scowl

I finally got around to watching the first episode and I can't make sense out of what happened. Why were the robots dying? Why did the robot climb the tree, and how? Why did Will suddenly decide that cutting the thick branch was a good idea? Why did sending the robot crashing into the ground help it instead of killing it? Do I just need to pay more attention?

One thing they did well (as in previous seasons) was drop Joe into a bunch of people that made him easily feel superior. Many times he seemed like the only adult among teenagers and that made his aloof attitude really entertaining. If he didn't have people to hate I think his psyche would crumble.

Oh, that's right. He was hoping her daughter would see him paralyzed. So the "antidote" suddenly kicking in after a long time is even harder for me to swallow. I wish they could have come up with something better.

So he wasn't faking it the whole time? I didn't care for this final twist.

In so many romcoms the characters live in unexplained nice houses, they live middle class lives even if they work retail or in factories if anywhere, and they spend most of their time on the screen in romantic adventures. He ended up in exactly this situation... but married with a baby. What a nightmare! In the first season he even referred to himself as a character in a romcom which was funny, but apparently that's really how he sees himself, the ultimate romantic character in a movie, and all these sad men with wives and girlfriends just don't understand true love like he does.

For me that was the only big surprise of the season. Yes, it surprised me when someone didn't do something because everyone seemed to be doing whatever they wanted to even if the situation delayed them.

Am I getting this right? Joe has a hot wife and a beautiful home, he doesn't have to pay for anything, he doesn't have a job and there's no pressure to get one, yet he believes the situation is "suffocating" him? Does he sit around the living room thinking, "I could be stalking a woman right now!"

I mostly liked this because they really added a lot of interesting conflict and relationships, and I feel like I have a better understand of Joe's insane motivations and his fragile ego. Best of all, almost none of it reminded me of Dexter. On the other hand the plot depended on a lot of stupid mistakes like screaming about murder when guests were in the house and a few annoyingly smart moves like Joe taking adrenaline antidote tablets at the one time he thought they were going to save his life. I don't watch much television so maybe this is typical of shows these days? It seemed like the plot could only go so far unless another person got murdered so it was a little predictable during the last three episodes.

I kept thinking of the Kids in the Hall sketch when they're all singing around the campfire, "I am animaaaal!"

I'm really hoping it won't be anything like when Dexter got married. I really want this series to steer away from anything that reminds me of Dexter.

I think the first episode will show Joe having constant fantasies about how he can off the people he's trapped with. Every little item in his suburban house will be a potential weapon.

I never like LSD as a convenient plot device.

The exchange between Delilah and Candace when she caught Candace poking around Joe's apartment cracked me up because it sounded like they were trying to out vocal-fry each other.

I loved the alliance because I knew at some point a team would get screwed by it. It has always been a good strategy this season shows just how well it can work. I'm glad that TAR has a real social element between the teams because that is something that has been missing.

If TAR added a new rule every time a viewer saw something they didn't like, I think the show would become tedious to watch. I don't watch reality shows to see how closely people can follow arbitrary rules. I watch regular sports for that.

Watching the teams turn on each other will be fun though.

A little context for The Day After. In September, the Soviets shot down Korean Airlines KAL007 killing 269 passengers and it looked like Andropov would do just about anything. In November, we saw The Day After. Then in December two articles published in Science described a "Nuclear Winter" in which even a small nuclear exchange would envelop the Earth in so much smoke and dust that the sun would be blocked out, crops would die, and people would freeze to death. It was not a fun time.

Seeing the Goldbergs at the Kremps house during Christmas brought back one of my worst 1980's memories. At our parents' Christmas party (I think 1982) I overheard my mom explaining to a Jewish couple what Christmas was, as if they had been on Mars their whole life. I really expected Virginia Kremp to explain what Christmas was to Murray and Bev while they rolled their eyes.

At least the identical twin plot device is making some sense now.

At this point it looks like they're going to have exactly one significant plot-related thing happen in each episode, then pad the rest of the episode with twenty minutes of Jen and Judy sitting around being freaked out. All the energy and tension from last season is gone. Was I supposed to care about the bird?

Couldn't they have just hired a new actor for a new character?

I loved the chaotic tribal! Season after season I was so tired of everyone in tribal glued to their seats like obedient schoolchildren as if they were completely helpless to what was happening in tribal no matter how badly their plans have fallen apart. Now the show finally has people who have the brains to get up off their asses and try do something with others at the last minute.

The writers may still have him do something stupid like shoot Rio in a crowded bar. After all, they need to create yet another ridiculous crisis to keep the show going.

I just started watching the show. I didn't think I'd like it because I don't like loud humor. All I had to do was turn the volume down whenever Murray or Barry start talking. The show in syndication is now running season one and season five so watching those plus the current season is a tour of the many octaves of Sam Giambrone's voice.

The last place I worked once sent managers around the country to interview candidates instead of flying them to us. They said it would be cheaper but it was a joke. They flew first class, stayed in five star hotels, and went to football and basketball games on the company dime.