zenithwit

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.

Good point about the seemingly large number of contestants who are stylists and not actually designers. Makes you wonder about the talent pool for this show - or that the producers casted for drama instead of talent.

I've watched the first few episodes of this and honestly... it's not great. The designs have been meh, the runway presentations have been confusing and the contestants seem more interested in petty drama than actually producing good work. This is all unfortunate because the overall concept of the show isn't bad. Focusing on stage presentations for music artists is a strong idea for a fashion design show. But the execution has been rough. For the JoJo Siwa episode, it was so confusing whether they were designing for her or one of her back up dancers - especially since they were assigned a mix of male and female models. None of the designs looked like they were actually for JoJo and the winning design had exposed nipples. Even though JoJo is trying to change her image, I still can't see her wearing a shirt with an exposed chest like the winning design. And the bottom design was criticized for having too many elements... uh, have you seen what JoJo has been wearing lately? The bottom design wasn't well-executed but it was probably more on brand than the rest of the designs. One beacon of light is that the show has gotten marginally better with each progressive episode. The designs for Toni Braxton actually looked like they were trying to design for her. But even here the runway presentation did little favors to the designers. I wish sometimes they would do a "normal" runway so that you could actually see the designs. I may or may not keep watching this show. Depends on if there is something better on.

Wayne Brady: The Family Remix Candid Reality Freeform / Hulu / Disney+ Premiered July 24, 2024

Dress My Tour Competitive Reality Hulu / Disney+ Released July 23, 2024

Lalaparuza episodes are typically my least favorite each season. I don't think this episode was an exception. Overall, I found the episode lukewarm but I did enjoy that we got an old school Drag performance for the final lip sync. So many of the lip sync battles in recent years have been about tricks and death drops whether it makes sense with the song or not. So it was nice (and dare I say refreshing) to see queens just connect with the song in a way that makes sense to them. You could really tell the difference in the Roxxxy/Jorgeous and Shannel/Vanjie lip syncs where both Jorgeous and Vanjie had kinda blank facial expressions and Roxxy/Shannel were truly emoting. Also for anyone who's interested, here's a performance of "Holding out for a hero" by Roxxxy's Drag grandmother Tandi Andrews: