samuel

Totally agreed. I don't think the show is all that funny, and its weirdness is very hit or miss, but when it hits I really enjoy it. The characters are almost all great, which is what keeps me watching. It can be way too sugary sweet, and I agree this goes back to season 2, but for the most part I enjoy the sweetness. Plus, lately the show has been doing some pretty fun political satire. I think the current season is one of the best in years.

I loved how happy Jeff seemed at the result of this Tribal, and I understand why. I like when people who are feeling like they may be on the outs have a plan and are able to execute it perfectly. This was a fun episode.

I loved the roughness in the challenge. it's a game for a million dollars, and it's tough. Could have done without the trash talking afterward, but it's not against the rules so I have no problem with it. I'm also glad Rocker got voted out even though I was rooting for him last ep. His strategy really fell off in this one, even though I liked his comment about knocking Natalie's teeth out if she were a man. It was probably true, and given that this is a game about social interaction, completely acceptable to say things like that. It just turned out to be a poor strategy (intentional or not) that didn't work for him. Other players have used it well though. You misheard this. Keith said "Just not my good ol' boy." I think he meant while Josh was good company, he still wished his son could have been there instead.

This is the first season with Exile island that I've watched, and I like it so far. It doesn't radically alter the game like Redemption Island; it just gives a small opportunity every few days for players to associate cross-team. Pretty cool actually, though I wouldn't want it in every season. Probst continues to be my favorite part of the show. His badgering the team about the flint exchange is part of the game, and it's hilarious. They were idiots to have lost their flint. Of course Jeff would have also given them a hard time had they asked before the challenge—half of his job is to fluster the players. I love it, especially when he does it at Tribal. It's not like the players have to answer his probing questions honestly but they usually do, and I never have understood why. Seems to me the best strategy at TC would be to shut up and just vote. Also, I really don't think the producers do anything sketchy. The editing is just so tight that it looks that way. For example, I'm sure John Rocker was searching and digging for a while; it's not like he took 7 steps and found the idol immediately, right where he was standing. Speaking of which, I'm enjoying watching John play. He seems smarter than most of the other contestants (I liked his comments after finding the idol and subsequent plan for the vote) and is playing a good game at this point. I hope he goes far.

Wow. I'm wondering where they'll go with this. The show is called Veep obviously, so I think Selina might lose the election and get taken back on as Veep. That would be hilarious, but also seems very unrealistic. So maybe they'll keep her as President? Either way, I liked the surprise resignation. I didn't see it coming at least.

I don't think the players are told in advance whether it will be a final 3 or final 2. I think they (and most of us, it seems) are all assuming it will be a F3 because that's how the past several seasons were. We'll see, I guess.

I'm loving it. Bring on the ridiculous. 24 has been ridiculous since and including season 2. It doesn't have to make perfect sense given our reality; I'm happy with the show providing high stakes within its own alternate reality. In 24's universe, some guy named Heller is the president. And Brits are mad about drone strikes. If you accept the former, you have to accept the latter, I think. I like watching Jack kick ass with Chloe yammering in his ear, while the plot twists and turns, creating ever-higher stakes. Looks like we're going to get a lot of that this season, so I'm totally on board.

"I could take a dump on it if you need a clincher" absolutely killed me. It's such a funny line but still sounds like it could have been used by a real person. That's all the dialogue in this show though. Man, I hope Veep gets at least 5 seasons. Oh yeah, the other line of the episode: "Oh, I think you have just the right amount of grit in your oyster" + Selina's reaction

Yeah @Wandering Snark, I would never go for a HII in a case where the other players would know I have it (or have a chance to get, like with a clue). HII are great only if no one else knows about them. Otherwise they're poison. Tribemembers last season were right to burn most of their clues.

I think it's great that people are finally keeping idols to themselves. Hunting as a team and everyone knowing about the idols makes for more entertaining reality TV, but I don't watch Survivor as a reality show. I watch it for the gameplay. It always infuriates me when a player decides to share their idol or tell someone about it. That's just about the last thing you should do.

I wasn't responding specifically to you nor "attacking" you in any sense of the word. Just sharing my thoughts. I also don't read every post in the thread. Anyway, currently I'm thinking there's no way Tony is going to win. I'm rooting for Tasha right now, but I don't think she's going either to win due to her edit. I'd be pretty satisfied if Spencer won, and I think he will. He's not the most likeable person, but I think he's played the best game out of anyone so far, including Tony. He's found an idol, won some challenges, and survived being on one of the worst teams ever. He's kept an initial alliance all the way through the game, which is often a good sign, and while he's a target, he's a target because he's a threat—despite being in the smallest alliance.

That's not true. In the first few seasons, all idols worked like this season's special idol. I don't want them to go back to that, but I also don't think there being one of them this season is so bad. Again, anyone could have found it. If Jefra or Jeremiah had found it, somehow I don't think anyone would be complaining. But since Tony already has a lot of power in the game, some seem to think it's unfair for him to have it. Well, he earned it. He won the clue and found the idol before anyone else. It's not unfair; anyone could have found it. Tony clearly just wanted it more. Another thing to keep in mind is that having a bunch of idols doesn't mean you win (a recent example is Malcom). There's still a lot of game to be played after the final four. Let's say Tony uses his idols to get to F4, then also makes it to F3 AND wins the jury vote. Would anyone really think his idols were the reason he won? They certainly helped, but that's because he was good at finding them. There's more to the game than a couple idols.

I don't have a problem with the number of idols this season. It doesn't feel like any more or less than there usually are, just people are finding and using them frequently. Tony having two idols doesn't make it unfair—anyone could have found them. Tony clearly made idol hunting a priority, and now he's reaping the rewards. It's perfectly fair. I support any player doing whatever they possibly can to win.

For what it's worth, I don't know who Marlee Matlin is (well, obviously now I know she's a deaf actress), but I remember thinking they did a good job with that voice casting when I heard it.

I like (or at least don't mind) the name Abbiejean. What exactly is wrong with it? Both Abbie and Jean are popular names. Taking two female names and smushing them together is very common. It's like Marianne, Emma-Rose, Barbara Jean, etc. Abbiejean is pretty cool. The pronunciation isn't really so close to "aubergine" (oh-burr-zheen)—they only share the last vowel—but that it sort of reminds me of the vegetable makes it even cooler. Plus it's a TV show and not, you know, a real baby.

sev: that's essentially what I'm trying to say. I agree with Intuition on most points, I just think it's a somewhat pointless argument. It's interesting, but that's about it. We have to assume some things in order to live our lives. I'm OK with science assuming those same things (but nothing more). Philosophical talk beyond that is rarely found outside philosophical academia, and there's a reason for that.

You also must take into account that like 90+% of people never even think about the philosophical ideas Intiution mentioned. Most people without philosophy education are going to tell you that of course the universe is real ("I can see it, right??") and of course causality exists. They may well be wrong, but they'll never know that, and it doesn't look like anyone else will either. So does it really matter if reality is inherently knowable? We're all living in a shared hallucination to some extent—all a person can possibly experience is what their own senses tell them. So we're already taking a TON of things for granted (believing without proof) any time we associate with another human being. We might as well take reality being knowable for granted, too, because if we don't, we wouldn't be able to do, well, anything. We would have to throw out all of science, which is impossible. Believing in ideas that science is based on is NOT philosophically the same as believing a religion; it's not even very similar. We have to assume certain things in order for science, and as extension, everything we do in our lives, to work in the first place. No one really has a choice about this, even if you are a solipsist. On the other hand, religion is not necessary for anything of value. Note that I agree with most of what Intuition said; I just don't see how the part about beliefs is relevant. Science is kind of similar to religion in that it builds off basic beliefs, but the implications of and reasons behind those beliefs are vastly different. This REALLY bothers me. I agree those two things are equally bad, but you made it sound like there's just as many scientists who think they fully understand reality as there are crazy bible thumpers. This is almost certainly not true. I think you would have a hard time finding many experienced, professional scientists who don't understand that science assumes certain things about reality. Again, agreed, but how much of a problem is this? Scientists CAN think this, but I sure as hell don't see it often. You're describing a either a very poor scientist or a very morally bankrupt one funded by a conservative group, not real scientists doing real work in real labs.

This was by far my favorite episode yet. I liked that they just talked about the historical events behind a very important discovery and only subtley alluded to our current climate change issues. It's nice that the message is there, but the show is about the cosmos, and I prefer when they stick to that. Anyone with half a brain should be able to draw a comparison between the lead debacle and climate change (as well as a multitude of other issues).

Blackboards aren't that outdated. I'm 24 and they were everywhere when I was in grade school. :P It's always fun to ponder the scale of the universe though. Stars and planets are fun to learn about, but there's way more cool stuff happening at the microscopic and sub-atomic level.

Fantastic season premiere. My favorite part was actually when the Iowa helper dude said butter doesn't need to be refrigerated. My parents are from the midwest and would store a stick of butter in the cupboard, where it got pretty congealed and disgusting. They never thought anything of this, but I definitely agree with Selina about butter not needing refrigeration: "that's ... not true."

LOVED that episode. Very happy with the decison Kass made because it made rather entertaining television. Of course I think she should have just given in to Sarah like Tasha was trying to, but this was much more fun. Spencer is right, she has no chance of winning this game, and I found her annoying through most of the episode. She was right about the men having idols at least. So then she chooses to vote out Sarah, who's not really a huge threat in the overall game—she just happened to have power in this episode. Any one of the six could have put themself in her position simply by threatening to flip. I don't think it was necessarily a bad choice given the circumstances that SHE created (by arguing with Sarah so much), but she shouldn't have let herself end up in those circumstances in the first place.

Totally agree about the ship of the imagination stuff. I know that it was in the original, but I just don't get it. I think it's supposed to be a cute explanation of how they are showing us images of deep space on screen, but I don't see how or why that needs to be explained. The ship segments aren't even fun; they're boring. I always want to see more of basically everything except the ship! I'd prefer they just do a small segment with it in the beginning and maybe the end of each ep (or not at all). It's a small gripe though.

I think the pot shots are kind of funny too, and I do think they can be warranted, but I agree with Snarklepuss that I think they were unnecessary in this episode. NDT did specify that "some say" the earth is 6500 years old, but bringing it up at all felt out of place in this context. Though I don't think him mentioning it was related to any political agenda; he was stating facts relevant to viewers. A surprisingly large number of Americans (the primary broadcasting audience) do think the earth is 6500 years old, and those people are in fact wrong. I also remember him using similar language about black holes: "some say there may be universes inside them" (paraphrasing), which I think makes it clear enough he's talking about speculation. And of course the speculation itself has reason behind it; the producers probably chose either the most popular hypothesis about black holes or the one that makes the best television. I'm OK with both. It could be a little more scientific, but hey, the whole show could be a little more scientific. They haven't mentioned quantum mechanics at all, for example, a central concept to pretty much everything the show has discussed so far. But the show aims to educate and entertain the average Sunday night viewer, which I think is great as long as they don't screw anything up. I don't think Cosmos has screwed anything up so far—I'm enjoying it very much.