[S01.E03: The Head]

On 4/13/2024 at 10:41 PM, Sakura12 said:

You don't carry anyone's head in the game. Mostly you kill people and loot all their stuff. It's a first person game so all you see is your hands and your weapon.

Well, you can carry someone's head around, if you really want to, and you can switch into third-person view... 😆 Cutting off someone's head and delivering it was also a New Vegas fetch quest.

I really enjoyed this episode; it's back on track for me. Good pacing and some interesting developments and character dynamics.

Lucy and Coop are an interesting pair, and I wonder how or if they'll influence each other. I like Lucy and am invested in her personal journey, but I really want to see more of how Coop lost himself in the Ghoul. He reminds me a bit (a tiny, tiny bit) of Arlen Glass from FO4.

What does Coop really want with the head? Is he that interested in caps as a bounty hunter? He doesn't seem the type or really have a huge need for money/caps.

Maximus is a walking, stomping bad sitcom (soooooooo many bad decisions, Bud) - but I finally warmed up to him after he decided to be a better Knight than Titus. Let's see if he waffles.

I'm really interested in what happens with the Vault 33 social situation; these are 100% sheltered people who've been told for generations that they're the saviors of humanity. If they can't save these Raiders or decide to kill them, then what does that mean for their worldview, their purpose, and the social fabric of their Vault? They're in a no-win situation.

I just want someone to adopt the dog. Please.

[S01.E02: The Target]

2 hours ago, mrspidey said:

Well, that's just being extremely true to the games. Trust me.

You wanna know how my Fallout 4 experience went last night?

I just wanted to do a quest where i had to kill a specific raider.

I did that, but when i went to loot the corpses of her crew, a message popped up: one of my settlements was being attacked. I fast traveled there. 3 weak ass raiders.  As i engaged them, another message popped up: another settlement under attack. Rince, repeat. Gunners, this time. They also attacked one of my military checkpoints right next to the settlement.

I cleared them out and got another message: settlement Nr. 3 under attack.

Just two super mutants with planks. Easy peasy. But wait, there's more. Fourth settlement being attacked.

Tough fight. About 10 Gunners armed to the teeth shooting up the place. Managed to kill two of the named npcs too. I looted their corpses and gave their gear to the remaining settlers so they'd be able to defend themselves better next time.

With no more settlements under attack i went back to where i had started. In my way to finally loot those raiders, i ran into a threeway fight between Gunners, a BoS patrol and some super mutants. Helped the BoS and looted corpses. 

Then i finally got to those dead raiders. Looting them made me overencumbered so i had to slow walk back to a settlement close-by to dump all that stuff. But as it turned out, a deathclaw had decided to make the ruin that housed the workshop station where you dump stuff its new home.

Now, you do not want fight a deathclaw overencumbered. Hell, you do not want to fight a deathclaw at all unless you are extremely prepared for it. So i snuck away from the place and just dumped my stuff on the ground when heard gunfire. A checkpoint close to this settlement was being attacked. My Minutemen were trying to fight off two Yao Guai (the irradiated bear from this episode). I helped them and as i was looting the bears, i heard a little kid calling for help nearby. There was the ruin of a house with a fridge inside and the voice came from the fridge. I opened it and out came a ghoulified kid. Apperrantly, he had been stuck in there ever since the bombs dropped. Now i have to help him find his parents, or rather, their remains.

I never got to turn in the quest i actually had wanted to do.

It was an eventful evening in Fallout, sure, but 95% of it was just me happening upon random bullshit.

I’ve been playing since 1998! It’s a good time for sure. Random encounters out in the wilderness is a perk of the game. I also never get where I’m going! Even in New Vegas haha. That doesn’t describe what happened in this episode, to me. What happened in this episode was Sole Survivor ran into Nick, Piper, and MacCready within 8 hours of leaving the Vault (using random FO4 stuff here in context of your gameplay) and got exactly where she was going, at the exact same time everyone else got there, immediately. Santa Monica appears to be the size of Freeside. 

[S01.E02: The Target]

41 minutes ago, mrspidey said:

Probably because Filly is the only bigger settlement in the area.

Lucy gets directed towards it by a random wastelander, Wilzig goes there because that's where he was told his contact would be waiting. Maximus gets there because him and Titus were literally ordered to go there.

Which would have been fine, if not for the series of disjointed, forced random encounters that happened before the big meet up in Filly. All of it together in one episode was silliness and bad pacing to me. 

[S01.E02: The Target]

I’m enjoying the show - probably because I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of the “game play” aspect. It’s very cool to see Fallout portrayed on screen with near-fidelity. I'm interested to see Lucy's progression as the series goes; it's like I'm watching my first ever Fallout playthrough through her. (And, uh, the Knight sprinting away while yelling "fuck fuck fuck fuck" was pretty relatable. 😆)

So, that being said - I really enjoyed the first episode, but this episode felt sloppy, rushed, and disjointed. Everyone ends up at the same place all the time for no apparent reason, but there’s no twist or catch to it. Okay? (Just like in Episode 1, when a bunch of self-contained Vault people have been having huge weddings every three years with the self-contained Vault people next door … but no one realizes that they don’t know anyone this time?) It doesn't feel like tight storytelling.

Like a few others here, I’m also wondering where all the typical people are in Los Angeles. The show is leaning hard into the batshit part of the Fallout vibe, but Fallout has a lot of typical people and families just working to get by. Lucy would be just fine in a lot of places.

Spoiler tagging some of this out of respect for posters/viewers who don’t follow the games. Also trying to work with mods to get clarity on the spoiler policy here, given the amount of lore and what similar PrimeTimer forums have done when a show canonically builds on different source material. So this posted was editing just now for that - no content changed. 

Spoiler

Also - where’s the NCR?

This version of the Brotherhood sounds like the Legion. Thought it last episode, and then the cowardly knight spouted off about stringing people up by their lungs. 🤔

I’m really curious to know why Vault 32 and Vault 33 existed, how they survived their Vault-Tec experiment(s), and how that (hopefully) fits into the overarching plot. People know Lucy who shouldn't know Lucy.

Thank goodness the dog was saved. Seriously. I damn near stopped watching after the opening scene with the lab puppies.

[S14.E03: Two Truths and No Shakshuka]

16 hours ago, tranquilidade said:

Did anyone think maybe she left the house to spend the night with someone she loves?  Can't blame her if she did. 

On the other hand, the show is a job, and, when Jenna left, production was still at the house with cameras ready, if not actually filming (I mean, they had footage). Everyone else stayed, even though they were arguably hungry, sleeping in rooms without heat, and possibly wanting to spend their night doing something else, too. The legacy HWs had similar issues when Bethenny came back and constantly ducked out on group events because she didn't want to miss time with her daughter; filming is a job and everyone else is on the hook to be there and film. Anyway, I don't know why the producers decided to show the partying/Jenna leaving stuff as a blink-and-miss it flashback; I'd rather see that kind of stuff than endless group counseling girl chat at lunch/dinner.

As a general comment, Jenna gives me Carole vibes, like she's looking in at the rest of the cast from afar without seeing herself as part of them, only Carole seemed aware, relatively genuine (at least consistent through her seasons), and still willing to be part of the ridiculousness. As @jinjer said above, I don’t think this Jenna is anywhere near the real Jenna, although I like the persona. Jenna tried to lampshade the difference in she is on the show vs her business reputation by saying she’s just a different person when she’s at work, but I suspect it’s probably more she wants the exposure without the ridiculousness/embarrassment that will inherently come from being part of group events gone wild.

[S14.E03: Two Truths and No Shakshuka]

5 hours ago, Portae said:

I think that her trauma from growing up poor (unstable housing situation, for instance) has resulted in a kind of overcorrection. I don't see it as braggy as much as fear of going back to that place. But also, I didn't think that she didn't want to eat at Catch because it's passe: I'm assuming that she and Brynn didn't want to dine with Lizzie. 

Also, she didn't really put down the Dollar Store. She pushed back against the idea of it as a "fun" place to shop (Erin and Jenna) because her associations with it are different. Erin was being an (unintentional) snob because she thinks that it's entertaining to "slum it" by shopping there. 

Yeah, this is more of how I see it. I grew up in dysfunctional/chaotic poverty, and I have a hard time doing most of the consumer-driven things I did with my mom as a kid. Sometimes it's the perception of being poor, sometimes it's not wanting to go backwards (I can afford clothes that fit me, aren't ripped/stained, and are unique to my personal preferences - that was a far-off dream as a kid), and sometimes it's just the environment triggers really unpleasant memories (e.g., thrift stores have a distinct smell to me and takes me right back to the worst times of my life as a powerless kid). My husband still sometimes gives me shit for "getting ready" just to walk down the driveway to get the mail. I don't think I'm snobby/vain more than very aware of how much appearances affected how peers, their parents, and adults used to treat me. I also partially avoid "slum it" stores, because I remember how much my family absolutely relied on those resources and couldn't afford going to the full-price stores (without loads of coupons that could be tripled and stacked onto weekly ad prices); if it wasn't at a discount/thrift/dollar store/yard sale, we often went without.

10 hours ago, wallies said:

Why would Jenna spend time picking out different lingerie for each girl? Why not just pick out one type in a couple different sizes and maybe get them monogrammed? Seriously, who does want the granny green lingerie? Sometimes women give gifts that are actually back-handed insults but the recipient is always expected to be grateful.

I didn't see it as a backhanded insult. Jenna seems super awkward but well-intended, and she's also someone who knows fashion and which colors/cuts flatter different color seasons/body types. It was somewhat of a sizing miss with Jessel, but it doesn't seem like Jenna knows Jessel well enough to have made it a personal jab. Honestly, Jessel's reaction gave me vibes of when Kelly had a breakdown over Bethenny's SkinnyGirl Scary Island giftbag in season 3, haha. And I almost never receive gifts that I like but I still say "thanks, I really appreciate you thinking of me." IMO, it becomes a problem when the giver pesters the receiver to use the gift and takes it personally when that doesn't happen. Jenna didn't seem to be doing that. Although I did think it was weird that Jenna brought gifts for everyone, when she wasn't the host.

[S14.E03: Two Truths and No Shakshuka]

I usually adore the Hamptons part of the season but agree that this trip was too early. I would have liked to have seen the women in the day-to-day lives in the City, with some lunches or charity events or galas or invitations to hobbies (like when Kelly invited Ramona to the horse riding thing and completely ignored her LOL) before getting them together as a big group.

The sex talk/two truths game seemed producer driven and like a retread of the season 9 group doing truth or dare and ending up having a fight about anal sex, penis sizes, and LuAnn wanting special treatment because she got married - but this group doesn’t know each other and we don’t know them, so it doesn’t hit right. More than anything, between last episode and this episode, the girl talk scenes go on way too long, while production decides to use three-second flashbacks to show the real drama. It's weird.

I totally agree with Jenna that shakshuka before working out doesn’t sound good. Tomato sauce + lots of physical activity legit makes me throw up. Erin could have at least done SOMETHING for a light breakfast - bagels, scrambled eggs, avocado toast, fruit. Even if this trip got sprung on her after the cast shake-up and loss of footage (which I suspect is possibly what happened - and also why we're seeing an October? trip to the Hamptons), she still seems like a host who expects everyone to live like her and doesn’t do much to anticipate/meet/respond to guest needs. No heat? Get over it. No food? Who eats anyway. WTF!

I liked Sai a lot better in this episode; I don’t begrudge her avoiding dollar stores. Brynn is annoying. Ubah is a non-entity.

Overall, I’m liking and enjoying the show. I'm managing to separate it from Old RHONY in my head and enjoy it for what it is, which helps, because it's a very different dynamic and vibe.

[S14.E02: Oh Christmas Tree!]

11 hours ago, Pop Tart said:

That felt a bit like machinations to me to stir up drama.  Either Erin's or the producers. But along the lines of "these bougie b's complained about cheese last time so I'll give them caviar!" 

The caviar, the can stealing, and Jessel's over-the-top lingerie flip out at the end all seemed manufactured to add drama. 

As a general comment - aside from those moments, it was otherwise pretty mundane and low key, and it felt like eavesdropping on normal people doing boring things in the Hamptons. Refreshing from having instafeuds at the drop of a drunken hat, but...also possibly boring. None of them are really taking bait - no one seemed actually angry/upset that Erin didn't really provide food, Erin couldn't be bothered that Ubah left to get a real meal, Jessel didn't seem bothered by her sex life being criticized (holy moly, I'd never comment on the sex life of a couple that recently went through any form of TTC/IVF), no one cares that Sai is constantly "influencing," etc. But getting ugly lingerie as a gift is what does it?  IMO, it felt like all of the "drama" was a producer telling them to make something, anything, up. 

[B&B: What's Up Today at Forrester Creations? - Daily Chat]

I agree that TN/Finn is better when he’s not playing a Boy Scout and I’d like to see more dark side come out on a regular basis, but Finn being supportive of Sheila makes as much sense as Bill falling in love with her and turning against everyone. Since the shooting, Finn has been very vocally against Sheila, tried to kill her, had to be restrained by Bill from trying to kill her again, worked to prove Sheila was alive so she could be hunted and arrested, was as angry/disgusted as anyone with the whole Bill/Sheila/blackmail thing, etc. And he’s never wavered on the fact that Li is his real mom. Nothing has lead up to a change of heart. IMO, it’s complete character assassination. I couldn’t even watch the entire scene when he schmoozed with her about being held. 

For now, I’m telling myself that Carter gave Ridge and Bill a heads up that the charges weren’t going to stick, and those two devised Idiot Plan B: get Finn to dupe Sheila into some other trap, possibly related to the shooting (since he and Steffy recanted and all they have in this universe is Barnyard Court). Finn’s acceptance/love is the one thing she’s wanted since she came back, and she’s always appeared absolutely delusional about his real feelings. But Steffy’s not in on it, and, by the time the truth comes out, Steam will have already reunited, and Sinn will be destroyed by Finn doing the one thing Steffy's wanted since their wedding (get rid of Sheila). This would leave Finn with room to navigate the canvas in the aftermath, rather than being a pariah who stopped caring that his birth mother tried to kill him, his wife (twice), and mom. Yep. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

[S14.E01: New Era, New York]

21 minutes ago, twilightzone said:

Yet the RATINGS had continued to be very solid with the OG cast.  RHONY had 2 bad seasons with Leah and Eboni.  

And so it really looks like Bravo wasn’t having success hiring credible, decent-calibre people to work with the OGs and round out a stable cast. After season 7, Tinsley (who seemed desperate to rehab her image rather than someone who actually had an aspirational lifestyle perspective to offer) lasted the longest and then got run off the show. After season 9, the season ratings started to gradually tank and just kept getting worse, which, IMO, tracks with the OGs (including Bethenny and her constant narc breakdowns) going off the rails and Bravo miscasting or not being able to find people to replace all the ones they couldn’t keep. Either way, you can’t do a HW show with three people; enter the likes of Crappie Lake.

Whether the reboot lasts, I don’t really care. It just would have been cool to see Jenna and maybe a few of the new ones in the days when the legacy cast was still trying to pretend to have all that elegance and class LuAnn likes to talk about. 😂 I “miss” those days of the show. 

[S14.E01: New Era, New York]

15 minutes ago, ZettaK said:

I don't think the OGs could mesh with the new HWs, even with Jenna Lyons (for those who would like some of the OGs added). They don't have anything in common. I'm not sure I want to see them on the reboot.

Yep. Water finds its level. I think there's a reason that, in the 6 seasons after Heather and Kristen left, all Bravo could find were Jules, Tinsley, a lady that didn't even make it into the credits, Leah, and Eboni. I really can't imagine that Jenna and possibly a few of the other new HWs would want to be directly associated with the OG+Dorinda circus that the later seasons became. I could possibly see a season with Heather, Kristen, and/or Carole (hypothetically) and some of the new HWs. But I definitely don't want to see anyone who needs RHONY more than RHONY needs them.

[Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023)]

On 7/18/2023 at 8:06 AM, BooBear said:

I had thought that MI took a lot of flack for this disposable woman / damsel early on and the movies worked to change that... with Ilsa. This is what helped MI to go from a franchise on the way out - to a solid performer.  

So to have this kind of disposable woman (for Ethan's feelings)  all over again is very disappointing.  Beyond that it is just laughable that Grace, who has no spy / IMF training can just step in. Sure she might have good instincts but she would have to be trained - right? I mean Ilsa is MI6. 

I also feel like if they didn't want Ilsa around she easily could have been left out of the movie. Like Jeremy Renner's character.  

Agreed. And I just have to vent.

Until Ilsa, it was problematic that two men ended up being permanent, reliable, and unquestioned members of Ethan's team, while every "good guy" woman lead until Ilsa vanished without so much as a mention (except Julia, who at least got Fallout). It was nice that the franchise corrected that. And now Ilsa has been inexplicably disposed of as a character, to make room for a different woman to fill the only "good guy" woman slot the franchise allows. Really? Even in the theater, I really struggled to get past this element as it became more and more obvious what was happening. I'm not even a huge M:I fan, watch each new movie once, and have probably forgotten/conflated what's happened in most of the films, but Ilsa-->Grace was glaringly problematic. Ilsa's only role in this movie was to get fridged. TWICE. 💩 She didn't need to be in the movie.

Although still problematic, it would have made more sense if Gabriel had kidnapped Julia and killed her in front of Ethan or left her for Ethan to find; then I would have bought the whole motivation factor and the "no matter how much you want to, you can't kill Gabriel" struggle. For not being a huge fan, I remember really feeling Ethan's terror in MI:3 and Fallout when it came to protecting Julia as well as his regret that he naively exposed her to his world. Still problematic but at least thematically coherent and consistent with prior films.

But I enjoyed the overall movie and the overall plot, except for Grace intentionally messing everything up and running away constantly (that happened at least two too many times), and I enjoyed most of the stunts. The train derailment scene was really cool. The motorcycle/mountain scene, unfortunately, fell completely flat, because we'd already seen it 100 times in every promo and TV spot. And then they topped it off with Ethan conveniently crashing into the exact right train cabin at the exact right time and hitting the exact right person; that was well-filmed but lazy writing.

[B&B: What's Up Today at Forrester Creations? - Daily Chat]

1 hour ago, RuntheTable said:

I found Finn's words interesting too. He totally contradicted himself by saying that he didn't want Liam coming over whenever he wanted, especially when Liam was emotionally freefalling and was vulnerable. Then he quickly assured Steffy that he wasn't threatened or jealous of Liam, and that he had complete faith in her, but then said that he just didn't trust Liam. So, then, you are threatened by him?

I can buy that Finn isn’t threatened by Liam but would find it aggravating/unacceptable to never know if he’ll be coming home to find Liam emotionally leeching off Steffy. No one wants their spouse to be emotionally enmeshed with another person, whether that’s a parent, coworker, sibling, BFF, or an ex-husband. That cord needs cut, period. It’s just that Finn, while often naively dim, is the only character on this show with anywhere close to real-world boundaries, and it’s funny that he’s been around for all of five seconds compared to others and already has Liam’s number, full stop. He already knows that Liam is going to try to fall back onto Steffy and try something; he just doesn't know that Liam has already forced himself onto Steffy, twice. I think he's smart (this once) and doesn't want to share his marriage with Steffy's ex; that's reasonable.

Overall and in general, I’m curious where this is all going and have been since last summer's Sinn story, because no couple on this show stays together…but they really went all-in on both Steffy and Finn not being able to function without each other. Boring, even-keeled, aw-shucks Finn even tried to kill Sheila to get back to Steffy. So, I don’t see him leaving Steffy over two kisses that she didn't want; I think he'll be disappointed/upset with her for not telling him but absolutely furious with Liam for forcing himself onto her. But I wonder... if the story is leading to Liam raping Steffy (he is coming off as creepy unhinged to me), Liam then goes after Hope in some way because he can't handle her actively choosing Thomas over him (which is what happened yesterday, essentially; he just lost complete control of the situation), and then almost the entire canvas ends up with a motive to kill Liam and we have a long “who killed Liam?” SL (surprise, he’s not dead) (and it was Sheila, because of course...but she actually takes the fall for Finn 💀) (I'm bored and task-avoiding).

[S14.E01: New Era, New York]

I didn’t entirely enjoy this episode, but I also didn't entirely dislike it. It was essentially a series premiere, and, like with all new HW shows, it’s hard to tell how everyone will gel, who will ease into it, and who won’t last. I’m interested enough to keep watching and liked that there was some old school harmless pettiness (WTF cheese?) but also some of the silliness. The only one I really can’t stand at this point is Brynn (besides that she styles herself like an overdone soap character from the '00s, she seems really immature). I like Jenna but I don’t want to. I enjoyed Erin. I'm interested in the others and think it might be fun once they get comfortable, drop the introductory acts, and really get going.

All in all, I don’t begrudge the reboot, but it shouldn't have been called RHONY; it’s not RHONY. Like others, I wish they’d either kept a few established RHONY HWs but really can’t think of who I’d actually want to see in this new context, besides maybe Heather, Kristen, or even Carole (wishful thinking?). That being said...

I watched RHONY from season 1 through season 11. I absolutely loathed season 10 and season 11 and have never actively rewatched them beyond the odd rerun. I watched part of season 12 and then stopped, with no interest in season 13. Looking back, I stopped watching new seasons because most of the long-term HWs became over-the-top caricatures of themselves who were stuck in piles of their own toxic shit (and then there was Leah, who got there all on her own). And, at least as I recall, RHONY became pretty much all most of them had going on, in one way or another, and it felt like a TV show about miserable drunk people filming a TV show about their TV show. As much as I love RHONY seasons 1-9 and have loads of positive nostalgia for most of those cast members, I don't know if it would be possible to fit Luann, Sonja, or Ramona (or Dorinda) into a show that's not entirely about them and their oddball dynamics. In that way, maybe meta spin-offs, like Crappie Lake and the legacy whatever trip, are for the best. The reboot got me watching the RHONY franchise again, including those spin-offs. 🤷‍♀️

[S02.E02: Ad Astra Per Aspera]

2 hours ago, Dani said:

I think his personality is absolutely relevant. He also knows that is original actions leads to exactly what needs to happen. So the best course of action is for him to follow his normal impulses. Some people would be unable to do that but I don’t think Pike is that type of person. He has made a decision and is going to go forward with it. I could see it being challenging at decisions that a clearly leading to the accident but otherwise I can’t see him as someone to second guess a decision once he has made it. 
Otherwise, I really do think we should have seen it in this episode. In the future he saw Una was in jail but we didn’t see him hesitate at all in making sure that didn’t happen. If he was going to second guess himself this was a clear opportunity for them to go down that road. 

It's funny; that's not how I see Pike, especially after the season one finale, where he came off, to me, as someone who doesn't do well at all when he doesn't fully understand the box he's in and can't well conceptualize how his decisions will land. It humanized him, in my eyes at least, pouf and all.

Una's predicament here is a great example of the dilemma Pike should be facing with the knowledge that he has. At the end of S1, he lived a future where he didn’t promote off the Enterprise and dodged his doom, apparently for several years. In that future, Una was in prison and La’an wasn't on Enterprise, both of which the series just went way out of its way to reverse/prevent in the prime timeline. Is that what’s SUPPOSED to happen down the line, was it supposed to happen NOW, or is that what WOULD happen if Pike doom-dodged? A person could drive themselves insane trying to untangle that, but I agree that he has strong instincts that will guide him through 80% of the season. But, at some point, I hope a messier situation comes along and challenges Pike to balance his fate, his knowledge, and his choices to maintain his doom course.

[S02.E02: Ad Astra Per Aspera]

7 minutes ago, Dani said:

This is exactly what I don’t want the show to do. I also don’t think it would be consistent with his personality. He certainly didn’t seem to impact is reaction to Una. I could possibly see him being hesitant to but Spock in jeopardy. 

I don't see it as having to do with his personality. He knows how he "dies," he now knows what is supposed to happen to his Enterprise, and he's human. He also now knows that his choices can change what happens to him, others he knows, and even the entire Federation. I see an interesting and unique character arc here, built off the S1 season finale, where Pike adamantly needs to make sure that he suffers his own worst possible fate, and he has, what, 6 years to mess that up before it happens? The exact thing I don't want the show to do is ignore that Pike now knows his future is the best possible outcome for everyone else but now also knows that his actions can change it; it's not immutable. I wouldn't want it to consume the series or become the focal point, but to me, it doesn't make any psychological or thematic sense for a person to be unaffected by such a complex burden.

[S02.E02: Ad Astra Per Aspera]

42 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I don't think that the flashes of the future that we were shown him seeing include his end on Talos IV, and he has never said or done anything to suggest that he knows his ultimate end will be on Talos IV. 

I don't see it likely that he will not have in the back of his mind that he is doomed. How could he?

Or, really, that he’s doomed at a specific point in time and that Kirk inherits Pike’s Enterprise. If you know you’re not going to die or destroy the ship, that has to be an ongoing mindfuck during critical situations, and, IMO, one of the most compelling elements that could/should come out of Pike knowing his future for these next several years. Does he become reckless? Does he become paralysed with fear of accidentally changing the future, like in the season one finale? Does he actually accidentally change the timeline because of what he knows and how that affects his actions? I’d like to move on from the angst without ignoring that he knows.

[Small Talk: Trekking the second time around like it was new]

15 hours ago, iRarelyWatchTV36 said:

 I have watched some of TOS, first couple of seasons of ENT, and all the TOS (as well as the TNG and '2009') movies, so I just will have to make do with that.  And honestly, if I did have the time to watch all of it, I'd likely burn myself out on it and end up not looking forward to getting into SNW like I am currently.

I could carve out time for the first 2 seasons of Discovery if I can talk myself into it, but not all of TOS and ENT beforehand.

FWIW, and this is just me, I think I would have enjoyed more of SNW if I'd known less about TOS. To avoid spoilers, I'll leave it at that.

[Small Talk: Trekking the second time around like it was new]

16 hours ago, iRarelyWatchTV36 said:

I know that Strange New Worlds essentially 'backdoor piloted' in S2 of Discovery.   That said .....

Do I need to watch the first two seasons of Discovery to get any and all references to SNW's Trekverse, or is SNW standalone enough to not have to (at least) watch the first couple of seasons of Discovery first?

I'm planning on it being necessary, but kinda hoping it isn't.

I've never watched Discovery and have no intention to, and I didn't feel like it affected my understanding of SNW enough to make it unwatchable. I enjoyed most of SNW's first season very much. But, without going into spoilers, I don't feel like SNW took the time to flesh out Pike beyond the big thing that happens to him in TOS, and, by the end of season one, I think I felt the impact of not watching his episodes on Discovery. I was also left wondering if Number One had prior development that was supposed to carry over to SNW. Things like that. (I also haven't watched TOS since the 90s.)

[S03.E11: Mom City]

On 5/30/2023 at 10:22 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

The show is kind of weird like that though. Ted is kind of presented as a regular middle class dude. But at the same time he is head coach of a team in a major pro sports league, so he is rich. I found a Sport Illustrated article that said even the lowest paid PL manager is making 1.5 million GBP per year.

Heh. He’s rich (presumably) because he lives like a regular middle class dude from Kansas. Even if he took the job at the lowest possible pay, 1.5 million goes real fast when the earner sees it as unlimited spending money rather than investment money, especially in sports culture. I never thought it was a weird show thing for Ted to present as middle class; that’s how a lot of high income earners grow and maintain their wealth. I just always hoped Ted was savvy enough to have an investment advisor, rather than sticking all his earnings in a regular savings account or under his mattress or something. 😆 Roy is also loaded (unless he spent it all), but you’d never guess. 

[S03.E12: So Long, Farewell]

1 hour ago, Athena said:

Ted isn't like us. It's obvious while he loves his work, his personal life needed work. He has the privilege and freedom to do that now especially since he had baggage about his own parents. He never seemed interested in being exposed to other cultures. He didn't like tea or sparkling water and maybe a host of other foods and drinks we didn't know about. People like what they like. He spent part of his time Amsterdam in a Fake American restaurant. He was  homesick and hiding it from a lot of people.

Is it a practical decision given the advantages? No because he gave up millions. Was it the right emotional decision for the character? For me, yes.

This. And there's also the consideration of how intensely stressful it is to be a coach for any team that is under constant media and public scrutiny. It’s okay for someone to not want that stress, scrutiny, and personal-life invasion for the rest of their working life. I mean, Ted couldn't walk in his neighborhood without being commented to, nicely or rudely, about his job performance, even when his kid was with him. I don't see how a person even begins to separate their work life from their personal life in the environment that the show depicted for Ted. Ted apparently wanted quality time with his young son that he didn’t have with his father, after he worked very hard to accept himself as someone who could be a worthy father. I wish they'd done a story about that tied into Rebecca's regret that she didn't have a child because of her work; there were built-in themes between characters that just...didn't get explored, unfortunately.

Just generally going back to financials - dividends, reinvesting dividends, and compound interest should carry him pretty far, even if he was making just a paltry $2 million a year (for three years) and was able to save most of that $6 million (which he should have, given what we saw). That would be one of the lower salaries for a Premier league coach. If I'm already set financially and can earn an increasingly-growing passive income without lifting a finger (as long as I don't spend all the dividends, keep reinvesting most of the dividends, and don't touch the principal), why in the world would I stay somewhere I don't like, doing something I don't care to understand, under constant scrutiny/criticism/pressure, while uprooting my son and ex-wife to do it, for money that I don't really need?

[S03.E12: So Long, Farewell]

Ted already gets paid millions and wasn’t ever shown to be a spender. If he banked a good chunk of all three years of his salary and had a good investment advisor, he’s already set for life, doesn’t need to work, and can happily coach his kid’s team or do whatever wherever he pleases. I never saw Ted as having dollar signs in his eyes or being swayed by more money, having a winning record, or being in London. Ted couldn’t even handle drinking tea, and his most brilliant football inspiration happened while sitting in Fake Chicago. All signs pointed toward Ted not liking living abroad but maybe it’s in the eye of the beholder.

My husband turned down a job offer that would have had us move across the country, mostly because I had found a really stable job with coworkers that I absolutely loved and was doing really good work with (and I wasn’t thrilled about the new location). Within two years, my coworkers had moved on, one went batshit and got fired, and restructuring changed my amazing unicorn job into one I regretted staying for. Coworkers leave. Players get traded (all the time). Teams get sold. It’s not a snow globe. On my end, projecting my own baggage and experiences into the show, I can’t imagine valuing my emotional relationship with coworkers or my job the same as how I value my relationship with my kid. Football is not life. 😆

[S03.E12: So Long, Farewell]

3 hours ago, iRarelyWatchTV36 said:

I kinda think its interesting how much Ted went against his own words at the end of the series.

One of the biggest takeaways I believe we were supposed to gather from his therapy sessions with Dr. Sharon was that in the beginning she would always remark that he kept coming back, considering the way he stormed out originally.  And Ted's rejoinder was always some derivative of "I don't quit things".

Yet despite being almost literally begged to stay as well as offered to be the highest paid EPL manager and having his son moved over to be with him - which was the reason he wanted to go home for - he quit and left.

I saw that as growth and that counseling with Doc Sharon helped Ted forgive his father for “quitting.” Ted can now quit without feeling resentment. 

As a general comment, I think it’s a lot to expect someone to permanently move to a different country, and ask their kid and ex-wife (?!?) to move there too, when it’s arguably well-established that said someone never attached to that different country or even the sport he was hired to coach. It’s okay to want to go home to Kansas; it’s okay to want to go home. But I’m someone who doesn’t see work as family, doesn’t link work with personal fulfilment, would not sacrifice my happiness/family/home for $24 million, and enjoys visiting other countries but sure loves her home in the boring ol’Midwest. As it is, Ted was likely already well-paid enough and seems frugal enough that more money isn’t and has never appeared to be a significant motivation. Ted’s journey rang entirely true to me.

[S03.E12: So Long, Farewell]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I think there needed to be a scene with Ted seriously considering Rebecca's offer, at least discussing it with Michelle and Henry and deciding whether or not it was a good move. Aside from Henry, there didn't seem to be anything in the States waiting for Ted, whereas everything he loved was right there at Richmond. It's kind of like the show decided very early on it would end with Ted going home but by the time they got there it really didn't make a lot of sense.

On my end, I've never gotten the sense that Ted bonded with London or its culture. He certainly loved the team and Richmond staff, but the show often went out of its way to show Ted being miserable, across all the seasons, when he wasn't at work or doing work stuff. He wasn't shown to develop meaningful friendships outside of work (and I would include the pub as being work-adjacent). He didn't appear to come to like the food (or tea) (or water) (which can seem small and silly but can be the biggest drivers of homesickness, and, for Ted, was illustrated rather well, IMO, when he found the US-themed restaurant - I felt homesick). He wasn't shown to have non-football interests or hobbies. He wasn't even shown to have a real interest in football, to be honest. When he was at home in his flat, he was almost always shown to be alone and aimless. Besides work relationships, there didn't seem to be anything in the UK for Ted. Meanwhile, other characters were given plenty of non-Richmond interests and adventures, and I interpreted that to be intentional, and I always saw Ted as generally miserable and hollow. Will that change in the US? Maybe not, but it seems like he's worked on himself enough to be a father to his son, without uprooting his son's entire life for a job. But I love that this silly feel-good dramedy can generate so many different perspectives and introspections. :)

[S11.E22: Red Waterfall]

1 hour ago, NJRadioGuy said:

In a show about a firehouse these kinds of budgets problems will be especially hard to deal with. It's not like T81 and R3 can operate with 3 crew every shift. It's easy to sideline Boden since as a Chief he would respond to calls that the apparatus in his house aren't assigned to. Kiley will be off to the academy, but how much more cutting can they do to the core cast? In Chicago PD they can alternate between storylines sidelining half the squad every other episode, and that works just fine. Even in Med, they can focus more on the case of the week and not feature certain members who aren't involved. But when you have a firehouse with two featured pieces of fire apparatus, both of which need a 4-person crew to be functional, it's a vastly different story. If they take Engine 51 out of the equation, as it had been for most of the show's run, then what do you do with Hermann? If Kinney leaves the show Cruz likely gets promoted to LT on Squad, and that leaves a vacancy. Gallo to Squad, Hermann back to T81 (a demotion) as a crewman, then? But still they can only appear in 15 episodes. This is going to be increasingly difficult to watch and retain any ability to suspend what little disbelief is left.

If Kinney leaves and Spencer doesn't come back (sounds like they probably can't afford him anyway), I'd write Squad 3 out of Firehouse 51 and have Cruz decide between leaving the firehouse or replacing Mouch (or Carver) on Truck. The only reason to keep Squad is so Severide has a reason to be at 51. Also, I don't think they really need to have an Ambo 61 story every episode, with or without Brett. I'd also say to write out Herrmann/Engine, write out Mouch (and I love Mouch), put Ritter on Truck, and then focus the show on Truck 81 with Kidd, Cruz, Gallo, and Ritter, with sometimes Violet, sometimes Boden, and maybe Brett.

I'm curious how it will all work out without Haas, with the budget issues, and with the viewers. I'm surprised this show is still consistently #1 on Wednesdays and I have no idea what draws viewers in. I only stuck around for Casey, and this episode was like watching a bad color of paint dry. 🫣