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ljenkins782

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  1. Right?? I was so excited when I saw the previews for this, I loved reading the The Swans of 5th Avenue, but this missed the mark in a million ways. I think a more linear storytelling pattern would have helped it (and FAR few fantasy montages). I would have liked more buildup to the big rift and more scenes of the good times beforehand. Even if they had elected to stick with the style of showing the before times via flashbacks, it would have been a lot easier to follow without umpteen fantasy sequences making it hard to discern what was what. Jessica Lange emoting to the back row was also overdone. A scene or 2 would have done the trick to show the mommy issues, it felt like they'd contracted with her for Bette & Joan and had to find a way to shoehorn her into every episode here too. I haven't been able to read the Belle Burden NY Times piece (it's always behind a fire wall), but a few nights ago I WAS able to read a 1990 article about Babe from Vanity Fair magazine, and according to that article she wasn't the best mother as most of her efforts were focused on Bill Paley and his expectations of her. Even her children with him took 2nd place (and from the article, they were much more troubled than the kids both she and Bill had from their first marriages). The article was a long read but enlightening to the life that Babe had. Yes, the experience of a grandchild can be worlds apart from the experience of a son or daughter. But Babe wouldn't even necessarily have been considered a bad mother by the standard of the time and the social circle she lived in. Coldness toward the children or a demand for perfection was fairly standard, Jackie O has been accused of some of those things as well. And the way the book described her with her routine of putting on an entirely fresh face of makeup for when Bill came home from work and this carefully crafted facade, it's hard to see where the mothering side would fit in.
  2. She was a lovely singer and person, certainly a better choice for a platinum ticket than the anointed ones last year (and I like the change of handing them out later instead of wasting them on someone early on when better people come up later), but the huge focus of attention seems like too much at this stage of the competition. Like, an entire hometown parade while still in the audition phase? That's a lot. I don't think we'd ever get another Kelly Clarkson type winner, someone who got next to no tv time and wound up winning anyway. There have to be lots of golden ticket winners who don't even make the broadcast given the huge chunks of time being devoted to the select few.
  3. I don't put what she did into the same category as playing the mom to the tribe. Playing the mom like "Mama Julie" did last season, that was a nurturing sort of thing. What Maria did was much more in the manipulation department, she saw a young stupid kid and she played on that, successfully. That was a special kind of clueless right up to the end with his speech about blindsides and "getting comfortable, that's when they get you." Um, it was vote 1, and there was zero evidence that you had any sort of alliance or secure place in your tribe. Just an okay opener for me, no one stood out too much in a positive way. But it does seem like we're heading for another season of one dodo tribe who sucks up all the oxygen for the first few weeks and some other lucky tribe where you don't even learn anyone's name til the merge because they're never at tribal.
  4. I can understand why the pressure would have hit at this moment, she's spent the previous weeks battling internally with girls who had no real connection with Joey. It occupied her time and she always won those battles, now that they're down to a small knot of girls with whom he does have a visible connection, it's a big difference in the atmosphere. I was a little surprised by Joey's muted response to it, but it also kind of tracks with their whole dynamic. He's called her a wild card and unpredictable since the start, so this bobble was probably not a total surprise. I don't know why this made me laugh so hard, but it did. And yes, once Rachel got a rose, the doomed were obvious. (And like others in this thread, the fact that there is a Rachel gave me a moment's pause too. I know her to look at her when the show is on, but her name hasn't clicked. And I think she's cannon fodder for hometown week.) Jen is beautiful and she put in a respectable effort to form a connection, but there's something inherently flat about her. Like she seems like the kind who could form that exact same connection with any guy they slotted into the Bachelor role, whereas Daisy seems genuinely connected with Joey himself. For that reason, Jen would probably make a fine Bachelorette, forging a generic relationship with multiple people is pretty much the gig. She's very pretty, she went far in the process and will likely get called to the heartbreak spotlight couch with Jesse at the Women Tell All, so she would be the perfect candidate if they're looking to cast their first Asian lead. She didn't do too hot on her Bachelorette audition in the van though, not enough tears and shock.
  5. In fairness though, Joan self-eliminated so we'll never know if Gerry might have picked her in the end if she'd stayed. I think part of Gerry's criteria (whether he would admit it or not) was for someone who had lost a spouse. That was part of the connection he had with Theresa, that shared experience of a long marriage ending in a loss and Joan had that sort as well.
  6. My only complaint about this episode is that I wish they could've found a way to edit together the Lea/Jess nonsense from last week into this episode with their departures, it would have been much more satisfying to see them booted after all that drama they brought on themselves. Jess' boot was particularly embarrassing and would have been a perfect bookend to her meltdown over Maria "stealing" her time. If she and Sydney are watching this, the world of difference between Maria's time with Joey and theirs SHOULD tell the tale of why her and not them, but I suspect they will not see it. I can definitely see Jess and Lea turning up in BiP and perhaps Sydney would as well, but I would expect her to come up empty-handed with that sour, humorless personality. Daisy, Maria, and maybe Jenn seem to be the frontrunners at this point, but I expect Jenn to fall short of the final 2, I don't know why. She would make a good bachelorette, the men would be lining up for her, I think.
  7. That's some evil genius, that would've sent Sydney right over the self-righteous edge.
  8. I don't think Kathy would be very popular with the men though. She's a particular type of woman, she's got the bitchy attitude, but without any compensating features. Like the "crazy/hot scale" from How I Met Your Mother, men will put up with a certain amount of crazy if it comes with a corresponding amount of hotness, but Kathy, while she's certainly attractive, doesn't have the persona that draws men. Much as I enjoyed Susan, I also didn't think she'd be a man magnet, except in a friend zone type of way. Unfortunately, I could see men falling for Joan based on looks alone, but agree that that would be a real snoozer of a season. I guess Leslie would be a step up in the personality department, but there's something a little desperate about her. Like she's too eager to be seen as sexy and younger than she is.
  9. Yes, Sydney is telling the collective "us" we need to do better (per US magazine article) because people are being mean to her on social media. I imagine Lea and Jess picked up some heat after this week too. It really is stratified on an age line with the 23 year olds being so caught up in their girl code outrage and the "old" ones, Maria and Madina, being like "I don't get why this has anything to do with you, person who wasn't even there" etc. I loved how quickly Madina slapped Lea down for her utterly silly demand that Madina be mean to Maria because of Sydney. Like, that was the most revealing bit of immaturity I've seen since my own college days. I doubt Lea/Sydney/Jess are going to gain any insight into their own behavior in time for the Women Tell All, so prepare yourselves for a whole lot of Instagram cliche talk about girl code, speaking my/her truth, being better, etc. But in terms of Sydney vs Maria, it really was comical to have Sydney sitting there thinking she was going to get a rose based on...whatever she thought. "Showing up for Joey"? It was like she thought there was a teacher's pet award on the line. There was zero connection between her and Joey and she showed herself to be invested in everything BUT Joey with her silliness, but I guarantee she doesn't see that. Meanwhile, Maria and Joey have had a clear connection from the beginning, Maria was always going to win that one. I can't remember which episode it was in, but that trust fall thing with Madina was flat out embarrassing. She's another one who had no real connection with Joey and I think she was actually saved by the drama for a brief period because he felt bad. The thing about the sob stories is that if it's coming from someone who is genuinely connected to the lead, it comes across as sharing, but when it's coming from obvious cannon fodder who will be going home any day, it comes across as the nail in the coffin. I was sorry to see Autumn go, she was the type I would have expected to gel with Joey's mellow vibe, I think she might have gotten screwed by the drama ladies sucking up all the oxygen and probably getting producer-directed roses to keep the drama going.
  10. Cory and Rachel were both ideal targets for different reasons, Cory's self esteem was fragile and she was struggling to fit in anywhere, and Rachel had just enough arrogance to think she was special to be "chosen" by him. By far, Pam was the ultimate Puck kryptonite, she didn't give his nonsense a bit of oxygen. That's much more impressive to me upon rewatch as an adult because Puck really had manipulation down to an art, particularly toward women, and it takes a strong sense of self to block that out. Especially for 20-somethings who are still trying to figure themselves out.
  11. ljenkins782

    S10: Palau

    Apologies for quoting such an old post, but I'm rewatching this season now and my opinion on Caryn's stupid move remains that she A. didn't like Katie B. had a little crush-like feeling toward Tom and wanted those little moments of attention that she got from him when she was playing the snitch role. It was pretty funny how incredulous Tom was about the story just because it was such a dumb thing for her to do and he couldn't find a reason that it benefited her. I have this season on DVD and this is one of the few I'd keep even though the show is streaming in so many places because the commentaries for this season are some of the best ever.
  12. He always struck me as smarmy on the show, but I didn't follow him closely enough to have an opinion on whether he really is or not. I like her and I think she's held her head up against a lot of shit thrown her way by the public, I can imagine that not wanting to give that public the unhappy ending they seem so intent on her having could have played a role in the length of their relationship.
  13. Sydney is reminding me of some other irritating blonde past contestant who also spoke in Instagram cliches and considered herself the lone voice of wisdom and bravery. I feel like it was some kind of Madison/Makayla/some other cliche name and she actually spoke words like "I'm living my truth/standing up as a strong woman" that she had CLEARLY practiced in her mirror. If I recall, she showed up to BiP and failed to attract a single guy. I have to assume that Sydney will be the one left on an ice floe after that 2-1 boat ride based on the editing around the two of them. The editors have gone out of their way to show interview defense of Maria even though none of them seem too eager to stand up in front of the group. And they seem to be choosing Sydney's most self-aggrandizing, foolish looking clips so I assume she's not the one. I can see why Maria might be a lot, but she doesn't appear to have sinister motives. And yes, Madina might have been put off by the persistent attempts to squash this misunderstanding so directly, but there are worse offenses and Sydney's insidious nonsense about things utterly unrelated to her definitely fall in the "worse" column. The tennis date was a lot of fun, that mix of women really embraced the spirit of it and there was no scheming and drama. Daisy and Autumn were adorable together, those 2 could really get far playing the nice girl BFF roles, especially amongst the drama with the others.
  14. I just rewatched this season recently, I really enjoyed this one. It was a healthy mix of storylines: the underdog redemption arc of Matsing members, the utter collapse of the dominant alliance of Tandang, plus a good mix of characters (including some odious ones, like Abi). The one thing that I do appreciate about Abi as a villain is that I believe she's 100% authentic in her awfulness. It doesn't have the veneer of someone playing to the cameras, that's just how she is and it's authentically infuriating. But regarding the quoted part, I agree about Penner. He put them through a wringer at FTC because he felt it should be hard but he seemed genuinely proud of the ones who did well/stood up to the questioning. Watching it back again, Lisa really did play a good game and could have done even better if people had recognized the move she tried to make against Malcolm. Who's to say how Denise fares without Malcolm. Possibly just fine, but to tear away someone's #1 ally will have some impact. Where Lisa failed big time was in recognizing the threat of Denise. Her description of Denise not really playing, just "letting Malcolm play for her" was offensive and completely off base. Also, Lisa should have stuck to her plan of dragging Abi as a goat. This is where I have to wonder if Penner got to her with the idea of the "story of the season" because he was correct that the audience was salivating for the downfall of the Pete/Abi alliance and rewarding their awfulness with an F3 finish was going to be infuriating. But it's also possible that she just didn't have the votes to keep Abi or she thought she could use Denise as a weapon against Malcolm in the final challenge, but again, that's leaving Denise in the mix to her own detriment. As for the final vote, I wish they would ask each juror to explain their vote in more detail. Like why Abi not only voted for Denise but claimed she still would have even if Malcolm had been up there. Yes, she loathed Skupin and was mad at Lisa, but she also seemed to really personally hate Denise. I guess maybe Denise had "betrayed" her less than the other 2? Personally, I think her hatred of Denise was just that her tricks didn't work on Denise, she never showed any response to any of Abi's baiting, so perhaps in the end she had to respect that a little, who knows. Finally, the only regret I have with this season is that there were some interesting minor characters that I would have liked to see more from. Katie/Dawson/Dana seemed like they were having a pretty good time together and just some more around camp footage from that tribe might have been nice. That's the perennial issue with the 3 tribe thing, especially when one is full of huge personalities OR is horribly dysfunctional. For my money, I would have liked far less of Russell Swann shouting his every statement and wildly overestimating his own threat level (if I heard "I was willing to DIE for this game" one more freaking time...) and more of some of the other players. But overall, a really good season.
  15. I think it was a series finale, not a season finale. I went looking for some explanation of what the hell I just watched and it seemed to indicate that IF the show returned, it would be with different actors and different characters. If this is it, my reviews are mixed. The acting was stellar and the cringe factor was deliberately turned up to 11 and it was effective. But there were just too many themes floating around at once and I feel like they could have edited it down to something a little more cohesive, the content was there. And that final scene of the ceiling/roof/treetop went on WAY too long. It was almost half the episode! They could have achieved whatever metaphorical meaning they were reaching for with a much shorter sequence. FWIW, the metaphorical significance I heard that made the most sense was that Asher "disappeared" the way he said he would if he ever really thought Whitney didn't want him there.
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