Oh, Mark, solution to the oppression of not getting to see Santos in the White House: (spoilers for Fringe) Gurer ner nqf ba pnof naq nyy nebhaq gur erq!irefr Arj Lbex pvgl va gur guveq frnfba bs Sevatr. Fb whfg zbir gurer naq lbh'yy unir svir zber frnfbaf gb pngpu hc ba!

Funny thing: Vinick was partially modeled after John McCain and the writers have said many times that they based Santos on the then-up-and-comer in the Democratic party Barack Obama. So it ended up being pretty prophetic for the 2008 election.

Honestly, had McCain not picked Palin as his VP, I would've been kind of okay with him as president. I was one of the loudest Obama supporters at my school, but based on McCain's background (rather than his campaign), I felt like if we HAD to have another Republican in the White House I would've been okay with McCain. And the same's true here. Of course I'm overjoyed that Santos (and by extension Josh) won, but I would've been okay with a Vinick win.

I'm glad Mark mentioned Helen in his review. I definitely wanted Helen to be First Lady more than I wanted Santos to be President. NAQ SBE QBAAN GB OR URE PUVRS BS FGNSS BU ZL TBQ GUNG JNF ZL SNIBEVGR PBAPYHFVBA GB NAL PUNENPGRE NEP RIRE.

About Leo, all I have to think of is Donna saying, "He was so proud of you, Josh" and I start crying again.

Re: The electoral map...yeah. Blue New Hampshire but red Vermont? They would ABSOLUTELY be switched. Also, New Hampshire's something of a swing state, but lately it's been increasingly blue. I'm also really surprised that Oregon was apparently up for grabs...in recent years it's always gone blue. What REALLY surprises me is Ohio going red given that Santos actually won. I don't think Ohio's gone for someone other than the winner in the last 100 years. And they should've switched out SC for either Iowa or a liberal-ish Southern state like Louisiana (New Orleans and Acadiana are mostly liberal -from 2004-2008 we had a Democrat governor and one of our current senators is a Democrat).

My guess is that the writers planned for Vinick to win California, and after that it was just a matter of needing enough states to go blue. I really do love that they gave both candidates their home states.

I'm pretty sure Leo isn't in the flashforward, since the outcome of the election would be revealed by whether or not he was addressed as VP.

Yeah...when I watched it for the first time it was 7:00 AM on the last morning of Spring Break and I screamed and woke up all of my flatmates. They were really pissed but I didn't care BECAUSE JOSH AND DONNA.

I've lost track of how many times I've watched Mark's reaction to the kiss. Totally worth the commission. TOTALLY WORTH IT. But I also love how Will and CJ are both just like "IS SOMETHING HAPPENING SOMETHING IS HAPPENING ISN'T IT."

For reasons explained in the rot13, I'm more disgusted by Will's decision to sleep with Margot than I am the reverse. The ENTIRE TIME he's imagining that she's Alana. Ugh. UGHHHH. The show needs to TOTALLY change its approach to female characters FAST. But what's even more frustrating is that it goes against BF's track record! He did a WONDERFUL job with female characters in all three of his other shows, so what the hell is going on with Hannibal? You could claim that the network wanted a sex scene, but you can't blame the network for an entire season of reverse-development with Alana or the treatment of Margot as of this episode.

Gur znva guvat nobhg Znetbg'f vagragvbaf va fyrrcvat jvgu Jvyy vf gung fur qvqa'g UNIR gb. V haqrefgbbq ure vagragvbaf sebz gur fgneg, ohg V jnf fgvyy onssyrq jura fur/gurl jrag guebhtu jvgu vg. Yvxr, vf guvf gnxvat cynpr va fbzr xvaq bs nygreangr ernyvgl jurer fcrez qbabef qba'g rkvfg?! V qba'g guvax guvf vf fbzrguvat gung jvyy rire pbzr hc, fvapr vg qvqa'g va 2.11, ohg ubarfgyl...JUL?!

Also, they're pretty certain that the Ripper killed Abigail Hobbes (even though her body was never recovered), and Chilton would have no motive whatsoever to kill her, other than to frame Will. And that still seems like a stretch.

To me, the main result of Miriam's reappearance is that we learn to NEVER believe a character is dead unless we actually see their body as a corpse like we did with Bev. So ANYONE could still be alive. Vapyhqvat Serqqvr.

OH HI GRETCHEN SPECK(-HOROWITZ) FROM WONDERFALLS!

-Mark can't blame anyone for this because it wasn't commissioned! However, we DID commission the other three Bryan Fuller shows, which are part of why he decided to do Hannibal in the first place, so we're still partially to blame!
-"Hey, future you is thanking me right now!" *guy immediately gets a bullet to the head* THIS IS SO HORRIFYING WHY AM I LAUGHING.
-As someone who always loves theological discussions in fiction, my favorite scene in this episode is WIll and Hannibal's discussion of God and power. Mads Mikkelsen has said repeatedly that he views Hannibal as Satan, or a fallen angel living here on Earth. If we're to take his interpretation of Satan to be similar to (if not the same as) Milton's Lucifer, Hannibal's identification with God and his possession of power makes complete sense. After all, Lucifer fell and became Satan after expressing his desire to be as powerful as God. So it seems that Hannibal is trying to assess just how similar he and Will are: is Will an angel, or his he an (unknowing) follower of *the* fallen angel? Which does he want to be?

Season Two spoilers: Nyfb Znex ybivat Orireyl vf gur zbfg cnvashy guvat rire. ZNEX QBA'G TRG NGGNPURQ GB URE QBA'G QB VG HAYRFF LBH JNAG GB FHSSRE YVXR JR FHSSRERQ.

I, like most, was very dead set against watching this show because I can be really squeamish and tend to hate serial killer storylines and had never seen Silence of the Lambs. But I then re-considered because Pushing Daisies is my favorite show of all time and Bryan Fuller has inspired my own writing more than any other creator. So I watched the pilot and was blown away by how giddy I felt watching so inherently disturbing. So I kept going.

A few factoids about the first episode: NBC picked up an entire thirteen-episode season based on the strength of the script of the pilot alone. Also, Fuller's second choice for the role of Hannibal was David Tennant and the role of Will Graham was written with Lee Pace in mind (which you can kind of tell, much like how you can sort of tell that the part of Chuck in PD was written with Caroline Dhavernas in mind). However, while I LOVE both DT and LP, I'm really glad that the parts went to Mads and Hugh instead. Lee Pace has the kind of on-screen presence that makes it hard for him to be a believable underdog. Hugh Dancy's performance still demands attention, but in a different way that downplays his character's strengths.

The best part about the pilot is how you KNOW what Hannibal's eating. You KNOW that he's a murderer. And yet you're drawn in by him...you get to know him separately from that side of his life, which makes him scarier. Like, except for the bit with the lungs, I feel like people without any knowledge of the world of Red Dragon would be shocked to learn that he's a cannibal.

And the music they play when Hannibal's first on screen is the same piece from Silence of the Lambs, right? If it isn't exactly the same it's very similar.

I would DEFINITELY support you getting an account on subbable or something similar! Perks could be like a "free" downloads or a shout-out in a review or something. It would be easier for me to support you if my bank account automatically sent you $10 a month or something, especially since there isn't anything in the near future (I don't think) that I plan on commissioning.

And you doing Double Features has been AWESOME. YAY FOR THE ENTIRE FULLERVERSE AND VERONICA MARS!