blackwing

It was obvious from the start that Angela was going to go home. She seemed to be the weakest of the remaining contestants. I thought that if it wasn't her, it was going to be Mada, who was in the last two eliminations. However, I'm annoyed that she was chosen for elimination, because her plate looked sloppy but she got good compliments on the taste and cook. Zack's comments were about how awful the pairing of octopus with cheese was. And since Zack had the immunity pin, why not force him to burn it? Angela would have been eliminated anyways but at least then Zack has no immunity. It seems obvious to me that Zack is going to the finals, and he will win since Nyesha's chef won season 1 and Gordon's chef won season 2. I'm still sticking with Zack, Gabi and Von in the finals. When the mentors get together to discuss best and worst, I think the partisan-ness is so obvious this season. I seem to recall them being more objective last time. Richard is beyond annoying, he's always arguing for his chefs to get chosen as top. Since I'm convinced the whole thing is scripted, I don't see why it has to get so heated. At what point do they ditch the teams and the team immunity and just cook as individuals? I cannot remember. Until they go to individuals, I would assume we will lose someone from Team Ramsay (Jordan is the obvious choice) or Team Nyesha (as long as it's not Von) next. Zack's hair annoys me too, and isn't it a bit of cultural appropriation? I fully agree that I don't like the team in the lounge commenting on the food. I'd rather hear more comments from the mentor in the kitchen, or from the teammates. Not these people in the lounge going "noooooooo what is she doooingggg!!!" I find her extremely irritating too. Her voice, the accent and constantly mentioning she is Greek. I don't think one episode has gone by in which she hasn't referenced her Greekness. I don't think she is non-emotional, in fact I think she is extremely emotional. There's always a tremor or a quaver in her voice, like she's super nervous and about to cry. I hope she goes home next.

I didn't mind this Lucy-centric episode. When she's not schmoopy about Kate, she can be pretty engaging. I thought she was fairly competent trying to protect the Ukrainian (?) woman in the jungle. It was good to get more background info about her family, which is apparently uber wealthy. I did not care at all for the girlfriend. I think I just don't like Peyton List in general, I didn't like her on Mad Men and I didn't like her here. Hated the "too cool for school" attitude. I know people were talking about wanting Kai to have a relationship some time back but I was hoping he would find his way to the Fish and Game lady, who we haven't seen in ages. Or Bam Bam. I don't see why we have to introduce yet another character. Jane's love life seems to have evaporated. Is Captain Melius ever coming back for a visit?

I'm irritated by the Ketel One commercials. I know they've been around for a while, but I can't stand the pretentiousness of these supposedly sophisticated people just saying things like "give me a bloody mary, with Ketel One vodka". At least those people know what they want and are ordering an actual drink. I reserve most of my annoyance for the final glamorous lady who says simply "give me a cocktail [pregnant pause] with Ketel One vodka". I think this is supposed to go along with their tagline "Made to Cocktail" with the K using the Ketel One logo. But it makes absolutely no sense. Nobody just goes up to a bar and says "I want a cocktail. With Ketel One vodka". Bartender would obviously ask what kind.

I don't expect how he still believes he is an inspiration and how he can win a million hearts after he was screaming at God for ending his Survivor journey. So disgusting. Reminded me so much of Mark from Bopper and Mark on Amazing Race, the Kentucky coal miners who constantly kept reminding everyone how poor they were. When Mark got eliminated on his second attempt, he said "I guess God doesn't want me to win a million dollars". Yep. Good riddance to Bhanu. I hope he never gets the chance to reappear again. Unfortunately, Jeffy seemed to love him. If the reunion includes all contestants and not just the jury as in recent seasons, no doubt Jeffy will spend lots of time on him at the reunion, which is unheard of for people in the back row. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bhanu gets Sia money.

I agree with the comments upthread that it's ridiculous that the "surprise witness" was allowed. Price rightfully objected to the witness not being on the list. Defence attorney says "we just found out about her and she just came forward". And??? Why was she allowed to testify right then and there. At the very least, Price should have asked for a day or two of continuance. I thought that generally you have to tell the other side who the witness is, why they are relevant to the case, and what they are generally going to say. Price should have been given the opportunity to prepare his questions. Defence attorney researched deceased's boyfriend and brought up his record in court. Price should have been able to research the witness and find out that she made two previous false claims against black men, or whatever was in her record. Why didn't Price stress more that the defendant choked the guy for three minutes, and that the dead guy was heard to be saying "I can't breathe"? Why didn't he press the witness more about the gun she thought he had? I'm almost certain it was an inhaler. Why didn't the police find the inhaler and why wasn't it entered into evidence. Why didn't he ask her if she knows anyone with asthma? Or witnessed someone suffering from an asthma attack? Did he look malicious, or did he look like someone who couldn't breathe? I hope that this business with Kovac is going to be an underlying story through a multi-episode arc, otherwise it just seems like a waste of time to have written into the show.

That was Chris, and he did make sort of a Mexican pizza according to Richard. He had ground veal and corn and tomatoes. His was the one that was loaded with ingredients and Richard said it lacked flavor. Richard also said the dough was undercooked.

It'll be painfully obvious if for the third year in a row, each mentor has one person in the final. The next two to go home will probably be Mada and Angela. Who has the immunity pin for Richard's team, is it Zack? I cannot remember from the past two seasons, at what point do they do away with the team groups and make it an individual competition?

What was up with the editing? Zack was in the basement and somehow he got salmon. I didn't know this until it came time to judging because I don't think we saw him cook AT ALL. I don't think we saw Gabi cook either because I had no idea what she had grabbed until the judging. How can Mada be complaining about getting chicken nuggets when he left salmon there? I've had salmon pizza before and it's not terrible. I still think this show is rigged. Let's see, one team has 4, the other two have 3. I knew right away that nobody from Gordon's team was going to win top dish and that someone from his team would go home. I only hoped it was going to be Jordan. I truly can't stand him and his "LET'S GO!!!! LET'S GO BABY!" Ugh. And the rest of them are doing it now too. Lamb tongue sounds disgusting but I guess they gave Nicole the win for her creativity and being able to make that from the basement. I would have given the win to Von and his clam scampi, but I guess Von has won too many times. Don't know why Von and Mada were making fun of clams on pizza, I think it sounds great. This is the first time this season that the supposedly blind elimination judging was split. Nyesha eliminated the veal because it was too spicy for her. Gordon loves the spice and thought the pasta on the chicken was bland so eliminated the chicken. Then Richard eliminates Chris and his chicken. I noticed that he didn't explain his reasoning at all. The obvious reason was "Gordon has 4, Nyesha has 3". I didn't particularly like Chris and his constant talking about his food truck. But I wish Jordan had gone home. So now each team has three contestants each. I am curious if they are going to rig it again so the final is one from each mentor. If so, my choices would be Nicole (Richard), Izahyah (Gordon), Von (Nyesha). But it's probably going to be Zack (Richard), Gabi (Gordon), Von (Nyesha). From the past two seasons, the "rule" seemed to be that there can't be three white people in the final, it can't be all women or all men. The women seem to be weaker this season. A woman won the past two seasons, so if there is a fix, a man will win. Von seems to be the strongest and most consistent.

Robin Thicke was terrible. His voice is too high pitched for that song. I think I just don't care for his singing in general. He was decent when singing "As Long as We've Got Each Other" last season. But generally, whenever he opens his mouth and this high-pitched singing voice starts up, I always think there is a big disconnect between that voice coming out of that body. His normal speaking voice is low pitched (sounds just like his dad!) so I'm not sure why he sings like that. This group had four great or decent singers but I thought Lizard was the worst. The two women were both great. This is a situation where I hope both Clock and Poodle Moth make it to the final. I know they were all guessing black women for Clock, but I think she sounds very much like Christine Baranski. I think the clue saying she has a "day" in her name is trying to make us think it's Andra Day or Zendaya, but she sounds just like Christine Baranski to me. Rita looked amazing. She looked great in that simple red dress. Her guess of Gordon Ramsay for Spaghetti, however, was not. And Jenny's guess of Guy Fieri was equally bad. However, the fact that all of them were guessing chefs plus Rita's guess of Gordon Ramsay and Masterchef plus the very obvious Italian theme led me to guess Joe Bastianich. He often makes references to being Italian and the singing voice sounded like his speaking voice. Good job by him. This is the kind of contestant I like most, the ones who like Chloe Kim are famous for something else but nobody really knew they could sing. I thought Lizard was passable but he's not a particularly outstanding singer. His first song wasn't that great. Makes me think that he's a rapper who normally doesn't sing. He didn't seem as polished. He only won the smackdown because of the "extras" he imparted into his performance. Joe sang well but just straight up sang. Lizard added his yeahs and whatnot and got the crowd on his side.

I assumed from the beginning that the rats would be in the pies, since the Julia and Violet stories showed that their wishes would come true but not in the way they would have wanted. I think when he bit into something hard, I figured it was the rat's skull or bones. So I thought she wasn't deboning the rats, just putting them directly into the pies. We saw the tail sticking out of one pie. But nobody else was biting into anything hard, so I think she must have been deboning the rats. Maybe Thomas just got a bad one. The news about Bobby is the one thing that I hoped carries over into canon Murdoch. I thought the continuity was nice, with him being Catholic.

I enjoyed this episode but I found Effie's utter devotion to... Sarimbala (?) a bit strange and out of character. I get that they are writing her as this person who is lost without George, but she is one of the stronger characters on the show and always seems to know what she wants. I liked the teaming of Julia, Watts and Effie. Nice that Julia got to use her coroner skills again. I also liked the culmination where Julia's case and William's case intersected.

Didn’t the old guy (I think his name was B.B.) do that in the very first season? I thought they specifically banned that after that season, but I could be wrong. If it’s indeed a rule, obviously they can’t ban glasses since some need them. But they could certainly ban the use of glasses to start a fire. There are always cameramen around and watching.

I found Angelina Keeley to be extremely phony, disgenuous, fake, and delusional. Everything about her. But I think the difference between her and Kenzie is that Angelina seemed to truly believe in everything she was saying. I think Kenzie knows that she is playing a game. And Bhanu is desperate and stupid enough to believe her, despite calling her a mermaid dragon just earlier.

I had the same take on him as you did. I definitely view him as villainous/adversarial. And that last line was very ominous. Basically "your political views are going to be the same as mine. You're going to do things as I want them done. If you don't agree, you can show yourself the door right now." He purposely refused to answer Price's calls to see what Price was going to do when he didn't have any instructions or guidance. Price made his own decision. Then Baxter tells Price that things are going to be done Baxter's way. Well then, if he's going to dictate how everything is going to be done, then he could have just answered the phone. Instead of immediately starting the relationship as confrontational.

So this episode establishes that Nick Baxter is much different than Jack McCoy. Jack resigned because he knew that the mayor would make him lose the election. Jack didn't like his opponent so he said he would rather resign and let the governor appoint someone good instead. So I'm wondering if Baxter is going to have to face an election before the end of the season. What I don't get is that Baxter apparently fired quite a number of staff. Maroun (ugh) and Price emerge unscathed. But then during the trial, Baxter doesn't provide any guidance at all. I feel like he was setting Price up to fail. If Price took the deal, then he's giving this murderer a pass and her evidence against the actor rapist might not even be real. If he proceeds with the trial and loses, then he's to blame. I'm glad Price trusted his instincts and I'm glad he won. Too often, Price is written as ill-prepared and unsure. He's the executive ADA, his name is on that board we saw in the background. He should have a lot more confidence than the way they are writing him. I hope they do more with Tony Goldwyn other than having him just be a foil to Price. It would be great to see him involved in a trial. So far, they haven't established why he was named as D.A. How many Executive ADAs are there? Didn't we see that black 70s/80s style board with the white press in letters on some other episode and it told us where Cutter and Rubirosa are? It was all blurry in this episode in the background but I was able to make out that the D.A. slot was blank and that Nolan was the Executive ADA. The other names were a bit blurry but I don't think any were Cutter or Rubirosa. When he purposely spilled the coffee on his shirt and was all "look at me Molly". Ugh.

So anti-climactic. I know this is how it's been done in the past, that when someone gets medivacced, there is no vote. But still. I find Bhanu to be possibly among the most irritating and annoying contestants on Survivor ever. If this is how he is in real life, I would find him utterly exhausting. He said repeatedly that he wants to "win a million hearts". If that is his goal, then I don't think appearing on Survivor is helping his case. If I could give him negative hearts, I would. Bhanu and Venus are my least favourite. Bhanu is too paranoid. His constant crying over possibly being voted out. Ugh. This is a game where people get voted out. It's part of the game. Don't they do a psych test for applicants? Not sure how he passed, he is too paranoid and can't handle it. I bet his tribemates are wishing they kept Jess instead of him. Venus seems like she would be the queen of the mean girls. She seems like someone who is used to being on top, and when she finds that she isn't on top, she can't handle it. If anyone here watched "Industry" on HBO/Max, she totally reminds me of Yasmine. Yep, I didn't care for that either. Bhanu was praying all day and now his prayers have been answered. If his prayers had been answered then maybe they wouldn't have lost the challenge. Or maybe the tribe would have targeted someone else. How awful that he views a guy having a medical injury as God answering his prayers. Hunter is by far my favourite character. He gave up med school to be a teacher? Seems like a great teacher who really loves teaching. I love that he took the time to make all these Survivor puzzles. I bet part of it was the challenge of making them. And then learning them. He seems like the kind of guy that would be really interested in learning, not just about winning. The bed he made was awesome. Wonder if he's going to offer to make beds for everyone? I thought the same. I thought tingling sensation and loss of feeling in extremities are classic symptoms of a stroke or heart attack. Not "I slept on my hand wrong". I'm there with you. I don't know why the producers think that watching paranoid and socially awkward people who admit they are socially awkward but then proceed to cry this much about it are entertaining. Last season, Jake was the sort of socially awkward outcast. But I found myself really invested in Jake's story and I was rooting for him. He was not annoying. Because he tried to understand how he could fit in better, and made effort with others. With Bhanu it's "why don't you like me, why am I so unloved, I have been crying all day about this". Almost like a sad sack guilt trip into getting people to feel sorry for him.

We've had some really bad singers on this show over the years. Caitlyn Jenner, Mama and Honey Boo Boo, Rudy Giuliani, Logan Paul, Kirstie Alley, etc. And Kevin Hart. I'd say Mama and Honey Boo Boo were the absolute worst. However, this Savannah Chrisley ranks way up there. She admits she can't sing. She stops singing and laughs at times. Why was she even on the show? Frankly, I can't stand the Chrisleys. They committed bank fraud and tax evasion. Just the very definition of greed, they must have been rolling in money because of their stupid TV shows and yet still wanted more. I guess I really dislike these reality TV families like the Kardashians that basically do nothing yet for some reason people love watching them. I was particularly disgusted by the way this woman was making herself and her parents to be victims. "I lost my parents to the federal system so now I have to take care of my siblings." Well, yes, you "lost" your parents. BECAUSE THEY ARE FELONS. I have no idea why Masked Singer wanted her on the show. For sympathy? I hope this couple is banned from TV after they get out of prison. I don't know what the terms of their sentences were but I hope there were punitive monetary damages. Take away the thing they valued most.

Oh, and what was up with the episode titles? I get that the coded words translated into the real episode titles when using "truth" as a primer. So TRUHABCD etc. corresponded with ABCDEFGH etc. But what were we supposed to do with this code? Was there something that we were supposed to play along with while watching to try and solve it to reveal some clue? If so, I was lost.

I was so excited for this show. I loved the cruise ship setting and I was hoping for a good old-fashioned murder mystery on a cruise ship. Alas. When I started watching this show, I commented that it seemed like it was trying hard to be a combination of White Lotus and Knives Out. Twists for the sake of having twists. Most of the twists were done for shock value and made little sense. Especially Kira being alive, disguised as Hilde Eriksen, and being "Victor Sams". All of this was for revenge? Against the Colliers and against the Governor? Why the need to go onto the cruise ship to do this? Why not poison the Governor at home and set a bomb at the Collier mansion? I agree with the comments above that a lot of this didn't make sense. The Ukrainian refugees. Why? Because "Ukraine"? They added absolutely nothing to the show. I guess we were supposed to think they could be involved in the Victor Sams killings? So they were just a red herring? Why was Anna so mad at Eleanor Chun? Why did she tell her she never wanted to see her again? It wasn't Eleanor's fault that Collier Mills poisoned a bunch of people. It wasn't Eleanor's fault that Lawrence has dementia, that the lawyer was Anna's real father, or that the terrible priest stole $3 billion dollars from the family. Above all, it wasn't Eleanor's fault that Anna killed her own mother. So because Anna killed her mom, and Kira protected her, now Kira "owns" Anna and Anna has become one of Kira's agents? This seems to set up some plots for a Season 2. There will have to be some big changes if I return. Including this: I don't know why, but I hated this hair so much. Not just because of the dark eyebrows, but it looked like a bad wig. The only explanation I have is that at the time, everyone on the ship thought they were going to die from the bombs. And she needed to send a message to all of them that these was her game and her rules. So they had better listen to her.

17.05 Station House of Horrors I am not a horror movie fan so I did not particularly enjoy this episode. I did find it interesting that the wishes came true for the most part but obviously not in the manner they intended. Julia, wants to be free of responsibilities. She gets her wish, because she's in prison. Violet, wants to blend in and be treated like everybody else. She does because she turns into a zombie like everyone else. Thomas, wants to rid the city of vermin. The city has no more rats because they're all in Margaret's pies. William, wants to never put Susannah in danger again. This one didn't work for me, I guess the interpretation is that he won't put her in danger again because he's dead? Too much creepy in this one. James Gillies, ugh. Naked zombies, ugh. Rats in pies with tails sticking out, yuck. Creepy doll, I don't like creepy dolls. This Halloween ep was an interesting diversion but not one I need to see ever again. Wish George had appeared. Is he going to be gone for a lot of the season again?

Yep. He gets the Oscar and then turns around with his hands outstretched like he is the Emperor of Rome, "I exist for you to show me how much you love me". His demeanor reminded me so much of his character Tony Stark in one of the Iron Man movies, the scene where he is hosting a huge party at his house.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/03/11/robert-downey-jr-emma-stone-oscars-snubs/72938001007/ Article on the alleged snubs of Robert Downey Jr. of Ke Huy Quan and Emma Stone of Michelle Yeoh. In looking at the clip of RDJ, I definitely agree that he just grabs the Oscar from Ke without even looking at him. He shakes the hand of Tim Robbins, fist bumps Sam Rockwell and then briefly does the "I'm cool and pointing at you" to Ke. Yes, Downey and Quan were photographed hugging backstage, but still, it does seem like he could have at least acknowledged Ke first since he was the one actually handing him the Oscar. As for Stone, it was nice of Michelle to post what she did, but in the clip, it definitely looks like Michelle got moved over by Emma pushing towards Jennifer. Then Jennifer pointedly pushes the Oscar into Emma's hands. What's telling about this to me is that the amazing Sally Field is seen tugging on the back of Jennifer Lawrence's Laura Ashley looking dress (which, BTW seemed more appropriate for a picnic in Paris on the banks of the Seine instead of the Oscars). I can't make out any words but Sally seemed to be saying, back off Jennifer, this is Michelle's moment, let her hand off the Oscar. I think maybe she said "oh, come on!" Sally Field rocks. I get that Emma and Jennifer are good friends but it did seem odd that Emma beelined right for Jennifer and kind of ignored Michelle. Barely looked at Michelle. No "thank you" or handshake or hug. Said thank you to Jennifer and hugged her.

I would agree with that. I have thought that if Lily Gladstone had been submitted as Supporting, she would have been the clear winner. Her character kind of disappears in the second half of the movie. Emma Stone was fantastic throughout her entire movie. Lily didn't get a BAFTA nomination which was a bad sign for how she was perceived in Britain/Europe. She won the SAG which seemed to indicate that her fellow actors really loved her. But the actors alone weren't enough to give her the win, so it does seem like the international vote made a difference. Lily had a more subtle performance while Emma was more showy. I think similar thoughts with Glenn Close losing to Olivia Colman several years ago. Glenn was considered the sentimental favourite and was the front runner. Her performance was very nuanced and subtle. Olivia was a lot more showy and being British, she definitely seemed to have captured a good portion of the international vote.

I think the actual reason for the Duke's change of heart was "season finale, must resolve things nicely". But in the context of the show, I think it was the conversation/argument that the Duchess had with him where she accused him of sending him off to Switzerland in the hopes that he would be isolated and lonely and would just die. She accused him of hoping that Peter would die so their second son could inherit the title. She asked him why they couldn't use the local doctor that was recommended. She was right. And he knew she was right. I don't understand why these two characters were on the show in the first place. They added almost nothing to the show because we were not given much background about them at all. Only that they are friends of Frederick. The Duke seemed old enough to be his father while the Duchess was his contemporary in age. He seemed to view the Duke as his father figure without any real explanation as to how or why they were so close. Maybe the Duke was friends with Oliver and Frederick grew up thinking of him as a surrogate father. I wasn't invested in their storyline at all and didn't really care one way or the other about the son. Regarding the difference in writing between Clara/Emily and Mary/Edith, yes, one pair was written by a woman while the other was written by Fellowes. But I don't think that means that Fellowes can't write for women. The relationship between Clara/Emily was much stronger than that of Mary/Edith. Clara/Emily grew up average and middle class, just the two of them and their parents in humble surroundings. At the start we see that they are close. Mary and Edith grew up as daughters of and Earl and were raised in luxury with people to attend to their every need. Their roles were to be used as tools by their parents to make good marriage matches. Their lives were completely different than that of Clara and Emily. Plus, Edith was the middle child so was written as the sad sack character. I greatly disliked Edith, to this day every time I see this actress I can't help but be reminded of Edith and her constant "oh woe is me" face and voice. I don't think it's fair to say that Fellowes can't write female relationships well. The relationship between the Dowager Countess and Isobel Crawley was well done. They started out as bitter rivals and hated each other, constantly trying to outsnip each other. But by the end of the series (including the movies, after years had passed), they had grown to accept and love each other. They relied on each other and became the best of friends. When Isobel was getting married, Violet lamented that she felt like she was losing her friend. Violet got sick and Isobel took care of her. The two of them worked together to save Lord Merton from his manipulative son. These two had one of the best written relationships on the show, it really progressed over the years.

A two hour episode with only one challenge makes for an excruciatingly long episode. I get why the episodes have been extended this season, but if they are going to include filler, at least make it interesting. The Taylor Swift / Metallica song names was beyond stupid and a waste of time. I also don't particularly care about everyone's "journey", which too often is basically someone's sob story. I don't like Venus so I don't care about her at all and I don't care how difficult things have been for her. Jess was hapless and clueless. She was clearly the right choice to go home. I did feel bad for her that she got duped by the fake idol. She was smart to say that it looks like every strand of beads that is on everything. But then didn't even question it further.