greyhorse

Kim and Penn - they rocked that singing and dancing challenge. But I just can't stand them and people who ham for the camera. Yes, that's how they make their living. But something about them just bugs. I did really enjoy their Peloton video though, so maybe it's just overexposure that bothers me. Flight attendants - enough with the "all girl team" references. How many times are we going to have to hear that? Love Island couple - not a fan of the dude. "That was OD!" What the heck does OD mean? Indian dad and daughter - so dumb to switch detours. English isn't this guy's first language. I'm sure he doesn't dance. Why did they skip the barrels? They didn't lose because the daughter helped two teams for five minutes. They lost because of poor decisions and not being able to learn a song. Typical TAR ending between the two teams. The team that looks lost and far away always comes in before the team that looks like they are really close to the pit stop. So Paris train guys, the husbands, Love Island, Asian woman and white husband not back. Sorry, still haven't learned names. Love Island probably broke up immediately when they got home, just seemed too toxic a relationship for something so new. I'd be curious to learn why the others didn't come back. Will be curious to see how they handle the tasks. Will they be wearing masks all the time? How will social distancing work for some of these challenges? I'm going to assume a lot of it will be out the window.

When Boden was talking to Pelham at the end, and there was the dramatic pause after "They're recommending termination".... did anyone else think he was going to say .... "of McBride" (or whatever her name was)? Ryan Seacrest used to do it all the time on American Idol before they cut to commercial. Hermann is just a joke at this point. He'll never be at the level of Severide or Casey (now Pelham). So Violet and Gallo are completely done, not a chance anymore? Looks like it won't be long before she and Hawkins become a thing.

Yes, that would be great. I think we all understand that these are fictional shows. We don't need to see a show where all the characters are wearing masks all the time (now I think it wasn't SVU but it was some type of lawyer show that I'm recalling). Heck, on Med we see the surgeons scrubbing without face masks on (even before Covid), only to then magically have masks on later. So there is a suspension of reality here. Even on Amazing Race, when the first episode played last week, there was a little blurb from Phil about how it was started to film before Covid became an issue. We don't need to see our television fiction exactly mirror real life, we all get it.

Yes, as I said, I like it better that Covid doesn't exist in this year's episodes. Last year they half-a$$ed it to the point where it was so inconsistent and just didn't make sense. Easier to just pretend there is no Covid. I think I remember perhaps one of the Law and Order SVUs where they wore masks the entire episode?

Surprised that there has been so little discussion of this show. So much so that I asked for a new topic because I couldn't find this one, only to see that I actually posted up above already and had just forgotten there was a thread. Thoughts on the series ending and finale? Just finished last five episodes. Genius and nice wrap up to the whole show. I think we all knew that the Professor and gang would win in the end. Just didn't expect that he would allow Tamayo to also "win" in the public eye. I am surprised at how strong an opponent Tamayo became. Much more threatening than Raquel or Sierra. The Tom Thumb plan was so clever. Why however was it called Tom Thumb? Wasn't he some dwarf that played tricks on everyone? The plan was great with the misdirection - the burnt up nautical maps, the buoy, etc. Loved seeing the flashback of Tokyo and the Professor dancing and the voiceover of her telling him that he would save them all, intercut with him giving himself up and walking into the bank. So it appears that the note that the Professor gave to Sierra to give to the nephew convinced him to give up the gold. We saw the guns drawn standoff between the gang and the nephew/Berlin's wife at the little pre-fab house where the gold was buried. But how did it end? The nephew was given some of the gold? What about the wife and the rest of their crew?

For some reason I thought they were real letters and felt bad that mail belonging to someone else was getting ripped open. Such a dumb task. But those two Einsteins at least showed maybe it wasn't as easy as one would have thought... Cake challenge. Obviously the working area was small. But I would have liked to see some partitions so the racers couldn't see what everyone else was working on. The husbands had no clue what any of the flags were - not even France - and just copied what everyone else was doing. Poor design. The twin girls are annoying and I couldn't care less about them. I'm not even going to bother learning their names, not that it would help to know who is who since they really do look alike. Didn't understand why the sister was crying in the cab - she's not the one who "is going through a breakup". Shouldn't it have been the "whoa is me I can't do anything and I'm a failure" one that was crying? Didn't understand that sequence. I'm surprised it was a NEL, but yes, they were too happy in their interviews to have been eliminated. I'm also sure all of us TAR veterans knew they would be last, despite the drawn out cab sequences of the husbands fretting about being stuck in traffic and the girls seemingly being able to find a quick route and very optimistic..

Only problem with that suggestion is that Covid no longer seems to exist in One Chicago. Last year, at least on Fire and Med, you had them wearing masks at times in the field. Usually the paramedics. At Med, they'd wear the masks outside and then take them off when they were inside, which we all know is ridiculous. But this year, not a single mask, temperature screening station, etc. I kind of like it better that way. Unless you were going to have the actors masked for the entire show, it really was ridiculous.

https://www.tvguide.com/news/chicago-fire-miranda-rae-mayo-explains-kidd-extended-absence/ Googling about the actress' absence and all I can find is stupid interviews like this where the actress "explains" Kidd's absence in the context of putting herself in character and talking about the reasons, what Kidd is thinking, etc. What I want to know instead of all this made-up crap...WHY was the REAL LIFE ACTRESS missing for a good chunk of this season? Was she going to quit? Was she filming a movie? Was there a contract dispute and the show runners were prepared to write her off the show? What in the world happened?

Of course the kid is going to go to the uncle. Because this is a drama where the focus is on the adults and their work. How many storylines could there be of Makayla? She gets her iPad stolen at school and they have to track it down? She gets kidnapped? More pick-up drama with Ruzek? She's going to be written off the show out of convenience, just like they did on Fire. I know Upton isn't liked here, and I'm one of the minority that finds the actress attractive. But regardless of your feelings for her, I find it odd that Ruzek and Upton slept together (and I think more than just once?) and there's not even a hint of it anymore. Did Jay and Adam ever have a discussion about this? Seems like a natural thing between co-workers and men to do. Like, "Hey bro, I'm happy for you. Let's not let this get awkward."

What was the reason why Stella was gone in the first place? Did the actress film a movie? Took some time off? Honestly I'm not sure I realized she was gone for THAT long. It is apparent that we're going to get brooding Stella now. "You got the job because I stepped away." Meaning, I'm going to try to reclaim it when I can. I don't like how there's no clarity about what exactly happened. I thought the old retired guy that Boden met with a few episodes ago talked about how honorable New Guy was and took the fall/blame for something that wasn't his fault. But now we got another Big Wig who implies that New Guy is a problem again. Huh? So there's something else that happened in his career? The whole storyline was confusing with Kelly and Stella. Kelly is right to be pissed and standoffish. Most unrealistic paramedic scene ever was the home birth. The baby was not breathing and in the mother's arms. The mother was fully clothed. So presumably she didn't deliver one minute ago. She had time to have the baby, get out of the portable tub, dry herself, and then put on her clothes. The midwife had time to call 911. So how long do we think that it took before they got there? Maybe at least 15 minutes? And suctioning out that meconium magically woke up the baby after 15 minutes? Uh, I think that baby would have severe issues and brain damage.

The scenario with the father and Alzheimer's I'm sure happens often. But as was said, this man currently has pretty full mental capacity, so he should be part of his medical decision making. However, this demonstrates the problem of using a family member as a translator. I knew immediately - given the father's smiling response - that the son didn't tell him With today's technology, there could be a virtual translator via an iPad and would be easily available. But of course, that makes for poor tv. Didn't even think of that. I just assumed he succumbed to his injuries. But I'm not sure if the man really wanted to donate his organs, that's obviously just Archer twisting his "life for a life" comment. Looks like they're going to put Halstead and Stevie together. And Crockett sleeping with both the mom and daughter at the same time? The romantic drama never ends. I wish Maggie left with Nat. I don't care a bit about the Vanessa lost daughter storyline. Where was Choi? The smarmy Cooper Vascom doc can just go away. I hate when entitled people who are protected by daddy (or I think in this case, uncle) feel like they are above the rules.

Exactly. Seemed like FBI guy placed Upton at the scene easily, right? That's why the whole line of questioning? He knew she was there, he knew she asked for new blues afterwards, etc. Yet he couldn't place Voight there? He couldn't easily track Voight's movements? I'm still confused about the whole events that night and the whole story line. I vaguely recall that there were two guys. But honestly don't remember who was the bad guy, and why Upton killed this guy. And I don't really care to go back to watch to figure out. But why couldn't they have easily staged a self defense motive? Do one of those "we wrestled, he grabbed for my gun, so Hailey had to shoot him to save me" kind of things? That would have seemed to be the easy way out of it. How did Trudy catch on that something was up with Voight, Upton, and Halstead? Just by their behavior? Why wouldn't anyone else have noticed?

Not sure how they walk this one back and save Voight, but I'm sure they'll find a way. Haven't heard anything about Jason Beghe wanting off the show, so I'm assuming they'll figure something out. What I don't understand... Halstead was suspicious of Voight several episodes ago, so he used the CPD database to run a GPS trace on Voight's car the night of the murder. 1) Why wouldn't Voight know that his car could be traced and not taken a rental or some other vehicle? 2) If Halstead ran the trace, why couldn't FBI guy do the same? He made it sound like Halstead was the one that led him right to Voight. I'm sure he could have done the same if he suspected Voight.

A little behind and just getting caught up. I was kind of spoiled since I read the episode preview blurb (will have to not do that again), not that it was hard to surmise that Sal (Carlos Solis is the only name I'll think of when I see this actor) was dirty. But when they went to the stash house and you could see him appearing to descend down to the basement, how did he find the watches that quickly? He couldn't have been down there for more than a few minutes? And then he had time to go back to his car, hide the watches, and grab his flashlight? And then cleared the kitchen and <some other room>? How did they not see him coming and going? When Sal asked Ruzek to let him go back inside, I presume he wanted to commit suicide? How would he do it? Voight took his gun.

I posted several weeks ago about the Volkswagen Taos commercial that was playing incessantly during the World Series. You know the one. The people that sing off key, cuts from situation to situation, the worst guy is the one who sings "grab a taco because it's late". Now apparently there is a NEW Taos commercial, with the same kind of tune. But with different people who sing even more off key. Makes me wish for the original one. What's with Volkswagen inundating sports events with these commercials? I guess perhaps they've determined the viewing demographic could use a Taos?

I'm watching a lot of playoff baseball right now. HOW MANY TIMES does the Volkswagen Taos commercial play? You know, the one where they're singing and cuts from scene to scene, it's got the guy singing off key "grab a taco because it's late"? I swear this commercial plays several times a game. Over it.

Can't script it any better than that. Amazing game. What a treat to watch.

The opening was amazing. Just perfect. Can't believe the movie came out in 1989. Means those of us who have memories watching that movie in the theater are all old. Really a testament to the hold that baseball has on our hearts and imagination, as this movie will forever stand the test of time. Obviously this was posted before the game started. But as you can see, the field is adjacent to the original movie field. I wonder if MLB will make this a yearly affair.

Well, we got through the Covid Olympics. Couldn't believe there was talk about it being cancelled, but yes, there's a worldwide pandemic. But also the story was out I think two days before the games were to start. Too much invested by too many to cancel at such a last minute. But as it was, NBC lost big time. Ratings were down 50-60%. Advertisers that paid a ton of money had to be given extra spots and air time to make up for the poor ratings. Perhaps that's why we always saw the same commercials over and over. Protests such as Gwen Berry's in the Olympic trials for blamed for part of the loss of interest in the Games. But I think for the majority of people who didn't tune in, it's just the mere fact that we're in a pandemic and there are more pressing concerns to concentrate on. I enjoyed for the most part watching what I saw. But as with any Olympics half way around the world, the time difference and NBC holding back coverage to try to draw a prime time audience was a disaster. Were all events shown live on Peacock if we were to wake up in the middle of the night? Or just some of them? I liked that there were many available channels, but it became a crazy constant channel flipping rotation of NBC, NBCS, USA, Golf, CNBC, Olympics channel, repeat. Not to mention Peacock, which for me would involve switching to Apple TV so I could use the Peacock app. It seemed very hard to find a schedule of what was on when, which events were actually LIVE, etc. There was a few times I saw when Mike Tirico had all five screens up on the tv and was narrating what could be seen where and what was happening. Sort of of like the NFL Sunday Ticket or I think during the tennis majors, you can see five matches at once and hear the audio to one of the screens. That was so helpful in allowing me to quickly focus where I wanted to go. I'd like to see more of that next time. I know they can't dedicate a whole channel to it - or maybe that's what they run on the Olympic channel, which in my observation never really seemed to show events but just news recaps of what happened. That would be a good place for it. I'd also like to see the Peacock app change it's format. It's hard to stay spoiler free in this day and age. The only way you can is to avoid everything all together. I think Peacock showed live events, and then as a non-premium customer, I could see the replays the next day? But even if I were successful at that impossible task of staying spoiler free, when I went to Peacock to look for replays, each little thumbnail selection would be captioned with "So and so wins Silver in event!" Why do that? Why not just say "800M Men's Final"?

True, but also they benefited from being able to add on sports: baseball/softball, skateboarding, karate, sports climbing, and surfing. They won gold in Baseball, Softball, three in skateboarding (who knew?), and one in karate. 14 of their medals came in these new added sports. And as expected, lots of medals in Judo. I'm a little surprised that they were so successful in Wrestling as well. I guess it's the hometown bump. Maybe not as much as expected due to the lack of fans. But still some nonetheless. Would be interested to know if the Japanese kids were allowed to practice on the park and rails before the Olympics started. Guess this means we can expect a lot of French medals in breakdancing next Olympics?

While of course I'm all about American pride, I never seem to understand the excitement of having the most gold medals or most medals overall. The US always has the most athletes in the Games - this year it was 613. China sent 406. Of course we should have the most medals. If you're looking at a "per athlete" metric, we lost that race by a huge margin.

So happy for Karch and the team. They dominated. So much emotion on the court, elated and relieved to have won I’m sure.

I don't believe that Michael Phelps would really train on a Nordic Track, when everyone knows that Peloton is best of brand. The Laurie Hernandez spot is odd. Oh, SHE'S not the one on the diabetes drug....it's her dad! Is that her father's voiceover during the commercial? Not really impactful other than a very loose tie to the Olympics. Loving the "Thank You Allyson" commercial, where it was literally played minutes after her 400M bronze with race footage, intercut with a young kid running on the track. And then they did it again after the 4x400 gold, changing out the race footage again for the relay race. Of course, I can't remember who the company was.

I don't think it shows how sheltered they are at all. These kids are 18 to 24 years old. How many of us ate sushi when we were 18 years old? I certainly didn't. It's an acquired taste. For one, it's raw, and not everyone jumps at the idea of eating something uncooked. And two, it's not exactly as cheap as a burger and fries. If anything, maybe it's a reflection of the eating preferences of their parents. I'd be surprised if Suni never had sushi. Yes, she's Chinese, but I'd think that her Asian parents would at some point have brought the family out to a Japanese restaurant. But yes, they probably have pretty strict diets, especially when they are training. I'd imagining a steady diet of steamed chicken and broccoli...

What a dominating performance by both US relay teams. It was truly a women’s dream team. Smart to put Mu on the anchor. Congrats to Allyson for her 11th medal. Disappointed that Peacock didn’t interview the women afterwards or even show them walking around with the US flag on their shoulders. The men finally came through too. I don’t know the names of them as well, but I think Benjamin might have ran anchor? Glad to see he got a hold after his heartbreaking interview after his 400 hurdles loss.