dankesean

I loved the first major fall it had, where almost the entire ice worth of skaters dashed over to help it back up, discovered there were more of them than could actually serve a purpose in getting it back on its feet, and so a bunch just... kind of patted its back consolingly. My roommate and I continued to watch the long distance view at the end on Peacock far longer than necessary because we wanted to see how many more fall-downs the poor thing had, even just skating in an ellipse behind the performers. (At least three, was the answer.)

That poor, poor, panda.

Burn? Nah, Eteri's hell is going to be a much colder place, trapped awake under frozen ice for all eternity while little girls skate over her face.

WHAAAT? You mean the stern measures imposed by the IOC on the country of Russia in forbidding them to be called 'Russia' (except it's still in the team name), use their flag (except that it's still in their uniform colors) or hear their national anthem (except Tchaikovsky is better anyhow) haven't had their desired effect? Okay, clearly action needs to be taken. I propose the ROC be banned from all future olympics. Athletes who happen to be from the ROC can reapply to future games, and will henceforthparticipate under the name of 'Legitimate Athletes, Most Expressly Russian', and hear the music of Stravinsky played whenever they win gold.

It might already be an implied subset of your #2, but I'd like Yuzu to land that 4A. Even if it isn't enough to put him on the podium, I would love to see his career have that little bit of history added to it as a footnote.

I kind of hope that, should Nathan win (which seems likely & I'm rooting for) he gathers up the many laurels he has and says 'screw this, I'm a full time Yalie from here on'. With an olympic gold in hand, he wouldn't have anything left to prove, and those of us who wince a little every time a new mention of his recurring hip strain comes up can find something else to sweat about. Yeah, he definitely could keep going for a few more years, even another full olympic cycle, potentially, but diminishing returns would creep in sooner or later, and I'd personally like the NBC shoved-down-your-throat narrative in 2026 to be 'Will it be Ilia or Yuma (or insert future contender here)?' rather than 'Can Nathan do it AGAIN?'

She was explaining the 'secret' of how the category worked; 'Get Your Somethings in a Row' is adapted from the phrase, 'get your ducks in a row'. So, once the category was done, Mayim was explaining that every answer in the category sounded vaguely like 'ducks'. Docs, desks, decks, dukes, and dikes.

I briefly thought that too, but then I realized that hordes of Tina fans would descend upon the show in outrage.

As upbeat and over-the-top perky as Nicolle was, I took great pleasure in the irony that the DD Matt got that finally allowed him to put some space between them was 'Pollyanna'.

Given that I shouted out the same thing (and then had to defend myself from the two other people in the room who had never heard the term) I'll give a (very biased) 'we'll accept that'.

Same here. Bonus points if you sang 'his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe...' before answering.

The show has been more or less off-book for a while, or at least it's really only been hitting the broad strokes of the book and changing the specifics. (Ruby uses the potion of white ladyness, but the actual results of doing so are quite different; Hippolyta uses the orrery and observatory to go to another world, but what's on the other side of the portal has absolutely nothing in common with the filmed equivalent) Ji-ah, as mentioned, is an element unique to the show. But, that said, as far as the timeline of adapting the book elements, it's almost come to the end of the novel. (The Diana-equivalent character being tormented was the second to last chapter of the book.) So my assumption is that this season will loosely cover the more-or-less book plot in its entirety, and any hypothetical future seasons can use the characters and backstory established here to build off of. Or it could be just the one season, but personally I hope otherwise; they've done a great job with the divergences they've done, and I'm saying that as an enormous Matt Ruff fan.

I found this the most enjoyable episode of the revival to date. My one complaint: You have Bette Midler and Tyne Daly not just in the same episode, but interacting with each other. YOU FIND AN EXCUSE TO HAVE THEM BURST INTO SONG, dammit!

OK, so the non-flippant answer, provided courtesy of the commentary on the NBC chopped up gala broadcast, is that she was 'portraying the priestess of the goddess of fire'. So the candle is explained. Not sure where being dressed as the Rum-Tum-Tugger comes into play, though.

True art is incomprehensible.

Oh, Misha. Out of all the skaters retiring this year, I think I'll miss you most of all, scarecrow.

For instance, you could, say, dress as a spider and shoot webs at the audience.

Just when I was thinking, 'gee, that's a lot of water to leave on the ice for the next performer', out come the Zambonis. Loved Javier's performance. Also loved Anna and Luca's. I remember that as a competition number from a couple years back, but it only gets better when not held to the constraints of competition and additional hijinx can be involved.

Oh, good, I haven't heard Carmen in ages.

Pita's the only one there from Tonga, so I assume he'll carry the flag as well. As far as seeing him... well, given the 'everyone enters in a giant mass of people' tradition of closing ceremonies, he won't be the easiest to spot, but if he goes for the grass skirt and coconut oil outfit for a fourth time, I find it very likely the cameras will linger on the glistening magnificence our favorite Tongan in the crowd for a shot or two.

Just to give credit where it's due: I'm from the U.S. As an American, I consider myself above average just for knowing my own national anthem. Canada and Great Britain I'm pretty good on too, just because sharing a language means it's easier to follow the words and learn the song. I've been recording & watching the full medal ceremonies every morning over breakfast (and am deeply appreciative that the Olympics Channel airs them live at 5 AM, since prior to this year you have to just watch the NBC broadcasts and hope they'll air one or two.) This morning I woke up with some music playing in my head. Didn't think much about it, didn't even process what it was until I was in the shower and suddenly realized I'd been humming along to the full German national anthem for the past half hour. So, German forum readers, congratulations to your athletes success in these games. Even though you didn't "win" the overall medal count, I've been earwormed by your country. (Not sure why Norway isn't running through my head too. If I had to guess, the fact that Germany got more gold medals in the first week of the games gave them a head (no pun intended) start.) Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find a YouTube video/tutorial that'll teach me the words to the music, because this will drive me insane otherwise.

Lochte is too big of an idiot to know he should let go of the idiot ball. "No, seriously, Ryan, giving it up is a good thing!" "But it's miiiiiiinnnnneeeee..."

Wow. Two weeks ago if you told me that would happen I'd have thought I was crazy. Not you, because I'd believe that nobody would ever be crazy enough to actually predict a U.S. gold in curling, so obviously the insanity would lie in my ability to perceive the world. Amazing job, guys.

I find that NBCSN is actually fairly reliable for showing all of an event, but the actual times tend to bleed between scheduled blocks. Coverage may or may not begin within half an hour of 3, but if you set the recording for an extra hour I'd bet the gala airing will continue into the next time block, hopefully showing the whole thing. (Per my DVR, the following hour doesn't even have an event listed in the information, which makes me even more optimistic for complete gala coverage.)

The best part of that one is the momentary shot of the woman's skater off in the wings with an absolutely magnificent bitchface going on as, presumably, she sees herself being outscored. Points for accuracy in representing the sport, Geico!