Passing Strange

Agree with all the comments about Lee's supposedly clever lines. A few of the earlier ones were familiar, but for the last few seasons they've been contrived and senseless. He and production are creating a character. Fine, but there's no need to make him vulgar. And what's up with the crew uniforms? I've always hated that the female stews wore those very short skorts while the female deckhands and all the men had shorts of a reasonable length. Now Rayna has the skort. Wake up, Bravo, and dress everyone the same. I'd prefer shorts all around, but it might be fun to see some of the guys trying to pull off a skort.

No, Eddie, the captain doesn't care who you sex up or where. He was disappointed in you because you cheated on your girlfriend and tried to gaslight the woman with whom you cheated. It was a character issue. Since you failed to acknowledge that last part during your rueful confession and have yet to apologize to Rocky, I still think you're a POS.

Gordeeva and Grinkov were wonderful and I wish we could have seen how they developed. The image is Torvill and Dean, my all time favorites.

It's not height as much as it is proportion and Tara's height to leg ratio looks good. Looking at some pictures of her in street clothes, she seems to wear a variety of styles well. No, it's because you're right. 😉 Dick Button was actually informative. And good technique that didn't involve mostly jumping around. Sometimes I just want to see grace and beauty.

Octavio should have packed his red mustache and gone. He was horrible to Katie during the construction and complained about her during judging, until Elaine redirected him. She should have chastised him, and the purple ruffled ugliness should have sent him home. I liked Bones' shirt and I was pretty sure Johnny would love it. Anna's dress was lovely, but, like last week's mermaid dress, it was nothing new or unique. I wonder if the V will be smaller in the finished project. I agree with whichever judge said it was too deep. I used to love figure skating almost as much as Aaron. I knew who all of the people he mentioned were. Still, that flopping around in ecstasy when Tara and Johnny were introduced was annoying.

Agreed. Most of these folks don't seem to know how to design for breasts. Last episode Zayden smushed his model's and this episode Octavio let his model's bounce. I'm guessing it's because they're used to making clothes for flat chested women and have no idea how to incorporate a bra. Until designers can do a good job of fitting women who aren't built like suit boxes they can't say they design for plus size. Posters in another thread pointed out how on past seasons the judges recoiled in horror from designs that made the model look bigger. The thing is, if you're plus size, you're big. No amount of dark fabric or horizontal stripes is going to change that. When designers embrace the body the results can be excellent. (Thanks for mentioning Lizzo, @lilwhitelion)

Buddy was a tenant, with a lease and everything. They were living in the same house, but not in the living together sense this law requires. The law also specifies intentionality and it's clear from the video that Whitney didn't intend to hurt or threaten Buddy. Buddy and Whitney were two friends having fun and an ill conceived action went awry. That is nowhere near the level of repeated controlling and abusive behavior that is domestic violence. I'm not here to win an argument, just to point this out.

It's been "Da" ever since they moved to the mountain. It may have started during the California cancer treatment season, I'm not sure. Regardless, it's been several seasons since it suddenly appeared.

It's hard to tell when we don't know much about them, but I'm thinking Octavio's model isn't 100 pounds overweight, so not morbidly obese. Actually, I think it's the show that's not woke. Showing off clothes is a matter of proportion and many of us people of size are short waisted. So, yes, the designer with the large model is sometimes at a disadvantage. If the show wants to be inclusive, I wish they'd do some challenges with only plus size models and make sure they're all the same size, no five eleven size twelves competing against five nine size eighteens. I did like both Octavio's and Bones' designs. They didn't stuff the models into sausage casings and proclaim they were complementing their beautiful curves, as happened in Making the Cut with really crappy results. It's possible to design beautiful clothes that flatter big women, but that's a rare skill set and not yet common in people who want to design for the runway.

No, not at all, for just the reasons you mentioned. That's why it it was funny when Brandon was confused and wondering if the flowy garment was a "cooking robe." Apparently Brandon doesn't do a lot of cooking. A cooking sleeveless catsuit would be perfect. Now I want a challenge where they have to make cooking garments and stories on the runway about how they were taught to cook by a beloved dead relative are forbidden.

About domestic violence: I'm thinking not. It's questionable whether they had the required type of relationship. Buddy was Whitney's tenant, not her partner, and their physical relationship was a one off. She didn't throw the remote with the intention of harming him nor did she make him afraid of her. Plus, there's no pattern of violence. What Whitney did could have had worse consequences, but didn't. I suspect many of us have been in similar situations. It's stupid, but not evil.

I wasn't crazy about the actual challenge outfit, but I do want a cooking robe.

But, at the end of the day they love each other so, so, so much. 🙄 They think their love story is eternal and beautiful and we don't remember that Kyle dumped Amanda before the first season so he could enjoy all the attention he was sure he would get from other women. When that didn't happen, Amanda, who was staying at another house, was happy to Uber to him in response to a 2:00 AM booty call. Probably not a story they're going to tell the grandkids. Was it ongoing? I get confused when they talk at once. I thought it was a one time thing with Lindsay and Austen.

I'm willing to cut Gabby a little bit of a break since she told us she's very introverted. Being thrown into a group of strangers, some of whom know each other well, was uncomfortable for her. Of course, a good thing to do in that situation is look pleasant and approachable, but maybe she just couldn't. I did get the sense that Luke was interested in her, at least until Julia's grind fest, which was a dick move on Julia's part. Here's where I question Gabby: If your good friend has a history of cock blocking you, she's not your good friend. Don't accept her offer to check out whether a guy is interested. Instead, maybe make a move yourself? Or just pass him a note in class that says "Do you like me?" with check boxes for yes and no. I like Lindsay. She tires hard, but she's so awkward and vulnerable it keeps backfiring. It's not a good idea to base your expectations on something a drunk guy said on New year's Eve. Better to keep quiet and observe. Without Danielle, Lindsay doesn't have a good woman friend in the house. She needs one. She has too many male BFFs--Kyle, Carl, almost Luke, and Austin--two of whom she's tried to turn into romantic partners. See how well that's worked out. Ciara lost me when she jumped on Hannah's Train Of Luke-Related Delusion last summer. Her apparent intent to jump on Austen now moves her no further up in my estimation. You know you live in a fucked up universe when dumpy Austen Kroll gets more action than cutie Jason Cameron.

I think Whitney has been straightforward about the fact that she's not trying to lose weight, this season anyway. I was talking about the idea that all it would take to do that would be for her to apply herself.

Maybe we didn't see all of Whitney's interview with Rebecca because there seemed to be a couple of missed opportunities for follow up. For instance, I would have wanted to know why Rebecca stopped going to her old gym. It seemed like she might not have been comfortable exercising around others, but maybe confirm that? Because if there was an injury or an incident with a trainer or other client that would have been important to know. I did think Whitney did a good job encouraging her. The mask did fall when Jessica said Whitney should have asked her about going to France, wow. And the thing is, I don't think Jessica meant Whitney should have asked Jessica's permission. She meant that Whitney should have discussed before taking an action that affected their business, a reasonable expectation. I think when Glen said what he and Babs wanted most in the world was Whitney's happiness, he was responding to a question about Whitney specifically. That particular segment came right after Whitney asked him what his hopes and dreams were for her trip. To me it looked like the producer's question was following up on that and Glen's answer was an extension of what he'd said to Whitney. We haven't seen anything in this or the previous seasons to indicate that Hunter is less important to their parents than Whitney. People sometimes say if only Whitney would do X or Whitney just has to do Y and she'll lose weight. It's not that simple and there really is science that says our bodies fight weight loss. From the Washington Post: There are real, and difficult, biological reasons why it’s hard to lose weight.

Yes, there's science to support this. When fat people lose weight our bodies think we're starving. They compensate for it by increasing appetite and decreasing metabolism. Whitney once lost 100 pounds and gained it all back and then some, which isn't unusual. She said she feels like she failed Will. She only failed to successfully fight her own body, like 160 million people in the US.

There were several times that someone not saying or doing something could have stopped this whole mess. Making the wrong decision at those times started right there, with Christian. Prajje had asked Coral to switch models, she'd said no, end of story. If ever there was a make it work moment, this was it. Prajje was stuck in his vision. It was Christian's job to try to get him to reframe it to work with the model he had. Instead, Christian threw his weight around. He may not be a judge, but he's still PR professional staff and should have maintained professional distance. I wonder if there's somebody whose job it is to drape the judges' clothing. Last week someone had to pool Elaine's dress around her feet, this week Nina's sleeves needed artful arranging and probably picked up and wrapped around her so she could walk. I can't wait until it's Brandon's turn to be draped, otherwise I'd hope PR would fire that person and hire some extra models.

Exactly. In previous challenges with plus size or "real women" models there's been a lot of variation in size. Maybe not always, but it seems the woman who was closest to the regular models in height and build usually won. The regular models are very similar in shape and size. A fair challenge would have plus size models who were equally similar.

Aarti, I applaud you for having the confidence to wear that outfit. Even so, when people are stressed and upset, stop cheerleading, STFU, and go away. And don't come back and hug people while they're still scrambling. Me, either. He's cute enough, but this is the guy who kept making healthy, low calorie food when his "culinary point of view" was cheat day. For me he doesn't have a lot of credibility when it comes to baking technique. I think he's there mostly to be the unofficial on set host and eye candy. Like others, I'm missing a small scare, the pumpkin carvers. Todd, a guest judge the teams all pretend they've heard of, and a real host. I'm hoping the guess that this is Covid related is right and things will be back to normal next year.

Double post deleted.

Note: I'm pretending this is real and without producer intervention and responding accordingly. As much as I wanted to slap Whitney for bullying her parents, I wanted to slap her parents more. Glen awkwardly announces that he has some bad news and Babs looks very apprehensive. He says the turtle is dead and Babs is stunned. "What!" she cries. Because she didn't realize there's a dead turtle in a baggie on ice in a big cooler on her kitchen table? Also, turtles don't discard their shells, lovingly or otherwise, Whitney. The garage cleaning begins and Babs says to the camera with determination that she's not going to have it. She fails to share this with Whitney, however, so she actually does have it. We see her fluttering ineffectually around the bundle of sticks in the truck. For chrissake, Babs, just take the damn sticks out of the truck. But no. Then Glen, who last week wasn't about to give control of the family to Whitney, now thinks hiring the junk removal people is a good idea. He doesn't like how it was done, which again isn't mentioned to the doer. I can't with these ineffectual people. All sizzle and no steak.

Unless Whitney is 5’6” Ashley isn't 5’7.” And, yeah, I'd lie about my weight on national television, too, just like I do everywhere else. 🙄

This. While I lean toward the asshole being a production device, the situation still highlighted how difficult it can be for heavy people. It's like Dani Mathers posting the photo of the woman at the gym--here are fat folks doing what thin folks preach that they should be doing, then they ridicule them for doing it. We need to learn that women own our bodies. We don't have to smile, be sweet or make different decisions just because other people think we should. I very much enjoyed seeing the woman having fun, laughing and squealing on the bikes and in the pool, enjoying the dinner party and the meditation. Some of the bathing suits and active wear were really cute. It was very nice to see large women in bright colors and clothes with shape, not avoiding patterns and hiding their bodies under yards of dark fabric. I want Whitney's Baacal dress. I hate twerking, on people of any size, but they were having so much fun it was fun to watch them. Glen needs to give that speech about not giving Whitney control of the family to Whitney, not the camera. TLC, the parent bullying and French man absurdity are annoying story lines. Do better.

I don't disagree about balance issues, physical decline or resistance to change. To me, two people and three falls may be a cause for keeping an eye on things, but it isn't a pattern that requires major changes. That's not to say that there won't be cause for concern in the future and Glen even expressed openness to eventual changes. Right now, though, Whitney needs to stop badgering. She's Annette of Fat Girls Traveling. Whitney said she follows the account and Annette reached out to her. It looks like a good group and I hope this exposure helps them spread their message. This is just perfect. I think it's true for most people. It's lovely to see so many posts supporting respect for older peoples' decisions. Yes. Even though I was interested in knowing those things, too, it seemed rude for Whitney to be asking. I was expecting the event organizer to try to stimulate conversation. If she hadn't, I think I would have said something about the space, the food, the weather, just something neutral to get the ball rolling. I'm guessing the producers wanted Whitney to prod in order to save filming time but, damn that was awkward. True. That's why I said "significant." In this episode we saw that the back problem has improved. And while Babs may not have reached Sophia Petrillo levels of stroke recovery, she's done very well. I think the only other fall was the recent one, which looked like a trip and fall. Been there, done that, in public, and very grateful it didn't happen on national television.