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Steel Magnolias' meandering plot about a bunch of *diverse* women living in the South is so loaded with sweetly saccharine chit chat, I developed cavities while watching it.

For some reason, the director wants us to believe that these women are interesting and oh so different from each other, but they are not. They all feel like caricatures made from the same mold: They all think about marriage (failed ones, future ones, fake ones), babies and/or gossip. We never get to know enough about them to understand why they are even friends or if they can act any other way than *cutesy-gossipy* or teary-eyed. Even so, we are led to believe that the characters' interactions are supposedly showing genuine female friendship, which I feel personally insulted by. All the women seem to do is complain about the men in their lives or talk about family-planning. I do get that this is playing in the 80s, and sentimentalities were different then. I don't have to like the film and its implicit message, though. Even in the 80s, women talked about more interesting things, and had higher aspirations and more authentic female friendships than what we see in this film. So, I hate it and I'm not sorry to say so. After all, the director doesn't seem care about how insulting his story actually is. People will come for the cast of big names and stay for the heavy-handed, sentimental kitsch. As long as they pay, who cares if the film is contrived, emotionally manipulative garbage?

Note: the 2 stars are for the delightful costumes and the pretty scenery. Well done, whoever dressed and filmed this.

Thoroughly enjoyable, light-hearted fun. Loved the dynamic of the four main characters, their friendship was really believable. Also, this show is not taking itself seriously at all, which is refreshing after the constant whining on Discovery. I don't care if this show isn't "true" Trek or whatever, it's fun and way better than the overall rating implies.

I have binged this series twice now and can honestly say that I have rarely been entertained like this.

Is Spinning Out cheesy, overly dramatic and all kinds of unrealistic? Heck, yes! The characters are having secrets and affairs left and right, and to top it off the whole plot revolves around the ultra competitive world of figure skating, with injuries, feuds and mental breakdowns en masse.

Most of the time Spinning Out is an elaborate soap opera, but I found that it handled some serious issues surprisingly well. I especially liked the relationship between Kat, her sister and her mother and how mental illness played a huge role in their life as a family.

As for the authenticity of the figure skating on the show, I don't know enough about the sport to judge. You can definitely see where they used doubles, but this was done quite well. I highly doubt that it's easy to find competent stunt doubles for this sport and they definitely delivered. The skating scenes are the most exciting ones in the whole show. And I freaking loved Johnny Weir's performance in this, an actual figure skating champion. Give me more of him!

If you are looking for a diverting, entertaining show with lots of drama, go for it. It's better than most other high end soap operas and I sincerely hope for a second season.