kili

A fair number of those HGTV stars are former actors. For instance the Property Brothers who must make bank with their bazillion shows. Maybe his awards are for Set Design. Or maybe the Book Nerds come up with a book that Nicky and Kevin turn into the next "Good Will Hunting".

"How I Met Your Mother" ended in 2014 and is being rebooted this year ("How I Met Your Father"). "Gossip Girl" was rebooted last year after first ending in 2012. Reboots are apparently popular these days (but usually older shows for nostalgia). Kevin returned to the show in the second season, so it is probably only 4 years since it was cancelled. Kevin shouldn't take the job not because it is a stupid show and a step backwards in his career, but because he has to work with a toxic personality that despises him. The writer/creator awful, demeaning treatment of Kevin caused the first blow-up and he purposefully tricked Kevin into returning for another kick at him (changing the script once he arrived to humiliate him). The guy clearly continues to hate him. Kevin better get some script approval power in the deal or the guy is going to continue to use him as a puppet he can publicly humiliate. Working at a traditional dance studio. Beth was reluctant to take the job because of how traditional studios treat their dancers, but Rebecca encouraged her to take the job and make a difference. I was hoping he would. Poor doggo.

She was the car manufacturing executive who laid off a swath of autoworkers including Mike and his friends. She realized this when she was going through his wallet (probably saw his union card). Nick knew the secret in the first show and this is why both got cast despite not being the best dancers. Mike is depressed about losing his job which caused him to lose his wife. Nick wants to film all the drama! Did we see hints that the "Swan Lake" they will perform will not be the traditional one? We saw the other dancers with Simon and Justin putting a modern riff on the ballet moves while Wayne and Monica talked about breaking up with ballet.

I think they may have been meant to move and they couldn't get it to work with the building. The other two teams had moving elements, so I wonder if having movement was part of the behind-the-scenes criteria. Since all the builds ended up being similar in height - I wonder if there were some dimension criteria as well. Those poor dragons were not at the same level as their previous dragons, so I think that they had something more planned rather than just static dragons. It would have been interesting if the dark scene was a mirror image of light city with a sinister twist. The night city should also have been way brighter at night than the day city (IMO). I also would have liked to see the hourglass look more hour glassy (the shape was a little warped and maybe a few more strands to define it - and if those strands could light up.) I think they were the obvious winners. Maybe with more time, the other builds could have reached the same level, but Mark and Steven had everything. It was cohesive, well-built, impressive and complete. The other builds could have used a few more hours to complete. Ugh! Let's look at cooking shows like Master Chef. They don't spend a lot of time on the hosts goofing around and puppets. They let us see a few of the techniques and discuss why something is hard. Why can't Legomasters do that? They mentioned that the water was a new technique for the Viking Brothers to do - why not tell us what that technique was? How did Zach and Wayne build such a strong bridge last week? Putting the castle all the way out there not only looked cool, it put a lot more stress on the join points. Did they have to give up on moving dragons this week and if so, why? How did the Geek Brothers make sure their structure could support the weight of the dark city? When building a big structures like a woodsman - do I make it solid or empty? I learned one must bang the pan before putting Macarons in the oven - why can't I learn a bit about making cool lego builds? That has to be more interesting to fans of Lego Master than a puppet trying to steal Will's job. They don't have to do a master class, just fill the all-about-eve-puppet's time with some of the build details.

Yes, the pig wasn't a house. They could have spent a bit more time making it have doors and windows. It also felt that they had already shown that kind of waving movement much better with their dragon float. I think making them re-use all the house blocks was a bit of a mistake. It lead to blandness to the beige colour on the haunted house, the weird light blue base to the circus and the sameness in the houses in the twin's build. It may have also led to the pig having so few house features (if they had to make it largely hollow to allow all that movement). No house flip uses all the old material - maybe they should have had to retain just one feature.

I don't think we can evaluate how good the contestants were because the Real Wives were such a bizarre mix of stupidity and "let them eat cake-ish". One of them practically recoiled when they were given the clue "bucket" - Her face said: "You expect me to know what such a plebeian thing is?" The contestants realized pretty early on that they had to make a huge paradigm shift to have any hope of getting any words. Clues one might give to a normal person had to be abandoned while the contestants scrambled to find words that a poorly educated rich person might know. Even then, a clues like "rose" and "wine glass" which should be in their wheelhouse, they didn't know. The Real Wives frame of reference is so narrow, that it was hard to find. I would have died laughing if the contestant who had to get the Real Wive to say "Pale" had given up and just said "Paper! Snow! A Ghost!". If they wanted to connect, "Skin tone once the spray tan fades".

I sense all the teams get along well and any drama we see is pretty manufactured (e.g. inter splicing clips where reaction shots may not be to what is actually occurring, but it creates more drama). I wish they would drop the fake drama and "villian" arcs. "Survivor" survives on that because everybody is voting everybody else of. Make it more like "Making It" where everybody is free to cheer on each other and even help out a little - a big collaboration. I think most viewers aren't here to see Team X beat Team Y, we are here to see some mind-blowing creations. I think that Laurel and Brian were very good at creating sculptures, but not so great at adapting to the physics of the challenges. They were the only ones who didn't figure out that it was the lighter jaw that needed to drop, not the heavy skull that had to go up in order to do the puppet speaking. It will be interesting next week to see how evenly matched the lego builders within a team are. Do they both have the lego skills or is one person carrying the team? For instance, I think Dave has the lego know how, but Richard's creative ideas elevate the team. Can Richard build his ideas on his own and can Dave be as creative without Richard? I suspect Michelle is the better builder, but Nat injects the flair. Wayne and Zac are both great builders/creative, but Wayne is just a little better. I have no idea about the two other sets of brothers.

Are we asking NBC to ignore the gold medal prospects and focus on the athletes unlikely to win? Reduce coverage of gymnastics to make room in prime time for other sports? Don't race to interview the gold medalist of the 100m, but instead interview the guy who finished middle of the pack in race walking? It could work. I think a lot of people embrace the Olympics because they get to watch things they don't traditionally follow. If they cover the "journey" of a badminton player, teach us what makes a good badminton player and cover their performances in prime time, the viewers will care about them. I come from a country where the Olympics are popular and for many decades, we only won a couple (or one) medals. We tuned in to watch the interview of that middle of the pack race walker and cheered for them reaching a personal best. It means and adjustment for the viewers and its something we should start signalling by upping the ratings and clicks on those stories that are getting ignored in the race to cover likely winners (in advance) and winners (after). NBC just wants to make money, not destroy the minds of competitors. We the viewers decide what makes them money and can use our influence to get the coverage we want.

I feel let down by the announcers. They weren't explaining anything. I don't know anything about snowboarding, but they get announcers who explain why this trick is harder than that one and why I should care. Or the figure skating videos where they explain the differences between the jumps (everybody knows the axel, but a lot of new viewers can't tell a lutz from flip). The Olympics are a chance to attract new viewers and fans, but the fans need to be educated to truly appreciate the sport. I got the impression that using the square railing in the middle was better than using the round ones. Why? Is it because it was square or because it was a bigger drop or what? I think grinding the nose or the tail on the rail was worth more points then the area between the two trucks which is a bigger target and the trucks help you stay on the rail? I don't know if grinding the board or the trucks on the board was harder. Spinning the board a few times in the air was worth extra. I know the girls were doing easier tricks, but I enjoyed watching them more. The guys seemed alternately too serious and too blasé (I'm sorry, is this skateboarding final interrupting your texting?). The girls were having a lot of fun. Rayssa Leal will get me tuning in three years from now.

They do seem to come as a team. When Randall asked them to babysit, he asked both. They moved to California to help Kate with Jack. Kate could at least consider asking. She doesn't know, but we and Beth know, that Rebecca is feeling not normal because neither Kate nor Kevin are asking her to help with the kids. Given how she never went to a filming of Kevin's show and the way she behaved when he was a guest on the show, I'm thinking it is just typical behaviour for Rebecca. It's rare for Rebecca to give Kevin attention if she feels her other children need attention.

Rebecca could have spent her son's wedding day helping her granddaughters get ready to be bridesmaids. Should could have spent it offering to do last minute tasks. She could have been giving support for her new daughter-in-law. She could have been getting dressed or playing solitaire. What she should probably not have been doing is insisting on having a painful discussion with the groom's best man. While Kevin was running around trying to find Randall to help out with the bower disaster, Randall was made to have an unsettling conversation with Rebecca. When Kevin finally did find him, he got to see his Mom weeping on his wedding day - and not happy tears. Is it too much to ask Rebecca to spend one day focussing (or at least not actively distracting herself and casting a cloud over the event) on her son who has specifically said that he felt neglected? Now I know Lauren has risen from the dead before, but she is unlikely to do so again. So, I'm not sold on the urgency of this conversation. Sure, Randall was leaving tomorrow, but the Pearsons jet around the country like most people walk to the local grocery store. The conversation didn't need to happen on that day. In other news, Rebecca moved to LA to help out with baby Jack. Maybe she could help solve the problem of the two working parents. I was kind of surprised that was never considered as an option. It was the goto solution Randall had to solve his exact same problem (when he got elected in another state) - but Rebecca was moving to LA. This was effectively a repeat of the day the Pearson's finally decided to watch Kevin film The Manny. Rebecca is focussed on one of her other kids. One of his siblings is having marital problems. Randall and Beth are distracted. Miguel is present for Kevin. At least this time he also had Nicky helping out and totally devoted to the event and Randall was actively trying to be supportive (Randall wanted no part in the distraction). Compare and contrast with Kate's wedding shown at the end where everybody is focussed on making the day a success and are full of smiles. There is still chaos, but everyone is pulling in one direction.

I think they cleared that up in the Pilot. Tom asks Connor where Emily is and he said she had to work. Tom counters that Connor made $5M last year and Connor says "Yeah, but Em makes, like, real money." So, Connor is the significantly poorer one of the family (he himself considers the $5M trivial in comparison to what Emily makes and it doesn't bother him at all).

That's kind of how it went. Jack comes home and announces they are going on vacation - now: "New guy in Accounting has a cabin in the Poconos. It's gonna be sitting there empty, so he said we could take it for the whole week." They ended up borrowing it multiple times, building happy memories. When the "new guy in accounting" wanted to sell it, they bought it. It may have not been the most convenient cabin, but it started off free and they fell in love with it.

I'm still going to argue that Lauren coming back from the dead is soapiest. Kevin to Randall at Kate's wedding about Madison: "Don't let me sleep with her."

I think Toby alluded to that when he dismissed living in San Francisco with two kids. Maybe he'll rent a room and commute? I wonder if he plans on doing it for a while and then trying to transfer. On the phone, he says "San Francisco office" so that makes it sound like there is more than one office. In tech, one of the things he has to worry about is being seen as stale. If he doesn't work for two years, he may find it very hard to get back into tech because companies will think he's not current. So, it might be worth it to take a less than optimal position until a better one comes up. What Miguel said about relationships was beautiful. I hope that Kevin takes heed. That said, I think Kevin and Madison are kind of "written in the stars" since they both dream of the same future. It was wonderful seeing such a strong bond between Rebecca and Beth. Beth's Mom is never really shown supporting her or appreciating her. Beth's Mom has some weird kind of competition going on with her about who is the better person/Mom/cook - except Beth isn't playing and the deck is stacked against her. That "don't put in any more peppers" "oh, this needs more peppers" thing was next level. Speaking of Beth's Mom - where is she? She made a big fuss about staying and then was never shown again. I bet Annie locked her in the basement. Annie secretly gets things done. I'm kind of surprised that Nicky would be up for a fishing trip...maybe that is what first put him on edge. Kevin probably doesn't know the story. I hope Nicky finds Sally.

The last we saw, was her looking upset after Sheldon said "You're very irritable. This might be why you're having boy problems." which was a pretty heartless thing to say given the situation.

He didn't break up with Zoe, Zoe broke up with him. She realized that he wanted to have babies, but would sublimate that want for the sake of the relationship. She didn't want to be the reason he didn't have kids. He said that he made his choice and she told him that he made the wrong choice. He wouldn't break up with her because he didn't get what he wanted - so she had to break up with him so he could get what he wanted. Interestingly, in the episode they break up, Zoe introduces Kevin to pour-over coffee. He jokes about how long it takes and she tells him it makes for better coffee. Trying to convince himself about not having kids and having pour coffee, Kevin says: "See, this is what I want right here, you know. I mean, who could spend minutes doing pour-over coffee if there was a screaming baby in the house?" In this current episode, he is drinking pour-over coffee with two babies in the house (in the morning, before he sees Zoe again). Back to the subject at hand - I don't think Madison knows that he is just acquiescing to all her wants. She's too distracted by her own issues related to pregnancies and her new role as a Mom. They aren't communicating. She just thinks she has a great boyfriend. Madison is usually the people-pleaser too.

On "This is Us", Phylicia Rashad plays a high school principal and the MIL of somebody who wanted to go to Howard. In real life, she is now the Dean of Fine Arts at Howard.

Previously mentioned in this thread was that Ben Affleck recovered his career, but he did it by gaining respect as a director and writer (and started casting himself in his own movies). Affleck's two Oscars are not for acting - one is for writing "Good Will Hunting" (his big break) and the other is for producing "Argo" (which he also directed and helped to adapt the screenplay and starred in). Kevin recovered from quitting his television series by selecting and producing his own play, so he has already shown he is willing to invest in his career and can pick a winner. So, it wouldn't be that much of a change if he decided to go that route again. It's also interesting that the two previous movies he worked on that went so well were directed by Ron Howard (a former actor) and M. Night Shyamalan (who famously funds his own movies which he also writes and has a cameo in). So, that could be another hint that Kevin is going behind the scenes.

The red flag, though, is that she's working in the cafe because eating fries there was her last happy memory with her Dad (it was right before the Super Bowl). She stays there nine years because it is one of her shrines to her dad. That's not healthy. Watching Beth's dream slowly crumble was visceral. Her speech about the mirror was a gut punch (all those years looking for every imperfection and it wasn't enough) especially when you remember that she asked Annie to turn off the mirror on her zoom session because it bothered her to see herself. The movie was awful - who is going to tell Foster? Maybe they should pull a "Singing in the Rain" and recut it in the six weeks before it opens. How well can Kevin sing and dance? Kevin does need to work on the people pleaser stuff because he tends to blow up when he bottles it in too long. Speaking of which, Toby's dad gave good advice for Toby, Kevin and Beth. Toby also needed to hear that his dad struggled with unemployment too. Sometimes, it is easy to think that you are the only one going through something like that even though you know you are not.

The murdered boy's father had the recording, but didn't post it until after the first two couples had been murdered. Once he posted it, Claudia had it and realized it was a fake because she had experience with students submitting edited audio of their musical homework.

It's also not a micro-aggression because Randall wasn't being subtle or unintentional. He was being blatant and fully intentional in trying to make Kevin feel bad about himself for being less intelligent. Randall was naturally intelligent while Kevin wasn't, so he punched down. Whether Randall would have done that if the relationship with Kevin was better, is debatable. We've certainly seen Randall look down his nose at Beth's dancing and Malik's dad, so his disdain for the less intellectual or less academic pursuits is now pretty much a part of his chemistry. Kevin also intended to hurt Randall with his comments. Kevin was taught by his parents that he was not special and of tertiary importance in his family and he lashed out at the golden child. Once Kevin learned that he had much better social intelligence than Randall, he punched down at Randall (e.g. calling him a Nerd and connecting better with Randall's friends). It becomes a micro aggression because Randall is part of a marginalized group and Kevin was unintentionally racist. I think that was Randall's and the show's point with the cab driver - while Kevin may be obnoxious to all cab drivers, it's even more obnoxious (a micro-agression) when he does it to cab drivers who are members of marginalized groups? If Randall was white and Kevin asked him to sing the next line of a popular song he knew he didn't know, Kevin would have just been ragging on his brother. Kevin may not have intended it, but it can be perceived differently by Randall because it was a rap song, the friends they were singing with were Black and Randall himself is Black. And, I've probably explained it all wrong.

When did he admit that? After the neighbour tells him she didn't like his Stallone movie and to stick with humour, he defends the role stating "All right, well, thank you.I had a Golden Globe nomination for that performance, but, ah… I’ll just be a clown." When Randall revisits the neighbours comments, Kevin just responds with a giving up "I know" (and Randall is just saying that comedy is his sweet spot). Kevin just doesn't want to get distracted into arguments over his acting. No disrespect to the neighbour or Randall, but the critics and directors seem to appreciate his dramatic acting. He's been cast by Ron Howard, M. Night Shyamalan and the buzzed about director who got De Niro to do his movie. The Stallone movie got 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and at least one Golden Globe nomination. Kevin got cast as the Manny because of his build, but he got to keep the role because his acting instincts told him to interact in a serious moment with the baby.

Randall's Ghost Dad was a weatherman. Randall grew up to be a weather commodities trader (somebody whose weather pattern predictions were used to advise commodity purchases/shorts/etc). Randall followed in his Ghost Dad's footsteps.

I thought it was a little blind-sided of Jack to get all upset and threaten Kevin's coach for calling Kevin stupid. Randall never missed a chance to call Kevin stupid right in front of Jack and Jack let that slide. If Kevin thinks he's stupid, it is because his own family taught him that and his coach just put the icing on that cake. That kind of thing happens in real life. Parents can have favourites and be completely blind to it. Kevin was a lot drunk when he told Randall he did the painting. Maybe he forgot? He'd certainly remember what Randall thought of the painting when he was sober and that would cause him to keep his painting a secret. Or it might be that they knew Kevin took a painting class, but not that he has continued painting for 20 more years. Or the writers messed up. With all the personal security cameras around these days, I was worried that the entire street debate would end up on TMZ. Randall fell into the classic spare key problem - he put the keys he got from the neighbour into the junk drawer. The backup is gone! Neighbour didn't seem to like him all that much anyway (pick the neighbour on the other side going forward). Why didn't they try the back door? The burglar got in that way and they could have talked out their issues with the basil plant facilitating.