snarktini
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Posts posted by snarktini
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When Eleanor said she was sure everyone lost points I wondered: Did they?
Hitting someone I assume is a point loss. But being honest, standing up for someone else, and defending values...could those ADD points? Just a thought.
ETA: I guess I'm thinking mainly of Chidi here. In life he was indecisive to the point of harm. Taking a stand feels like positive growth to me. OTOH, the point system doesn't seem to work that way.
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On 10/25/2019 at 9:24 AM, Traveller519 said:
WELCOME TO THE BAD PLACE
"Population: Your Mom"I had to get the pause on the DVR just right, but that made me laugh more than it should.
As soon as I saw the sign I immediately guessed it was a Yo Mama joke -- it didn't look like a number and this show likes a throwaway sign gag -- and sure enough the freeze frame confirmed. Win!
On 10/25/2019 at 9:32 AM, iMonrey said:Definitely. The running gag of Chidi going "OOOOOOOOH!" throughout the episode any time he thought the puzzle was taking on new twists was both hilarious and endearing.
Could he be any more adorable?! His glee was just amazing. I really like when we get to see happy Chidi instead of anxious Chidi.
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On 10/23/2019 at 12:10 PM, Bruinsfan said:
That sentence just made me think—they didn't establish that all the test subjects had to improve to prove Team Cockroach's point, did they? If Simone, John, Brent, and now Chidi are the actual metric by which the experiment is judged rather than it secretly being a test of the original four's altruism, ANY of them improving from their beginning state proves the hypothesis. So if, say, three of them show substantial improvement but Brent only gets worse, that just proves that some people can be reformed and deserve The Good Place, while some are hopeless and belong in The Bad Place.
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.
On 10/31/2019 at 9:07 PM, Machiabelly said:Word search. Which makes more sense. He found all the words after all.
I thought that was just perfect. He totally found them!
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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.)
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2 hours ago, theatremouse said:
And yet when I think about the specific difficulty he was having, I wonder if having her crank meant she was doing the part that didn't require or reflect skill. If he was guiding it, then he was maybe doing the active part that was causing it to go wrong earlier. So maybe in this case he was doing the "doing". I'm just not sure.
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. 🙂
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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.
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On 9/26/2019 at 7:38 PM, SammyBeBop said:
I have a sneaking suspicion something hinky happened with Janet on the train at the end. Like, maybe they swapped her with a new, unevolved Janet.
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.
On 9/27/2019 at 7:28 AM, Enginerd said:For awhile I was thinking the challenge was how to deal with someone so utterly uninterested in anything, including self-improvement. I still think that would be a good plot thread, because people like that are so irritating. Also, what are the moral implications of being so satisfied with mediocrity and so ungenerous in conversation? Would the point system say that this is nirvana, wanting nothing, and therefore morally superior? Or that being a useless lump who appreciates nothing and does nothing for others is damnable? What do we owe to each other? Not to be a joy-sucking party pooper who''s fine with never improving anything?
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.
On 9/28/2019 at 12:30 PM, hertolo said:For awhile I was thinking the challenge was how to deal with someone so utterly uninterested in anything, including self-improvement. I still think that would be a good plot thread, because people like that are so irritating. Also, what are the moral implications of being so satisfied with mediocrity and so ungenerous in conversation? Would the point system say that this is nirvana, wanting nothing, and therefore morally superior? Or that being a useless lump who appreciates nothing and does nothing for others is damnable? What do we owe to each other? Not to be a joy-sucking party pooper who''s fine with never improving anything?
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.
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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!!
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On 9/26/2019 at 7:23 PM, Writing Wrongs said:
For the nose question in the "SCH" category, I said "schlong". Oops.
So did my boyfriend! We got a lot of giggles out of that. .
Sorry to see Jason go. He had a great run.
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4 hours ago, Adiba said:
Thought the same thing--and pina coladas are an invention of the '50s--why not have them do cakes based on cocktails that were around during the 1920s, or at least inspired by them (for Priya and her no -booze cake).
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.
On 9/25/2019 at 6:11 PM, TVbitch said:I don't get how most of the tart decorations spoke to a 20's theme.
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.
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12 hours ago, Danny Franks said:
It didn't surprise me. They usually let a good showstopper override earlier mistakes, and Phil's showstopper simply wasn't very good, while Michael and Priya's were.
If Phil had done better, then I think they probably would have opted to send both of the other two home. But he didn't. It was a bunch of stamped, multicoloured sweets and a plastic garden gnome.
Yes, Phil was surprised, but he really shouldn't have been.
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!
10 hours ago, Adiba said:The whole "dairy week" theme was perplexing to me. The Gbbo contestants use dairy often in the form of cream, whipped cream, creme pat, etc. I've been making a sour cream coffee cake and lemon sour cream pound cake since the '70s--so it's not something that I thought was new or unexpected at all.
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.
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7 hours ago, halopub said:
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. 😄
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On 9/5/2019 at 3:08 PM, Margo Leadbetter said:
I sometimes think it's less about THEIR ignorance and more about what they think the audience doesn't know. I've noticed it a number of times, where they feign ignorance about a particular ingredient so the contestant can explain. For example, there have been a number of time where they were all ???? about yuzu, bakers have used it since the second season. They've done it with other ingredients as well—pandan is another one that comes to mind. Ruby chocolate isn't exactly something that's well known so Paul and Prue's supposed cluelessness gave (insert baker's name here because I forgot) a chance to explain for the benefit of the viewers.
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?
On 9/3/2019 at 6:02 PM, halopub said:I can see David going pretty far with those wedding flower arrangements and complement of flavors across the different cookies.
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.
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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!
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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.
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3 hours ago, BoogieBurns said:
I planned to rewatch the first episode, but right now I'm still too mad. Maybe I missed this part and y'all caught it...
Who was in the trunk kicking around when the two Mexican men crossed the border? We know big Dick was decapitated before his head was brought to Mexico, so I highly doubt his body was still functioning enough to kick while in the trunk. Also, they explicitly state that his body was left in Neptune.
So who was that?
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.
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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!)
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56 minutes ago, bybrandy said:
No, the rig was the engagement ring that the kid gave to his fiance who died. They didn't find the ring on her body and that is the ring the brother and father (I assume... the big guys) were harrassing the congressman about because they wanted the ring because it was wroth big bucks. They never find the ring because Mattie (Maddie? Veronica Light) found it.
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!
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On 7/24/2019 at 4:18 AM, justmehere said:
-This one isn't mine - I saw it in a comment elsewhere - but the bomb that killed Logan was way too convenient: The police would have confiscated Penn's bag and found the bomb. Or barring that somehow, the timing was too dependent on coincidence. Mid-day in Fiji? Why would Penn assume Veronica would be in her car right then? Likewise, it was too convenient that Logan went to move the car at that particular minute. So many other ways it could have gone, as many have mentioned.
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.
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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.
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8 hours ago, Lantern7 said:
Realization . . . for a lot of the damned, Ray's nature would actually make things worse for them. Inferno's Got Talent would push them over the edge.
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. 😄
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On 4/25/2019 at 10:39 PM, Ilovepie said:
Yes, and this is really starting to bug me. A lot. Last week it was digging in the sand for a clue to get to the airport.......to all be on the same flight. This week staggered start times to get to the airport.........to all be on the same flight. Why not just have them all leave at the same time? Are they just keeping up the pretense that there is some advantage to having to get up at the crack of dawn when in reality it’s just to sit around the airport waiting for all the other teams to show up and get on the same plane?!? Now that I m writing this it’s making me pissed about it. Talk about a downgrade in the show.......
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.
On 4/26/2019 at 9:25 AM, fishcakes said:I've always liked the Afghanimals anyway, but the fact that they've become the nemeses to Corrine and Eliza only makes me like them more. It was especially rich to hear Corrine and Eliza complaining about how Leo and Jamal aren't "fun or helpful or nice." As opposed to the two of them? Fun Corrine? Helpful Eliza? Naaaah. Leo's hat bothered me, though. BUY A VOWEL.
"Their ABCs are nothing like our ABCs." Yes, Rupert. It's like those Laotians have a different letter for everything.
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.
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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.
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1 hour ago, Etta Place said:
I don't see how James doesn't fit into the category of ordinary people eager to test their knowledge. As far as I know, he's not a genetically engineered Jeopardy machine.
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.
1 hour ago, theatremouse said:Can you give a couple of examples? I've seen this mentioned a handful of times since James started but I have no recollection of seeing that in the past. Sure they do jokes with the category names side-by-side on the board, but I can't remember any where going top to bottom with the actual clues mattered significantly.
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.-
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S06.E06: Chestnut Gardens
in Fresh Off The Boat [V]
· Edited by snarktini
Characterizing Honey as sexist isn't totally out of left field. She's a beautiful young trophy wife, who does seem to have relied her looks and femininity quite a bit. I'd expect a character like her to have significant internalized sexism.
However, the way they wrote her berating Marvin was definitely over the top. That was like 4 obnoxiously gendered insults in a matter of a few seconds! She's much kinder than that.
And despite what the boys took away, it certainly was not ALL coming from Honey. I'm sure Marvin brought his fair share into that relationship. He just found a partner who doesn't mind, and in fact agrees with him! At least some of the time.