Ikki

My mom has only seen a couple episodes of the show (and because she received two free passes, she's now seen the movie). I'm trying to think of other episodes she might like, and I was wondering if people had suggestions. She enjoyed "The Kid's Rob a Train," which I chose because she likes wine, chocolate, trains, and heists. I'm thinking of "Stand by Gene" (the episode with the two-butted goat) as a good one because it has lots of the kids friends and a quest. Basically looking for strong episodes that stand alone, not really with fantasy elements (like the ones where the kids tell stories), and maybe have good shows of various characters.

Tellulah is just... the worst. (Penny's advice to her was also not great.)

I love Reid. Lil' trooper. I liked this episode. Getting to pick the team was definitely the bigger advantage, and the blue team's dish concept seemed better on top of that. Ben had been in the bottom a few times and seemed over his head, so I was expecting his elimination this episode. By the way, did anyone happen to catch how many Michelin stars Gordon's restaurant has? I'm not sure they mentioned it.

I think the point was, Teddy wasn't doing it out of self-interest; he was just trying to help. Of course, he fucked up that helping (though was ultimately successful), and he didn't have to insert himself into the situation at all.

Yeah, I agree, that's what I was saying. I think the immunity through luck has been really noticeable throughout the season, though, and it's been bugging me since the lobster challenge.

They've done what throughout the season? Given Ivy immunity, like I said in my previous comment, or something else?

Better accommodations would be making it so she could actually compete in the challenges, if they are in fact an issue. It's not like she's surprising them going into each episode. They did do something similar in an earlier episode this season, though, where just picking the special coin advanced you. In that case Matthew got it. I think it's a silly thing to do, and yes, it's worse later in the game, but I don't know how much is intentional for an individual contestant. Ivy has gotten immunity a lot, but to me that only really shows that she's lucky and that this show gives out immunities too much.

Ivy had a bunch of weeks where she wasn't cooking in the second part of the episode, so there were fewer opportunities to see her cook. Now she's been cooking, but it seems like for better or for worse, her dishes aren't really standing out. I like Reid, too. There was less camo this week, which I was okay with.

I remember as a kid I had a friend whose mom pretty much only let her listen to the Kidz Bop version of songs. I always felt bad for her. The elimination challenge felt a lot like a repeat of the one where Matthew chose between three ingredients and chose citrus-- only this time the kid picked the one the show wanted them to (Gordon's).

Aaron's talking heads sure were a lot tonight.

Well, good news for you, I guess-- Kyle wasn't eliminated. The two to go were Mateo and Talulah, with Kyle and Brielle being the other two in the bottom four who were ultimately safe.

Oh, there was an interesting topic on Reddit I saw-- season three winner, Nathan Odom, did an AMA. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/b53f93/im_nathan_odom_winner_of_season_3_of_masterchef/ In it, he mentions that filming takes about six weeks (obviously less if you get out sooner). So, yeah, a kid needs a parent/guardian who can be available for six weeks. Now, these days, some people could work via their computers, so it might not mean time off for everyone. But for most people, that's a significant amount of time away if they work.

Reid charmed me last episode, but the Country Boy aspect just keeps getting thicker, doesn't it? The only part I would say bothered me was his "and some salads for the ladies" comment, but still as whole it's a lot. Also, was he just...not hugging the eliminated kids as the group hug took place right behind him? Really, his call if he wants to hug anyone, it was just funny to me to have him just standing there. I found Aarón's Spanish with Nayeli sweet at first...and then she immediately burned herself, and I couldn't help being like, "Thanks a lot, Aarón." And then I couldn't decide if him repeatedly calling her mija was too much. Too many kids getting passes. Ivy hasn't cooked in a single elimination challenge so far, and only once has it been because she won something. I like Ivy, and I'm perfectly willing to believe that she's a talented cook, but I'd really like to see that as well. I felt bad for Talulah, but at least now I can stop being distracted by her glasses.

I don't know if my standards have gone down or if this show has actually gotten good, but I just watched the three episodes of the new season and I liked all of them. The show still has it's weak areas and plotholes that WILL drive me nuts if I think too much about them, but I don't mind that nearly as much when so much of an episode seems funny.

I really like Reid. He's a cute little guy and he really worked hard to get the blue team that victory. When the blue team started to fall apart at the beginning and one kid was like, "I don't know what's gonna happen!" I thought, "I do, your team is going to win." Che seemed like he was a good leader, though, so I'm glad he was safe; things were going well until Mateo decided to try to be "CEO" of the team, at least the way it was presented. I try to hold off on criticizing individual kids, but when Sadie was like, "Compliment them!" to try to get the circus performers to vote for their dish...that wasn't a great look. Her comment about adults loving alcohol was funny to me, though.

I hate challenges when the majority of the kids don't even compete. It hardly seems fair. Like, ten kids just flat out got a pass and then four more didn't have to do the lobsters because they made more perfect banana splits than the other teams while tied together-- that's really the best way to determine cooking ability?

When Eleanor was reacting to Chidi dressed as a mailman, all I could think of was Kristen Bell meeting a sloth. (For those who don't know: )

It wasn't even a plot point as much as a throwaway line to show Claire being in an irritable mood. We've definitely put more thought into it at this point than the writers did.

If you understand what the person is saying and you correct them like that? Yeah, that's rude. Claire was frustrated about other things, which makes it understandable but not excusable. I have a friend who comes to me with "how do you pronounce this" a lot because she'll hear someone else say it and realize she's been saying it differently, and I'll go over my pronunciation of it with her, but on a day to day? If I know what the person means? Who cares that much? If you really need to correct them, you can just repeat the word and move on with what you want to say. As for how he might have developed the pronunciation, he probably found the "wreef" pronunciation easier as his speech was developing and then it was close enough that it became a habit that didn't get corrected until now. So much debate over this when it wasn't even what I came here to talk about! I wanted to complain about some of the lines that felt really forced this episode-- namely, the elf saying, "Put a little something in my booty" when he meant money in his shoe and Mitch saying, "I can't believe a little Dylan's going pop out of you. What would that even look like?" <cut to Dylan coming out of the chimney>. They were both done for jokes, but they were not at all natural, and I spent more time thinking, "Who would say that?" than caring about the joke.

I get looking at the fact that Haley's 24-25 and thinking she should be old enough to have a baby without acting like this about it...but I also don't. Like, I know people who have intentionally had children at 24, but as someone who is currently 24, I know I am nowhere near ready to have a baby. Should I learn that I was going to, I would absolutely be freaked out about it. I've always liked kids, liked and been good at babysitting, and I'd at least like to imagine that I'm more mature than Haley is, but actually having a baby would be so, so much. Between that and the previously mentioned hormones, I don't see this as going too far at all. I would like to see her work on maturing before the baby is born, and I think she can both be really freaked out and overwhelmed now and also grow as she moves past that. What I think she needs to do right now is what she started doing at the end of the episode: let other people in and let them support her. Before, Dylan was the only person she had for support about this, and while I do like Dylan, I can see him not being the best at it.

That was my first thought too, but I think they might have meant John Balma, who played Barney on Parks and Rec, the guy from the accounting firm who kept trying to hire Ben and fangirled over him.

The first time my mom tried sushi, she did not like it. Then she decided to try another bite with wasabi, thinking it might help. It did not.

I. Love. Arcades. Like, not even in the past tense, like "when I was a child." I am still way into them, so this was a good episode for me. I couldn't help but think that 10,000 tickets was way too low for a dune buggy, though. I guess if they were consistent with limiting the ticket pay out of the games, but it seems like they should have set it higher.

I'm really bummed about this show being cancelled. I mean, I'm more upset about Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but this sucks too.

Those are some good compare/contrast points. I don't think this show is nearly as good as Community or The Good Place, but it's interesting thinking of characters from all of them in relation with each other. The main thing bringing down this show was the unrelated other teachers B-plots. I won't be terribly disappointed if the show isn't renewed, but I think it has elements with potential to be a good show.