Amarsir

I don't think she was that bad if it was on purpose. And her comment indicated that at least partially it was. I do however think she needed an off mode, because that's way too much quirkiness to have across from me in an accounting meeting.

That's slightly racist. :) That reminds me, does anyone think that line from Michael - "That's not quite what we are" - might have been a hint? It could just be a dismissal, as a way of saying "None of the religions were right so none of their terms apply". But maybe it means there's more to them than punishing bad humans with evil things.

Yeah that bothered me too. I don’t know what we were supposed to think was good about hers. It got me to wonder if maybe her parties on Earth were weak and she just thought they were good when everyone came out for charity. Or maybe it’s all about who comes, and there’s no celebrities in The Good Place. We do know she gets the jumbo shrimp that Eleanor loves, but other than that we haven’t seen much.

BTW, a few of my favorite (from here and elsewhere) critiques on Lori's outfit: Why the 18th century naval uniform? It looked like something Michael Jackson would have worn to court. Did Lori go to an estate sale at Prince's house? Looked like the fifth Beatle on the Sgt. Peppers cover. I don't understand why she was dressed like Cap'n Crunch, though. It may or may not shock you to learn that Lori said in a recent interview that she designed her own wardrobe for this season.

The order this season is really weird. Last week was labeled 906, but was the third hour (comprising the second episode after the two-hour premiere of 903+904). This was 901, the fourth. Next week's is 825, which is why they're on the old set - it was filmed last year. I have no idea why. As I think about it, that seems like a Trump move. "Always get someone to hand you stuff so they seem like your servant." - The Art of Making your Million-Dollar Idea into a Deal.

I don't think any of us know where it's going. Cartman moved to feminist SJW before last season started, apparently at some point after seeing Ghostbusters but never explained. It was generally supposed that this was fake, but the show gave every indication it was real. (Again, for no reason.) He got with Heidi because they were both social media pariahs, and that changed him to a genuinely good person, briefly. Now he's back to his old self and Heidi is more-or-less on the hook

Because he made a deal. He asked for 10% but accepted 20%. He said he was there for expertise more than money, and he was willing to pay for it. The woman would not go higher than 6% and would not value Sharks higher than any other investor, which means she wasn't buying their expertise. A "gold digger" is someone who doesn't really want the partnership. Bear in mind, ABC used to have the clause that they could take 3% from any company just for appearing. Mark was the one who got them to remove that, so I think he considers himself the guard dog against publicity-seekers now. With that in mind, who do you think would not have appeared on the show if they had to give up 3% for free? The woman who wouldn't go above 6%, or the guys who asked 10% and accepted 20%?

I do think they should have set up the “unblockable” joke better instead of assuming we’d get it. Otherwise Zuckerberg was funny but so random that it distracted from the plot rather than adding to it. The rest came out fine. Did you not watch last season? (Or alternatively block out anything not Garrison-related?) Them getting together was kind of a big deal and one of many things that carried over between episodes.

The first entrepreneur was pretty sharp. She didn't invent sweet hummus, but did start to carve out some sales with it. And she was smart enough to accept a lower valuation to get Mark, but not without cross-examining him. Mark's idea regarding stand-alone stores is an interesting one. My guess would be that he's thinking of it from a marketing perspective. Shoppers who want hummus aren't thinking sweet, and ones who want sweet aren't thinking hummus. Setting up shops would help sell the concept and establish the brand name as something shoppers can then go seek out.

Some may (or likely don't) remember the Emergensee app from a few years ago - basically an app with a quick button that would send video to the police. The inventor left without a deal. This past week he turned up dead in a Philadelphia river with a gunshot to the head, and reports are he was $3 million in debt over the app and being sued. http://6abc.com/body-found-in-schuylkill-river-identified-as-shark-tank-entrepreneur/2531616/

This is the first episode since the first half of season 1 that feels like this show could last for years. At the pace we’d been going I thought plots would really have to convolute before long. But this demonstrates how the show is willing to slow down with a simple couple of ideas to explore character. That’s what they need if we’re going to have a long future.

I love that Michelle follows that dog on Instagram. Because of course she does. :) I see that, although Kevin was definitely into playing out a character as well. Manjit strikes me as more of an authentic "suffer no fools" person.

I can relate. Even well past my teen years I don't think I knew the proper name of sfogliatella when I was eating it.

While I enjoy your line of thinking, I'm not sure it's accurate. The fourth square would be "Does good things with good intentions", and that person would be in The Good Place. Jason, when torching speed boats and slashing tires, was doing it as revenge which has to qualify as pretty malicious. That puts him in the same quadrant as Eleanor.

I didn't know it was possible to not have heard of them. You made me think, and then I realized I lived my whole life in NJ with a sizable Italian population. So to me they're a staple at bakeries and frequently found at any mid-to-upscale dessert spread. But now I realize that's probably a regional bias. Someone was just telling me earlier this week that I should try making my own pizza dough because it's "really easy". So I was surprised to have it as a technical challenge - that implies it's not. I guess the challenge was in how much experience you have handling the dough after it's made, since the ingredients themselves aren't that complex.

Barbara's deal to the fidget guy was pretty bad. He was making $175k free cash flow, even with an aggressive ad campaign. She valued the company at $250k. If they either grow as could be reasonably suspected, OR realize it's peaked and stop advertising, she'll have her money back within a year. I tend to think 3 is reasonable for Shark investors, and that's still a premium of 5 year payback for a non-Shark. Even Robert's 15% wasn't great. But the guy turned that down, so I guess he believed Barbara's pitch about being the ADD-whisperer or whatever. I legit did not know distilled water is sold in supermarkets until I was told so after the show. So I also thought it was a complicated extra step. (The only place I ever encountered distilled water myself was in a Chemistry classroom.) That said, even knowing that I'm still wondering: couldn't I just get my favorite bottled water? Or mineral water if that's the secret? Why do I need to buy special distilled water and then add his minerals separately? Yeah I really wished she would have an "off" mode. But I did give her credit because she knew she was over-the-top specifically to sell, and wasn't just talking over everyone because she doesn't listen. Plus - and I admit this is a low bar - she didn't say "Momtrepreneur" or start crying. I didn't think it was that bad here. Three shirtless, musclebound guys came on specifically to be eye candy. Her reaction didn't bother me. (In stark contrast to last week, where she groped an entrepreneur.) Nor would I be offended if male sharks were verbally appreciative of female models in bikinis. (Something that has repeatedly happened on Dragons Den versions.) There's something to be said for Shark Tank being above that, but the show would have to change a number of things if they want to be "boardroom pitch to investors" and not "fun commercial to the customers".

Michael taking ethics lessons from Chidi makes sense from Eleanor's standpoint as a thing for her to demand. But I don't know if it actually makes sense. Chidi can only teach theories of ethics, most of which contradict each other. Micheal has first-hand knowledge of the big picture that no human philosopher ever did. Of course this could lead to comedy. "Jeremy Bentham taught ..." "Well he's in The Bad Place wearing pants made of scorpions right now, so are you sure you want to take advice from him?"

I don't think Michael had an incentive to lie, other than when he offered the real "Good Place" when he needed to convince them. His description of humans as cockroaches is completely consistent with how he has acted toward them. And you don't need to lie to cockroaches. In fact, we haven't really seen him or any of the fake-good-place demons acting like they actively hate humans. There's a rant here or there about elbows or such, but then I also believe he genuinely enjoyed paperclips and other things. His job is torturing humans, and his experiment was to make it more fun for himself. But if that isn't working he doesn't really have a motivation beyond self-preservation at this point.

I actually thought they showed restraint with the editing effects this week - excluding the completely OTT "Aluminum Foil Chef" graphics. (And I didn't notice those because I was too busy being annoyed that it would be "Aluminum Chef"; foil not relevant to the name.) Also the basic idea of an Iron Chef competition between the recruits is fun, and while there wasn't any formal teaching I thought Anne and Rachel shouting suggestions & corrections wasn't a bad way to learn. Better to learn by improvising and adjusting than to take notes in a book. Unfortunately I don't think any of them had ever seen the show, so the idea that "the other team is commentators" didn't come across all that well.

After centuries in one episode last week, this one was basically in real time. I like that. I also agree with @Chris24601 that reverting to Version 1 is a good move for the audience's benefit. It lets a lot of the exposition and scenery carry over, so that we don't have to wonder where Tahani lives, whether the neighborhood people we met are still in the same roles, etc. It makes everything feel more familiar. My one gripe is that I'm not sure this was Michael's only out. He could have reset them and then offered his deal, at which point they would have been far more inclined to trust him. Of course Eleanor was right that this isn't her only out either, with Mindy still existing. But I felt like the drama was forced, since narratively we were pretty sure the show would have them team up, and logically it's pretty clearly the best deal. So when I thought about it that way it made the episode seem like a stall. But we got to see how Tahani died, and understand her sister's character more. That was big and appreciated.

A behind-the-scenes video of David Parr claiming his prize by appearing at their theater: https://geniionline.com/videos/go-behind-the-scenes-of-penn-tellers-fool-us-with-fooler-david-parr

So they did do the text message game again, which is great. I didn't like the texts quite as much, but perhaps it depends on the performers jumping around enough as well. (Brad's seemed like they were all coming from the same conversation, if I remember correctly.) I also like that they're mixing up the roles in some of the classic games. Colin isn't always the director in Hollywood Director, and Ryan did the sports in Newscasters. (Although I noticed Ryan actually did some sports in his role, and Wayne didn't say anything weather-related. Uncanny.

Sandi hosts QI since Stephen Fry left. Which is rebroadcast in the US with some delay, so you might come across her again. Noel used to be a team captain on the music quiz Nevermind the Buzzcocks, and now does panel show appearances as he likes. He's a lot more eclectic than you'd think from this show. (He also had a recurring character on The I.T. Crowd.)

The trend seems to be app over mobile site. If people become regular users, they want apps - even if the standalone program does the same (or less) than a site would. Branson has always been about acting like a teenager for attention. When The Apprentice first came out, a competing version launched with Richard Branson as host. One of his final tasks was to go streaking, because it's "the gutsy kind of thing I would do". It's not easy to make The Apprentice's host look professional, but he did.

She needs to be told not to ramble on when she's in. I very much enjoyed the Emergency Bag guys closing a deal with Robert while Lori was just ramping up. It's not just just that she was flush, but that she didn't really seem interested in landing a Shark. Her offer was the same as made to passive investors and as others said, she wouldn't negotiate any higher than 6%. When you put all of those things together, it seems like someone who just wants exposure. All the entrepreneurs get asked "why do you want the money?" and a good number say "It's not so much the money as finding a good partner." Had she said that (and meant it) I doubt any of them would have had a problem with her. BTW there are a ton of meditation apps out there. She made $700,000 so perhaps she's positioned well as one of them. But it's hardly an unexplored niche. I was surprised no one gave her a hard time about that. (Again, perhaps the sales was enough to quash those concerns.) He turned a (bad) corner for me when he said "It's not just about the business, it's about investing in the person." You don't get to say that about yourself. It really does sound entitled. But at the same time, I get it. Smart guy. Spent a lot of time in the education system which tells smart kids "follow our instructions, work hard, and you can have anything". It's easy to believe the real world is going to be clamoring after you, and be shocked when it isn't. You have to fall on your face a few times and still be enthusiastic, and that's how you get through the tough times until the successful venture comes along. ------------------ My favorite product of the night was the hammock tent. When I hiked the Appalachian Trail years ago I carried hammock + tarp instead of a tent, and it was a great way to sleep. However, setting both up manually every night was a bit of work. An all in one easy-to-set-up product is a great idea. (And I checked - it only weighs 3 pounds with all pieces, including ground stakes.)