Etta Place

I think the story should just be that J couldn’t bear to vote for Sean so threw her vote at D, who she knew was in no danger of going. And of course Sean voted for Sifu, and then didn’t want to own it.

In Belgium, the churches are sometimes no longer used as churches or they do double duty. I used to live in Ghent and there were things like craft markets and art exhibits held in the churches.

The part that got me about this episode was the way the Brellies went from "count me out, I'm going to sit here and wait for the Kugelblitz to end the universe" to "hurry, get into the tunnel before you die!" They talked a big game about being ready to see the world end but they sure ran into that tunnel quickly!

Great to have the show back! For all of Marcus's (justified) comments about Luther being not too bright, I'm thinking that neither #1 is very smart. Loved that they got the dancing into the very first episode. Also loved one of the Sparrow girls reading The Jetset Life (for those not fans of Gerard Way/My Chemical Romance, "The Jet Set Life Is Gonna Kill You" is a song title). Interesting powers in the Sparrow group. Looking forward to seeing what happens with Vanya. Yeah, this was something my husband commented on too: "looks like he's not in charge here."

Dolmuş, yes. I am living in Istanbul. 🙂

I didn’t catch Dusty saying that about Greek heritage. The Turkish word for stuffed grape leaf dishes is dolma. I wasn’t able to figure out whether dolmades is plural for dolmade or what, and I also had dolmadakia thrown in there so I’m extra confused about that aspect.

Definitely not teenagers, that dialogue would never have come out of a teenager’s mouth.

Did we only get one group date on this episode? I’ve learned to accept dragging the rose ceremony into another episode but this seemed like a really long episode without much dating. (If I fell asleep/blocked out the second group date, my apologies.)

It seems like the best thing any opposition leader could do at this point is give the people exactly what they want - Wilford in charge. The regrets will be pretty massive and although they will have to (potentially) contend with an ice giant, at least this time there won't be any armed jackboots between them and overthrowing the governing power.

This was maybe the most frustrating episode for me because for the first time you could actually see the wasted potential. Seeing Greg Kinnear here made me wonder why he was just set decoration in past episodes. Sigh. Question: in the book/previous miniseries, Flagg directly causes Harold's crash, right? Or at least Nadine doesn't cause it. I'm not a fan of putting that on her here.

I'm not even fazed by Trash Can Man. I am livid over the complete waste of Nick and the lack of having his death mean anything at all. It looked like he just happened to be there.

I just saw an ad on a bus stop for a new show starting next week I think on Netflix - 50 m2. I'm assuming that will have the same title in the US. 🙂 (Unless they convert it to square feet, haha.) I will try The Gift after we're done with The Protector.

Anyone out there watching any of the Turkish tv series available on Netflix? Ethos, The Protector, ... there are a few more whose titles are slipping my mind. I watched the first episode of The Protector last night - set in Istanbul, it's about a kind of loser-y guy who finds out he is the heir of a family who has some kind of superpower and is supposed to protect Istanbul (?) from evil in some form, I assume. (The pilot didn't give a ton of information so far.)

I remember loving Miguel Ferrer's Lloyd. I agree that this one is a completely different take, and maybe like many of the characters in this version, less a shade of gray. I may also be misremembering but I felt like that Lloyd hung in out of loyalty combined with creature comforts rather than just being 100% into the whole Vegas thing. And yeah, he seemed like an odd choice for a right-hand man but rose to the occasion. I'm not sure this Lloyd has shown that he can do anything at all. Ferrer was a very competent casino boss type.

Vien-tiane. So he left out the initial N - his pronunciation changed the word. It wouldn't have mattered a bit if he'd said Vyen-tyann, for example. (I mean, Alex would have undoubtedly corrected him, but he would have earned the money.) Which reminds me, Alex tried some sort of accented pronunciation of Budapest last night and got it totally wrong.

The problem was that he clearly said Viet-iane. Interesting question about spelling ... I hadn’t thought about that.

Yep, when my husband looked to me for a hint, I said "come on, who could have a first line that ends with all of that, including ellipses to show they still left some stuff out?!" Once he got the author, he went with the first one he could think of, I imagine, and he was right.

Australian Airlines? Deutsche Airlines? Has this woman ever been to an airport?

Ooh, which episode? I think I said "... fashion?" for the sartorial clue, that's as close as I could get. Surprised my non-news-watching self by knowing Tim Russert (with a picture). I guess it's from working in a bookstore back when his book Big Russ and Me came out.

I figured they said middle school teacher as a tease-out to get you to think of books written for that age group.

Well that was a strange end to the season. I did enjoy the 30 minute video of the three finalists showing off their work and talking about the show in general. In particular, I liked their positive comments on each others' work and the bits of a glimpse into life inside the house. It was also nice to hear Bob talk more. As for the tattoos, I liked both Jimmy's and Angel's black and grey better than Bob's. I admit it's partially the subject matter doesn't interest me and partially those terrible boobs. Bob's biomech was really good, in spite of not being at first glance what I would have expected. Taking into account the movement of the body and the view from different angles was awesome. I really enjoyed Jimmy's traditional piece - I feel like it finally showed something interesting that could be done with the traditional style. There was a lot to look at, it was cohesive, it was meaningful. I also liked that Jimmy had his 6-hour piece drawing done. It shows he was working hard to produce the best work he could. I found Angel's comment that she had done six drawings for the traditional piece but she didn't like any of them kind of hilarious after her comment on the next to the last episode about how traditional was so easy.

I finally watched this last night - I admit my husband and I have been putting it off because we are not feeling this season. Okay, I'll give them credit for coming up with a more interesting futuristic drug experience than most shows. But it also seems like one that would be nearly impossible to manage well; you could end up having a big "Love Story" moment with your aunt or something. And I guess I can appreciate the idea of the outliers screwing up everything in the nice orderly system. But everything else - I thought I was going to hurt myself rolling my eyes. Dolores' dog-cycle. The music. (Love Bowie, and Iggy Pop/Bowie, but still.) The Bond-villain-style monologuing. The endless exposition. I thought the brothers had a very weird chemistry, it felt like they were going to make out when Serac first went over and put his hand on his brother's back. I'm mad they killed Tommy Flanagan again. The free will thing ... there must be some way to do this story that is actually interesting and not full of anvils? ... Right?

They are the Cardinal, singular. It's the color, not the bird, which is why they don't have an official mascot and instead have the Tree.

Everything I felt was wrong with the first two episodes ... is not going to be solved by more Dolores.

I thought the exact same thing. Awkward timing. I got Thursday's FJ even though I have read either The Sun Also Rises or For Whom the Bell Tolls and can never remember which one. It had Jake and Lady Brett Ashley in it ... I just can never remember which of them it is. I keep meaning to read the other one so that I can finally keep it straight. Friday, I had nothing. I thought of Hearst but 1. it hardly sounded Hungarian and 2. I didn't think he was born outside the US. I had no idea Pulitzer was Hungarian, but it made a lot more sense than Hearst.