blackwing

I agree that the bros story was really weak. I hadn’t realized these minifigs were from a series so in looking at the series, I agree, there were way more interesting figures than the Lady Programmer. The Nerd Bro’s insistence on picking the most square figure like himself really hurt them. I usually hate the over sharing of information in an effort to sway voters (cf Jeremy Collins crying and telling everyone his wife is pregnant, Adam Klein snotcrying about his dying mom) but I give Tyler and Amy a pass here. They were working with kids in the last ep and it felt very natural. Plus I don’t think Jamie and Amy are going to be swayed. I do agree that the one lumberjack who is constantly singing is annoying. I get that he can’t sing songs for which the show would have to pay license rights but the songs he makes up are not very good nor does his voice sound good.

Good result. I really enjoyed just about everything about both the lumberjacks and Sam and Jessica’s builds. Lumberjacks was a complete playset. I loved the street scene above with the stores and the pizza shop. Loved the oven churning out evil pizza men. The battle scene was amazing, I particularly like the explanation of how the pizza men were getting to the surface. They climbed a ladder and one was bursting out of the open manhole. The one place where I thought they failed is that the Care Bear didn’t get incorporated into the story... at all! Not even really as a henchman. Sam and Jessica’s build was great. I loved the playfulness of it. Loved the giant bathtub and the greenhouse above. I thought they had great details, like the plants and the computer showing a pizza man on the alert monitor with a red X through it. Didn’t really understand the critique over it not being polished. Loved the soap bubbles. And the Gardener Mom and Shower Boy really seemed like an equal team. Tyler and Amy... always great, always consistent. Wish I got to see more of the detail and fun things in their lair. Douchebros deserved to go home. I don’t understand why a bake sale. For a programmer? I completely missed that the building was a school. A bake sale that makes robots? Huh? I feel like they were stuck on the bake sale from the beginning and when Tyler was puzzled, that made them more determined to keep it. The house was beautiful, particularly with the elevation and the detailing of the green hill it was on. I wouldn’t have criticised them for the “hidden” aspect of the transformation. I thought the fact that their story made no sense doomed them. I think their failing was their determination to make the Lady Programmer the main hero and the spacesuit guy the sidekick. Made for a much more nonsensical story. They should have had battle armor guy be an alien commander and Programmer is in the spaceship directing the clone army she created. But noooooo, these two guys basically picked representations of themselves, and the insistence on making the nerd bro the alpha while the buff bro was the sidekick ended up being their downfall. I did chuckle that the buff bro’s minifigure has him shirtless. Bro to the end hahah.

Agreed. Happy to see this team go. I wasn’t impressed with any of their builds. They really should have gone home last week when they failed miserably twice. Their build this week was a mess. It didn’t make sense in the first place... what was the point of the conveyor belt? This was the one where the English lady judge said that movement for the sake of movement doesn’t add anything, right? They got five extra hours for part 2 of the story and all they added was a green guy popping up a little bit from the ground and a truly pathetic looking tiny two dimensional UFO. Well deserved elimination. They were clearly not on par with the remaining teams so I don’t know why the chunkier one looked like he was about to burst into tears when their name got called. I never figured out which was which and it didn’t help that they wore identical glasses. The chunkier one was always so over dramatic and such a negative nelly and constantly worried about everything. Glad to see the douchebros knocked down a peg. Their build was terrible. I wanted the judges to say something about how blocky the frame of the house was. That said, I don’t get the criticism that they “took the words literally” in their interpretation. Wasn’t that the whole point? Make a build using the characters mentioned in the story? I’m tired of hearing Will talk about the buff bro’s muscles. I get it. He works out. Enough. At this point, I hope anyone but the douchebros win. But my favorite is the married couple. Their build was amazing. Loved the giant carrot and the little broccolis.

I think it is interesting that we had three teams of minorities and two all-women teams, and those were the first five teams out. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy there, I just find it interesting. In terms of diversity, I guess we are left with the gay couple. Buff frat bro who is possibly Hispanic. Oh and Sam, who is probably gay, and Glasses frat bro, who is possibly gay. So maybe not so interesting after all hahaha. There’s only one team of all-white males. Wish we could see more of the actual building. I agree with others that it seems like the wife in the married couple doesn’t seem to pull her weight. I’d be curious to see exactly how much she contributes to their team.

I disagreed with both results. I like both the married couple and the lumberjacks, but judging on aesthetics, the married couple should have won. Their bridge was charming and classic and was really the only bridge that had any element of “making it beautiful”. The flowers and vines and butterflies looked great. The lumberjacks was sleek and modern but was a mishmash of colour and had no theme. For the bottom two, I think the gay couple should have gone home. I know it was judged on aesthetics only, but their bridge failed so miserably. I also don’t think it looked great at all. I liked the look of Cop/Not Cop’s bridge so much better. The gay couple also failed miserably at the car challenge. Their car was far behind anyone else’s. I know the time penalty was already built in to the bridge challenge But they finished both challenges in absolute dead last place by a considerable margin so I feel like that should have been taken into consideration.

I had a different take... I cackled with glee and rewound and watched that scene multiple times. I would have felt bad for them had they not proven themselves to be smug douchebags pretty much from the very beginning. The buff one looks and acts like a stereotypical frat boy (“uh... this one time at meathead camp, I was banging this hot chick and she told me she loved my lego”). The nerd one is the very definition of hubris. They ended up in top two, right? I would not have put them there simply because the only reason why they got there is because they were saved by Part 2. They should have been more widely criticized for being arrogant (“we want the highest tower!”) which led to their downfall since it wasn’t stable enough. I put have put the married couple and their really cool tri-tower there instead. Most of the teams left seem pretty decent. I think Cop / Non-Cop is probably the weakest. But Sam and Jessica could easily go home too. I want either the married couple or the lumberjacks to win.

Agreed. They basically did a fantasy theme. They gave up on romance completely. They had no ideas so the nerd frat bro decided to do a dragon simply because he’s good at making a dragon. He even said something like “I was hoping to save this for later in the competition” like it was a secret weapon he planned to shoehorn into their build when he felt like he was in trouble and hope the judges would be impressed by his amazing dragon. And then their idea of “thriller” was to make a battle scene. It failed. There was no thriller aspect to that at all. I interpreted “thriller” to be something akin to a horror movie or a psychological thriller like “Girl on the Train”. Something that has some element of imminent bodily peril or death. For romance I would have done something with a rowboat on a lake where a woman is with some other guy, while the hero is on land pining away for her and trying to figure out how to get to her. Then for thriller, I would have put zombie sharks in the water (maybe even elevate the surface so we can see all the zombie sharks under the water) and the hero has to find a way to save and win the woman, after the first guy sacrificed himself for her. I get that there was a monster theme there but not really sure how to avoid overlap. Frat Bros build looked great but didn’t fit either of the themes at all. I guess one problem is that some of the themes were more easily defined than others. Monster, Western, Fantasy. Not really sure what Thriller is the more I think about it. Is it horror? Is it action? They should have had a Superheroes category.

I’m liking the season so far but I’ve been wondering if there was any particular reason why they recast the role of Avasarala’s husband? The previous actor was the guy who was Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld. Now there’s this guy. They seem to have expanded his role as well. Sorry, but I don’t buy that this guy and Chrisjen are married. This one seems extremely effeminate and I’m wondering if that’s supposed to be an acting choice for the character or if that’s just the actor.

So what are they going to do with Apu? Has he made any appearances since “the controversy”? I guess they could either 1) have him in the background but not speak, 2) have a plot (which would have one of the few permanent changes in this series) where he undergoes some kind of My Fair Lady speech training so now he talks with an English accent, 3) retire him and never show him at all again, or 4) kill him off. Thoughts/preferences? I get why the change but he’s been such a part of the history of the show it’s kind of curious to see what will happen. Personally I’d prefer 4). Give him a nice send off. Are they going to retire Cookie Kwan too? Because she could just as easily be considered offensive.

I was sick of all the crying from the dad too. Yes, I get it. You looooovvvvveeee your son. And you’re soooooo happy to be here doing this. I wonder if everyone got to call their “loved ones” and this was the only one that was aired. They got probably one of the easier genres to start and did a decent job. Then they got another easy genre to add on and botched that one. Even after the judges suggested the specific fantasy and magical elements to add. How hard is it to turn the western town into one in a fantasy world? Add some elves and centaurs and have the bad guys be some trolls and add some trees to put the town in the jungle. Instead, they decide to add space elements. “Space” is a kind of fantasy but not the first thing I think of when I hear “fantasy”. There’s a reason why “space” wasn’t a genre, because they did space things already in week 2. I agree that the woman judge just likes to find things to complain about. She criticized the team with the cop about copying the baby. But no criticism for the gay couple or the bros. They each got kids and romance in the first round and said screw that, we are doing fantasy. I was expecting a comment from her that there already was a team doing fantasy. Was hoping that the lumberjacks would win the golden brick. I also think it’d be amazing if once it gets down to teams left that are all great builders that it could be hidden amongst the thousands of bricks in the bins, like a hidden immunity idol haha. It seems like Harley Quinn is likely one of the next to go. They seem like the weakest team left.

I didn’t like how it was a free-for-all to grab the items. Just like how it was a free for all to grab the plot of land in the first episode. I think it should either have been grab a random box and the name of the object you get is inside (like the stars with the destruction methods in the second episode). Or they should have done a random draw of numbers and people get to pick in order. I just didn’t care for the jostling.

It was interesting to me that during the building process I’m pretty sure the judges told Harley Quinn that she wouldn’t be allowed to explain their build at all during judging, that the build would have to tell it’s own story. But then during judging, everyone is telling their story and the only ones that got criticised for it were the brothers. To me, the only ones whose build spoke for themselves and needed no explanation at all were Sam and Jessica’s fire hydrant and Tyler and Amy’s telescope and the frat brothers’ helmet. The ones that needed the most explaining were the brothers and the father/son who did the monkey and bike. I didn’t really care for the gay couple and their clock either. It didn’t make sense to me at all without the story... was it supposed to be a person that turned into a clock? Why were all the people repairing it? I would have put the monkey and bike in the bottom two. I didn’t get that one at all... why was there a really big monkey and then a smaller one? I did like the brothers but their build was terrible. I feel bad for the older brother who stubbornly insisted on keeping the idea and then feeling like he let his younger cancer surviving brother down. Personality wise, my favourite teams are the lumberjacks and Tyler and Amy. I’m not caring for the frat brothers (especially the smug buff one with resting bitch face) or the gay couple and their overwrought dramatics (was the one who cried last week about failing the same one who stereotypically squeaked “save me” and clutched his partner when the lights went down?) I have a question about the confessional explanatory interviews. When were these filmed? It really doesn’t seem like it’s contemporaneously, even though I’m sure the clock stops and there are several eating/bathroom breaks, because the clothes are different. I think Sam and Jessica are wearing the same clothes they did in episode 1. At least I think he is? Overalls over flowered t shirt. Would seem odd if these were taped after the show was all done and they are being asked to recount how they felt. I guess I’m used to Survivor which makes things seem more like they were filmed on the spot.

Late to the party re “Parasite” but I finally watched it. I thought it was a good movie overall. I thought it was going to be a stark examination of class warfare, the traditional haves vs have nots. I was prepared to watch the have nots claw their way to the top and cheer them on. And then... midway through, it just got really weird. Was not prepared for that at all. This is definitely a Best Picture unlike any other winner. I think my biggest problem with the movie is that I didn’t find any of the characters particularly sympathetic. I liked the poor family until all the nastiness to get into the rich family’s lives began. I found the rich family to be vapid, particularly the scene where rich wife is on her phone the whole time while shopping and just puts items into the cart while poor dad walks a few paces behind her like a modern day slave. Part of my issue is that there wasn’t much background on how they got to be so rich, unless I missed it. Does the husband work really really hard? Or did they inherit it all? I didn’t even feel much sympathy for the old housekeeper, who was deceiving her employer. In the end, I found myself feeling empty and wanting more of a satisfying resolution. I also wish that if the Academy had considered this movie to be so worthy of Best Picture, that a few of the actors would have been nominated. I would have nominated Poor Son, Rich Wife and Poor Dad. Why is it so hard for Asian actors to get nominated for acting awards at the Oscars? So few and far in between. Just like with Crouching Tiger and The Last Emperor where the movies were deemed among the best of the year but no recognition at all for the actors. For sure, this movie benefited from the backlash against the almost entirely white slate of acting nominees It’s like Hollywood was protesting a bit too much “See we aren’t racist! We will name a Korean film as Best Picture and make history!” Who was the lady that spoke who got the lights shut off on her until the audience clamored to let her speak? Was that a producer or an actress? I hadn’t seen the film before the ceremony so now trying to picture her face again, was it the old housekeeper?

I really enjoyed this episode. Loved the hilariously over the top Marie Antoinette. I most like the episodes where they go farther back in time than the 20th century. I’m still hoping one day they get to Ancient Rome or Greece. Are we going to get to see more of the people on those evil coins? We already saw Rasputin. I’d love to see Caligula and Mary Tudor. I don’t mind Ava that much, as long as she is in small doses. The one I really despise is Gary. He’s all around useless. I guess they are now trying to turn him into a sorcerer, just to give him more to do. I wish they would have him go away like how we got rid of Mona.

It’s unfortunate that the editing and the amount of time spent on each team during the building process really telegraphed that there were really only three teams in danger of going home: Big Hair, Nasty Man and the gay couple. Was the gay couple even on the first episode? I cannot remember them or their park at all and it was only a week ago. There’s something about the frat brothers that I really dislike. I think it’s the buffer one. Seems so incredibly smug. I wish there had been a bottom three and they were there and lost their golden brick. I really thought Tyler and Amy’s alien was amazing. The way the tentacles looked was really quite an art. So happy that Big Hair is gone. She reminded me of Tammy Faye Bakker for some reason. She was incredibly bossy towards her mouse of a partner and her building skills were weak. That spaceship looked so blocky. As much as I dislike Nasty Man, I do kind of have to agree with him and the judges, the woman’s skills just don’t seem quite there. That building and dog park were so simple, it was something that even I could have built.