zenithwit

Meh... as someone who's watched both shows, this episode didn't work for me. The tone of both shows was off. Most of the characterizations of the It's Always Sunny group were way off even when adjusting for tone - especially Mac. The Mac portrayed here is nothing like the Mac portrayed on It's Always Sunny. It's almost as if Rob McElhenney decided to play himself instead of the character Mac. I think Frank was the character closest to his actual character in the It's Always Sunny universe and maybe Dee next. I guess it makes sense for Frank. Danny Devito is a good actor and It's Always Sunny didn't get really good until after he joined. I did think the teaching Charlie how to read storyline was cute. Oh I doubt those were really the eggs from a protected bird. If I were a betting person, I would put money on some sort of Frank and Mac scheme there. Which leads me to... I'm curious how the second part of this episode will play (i.e from the gang's eyes). I want to know what the gang was actually up to while they were there (because as noted many times over, they are not so sweet or innocent). Also, it'll be interesting to see how raunchy they'll let some of the Abbott characters get.

I feel like this documentary was not very comprehensive and kinda angry? There were so many areas they could have explored with this subject and they just kept it to a couple of wild stories and a couple of the producers. I feel like they could have easily done a couple more episodes and gave us more of Jerry's background and Richard Dominick's background. Hell, they didn't even mention Jerry's popular bodyguard Steve Wilkos who went on to host his own talk show (which apparently is still going according to Wikipedia). The only compelling part of this documentary for me was the son telling his story of his mother's horrible tragedy. So I disagree with the final statement that as a Netflix viewer of this documentary, I would only be interested in the horse and the murder. There was so much more I wanted to learn about how this show operated and what it was like to be on the show from both staff and guest perspectives.

This is incredibly sad. She was so young 😢

Not to mention that the song that Kingo and his dancers danced to was lifted directly from the Bollywood song "Malhari" from the 2015 film Bajirao Mastani. Like literally:

Trixie and her partner David Silver have broken up. It sounds like they're still in the motel business together but not sure what will happen with the house. https://ew.com/trixie-mattel-reveals-david-silver-breakup-8767655

This show was a fun easy watch. And the cliffhanger ending was a really good twist. I would definitely watch a second season. Also, did we ever find out how the first guy she slept with (Brandon?) died? Did I miss it? If not, that might be another part of the mystery to unravel. I think my only pet peeve about this show is that it's supposed to take place in Seattle but it was so obvious that they weren't actually in Seattle. Checking out the IMDB, it looks like Vancouver was used as the filming location - which isn't unusual for shows that "take place" in Seattle. But the Fremont Troll scene was such as obvious green screen that it was distracting. Side note: does the actor who plays Richie regularly do Toyota commercials? When they showed him on the Toyota lot, I thought it was a commercial break and had to do a double take.

I think the format of this show just doesn't work. I get the general concept of having the couples break up, date around to see if they connect better with other people and then have them come back together to make a final decision. But the structure of having such a limited dating pool of people who are in the same circumstance as you really doesn't lend itself for the "exploration" phase that I'm guessing Nick & Vanessa had during their break up period. It creates weird dynamics in the "trial marriages" where any level of physical affection is akin to cheating and the participants start "coaching" each other. I'm willing to bet Nick & Vanessa did more than just hold hands with other people during their separation period. I think a better setup would be to focus on 3 - 4 couples, have them break up and date from a larger group of singles, pick one person to date seriously for a couple of weeks and have them return to their original partners for a couple of weeks. You would still get all of that jealous footage the show loves with a higher likelihood of several love triangles. At this point, I'm not invested in any of the current couples or care what happens next.

New season dropped on Netflix. So far there are 5 episodes posted with the next batch available on December 11th.

Just watched the two new episodes. The decision to end right after the all around and not include any of the individual event finals was really strange. They kinda ignored that Simone won another Gold medal for the Vault, a Silver for Floor Exercise and didn't place on the Beam. Maybe they felt that Rebeca beating Simone in the floor exercise and Simone falling off the Beam didn't fit into their redemption storyline? Also, the floor exercise event final included all of that controversy around Jordan Chiles' bronze medal. Maybe there was legal reasons for not showing any of the footage they had around that event? Also, Simone was part of the ceremonial passing of the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony (with the mayor of LA to signal the transition to 2028 Olympics) and had the flag "stolen" from her by Tom Cruise. That seemed like a nice closing to her Olympic chapter and I'm surprised the documentary didn't include it. I think her husband has a really dry and sarcastic sense of humor. While they showed a clip of that one interview that riled up the internet, they didn't show the comment that really turned Simone's fan base against him - which was that he was the "catch" in their relationship. Seeing more of his personality, I can see how he was saying stuff like that as a joke but his delivery so dry and so deadpan that I also can understand how his comments were taken literally by the general public. And Simone was pretty defensive about the whole thing when they should have just brushed it off as a bad joke. They probably could have benefitted from a better PR person in that situation.

I'm 100% ready for the reunion. This season had so much drama occur off-camera and we were constantly dropped into intense conversations with next to no context. Hopefully we get an extra long reunion where they set the record straight on almost everything. Keeping my fingers-crossed that we find out Ashley and Tyler broke up at the reunion too. Unpopular opinion: I didn't hate Marissa's mother throughout the season. Yeah, she's clearly a lot to handle but it sounds like she went through several rough spots in her life that harden her and now she has zero tolerance for BS. And she could smell Ramses' BS from a mile away.

So far this season had been a hugggggeeee improvement over last season. I like how fluid and intertwined the alliances are. And the fact that the players aren't afraid to get messy in the chats. The twists have been pretty good too. The swapping profiles disruption was really interesting. It forced Madelyn and Rachel to really examine their strategies, be honest about how other players perceive them and figure out a path forward that worked for both of them. Though the swapping profiles might be the only piece of good game play we'll see this season. It's pretty astounding that we've seen two players (Kevin and Madelyn) either actively block or campaign against someone who would rank them number 1. I think I understand Madelyn's motives for campaigning against Andy but I'm still not sure it was the right move for her (though she was smart not to mention anything when meeting real life "Andy"). Kevin was clearly bested by Gianna/the twins. Speaking of Kevin vs Gianna/the twins, I'm curious how their second showdown will play out. We know the twins can dig in their heels and it sounds like Kevin is willing to do as well this time. What's funny is the twins' proposal would be better for Kevin's game than his own proposal. Why Darian didn't choose Jadejha as influencer is beyond comprehension to me. Sure it would have been obvious that he was the disruptor but when you're neck is on the line, who cares? It'll be fun to see Darian's face when he finds out his pick for influencer was actively trying to block him.

Well, season 8 has finally given us a winner. It's..... Chelsea! As we know, all of these ladies have dressed in a manner that 99% of clients and other real estate agents would deem inappropriate (except for Maya and maybe Davina in the earlier seasons). But we are in Selling Sunset world where the rules are different. It's interesting to know that there is a line in Selling Sunset world and apparently the line is half an inch from flashing your woo hah to the whole world. I thought Mary was unfairly chastised for speaking up to Chelsea. I'm currently on Episode 5 and so far I like the new girl Alanna. I'm still trying to figure out the whole Pioneertown thing. Has anyone been there? From what I've read, her husband is in hospitality and events planning. So I'm wondering if the two of them actually own the town outright or if maybe her husband's company owns the town and they two of them are investors. Just watched the part where Bre walked Jason and Romain through her houses issues. While I know surprises do occur in real estate sales, I'm not sure I would have a ton of confidence in Bre as a real estate agent after knowing the fact that she purchased a home with so many issues.

Unfortunately, this show has been canceled. https://ew.com/were-here-canceled-hbo-after-4-seasons-drag-race-queens-8707739

The Anonymous Competitive Reality USA Network (also available on Peacock) Premiered on August 19, 2024

This really gave Hunger Games but make it Kpop vibes. While the trainees were put through pretty typical reality show shenanigans, the issue is that the company/development team lied to them so many times to intentionally catch them off-guard. I think if the girls had known about the survival show, the fan voting, answering the "who should win" question, etc, they would have handled each step so much better. Honestly, it makes you wonder how long this group will last. When you lie and intentionally manipulate in the early stages, how are the girls are supposed to trust you moving forward? Shout out to Lexie for recognizing this crock of BS and choosing to walk away. Also, I'm not sure fan voting is the most effective tool for determining who should get into any pop star group. I think fan voting would lead to a fantasy team and a team of individual "stars". But as that one executive said in this series, in a pop star group everyone has a role to play (like in any team). It's like in sports when a team of relatively unknown talent beats a team with a bunch of well-known "superstar" players because the first team plays better as a team. There may be one or two girls who may not stand out as much individually but blend really well with the group and provide needed support for the others in the group. I feel like Emily was a good example of this and probably would have made the group if it was just up to the executives. With all of this combined, we'll see how long this group lasts. I'm guessing they have some contractual period to be in the group but I'm not so sure how long this group lasts beyond that unless they manage to have a huge hit.