ljenkins782

Ugh, hard pass on a reboot. As for Dixie, I don't know where I watched this interview but I think it was with Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and the impression I walked away with was that Dixie was far closer to the Suzanne character IRL than the Julia character. A bit shallow and materialistic, but charming. Makes her portrayal of Julia all the more impressive. One of the most amusing Anthony moments for me is a very tiny segment of the episode where they have that really crazy client. Anthony has been driving him around and explains that they had to go through the car wash "and then we had to have our pictures made with everyone who worked there." Charlene asks why and the face Anthony makes while shrugging makes me laugh out loud. He does it again when the guy gives him a few pieces from "my personal game of Clue" as a reward for something. Anthony was truly long-suffering, between Suzanne, Bernice, crazy clients, etc., but he handled it quite gracefully.

I started to watch the finale and once Matt and Rudi self-selected out, I put it aside and only finished it yesterday. They were the only couple left that I enjoyed watching from a performance standpoint. Chris and Bri are consistently good, but all that entertaining. I was also worried that Jamie and Trevor would somehow win. I didn't think they even belonged in the finale, let alone to win it. Jamie is SO young. However old she actually is, she acts far younger, like a teenager. And her voice was one of, if not THE weakest of all the women. I don't have much of an impression of Ryan and while Natascha was a great singer, I've always noticed that anyone on any singing show who works as a vocal coach, singing teacher, etc. never really does well on the show. I'm not 100% sure why, but it's a trend I've noticed over the years. Oh God, you're definitely right about that. No more Z-list country singers, they're going to keep in the family from now on.

The decision of Natalie and Michele's that makes the least sense to me is why they left Sarah in the game. They were in no danger if it came down to a tie in that scenario, there were no rocks to be pulled. Sarah and Denise would have had to make fire and the chips would fall where they may at that point. That was the chance to break up the Tony/Sarah/Ben trio and while Denise was close to Ben, she wasn't tied to Tony the way Sarah was. That was probably Ben's most likable moment, but I'd be pissed if I were his wife. He wasn't likely to win, but he could have brought home a not-insignificant chunk of change even as a 3rd place finisher. These "friends" that he made are people who I assume don't live nearby and aren't going to be part of his life on a day-to-day basis. It seemed like a highly emotional decision that may not hold up after the fact.

Ryan was acting VERY weird by the end of the show. I watched on Hulu without commercials and after what would have been a commercial break, he just stared straight down at his desk for an extra minute before announcing the final 2 in a completely flat tone. I was pretty shocked by Just Sam's win too. I thought she was a lock for top 5 (though it crossed my mind that it could be an all-male top 5), but I thought the winner would be Arthur once it was down to those 2 and before that, I'd thought Jonny or Dillon could win. I was a little surprised Francisco made it into the top 5 and I think he was too, lol. On the other hand, it looked like Arthur thought he had the win in the bag at final 2. I don't think the family celebration was because they thought he won, I think they expected him to win so they had celebration stuff planned and just rolled on with it anyway. It certainly would have made for a more festive winning moment than poor Just Sam in a room alone with an iPad. I don't usually go in for conspiracy theories, but I could see the show massaging the results a bit due to the disparity in the numbers of female winners vs males and maybe to give Just Sam a boost. Of the top 5, she's clearly in the most difficult position financially, so I hope this helps her out. But the reason I think this would be the season to mess with, voting-wise, is that it was such a weird situation overall, I doubt there would be a big outcry. I managed to be all over the internet today before watching the show and didn't encounter a single spoiler, so I don't think many people are paying too much attention anymore. I only watched this season because we're locked down and there's nothing else to do. I was so glad Louis didn't make the top 5, I don't understand how he even made it this far. He's got such a wannabe One Direction-er vibe and if not for the British accent, I don't think he would have gotten much notice. It did seem pointless to call EVERYONE a star and declare EVERY performance a triumph. Some of those performances last night were a bit dull. Technically fine and all, but not noteworthy and every "critique" was just nonstop gushing. I kinda liked Katy's song too, it seemed like a return to her former musical style after some supremely shitty singles in recent years.

Ha, I was just thinking that he's finally looking more like his old self after being quite round on the last season. Amber probably appreciates his time on EOE, he's almost back to his All Stars weight. I can understand any of them being frustrated at spending all that time out there on EOE and then having virtually no shot at getting back in because of the plethora of advantages that were in play due to the stupid fire tokens. Yes, Natalie did have to work for those, but 3 advantages in one challenge is at least 2 too many, IMO. I'm not a fan of EOE, but I completely understand why they did it this season. If not, so many of the big names/long-awaited returnees would have disappeared from the screen early on. I kind of came around on Adam too (and LOL at the VOLUME of his confessionals being considerably lower than before). He's still annoying, but it's more endearing now. And my feelings toward Ethan are completely changed, I never warmed to him in his earlier seasons for whatever reason, but I really rooted for him here. Not to win since I didn't think he had a shot, but just to prove something to himself after all he's been through. On the flip side, I'd really liked some people, like Denise and Wendell, and they didn't come across as well the second time around. There were a lot of elements of this season that I wouldn't normally enjoy, but I did with this crowd. Like their family visits and the whole crowd of EOE folks rushing Probst as a thank you for bringing their families. And even the extended "what Survivor has done for me" segment, I really liked hearing them talk about how it changed their lives. For a significant number of these particular folks, it really has taken their lives in a wildly different direction than it would have ever gone and that's pretty cool. Yeah, like I said above, this season just had a different feel than other seasons and Tonyplayed right into the vibe of the game. Natalie did work hard to get herself back in and she tried to make the most of her return trip, but a second EOE winner is tough. She had to do more on EOE than Chris did, but she didn't have to worry about being voted out since the very first 3 days. Michele winning wouldn't have been my favorite outcome, she did have to work to stay in and won some key immunities, but her profile was so low coming in that she was allowed to get that deep. She was on the wrong side of the vote most of the time and if she'd been more of a threat, she'd have been taken out long ago. If she really was just there for him, I feel less bad for her. If she wasn't out there trying to prove something about her previous win (like Michele was), then this was basically just a month-long break from real life. She did a confessional in one of the recent episodes about how this gave her time to just be, while at home it's always hectic. I can see a mom of 4 finding some value in quiet time to herself, even if it is in less than luxurious settings. Come to think of it, maybe Ponderosa would have been more welcome in her case, lol. I know she mentioned the "controversy" around her win, but I don't get the sense that it eats her up the way it does Michele. Ooh, I'd like to know more about the clique and the huge fight between Natalie and Yul. Like, of all people to get in a huge fight, Yul is not the first one to spring to mind. The bathroom stuff is a bit tacky to bring up, but I'm curious, did they have to put the entire TC on hold to wait for him?

Nick made the mistake of looking too far ahead. He was looking at who he wanted to sit next to in the end and not worrying enough about actually getting there. Jeremy has won very few immunities and has been a giant bullseye of a target for a long time, better to keep him in and take out one of the members of Tony's alliance. Nick was sitting right there when Tony spilled the beans of Jeremy's plot to oust Ben, he knew Tony wasn't actually working with Jeremy. I was rooting for Nick, but he shot himself in the foot. I thought Nick's "advantage" kinda sucked for someone in his position. Crippling just one person at the immunity challenge is only an advantage if you have a group to back you up in booting them while they're vulnerable. If he'd had a steal a vote or double vote, he could have really shaken up the game, but this didn't do much at all. IIRC, it only motivated Sarah to get Michele out. And agreed that it was a bit weak and passive. It's rare that a person on the bottom can convince a player in the majority group that they're making a mistake (even when it's true), it's always written off as a last-ditch effort by someone on their way out the door. I feel like Tony's even hustling in his talking head interviews. His spiel about not wanting to take goats to the final because it's an all winners season seemed like calculated BS to me. He's totally taking Ben to the end for the goat factor. The guy has made zero moves that he can point to besides tucking himself under Tony's wing. He was part of the group that booted Boston Rob, but that was handed to him on a silver platter by the tribal shakeup and Sarah was also part of that group (and a more controlling party, IIRC). And it remains to be seen if Tony will actually stick by Sarah if he has control over the final votes. I can 100% see him sending her to make fire vs Ben knowing that she'll likely lose and he can keep his goat Ben and whoever else is left.

Yeah, I was so torn. I needed Julia and to a lesser extent, Brandon, to get comeuppance, but there is much more entertainment value in Julia's complete lack of self awareness and irony than there is in Jamie's repeated meltdowns and Trevor's blandness. I am ashamed of how much I liked Julia at first. She stood out in a really positive way in the very first episode and then the mask fell away after that. I can see her being one of the people who always has lots of (ultimately short-lived) irons in the fire because she's clearly good at making people think they're the most important person in the world and it's something they hang on to even after she makes it clear that she's not actually as into them as she pretended. Some people work very hard to make people fall for them and as soon as they're satisfied that they're hooked, they move on to hooking the next fish. Sheridan should have seen the writing on the wall awhile ago, but she dangled just enough attention to keep him coming back. On the flipside, I like Rudi and Natascha much more than I would've thought in their first episodes. Rudi wears her crazy on her sleeve to the point where it becomes sort of endearing. And Matt is damn lucky he paired up with her because she really sells her performances while he kind of stands there taking up space. Natascha made a horrible first impression like a low-rent, villain-for-hire by tearing into Trevor within seconds of being introduced to him. She made a tiny effort at pretending she didn't know he'd be there or whatever when she was so clearly sent in with a mission, she might as well have been holding a script. But she's upped her shit-stirring game quite a bit and Julia was a far more deserving target than the seemingly harmless Trevor. I'm glad to be done with Brandon and his giant teeth. I guess he's reasonably attractive, but his personality sucked. I'm glad Savannah walked out on his gaslighting bullshit. I hope whoever may consider dating him in the future watched this show because his manipulative conversational tactics were obviously well practiced. Same with Julia, her pouting "sorry" face that changed instantly into anger, than into "it's your fault now and I don't deserve this..." Yikes. A master class in manipulation.

I have very little experience with Kerry Washington prior to this, but I found her to be a huge weak link most of the time. Her best scenes were when she was interacting with Elena's kids for some reason or telling off Elena, but with Pearl and when she was "closeup acting," I found her distractingly bad. She seemed to make the same few strange facial expressions and over-enunciated her words in an attempt to convey emotion and it really fell flat for me. I wish they had cast someone with more range. Rosemarie Dewitt, though her role was limited, did a fantastic job and I hope she gets recognized. Reese Witherspoon was very good, but also pretty familiar in this role. It felt like a less redeemable version of her Big Little Lies character. The actress who played Pearl was great and one of the only consistently sympathetic characters in the series. I also really liked Pacey (blanking on his real name) in this last episode, I wish he'd had more to do earlier on.

That was a genuinely impressive performance by Tony. The feat of hustling 3 extra tokens alone was pretty huge, when it would have been easy enough for the people he told about it to let him twist in the wind. But the gymnastics of engineering a secret Sophie vote was also pretty impressive. Sophie was a threat to him with little upside, since she didn't have a strong tie to him and threatened his alliance with Sarah, who will probably be mad but with few options for recourse at this point. He's in danger now, but with an immunity idol to see him through the next tribal and depending on who's left standing after that, he may be able to scramble himself back into a majority alliance. It seems like at least half the people who were mad at Jeremy were mad at him because they'd planned to vote him out, which is nothing he should feel bad about. But Ben not believing Jeremy's spiel about him (Ben) being a threat seems like more self-awareness that I can give Ben credit for. He has inexplicably called himself one of the big threats since the beginning, when it seems obvious that he's riding the current as a spare vote. I'm finding this season challenging because there's no one left that I'm invested in seeing win. Someone coming back from EOE could maybe reignite my interest, but if it's like last season, that won't be until the very end. I did like Kim seeing through some of Tony's machinations, but since she was on the wrong side of the vote anyway, it doesn't seem to have mattered. She's been so invisible so far that it's hard to root for her unless the last part of the season has a lot more of her gameplay in it.

I always thought he had a speech impediment, going all the way back to the beginning. It changed as his voice deepened, but the speech issues were always there, IMO.

Yeah, I imagine that they had an emotional time filming it, but it didn't really carry through the television. Too many chaotic plots going and not too many funny moments. One of my favorite moments was Sal bursting in and I had never really liked that character. I've said this a million times already, but will say it again, they had the perfect series finale in the final episode of season 10 and should have called it a day. The scene at the hospital when Haley had the twins was sweet, emotional, funny, and nostalgic. This series finale didn't really hit any of those notes.

I thought it was cute too. Sounds like they'll miss Ed the most because he's going to be chilling in his beach house in Hawaii and not keeping in touch, lol. Very glad Ariel finally ditched the Morticia Adams jet black, flat middle part look. She looks so much better with lighter hair. I wish I could understand Nolan Gould a little better when he talks, it sounded like his "text from Julie Bowen" had a reference to Ariel and was potentially juicy, but he was half laughing/half mumbling and I couldn't make it out. I hope they have a similar interview with the adult cast, they always have a nice chemistry in group interviews.

Really though? Let's review Haley's history, did nothing all through high school, barely made it into college, got kicked out after 6 weeks, and lived in her parents' basement for years and halfway worked at several jobs, not doing exceptionally well at any of them (she got a promotion at Nerp because the boss is a flaky nut, not because she worked for it). But she should have become a "mogul" just because...alrighty then. Not that this show has ever dealt in reality or anything, but honestly, Haley winding up back with her high school boyfriend and accidentally pregnant is the most likely outcome for what we've seen of this character over 10 years. "So I don't read scripts of the episodes of Modern Family that I'm not in, so I just found out that my grandpa's dead along with all of you," she told fans. "I still feel special." .... "Oh yeah, I guess I should have put a spoiler alert for Grandpa Frank dying, but I was just caught off-guard," she said. "As his granddaughter, you'd think I'd be invited to the funeral." Now this part, I can understand. It was ridiculous that they'd have a memorial service for Frank with none of the Dunphy kids there. If they're budgeting for characters, thet would be the episode for Manny to sit out. Does the actor who plays Manny have a lower salary than the rest or what? Or perphaps a better agent? He seems to sit out the least of all the kids.

I could tell he’d voted for Wendell when they panned over the group and he was sinking into the collar of his shirt, staring at the floor. That was his hallmark in the season he won, he always looked like a puppy who peed on the rug after complicated tribal councils, lol. Im trying to figure out why it is that I don’t like Denise this time around when I liked her a lot on her season. Is it just the stupid haircut or what? Seriously though, she seemed so competent and socially adept on her season and something seems awkward about her this time around. But Ben was annoying this episode. First actually thinking he's a big threat, then his comment about Sophie at the IC ("She gonna be out quick"), and the fact that he just sucks at the strategic part of the game. He wasn't doing anything but going along with what everyone was saying. Ben is ALWAYS annoying, IMO. I feel like he was shoved down our throats in his season because we were supposed to root for the veteran, but his personality is unpleasant. He’s sycophantic and annoying with the men and fairly dismissive of women in general. and it’s laughable that he considers himself a threat among this group of people. Based on what, exactly? All I remember of his original season is the horrible twist that gave him the chance to win when he was absolutely going out 4th and that he found idols. Not a strategic, physical or social threat, IIRC. As for EOE, I was bummed that Rob lost out by a millimeter and Tyson was one of the last people I wanted to see get back in. I’m concerned for Ethan and Danni, they both look quite frail and like this may not be the best thing for them to be doing. Made sense for amber to throw her support behind Rob, he has a better chance without her than she has without him.

Ugh, I heard Christmas music on the radio this morning, is this really what programmers think will help people in this time?? Super dumb idea.