chaifan

I would have loved for Kayla to be written as she was in Season 1, but then have her flip a switch in Season 2 and show herself as an actual competent person in the entertainment management business. The explanation? She hated working for her dad but he'd cut her off if she didn't. So she decided to act as incompetent as she could be, do her hardest to get herself fired, but it never worked. And then once she left with Jimmy she reverted to her true, smart self. I commented in some other episode that what bugs me about Kayla is that every other character is written so that I could believe there is a real life equivalent out there. But Kayla? Nope. Waaay too over the top. So it is just a distraction for me.

One minor correction... Kayla and Jimmy both quit the old firm, which was her dad's firm. When Jimmy quit (because they were treating Deborah poorly), Kayla quit too, much to Jimmy's protests. I think Kayla and Jimmy are now partners, as I think she funded them at the beginning. (Someone can correct me on this.) I don't know if Jimmy can fire her, but he could break up the partnership. But I think he needs her, or at least her money, for now.

I, too, thought "oh, no, Ava's going to fuck this up again with some off-the-cuff comment". But nope, didn't happen. Deborah's own history screwed her (almost) this time. I said in the Christmas episode thread that I love how Deborah has really had growth and development over this series, and now I have to say the same about Ava. It would have been easy to just go back to "Ava fucked it up", and I was just waaaaiting for it. But that also would have been lazy writing, and this show is soooo much better than that. Yeah, there was the elves quip, which was forking hilarious! I loved the scene with Ava and Deborah at the frat house, and Ava trying so so so hard to get through to her. I had hoped that Deborah would have started her apology with something like "There's a rule in comedy. Never apologize for a joke. Never. Well, fuck that rule..." I loved the "I'm just going to listen." Wow. What a change from Season 1 Deborah. It would have been cool if Deborah, very straight faced, told Ava to bring that woman over after the event, with some tension about what would happen. And then Deborah saying - you weren't only right, you're funny, get Ava's info and send her some of your stuff. Or would that look too much like a pander at buying her way to atonement? I took the woman's jokes as something she's used to get through this - defusing the situation with humor - and that she's had to say this to people who don't get it several times. Damn. That never even hit me. Good spot on that. You're right. It really doesn't make any sense. What a weird glitch for such an incredibly written show. Also, didn't the old host say he was stepping down in 3 months? Or am I remembering that wrong? I agree with the criticism on Kayla - I think she's just too much. Jimmy needs someone to play off of, so some type of character is necessary. I'd love it if the over the top clueless part of Kayla was cut down about 50%. (OK, 80% would be better.) But the scene with her dad was great. Why can't we see more of that Kayla? I loved the scene with Marcus and the super fan at the bar. And I like that the conflict with the late night show's advertisers gives Marcus a good reason to leave Deborah, other than he's just pissed at her. Will there be a Season 4, or is next week's last episode the series finale?

It was weird watching J Cameron Smith as such a meek character after her role in Succession. But it's good casting - I buy them as sisters. Did we know Kathy was only 19 when the affair occurred? That seemed like new info to me. I love the snow machines, and honestly anticipated a much gaudier xmas decoration display in the house. OK, the gingerbread replica of the hose was a little much, but the "Just because it's edible doesn't mean you can eat it!" line was pure gold! I love the development and growth of Deborah. The scene with her puking in the bathroom shows she was truly anxious about Kathy's visit. That poor Santa. Was he just hiding in the chimney for an hour? My fanwank on this is that it's a fake fireplace and Deborah built a secret door in the next room that goes into the "chimney" just for this purpose. Because that's something she would do.

Also, it was more in the height of covid, greater restrictions. Based on several interviews where the racers commented on relatively short days, my guess is that this was intentional to limit contact between racers, crew, locals, etc. So there simply wasn't as much footage to stretch into 90 minutes. This is different from many pre-covid races where we found out after airing that there were whole challenges that didn't even make it on-screen. This is in reference to Ricky & Cesar actually asking for directions in their home town, and I totally agree. It would also have been fun to splice that between shots of the other teams NOT asking for directions. Overall, I think production did a good job with what they had. I'd love to keep 90 minute episodes for the premier, and maybe even the first few legs until the teams get to be a more manageable number. Then bring back a 90 minute finale.

Fellow nerd here. When I was watching Harlots, I did the same thing. I loved figuring out how much the different women at different brothels were paid, what the "kept" women made. I think I started a thread on that in that forum. I also noted Portia's comment about the "pin" money, and also thought that there was no way pin money would account for a whole wardrobe. Portia's not stupid, so that line bothered me a bit.

That's Bridgerton book math. Not Bridgerton show math. In the show, Pen's only around 20 - this is her 3rd season. I understand that in the book by the time she gets with Colin she's older. (I haven't read the books, just picked that up from these forums, so I don't think that's a spoiler in any way.) So for show purposes, she's been crushing for about 5 years, max.

Yep. That's why I didn't really like Season 1 as much as most people. Daphne looked younger than her supposed 17 or 18, and Simon was in his 30's, and that just was icky for me. I really loved the full fledged adult smolder & burn of Kate & Anthony in Season 2.

I think the funny thing in the age discussion is no one has mentioned Nicola Coughlan, who is the oldest of the debutantes being portrayed. She is 37! I can buy her as early 20's. Even outside of Bridgerton, she doesn't look anywhere near 37.

Yes, this was the same interview I read. And yes, this has been a long standing rule. But 1) crews have almost always been in the same car as the racers, this rule was mostly applicable to don't outrun your crew type of situations, or don't hop on a subway/train that your crew can't get on. And 2) it doesn't address Danny's statement that the other part of the rule was that as far as driving was concerned, if you do lose your crew you go to the next point. Phil never said that wasn't true. Also from that article: If it was simple as "they lost their crew", then none of that discussion Phil refers to would have been necessary. They wouldn't have had to look at footage, or timing or anything. They wouldn't have provided Danny & Angie with another crew so they could do the task. So, despite what Phil says, it's not "Do not lose your crew. Period" It's more like, do not lose your crew. Asterisk.

If someone could link to that interview, I'd appreciate it. Because the only one I found where Phil addresses this he talked around it, and never actually contradicted Danny's claim that the rule was to go to the next location. And I'm certain I heard another team verify what Danny said was correct (it was in one of those youtube videos, and I can't remember which one).

This has been fully debunked in the episode thread. The post race interviews said that the instructions were to proceed to the next stop if you lost your crew. That's what Angie and Danny did. That crew took 90 minutes to catch up with them. Something seriously went wrong with the crew - there's no reason it should have taken that long. The crew should have gone to the next task, and if they had, Danny & Angie would have lost must less time. Crews have cell phones - if they were lost they could have called or used GPS. Why this crew drove around for an hour and a half for a task that was around 20 minutes away is a mystery. Production eventually had to assign D&A another crew to film them at the task. I understand the position TAR production was in at the moment - they didn't have all the information, D&A were last, they had to be eliminated. But I think it's not fair to them for the show to continue to portray this as D&A's mistake after they had a chance to review everything.

With all the references to Penelope being a book worm, her love for romance novels, her remarking on Colin's writing style, etc., this episode I also felt like they're setting her up to become a novelist down the road. Presumably under a pen name. (ha ha, pen name, get it?) I haven't read the books, so I have no idea if this is even remotely accurate or not. But it would make sense. Here's where Pen remaining Lady W confuses me... I said upthread that I'd love for the LW mantle to be passed along, and that would make sense in the Bridgerton world as I know it (on screen, not books). Each season we've jettisoned the love match from the previous season. It would track that next season we would not see Colin and Pen. But how does LW continue if that happens? If Eloise becomes the next LW, that would work. But otherwise, Nicola has to be locked into a contract for what, 4 or 5 more seasons?

@Skooma A million likes and a standing ovation to your post above. I do not like automatically attributing people's opinions to "isms/phobias", but I have to wonder if some of the more intense disliking of Ricky & Cesar is because they're an openly gay couple. I really hope that isn't it. They both embodied and defied gay stereotypes throughout the race (Yeah! Makeup! and also Yeah! Welding!), which endeared them to me even a little more. Also, thanks for clarifying on the "mugging". It was the NEL element that I forgot about in my earlier explanation. Also, wasn't the mugging then replaced by the additional challenge (which sometimes wasn't much of a challenge, just a time suck)? I can't remember when that ended, though. (Sorry, getting off topic of this episode...)

If that challenge were in English, I'd have a hard time simply because I eat very little meat. I don't know a round from a chuck from a whatever, let alone what they look like from a butcher. Cesar is a chef, chances are his culinary knowledge helped them more on that challenge than his knowledge of Spanish, just like the food challenge in Guatape. Also, Ricky has a background in musical theater - that was probably more help in the singing/dancing challenge than Cesar's language skills. If Ricky & Cesar were just squeaking through for their first place wins, I could see an argument about how language was the determining factor. But they had pretty healthy leads in most of the legs they won, much more than could be attributed to being able to read a street sign better than Juan, or get directions easier than Danny, or whatever. Ricky & Cesar's leads were obtained mostly because they completed most tasks efficiently, not because they read street signs quickly, etc. They didn't waste time squabbling (or making up after squabbling). I don't know why that gets overlooked. So an asterisk next to their win? Sorry, no.