Netfoot
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Posts posted by Netfoot
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I will be VERY happy when Elias takes down Dominic.
Well, Elias has begun to retaliate. Starting with Gino. Dominic & The Brotherhood are going to lose all their recently acquired allies, one by one. And Dominic is going to find out that all the talk he's been talking is only talk. Because now he has to start walking the walk.
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Best part of the show was trying to get my head around the idea that the whole Defense Department and the CIA, route their "entire intelligence apparatus" through fibre optic cables in the Bering Strait. Once I mentally swallowed that, it was easy to believe that a tug on a communications tether was able to disable and essentially sink (barring a fortuitously placed ledge) an entire submarine looking at least as big as a HK. (It didn't look like no Piranha midget-sub to me, but even so!) After that, the idea of the Russians threatening to fire on a US icebreaker in US territorial waters was no trouble at all.
Chartreuse looked good in the maroon dress (Izzie still fills out her scrubs well) but the drawn hair and pearls looked very severe, and the lipstick seemed a bit heavy for her complection.
Director Ray Navaro instantly proves himself a tool with his "you won't be working with me, you'll be working for me" remark. The response should have been "No, I work for the President, and so do you."
"Hey, it's such a beautiful dog!" Next, I was expecting "Where did you steal him?"
Why Anatoly's last words had to be withheld from his daughter, I simply can't fathom. He didn't say a single compromising word. I just can't think why the recording had to be deleted.
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The Hadron Collider needs to be recalibrated! And the International Monetary Fund is still waiting for his definitive study on the Euro vs. Bitcoin as the new standard.
All that will have to wait until he's finished designing the replacement instrument package for the Hubble telescope, and translated the Voynich manuscript.
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ITA, but isn't Blake gay?
Gay? Did I miss that part? Maybe you're right. If so, it will put the kibosh on my fears that some amorous adventure might be scripted for him and Stevie.
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One of the abiding things about TAR is that a strong team can be eliminated by a single bad day. That feels harsh when it happens, but it's consistent.
Another abiding tenet -- gradually being eroded by Saves, Express Passes, U- and W-turns, etc, etc -- is that any team, strong or weak, stands or falls based upon their own performance. If they race well, overcome misfortune and avoid delay, they have a good chance of succeeding.
Alas, we seem to be approaching the point where the last team to the mat isn't eliminated. Instead, there will be a Tribal Council at the mat, and the racers vote who to eliminate. Since performance won't be an issue, Roadblocks and Detours will be replaced by ass-kissing and backstabbing. I, of course, won't be watching.
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They should drop the husband and the other two kids as soon as possible.
What?!?? Drop the ghost songwriter for Lennon/McCartney? Forsooth!
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I wonder if the Save has screwed up any of the timing for eliminations. Were the producers counting on someone having used it by now so that there is actually one fewer team than planned? Or where they hoping no one would use it and if for some reason the dentists pull it out next week there will actually be an extra team than planned? Will they have to add or toss out a NEL to get the right number of teams in the finale?
Next episode (#9) is the last opportunity to use the Save. Assuming that it is not used, I predict that the following leg (#10) will be a scheduled NEL. However, should the Save be used on leg#9, the NEL schedules for leg#10 will be cancelled to compensate. Either way, we get four teams starting leg#11 which will finish with an elimination as usual, leaving three teams to race for the finish in leg#12.
This means that the viewers -- and racers -- will know for certain (assuming the Save isn't used) that leg#10 will be a NEL.
Edit: s/teems/teams/;
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Must be nice to know everything at 19.
Well, I knew everything when I was 19. And as I got older, I knew less and less. Now, I know hardly anything!
I don't like Stevie, even though there is potential for vaaast improvement, should she ever have any sort of character defining moment. But even without any such improvement, I'd support an episode where she was kidnapped by evil scientist and cloned providing they also kidnapped Matt & Daisy and dissolved them in a vat of goo, to get the proteins to produce the clones. Because I'd joyfully put up with three Stevies, if it meant I never had to see or hear from Matt/Daisy ever again! That pair are ruining this show for me, and I'm already FFWDing through their tedious minutes of air-time.
Does anyone have any contact with the producers? Because I have a great script in which Matt & Daisy throw themselves on grenades, heroically getting blown to hell to protect the Secretary of State. There is even a beautiful funeral scene at the end, with a moving eulogy in which their names are praised... and then never heard uttered again for the duration of the series, no matter how many seasons that might be!
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Arggh! Eye-rack again. Why is it these people can say Iraquis but stumble on Iraq?
Arggggh! The whole Matt/Daisy/Win thing needs to go away. Matt in particular needs to grow up! But please! Can this whole sub-theme just go away for good? Well, at least it looks like Win is gone, but this may leave more time for Matt/Daisy: The Romance That Never Was. Never was believable, at any rate...
Argh! Stevie really can be insufferable when she wants to be. And when she doesn't want to be. And all the times in between. Please ghod, not Stevie & Blake. I actually like Blake!
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I agree with Netfoot about the Save increasing the chance that a team will end up in the F3. But the Dentists have also shown that they are one of the best competing teams in TAR history, so if they are in the F3 and then win the Race, it is because they are exceptional competitors.
I think it's true that the Dentists are a very strong team with a high probability of an F3 finish, and even a win. Unless they have some sort of bad luck next leg, then they won't need to use the Save, and their final outcome will be due to their own natural abilities. But this is exactly the sort of team that doesn't need the additional advantage of a safety net like the Save.
So, you might say the Save didn't really affect the outcome. But think of the next and subsequent races, where the Save is won by teams which are good, but maybe without quite the awesome race-ability of the Dentists. These teams X% probability of success will also be increased to near certainty as well!
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IMO, the Save has been almost neutralized by the consistently high performance of the team that won it (combined with the NEL on their one bad leg). I see it (and the Express Pass) as a strategic non-issue due to the strength of the team. All of the strategery discussion that I've seen has centered on how to render it ineffective, but the Dentists have been rendering it ineffective themselves.
But the effect on the save is on how it alters the probability of the outcome of the race.
The winner of the Save is the team that wins a leg against the largest field of opposition in the entire race. This tends to put the Save into the hands of a team that race well. Teams that race well already have a high probability of doing well in the race. Chances are they'll make it into the F3 and possibly even win. Of course, even a good team can screw up and end up last, hoping for an NEL to save them. This is what happened to the Dentists this season. But on average, there is an X% chance that they will go on and reach the F3, maybe even win. I don't have a value for X, but I think it's probably high for a team that has shown it can win the first leg with maximum competition.
Now you throw in the Save, which guarantees that if they screw up, an NEL will save them. This increases the value of X. Also, if they screw up on a regular NEL leg, they get to keep their Save so as to be able to screw up again! So X increases to an even higher value.
On top of this, the knowledge that they hold the Save makes a team an unlikely target for the U- or W-Turn. Obviously, this is an advantage for that team, so once again, probability X increases. The Save could also affect race tactics for the team that holds it. They might, for example, choose a riskier, but faster option save that if the risk goes against them, they will be Saved. I'm not sure this actually affects their overall probability of success, but reduced KF from not worrying about elimination for most of the race will certainly have a positive effect on their chance of winning.
Essentially then, the Save takes a team with a high probability of getting into the F3 and even winning, and significantly increases that probability to something approaching a certainty. As far as I'm concerned (and I am 100% unspoilt), the Dentists will win this race, and essentially won it back in leg #1. And if the Save returns in subsequent races, we'll get to see teams far less competent than Jim & Misti win the race in leg #1 too.
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... arm candy husband didn't add anything new to his list of amazing past life experiences...
Never fear! I think that tonight, he climbs Everest. Without oxygen.
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I don't know why the cyclists were even obligated to call a cab for the very ungrateful, constantly bitching, ass is her moneymaker wrestler. Considering this is the team who planned the gang up on the cyclists, I actually hope that they cancelled their cab.
Here's a tip for when we are on the race together: Don't ask me for any kind of help.
When I am on the race, I won't speak a single truthful word to anyone. I'll make (and break) any promise necessary to improve my position. If you ask me the time, I will give you a wrong answer. In fact, the only time I will tell anyone the truth is if I conclude it will screw over the competition worse than telling a lie. And I'll warn the entire cast that this is my plan, in episode one. Then they won't have any reason to be surprised or angry when they ask me where the cluebox is, and I direct them to the bus station in an adjoining country.
Not only will I cancel your taxi, I'll hide your luggage, flush your passport down the toilet, super-glue your hotel room door shut and inform Customs & Excise that you're smuggling guns. And when you try to U-Turn me for revenge, you'll find your U-Turn photo will have been stolen. Provided, of course, that these actions aren't banned by race rules! Because if it isn't against the rules, then it's fair game!
Further more, I will expect exactly the same treatment from the other teams, in return.
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But we wouldn't have America's Funniest Home Videos if we didn't have guys slipping and hurting their groinal regions.
We have a team of surfers on the race. Surfers routinely take a nice big surfboard with sharp points on each ends and skegs and things, and attach it to one ankle with a piece of bungee rubber. Then they go fool around in the surf to see if nature will stretch that bungee to it's max then release, so the surfboard will snap back and impact where it will. The lesson is the same for i) surfing, ii) greasy pole flag diving in Malta, and iii) teenaged girls on their first date: Keep Your Knees Together!
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Yes, sorry, the $500 was in Danny's room, but they never asked Tom (his best friend) anything about it. Nor about his phone. He may not have had any useful info like phone number (see previous post) but they never even asked.
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Tom was supposedly jealous of Danny's fancy phone, which means he had two, the crummy one Nick Nolte found and another not found. Tom would have the number of the fancy one, right? Since he was jealous of it, he must have called it. So why not get the number from Tom and then get the cell records? I mean, really ...
Danny's official phone was forwarded to his fancy phone, so maybe Tom doesn't know the number for the fancy one. The cops did discover the existence of the fancy phone after six weeks of effort (that Det. Carver is a ball of fire!) but it's turned off and can't be geo-located.
But here's the thing. They found $500 in Tom's room. Did he ever explain where it came from? Did anybody actually ask him? Then he skives off school and rides his bike into the middle of nowhere, abandons it, and walks from there to the middle of nowhere else. He isn't found lost, trying to make his way home, calling for help, but standing silently in the pitch black woods. His explanation is completely illogical. He snoops through his Mother's purse, he pounds on his laptop (which he probably didn't buy himself) with a rock (or was it a hammer)... Has anybody sat him down and demanded an explanation for any of this behaviour?
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I don't care if the cyclists get U-turned out or end up in Alaska with a note telling them the race is over and to make their own way home, so long as they they don't win. When they cancelled (or tried to cancel -- it wasn't clear if their cabbie went along with it) Brooke and Robbie's cab, they lost any moral high ground against other teams allegedly playing dirty.
Except, I'm quite certain they said that in jest, and didn't nor had any intention to cancel anybody's cab. After all, the cab did arrive, didn't it?
Given that Brooke and Robbie were yelling at them and calling them liars about their driver calling a second cab [...] I think they had ample cause to say "well, screw you" afterward; their tone of voice to the driver sounded more off-hand than serious to me. YMMV.
My mileage says they were wising off, rather than voicing any serious intent. Their cabbie's grin also lead me to think they were anything but serious.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of their more abrasive remarks made during the course of this season aren't in response to direct prompting from production, to support their race persona. In any case, they've been racing far better than most other teams, and I for one would hate to see them voted off the island by an alliance of inferiors. Alas, cooperative W-Turning is a mechanism that essentially allows exactly that.
I used to be cautiously in favour of the old Yield, which was a mechanism whereby a team could seek to save themself from elimination by delaying another team. These days, the U- and W-Turns, latter day developments of the Yield, are used to "take out" a strong team, and this is exactly where I don't want TAR to go. Now we also have an immunity idol (Save) as well! TPTB seem to have forgotten -- or choose to ignore -- that TAR is as great as it is, exactly because it eschews such Survivorish bullshit. It's a RaceAroundTheWorld, and the race should go to the fleet, not the popular!
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Root is the Machine's avatar in the world of meat. I believe she will do all she can to preserve Root's functionality. I honestly don't see Root as threatened until we see the machine grooming a possible replacement.
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I haven't been to Malta, but the distinct impression I get from my reading is that the roads (in the town) are twisty little passages, all alike. Also, the Maltese motorists have a reputation for mayhem.
The Cyclists do have their faults, but they are one of the best-racing teams this season. If they get voted off the island by some Double U-Turn Alliance, I will be very annoyed. It wouldn't occur to the others that their alliance-forming and plotting might make them poor company for a good team who only want to race to the best of their ability and enjoy the journey as they go.
It might have been interesting to see Adam & Bethany try the flags, but it would not be good strategy on their part. They had the EP, they were at the last possible point where it could be played, and to waste even a minute on the flags would have been counter-productive. Wasting that minute would have jeopardized a $20K leg prize. I know they were more than a minute ahead, but they didn't know that. Certainly not for sure.
Yes, that was a shout-out to the Colossal Cave Adventure.
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The location was fantastic, but I can fault the leg's structure: the arduous serving task at the outset (bottle of Mateus? that brings back memories from many years ago!) translated at best into being in a bunch of three with a 15 minute advantage, while the Road Block was set up for the visuals and really didn't separate teams, meaning that everything was decided on the Detour, and mostly on how quickly teams switched to the polishing side. TBTB probably knew this which is why it was served up blind, and why nobody completed the greasy flagpole run. Oh, and perhaps a little too dependent on taxis, but hard to avoid that.
I got the impression they were deliberately divided into groups of three because there were only three ropes at the Blue Grotto.
Oh, and I don't think it would be good to ask them to drive on Malta.
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What, nobody's ever heard of Malta? The island fortress whose people were collectively awarded the George Cross for heroism?
Cyclists want sit by themselves. Why? So they don't have to listen to Brooke!
Code names: Molar & Bicuspid. Heh.
Eeeek! Bethany gets to the Knights, and then snatches failure from the jaws of... I'm going to hell, aren't I?
Getting really tired of Brooke. Let's hope her show is over.
Hey! It's Phil! Hmmm. Memory challenge: Where did you see Phil along the way?
Did you know Bethany has one arm?
What sort of bird is that? A bird of prey in Malta? Actually, it's not a bird, it's a Siamese Cat! Sheesh! But congratulations on a sensibly played Express Pass and a solid leg win.
Shut to fuck up, Brooke! Her ass is her money-maker, by the way. I guess she's sitting on a goldmine.
Chest bump in breatplates. Food scientists depart for the pitstop.
You know, Te Jay is turning out to be quite a tool. Same thing last episode, and the one before!
Maya loves The Amazing Race. I'm glad she and Amy are still in it.
Phil talks with his pecs! In a bit of a whisper...
T&T eliminated, and I'm not sorry. They're unquestionably the worst team remaining, and Te Jay has tarnished due to his own behaviour. I'd have been equally happy to see Brooke & Robbie go, but I'm OK with this result.
Next week, Amy flashes a boob, Bethany & Adam gamble on a Bold Move, and Molar falls off the flying trapeze!
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Shaw doesn't have any kind of link to the Machine so either Root or Finch would have to tell her. Or the Machine would have to send someone, thus potentially exposing them.
But the Machine could simply call her cell and play back a series of recorded words.
"Warning. ENEMY. operative. approaching. Move. NOW."
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Shut up, ShiftyShaman! People are listening for any sound! Now, shine the torch, asshole! Yes, it definitely looked like he was using a compass. Which in itself isn't so strange, when you're trying to follow a straight line in the wilderness, at night. But the way he was using it looked suspicious indeed!
Tom is a transparent little liar. "I want my Mommy back!" and Ellie's mommy-gland just ruptures and soaks her from head to foot.
Chloe looks 10 years older than Beth. Also, It's not usually a good idea to join your teenage daughter when she is off on a tryst. But this time, it seemed to work out for the best.
Once again, the police seem to achieve nothing. Tom was found, but then Tom first disappeared himself, so no real gain for the cops. The backpacker gave them nothing -- maybe because he has nothing to give. CreepySusan was arrested with great fanfare and a convoy of about 35 police vehicles, but the very fact that she herself let on she had the skateboard probably means she isn't involved, and they didn't get a word out of her in any case. ShiftyShaman got asked about being in NA, the relevance of which I failed to see, and stood up for himself pretty well for all the other questions. And the hooded prowler at the end was allowed to get clean away without even a leg-wound (the 35 vehicles used for CreepySusan not being available at that time). So all the cops achieved this episode was some infantile bickering about first name / surname protocol, and Carver nearly took a dirt-nap! The latter, frankly, given his level of uselessness and assholery, might even have been a good thing for this investigation!
Thank god I live in the third world, where the cops simply beat the bejesus out of everyone involved until they all confess, and then select the most convincing confession to take to the courts!
Well, the person running from Carver and Ellie didn't look like Vince (and not Susan either and I think she's still in custody).
Actually, it looked like Mark, to me. Didn't strike me as being Chloe.
Ellie is such a bad cop. She must have walked in front of four giant windows when "sneaking" up on that cabin. And then she fell heavily against the wall before reaching with hilarious levels of caution toward the door handle.
Exerpt from any Crime Series script:
Cop Sneaks Up on Bad Guy: "<Clump!> <Clump!> <Clump!>"
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I remember a teddy bear being delivered in a box. A bear similar to the one in her cupboard.
Also, I remember Leave-Town-Or-I'll-Destroy-You woman chatting pleasantly with Donald McDuck. I thought she was going to go on a date with him!
I remember nothing else about an episode I watched only last night, even after racking my brains. This is the second time this show has failed to leave any sort of mark on my conscious brain.
I started watching this show for Maggie Q. But she continues to deliver wooden performances with wooden dialogue, and with an expressionless face, exhibit all the personality and presence of mind of a cigar store Indian.
I'm done.
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S01.E10: Collateral Damage
in Madam Secretary
· Edited by Netfoot
To be honest, I don't find either of them attractive. As has been pointed out earlier by another poster, she looked positively old in this episode, and her makeup was a disaster. I also thought her hair looked pretty bad as well. He... well he has a face which, along with six others, should audition for Snow White. (But as a guy, I don't claim any expertise on the good looks of guys.)
None of that matters. How many times have we said something like "What does she see in him?!??" No, the problem here is that the two of them have no believable chemistry. When they're in a clinch, it's patently artificial. Kennedy kissing Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis would be more credible. I certainly don't find it at all believable, and apparently no one else does either.
It's been suggested that this theme is supposed to be humour, to lighten the mood between scenes of Téa having it out with the evil diplomats of the world. But where is the humour? Daisy repeatedly puts the horns on Win by consorting with Matt. Then she discards Matt for Win. Matt doesn't take it well and scuppers the deal by blabbing to Win first chance he gets. The whole affaire is a sticky mess. No humour that I can see. It's just a horribly contrived, artificial mess.
In fact, I'm going to reverse myself. I think Stevie and Blake would make a far better love-interest couple than Matt & Daisy. Stevie could certainly benefit from close exposure to Blake's maturity, and as far as I can tell there's been nothing said so far that would preclude Blake from being interested. The opportunity for conflict with the Secretary of State (daughter and aide) could add spice to the relationship arc.
ETA: Oh! Seems NorCalNut sneaked a post in with the same Stevie/Blake relationship idea. So, I'm not alone in this!