blackwing

I thought Nicole got robbed. She was definitely the more personable contestant and seemed to have a lot more knowledge than Ciara. Did Ciara even attempt any songs on her own? She seemed content to just let Nicole make the guesses. I would have given “Play that Funky Music White Boy” to her. She said the whole title. It’s not like she said any wrong words (“Play My Funky Music”) or said lyrics but not the actual title (like saying “Gimme the Beat Boys” for “Drift Away”). I feel like Ciara didn’t even know the song. She was terrible in the final round, I recognized “Opposites Attract” and “Simply Irresistible” immediately. I’ll grant that those might have been a little hard with the arrangement, but how could she have not known “Family Affair” by the incomparable Mary J? Those opening notes are instantly recognisable. Because I was so salty about Nicole losing, I wanted Ciara to fail, and I wasn’t unhappy that she did. Unlike, say, “I Can See Your Voice”, it seems all money is guaranteed. I’d prefer some element of making them risk it for the biscuit and take a chance at getting nothing in the final round. Like they can pass but they lose 10K for every passed song.

I do think he was going to kill her or at least he wanted to. It seemed evident that their marriage had broken down. The kids were grown and moved away. She complained that he never touched her anymore. He viewed her as a nag and was just tired of her. I think he wanted to kill her but was grappling with it, and then she stirred and woke up so he made up some story about changing out the TV in the middle of the night, in the dark, while she slept. Should have been a complete red flag to her, if she hadn't been clued in already. Hah. I live in Chicago, so we get all that (and perhaps worse) but without the nice scenery!

Fun show, but I agree with others that the clues during the bidding game are way too easy. When the commercials for this show played in December, I was really impressed with the confident woman who said she could name the song in one note. But now, seeing as how the clues pretty much give the song away, of course people can name the song in one note. The only clues that I thought were even remotely cryptic were the ones for "Tequila" and Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)". I knew the second contestant (Chip) was going to win the $100,000... it's the premiere episode, I'm sure the shows aren't airing in filming order, and they wanted to end the hour on a happy note. Good for him and being able to realise his dream of going back to college. Overall, I like the format of the show, but there's way too much filler. Fast forward button comes in very handy. I haven't seen Randy Jackson in years (I think I quit American Idol after the Kris Allen season) but did he have gastric bypass surgery? His face looks very gaunt and almost skeletal. I've known two others that had this surgery and they had the same look.

I’ve read all of CJ Box’s Joe Pickett books but never any of the Cassie Dewell ones. Will have to check them out. Caught up on this series. The death of Legarski was eminently satisfying. I was so tired of him and his arrogance. The way he talked to the sheriff after Cassie and Jenny cornered him at the shed, like he was being victimised... disgusting. Since there are a lot of episodes left, I am assuming that the buyers reach the bar before Jenny does. I was expecting them to show up while Cassie was at the top of the stairs, so was pleasantly surprised when they didn’t. However, after the break, I assume they show up and hit her on the head with a wrench. She tumbles down the stairs. When she wakes up, she is found next to a dead Legarski, no girls in sight, and she is arrested for his murder. The scenery on this show makes me want to move to Montana. If these are “names”, I haven’t heard of most of them. The only ones I know are Ryan Phillippe and the blonde sister who was the Strucker girl on “The Gifted”. Never seen any of these other people before. I’m assuming the secretary is Michelle Pfeiffer’s sister. Is Kathryn Winnock supposed to be a name? I’m not familiar with her although I am assuming she is supposed to be a name since she gets top billing even though this show is based on the Cassie Dewell books and she isn’t portraying Cassie Dewell.

Happy the show is back,, and this season appears to be interesting because we are following the characters' individual stories... which is great if I like the character, but if I don't, I find those scenes tedious: Case in point: I've always greatly disliked both of these characters. I hated Bobbie from the beginning, I hated her angry and antagonistic attitude. I couldn't care less about Alex, and I feel sorry for his wife and kid that he abandoned them for years and now expects to just waltz back into their lives. Always hated his ridiculously fake Texas accent... is it supposed to be fake? It's so bad that it's almost like I am thinking that it has to be part of the joke. If the character really is supposed to have this southern accent, could the show at least get him a dialect coach? And yeah... Cas Anvar is a creep, I find it hard to watch this character without separating the two. I would be more than happy to lose both of these two if we got more screentime for Holden, Fred Johnson and the amazing Shohreh Agdashloo.

I loved everything about this episode. I loved the appearance of Luke, if he hadn’t appeared there would have been huge questions as to who Grogu was communicating with on that mountain temple. Seeing that robed Jedi and the green lightsaber really brought me back to my little kid self watching ROTJ in the theatre in 1983. Then at the end, watching Boba and Fennec come down those stairs in Jabba’s Palace... wow. I loved it. I suppose Bib Fortuna had taken over Jabba’s empire and business and has gotten quite fat off of it. I’m assuming Boba Fett gets his previously announced spin off and we will get to see his adventures with Fennec at his side. Also will expect to see the story of how he got out of Sarlacc. No way do I believe that Grogu and Mando will be apart. They will be reunited early on in Season 3, I have no doubt. Bo Katan will feature prominently as well I’m sure. I can’t tell if the other lady was killed or not. But I hope Cara Dune stays by Mando’s side. Wish Moff Gideon had been killed... I was getting bored of him.

I just finished Season One, and I guess after seeing Elizabeth of York sleep with her uncle Richard III in "The White Queen", I shouldn't have put anything past that hack Philippa Gregory. I think it's great that there is a book and TV show about Catherine of Aragon, one of history's truly wronged queens. I laughed when I saw the disclaimer at the end something like "some events have been altered for dramatic purposes". How about "MOST EVERYTHING has been altered"? Did Margaret Beaufort wrong one of Gregory's ancestors? All three incarnations of the woman were portrayed as her being an interfering harpy. I suppose I can kind of understand her in "The White Queen". She was devoutly religious and truly believed that her son Henry had a God-given right to the throne. She did everything she could to get him on that throne. But once he got there, I don't believe she was the ultimate power and controlling harridan and murderer that we saw. I especially don't understand the depiction in "The Spanish Princess". At this point, Henry is a grown ass man. She got what she wanted, he's been on the throne for years. I supposed there needed to be an antagonist, and someone to be opposed to Catherine. I also truly hated Gregory's writing of Elizabeth of York's "prophecy/vision/gift/curse" that Henry and Catherine wouldn't have any sons. Hated the depiction of Lizzie in this series. She went from a strong and resourceful Jodie Comer (who tracked down the soldiers in the woods and spoke to them convincingly, with her heaving breastesses) into this pathetic and paranoid and delusional aged queen. Don't understand the inclusion of the character of (as far as I can tell, completely fictional) Rosa. That stupid woman got everything she deserved, and I am annoyed that time was wasted on her "sad" story. I truly didn't care about her and her baby. Wish we could have seen more of Harry's relationship with his sisters Margaret and Mary.

Interesting, Will and James say that before every leg started, they would go do research on computers in hotels or Internet cafes on where they were going. This leads me to several questions. 1. DeAngelo and Alex Rossi said that teams were often confined to hotel rooms, how then are Will and James allowed out before “every” leg. 2. How did they know where they were going? Don’t they usually find out where they are going after they open the clue at the start of the leg? They check in to a pitstop, wait 12 hours, get the clue at the start of the leg, then find out what country they are headed to. How did they do research “before” the start of the leg? Are racers in fact told in advance where they are going? I know in early seasons teams were able to tell where they might go based on what visas were applied for, but I would have thought producers would have hidden that information from racers by now. 3. What about money? Who pays for the Internet cafe charges? Their own accumulated money? 4. Would have been nice if we had actually seen this, if they were doing these extra things then it appears they were at least putting in a bit more effort than others. I’ve only had it once, but I recall it having the consistency and taste of a very sweet cinnamon roll.

I didn’t understand them crying about eating the beignets either... they’re donuts! Even if they were heavy and thick, so what, drink some water! Especially for a million dollars I would have eaten three in no time at all. The fact that these two were bickering over who should eat more was very telling of their relationship and perhaps not a very good omen for their future. When everything is coming up roses and they feel comfortable and preen for the camera, life is great! But when faced with the slightest adversity, they quickly resorted to being demanding and snapping at each other. “Drink some water!” “YOU eat it!” Will seems to be the nastier of the two and appears to be the alpha in their relationship. Can you picture them changing diapers of the babies they hope to adopt? “I did it last time, YOU do it!” “I’m going to vomit, I can’t, you do it.” “Just hold your nose, you do it! Do it now!” Way back when they showed us the clip of Will and James practicing the bottle on the head, I assumed they would win. That clip was so out of place. I assumed it was from their audition video. But I don’t think we’ve ever seen snippets of a team’s audition video apart from maybe the first episode when we are introduced to the teams. And in recent times, I don’t think we’ve seen any audition videos at all. So it was either an oddly prophetically inserted audition video (“this is why they are deserving winners, look how prepared they were!”) or the show actually asked them while in post-production to go back and find video of themselves practicing. I don’t think accommodations would have been made. One of Nat or Kat or both were vegetarian and not only did they have to eat meat, but it was a sheep’s head. So I agree that Alana would have had to eat all six. I’ve also wondered about food allergies or religious restrictions, and I’m not sure if there would be any accommodation made either. What if someone was allergic to peanuts? What if a Muslim team had to eat something prohibited by their religion? I think it would be oh well, too bad. I remember the time that teams had to get some Buddhist or tribal blessing and Millie the Mole talked about how uncomfortable she was, but she did it anyways.

The tasks were interesting, but not for a finale. The final challenge should have been way more difficult. There was zero opportunity to catch up. Did Karim screw over the brothers by taking them the wrong way to the park? They were never in the race at all tonight. I knew right away that Will and James won because they seemed to be getting most of the voiceover commentary which was taped post-race. Plus most of the scenes right before commercials seemed to end dramatically on them. I really hope this isn’t the final TAR ever. At least the family edition gave us good winners with the Linzes. They were brothers and a sister that really worked well with and appreciated each other. And seemed like all around nice people.

Agreed, Amazon Prime. It has every single season, starting from TAR Classic. I may do a rewatch with my kids.

They won't. It's like Madison or Riley said at the pit stop, these are our best friends on the Race and the people we wanted to be with at the end. So whichever one ends up winning (I agree with you, I think it will be Will and James), the other two will say something to the effect of "if we couldn't win ourselves, we would want our friends to win, we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did without them, so we are happy for them". The themes have already been written and each of them already has their victory speech. Madison/Riley: "we were consistently strong and made few mistakes and were able to rely on each other throughout the race, we compete as a team for beach volleyball but this added another dimension to our partnership". Hung/Chee: "we are glad we could prove to our daughters that anyone can do anything as long as they are determined and never give up". Will/James: "we've grown so much as a couple and our journey throughout this race has been fabulous, we did things we never thought we could do, who would have thought". Will and James winning will be the worst winners ever for me. There's more than a few teams that I have disliked that ended up winning, but at least most of those times I felt like the winners deserved it. These two don't deserve anything. They above all were helped so many times by their alliance, I feel like they should have to split the money if they win.

Yes! The portrayal of Princess Mary by Sarah Bolger in “The Tudors” was the only positive portrayal (those of any significance and not just a very minor role) that I have seen. I remember we talked about how we hoped they would continue the series with Edward and her, but I guess they weren’t interested. I think that was a mistake. I guess the producers thought that once Jonathan Rhys Meyers died that people wouldn’t watch. I think the success of the White Queen franchise shows that people will watch a series about English royalty even when the historical characters and the actors are less well known.

Finished two episodes so far and much of my dislike is reserved for Margaret "Maggie" Pole. I am tired of hearing about Teddy and I think it's unfortunate that this part is played by Laura Carmichael. I disliked Lady Edith on "Downton Abbey" and I'm afraid that dislike is carrying over here. Whenever she goes on about injustice and Teddy, all I'm hearing is sad sack Edith complaining about her life and how things are always so unfair for her. Ugh. Yes, I agree. Henry VIII and Elizabeth have been done time and time again. I would love a proper historical drama which focuses on Edward VI and Mary. Mary always gets the shaft when it comes to historical dramas. She's usually portrayed as a disappointment in Henry VIII's story or someone dying and on her way out in Elizabeth's. I'd love to see a series where she for once is the focus.

I figured this contestant was going to win the $100,000... they clearly messed with the order they aired the episodes since they stuck the actual first episode (Adrienne Bailon as singer) in the middle. So I knew they wouldn’t end the episode on a sour note with the guy losing his money. For some reason I found it easier to identify the good and bad singers this episode. The only one I missed was the Dance Instructor. Thought for sure she could sing. Joel McHale I noticed got every single one right. Katherine McPhee was disappointing, that was a poor choice of final song, she was practically just talking. My favourite episode and contestant was still the one we saw first. And Nick Lachey was the best guest performer. I’m hoping he will be on Masked Singer next season.