needschocolate

Norah's attitude is making her my favorite this season. This show is known for its lack of drama contestants, but Norah takes this to a new level. She is always happy for the others and nothing fazes her, unlike that woman a few seasons ago (bright pinki/red hair, stayed way too long, always asking for help and running around willy nilly) or even Libby with her "catastrophic" sculpt dent. I am not sure that Norah has what it takes to win this, but she has a personality that will help her succeed after she's off the show. Meg and Libby seem like nice, pleasant people, but I think they are both too inexperienced for this competition. Meg might have done okay in the season with the mentors, but Libby needs a lot more time. Most of the teams had one male and one female model. Which gave them two options - smaller female guarding the gate holding the bigger "monster" or big male guarding the gate holding the smaller "monster." I can see why they choose to go with the female as gatekeeper. It would lose a lot of the "drama" of the backstory if a large gatekeeper moved to the side and a small monster came out growling - may have had an unintentional comic effect. Theoretically, it is possible, but it is easier to have the larger model be the creature. It would be more difficult to make the prisoner seem imposing or dangerous if the gatekeeper was 6-8 inches taller than the monster. As for making the gatekeeper "pretty" and the prisoner "ugly" - people expect the hero to be good looking and the villain to be less so. If they would have switched it, they would runt he risk of the judges saying "Why is the gatekeeper so creepy looking" or "why did they do beauty make-up on the prisoner."

My kids were around 9-12 years old when they started watching the original, and there were a few moments I cringed a bit, but it was okay overall, for their age (I agree with your mother, 4 would be a too young). A lot of the innuendos went over the their heads early on - not sure if any of them understood why we laughed so hard at the song about golf - "a squirrel chewed my bag and my balls fell out." I may be misremembering it, but I don't recall any humping or nipple tweaking or crotch grabbing back then.

Wasn't there a game (in the original series) where Ryan and Coling had to do an infomercial using random stuff they were given in a box? Personally, although it is often very funny, I feel like they rely on the sex jokes much too often. When the show started on ABC (?) it was a show you could watch with smaller children, but it would be uncomfortable now. I just think the "dirty" humor is too easy - these guys can be way more clever than that. It is not necessarily the guys' faults - the descriptions of the games often lean toward the sexual humor (thing you can say about your furniture but not your partner, putting the lingerie in the Secrets box, Colin's LMaD character was supposed to be horny, etc...)

If she is the type of person who needs quiet to concentrate, then the bathroom would be a good choice, especially since her partner is a man. She had never made a swim suit before and she needed to literally sew it onto the model - I can see how she could be nervous and would not want to have Edmond around "offering suggestions" or "asking questions" or "badgering her" (pick one, or more, based on how you saw their interaction earlier. I think Hanmiao and Edmond were just a bad match - very different work styles and both of them started off concerned because they knew their aesthetic were very different

I get the whole "inspiration" thing and I know they wanted to plug the cruise line, but I still find it ridiculous that the premise suggested that a cruise ship passenger would dress the way people from a cruise ship port would stereotypically dress. If Heidi took a cruise to Mexico, would she put on a sombrero and a poncho to walk around Acapulco? I personally did not like the top look, but, based on what the judges have selected as the top in other episodes, I am not surprised they pick it. I often disagree with what the judges think. I wonder if the lack of time for challenges has to do with Heidi's schedule - between Germany's Next Top Model and America's Got Talent, she may not have had time to let them have 2 days for a challenge. If that is the case, then they should have Heidi miss some challenges, because I would love to see outfits sewn by designers who actually had enough time to make something good. If they had more time, it would be easier to see which designers really have talent, but with the short turn around time, nothing ever seems to fit well. The same thought crossed my mind. I am inclined to think that Edmond was just trying to do his best and didn't want the "if you didn't have immunity, you'd be in trouble" smack down Ashley got the challenge before. Plus, if his intent was to get Hanmiao aufed, then he is a really good actor, because he certainly acted like he wanted his team to do well. However, there are things that would raise suspicion that Edmond was trying to make sure Hanmiao would fail - -- Edmond didn't just say "I have immunity, so I will let you take the lead" -- Edmond kept talking after tell her to talk, and, as some have said, he badgered her - was he trying to stress her out, or was he just stressed out? -- Edmond wanted the bathing suit, even though it really didn't fit a day-to-night, walk around a cruise port challenge. -- Edmond wanted the bathing suit even though it should have been very obvious to him that a form fitting bathing suit is not Hanmiao's aesthetic -- Hanmaio said she never made a swimsuit before, Edmond tried to give her advice, implying that he has made swimsuits before (he may have even said he has), yet Hanmaio was in charge of the swimsuit and he was in charge of the skirt.. -- Edmond made a back-up bathing suit and was perturbed that Hanmaio hid in the bathroom to put her suit on the model. If the model would have been wearing his swim suit and his skirt, then everything they sent down the runway would have been made by Edmond, who has immunity. Was he hoping he could play the "I had to do everything" card and Hanmaio would be sent home for not contributing? Of course, most of these things can be explained by him wanted to have a top look and being stressed at having her for a partner. Edited because Edmond made a skirt not a cape

HGTV could give them their own hour-long show every night at 8 pm and Beach Flip will still be the last I see of them.

I agree, but I was a little disappointed that there weren't any made up words to laugh about for the rest of the season. When I heard Tyra say that it would be a no neck lesson, I immediately thought of "Smeck" - smiling with your neck - and "Nooch" - that she would tell the guys to stick out their adams apples and nooch

To those of you wondering if not understanding what is going on makes you an idiot, the answer is no, you are not a idiot. Not being able to make sense of what is going on is a sign that you are a rational thinker. This show doesn't make sense to you because it doesn't make sense. The idiots are the writers, directors and everyone else whose job it is to convey what is going on and have some logic or continuity to it. If you were walking down the sidewalk and saw a man wearing a toilet seat for a hat and talking about how cows are made of pork and it is a sign that the world is run by fruit flies, you would not say to yourself, "Hmm, that makes no sense to me, I must be an idiot." This show is the same sort of thing. In addition to having writers with selective short term memory loss (as in, they can't remember what they have written in past episodes), I think the direction the story goes is determined by what the people in control think is cool. Someone saw one of many shows/movies where a character is suspended in a glass tube, so they added Patrick, and made up some nonsense about how he got there. They also think fire is cool, because there have been way too many fires in Chesters Mill (and outside Chesters Mill). A lot of the first two seasons seem to be driven by whatever special effects they thought were interesting (even though most of it has no long term effect) - cows cut in half, freezing temps, acid rain, glowing eggs, pink stars, contracting domes, huge underground tunnels, etc... Almost everything that doesn't make sense on this show can be explained by "someone thought it would be cool or would be good TV to have it happen." Good point. There was no reason to kill her. Julia's life was not in danger. The woman could be possibly "saved" as Joe and Norrie have both been saved. Plus, Norrie couldn't be sure that the woman was even a threat to the resistance. I was under the impression that Norrie shot her from a distance - too far to know if the woman was saying "Nyah, nyah, I going to tell on you" or "Please save me, these people are crazy!" Maybe Norrie heard the woman yell, but shooting her after she yells is not going to stop the drones from coming. Julia should have ran, but instead she just stood there very still. So why did Norrie shoot the woman and why didn't Julia run? Because they wanted that classic moment where the heroine is in danger, and just as the audience thinks all might be lost, a shot comes out of nowhere. If the dome comes down, I predict that the members of the resistance, now including Barbie, will not pay for what they have done. To the people in charge of the show, these people are supposed to be the heroes, and the only main characters that will be in trouble post-dome are Christine, Sam, Ava, and Junior. If any of the last three become human, they might be get away with what they've done. Although, I suspect there will be at least one who will fit the classic plot of bad guy redeems himself by sacrifices himself to save one of the heroes - Sam or Junior will turn human just in time to save one of the other humans, or Ava will sacrifice herself so the baby will live. And if the show decides it wants a "surprise" ending, they will lead us to believe the baby has been cured but then, as they are about to load her into the carseat that magically appears in the Prius, we see that the baby has a pixelated reflection. They can't kill Christine - she is one of the main characters. The red door leads to an entrance under the lake, so, if the door worked both ways, the lake would drain and how would they row the boats over to the island where all the hideouts are? The real reason there is a one way door is because they needed a way for new actors (aka, the cast of ER) to join the show but still keep everyone under the dome, so they have to have a way in, but not a way out.

And they didn't even bother to keep his first choice in future mates alive. Junior is so clueless he doesn't realize that Christine is just stringing him along. I would feel sorry for him, except that he is Junior and not someone I care about.

Oh Joe, you are the (supposedly) smartest one in town - the only one smart enough to figure out how to stop the dome from calcifying - how can you be so gullible? Just a few hours ago (in Chesters Mill time) you thought Sam was human until he kidnapped you. I would think that would make you a little more leery about who you trust. But, no. Instead, two people you know are part of the kinship, people who also beat you up, tell you that the dome will calcify and everyone will suffocate and you believe them? And believe them so whole-heartedly that you are willing to die to save everyone? It really never occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, the calcifying is just another one of Christine's home movies, like the firestorm apocalypse a day or two ago? You never thought that maybe, just maybe, what you are really doing is not stopping the dome from calcifying but is actually making Christine stronger or helping the kinship beat the resistance some other way? And to the guy playing Joe - bad acting with that jailhouse hug, dude. Yeah, the director wanted you to be sure to touch the gun so that you could say the line "Is that a gun?" but that was one seriously awkward looking hug, with you reaching so far out of the window to get your hand on top of the gun. Since you weren't supposed to know she had a gun, your far reaching hug means that you were trying get your hand on her butt, which, considering you are in jail and you think the world is ending, is a rather strange thing to do. Sure, you are a teenage boy and they are supposed to be horny, but why not reach for a boob instead of the butt? If you really want a career in acting, you need to step it up. Look around you, there are 3 former ER cast members - and 2 former CSI cast members - these shows were popular enough to last a combined 39 seasons (ER - 15, CSI - 15, CSI:NY - 9). These people were once at the top and now can only find work on dreck like this. Let it be a lesson to you. At the end of the last episode, Barbie and Julia are kissing and it is nighttime. Next time we see them, they are strolling along in the daylight. What did they do all that time? I suppose they could have gotten, er, re-acquainted, but it seems like a poor use of their time, given the whole war against the kinship thing that is going on. Besides, they keep showing Christine and Junior doing the deed, which have got to be unsexiest sex scenes ever filmed, they certainly would have shown Barbie and Julia getting it on. This was a rarely seen (for this show) little bit of foreshadowing or continuity or attempt to have something make sense later. I believe the only reason they had the gun lesson scene is so Norrie shooting the midwife would make sense and viewers wouldn't be wondering how Norrie would know how to shoot a gun. Of course, it doesn't make sense. First off, they have been fighting the kinship for a week, Norrie should have had her gun shooting lesson before now. Secondly, her lesson was less than a minute and she did even get to shoot it, yet she can make a perfect shot into midwife's forehead, with the bullet zooming right past Julia's head. They can build a gallows or a windmill in a few hours, so they have had enough time can move a jail cell (or build new one) in the last 3-4 weeks. Why? I don't know, but you they had to keep those 2,000 (ha-ha) people busy doing something. Why would they be digging randomly? He supposedly buried her a few hours before, certainly the ground would look recently dug and the grave would be easy to figure out. Possible explanations - - Barbie and Julia spent the night digging fake graves - Junior thought Barbie rubbed the oxitocin goo over the gravesite to heal it. From the Prius charging station? Based on what I know from this show, I think this was a case of bad special effects. They didn't mean for him to float, but when they put in the pixelated footage, they placed it wrong, so he looks floating.

I have heard that they film a bunch of segments/games in a day of taping and split them between episodes. It makes sense that they have to fit all the ones with the same guest into the same episode. Games that contain a running joke have to be part of the same episode too. So we get an episode with the guest, and an episode (or two) with the regulars, but all taped in the same day. They also tape games we don't see because they weren't funny enough. IMO, this episode's segment of helping hands is one that should never have been shown. Then again, I feel that way about almsot every helping hands. It is usually just the same jokes over and over again.

Did anyone else find the background music, especially in the beginning of the episode, really annoying - too loud and sort of "tinny" sounding (like a metal ring to it)? We recently got a new TV and I am wondering if there is something wrong with it. I haven't noticed this with other shows, but it was really noticeable with this one.

Actually, this might be one of only a handful of times that the show has gotten something right --- it has only been 3 weeks since the dome came down, which means it is sometime in September 2013***, around the time of Dexter's last few episodes. Jim was probably wondering how the series ended and had Dexter on his mind. ***In the first episode, Junior was getting ready to leave for college (in a week?), and the college kids I know usually go back sometime between August 10 and September 20. So, it is possible that we could now be in Early October. Dexter's last episode aired on 9/22/13. I don't know what Junior planned to do with the girl he had locked in his storm shelter when he was away at school.

When Aryn was eliminated, I thought, "well, that kills the suspense - Aryn was second best, so now it is obvious that Avi wins." Then, Lana wins, and I thought "Avi was robbed! What does Cheryl Ann have on the judges that, if she can't win, then the team she was on has to win?" Then I came on here and many of you pointed out what I missed - how well Lana fit the challenge. I was impressed by the transformations that were part of Avi's and Aryn's work, but they probably should have spent their time perfecting what was actually called for, instead of doing the extra work. The best part of Lana winning - Lana was Cheryl Ann's "arch nemesis" The worst part of Lana winning - I am sure Cheryl Ann will think the win was because of the great job she did on Lana's team.

My eyes are old and my TV isn't as large as it used to be (when we got it, it seemed huge, but it is relatively small compared to most TVs nowadays). Most of the time, someone would give the answer about the time I figured out what the pictures were, but before I could put the pictures together and try to figure it out. So I couldn't play along at home. When they first showed the pictures, they should have done it as a close up, rather than showing the whole set.

This is true. I was speaking in generalities - someone spending 50k re-doing their kitchen is probably going to end up with a nicer kitchen than someone spending 10k (not that the dollar amounts were that much on the show). But there are a lot of other factors that play a part, like how handy the DIYers are and the quality of their work, and taste matters a lot. Someone spending 50k on their kitchen installing fluorescent orange cabinets and one-of-a-kind light fixtures made from petrified cow dung will not have a nicer kitchen than someone who spends 10k on good cabinetry and does a good job on tiling. I just like the idea of taking the amount spent into consideration when determining the value added because it lessens the chance of L&D winning, and increases the chances for S&N.

Plus, Junior was pretty concerned about her being in the birthing barn, as though she wouldn't be available for, um, er, "mating" after Ava has the baby, um, I mean, after Ava has the new queen. And Christine said that new-girl wanted to be there, implying that she volunteered and Christine didn't force her to. This all seems to mean that something will happen to all the young, never-before-seen, clad-in-all-white women, like they will die afterwards or turn into moths or gargoyles or something. But I guess it all depends on whether next week's writer saw this episode and paid attention to the Christina and Junior conversation (I still contend that the easiest way to explain the randomness of this show is that they have a different writer every episode - either that or it is a 100 monkeys with a 100 keyboards).

I know that everyone had an equal chance to win money, so it is all fair, but I think that the amount they spent should be factored in when determining the winner. In theory, the more you spend, the more you increase the value. It is not "value added through smart decisions" but "value added through larger spending" Take the value added, subtract what they spent to add that value, and then figure out what percentage increase that would be. Larges percentage is the winner. I think if they did it that way, S&N would win.  I thought one of the judges (whoever came in for the mentor talk - Nicole, I believe) told them, while they were working, that this was no time to hole back and there was no reason to save their money. L&D are fine decorators, I think their choices have been good, except for that horrible den, but they are not very handy/crafty. I seems to me that they hired people to do most of the work and that the projects they did themselves turned out to be the worst parts of their house. I think I read a description of next week that said they work together to fix up the outside. I assume they give them new money for that.

I stay away from spoiler threads (I won't even touch my presents before it is time to open them because I don't want to risk spoiling the surprise), but the temptation was too great and I had to check out this thread. I was curious as to how can there be spoiler info when the writers don't know what is going on. I get it now, these aren't spoilers as in "you will find out 'who done it'"or "it will spoil the ending" - these are spoilers as is "look what crazy stuff they are going to come up with next" Even if someone posted information on how they will get the dome down, it wouldn't mean anything, because the writers would just have Godzilla rise up out of the lake and plop down another dome, or have some never-before-seen Chesters Mill resident flip a switch that creates a new dome, or have it be the dome working its visual effects magic again, or something else just as loony.

Me too! This was the first episode I saw, weeks ago, as a preview episode on TVLand (I think it was around the time of the Hot in Cleveland finale). I thought it was good enough to set up a series recording and give it a chance. Then I forgot about it, until I noticed all the recordings on the DVR. So I binge-watched the first 4 episodes (sort of - it took 3 nights). Then I checked out the forum and it seems like everyone loves JG's stand-up and hates the show. I had not heard of Jim Gaffigan before this, so I guess I don't know what I am missing. Plus, this is a first-run comedy on TVLand, my expectations were low to begin with. I will keep watching. The plots are not very original but the jokes generally are.

Unfortunately for Junior, but fortunately for all womankind, Junior isn't smart enough to figure out how to use his newfound magic healing power to help him pick up women.

Did they say that during the first season? Because I don't think they are sticking with that concept anymore (the show's people not sticking with a concept? - no surprise there). At the beginning of Season 2, the voiceover said that it had been two weeks since the dome came down. So the first season covered 14 days - and each episode covered one day (weel, close enough). At the start of this season, the voiceover tells that the dome came down 3 weeks ago. So the second season was only a week in dome-time - and each episode was approximately 12 hours. Went I started writing this post, I couldn't remember if this was season 3 or 4 (I was thinking it might be season 4 and each season was a week long), so I looked at the thread title and realized that it says this episode was Season 1 Episode 9. Not that we should be more concerned with accuracy than anyone making this show, but could someone please correct the thread title?

Couldn't Jessica just tell Jack that they have an unwritten policy that they don't promote someone to junior partner until they are a certain age (3-4 older than Mike is now) or they have been with the firm for a certain amount of time (3-4 longer than Mike hase been with the firm) and promoting Mike now would create too many problems with other associates?

Would most people want to get married in horror/monster/macabre/whimsical make-up on TV? I doubt it, but they only needed 30 or so couples (so they could narrow it down to right number -7? 8?). I think there are plenty of people who would think "Hey, we are getting married anyway, let's get married on TV! We can still have the ceremony and reception we are planned to have in two months anyway." Heck, I think there are a number of people who would get married, even though they weren't planning on it, just because they would be on a TV show. I too would have preferred watching more of the technical stuff than watching the ceremony and the reception. To me, weddings are fun if I know the people, but weddings between people I don't know are rather boring.

Whew, we finally got the got the answer to the question that has been on every viewer's mind - Hunter still works "down there." So, the key to snapping someone out of the Kinship is to have them be in enough pain that they can let their emotions through? All because a big rock was on top of Other-mom when she became human again? Because the intense emotion from knowing she will die and thinking that her daughter will de too wasn't enough? Sure, Hunter was in pain when he snapped out of it too, so I can see how they could jump to the pain will help conclusion, except pain had nothing to do with keeping Joe human. And what about Norrie? Had she just stubbed her toe right before getting upset that Sam didn't show up for his meeting with Joe, because that was the emotional turmoil she was going through that got her out of the Kinship. Barbie and Julia is the writers' attempt at re-creating Ross and Rachel. Every time Ava's name comes up, Julia will give Barbie "the look" and Barbie will yell "We were on a break!" Barbie and Julia will break up and get back together a few more times and on the final episode one of them will be yelling "Don't get out of the dome." Until the other one walks in, saying "I didn't get out of the dome" And now Julia will have to spend every other weekend being stepmom to the Queen of the Kinship. Could be awkward. Why? So people watching at home could have this conversation - "Hey, that's the guy from ER!" "Hey, Junior not-dead mom was on ER too!" "Oh yeah, she was the one that painted like a preschooler." And the writers were hoping that viewers would get so sidetracked by the resulting ER discussion "Remember the time Carter got stabbed...or was it shot?" that they wouldn't notice how ridiculous UtD is. Speaking of Junior's not-dead-now-dead-again mom --- More proof that there is no long term plan for this show and they are just doing everything off the cuff - if what has happened was the plan from the start, there would have been a large "painting" in the art studio of the "Schematics" drawing that Norrie and Joe found. Of course, with not-dead mom's artistic talent, it would have looked more like a purple octopus with swollen tentacles.