ElleryAnne

Her version of B&tB has always brought a tear to my eye. There's just something so lovely and warm and magical in her voice when she sings it that no other performer has ever captured. No one else even comes close. I can list a dozen things I've seen her in, and I adore her in Murder, She Wrote. But her performance of this song is perfection to me. I'm heartbroken right now.

I actually miss the so-called retreads. I liked seeing some familiar faces mixed in with new ones. I blame the smaller size pieces on the cake thing. I wish they weren't so cake-centered now, because they'd be able to build bigger, sturdier pieces if they didn't have to take slices out of the center of the darned thing.

I cosign all of that. Zak continues to be irritating. I don't care about his self-promotion of his ghost show or his museum. I don't need him pretending that his trip through Alcatraz was terrifying for him. I don't want him introducing dark and depressing themes for teams to work on. I don't want commercials for his stupid show on the Travel channel. I just want him gone. Weird stories for the cakes this week. Vampire eats bats to grow wings? Werewolf feet what?

Definitely this. I hate them being so cake-oriented. In older seasons, the first 15 minutes of the show would be spent on the small scare, and often had really great pieces. Now that time is spent watching people getting cake ready to put in the oven and then taking it back out of the oven. Somewhat less impressive, jmo. I don't like them to cut into their work and pull out perfect slices of cake, anyway. It looks too fake. The former tasting element, like you say, was far more creative. I hadn't. It sounded creepy. Not in a fun scary way, but just in an unpleasant way. I guess it fits the Bagans concept of making Halloween Wars less fun.

Ugh. I can't stand Zak Bagans. He comes across as such a douchebag. The winning piece in the first ep was too messy IMO. But I didn't think any of the pieces were especially good in the first round. Not saying I could do better, though. I still miss Jonathan, and I still miss the Small Scare. And I miss the big bright kitchen. I know they probably think the dark studio is more Halloween-ish, but I liked the kitchens from the first ten seasons. It was happy, like the show itself. But at least the pumpkins are back, so that's something. ETA: And I don't like the idea of qualifying rounds.

Zoe Saldana's post about Nichelle Nichols is also lovely: https://www.instagram.com/zoesaldana/ an excerpt:

I remember him best as Matthew Blaisdel in the original Dynasty.

I love the fact that El looked like a junior version of Joyce - similar bangs, similar plaid overshirt. In my head, it makes sense that as El continues trying to assimilate into society, she'd model herself after someone she loves.

He'll probably always be best remembered for Chariots of Fire, but my personal favorite of his is Conquest of Paradise, from 1492. It's majestic and expansive, yet also a bit eerie.

Damn. According to the articles, her daughter is only two years old, and was only five months old when Marnie received the cancer diagnosis. Not that there's ever a good time to receive a cancer diagnosis, but that timing is just devastating. FUCK CANCER.

Well, currently representing the ladies in that category could be Candace Cameron-Bure, formerly of Full House (and Fuller House) and now solving crimes as Aurora Teagarden. They're movies instead of a show, but there are more of them than there are episodes of some shows. I can imagine almost anyone from Modern Family's cast playing a detective in a drama. But now that the idea is in my head, I'd rather imagine the entire Pritchett-Delgado/Dunphy clan opening a private detective agency, and that would have to be a sitcom so it no longer fits the thread category. And I would love to see Marla Gibbs as a new Jessica Fletcher-type of detective, but she's in her 80's and might not be up for that kind of work schedule.

Aw, I loved Luis.

I would think sleazball anons are just hoping for people to engage with them, so I'd ignore him. But if you leave a really nice comment for the fic writer complimenting the fic, you could also remind her that loser asshats aren't her target audience anyway, so she doesn't have to worry about pleasing them.

Did Phil say the White Tower got its name when someone painted it white? I don't know why I find that hilarious.

There's a spot in the world where you can stand and see six countries? See, this is the kind of thing I love about TAR. Even when they have to modify the game, they find a way to show the most incredible places all around the world.

If some loser is trolling authors because they don't like the ship, they really need to get a life. Or a therapist. Probably both. Either way, I'm sorry you were hurt by them, but please never let them discourage you from writing.

Are your crossovers on AO3? I love a good crossover, and QL and SN are two of my favorites for crossovers. They're two of the LBD's of fanfic - they go with just about anything. If/when the Frasier reboot airs this year, hopefully that fandom will come back to life.

I don't understand why people would be such jerks. As someone who enjoys reading fanfic, I'm always appreciative of the works that authors create and share. And that's especially true for the smaller fandoms and less active fandoms I read in, because I know the authors probably don't get much recognition for those works. I hope that most authors, at least, aren't chased off by a handful of loudmouths that represent the worst of the internet, because I'm sure there are far more people who are grateful for all authors' contributions to the fandoms.

Nuts. The first team out is never the first team I want to get rid of. They seemed like nice guys, too.

I think that's the first time I've ever heard Phil tell anyone to kick some ass.

Ok, so there were a lot of funny moments. I liked Sarah. She had personality. I kinda wish Chibnall had written her personality into one of the companions from the start, because I feel like I know Sarah better after one episode than I know Yaz in three seasons. Nick was okay, if a little weird. I like time loop stories, but they sometimes suffer from not knowing when not to show fifty iterations of the same moment. I think this episode handled that well, with everyone figuring out early on that they were actually in a time loop and reacting differently because of it. Also the loop shortened by a minute each time? That was actually a pretty nice variation on the theme. I hate the companion-in-love-with-the-Doctor thing. And I hate it here with Yaz and Thirteen. I like Dan, but I forget he exists whenever he's off-screen. Overall, not a bad episode. I can imagine rewatching it occasionally (which is something I rarely say about a Chibnall episode).

For that matter, her original series might fit the category as well. On I Love Lucy, the last season has everyone moved to Connecticut, and then it segues into being an hour-long series with guest stars.

Laverne and Shirley never changed its name, but when they made the awful decision to have the characters move to California, it essentially became a different show. And then, of course, Shirley left. (And of course, there was that odd animated Laverne and Shirley in the Army series, which was supposed to be set after the show but I think aired before the show ended? I don't even know how to categorize that one.)

If they count: Fuller House was embarrassingly awful, even though it got several seasons on Netflix (I wasn't a fan of the original Full House, though, so maybe some people liked Fuller House); and the fourth season of Veronica Mars, which is set several years later than the original series and the movie - was just a disappointment. ETA: Would Doctor Who count in this category? The "new" Doctor Who has been around for about 15 years now, but it's still a follow-up series to the original series, plus whatever other material (movie, radio, etc.) came in between.

Well, I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. It was too messy and frantic, and the payoff was unsatisfying. I do still like Vinder and Bel. I would watch a spin-off of the two of them and their baby traveling the remains of the universe and trying to survive, a la Lost In Space/Swiss Family Robinson, with Karvanista in tow. Kate can be a recurring character in that show. Also liked Professor Jericho. (His final moments reminded me of another story but I'm blanking out on which one.) Di and Karvanista were good, too, even if Karvanista's story got sad for a while. And I liked Williamson and the tunnels. The problem is that the weakest part of the story for me is the Doctor's part. I don't like the Timeless Child(ren) nonsense or the Division nonsense, and I really didn't like the whole split-multi-Doctor thing either. (I didn't even like the split-multi-Doctor thing when Ten had a new, human Doctor as fanservice for Rose, and I adored almost everything about Ten's tenure.) Yaz was good when the Doctor wasn't around, but the exchange towards the end between her and the Doctor brought both characters down for me. Swarm and Azure irritated me all the way through, and the Grand Serpent lost his personality somewhere along the way. In Serpent's case, it might help if he didn't have a name that sounds like he should be head of a lodge that Homer Simpson or Fred Flintstone would join. The Sontarans' Three Fingered Hand of Uneasy Alliance was okay.