Chyromaniac

I don't know where I would even get chicken thighs that are boneless, but still have skin. It's usually all or nothing. Also - crispy chicken skin is great... but in a sandwich? I've never heard of that, and I have no idea how you could even pull that off. Beyond that, I don't get why the judges seemed to think the burger was such an obviously better choice. I assume part of it is that Gordon has made burgers part of his branding - like, there's no "GR Chicken" in Las Vegas. But it also felt like they were playing into their own stereotypes about the quarry workers - "surely they will prefer this greaseball burger, because they're blue collar Murricans!" Guess not, fellas. Personally, a bacon cheeseburger is just a bacon cheeseburger - you get more room for creativity flavor wise with the chicken. Overall though, this felt like a really uninspired pair of episodes. Seeing Grant again just reminded me that I still haven't learned which brewery in my area is his. And frankly, the quarry was arguably the most lackluster setting for a team challenge in years. They send the MC Junior kids to the Magic Castle, and these poor saps get dropped in a hole in the ground like a squad of Daleks in 70's Who. I'm honestly surprised that there weren't more cleanliness issues with the amount of dust floating around that place. But hey - they got to set off some blasting caps, so all's good.

Finally got to this. Not a bad show overall - but it didn't quite feel like Addams Family to me. It just didn't have enough of the macabre humor I expect from this franchise. I think part of it is the format. This clearly wants to be a YA drama, where we're supposed to take the setting and premise seriously - while Addams Family, to me at least, is a comedy first. TBH, I would not be surprised if Millar & Gough have had a "Fantasy Boarding School" pitch ready to go for decades, and only made it Wednesday when they got the rights to this IP. Also, usually the fun of the Addams characters is watching them shock regular, uptight people with their antics - and they just don't stand out as much when everyone else has supernatural powers. It's a bit like the later Scooby-Doo shows where the monsters and ghosts were real - somehow it's less fun that way. Iirc, there's even a show where Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy end up at a school for the daughters of famous monsters - maybe Al and Miles saw that one too. Still, Jenna Ortega was great as Wednesday - loved her deadpan attitude. However, she often comes across as really young compared to her costars, which... is a problem at times. Thing was easily the best part of the show, and the element that felt truest to the Addams Family spirit. Emma Myers was good at Galinda-ing to Jenna's Elphaba-ness - and I enjoyed Gwendoline, Riki, and Christina as the authority figures Weds has to deal with. The episodes were mostly good - but again, the overall story felt like generic YA fantasy boarding school stuff, with a goofy Scooby-Doo ghost as the bad guy at the end.

I'm not into the Star Wars books in general - but I'd heard good things about the High Republic series, and was curious to see it in live action in this show. Maybe I got the wrong impression, but this show feels like a poor introduction. Like, who am I supposed to root for coming out of this? The Jedi who pins a massacre on her dead friend based off little actual proof? The Sith indoctrinator/mass murderer? The evil twin who killed two Jedi - but couldn't decide if she wanted to take responsibility or not? The "good twin" who mostly just tagged along with whoever - but choked her mentor to death before leaving with the guy who killed her friends? Sorry - that last point really sticks with me. In retrospect, I was really only invested in two characters for this entire show. They seemed like fun, interesting, genuinely good people - exactly who I thought the Jedi were supposed to be in the High Republic. But they were unceremoniously killed in Episode 5, and basically left in a field and forgotten for the rest of the season. Maybe I would've felt a little more charitable towards the finale if there had been any kind of justice for Yord and Jecki (or any of the other dead Jedi). But Sol takes the blame, and the apparent protagonist of the show ends up holding hands with their murderer. Hey Osha - Jecki and Yord actually were your friends. They died trying to protect you, and even when they thought you were a killer (and I guess just wait on that), they treated you reasonably well. And this is how you repay them? Yes, there were some other enjoyable parts of this series. The fight choreography was really top notch. Lee Jung-Jae did as good a job as possible for an actor who had to speak his lines phonetically. I think they did a decent job of introducing cortosis into the main continuity. Manny is good at being creepy - although if we're supposed to empathize with him at the end, then nope. Overall though, it's just kind of a mess. The pacing - both of the season, and the individual episodes - felt off throughout. A lot of the character motivation felt arbitrary and/or lacked consistency. There were weird tone shifts at various points. This only feels like half a story - and we have no idea when/if it's going to be resolved. And chiefly, I don't see the point in having Amandla play two roles (even if they're "the same person," whatever that means...) when they ultimately felt like they had the same personality. Basically, if this show were food, it would be a weird deconstruction made by culinary students who don't seem to have learned how to cook the actual dish.

I don't get the impression that he's trying to break from the show's history at all - if anything he's expanded it even further by acknowledging Richard E Grant as a Doctor. Also, if he wanted a break from the past, why even show the clip at all, let alone center a whole season on a villain from 39 years ago, follow up with Mel, use Susan as a red herring, or create a literal plot device (the "Remember Tardis") filled with nods to the entire run of the show? I feel like he's using show lore as needed - to help flesh out the story that he's trying to tell here. Whether that was successful, ymmv. Otherwise, I agree that it's a clunky line - but isn't one of the affects of Sutekh's plan that people are forgetting things as the universe gets snuffed out? The Tent Barista who gave 15 the spoon couldn't remember her past, and even he seemed to be having difficulty recalling things like how he got there. Ruby also seems fuzzy when he gets back to the Tardis - or, as another poster suggested, we haven't seen Ruby get the regeneration info dump yet. Either way, it seems like he was just trying to explain it in a way that would make sense to her at the time. In general I thought it was a solid finale for this arc. If nothing else, I liked the idea that some ordinary things (people, places, objects, etc...) can become special because we imbue them with importance - for good or bad. I feel like Sutekh has to be so sure that he's wiped out literally every living thing, that the idea that there's potentially some "mystery woman" out there is so unnerving that it completely throws him off his game when that knowledge is denied him. He could've been satisfied with 99.9999999% success rate - but nope, he just had to keep pushing - and that drive is what imbued both Ruby and her mother with their specialness. Much like a certain other genre villain, he invests so much in his own destiny, that he basically creates the circumstances of his own defeat.

For me it’s not necessarily the format or length - it’s the guests. I just enjoy the show more when the comics are funny and likable - and I think it works better with actors and improvisers rather than stand-ups or (god save us) podcasters. Like, I didn’t mind watching an hour (or 40-ish minutes) of Tuesday or Thursday’s shows- but Wednesday dragged a bit, and Monday was a slog. Granted, some of this just comes down to personal taste, and ymmv when it comes to what’s funny - but I think overall, with the stand-ups it’s much more dependent on their personality -while the performers can just go with the game premise. I will say, the thing they’ve lost structurally with no FTW, is that it gave the show a natural crowd pop to go out on, because they always cheered when their favorite was announced. With an essentially arbitrary winner, you don’t really get that, and sometimes the show falls flat at the last moment.

Between this and moaning about his birth year, it’s been a banner day for Ki Adi Mundi esotericists. If nothing else, hopefully this show is exposing “lore/canon experts” as the bottom feeders of fandom that they truly are…. I think we’re getting all these wacky Mae/Osha theories because so far in the show, they might as well be the same person. Particularly now with Mae’s rather abrupt change of heart on her revenge pact, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between them. Which is odd, because I definitely got “evil twin” energy from young Mae in the flashback episode- I guess she became well adjusted during her years of isolation and murder training. And with Osha, it feels like she’s just been tagging along on this mission so far- I would’ve expected her to be more invested in figuring things out. In any case, hopefully whatever they have planned for the back half of the season will make sense of this plot choice. Otherwise, I like the show overall. Yord and Jecki are my favorites so far- but I am mostly just enjoying watching High Republic Jedi do their thing. I am interested in seeing how the mystery plays out- but I feel like they need to start cashing in the plot coupons starting next episode,

Personally I thought this episode felt like a quintessential modern era historical story. It had neat costumes and scenery, lots of anachronistic commentary, the companion treating history like it’s a TV show, crazy aliens (also doing pop culture stuff), and a big dramatic ending. The only real nitpick I have is them using the “aliens learn about Earth culture from TV signals” bit, when Bridgerton is on Netflix. Also, they should’ve been Parrot people instead of random birds. And I don’t know how someone can own polyhedral dice, but need to have cosplay explained to them. But those are minor issues- for all the other stuff mentioned above, I thought this came together really nicely. Plus, we had some great guest stars- despite my species quibble, I thought the Chuldur makeups were fine, and the performances were campy fun. Rogue is an interesting addition to the show- I assume this relationship will be revisited eventually. And hey- another lovelorn Rogue on a Disney+ show. I thought Ruby was doing fine exploring on her own - and I liked the payoff of the “battle mode” joke with her earrings at the end.

I think why some of the activity games worked better this week is that we had more improv vets, rather than just stand ups and podcasters. The Jenga game was perfect for that- they kept layering all the prompts together and building off each other’s jokes. Also, Steph Courtney feels like she should have been huge on SNL (apparently she auditioned enough for it), but wound up getting the “job-for-life” gig with Progressive instead. In a way, she’s kind of like Cassandra Peterson, another talented comedian who basically turned one character into an entire career. I’m not entirely sold on the format changes- I think the last segment should be FTW, regardless of what the actual game is. I miss the blind judging from the audience- I liked the surprise of seeing who had each response. Definitely don’t award a winner based on Hashtag Wars, and then come back for one last bit. The Taylor stand up bit at the start is fine - I assume this is another concession to audiences expecting a talk show in this time slot- but limit it to one topic.

That was the Locherer - it’s apparently named after a production member who passed away in ‘22.

Practically everyone in Star Trek would be better off with regular access to therapy. It's weird that there's really only been three counselors across the series - Troi, Ezri Dax, and Migleemo. Culber is arguably the 4th, although I think his status is still unofficial, since his actual crew position is as a MD. I think that could be difficult for anyone to handle - when you're dealing with everyone else's issues, it's easy to lose track of your own. Still, I feel like Culber does a good job of managing his emotional state, especially after his chat with Kovich in (iirc) Season 4. He's open and honest with his friends about what he's been experiencing since Trill, and he seems to be taking those conversations to heart.

Mitchell and Dehner may have thought they were turning into gods - we don't know what was actually happening to them. But in the end, they are defeated by plain old mortals - so, not gods after all. Star Trek is full of stories where characters think they are gods, or claim to be gods, or were once worshiped as gods - and time and again, that's proven not to be the case. No they aren't - both are synonyms for repairing. Can the natives go out in the dust storms? Admittedly - it's not great for them. But if they can't, how did they survive before the weather stations were installed in the first place? Wouldn't the entire planet have been one giant dust storm? There must be some way they can handle it, even for limited periods. If that's the case, then they can potentially go out in the dust and mend the control panels. Once they've refurbished the closest one, they could probably expand their reach - and soon enough they would all be reconditioned. But again, I assume Discovery, or at the very least Starfleet, will overhaul the other stations first, because I prefer to think that the characters are smart and will take care of things like that, even if we don't explicitly see it on screen. Again, no - Culber is the only character on a spiritual journey. Other characters may be considering the philosophical and ethical implications of the technology they are looking for, but that's not spiritualism. That's the show examining moral questions, and trying to come up with answers - and that's generally what Star Trek does. "Turning into a god" can certainly be an interesting premise for sci-fi - but again, Star Trek is fundamentally more about disproving, than affirming those kinds of stories. Even in the most optimistic scenarios - like Dekker and Ilia merging with V-Ger at the end of TMP - that's presented as them "evolving" or "going somewhere else." What that actually means is left intentionally vague, because we don't know. We'll have to see where Culber's journey leads him.

He believes the entire chamber was created by gods to produce rain. I don't think he's even thinking of it as a mechanical process, especially since it's not obvious how the machine works (no visibly moving parts or gears to move the doors) - turning that lever has likely just evolved into a part of the ritual they've created for the rain making ceremony. As for the flames - their size seemed consistent to me for the amount of air that was in the chamber at any given time. They were very strong at the start, nearly out by the time Tilly and Ravah were humming the tune, and came rushing back full when the doors were reopened. I don't think there was ever a time when there was "no oxygen" since Tilly never stopped breathing - so the flames wouldn't necessarily have gone out entirely. Ravah got to the point where they couldn't breathe - but again that doesn't mean the air was totally gone - just that they were too weakened for their lungs to work. Burnham says they're going to teach the aliens how to run the machines, now that they know about them. Presumably they can go out and fix the other towers themselves. That is, if they haven't been fixed already - they had to get the puzzle piece out of Tower 5, so they likely had to do something in order to retrieve it. As the ship leaves, the planet looks basically the same - but it's been, what, two days? Even if the had fixed all five towers, it's probably going to take a while for their territory to become habitable again, like with the high summit. The only character going through a spiritual event is Culber. That's one guy - not half the ship. Granted, he talks to Stamets and Booker about what he's experiencing. But, it's not like they think he's turning into a god or something - they just know there's nothing physically different about him, as far as they can tell with their scientific understanding. And if it doesn't seem like anything bad is happening, then he should just see where it takes him. Otherwise, I think Burnham does an excellent job in helping Ohvahz contextualize the new reality of his people. She doesn't trivialize his faith, or his concerns over what this will mean for his society. She just helps him to understand that what he believes (apart from the human sacrifice) is not inconsistent with the new information she's giving him.

I watch the show on Paramount+, and the bleeps are still there. Personally I don’t mind, but I also feel like bleeping can often be funnier than actual profanity, depending on the context. I think it generally works well here.

I'm not talking about any old man or woman - I'm talking about presenting a character that is essentially the same in every way to the original, the only difference being that it's a woman instead of a man. Same personality, same storyline - would that character have the same resonance? If not then I think we know what the issue is. However, for the sake of argument: Wealthy orphan grows up to fight a lone crusade against crime, while dressed like a bat. Is there anything which necessitates being played by a man? Growing up one of my favorite books was Wonder Man, and back then I thought Bruce Campbell would've been a great Simon. I thought his humor and attitude would've been a good fit for the character. However, I am perfectly happy now that Yaya Abdul Mateen II got the part - because I think he's a quality actor, and I'm interested in seeing what he brings to the character. Same if they had cast (for example) Sonequa Martin-Green or Jodie Comer as "Simone Williams." If the show is good and it feels like they've captured the spirit of the character, I'll be happy. But I'm not going to be disappointed just because they cast someone different from how he appeared back in the comics. Overall though, Disney doesn't need to worry about chasing the diminishing audience of people who read comics decades ago. TBH, if the MCU is going to continue, then their biggest need is to replace the Millennials and Gen Z that have now aged out of the original film fandom. They need to find a way to appeal to Gen Alpha - kids who seem to connect with heroes like Miles and Gwen who speak to their experiences. In retrospect, they probably should've leaned harder into Young Avengers - build a new group of characters that they could invest in. But, maybe this version of the F4 and Surfer Shanna can be that group for today's kids the way that the comics version were in the 60's.

Okay, so what if the Silver Surfer in the MCU is from Zenn-La, makes a deal with Galactus to spare the planet, and goes on to be his herald until reaching earth and confronting the F4? Everything about the character's motives, emotions, personality and ethics are the same, and the plotline and visuals are presented with all the gravitas of the original comics. The only difference is that instead of a shiny naked guy on a surfboard, it's a shiny naked lady. Why is that a big deal? If it's the same story with the same messages, it should have the same meaning right?