Kel Varnsen

I liked this episode, cool to see them in other countries. Makes it more of a challenge, especially when you factor in the 17 hour flight. Plus it is cool to see the other countries. I wonder if they will end up anywhere else? A couple of things made me laugh though. First was when either Rex or Bob commented about how the hockey girls totally smoked them going up the stairs. I was like, they are world class athletes you idiot, what would you expect. I also laughed because at one point Nicole and Cormac were trying to find a clue and she yelled at him to hold her hand when crossing the street. Sounded just like how I would say the same thing to my 3 year old.

Only on TV is the ability to resist torture completely depending on if you are a "good guy" or a "bad guy". Good guys can hold out under torture pretty much indefinitely where as bad guys will buckle just under the threat of being tortured. The nice thing about bad guys buckling under the threat of torture is that they always know what you want answers to and will give you the exact information you want. Want to know where a bomb is hidden or what happened to a little girl. The suspect you have in custody will always know, and will always tell you the truth instead of making up some fake ass name or location to waste your time.

Yes! I can't wait for all those awesome montages!

On the flip side, I am marveled by people on tv who can get knocked unconscious on a regular basis and have no lasting effects. I mean in pro sports you hear about players getting a concussion or 2 and they have long lasting, sometimes permanent brain problems. On TV someone can get knocked out more than once a season and be fine. Giles from buffy should have had the intelligence of a 5 year old and/or the memory of a fish with the amount of times he was knocked out.

I think it is the Season 2 behind the scenes dvd where they had a whole featurette on that fight. They talked about how they filmed it and how both actresses wanted to use stunt doubles as little as possible. I think that is what made the scene. By the same logic I never really liked that one. Sure it is dramatic and has lots of meaning, but at the same time, to me at least it seems badly shot, and most of it looks like it is the stunt doubles. And from what I remember Boreanaz's stunt double looks nothing like him.

Yea there definitely seemed to be something wrong with how fast they changed the names after Scott said pass. I mean especially since they got 9 out of 10 for the final game I hope upon review something was done. I mean it was only a few second difference, but that could have been enough for a win.

That is a really strong episode. I need to watch it again, I can't believe it is 12 years old. There was also some really strong episodes in season 19 including Homer of Seville, Midnight Toyboy, Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind, E Plurbus Wiggum, The Debarted (the rat symbolizes obviousness), and Dial N for Nerder.

It was the Lost in Space-Time Storyline from the late 80's I read most of the WCA run about a decade ago. Other than the whole Hawkeye being pissed thing it was a great story. I think a lot of storylines back in those days at least in the avengers seemed to be about heroes who would follow the rules and be totally by the book vs those who would bend or break the rules as needed. Operation Galactic Storm which came out only about 5 years later dealt with the same issue, on a much more dramatic scale. Hawkeye in the comics started as a kind of goofy villain. So I think a lot of the charming and wittyness comes from that. From what I remember it was a lot like movie Tony Stark. Comics Hawkeye (at least back in the day) also dealt with a fair amount of self-doubt especially about how could a dude who was just a really good archer, could stand shoulder to shoulder with someone like Thor or Iron Man. At at least a couple of times over his career he switches from being Hawkeye to being Goliath (basically a giant) using Hank Pym's pym particles.

Never read Annihilation, although your description also seems to fit Operation Galactic Storm which was from the 90's and also pretty awesome. Although I am not sure there are trades for it and back issues might be hard to track down (it was a 19 part crossover).

It seems hard to imagine. I mean it is only the second episode and we have already seen teams choose to take penalties in both legs. What the hell is going to happen on leg 9 or 10 when teams are completely exhausted. Maybe it is a good thing they didn't make them drive to Tofino. Someone probably would have just taken a plane ride and said they would take the penalty.

If your a protagonist in an action movie your car also won't have airbags. So it can totally get banged up during a high speed chase and you never have to worry about it going off. Also any average person or the street (or a kid) can run a giant (like Fortune 500) business. Sure they might not have any formal business training or experience in the field, but that is ok because their outsider opinions and new ideas for how to do things will totally make up for it.

It would have been cool if after the second to last team checked in, Jon had gone over to the hospital and told Jen and Shawn that Bob and Rex still had like a 4 hour penalty so if they could come back, finish the surfing and build the chair they would still be in it. I think Bob Nope would also be acceptable.

I looked it up yesterday because I was curious and Chumlee has an estimated net worth of around 5 million dollars. Which makes me hate it even more when they do bits where Rick makes him clean up the storage room, or he has to work the night shift, or go get lunch for the guys or he has to stay on the old man's couch when his house is getting fumigated.

I wondered the same thing. I mean the acting was good, but for the most part it seemed like a very typical romantic comedy. I mean I remember watching it with my wife (who loves romcoms) and about half way through she said that she hoped that Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence get together in the end. I said that I wasn't sure it was that kind of movie. I based that on that being a typical romcom ending, and I thought a movie that received so many awards would do something different. I was really surprised when that is basically what happened at the end.

It is a tough one to me. One of the big reasons I suggested you would have to do an origin story is if/when Spider-man shows up in the MCU you kind of have to make it a case where he just recently received his powers. Otherwise where was he during the Battle of New York? And if he just received his powers he is probably going to be a teenager. And I am not sure I want to see a teenager (or an actor in his 20's who slightly resembles a teenager) facing off even verbally with cap (a living legend and WWII veteran) or Tony Stark. It would just seem weird.

Did you ever ask her who really was "the boss"?

For me with True Blood it was when they felt the need to give more and more characters storylines to the point where they would switch back and forth between it seemed like 10 different character storylines over the course of an episode. If they had set the show up like Oz where say you deal with 1 storyline for 10 minutes and then it is done for that episode and you switch to the next one I probably could have held out longer. It has been awhile, but I believe the character revealed in the finale that the whole show was basically a work of fiction she was writing based on her real life.

That's disappointing, one more retroactive reason to hate The Ultimates. I am not sure I see Sony every giving or selling the rights to Spiderman to Disney. I mean even the most poor performing movies make a crapload of money. And all it takes is one awesome script and the movies are back on top. Plus if spiderman was part of the MCU, you would have to do another origin story. I do wonder if Sony and Disney would ever consider some kind of co-production agreement where Sony produces a spiderman movie (with Disney's approval) and he gets integrated into the MCU and they share the profits? As far as the X-men goes, I am totally ok with them staying with Fox. The first X-men movie was a pretty big risk and basically a proof of concept that super heroes that weren't household names like Superman and Batman could be a successful movie. It basically changed the movie business. I am totally ok with Fox still reaping the rewards of taking that risk. Plus is there a more perfect professor X and Magneto than Stewart and Mckellen? I am not sure I would want to see those characters being recast. Plus like others have said I would be worried that it would become all Wolverine all the time in the MCU if they had that character. Actually for both Wolverine and Spiderman, if Disney had the rights to those characters, and they were sticking with their two movies a year policy I worry we wouldn't see the kind of movies they are releasing now. I mean the characters are just too valuable not to put out movies. And if there are only two a year can you take a risk and make a Guardians movie or an Ant-Man movie, when a Spiderman movie is a guaranteed blockbuster?

They are also sponsored by a major car manufacturer. And I suppose that the driving might have had some risk and some logistical challenges. But at the same time this is supposed to be a race for a kick ass prize, I want these people to be challenged at every possible opportunity (including things like self-navigation). And it is not like a 5-6 hour drive somewhere is totally unheard of in the world of The Amazing Race.

I can't believe they flew them from Victoria to Tofino rather than having them drive. It's only about, plus it is not that difficult a drive. Not only that drive is crazy scenic. The section where you drive east to west from Parksville is amazing and would have looked awesome on camera. I was impressed by how many teams were able to get the surfing, especially without any instructions. I tried surfing in Tofino once and it is difficult. Getting the hang of paddling to catch the wave (which is tiring) and then hoping up to get on your feet at the right time is quite hard.

I would be ok with a Hawkeye movie if he was like the character from the comics, the witty smartass underdog type. But I guess that they made Tony Stark the witty smartass of the MCU so you can't really have Hawkeye be that character too.

I would call her response as about as non-committal as possible. Like if there is a massive demand for it, and there is a great script, and she is available (because let's not forget she is a very in demand actress) and they make her the right offer (the old dump truck full of money she might consider doing it. But she is not going to be beating on Whedon's door or showing up at Kevin Feige's house in costume to try and get this movie made.

Personally I think that Lucy movie looks terrible with a totally stupid premise. Plus one big thing to consider, has Scarlet Johnannson ever actually mentioned that she wants to make a Black Widow movie? It seems a lot of these original marvel stars seem like they are already growing tired of playing these characters, I wonder if she is one of them?

I am actually glad they force the networks to compete against cable and netflix shows (especially for dramas). If they had separate categories then the broadcast networks would have even less incentive to produce smart well crafted dramas. If there was a category for outstanding network drama then Grey's Anatomy and NCIS would probably be emmy nominated shows. Plus I don't agree that cable really has that much of an advantage. I mean it was a little over 10 years ago that The West Wing was cleaning up in the drama category (and after that both 24 and Lost won, West Wing and 24 beat The Sopranos). And I completely believe that if NBC or any network put out a show of that quality today they would be in the running for a bunch of awards.

This show is really starting to lose me I will probably watch the rest of the season, but if it is back next year I probably won't be. I really don't care about the Cameron/Joe relationship drama. The electrocution sex was stupid as was the scene of her crying in the cab. If I wanted to see something like that I would just watch my wife's old 90210 DVD's. When she asked Joe if he would get tired of her I really wanted him to say "probably". The only scene that was really interesting to me was when Gordon was meeting with his team. I mean they basically told him that their machine was slower, heavier and more expensive than they had wanted. But it seemed nothing came of it. The whole case design thing made no sense to me. I mean would someone like Joe's ex really design as case for a computer, and then prepare to have it made, without even making sure the computer could actually fit inside it? And even though the contrail name is stupid, the Cardiff Giant is just as stupid. Especially based on Gordon's story about how the Cardiff Giant was a man-made hoax. And wow Gordon is crazy, kind of weird to see that this kind of thing would develop this late in his life. He is still an asshole though. The scene that sealed it was at the beginning. His wife wakes him up to tell him he is screaming in his sleep, he wakes up and finds out his kids are freaking out and his wife is still working on a work thing, and instead of checking on his kids, he goes back to sleep. And I really still have no idea what Donna ever saw in Gordon. I guess part of it was his genius, but I doubt he would have been the only computer genius at Berkeley.