#things started getting better for midge again in the 80s when she came back out again w her true identity

[britneyshakespeare]

"Why did Barbie stop being best friends with Midge in the late 60s, only to replace her with PJ, who has the same face" Midge was in witness protection asshole. Be considerate

[misha-moose-dean-burger-lover]

outsider pov deancas, 2.4k, based after the good finale. for @bloodsigilsandpie <3

"it's happening."

natasha returns to the kitchen, her otherwise suppressed glee betrayed by the glint in her eyes as she declares to the entire room. "they're on a date."

chloe's the first to react, or rather, the spoons in her hand that promptly drop back into the foam are. "no way."

"way." farah rushes close to natasha, gushing. "did they tell you?"

natasha sniffs, depositing the plates in the sink with her back turned to her eager audience.

"do you think they told me?"

she doesn't wait for an answer, turning around and leaning back against the counter.

"of course they didn't tell me. but i," she smirks. "i could tell."

"oh, you could tell." hutch repeats mockingly, and a few others snicker. "nat, we're talking about the trenchcoat dude who never smiles, and big-car-black-coffee-loyal-to-the-pie guy. no one has ever been able to tell anything with those two. and they don't look anything more than unlikely work friends to me either."

"unlikely work friends don't look at each other like that!" farah chastises immediately.

"fine. unlikely work friends with repressed homosexual urges from the 80's."

"hutch, if you're going to insult my date-dar, do it to my face!" natasha scowls, earning herself another eyeroll and a defensive palms-up gesture from the skeptic sous-chef.

"he literally just did." chloe mutters, ever the devil's advocate, before farah interrupts. she'd always been their resident 'trenchcoat dude who never smiles and big-car-black-coffee-loyal-to-the-pie guy' shipper. there tend to be one of those for all such couples the waitstaff discusses on the regular, really.

"so, how can you tell? what's different?"

"well for one," natasha grins. "trenchcoat dude's not wearing his trenchcoat."

a commotion of gasps come up from arguably most stations of the kitchen — even those who weren't a part of the discussion before.

"is it on the back of his chair? did car-guy help him take it off?" farah instantly pipes up, her eyes wide and hopeful. (hutch and her are the newest waiters, natasha remembers with a midge of distaste. sometimes it's too obvious.)

"no. it's nowhere in sight." she admits, eyebrows raised.

"maybe it ripped." that's hutch.

"maybe he finally realized that thing was doing nothing for him." dallas. everybody knows he's got a thing for trench coat dude though, so nobody bats an eye.

"maybe car-guy told him." chloe shrugs.

"hey, maybe somebody else did." hutch again.

"that's not the point." natasha butts in. "car-guy's better dressed too. i don't know much about old people fashion — chloe, if you don't stop looking at me like that — but i think ascots are supposed to be fancy."

"he wore a what —" several voices echo, and just then, freya enters the kitchen, beaming. (second year at the diner, loads of tattoos, and has a lovely girlfriend at the domino's across the street. natasha likes her.)

"you guys'll never guess what happened."

hutch and dallas sigh in unison, and farah giggles a little. "you won't guess what happened here either!"

"me first. trenchcoat dude and car-guy are on a date."

chloe snorts, picking up two prepared plates of food from one of the side chef's stations, and setting off out the door freya just entered from. important to find a job-gossip balance and all that.

natasha turns to the new informant. "what did you see?"

"car-guy asked trenchcoat what he wanted for dessert." freya beams.

"this just in, men can learn manners." hutch inputs before exiting with his own tray.

"car-guy might always order the pie but it looks mutual!" farah points out indignantly but he's gone already.

nevermind, he'll be back in five.

"and what did trenchcoat say?" natasha asks, ignoring the other two.

"milkshake," freya replies, writing it on a post-it as she says it.

"one shake, two straws." farah gasps. "come on, frey. tell me it was one shake, two straws."

"two shakes, two straws." she scribbles away.

"maybe they're gonna share both." farah quickly supplies.

"nobody does that, farah." dallas retorts, and natasha makes a face at him, not willing to kill the former's hopes just yet. farah tends to get this forlorn look on her face when things go wrong — and it always reminds natasha of her dead cousin.

she clears her throat.

"look, it can be a date without the shared milkshake, people." a few thoughtful sounds come up, the gates swing, and chloe walks back in. "plus, we've still got all the staring, the lingering looks over the menu, the soulful eyefu —"

"but that's everyday, nat." freya sighs.

"it's different today —"

"— you know it isn't —"

"— and i can prove it." natasha finishes, earning herself looks of surprise from almost everyone around. she can, though. the diner's got a valentines discount on milkshakes all month, she can approach them about it. trenchcoat and car-guy don't have to know it's not just for couples. and on the (really, really) offchance that they aren't one, natasha could always just minus the discount from the total anyway and no one would be the wiser.

the idea had just come to her but she was fairly sure she could swing it.

farah had already picked up a tray with two soup bowls and a dish of croutons, but she puts it down, and replaces the to-be-forlornness with excitement. "how?"

"i'll," natasha smirks again. "talk to them."

another round of gasps. in this kitchen, the people were nothing if not dramatic.

this time, freya's the one who asks, "how?"

"well, i haven't waitressed for twelve years just to go about rattling off trade secrets, kids." natasha winks, and a few of them make indignant noises because only about one third of the staff was what could broadly be called new. most of them had been there for years, and were practically a part of her family now. but she picks up her own tray smoothly, conveniently having been slid to her counter just then, and sets off — to an audience of hopeful believers (and dallas)'s matching stares.

(natasha isn't exactly free of the flair for drama she'd just accused everyone in this kitchen of.)

once outside, she makes a beeline for the table her tray is actually for, leaves them it, and quickly heads for the infamous trenchcoat and car-guy table.

this is so going to work.

"so then i cut his —" car-guy stops mid-sentence, spotting her. a part of natasha seethes to know what he 'cut off', but being fodder for the kitchenstaff's are-they-dating games didn't take away their rights to privacy, and she respected those. the car-guy smiles shortly at her. "what's the matter," his eyes flick down to her nametag, flick right back. (definitely a good sign; most men linger.) "natasha?"

she puts on her best smile. "it's about the milkshakes."

"is there a problem?" car-guy eases into a wider smile. "do you not have them, not a single one, and do we have to order pie instead?"

car-guy's partner shakes his head exasperatedly. "dean, i hardly think that's what she'd be here about."

"well, a guy's gotta dream." car-guy — dean — instantly says, and goes back to his burger while trenchcoat speaks up instead.

"what's the matter?"

natasha doesn't let her smile budge. it's a hell of a customer service smile, she's been told. "i actually came here to ask if you would like me to add the date dessert discount on the milkshake. it's an all-february thing. not on all items." she clarifies, a reflexive response for why it hasn't come up before.

genius.

dean looks a little cornered — trenchcoat just looks confused.

"i don't understand." he says, after a moment's pause. "the milkshakes cost less just if dean and i are here on a date...?"

"it's not —" she balks a little at his seriousness. "it's actually not that big of a difference."

"that's...alright." trenchcoat tilts his head, and natasha suddenly realizes she's physically fighting the urge to stare. shit, dallas isn't half-wrong. "but why just milkshakes?"

dean lets out an uncomfortable laugh. "capitalism trying to crap all over the free man's heart and the supremacy of pie not enough reason for ya, cas?"

natasha stifles a smile.

that's actually a good line. maybe car-guy deserves more credit than just loyal-to-the-pie.

trenchcoat — okay, cas, at least while she's out here — still looks a little doubtful (and she has no idea why) but he nods at dean, and then looks up at her and nods again. "add the discount."

natasha has to resist the urge to let her jaw drop.

this entire conversation, she'd practically been sure they were heading towards a rejection of the 'date' clause. and her gut told her they weren't lying either.

well, well. always thrilling to be right.

"and thank you for telling us about it." cas continues, and her practised smile returns immediately. probably a little less obligatory.

"of course."

and dean still looks like he'd rather cut more whatever-he-was-talking-about's off rather than be here right now, so natasha goes to leave. but cas stops her right before she's out of reach.

"excuse me." he's the one smiling this time. "if you're not busy right away, could you tell us what other items are eligible for the february date discount?"

dean facepalms. "come on, dude."

cas gives him a look — and natasha was right, of course she was right, that's not a exasperated 'friend' look. "i'd like to know, dean."

to natasha's knowledge, they've never had trouble paying for anything before (hernandez, she thinks one of their surnames is, she's seen it on a card) but she can't object to 'cas' asking, of course. curiosity is also a well-off man's right.

"why?" dean asks vehemently, before she can start to rattle off the list.

"because," cas answers levelly. actually, he kind of sounds like he's using his dad voice. maybe he is a dad. "i think it's strange that we've never gotten the discount before, while we've been eating lunch here almost this entire month."

it's again hard for natasha to not just stare gapmouthed at them.

"those have been dates." she realizes belatedly and out loud, and receives a weird, distasteful look from dean, and an immediate nod from cas that makes her blurt out, "so this isn't your...first date."

they're dating.

oh, farah was going to lose her mind.

"is that a requisite clause?" cas asks politely, while dean just scrubs his face with a hand.

"no." she tells cas truthfully. "i'm sorry, i just assumed it was. your first, i mean."

"lady, we certainly don't look first date aged to me." dean butts in, not hostile, but like it's something that irks him. "and we've been married four years, so one would desperately hope it's not our first date, y'know."

married.

they're friggin' married.

natasha is an idiot, and her date-dar is probably due for an early retirement.

they've been married for four years.

"i'm...very sorry." she apologizes, mortified. "i had no idea. i —"

"it's fine." this time, dean's smiling, and cas's confused frown is back. it's like they take turns. natasha is almost grateful for it, to be fair, because both those smiles directed at her would've been a helluva lot more distracting. "really doesn't matter. and yeah, sure, add the milkshake discount but don't worry about the list of items." he turns to cas. "just have sam look it up for you when we get home. please."

cas seems to be prepared to acquiesce to that but natasha can't help her own curiosity this time. "is that your son?"

and she's halfway to regretting it the moment she registers having said it, even though thankfully neither of them look too offended. in fact, cas is back to smiling.

"he's dean's brother." cas tells her. "he's the one with jack right now." he pauses. "it's easier because he and eileen live with us."

"yeah, an in-house sitter who doesn't even like going out is really a department we won in." dean grins, solely at cas. as if he's momentarily forgotten all about natasha's presence (that had clearly been making him uncomfortable talking in front of, earlier) in just looking at his husband. natasha sends out a quick pre-prayer for farah. "sucks for eileen though."

"eileen is very happy with your brother, dean." cas chastises, his eyes nothing but affectionate even then, and natasha's head reels with how much she has to tell the waitstaff today.

they're going to friggin' adore her.

"so jack is your son," she confirms, less wary of their reaction to her question now that they looked to have settled into their own silent conversation.

"he's our son, yes." cas replies, simply.

"like, you and him." she flashes a smile at dean.

"us and sam." cas corrects, and dean facepalms again. for her part, natasha can do little more than blink.

"but —"

"it's complicated." dean cuts her off suddenly, and she flinches. he didn't even deny it, just...sidestepped it.

"i — i see." natasha clears her throat, still looking at cas in bewilderment.

cas probably doesn't notice because he's talking to dean again. "it's significantly less complicated than claire's parentage, dean. she has over six parental —"

jesus christ.

"aaand that's enough trivia for date night." dean interrupts loudly again, definitely for the best, because natasha was standing there like a thoughtless statue at this point. his raised voice shakes her out of her reverie, and she vaguely calculates the chances of crashing into a table if she tried to walk away right away.

"i'll," she mumbles instead, drawing in a breath forcefully. "i'll be back with your milkshakes."

"thank you!" cas calls after her as she half wobbles on her heels back to the kitchen.

inside, she puts her empty tray on the metal counter and her hands on both sides of it, bowing her head, and almost immediately ending up surrounded by a plethora of people — most of whom, in normal circumstances, would just have been eavesdropping from their respective stations.

farah's the first to ask, followed by hutch.

"so?"

"what did you find out?"

natasha closes her eyes. "they're married."

this time, the commotion is the largest yet. but she isn't done.

"and every single one of their meals here have been dates." freya pumps her fist, chloe squeezes farah's hand, and dallas tsks under his breath. the 'gallery' watchers appear ready to join in the cheering as well today. but the entire kitchen senses she isn't done yet, and waits fidgetingly for the rest of it.

"and," natasha swallows. "they're almost definitely in a cult."

[toongrrl-blog]

The Mommy Myth: The War Against Welfare Mothers (Part One)

This gif is from the 1970s film Claudine, a romantic comedy starring James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll about a garbage man and a welfare mother trying to make the relationship and where he helps provide for her home and kids without the social worker checking in. 

We check in with The New Yorker, who took a break from their cartoons to cover a welfare mother named Carmen Santana (not her real name): she is Puerto Rican American (and judging by the text’s descriptions of her “wide nose”, complexion, curly dark hair, and thick lips, she must be Afro-Latina) who weighs over 200 lbs and boy the writer was having a field day describing her heft and body. She has no interest in “national or international events” (common flaw that goes across class lines), she spends her day watching soap operas, cursing in Spanish and giving her many kids “a good cuffing” and they just throw the trash out the window. Her kitchen is filthy and her philosophy is “what will be, will be” (a common thing) and sits all the time even when she is cooking while her kids’ bedroom is decorated with obscene graffiti; she had her first child at age 15 and went on to have eight more kids by three different men and her mother had three children by different men and now Carmen’s daughter is also on welfare. She spends the money from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) on makeup and perfume and hair (honestly wasn’t that a thing at some point? Like Midge Maisel and her mother make sure their husbands never see them without perfect hair and makeup) and junk food for the kids and she also plays the numbers where she spends her winnings on “jewelry , beer, and liquour” and “trips to Puerto Rico”. I guess we are not supposed to sympathize with this woman. 

Carmen was an example of a stereotype that was used to represent and demonize welfare mothers. Johnnine Tillmon, the first chairwoman of the group National Welfare Rights Organization saw welfare and the stereotypes as a feminist issue. 

I’m a woman. I’m a black woman. I’m a poor woman. I’m a fat woman. I’m a middle-aged woman. And I’m on welfare. In this country, if you’re any one of those things---poor, black, fat, female, middle-aged, on welfare---you count less as a human being. 

She even said that the biggest reason that people believe the stereotype of the welfare mother is that they are “special versions of the lies that society tells about all women”, sadly she wasn’t listened to in the mainstream media where welfare mothers were deviants in a culture that valued the rugged individual, relentless hard work and sacrifice, slim bodies aided by Bowflex or Thighmaster, and shiny blond hair with perky smiles. Yo because of this stereotype, women of color with several children are considered suspect. It was also another way to pit moms against moms, the resentment of packing the kids’ lunch and work at a dull 9 to 5 job or scrub the kitchen floors while this stereotype gets to have sex with whoever and drink booze with tax dollars. Even Time magazine went in:

Here’s a few facts: the average welfare family in 1994 had three members, the mother and two children. 39% were White and 37% were Black, African Americans numbered 12% of the national population but were about 35-37% of the welfare population and African Americans were three times as likely as White Americans to live below the poverty level. Only 10% of AFDC mothers had four or more children and 80% had one or two kids and figures in 1993 shown 75% of adults left welfare within two years and 1/2 of single mothers worked while on welfare and 1/3 were working to supplement the minuscule allotment and get off from unemployment. But that was lost on the media that focused on families with two or more generations on welfare (a tiny fraction of welfare recipients) even focusing on unwed teen welfare moms because they were...SHOCKING! Only 1% were teen mothers. Welfare mothers were known only by first name and she lived in the urban decay of New York, Camden (New Jersey), Chicago, or Detroit; they were black and unmarried and had a bunch of kids who don’t share a common biological father and she smoked and painted her nails and gave soda to her baby (OMG imagine 2010s soda freaks) and her face was pixelated in the media. Some of them were depicted as cynical about life and motherhood, it wasn’t sexy for them and at least they felt ambivalence (which was soooooo disco era). 

Then came the 1990s where the moderate Democratic Clinton administration introduced “Welfare Reform” where President Bill Clinton ended “welfare as we know it” and he was just following his predecessors: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush (the first) regarding their attitude towards welfare recipients. The Welfare to Work program who were being trained by job placement programs that prepared them for low-paying jobs in retail and in service and the resources for job training were limited (also if your hours took you away from your kids?). Also it was hard for welfare to work moms working to move up in their jobs and often mostly got gigs like seasonal retail. 

The depiction of welfare mothers was different from the celebrity mom: she wasn’t ascribed emotions where her eyes welled up with tears or laughed, she wasn’t well lit with a light or a rosy focus, never seen holding her child up or clutching the child and magazines like Redbook or McCall’s never did a cover story with a welfare mom and her kids done up and showing the readers fun things they do with little or no money or touring New York City on $10 for a day or games to play while waiting in long lines (honestly that is a good idea, someone pay Susan and Meredith if the magazines do that). Also if you were a woman of color, especially a young one or a poor one (or both) you weren’t supposed to have the “baby lust” so gushed about in celebrity mom profiles; trust me I grew up a Latina kid in Central California and many older women like my mom would worry about the girls that want to have babies so bad or fall in love hard and fast, a young Karen Wheeler in 1967 can give all to family and babies and staying home but it is more precarious for a young girl of color. 

The media depiction of poor people wasn’t always so negative: political scientist Martin Gilens found that when the “War on Poverty” began, where the Lyndon B. Johnson administration focused on eliminating poverty and started programs like Head Start rather than piss on poor people, coverage focused on poor white people in rural areas like Appalachia or in the Rustbelt where mines or factories closed down, these were the faces of The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family who fought against hardship on their way to a better life. After Michael Harrington published his book The Other America, public support for ending poverty was strong. But then came the riots in Watts, Newark, and Detroit (just a few) where mostly people of color fought back against law enforcement and the media used images of African-Americans to illustrate their pieces on welfare, which reinforced stereotypes about welfare and as the coverage became more negative, the skin color got darker (even though statistics then and now showed many more white recipients of welfare)

How about how the face of welfare became so feminized? In the 1930s, when the Welfare program and Social Security began under the New Deal by President FDR, a lot of women of color were barred from welfare because of discriminatory practices, this changed with the Civil Rights Movement which opened up some doors for women of color to get assistance for their children and households. Before the Welfare recipient was faceless or usually a man, who got rich off welfare and bought Cadillacs with the money, something that Richard Nixon really clung to and he asked Johnny Cash to perform the song “Welfare Cadillac” at a White House event sparking controversy. Indeed when Cash met with Nixon, he gave him a private concert with songs that were more compassionate and less reactionary than what Nixon wanted. In the early 1960s, magazines like Look or Reader’s Digest wrote to readers about women who sent their many children to beg for money while the mother ate steak with their boyfriend, or worse, spent the money on narcotics and kept giving birth to more than 10 kids. The image of poor, fertile mothers on taxpayer money was more infuriating than that of a able-bodied man getting the money, but making welfare moms work was shocking (as the system was designed for widows to stay home with their children and not worry about money), even a stinging David Brinkley chafed at leaving kids at a daycare center...it would cost the taxpayer more.

Ronald Reagan coined the term “welfare queen” (look it up) and made exaggerated anecdotes and given how people were drawn to him (looking at you Mike and Nancy’s parents), he was believed despite him not citing sources or studies. Reagan voters fell for the image of a welfare mother who spent money for fancy cars, vacations, designer clothes, and played the system (there were a  few like Dorothy Woods, but again if this were common, the landscape of the inner city would look a lot different...) It was a dark time, the Religious Right took control, Proposition 13 in California put a limit on property taxes and started many tax revolts to limit government spending, and let’s not forget Ronald Reagan opposed the following:

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Fair-Housing Legislation in California

Legislation to declare Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday

How does that Reagan/Bush ‘84 sign look Ted and Karen?

Stay tuned.....

[michalwu]

Best of 2018 in TV

Another year passed and again I watched a lot of good quality tv. I think that although again it was very hard to choose my top 10 this year was a little bit less intense than previous. Still I had to do a short list of places 20-11 because I couldn’t resist not to mention a few more productions. That said remember I’m not a critic. I watch thinks I like not because I have to and this list is totally subjective though I tried to be fair. I watched over 50 series from 2018 and that’s the results:

20-11 (in random order)

The Affair (season 4), Atlanta (season 2), Homecoming, ACS: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Killing Eve, One Day at the Time (season 2), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Maniac (season 2), Legion (season 2), AHS: Apocalypse.

10. Anne with and E (season 2)

I never was a huge fan of the book as a kid but I read it as mandatory lecture in primary school. But I am a huge fan of this series. Beautiful placement of the plot plus very talented young cast with leading Amybeth. The best part of the story for me always was the dynamics of Anna's relationship with her adopted parents.

9. Patrick Melrose

What an absolutely outstanding trio of actors: Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Plus another young talent this year Seabstian Maltz who as a young Patrick is giving one of the most dramatic performence of the year. Creators did justice to the novel.

8. The Deuce (season 2)

This was one of the most enjoyable series this year. I love the period it shows and since the first season I started to develop a sympathy for all those characters especially for Candy. Too bad the series seems to be forgotten this year by critics. In my opion it came back in a lot better shape than last year. It’s funnier, it’s faster and the whole fuss around making porno adaptation of Red Riding Hood is just captivating.

7. Sharp Objects

Another great limited series and another proof of my love to the craftsmanship of brilliant Jean-Marc Vallée. The story from book was kinda predictable and tacky. But thanks to the director who is an expert of showing emotions and dilemmas from the past plus the cast of three great actresses made it into phenomenal work. I am really looking forward to see more projects from cooperation of Mr. Vallee and HBO because so far it brings only true treasures.

6. Barry

I was always a fan of Bill Harder on SNL and his (usually) small roles in comedies. So then I found out that he’s making his own show I kept my fingers crossed for the success. And the results are better than expected. Barry is a great combination of drama and comedy. It sound like things we see lately very often but Barry is the best mix of two this year (not to mention animated series). Why? Because drama is real (he’s a seriall killer with many very hard moral choices to make) and the comedy provided (mostly) by Henry Winkler is just a poor gold. Well done.

5. The Haunting of  Hill House

I’m not a big horror enthusiast but I do have a soft spot for those stories in classical form. And what’s more classic than beautiful, old, and huge haunted house. I fell in love with this series and it’s so much better than the previous movies. This one is actually very far from the original story written by Shirley Jackson but it capture the atmosphere the best. Separation of episode focusing on different from five siblings was a great idea. From non-believer to the most affected of the kids the story became more and more intense and scary. I honestly was scared almost the whole time. Still I tried to play with creators and watch for all  the hidden ghosts in the background. The secret of Bent Neck Lady was haunting me for a while and even after finishing the series it all stayed with me in my mind. This was my favorite new series of the year. I’d love to see it again in other form, maybe as anthology like AHS. With this cast yes please!

4. GLOW (season 2)

It’s so nice today that we can get such a smahing tv show this such a huge female cast. I love this series and those Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling since season 1. I always enjoy it when show or movie takes me to another peroid of time and GLOW blend us into into that reality of 80 like nothing else. We had so many exctiting things this season with Debbie becoming single mother after divorce, Sam Silvia trying himself as a father and the whole team becoiming more and more like a crazy family (recording of intro in the mall was amazing). In real life I’m not really intrested in wrestling (like at all) and though it probably differs a lot than reality I loved those duels bethween characters. Episode Mother of All Matches is one of the best in 2018.

3. BoJack Horseman (season 5)

Oh how I love this show and this character. And before anyone judge me I don’t love BoJack for being a walking disaster and misery. I love this character and many other on the show for the incredibly smart writing. He is a alcoholic, narcissus and washed-out tv star and that who he is. Just like Priness Caroline is an ambitious woman who will give up many things for career even if she know it won’t give her happines in the end. But that’s the greatest thing about this show and creators that they won’t change those characters and put them in unexpected positions just to get the wow factor from the viewers. They still find  a way to present those persons in fresh and captivating way but making it “in” the nature of the character. And that’s the fift season so congrats! And still we can count on them to give us some real gems like episode Free Churro which is a masterpiece of writing. The thing is this season of BoJack doesn’t stand out in specific way from other but it gives us the thing it always did and never disappoints - crazy rollercoaster ride.

2. Mozart in the Jungle (season 4)

When I said at the beginning that this list is totally subjective I meant it inter alia because of this series. Mozart IS my favorite tv series. I don’t know if the best but it always gave me the most joy when watching it adn that’s a pretty good determinant. Unfortunately I will have to start saying it WAS my favorite because Amazon cancelled series after this season. I’m still mad and disappointed because GoT is about to end so all platforms grab the money to invest in “next huge thing” (in case of Amazon it’s new Lord of the Ring..yeah we need it). But don’t get me wrong. I didn’t put Mozart this high because I’m mad and or to mark someone’s mistake. I just really loved this season. Placing the plot in Japan was bull’s-eye move. Rodrigo De Souza (favorite tv character next to Leslie Knope) as a boyfriend of Hailey was hilarious, a much as observing her way to become succesfull and independent artist. The scene when she debuts as conductor with piece “Hi” is maybe my favorite moment in whole season. Even stronger is her performence at the finale. Although I rooted for Hailey and Rodrigo as a couple I’m glad that creators didn’t go into cliche with their relationship. Another strong scene is the on at traditional tea ceremony. Of course as always the whole season was very firm from the music side (this series helped me to discover a little piece of classical music and I’m grateful for that). I will really miss this series. I think it could easily do another season especially now when creators decided to end this season in such an interesting place. Too bad...

1. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (season 2)

There’s nothing to explain... but I will ;) I compared all the series with each other and in my opinion there was nothing better that Mrs. Maisel this year. I enjoyed it last year but I didn’t even expected how much delight will it be to have it back. Visually it is the most beautiful thing in tv right now. And the writing as always is case of Amy Sherman-Palladino is just excellent. Those characters are so fast and wit it’s just a pleasure to observe them interact and discuss with much to many words and refrences than any normal person would use. And those actors really take it like a champs. All episodes in Paris was nice but it was nothing compre to Catskill where it felt like watching dirty dancing but with much better and more interesting story. I love the way Palladino direct her characters. How they develop especially Midge, her friendship with Susie and her realisation that stand-up comedy is not only the thing she want to do but it is something she will do for the rest of her life. Every time she stands in front of audience, camera or father himself she proves to be nailer and we as audience live for those moments! I really enjoyed see her parents in Paris as we could discover totally different side of them both and also new romance of Midge. But my favorite sequence of the season was Midge watching Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby is so on point with this role) in last episode and realising it all (inconspicuous scene but made me waste a few tears). At the end I will add that I love the attitude towards the children presented in this series...irrational like many other things.

*******

Suming up in my list dominant are HBO and Netflix productions but in the end two first places go to Amazon.

Comapring with previous year there is no sign of Legion in top 10. Well season 2 was good, sometimes even great but not enough to get into the top. Beside there’s less new series on the list (seven in 2017, four this year) but we had some amazing comebacks.

I don’t have huge disappointments this year, maybe just a few. 1) Romanoffs were boring as hell and I really counted on Weiner. 2) Cancelling of many good series like Mozart in the Jungle or Daredevil. 3) Riverdale became so absurd that it beats and law of logic. I mean why it gotta be so intense?

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Americans,’ ‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘Master of None’ Music Supervisors Talk TV's Best Music of the Season

For the first time ever, the 2017 Primetime Emmys will hand out an award for Outstanding Music Supervision, acknowledging the creative contributions made by the music supervisors on TV series. It’s an award that’s long overdue; music supervision is an often misunderstood art form thought to be as simple as pulling songs off an iPod. “There’s so much work that goes into it that you don’t see on the screen,” says Amanda Krieg Thomas, who works on The Americans. “It’s not, quote, ‘picking songs.’”

EMMYS 2017: The Standout Performances of the Season

Instead, a show’s music supervisor is tasked with establishing (or enhancing) a show’s atmosphere, navigating the storytelling and onscreen performances and licensing songs that make sense for that particular series. Nowhere is that better exemplified than on Big Little Lies and The Leftovers on HBO, FX’s The Americans, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Master of None on Netflix and the NBC breakout series This Is Us.

Now that the 2016-2017 season is officially over for these five series, ET hopped on the phone with each of their music supervisors to discuss how the music came together and their favorite moments from the season.

‘The Americans’ Music Supervisor: Amanda Krieg Thomas and P.J. Bloom Standout Moment: “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John in Episode 13 

One thing that notably sets The Americans apart from many TV shows (and even others on this list) is its sparse use of music, which is only brought in for key moments week to week. Any given episode might only include one or two song cues. “They use it really sparingly and to great effect,” Thomas says. And now that the FX series about two KGB spies posing as an American married couple during the Cold War is five seasons in, Thomas and Bloom, a music supervision duo whose work includes other FX series such as American Horror Story and Feud, really understand The Americans’ tone. “We’re entrenched in the pathos of what’s going on,” Thomas says of having a deep understanding of not only how to enhance the vision of showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, but also an understanding of who these characters are and what the show’s about. “We’re very lucky the stories are particularly nuanced and have so much depth.”

In season five, the few moments that do get enhanced with music are put to expert use. For Thomas, a prime example of that is in episode three, “The Midges,” which features Roxy Music’s “More Than This” in the opening and closing moments. At first, it’s heard in a bowling alley just as it would be if it were actually playing there. But when the song comes back as Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) load a body into a car, “it takes on a completely different meaning,” Thomas says of elevating a moment that’s already there in the storytelling and acting. “We just help speak to that.” Another example is Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which is overheard during a montage of characters during the season five finale. “There were a lot of songs we tried for that sequence,” Thomas reveals, saying that John’s track was the only one that could “cover a lot of emotional bases and have different meanings.”

While “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” a well-known song among fans, was a choice put forth by the showrunners, Thomas credits both of them for encouraging her and Bloom to dig deep to find music that fits the show. While she asserts that everything is “period-authentic,” something the show takes seriously at all levels, they rarely rely on hits, preferring to find a band “that just fits into the ethos of the show,” like Bauhaus in episode six or even Peter Gabriel’s lesser-known song “Lay Your Hands on Me.” Also featured in episode six, “Lay Your Hands on Me” is the third Gabriel song to appear on the show. As to why he works so well for The Americans, Thomas says “there’s depth, there’s emotion, there’s lot of energy” to his music. “His is the right tone and vibe.”

MORE: How 'The Americans' Budding Spy Holly Taylor Stole The Season With a Single Word

‘Big Little Lies’ Music Supervisor: Susan Jacobs Standout Moment: “September Song” by Agnes Obel in Episode 3

HBO

Director Jean-Marc Vallee is famous for not using a composer, preferring to score his movies with a soundtrack of existing music. “He’s committed to that direction when he starts,” Jacobs says. So when she was brought in to work on HBO’s Big Little Lies, the first series for both of them, she had the task of filling seven hours of TV. “The volume of it was daunting,” she says of not only being responsible for getting rights to the show’s varied music, which includes at least five songs per episode, but also writing original songs and casting music and voice extras for certain scenes on the show. But Vallee was so committed to the idea that he came in knowing exactly which songs he wanted to use on the series.

Telling the interwoven stories of mothers -- Madeline (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste (Nicole Kidman), Jane (Shailene Woodley), Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) and Renata (Laura Dern) -- living in a rich California coastal town, the director wanted the music on Big Little Lies to represent the power of these women. “The ocean was very part of that for him, too,” Jacobs says of finding music that spoke to the ebbs and flows of the characters’ emotions. One prime example is Agnes Obel’s “September Song,” a personal favorite of Jacobs’, which is first heard in the premiere and again in episode three as Madeline is driving home. Wanting something simple that could play in the background, the song matched Madeline’s heartbreak and its repetitive sound “rolls like a wave,” the music supervisor says.

Also in keeping with the strength of the women was the largely predominant use of female vocalists throughout the series. In addition to Obel, the soundtrack included songs by Martha Wainwright (“Bloody Mother F**kin Asshole”), Fleetwood Mac (“Dreams”), Alabama Shakes (“This Feeling”), Irma Thomas (“Straight From the Heart”) and Ituana, a studio musician who notably covered the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in the series finale’s closing moments, jumping between Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgard) death and the women at the beach. For Jacobs, she liked how this version flipped what “tends to be such a masculine song.”

MORE: How Well Does the 'Big Little Lies' Cast Know Each Other?

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Music Supervisor: Michael Perlmutter Standout Moment: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds in Episode 2

Hulu

Since its premiere, The Handmaid’s Tale has earned critical praise for its timely narrative about a near-future society in which women, stripped of their freedoms, have been placed into servitude shortly after the fall of the U.S. government. At the center of this dystopian saga is Offred (Elisabeth Moss), a handmaid placed in the household of Commander Fred Waterford and his wife, Serena Joy (played by Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski). Her journey (and perseverance) is largely what drives the show’s song selections, which Perlmutter says should form “a soundtrack that sounds like freedom.” Working with showrunner Bruce Miller, the episodes’ directors, including Reed Morano, who helmed the first three, and Moss, who serves as a producer on the series, Perlmutter put together a seemingly random collection of songs -- from Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” to “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor -- that all ultimately speak to the same idea.

Perhaps the most standout scene is when a defiant Offred walks out of the Waterfords’ household, recounting her secret meeting with the Commander as Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” plays in the background. Her moment is destroyed when she discovers her shopping partner is no longer the same person. “F**k,” she says to herself. Thought of on the day of shooting, Morano explained that the moment felt very “high school,” leading them to think of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, which famously ended with the Simple Minds tune.

Perlmutter says that iconic moment from the ’80s didn’t prevent them from using the song in the scene. “Everyone came out of it going, ‘This is a new world. This is a new use and it’s great,’” he explains, adding that the song has three levels of meaning on the Hulu series: There’s the defiant high school feeling; the shock when Offred discovers that Ofglen (Alexis Bledel) is gone; and Offred’s own point of view of not being forgotten. “We’re hoping that 20 years from now, people say that it’s an iconic song from The Handmaid’s Tale.”

MORE: 'The Handmaid's Tale' Music Supervisor Talks Season 1's Best Musical Moments

‘The Leftovers’ Music Supervisor: Liza Richardson Standout Moment: “Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)” by Wu-Tang Clan in Episode 2

If we’re in a golden age of music on TV, then The Leftovers is leading it with its third and final season. With a broad mission to take big swings with everything from the writing to the acting, the show’s music selection was far from an afterthought. In fact, Richardson was tasked by co-creator Damon Lindelof with the goal of choosing songs that would “surprise” the audience, which was heard week to week in the episodes’ different opening music selections that were chosen based on that hour’s theme.

The most apt example of a “surprise” moment, though, is the use of Wu-Tang Clan in episode two, during which Nora Durst (Carrie Coon) reveals to Erika Murphy (Regina King) she had covered a tattoo of her children’s names with the rap group’s logo. Admittedly, the Wu-Tang Clan has nothing to do with the show, having never been referenced or heard before in it. But knowing they were going to do an episode about it, writer Tamara Carter pitched an idea involving the group. “At first, [the writers] were going to have the tattoo have lyrics from a Wu-Tang Clan song, so we needed to have the lyrics cleared," Richardson reveals, saying she dug up songs with lyrics that would be appropriate for Nora. In the end, it became a tattoo of the logo, in part because it looks like a phoenix.

Nora’s story was equal parts sad and funny, and only made more epic by Wu-Tang Clan's "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" playing in the background as she and Erika jumped on an outdoor trampoline later in the episode. While there were a few options to choose from, Richardson says the Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) track “works best” in the moment. “I love loud songs with slow motion, especially on a trampoline with those girls and their beautiful bodies,” she says. “It was so great.”

MORE: Breaking Down the 7 Best 'Leftovers' Musical Moments From the Final Season

‘Master of None’ Music Supervisor: Zach Cowie Standout Moment: “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” by Soft Cell in Episode 5

Netflix

When it comes to Master of None, creator and star Aziz Ansari had one mission: make it like nothing he’s never seen on TV before. Not confined to the conventions of a traditional sitcom, Ansari and co-creator Alan Yang pushed the limits of what their show could be, resulting in season two’s black-and-white homage to Italian cinema in the premiere to Lena Waithe’s personal tale of coming out in “Thanksgiving.” “It also made sense to do something no one’s ever heard before, musically,” says Cowie, who was ultimately inspired by Woody Allen as a storyteller who understands how music and film go together. “He takes contemporary subject matter and puts Gershwin behind it.”

Cowie’s version of that is using a varied soundtrack -- from Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” to Sylvester’s “I Need Somebody to Love Tonight” in one episode alone -- that doesn’t put Master of None in a specific time or place. And keeping to the idea of “pushing it further” in season two led the show to figure out how to get permission to use Lucio Battisti’s “Amarsi Un Po” in episode nine. The legendary singer had never licensed his music outside of Italy before; Master of None became the first international project to get the rights for one of his records. “We didn’t get it cleared until three days before the episode mixed,” Cowie reveals.

Another moment that Cowie really loves is when Soft Cell’s “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” plays behind a long shot of Dev (Ansari) as he sits alone in the back of a cab in the final scene of episode five. “It’s my favorite scene of the whole show,” he says of the transcendent moment. Thought of on the fly, it was an idea that came from Ansari, and when the team saw it in the dailies they knew it was a perfect fit. “It’s always really fun for me, in my job, to let something be,” Cowie says, knowing when not to mess with a good thing. Episode five also features a live performance by John Legend, who is friends with Ansari off-screen. Working with Ansari, Cowie came up with a list of songs that the singer might perform during a dinner party scene, which needed to serve as a turning point between Dev and Francesca (Alessandra Mastronardi). On the list was a cover of Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It,” which Legend selected and performed live on set in one take.

MORE: Director Melina Matsoukas Pivots From Beyonce to Must-See TV

‘This Is Us’ Music Supervisor: Jennifer Pyken Standout Moment: “If Only” by Maria Taylor in Episode 9

It's no secret music plays a crucial role in the fabric of This Is Us. For Pyken, finding the perfect song to match the emotion of the NBC drama's sentimental scenes is its own reward. "With music, everyone brings something, whether it's what they're listening to now or something they may have been listening to in the past," says Pyken, whose two-decade career includes credits like Felicity, Alias and One Tree Hill. While several iconic musical moments from the first season -- such as the opening (Sufjan Stevens' "Death With Dignity") and closing (Labi Siffre's "Watch Me") songs in the first episode or Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" in the finale -- were creator Dan Fogelman’s suggestions, Pyken credits their working relationship as being a "collaborative" one, even though she often doesn't find out what's coming until the last moment.

"We look at each episode and work with what's going on in each episode. I don't think there's a specific formula that we use," Pyken shares, admitting that there was no clear "mission statement" given to her in the beginning. That freedom afforded her the ability to connect with the characters as they wove in and out of different decades in their lives. "We do flash back, so we use a lot of cool [artists] like Dire Straits, Blind Faith and Van Morrison that put us in those eras," she says. "We talk about what Jack and Rebecca would be listening to and who they are as people. When we go to the '90s, what are little Kate, Kevin and Randall listening to? What's happening in 1992?" 

One musical moment that stands out the most to Pyken accompanies one of the most heartwarming scenes of the season, though the "Memphis" episode holds a special place in her heart. In the ninth episode, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) puts young Randall on his back, completing push-ups as a metaphorical commitment to raising him into a respectable man, while former Azure Ray singer Maria Taylor's dreamy, nostalgic "If Only" adds depth and heart to the tearjerker moment. "When that scene came up, we dropped [the song] in and it was magic. It was done. We never had to look for another song," Pyken recalls, adding that she finds satisfaction in highlighting indie artists who "don't get placement." Funnily enough, Pyken's relationship with Taylor dates back to Felicity, and the song was immediately identified as the perfect soundtrack for a montage. "Her lyrics and her voice, something about her music just speaks to me." 

MORE: Milo Ventimiglia Satifies His Creative Curiosity With 'This Is Us'

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Americans,’ ‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘Master of None’ Music Supervisors Talk TV's Best Music of the Season

For the first time ever, the 2017 Primetime Emmys will hand out an award for Outstanding Music Supervision, acknowledging the creative contributions made by the music supervisors on TV series. It’s an award that’s long overdue; music supervision is an often misunderstood art form thought to be as simple as pulling songs off an iPod. “There’s so much work that goes into it that you don’t see on the screen,” says Amanda Krieg Thomas, who works on The Americans. “It’s not, quote, ‘picking songs.’”

EMMYS 2017: The Standout Performances of the Season

Instead, a show’s music supervisor is tasked with establishing (or enhancing) a show’s atmosphere, navigating the storytelling and onscreen performances and licensing songs that make sense for that particular series. Nowhere is that better exemplified than on Big Little Lies and The Leftovers on HBO, FX’s The Americans, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Master of None on Netflix and the NBC breakout series This Is Us.

Now that the 2016-2017 season is officially over for these five series, ET hopped on the phone with each of their music supervisors to discuss how the music came together and their favorite moments from the season.

‘The Americans’ Music Supervisor: Amanda Krieg Thomas and P.J. Bloom Standout Moment: “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John in Episode 13 

One thing that notably sets The Americans apart from many TV shows (and even others on this list) is its sparse use of music, which is only brought in for key moments week to week. Any given episode might only include one or two song cues. “They use it really sparingly and to great effect,” Thomas says. And now that the FX series about two KGB spies posing as an American married couple during the Cold War is five seasons in, Thomas and Bloom, a music supervision duo whose work includes other FX series such as American Horror Story and Feud, really understand The Americans’ tone. “We’re entrenched in the pathos of what’s going on,” Thomas says of having a deep understanding of not only how to enhance the vision of showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, but also an understanding of who these characters are and what the show’s about. “We’re very lucky the stories are particularly nuanced and have so much depth.”

In season five, the few moments that do get enhanced with music are put to expert use. For Thomas, a prime example of that is in episode three, “The Midges,” which features Roxy Music’s “More Than This” in the opening and closing moments. At first, it’s heard in a bowling alley just as it would be if it were actually playing there. But when the song comes back as Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) load a body into a car, “it takes on a completely different meaning,” Thomas says of elevating a moment that’s already there in the storytelling and acting. “We just help speak to that.” Another example is Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which is overheard during a montage of characters during the season five finale. “There were a lot of songs we tried for that sequence,” Thomas reveals, saying that John’s track was the only one that could “cover a lot of emotional bases and have different meanings.”

While “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” a well-known song among fans, was a choice put forth by the showrunners, Thomas credits both of them for encouraging her and Bloom to dig deep to find music that fits the show. While she asserts that everything is “period-authentic,” something the show takes seriously at all levels, they rarely rely on hits, preferring to find a band “that just fits into the ethos of the show,” like Bauhaus in episode six or even Peter Gabriel’s lesser-known song “Lay Your Hands on Me.” Also featured in episode six, “Lay Your Hands on Me” is the third Gabriel song to appear on the show. As to why he works so well for The Americans, Thomas says “there’s depth, there’s emotion, there’s lot of energy” to his music. “His is the right tone and vibe.”

MORE: How 'The Americans' Budding Spy Holly Taylor Stole The Season With a Single Word

‘Big Little Lies’ Music Supervisor: Susan Jacobs Standout Moment: “September Song” by Agnes Obel in Episode 3

HBO

Director Jean-Marc Vallee is famous for not using a composer, preferring to score his movies with a soundtrack of existing music. “He’s committed to that direction when he starts,” Jacobs says. So when she was brought in to work on HBO’s Big Little Lies, the first series for both of them, she had the task of filling seven hours of TV. “The volume of it was daunting,” she says of not only being responsible for getting rights to the show’s varied music, which includes at least five songs per episode, but also writing original songs and casting music and voice extras for certain scenes on the show. But Vallee was so committed to the idea that he came in knowing exactly which songs he wanted to use on the series.

Telling the interwoven stories of mothers -- Madeline (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste (Nicole Kidman), Jane (Shailene Woodley), Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) and Renata (Laura Dern) -- living in a rich California coastal town, the director wanted the music on Big Little Lies to represent the power of these women. “The ocean was very part of that for him, too,” Jacobs says of finding music that spoke to the ebbs and flows of the characters’ emotions. One prime example is Agnes Obel’s “September Song,” a personal favorite of Jacobs’, which is first heard in the premiere and again in episode three as Madeline is driving home. Wanting something simple that could play in the background, the song matched Madeline’s heartbreak and its repetitive sound “rolls like a wave,” the music supervisor says.

Also in keeping with the strength of the women was the largely predominant use of female vocalists throughout the series. In addition to Obel, the soundtrack included songs by Martha Wainwright (“Bloody Mother F**kin Asshole”), Fleetwood Mac (“Dreams”), Alabama Shakes (“This Feeling”), Irma Thomas (“Straight From the Heart”) and Ituana, a studio musician who notably covered the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in the series finale’s closing moments, jumping between Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgard) death and the women at the beach. For Jacobs, she liked how this version flipped what “tends to be such a masculine song.”

MORE: How Well Does the 'Big Little Lies' Cast Know Each Other?

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Music Supervisor: Michael Perlmutter Standout Moment: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds in Episode 2

Hulu

Since its premiere, The Handmaid’s Tale has earned critical praise for its timely narrative about a near-future society in which women, stripped of their freedoms, have been placed into servitude shortly after the fall of the U.S. government. At the center of this dystopian saga is Offred (Elisabeth Moss), a handmaid placed in the household of Commander Fred Waterford and his wife, Serena Joy (played by Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski). Her journey (and perseverance) is largely what drives the show’s song selections, which Perlmutter says should form “a soundtrack that sounds like freedom.” Working with showrunner Bruce Miller, the episodes’ directors, including Reed Morano, who helmed the first three, and Moss, who serves as a producer on the series, Perlmutter put together a seemingly random collection of songs -- from Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” to “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor -- that all ultimately speak to the same idea.

Perhaps the most standout scene is when a defiant Offred walks out of the Waterfords’ household, recounting her secret meeting with the Commander as Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” plays in the background. Her moment is destroyed when she discovers her shopping partner is no longer the same person. “F**k,” she says to herself. Thought of on the day of shooting, Morano explained that the moment felt very “high school,” leading them to think of John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, which famously ended with the Simple Minds tune.

Perlmutter says that iconic moment from the ’80s didn’t prevent them from using the song in the scene. “Everyone came out of it going, ‘This is a new world. This is a new use and it’s great,’” he explains, adding that the song has three levels of meaning on the Hulu series: There’s the defiant high school feeling; the shock when Offred discovers that Ofglen (Alexis Bledel) is gone; and Offred’s own point of view of not being forgotten. “We’re hoping that 20 years from now, people say that it’s an iconic song from The Handmaid’s Tale.”

MORE: 'The Handmaid's Tale' Music Supervisor Talks Season 1's Best Musical Moments

‘The Leftovers’ Music Supervisor: Liza Richardson Standout Moment: “Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)” by Wu-Tang Clan in Episode 2

If we’re in a golden age of music on TV, then The Leftovers is leading it with its third and final season. With a broad mission to take big swings with everything from the writing to the acting, the show’s music selection was far from an afterthought. In fact, Richardson was tasked by co-creator Damon Lindelof with the goal of choosing songs that would “surprise” the audience, which was heard week to week in the episodes’ different opening music selections that were chosen based on that hour’s theme.

The most apt example of a “surprise” moment, though, is the use of Wu-Tang Clan in episode two, during which Nora Durst (Carrie Coon) reveals to Erika Murphy (Regina King) she had covered a tattoo of her children’s names with the rap group’s logo. Admittedly, the Wu-Tang Clan has nothing to do with the show, having never been referenced or heard before in it. But knowing they were going to do an episode about it, writer Tamara Carter pitched an idea involving the group. “At first, [the writers] were going to have the tattoo have lyrics from a Wu-Tang Clan song, so we needed to have the lyrics cleared," Richardson reveals, saying she dug up songs with lyrics that would be appropriate for Nora. In the end, it became a tattoo of the logo, in part because it looks like a phoenix.

Nora’s story was equal parts sad and funny, and only made more epic by Wu-Tang Clan's "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" playing in the background as she and Erika jumped on an outdoor trampoline later in the episode. While there were a few options to choose from, Richardson says the Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) track “works best” in the moment. “I love loud songs with slow motion, especially on a trampoline with those girls and their beautiful bodies,” she says. “It was so great.”

MORE: Breaking Down the 7 Best 'Leftovers' Musical Moments From the Final Season

‘Master of None’ Music Supervisor: Kerri Drootin and Zach Cowie Standout Moment: “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” by Soft Cell in Episode 5

Netflix

When it comes to Master of None, creator and star Aziz Ansari had one mission: make it like nothing he’s never seen on TV before. Not confined to the conventions of a traditional sitcom, Ansari and co-creator Alan Yang pushed the limits of what their show could be, resulting in season two’s black-and-white homage to Italian cinema in the premiere to Lena Waithe’s personal tale of coming out in “Thanksgiving.” “It also made sense to do something no one’s ever heard before, musically,” says Cowie, who was ultimately inspired by Woody Allen as a storyteller who understands how music and film go together. “He takes contemporary subject matter and puts Gershwin behind it.”

Cowie’s version of that is using a varied soundtrack -- from Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” to Sylvester’s “I Need Somebody to Love Tonight” in one episode alone -- that doesn’t put Master of None in a specific time or place. And keeping to the idea of “pushing it further” in season two led the show to figure out how to get permission to use Lucio Battisti’s “Amarsi Un Po” in episode nine. The legendary singer had never licensed his music outside of Italy before; Master of None became the first international project to get the rights for one of his records. “We didn’t get it cleared until three days before the episode mixed,” Cowie reveals.

Another moment that Cowie really loves is when Soft Cell’s “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” plays behind a long shot of Dev (Ansari) as he sits alone in the back of a cab in the final scene of episode five. “It’s my favorite scene of the whole show,” he says of the transcendent moment. Thought of on the fly, it was an idea that came from Ansari, and when the team saw it in the dailies they knew it was a perfect fit. “It’s always really fun for me, in my job, to let something be,” Cowie says, knowing when not to mess with a good thing. Episode five also features a live performance by John Legend, who is friends with Ansari off-screen. Working with Ansari, Cowie came up with a list of songs that the singer might perform during a dinner party scene, which needed to serve as a turning point between Dev and Francesca (Alessandra Mastronardi). On the list was a cover of Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It,” which Legend selected and performed live on set in one take.

MORE: Director Melina Matsoukas Pivots From Beyonce to Must-See TV

‘This Is Us’ Music Supervisor: Jennifer Pyken Standout Moment: “If Only” by Maria Taylor in Episode 9

It's no secret music plays a crucial role in the fabric of This Is Us. For Pyken, finding the perfect song to match the emotion of the NBC drama's sentimental scenes is its own reward. "With music, everyone brings something, whether it's what they're listening to now or something they may have been listening to in the past," says Pyken, whose two-decade career includes credits like Felicity, Alias and One Tree Hill. While several iconic musical moments from the first season -- such as the opening (Sufjan Stevens' "Death With Dignity") and closing (Labi Siffre's "Watch Me") songs in the first episode or Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" in the finale -- were creator Dan Fogelman’s suggestions, Pyken credits their working relationship as being a "collaborative" one, even though she often doesn't find out what's coming until the last moment.

"We look at each episode and work with what's going on in each episode. I don't think there's a specific formula that we use," Pyken shares, admitting that there was no clear "mission statement" given to her in the beginning. That freedom afforded her the ability to connect with the characters as they wove in and out of different decades in their lives. "We do flash back, so we use a lot of cool [artists] like Dire Straits, Blind Faith and Van Morrison that put us in those eras," she says. "We talk about what Jack and Rebecca would be listening to and who they are as people. When we go to the '90s, what are little Kate, Kevin and Randall listening to? What's happening in 1992?" 

One musical moment that stands out the most to Pyken accompanies one of the most heartwarming scenes of the season, though the "Memphis" episode holds a special place in her heart. In the ninth episode, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) puts young Randall on his back, completing push-ups as a metaphorical commitment to raising him into a respectable man, while former Azure Ray singer Maria Taylor's dreamy, nostalgic "If Only" adds depth and heart to the tearjerker moment. "When that scene came up, we dropped [the song] in and it was magic. It was done. We never had to look for another song," Pyken recalls, adding that she finds satisfaction in highlighting indie artists who "don't get placement." Funnily enough, Pyken's relationship with Taylor dates back to Felicity, and the song was immediately identified as the perfect soundtrack for a montage. "Her lyrics and her voice, something about her music just speaks to me." 

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