riff-raff

I very much agree with this. I also think it is nonsense that a Biellman is more difficult than a properly done layback. The proof is in the pudding. Virtually every, single skater does a Biellman now, so it's not like it's some incredible tricky thing to catch your blade. By contrast, before the COP changed, very few skaters could do a proper layback spin. They should have just cracked down on judging the layback, so those with proper leg/arm/back positions, got the same bonus as a properly done Biellman.

So, if I have this straight, Emily is using Ricki to get more attention, by running to the press to profess regrets about previously using Ricki to get attention.

I'm not horribly upset with Arie as the bachelor, but the franchise is definitely starting to feel a bit in-bred. The problem is that it is a self-executing downward spiral. For every season, they choose the "best" of the remains to be the next B'or or B'ette, and so on and so forth. So as the leads get watered down, so do the contestants vying for their affections. And yet, one of them "has to" become the next lead. You paddle down this creek long enough and you get . . . desperate production going deep into the well to cast a Nick or an Arie. They got lucky with Rachel. For all that I wasn't wild about her final choice, she was an engaging, able lead, and I enjoyed her season. But they really need to think about infusing some new, fresh faces into the franchise by getting a first rate lead, who will attract first rate "hopeful fiances" and thus reboot.

Well, count me in as one of those who was actively uncomfortable watching the Rodgers family edition of home towns this week. This is a real family, with real hurt and problems. And yet here they were, throwing Aaron to the wolves for their time in the sun. I've not had a problem with JoJo in general to this point, but her gossipy attempts to ferret out the "what happened to Aaron," left me cold as well. I'm more that happy to see the willing participants in this show embarrass themselves and behave badly, but dragging in absent family members to make good TV seemed like a new low.

I confess, I had no idea what jails were like. I thought there was more separation of the inmates at night and more organized work details. The army wife's comment about all the idleness did strike me as reasonable. Not in the sense that we should be "trying to get our money's worth" out of the inmates in labor, but rather how unproductive -- even destructive -- all the forced inactivity was. I would think that some level of productive work could build a sense of accomplishment, pride and community which would help the prisoners upon their release. Conversely, sitting around all day doing nothing, might make people feel even more worthless and unhappy. I suppose organized work/activities is more expensive, so that's why they just let them sit there and do their time. I do wonder if that's not more expensive for society in the long run. Maybe (I hope) there's more opportunities for work/self improvement then they are showing us.

Not shocked at all, but somewhat disappointed. I've long felt that if GRRM missed this deadline there was little hope that the book series would ever be finished. There will never again be such a huge incentive for him to finish a book as there was for this. Think of all the money that was left on the table by not being able to offer this book before the start of Season 6. His publishers must have been beside themselves. Also, think of his pride, the tacit commitment to fans to tell the story first, in his own words. If this didn't light a fire under him, it's hard to imagine what will Depending how close it is to being done, he may end up finishing up TWOW, but after the whole tale has been completed on HBO, it's hard to imagine him finding the spark and will to complete the books. If true, it will be a shame, as I would have like to see how he brought the series to a conclusion.

I hope its not Nick. There is something smarmy about him. Plus all the poseur affect -- the weird speaking style (like, like, like), chucks, skinny jeans, mussed hair and wrist bracelets. I'm also not sure how much interesting drama he would bring. His whole act the last two seasons was to be a foil and potential spoiler for the "true-love" winner. That, at least, allowed us to feel some sympathy for him and somewhat overshadow his poseur vibe. Front and center Nick? Especially now that he doubtlessly thinks of himself as a TV Star? I think he would he come across as overbearingly smug. I don't want another season of rooting for mass walk-outs.

I'm wondering if they didn't film Kit H's scenes for season 6 back during the season 5 filming -- particularly if there were a fairly limited number of scenes showing him perhaps warging into Ghost, and then being reborn with Mel's help. Because they know fans are tracking who's on set at the filming sites, that would be the only way they could keep his resurrection a true surprise. It makes zero sense from a story-telling perspective to either have him truly dead and gone, or to simply have him absent for an entire season. If he's truly gone, it would make all the foreshadowing and build up meaningless, which would be a slap in the face to everyone who's been paying attention. Gritty realism should not come at the expense of telling coherent, complete story arcs that the viewers can be rightfully invested in. But, suddenly bringing him back in season 7 wouldn't work either. There would be a distracting hole in the story for season 6 and it would also have the feel that D&D were panicking and needed to invent a reason to bring back a favorite character. It would feel like "Dallas" pretending the entire preceding season was just a dream.

Sadly, the first person I thought of when JP said the winner would be "iconic" was Rodney. He is like the love-child of Boston Rob and Russell on steroids. And we know how the producers felt about those two. I'm holding out a slender reed of hope that it could be Mike or Shirin.

I agree, I don't want to watch that. Plus, in the books, wasn't Jayne 15? Even with an older actress, I would hope they show some discretion. The hard thing about showing this arc on the show, is that it was Reek's compassion for Jayne that started him on the path of becoming Theon again. We don't have the benefit of Theon's internal thoughts as we did in the books, so he has to see her pain in some way for it to work. Maybe they show scenes of him bringing up bath water and she cries/talks to him?

It is going to be interesting to see the choices made for Season 5. Personally, I'm glad that signs seem to be pointing to Griff/Young Griff's storyline being cut. It felt like an irritating distraction in the books and I have no interest in seeing that on the show. Time and resources are precious and I'd rather them spent on Dany's central arc in Mereen and her dragons. Heck, I'd even take Quentin over the Griffs for that reason. At least I felt that Quentin's plot was orbiting in the same general universe as established story lines. I don't see how they can cut fAyra, however. They would have to change Jon's storyline and motivations too much. I suppose they could have Theon save some random girl, and have Jon's betrayal grounded on the strength of his pro-wildling policies, but that seems unsatisfying. The only other option I see is for Sansa to somehow fall within Ramsey's clutches to play the role of the Stark girl in distress. It would make sense from a show-runner perspective. It keeps known characters together and gives Sansa something to do. But, I can't see how they could explain away Sansa's marriage to Tyrion (and her purported role in Joffery's murder), plus I don't want to see her as the perpetual victim. Other musings. Could the real Arya come back to Westeros on an mission to avenge her family and be captured by Ramsay? I wouldn't mind that IF the end result is Ramsay getting "the pointy end."

Thank you, lonestar for noting Andi's clean cut/long hair preferences. That is what we noticed and commented here in the riff-raff household. All and all, a pretty tired MTA episode. I really think the producers should have left well enough alone with the whole Andrew said/JJ said controversy. No one came off looking particularly well, and I don't look to the bachelor franchise to frame sensitive cultural and racial issues. I'm assuming Chris is the next bachelor based on the audience squeal-o-meter. I'm already dreading he "farmer Chris" cliches headed our way. Per my above comment, this show handles cultural issues poorly.

One little Andi mannerism that's been vaguely bugging me is the big, jaw-dropped, open-mouthed smile she makes when she is trying to appear extra-enthusiatic about something. I first really noticed it on the ill-fated Cody-date, because I couldn't understand why she seemed so over-the-top giddy to be spending a day reading love letters with Cody. Now, I think it may be a tell of when she's faking it. In a fit of boredom, I just watched the very beginning of each of her home town dates. She greeted every guy, save one, with that big open-mouthed smile, usually accompanied by a big "hiiiiiiii." The one guy she didn't do that with was Josh. She was just doing a more normal ear-to-ear grin with him. I hope I'm wrong, because i really think that Nick would be a more interesting pick for her, but re-watching those greetings, I'm going to be shocked if she doesn't pick Josh. The smile is very convincing tho. I can see why the guys have been drawn in.

And, could it be any more obvious that Marcus and Chris have 0 chance? Chris made the final 4, I think, because the producers asked her to pick him to help them build up his storyline so they can use him as the next Bachelor. Speaking of which, I wonder how genuinely Chris still sees himself as a farmer. Part of my suspects that his interest in continuing to farm is just about as sincere as was Andi's interest in continuing to practice law. It makes for a nice back-story, but Chris seems pretty styled-up and cosmopolitan to me. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that he intends to move (or has already moved) to Los Angeles to pursue a mactoring/reality tv career. If he's the next Bachelor, I really hope they don't do a cringe-worthy stereotype of "who want's to be a farmer's wife?" type show.

I don't hate Nick and, in some ways, I think he is one of the more interesting guys left. But there is something about him that reads a little smarmy to me. I felt like his early corral of Andi at the RC had more to do with him showing up the other guys and less to do with a genuine eagerness to be in her company. Also, his energy level seems off. He is very monotone and low key in his interactions with her. While a refreshing change, perhaps, from some of the overly excited and "on" contestants, it would quickly wear upon me in real life. But he seems reasonably intelligent and has some game, so that is a plus. If not Nick, I'm left scratching my head at who else she might choose. I thought the lie detector test was cruel and invasive. If it had all been very light, jokey things, it might have been OK. But, trying to hone in on the number of women the guy has slept with? And poor Dylan and his hand washing. Most guys I know would NOT wash their hands after #1, unless they were cooking or something, and no one was looking. At least we know Dylan is honest. On my last trip to Italy, Venice was a definite low light. There just isn't enough of a core, real Italian community left there to make it interesting enough for more than a day trip to see the museums and architecture. I tried to ferret out the non-tourist places, but they are few and far between. I'm glad I saw it, but I'd never spend 3 days there again. Tuscany, now, is a whole different story.

My guess is that the final scene will be either by LSH or Dany learning her dragons have killed a child. Hoping for LSH I may be in the minority, but I don't really care one way or the other if we get the Tysha confession. I'd be OK with the time spent instead on whether Shae was always a Tywin spy and faking her emotions, as I'm going to need something to make it plausible that Tyrion would be driven to kill her, beside just a sudden fit of rage. I'm also really hoping they don't clearly and unambiguously kill off the Hound. I'd like for the gravedigger theory to be correct and to see him in future episodes. It just seems like a waste of good character to have him die from some random wound.

Not a great episode. After it was over, my husband turned to me and said, "It's just like the books, everything starts out great and then just peters out." That rang true for me as well. Great special effects and gorgeous cinematography -- just like great prose and world-building -- can't make up for a lack of emotional connection to interesting characters centered on a clear, focused plot. There were many missteps in this episode, some of which are the showr-unners fault, and some of which simply mirror the problems in the books: 1 -- Sam is just not an interesting enough character to merit the attention the books and show accord him. I cannot get invested in Sam and Gilly and their whole story line seems pointless and implausible. It reeks of filler and the more the plot slows down and more interesting characters are killed off, the more I resent it. 2 -- Not a clear enough picture of why the Wildlings are attacking in the first place, or any sense of urgency on the Wall of readying their defenses. The Night's Watch looked like the keystone cops trying to organize their defenses when the assault began. This was a show-runner problem, as the books did a better job in this regard. 3 -- Where are the Others? Aren't they the big bad of the whole series? How can we have a whole episode at the Wall, and no real mention of them. They are a horror that threatens all of mankind, and yet they seem to be totally forgotten. 4 -- Devoting sooo much time on this battle and then not even closing the arc in the episode by having Stannis arrive. Aside from the deaths of a few minor characters, we ended the episode in the same place as we began it -- an outnumbered Night's Watch waiting for a wildling attack. Very unsatisfying, particularly for the penultimate episode. 5.-- Too much strained credibility. I think we are expected to believe that Jon Snow single-handedly stopped what looked like sure-fire rout by the wildings. Also, as others have pointed out, why were they not dropping things on the giant trying to get into the gate? And, what's with all the flaming arrows? They didn't light people on fire, so they only thing they seemed to accomplish was to let the person being fired on know it was coming in time to duck out of the way. And exactly how many of the 100 or so NW are we supposed think are still alive now? I think that they talked themselves into believing that the huge amount of money and time that obviously went into filming this sequence justified highlighting it as a standalone episode.

My thoughts and the Andi-Eric situation. 1. It looked to me as though Andi was quite tipsy/borderline drunk when Eric approached her for his chat. She wasn't so drunk that she was slurring/falling down or anything obvious, but just drunk enough to be a little out-of-control. Mr. riff-raff and I both commented that she looked a little hammered in the scene right before Eric approached her. I think that was part of the reason why she, IMO, over-reacted to Eric and then continued raving to the rest of the men after he left. I'm sure she is exhausted from smiling all the time, stringing guys along that she's not really into. The booze loosened her lips just enough to let out some of the narcissistic thoughts that the show tends to cultivate in its leads. How dare someone say what she doing is not enough! Didn't Eric get the memo that he's supposed to be grateful for whatever dribbles of attention fall his way, all the while "opening up" to her and embracing this "amazing" "journey"? 2. I can't help but wonder how dramatically they re-edtied Eric's storyline after his tragic death. The show-runners seem to like Andi, so my bet is that they were planning on making Eric a big part of the first episodes and featuring him in a more negative way. What they did end up showing did Andi no favors at all. 3. I think part of the problem, if you will, is that Eric was genuinely trying to figure out if there was anything in Andi worth pursuing. The reasons there are not more conversations like this on the show, I believe, is because most contestants seem content with just trying to stay on the show as long as he or she can for the travel/exposure/shot at being next bachelor.