Rosenrot

I, too, am glad that Reynold's doing more savory now. (And at the same time not, because if he kills savory AND desserts, he may well win the whole thing, and I'd rather someone else did that...) Ben, on the other hand, slipped right back to his comfort zone even though yesterday he was puffing out his chest all like "I wanna show everybody I can do more than just ice creams". 🙄 Yeah, but you know it - somebody would still make a dessert. Rrrealllly hoping that Khanh will win the immunity!

Right!? And Harry was right too, since their team ended up winning despite how "simple" their dishes were. I'm sure Andy is a fine chef; I don't know that much about his career after his S4 win. To me, however, he is out of place as a judge. And I think I would feel that way were it any other former winner or contestant in his place.

Gee, thanks a lot Chris. Thanks to your puritan ways, there are now way more people that I like in the elimination than there needs to be. Hey, Harry got some screen time! What's going on! I LOL'd at Simon's "double whammy of embarrassment" and his PTSD comment. Like TVbitch said earlier, love me some Simon. The orange team's dishes looked all really good to me. Quite possibly, but at least I don't remember her mentioning a girlfriend in her season. This article says she didn't "come out" (to viewers, that is) until now.

Before the episode aired, it randomly said on Wiki that in this episode, the contestants had to cook with Gordon's favorite ingredient - peas - so I was totally expecting his gift box to be filled with peas. I was a wee bit confused. Well, clearly I should't trust what Wikipedia says before the episode airs. Poh is bringing the drama! I was actually a little concerned that she might go, which does seem dumb in retrospect, but I blame it on the fact that I haven't slept or eaten. Have I told you guys lately that I love Khanh? My thoughts on the new judges after the first week: I like Jock a lot. Melissa is a bit meh for me (but on a shallow note, I've loved every garment she's had on thus far). And Andy - I'm sorry, but I just can't take him seriously as a judge. It's not that I don't like him - I do. I liked him in his season a lot, and I know he's somewhat experienced. It's just that it seems such a short time ago when he was a contestant himself and "couldn't even boil an egg" (his own words), and now he's supposed to be criticizing people that have been cooking for longer than him - some of them, anyway. But, it's still early days. He may win me over.

Thank you! I don't know where I had gotten the idea that she was in top 4. 🤪 Harry hasn't been featured at all thus far. Neither has Brendan. Ridiculous. I understand there's a lot of competitors and it might be hard to be fair on everybody, but I want to see more than just Poh and her meltdowns (even tho I do love her). E: I have to literally sit on my hands so I wouldn't go and have a peek at the Sportsbet odds.

LOL I remember Jonny as well. And to be fair, I personally don't think Chris is a "villain" as such - I just found and find him annoying and if I was asked why, I probably couldn't pinpoint it. Same with many other contestants and virtually every other TV show. Some people just rub you the wrong way and you can't explain why. However, I love Poh (95% of the time, anyway - the remaining 5% she can be slightly annoying) and I seem to be in the minority, which somewhat shocks me. 😄 Was Rose really Top 4 of her season? I'd have to check, but I guess so. I was also quite surprised to see her back. I didn't remember her at all until I saw her face - when everybody went "oh no Rose is back" I was like "who the F is Rose?" Memory. Crap. Again. (In retrospect, I cannot understand what my reasoning possibly could have been to start a diet literally one day before the season premiere. Whatever it was, it was ill-advised. This could turn out to be a very short-lived diet indeed.)

Ahh. MCAU is back on. It feels like everything is alright in the world again. ❤️ Ugh Gordon and his forehead wrinkles, tho'. And I have to watch him for MULTIPLE DAYS. Akk. Blergh. (Ok I might be a bit of a drama queen because I actually found him tolerable. But that might still change.) SIMON! *hugs the TV* I legit didn't recognize everybody there. (Is THAT Reece?? He's almost a bit hot!) Some faces I recognized, but had no idea what season they were on. And I've watched all the seasons over a very short time period not long ago, so I should remember. Goes to show what a wreck my memory is, but still, I wish they would've properly introduced everybody. I MEAN. 20 minutes in and they were already exchanging loved-up glances with each other. 😄 I'll go for the latter. He is purty, though. [/shallow] YES.

Thanks for that. ❤️ Ugh, it's so messed up. I'm trying to maintain a feeble hope that since the show is now out and there's clear evidence of animal cruelty of some level, some authority could do something and close the park and get the animals out. But it's probably not that simple. Another thing that baffles me is the comment section of virtually every article written about the show. It's as though I've suddenly entered Topsy-Turvy Land or something. People are seeing Joe as some kind of a saint and slanting the hell out of that Carole lady. Like... what show were they watching, 'cause it clearly wasn't this one?? I'm understanding - by reading this topic, mainly - that Carole is not exactly an angel, but she at least seems to be doing something to help the animals. Also, somebody mentioned homophoby earlier. I don't think anybody here is a homophobe. To me personally, it doesn't matter if you're gay, straight, bi, trans, black, white, Chinese, from Mars or jesus himself - if you're cruel to animals, then you're a scumbag. Period.

I'm not going to watch this as animal cruelty is not my idea of entertainment, but could some kind soul fill me in as to what happened to the cats after the main redneck scumbag went to prison? Are they all dead? Is the park still operating? Were they transferred to somewhere else? I don't give a shit about any human being in that show, but the fate of the animals bothers me.

This year I especially like Lithuania, Germany(!), Iceland, Serbia, Armenia (that damn chorus sticks to my head like a... sticky thing), Australia, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Bulgaria. On Fire might just be the most perfect pop song ever competed in ESC. I love it and it breaks my heart that we'll never know how it would've ranked. 😭 Australia's video is something else, but I like the song. Cleopatra is pure genius, video included. I surprise myself because knowing myself, I should be hating that entry, and instead Efendi might be my new Eurovision Queen. 🤩 And Georgia; like somebody said on a YT video, why sing when you can shout menacingly? Love it. Tornike is way hot.

Woah! That's a first (I think). Does that mean he did something in the competition and got arrested? I don't know, like… beat somebody up in the MCAU house or something? 😄 Well, maybe not… but I'm dead curious. E: It said on another news site that the arrest was "unrelated to the show" which, now that I think about it, they probably meant by "personal". Sometimes I post before I think. 🙄

Whaaat? What's the story behind that? I haven't heard.

Can't say I'm overly surprised, but I am disappointed. 😞 I was hoping until the last minute that EBU would sort something out or postpone the competition. I'm gutted for myself because I've been watching ESC for over 20 years and it's always the highlight of the spring (if not the whole year), but most of all I'm gutted for the artists and songwriters. I hope they can return next year.

See you at the bottom of the semi finals' score board, everybody! As per usual.

That's what they've been doing for the past 50 years anyway, ESC aside. (But hey kids, remember that ESC is a non-political competition! ....... as if.) In any case, interesting choice from Russia. I'll probably hate it. I don't like this present-day culture where songs can just... "go viral" for whatever reason (I know I know, shut up grandma). That said, I like Iceland's entry. Distinctive, nicely non-Eurovision, kinda 70's groove, what's not to like? 🎵 Not as good as last year's entry, though. Cicciolina is popular over the interwebz, but it hasn't exactly gone crazy here - for example, radio stations don't play it at all. Most people I've talked about it hate it, and most don't want it to represent us in the Eurovision because it's not going to do well. If it is selected, I don't think it's going to do well either, but I think it's a better choice than any of the other songs we have on offer. It's in Finnish and it has personality. It waters down the whole idea of the competition if every country orders their song from Sweden and it's is the same radio pop song sung by the country's Voice winner over and over again.

I'm late to the party (only watched this now), but I have to say that watching Team US crushing it from the beginning, only to lose it all at the last stage because the Aussie boy happened to be a super rope climber, was ALMOST worth of having to watch Drew playing Unyielding American Hero™️. Almost. But, god, I HAVE missed this show. Summer is a long way away yet!

I'm totally late to the party, but YAAAY! I'm excited as hell about the new season. Though I said in the summer that I'll miss Matt, Gary & George, I think that having some fresh faces doing the judging is nothing but a good thing. (And I think I'll miss them less after just finished watching S1 for the first time - they were so rude and just... not nice at all during that season! 😄) I don't know who Melissa Leong is and I only know Jock's face because he's visited MCAU in the past, but I'm ready to give them all a chance. Stoked to see Poh, Brendan, Jess, Khanh, Tessa, Hayden, SIMON 🥰 and even Taco Ben (I liked his personality). Some I'd rather not watch again - like S1 Chris with his stupid hats and S6 Emelia with her permanently pissed-off face -, but there you are. Also, I didn't know until now that Ice Cream Ben is an actual Ice Cream Ben with his ice cream shop! This, once again, calls for a "take a shot every time Ben makes ice cream" drinking game. I have missed it.

I think that may be part of the reason why I have a problem with Drew. His jeans and headphones and occasional jamming to the music just give out the kind of an arrogant "just chilling here, at this course that's totally beneath me, listening to my music while wearing my jeans, just a regular day for Drew" kinda vibe. It's probably not fair - he's just doing his thing and maybe the music really does help him to concentrate (as I think he has said in the past, correct me if I'm wrong). But still, it comes across like that to me.

Oh, you most definitely are not. I think I said in an earlier thread that as far as I'm concerned, Drew went out on Stage 1 and the rest is cheating, plain and simple. (I know it isn't quite that simple. But to me it is, essentially.)

Please, god, does this mean Drew can RETIRE NOW? LOL one can only hope! [chokes on tea] I'm so depressed I can't even bring myself to watch the episode. 😑 The only bright side (aside from Drew maybe retiring, which I frankly don't believe in one bit) is that it seems Stage 3 wasn't, after all, so ridiculously easy I thought it was going to be. Stage 2 was absolutely laughable, and at least S3 redeemed some of that.

Well, yes, that he can be. Whoever does it, I always think it's a little unnecessary to throw off your shirt and take a dive. 😄 (E: Apparently "taking a dive" doesn't mean what I thought it meant, but I'll just leave it there anyway.)

Soo... I'm not sure if that kinda sucked. ?? JMO, but I think they intentionally made it easier to keep people interested and watching, since I think they fear ratings will go down if people don't succeed. I'm glad for the folk who made it, but just like DEL901 said, if 75% of the people finish, it just feels less special. I'd rather have, say, five to ten finishers rather than 21. (Even I admit, though, that last year's two(!) finishers was not quite enough.) Well, here's to hoping that Stage 3 sees the reappearance of the Angry Birds obstacle and everybody falls. (Everybody except R.J Roman and Ryan Stratis, please.) Poor Flip. 😔 Am I really the only one who likes Grant? 🥴 (My feelings for him have gone from "eww" to "I love him" in a worryingly rapid timespan, to be perfectly honest.) One of those things I didn't know I needed in my life, but now that the idea is out, I'd totally watch that show. 😄 (Also I would totally write to him on a dating app if I thought I had even 0,0000000001% chances.) Which is why I will seriously have a mini stroke when he wins the whole thing because as far as I'm concerned, he was out on Stage 1. The rest is cheating, period. (I KNOW he earned the Safety Pass by doing extremely well, but still. I can't get over this.) I just thought "god, what a show-off". 😄 But I'd love me a "Men (And Women) of ANW" calendar, what a grand idea!

Both Drew and Daniel would be deserving of the win, absolutely (not saying anything about The Kid, not yet at least, although he's clearly very good). Just that I would personally prefer someone else because they just totally rub me the wrong way. Can't explain why, really... they just do. I wish as well that Najee was in the mix too! 😭

Mm. Both plausible and discouraging alternatives.

Hey, that's right! I clearly haven't been paying attention (to the promos) because I kind of haven't even noticed that. ... it's Drew. Mark my words. [sigh]