ljenkins782

I thought he looked regretful to see Cat go, he seemed like he was at least physically attracted to her. Kat is really puzzling to me, she seemed very polished on her show. Fake as hell, but at least polished, but she's a hot mess here. It's a bit more endearing, but it's such a 180 from her previous persona. And she was too dumb to realize that she wasn't actually required to answer Hannah's questions honestly. Ditto for dated-3-bachelorettes Blake, he could not resist a potential 4th one. He obviously knew he'd been tricked into admitting that he wasn't 100% in on Jess so he covered his ass when asked in the group setting, but the "well, no one here NOW could turn my head, but who knows who's coming later..." answer wasn't great either. The gushing over Hannah was surely producer-encouraged, but lord, way over the top. I did get a kick out of someone's comment about her hair, someone said "I love her hair" and someone piped up with "I think it's real too!" LOL, I guess that is an amazing thing in the land of the hair extensions. Will and Kylee belong together, they both read way too much into 5 mins of interaction. Kylee's writing her love stories ahead of time, first with Will, then with Aven. She's much more concerned about the story itself and less so with WHO the person is. And Will is just desperate for anyone. "It should have been Mercedes all along"...um, you clearly never noticed her until she came sniffing around that available rose. Mercedes' expression while he was laying his head on her chest and sobbing at being chosen was so detached, she's riding this out until the new crop of guys comes in and only Will won't see it coming. I think Rachel's experimenting with new tops now that she's had her breast reduction, probably things she felt she couldn't wear before. Unfortunately, they are not flattering to her now either, nor are they the correct size. The one shirt looked it came from the toddler's department.

Why on earth would someone from another tribe vote for Brandon? He's a millstone around the necks of the yellow tribe, the other tribes should want him to stay forever so they never have to go to tribal. Kaleb won my affection with his "he's SO bad at challenges, it's still tempting to vote him, not gonna lie..." How awful does a tribe have to be when there are THREE incredibly appealing boots straight out of the gate, I was hoping Brandon, Hannah, and Emily could all join hands and skip off to loser's lodge together. I honestly think the rest of the tribe would still be better off even down 3 people at once. Also, who assigned Emily that terrible 70s mustard-y colored top, it's truly awful. LOL. Brandon's crying jag in minute 1 just set the tone for his abysmal performance all episode. I wouldn't be surprised to find out his mom is standing just off camera, I find it impossible to believe this person traveled alone all the way to Fiji. Not to mention, how do you go on Survivor if you're a smoker who hasn't made some effort to quit first. Her sudden lightbulb moment "OH, it's nicotine withdrawal!" was another clue that she gave zero thought to the reality of this show.

Yeah, that whole scene had the vibe of a staged "meeting" scene, they were way too comfortable together. It would also explain Olivia's outsized reaction to Will going on another date. It's considered a crime against humanity to have a pre-existing relationship on that beach, so no one will admit to having talked before the show. Rachel doesn't have a great poker face, her obvious dismay at being the first one there was written all over her face. Similarly, her attempts to show enthusiasm over Sean aren't quite landing for me. Doing the math of 11 women/7 roses, I think she may have calculated that Sean is kind of a doofus and not likely to be a hot commodity, so she can get a cheap first rose and then see who else comes down the pike. Same, I can't help but sort of get why women would like him, he has a certain charm even if it's often obnoxious. He's definitely a bad bet for anyone to try to get involved with, his "always looking for my next best option" promises some drama in this kind of setting. But at least he's mildly interesting, unlike Aaron. Not loving the Out of Africa getup he chose for his entrance outfit and his ridiculous earrings are such a cry for attention, but he can kinda sell it. I wonder if I'm thinking of the wrong person, I remember Kylee being kind of abrasive on Zach's season, but she seems extremely timid here. Glitter girl Jess seems very sweet and young, very wrong for this kind of show. I still can't stand Brooklyn, but her Kat impression was pretty spot on.

I think Montana routinely gave Elka shit about her religion. Montana was a very specific type of 20-something city girl in the 90s, she was extremely dismissive of any type of faith and not shy about saying so. Jason was all into his exploration of spirituality over organized religion and the rest didn't seem to have much affiliation at all (despite Sean's latter day belief system that seemed to develop along with his conservative politic aspirations.) The Sean on this show doesn't resemble the person he became later on, whose values would have been closer to Elka than Montana. I don't know that Montana and Syrus ever fully mended their rift, more like they just let it go over time and ended up on the same side sort of by default. Syrus took the high road when Montana was fired and didn't retaliate against her for campaigning to get him removed when he got in trouble for dating a mom at the center and I think that humbled her slightly and made her less abrasive toward him.

I don't think I've ever seen this one, I'll have to go look for it. I saw the toaster episode today and I still think that engraved toaster was a silly gift. Engrave that message on a picture frame with a nice family pic (with or without Debra's parents, lol) or something, but it was an odd idea for an appliance. Especially since most people have toasters already. I couldn't really blame Frank and Marie for seeing the box, thinking it was just a toaster and exchanging it for something they actually wanted/needed. And for me personally, the engraving on it wouldn't change the fact that it was a second toaster that I didn't ask for/didn't need.

Agreed, he has some of the best reactions. My hands down favorite is when crazy Mr Tyson is their client and does weird things like make Anthony get his picture taken with employees at the car wash or gives him the pieces from his game of Clue as a gift for doing something nice. Charlene keeps asking why and Anthony just shrugs with this hilarious expression. He was so tolerant of all the nutty people who came in and out of Sugarbakers (and the ones who worked there, too). Also, we don't see Ursula with the kids even once after she initially encounters them on the way in. The storyline is definitely relatable, but annoying. I hate it when men act like asses and then blame the women for insecurity. I'm glad they pointed that out, but I still didn't really feel like the men fully got it.

well, this is also the Bachelor franchise and they're not known for diversity in casting. It seemed unlikely they'd have back-to-back non-white leads. The thing about creative editing is that they can make up a story out of whole cloth. The lukewarm reaction shots they showed seemed to be the exact same one used repeatedly and I don't think Dotun was even visible in the frame at the time. They presumably had hours and hours of footage of each visit so they really can tell any story they want by selecting specific moments for the 4-5 minute scene they're going to show out of those hours of footage. I have no doubt that they got along well with Joey, his most noted characteristic seems to be an ability to show himself to be whatever the person in front of him wants to be, but I find it hard to believe that a family like Charity's would be so super psyched to have her marry a guy kicking around in a tennis club in Hawaii. Dotun's career would ostensibly be more impressive to a family than a guy who teaches tennis for a living. (Admittedly, it beats previous Bachelor "careers" such as pantsopreneur or chicken enthusiast, at least it's a real job, but it's not particularly impressive as a career.)

That seemed like creative editing to me. They need to keep up some level of suspense and it's been pretty obvious for awhile that Dotun was the one. So when they went overboard showing all the positive reaction to Joey and then seemingly looped the shots of the family showing the same lackluster reaction to Dotun over and over, I was more convinced than ever that it was Dotun. But I also thought she tossed off I love yous with Joey pretty naturally, gave me flashbacks to Clayton acting like everyone was his final pick. Charity didn't seem to get any blowback for that, but I guess getting the Bachelor gig healed over any hard feelings Joey might have had. He has such a malleable personality, I'm sure he'll do well as the lead. Not sure he'll be successful at finding a real relationship, but he'll have a good time. I have actual hopes for Charity and Dotun, their relationship seems genuine. Hope the DWTS gig doesn't interfere in any way. Also, I'd like to see a reality show of Charity's mom and Dotun's mom becoming in-laws. Even though the family visit went fine, Dotun's mom seems like she might be a lot, I think it would be entertaining to watch those 2 interact.

I liked that argument too, it was very well-written and acted. It really is a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario, some people will judge mothers for not working and others will judge them for working. And their friendship had lasted through so many life changes, Mary Jo was the married one at first, then they were both single, then Charlene got married and had a baby so fast, then quit work. That's a lot of change in a short period of time and it can be weird when your friendships have to change based on what's going on each person's life, especially when you're the one who's kinda left behind (like Mary Jo's life wasn't changing, but Charlene's was and it opened up new options that Mary Jo didn't have).

I feel like Charlene got a bit more caricature-ish toward the end of her time on the show. Particularly the "What is Art?" episode, that is a low point for the Charlene character, she was a flat out idiot for the entire episode. I agree that The Girlfriend kinda sucks as an episode, but I enjoyed Julia and Suzanne's Big Adventure and Manhunt. I was never a fan of Vanessa, she had an occasional funny moment, but most of the time the character was over the top and there was something slightly uncomfortable about the way the women treated her, like she was some kind of mascot or something. Yeah, record scratch quality Allison introduced to the show was palpable from the first minute. There was just nothing there but unpleasantness. Humorless unpleasantness, which is the bigger crime in a sitcom. There have been characters who are unrepentantly unpleasant, but if they're funny about it, it's palatable. Roy from Wings is a good example, they never gave him a heart or a redeeming moment as a person, but as an antagonist to the others, he was funny enough that didn't matter. So the bad writing on top of an unpleasant character AND zero chemistry with the cast, that character was just a misfire all around.

I admit to having some wine while viewing, so I possibly wasn't paying full attention, but what the hell was up with the FP thing? I get that they didn't like him, but the secret code in social media messages was so extraordinarily weird. Like, if he doesn't know it's about him and no one else knows what it refers to, what's the point of doing it? Xavier's apology to him felt like another part of the Bachelor audition slash damage control for how badly he came across in his last episode. I think the show wardrobe and styling isn't doing him any favors, the slick suit makes him look like a certain type of guy, but in his own environment and in his own clothes, he comes across quite sincere and nice. I don't fully understand how his kids and grandkids are supporting this, if your parents were married that long, it can be hard to see the surviving parent with ONE new person, let alone 25 new people on TV and getting raked across the coals on social media (which will happen, no matter how nice he may be). This was a super dull Men Tell All and dragging out 3 random past Bachelorettes was such a silly time-filler. Especially Deanna, who didn't find her husband on the show, and isn't even married to her non-show husband anyway. Was JoJo tied up with something else? Rachel Lindsay is still with her F1 too, but I don't see her appearing on the show again.

Pork chops, pork chops, greasy, greasy, we can beat prejudice, easy, easy. I haven't seen that episode in 20 years or so, but I can pull that chant right out of the air. Can't remember what I did yesterday, but dumb shit like that always comes right back, lol. I don't think I ever watched the episode, but that sounds so stupid and out of character for Julia. It would be 100% in character for Charlene, but not Julia. I love that scene too, Suzanne popping grapes into her mouth saying "well, I don't like to brag" in response to Reese's comment about the bottom half of men. Reese was a great secondary cast member and between him, JD, and Dash, this show had a great collection of voices. I always loved Reese's gravelly drawl.

Yeah, I thought Aaron's family might end up saving him. I know this is the most I've liked Aaron in awhile, he was a grumpy tattletale for most of the show and I couldn't wait for him to get booted, but after his family visit, I kinda wanted him to stay. I don't see any real chemistry between them. Joey seems like the perfect type for this kind of show, he seems so malleable and like he could generate a connection with pretty much anyone. It wasn't surprising that his family thought he might not be showing his real self, he definitely has a veneer to his personality. Dotun has seemed like F1 for awhile now, they have a very genuine seeming connection and he comes across like a legitimately good guy. He has such an easy way about him, like he's very comfortable with himself, that's always attractive.

Pluto TV is a free streaming service and they have Designing Women on every night for a 2-hour block, plus I think you can watch it On Demand, also for free. I'm pretty sure I just saw that episode recently and the line about bees was in there. Yeah, I remember Meshach Taylor talking about it on one of the retrospective shows, saying she was distraught that everyone saw her "fancy."

That's true. LuAnn is toeing the line of fish out of water with grace and enthusiasm, whereas Sonja has to throw in stupid lines like "I have professionals to make my bed" and go overboard trying to seem too good for the place, when in reality, she's barely distinguishable from anyone else there.

I've never watched Real Housewives shows, but I came across this on Peacock and was surprised to find myself enjoying it. It's campy and stage-y, but in an innocuous way. LuAnn has some very funny small moments, like pointing out the "slime factor" in the fried balls that you don't get in chicken nuggets, LOL. Sonja is okay, but definitely the more annoying of the two. She's a fascinating study in insecurity and how it shows itself in various ways, such as overcompensating and exaggerating. It is slightly uncomfortable to watch them throwing themselves at every single guy they encounter. In teenagers it's understandable, but at their ages, it seems a bit desperate.

I felt bad for him having to keep doing those interviews where he pretended to have some sort of relationship with her. He was so obviously that type of inoffensive cannon fodder who only made it this far because there were a certain number of roses to hand out and he hadn't done anything wrong. But if someone has 2 opportunities to give you a date rose when it comes down to a milestone like hometown visits and declines both times, that pretty much says it all. Sean had the right idea about forcing the issue, but seemed arrogant enough to think the one-on-one time was going to open her eyes to his charms. Like he thought she just hadn't enough exposure to him or something. But in terms of not waiting around for the rose ceremony, it made sense. Yeah, I'm actually liking Charity more than I did when she was on the Bachelor, but the interrupting thing is very noticeable. Like, 2/3rds of the way through a sentence from someone, she's nodding and uh hummming in a tone that doesn't necessarily match what the person has said. I really like him too, he seems like a genuine person. I admit I thought he would be an early boot because there were so many flashier personalities and better looking guys, but if she's looking for an actual relationship from this, I think he'd be the best choice. Joey seems like a nice guy, but something about his personality strikes me as...transferrable. Like I bet you could swap out the leads halfway through and he'd have the same level of perceived connection. And his job as a tennis pro probably contributes to that, that's a lot of interaction with a lot of women and part of the gig is establishing that kind of rapport that will make them come back for more lessons and drills. I'm sure he'd do great in Paradise, but I don't think he's the right choice for F1

LOL, I did have a roommate in college (house with 4 of us sharing costs) who thought her part of the electric bill should be prorated so she didn't have to pay for it on those occasional weekends when she went home to visit. So I guess they could possibly explain that silliness away. Interesting that Joyce won her salary dispute, I wonder if she benefited from the revolving door of female roommates and change up in landlords too. At some point, it just looks like an entirely different show when too many of the originals are gone.

I vastly preferred Chrissy to the others, but I bet we can all agree that Cindy was the worst, right? That actress brought zero to the character besides the blonde hair and the body.

I went a local restaurant called the Garden of Eatin’ last week and thought of Mama, Vint and Naomi’s awkward date at a restaurant of the same name. The food was godawful, hope Abdul’s Garden of Eatin’ was better, lol.

Oh, he's definitely that guy in the club. But he does seem to have just enough personal charm one-on-one that it could trick someone into thinking they could be the one to make him settle down and that's what Charity is seeing. And honestly, he's not wrong when he says that nothing he's saying in the house should be surprise to her because it's the same stuff he is saying to her. So these tattletale moments should be carrying a little less weight in this case and I'd kind of like Charity to be like "yeah, I know, he told me that already" and burst the bubble of the tattletale because it really isn't a good look. And frankly, it seems like the fast track to the friend zone. Charity laid her head on Aaron's shoulder the same way she would with her brother. Also, I noticed that she quietly dispatched last week's tattletale, Adrian, in the rose ceremony. Granted, he was a sourpuss and has a kid at home, so there was probably more to that, but the tattling didn't do him any favors and Aaron's tattling wasn't a good look either. I do think he's doing this to make her chase him and sadly, I think that when men pull this needy jealous routine with women, it often draws them in whereas when women do it to men, they run for the hills from the stage-5 clinger. It's a double standard, but it seems common. I felt sorry for Warwick, between the guys forgetting his existence, and his inability to make small talk. It was giving me painful memories of bad first dates and job interviews I've been on, where the other person is working very hard and I just can't seem to meet their level even though I might want to. I think part of him falling asleep at the end was not exhaustion from the park, it was mental exhaustion over the whole thing. I can't imagine being in a house full of extrovert attention-seekers, having to go on "dates" where writing and performing song might be a requirement, and having camera crews all around all the time. He really should never have tried out for this. I was sorry to see firefighter Aaron go, he was amusing me. His "are you an only child?" when Double Denim Ken came skipping into the room singing his own song just cracked me up. And I liked that he handled that quickly and directly by pointing out what an idiot DDK was being. And it did seem to penetrate DDK's otherwise clueless facade, he appeared to realize he was being a jackass in that moment. The relationship with Dotun is about the only one that I see having any type of future potential. He's not the most physically attractive one there, IMO (he looks like this actor I remember from Murder She Wrote and some other old shows, Brock Peters) and he's not crazy extroverted, but he seems very genuine and likable. Outside of him, Charity's tastes seem a bit suspect between the ongoing Brayden thing and her choice of Double Denim Ken for the group date win.

Not surprised to hear that, she's always come across as very warm in interviews. And that's actually how she got on the show to begin with, she was not an actress, just the student tour guide at the school that was serving as the model for Eastland and they liked her so much they cast her. It's pretty impressive that on a show where they cut multiple actual actresses after season 1, she was able to stay on for the full run with zero experience. Especially because she was definitely a bit shaky in the acting department at first.

That's one of my favorites, but I remember it not being popular with others. I thought the Springsteen songs corresponded beautifully with the storyline and it really captured the trajectory from high school dreams to the often disappointing reality of adult life.

Eh, I can't imagine Christina drawing that kind of conclusion, she really was dim. It struck me more as "my guy should be so obsessed with me that he should know my very specific egg wishes because I'm adorable and irresistible." Adam's issues with women were on full display in this season, so this story does not surprise me a bit, nor does the fact that the others wouldn't see any problem with it. I also have not seen the challenge in many years and hope there's been some evolution in the attitudes, but I wouldn't hold my breath. In fairness, the Paris decision was made because Mary-Ellis Bunim was dying and had always wanted a Paris season. I believe she passed either that year or the following. But they still could've made some better arrangements to help the kids have an experience outside the house. Frankly, I'm surprised the season wasn't even more tense, I can't imagine a worse scenario than being in another country where I don't speak the language, trapped in a house with people I just met, and no opportunity to get out on my own. Now that I think about it, I think in one of the books, Mallory said that she almost did get kicked out for avoiding the cameras. They served her with a letter saying she needed to change her behavior or leave. So ditching the cameras and exploring wasn't an option, apparently. I totally forgot about her, she was way out of his league. Ace reminded me of a boyfriend I had at 18 who was also a Peter Pan type, the girl he dated after I dumped him was a bit like Ace's girlfriend, very smart and going places. I remember him telling me that this girl didn't care if he dug ditches because she cared about him (this was in a discussion about how he felt I looked down on his lack of ambition, etc.) Well, not surprisingly, that relationship crashed and burned too. These Peter Pan guys can be really fun and it can be a draw for more serious, driven women to have that light-hearted energy in their lives for awhile, but it definitely wears thin when you contemplate an actual life of bearing all responsibilities because they're too busy having fun. Ace's grandmother indulging his lifestyle certainly didn't help him understand how life actually works.

LOLOLOL, this made me laugh too hard. Yeah, Charity's long-winded intro to her reasons for choosing Aaron for this date sounded so silly. "YOUR parents have been married forever and MY parents have been married forever, so that means we're looking for everlasting love..." As opposed to all of those other people who enter into a relationship hoping it will self-destruct in a ball of flames, I guess. Stupid cars from the 60s only have lap belts. Yep, definitely the car you want to give to a first-time LA driver traversing windy cliff roads, no potential pitfalls there. Between that and the heights involved in visiting the Hollywood sign, I would have had to politely decline this date and Uber back to the mansion with a driver who's used to the roads and has a car with modern safety features. I did notice in the overhead shots that Charity appeared to be driving all the way in the middle of the road, away from the edge and away from the cliff wall, so I assume the roads were shut down to other traffic but still. Not a fan of heights or cars in the hands of unsure drivers. Absolutely. He's got "LOOK AT ME, I'M QUIRKY" written all over him. And then he'll pretend to bitch that people are talking about him, as if that wasn't his aim entirely. He's fine as a drama stirrer, but he's not gonna make the finals, IMO. I need to rewind and find out who that was. And if it's the same guy who said "this guy's doing back flips and I'm in HR," whoever that guy is will shoot straight to the top of my favorites list. Hilarious. Charity looked great in that green jacket and white shirt. I haven't loved all of the dress looks, but she does casual really well. A tattle-tale AND a sourpuss. With a kid. 3 strikes, IMO. Not saying that people who have kids can't find someone, but it's a lot of instant responsibility for the new person, so they'd have to be really sure that they want to be with that person. And so far, Adrian is giving very little reason for anyone to want to spend time with him, let alone marry him. I always hate the people who appoint themselves Right Reasons police, but at least previous tattle-tales have waited for an actual infraction before flashing their badges, this guy's mad that people are swimming and having fun in the 22 hours of downtime when Charity isn't around. What are they supposed to do, sit in their rooms doodling her name?