Amarsir

Conversely the Jeff Davis episode is up on CWseed but the Greg Proops one is not. Good entry back. No guest stars and thus no guest star filler. I always love Jeff & Wayne compilation albums although I feel gypped if there are two songs instead of 3.

I'd love to see someone respond "Oh, which seasoning do you think it needs more of?"

I was sad to see her go. But I'm also a fan of The Room, Birdemic, and Troll 2. Sometimes when everything is wrong and you think you've seen it all, it's a joy to watch the new ways someone can invent to screw things up. I'm getting a Yaku vibe personally.

Well it's very much in her character to have a new scam, and Stan Sitwell is well-established by now. I also don't think it was that big, of a plot, but maybe only seems that way because it was in the latter episodes. Most of Maebe's activity through the season was running her Mom's / Grandmother's campaign and advising George Michael on Rebel. So that didn't bother me. But speaking of which, the Rebel Alley plot was overdone in Season 4 and went nowhere for 8 episodes. I really don't need to see Michael and George Micheal awkwardly lying to each other that much. It wasn't without moments (like the hallway "fight") but I would much rather have seen that time go to something else. Maybe do something more interesting with FakeBlock than have Rebel invest in it. GOB was similarly trapped in an old storyline that I actually feel they hung a lantern on in Ep 8. So he's gay for Tony Wonder which is interesting enough, except the "Christian Magician" tension isn't what it would have been 12 years ago when he became one. So the voiceover mocked GOB's trick as being too old to be controversial, which plays fine in character. OK, but how long can they keep that going? However, my prediction is that GOB will be more important in the latter half because of all the companies he's buying. Just a guess.

I found the age issue comparable to the scheduling issue in season 4. It doesn’t really hurt the presentation that much but did occasionally take me out of the moment. To me the writing is still really good. Lots of little items that seem like odd quirks or throwaway jokes and then come back. Given that and at only the halfway point I can’t even be critical of things that seem too easily dropped. Also Michael seems more likeable now than in Season 4, which had been my biggest problem. If he’s as bad as the rest (and George Michael never really took in the protagonist role) it’s hard to root for any of them.

Fair use says you can talk about, use, or display products if you want. However, this being America there is always the chance of a nuisance lawsuit, especially if the brand name shows up in an ad. "Your show used our trademark without obtaining licensing rights." Worse still if the chef makes them seem bad. "Your tuna and grape Rice Krispie treats didn't taste very good." Neither would likely have merit, but it isn't worth taking the risk. (And there's also the chance the network can sell a product placement later, which means they don't want to give it away for free.) I agree it's silly. But lawyers. (BTW did you hear there's a new lawsuit against McDonald's because they don't take money off the price if you want your QPC without cheese?) Because they expect him to be a frontrunner and this makes it more dramatic. All that matters is who goes home, not who had to stand up longer.

I believe I recall an interview where they said Deadpool was just a more compelling character if he has nothing to lose. And I can see that, especially after this story required his self-sacrifice. It's not that he needs angst, but he doesn't seem like the same "in it for my own amusement" character if there's someone important to get back to. Now maybe this could have been handled better than killing her off like they did, but I could see a sequel with a happier home life feeling shallower.

"Cook for your stalker" is the funniest thing this show has ever done. Obviously they figured out somewhere that it's a lame bit, which is why they edited down to like 3 minutes total. But I'm shocked they approved the idea in the first place. Perhaps it was meant to be for loved one and a logistical thing happened so they had to improvise at the last minute. I also miss the personalized menu. It was one of the better improvements this show made since the early run, and then they backed out. LaToya would never make frogs legs again even if she wasn't a vegetarian, so the result is meaningless. She's good at performing tasks while Tyler yells at her. Congrats, but utterly lacking in meaning. And ITA about the charity award. $2500 is what you get for being the 98th caller at a radio station. I'd say the smallest "big money" amount these days is $5000.

I’m surprised they didn’t jump on the Iron Chef Commentator job more. If you were a d-list celebrity using reality shows to get screentime, wouldn’t you love the opportunity to show yourself in that kind of role? Yet they all seemed reluctant.

As someone who has never read the comics, and only saw Deadpool once when it first came out, I found this hilarious and better than the first. (Well I guess I shouldn't alibi myself that much. I'm plugged in enough that I really enjoyed the Rob Liefeld shot. ) The plot is thin, but Deadpool doesn't strike me as a character I would ever follow for the plot. And that's to the movie's benefit. When Suicide Squad introduced a character purely to kill him 5 minutes later, it was obvious and awful. When DP2 does it, hilarious and unexpected.

I'm fine with all of these people. Ian has bugged me on other shows but hasn't been particularly bothersome here. I'm not a fan of Maria's comedy but she wasn't forcing it. The only one I disliked from the whole cast was Bronson and he was gone first. However, the graphic overlays this episode were way over the top. They've been uneven, and I don't mind a soft hand sometimes. But it felt half the show was cheap graphic effects and that "zoodles" dance mix went on about 90 minutes too long. Also I noticed an awful lot of tasting spoons going back in the dish this week and no one called on it. Most notably Latoya tasting the salad dressing at the end. But then Anne and Tyler weren't around to yell much this episode so I guess they get away with it.

I saw Maria Bamford do stand up as a new comic 20 years ago. I swear I said at the time "Good for her for trying but this isn't for everyone." So I don't hate her but I am quite shocked that she found a career in it. (And she can be annoying with a contorted face / squeaky voice gimmick, but hasn't been so here. I'd rather see Ian go before her. Or they can keep everyone and just reminisce about how great it was to kick out Bronson Pinchot.

Back before there was a Celebrity Worst Cooks in America, there was Rachel vs Guy Celebrity Cook-Off. The premise for that show was that the contestants actually can cook and the coaches were just there to help them take it up a level. The first challenge was to create hors d'oeuvres for 100 people. Gilbert Gottfried, reaching down to the depth of his talent, made peanut butter and jelly on white bread. This on a show that wants people to look good. So clueless I believe. It's the wacky schtick and playing up characterizations / stereotypes that's forced.

Catching up on the last 2 episodes. The electronic scoring system for Taekwondo is a clever (if niche) product. I'm surprised though that there's any interest in rewarding hard hits. That seems like asking for trouble if you're encouraging competitors to strike each other harder. (Even if the product itself is padding it.) I didn't get the appeal of the mechanics gloves, but apparently wearing them was very impressive. I am ready to declare myself done with the "round up your purchase" apps. I've seen several now and hated even the first one. They want me to pay a fee to take money out of my own account and then let them control my savings for me? No thanks. But what do I know because they got 3 dragons at an $8m valuation for an app that hasn't launched yet. Virtual vet seems like a good idea, although I don't know how much can really be diagnosed or not over a video chat. --- Jim was really enamored by a pretty simple idea to hold champagne flutes in place. Because that's all she had was an idea. He even thought the product needed some design changes and everyone thought the price was too high. Yet he just went in on her ask? (Though to be fair, she valued herself at $250k so that's relatively low for what we've seen lately.) Column Cozy isn't a bad idea, but it was downright funny how hard Arlene smacked them down on the pricing. Lava Grip ... I could have sworn Dragons Den had a similar product years ago. Back in the Brett seasons. I'm pretty sure volcanic rock replacing road salt was presented then and the idea was to get a city contract. So it was very weird for me to see this presented like new. Or I'm crazy or totally misremembering something else. I didn't see anything special about the hammock guys, but if they're charming enough to create a brand that got 3 dragons then I guess that's good enough. I can see there being an audience for a classier energy drink, and I can see that audience paying $4.50 / can for it. But I don't know how big that audience is because I'm certainly not in it.

No, this is a surprising cast. A few have done reality shows before, but none have "reality show" as their only claim to celebrity. I've heard of all of them and (so far) none annoyed me. That's a rare achievement. I guess Rachel Ray was busy? She usually gets the celeb seasons and Tyler gets the leftovers. The editing is both great and awful depending on how soft of a hand it is. Sometimes a contestant says something funny and the graphics tweak it a little bit. Other times it's a heavy-handed overlay that goes on way too long and has nothing to do with anything of interest. But it's part of the character of the show at this point. Honestly, this was a pretty good first round compared to the history. The goof-ups in the first test are so bad we do tend to figure some of them are just faking it for money / publicity. (One of the guys last season did something like putting some uncut carrots in a tin can and tying a ribbon around it.) Oh I remember that too! He was also super competitive, no? So far he hasn't annoyed me, but yeah now I'm going to be ready for him.

I believe Penn has mentioned that Piff technically beat them as well, but said they were right. Most of the magicians get the message that it's about appearing, not winning. So they'd rather be charming and leave on a friendly note than risk seeming like a sore loser.

Well if you want to see a celeb who can bake, Teri Hatcher stepped up in episode 5. She was so thrilled to be there too, which I think got on the others' nerves at first. But overall a good representation for the Americans in GBBO.

Not a lot of new stuff to see there, but I did appreciate Penn's commentary and the insight it gave. I also liked seeing Handsome Jack again. He's a Las Vegas local who has worked with them since, and I think his comedy works well although Penn doesn't fit into the "dumb guy" role as much as he'd like to. Also there was an educational angle by the camera before Teller turned the $20 into the $100, but that's OK. I feel like any Fool Us viewer who was looking for that would be happy to see it.

They want to hit the "anyone can bake" message, so every celeb episode has 2 people who kinda can and two people who absolutely can not. I think "comic relief" in past seasons was the same way. It also helps if you know the people and find them funny. Lee Mack in episode 4 (the copy of which I now see has been removed) was hilarious but definitely not a baker. They also all have real downers with the cancer segments, so either skip that bit or steel yourself for it.

From last week, that Tricolops packaging robot was interesting, but what got into the dragons? Arlene especially. She implied he only wanted the publicity, then pushed him to name his choice of Dragons, then got annoyed when it wasn't her. This wasn't the first pitch where it felt like she wanted a premium value on herself, but it was the most unfriendly. And I wonder how useful the sizing robot even is. I'm sure it will have some uses, but A) either you pack the same stuff a lot, B) you only have so many boxes and can eyeball the right size, or C) you have other packing concerns. (For example, Amazon's algorithm doesn't always want the smallest box. It wants the box that fits in the desired space on the truck with no room for shifting around. By contrast, I'm completely with Arlene in being annoyed at the electric car guy, and I like that Jim gave him a "shut up" offer. As you might guess, it doesn't seem to have passed due diligence. Jim frequently tweets to plug pitches and he didn't mention them by name, nor does anything on their Facebook indicate a final deal. This week, smart pitch from the 3d app guys. Neat idea, well-presented, and with a good job in the negotiation too. It was nice to see the "Belly Ice Cream" revisit. I remember how completely clueless she was on that pitch, so it's good to hear that she realized the error. I'm rooting for her now.

I'd say they both have problems. She's running the business badly and not communicating well. But then her husband seemed more interested in talking about her than to her. Mostly it's the show's spin. They could have cut him out and he would have been irrelevant, but instead they wanted to give us this personal angle on the story so Marcus can play psychologist. And then sometimes we go back and it turns out the big bad wasn't entirely wrong. A prime example of this would be SJC Drums. The prima donna "creative" brother who left was presented as this crucial element that would save the business. So the owner was forced to eat crow and apologize several times to provide us with a happy ending about what a bright future there was with the brothers reunited. Then we went back and it turned out the brother just made whatever he felt like regardless of the orders, so the moral then was "alright, fuck 'em." I suspect in hindsight the husband here will have read the situation right on the business, but had no awareness how bad he sounded by trashing his wife to Marcus.

I feel like if FN saw this feedback they'd still take the wrong message. "People thought our finale was too boring. That must mean we need even wackier characters!" It always seemed to me they're trying to balance two disparate shows, neither of which is all that great. The first half is "World's Wackiest Kitchen Disasters" and the latter is "My Fair Chef". In between I believe they're probably teaching real skills to real people, but it seems that's off-camera. What really bothers me is this fear that ratings-wise they might be right. Maybe as audiences we do like the easily-classified characters over the multidimensional humans. Steven had lots of talking heads but was still easily confused with Sharon for most of the season, and Hazel was easily forgotten for the first few episodes amongst the bigger personalities. Now perhaps the problem is that the others are too big rather than these being too small. But I'm afraid I'm not going to remember either of them. I'd like to see a show with real people getting real lessons and then picking their own dishes for the end. All-Star Academy came closer to that (speaking of Irvine) but FN doesn't seem all that interested in keeping it alive. Whereas this show gets like 5 seasons a year. So maybe that speaks to the actual viewership more than what we want.

I’m pretty sure I saw somewhere that we’re done til June.

They each bother me less than other finalists in prior seasons have, to say nothing of those eliminated earlier. That's some faint praise, but it is what it is. Actually I didn't really mind the episode at all. They're past the "world's wackiest kitchen blunders" phase of the early episodes, and I feel like they've toned down the After Effects gimmicks compared to the last few seasons.

It's certainly possible, but the guy would have to be pretty stupid to embezzle a profitable enterprise that he owns right out of business. He doesn't seem the type. It's the flashy rich lifestyle-seekers who embezzle to get what they think they "deserve". Mike and Paul seemed like guys who wanted to own a business but got in over their heads. My guess is that there were a lot of investors in "Parlor Management Group" with Mike and Paul taking the lead. But when things didn't go quite as hoped, the other investors started wanting out. So they had to use up the cash flow to close up their shares, and that left the business drained. And now they're a couple years into it, see how rough running a business is, and were thinking "this isn't fun, I want out."