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For a while it was absorbed into the FIG All-Around World Cup series, but the FIG hasn't reinstated that since COVID (2020 American Cup, which Morgan Hurd won, was the last event in the series before the shutdowns). USAG hasn't seen a need to resurrect it if it's not going to be an FIG event. Plus now they have Winter Cup at the same point in the season, which has the advantage that far more US gymnasts can compete than just 1 or 2 in American Cup. It's too bad because at least American Cup got a handful of international gymnasts to compete in person in the US every year.

Emma Stone's dress was not well-suited to the venue, and seemed to lead her to position herself almost entirely with her back towards Graham, which was awkward.

Mia's art being rather mediocre helps reinforce that her professor's interest in her was unprofessional and predatory, and not about Mia's artistic talent.

The actress they got to play Young Princess Elizabeth has such a striking resemblance to Claire Foy I kept being taken aback and thinking it was her. Amazing casting. Lesley Manville was exceptional here. I have absolutely no problem with Margaret getting her own episode particularly since she's been central to the show since season 1, and truly was the only person besides the Queen Mother who was with Elizabeth through everything.

Nastia has commentated at Classic in the past (I attended in person one year and she was definitely there in the commentary booth), but NBC appears to be increasing its pool of commentators, particularly bringing in those with experience commentating on NCAA. IMO this is a good thing - overall I don't think Nastia's a very good commentator, and I've always felt there's an awkward conflict of interest with her father still being a prominent coach of active athletes. Sam Peszek has potential (you can see the media training she got in her studies at UCLA), but she also has a strong tendency to talk too much during the routines and inject herself and her experience into the commentary. I also think John Roethlisberger (or Bart Conner) should replace Tim Daggett. Tim's schtick ("Gymnastics 101" etc.) has worn thin and after 30+ years it's time for someone else to take over. The main thing, though, is NBC needs to get over their obsession with showing gymnasts on the sidelines, chalking up, getting drinks of water, talking to the coaches, instead of showing actual gymnastics. It creates these interminable lulls in the action, when there's exciting stuff going on in the background that the audience doesn't see. I'm not a huge golf fan but I watched the coverage of the British Open a few weeks ago, and I was struck by how they immediately moved from one golfer to another so there was no break in the action - it was almost addictive since they kept showing shot after shot. They didn't just follow Rory McIlroy around while he was walking from hole to hole, getting drinks of water, and talking with his caddy, but if he were a gymnast that's exactly the type of coverage NBC would do.

I don't think this is the end for Claire and Carmy. Of course she was hurt by what he said while in the freezer but given that she also works in a high-pressure field that requires long days and periods of intense focus, I think with a bit of time she would realize that Carmy was working out the pressure of one of the most intense evenings of his career, and dealing with issues that aren't really about her. Agreed - when he first showed up my brain went, "Where is this guy from before? Oh yeah, SNL..." which took me out of the show and in the end he didn't even have any real dialogue beyond saying how crack/meth makes him focus or whatever. I wonder if Donna's decision not to go into the restaurant shows that she's done some changing and growing since Mikey died.

Even better, it wasn't "eldest son," but "eldest boy." Further reiterating how he's still that 7-year-old on his dad's lap being told he will get the keys to the kingdom.

I have found Sr Monica Joan tiresome for a long time, and when she interrupted the wedding service (after arriving late) to announce how she was still going to do her reading or whatever, I just rolled my eyes so hard. I don't care how much affection Trixie has for her and the other nuns at Nonnatus, if that were my wedding I'd not have been best pleased. That said, MJ's line about "rallying" right before entering the church was pretty amusing.

Peacock is leaving the replays of Worlds up for 48 hours after each session, but a week would be even better. There are many, many reasons why someone might not be able to watch something within a specific 48-hour window. Really, NBC and their copyright lawyers need to get some spine and not back down in the face of frivolous music lawsuits.

I enjoy this show but I find some of the challenges to be uneven and smacking of producer manipulation. For example, in the S2 episode with the old recipes that the bakers had to remake, some sounded not that bad and others sounded revolting. But then what made it worse was that each team was specifically assigned a particular recipe, so it wasn't random. It would have been more fair to have the teams pick the recipes out of a hat, or better yet, have them all remake the same old recipe.

One aspect I found disappointing about the ending of the episode, which stops with Elizabeth in the carriage, is that there's no acknowledgement that in the end, the Silver Jubilee was a success. We got the discussion with Margaret where she talked about how apprehensive she was to be having a Jubilee, but then we don't get to see her receive the celebratory reassurance that the public appreciated her. I appreciate the attention to detail and ability of the costumers to provide clothes that are extremely close to what the Queen and others wore IRL, but sometimes, as with this hat, I think it backfired and emphasized why Olivia Colman (amazing as she is) was a bit miscast in the role (and/or was misdirected in her portrayal). OC has one of those faces that easily appears much older, particularly with certain hair and makeup. Even though by the time of the end of the season (in 1977) Elizabeth was a few years older than OC was at the time of filming this season, OC's appearance this season has consistently appeared older than Elizabeth did in the same time frame. Therefore, when we see OC wearing this cute, whimsical hat, it just doesn't appear like something that Elizabeth-as-portrayed-by-OC would choose.

Rewatched recently and my favorite part of the episode (in terms of comedy value) is when Charles is meeting with the professor and when trying to phonetically pronounce what the professor is saying, the professor says, "you have to glide into it" and Charles immediately says, "I'm trying to glide into it" with a little arm wave. Something about that just tickles my funny bone.

Given the way the family tree shaped up, Elizabeth would have eventually become queen anyway. Edward married Wallis when she was 41 and nothing in his or her history indicates a desire to have children (and of course, they didn't in the end). With Edward having no children, even if he hadn't abdicated the crown would have eventually passed to Bertie and then to Elizabeth, no matter what, it just would have ended up happening in the 1970s when Edward died instead of the 1950s. One of the things I think the show has really missed throughout is Elizabeth's natural sense of humor. I never met her personally of course but there are ample descriptions from many different people, and video evidence, of her having a dry sense of humor and quick wit, with a twinkle in her eye. Yes, this is another aspect where I think the characterization of Elizabeth in the show fails. No, she didn't get a traditional schooling and university education, but there's ample evidence out there that she had a natural intelligence and was well abreast of the issues of the day, and carefully read all of the documents in her red boxes. Perhaps her chosen hobbies of horses and dogs didn't seem all that intellectual, but everyone needs hobbies and activities that are just for fun and not for smarts. It's perfectly fair for her to not be all that interested in science and technology, and it doesn't make her any less intelligent than Philip just because he finds those topics interesting.

It's unfortunate for Elizabeth Debicki because there's not much she can do about it, but being a 6'3" woman just lends a general air of awkwardness. Diana was tall but not as unusually tall as Debicki. Having an intimate private phone conversation leaked for the whole world to read is bad enough, but I appreciated that the show largely kept the conversation as it was in real life since it actually makes it clear that Charles didn't "wish to be Camilla's tampon" as is often the mischaracterization that continues to spread even today. Overall I think Dominic West did a decent job portraying Charles. Perhaps he has a bit too much natural confidence and swagger but I think it works in portraying the contradiction of how Charles at this point in his life was a man in full, and in many other professions would have been at or approaching his peak time of productivity and authority. However, because of the nature of his role of Prince of Wales, he was continually waiting in the wings, which would naturally be frustrating. It's to his credit that he came up with the Prince's Trust as something that he could actively be involved with rather than just sitting around waiting for his mother to die so that his "real job" could begin.

The thing that I found the most surprising about this episode was that Sydney Johnson worked for both the Duke of Windsor and Mohamed Al-Fayed. I had no idea about that before watching, and had to go check online to see whether it was actually true since it just seemed like such an amazing coincidence. I also had no idea that the Fayeds were involved with Chariots of Fire so that was an interesting surprise too. On its own I thought it was a good piece of television, but on the other I was a little peeved that it took up 10% of the season. IMO Al-Fayed is extremely peripheral to the overall story of the royal family, which should be the focus of The Crown. If this had been an extra 11th episode, then fine, but I came away feeling that time that could have been spent on more relevant familial/political issues of the early '90s was used on this very minor character.