Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is coming along nicely

There was a time, a few episodes back, when I read fan grumblings about this series, as the writers found a few, less than elegant ways to introduce some much needed backstory and characters into the shows narrative. I'm guessing these same folks aren't still unhappy as Season 2 of the series winds towards its conclusion.

This week's episode was as fulfilling as any so far. Best part for me was seeing Skye/Daisy blossom into near superhero status during the assault on the Hydra base. Using her powers to blast a couple of guys across the room, then a knockdown/shoot out close quarters combat sequence where she took out a seemingly endless series of Hydra soldiers, and then finally using her powers to jumpstart Lincoln' heart after he died -- fabulous. The writers have slowly tweaked her uniform to something now approximating her comic book look with the gloves and all. It will be nice to see if they continue to open her up in the last two episodes.

The continuing evolution of Fitz and Simmons has been a surprise. Simmons has turned into a rather ruthless, almost sociopathic, agent that will not hesitate to put down those she perceives as a threat. Whether it is capturing and blocking Skye's powers or killing Ward, her hard edge is at odds with the softness of her outside appearance. Fitz, while still suffering from a sort of aphasia due to his near death experience, has regained some of his tech-y skills and has developed a wry cavalier sense of humor.

After setting up the conflict between Gonzalez (played by the mighty Edward James Olmos) and Coulson over the direction of S.H.I.E.L.D. we finally got a face to face and a bit of resolution. Coulson drops a bomb about Nick Fury still being alive, and points out that he's still in touch with Agent Hill, so perhaps he's not the crazy rogue Gonzalez has made him out to be. I liked the bit where Coulson, in a video conference with Hill, points out that Gonzalez' version of S.H.I.E.L.D. puts all decisions to a vote. The look on his and Hill's faces over this was priceless.

I've always had the feeling that Gonzalez is manifesting the sort of feelings shown in the first Avengers movie, where the council pointed out their reticence over having the world defended by superpowered beings that no one has on a leash. The animus that Gonzalez displays towards powered people is reminiscent of the vibe from the original X-Men comics, where being a mutant was the comic's allegory for the racial divide in the country at the time. This seems to play into what I believe is the theme behind the next Captain America movie which I think is sub-titled Civil War. I think the civil war is going to be between the homo-superiors (as they are referred to in the X-Men comics) and regular folk. But I could be wrong.

Besides showing Bobby Morse (Mockingbird's) costume evolution along with Skye's, we are getting a bit more teasing about her disenchantment with both Gonzalez and Coulson's versions of S.H.I.E.L.D. There are hints of a spin off with her and Hunter, which I think would be a shame unless it is a limited series, like the Agent Carter thing they did this season. And since Bobby ends up marrying Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner's character from the Avengers) I don't know why they'd pursue the relationship between these two, although they have some fun moments on screen, and Hunter's character has grown on me.

I'm not sure about the divide between May and Coulson. As Coulson points out, he and May have always had secrets, she was initially on his team as a spy for Fury, so her complaints about him keeping things secret from her is pretty weak tea. Ward is back on his own, his attempt to excuse his actions was pretty feeble and mocked by the others in the last episode. Agent 33 is back with S.H.I.E.L.D. perhaps as a spy for Ward. Raina, besides looking like a porcupine, is also a precog, and Cal (Skye's father) points out that she's dangerously manipulative. Cal gets to stay in Shangi-La for a while with the Inhumans, who are supposed to make an appearance in the next episode.

They've plugged the new Avengers movie, and more. From a slow beginning in season one, the show has found its stride. I, for one, was willing to allow it to get going, but a lot of fans haven't been. Hopefully they have come back because it is well worth watching. One more episode before the two hour season finale, so I'm looking forward to what comes next. This is the only broadcast show I watch besides sports as I cannot deal with commercial television, so its been nice to have it develop so nicely. If you haven't watched it, you may want to give it a chance.

And here's Chloe Bennett, Adrianne Palicki, and Cobie Smulders from various appearances recently:

Kelly Bensimon is noticeable

46 year old Real Housewife (I had to GOOGLE her to find out who the eff she is) Kelly Bensimon showed up in New York City to do a high fashion photoshoot that involved one of the least fashionable or functional outfits I've seen in a while:

Perhaps that silly jacket was designed for women who don't have comically enlarged breasts with wall-eyed nipples, so in Bensimon's case, it was only a matter of a few steps for the inevitable to occur:

Yeah, that's my thought too honey.

*sigh*   I just don't understand fashion.

It's wash Michael Bay's car in a bikini, sweetheart.

45 year old B movie actress Alicia Arden joins the ranks of Hollywood gals who keep forgetting that to get those big budget movie gigs, they're supposed to be washing Michael Bay's Ferrari. Still, you have to give her credit for giving the passers by a nice enthusiastic show:

I'm sure there was no one more suitable for this

This Sunday, the lightly talented Lena Dunham was feted at Variety’s Power of Women luncheon and accepted an award from the Girls Educational & Mentoring Services. She was also lauded as a rape survivor role model.

Ummm, yeah. This would be the same Lena Dunham who had to be persuaded eight years after the fact that her drug and alcohol fueled college hook-up was in fact rape. The same edgy writer/director who then fabricated her rapist with the necessary profile -- a mustachioed college Republican -- to give her the lefty cred she so desperately craves.

And after dropping enough hints in her book to incriminate an innocent man, this role model and her publishers left this guy twisting in the wind until he forced them through legal means to clear his name. Meanwhile, the supposed rapist, now identified as a college Democrat, remains free, even though Dunham claims he attacked two other women, one violently. And yet Dunham still refuses to speak to police about her supposed rape.

Yep, she's a real role model. And delusional too. Not just about her manufactured past, but her own irresistible attractiveness. Just prior to the luncheon, Dunham sent out a tweet describing the horrors of growing up in NYC:

Growing up in NYC, it’s just crazy to think how many men on the street have jerked off at me!

Uh huh. 'Cause when I'm in the mood to get my rocks off, this is what does it for me every time:

If guys in NYC are breathing heavy over this chick, they're in worse shape than I ever could have imagined!

Daily Duffster

Hilary Duff graced the pages of Shape Magazine recently with her curvy goodness:

And because they know how much I dig the black and white hotness, the editors threw in a couple of b&w pics just for me:

Nice   :-)

AnnaLynne McCord won't be outdone

After Mischa Barton popped back into everybody's consciousness with the sad story of her mother's mismanagement of her finances and her not so accidental exposure in front of poor Martin Sheen, serial exposure artist AnnaLynne McCord put on a show of her own arriving at Craig's Restaurant the other night:

This last one cracks me up the most, you might be able to make some claim that she didn't know she was hanging out of her dress, but here she's looking right down her front. Those may be small boobs, but it's still pretty clear what isn't covered by that dress.

That's one of the most obvious attempts to flash the paps since Pam Anderson pulled this little number last year:

I don't think Selena Gomez is on Goopy's SNAP diet

Some pics of Selena Gomez frolicking at the beach surfaced today, and oh my, is she sporting some delightful pudginess:

I'm kind of wondering just what she looks like when she's not sucking her belly in so hard   heh

Got to give her props for wearing that little bitty suit, 'cause it's not exactly containing her fullness in the most flattering way. But as I've said before -- I'm sort of a less is more sort of guy when it comes to bikinis, so . . .

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And as another blogger pointed out just recently -- life is a spectrum. So on the other end of the this particular spectrum is Keri Russell who looks like a cheeseburger and milkshake wouldn't be such a bad idea once in a while:

Reese Witherspoon is a feminist

Or so she says in a recent interview in In Style magazine:

“I went to Harpeth Hall, a wonderful all-girls school in Nashville that encouraged us to see ourselves as working women in the world, to speak up for ourselves to ask for equal pay and advocate for gender equality. Outside that school, I experienced the full force of a patriarchal society, but I had a core value system that said, ‘No, you really deserve to be treated equal to men.”

Ah yes, that darned patriarchal society, the buzzword of feminists everywhere. When Patricia Arquette made comments about income inequality and fair treatment at the Oscars, a lot of folks used that to dredge up the repeatedly debunked notion that there is a systematic effort to pay women less than men in the workplace. As I've often said -- show me the job where a man and a woman, hired at the same time for the same job, are paid different wages. Ironically, the only place in this country where that actual does happen is Hollywood, where the disparity in pay scales for actors and actresses is there for all to see. Along with fierce opposition to females in roles as director, producer, etc. I'm pretty sure that's what Arquette was driving at with her comments.

As we've seen in the numerous articles at Stacy McCain's site, feminism has it's roots in a deep seated hatred of men and the belief that women can only be true to themselves if they eschew men altogether and embrace a lesbian lifestyle. Perhaps the time has come to diffentiate these radical man haters from those who simply believe in equality. Same goes with those who really aren't interested in racial equality but rather some form of payback and role reversal. I guess a new term is needed.

Anyway, here's Reese suffering under the patriarchal thumb on her way to a net worth of $80 million:

Mischa Barton weirdness

Perhaps sadness might be a better word here.

I ran across this story online about a week ago, it seems that Mischa is suing her mother over basically robbing Mischa blind and running the actress' career into the ground. Mom was stealing her money, taking out huge loans in Mischa's name, signing her up for promotions and appearances, accepting upfront payments for these and then not telling Miscah about them, thus having her default on obligations and looking like a flake. Etc.

The opening of Mischa's lawyer's brief reads like a scandal novella, it's astounding that stuff like that goes on, and that someone's parent would use and abuse their child like that. But it takes all kinds, and there are plenty of parents who should never have been allowed to have children. *sigh*

Mischa's been slowly coming back into public view after some time out, and in at least this instance, she's breaking out one of her regular features of her public appearances -- accidental (or perhaps not so) exposure:

I'm loving the look on Martin Sheen's face here . . . he clearly got the better view. Lolz!

You can read my review of Mischa's underrated flick Walled In here.

Daily Duffster

Hilary Duff brings her awesome stems and effortless hotness to the Coachella festival:

Eliza Dushku joins the cast of Banshee

I see where a favorite of mine, Eliza Dushku, will be joining the cast of Banshee for season 4 (I think) as some sort of bad-ass FBI profiler who will be helping faux-sheriff Lucas Hood as he hunts down a serial killer.

I guess this means I'll have to hang in there with this series. I've tried a couple of times to get into it without success. I'm not sure what it is, I like the characters and all, but something about the way the show travels . . . perhaps it is Alan Ball's direction. He took a series I liked initially -- Six Feet Under, and drove it seemingly six feet under to the point where I hated the show and the characters. I still can't watch Lili Taylor in anything because of how off-putting her character was.

But I'll give this show one more chance. *sigh*

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I also see where they've greenlit a sequel to the under appreciated Pacific Rim that will be released in 2017. Supposedly Guillermo del Toro is also working on an animated series and comic to fill in some backstory prior to it's release. Taking a cue from MARVEL's all of the above approach to story exposition and saturation.

According to del Toro, the only characters he's sure to include in the sequel will be Drs Gottlieb and Geiszler as well as Hannibal Chau, because as we've seen, Guillermo loves him some Ron Perlman. heh

No word yet whether Charlie Hunnam or Rinko Kikuchi will reprise their roles, but if they do, I doubt Miss Mori will be looking anything like she does in this photoshoot:

Red Sox win 2015 opener

Boston won their season opener against the Phillies 8-0 today on a strong performance by ace-of-the-day Clay Buchholz, who went seven innings striking out nine while walking only one batter.

The team's new left-right batting order seemed to work well, at least at the top of the order, where Dustin Pedroia got three year's worth of injury frustrations out of his system by hammering a home run with the first swing of his bat. Pedey would get another solo shot later in the game.

Mookie Betts continued his surprising (to me at least) power increase with a solo homer of his own and Hanley Ramirez benefitted from being sandwiched between Papi and Panda by hitting both a solo shot and a grand slam (in the ninth) to give the Sox an impressive power notification to the rest of the AL East.

Rick Porcello's on the mound Wednesday for game 2. I'm supposing Wade Miley is next after that. No telling if Joe Kelly will be ready for his start which might mean knuckleballer Steven Wright will get the call. That would be fun . . . got to have a knuckleball guy on the Sox.

Here's hoping for a big turn around after last year's dismal season.