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I fucking love these people together.

Can we get a spinoff podcast where Paul just tells stories from his bizarre childhood please? Scheer Tales. Like and Subscribe.

I wasn’t sure which was more unlikely: that he sold sex cuffs at all or that he offered them to her on the house. You don’t just give people free shit because they’re about to fuck. What kind of crazy business is this guy running anyway?

Honestly shocked they didn't talk more about the gas station clerk. That seemed like a character they'd talk about for like 10 minutes. He just buys MJH's BS line about taking him to the lake for a sex weekend and he returns with sex cuffs?! In the box sex cuffs too so they weren't something in the lost & found. He either sells sex toys or those were his own. Then when Mario Lopez comes back to the store, the clerk recognizes him and make that weird air humping move! Also, did anyone else think Lopez's "love" for MJH was just pity based? He sees how badly she's treated by her family, sees her getting just reamed by her parents on Christmas, then to help get them off her case a little he PROPOSES to her! They don't find love, he has extreme pity for her. I'd even bet he found out no one wanted to buy her terrible painting and bought it to make her feel better.

This is the best possible thing about this movie.

This was probably my favorite episode of the year! Thank you everyone at HDTGM. At the end of the movie everything seems to be finally working out for MJH. Not only does she have the opportunity to exhibit her art, but she actually manages to sell her piece - thereby validating her life choices. However, in the final moments of the movie, she is surprised to learn that the buyer was none other than Dimps! Obviously, this is meant to be a grand romantic gesture, but really, I feel like discovering Dimps bought her art would be far more damaging to her self-esteem than had she not sold her painting at all. Think about it: for a fleeting moment, this hapless loser gets to feel like the work she does is appreciated and that her passion is validated, only to have it all come crashing down when she learns that the piece wasn’t sold because it was necessarily good or well-regraded, but because a loved one bought it for her. It’s the equivalent of a mother telling you you’re handsome or pretty or a friend telling you your manuscript is great. Of course it’s sweet, but ultimately, because those people are biased, it’s always going to feel like hollow praise. I feel like it would have been far more romantic for him to have anonymously showcased her work and then allowed it to stand on its own. It would have shown his faith in her abilities without coming off as patronizing.

Damn and I'm in Champaign, ILL right now and that call out just THRILLED ME

Hope Adam Pally does some real soul-searching after this episode

OK, my synchronicity this time was over the words "the work" - the night before I had been talking to my wife about being willing to do "the work" regarding marriage and I related it to the protomolecule in The Expanse where this DNA-manipulated creature kept saying they were doing "The Work" and this AI-type thing was building something in space near Venus. I mean, Sean said "the work" so many times in that pro-version. Crazy. The synchronicity thing is real. Also, The Expanse was an awesome show. I hope it gets another season. I can't remember where it left off to be honest though.

I'll let the NY Post review do the talking. https://nypost.com/2018/06/15/gotti-flick-is-the-worst-mob-movie-of-all-time/ "‘Gotti’ flick is the worst mob movie of all-time"" "'...the long-awaited biopic about the Gambino crime boss' rise from made man to top dog took four directors, 44 producers and eight years to make. It shows. The finished product belongs in a cement bucket at the bottom of the river.'" "Travolta, who’s made a career out of Italian stereotypes, obviously thought the Dapper Don would be his Don Corleone. It’s his Chef Boy­ardee." Other notes: Nick Cassavetes and Joe Johnston were then also attached at different points to direct, as were Al Pacino, Lindsay Lohan and Ben Foster to star in various roles Joe Pesci was cast as Angelo Ruggiero early in development and gained 30 pounds in order to properly portray him. After having his salary cut and being recast as Lucchese underboss Anthony Casso, he sued Fiore Films for $3 million; the case was settled out of court. It was originally doing to be direct-to-VOD. Guys, you've jumped on the Travolta Train before. If you don't take a ride on this piece of garbage, to you I say, "“whatsamattayou?!”"

Wasn't this his plan? He told MJH he was going to be the perfect boyfriend so that when the cops came, it made her look even worse.

Ok so when Slater tries to help MJH out by proposing I personally think he did more harm than good. If this weekend were to work out as planned he gets his freedom and they never see each other again. Given her family situation wouldn't it be worse for her to tell them her engagement ended rather than saying she broke up with her boyfriend? I know he was trying to be gallant in the moment but think it through dude!

One of the more aggravating things in the movie is how the movie tries to portray MJH is this kind of major disappointment to the family, while simultaneously showing her to be the absolute center of her parents’ universe. It blows my mind just how often the brother and sister are just completely disregarded. For example, on Christmas Day when MJH’s mother is delegating responsibilities to everyone in the house, the brother and sister are tasked with working the kitchen while MJH and Dimps are told to go “have fun.” Are you kidding me? You’re telling me I have to stay here and shuck corn on Christmas Day while Clarissa and Slater get to go have kissy-kiss time down by the lake? What kind of bullshit is that? However, I think maybe the most obnoxious example of this is when they’re decorating the tree. For some reason Bro and Sis are nowhere to be found (probably slinging some salt-slag), and MJH’s mother suggests that Dimps puts the star on the tree. MJH throws a huge tantrum and says how that’s been her job since she was 4-years-old, but...she’s the eldest kid, isn’t she? Are you telling me that in the ensuing 24 years she never once let her baby brother or sister put the star on the tree? And if it were ever even suggested she would throw a fucking fit? And her parents encouraged this? Man, if I were the brother or the sister I would have peaced out of that bullshit family just as soon as ever I could.

Even if he genuinely liked her art, him buying it steals the thunder from what should have been her moment and robs her of any legitimacy. If she’s serious about being a successful artist, she needs to sell it to someone who’s going to promote her work. She needs recognition more than romantic gestures. And hanging her shorty paintings on Slater’s office wall, while sweet, doesn’t gain her any notoriety. I mean, who knows when she’ll have another chance to showcase her work? And if asked if she’s ever sold anything, “Yes, once - to my boyfriend” isn’t exactly the best answer if you want to be taken seriously.

I read this differently. I was thinking Dimps bought her art because he genuinely liked it or that it reminded him of her (there's no accounting for taste). And given her general unawareness of reality, I doubt she would ever see it as a hollow gesture, and just take it at face value. Loved this episode! June and Jessica St. Claire together is pure joy!

Guys, it wasn't an "Indian diner," it was just a diner that happened to be run by an Indian guy.

That was a partly a throw-away, joke line. But, a scene can serve multiple purposes. I was merely putting my two cents on the question of whether Mary would have married and considered the possibility of the job of the library playing into her personality; but also offering the possibility the job was also just a trope (partially from the era, but I don't think it's entirely gone away) - @EvRobert put forth another example that maybe I shouldn't read too much into that job being dignifying. While the main emotional thrust of the scene is Mary not recognizing and being terrified of George (I mean, wouldn't you be scared if you were closing up work after dark and some weird man started screaming your name, ran up to you and started grabbing you? I would be), being a spinster is supposed to be a terrible thing. Everyone George visits in Potterverse (yes, I'm going to keep calling the alternate reality this. I'm now picturing Henry Potter dropping out of Hogwarts) has a significantly worse life. Clarence saying, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Mary's a spinster." There's the never found true love element there, but there is judgment in the presentation that being a spinster is a terrible thing (and also causes myopia). But this is just analyzing the smaller details of the film.

They could honestly dedicate another entire episode to this 100 car pileup of a movie and have no shortage of material. What restaurant would place a loaded gun right behind that tiny counter in easy access to everyone? Even if it was just in a glass case or in the back office, that would 1000x more plausible. Also, I cannot get over the moment when "Dad" meets Nick and says they thought MJH "liked the innies and not the outies." No wonder the parents are having trouble in the bedroom if he's still using preschool terms for genitalia.

This is why I love made for TV movies - they’re so freaking insane because you have zero logic flowing through it.

The one line that got me the most in this movie was MJH describing her exceptionally spacious loft apartment as a crappy dump. Mind you, it is decorated in copious amounts of curtains (even the bathroom is partitioned in bathtub curtains - which, for any date she brings home that suddenly needs to take a dump, is very unfortunate, audio-wise). Even in 2007, her loft apartment would have been going for big bucks, and her artist ass would have been gentrified out of that space once the Yuppie transplants started moving into the urban core. The ice skating scene really got me because the bandstand is in the middle of the frozen lake or lagoon or whatever that body of water is. Does this mean in the autumn, spring and summer months, the bandstand is just floating out in the middle of the water? If you were kidnapped and granted access to a cell phone, which number would you call first? If you said "911," then you are a fuckin' idiot! Everyone knows you call your vacuous girlfriend's drunk parents first. MarLo and the dad go into town for "extra virgin olive oil." MarLo get's no help from the store owner when he explains he's been kidnapped and needs to use the store's phone. His next move should have been to tackle the dad, grab the car keys and drive the fuck outta there. I mean, right? During the dinner scene, MJH's sister admits to her parents that she has taken her tuition money and is going to open a palattes studio in California. The dad seems mildly angry, but not nearly as angry as he should be. His daughter basically embezzled tens of thousands dollars in tuition payments under the false pretense of going to law school so that she could have seed money for her new studio 3,000 miles away. On that notes, when learning that his daughter is moving to California, the dad makes a very dated crack about this being the place where are the whackadoos live. Hey Dubya, that line would have worked in John McClane's day, but it's 2007. Have you been to Florida?

I haven’t finished but I saw Jess was the guest and they immediately started talking about the hair situation, and Paul went into a weird childhood story, then back to the hair. This is like exactly what I wanted. Merry Christmas to us all.

I couldn’t understand why he tried to make the call from the downstairs (i.e. high traffic) bathroom. He could have locked himself in a room or gone outside or any number of things. Why go to the one place where you’re most likely going to draw suspicion or get caught? And I bet MJH’s brother was pissed when he found out the phone he leant to Dimps for a few minutes just got flushed down the toilet. Seriously, bro? I was doing you a favor!

I would PAY to listen to the bizarre world of Paul's childhood. They could have psychologists on to try to figure... Whatever is going on there. I'm fascinated by how Paul turned out somewhat normal.

They loved it over there (6 up votes). Think I’m a moderator there now.

playin' in the 'wood