blackwing

I wish they had explored Shaw's conflict on the stand a bit more. With a few more minutes, they could have had longer scenes that showed how conflicted he was. There should have been a question from the defence attorney that he was on the stand under subpoena, why is that? Then Shaw could have explained how uncomfortable he felt. There should have been a question about whether he believed that racial based trauma was real. And why. They could have explored how he himself was the victim ot racial prejudice. There would have been objections from Price but I think this would have been more interesting than seeing yet another footchase. I like Sam Waterston but I don't think he was missed that much... he would have told Nolan to get a conviction. Except for last episode, Jack really hasn't had all that much to do in the episodes except say a few lines. He was used even less than Dixon is. And I agree that it's very odd that the defence decides in the middle of the trial to disclose that they are going for an insanity defence. I thought the attorneys have to disclose in advance which experts they are planning on calling and documents filed that support the fact that the expert is actually an expert. They can't just spring a surprise witness like that. Technically, they didn't plea to anything. A plea would be when they agree to a verdict of guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. They were just changing the basis of their defence. i wish they got rid of her altogether. I was surprised that she didn't side with the defendant, typically she is thrust into the role of feeling sorry for the defendant and being judgemental of Nolan for wanting to convict him.

I really disliked how partisan the mentors got. Nyesha pushing for Von's tuna and Richard pushing for Zack's lobster to be named best dish. Obviously Gordon sided with Nyesha. The jerk tuna was way more creative than that lobster, and it came from the basement. My favourites are Von, Izayah and Nicole. My least favourites are Jordan ("let's go baaabeee" too many times), Zack (did you know he lives in Hawaii???) and Greek Girl. It doesn't seem right. The person who performed the worst should go into the elimination cook. Not a person who is great that the mentor thinks is way better than the other one. Maybe he meant to send Jordan a message to be careful of "regurgitated baby food". But I agree that if Jordan hadn't had immunity he probably wouldn't have been picked. The clear disaster from that group was Wendy and she absolutely deserved to be picked outright. This makes me even more irrtated at Nyesha last week that she didn't pick Greek Girl for the elimination because of her undercooked fish, and make her burn her immunity. It particularly annoys me that she still has immunity because Greek Girl isn't even the best on her team. Von is far better than her. I don't recall the basement being showcased as being this bad in the previous two seasons. This season there seems to be a lot more emphasis on showing us viewers that the utensils and pots etc are really bad. A colander with holes in it, a box grater that is bent. I get that it's the basement but they should at least have items that work. Instead of a whisk, they have a wooden spoon. Instead of a double boiler. they have to make do with a pot and another pot. I'm glad we finally lost her. I have to wonder how she thinks she came across in this show. Good thing she is a home cook with no job or online reputation to protect. Because she truly came across as terrible on this show. Weepy Wendy is what I called her. She was constantly shown with Ugly Cry Face and seemed on the verge of crying every single time. Maybe the studio lights were too bright for her or something because it wasn't a good look. So far, three episodes, and one chef eliminated from each team. Is the fix in again this season?

I didn't watch "The Good Wife" either... I would assume this character had a huge following in order to merit getting her own show? Because I must not be in the target audience. I find the character in the commercial to be exhausting and irritating. I guess I have no tolerance for "quirky". I want my detectives to be calm and competent, and she seems like a mess. It seems like this is going to be one of those "oops, I accidentally solved the crime, aren't I precious" kinds of shows. No thanks.

My least favourite character by far is Lisa, and I'm not giving up anything with respect to talking about her haha. I always dislike the Lisa centric episodes. I think it was obvious even before this episode that Lisa is the way she is because of her parents. I thought it was completely out of character for normally hand-wringing Marge to support such a dangeous activity for Lisa I did enjoy all the Mario Kart references. The race itself was fun, I just don't like Lisa.

I think Jesse or Jane or someone was Facetiming with her. I want to say that we saw a vague image of her on a phone. But wasn't very clear. We've met Gracie and he's mentioned Jake but I am not even sure if the third kid is a boy or a girl. It's odd that we have learned so much about Jane and Kai's family but Jesse's wife hasn't even been to a team dinner or gathering, and there have been several of those.

Did some googling. While this article doesn't explain why she was gone for this episode, it does say that Yasmine/Lucy will be back in the next episode. Also, info that I hadn't previously known, her extended absence last season was because she was back on the mainland filming a role in "The Chosen". https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/514266/ncis-hawaii-fans-confused-lucy-tara-absence-season-three/

I enjoyed this episode. The stunts on the bikes were cool, the surfing was great to see, the plot had a real Hawaii feel to it. I noticed that Yasmine Al Bustami's name was missing from the credits, and the characters didn't even mention Lucy at all. When Lucy went on her Agent at Sea duty, the actress' name was also removed from the credits. I don't think there was ever any explanation as to why. Not sure if the actress had another gig, or if she was sick, or had some personal reasons like pregnancy or something that kept her from working. With Lucy gone, it seems Kate took her place in the field. If Kate's going to be in the field more, she really needs to lose the suits and wear things that are more inconspicuous. This was really a showcase episode for Noah Mils and Jesse. Good acting and a chance to show off his surfing skills. In the context of the show, Sam is on the island for reasons that he isn't prepared to share yet. But for show purpose, as long as LL Cool J is there, I'd like to see him join the team in the field all the time, not just for one scene.

Aired Monday February 26, 2024

Thank you, this explains a lot more. Somehow I didn't follow that there was this gang of international thieves that was looking for the diamond or that the Sudanese chief of staff was also corrupt and trying to sell them the diamond. When there was yet another shootout and a body got dumped on the street, I think Robyn thought it was Ari. Then she goes over and exclaims something like "Johnny Bananas?!" or "Johnny Rockets?!". Who was that? Was that a chop shop guy? How did he get captured by International Gang? Was he trying to steal the car back? Not very bright.

Read/listened to a few books lately. Essex Dogs by Dan Jones. Jones is an English historian who has written books about the Plantagenets and the Wars of the Roses. This is is his first fiction book. It follows a small group of soldiers at the beginning of the Hundred Years War between England and France. First in a planned trilogy. I thought the historical detail and the characters were great. Reminded me a lot of books by Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden. Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson. The sequel of sorts to "Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone". Ernest Cunningham is a published writer, his book about the resort killings was a huge bestseller. Now he's been invited onto a literary event along with other successful authors. The event takes place on a train crossing Australia from North to South. People die. I found this book just as enjoyable as the first. I love the narrator, and the occasional meta elements. One bit that had me in stitches was the discussion of book title trends, and how one of the top trends right now for a title is "The [Number] [Noun] of [Woman's Full Name]. It tickled me because I know that's something I've mentioned in this very thread. The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Workers at a construction site discover the bodies of 36 people who were murdered and dismembered. As FBI Agent Pendergast investigates, a string of copycat murders arises. Everything seems to be linked to one man's Cabinet of Curiosities, a precursor to the modern day museum that exhibited animal specimens, natural wonders, and other oddities. This was a fantastic book, thank you @Mindthinkr for saying how much you liked this one. I read the first two Pendergast books and this one was even better. I was a bit confused as to whether he has supernatural powers or not, however. At one point, it's almost like he time travelled back to the 1800s. He walks along streets of Old New York, notices people's clothes, hears them talking, and finds clues by going to parts of buildings that he hadn't known about. The book says this is a "memory crossing" and sort of explains this by saying he has studied maps and done research. It suggests that he time travelled in his mind, but not really? He notices things that he never would have been able to uncover just by doing research. I found it odd only because I don't recall him doing this in the first two books.

I enjoyed this episode as well. I wish there had been some line about them hearing from George. I did like that prominent participation of Watts, and that Henry got involved too. Agree with you that Julia was completely shoehorned in to this episode. She is listed second in the credits but she is beginning to feel as extraneous as Margaret. Her only role in this episode was to be the bored wife. She's no longer the coroner, because they have Miss Hart. Can someone remind me, why isn't she working? She was working at some kind of medical practice along with Dr. Dixon, then there was that nasty guy who fired her. She went to work at some Women's Clinic. I think? Why isn't she doing anything medical related? And why can't the police consult with her more often? I looked up the history of the Mona Lisa. It has been stolen once and it was stolen by the Italian guy who was mentioned in this episode. He took it to Italy with him, and it was recovered after a few years because he tried to sell it. As far as I can tell, it never made it to Canada. But it's a hoot thinking that it is collecting dust in the Brackenreid's closet. Nice to see the portrayal of Emily Carr, who is a famous Group of Seven-adjacent artist. That sketch of the church in the woods that we saw was a sketch of one of her most famous paintings.

I didn't care for it either. Everyone kept shooting each other, I kind of lost track who and why. So now that Dante is sort of on the team, does that mean everything Robyn and Mel are doing is sanctioned by the police (and the district attorney)? They had no qualms engaging in multiple shootouts, and many people died. Sure, they were all mostly bad guys, but still. I'm glad I was not the only one confused. I think the ambassador didn't like the dictator so he stole one of the Sudanese crown jewels. He was going to use this money to defect and get away from the dictator. He hid the diamond in the car. But the son took the car to go drag racing. Dictator sent his team to go find the diamond and to kidnap the son to get it back. The people from the chop shop also wanted the diamond? Nobody knew that son's pseudo-girlfriend had stolen it. I think in the end, Robyn will probably turn the diamond over to the cops who will give it back to the Sudanese dictator. Because even though he's a dictator, the diamond is technically his. Even though he probably killed people illegally to get to be dictator in the first place. Wouldn't the family be screwed either way? At this point, dictator knows that the ambassador betrayed him. So why wouldn't dictator be sending out a hit squad on the family even before the episode ended? Seems to me the family needs to defect, change their names and go into hiding.

Fellowes doesn't write this show. It's some other woman, and she is truly terrible. A Fellowes show will always have a few unlikeable characters. But I find a good portion of characters on this woman's show to be extremely unlikeable. Frederick is a dick. He's in over his head in the business. His servant/manager wants to invest personally in this sketchy venture (that nobody has seen since it's in Mexico) and he won't let him. So the servant takes it upon himself to do some digging about the French lady and appears to have found out that she's a fraud. Servant is going to end up saving his master, who doesn't deserve to be saved. James is reaching out to Frederick to tell Frederick why their father hated Frederick so much. It's an obvious explanation, and one that should make Frederick feel like he finally understands, and realise that he has been unfairly taking it out on James all these years. Instead, Frederick says James is lying and storms out. Lord Duke Old Guy is an ass. Painter guy... I think I missed the scene where Clara confronted him about selling the painting and that he knew how reluctant she was to pose. He said he would blur the features so no one would know it was her. He did not. He knew she wanted privacy and then he goes and sells the painting. Where was the scene of her chewing him out and him apologising and promising to go back to the gallery to cancel the sale? Why wasn't Clara more mad about this? Oh but he's bohemian and needed the money, so all is forgiven? Creepy doctor. So clearly overstepping his boundaries, he knows it, and yet he continues to do it. The Duke Old Guy fired him but will probably the Duchess will take him back. Clara should drop him but she won't. Why is so much time being spent on this Creepy Doctor? A good majority of my hate is reserved for the sister. She's sticking her nose everywhere and anywhere and absolutely none of it is here business. She sees a painting of her sister and angrily makes it all about her, yelling at Clara that Clara didn't even stop to think about what the painting would do to HER. Here's some news for you sweetie, no one gives two shits about you! She thinks she has this great love with James when he's gay and she doesn't know it. She thinks it's her job to take care of Nell and apologise on the world's behalf for Nell's sorry lot in life. Clara.... I think she's a kind person but she truly is a dim bulb. The jerk husband is trying to be nice and reaching out to be cordial and wants her to go to lunch with him, and she won't even bend at all. The painting was a disaster from the start. Then she laments to French lady about it. The next time, French lady has bought the painting. Clara asks to destroy it and French lady says don't worry, no one will see it. Yeah right. French lady is going to use it for her own gain, perhaps to blackmail Frederick, when she wants. James. It's not like he suddenly discovered he is gay after going to that bathhouse. Presumably he's known about it for some time. Presumably he's been a vicar for his entire adult life. So why is he so conflicted now all of a sudden where he's decided he doesn't deserve to live and is going to starve himself to death? The footman who steals alcohol and the maid who can't read wearing Clara's old dress... why again should I care? The butler having an affair? Why should I care? The writing on this show is abysmal. Truly awful. If I knew how bad it was, I would never have started this series. At this point, I guess I am resigned to hate watch until the end. Thankfully there's only two more episodes. If I had my way, the doctor and the artist's commune would be swallowed by a sinkhole (maybe the street smart single mom can survive). The sister and the mom would be swallowed by a sinkhole. Duke Old Guy would be swallowed by a sinkhole. French Lady and the incredibly boring business storyline would be swallowed by a sinkhole. Stupid butler would be swallowed by a sinkhole. Frederick gets cheated by French Lady and is about to lose all his money. But somehow James finds out the truth about her and saves Frederick's money and reputation. James is the rightful Lord Trenchard but he doesn't want the title, he agrees to let Frederick have it. Frederick continues to be an ass. Clara leaves Frederick and sets herself up as a wealthy divorcee. She lives with Davison and Fletcher. James comes by regularly for tea.

Ari was not great, but I don't think she should have been picked for elimination. It should have been the Greek Girl (sorry, I don't know her name but she says she is Greek in just about every time she has appeared onscreen) that had the undercooked fish. I get that Ari had too much turmeric but her protein was at least cooked. I would say raw is a worse offense than overseasoned. Greek Girl would have used her immunity so I assume it would have been Ari in the cookoff anyways, but still. I'm wondering if the chefs are getting any kind of cheat books or something to study in advance the night before. Some of these chefs had never cooked curry. How do they know what spices and proportions to use? Are the mentors helping? The blonde in the cookoff had never cooked or eaten butter chicken. She didn't even know what it was. How did she cook it? Was there a lot of advice from Gordon and her team that didn't make it onto the camera?

I agree with your interpretation. She was raised as part of this rich family after her mother died but the family has never stopped reminding her that she's not one of them. She has a chip on her shoulder and has something to prove. She's supposed to have a tough shell and that comes across as unlikeable.

I'm glad that LL Cool J is staying on, I guess he is going to have the "Special Guest Star" credit, much like Heather Locklear on "Melrose Place" back in the day. Always great to see Pike, he was hilarious when he was talking with the female cousin.

Air date: February 19, 2024

Just finished episode 2. I am enjoying this show so far. I love the cruise ship setting. Just to clarify, this is a huge ship, right? But the only guests we see onscreen and the only ones we are concerned about are the Colliers and their invited VIPs (the Chun family, the Washington governor, the priest and his son). I think the comparisons are apt. Particularly "The White Lotus". This show seems to be trying very hard to rip off TWL, with its cast of intriguing but flawed and secretive characters. I especially find the opening credits and the theme music to be very White Lotus-like.

Ah right. But unless she described them as something like a fried catfish or fried crawfish po boy... doesn't count! 😋

I don't particularly care for Michelle as a recurring baddie. If they were going to have a corrupt ex-CIA agent be the recurring baddie, I wish they hadn't killed off Brett Dalton's character. Despite the implausibilities of some of the plot, I'm glad the show's back. I liked seeing Dante working with the team. I get why he went back to the police department, but it would have been better if he was just with the team full time. How old is Delilah now? And when are these episodes supposed to be taking place? It's obviously not winter in NYC. They didn't talk about her missing school so it was either summer or the weekend. Is she a junior or senior now? When Mel talked about Aunt Vi's cooking in Robyn's hospital room, and then we didn't get to see any of her cooking, I felt cheated. I'm still hoping that CBS could put up a bunch of Aunt Vi's recipes on the show's website, especially the ones for her gumbo and her cassoulet.

It's very obvious that Julian Fellowes doesn't have much to do with this show besides slapping his name on it as producer (translation, paid for some of it and will get his share of profits in return). The writing is truly awful. The woman who is writing this show can't even do a pale imitation of a Fellowes show. I dare say that I could write better scripts. The only thing remotely Fellowes-ish about this episode was the wordless scenes and music when the staff and guests were getting ready for the ball. It was very Downton Abbey-like.

Matt was the right choice to go home. The raspberries were a really really poor choice. Raspberries with harissa? Ugh. I think the raspberries were meant to go with someone who picked a meat. Yes, it wasn't interesting. Complete with the "stealing" of Jordan by Gordon. OMG THE DRAMAZ!!! Ugh. I don't care for Jordan either. It does seem like he's gotten a lot of attention so far. Just like last season, I pegged Tucker as one of the annointed ones from the start. The past two seasons it's been pretty obvious that it's contrived so that each mentor has one team member in the finals. If the pattern holds true and they go with rigging, that means the winner is going to come from Richard's team. Will be interesting to see what happens. Last season (I think) we had Trisha the weepy/semi-incompetent Asian female. This season we have Wendy. Every single time they are lined up and getting comments or about to hear decisions, she looks like she is going to cry. Seems like she was last pick for a reason.

This episode was truly boring. The plot didn't get advanced much at all. Frederick is still an ass, he and Clara are still in the same place, James is being blackmailed, the sister is still interfering and annoying, the doctor is still creepy. Looks like Clara is headed towards an affair with the doctor, especially after the painter's painting creates a scandal. He claimed he would change the face so people wouldn't know it was her, he certainly did not. Frederick is going to be irate, saying that she is going to cost him business, and practically gift wrap her with a bow for Creepy Doctor.

I thought the laws they broke were done in connection with getting her exonerated... the suggestion that the maid did it, saying what evidence they discovered, etc. I get why they brought her back to Toronto... her kidnapping of them and her kidnapping of Susannah happened in Toronto so they wanted her charged with kidnapping in Toronto. She could also have been charged with murder of the maid in Rochester, but that would have required more evidence. I'm not too concerned about Murdoch and Ogden kidnapping her and bringing her to Toronto, I hope they don't face any charges for their role in any of this. I don't understand why they didn't take more precautions once they brought her to Toronto. Obviously her gang were going to come for her, and it seemed like the station house was caught completely unaware. Henry and George could have been killed. I hope we are done with the Hilda Fanshaw character, I don't want to see her become a recurring villain like the others. Too imperious, too irritating. I liked Margaret getting more to do in this episode. So the wife of the dead guy was having an affair with the captain, they killed the dead guy and tried to pin it on the guy who left in the lifeboat. I hope George isn't going to be gone for long.

They did? I must have completely tuned out as soon as he started complaining about something.