Iguana

Okay great. Another non-monster challenge, unless of course you're Jason and insist on it, even though the challenge specifies whimsy color and fantasy. You didn't listen to Mr. West Moore, and for that alone you deserve to go home. As for Sasha, you definitely have two strikes against you. That's twice now you've let a bad concept go through and not challenged your partner, and twice now you've been on the bottom because of it. Well your partners may have deserved to go home for insisting on their bad ideas, but you have to accept responsibility for the work you did and didn't do. You can't win a contest like this being second-worst, and you have to be able to work as an equal partner, not an assistant. I would've loved to of seen the Cowardly Lion morphing into the Cheshire Cat, or a guest at the mad tea party, or someone invited to play croquet with the red queen. The beaten cowardly lion was boring and unimaginative and even if it had been executed perfectly would still deserve to be the worst make up. I quite liked the other four make ups this ep. Even though the wicked witch was much more Oz then Wonderland, the face and costumes were quite well done. And despite all of the patches covering up the face sculpt, The scarecrow still looked pretty good and had a very smart concept behind it. And I was very impressed with the tin woodsman and flying monkey. The concepts face Sculps costumes etc. were imaginative and incredibly well executed. Well I would have chosen the woodsman largely because it was just less creepy than the flying monkey I can't deny the monkey was a legitimate winner.

Cody won HOH snd nominated Nicole and Donny.

Wow, I loved this show back in the late '90's, early 2000, when it first aired. I still see occasional reruns on the comedy channel. These guys made the most convincing women of any comedy show ever. Loved it when Dave Foley played the French hooker and Scott played the housewife/mother in all those sketches. And Bruce as the vapid, self absorbed teen pop star Tammy was always good for a laugh. I still smirk when I remember two of the Chickenlady skits, one when she's riding the kid's horsey ride outside a store and keeps asking for quarters, and the other when she and the bearded lady go to visit her childhood home, only it isn't. But my favourite was always anything with the glamorous gay, Buddy Cole. His dialogue pushed the censors to their limits, no doubt.

Every time I think about how season 3 ended, it makes me angry and sad that they didn't keep on with the series. So much potential! The only thing I really didn't like was Langrishe and the theatre troupe, as they were not terribly interesting to me and sucked time away from the characters I cared about. While I liked the concept of Al having an old friend to reminisce and confide in, I don't think it worked the way they wanted it to for me.

I didn't mind the aliens theme this ep that much, largely because of the ancient wonder/Chariots of the Gods inspiration. Although I think the winning make up was beautiful, most of the rest were mediocre and might very well be in the bottom on earlier seasons. Absolutely no issue with the hideous and ill-conceived make up that went home today, either. Gwen made some very bad choices and compounded it by wasting so much time trying to fix that pointless chest piece.

Thanks for the ID, Victor the Crab. I hope you didn't have to waste too much time rewinding back over that cokabola ad to find that out.

With all due deference to the very serious subjects being discussed on last nights episode, can anyone tell me who the incredibly hot guy in the Coke/Ebola "commercial" was? He looked familiar…

Give them tasks to perform (unrelated to HOH or POV) to earn privileges/treats, with punishments if they fail. For example, one year they gave the hamsters an exercise bike and they had to do so many miles in 3 days to get a reward,( which I cant really remember but think may have been a margarita party or extra gym equipment?) Or one year when they had to fill up a big container of jello to get access to the hot tub. Stunts like this give the hammies something to do so they're not just sitting around, and can cause some drama if one of the hamsters isn't doing his/her fair share etc. Lots more of the penalty kick and Britany's 2400 goals kind of thing. I'd like it very much if they didn't give the hamsters any luxuries that they didn't earn by eating bugs or staying awake for 24 hours or some other way of making things more challenging. I'd love to see a housewide punishment, such as no more blankets or mattresses, if everyone didn't stay standing for 12 hours, or cold showers only if dishes weren't washed within 15 minutes of being used. Can you imagine how pissed off the more industrious hamsters would get with the lazy ones. And it would encourage people to do something instead of just lay around all damn day. There should be punishments/withdrawal of privileges for coming in last in the HOH competition, to discourage the hamsters from throwing it. Make the hamsters run hard on that wheel to earn their pellets, damnit.

I am pleased to have another challenge that steered the contestants away from monsters and outright eliminated the possibility of aliens. I am pleased by who won and who went home, based on the merits of their concepts and execution. I am not pleased by the lack of "wow" makeups and preponderance of mediocre work in this challenge. Step it up, boys and girls, it needs to get better.

On the plus side I appreciate they're attempting to show some of the rest of the world's reaction to the US having the hundred embryos. Kidnapping the undersecretary of whatever and demanding five embryos as a ransom is something I could see happening under the circumstances and also making crimes against fertility equivalent to terrorism, as anyone who fucks around with that is fucking around with the future of humanity. I can see that particular department having a "were not fucking around" policy with torture as a go to. But that doctors naïveté about the reactions by the government to these limited numbers of embryos and the politics surrounding them is almost beyond belief. Children are the future, if we are to believe the late Whitney Houston, and the country without children has no future but does have a president who will probably not get reelected. And also that blonde actress really sucks. But what was well past believable with everything to do with the dad and his son. They were on the run for at least several hours before he so Boy Scoutedly removed the tracking device from the kids arm, so why was there no one on their tail. And given the scarcity of children, they should have stuck out like a clansman at an NAACP meeting. But the worst thing of all was the completely unbelievable plot device Cooler of Broken Insulin Ampules. Setting aside the question of why was it on the floor of the living room instead of safely tucked in the fridge where you think they put something that important, and the fact that every single vial of insulin was broken even though I don't think they're made out of glass anymore, no one who has ever seen a television show before would believe that that child was actually in jeopardy. So stupid, so manipulative, such a waste of time. They've got me for one more week. But if the interesting doesn't outweigh the stupid in the next ep, I don't think I'm in for another after that.

And we're off to a promising start. The will I stay or shall I go challenge was reasonably fair, allowing them to show off their own style and skills while also having to deal with what may be expected at a real-life set. The winner was a clearly worthy make up, the piping on the veins was a innovative and clever technique, and it was a beautiful, not monsterish, character. And I completely agree with the judges choice for the two who did not continue, as it was clear that they were in well over their heads and would only flounder helplessly if they were allowed into the competition. And it even looked like Glenn had taken a shower and washed his damn hair. So kudos all-around and I'll be looking forward to the next ep .

Snerk. How inefficient and short sighted of them. How can they be a true omnipotent and omniscient fascist government conspiracy when they miss such an obvious opportunity to fully exploit and de-humanize the woman they just had murdered?

So much of this show required the usual suspension of disbelief but nothing more than the chief government fertility guy immediately firing, for no apparent reason, the only doctor who has successfully fertilized any eggs in the past six years. Surely the best way to possibly get more embryos is to keep the doctor who created the hundred embryos in a lab with even more resources and trying hard. This show has some thought provoking ideas but the pilot failed to explore them in any thing more than a superficial way. Add in some bad acting, shallow characterization and "plot twists" that you can see coming a mile away and you're left with a big pile of "meh". As the pilot is often far from the best the series has to offer I'll give this show one or two more episodes before giving up on it completely, largely because of the potential the premise provides. But it needs to get more interesting very quickly.

Yeah, the amount of money being spent on some of these dresses just boggles my mind. I know that they may very well look different in person than on tv, and some of the expense is the quality of the fabric and appliques, but a lot of the lower end dresses (under $3,000.00) look just as good (better, if it's a Pninna stripper fairy dress) as the 5,000.00+ ones.

I would like a challenge that requires them to do something subtle, kind of the opposite of the big, showy prosthetics we often get. For example, what about a challenge that requires them to do an alien trying to pass as human? They could do a before and after of the original alien, so they can get that out of their system, and then the humanish version, where the alien has used a mask or makeup to make them look more human, but the ears are slightly wrong, the mouth is just a bit misshapen, the forehead a little too bumpy, etc. Or to get them away from facial stuff, what about a challenge that requires them to focus on an arm or leg. Showing a serious burn, or wound, or flesh eating disease or weird rash or even mutation if they must, seems like something they would have to do on a real job. Limiting the area would hopefully lead to quality work, and avoid the ran out of time to do a good paint job problem.

In season 6 (?), Kaysar, a practicing Muslim, was able to bring a copy of the Koran with him. As I recall, several of the other hamsters read at least parts of it, and had some relatively in depth conversations about it with him. And I can't agree that the producer (whomever you may mean by that) hates Christians just because some of the hamsters are all "Praise Jesus!" over every little thing. As annoying as I personally find it, and even with Jocasta being a particularly extreme example of this, it's a pretty common thing among a lot of the population. I don't think the producers have an anti-Christian agenda, since there have been a lot more Christians period than any other religious group.

Wow, so Devin is gone in Week 3. Maybe I should get a lottery ticket, because back on the ep 3 thread I posted: As for the rest of the show, you know it's going to be a unanimous decision when they try so hard at the beginning for the misdirection towards the not obvious nominee. BB, we're kind of on to your "tricks". Speaking of which, the chicken wire/egg competition was a multiple recycle, but at least they switched it up a bit with the teams instead of individual. I'm guessing that it has come back because it doesn't favour muscles or brute strength in particular. If the new HOH doesn't put up some of the guys this time, the girls are going to get themselves picked off one by one. If Amber goes up again, will Caleb volunteer to be on the block too and "protect" her into being his girlfriend? Tune in Sunday and see!

Well, mighty Kasey did not strike out. Amazing that she finished the course with only five feet of wing span. Her grip and upper body strength were unexpected and many kudos to her mental strength as well. I loved how crazy the crowd got for her and the sincere appreciation of the other competitors. Oh and I think some other people competed too.

Robin McKinley has written 2 versions of beauty and the beast, Beauty and Rose Red. Both are excellent. She's also done a new take on Sleeping Beauty called Spindles End. Sleeping Beauty and her prince are not the heroes. Mercedes Lackey's series Tales of the 500 Kingdoms are loosely connected books where fairy godmothers are desperately trying to stop real people being trapped by the Tradition into living out classic fairy tales with far from happily ever after ending.

Oh, my god. I was watching a rerun from 2011(?) with the bride who spent $70,000.00 on custom Pninna dresses for her, her 3 daughters and her mother. Is she insane and/or fabulously wealthy? The dresses for the girls were sweet, but $4,500 for a toddler's dress???? And the bride's mother's dress looked horrid on her, way too fitted for her figure, and the brides own $30,000.00 dress looked like a sparkly, tight potato sack attached to a hooker's cheap corset. WTF?

I finally had to hit this forum to post about the horrid teenage sister in law. Some of it may have been editing, but she was a stone cold bitch about chasing away her brothers girlfriends and a total cow about the how the dress had to suit her. Who cares what the bride wants? Well, in this case, not even the bride, very much. She was very sheepish in her interviews about not wanting to go against the future sister in law, and really needed to get a spine to go along with the dress. Bride, you cannot put that spoiled brat's wishes ahead of your own when it comes to your wedding, or you will spend your entire married life dreading every supper at the inlaws. And, speaking of which, if the mother was too blind to put the smackdown on Miss Teen Opinionated 2014, what the hell is up with the fiancé? He should be dealing with baby sister's self centeredness, if bride is too wussy to do it herself.

Re: ep of July 7 2014 (Denver? Final). I have watched this show for the last couple of summers but don't know much about the Japanese version or anything about the course design. I can see that they want the obstacles to be challenging but is it intentional that almost no one be able to finish the course? I know cannonball alley was a new obstacle but are the people in charge unhappy or happy that only two out of the 30 finalists were able to finish? It was weird seeing the Rocket since I actually remember him from his season on American gladiators the (inferior) reboot in 2008. It always sucks when you're the one just below the cut off line so I felt bad for him when he got edged out. Kind of cool that the only two to complete the course were the walk on rookie and the veteran "old man".

I just saw an ad for this show coming back, and I'm not sure if this should go here or in the Wishlist topic but.... I'm not thrilled about the huge number of newbies that seem to be involved. While the occasional trainwreck is fun to watch, I'd way rather see good work, cool ideas and innovative techniques come together for a kickass final makeup. However, I will tolerate the inexperience IF it means more Michael Westmorland. He is such a wonderful mentor, in the little we see of him, and I find it very interesting how he can see when something is going off the tracks and can make suggestions on how to fix the looming problem. As far as I can remember from previous seasons, not one contestant who listened to his comments and competently implemented them has gone home on that challenge. As others have already said, please, please, please can we cut back on the monsters? What about an ode to the pulp fiction beautiful alien princess or awww, they're-so-cute aliens. What about challenges that forbid any prosthetics, and require makeup and feathers, or makeup and fur or makeup and just fabric? Or some good old school aging, gender swap or fat suit stuff. I'm not asking for all of the monster challenges to go away, but maybe they can go down to half instead of 80%?

Tippi, why not 5 Robocops? I mean, what could Dean do for you that the Robocops couldn't? (wink) Hmmm... well, restricting myself to characters without super powers or robotic enhancements, I'd go with: Daryl Dixon (good fighter, even better survivalist) MacGuyver (his mechanical/electronical knowledge and jerry-rigging skills would come in very useful) Dean Winchester (ruthless and efficient killer, good leader, decent sense of humour) Dr. Christina Yang (excellent medical skills, extremely practical and nerves of steel) Kato, from the Green Hornet (skilled in many areas, and serious fighter)

Okay, party at Willowy's. Sounds like WalnutQueen may have access to the good stuff, so maybe s/he (?) can bring the party favours. I'll bring the beer, chips and cat treats. Maybe we can Skype in Chris Hardwick. I'm guessing he would be up for it. Kiki'smom, Mrs Raphael, you're in, too, I hope. Anyone else care to join in?