show overall was Friends, with a 15.0 demo rating.

Ah, season 2. Jess Mariano enters the scene and the show starts to develop its core identity as Love Triangle Central. It rises to third ranked on the network (bested by 7th Heaven and Smallville) and 115th overall and goes up to a 3.23 demo rating.

Oh, the power of a bad boy who can read. He will transfix many for decades to come.

2002-2003

The highest ranked show overall was CSI with a 16.1 demo rating.

Season 3 is the last season we have Jess full-time and the only Literati season. We also briefly enjoy the company of Twilight Dad. The show maintains it's popularity but nothing much changes: it's still outranked by 7th Heaven and Smallville, goes a little lower in rank overall to 121th overall, and maintains a 3.23 demo rating.

Gilmore Girls: Beginnings was a time slot where they aired episodes from S1 on Sunday nights. The show was not yet syndicated and streaming didn't exist yet: you couldn't buy DVDS until 2004. This was the only way to see old episodes. Even so, it wasn't that popular.

We lose the boyfriends at the end of the season, and things take a turn for the worse.

2003-2004

American Idol was the top rated show with a 10.7 demo rating.

Season 4 is the season of Single Rory, who ASP tells us we should adore more than the boyfriends.

Unfortunately, ASP also chose to give her scintillating plotlines about urine mints, arguing over a study tree, and begging for attention from a guy she meets in the laundry room. Lorelai's time is mostly taken up by Jason Stiles and his fascinating insurance saga. The viewers were bored. The show slipped to 6th in rank on the network and 128th overall, lost almost half of its viewers, and went down to a 1.7 in the demo rating.

ASP regrouped, brought the boyfriends back in, got rid of Jason, and finally hooked Luke and Lorelai up. The episodes near the end of the season are considered some of the best of the series. The show allegedly was close to getting canceled.

Quality wise, I think there are a lot of nice episodes here and there, but overall the season drags because there are far more interesting things going on with the supporting characters than the mains. Jess is as emo as he ever is and his hair is fabulous.

2004-2005

The top rated show for the year was American Idol with an 11.1 demo rating.

The show was on an upswing in season 5. We have to put up with Dean for a while, but Rory's attention strays (again) to yet another bad boy who can read and Logan brings a lot more energy and more interesting storylines to the show. We also have the glory days of Luke and Lorelai as a couple.

The show rises to #1 on the WB, finally outranking 7th Heaven and Smallville. It ranks 120th overall and the demo rating goes up to 2.0. The show's ratings will never be as high as they were during the Jess seasons.

Jess is not in season 5, as he was busy moving to Philly and becoming awesome. Milo shows up on American Dreams as yet another bad boy, yet his fresh-faced love interest in that show seizes the moment and not only fucks him but runs away with him, too. Meg Pryor at least knows how to take advantage of her opportunities.

American Dreams had slightly better ratings than Gilmore Girls but because it was a network show (and had insanely expensive music rights) it was canceled.

2005-2006

The top rated show (again) was American Idol with a demo rating of 12.9

Oh, season 6. The season of disappointment, thwarted dreams, and Jess Mariano reinventing himself as a hipster dreamboat.

The show remained popular, tying for first place in the network with Smallville and Beauty and the Geek (the reality show version of The Big Bang Theory). The demo rating stayed at 2.0 and the show ranked 110th overall.

Supernatural (the show Jared is most known for) debuts in 5th with a 1.6 demo rating. It will become quite the phenomenon over the next 15 years and spawn many stans of its own.

Milo's show The Bedford Diaries isn't too popular, but he also films the Rocky sequel and is cast in Heroes. He's on to bigger and better things, as is Jess, who is now a stable, successful author and business owner and hotter than ever, while Rory is stuck in a holding pattern of indecisiveness and bad decisions. Oh, well. The population of Philly awaits, son. Start your slut era in style.

2006-2007

Y'all will be shocked to find out that the top rated show of the year again was American Idol again with a 12.3 demo rating.

Oh, season 7. The new writers tried, I guess. ASP had pretty much destroyed Luke and Lorelai as a couple and also set her sights on almost every other character, too. So we're left with a devastated Luke, the specter of Christopher on the horizon, and Rory once again embroiled in love triangle drama.

The WB and UPN had combined into a single network, so the show has more competition, but I think a lot of people just gave up.

The show went down to its S4 series low of 1.7, ranked 4th behind America's Next Top Model and Beauty and the Geek. It ranked 122nd for the year and was canceled. There were negotiations for a 13-episode season 8 (with Matt Czuchry as a regular cast member) but they fell through. I think if that season had happened, Luke and Lorelai would have gotten married/had a baby and Rory and Logan would have been endgame. We would not have seen Jess again, because Milo was too busy elsewhere.

Heroes was the 7th ranked show overall that year and the top rated show on NBC. It has a demo rating of 6.4, over three times as high as Gilmore Girls and almost twice as high as Gilmore Girls at its height. There was a ton of water-cooler chat about the show during that time: it was pretty much everywhere.

There's been a lot of chatter on this site about ASP having big plans for Jess in S7, that she was going to have Rory cheat on Logan with Jess again and Milo only said no because he hated the new writers. There's never been any indication any of that is true because why wouldn't he move on to another job with more money, prestige, and attention? It was wise of him to leave and better for both Milo and Jess in the end.

So what have we learned here, other than that Frazzled has weird hobbies? Well, mainly that season 4 almost killed the show, the show's glory days truly were the first three seasons, and that I was not alone in rage quitting the show in 2006. All good lessons to keep in mind.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Marci A Hamilton: The new House speaker, Mike Johnson, knows how he will rule: according to his Bible. When asked on Fox News how he would make public policy, he replied: “Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.” But it’s taking time for the full significance of that statement to sink in. Johnson is in fact a believer in scriptural originalism, the view that the Bible is the truth and the sole legitimate source for public policy. He was most candid about this in 2016, when he declared: “You know, we don’t live in a democracy” but a “biblical” republic. Chalk up his elevation to the speakership as the greatest victory so far within Congress for the religious right in its holy war to turn the US government into a theocracy. Since his fellow Republicans made him their leader, numerous articles have reported Johnson’s religiously motivated, far-right views on abortion, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights. But that barely scratches the surface. Johnson was a senior lawyer for the extremist Alliance Defending Fund (later the Alliance Defending Freedom) from 2002 to 2010. This is the organization responsible for orchestrating the 303 Creative v Elenis legal arguments to obtain a ruling from the supreme court permitting a wedding website designer to refuse to do business with gay couples. It also played a significant role in annulling Roe v Wade.

The ADF has always been opposed to privacy rights, abortion and birth control. Now Roe is gone, the group is laying the groundwork to end protection for birth control. Those who thought Roe would never be overruled should understand that the reasoning in Dobbs v Jackson is not tailored to abortion. Dobbs was explicitly written to be the legal fortress from which the right will launch their attacks against other fundamental rights their extremist Christian beliefs reject. They are passionate about rolling back the right to contraception, the right to same-sex marriage and the right to sexual privacy between consenting adults. Johnson’s inerrant biblical truth leads him to reject science. Johnson was a “young earth creationist”, holding that a literal reading of Genesis means that the earth is only a few thousand years old and humans walked alongside dinosaurs. He has been the attorney for and partner in Kentucky’s Creation Museum and Ark amusement park, which present these beliefs as scientific fact, a familiar sleight of hand where the end (garnering more believers) justifies the means (lying about science). For them, the end always justifies the means. That’s why they don’t even blink when non-believers suffer for their dogma.

Setting aside all of these wildly extreme, religiously motivated policy preferences, there is a more insidious threat to America in Johnson’s embrace of scriptural originalism: his belief that subjective interpretation of the Bible provides the master plan for governance. Religious truth is neither rational nor susceptible to reasoned debate. For Johnson, who sees a Manichean world divided between the saved who are going to heaven and the unsaved going to hell, there is no middle ground. Constitutional politics withers and is replaced with a battle of the faithful against the infidels. Sound familiar? Maybe in Tehran or Kabul or Riyadh. But in America? When rulers insist the law should be driven by a particular religious viewpoint, they are systematizing their beliefs and imposing a theocracy. We have thousands of religious sects in the US and there is no religious majority, but we now have a politically fervent conservative religious movement of Christian nationalists intent on shaping policy to match their understanding of God and theirs alone. The Republicans who elected Johnson speaker, by a unanimous vote, have aligned themselves with total political rule by an intolerant religious sect.

[The Guardian]