CaliCheeseSucks

Fantastic final new rule that hit it out of the park. Bari Weiss was amazing, given the circumstances. She's been on MSNBC/Nicolle Wallace several times this past week, always very (understandably) emotional. I was glad she laid the blame right where it belongs. While I appreciate Barbra's activism, I agree with those who didn't see a point to that segment. It was more of a "we got Barbra Streisand!" than "Barbra Streisand has anything significant to say right now." I wish someone like Larry Wilmore or Malcolm Nance had been the last guest/panelist, they could have significantly contributed to the entire discussion. But quibbles. One of Bill's best shows overall in a while.

That was genuinely touching - I teared up. I wasn't familiar with Noel or Sandi prior to last season and halfway through this one, my review of them went from "They're fine" (last season) to "Mel and Sue who?" Honestly, I liked M&S at the time but now I don't miss them at all. Noel is so genuine, caring and kind towards the bakers and as you said, Sandi hasn't really gotten to have those moments, but she delivered here and in a very big way. I love them.

Loved Rahul and was thrilled that he won but... what an odd finale. The doughnuts seemed like an early-season challenge, the parameters of the pita challenge just seemed unnecessarily drama-inducing. The showstoppers all fell flat to me, not to discount the hard work that went into them. However, it feels like in the past, the final showstoppers were, well, showstoppers. None of these made me go "wow."

He missed his calling as a mediocre motivational speaker for corporate retreats. Yes, I thought it was amusing Bill didn't mention at all Opportunatti's eviction and $5 million judgment. I thought those issues were far more timely than, "Tell us again about having sex with Donald Trump," which she's kicked to death at this point.

Why on earth does he give Anthony Scaramucci air time? He served negative ten days in the White House (never officially began at the time he was fired), he doesn't have any tangible political experience yet yammers on about Trump's political strategies as if he's some kind of James Carville. I just wanted him booted off stage. A complete zero. Stormy is another waste of space. Enjoyed the monologue for once, and would have liked to have heard more from Boot and Woodruff.

Just catching up to this season and there's an almost throwaway moment in this episode showing Rahul using baking in his personal life to make friends. So I think he's just very introverted and relies on "show (with bakes)" not "tell (with overt reactions/behaviors)." I'm definitely rooting for him.

Pretty good show but then again, I completely skipped past the Bannon segment. Nice to have a panel where all three people got opportunities to speak and absent any one negative personality drain.

Never heard of Hilton before and WOW - hope to never hear *from* him again. Was yelling at the screen for Bill to stop allowing the guy to talk over Hartmann and Rampell. I don't mind O'Rourke but combined with British Mr. Clean, it was too much smug and overtalk.

I had to stop listening to the Slate podcast during season three, I think. They came off as way too much - I hate this expression but it fits best here - sniffing their own farts, episode after episode. It was clear they were way too invested in the idea of impressing viewers and/or fan service (i.e., Martha sightings, Mail Robot), and less so concerned with putting out a cohesive story. Sounds like I was right for quitting listening, in that they stuck to that self-congratulatory style to the end.

Just to clarify: I do think there was evidence of guilt of something beyond a reasonable doubt. For the charges that she was tried for, I do believe the state made its case. Having said that: I also think there were procedural irregularities and errors that ought to have provided the basis for overturning her conviction and ordering a new trial. Ultimately, as in Making A Murderer, I feel the filmmakers were overly invested in convincing viewers of their subject's innocence. To that end, they cherry picked theories about strangers (not that it can't happen - of course, it sadly is a fact of life that a rando can break into any home and wreak havoc), while sidestepping a serious look at the other person who would have had means (access) and motive (insurance fraud, Darlie's insurance coverage) with Darin. I honestly think I learned more from the forty-minute-ish Death Row Stories than I did over four weeks in this series. I am disappointed because I tuned in solely due to Viola Davis' name being attached - I wouldn't expect her to use her imprimatur for something so substandard.

I'm going to check out that episode of Death Row Stories. This case was new to me, so to a certain extent I was the most dupe-able kind of viewer - a complete blank slate for whatever they put in front of me. Yet even watching it, some things presented didn't sit right. While I understand having to edit things out for time, the amount of effort spent trying to direct viewers to theories centered on it being a random break-in/murder really didn't pass the sniff test, particularly given how they dropped the detail at the very end - almost an afterthought! - about Darin's affidavit. Never mind that I had to find out from another source (Texas Monthly) that the sock, also used to bolster much of the argument away from Darlie's guilt, belonged to Darin. At the very least to me, it seems like if there's a credible, alternate theory of the crime, it revolves around/involves Darin. And it was curious that the show swerved as far away from those angles as possible.

The thing about the sock is that, according to the Texas Monthly article, that sock belonged to Darin. That just swings all my suspicion right back to the adults in that house and away from "a rando in a black car seen driving around the week of the murders." Was the sock's ownership a contested fact? Or did the producers intentionally not highlight that it belonged to Darin? (Or did I miss it being mentioned completely? It's possible.) Knowing that detail now, though, the little red flags popping up at the end of episode four with regard to Darin's culpability just get bigger - and I wonder, why did they sideline a real look at him? It seems possible that Darlie either did it with his help, with his assistance covering it up (for whatever reason she did it) or she was actually the victim of a crime planned by her husband. Why would a random intruder break in, murder two children, unsuccessfully try to murder an adult woman and then manage to run off with a single sock belonging to the woman's husband?

That revelation literally made me sit straight up. It's not simply being asked to believe that *he* agreed to go along with signing that affidavit; it's that buying into the idea that it was a defense 'trick,' so to speak, means accepting the legal counsel who presented it to him was fine was suborning perjury and committing a fraud on the court. I simply don't believe an attorney would be that desperate, on a twenty-year-old conviction, to throw basic legal ethics out the window. I felt like there was much more to that angle than warranted it being tossed in there almost as an afterthought. ETA: I'm reading Skip Hollandsworth's Texas Monthly article and wow. I think the show dropped the ball with regard to taking a real close look at Darin.

Wish I could like this 100 times. Am so tired of Bill's, "Oh you're so brave coming here because we're the enemy to you," followed by nothing but soft-pedaling (with an occasional pointed question). Bill constantly lets the conservative interviewees off the hook. Dude, you got them in the chair across from you. Put up or shut up.

Although most of the season two episodes are Emmy-eligible, "Holly" missed the cut for 'hanging episodes'; that is to say if a season has aired at least 50% of its episodes by May 31 - the Emmy eligibility period cutoff - then they are allowed 'hanging episodes' into the month of June, up to the date when the nominee voting closes. June 25 was that deadline, so "The Last Ceremony" was the last of this season's episodes eligible for individual submission.

Obviously, they play games with the Boston geography (never mind that they don't film locally) but there are plenty of places in suburban Boston/Middlesex County where that house and the surrounding property/woods would fit right in: Weston, Sudbury, Wellesley, just to start.

Colion Noir has to be one of the most insufferable tools I've listened to; Neera was having none of it in Overtime and I was living for it.

They're going to interrogate her no matter what. And she'll spill. She's young, she's stupid and she has literally nothing left in her life. Nada.

As has been established ad nauseum this season: Paige is not a smart girl - she'll squawk the second they start asking her questions, especially if she thinks it will help her parents, wherever they are. She has absolutely no one to live off of - she's going to have to cough up information for any kind of assistance in not ending up on the street.

She participated in and witnessed some missions with Mom. She's absolutely an accessory.

The garage scene was great - and Rhys' performance was, in a nutshell, why I hung on to the end. But overall, an underwhelming conclusion.

Yeah, that was a, "Seriously?" moment for me. Did not pass the sniff test at all. Hell, the people around her barely reacted. It's D.C., people would be absolutely reacting frantically to someone biting it in front of them. And these were high level government officials.

Well. That was something. I was hoping for a good ol' Elizabeth-on-Claudia beat down. For old times' sake.

I love this version's Laurie. It's hard for me to unsee Thurman's resemblance in her daughter - it's the eyes for me. But I would have hoped that Armstrong's version had put to bed the idea of using one actress to play Amy as a child-to-adult. It's just not believable.

Maybe I'm a cynic but even with my criticisms of the writers, I still have a hard time fathoming that Renee is a years-long single-woman sleeper cell to be activated in the event that Stan Beeman stops being such a dolt and will reveal herself as a KGB killer in the waning minutes of the show. People suspected Pastor Tim was actually KGB for a while too. And the girl on the bus who recruited Paige into his ministry. And so many other people have been fingered as KGB over the seasons, and I can't think of any that panned out.