Gregg247

Remember how, just 1 year ago, people were complaining how every episode of this show involved the contestants cooking and giving tips to audience "focus groups" and how boring that was? Ah, the good old days.... We've now had 2 boring episodes that involved "wacky hi-jinx" rather than cooking and demonstrating their authority in food. I long for the days when Bob and Suzy would try to pull more food knowledge (and bedtime stories) out of each contestant, with the most experienced 9and talkative) ones moving on to the next rounds. Aryon (sp?) got kicked off last night because they couldn't understand her Igor accent in a "comedy" video. Unless she was planning on talking like that every time she was on camera, who cares?

I'm starting to think that JJ (the "pantsaprenuer") may be the instigator on a lot of the drama in the house. He's now been the main guy screwing with Andrew twice (the supposed phone number thing and now Race-Gate), plus he seemed to get the ball rolling on Cody's near-meltdown at Nick. JJ has no chemistry with Andi at all (he recreated their lame "joke" date while miming), so I think he's trying to shoot down some of his weaker competitors. I think he's a big phony.

I grew to like Barry'd Treasure, even though for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what the plot of the show was. I finally decided it was a travelogue of Barry and his cronies having fun and doing silly stuff. It was fun to watch, but about as filling as cotton candy. That said, I hope it returns with new episodes. :)

My problem with Barbara is that she can get really personally mean with some of the "contestants". Of all the Sharks, she's the one who will often tell someone, "I like your product, but for some reason, I just don't like you", or "You just don't look like a success", or "You don't look like someone I'd want to be in business with. I don't think I could trust you." Remember when she told the BBQ sauce guy that he looked like the piggy mascot? (She was right, but still--she's on TV!)

The funniest part of the basketball game was that after they really got going, if you had told any of these guys, "Hey, Andi's watching you", they would have said, "Who? Oh, yeah, that's right." LOL 6-6 at the half? Wow, the 2 teams scored 3 baskets EACH! That's pretty sad. No wonder they didn't show the final score after the Rosebuds "really turned up the heat". What was the final score, 12-8? haha So, singing and basketball aren't exactly these guys' forte. Maybe we'll stumble on to something they're good at sooner or later.

"Affected" seems to be the word of the day with this first episode. Everyone showed up on the Hollywood backlot with what I thought were costumes of what they wanted their PoV to be. Wrong! That's (supposedly) just how they dress. Many of the contestants seemed to be trying so hard to be a TV version of themselves and came across as incredibly fake. First challenge: spend 30 seconds telling us about your PoV. Cut to one of the contestants in a private interview freaking out that they're "not prepared for this already!" Really? What did you think was going to happen once the cameras started rolling? Then, they had to prepare a signature dish for 100 people. Cut to a private interview, where someone else is astonished to discover that they're going to have to start cooking so soon in the competition. What's the matter with these people? Don't they watch the show? Don't they know the title of the show? it's like going on "The Amazing Race" and being shocked that they have to head off to the airport. I really disliked the blonde pageant girl. She didn't want to be categorized as a stereotypical pageant contestant, so she starts off by telling everyone she's a former pageant girl and then starts blowing kisses. Brilliant. If Lenny the Cooking Cowboy dressed like that on the real cattle drives he apparently participated in, I don't think he would have made it back to the ranch house in one piece. Chef Roy Rogers seemed to win over the judges, though. Hopefully, the contestants will settle down and start acting more "real" and we'll see some actual stars emerge. I love this show, and look forward to seeing some nice people who know how to cook, and how to teach others to cook.

I think the 4 year absence will be good for this show. It's actually nice to have it back, as it seems (kind of) fresh again. Will the comedians who get through Round 1 all move into a house together, like in early seasons? I remember in Season 1 when everyone disliked Dat Phan for some reason (I liked him--he was funny and VERY well organized). All the comedians in the house decided to play Hide-and-Seek one night. Dat went to hide and nobody bothered to look for him. He stayed hidden for 2 hours before coming out! LOL

I was pulling for the older guy (Jimmy?) who did the bit about the chicken omelet. He's apparently been around for a LONG time. He said he started back in 1982, so he's been around since even before the huge "stand-up comedy explosion" of the late 80's/early 90s. he must know/opened for every famous comedian we've ever heard of. The fact that he's still unknown, and forced to compete against all these young kids, is kind of sad. He mentioned in his clip that he'd been asking himself, "If not now, then when?" for when his career would take off. If this show doesn't do it for him, maybe he should try something else. Following your dream is great and all, but at some point, you've got to face reality. Anyway, that's why I'm rooting for him over some of the other, younger (funnier) people. Most of the acts we saw were pretty good (except for the guy who ticked off Roseanne). I don't like Roseanne at all, but I liked how encouraging she was to everyone with her laughter throughout their sets. I get the feeling she was giving them at least a courtesy laugh to acknowledge that they were making a good attempt at entertaining the crowd, even if the material may have been a little weak. Very nice.

I'm glad Steve's g.f. is gone; she was fine as an occasional source of information or military contact, but as a member of the 5-0 team, she didn't really add anything. We need more of Chin and Kono, not less! I liked having Grover as the SWAT leader instead of as another 5-0 member. As head of SWAT, he brought some perspective and firepower that the rest of the team needed. Now, he'll just be "one of the guys". The teenager sociopath was a good villain, both times he was on the show; I was surprised and a little disappointed to see him get killed in such an off-hand manner. However, I DID enjoy his look of shock when Wo-Fat pulled out his gun and shot him--probably the same look of shock that the old lady had when he murdered her and took over her house.

I liked how all the different sides in this show (and there are many) kept switching, with sworn enemies suddenly working together to fight a common threat. I was sorry to see Hirsch die, but he died a true hero (and a tough guy to kill, too!). I was also sorry to see Collier die. His viewpoint was totally valid (though his methods were not). Did you notice that the two people who kept pushing him to get more violent and out-front were the Decima dude and the undercover FBI agent who Collier killed? I'm not sure where this show is headed, but it seems much more grim as we go on (not necessarily a good thing for my taste). Part of the problem, for me, is that its no longer a semi-futuristic "what-if" show; its apparently playing out for real around us every day. That makes me very uncomfortable. I wonder if the producers had any idea when they first created this show how right they actually were!

Barry really is the breakout character on this show, so it was good to see him succeed for once. It's too bad the commercials for the show gave away the ending, though. All during the party, I was wondering where Barry's red sweatsuit was for his dancing scene. It kind of spoiled the whole "parents show up" surprise, knowing that there was more (and bigger) partying to come. The whole cast is really good, and this is one of the few shows that actually makes me laugh each week.

That was awesome! I'm sorry Garrett is gone, but, WOW, what a way to go! lol Based on what we saw last night, I'd say Ward and Fitz are off the show (as regulars, anyway), being replaced by Trip and Koenig. Ward's a much better bad guy that hero, anyway, and I never really liked Fitz (too wimpy and redundant with Simmons there). I like Agent Coulson as the new Director, but is he REALLY the new Director? He was "promoted" by a guy who the world believes is dead, to the head of an organization that's been shut down by the US government (and its agents still being hunted down). Are these guys still getting paid? Who's filling up their plane with gas? This may have been more of an "informal" promotion than an actual one. Very few shows have made such a startling improvement in quality in such a short amount of time as this show has. I can't wait for next season!

So we have Decima, the Northern Lights government people, Vigilance, and our heroes, and everyone considers themselves "the good guys". I like that. I think that all 4 sides will get their say during the trial next week. Here's a question for everyone: Aside from the stars of the show, which "other" side are you rooting for (or that you disagree with the least)? My rank-ordering (least awful to most awful) would be 1. Vigilance; 2. Northern Lights; 3. Decima. Maybe next week will change my mind! :)

When Benjamin Bratt sat down in the interrogation room with Jack, I thought he was going to start off with, "So, how did YOU enjoy being engaged to Julia Roberts? Awesome, huh?"

I think Red's family was killed /taken by Lizzie's real father. Red tracked him down and killed him and his wife (the big house fire Lizzie vaguely remembers). He didn't know the guy had a daughter in the home, so Red ran back in and saved her. He felt bad that he'd just done to her (killed her family) that her father had done to him (killed his family), so he took her and gave her to his friend, Sam, a solid family man, to raise as his own. Red sees himself and Lizzie as kindred spirits, and joined together by loss and revenge.

Wow, I didn't recognize the guy from "Law and Order" as the Kingmaker this week. Maybe they should have hired Sam Waterston to play the Senator instead of the guy from "House of Cards". That would've been funny. Glad to see Alan Alda again, especially as a bad guy; its a nice change of pace for him. I also like to see Red struggling a bit. He's gotten a little too cocky lately, so I like seeing him actually worried about something. That includes his little "personal story" he told to the guy in the swimming pool in the beginning of the episode. Red's story was he was a life guard and had such a bad experience, he hadn't been in the water since. The guy says, "But weren't you in the Navy?", and Red looked perturbed that his lie was sniffed out so easily. You're awesome, Red, but you're a little full of yourself!

I've been waiting since episode 1 for that flying car to finally DO SOMETHING! That whole "drive the car off the plane in mid-air" thing was so cheap looking and fun that I laughed their whole way down (in a good way). Skye and Agent Coulson's looks when they landed in the parking spot was hilarious, too. It's nice that this show, which has gotten very dark and serious, can still take time for some levity. I'm not sure why the Army was intent on "arresting" all SHIELD agents. They spent most of the season showing that SHIELD is some huge organization with 3 distinct college campuses for training new agents, plus a massive skyscraper in DC, yet now every one of those people is considered a criminal? I don't remember all the employees of Fannie Mae getting rounded up during the whole mortgage crisis debacle a few years ago, but maybe I missed that particular news cycle. :)

Peter and Alicia working (somewhat) in concert to get the NSA off their backs was a beautiful sight to behold. They both played it masterfully, with an able assist from Cary and Clark. I love these "gotcha" moments in shows like this. MJF is back! Thank goodness he's done with his terrible sitcom so he could come back here. I got lost in his last scene, though; it seemed like he was working WITH Diane and Kalinda to get them out of a bad financial fix Will had gotten them into, and then he was leaving. Yet earlier, it looked like he was evil and trying to use Kalinda to take down Diane (?) I'm confused. Also, at one point MJF introduced himself as Louis Canning, and I thought he said "loose cannon". I can't believe I never picked up on that similarity before. As I've stated before, if they introduce Thomas Wilson (aka Biff Tannen) as MJF's investigator, I'll love this show till it dies! lol

How in the world did this show go from being a "Yeah, it's Tuesday night, and I've got nothing else to do, so I'll watch it" to "Oh boy, I can't wait to see what happens next!"? That's really rare. Looking back over the season, its obvious they were planting seeds the whole way to get to where they're at now. I just wish the early episodes had been more fun so as to keep more of the early viewers watching. Last night's episode was very good. Things I especially liked: 1. Ward is actually a BAD GUY, and he explained how he snowed the team for all this time. 2. Bill Paxton is great as the villain. Very funny and EEEEVVIILLL! 3. Agent Coulson seems like a real leader (both in SHIELD Control Room and later on the plane). I'd follow him. 4. Skye did useful work rather than show off how wonderful she is. 5. The good guys still don't know about the bad guys -- fun! 6. The flower dress chick suddenly got interesting. Based on her reactions, she's not completely on-board with the whole "there's no clairvoyant, just some macho dude with a lot of Intel" twist. 7. May is getting put in her place, and actually seems like a real person for once. Spying on your close friend for your Boss doesn't go over well in any organization, no matter the reason for it. Agent Coulson will get over it, but I'm glad she's suffering a bit for the time being. 8. Finally, SHIELD faced a problem with a lack of resources (food, fuel, repairs, transportation). Good. It's about time they had to struggle a bit with real problems rather than magically zip from Sweden to NYC to Abu Dabi during a commercial break. 9. The guy in the secret base was pretty funny, but not in an overly silly or outlandish way. He's just a guy doing his job in a really boring place (wonder what he screwed up to get assigned there?). 10. "Do you play Call of Duty, Agent Coulson?" "Of course!" LOL

Darrell used to be my least favorite, but I think Jarod and Brandy have taken that slot. Darrell is a buffoon and kind of a bully, but he seems to have a decent sense of humor about himself, and is really trying to entertain the viewers. Jarod/Brandy come across as truly mean and unpleasant people. When Dave "the Mogul" was on, he was a complete jerk, but you could tell he took the business seriously and tried to be a professional when not "doing battle" with his competitors. Barry was just a fun and entertaining goofball. Rene and Casey are trying to be a "nicer" version of Jarod/Brandy. They seem a little fake to me, though, so I'm not really buying them. They seem more like TV casting rather than actual storage room bidders/thrift store owners. Ivy is a good addition to the show. I like how he digs through the rooms he buys and explains in detail how each item or box of items is worth money and why. I get the feeling his "estimates" are the closest actual values he could get in real life sales. I'm glad those older twins aren't on the show this season. They didn't know anything about the business and were just there to add "flavor" to the show. They were kind of useless.

This is such a good show! After a few weak episodes, it's really taking off, now that the former-worst-character (Tom) has suddenly become one of the best characters. I can't wait to see how his mysterious plan unravels. The whole spy-vs-spy thing works for me. My favorite scene last night, though, was when Red suddenly blurted out "Oh, how I miss Bob Ross!" while at the art gallery. LOL Then he started talking about Bob's pet squirrel, and the wonderful painting he could create with just an old putty knife. I would love to just hang out with Red occasionally (as long as there were no threats of impending doom involved!).

This was a really good episode, and everyone did a fantastic job. Go Cary! That opposing lawyer is going to rue the day he tried to take advantage of THAT situation! The one part that felt fake to me was that the Governor of Illinois wouldn't be all over a courthouse shooting in downtown Chicago. This actually happened here in Atlanta a few years ago, and every politician was all over it immediately (and rightly so). Also, he was speaking at the Corrospondence Club (aren't they reporters?) and none of them was alerted to this major breaking news. Also, Peter's speech seemed to have run for about 4 hours, according everything else that was happening concurrently in the episode. I think Eli would have cancelled the speech before it even began.

After 12 seasons, I'm getting tired of this show. Why do they consistently recruit contestants from prisons and local jails? I can't root for anyone to win, as I would never want to eat the food cooked by these losers. Chef Ramsey, your contestants are under-cooked and over-heated. SHUT IT DOWN! lol