853fisher

A bit off-topic, but I’ve never understood advertisers’ obsession with youth generally. This is hardly an original thought, to be sure. But the Lord knows I have more money to spend at 26 than I did at 18. Friends who are 34 have more than I do now and coworkers who are 42 have more than any of us. Etc etc etc. I guess part of the notion is that you “get ‘em young” and they’ll build lifelong relationships with your product, or aspire to them as appropriate? I also haven’t watched TV outside the streaming apps in ten years, so maybe I’ve lost sight of just what is being advertised. But going off what was there when last I checked, if I was advertising perfumes or towncars or furniture, I would much rather have my parents watching than me. I'd bet good money that the DWTS audience has more to spend than that of, IDK, Riverdale or another very young-skewing show. Am I way off?

This isn't to my taste. I prefer something more classic. This makes me think of the carnival ride that spins until everyone is stuck to the walls by centrifugal force, and then the floor drops away. I guess I buy it too. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist. But like you, I wouldn't be surprised by the alternate explanation either. The man is 76 and recently had cancer, so under present circumstances, who could blame him if he simply preferred his nice home in Kent over LA County right now? Then again, I do think he could have traveled if he wanted to. I could be mistaken, but I thought the recent travel restrictions were based on where you've been in the past 14 days, not citizenship. In other words, someone who has been in the UK in the last 14 days is not permitted to enter the US at this time. But if Len had flown to some other country, enjoyed a two week holiday in seclusion (or not, depending on local circumstance), and then flown to California from there, I understand he would've been eligible for admittance. A bit of a hassle, sure, but the kind of wage he's paid would make it worthwhile to many people. (I could be totally mistaken, as I've tried to follow the news and did some light Googling, but haven't seriously contemplated travel anywhere myself. If I am, I apologize.)

I won't actively miss her, although I don't think she's what needed fixing either. Perhaps I'm just allergic to change, but I still like Samantha best of the co-hosts. Brooke and Erin were both fine, but not great. All knew when to throw to Tom.

There will be 15 contestants this year. That is the greatest number since 2009: each season since then has had 13 or less. I wouldn't have guessed this would be the time to scale up. I think this lineup is no lower- or higher- profile than usual. Many of the names mean nothing to me, but they often don't going in, and I don't mind it. I don't expect Justina Machado to go far, but I've been charmed by her on a couple of the game shows with celebrity players and several of my friends love "One Day at a Time," so I wish her well. I like the idea of Johnny Weir more perhaps than the man himself, but I think he could do well, as Adam Rippon did. Nev from Catfish is terrifically obnoxious IMO, but not really a bad guy. (EDIT: He was a dance major at Sarah Lawrence but was expelled after punching another student in the head repeatedly. His excuse is that he mistook her for a man. So I take that back.) We'll see. Obviously I am following the announcements despite my past naysaying. I'll peek at a few clips on YouTube to see how they're handling things. But I don't think I'll be really watching. It was must-see TV for me until season 20, and since then I've been watching a bit here and there and following the discussion, sort of peeking out threw my fingers. I do think the show has run its course. Thank goodness for Strictly, the UK version, which still has what made DWTS so wonderful for me in its day.

That’s very gracious of you. I’ll drink to your health and many more happy hours watching something else. 😉

Law enforcement has investigated these allegations at length and I think they have not been deemed credible. My understanding is that their perpetuation is largely the result of "Tiger King" viewers considering her sort of a kook and a "ballbuster" (there were some really mysoginistic threads in the reactions I saw) and deciding accordingly that the sensational insinuations of the dead man's children must be true. I didn't watch the show after I saw the trailer and the first batch of responses either: laughing at some particularly marginal examples of white trash acting the fool while animals suffer is not my idea of entertainment. But I saw enough about it in my feeds and was curious to research a bit. I do think drawing from this well is another reason not to watch the show, but a lot of people seem to have enjoyed the "documentary," so this must be what they think will attract viewers. I also sincerely believe, thinking of high-profile cases, that OJ did it, Casey Anthony did it, Tonya Harding did it, etc. I'm not here to be prissy about "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law." I just don't personally think it's right to take the instincts of people watching a freak show who wanted to regard it as even freakier to declare that someone is a criminal. It's truly nothing personal, and I hope you'll accept my apology if I've come over too strong. I guess I just have a bee in my bonnet about everything associated with that whole affair, or the mere fact that it's something high profile in today's society. To be clear, the one who's a convicted or even credibly accused criminal in that story is not her but her business rival Joe Exotic, who may get to watch her dance while serving 22 years in adsec at Fort Worth.

Yes, many of them are filmed in Canada. Their government offers some pretty good incentives, and certain areas allow filming that looks like your traditional "White Christmas" many months of the year. They're not my style either, so these titles mean nothing to me, but the curious might enjoy this article, which breaks down what of last year's batch was filmed where.

The UK version has a fairly popular young pro who fell in love with a soap actress doing the show (as someone else's partner) in 2017. They dated throughout 2018, announced their pregnancy in February 2019, and delivered in July. There was a great deal of surprise when the year's cast was announced in August and he was not given a partner: he made clear it was not his decision. The British tabloid press does a lot of nasty rumormongering around the supposed "curse" that threatens relationships when people do the show and I thought they'd like to capitalize on this pro and his girlfriend being conspicuously and wholesomely happy all over. But perhaps having the baby made him seem off-limits for gossip, showmance, whatever and they wanted someone with whom they could do that. And perhaps something like that was in play with Artem when he was dropped last time. Not that I'm a conspiracy theorist or whatever. 😉

But is she so popular either? I have literally never heard of her in any context outside of DWTS. I guess I'm way out of the "zeitgeist." Or perhaps I just don't know or care to learn about the WWE. I have friends to whom she probably is big indeed. (And I mean that without a hint of snark.)

Rewinding a few days, I found it very odd that Artem was the only pro to get his own separate announcement. I certainly didn't think he was that popular, and his results have been very average. I guess it's possible they were still negotiating with whoever he will be partnered with at the time of the first one.

I actually didn't realize that GLOW existed in "real life." Yes, I am ashamed. I really wanted it to be #1. Every once in a while there's a contestant whose energy seems way off. The panel gave him a bit of a hard time, but I don't think the guy who turned out to be the patisserie chef cracked a smile once. Those were not fun vibes. Jenna Fischer is always a treat for me. Unfortunately, she wasn't quite enough to make up for Mike Tyson. What a creepy guy. It was nice to see Rumer too after "Dancing with the Stars" a few years ago, although I didn't quite recognize her a bit older with a new haircut. I laughed at first, but the "what were you doing in that neighborhood?" / "did you get a reward?" / "see, we help white people sometimes!" jokes seemed a bit tacky after the sixth or seventh time. The young man who turned out to have done the good deed didn't look particularly impressed either, especially after the collective eyeroll about the award he received.

I just came here to say that! “The Match Game / Hollywood Squares Hour” from ‘84/‘85 is on now and it was a question. I went from zero knowledge about the Coppertone girl to the full spectrum this week.

Something caught my eye under "sponsored content" at the end of a local news article I just read. See if you spot it. 😉

It's in Rhode Island, and not Providence or Pawtucket, so I can't imagine it was the property value. I suspect it must have been the notoriety. It seems to be a filming location for different paranormal such-and-such, so I bet they make a little money on that. I was least interested in that segment. I just don't buy this kind of thing.

Yes, that's right. It occurred to me that, if I were a producer on this show, the morning shows would be good places to look for people with with interesting stories to tell. I thought this was another really fun episode. As much as I don't care for Doris' shtick, it is fun to see someone win the prize. I would have absolutely sworn that #3 from the backup singer round was someone I had seen singing before, so no Doris for me. I did think that #1 looked a lot like Dolly, down to the beauty mark on her chin, so I was delighted when they said she was an impersonator. The strongman was quite a showman. He and the impostors got in a couple of good lines that round. It was interesting to learn more about the Coppertone baby too. I would've guessed the campaign was a few decades older than she was.

There's not a lot of buzz for a new Trek show, here or in my social media, but I did enjoy it. I recall that some folks felt the new series have been a bit too grimdark lately, more in line with the norms of so-called prestige TV than the spirit of the Trek universe, so it was interesting to see a very different approach. I'm happy for CBS to play around and try new things with the franchise. I would like to learn a little more about what the featured crew do on the Cerritos, but there are nine more episodes for that, and I plan to stick with it. The plot resolution about a kind of vaccine certainly was unexpectedly timely!

The cast is so talented that I genuinely am sorry to see anyone leave. Both lipsyncs were great and I understand why it was BOAs time. I still am more interested in what she brought to the runway that what Ilona did, but I guess there’s Instagram for that. The way Ilona’s garment was fitted waist-up and flapping in the breeze waist-down was really unflattering, I thought. Tom Green was an absolute waste of a guest slot. He’s so irrelevant that when I saw he’d be there I thought, “they must’ve picked him because he’s really going to bring something.” Well, he sure did! All the irrelevant shouting of Joel McHale with none of the sex appeal. I just about remember when “Freddy Got Fingered” was the latest bit of lowbrow bro trash endangering the country (I was raised Catholic) and in a way it’s something of a triumph that so many different kinds of people will associate themselves with drag, but yikes, somebody else next time, please. Maybe his mom instead. I also didn’t really get Jeffrey’s “welcome to the competition, girl” for Jimbo. It was news to me that the queen who’s been in the top 4/6 weeks wasn’t into it yet. I’ve been charmed by him before as himself, but whatever character he’s playing now isn’t working. I vote he be removed from the panel and fed to Stacey. It was nice to see Crystal. I genuinely didn’t recognize her, except for the chest hair, and had utterly forgotten she was Canadian. It just shows what I know!

I agree, very good panel. All engaged and funny with no one monopolizing things. As an aside, I though Nikki's eyes were really popping, not that it particularly affected the gameplay. 😉

I didn't even think about how unhygienic nibbling from that sculpture probably was. I just thought it was such an obnoxious thing to do. Oh, you brought a sculpture of me? Better take a bite out of it! If any of the contestants had rolled their eyes, I would've assumed that was the one. At least it was a very small bite, and the sculptor left Mama's bust out of it for once. That was an interesting variety of challengers. It was cool to hear the Quidditch player say that he wasn't a Harry Potter superfan by any means. It looks like it'd be fun and different with friends regardless of whether I knew the books. I'm sure I've read about the glitter bomb guy but didn't recognize him. He looked a bit like Seth MacFarlane.

I thought Priyanka might stay out of the bottom because her impersonation was no worse than BOA's or Kiara's and they seemed to prefer her outfit. I felt differently: although I really liked it post-reveal, it was so unflattering until the white comforter came off, and the outfits didn't have to do with each other the way Rita's did. She nailed the lipsync, though. I enjoyed seeing both of them but Priyanka was much more into the mood of the song. I will miss Kiara but it was the right decision. I found Rita's Édith Piaf really difficult to watch. I'm not delusional: I don't sit down for Snatch Game expecting a series of polite tributes. I just hated seeing her boiled down to her addictions. Rita at one point said, "people know her mostly 'cause she was a drug addict," to which I thought, don't they know her as a singer? During the critiques, Rita was praised for really getting to the essence of who Édith was, and I thought, did she? Again, I know that Snatch Game is the wrong venue for a nuanced biographical presentation, but knowing something about what she went through in life, it was tough to watch pretty much the whole joke be her deterioration. Maybe this says more about me and my relationship to addiction and suffering than it does about what was presented on the episode, but I actually found it viscerally painful to look at the character presented to us. I might have called it a dramatic tour de force, but for a comedy performance which was complimented for telling us all we needed to know about her, it made me very sad. I’ve been watching for years and have never felt this way. I know that addictions are often part of the joke too, but I can’t remember it having been quite so mournful before. I don't mean to be terribly precious, and I hope I haven’t brought the energy down, but that's how I felt.

It was a pleasure to see them again, so I was glad to be able to share them. 🙂 I think I read that Samantha's mother was a dancer and she did jazz dance etc herself, as so may up-and-coming young people in entertainment do (and maybe it was mentioned in the clips? it's been a few days now, so who knows?). Still, that jive was an accomplishment whatever prior experience she had. She did "Roxie" in Chicago maybe ten years ago and I would've liked to have seen it. Tom...yes, more performance than technique, but it put a smile on my face! I really wish the show had been put out of its misery a while ago so we could enjoy the memories.

I forgot to say that I was dying to know who Ross expected in the final other than Jujubee. As much as I found some suspense in the eventual result, the top few were exactly who I thought they'd be from the start.

I hadn't heard that Chi Chi was ill, but she was recently hospitalized and dialyzed: now she is home recovering.

I could probably have been happy with any of the three winnings, although Cracker would've been my bottom preference. I didn't think the conclusion was as foregone as many others do, but maybe I'm kidding myself. Either way, Shea did well. I hope she is not targeted for abuse on the Internet, as so often seems to happen with the black queens. I don't remember them having done this kind of runway with the eliminated contestants in the past. That was fun. 20 minutes of more of the boring draaaama, mostly India's, was not. I lost interest like four times and clicked over to do something else, almost forgetting the window was still open in the end. Meh. Netflix, by the way, spoiled the result for UK viewers by featuring the coronation as their thumbnail for the episode. Having had several finales spoiled for me as a west coast viewer by east coast fans, or on more than one occasion Drag Race's own Facebook page, I feel their pain.

I enjoyed the bit with Stacey coaching on the runway walk. I thought there was going to be a bit more of that kind of mentoring, the way the trio were presented at the beginning of the season. I understand that the paper looks were more "cosplay" than "couture." I still preferred them as a group to the metal looks, because they seemed more finished and polished (no pun intended). I never tend to like the "mean judge" on shows that have them, but when that's the persona someone goes with, they normally keep it up the whole time. Jeffrey ends up seeming even more ridiculous to me because he goes from Dollar Tree Naomi Campbell to bright-eyed "yasss qween werq!" in ten seconds flat and then back again.