Darian

I make rollout gingerbread cookies and a type of gingerbread cake from scratch, which is always most, so Jody having dry cake twice was a shocker. But at least it wasn't because he was coasting on immunity. He was rattled. I know they (Carla?) said Jose should have flipped over his flan, but if he'd done that he'd have sugar cookies sitting in caramel, getting soggy. I wanted that flan. Teal is one of my favorite colors but why didn't Marilyn redo it? I guess she was too tight on time, but it seems like an easier fix. I thought the second she saw it was wrong, she could have gotten more chocolate and turned it blue in a jiffy. Then again, no-Jew that I am, I thought some of the blues were not right, but am not sure if it's just what I'm used to seeing (Adam's was one that seemed too light).

Well, they went out with a damn good season. I watched the entire first season, regretted it, but kept hoping for a good since they all had promising starts and Harry Ambrose was a good character played by an actor who always brings it. Bailed on every season since 1 but didn't even think about it this time. I loved that the local sheriff hugged him. I wish they had done this season earlier and given us more like, it, but I'll just be glad we got one good one and I can think Harry's a little better off and will go have a little peace maybe.

Finally watched Gingerbread Miracle and it was fine but a bit cringy. I want diversity, loved so much Spanish, and hearing about some of the traditions was nice. I'm a little old white lady so I don't know if I were Mexican I'd feel some of it was off. I think the part that amused the hell out of me was that I could sing along in Spanish to Silent Night, which I think we sang once in my high school Spanish class for our holiday party in maybe 1976, reading the lyrics off a printed page. (I did have a lot of Cuban friends, so maybe I heard it at their houses, but I couldn't believe I got all the lyrics!)

Is that the one with the adult children coming home for Christmas to the surprise that their father has turned the family home into a B&B and everyone chips in to impress a travel blogger in the area? I thought everyone was really good in it, and though I don't think they missed a trope and there were no surprises it was funny enough with likable characters that I really enjoyed it.

I like all the teams, and don't have favorites because I can't keep them straight yet (I have memory issues). But I am enjoying this season. I've always found Shinmin delightful with the cred for for the job. I've also always enjoyed Aarti in whatever she's been on, but for a reason I could never figure out, I never warmed to Maneet. But here, I find her really likable. She also seems to be enjoying herself. There seems to be a good vibe and rapport between the three judges. So, watching the teams create is always going to be my motivation for watching, I appreciate this judging combo.

NIne Live is one of the only "pre-diversity push" (beyond a Black best friend of store clerk who has two lines) Hallmark movies I watch and one of my favorites of all time (and Naughty or Nice), so I was glad the characters were revisited, though I didn't enjoy Nine Kittens much. And I welcome a little reality in one of the couples not staying together after the big romantic ending. The problem for me is that they picked one of the only couples who had some kind of organically-developing relationship not depending on saving a Christmas cookie business or organizing a huge Christmas festival in a tiny town. Merilee and Zac had more of a chance at an actual lasting relationship that most of them in those cloying films. I don't know if it will lessen my enjoyment of watching Nine Lives, even though they end up together. I do like that she made her decision to move home based on her own needs and wants, and not because of Zac, but they did reconcile. So there's that. Finally started watching holiday movies since there are so many and thanks to diversity, I will be watching a lot of them (Lifetime's been way ahead of Hallmark but this Hallmark's stepped up some). I watched, I think, three and they're already blurring.

Valerie is great on the regular season and she and Duff are so good with the kids and play off each other so well on that, I hope she's always there. She's especially good when one of the kids starts melting down. But for these mini-shows, which are less stressful (or maybe there's just less at stake, though the prizes are pretty sweet), I love having one of the former contestants co-judge. So far, both kids did well, but Duff is the perfect person to be alongside them to help if they stumble. So, for me, this is the such a wonderful little extra addition to the baking competition shows. Love it!

I only snipped your post for brevity. I have loved several of Elizabeth Strout's books, especially Olive Kitteridge. I bailed on Oh, William. Tried to stick with it, but it just kept feeling like a slog. I couldn't get invested. Gave it a fair chance, but it didn't feel like it was ever going to make me feel anything for anyone.

Between Hunter being a judge and the Salvation Army being featured and praised, I'm done with this show, which I was only half-watching anyway. Deleted partway through.

This show was so much fun! I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. Didn't know anything going in, but I'll watch almost any talent/skill-based competition, so on a whim I started the first episode. And there was Joanne Chang! I love her. Flour, her local chain of bakeries is excellent and her first cookbook, also named Flour, is my favorite. I thought she was an excellent judge. I already liked Andrew from GBBO and Dr. O. is a delight, and I loved hearing his perspective. I liked all the teams, too, though I was kind of afraid Steve was going to kill Renee at times, but maybe he's just reserved. What a weird, wonderful premise and I wish there were a second season I could binge now!

So enjoying this season. I'd still swap Nancy out for Lorraine or Cardea, or one of the many better judges they have on other shows. I do like her hair, though. I figured I'd be rooting for one of the two local competitors, Jody and Richard. My city, which is not Boston but twenty minutes away, is for Jody, as he supposedly lives here. I don't know if he lived in Boston when this was filmed or he used it because we're a suburb and Boston is better known. Richard is from Dorchester, which is closer to Boston than my city (we pass it to get there), and I love him. Haven't warmed to Jody for some reason (don't dislike him), but he's skilled. So many are. I have to rewatch these, because it's a nice group that can also turn out some lovely work. Adam's branch idea that Duff says he's stealing is something anyone could do, and I love that among the things that are mostly out of my reach, there's often some little tip I pick up that I can use in my own baking.

I liked that a lot (admit to skimming some of the gorier parts) so I did read a couple of others. Horrorstör completely nailed what it's like in Ikea, but I get bored with too many action scenes so I didn't like it as much as the first. It had some funny parts, though. But I recently read The Final Girl Support Group and liked it better. Halfway through Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. I need undemanding books right now and this is a good fit.

It also sounds a lot like Bobby Flay's old show Throwdown, with a few changes, maybe legally necessary.

I had conflicting thoughts on there being four finalists: Sometimes when there are only two finalists or even three, you get disappointing results from one or two, and see maybe one truly great piece (not always, but in a couple of recent competitions I've watched). Four finalists increase the chance of having at least a couple of stunners. And this group in particular seem to push each other and feed off each other. But I want more episodes. I don't know. I just have been loving this, I liked it last time, too, but I'm sad next week is the finale. Great season, though. And four strong finalists! Should be a good show.

What a fun hour. Great to see the kids again and Duff's always a delight. If Val couldn't be there, I am so pleased that they pulled a former contestant from a long-previous season. Natasha was poised and funny and a great judge. I wouldn't seeing other older kids come back and judge on specials like these or as guests. I love the specials at least as much as the series.

I'm a lot closer to your take on this. I can't fully understand, being a cis-het woman, but my best friend in high school was a closeted lesbian, who didn't even come out to me until we were both around 30. Actually, it was such an unspoken thing, she never did really come out to me. She just invited me to go stay with her for the weekend and opened the door to introduce me to her girlfriend, arms around each other, and I just acted like you would meeting a dear friend's significant other (except I'm a lot but I possibly overdid it). But I guess that she knew I'd be happy for her and didn't need it said because it was always there in me watching out for her, not bugging her about boys or letting others give her any shit, but carefully, so that I wasn't outing her or doing anything close to that. So, from freshman year of high school, I did what I could for the LGBTQ+ community, which evolved from being a friend to writing to companies that included LGBTQ+ people (not the terminology we used at the time) in their ads, marching if there was something I heard about (pre-internet; I'm old), just what I could here and there. Then in 2002, I moved to Massachusetts, went to grad school in Boston, which was where the marriage equality fight was centered and happening and I became a full-blown activist (as soon as the verdict legalizing marriage equality came out the other side worked hard to get it on the ballot and almost did), working every spare minute for the local LGBTQ+ rights organization. The day marriages began, I got to be there and see couples getting married, some with their adult or younger children at their sides. It was the most beautiful thing I'd seen, except for the angry, screaming protestors. But in that work, I got to talk to couples, some who had been together longer than I'd been alive, and they told me about the fears and uncertainty in wanting or having children, what they had gone through, just so much. That means I couldn't judge anyone in this, and felt sympathy for everyone, and the only anger I had was at society for making it so damn hard for so many people who just wanted to live their lives in peace with the rights they were being denied. To me, seems like they allowed him in as a family friend, which meant the possibly impossible condition of him treating both children equally. He could not be parental, could not show a preference. Those were the rules they were adamant about, because both women wanted to be seen as the two parents. It sounds like he just couldn't do it. I don't think anyone set out to hurt anyone, but everyone was in a position they shouldn't have been in. Maybe I was superimposing too many people whose stories I heard over the actual people in the documentary, but I just came away feeling for all of them and wishing everyone left peace.

I guess after watching the first episode I can't discuss the US version in the forums since I want to also watch the British version, probably after this one, and this thread is full of spoilers for that. I enjoyed, I'll keep watching, but I want to be unspoiled for the British version, so I have to bail on the forums and watch both versions before posting here.

I love her writing. I remember reading The Witch Elm, which I know wasn't her best-received, but it was not long before I ready to stop life-extending measures and eventually enter hospice ( then came March 2020, so I stuck around to help my spouse survive it.). But I had reached this sense of peace and readiness that it was time, but also a detachment and cherishing of everything that seemed at odds but weren't, that I'd never quite been able to describe, but in that book a character speaks about how he knows his time is coming and how he feels about it and it was so close to what I'd experienced that I don't know how she so completely nailed that (and I was the primary caregiver for four terminal family members and was an oncology, then hospice nurse so I've spent a lot of time around the dying and being one of them). She's almost scarily perceptive (not quite the word I want but I'm on the good meds these days. I need diversions and someone recommended Graham Norton (TV funny guy) so I'm about to start A Keeper. It's a library ebook, so if it's not working, I'll grab something else.

I was brought up by former Catholics (who did not taking leaving lightly but were very disillusioned when they left, and took enough heat from family that I didn't get exposed to much Catholicism, though this was a family of Boston Irish and Italian immigrants) with a very vague idea that there was a god and he sacrificed his son so we don't die, but you didn't have to do anything, but should be a good person. It was not talked about much and we never went to church. Basically, I grew up to be open to new and question things, and I ended up leaving that vague belief behind (studying a lot of different mythology was a big factor) and eventually realizing that made me an atheist. Some would say the open mind part is incompatible with atheism, but that's one of those stereotypes I fear every time I watch or read and get into any discussion about atheism. I'll believe something if there's enough credible evidence, but some people who say their faith is unshakable call me close-minded. That's what I tend to fear as soon an atheist shows up in fiction. Or worse. So before I realized this was from Mike Flanagan and some of the actors from Hill House and Bly were in it, I was not going to watch, but then when I did and saw an atheist character, I was waiting for him to be a bad guy or have a religious conversion or be a jerk about others' beliefs, which is the only way some writers can protray atheits, and doesn't reflect many atheists I know. But Rley was able to be a real character, who was able to express his feelings and have them considered and respected (very rarely my experience as an out, non-jerk atheist) by at least one person of faith, who also got to express her feelings about her faith. He did something bad, but also made a sacrifice for the good of others. And the people of faith were good and bad, were misled and regretted doing bad, and made sacrifices, or did bad because of their faith and regretted it or didn't, or did bad just because. The different ways they interacted with and were affected by their faith were interesting, but also touching or scary, etc. Everyone, religious or not, was good and bad (Bev was just bad but the actor who played her did a great job showing she probably did believe she was deluding herself into thinking she was doing the right thing. Still wanted her to suffer a bit more. Hey, it's fiction). I don't know. I was in tears when the faithful were singing, and then stopped, and then the ashes drifted. I don't know if that's a good answer, but I liked that for me it didn't feel like I was watching a bunch of stereotypes, believers or not. That's pretty good writing, directing, and acting (wow, some of those actors).

I keep seeing new books by Agatha Christie, by Sophie Hannah. I think they just Poirot novels. Have read and enjoyed books by each author, but haven't read these and haven't planned to. Robert Parker's Spenser series continues, though Parker died in 2010. I'm in a dry spell. The last few books I've tried have not been good. Going to grab a bunch from my library e-accounts and hope for the best.

I started a rewatch of Bly Manor just to see Rahul Kohli (his character) alive, charming, goofy, and British. (no spoilers. I'm not saying whether or not he survives the series. Just that he's in it and oh-so good).

I've had true crime TV on and my spouse was working in the next room. He said, "I can't believe how stupid people are and the stupid things they kill over." This is why Allison's plan to murder Kevin rings true to me. Long-term consumption of true crime books and tv has shown me people, even ones with all kinds of other options and resources, will kill for something that seems almost trivial. So I've never questioned that.

Well, it got to me in the end. Brought me to tears, even though I didn't enjoy the last two episodes as much as the prior ones. Great acting, though. They leaned so hard on the Neil Diamond songs in the first episodes, that I kept thinking of other of his songs that have religious imagery (my sister was a superfan). I'm fine that they didn't use more, mind you, but it seemed like it was going to be a theme. Erin slashing the "angel's" wings reminded me of the story she told Riley of having to hold birds while her mother clipped their wings. Maybe an intentional call back, maybe not, but I thought about it. It was lovely to show her imaging a different version of the story she and Riley had about what happens after death. I loved seeing Zach Gilford again. Overall, glad I watched, even if some of the last two episodes disappointed.

Completely evil. Kidding. I'm watching too, but barely, to the point I hardly know any of the characters names and don't have much of a handle on the plot. So I have nothing to say about the episodes. I am still watching just to finish it off since I'm on bedrest and bored and because I still love anything to do with Schitt's Creek and Emily Hampshire is in it. I don't know if Loa is annoying or not, because I haven't paid enough attention. But I loved the actor who plays her so much as the little sister in Transplant that I hope am rooting for her to somehow come back (which is probably not good for her, so maybe not). Right now, Midnight Mass has more of what I wanted in this, so at least we're getting close to the end.

I went from being pissed off that Darlene's inability to connect or form healthy relationships was put down to her atheism (this is from an atheist in a blissfully happy marriage to another atheist, who cares about the people in my life more than anything. Sick of that stereotype) to being teary-eyed when they were showing the excited and masked audience, one waving a mini version of The Afghan. I figured they were calling audience members or uber fans or something, so I didn't care how well they did. I was just happy for them, and thought it was a cute way to celebrate the audience being there, being live, etc. The cheering as Sara Gilbert ran to the next set and every time they went meta worked for me. I just found it fun. Still shirty about the lazy atheist plot but glad they're back!