Tango64

How does a head chef and contestant on Hell's Kitchen say, "I've never had tortellini and don't even know what it looks like"?

How did they make this show so boring?

I don't understand that either. When he first arrived and she was showing off the new place, I thought, wow this gal is super rich and built an extravagant home for them. But now it seems she's not and they're both too poor to pay for a 20-person wedding? Something besides their bank accounts doesn't add up.

I feel bad for Vanja. It seems like she fell prey to the worst risks in long distance, online dating. Bozo appears to be a real loser in his home country and even his mother and aunt acknowledge it. No job at 38, seemingly no ambition, lives at home with mom, schlubby appearance. But he must have been good at portraying himself in a different way online because Vanja is a real catch. And then, once he has snagged this beautiful American woman and made her fall in love, he's not excited about it. She travels all the way to Croatia and he brings her a potted plant he found in a dumpster, then embarrasses her terribly on the first day by publicly saying they're just friends. Plus, he resists every opportunity to be physically affectionate, even in small ways. It seems maybe Bozo was just messing around online and got himself in way too deep. Clearly he doesn't appreciate Vanja or have feelings even remotely like she has for him.

$110 for a 9-piece bucket of faux chicken is $12 a piece. That's a lot just to say, “Ha ha! It really looks like chicken!” I wish they had addressed who is going to spend that much and who is going to buy it more than once after the novelty wears off. I can’t see it being more than a one time purchase, and a splurge even then. But they don’t talk about questions like that much anymore. It’s just all about the financials.

I think there is room for a PhD dissertation on the inevitable, inescapable deterioration of a tv program over its long life span. If a show is on tv long enough, it morphs into something else as it panders to the lowest audience expectations and the producers lose interest. A key element is the show and its actors or participants becoming self aware, knowing they are part of the zeitgeist rather than trying to just entertain or in the case of reality shows, to just win the competition. Once it happens, there's no going back. It's ruined so many shows of all types over the years, including reality shows, dramas, and sitcoms. Anyone remember the original The Real World on MTV? Great example. The first few years were a serious, insightful documentary series about young people living together and experiencing real things. Then the producers realized the viewers just liked seeing the cast get drunk and screw and have fights, so the show became nothing but that, giving them a luxurious house with plenty of booze and no need to do anything real in their lives. Each new cast had people who clearly wanted to be the villain or the sweetheart or the good guy and they played those roles, trying to maximize screen time. It was a real waste of a good premise.

At least it was interesting when the cat ears woman froze on the climb and refused to move. But then a few more encouraging words and she went right up. It’s not that I enjoy seeing people fail or be terrified, but they put so much emphasis on how hard these tasks are and how some contestants are so scared, and then everything always turns out just fine. It undercuts the drama when you start realizing no one will actually fail or quit.

It’s interesting to watch people playing Survivor and then watch people who think they’re playing Survivor.

Bravo!

I really don't like this show much anymore and just watch it out of habit. It's almost all successful people with successful companies asking for money to be more successful. That's all fine and good for them, I suppose, but I don't find it as enjoyable as watching burgeoning entrepreneurs who really need a leg up. The fact that they're using more subtitles to explain all the financial jargon is indicative of where the show is now. "What's your CAC on the PYE of the third fiscal year's NRL, compared to your DMO of the net KPQU?"

It's maddening to hear Joanne and Sean talk about how they never really considered the impact their plan would have on her children. They say it as if they're talking about some little wrinkle in their plan that just caught them by surprise. Like "Oh, I didn't realize my hair dryer won't work with the outlets in Ireland. Huh. Who knew?" When the season started they introduced Sean by showing how he dotes on his daughter. I wonder how he'd feel about telling his daughter he's moving to America, somebody else will take care of her, and he'll see her once in a while. I think he'd realize the problem with that plan right away.

Sunny, yes!!! Exactly the right response to her crazy move bringing her ex. What was she thinking? The fact that she was texting the ex on their romantic evening, and that’s how she got caught when he grabbed her phone, says so much. Now don’t let us down by going all wishy washy and taking her back next week

These people are not hungry. They finally decided to try using the fishing net they earned “a few days ago” and just flail in the surf with it while whining “I can’t believe Jeff did this to us!” Of course they give up without catching any fish. And they voluntarily hand over three chickens because they can’t agree to eat them. I bet if one person killed one and cooked it, everyone would want some. And they can’t cook the eggs because they lost their flint??? Is it that hard to keep embers alive while you’re at the challenge? Not if you’re seriously hungry.

Agree they spend way too much time on the bridge crossings. It's not that dramatic because it suffers from the same thing as the "scary" tasks in The Amazing Race: the CBS legal department will not let anyone die. It's all way over engineered for safety, there are experts on site to oversee and doublecheck everything (edited out in this show), and contestants quickly learn that the worst outcome is dangling in an uncomfortable harness for a few minutes. Even the most scaredy cat contestants seem fine with it all by the second episode. I was pretty enthused about this fresh new show where no one knows how to scheme and work the game, but it seems they quickly figured out how to apply what they know from Survivor, Big Brother, etc. I hope it's not just going to be a repeat of that in a more mountainous setting. Plus, the first episode made it look like they were going to endure some real hardship along the way. But those were some massive, luxurious feasts at camp! Getting there is hard, sure, but those feast scenes undercut the struggle that I thought was central to this whole game.

I suspect that's who it was and he's using the term "women" to describe them. Oh, that's a good one. 😀