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I don't think the producers would give Angelina so much air time if her drama wasn't exactly what they wanted. Yeah Snookie and Vinny were missing mostly on the first day at least, though it looks like Snookie isn't coming to this event. But they didn't have to air any of the first day. They made a choice. I would think it's all serious but Angelina pulled something from 7 months ago, tried to blame Mike and then blamed Sammi for believing Mike. Than the almost-fight. Mike is saying in his TH that he thought they were really going to fight. But the way they cut it, Mike probably said something to defuse the situation but they didn't show that and then when they grappled, there was on tension so the guys were both laughing. They're not kids in their 20s, having something to prove. I doubt even back in the day, Mike looked for a lot of fights. And 2.0 is a cop or was? Not that cops won't fight but he probably wouldn't do it on camera.

Daily again worked better for later teams who learned from Brad’s mistake of thinking he could easily grab Al the bags while going full speed. Why wasn’t Brad targeted? I guess Cara convinced everyone to support her revenge votes? But also, big names aren’t able to avoid the elimination, which seems to happen more often on All Stars than the OG show. Wow Leroy Came on at the last minute to pull out the win though endurance and strength probably helped as fatigue probably made it harder to control the balls towards The end.

Really liked the Daily. later teams did have an advantage though. Elimination was a crapshoot. Cara did kind of develop a technique but even one of her last throws missed the entire board. So it seems like luck had a lot to do with it. All Star season is shorter so each vote is more consequential and people who thought they’d be protected are being voted in.

Season 4 will consist of 2 parts of 5 episodes each. The first part will release on 8/15/24. The second part will come out on 9/12/24.

Obviously we want to see them together, since it's the basis for the show. But to an outside observer, it could seem abusive, since Deborah is the boss. Or codependent since they both seemed to be more thrilled to work together than with anyone else, despite the verbal and emotional abuse. Ava seems more inspired to work on the Late Night show, than her actual job on another well-regarded show. But not only that, as soon as Deborah hints at working together again, Ava jumps at it, even alienating her gf and risking their relationship. Maybe Ava doesn't love really love the gf, it was more about hot sex, as suggested by the surprising shower scene. She seemed moved when she thought the gf was going to propose but then assumed that was exactly the case and didn't think it was a big deal as she could just propose, using the prop ring. Is Ava going back to work with/for Deborah like the person who ditches his/her significant other to go back to an ex who was abusive? Ava looks at this opportunity as a way to return to this collaborative relationship but as soon as she arrives at Deborah's mansion, Deborah tells her shoes off and Ava remembers who's the boss.

They really did the accidental running into each other in the elevator scene very well. It was more like two people who had an intimate bond, than mere employer/employee or mentor/protege. So there was this real awkwardness between two people who didn't know exactly how to restart the relationship they had. The second episode hints that Ava was really hurt by Deborah firing her and then ghosting her. But we also see that Deborah, despite her success, being at the top of her game creatively as well as commercially, can't sleep and her world is disturbed, like those antique figurines she's rearranging in the middle of the night. And I agree, the dress demonstrated to Deborah what she had been missing, how brutal honesty was always a part of their relationship. That is the way they re-gain the rapport they had, of challenging each other. While there is genuine respect and love, there's also calling each other out on their respective BS. They're not equals of course. The only way they can work together is that Deborah hires Ava. But Ava is able to challenge Deborah in a way few other employees can. So the great dialog of the show, especially these two characters riffing great lines at each other, emanates from this relationship of equals but not equals.

I was looking to create a sub forum in the Competitive Reality Show forum, for a new show that is premiering on Monday. I don't see a way to just create one of these mini sub-forums, which is the case for a lot of the shows in the Competitive Reality Show forum?

I don't watch FN other than CH was the first thing I ever watched there. But this is on the home page of their website right now, at the top. https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/next-baking-master-paris Actually sounds interesting too. I may give it a shot. Not a big pastry or baked goods eater but I would imagine fancy baked foods make for good food porn. Maybe it will have good scenery porn too. Meanwhile they also have this on CH: https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/ciao-house/photos/meet-the-chefs-ciao-house-season-2

Interesting, they don't always film in the summer, peak travel period. Going to be challenging for tasks which require spending long days outdoors in the heat, as we're seeing with this current season in South America.

Cadiz episode, they wanted a big home for their growing family. He wanted to be close to his base -- he's a naval officer -- and she wanted to be close to the beach. This time the husband was convincing when he said commute was a big deal for him, said he's over with commutes of 30 minutes or more each way. So in the end they choose a larger home with the best commute over a smaller home closer to the beach. They go $100 over budget of $2400 rather than potentially saving $200 with their other choice. Family has moved around a lot but this is the first international move for his naval career. She's going to be a stay at home mom because she may not have a work visa and the language obstacle may also be an issue. But I don't believe she had a big career or anything so this move was probably a promotion for him which allows her to not have to work. She was however the one emphasizing the budget a lot in the episode.

Awesome news. So maybe the hosts filmed this at least months after the first season. Maybe even after the first season aired. Puglia is also beautiful. Lecce is called the Florence of the South. But they really didn't do a great job of showing off Florence or Tuscany in season 1. Puglia has a lot of coastline, depending on where they are, so maybe more with seafood. Season 1 aired from mid April to early June last year. I'm not that big on the game aspects, though I guess they're all vying for a prize, a year to study cooking in Italy. But the game aspect of it wasn't that thrilling. Especially the way they judged seemed suspicious IIRC. I wonder if the season 1 winner got much out of it. I don't even recall the contestants right now.

Variety article above says production will begin later this year. That could mean post production or pre production for all we know. Or that they've shot the footage or will shoot the footage. Sounds like the earliest this new season will appear is later this year but maybe more likely next year. It could also be that they only decided to renew recently or they planned on having a second season for a long time but for whatever reason decided to announce now.

Yeah more stunt casting. Doubt these people have that many followers. One said they were a Yelp elite. The ones who can monetize aren’t appearing on the show for free. One woman filmed herself eating. Barbies sister said their dad isn’t going to like it. OK maybe if she was worried about being cut off. Otherwise it’s 2024, when are grown women worrying about what parents or other people think? It certainly hasn’t stopped the dozens of fame whores who’ve appeared on BD and other Bravo shows over the years. She knew she was on camera and miked up all the time. She was going to keep it secret from the other cast? Girl you’re repeatedly filmed in your underwear. Sunny has self-esteem issues. Says a lot of her boyfriends have cheated on her. Look at the guys you pick! And no strings sex hoping they’d fall for her? Ben was in a hurry to contact Camille. What did she get paid to appear in the FaceTime without having her face blurred out? Oh man it would be the greatest producer manipulation if they got Camille to turn him down on camera.

One of my DVRs recorded an episode in San Mateo, Costa Rica, where a young woman from Montreal said she visited and fell in love with the place and decided to move there and work remotely. Her friend was nitpicking all the choices. In any event, I wondered if this was a repeat which one DVR erroneously recorded as new and the other DVR didn't. She chose the most expensive choice with a nice wrap around terrace and she wanted to bake so it also had the biggest kitchen. I don't recall seeing it before.

Sam is trying to stir something herself, deliberately leaving an open chair next to her so that Angelina would have to sit next to her. And participating in that TikTok. But again, this is all engineered. They wanted Angelina to have beef with Sammi. Used to be Angelina vs. Jenni and I guess Jenni wore down. What about the water throwing at Nikki, who hasn't been on the show since? They decided Angelina would be the motor for the drama because Ron flamed out getting into the crazy domestic situation with his ex. Snookie was off the show for a season or most of a season so she probably didn't want the aggravation either and while she still gets drunk, she's not going to do much more than that. They must have decided that Angelina and Sam are the newest cast members so they have to pay their dues.

Filming was suspended about a year ago because of the writer's strike. They are targeting fall or later of this year for season 2 release.

Apparently Bill knows RFK Jr. socially and he's also against covid vaccines so he went soft against RFKJ's BS. He brings up RFKJ promising not to be a spoiler but the polling and the fact that he's only on the ballots of 3 states so far shows he's nothing but a spoiler candidate. But Bill doesn't push it too much. The panel goes in strong against student protests, which really spread all over the country this past week. So Lemon says these college students only learn Israel history from TikTok. Really? Students at these elite universities are so lazy they're only watching some TikTok videos to learn the history of the ME? I can see that's true for many young people in their teens and early 20s but students at the best universities? Not one of them mentions over 30,000 civilians dead. In fact I don't think Bill or any guest has mentioned the casualty estimates in the 6 months of the Israel-Gaza war. Or the fact that Israel has cut off power and most food and health aid efforts into Gaza. Instead, they try to characterize all protesters as anti-semitic, anti-Israel. Bill does note that some of the protesters are Jewish, doesn't try to admit there's more to the protests than pro-Hamas, anti-semitic ideology. In fact, the protesters are asking for cease fires and for universities to divest from investments in anything to do with Israel. Bill says companies make money from wars, because someone is selling those bombs. He never tries to defend a military bombing civilians at all. He briefly denies it's genocide and says there's no apartheid because they can vote. I think that may be true of some Israeli Arabs living within Israel proper. That is NOT true of Palestinians living in the West Bank or Gaza, who currently are being lynched by settler mobs in the WB or being bombed and shot up by the IDF in Gaza. Of course he's not going to reference that there are international organizations citing war crimes and genocide in the current Israeli actions. I believe Scott Galloway called for the National Guard? Does he mean like Kent State? Right now the only ones consistently calling for severe crackdown on student protests are Republicans. Mike Johnson did a photo op at Columbia and said Biden should call in the national guard. Then you had POS people like Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley calling in for the national guard, going harsh against protesters. Cotton said that if protesters block your roads, people should take matters into their own hands. But Bill has been consistently characterizing college students as being ignorant, not knowing better. It goes back to his war on woke, which he attributes in large part to college students, their supposed intolerance of some jokes he and other comedians tried which elicited groans. This week he suggested they're under the influence of bad professors and he quoted a couple of Arab ones. Galloway said professors who protest Israel's war should be fired. Then he went back to, younger generations are not having enough sex and children. If they had good relationships, they would have "guard rails" which would keep them from doing things like protesting.

Why does hostage-taking work? Lords are ready to discard lives and those who serve them are only too eager to take their own lives. A rival takes a lord's wife consort or son? Toranaga can get any number of wives and as pointed out, he has many sons as well.

They sold everything, she gave up her job and he found a new job. So they believe in this adventure, at least for now. She’s trying to learn German and seeing if she can get a work visa. Maybe learning German will change her speech. Otherwise they both seemed cheerful and enthusiastic about their move, wanting to live in the city center, to experience big city life after living in Tucson, going for the liter steins of beer at the Biergarten. But they’ve been together for 9 years starting in college and married for 1.5 years? So probably not a permanent move, especially if she can’t get a work visa and they plan to have children. House they chose is just 1 bedroom, in city center with a work space for him. It will suit their needs for a couple of years.

Season 4 is going to be released on 5/22/24. Will be over 18 months since the last episode of season 3. But it will be set 6 years after the end of season 3 and the kids they adopt will be teens! Teen angst will give a new meaning to "Trying" name of the show? https://www.tvinsider.com/1132652/trying-season-4-trailer-premiere-date-time-jump-apple-tv-plus/

I enjoyed the series but it's a lot different in tone than my admittedly hazy memories of reading the book. This series approaches the story with reverence and respect for Japanese feudal culture. The show creators are being feted for rendering the delicate beauty of the culture, the unquestioning adherence to the code -- ultimate loyalty to the lord -- things like the tea ceremony. They could have had images of beautiful origami and sushi. Instead they showed the swords, the kimonos and the calligraphic documents, always folded perfectly, symmetrically. The book had a lot of humor and irreverence, not always this reverential tone. They would have a section narrated by peasants, who were talking about Golden Pavillions. The Japanese characters in the show seem rigidly bound to the code and chain of command. The only one who showed a lot of personality was Yabushige. The desire between Mariko and Blackthorne was a big part of the book too, all of which went towards making the Japanese seem far more human, not these figures who seemed bound to play their role as servants. They also showed the ugly side of humanity. Yabushige seem to get sadistric pleasure from the screams of the man from Anjin's ship whom he had boiled alive. Toranaga ordered everyone from the village to teach Anjin Japanese under pain of death if they failed. Anjin was ready to kill Toranaga or kill himself, just so he wouldn't have the deaths of the villagers on his conscience. The Toranaga of the show is more of an infallible, brilliant strategist and benevolent god-like figure. It's one interpretation. Maybe there was also a goal of not depicting any of the Japanese characters in a way which might cause offense.

First 3 episodes of season 2 are available now. No reviews. May take me awhile to get through these, between other shows and NBA Playoffs.

Anthony says he will be back. If he appears on another BD show, we know this firing was just the usual BD BS. They struggled to find stews but they just happened to have another chef in their back pocket? I don't watch this show for who is going to be fired, though some do deserve it. But now it makes no difference whether the cast member deserves it. It's predetermined because they have a replacement handy so they just want to find some excuse to turn over the cast several times during the season. It was the lowest tip of the season but still $1350 per person for a couple of days of work. A good tip would have been maybe $300 more per person? They try to make it sound like a disaster. But the tips are fake as well.

Well he didn't give her reasons to stay, like all those stolen glances he and Mariko exchanged. Fuji might have been curious what made Mariko drop her kimono but Blackthorne was too preoccupied with the other one. Toranaga was the chess master. He used Mariko to break up the power Ishido had concentrated and got Ochiba to pull the rug out from under Ishido. He also had the ship destroyed and will destroy the ship that Anjin rebuilds, partly for his amusement, partly to give Anjin purpose and in line. Yabu was remorseful. She wasn't suppose to die. But he owned up to his guilt and to the end he was true to his character, called out Toranaga. But he didn't hesitate to do his duty.

Because I'm not gullible? Because it's obvious that some of the things on the preference sheets are obviously a big surprise to some of the guests?