Roaster

I don't think we should assume Kelly and Jonah broke up yet. Early in this episode Jonah and Amy are laughing about Amy's name being Don if she were born a boy and they start doing funny accents and having a great time with each other. Then they suddenly become self-conscious and embarrassed and make excuses to be somewhere else. "I should go find Kelly" says Jonah. He obviously feels laughing with Amy is a form of emotional cheating.

Yes, exactly. The show seems to want Emma to no longer exist. When we started Amy was a mother to a daughter who was not a little kid, but also still had a good deal of growing up to do.. After the divorce I thought they would do stuff with Amy being a single mom to a teen. Now they want to make her a mom to a newborn which vastly changes the plot elements they can employ. So many sitcoms introduce babies after a few seasons and suffer for it.

I noticed it in the opening credits. TV sitcoms are typically written by many people, but they might give the primary author a credit. Actors often direct episodes, but I don't think they often write them. This episode was pretty dark for 8/7 Central. Mentions of abortion, C-sections, gynecological details. I am surprised they made Amy pregnant and I don't know how I like the idea of her as a mother to a baby next season.

I remember not liking TBBT when it was first on, but I occasionally check in on it, and I do think it is better now. The addition of two female characters (the short blond one and the Blossom actress) has brought a lot to the show.

Per IMDB, Vin the Puzzle Master was played by David Fumero, the real-life husband of Melissa Fumero.

That gave me pause, too. I guess Alex is too old to remember what was in the theaters in the 80s.

Today the writers put in a clue about Reynard, the French trickster fox - and an opportunity for Alex to flex his accent while at the same time expressing surprise that contestants all missed it. (I missed it, too). I was also clueless on FJ. Would have never thought of Lake Nicaragua.

I guess I was vaguely aware of this, but...Superstore is often on at the same time as The Big Bang Theory. Tonight (Apr 5) they both had new episodes. I think most discriminating comedy fans prefer Superstore. I don't dislike The Big Bank Theory the way many snobs do, and I recognize it is improved from its early seasons. But Superstore is one of the best comedies on today, and TBBT isn't. Unfortunately, they both probably hurt each other's ratings.

Did Budweiser pay for product placement? They are based in St. Louis. And one message here was that the craft beer maker was just rebottling Bud Light. Maybe Anheuser Busch wants us to believe that that's what craft beer really is.

I kept thinking of those great TV scenes from 20 years ago where Frank Pembleton would break a suspect in the interrogation room.

Today was the second day in a row where the leader answered correctly in FJ but failed to wager enough to win. I don't think this is a good strategy. Consider the leader's position: 1) Even if the category is one you are weak at, you still have a fighting chance of getting it right. I mean, you're good enough at trivia to get on Jeopardy! You are good at this stuff even when you have a tough category. 2) For this strategy to win, either other contestants have to bet low (which might happen when number 3 is way behind, but not when it's a close game like today) OR both other contestants must get FJ wrong. I don't know that stats, but I bet that happens in less than 50% of games. 3) If you get FJ right and lose the game because of a low wager, you'll have regrets and be second-guessing yourself going forward. Not only do you not get the cash from today, but you forgo potential winnings in future games. Plus you have jerks like me criticizing you on the internet. I think in this situation you must bet assuming you will answer correctly. Even if you lose, you can go home with your head held high and no regrets.

On today's FJ wagering: Lynn made an optimal bet. She played it right. She just got unlucky. Lynn had a healthy lead (17,400) but not a runaway. She had to assume the second-place player (Daniel with 9800) would bet everything and she had to cover that bet. So she bet 9800 x 2 - 17400 = 2200, plus a dollar to win. Or 2201. Which is also what I would have bet in her shoes. Unfortunately for Lynn, she did not get FJ correct. Neither did Daniel, but third-place Tristan was correct and he went all in, doubling from 7600 to 15,200. Lynn's optimal bet, upon losing, took he exactly one dollar below Tristan's total. It is not uncommon for the third-place contestant to come from behind in FJ, but it is rare for the first-place contestant to lose by only a dollar when she made a smart bet. Just the way the scores worked out today.

Yes, exactly. They put themselves in each others' shoes and tried to guess what the other would bet. Which is what you have to do when you are being strategic. In retrospect, John would have won if he had bet $0, but he couldn't (shouldn't) have assumed things would work out that way. He had to protect against Lisa betting everything and being right. Which is why he bet $6001, enough to beat her by $1 if they were both right. Which is exactly what I would have bet in that situation. Lisa knew the only way for her to win (barring a dumb wager by John) was for her to be right and John to be wrong in FJ. She correctly guessed he would bet $6001, so she bet $2200, enough to beat him if he was wrong and she was right. Which is what happened.

Lisa knows how to wager in Final Jeopardy.

Among minor characters, I think Professor Arvin Fennerman is good. Only a few episodes but he has potential.

Holy moly, this show is bad. The Good Place pulls off being a comedy about ethics. This show, at least the two times I have seen it, fails. Somehow, it seems even less realistic than the fantastical Good Place.

They totally played to stereotype of New York ladies and their hair, but I loved it. Rosa should keep the blond perm for another couple episodes. Ahhhh, WritinMan, you beat me by two seconds. Great minds.

I'm usually good at mythology but could not come up with Cerberus.

A Stephen Hawking reference on the day he died. How fitting. All three contestants were good. But that FJ was elementary-school level.

It's past 7 PM ET. Yeah, so a tie-breaker. I knew those were possible but have never seen one before. Interesting. But...yet another game where the second place contestant (Sarah) made a dumb wager in FJ. Why is this so hard? Just follow this rule: if you are in second place and have more than twice what the third place contestant has, BET NOTHING. Nothing. $0. It makes me sad to see Sarah throw away a victory.

FJ Clue: In 1994 Wired Magazine described this 4-letter word as an idea leaping "from mind to mind...as viruses leap from body to body." I dunno. Meme occurred to me immediately. From what I gather, the word meme was coined to be analogous to (and sorta rhyme with) gene. Genes are ways for biological information to be transferred and memes are ways for cultural information to be transferred. Memes have been around as long as people have been on Earth. It's just with recent advances in communication, internet, etc they have been able to travel through society faster. I remember hearing about memes before I ever got on the internet.

I don't think Wired invented the concept of memes. But yes, the idea is that they spread like viruses. Viruses enter a cell and make many copies of themselves and then those copies go on to new cells and repeat. Memes are ideas, pictures, melodies, etc. They work the same way. They get into someone's mind and then that someone repeats them and they spread throughout society. That's why some youtube videos, pictures, jokes are said to "go viral". The originator doesn't distribute them broadly. The originator only has to get them out to a few people and those few people pass them on on social media or whatever, and soon enough the material spreads widely. Just like a virus.

Nobody got "meme" for FJ? Didn't think it was hard. Once again we see in the second place player a case of "smart people making dumb FJ wagers". The best bet for Kate was anywhere between $301 and $4200 or so. She would have won. But she foolishly went for a big bet and allowed Alan to scrape by for another win.

great news

That's a perceptive review. I also appreciated AV Club's take in a longer review. https://www.avclub.com/altered-carbon-gives-netflix-a-sprawling-sci-fi-blockb-1822570558 AV Club is a little more favorable, but not a rave saying "Altered Carbon is often quite a bit of fun, but its flaws are large and glaring." They really like Kinnaman. They also say AC is a "a textbook example of how the binge model helps to mask a show’s shortcomings during the viewing." I think that's probably right. If this show were on TV once a week, I think many viewers would tune out.