hincandenza

Jeez, who was the asshole who put "Deconstructivism" into the list for iconic gargoyle architecture styles?!? I mean, when your own judges say they'd have run screaming from that choice, and given that we know they are allowed very limited research opportunities... well, it just seems unfair having any of these challenge themes include choices that are wildly imbalanced in terms of clear and distinct look/elements to draw from memory. Either give them the ability to research unimpeded during the design phase (because no one in the real world is told they're getting a job doing movie makeup on the strict condition they can't ever use the internet as a resource), or make sure the choices are all on fairly equal footing in terms of "would an average facetestant be reasonably expected to know the key elements of these architectural styles"? Honestly, I think this was a pretty decent outcome, even though it wasn't my favorite challenge. Cig, Emily and Tyler, were all runners-up who made the finale in their original seasons, while George went out fourth in the same season Cig was in, so it was good to see George make it this time. He did about as well as could be expected (I absolutely adore @Maelstrom's suggestion to have twisted the rectangle to express a wing shape as minimally as possible; such a beautiful minimalist way to suggest wings) with a difficult theme, and presumably was graded on a curve. While I also wasn't wild about Cig's, he did have some nice detail work even though I thought his facial sculpt was overpraised; I swear I've seen variations of that nose style in some other pieces of his work. Plus, until Emily won this week Cig was the most awarded contestant this season and in my book I'm okay if the judges let a little momentum buoy exceptional performers into the finale (I'm still a little cheesed that Nicole won her season over better facetestants after basically getting a nice little vacation in the middle of the show), if not to a win. Emily was hugely improved this episode over her last couple of weeks, rolling with the punches on that mold cleaning issue and delivering an admittedly safe but very well executed art deco eag(argoy)le. I think I agree with Michael Westmore that I'd have liked the beak even more pronounced- but even so, if it had been on stage any longer, I worry I'd have fallen under the Riefenstahl spell and declared my unwavering allegiance to UberGrouponFuhrer Smith. :) That left only Tyler, who gave us a nice gargoyle, but I think Ve was right about his common facial sculpt style (not anywhere near "Rubberface" Rod levels, though) and combined with the lack of a real push to tie the design back to the architecture made him the odd one out. I think with his skill if he'd found a way to make the architectural elements of Victorian houses more apparent in his sculpt- without just overtly Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V on pictures of St. Basil's Cathedral like Cig did- it would have been George going home this week.

God of Possums? Emily == Marvel's Squirrel Girl confirmed. So I totally called Emily picking Pele... but as others have said she really missed an opportunity as this would have been a perfect challenge to kill it with a beautiful makeup and astonishing hair set piece. I'm picturing in my head a relatively light face mold or pure makeup, and more focus on details and subtle rock formations/lava cracks in the body/along the arms, along with a fiery huge flowing hairpiece- something that feels like a "beautiful Polynesian woman" mid-transformation into "powerful, elemental goddess of creation and destruction". Like @morakot I pictured long fake black hair with streaks of red, grey, ash, etc, and maybe even little glowing read streaks. In my opinion, this was one of her worst efforts as it was so low-inspiration and paint-by-numbers, just a generic vague face sculpt with embedded pieces. @Lugal, I believe we've learned from the facetestants that they aren't allowed internet even when at the house much less in the lab, and thus can't even google to find out more about this or that goddess/theme/concept. Personally, this is silly to me: I'd rather they have access to basic research items than have to go purely off memory and challenge instructions. Heck, they aren't even allowed to doodle at night during downtime, as leaving around pens and paper would apparently "allow" the facetestants to sketch ideas in between lab time. While I like @Maverick's Samson theory, she was also an unsurprising save this week and was probably the only person in that room who didn't know it (including Logan, obviously), just on body of work merits. It's as if her insecure teenage self from season 8 just came back with a vengeance as soon as they split up into different teams/solo work, dropping her in the last couple of weeks from "top contender" to "will be lucky to get third". She's got incredible instincts, except when she decides to ignore them. She knew that sculpt was shit, and should have scrapped it on day 2 and gone for something more in her wheel house. We'll see if she can pull it together and make something amazing next week to reach the finale. Cig's was the best at meeting the challenge criteria, but I couldn't help but think of that Kali-Ma guy from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Or maybe Tuco from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. :) I wasn't wild about the colors in his face paint, either- too muted and muddy, even though it was supposed to be tiki-like. But the sculpt, and level of detail, were far and away the best on stage this week, and excepting maybe George the only one that felt like a Polynesian god. Logan's felt so incomplete; I didn't totally dislike the head sculpt, although it was asymmetrical and with the lack of any real detail on the body made the whole thing feel very Halloween mask. George was good, in my opinion. He wasn't flashy, and I feel like something was missing but I can't quite say what. That said, the detail was great, the old turtle thing fit the challenge/model/dancing very well, and the only big change I might have made is washing out the flesh tones to a more muted, even light blue/grey, skin color. I like @DEL901's impression of one of those "in disguise" old person gods who reveal themselves as epic forces of nature. Tyler's was also kind of lopsided and vaguely formed, for me. Leaving aside the weird "Splash World" theme park on top, the face reminded me of actor Don Cheadle, if he was the Swamp Thing. I could as easily have seen him in the bottom instead of either Logan or Emily.

Yeah... I'm collecting my thoughts before posting on the general season 2 thread, but as much as I defended it over the past few weeks, I found the season 2 finale to be a huge disappointment last night. So I'm not sure why I'd want to tune in for a season 3, since I'm pretty sure the past two seasons have led to no actual changes beyond a couple of minor character deaths.

Maybe it's just the lingering young mid-90's Tori Amos fan in me, but when they panned across the Tiki dolls I instantly began hoping Emily picked "Pele" as her goddess: I'm picturing some kind of epic lava-looking flowing hair. Then I did the math and realized that the album "Boys for Pele", which came out in January 1996, is not only older than Emily, but I was older when that album came out than Emily is now. Ugh. Screw this, I'm gonna go drink some Metamucil, watch some Matlock, and shake my fist at the kids on my front lawn.

Oof- I didn't need quite so graphic a depiction of Mary giving birth. Also, a country clinic is nice and all you guys, but maybe take her to the actual hospital?!? It also took me an embarrassingly long time to realize what Sarah was glaring at Cal for from the moment they saw Mary and her baby on the roadside, right up until she snarked at Cal when walking out about "holding your son" and I thought "How does she know which one is the fath- oh. Right. I am an idiot." On the plus side, while I completely suck at Punnett squares, I'm apparently a post-racial enlightened colorblind person. So I got that going for me. Poor Richard; and yet, in a way, he's getting what he wanted. His death will likely mean a great deal to Meyerism, as the literal and figurative flame applied to the many smoldering coals throughout this season. People can no longer sit idly by what with Richard's big speech and explosive suicide, and Eddie's just been pulled back into the mix. They're going to have to pick sides, and among the top rungs there's a lot of people who are secretly pulling for Eddie- especially with growing support for reforming the Denier movement. Hawk, Russell, and tentatively Bill will be resistant. However, from her speech to Cal, if Sarah goes to jail she's probably going to drag him down for murder as well (and might even get a plea deal out of it). This all blackens the eyes of the Meyerist movement publicly, but may be for the best: Eddie comes in and reforms the Denier policy and the unburdening policy, brings back many Deniers and "IS" people, and focuses on "building the garden" more than expanding out and getting fame. Hopefully along the way, Eddie loses that 'tude and starts being the kind of humble leader Meyerism actually needs, forgiving, compassionate, and human. It sounds so happily ever after, that surely something horrible is going to happen before we get there.

I agree, but one thing I like is that the show writes Hawk like, well, a child. His arguments to Eddie were so transparent and flawed, and it even left it uncertain (to me) as to how much Hawk was a part of the beating. It seems he intended for Eddie to get confronted, and considers that a "just" punishment. He's a 17-year-old kid, and as dumb as one too for all his good qualities and motivations. I also like that the show wasn't really ambiguous about Eddie as the new leader: he was showing all the same hyperaggressive, narcissistic traits that Cal had been famous for, from his "I am the one!" bragging at Cal, to harassing Sarah's dad about spying. Between that and Cal having a nightmare about his sexual abuser lest we forget the great Steve was anything other than a creep, they are balancing the woo-woo Meyerist stuff (which of course sounds good on paper) with how its allegedly most devout practitioners completely forget all of it in day to day life. They stand on the stage and talk about "5 minutes", then go kill/assault/blackmail/threaten/harass anyone who doesn't agree with them. Meyerism needs a reboot, but Eddie's high-strung attitude won't get them there no matter how many minor miracles he takes part in. Which as an aside is something that reads off to me; he knowingly slept with another woman for weeks, once he finally accepted his Denier status and moved on from Sarah if not his kids- and I get it hurts to find out she's moved on to Cal of all people- but shouldn't he be past the extreme rage phase, especially over infidelity when he's not been faithful either? I enjoy that the Abe and DeKaan plots are actually paying off (and that unlike so many characters in these kinds of situations, Abe actually recognizes and acknowledges the political fuckery, without denying that the Meyerists and Cal/Sarah are not exactly wholesome). It continues to be clear that they're setting up a season 3 where Meyerism is out of trouble with the FBI and presumably has a new leader/focus/change... but they've got to leave a fly in the ointment, or there's no dramatic impetus.

From your mouth to the Emmy voters ears! Just catching up on these forums since season 1 appeared on Hulu recently and I binged it last week (hoping season 2 is out soon!), but as I'm sure you're aware Louie Anderson did win an Emmy for this role. He really is incredible; it doesn't feel like a mocking role at all, and I've- we've all- known moms who are just like that. It was this episode, and the one before and after it, that made me realize I was into the show; I was kind of sketchy in the first couple of episodes because Chip was such a mean asshole, and I didn't want some godawful "Todd Margaret"-esque series of cruel things happening to him and others. Then, lo and behold, the show found its beating heart and I blew through the rest of season 1.

I totally agree. The nettle witches were disparate, but all three seemed to be of the same world if not same coven and the "worst" was still competent if not particularly inspired. By comparison, two of the rat witches looked really cohesive with that rat nose hybrid shaping... and then the third looked more like a newborn rat with acid burns- I'm assuming rather unintentionally, given the rushing around. I vaguely recall (and am quite possibly wrong) that in past seasons we've seen someone eliminated from a winning or at least top look team before, due to other factors. I believe we've even seen the judges in the past say something to the effect of "We're saving you and sending home <some mediocre person> instead, entirely due to your body of work thus far, but that's your one shot. Step it up". Here, I think this week was a shitty episode design: only two teams, which weren't the same size, and left zero room for really saying anyone had the "best" or "worst" look- so they probably went with some gut-feeling combination of who, given both the season as a whole and the output that day, would be the fairest boot. By most any measure, I think they got it right.

Hulu kept showing this in their suggestions (naturally), so last night after finishing the latest episode of "The Path", I gave this one a try. I ended up making it about 10 minutes or so before exiting out, as it just wasn't working for me. The review linked above captured some of my immediate issues: the dialogue and modern feel/moralizing seemed so jarringly out of place, along with a shiny "Why are 18th-century prostitutes- and most everyone else- so clean-faced and photogenic?" look that didn't fit at all. The brief amount I watched just made me realize that "Copper" was something of an underrated show: it looked and felt and probably smelled like the period it was from. If it somehow turns out I'm missing a gem here, I'll wait until popular opinion nudges me to give this one another try.

I thought his behavior wasn't great, but on the reddit threads- where some of the facetestants post such as Cig, Ben, George, and Melissa- they say he did get a bit of a bad edit ths episode. Apparently he and Emily get along well and joke/prank quite a lot, and honestly they're all so nice I'm inclined to believe that while Adam was probably a bit flustered, he wasn't really being that much of a pill as we think from the edited version. And I like that about my Face Off, the lack of draaaaaama. I still think he was the right person to go home this week, though. :) Purely on the merit of his craftwork, as it should be!

No worries, already a big fan of Mr. Robot. :) I was hesitant on season 2 seeming to go back to the well of unreliable narrator/psychosis gimmick, but then shit ramped up and I'm thrilled for season 3.

Belated commenting since, well... it's not like this place is blowing up with "The Path" chatter. :) I'll be honest, I really enjoy this show. I look forward to it on Tuesday nights after I get back from my weekly pub trivia (5 wins in the last 7 weeks, yo!), I enjoy the acting, and I enjoy the themes and stories. No, it's not perfect, and it's not like I can't see where this is going weeks in advance... but it's still fun and well produced. As soon as everyone threw their mini-coffins into water- while Cal is talking about "burning" the past- I laughed, because I pictured Cal in snorkel gear going out there at 1am to gather all that juicy blackmail dirt on people. Classic Richard, too: "forgive me", then not only reads the private thoughts but passes them on to Eddie because he's seamlessly transferred his cult worship from Steve to Eddie. Granted, if anyone but Sarah had been the victim of this, I'd feel bad for them, but, you know... Eddie continues his smooth transition into cult leader, including his "I can never be a leader!" doubt that is about to be erased when it turns out most of the Meyerists secretly agree with him on the Denier thing. Is it wrong I'm rooting for both Abe and the Meyerists? I really want Sarah led away in handcuffs, Cal falling apart watching this... and yet Meyerism persists. Other than the cult behavior, actually, there's a lot about Meyerism that is appealing! Granted, you can say that about most cults, since it's the whole cut-off-from-family, abusive control thing that makes it a cult. :) I don't think we know yet if the show has been renewed for a third season; I'd personally like one, but if this forum is any indication Hulu may decided two is enough.

Wow, Emily looks so different with her hair tied back and... did she dye it black?!? I suspect she and Tyler will bounce back nicely, especially since witch covens == hair work and costuming, which plays to her strengths. Wait, so they don't even get a chance to repick the superteams, and one is operating with one less team member? This seems odd. It would be a damn shame if their team of 3 didn't win and thus lost someone else- possibly Emily or Tyler- due to this weird superteam grouping. I hope when they get to top 6 they'll do individual/pairs again until the finale, because I don't want some silly Pagonging in my FaceOff!

Watching belatedly and... yeah, I get the "fuck Adam" comments from when I first read this forum on Tuesday night. :) Between his shitty attitude and the obvious childlike joy of the C/G/B/E contingent, it was clear who was going to win this week regardless of the degree of difficulty involved with circus v. nuke testing. He was just so transparently checked out ages ago, and oozing a certain bitterness and resignation, probably because he (correctly) knew he was at risk if their "superteam" didn't win. I agree with @qtpye's theory above that he probably knew being paired with Ben/Evan meant he had more weeds to hide in (or alternately, just had to outperform Ben/Evan to be guaranteed a shot at the finals). On the reddit thread for the puppets episode, none other than Cig commented that Adam's full, unedited stonemason spiel went on and one for like 2-3 minutes, so it's not surprising that Glenn kind of dismissed his whole pitch at that point if they had to sit through him babbling. It does seem like he tries to save his work during the explanatory period with a big long "funny voice" pitch, and still hasn't learned that it doesn't really ever work. Ah well. To his credit, he did take his elimination with grace and professionalism, so points for that. Ben killed it this week, so wow... go Ben! That hydrocephalic character is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen on this show, and the model (Nyali of the- as @Toaster Strudel put it- "big, great, magnificent eyes") sold it so well with the rolling random eye movement and drooling. I agree the tough part is similar to what @Monty9 said, that it was close enough to realistic there arose that discomfort of thinking about people back in far less compassion times who lived their lives stuck in some rickety wooden chair just like that fictional character. Loved Glenn ripping on the wig for the strong woman, then saying "Of course, look at his own haircut... but then, who am I to talk?" Self-aware, self-deprecating Glenn is the best Glenn! Or at least in the top 2, alongside kittie-loving Glenn. Hey, maybe Mattel should release a line of Glenn dolls like with Monster High, so we could collect them all! Crazy Hair Glenn, Kittie Lovin' Glenn, Malibu Beach Glenn, etc, etc. :) I really enjoyed the guest judge; he was smart and had great insights about both the makeup and concepts as well as how the camera and lighting would impact things. I enjoyed his little "I go- you stay!" joke to Adam, even though I did not want Adam to stay.

Not sure if this is the right thread to post this in, but I didn't see a "Cast in other roles" section. Scoot McNairy is apparently going to have a role in the newest season of "Fargo" starting April 19th- which if you haven't seen it is one of the very best ensemble dramas on TV these days (as you can see from the season 3 trailer, they tend to get some amazing casts). Seasons 1 and 2 are out on Hulu if you want to watch, although each season is a self-contained story and unrelated to the others.

Well, I'm a male- although not a critic- just finished season 2 last night, and personally I think I preferred season 1. Both were exceptional dramas and ensemble acting tour de forces, but season 1 had a noir-ish mood that really worked for me. I think it comes from the combination of the almost supernatural evil in Malvo, lurking over the story like a fairy tale creature, and from the tension that Lester is never suspected or fingered as the bad guy until the very end. There's not really the dramatic irony in season 2 the way there is in season 1, with the constant tension of how Lester or others would get caught or killed. In season 2, Lou and his peeps pretty much have the bulk of the case(s) figured out fairly soon, and then the last half of the season- exciting as it is- is just watching the different tribal factions move into place for the various bloodbath sequences among the Gerhardts/Hanzee, Mike/KC mafia, and the various Wrangler-wearing cops. Interestingly, Lou in season 1 talked about the pure evil he saw in Sioux Falls in 1979, but... who was he referring to? Hanzee was out of control on some Rambo-esque revenge fugue by the end, but he wasn't in Malvo's league and other than that it was brutal but not unprecedented gang warfare spilling onto the streets. She also knew before anyone else that Peggy hit Rye with her car, and never said anything to the police because she seemed to want to use it to manipulate Peggy. If she didn't have designs on Peggy then Peggy probably doesn't get cajoled into the seminar, and thus Hanzee doesn't find the seminar flyer on the fridge, and never goes to find Constance. Other people on this forum have complained how weird it was the show did all that talk about the seminar... and then Ed/Peggy end up in the same town for completely unrelated reasons. Turns out, the only reason for the seminar was so that Hanzee could pick up the lead on Ed/Peggy. So in that case, while Constance didn't deserve to die for her sleaziness, if she'd been less of a predator then Constance would have come back alone from her seminar in perfect health, and wondering what the living fuck just happened in Luverne while she was gone. :) I think that's a great callback (callforward?), thanks for noticing that. Peggy was sort of the Lester of this season: the mild, boring, small town person who is capable of awful things, and then trying to justify it with them as the victim. Lester however always had an ember of evil under the surface which got inflamed by Malvo, while Peggy wasn't ever evil, but mentally ill with at least a profound narcissism and delusion. I'm also unsure as to what real punishment Peggy will get, although at least if she's tried in Luverne she'll have access to the best (and only) lawyer in town, Karl Weathers. Heck, she might never see the inside of a prison cell! :)

Posting from the future (the second season finally came out on Hulu a few days ago, and I just finished it last night): Mackenzie Gray, who I thought I recognized from that short scene in the basement, has the role as a major villain in another Noah Hawley show that has come out in early 2017 on FX called "Legion" (and where I recognized him from). Now that I think of it, Jean Smart has a major supporting role as well... In any case, I highly recommend it for fans of Fargo, as it's a total mindfuck of a show but still exceptionally well done; at this point, FX is presumably and smartly just giving Noah Hawley whatever latitude he wants.

Arriving late to this thread since the show just came out on Hulu a few days ago. Most everything has been hashed over already, but wanted to add a couple of thoughts: For me personally, while sympathetic to Simone's lifelong arc/plight, she was still so profoundly dumb about her dalliance with Mike that I was rooting for her death since the episode when the house was shot up. She is a parallel to Peggy: both have this sort of foot-stomping "I am a grown woman!" thing but both are making absolutely horrible choices and then behaving like children who can just wish away the consequences when they arrive. Simone was as willfully oblivious to the only fate that awaited her when her betrayal was inevitably discovered, as Peggy was in leaving a dying man in her car's windshield in the garage while she made Hamburger Helper. Simone had gotten many people killed in a deliberate intentional series of choices she made by herself- yet seemed to think that was something you could just talk your way out of or bat your eyes to fix. Very similar to Peggy babbling in the kitchen about moving to California while Hank looked on in utter disbelief. As awful as he was, Dodd was right about one thing she never did understand: being an adult also means being responsible for your decisions, even if it ends in fists, knives, or bullets. Repeatedly betraying her own family to a person who told her he'd kill her (and yet she kept working for him/visiting him?) and who has continued to kill that family with her ongoing help... well yeah, you're going to get offed. By one side of the other, since nothing about Mike's blatant contempt for her was veiled, or should have led her to think a post-Gerhardt world was going to result in anything other than her own shallow grave at a construction site. Unrelated, the other thing I thought while watching- which is surely not intentional since the ad itself was from 1984 during his reelection run- is that with the background theme of Reagan running through this season I thought it was kind of funny that the Simone death scene literally involved a "Bear... in the woods".

It might! If they just choose randomly there's a 1 in 3 chance that those two teams end up together. I imagine they'll pre-select the pairings, say Cig & George with Ben & Evan, just so the latter learn the magical power of smiling. Also, they've never had just two teams compete, right? Since it's a non-elimination episode, I'm betting immunity isn't on the line, but rather some cool prize (such as the winning designs are used in some SyFy movie).

I wonder how much of that is just the all-star season; some of the mold drama in past seasons was from people who came onto the show and had little experience molding. Even in this episode, we saw Emily defer to Tyler's superior mold setup skills (maybe he can teach her molding the way she taught him hair treatment). Of course, even when there was mold drama, most of the time they'd cut to commercial, then come back and 3 or 4 other facetestants would be helping out- which is one of the things we all kind of love about this show- and the problem would be easily fixed.

In my defense, I have to keep reminding myself they are in their mid-30's, because they sure don't act like it. :)

So I was browsing around the various facetestants' twitter pages just now, and saw this picture on Rachael's feed of some cosplayers at DragonCon and simply had to share:

Well, I guess I pretty much called it! :) The inner circle is starting to rally behind Eddie, and Cal/Sarah have absolutely no idea. That makes it rather tragic for them: they are sacrificing their futures and freedom to keep the Meyerist movement alive- and admittedly, they did a pretty great job on that stage- even as the people they are doing it for are about to oust them as leaders if not as members. Well, not that tragic since every problem they're fixing was caused by Sarah and Cal to begin with. With four episodes left Abe has plenty of time to crack the blackmail routine and bring down at least Sarah, and Cal if he somehow finds out about Silas. As an aside, I'm curious about the legality of him breaking into the archives room and whatever he finds there- I'm not a lawyer, but even/especially for an undercover agent it seems very "fruit of the poisoned tree" to break into a secure area- and not sure what he was hoping/expecting to find since he basically already knows they are being blackmailed. It wasn't clear to me if Sarah was selling the donors their unburdening tapes back, like the one she gave to the IRS woman, or simply blackmailing them with the fear of future leaking if they talk. I still think Sarah could have had as much success without being quite so obviously blackmailing if she'd simply told them that they'd lost their attempt to be get religious status with the IRS, had a large tax bill, and the compound- and all its assets and materials- are in danger of being seized. The pedophile family guy (he was a child molester, right?) certainly would have done the math with less of a clear cut case of blackmail like they certainly have now, since we saw something like 20-30 names on the list of whom some may be willing to testify. I'm thinking here, but while we know Cal is dirty as hell, I don't think Abe actually has anything concrete on him, does he? It could be that Sarah- the only one on that tape talking to the IRS woman (over whom she now has no leverage), and who was the singular force behind the blackmail to raise the tax funds- takes the full fall for Meyerism's sins. Abe and the FBI might decide all they can prove is that she acted alone, so she goes to prison and is a black eye to the movement so the FBI is sated and moves on. Cal is sidelined as co-guardian but his story becomes one of genuinely trying to be good and regain his faith (his nausea over Sarah's blackmail, and his inability to exploit the teen pop star); I was thinking when he was telling Sarah in Boston how his faith has cracked, that he should set a precedent and declare to the Meyerists that he has gotten too tied up in worldly things, and is voluntarily dropping down to like 4R, and restarting this climb up the ladder. Meanwhile, Eddie leads the flock back to its roots and Meyerism has a growth spurt in season 3. Er, if there is a season 3, as I've not heard if Hulu has renewed this show. I still like it and have friends who watch as well, but if this forum is any indication maybe they just aren't finding the audience.

I felt bad for Enid Ortiz; I personally thought she was a lot better than a last-second one-chair turn, but the judges were psyching themselves out and playing those stupid games of "Are you going to hit your button? I will if you will...", and then they all ignored her for like a solid minute while giggling amongst themselves about Blake's "trick" before even asking her name. And Blake did nothing wrong: as Vyk noted above, the other coaches could just hit their buttons based on the singing itself. That used to be the idea behind the blind auditions and the show itself, y'know? It's honestly gone on like this for too long, and while the producers are right that we tune in partly for the coaches' banter, I personally hate it when it goes on while the contestants are doing their blind auditions. It's too easy to see which other judges have turned, or to make eye contact or even whisper amongst themselves (at one point, I swear I saw Adam intently studying Gwen's face after she'd turned, to see how she was reacting). I really wish they'd put up dividers between the judges during the blinds, like a semicircle panel on their left side like this o ^ o ) o ) o ) o ) which can rotate clockwise behind their chair once the song ends and they're all turned around. It'd be a lot more interesting as a viewer to watch them be cut off from using the other judges as guides- or even from knowing who has turned their chair when they hear the crowd cheer.

I always feel bad on the last day of blinds, because I think of the people sitting in the waiting area with their families, told "Okay, there are now only 3 slots left... okay, only two slots left... okay, there's only one slot left and there are 3 people auditioning ahead of you". Imagine being the next to go on stage after Chris, and then Alicia hits her button. I've heard (no idea if it's true or if I'm just spreading a rumor) that people in line who don't get a chance to audition are automatically invited back for the next season and put in the first group, which I hope is true. I even seem to recall there being someone in a past season who specifically mentioned not getting a chance to audition and then making it onto the show when they did come back the next season. That said, Chris surprised me. He was- to my ears- really, really good. Yes, he threw every trick in the book into his performance, but that's what a 90-second audition is for! You gotta show the judges your range, your skills, your dynamics, etc, and he had them all. What I don't get is, how on earth was he slated so late in the audition process, when as Blake said to him "You would have been a 4-chair turn"? It almost seems shenanigans-y, like Alicia was told "We have a really great soul guy coming up" so she got super picky until she was the last one left, heard that little run into the low register, and flipped out. The other judges actually looked a little pissed, like "Really, someone that good is showing up now that we're all full up?!". I know his last name is actually Blue and likely they were pretty good if Chris is any indication, but I laughed when they showed how as a kid he was in a vocal group called the Blue Brothers, because I instantly pictured it as some cheap con to confuse people into attending a show thinking it's the "Blues Brothers" ("McDowell's, we're the golden *arcs*") and this poor guy is remembering it fondly.