Jodithgrace

I watch many (American) cooking shows and have never seen a soufflé folded with anything other than a rubber spatula. Odd. It occurs to me that now that we are down to so few contestants, the dreaded Technical challenge has lost its clout, so to speak. What I mean is, Nadiya coming in last in a field of 4, isn't at all like coming in last in a field of 12, or 10 or 7. Since they are ranked, somebody had to be first and somebody last, but the differences weren't all that great. Nadiya's soufflé wasn't bad..it just had more merengue showing than the others. Of course, if she had come in with a chocolate pancake, that would have been a different story. But I think that's why her last place wasn't enough to keep her from being star baker. Likewise, Flora's first place wasn't enough to keep her from being eliminated. I did like Flora, but she just would not learn not to embellish her bakes to death, at the expense of "the brief." So it was right that she went. Next week should be fun.

Man, that was annoying. And predictable! Tregaye was literally the only finalist who was asked, "How will winning this change your life?" That, plus the fact that they showed her "pilot" last totally telegraphed her win. The thing that people don't seem to realize (from the comments) is that these weren't real pilots for their intended shows. First of all, they were 3 minutes long, which wasn't enough to time for them to have cooked anything, even if there had been a budget for that sort of thing. Plus, they were all identical, except that the places the finalists visited were supposedly tailored to their POV. Though, they didn't quite manage even that. Apparently they couldn't find an Italian bakery anywhere in LA for Damiano, so they sent him to a French bakery! What difference does it make? Both countries are in Europe, the people have accents...interchangeable, really. But somehow they managed to find someplace "cute" for Tregaye and Cajun for Jernard. The pilots were just a low budget way to get the finalists to talk on camera and interact with people and basically show their charm or cuteness, or whatever it was they were selling. Whatever fleeking show they do manage to conjure up for Tregaye, I will not be watching. Hopefully, Damiano will send up someplace that will appreciate him. Not the Food Network!

http://sanilaccountynews.mihomepaper.com/news/2015-09-16/Court_News/Prisoners_assaulted_with_boiling_water_baby_oil.html I did a google search on "boiling water and baby oil used as a weapon," and got the above article. So it is a thing. Interesting episode. It is slow moving, but involving. Even the eczema has it place. I wonder if the prostitute Stone brought home didn't know about his eczema, since he was keeping himself pretty well covered and was wearing socks, but thought the the itch cream in his medicine cabinet was for some kind of STD? But she did see him in court, I guess, and those feet are hard to miss.

I don't think that any of the so called "pilots," reflect the type of show the the finalists would actually do if they win. I think the Network just wanted to give all three equivalent shows, which were cheap to produce and which would last only 3 minutes. This seems to be the route they go..send the contestant to a restaurant which has a passing relationship to their theme and have them talk to the owner and possibly help cook something, like Damiano did. Unpopular opinion here..I am rooting for Damiano. I like him. Maybe that is related to the fact that I was just in Italy this past April and met a few young men like Damiano. I might actually watch a show of his. They can always work on his diction. I watch a show on the Create Network, Nick Stallino, who has at least as thick an accent as Damiano but he speaks distinctly enough that i can understand every word. When he has confidence he will speak slower. Nerves makes him speed up and get his puff pastry and cream puffs mixed up.

I was wondering if at least part of Freddy's motivation in helping Naz is boredom. I've always thought that the worst part of being in prison, for people with a brain, would be the unremitting boredom. Same scenery, same food (hence the veal), same people..nothing to look forward to but more of the same. Now suddenly a new kind of person comes on the scene, a total innocent (if not innocent of the crime, he is certainly more innocent than 99.9 % of the other inmates.) Now Freddy could just sit back and watch things take their usual course. Boring. Or he could get involved. It wouldn't take much effort on his part..probably a few well aimed glares, and Naz is in his debt and things are a bit more interesting around the place. Just a thought. I love Glen Headly, but ever since Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, I have never trusted her. (I don't mean her personally, of course, but I don't trust her characters) I'm sure she is up to no good, and would have preferred Stone..though it is hard to blame Naz' parents for picking a deal, which only seems to me to be too good to be true.

One thing I forgot to mention that I loved in this episode. There were a lot of subtle jokes, but my favorite was the Black kid who gets sentenced to three years after the fraud case ahead of him gets 18 months. He asks Stone, "How come I didn't get Jew time?" "You want to get Jew time? Do Jew crime." So unexpected. Made me laugh out loud.

I don't think that Stone's ill concealed glee at getting Naz' case has to do with money. He knows that Naz' parents aren't rich, by any means, and money doesn't seem to be his big motivator. I just think that this will be a high profile case, and his work might actually be seen by somebody other than night court clients and judges. It's like an actor who has been doing nothing but local summer stock, suddenly getting a role on Broadway. People will see him. He might get other, more visible cases and a bit of recognition. If he wins..if he loses, he slides right back down to obscurity.

Yeah..what does Leon do with his life besides watching Seinfeld reruns and eating with Elliot?

Did they at any point mention how they got president Obama to either take part or allow his voice to be initiated or manipulated?

I also found this intriguing. Did the show runners have to get special permission to manipulate or imitate the President's voice for these commentaries? I know that manipulated recordings of former presidents and past and present newscasters often appear on shows like this, but it seems that you have to be extra careful with a sitting President. If he actually recorded the commentary that's one thing, but that seems unlikely, somehow. Of course, he is on his way out of office and can pretty much do what he wants at this point, and he does seem to have a pretty good sense of humor and might enjoy doing something like this. I guess i should have watched Hacking Robot..maybe they answered that question. Otherwise, I was having a lot of trouble remembering who everybody was. I knew I should have rewatched season 1, but I had no time. Thank goodness for the very extensive recap (11 pages) on EW.com. and the one here on Previously TV.by next week should know little more about what I'm watching. Loved the Seinfeld references.

I heard on the radio discussion about this show that you have to pay attention to every little detail, that everything is important. What I noticed was all the times Naz was caught on camera throughout his misadventure. I don't know what that will mean. But her necklace was on the stuffed buck head. Also I noticed that when Naz woke up he didn't have any blood on him and he was quite a distance away from the crime. If he has taken a shower, he would have washed out all of those scratches and they wouldn't have looked like they did. Since he was unfamiliar with drugs or even alcohol, his drugged out sleep could have made him oblivious to the crime, especially since it was upstairs. So I do not think he did it. I did laugh, that in his panic he grabbed the knife but didn't stop to think that his fingerprints were everywhere. Again not the act of a murderer but a scared kid.

One thing that they didn't use from the books, which I missed, was the holidays. The special days, like Samhain and Midsummer and Beltrane (?) when it was easier to pass through the stones. It would have mitigated the ridiculous coincidence that Claire and Bree just happened to be there on the very day that Geillis goes through the stones. In the book, it was one of these days, which is part of what makes Claire think that Geillis could be making an attempt, since she know she came from 1968 and there were only a few possible dates that would work. About Sophie: she didn't bother me. I find that whenever you have a scene with a bunch of soft spoken genteel British people and you throw an American in there, the American always sounds loud and brash and somewhat jarring. I always think, Good Lord, is that how we sound to the rest of the world? But that was how Bree sounded to me, like an outspoken American. But think what a difficult acting job this was. I've done some accent work and it is very hard to maintain, but especially when you are acting against people speaking your own natural accent. I thought she did a very good job. As to how Bree should actually sound. It's interesting. Even though she was born and raised in the US, both of her parents..the people who taught her to speak..were British. School would have knocked most of that out of her, but I would imagine that hints of it would come back, especially when she is in the UK. So I would be inclined to be very lenient about her accent, myself. Anyway, I really enjoyed the episode, even the cheesy ending.

My friend in Ireland had an Aga and it was wonderful! I think they are perfectly suited for places like Ireland, Scotland and Northern England where the weather seems perpetually damp and chilly. I was so excited about this show returning. I love the diversity of the cast each season and the loveliness of all of the contestants. There's none of that, "Black forest cake? Hers looks more like Black forest puddle!" kind of commentary that you get on American competition shows, and which has gotten really old. I love the fact, that except for the technical challenge, the contestants know the challenges in advance and get to practice them. I also get a kick out of the extremely optimistic sketches of the proposed bakes and how the reality seldom comes anywhere near them. Though Flora's Black forest cake with the pink and chocolate layers, and perfect piping came pretty darned close this week. I consider myself a pretty good cook, but I seldom bake from scratch. I'm also not much of a sweets eater, so I'd much rather watch people bake these amazing creations than eat them. But that's much less fattening so for me it's a win win.

Could this finale have been any more satisfying? I almost cheered out loud when Arya revealed herself. That last shot of the dragon fleet was incredible. That Wildfire is such an amazing color green..I don't know how they get that intensity but it is so impressive. Too bad Margarey couldn't get out. She knew something was coming down. But I'm sure Cerise shed no tears. She barely had any left for Tommen. What must it be like to finally achieve your life's ambition, only to have it cost you everything that you love? Truly fabulous episode.

Re: The Hail Mary I don't have a problem with using a contemporary phrase as a title, as long as by contemporary we mean something that Claire would know from the 1940's. So I looked it up, and saw that it originated in the 1930's when the "4 horsemen" of Notre Dame used it. Now, why Claire would be familiar with American football phraseology can be explained by her treatment of wounded American soldiers in WWII. They well might have used the term to describe a desperate maneuver used in combat, though it really didn't come into popular use until the 1970's. Note that the phrase wasn't used within the episode, only as a title, but I think it was a clever juxtaposition between Mary's desperation and Jamie's.

Ok..I did have a little chuckle during the episode. Remember the 1980 movie Airplane? At one point Ted Stryker is trying to tell his life story to a series of passengers, and it is apparently so boring that they kill themselves rather than listen to it. Well, that's what came to my mind when Dougal, having gone on and on about how Colum's illness affected HIM, turns to actually look at his brother and sees that he's committed suicide rather than listen to him blather on. In a way I think it was Colum having the last laugh.

The episode I watched cut right off when the General announced that they had no choice, after Charles and his men "got lost." What did I miss? This was a pretty talky episode, especially after the past action packed ones, with a lot of men weeping and dying. But it was interesting.

I was devastated as well. I loved Poussey. And she actually had a future. As horrid as Judy King is, I am sure she would have gotten her a job. It would have been good for her post prison image. Re: CPR I was wondering if Poussey's windpipe was crushed by Bayley's knee. Not that there was any attempt to find out or to save her in any way. Caputo and Healy have both been ground to bits by that place and the system. Was Healy checking himself in to a Psychiatric facility? Or is that where Lolly is? I'm almost afraid to watch the last episode.

They didn't let them. They made them! I just sit horrified, episode after episode, at the total unfairness of this prison situation. Yes, the women are criminals ..some more than others. But I think that we've seen, via more than one flashback, that many of these women were victims also. And now they are totally powerless in a meat grinder system that is killing whatever souls they have left. From the over crowding and the hideous food to the caprices of these so called guards..it's just so unfair that i want to scream. And the flawed, but generally good hearted people who want to help them, like Caputo and Healy just can't seem to get around their own weaknesses enough to do any good, especially against a system like MCC. Man..this season is depressing! Poor Crazy eyes, poor Lolly, poor Alex. And poor pretty much everybody else in that damn prison, except maybe Judy king.

I saw that they did that. But I also saw that they had blood on their uniforms.

I was just puzzled about why Alex and Lolly had all that time to cut up and dispose of a body without anybody wondering where they were. I mean, they are in prison..isn't their time regimented? Don't they have jobs? Or do they work in the greenhouse with that other woman? I've forgotten from last season. I don't remember why Alex was in the greenhouse when she was attacked. If that's her job, it makes a little more sense. Still, I would think there would be some supervision. True, there is total chaos at Litchfield right now, which gave them a perfect opportunity, but they seemed to be awfully confident of not getting caught disposing of a body in full daylight. Not to mention strolling back to their quarters covered in blood, which they both were. I think they hired a bunch of raw guards because of the walkout, which is how the hitman got hired, and nobody knows anybody at the moment, so it will take some time for him to be missed. But I'm sure by next episode, somebody will notice.

It really seems unfair to me the the third group didn't have Jesse Tyler Ferguson. JTF is a real celebrity, since Modern Family is such a hit, and the the contestants got nervous and flustered. Nobody in the third group cared about that You tube woman and they were a lot more relaxed. Not that it saved them, or made their food any better..I just didn't think it was a level playing field. All three groups should have had the same level of celebrity if that is part of the challenge. Not that i really care about any of it. This show is pure summer time filler.

We tend to think of swans as something special because they are so beautiful, and of course there is the symbolic aspect of the swan and Leda. However, a swan is basically a large waterfowl, like a duck or a goose. So for those people in the woods, it may just have been dinner, not some symbolic beheading. Have we ever seen the man in Rachel's vision before? So many characters have come and gone over the seasons. Because I don't get to watch episodes until the next day, I try to avoid all spoilers. So when I saw a headline on my basic Yahoo page that said "Orphan Black on the Surprise return of two beloved characters,"I groaned and muttered "Helena and Delphine." Surprise! Not that I wasn't happy to have them back, mind you. I never find Fee to be all that attractive, though he is very appealing in his own way. But I record and watch After the Black, with its totally lame hosts, and Jordan is often a guest and he is totally adorable, with "normal" hair and especially without Fee's PP (perpetual pout) I like the behind the scenes stuff. But I turn it off when they get to the sneak peek for the following week's episode.

This episode was awfully short..only 53 minutes. I always love when there is a new location in the credits. Have we ever seen Riverrun before? I wonder where Arya thinks she is going to get help. Braavos always seems very business oriented and not big on compassion. The only "friends" Arya has there are at the House of Black and White and she obviously can't go there. I was disappointed that she wasn't smart enough to avoid the Waif, knowing that she can disguise herself as anyone, and that she would be out for blood. I thought that maybe the old Hound was learning new tricks, but now he is back on his old hate filled path. If Arya survives Braavos, she had better watch out. It's funny, I've thinking, "Go..Jaime..show 'em how it's done. But then I recall, he's actually the bad guy, and have to root for the Blackfish. Uh..go Blackfish? Lady Mormont is a stitch. Such strong women this season.

I have to laugh when they complain about not seeing more Frank also. The thing is the early books are mostly told in first person from Claire's POV. You can't tell that from the show except for Claire's voiceovers. But of course it means that we don't see Frank unless she does. Now the show does takes some liberties with this and shows us some scenes without Claire, but they really can't show extensive scenes of Frank without widely diverging from the books.