Gregg247

Favorite GR line of all-time: "These people are WEIRD!" LOL This hotel was absolutely stunning, and the setting was picture perfect. Richard may be totally useless now, but at some point 20 years ago, he had a good eye for detail. I also believe, like other posters here, that that hotel is destined to fail. there's no way they're going to turn things around and get out of debt. If the sons turned over all their money to Mom each month, it would still take decades to pay off their debts. I kept wondering if there was any housekeeping staff at all, or if Mom was tasked with doing the cleaning. This "hotel" is just an excuse for partying and drug use. I think Gordon should just wait until the property is taken by the bank and buy it himself. As he said during his swim, he'd love to experience the location with his own family.

I was completely unable to follow what was happening on the episode last night because Sarah wasn't there to explain every little detail to me in her Talking Head interviews. Sarah, we need you! LOL Seriously, I'm so glad she's gone. When I saw Suzie's stone-face when Sarah's presentation was done, I knew the producers had decided that they no longer needed her on the show. Maybe they can give Sarah's POV to Lenny if he wins this show. I would think Lenny grilling steaks and other "Texas" food in Bob Tushman's back yard would be cheaper than sending him around the country to "cowboy up" fine dining establishments. I like Nicole, but she doesn't seem to be having a good time on camera. They keep having to remind her to act happy to be there. Luca seems nice enough. I wouldn't mind if he wins, but I'm not really interested in Italian cooking. The lady that was in his pilot, though, was gorgeous! Why wasn't SHE in this competition?!?!

Dumbest scene on TV in the past year: When the lady went into the backyard shed, saw her blood-soaked vampire husband had (smartly) chained himself up and told her to run before he succumbed to the voices in his head urging him to drain her of blood, and she continued to stand literally 2 inches from his face, asking him what she could do to help him. The corpses of every teenage victim of Freddie Kruger and Jason Voorhees watched this scene and moaned, "And they called US idiotic!". The big question this week, of course, is what's happening with the custody battle between Ef and his ex-wife. We didn't get to see any scenes in the courthouse or anything. Come on, producers, you KNOW that's why we're all tuning in each week! I'm glad we finally got some vampire hunting. I know the rat guy is going to eventually join in the fight, but are they doing this long section of show introducing us to the Nigerian criminal cartel because they're going to eventually become our freedom fighters against the vampires? I HOPE this story line is going somewhere. I get the point of the hacker screwing up phone and internet connections to isolate Manhattan island, but I'm not sure what was going on with the Secretary of Human Services. I can't figure out why they're trying to trick her with the "military biological agent" story when the whole vampire apocalypse is about to go full swing.

Every time I watch TMTA/TWTA and see some guy in the audience, I always wonder what terrible thing he did that made him feel obligated to join his wife/girlfriend/significant other at the taping of this terrible show! LOL I'm a guy who enjoys watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette at home each season, but I can't imagine actually attending one of the "events". Yikes!

My company sent me to Los Angeles for business one time and got me a room at a Quality Inn. It was a tall building that, apparently had been converted to an extended stay hotel recently, based on the huge "Extended Stays Welcome" banner hanging on the side of the building and all the portable BBQ grills on so many of the room balconies. As I drove up to the entrance, I parked behind the coroner's car, just as they were wheeling a body out the front door. I went to the front desk to check in. When the manager asked if I had a room preference, I said, "Whichever room that last guy DIDN'T have."

On the plus side, that 14 room hotel looked very nice (well built, well designed, well maintained). I'll bet an experienced operator could take it over and make a nice profit, especially utilizing the pool like Gordon suggested. I also didn't have a problem with the Italian restaurant, per se, but they should at least do it well and make it a destination Italian restaurant. Cali seemed like a nice lady, but had this self-image of a world-class entertainer that was going to be her doom. Gordon seemed like he does on the BBC version of his shows; much less enraged and more helpful and understanding. I like this better.

When they had the poll up, asking which food you'd rather have, the $777 steak or the $1000 ice cream, I went with the steak, because it would at least "save" me $223 in comparison! I agree with almost all the above posts about this episode--so weird and slanted in Sarah's team's favor. However, I'm always glad when Bob and Suzie show up. I noticed that Bob told Lenny to "dial it down" a little. There's a famous youtube clip of Bob saying the same thing to Season 2 contestant Guy Fieri. Good advice, Bob! haha

Yeah, the women on the show this season are pretty weak in the strategy/game-playing department. Britney is so mad that's she's compared to Victoria, but why is she so surprised? She never seems to do anything but scramble once she's nominated. Maybe if she quit laying around the house and backyard all the time and start talking to some of the guys in the house about actual game-related stuff, she could make some allies and have a fighting chance. The time to make deals and plans is BEFORE you get nominated, when you actually have a little leverage. Once you're on the block, you're just begging for sympathy votes. The guys in the house, as weird as they may be, at least realize they need to join forces and actually play the game. Their opponents are solo players Victoria, Brittney, and Jocasta, with Nicole and Amber next in line. I can't blame them for taking out the weakest players early. I'm tired of seeing floaters float to a win, so the sooner they're gone, the better.

The situation with the coroner from last week's episode: He's the Chief Medical Examiner for New York (maybe "just" Manhattan?), who's given all 200+ dead bodies from a possible disease outbreak; at the very least, from a massive, world-wide news story. For one ENTIRE day, no one goes down to the Morgue for any reason whatsoever. No employees show up. No one from the police or DA show up, looking for autopsy findings on current (non-plane related) cases. No other people in all of Manhattan die that day, so there are no "deliveries" from ambulance drivers. Nobody finds it odd that no one answers the telephone down there. None of the families of the 200+ victims from the plane call about having the bodies of loved ones released for burial. No news reporters call about the autopsy findings (to confirm that they all dies from "smoke inhalation"). Thank goodness "Ef" decided to show up and take a look around! I love the premise of this show, but, man, they're killing me with these massive plot holes and sloppy writing!

So, Chris got the heave-ho about 9:00 or later the night of his date. He packed his bags and headed for the car to take him to the airport. Are there a lot of flights from the Dominican Republic to Iowa at that time of night? How long did he have to wait at the airport to catch a plane? And how many layovers did he have in order to get home? Maybe they should have let him leave the next morning instead of that night! I guess once you've been kicked to the curb, the producers are DONE with you, too!

I had no problem with Chris's reaction to getting dumped by Andi. First, she was very clear where she stood and why she was breaking up with him (much credit to her for the way she handled it). He started to try to save things, but when it was obvious that that was it, he did the sensible thing and got out of there as soon as possible. He was polite about it, wished her well, and left. Believe me, that's the BEST alternative to take. You just want to get away as soon as you can before you think about what just happened too much (especially with all the cameras around, I imagine). Sometimes, when that voice inside your head is screaming "SAVE YOURSELF!!! GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!!!", its best to listen to it.

You know, I felt sorry for Mark. He did one wrong thing, trying to hand over Jack to the Russians, and now he's going to prison, his wife is murdered, his boss is losing his mind, etc. He wasn't a bad guy, he just did something stupid. In the world of 24, is he one of the only characters to actually go to jail for a crime?

For years, whenever watching The Bachelor/Bachelorette, I'll yell out "AMAZING!" every time someone utters that word on the show. There have been some episodes where I'm hoarse by the end! It used to freak out my dog, as he'd be trying to sleep and I kept waking him up every 2 minutes or so. LOL Tonight, I decided to count "amazings", and I think I've finally gotten this show figured out. There were 27 "amazings" tonight; 12 during the Nick date, 4 during the Josh date (3 of which were uttered by Josh in his TH at the end of the date), and 6 during Chris' abbreviated date (most of which were of the "amazing, but....." variety). 5 "amazings" were during the rose ceremony. Verdict: Andi and Nick are "amazing" and Josh will get kicked to the curb on the final episode. Hey, this is all science, so it MUST be right!

I liked it more than I thought I would. I was really prepared to hate Corey Stoll, based on his role on House of Cards, but he was surprisingly okay here (wig and all). The story with his soon-to-be-ex-wife and her apparent live-in lover was lame, as was the outraged family members and press at the press conference. The CDC got to the plane 3 hours ago, people! Give them some time! Also, the grieving dad who slapped Corey Stoll was ridiculous. He complained that all Corey did was talk and talk and talk, but did nothing worthwhile. Dude, they guy uttered literally 2 sentences when you hit him! I blame lazy writing on that one. Security was certainly lax around the airport, wasn't it? That one guy got his head bashed to a pulp right in the middle of the aisle of luggage (aka "evidence"), yet 4 hours later, he's yet to be noticed. Why was the old guy arrested? He talked his way through the police line to meet with the doctors, but was considered a flake. How does that translate into an arrest? Especially since he's not exactly a vagrant or a criminal or a lunatic; just an old guy who owns his own NYC business and has some weird ideas about mysterious events.

Maybe I'm a terrible person, but when everyone was sitting in Chris Harrison's house just before he broke the news, I was thinking that he should have some snacks and some sodas for his guests (and the camera crew). After all, they are his GUESTS. I also noticed that Chris' house didn't look too lived in (not many personal effects around), but that the same designer of The Bachelor house must have given him a hand with his place, because it has that same Tuscan look to it. Later, when Andi cut Marcus loose and walked him outside, they both looked totally spent. It was probably the most realistic break-up they've ever had on this show. Between the death news and the break-up, they just seemed exhausted. Real tears for once, from both of them.

I've seen Aaron McCargo on several episodes of "Bar Rescue", so its nice that he's getting some exposure. Vic Vegas was on there once, too, as noted above. As long as Mr. "pah stahl" never shows up on my TV again, I'll be happy!

Random thoughts about last night's show: Who in the world was that woman who was creating the labels for all the contestants' products -- Bob Tushman's sister? She did a terrible job! I'll bet they could have gotten a group of middle school students to do a better job than she did. They didn't even stick to the jars very well--very wrinkly and crooked. I like Lenny. I think he's sincere, can cook well, and has an interesting POV. Sure, he goes overboard occassionally, but I'm pretty sure he's getting encouraged to "go big" by the producers. The Butcher Babe has a great PoV, but I really don't like her at all. "Wut Wut", "boyzzzz", etc. wears thin really fast. I liked this challenge, except for the part where the judges assigned the backdrops to everyone. Why not let the contestants sink or swim on their own? They're all totally capable of making some horrendous decisions all by themselves. Giving Rueben "the moon" as his backdrop told me he was a goner for sure. Even Butcher Babe would have had hard time making that one work. Plus, Rueben was already too stiff on camera anyway, so they give him the one backdrop that requires a bulky, hard to maneuver space suit. I'm glad we're getting back to the focus groups next week; I like seeing how these contestants relate to actual audiences. Remember when they did that challenge, years ago, where the contestants had to go onboard a Coast Guard ship and cook for the crew using the mess hall kitchen? I like those kinds of challenges the best.

I believe the Supreme Court ruled some time ago that the "He started it!" defense only works when you're in 3rd grade or younger. If you want to create any kind of alliance at all in the BB house, I say go for it. But saying an all guy alliance is wrong, but an all female alliance is right, because of some perceived societal/historic/current event biases is giving the House Hamsters WAY more credit/blame than they deserve. They want to start a girl vs. boy alliance, as someone tries to do almost every season. Once everyone settles in and gets to know each other, more cross-gender alliances always spring up. THOSE are the ones that generally last the longest in this game; alliances between people who have actual things in common in their lives other than what they happen to be born with. I think the Brigade was the only alliance I remember that started right away as an all-guy alliance that lasted till the end (an that was because those guys sincerely got along with each other over the long-term). Secondly, Joey stated upfront that as a feminist, she had wanted to start an all-girl alliance when she first arrived. They showed her telling Devin that on last night's episode.

Let me try to get Joey's line of reasoning straight: She thinks an all guy alliance ("Bro's Before Ho's") is misogynistic and bigoted and hateful and WRONG, but an all female alliance ("Ho's Before Bro's") is empowering, uplifting, and the definition of feminism. Hmmm, maybe she needs to head back to Seattle (?) and rethink that one. I agree with other posters who thought the "inquisition" she went through when she admitted the alliance attempt was weird and off-putting. Of course someone's going to come up with a new alliance. Why act like she just poisoned the family pet? Call her out on it and vote her out, but acting like she deserves the death penalty was odd. Caleb and Devin are a scary couple of dudes. The producers love these spelling challenges (I do, too) because you occasionally get a mis-spelled word ("Technotronics"), which becomes comedy gold. I don't think they expected that 4 of the 6 contestants would fail to spell anything! That was embarrassing (or it should have been!).

I've never seen this show before, and only watched this episode because I like both Penn and Judy from other shows I've seen them on. Like Penn, I'm not a sports guy or a gym-rat, but there's a BIG difference between being a sports fanatic and teaching a kid to ride a bike, or throw a ball in the backyard, or swim in a pool. That's part of being a kid! Come on, Penn, you can take 20 minutes a day out of your "reading chamber" to kick a ball around that enormous back-40 acres you've got. Also, teach your kids to at least shut-up and be respectful when a guest in your home says something you may not (shocker!) agree with. Judy seemed a lot more easy-going than I would have expected, for some reason. I think that laissez-faire parenting method would work better in a bigger home than that 300 sq. foot shoebox they were living in. Man, that was a tight space for 4 rambunctious people! I liked how Penn's wife was able to completely transform Judy's bedroom into a bedroom/office, and how the entire family enjoyed having their meals together for a change. Although I got the impression that they always had their religious meal together on Friday nights, this way, they could have just regular meals together, too, without much change to their daily routines.

Editor's Note: Discuss Reckless Here! Well, this looked like a show for me to stay away from, based on the commercials, but since I'm a 3rd generation Charlestonian, I figured I'd better take a look and see how embarrassing this thing could be. Actually, the show seemed like the "Hottest new show on TV -- in 1990". I just got a real retro vibe from this show. It was like someone at CBS in 1990 was trying to figure out how to overtake NBC in the ratings and thought, "You know, soap operas and young hot stars are big right now. What if we created a sexy combination of The Young and the Restless and Matlock?" The acting was "up" to soap opera standards, the writing and directing were awful; heck, this could have been one of those "Crimetime After Primetime" shows that CBS used to run at 11:30 pm before they snagged David Letterman. As a former Charleston resident, I didn't mind the fake accents (at least they weren't TOO over the top), or the fact that they try all their legal cases in City Hall rather than the county courthouse, or that everyone seems to live in the historic portion of downtown as opposed to the suburbs. What got my goat was the apparent lack of air conditioning that Hollywood's version of Charleston seems to have. The giant fans in the courtroom, the steamy, sultry nights out by the boats, buying the "Original Cola" from the generic vending machine and putting the can on the back of your neck to try to keep cool....In real life, those historic building were converted to A/C about 60 years ago (they've got electricity and everything!). My favorite character was the crooked cop, who ALMOST twirled his invisible mustache and leered at the camera every time he performed some nefarious act. LOL They should make this guy the star of the show and let him get his JR Ewing on! (Another hip reference circa 1990). All in all, this was a bad TV show, but not as bad as I was expecting; rather, it was kind of old and forgettable. Charleston looked great, though! It should really be a boost to the local tourist economy, if nothing else.

Julie hit up the "Brides of Dracula" collection at K-Mart last night!

MANY years ago, when I was 22 and just out of college, I got my first "real" job, and one of the guys I worked with was a 29 year old macho jerk. He used to continually brag about how he spent all his weekends at the Georgia Tech campus with his young frat brothers. He would buy all the beer and liquor (since most of the guys were underage) and they'd hang out all weekend, getting drunk and hitting on "chicks". I always thought it was weird that this old guy (in my mind, at least) was hanging out with all these kids my age and younger. (I understood why they'd keep him around though, what with the free cash and valid I.D.!). He had a definite case of arrested development. Last night, watching Frankie, a 31 year old man, excitedly bragging about how his sister is such a HUGE star among the teens, and how wonderful she was for kids to look up to, and how everyone in the world adored her, reminded me of my former co-worker. Frankie seems to be stuck in middle/high school in his interests and outlook. I wonder how many gay men his age meet him, listen to him prattle on about teen topics for a few minutes, roll their eyes, and move on. I hope, as the weeks go by, we'll see that there's more to this guy than Tiger Beat magazine and Nickleodeon concerts.

In regards to having more than one gay guy in a season, they did that with Season 8. That year, several HGs had a family member/friend/frenemy show up on the first night as the surprising twist (Evel Dick being one of these surprises). There was a stereotypical gay guy in the house whose ex-boyfriend was the surprise addition. This guy was the opposite of the stereotype; just a regular guy who didn't see the need of acting over the top. I think he outlasted the flamboyant guy on the show, too. Personally, I prefer seasons where there's a good mixture of people, as in ages, family types, kids/no kids, religions, looks (hot/not), etc.

Not to get too sidetracked by the lie detector thing, but as a guy, I have to say that the % of men who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom is MUCH lower than 80%. I work in a large Class A office building, and the great majority of us wash up every time. Granted, maybe some of these guys are only washing up because there are others of us there, and they don't want to look like a slob, but I still think 80% is really high. A small % of men do the whole "scrub with soap and water" thing after "#1", which seems like overkill to me, but whatever. On the other hand, a female co-worker of mine once told me that her husband and son never lifted the seat when going #1, so she always has to wash the seat before sitting down. She thought this was normal. I told her that was the most disgusting thing I'd heard of, and was in no way "normal" behavior. Back to the subject at hand, I enjoy anything about The Bachelorette that shakes up the status quo and makes these wannabee actors/"personalities" nervous and off-their-game. Uncertainty = more fun for the viewers!