scrb

Heard the Fresh Air review, Adam Sandler in a dramatic role. Hmm.

CT should give up the idea of using his winnings for ice cream. If he wants to win more Challenges that is. Sure give the kid some ice cream but don’t make it a habit.

Yeah the UK team should have had way more than a 5 minute lead. Team US got a 10 minute penalty (probably should have been more) and then they finished stage 1 well behind the UK. But for state 2, they only had to give a 5-minute penalty? If they imposed the real penalty of like 15-minutes or more, over a 6-mile run, the US would have no chance and there wouldn't be any suspense that they could fake with editing. So the producers probably said as long as the UK team doesn't fall down or capsize on the kayaks, they should win it but for those overhead shots of the kayaks, make it seem closers. Puzzles just was about luck. Some people are real good at them but people react differently to sleep deprivation and physical exhaustion. It's not about fitness either, just randomness. Paulie congratulated everyone while Cara sulked in a corner while the UK team was popping the champagne. Why is she so miserable?

Remember this is a TV show, not a real charter situation. Bravo encourages confrontations. In any event, Brian will be on the show at most for a season. Even if they boot him out early -- no cause to other than if his leg prevents him from doing his work -- at worst he can say it was just some reality show and probably find other charters to work. As for Kate, she's dished a lot of unkind things to other cast members over the years. Guess she can dish it out but can't take any herself.

Mrs. Coulter tried to justify it. Said as kids reach puberty, the daemons give the child regret and some other emotions. I thought to myself, you mean the things that make you human? So cutting off the daemon prevents dust from taking hold. Coulter again showed some regret herself about aspects of her life, just as she did when explaining Asriel's behavior in the earlier episode when they were at her apartment. When they were taking pictures of Lyra, she deadpanned, "I wash thoroughly so you won't find any dust on me." Also didn't realize that Nurse Clara had also undergone intercission. So Lyra easily put her in a semi-catatonic state asking about her daemon. It was an exhilarating episode, though I thought it would be tougher to overcome Solvanger. I guess the climax and the finale will be about rescuing Asriel and for Iorek to get his chance against his arch rival who took his crown.

BTW, the guys were snarking on Rhylee eating pizza on her paleo diet. And once again, one of the guys tried to take the high road by apologizing but Kate wouldn't have any of it. Instead she pitched a fit before going into her cabin to sob.

She acts above it all, shoves her rank in the crews faces. But when she finally gets some pushback on the mean girl act, she got petulant. She didn’t like being called a bitch so she acted more bitchy? Whats her story does she have a relationship back home? She takes all that time on the hair and makeup, talks about shaving down there. But is she goes out to these bars and clubs with crew who are 10 years younger? Maybe she’s feeling a little regret that she rejected Tanners advances.

Ending with the most awkward moment ever. Didn’t know the creator wanted another season so maybe he ended it like this. You hear voices in your moms bedroom and your instinct is to fling the door wide open? He didn’t keep up with classes and didn’t fit in anywhere. He seems like the type who’d have gone hardcore for fraternities, just go to those parties all the time instead of fixating on Chloe. But he got himself thrown out of the only circle who would have had him. I’m not sure this story has any more legs. If you pull back, it’s a little story about a single middle aged woman coping with some major changes in her life. Similarly Brendan couldn’t make the transition to life after high school, living at home, being the focus of attention of his parents. Why did he grow up to be a lout? Some of it is a reflection of the parents. Or on a more macro level, who cares? Eves story is of some interest, as someone who made her life entirely about her son who’s faced with discovering what she wants. But the story is over now. Whether Brendan leaves for college again or becomes a dropout, she’s probably not going to withdraw into her shell again. After all, she is no longer Mrs. Fletcher.

Don’t they usually just give awards when a show first hits, gets buzz and then in sollowing years, they go for the latest flavor?

Lindelof sits down for a long discussion and interview with Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald on The Watch podcast. He says two goals of the series was to tell a Watchmen story and to tell the story about mistreatment of blacks in America. Says he was inspired by Coates The case for Reparations essay. He learned about the Tulsa massacre from Coates and other black directors and wanted to depicted. Laudable goals but the massacre is kind of abstract to Americans living now. Horrific event in history and to see depicted but racism continues to this day and affects how people of color work, where they live, how they interact with the police and white people in general. We’re kind of conditioned to movie violence and can get over it fairly quickly. But there is racism in many everyday interactions so a depiction of an event almost 100 years ago may not be the best way to tell the story of the mistreatment of POC. The racists in the show are more competent and wily than racist who want to commit violence. And Keene is this slick, photogenic guy who’s got the world fooled. They’ve been effective villains, which in a way is glorifying them. Sure they have to tell a good story but they’re not doing an effective job of their second stated goal.

I think this was the kind of ironic ending Esmail would want. No happy ending riding off into the sunset together. They're both going to be safe but not together? Dom will probably turn right back and return and eventually they'll find each other. Or she's pissed and won't have anything to do with Darlene. I guess they had to have some resolution for Dominic. Really the end of the rut she was in is symbolized by Darlene rage smashing the Alexa speaker. Of course they were flipping the bird to Amazon and Big Tech with that gesture. Of course those speakers are cheap, Dom could just order another one very cheaply.

That may be but if his dick worked, pretty sure Terry would be staying with Liberty. 😁

I don't understand the deal. Ferrati says he wanted a new children's hospital built, probably named after him. Kevin Sullivan was somehow blocking it so Ray gets Lena to get incriminating pictures of him. Meanwhile, nobody ever made copies, the memory card in the actual camera is still the only copy. Ray refuses to take a bribe from Kevin but Molly sweet talks him and he gives up the card. So Ferratti the mob boss mayor sends the cops to toss his place and impound his car. He will keep hassling Ray, who apparently has no client paying the bills, if Ray comes up with $9 million. Molly, whose house was also tossed, gets her father to give her $9 million to pay off Feratti but the feds have been watching the safe deposit box to see who'd come and try to take its contents -- why wouldn't they have just impounded the contents, civil asset forfeiture anyone? So why is Sullivan paying Feratti that money? No more talk about the hospital. Terry is chanting at the cult compound, gets spooked by an old woman and runs inside and sees Liberty who's nude and inviting him to bed but he can't get it up. So he's takes a few rocks from a rock garden and puts them in his pocket because he's going to drown himself. These were small rocks! But the old woman talks him out of suicide and they leave together at the end. Hope this story line gets good because it's another head scratcher. Meanwhile Bunchy falls in with white supremacists. Yeah Daryl needs to get the fuck away from the Donovans for awhile but Mickey pops up -- either he's back or never left -- with his face plastered all over NY tabloids. Of course he's only offering an opportunity to Daryl because Ray would probably chase him out if he found out Mickey's back in NY. Hell of all the places, Mickey just has to come back to NY, not LA or Boston or any of another dozen places.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if last season, the first without Thomas, had lower ratings. It would be interesting to see if ratings were around normal for the first couple of episodes but then fell off a cliff as people realized he was gone. I'm surprised at the big gulf in pay if that article is accurate. I realize the original cast members are going to get the most but Austen is only $80k, which is 1/5th of the original cast members? He supplied a lot of the story last season. They played that dumb fake threesome video over and over and over. They couldn't come up with much else but at least he provided fodder to fill airtime. Of course until Trop Hop is a big sensation, Austen has no leverage, has to take whatever Bravo offers him, which isn't bad for a couple of months of filming, though of course others are getting paid way more and Bravo is making a ton of money and he's contributing to that. Sure they want big drama from the cast. So they'll have to force more BS stories on the air. Thing is, even if the ratings are down, what else does Bravo have? I know a lot of their other shows get much higher ratings but will they develop a new franchise or spinoff one of the others, which they've done to death? Real Housewives of Poughkeepsee? Cameran might have to go on a RH spinoff, get a facelift and bring some drama, since she wants her own money.

So why are they doing this again? I have not watched any of these shows. Just kind of bummed that Lena from Ray Donovan quit that show for this reboot, though no doubt it's probably better for the actress to be in a featured role on this show. But for whatever reason, the two previous incarnations didn't last, yet they try again? Are there that many DINK Showtime subscribers? The original may have been trailblazing, if it preceded the rapid change in gay rights in the last decade, particularly marriage equality. But are these characters married or perpetually single? Or maybe it also reflect's Showtime's inability to develop more original prestige TV shows that they keep rebooting.