Amarsir

Well-reasoned. In fact if anything, jumbling the times as they did actually undercut the reveal. In the moment, I felt like Charlotte was just replaced 5 minutes ago and "Charlores" revealed herself almost instantly. It wasn't until reflecting later that I realized it happened at different facilities. So a big surprise seemed a lot smaller because the premise that was being upended wasn't that clear in the first place.

I agree with you guys. In terms of performance I would rank it: 1) Marcy's powerpoint. Funny, and "Invisible Deck" / Ultra Mental Deck (ID / UMD) is perhaps my favorite trick. 2) Evan's levitation. Well presented and a fair modern twist on a classic. 3) The Sentimentalists. There just wasn't much to it, to the extent that I wonder if editors clipped it or they were told to rush. Fine trick, needs more "wow". 4) Chamber's beer production. The patter felt very forced. He needs to deliver in a way that sounds like he is speaking naturally and not in a way that sounds like he's trying to remember his lines while balancing glasses of beer. I thought the productions were fine if unsurprising. The Piff & Pop trick is fun. I like combining the prediction scroll with a little bit of improv. The character contrast nicely highlight's Piff's grumpiness. I did know they've worked on t his a lot, but seeing Teller as the Squire was surprising and funny.

Teddy died several days earlier via self-inflicted gunshot. He only got into the valley beyond because Dolores took his ball and put him there manually. So his body was in no shape to be walking into the ravine. The only explanation would be that this flood was way bigger than any logic would suggest and it floated up bodies from all over. Of course this wouldn't have even crossed my mind if you all weren't so good at remembering who was in the water. I didn't take notes about "scene of uncertain time and significance #284" so I don't remember at all who was there.

And both by Michael Crichton.

Maybe someone can clear this up for me. Dolores's plan all season was to find Abernathy to get the "key" which she then takes to the Forge to open the door. (Which is available only to those hosts who conveniently showed up in the right spot at the right time for no reason.) Except she doesn't want a robot heaven. She wanted to get off the "island". But she couldn't sneak out until Bernard changed the script on her. And she sacrificed everyone who could have helped her fight her way out. So what exactly was her plan again? She went to the Forge to delete the human data from the ball that nobody could access anyway because she already had the ball? Did she want to lure hosts to robot heaven to destroy them because double genocide is twice as cool as single? And cleverly decided to sacrifice her own kind before making any progress in the war on humans?

Lamb kofta with harissa over cauliflower couscous seemed appealing to me. Unsurprisingly it came from top-contender Palak. Team challenges don't bother me because as a network "star" they do need the ability to work with others. Much moreso than on a straight cooking show. Also I don't really think it affects who gets sent home that much. Rebekah tanked the food and the presentation, so she left. What bothers me is that we're doing teams with people who aren't ready to be tested for the nuance of interaction. If they were all good cooks who understood the concept of "talk succinctly about food" then I'd be fine with narrowing down who is or isn't a team player.

As I recall, in the beginning of the season Ford's message to MIB was "This game is for you. You have to travel back to the start." I took that to mean William who had once loved Dolores and now viewed hosts as expendable tools would come to see them as people again. Not the most unique of journeys, but it would tie the stories together and give him some closure. Then he met Dolores in the finale and I was all ready for that. So where was it?? If not my interpretation then what did "back to the beginning" mean? Instead we get more repetition that he's a bastard for no reason and yet no one actually kills him. He didn't help Dolores nor she him. They had no reason to intersect other than "it's the finale so I guess they do."

Two reasons not to worry about that. 1) The facility was all run-down. That implies the distant future and not a great one. 2) Emily said she was testing MIB for fidelity. Fidelity A) Requires a test that happened in real life before being replicated by the copy. B) Must take place before random events can enter into the calculation. Therefore the implication is that William really did everything we saw. But at some point a copy of him is made and repeats them. Now whether that copy starts with the elevator or started weeks ago and it's all a giant fidelity test, who knows. There's potentially interesting stuff there. I just don't want to see 8 timeline versions of the same conversation and then wait until the end of the season to figure out what order they were supposed to be in.

It's clear there are a lot more storylines they can explore in season 3. I would like to see them develop those lines, but I'm not interested in deliberate stalling and obfuscating. Like a smart person, a smart show takes a complex idea and presents it as simply as possible. A dumb person takes a simple idea and makes it sound complicated in the hopes of appearing smarter than he or she is. This show starts with complex ideas, but it takes the long way out and it doesn't do them as many favors as they think.

I'm constantly forgetting that The Official Podcast is actually based on episode-by-episode, because they don't really talk about that. It's probably the inspiration for who Marc Evan Jackson schedules for guests, but conversation tends to go all over. Which is fine, it gives them a backdrop to talk about but doesn't hold them to it. Perhaps once guests start coming back for a second and third time they'll be more on-topic as the general stuff has been covered. By contrast, Forkin Bullshirt goes through the episode very methodically, discussing anything of interest - especially relevant philosophy. And then does it again because the first time was done without revealing the end-of-season spoiler. I think that's a totally unnecessary concern, but I admire their commitment.

Apparently CWSeed is only hosting every other episode. Perhaps the people who run the website and the ones who schedule the shows don't talk. The new Jonathan Mangum one is great. He always brings the physical comedy, and seeing the overhead set again was really awesome if they don't beat it to death in every episode. Also Film Dub, underused and lots of fun. I also laughed a lot at Andrea Navedo's episode, although less due to intentional jokes and more about Wayne covering for the unexpected. Aerial view indeed.

I saw an interesting post from someone on reddit I thought I'd copy here:

I wish this show was about business and not the ego of the week. However, the talent departing the company to partner with Marcus is really interesting and is something I wished to see in bad companies of the past. As is frequently the case, the investment timing is all exposed as fake as well. Marcus writes the check, but it didn’t exist because the later check with the royalty demand was the only one he wanted back. I think he’s clearly in the right here but that doesn’t help appearances. Phone cases seem like an oversaturated market for low cost providers. I’ve never paid over $15, rarely over $10. But then I don’t have an iPhone either. Be proud of him. He came off very well.

This was a half-season. The rest are coming this year but weren't quite ready. Rumor is they had to push some out when they did in order to qualify for Emmy season. (Which is a little too optimistic in my opinion.)

Oh, it can be on after "Manny's Mix-And-Match"! Contestants listen to him talk and they try to guess what food he was describing. I actually agree it's not really Rebekah's fault she was stuck with the burgers, and she mainly did herself a disservice by describing it as something she could make at home. But that bothered me for a different reason. If you're doing "Destination Food", isn't that rather like saying "Come on out... or don't bother!"

On the plus side, they're leaving the studio. Apparently the budget is up at least a little from past seasons.

He definitely has said as much. The LA Dogworks guy was a real piece of work and all Marcus did there was trying to get him to act human. (Well, and some extra retail products for the storefront.) But this was different. He might like to help someone improve, but being in the middle of a couple is probably unsolvable. The only possibility would have been to buy one of them out. (The woman might have agreed but not at a reasonable price.) I wonder if Marcus "knows how to help people improve" for the same reason he "knows how to cut an onion". He just thinks he does and doesn't want to admit it might be beyond his skill set (or interest).

I think he did, and you're right. At Kroger a can of peas labeled "Kroger" brand would indicate cheap and generic. At a Nike store a Nike product would indicate I'm standing in an outlet.

My good/better/best price points on a t-shirt are $5, $10, and $20. So maybe their low-end could pass for my high-end, but that's about it.

Marcus must want another t-shirt designer since Dilascia imploded. But I predict this won't go well for him. If the bossy brother was so obnoxious that both office workers wanted to quit, there's no way he's just going to turn around on that.

The title of the episode was "Main Attraction" so I assume he was cast to represent the side show.

Tregaye was always toned down. She cartooned it up for Bobby & Giada because that's what they wanted. As several pointed out, Adam was the ringer all along. I don't think they wanted to advance Amy at all, and I noticed that Valerie said "You're not making this easy"... to her. Not to both of them. To me it was as if they wanted to dump her but she did too well on the last task. Has he seen this show since he was last on? It isn't anyone's path to a high-profile show.

Then you must really hate when they sing a song about the guest. I love Heather Anne Campbell. She's not very jokey but throws herself into a scene very well.

"Throne" is slang for toilet.

My initial impression was that there wouldn't be much additional value, but I enjoyed it as well. I think you're right about "good television". Marcus wants to go fix problems, and so the producer takes that as an opportunity to go say "OK, I'll find some problems for you." I wonder how that meshes though with the first sign company, "ASL Signs". The guy basically didn't need anything and wanted a deal for business connections. And everyone was pretty happy working there despite attempts to show him as a "control freak". (Which he was a little, but nowhere near compared to others.) Marcus ended up ditching them halfway through the show. So I wonder what the producer was thinking by offering up something like that. Was that the pendulum swinging the other way?