Amarsir

Indeed, although Michael is very willing to do bad things to achieve his "good" result. I have to think that's coming back around.

As much as I was down on them staying on Earth, I did love this episode. Strong character moments, good interactions, and forward movement without retracing the past.

Marijuana has been in the news an awful lot lately, but still this was the best episode of the season. Lots of layers with many characters involved in different ways. I assume they're going to keep the school shooting theme going until it becomes a self-fulfilling gag where we don't even notice it anymore.

I have to love the irony that in a season which has been pretty lazy, the episode with the laziest concept of all turns out to be very creative with a significant amount of effort. A nice running gag that no one cares at all about Dennis leaving, even to the point that they don't remember it. Fairly meta in how it was supposed to be a big deal and then just wasn't.

Hi Lily! Thanks for stopping in. 12 hours is a long day! Were there a lot of re-shoots? A lot of instructions to do something again, say something again, or change how you were doing it?

I believe the social satire episodes are the best South Park has done, and they have been there since early on. However, in recent years the show has moved from episodic to serial and I think that's a mistake. Especially the way it's been done - without an end in mind. I believe I recall a NYT interview from a year or so ago where they said they were just creating things they thought were interesting to see where it leads them. (Which certainly fits the create-from-scratch-in-a-week production.) And that means if they do something bad, they're stuck with it until there's a good excuse to get out. (Interestingly I just made a very similar version of this argument regarding The Good Place.) I don't think this season is as bad as the last 2 for that. Everyone is basically true to their character and ends the episode more or less as they started. However I do get a sense that it's missing something more. I've described it previously as stretching out 1-2 jokes for the whole 30 minutes, but another way to put it is that it feels like they're building to an ultimate punchline but there isn't one.

I have a lot of faith in the writers too. But my fear is that the desire to constantly evolve the premise has twisted and turned them out of an arrangement that was working. Maybe the next twist will regain all the lost charm and lead to the best episodes yet. But right now they're still going through a setting that isn't quite as good. Basically it's like this: I would have watched a full season of Eleanor hiding out surrounded by good people. I would have watched a full season of Eleanor and her friends trying to keep her in The Good Place. I would have watched a full season of Team Cockroach pretending to be tortured to fool Vicki.. I really don't want to watch a full season of life on Earth. There's no question that it's a few weaker episodes. But we also know Schur will keep shaking things up. So I can't judge if it's a temporary or lingering problem until we see the next "thing". But I can say this is the first time I'm not content with the status quo. I have to believe Mike has an endpoint in mind, but I'm not at all convinced the plot to get there is fully planned. And that plus a desire to turn frequently means the potential to get boxed in a corner. And thus the need to create things like lottery tickets and hidden cameras to cover up what would otherwise be plot holes. As I say, maybe the next twist will be wonderful. Or maybe a neighborhood of yogurt shops was their best setting and it was a mistake to have torn it down. This is one of the things that makes me believe they are going somewhere interesting. Because she doesn't make sense on her own.

I was wondering where I had seen the "TaTa Towel" before, but when she said it went viral I guess that's how. I think she was genuine in her commitment to the product and desire to make a deal. Definitely could have used more editing in the segment though. Home cooks probably aren't the target market for premium finished food items. Making your own yogurt isn't hard either but as she said that's a product which sells well. It's a real tough thing she's trying to do but I don't think the product is inherently flawed.

And the explanations are harder to handwave. Michael set up cameras all over so he could continue monitoring their progress? It's not impossible, but it feels like the writers giving us an answer so we wouldn't ask, which only creates more questions. I feel like the season must be back-weighted. They said Ep 7 is the clutch one and a lot of stuff gets reinterpreted. We've known since Team Cockroach that there would be a question of Michael's redemption. A couple episodes digging him a deeper hole could create a nice basis for later.

As gimmicks go, "behind the scenes" wasn't bad. I'm glad they didn't stretch to full hour with no pitches, but there was enough insight to be worth seeing. The "Booty Building Box" woman was really annoying to me, but I'm not her target audience. Michelle certainly seemed to enjoy her presence, to the point of getting in a butt slap that I would never get away with.

That's what I initially thought they would do. But this was funnier I think. Family Guy wants desperately to be offensive, sometimes trying and failing. Sending Mr. Hankey there would arguably be a compliment. But The Simpsons wants very much to be respected and has come under fire for Hank Azaria playing Apu. So going to Springfield was a way of knocking them off their high horse AND undermining the complaint. (As in "We're the most offensive show on TV, but sure you go criticize The Simpsons.")

Did you notice that outside Strong Woman's office were two groups of "What is Gender" pamphlets, one set for boys and one for girls?

That's one of my problems with how this season is going. Too much on the mechanics of the group and not enough actual character development. They did show us the tension between Eleanor's good and bad selves, but with Tahani, Chidi, and especially Jason we're supposed to just know that because they're together it must be working.

A really cheap episode to do, but I did like the dialogue a lot. Great characters all in conflict in various ways.

Oh good call. I barely remember that episode at all and should probably rewatch.

So I saw a pretty clear distinction between the two plot lines. PC Principal and Strong Woman developed as characters and their relationship evolved as well. Each reappearance had new jokes, moving from just the two characters to the appearance of the babies to everyone's reaction. Mr. Hankey offended everyone and blamed Ambien. Then did it again and again. Maybe we got a little Kyle development out of it but I doubt there will be repercussions. Neither the hearing nor the pageant really added anything new. Unfortunately too much of the season has been like that second plot line - starting with a decent joke but not going anywhere. This was at least redeemed a bit with the end stinger, and #cancelsimpsons is a clever way to re-twist the #cancelsouthpark advertising campaign they've been running.

I don't know if you've listened to the podcast, but one thing they say is a priority is to ensure there are some supernatural effects in every episode just to emphasize that it is the afterlife. So at minimum there will be some kind of portal shenanigans like we got this episode. Which is good because I agree. Especially with Michael and Janet powerless on Earth, there just isn't that much of the premise in play. It risks becoming a Friends episode: "The One With the Morals."

As is typical with Shark Tank shows, some well-intentioned entrepreneur comes along trying to save the environment with a reusable item. Forgetting of course that (like your straws) the reusable item pretty much always predates the disposable one. So they haven't invented anything. They've uninvented convenience.

Neat idea for a week. I'm not vegan but I do try to make lighter versions of things so I've played around with substitute ingredients. As such I can't say I'm surprised the cakes had so many stability problems. Eggs (especially yolks) provide stability and binding. Substitutes can compensate but I guess in this case they didn't. John went much like Dan: mentally defeated the whole time. He just had it in his head he wasn't a vegan baker.

The thing that's weird to me is that he knew Gus's name? If you need a secret crew to build a secret location and they can't even know where it is, having a name they can drop has got to be even worse. No?

Rhea Seehorn does such a great job with that "What have you done now?" face.

A little early for a Christmas episode but it sounds like they're going in a different (if slightly late actually) direction. Unless I'm mistaken, we haven't seen Mr. Hankey since season 3 way back in 1999. I wonder if they'll play him straight or have a lot of self-mockery about it.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall at the meeting where they realize they are trying to license glue to a company that just made a huge movie about glue being evil. (It will probably work well. I'm just enjoying the irony.) As someone who enjoys backpacking I must say that folding pot sounds pretty handy. Even a small lightweight aluminum pot is just unweildy in a backpack. Daymond John has connections to doomsday preppers? What?

Yeah Lane seems easygoing. Arlene had no problem making a joint offer with him this episode too, and she often says "no" to those. Vincenzo has a forceful personality that I could see getting to people, but he seems a decent guy and a more varied investor than I would have guessed. I wish I knew more about what the Car generator is actually doing. You can get a power inverter for $20-30 but it's not going to run anything that heavy duty. I would have figured the alternator was the limiting factor.

I think it's best if an act comes down to one specific "OK how did they do that?" question. The Shin Lims and others who do 5 minutes of cards disappearing and reappearing - it's great, but how much of an answer would you have to give? I don't think an answer like "we counted 6 palms, two double lifts, and a false shuffle" makes anyone happy.