Darian

Yeah, the closest I come to rooting for them is thinking they deserve each other.

The Christopher Moore love in this thread makes me happy. His books are such a perfect blend or smart-ass and heart. I once wrote him an email about something he portrayed, I thought, particularly well in a book and he wrote me the loveliest reply. I am behind on his books, surprisingly. Am reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and enjoying it. Given how I've also liked California by Edan Lepucki and loved The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey, I better stop saying post-apocalyptic novels don't appeal to me.

The fifth photo here shows Bill mid-eyeroll as Erin is celebrating her win (I believe that's when he was grousing, "Big Surprise," but I didn't pay enough attention when I watched this). I don't dislike the guy, but his grouchiness and borderline entitlement is grating. I won't mind if he wins, but I'm not actively rooting for him anymore.

That made my day. (And even though I have my own insurance, President Obama still gave me peace of mind by removing the lifetime cap and preexisting conditions nonsense...I had childhood cancer, which left me with lots of medical issues, and spent my entire adult life fearing the first and fighting about the second).

I guess I got lucky with my local (Boston) PBS station (actually, I think there were two local stations playing it each week). They played season one in order, one each week, and now that the season is finished, they're starting over. Having just discovered the show and loving it, I'm going to watch them all again! Hope your PBS stations do the same sometime.

Almost my only exposure to Katie Lee was when she hosted the first season of Top Chef. While I agreed with the popular opinion that she was dreadful as a host, I thought she seemed like a nice, down-to-earth person. I liked her here, as well. I liked seeing the camaraderie, though, and this show worked as advertising on me since I now want to watch The Kitchen (I never have).

And Mrs. Claus is the actor who played the teacher in A Christmas Story! I recognized her right away (she looks great) but looked it up to be sure. I had All I Want for Christmas on this weekend and even got my husband laughing about how over the top smarmy and awful one of the men was,sure he was the stock "wrong guy" she would not end up with. I don't want to go into too much detail, lest someone get spoiled, if it's possible to spoil one of these holiday movies (I love them, formulaic and predictable as they are).

Gee, we have the menfolk making medical decisions for a pregnant woman against her will. Now there are two characters--Marty and the pastor--I can never root for again.

I find e-books much easier on the eyes, as long as I read them on a dedicated e-reader and not a tablet. That's a very different experience, I find. I bought my first nook back when Amazon wasn't doing library books, and so have stuck with the brand. I may switch to Kindle at some point or have both. I thought I would hate e-readers and miss paper books, but when it got too hard for me to hold paperbacks or carry hardcovers around and my eyes started having trouble tracking side-to-side, I figured I'd give them a shot. I'd barely been reading for pleasure by that time, and my nook gave me back reading. I still read the occasional paper book, but it's a slog.

Loved the tea challenge. And it really was a challenge. Some of those teas were tough to build a dish around! I grew up going to Fenway (my first crush was on Tony Conigliaro) so I loved seeing it featured, even if I had to suffer through moments of blowhard Blaise.

I envy and admire writers who can withhold information without it feeling coy or manipulative. These writers aren't managing it. I want to like this show, especially as I was interested in townie/summer people dynamics (we were "summer bums" in my day). But it's just a drag. The PTV content, discussion, and analysis are so much more interesting than the show.

She may act like she needs a juice box and a diaper change, but, no, she is 28. A bit old for the age card.

I love Christian, too, I'd love to see him actually mentor young designers in a completely different format. No second look, no host-giving-terrible-advice. He's doing the best he can in this show, and the kids will learn something from him, but I think he would shine as a true mentor. I have to give it at least one more week, though, since I just found out a local girl is going to be on next week.

While I personally don't use "bitch" as a slur or term of endearment (I try not to use gender-specific insults at all), I know some people do both. But in the specific case they showed, Hernan clearly was NOT, imo, using it kindly or affectionately. That said, I think Sandhya could use a bit of self-awareness. She had her tactless, combative, uncooperative moments. Maybe she did learn, since she was good-natured about her "devil baby" outfit not being chosen, but being left over. Korina. Ugh. I don't lack empathy, as has been alleged. I get that Korina feels terrible about how she came across, but I'm not sure she really gets what she did wrong yet. She made herself the victim, she made it about herself, again. Her rants are always about how she's been wronged, and last night was just more of the same. I hope she does grow from this, but she sure did seem pleased when the issue of whether Char should have been there was raised.

According to a commercial I just saw, that's the case they're doing in the season premiere on November 11.

OK, I almost never mind the host. Hell, I liked Camila Alves on Shear Genius and Katie Lee on the first season of Top Chef. But I almost deleted the show as soon as she made her first comment (to Bradford about being more youthful). I stuck it out and she got worse! Her comments were either useless or worse than useless. And her presence, blech. I'll pretty much watch any skill or talent-based competition, especially ones like So You Think You Can Dance and Face Off, where competitors can learn and grow, but I don't know if I'll give this one more chance.

Emily was the mature one. She was mature and smart enough to know that anything she would have said besides slams against Char and her design would have made things worse (for Korina and herself). Korina was too wound up. Her meltdown would have been more spectacular had anyone tried to squelch it. The other designers were smart enough to just let her rant after she'd been aufed, too. Emily kept her head down and worked hard for Korina, keeping her personal feelings out of it.

I loved In Bruges and Colin Farrell's performance is a major reason why. He has the chops to deliver in True Detective. I like Rachel McAdams, but I haven't seen her in many dramatic roles, so I hope she does well. Looking forward to the second season.

I liked Nyesha so much in her Top Chef season, especially during her run on Last Chance Kitchen (competed five times, won four). Great to see her even if she didn't win.

Caught the first two episodes on a local (Boston) PBS station. Such fun. I hope they keep playing them.

I checked a TV show reminder app I have (that app and following shows here help me catch shows I might otherwise miss), my onscreen guide, and Oxygen's site. I don't see anything about an upcoming season. I'll watch when there is one, though. I don't have or want any tattoos, but I love them on other people.

I'm not going to lie; when the dye on Sean's dress started to release, I cheered. And I loved that he thought about using cheery-sunshiny colors to contrast with the rain. It was fun and clever as hell. From the look on Caitlyn Fitzgerald's face when Sandhya's model walked, I thought she was going to tear her look to shreds (rather redundant). But no such luck. I liked her as a judge though. Her comments were thoughtful.

No Ramona would be better, but less is an improvement.

Having once (a zillion years ago) been a 16-year-old cancer patient, who was always--inpatient or outpatient at chemo or radiation--surrounded by adults, most of them elderly, I am willing to cut this all kind of slack for a while.

I agree, though I don't know that it's even there. One thing I've liked is that everyone on this show is flawed. Some of the most sympathetic characters have done pretty awful things, some of them to cross a divide (rich/poor, powerful/powerless). The number of folks involved in covering up various crimes and doing unsavory things to help themselves or someone they love is pretty darn high.