Roaster

More than a hair, I'd say. I finished watching yesterday - took a few days to go through Season 2. I appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into this show - it's well made - but beyond the bounds of believable. I just can't swallow it. It's simplistic, too, although I see that this is needed for storytelling reasons. They want to show big Corporations' influence on the government, but they reduce it to one corporation (the natural gas company in Season 1 and Raymond Tusk in Season 2). They kill off Kata Mara and then replace her with several other young women who (1) appear in their underwear, or (2) are a crackerjack investigative reporter, or (3) are ruthlessly ambitious (the new Whip). Frank and Claire are fascinating - yes - but I can't buy into them being so successful. I was thinking about Deadwood while watching Season 2 also, because of the prescence of the actor Gerald McRaney. McRaney played more or less the same character in Season 3 of Deadwood and Season 2 of House of Cards. Not complaining. He's very good as that character. I also liked the actor who played the president.

I didn't say Modern Family deserved to win all those Emmys (certainly not last year's), And I wouldn't put Modern Family among the top 5 comedies on TV today, or even the best of this century (I would put Parks and Rec on that list). But, it is of some historical note that Modern Family garnered enough support to win the Emmy five times in a row. I suspect many Emmy voters don't bother to watch the nominees, but still, Modern Family has been a ratings and cultural winner for a while now. And that is impressive.

On the Will.i.am clue, Am is Americium, which is one of those man-made elements near the end of the periodic table. The reason I know that is that I worked on radioactive waste projects years ago. I don't think even many people with chemistry backgrounds would remember Am. But it is a good element for a Jeaopardy question.

Can't believe they all missed Tip O'Neill. Element Symbol Fun? - My kind of category. I can't believe they let Josh get away with Nitrogen for the Monty Python clue, before immediately changing to The KNights Who Say Ni. The symbol for Nitrogen is N. Acceptable elements might be Nickel (Ni) or Neon (Ne). There is no way Nitrogen should have been accepted, even if he changed it a fraction of a second later. The Movie Man - Good category! I got all of them and the contestants kept striking out.

The leader at the end of Double Jeopardy (forget his name) bid so low in FJ that even if he had got it right he would have finished in second place. I think you have bet high in this situation and assume everyone will get FJ right, even if it is not a strong category for you. In any case, this was a good game. Decent scores, close at the end, and it came down to FJ.

All right! Today we had high dollar totals at the end, very close. Interesting category about Falcons. And a classic FJ category: U.S. Presidents. (I wonder what the most common FJ category is. I bet Presidents is high on the list.) For FJ I was torn between George Bush and LBJ. Wasn't sure LBJ was a representative. I knew it wasn't Nixon, though.

I got FJ today. You had to think of Peter Bogdanovich, part of the generation of film-critic-nerd-turned-directors. I knew he was a fan of Howard Hawks who directed Red River, and I knew he made The Last Picture Show which was soaked in nostalgia. And I knew the Last Picture Show was roughly 1971. So I guessed it pretty fast.

Laser tag, Law and Order, Spanish karaoke - the writers know how to stuff a lot into these episodes. Another similarity to Happy Endings, I think. This was the first episode I warmed up to the Kevins.

Yeah, I have nothing against the kids, but the clues this week are decidely easier than a normal game. The contrast is bigger because just a few weeks ago we were in the Tournament of Champions, where the clues are harder than a normal game. I will sort of be glad when we get back to normal games.

I didn't see the pilot but turned into tonight. Question: is this show a self-parody? Maybe they can push the ludicrousness of it all and go over the top, Sleepy Hollow style. That might be a way forward. I did like Woodord and Heigl discussing cold-hearted revenge in the cemetary. Yeah! And the saxaphone solo after the eulogy.

Arthur missing the McLuhan quote? Surprising. An excellent Tournament of Champions. All three in the final (heck, all 15 in the tournament) were worthy contestants. (I didn't get FJ either. That's one of those Shakespeare plays that is never produced.)

As I write this the 2014 Tournament of Champions is going on. The finalists are Ben Ingram - age 30 Arthur Chu - age 30 Julia Collins - age 32 (I got these ages from the Internet) This also seems to be about the same age when NFL quarterbacks peak in performance. Thinking back on strong players over the years, it seems many are in their 30s. Is this the optimal age range? Old enough to have accumulated a lot of knowledge but young enough to still have a fast reaction time? One of the contestant in the tournament was Sandie Baker who is 51 (same as me, so I identified with her a little). So middle-aged people can still be good, but it seems the rough peak in age distribution for the best players is in their 30s. Garry Kasparov, who is also 51, was one of the greatest chess champions of all time. He doesn't compete at that level any more. Why? For the same reason you don't see 51-year-old quarterbacks in the NFL, I think. Age matters. The top chess players in the world are in their 20s and 30s and Kasparov can't beat them anymore. What do you think?

Phil was listening to cooking instructions from a sexy female voice with a British accent, so I thought of Nigella Lawson. Then, incredibly, a commercial came on for The Taste with Nigella Lawson! Co-incidence or a clever/evil plan by some mastermind at ABC?

Holy cow, Ben is good! I don't like runaways, but you have to give kudos to anybody who can take on two very good contestants and blow them away. Based on today, I'm picking Ben to win it all.

The illegal cheeses thing is a great idea for comedy. They should have done more with it. Maybe bring it back in a future episode.

I'm always surprised when viewers make character judgments about game show contestants. We see them in a limited, artificial situation. In a tough show like Jeopardy you have to concentrate if you want to compete. I'm sure most of use would look less than friendly and humble in the same situation. When a professional baseball player is at the plate, concentrating on the pitcher and bearing down on hitting a 90 mph fastball, do we call him "arrogant"? If he gets a hit do we call him "smug"?

Arthur Chu was introduced as a compliance analyst today. That's more vague than supply chain professional. At least I have some idea of what a supply chain person does.

Today's clue: "Element whose compound is seen here" I didn't get that at all. I guess they were talking about sunscreen, (the correct response "What is zinc?") but I didn't even notice the sunscreen. And the gods of TV game shows have set up the final internet fans have been waiting for: Arthur vs Julia! And some third contestant who will be an afterthought, no doubt.

You know, Supply Chain Specialist is a real job. Or, at least, as real as any job in management consulting. Thousands of people work in that function.

Good game today. College champ didn't ring in all that much, but she got it right when she did. Jared took some chances - I suppose that was a good strategy - but they didn't pay off for him. I would never have got FJ. I guessed Manila. Julia fans can rejoice. Maybe a Julia-Arthur matchup awaits us on Thursday.

Julia is in! Her fan club can rest easy for a few more days. I wonder how Julia fandom affects the show's ratings. And here's an optimistic bit for Julia fans: both teams in this year's World Series got into the playoffs as wildcards. Neither finished first in their divisions in the regular season. Anything can happen in any given game...

I was rooting for college student Jim today. Ah well, he gave a good effort. And a defeat of trivia nerd heartthrob Julia!

Jeopardy viewers can't get enough Arthur Chu! Guy's awfully good... These Tournament of Champions games are noticeably faster than the regular games - or something. You can tell the competition is up a notch. It's fun to watch.

Yeah, they don't need the parents in this show. Another episode without them proves that. I had a feeling they would try to pair up Gil and Dennah sometime. Surprised they are starting it so early.

Tyler was quite the hipster - identified as a blogger, American flag boots, the vest. M.I.B. = Mint in Box. I figured the "in Box" part as did Allison. But like her I missed "Mint". Flight simulator - I missed that, too.