[S32.E06: Play Or Go Home]

LOL, Jerri #blindside, before hashtags existed.  Yeah, one of the best TV moments of all time.

 

Joe had me rolling. His inexplicable confrontation with Peter was hilarious. Peter's face throughout was just comedy gold. And then Joe's, "Is this because of your neurosis I mean seriously," to Aubry had me literally loling.

 

Such an asshole.  While I do not LIKE Aubry and Joe they are a fascinating twosome.  

 

It's like, everyone on this show is weird and I probably don't like any of them, but I DO enjoy watching them.  I can't stop saying the word 'fascinated' because I have no other word for it.  This show just always wins the day for me.  I've never disliked Debbie, Neal, Peter, and Nick, for instance.  Yet a lot of the cast seems to be polarizing.  I do like Tai.

 

I give Michele massive props for standing there and taking Nick's bullshit. I would've blasted him. Nick entertains the hell outta me though.

 

Even though WE know what Michelle's (hilarious) expression meant, because of the voiceover, Nick seemed totally clueless which made things all the funnier.  What's her profession?  She's the one acting like the poker player, not Anna.

[S32.E06: Play Or Go Home]

We have 4 beauties (Nick, Tia, Michele, and Julia); 3 Brawns (Cydney, Kyle, and Scott); and 4 brains. (Debbie, Aubry, Joe, and Neal)

 

Sometimes it's hard for me to see the obvious.  When you spell it out like this, this makes Aubry's move look even stupider.  What was she thinking?  Is her name really missing an "E" like that?  Rack up another reason I just don't like this person.  I guess I really have a bias towards people who smile, and it's really making me think more about myself :)

 

I hope Nick becomes the hilarious villain that Peter could have been.  

 

I will really laugh if it turns out Tai has a very bad association with doctors or something.  You can count Peter who was yet another player who was ready to board the TAI BROMANCE TRAIN.  First love: Caleb. Second love: Scot.  Third love (rejected with prejudice): Dr. Peter.   Did Peter actually say "I want Tai around, because I want some Vietnamese chicken"?  Tai was having NONE of that.

 

I hope they never, ever again do Brawn, Beauty & Brains tribes. I always find the brains to be dumb, beauty not all that, and brawn is downright lazy. The first time they did it I snoozed, too.

 

That is why I find it fascinating.  I loved Cagayan (loved, loved loved) and I'm liking this season.  So far so good.  I'm glad all of the previews about human collateral of this season, besides the Heatstroke Challenge, turned out to be mostly fear mongering (so far) and that Joe was okay.  Julia was also okay, Cydney seems okay, and Debbie seems okay (part-time modelling, chin-ups and all.)

[S32: Peter Baggenstos]

No, not at all.  He was bland and let Russell rule the roost.

[S32: Peter Baggenstos]

Or is caught speechless.

[S32.E06: Play Or Go Home]

Survivor also did a basketball challenge during former NBA player Cliff Robinson's season, the first Beauty versus Brain versus Brawn.  That season when I suggested that the show might do one I was totally kidding but yes, it happened.  So I knew this one was coming; I mentioned it last week.  This show really doesn't care about hiding advantages, LOL, no.  

 

If Peter was a so-called "villain" he was an incredibly harmless villain, at that.  All the villainy that people saw in Peter was in their own heads.  His "innocent, taken-aback" face when Joe gave him the FBI interrogation was hilarious.  A TYPICAL villain would go on the aggressive and bite back and call Joe crazy, you know, normal villain things.  Abi was a villain.  Peter was just out of his depth.

 

I forgot to mention this in my first post -- I think Debbie is very much the head of her tribe (others have pointed this out before me.)  At least that's what the editing shows me.  The editing shows me nothing on Jason, Ice Cream, Cydney.

[S32.E06: Play Or Go Home]

Somebody could have been sabotaging Peter by letting him decide the strategy OR they are just so scared of Peter's "terrifying arrogance" nobody could stand up to him.  I think somebody wrote DR. Peter, not St.

 

What do people think about Aubrey's move here?

[S32.E06: Play Or Go Home]

Yeah, tuna salad, the meal that people eat during school and work lunch.

- to pretend to our colleagues we're trying to be healthy

- to SAVE ON MONEY

- to save on calories

- it's incredibly light

- it barely tastes like anything, minimal enjoyment, it's food only for function, to get through the day, another meal

- you could literally open a can and boom, it's there

 

It's really weird to go on Survivor and be shown that very food, that you would only choose to eat for those reasons, as a reward.  Pretty cheap Jeff

[S32.E06: Play Or Go Home]

It's like 50 replies in 20 minutes already.

 

Michelle:

We finally get to meet her and she is so much better looking and interesting than we were allowed to see by the editors.  Her scene with Nick was hilarious.  Her reading him, and being monumentally pissed at him.  Very funny.

 

Peter:

Peter is not manipulative at all .  He actually seems to be really honest to everyone at every moment.  He actually never lied to Joe, never to his face.  Never lied to Scot, never lied to his face.  Yet everyone claims he's a snake who can't be trusted.  This is the crux of Peter.

 

Tai is actually 'arrogant' in the sense that he won't be able to see that he could have actually worked with Peter.  WHO CARES IF PETER IS ARROGANT?  He would have been good to work with.  Nobody on this show seems particularly good at reading people.  I think Nick was bad at reading Debbie.  Tai is bad at reading Peter.   Anyways.  Peter was looking hotter and hotter every moment.  I actually prefer him over a LOT of the other players.  A LOT.  Peter is not a WILD CARD if he literally says everything he's going to do, and then does that thing.

 

Other bullet points

- Joe and Aubrey walking around all grumpy together, in each other's clothes.  They bother me.

- Aubrey seems really cold out there.  She wears as many layers as a medieval knight.

- Cydney's body

- The IC was very exciting

 

Yellow tribe impressed me with that immunity challenge.  They have 2 "brains" versus 3 on blue but won  with a lack of ego.  Nick actually had a plan to help everyone over the wall after he jumped over.  With all of the sociopath jokes here, I found that funny.

[S01.E08: A Jury In Jail]

Was Fung starstruck and 'honoured' that was part of the Trial of the Century, which is why he shook everyone's hands?

 

The husband raping his wife -- did the wife report it, or did the police charge the husband?  Maybe the wife did not 'feel' she was the victim of a crime.  The most important thing would be her perspective whether she was the victim of a crime or not.  Maybe she didn't knowingly lie.  It's really confusing for the show to say "She was a victim of a crime at the time when this wasn't a crime in law."  How did anyone even know about it?   (Obviously I am as anti-rape as they come and if she was raped, she was raped, by fact.  But this was a VERY confusing plot point.)

 

Seing Asian people speak perfect English in America on a show based in 1995.  If you took any 1990s (or 2000s, probably) American sitcom or movie at face value you would never have known that was the case.

[Casting Lab: Characters or Caricatures?]

Another reason I admire David Schwimmer:  

 

In their original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid $22,500 per episode.[24] The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode.[24][25] Before their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros.' preference for individual deals.[26] The actors were given the salary of the least-paid cast member, meaning Aniston and Schwimmer had their salaries reduced. The stars were paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 in season four, $100,000 in season five, $125,000 in season six, $750,000 in seasons seven and eight, and $1 million in seasons nine and ten, making Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow the highest paid TV actresses of all-time.[27][28][29] The cast also received syndication royalties beginning in 2000 after renegotiations. At the time, that financial benefit of a piece of the show's lucrative back end profits had only been given out to stars who had ownership rights in a show, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby.[30]

 

Bolding mine.  Sorry, a Friends fanatic here.  It was David Schwimmer's idea to have all 6 of the actors negotiate their salaries TOGETHER and unionize, meaning, all 6 of them would commit to do the show together and quit together.  He was the highest paid cast member along with Aniston so salary-wise it was an unselfish idea. It turned out to be a genius move and it fostered a lack of resentment and infighting amongst the cast.  And obviously, the show lasted 10 years which is very abnormal.  Now, with shows like The Big Bang Theory I believe this group salary negotiation is standard fare. Both of Schwimmer's parents are attorneys.

 

I hope this is on-topic enough but other posters seemed to appreciate the inside info on the actors.

 

How is Selma Blair as Kris Kardashian?  I think she was so hammy and cheesy and yet when I said this about Travolta I was told that this is how Shapiro acted!

[S01.E08: A Jury In Jail]

The jurors are the "Nikki and Paulo" of The People Vs OJ Simpson.

 

LOL at this reference.

 

Funnily enough last night I saw the actual show @ACSFX tweet:  "Anyone else changing their view of Judge Ito?"  So I guess they know they are doing a flattering portrayal.

 

I thought Selma Blair was just awful.  

 

I thought that the actor who played the female juror who instigated "Fight the Power" was fantastic.

 

Sterling K. Brown had only a few lines as Christopher Darden this episode, but with his one line to Marcia he broke my heart again any way.

[S07.E17: Shoot]

I heard the song playing in the background while Alicia was talking to Diane about not drinking as much and my first thought is "What kind of restaurant would DIANE FREAKING LOCKHART frequent that plays REM covers?" 

 

It was not R.E.M.  It was a horribly shitty cover of "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.

 

I've always wondered this about the show's music supervisors.  Instead of playing good music, the show purposely takes classic songs and only plays horrible covers of them, usually sung by people who sound like 14 year old girls.  I get that the rights to the 'real' songs are too expensive, but goddamn, it just makes the show look stupid.  Hire cheaper new artists and give them exposure for writing ORIGINAL music, like other shows do.  That's how we all find great new artists.  

[American Crime Story in the Media]

There's a news story about Margot Robbie playing Tonya Harding in a new movie called "I, Tonya" so I think it will bring up a lot of the similar "nostalgia" (I'm not saying this in a fond way) that this series brought for some of us.

[S07.E17: Shoot]

I don't think Alicia and Jason are supposed to be a romantic love story.  I fully expect Peter and Jason to get blindsided by Alicia in a variation of "I chose me.  I would chose Will, but he's dead."

 

LOL, this is so funny and on-point.

[Casting Lab: Characters or Caricatures?]

I love Dan Hedaya!  Because of Clueless, LOL.  He also played Richard Nixon in Dick.

 

Yeah, like I said, Evan Handler is a great character actor who can really disappear!  Even though usually he is bald and always looks like the same guy, the wonderful Harry (SATC) could not be more different from the disgusting Runkle (Californication), IMO.
 

[Casting Lab: Characters or Caricatures?]

I'm wondering if Schwimmer already gets "opportunities" but declines them. Given his prior earnings and his other interests (such as his ongoing involvement with the Lookingglass Theater in Chicago), perhaps he's working just as much as he wants to in TV and film?

 

Yes.  I think he's interested in directing.  He directed "Run Fatboy Run" in 2007 and he has directed some Friends episodes.  He's directed for other shows, and off Broadway, etc.  

 

There was an idiot commenting on his Vulture interview that he must be hard up for work.  Of course people who don't like Friends assume all these actors are has-beens.  Rather, these actors are successful millionaires who have enough fame and money than they'll ever know what to do with.  He had to be convinced to take this part.  I will defend this man forever:

 

Schwimmer is an active director of the Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica, which specializes in helping victims of date rape and child rape.[5] He has also campaigned for legislation to ban drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB.[5] In November 2011, he gave the Scottish charity Children 1st permission to screen his film Trust to commemorate World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse and Violence against Children.[77] - Wikipedia

 

His Vulture interview about this role.  http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/david-schwimmer-robert-kardashian-people-v-oj-simpson.html

[Casting Lab: Characters or Caricatures?]

I'll also shout out Evan Handler, a great character actor from Californication, Sex and the City, and LOST.  He plays Dershowitz.  The hair does a great job of letting him disappear into the role.  As soon as I heard his voice, I knew that I knew the actor, but it took me a few minutes.

[S07.E17: Shoot]

Yes, Mariah Carey admits she's stuck in the teenage years and enjoys movies like Mean Girls, but she has never been caught giving an HJ in public

[S07.E17: Shoot]

I'd love to hear the people behind the show justifying Alicia screwing over Cary.  There's no way that goes down okay with whatever "fans" remain.

[S07.E17: Shoot]

Totally did not place Dorota! She looked so familiar, but the accent just threw me off.

 

Her very deep voice and looks brought to mind Rosie O'Donnell and Paula Poundstone.

 

The high school counselor's hairstyle made me laugh.  

 

I've said this before, but JDM's red/orange tan bothers me way more than the Smirk!

[Casting Lab: Characters or Caricatures?]

He's also so beloved by the media.  Does he even ever play villains?  LOL.  I don't know enough about his character to say.  But he's like Will Smith.  The hero in all of his blockbuster movies.  That's how I see him, anyway.

[American Crime Story in the Media]

This will sound weird to those people complaining about people enjoying this series because real people were murdered, but I am so engrossed in this show.  I'm sad that it will be ending by Episode 10.  I could easily watch another season about this case.

[S07.E17: Shoot]

Welp.  I am very disappointed that that's all that the fine Blair Underwood had to do on this show.

 

Dorota from Gossip Girl speaking with an American accent got me like "Whaa??????????????"

[S01.E07: Conspiracy Theories]

Cochran is coming off as incredibly shrewd (IMO).  I'm amazed by him (obviously, personally conflicted about this, but still).  Clark is coming off as unprepared, naive, bullheaded, singleminded (yet also sympathetic).

[S20.E11: The Finale / S20.E12: After The Final Rose]

Jen? Jackie? Leah?  Come on.  I couldn't pick them out of a lineup.  Lauren H. was dreadful looking.  I agree that Jubilee is gorgeous, but come on, Olivia?  Olivia?  Her season would be totally wild and interesting but I don't think it would do the franchise any favours.