Irlandesa

My favorite cake is one with a thin, hazelnut feuilletine/or praline? layer that just adds a subtle flavor and a pleasant crunch from a restaurant in Chicago. I love having texture in my cakes. It is a preference thing but since this is a competition, I do think the judges look for dimension in the bakes. I was really irritated when they critiqued the depth of Tua's reds when she had other super red elements. I knew it was going to be either Ashley or Tua after both Kevin and Justine ran out of time to fully decorate their cakes unless Ashley and Tua both forgot sugar or some other major taste disaster. Since Ashley's only critique was that her cake was a little soft, which really doesn't matter with the graham cracker layer, I knew she'd win by the time they completed Tua's judging. One thing I do appreciate is that it feels like there was more cake flavor variety with the lemon meringue choice and Justine's jam and cookie butter combo. Even though Kevin's was chocolate, the filling intrigued me as well. It's not that he couldn't use them. It's that, for the final challenge, they'd expect a baker to incorporate them in a more creative design. He ran out of time so he threw them on the cake to avoid putting up a plain cake. He admitted it and the judges could clearly guess that's what happened. Compared to the hand crafted decor on the other cakes, it wasn't going to stand up.

I think it makes them look worse that they were so quick* on the Gunn situation, even though the Majors situation was more serious. *And when I say quick, I mean the fact that they took quick action when the tweets resurfaced even though they were old tweets and Gunn had apologized for them before he started working with Disney. That's what made Disney look silly. There was no new information between when he was fired by Disney and when he was rehired by Disney. Majors was accused of something much worse and the prosecution felt they had a strong enough case to take it to court which tends to be an uphill battle for victims of domestic violence. I'd have hard time believing that Majors would have a clause that would give him the leeway to sue for wrongful termination.

I'd say it's because of HMM but Secret Gift of Christmas wasn't as good as other movies on Hallmark this season. It was okay but definitely a 'been there, done that' plot with nothing to elevate it in terms of performances, dialogue, or chemistry. And then they threw in that teacher who asks out her student's dad (what? No), and because he's stupid to realize that's what she was doing, it allowed for her to think they had something and get all jealous. I liked Heaven Down Here as well, although I'm still trying to figure out if there were planting hints of a romance or not. But it was similar to Holiday Road in bringing strangers together with a few twists along the way and a guest appearance from Phylicia Rashad. I wanted to like this as I like Katie Findlay. (Love Strikes Twice was one of my favorite Hallmark movies from the past few years.) But even though the actors were doing what they could, the romantic chemistry just never clicked for me. Ultimately, I think I liked the premise more than the execution.

The movie came out in the UK in 2022 but didn't hit Amazon until early 2023 so it missed a lot of the Christmas movie lists about what was coming out. I enjoyed it as well.

No. I don't know where I've read it but they've shared some of their original reboot ideas before DHP said no to returning. It sounds like it would have taken place in Seattle, and Niles and Frasier would have purchased a small theater, like a black box theater. I think the idea would have been taking the restaurant episode idea and extending it into a series. Having Frasier return to Boston came after people chose not to participate in a reboot.

I think the value of Alice is that you can tell different stories of the times with her than you will with Julia, Paul, Russ, and Avis and the writers wanted to include that perspective. We probably wouldn't have had a scene like the one we got a the bust stop with Zephyr Wright if we didn't have Alice. I don't mind mixing real people, fictionalized real people, and fictionalized characters. I think it can be a part of developing a narrative and pushing the audience to learn or feel things. There have been changes that may have made people less flattering, but there have also been changes, or omissions, that hide some aspects of these characters that the audience would likely find offputting.

During COVID, DHP organized a Zoom reunion show with the main cast members and a few guests in order to reminisce about the show for the fans while simultaneously fundraising for the Actor's Fund. He still embraces the show and the character. He just isn't manifesting that gratitude in the one way some people want him to. That doesn't make him ungrateful, selfish, unfeeling, or a bad person.

It'll be interesting to see if she wants to continue with the show doing prime time/Celebrity Jeopardy shows after she chose to let everyone know Sony chose to move on for the syndicated shows. Otherwise, I think Sony/Jeopardy! might have changed the announcement to make it seem like they mutually decided to revert back to the original arrangement where she was slated for the prime time stuff and Mike Richards, now Ken Jennings, was slated for the syndicated shows.

I enjoyed this episode too and need to find the previews because I loved how it ended. I'm bummed for Avis. Stanley is such a disappointment. I do wish Avis had brought up the teacher aspect to Stanley instead of just the student. It's bad enough that he cheated on her but with a 20-something student? That's just extra awful.

Good news. Netflix has picked up Season 1 and Season 2 of The Tourist. I was getting nervous it wouldn't find a new home in the US. S1 comes out on Feb. 1 and Season on Feb 29.

Exactly. He already gave us 11 years of iconic performances. I would absolutely be thrilled if he decided to show up but I also think I'll feel unsatisfied with just a cameo or just one episode. It's not just that I want to see him again, it's that I feel like that specific kind of character, and his relation to Frasier, is what's missing in this reboot. Or would at least improve it. So I almost see the value in him not coming. It'll either be disappointing or so good that I'll want it in every episode.

I agree. I actually don't think I wrote what I meant to say (even though I don't disagree with what I wrote.) Basically, in addition to what you said, I also think Kelsey has a strong compulsion to work. He likes working and I get the sense that he'll do just about anything to work even if he could afford to not work. I think David is okay not working unless he's truly inspired by a role and the Frasier money affords him the comfort to do this. I guess all we can hope for is that he suddenly does get inspired to revisit the role and make a guest appearance.

I think Kelsey does try other roles and has done some interesting work even after Frasier. But I do think he likes consistent work and wants to be working. Frasier is his most reliable role. I get the sense that DHP is a little pickier about his roles and I do think he wanted to not be committed to this part because he wanted to be open to do a theater project he was working on.

It's strange that they call it a season finale but maybe they want to leave open the opportunity to tell other stories under the brand of Fellow Travelers sort of like Fargo. Or maybe more directly comparable would be the series Dirty John and Doctor Death. Both of the first seasons of each series was based on the original podcast bearing its name. The second season was based on a different true crime story sharing a similar theme. I doubt they'd tell another story with these characters but perhaps they'd follow some other LGBTQ+ characters against the backdrop of a different relevant political movement.

I saw that this forum had new posts and I knew it couldn't be good news. He was such a good actor. I normally don't see actors as their characters but for some reason, it took me so long to not think Braugher was just like Pembleton but I eventually realized he was nothing like him. It's such a shame to lose him when I expected to enjoy his performances for years to come.

He just had an off day completely. It wasn't just the dome that wasn't working but he got criticisms for taste/execution on his cobbler as well even though it got raves for its look. I don't blame Justine for immediately picking Kevin and Javier. I would have picked them as well but I also knew they'd be doomed because the "best on paper" team seems to always falter. I was curious as to why Javier was doing the dome. I know they highlighted Kevin's skill with chocolate but I seem to recall he has done a lot of beautiful sugar work as well and thought for sure he'd be in charge of it. I was a little annoyed that the winning team's ornament was half a dome. I know ornaments come in all shapes and sizes but that felt like a bit of a cop out.

The annual Hanukkah movie delivers once again. I really enjoyed Round and Round. They had good chemistry and I thought the revelation at the end was nicely done. The callbacks to different time warp movies were a lot of fun as well.

I find it somewhat funny that they were pretty mature about the refs last week even though there were legit bad calls (that went against both teams) but he was so fired up this week about an obvious penalty. I get his frustration because the play that got called back was amazing and where the receiver lines up seems so small, but it is about as straightforward as it gets.

I saw the movie but I felt like the "joke" was just an excuse to get Julia Stiles in for a cameo as all they really did is a mild recap of the actual plot of the movie which was always a bit silly. Julia was recently in a show called The Lake on Amazon Prime about a family feud over a lakehouse. I quite liked it. She was also in this international show on Ovation called Rivera which was a collossal mess from what I saw of it but had amazing scenery. Overall, I wanted to like this episode more than I did. I felt like the ideas for funny skits were they but they never quite got to the funny part. Beep beep was the closest but for some reason, seeing Keenan packing heat killed it for me. And the tiktok skit didn't really feel like a skit. Yeah, you shouldn't be pranking people. And the pranks they showed felt very real to the kind of stupid "pranks" tiktokers pull. It was more documentary than joke in my head.

Thanks but I'm still missing how that relates to the Cherry Lane movie. Usually, shows like this involve period music or distinctive costuming that Hallmark movies don't have the budget for. The first season of Why Women Kill had a similar plotline of three different time periods but it was much easier to tell apart.

I apologize for the double post, but I forgot to add my thoughts about this. I don't agree that we never saw him enjoying gay culture. In D.C., we saw him hang out with Marcus at gay clubs. He seemed very comfortable at the place out of town where he took Tim to look for the guy who claimed to have had a relationship with McCarthy. And he certainly knew the places to go to initiate an illicit anonymous hookup. Fire Island is just an extension of those spaces and he felt safe that no one would out them since his circumstances weren't unusual. I'm wondering if we'll ever get follow up on Lucy's brother.

Nah. I posted too soon. My spec was wrong. The dead guy is the cop. The friend the son went to see is the daughter that was born in the ep. I thought the relationship was sweet but overall the story wasn't super interesting. It was a pleasant watch for me but not much beyond that. I always think it's strange when Paul Campbell tones down his quirkiness which is the one thing that often elevates the movies he's in. I don't get the Crazy Rich Asians comparison, though.

All of the couples are taking place in different timelines. The couple expecting a baby soon is in 70s during the oil crisis. Given the son's car, I think Catherine Bell's character might be the older version of Erin Cahill's character and it takes place in 1999. And I'm not sure how the gay couple fits in yet other than they moved into the house previously owned by both of the couples and this has to be relatively modern considering they're married.

I don't think they even had any sexual contact. He wasn't interested in that guy at all. He seemed to be standing to the side of Hawk and focusing his attention on him during the threesome. I think she was the senator that Hawk called in the first episode. Personally, I loved Looking, and that wasn't a tragedy.

By the way, if people aren't following this story, it has been wild and worth reading up on. I didn't watch his season but I feel for the guy.