paul4295

Q is the worst (oh, except for Bhanu). I can't believe they didn't either vote him out, or just challenge him to quit. If you thought he was your ally, how can you can work with him now? I guess you could justify keeping him, though, because he just made himself the ultimate goat. There's no way he can talk himself out of that performance when it comes up at final 3 (or 2), right? I'm rooting for the Charlie/Maria under the radar alliance. They seem reasonable and likable. They should pull in Hunter and Ben, and try to vote out (or at least rein in) the loose cannons who change their mind every 5 minutes.

I feel like there had to be a lot of strategizing that they didn't show. It seemed quite clear that the only two people anyone was considering were Venus and Moriah, and if you're one of those two, the obvious strategy is to play up why you're worthy and the other one is not. Yet somehow, Venus starts campaigning for a Charlie vote like she's in a power position, and it doesn't hurt her (even after Q suggested voting her out because of it). And Moriah didn't seem to do much at all until tribal council. In other news, I'm enjoying the post-Bhanu portion of the season where we actually get to know some other players.

Still too many sob stories. I'm glad Ziggy is gone. He was just not that good, and way too much drama for me. I'd say he has more of a chance in theater than in pop music. Odell clearly can sing from what we've heard before, but that's not what he did last night. It was just one long tuneless vocal run. He hit some great notes in there, but it didn't sound like a song (any song, let alone the one it was supposed to be) to me. I like Alyssa Raghu, but her showstopper performance was nothing special, and KB was fantastic in the sing-off, so if we could only have one of them, I'm glad KB got the spot. KBlocks was interesting for a minute, but there were many better singers than her who got cut. I suspect that America will not share the judges' affection for her.

Hollywood week concludes with the naming of the Top 24.

Since they were reuniting castmates from classic movies, I wonder if they asked Robert DeNiro, who was also in The Godfather, Part II, to present with Al Pacino, but he refused.

More auditions, more sob stories, and probably some wacky antics from Katy, with a few actual constructive comments here and there. (I'm just guessing. I haven't watched yet. Should I bother?)

I agree. If I ever made it onto the show, I would not sacrifice my game just to give the producers more drama to make a potentially more entertaining show. (Or, maybe I should, because they're just going to keep throwing random twists in so that whatever strategy I'm trying to use won't matter anyway.)

More auditions from the judges' home towns and LA (in random order, of course). Discuss.

Auditions in the hometowns of the judges--Santa Barbara, CA (Katy), Tuskegee, AL (Lionel), and Leesburg, GA (Luke). I will continue to say that I don't like how they jump back and forth between different locations that were probably taped weeks apart from each other. I wish they would show the auditions from one city, and then move on.

I was also bothered by the silent "confession" at the end. I can understand the team members being upset about being lied to, but Gabi either deceives them or comes up with some crazy/illegal idea in almost every episode, and they complain a little, but then just back off and fall in line every time. I don't get why this would be such a deal breaker that they all walk out on her (if that's even what they're doing, since we don't know what anyone said or thought). They've all been traumatized, and they all seem to understand that trauma can make you do crazy things. I think we needed to hear why they reacted the way (it looks like) they did.

Coming back after 6 months with the news that Bel Powley was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for this. Good for her!

I knew it wouldn't happen, but I was really hoping James Marsden would win for playing "himself" on Jury Duty. (It reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld's funny bit presenting at the Emmy Awards one year, about how he was nominated multiple times, but never won. The line was something like "I guess you just didn't think I was very convincing at playing myself.")

I agree about this. Ariana Dubose is definitely very talented, but to me she seems like she's always trying too hard. But I also think that medley did her no favors. I feel like they crammed too many songs into a short amount of time, and when you add all the dancers, it was just all over the place. I thought Little Big Town and Ben Platt were great.

I had a little chuckle at the interview with Emily where she is holding the glass of wine. I can't remember ever seeing anything like that before on Survivor, and it made it look so casual, like she's just out to lunch with a friend telling a funny story. It also answered a question that I always wondered about--are those interviews happening "in the moment," hours later, or even the next day, reflecting on what happened earlier? Clearly that one was happening in the moment.

I was very surprised that JoJo quit. She seemed to me to be the most determined of all of them. She would have been the most satisfying winner. The other three all had their ups and downs. Erin may have had the most mental toughness, but she failed a bunch of tasks, and didn't show much leadership, as they said. Nick was invisible for the first 4 or 5 episodes. Tyler seemed to have the most growth along the way, so I guess I find him the most satisfying of the three. I give them all a lot of credit for making it to the end, though.