rab01

Yup, Donna's grandfather and to be fair to 10, he hesitated before sacrificing his life for the guy, not risking his life. It took a few more episodes to finish the process but he knew that it was a death sentence. Capaldi's Doctor really was cranky wasn't he? Especially while he was teamed up with Clara. If you haven't seen his Christmas special yet with River Song, it's very sweet and even more so if you've first seen Tennant's and Smith's interactions with her character over the years.

I'll admit that I was looking forward to the Negan plotline (I read some of the comics after the show started) because I was tired of the lather-rinse-repeat of CDB wandering in the forest until they came across temporary safety, wrecked it and got back to wandering. I also thought that, if the show could turn the Governor - a much dumber and comic booky villain - into an interesting and somewhat realistic antagonist, then Negan had potential. But, like I said in the spoiler threads back then, the show needed to drop the ludicrous parts of Kirkman's middle-school fantasies (like the harem). The show somehow gave him even longer monologues, less brains, more compensatory displays of false machismo, and stronger plot-armor than he had in the comics. Then they also drew out his arc over more time than in the comics and spent less time on the heroes than in the comics, making it all so much worse. Tl, dr -- Gimple sucks and I think Kang actually deserves some credit and praise for trying to dig the show out of the mountain of manure that Gimple and Kirkman buried it in.

I think Runway also changed producers when they made that jump -- Magical Elves had been co-producers until they left Bravo and Weinstein took full control.

The actress is 19; the actor playing Henry is 17. The character was supposed to be Carl's age before the time jump, which was not Chandler's age but a LOT younger (13-14-ish). I'd guess that if the show ever says, the character will be called 19. As for careers, absolutely she's more established - she's the chief medical person at Hilltop -- but Henry isn't a nobody kid; he's the chief mechanic at the Kingdom just not well enough trained for their needs so he stepped back to apprentice. (Also, there's something weird going on at the Kingdom that implies that it's doing worse than Hilltop or Alexandria.) I'd agree that they're at different enough stages that she'd be not interested in him but I still say they are close enough that it's a very natural interest for him. Also, his reaction to seeing the situation was pretty naturally done.

I don't get why so many people are saying that Enid is too good for Henry to dream of having a chance with. When they introduced her as Carl's love interest people here were calling her "the dog-faced girl" so when did she suddenly get put on a pedestal? It makes total sense that a 16-year-old would have a crush on a slightly older teenager and it makes just as much sense that she'd already have a boyfriend. I hate Henry because he's "not-Carl" and I'm gonna resent Judith a lot for also playing a lot of "not-Carl" scenes but the interplay seemed perfectly reasonable to me. The "not-Carl" problem is, for me, the huge problem with the show. There are big chunks of storyline being put in the hands of replacement characters, rather than new stories for new characters. The scene in the hut was just a f'ing replay of the Alexandrian teenagers and Carl. Just rerun all of Henry's scenes with Carl in it - the Enid thing has a weight of missed chances to it, the walker ring-toss now has Carl thinking - how did we create another bunch of ASZhats?; the jail scene can get extra beats because Carl has earned the right to be treated like an adult even if he's just a teen ... And the not-Carl related problem of all the new cast entering and old-cast departures is not that they give time to new cast members. The show does this every time. We all complained when we got episodes devoted to Abe and his crew but on rewatch, Abe's backstory episode is one of my favorites. The problem is that the show has wasted tons of character development time on TERRIBLE actors and/or characters lately. Alana Masterson is a complete charisma black hole on this show. Negan has been a show-killing misfire. The actress who plays Rosita is almost inhumanly gorgeous but they've done nothing interesting with her ever. They spent a million years of screen time on various Saviors but did they keep ANY of the interesting ones around? TPTB need to keep introducing new characters but they need to quickly realize which ones are clicking and which aren't ...

Such a disappointing final. That was largely a standard reality show episode rather than GBBO. Let's fry stuff for the first round, grill pita on a rock in the second, and then finally bake something only in the third. Like so many have said already, I don't expect any home baker or professional baker for that matter to have practiced building a fire and then using a hot rock to make bread. It's a camping skill, rather than a baking one. If the trick is making sure your rock is the exact right temperature, how are supposed to tell that without a digital thermometer or years of practice? As for the winner, we can't taste the food and it has felt like the thumb has been on the scale for him throughout the last 3 episodes. But I don't think it really has. If the producers wanted Rahul they wouldn't have used the clip of Noel reminding the judges that actually Kim-Joy was ahead going into the showstopper after they said it was all even.

Yes, that's also why Jim was right to examine Dylan's investment schemes so hard. He and his firm could have been on the hook for any losses. And, it's why Jim needed to quit three seconds after he first had the thought of using the trust to force Dylan to leave Brenda alone. That was a near-criminal breach of fiduciary duty. Separately, I had no idea that Gina and Donna were half-sisters until reading this thread. (I love the podcast but only watched 2-3 of the early years of 90210.) Man, Gina got the short end of the deal. Donna grows up in the lap of luxury with everything handed to her without effort while Gina has to work at skating for hours every day but the show constantly treats Gina like trash, rather than Cinderella. Ugh.

Can't the horses just eat mainly grass?

I'm finally caught up with this season and it's generally been a pleasant surprise. Other than Rick's farewell episode, it's been a huge improvement on the past couple of years' reliance on bullshit, unmotivated actions, bewildering choices, and characters that were obscenely unpleasant. I also feel like Kang's been playing basically fair with us (again Rick's farewell is the exception) so I'm not treating every little unexplained detail as a teaser/mystery. I think some of it is just backstory that will be explained when it makes sense for characters to talk about it. I like the general lack of gun use. They have three to five communities all within a couple days ride of each other so the last thing they want is to constantly draw the attentions of wandering herds through casual gunfire. As for people on the road, like Carol was, she wasn't scared of handling a few zombies but would be of being trapped by a whole bunch so having a silent weapon ready made sense until she realized too late that it was an ambush. (What I don't like is Darryl "special snowflake" Dixon being allowed to ride the noisiest machine possible just because the actor doesn't want to get on a horse.) There is, however, a problem now with TWD, which is that this used be a cross between a soap opera and a horror movie but now it has to become a cross between a soap opera and an adventure movie because zombies are not frighteningly dangerous to characters who have survived 8 years of them. That problem was masked for two years by the incredibly craptastic problem of figuring out how to shove more fucking Negan monologues into each episode. Now that that blight has been removed, it leaves us viewers with time to wonder what is the purpose behind the show. Hopefully, the writers are thinking of ways to transition the story, rather than just more creative ways to put characters into fake danger (like last episode when they had Daryl spend minutes untying the rope around his dog, rather than just slicing it off).

I would assume he was given a set as head of her security detail. (Though I guess it might also be from when he searched it before with the other officer.)

Alright, this makes me feel really weird but I'll defend the show slightly on suing a bank as trustee. Yes, it can be possible for a bank to agree to be a trustee and for a bank to have screwed up its oversight and be subject to a lawsuit. If they were the trustee, the mom wouldn't just have signing authority because it's not just a bank account. Defending the lawsuit, even in the 90s, could cost more than $60k so they'd be the prototypical deep pockets that Matt should be searching for. That said, institutional trustees rarely agree to have control over distributions and so require co-trustees for exactly this reason. Also, there's no such thing as "pain and suffering" claims for financial torts like this one. Someone like Felice is exactly the kind of person who normally ends up as a trustee and is not the defendant of Matt's dreams even if she's wealthy because she'd probably counterclaim against the mom for fraud.

They've had Spanish and Italian weeks so a Danish week didn't bother me. It's a little less mainstream but not crazily so. I'm glad that they kept Rahul around -- being star baker or up for star baker so often should earn you a second chance -- but it's too bad that, from what they showed, he clearly didn't deserve it. He was last in every round, which made it a little hard to watch. The sad part is that it makes me root for him a bit less and it's totally not his fault.

This showstopper was too much like a Food Network challenge for me to like it. (On one of their baking shows, the contestants had to make christmas cookie trees.) I was sorry to see Terry and Karen go but it wasn't just a bad week for them, this is the part of the season where you the cast starts to clearly split between the possible finalists and ones who really don't have a chance and they were in the latter group. That said, Terry really doomed himself before they got to the tent by picking the 12 days of Christmas. The theme didn't give him room to simplify mid-stream if necessary and perfect the portion he did finish. The bakers really need to plan escape routes into their bakes at this stage.

I'm just now catching up on the season so I guess no one will see this comment but ... what a big steaming pile of dog shit this episode turned out to be. The episodes leading up to this were a slight improvement over the past two seasons, not great but recognizably TWD episodes with people expressing their emotions and beliefs through dialogue (not monologue), actions, and reactions to events. This episode was a return to everything I hated. Portentous statements of "philosophy" - check. Retconning prior history and relationships - check. Events following after each other without logical cause and effect - check. Stupidity just to place characters in the right places - check. etc, etc, As for RIck's farewell itself, I liked the scene with Shane because it brought back their chemistry together. The actual dialogue sucked (other then Shane's dig about Judith) because it was just a retread of the "you're really like me" debate that's been had ad nauseum. Hershel's scene was incredibly sad and affecting because of the actor's passing, I have no idea whether the scene worked because I was too mesmerized by looking at Scott Wilson to hear a word they said. The scene with Sasha was just garbage that reminded me of that terrible MASH episode (recently entered into the NONAC) where they all have nightmares. Look, I get that they couldn't use Carl because they shafted Chandler so he isn't returning their calls but how could they not have included at LEAST Glen's voice saying "Wake Up Dumbass"? Also, ending the episode with another time jump to a bad child actor taking Carl's place was just a f'ing thumb in the eye. (I personally think Chandler had become pretty decent at this by the time he left the show.)

Maybe. Also maybe Marisa Tomei circa My Cousin Vinny?

It usually takes me a few weeks to warm up to the contestants but halfway through the first bake I felt myself saying that I already don't want any of them to leave the tent. They've got a really good group this season. Even the opening joke wasn't as cringe worthy as last year's hot air balloon. I'm just so glad to have this show back.

I only watched this episode once so I may be wrong but I thought there were a couple of call-backs to the pain in the second-half, like she was recovering throughout but not yet fully healed.

I loved that moment especially because I can't remember any other newWho episode doing it. As for Astos' death, I admit not being surprised or disappointed by it. The best people the Doctor meets usually bite it early.

They showed Budd reviewing her movements on a computer screen (which showed a return to her residence from the hotel), and showed him looking slowly at the picture when he went into the apartment with the other police officer to officially look for the tablet. It was blink and you miss it stuff but not totally omitted. They didn't show any of Budd's final preparations (including setting the acid trap) so not being shown him burying the kompromat didn't bother me. I just finished the series last night and loved it. I liked not being sure until episode 4 or so whether or not Budd was shady. I think they even pretty much stuck the landing - I'm not certain there wasn't a conspiracy higher up just based on what we were shown. Certainly no one else was fingered by the mob boss but that doesn't mean that none of the other figures weren't engaged in more nefarious goings on and using him as a cut-out.

I agree that they took on too many too quickly. I can see from gender dynamics story telling reasons why they wouldn't want just one companion but it's too many. I still think it will be fine by the end of the season (some of the episodes may end up being better on rewatch). If they'd left Graham behind for the racing episode and picked him up in the spiders episode (and flipped Rosa because he's important to being there), I think it would have helped all the characterizations fall into place.

It's like they were reading the boards here for the past several days ;)

There should be a Stan Lee cameo, just like there is for every comic book movie - don't @ me DC fans ;) As for an actor to play a real role, I'd love to see Andre Braugher (assuming that schedule conflicts can be hand-waived away)

But from that same article (and from another I saw elsewhere with more specific timing) -- we are getting the UK Season 9 in about a week!

I think that may be because they've given themselves a really large challenge -- introduce a new Doctor and three new companions at the same time. Usually there's some continuity either in the doctor or in the companion; newWho has never introduced three companions at once. The only other multi-companion grouping was Rory and Amy and, through most of the run, Amy was the "real" companion and Rory was just a plus-one. (OK, sure, Mickey, Captain Jack, River Song all got multiple trips but they were never the companion.) It's hard to introduce 4 main characters and divvy up their screen time properly - especially when in every episode there are a bunch of scenes that could plausibly be given to any of them (e.g., "companion X opens door, screams, slams it shut and runs to find the doctor"). I think they're progressing pretty well. (As someone up-thread pointed out, that may also be why the villains have been so flat - not enough space yet to give them internal lives.)

I thought that too while watching the scene where the Doctor happily agrees to get tea with Yaz. I was internally comparing it to how standoffish some newWho doctors have been to family invitations. But after thinking about it more ... I think that's on me, not the writers. On the page, that interaction could have been performed in Peter Capaldi's voice and have been dripping with sarcasm to hide that he actually wanted to go. So, Jodi Whittaker takes the scene to a more open and honest enthusiasm and that's how the actor chooses to play the character, not a gendered thing by production. It's also a more mature response and there's nothing wrong with the Doctor getting better over the course of several lifetimes. I agree with Chitowngirl - since the spiders matured and dispersed so incredibly rapidly; 3 months of food sounded like enough for them to live out their mutated lives.