Lois Sandborne

The panel of Drew, Thomas Lennon, and Weird Al is going into my Top 3.

Delta did an interview with the Glamorous Trash podcast. It's a show about celebrity memoirs. She talks about her time on the show, her challenges with weight, and public image, and public opinion. I never read her book, so I don't know if she's ever talked about using meth to try and control her weight but she goes into it here. It's a really good conversation (with bonus Gerald McRaney)!

It's true, everything related to the show's premise (Molly giving away her billions of dollars) is pretty badly done. I really love the cast though; I'm a big fan of Maya, Joel, Nat Faxon, and Ron Funches. Plus the level of luxury porn this show gives, HGTV could never. So I'll keep watching.

Wednesday's Closer Look (focusing on Trump, conservatives, and abortion) was outstanding.

https://www.bravotv.com/summer-house-marthas-vineyard Since the second season's getting started, I thought we could use a place to talk about the new mess. For instance, I thought the internet told me Jasmine and Silas divorced, but apparently he's just deployed?

I've been watching what are marked as new episodes, and this weekend I saw someone showing Julia how to make "pie pops." It wasn't a cook I'm familiar with, but it was the dumbest thing I've ever seen featured on this show. I know they've been on for 30 years but I hate to think they're that hard up for new ideas.

Same, I was halfway into the first episode before I realized. It was the eyes that finally clicked for me. I fell asleep the first time through this. I think the pacing and time jumps were too hard to follow. But watching a second time hooked me. "Savannah" feels like a huge red herring. And I know it's very Liane Moriarty to make everyone in the story horrible, but wow, extra credit for this one. Even Joy the "put upon mom" kind of sucks. I think this is true, but his character is much less of a jerk than in White Lotus, so I can see he's kind of hot.

Sure, but I doubt there was an episode or a time in Duff's actual professional life where someone called two hours before the event and said, "Yeah, the bride meant to tell you she really loves olives. Work that in please." The twists are awkward, and I don't think they're a good benchmark to judge baking skill. Them seeming to cut the flag bit out this week suggests the show finds it pretty disposable too. This series to me is usually good with challenge times, but giving them two hours to do a highly decorated baked Alaska was pretty strict. They all ended up looking kind of sloppy, but I thought Nickey's grassland was okay. And the igloo was very cute.

That was a let down when Paige and Mitch ditched the screened in balcony for a silly outdoor shower. But I liked their design. I loved the raised bed. I agree they should've left a little more room around the edges of the platform. I don't watch much HGTV, so I don't really know the team personalities. But the twins can take their volume down by 50% or so to get on my good side.

Can't believe I never clocked that was her! And playing a bitter sourpuss just like our Win too 😆

Haley Joel Osment is talented. I didn't know he's still acting. I was surprised how well he did. Loved seeing Ron Funches with his enormous championship belt.

Teasing the end really does seem like a bit. Seth's having a lot of fun with it. Maybe it'll be like an April Fool's joke. The slow talking at the beginning this week was fun. I didn't up the video speed but I bet it worked. Them randomly sticking "HAVE AN ESTABLISHED" in at the end cracked me up.

Also Biden iconically loves ice cream. It's become a big part of his image in the last few years and I figured that was part of the reason he asked if Seth wanted to get some with him. I really liked the way they mixed it up in this week's episodes. It felt like there was a concentrated dose of more of the segments they don't do very often. I love A Closer Look but it was nice to see them flex a little more comedy muscle.

Great anniversary episode. I could tell things were edited super tightly to squeeze in everything they wanted. I liked the guest order. Amy was so sweet and festive and celebratory. It was nice to have that and have her as a bridge for the slightly more serious Biden portion. Seth seemed kinda nervous to me, but I think he did fine. He asked a few real questions that I don't think other late night hosts would. No comment on Joe's answers.

Kandi is not returning for the next season. Who knows if it was really her choice, but it's probably for the best. She's trying to get a lot of stuff going, and she hasn't been bringing much to the show lately.

Surprise Inspection is at least 3 times funnier since Matt changed his picture.

This has happened to me today for pretty much every forum I follow. I stopped checking after about a dozen, but they're all showing new posts and taking me to content from last year.

This was a great group to bring back, especially Maggie just there for the party. I'm glad Maxy got her pastry redemption. The phoenix cake she made looked really impressive, even though I think smash cakes are a waste of time and chocolate. And I loved Jurgen playing with the band! Wonderful way to start the year.

It looked like some kind of snow boarding practice. I'd love to try that. I'm not sure how the hell conversation played out between Austin and Becca, but to me it seemed like Becca really wanted assurance from him that she wasn't going to hell and he personally didn't think she was. But Austin is not an agnostic. It's probably not possible for him to tell someone who hasn't accepted Christ, "hey, you're great, God'll make an exception for you." People may think his beliefs are silly or demeaning or myriad other things, but he's said that his faith is important to him, and he's been clear about what that means. It doesn't mean Austin thinks Becca is a bad person. It means Austin thinks Becca does not have the belief you need to get into heaven. If he's pressuring Becca to consider becoming Christian or something like that, that's truly wretched, but I think it's equally as unfair for Becca to push the issue and challenge his thinking at every turn. A few people objected to the experts matching people with different religious beliefs, but it happens a lot. Couples can exist accepting a difference like that, as long as there really is mutual acceptance. I think it's much less egregious to mismatch religions than to disregard whether people are on the same page about kids.

I didn't (and still don't) remember Amelia at all, and that troubled me through the whole episode. She was fun to watch though. It was also fun to see Dan back in the tent after hearing his commentary on the Bake Down podcast. He did fine, but I wonder if he'll tone the snark down a bit now after jogging his memory on how tough the competition is. At the time she won, I remember thinking Sophie didn't deserve it. But she certainly showed herself off well here, so what do I know.

I admit I'm not the target demographic, but I think that misses the point a little. I was previously familiar with three of 2022's celebrity contestants. It still wasn't much fun to watch them flail around and waste time in the tent. The person who compared these celebrity episodes to Nailed It I think was on the right track. And I enjoy Nailed It, but it's a wildly different show to Bake Off for me. I watch this show expecting to see friendly people who have some idea of what they're doing face challenges to those ideas. I'm sure it's hard finding famous people who can cook (and who will do the show), but I wish they'd try a little harder. I was glad to see all former contestants on this year's version.

Ken Levine (writer for Cheers and Classic Frasier, and a ton of other things) has a podcast called Hollywood & Levine where he talks mostly about the TV industry. His latest episode was all about New Frasier. It was really satisfying to hear some of the same criticisms I have of the new show clarified by a real industry professional. The episode has a lot of insight into things that are or aren't working so far.

Sweetest season ever.

They are not, and I came here specifically to whine about it. (Waiting for this to air before I watch any other holiday movies has been my personal strategy to resist Hallmark Christmas Creep.) I found it on Crackle with weird commercial breaks though.

It's one of my favorite flavor combinations. One Christmas, I made orange chocolate gingerbread. It was delicious, but I lost track of the recipe so I haven't made it again. On Extra Slice they called it a floral swimming cap. I had to agree there was a strong resemblance. They scrapped those for the all-star holiday shows. I wish they would make a comeback too.