Amarsir

I enjoyed these both more than last week. They were ridiculous in a way that wasn't afraid to take risks. Kaitlin Olsen had a major skull fracture when she was 12. Interesting choice to say that Dee's personality is based on a head injury. Is there anything we know about her in high school that would contradict the idea that she was actually a sweet person? I thought 40-somethings playing 20 added to the absurdity, so I was fine with that. But Kaitlin's look has really changed over the last few years, likely from cosmetic work, and it just stands out as different every time I see her.

I liked them but I didn't love them. Maybe its just been too long since last season. But I need an episode with all 5 playing off each other constantly. Both episodes opened that way, but then diverged. The first basically had them in pairs, and the second kept cutting between script and commentary. (And Frank's diversion. And guest revisits.) Both had good in-character moments. They just weren't quite what I was longing for.

Alexa with an attitude killed me every time. Of course it evolves to be a relationship, but a dysfunctional one. And yet still perfectly does all the upselling reminders. I also enjoyed the other recurring jokes: "woke comedy" and clumsy "it's the future" exposition. And such a clever idea to call it the Post-Pandemic Special, open with saying we're nearly out of it, and then show that it's 40 years in the future. My favorite joke was Clyde declining the vaccine "for shellfish reasons". Just a stupid pun, but I loved it when Flora was undecided and I love it now.

I didn't mind the girlfriend nearly as much as some of you, but I definitely agree she shouldn't have been there. (In multiple ways.) She was caught between a boyfriend who didn't want to do any work and his ex-girlfriend holding money over his head. So I don't blame her for butting heads with Lila. Nor Lila for pushing back. She should absolutely ditch him though. That is, if he didn't just ghost her when he bugged out to Oregon. Which seems to be his m.o.

I watched this 3 years behind the curve so I know no one will ever see my comment. But I'm OK with that. I don't believe Wells was innocent. He was likely the dimmest of this "genius" collection of 40-watt light bulbs. But this couldn't have 100% been against his will: He was very calm in the bank. If he thought the bomb was fake and would be his get-out-of-trouble excuse, it makes sense. If he thought it was real, it doesn't. (And if he thought it was fake and wasn't in on it, why play along at all?) He lied about who did it. A victim would want the perpetrators caught. Someone who might expect a cut hopes they get away with it. He had a functional (disguised) gun. Who arms their victim? What victim carries a gun into a bank? The witness to him leaving the planning meeting seems more reliable than the crack whore who may have given birth to his child and who avoided many earlier chances to talk. His coworker Robert Pinetti was involved. (And allegedly taken out via an intentionally lethal drug batch.) Why involve someone else who's so connected to the guy if he's just innocently following instructions? It only makes sense if he had some role in convincing and reassuring Wells. But with Wells' family so adamant on clearing his name, I'm not surprised the documentary took an easier route. Incidentally, the only way anyone involved in this case is an "Evil Genius" is if Rothstein knew the whole thing was doomed to fail and went through with it in a Breaking Bad kind of mood to see what trouble he could stir up for others before he died.

Just found this when the non-renewal hit the news. I was a huge fan of eco-challenge and getting even one more season was a gift I didn't think we'd get. I really like that none of the drama seemed fake. IIRC way back in the day there was a temptation to have the race seem closer than it was or act like a team was lost at sea when all that happened was the camera lost sight of them. And I was briefly afraid they were doing that with NZ right at the end, only to learn it was a legitimate mechanical failure. Goes to show that actual competition provides better stories than anything they can manufacture.

I don't know if the people have a crossover. That would be interesting to find out. But the techniques certainly do. If you look up the term "mechanics grip" it is described in equal terms as a magicians' trick or a cheater's trick.

I think we all know the basic "math magic" that goes something like: Think of a number Add 7 Multiply by 2 Subtract 14 Divide by 2 Is that your original number??? Magic! Clearly you're doing a thing and then undoing it, The trick is in how well obscured the "undoing" is. This was similar and it worked well because most people have never thought about the mechanics of various shuffling methods. It's so effective that something like this has been used for cheating at card games, with the culprits able to do it right in front of people who had no idea.

His was the only one that disappointed me. (Although I agree on Coughlan's demeanor.) It makes me wonder if because he was the first fooler and the first double-fooler that the chance to be a triple was obligatory on both sides. Or maybe he figured a US audience wouldn't be as familiar with that first performance from when this was a UK series? Whatever the reason his trick felt like a rerun. Which is a shame because if not for that, swapping a card from a deck and a page from a book seems like a great idea. Very happy with the rest though, especially Teller's.

I was hoping for more than 3 "how to" bits, but it was nice seeing all the different magicians participating. Their YouTube channel had a similar thing a few weeks ago with The Ambitious Card. That last trick with the Fanning sisters: I imagine there was a cheat sheet off camera that would make this trick a lot harder to do live.

William forces his way into Delos in order to destroy the host replication. He encounters Charlotte and the conversation goes roughly William: I'm going to save the world. Charlotte: That's what Dolores wanted. William: I thought you were Dolores. Charlotte: I was but now I'm a little different. Then a host copy of William comes out. They're ornery at each other and Real William has his throat slit. Pan to the host creation room with all the machines at work. Then there's a silent scene of Bernard covered in dust or soot waking up from some sort of trance.

If I remember correctly, he mentions the murder and then you get the "is arrested" ending.

Alton did a stream chat on YouTube right before the finale. It's kind of weird and not necessarily worth watching. But it does explicitly reinforce what everyone here seems to have picked up on, about only doing it via bargain for Good Eats. "There isn't anything you could do to make me do Worst Cooks again. There's nothing. Don't even think about it." Interestingly, Alton said that in advance of the show he had to submit recipes. He picked ones that were good to learn and practical in the home, and then the producers rejected them for being too easy. So it was at that point he realized the premise is phony and decided to play the villain character. Which obviously didn't work. But it's quite the indictment of where this show went that they had a guy who wants nothing more than to teach about food and managed to sour him on it.

I love the worldbuilding on this show. The plot long-ago passed into overly-convoluted. And the characters, despite interesting elements, are held back by the need for secret motives and hidden personalities. But the city and it's technology are beautiful, and as starkly contrasted from the rest of the real world as Westworld itself was.

I haven’t seen anything official. But from the sound of Marcus on Twitter it seems like this might be the series finale. (I know there’s a with-commentary episode for next week which would be an anti-climax but it doesn’t contradict this being the final business.)

A really good finale. Philosophy, goodbyes, individual endings that felt individual, so many callbacks, and a couple laughs. Jason accidentally becoming a monk is my favorite part today, but I may have a different one tomorrow.

I didn't hate it, but it does disappoint me that they thought what's missing is an exit and not some sense of purpose. Since episode one I've been bothered that people in The Good Place didn't seem to care about other humans - either in The Bad Place or back on Earth. Now demons are designing tests to make humans better, but Good Place people only pursue hedonism? Seems like a miss to me. It is an interesting philosophical perspective though, that mortality is necessary to the human condition. I don't mind that they explored it. It just felt really insufficient.

I didn't like anyone in this. Except the mom. He takes them to TankFarm because I guess getting t-shirts designed without settling on a new logo first makes some kind of sense. Then he says "be honest which ones you don't like". Then Jerry says they misspelled the name and Marcus gets on him for being negative. Then the guy explained it like rebranding but to me it seems like they screwed up and tried to cover. If you want to rebrand and then make a logo that's fine. Maybe discuss that before going to the t-shirt guys though? But I'm not a "branding expert" like Marcus.

This thing is spawning some fantastic reviews. By which I mean the reviews are wonderfully-written about how much they hate this. Some of my favorite quotes: "This movie feels like a prank, but I'm not sure on who." "In full disclosure I'm not a cat person. After watching this ... I'm not sure I'm a movie person anymore either." "Congratulations to dogs."

"Who would you say is your biggest competition at this point?" "Oh everyone is so talented, any one of them could win." "But if you had to name someone, who would you guess?" "I guess ... probably so-and-so." "OK great, but remember we need an answer in the form of a complete sentence. Go again." "I would say so-and-so is my biggest competition at this point."

His comments at the end indicated that the Ramp visit was actually a couple years ago. So it might have predated those other investments. Given that it was obvious from the episode structure that there would be no investments, I enjoyed the episode for what it was.

If you noticed the phone number at the end, and are curious what it is without wanting to call yourself, someone put it on YouTube.

The best episode thus far this season. And I have absolutely nothing else to say, which I guess is itself a commentary on the season.

So they improved inventory. Glad to see it, but that's basically the whole show. The guy wasn't any more likable to me at the end then at the beginning.

They did a pro-choice / pro-life episode in season 1. A literal one. So doing a metaphor 13 seasons later just fell flat. I liked Mac and Charlie at the vet with all the gender confusion, but that alone didn't carry the episode. I don't mind a bottle episode, but "Waiting for Big Mo" was too obviously one. The entrances and exits felt very stage-y and really the whole episode could have been shot in real-time. A shame to end on two weaker ones since the season overall wasn't bad.