snarktini

This would make the most sense. Some people are better, in morals and actions, than others. Hence good/bad places. Not everyone will or even should get "better" and I kind of hope they don't turn him around. That'd be too pat. Humans ARE flawed. They're just better than the current system indicates. I thought that was just perfect. He totally found them!

It's not only the repetitive short/small jokes about Sandy -- nearly all their interactions are so scripted and forced IMO. They're trying too hard. I don't dislike Sandy or Noel, but I miss the more natural, easy camaraderie of Mel & Sue. I don't get the appeal of the St Honore cake at all! I'm with Rosie, I don't like custardy things, period. (TBF I'm allergic to egg yolks so it's moot. I suspect I don't like eggy/custardy textures because they made me sick as a kid long before it was diagnosed.)

My family makes pasta. When we roll, the person cranking is actually doing the least skilled bit. That's my job lol. It takes a lot of skill to use the machines well. The dough has to be hydrated JUST SO. You have to know when it can go thinner and when it will tear if you try. When it has to be rested. When it's getting too long or too inelastic to handle. When it needs a couple of drops of water and a rewrap. I've been helping my parents for decades and still, I crank. 🙂

They said Evan "cut piano class" and the three of them drove across state lines to Georgia. It's debatable how major an offense that is, but joyriding out of state is not something most parents would be okay with. I'd think Eddie would be in a lot of trouble for that, more than the other boys. It wasn't a memorable episode, but the fluffiness of it was a ton more enjoyable than the show has been in awhile for me.

I like seeing the theories that have been posted! We'll see! It did seem like a giant arrow pointing to a situation where Michael thinks he's being so clever but it backfires in some way. Love your take, Enginerd! Great questions. I wasn't clear why they were fixating on her being boring when the real problem, per the experiment, is that someone so utterly uninterested in anything would have not have the curiosity needed to question anything, much less engage with the other humans and ultimately grow. I do hope this is the case, too, because it doesn't make sense right now. In the past the writers have done a good job of turning what look like bad writing or glitches into well-thought-out plot points. It would also help explain why the Bad Place was allowed to select all the test subjects without oversight -- seriously, is the Judge / Good Place that naive? -- and then they cheated anyway and basically got away with it. I'd prefer a resolution where this is all part of the plan, not stupidity.

I'm not someone who HAS to finish a show, though I tilt more completing than quitting especially this close to the end. (Please, let it be the end.) Jessica is chasing me away! Which sucks because I like most of the other characters and still want to spend 22 minutes with them. They've done a good job cultivating Eddie's character and having him grow up. (Not to mention the acting has really improved.) Honey and Marvin crack me up, especially how Marvin was happy to show up and play reveille, no questions asked. I had to go find out who played his dad -- it was bugging me and I could not place him. Corbin Bernsen!!

So did my boyfriend! We got a lot of giggles out of that. . Sorry to see Jason go. He had a great run.

20s cocktails would have been much better! If you're at the point where it can be "any cocktail" (and finding yourself debating if a Vampire's Kiss is a real drink), it seems like a missed opportunity. With a few exceptions, there was a sad lack of 20s style in the bakes across both Signature and Show Stopper. The tarts were a total disappointment to me, as a bit of a deco design nut. David got it. Alice was getting there -- her four lines and bits had a bit of a vibe. But, flavor wise there was almost nothing to tie to the era aside from Henry's tortured Kool Aid reference. In terms of decoration I expected more awesome geometric deco things, but maybe the problem was time on the tarts . They barely had enough time to bake their tarts, much less pipe on elaborate decorations*. In Showstopper, they don't get the time excuse and at least there were some deco elements but still underwhelming. I kind of hoped someone would use the tiered layers to evoke a skyscraper, new to that era. The whole theme could have been better designed. * ETA: For the tarts, it wouldn't have been that hard. They were already making little bits and bobs to throw on top at the last minute. The little bits and bobs could easily have been repeated patterns -- geometric (chevrons / circles / triangles) or curvilinear (fans, peacock, sun rays) -- instead of random flowers and meringues, and that would have been easy deco.

I agree with this. Phil didn't do GREAT at anything. Sort of okay at everything, and poor in the showstopper. (Deservedly so.) The others made big mistakes but also had big successes. It averaged out with all of them in the same range, and boring went home. DON'T BORE NINA! Oops, sorry, wrong show! They do use dairy, but this was specifically "cultured dairy" -- buttermilk, kefir, yogurt, etc. That is a little different. I didn't think it was successful, though.

I like Luis's the best of the 3. He was a visual designer IIRC and I see that "design" eye in his dragon (2D planes, graphic, simplified), versus what I would consider more of a "craft" aesthetic in the other dragons and an "sculptural/artistic" vibe in David's flowers. The piping is very busy, yes, but without it there wouldn't be enough to it. It would have just been flat planes of biscuit, not a showstopper. His had the advantage of having fewer elements; I don't think his would have met the brief of this new challenge so it's not really a fair fight. Totally agree with Mabinogia that Priya's dragon, the green one, was hard to understand as a dragon. I liked her sketch and thought the green scale wings would be unique and visually exciting, but in execution it fell flat. They were uneven and mismatched. Worse, there seemed to be no back side to the dragon! I kept looking for its body. The face and front arms were quite well done, yet totally overshadowed by overly large wings and fire. The pieces didn't feel harmonious as a whole. Michelle's, the red/pink one, was definitely more recognizable. I liked the smooshy icing treatment she used to create scales, that was clever. Because of that, the head is quite successful (if a bit vulture-y), and the fire reads better as well. But then the addition of macarons lets it down, more like polka dots than scales. It felt like the "one extra thing" they feel like they have to add and it would have been stronger without it. (Whereas macarons were PERFECT for the lamb. That was exactly right for wool.) There were just too many slightly-different pinks and reds and the overall effect was just messy IMO. The biscuit used for the rooster feathers would have made great scales! ETA: I watched the last "How to Train your Dragon" this weekend so I have a lot of ideas about dragons and how to visually represent them. 😄

I hope that is the case! Because honestly nothing else explains some of their "Huh I've never seen that before" reactions. For me, this time around it was Prue saying she'd never heard of tea shortbread?! That's not uncommon. Also, wasn't there a whole prior biscuit-sculpture challenge with a tea chest with different tea-flavored biscuits? I absolutely loved David's flowers. I get the criticism of not enough color, but there was something so delicate and restrained...I think I liked it BECAUSE it was monochromatic. (Lol that's my art school training showing.) Often the biscuit towers are heavy and blocky and glued from here to eternity, for good reason. Instead, he found a way to make something so delicate and pretty! Those leaves were perfect. I'm not sure what I think about him as a person, but I think that's because he came out of the gate with "It has no fat! I love healthy baking!" ugh. Don't dislike him, but also haven't connected. The lamb and chicken were also amazing and adorable. I was deeply impressed by how those came out. I was disappointed in the dragons.

I don't know the names yet. I'm thinking of goth-y one who admitted she'd never made a Genoise sponge in her life. Um, showing up on GBBO without even having attempted a Genoise sponge strikes me as very dumb move. (Like Amazing Racers who didn't bother to learn a stick shift, back when they made them drive more.) I get that most of them had very little experience with it, but it's come up quite a bit and would be on my list of things to at least try once before arriving on the set!

I had a hard time getting through the series, but stuck with it out of loyalty. I've seen all the mini-series but have not read the books. (ETA: I did read the 1st one. But IMO Maupin's story was a lot better than his writing so I stopped there.) Likes: Dee Dee living her best life. Also her assistant/butler, if that's what he is, and when she chose him over the party people. The gay burlesque co-op. Margo & Jake's story, especially Jake. (I live here and know trans/non-binary folk, and that felt like the most real story to me.) The bathtub rental! Maryann being invited to live at the Flamingo Arms. The lady who pretends to not hear Victor Garber. Dislikes: Shawna. Shawna's hat. Everything with Claire, from the start. Maryann thinking that being an adoptive mother means she didn't actually run out on "her" kid. The vapid twins & how absurdly easy it was for them to get a gigantic following. Mouse being recast, again. Most unearned moment: Claire telling Shawna that the world of Barbary Lane centers around her (or something like that). Huh? I did not see that. If anyone, it's Anna. I think we're supposed to see Shawna as the next-generation heart of the story, like Maryann in the originals, but I just don't. Biggest WTF: Seriously, all the blackmail and destruction mystery boiled down to a bratty, grasping, self-aggrandizing filmmaker who wanted a better ending to her documentary? 2nd biggest WTF: I'm ok in principle with Anna giving Ysela the building, to give back to the friends she left behind. But what else would she do with that property except sell it and use the proceeds to help her community? Otherwise it's a place to live (which, in SF, is a pretty awesome thing) that comes with huge landlord obligations that are not worth it to a 80 y.o. woman. Where does that leave Anna's "family", and the promise to Maryann that she could live there? ("These things tend to work out.") If she kept it, Ysela would surely want her own people to live there. There's also a whole rent-control thing that should have prevented or delayed eviction in the first place, but I'll set that aside.

It wasn't anyone we know. That's a side story that happens before our Neptune events begin, to introduce our cartel guys and establish the power of El Despiadado.

I rarely prefer season-long Big Bad arcs to case-of-the-week adventures, and this season is no exception. I feel like I'm losing the plot, and losing interest in it. Can someone remind me why Gregson was shot? Curious if Morland will stay dead. Totally agree Bell's vague language was suspicious + the fake death in the original story + we haven't seen the body. But it probably serves the story best if he is, leaving after that exchange with Sherlock. Maybe they know we're a cynical lot and want to leave us hanging for a bit. We know that Sherlock and Joan are on the level about the lab woman was innocent, but why would the teacher believe them? Joan dropped off "every email she sent for a month" for her to look at, but that's in no way proof she hadn't done anything bad. If the teacher's emails were read, they wouldn't show anything either. (I'm overly distracted by Joan's hair and makeup, which I hate because how an actor looks is not what I think is important or noteworthy. But she's so shiny!)

Thank you for catching that! I was wondering where the ring came from and meant to ask the forum. Even an "expensive" ring from Logan wouldn't have been that bling-y or pay for so much renovation. I thought I missed something. And I had!

Yeah, that really jumped out to me. It was not an ignition switch bomb, which would ensure at least one of them was in it. It was just a timer. And why that exact moment anyway? Did Penn supposedly know that was street sweeping time, and knew they always waited until the last minute? No one noticed the backpack? Why was street sweeping time in the dark the first time (when Logan skyped in and the cartel guys were watching) but in daylight this time? Lame. Was also wondering about the friend. (I can't be the only one that spotted him as faking his "political consultant" job.) I'm assuming Penn hoped to frame him. How did he get him to meet there? Penn was a very busy guy. Not a fan of the end. Liked all the cameos, especially seeing Deputy Leo again. He was always one of my VM favs. Weevil, too. Veronica definitely should have tossed him solid amount of that finder's fee.

So, why did our original victim kill the childhood friend who gave him the tip? They speculated him not wanting to share the cash, but murder seems pretty drastic for a garden variety thief with nothing big on his rap sheet.

Lol, in the South Park movie, Saddam Hussein thrived in Hell and the only way they could properly punish him was by sending him to Heaven to live among all the happy, peppy Mormons. I can only imagine the singalongs. 😄

Right. My BF (who's pretty new to TAR) kept insisting leaving early was still an advantage, despite the bunching. Finally the penny dropped for him, and he realized they had to spend their entire 4-hour lead in the airport. Then he was all "that's bullshit!". Yes, yes it is. It was not only not an advantage, it was a solid disadvantage. They had to spend all that time in the airport when they could have been in the hotel (?) sleeping or resting, where their packs were safe and it was quiet. Airports are terrible places to spend time. Their "I thought they were fun" killed me. No, Leo and Jamal never seemed "fun" IMO. They seemed like they were having fun and they definitely crack each other -- and themselves -- up. But fun for other racers to be around? Nope. LOL on what Rupert said, too...I had the same reaction.

I got lucky, tuned in today to this show for the first time and got a perfectly reasonable couple in Canada (Parry Sound) buying an island with a budget of 0.5-1.0 million! A bargain! Considering that where I live $750,000 will buy you a 2 (maaaybe 3) bedroom house that's 80 years old and needs work, it had me daydreaming of island life instead. All those trails and trees and views...mmmm. I'd much rather watch them than the high-maintenance, high-budget types. But in the end don't want to live on my own island unless I was dripping with money for ferry service, grocery deliveries, and the like. Solitude is awesome, but that level of isolation feels...onerous. Especially if you have to build any new structures.

I was surprised to read an interview with/about James recently that said he took the test 13 times (IIRC), and had to interview twice. To me that supports the idea that he is a regular-smart guy who had to work to build this knowledge. All to get on the show to honor his Grandma! I like him. There was one I remember where the responses contained numbers, and they were in numerical order 1-5 going down the board. Because they started at the bottom (and perhaps jumped around?) they didn't realize it. It was achievable without knowing, but the pattern would have made answering a slam dunk if they'd started at the top. Most of the time, my take is it's simply easier to figure out the gimmicky ones when you start at the top. Sometimes the title alone makes it impossible to figure out what the category will mean, so starting with the hardest one is risky. Or the wordplay ones, it helps to warm up with easier ones.

Interesting, the grandpa bit of the clue was the only way I got to the right answer! ETA: Sorry, I see from later comments this has totally been covered! I am almost always a day or two behind on watching so I read warily and rarely comment...I was trying something new, jumping to a reply without reading everything. Oops.

Thanks for the info!

Two more notes: That Monet-Punny title was really, really tortured. It took awhile for me to even get what they were trying to do. I usually like how the writers play with themed titles but this was a dud. Question about the "the type of musical work is being performed here" clue. Is a Quintet considered a "type of work"? Isn't it a type of performer or group? I could even see type of performance. But a musical work? Q brought up quintet immediately but I hesitated because I couldn't reconcile that. Then again, I'm not a musician...