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I think the arguing is from prompting or hints by producers to stir things up a little bit, like Mike literally stirring the pot. These people know what made the original show so popular so they know they have to keep bringing some drama. Look it got them McMansions -- at least two in the case of Nicole -- nice cars, multiple stores selling JS paraphernalia, large families, etc. They're going to do whatever they need to keep the gravy train going. I'm sure the producers made it clear to Sam that Ron was going to come back to the show, because his "redemption" tour to return to the show was going to be one of the story lines this season. So they had a tearful reunion with Ron already -- the women now know how to turn on the waterworks on cue -- and they just need to complete the "voyage." She had a choice, sign on to come back and get all the money that comes with it, not just from the show but appearances and probably a big boost to her little store, or hold out against dealing with Ron and not coming back to the show. There will be a little ginned up drama about her not wanting him back and some cast members trying to support Sammi but in the end it's going to happen. She can hold a grudge but she'd be denying him a chance to earn like she's now earning. They're like The Sopranos of reality TV, they're going to play ball, not go to war because there's nobody like Johnny Sack among them.

I give the woman house hunter credit for not breaking the budget and going along with the hubby who wanted to minimize spending for what may be a short-term home. They may love going down to Mexico but are they prepared to live there all the time? Also, pretty interesting background, she was a cop and the only woman undercover cop. So she wants to write a book about it.

There are already a fair number of reviews out. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/3_body_problem/s01/reviews?type=top_critics

Good ending, I guess a couple of the main characters in this limited series were basically POWs for at least 3 of the 9 episodes so they showed how they survived and returned from the war. Were they really imprisoned with some of the black POWs or did the show take liberties? It seems the Tuskegee Airmen were introduced so that they could be seen collaborating with the other POWs on survival in the stalags. After they were freed, they went back to their segregated bases? When they showed everyone celebrating the official end of the war, the black personnel were not in those scenes but right after, as they started packing up to leave, there was a brief shot of a couple of black men. The focus of the show was on the men (and women) of the 100th, how determined they were to fulfill the the overall mission, in the face of brutal, high-casualty missions. Crosby was philosophical about how many weren't able to return home as they were about to return. I don't think the show truly elaborated on the scale of their losses. We saw crewmen and pilots getting injured or killed on those planes, then this little moment at the end about how many were lost. The food air drop mission was great, the planes flying low over windmills and fields of colorful tulips, with the just-liberated Dutch people cheering them on from rooftops. Then the unexpected reunion of Buck and Bucky when they landed. Rosie was the most-decorated, as he should have been. But looks like Buck and Bucky served in a couple more wars, became lifers in the Air Force or whenever the USAF came into being.

I haven't driven in Mexico. But a lot of the racers seem to be fairly comfortable in Spanish so it shouldn't have been something like mixing up street names. It wasn't only the brother-sister team that had trouble with navigation. Seemed random, the pilots and the doctors both had problems. They all performed the tasks okay. So it seems like bad luck in getting lost is what got the team eliminated. Oh and no maps? What's that about? The producers are leaning into asking bystanders for directions or looking up Google Maps on bystanders' phones now? But one team said they didn't want to stop to ask for directions because they might lose time?

Vancouver to Dublin, a couple with two young toddler boys. Husband is trying to destress so he will watch the boys while the wife was able to transfer her work from Vancouver to Dublin. Cam the stay at home husband wants to be in Dublin city center while Christine, wife wants to be further out to get more space and a garden for the boys to play in. They also said that they want her parents, who are in Copenhagen, to visit Dublin and help watch the kids. So they want 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a garden and fit under $450k budget. Home 1 is near the center, forget the exact price but it's close to their budget limit. Has a tiny outdoor space, no grass, just some cement covered space with room for a tiny table. Christine doesn't like the home because the rooms are small and the outdoor space is small. Cams says they can make it work, loves the location. House 2 is $400k, which they like. It's in the city center, 3 bedroom 1 bath. Cam says they can put in another bathroom with the money they have left. Again, all spaces, especially the kitchen. Cam is a large man and he'd barely fit through the arch-shaped doorway to the kitchen. No outdoor space worth remarking and in addition, there's a wood stove that Christine is worried about for the kids. Cam says they can remove the stove and they can "make it work." Again loves the location. At this point, Christine is glaring at him, like "what the hell are you talking about?" House 3 is in the suburbs. Again forget the price but well within budget. But it's a 3 bedroom 2 bath and has the most outdoor space of the 3 properties. It's got larger rooms than the other properties and it has a big living space, kitchen connected to living and dining space, going out to the garden. Cam says he loves the layout but the first thing he says is that they're too far out. He asks if it took an hour to get out there but the agent says more like 40 minutes. Christine likes the place. Cam admits he likes the home but too far from the city. Maybe planning to hang out at the pubs while the wife works and the kids are left with the in-laws? They eliminate house 2 and Christine gets Cam to come to his senses. 3 months after, Cam says the location is no big deal because they get out to the city often enough. Christine talked about how she loved Vancouver but wanted to her kids to be closer to her parents. But the real reason is probably so that Cam could quit work. They sold a Vancouver apt. so they probably have money left over after the $450k money spent on the home. In one of those scenes after a commercial break Christine says it was a challenge to bring Cam home to meet her parents. She said something like he looked like a criminal, referring to the tats on his upper body.😄

In the book, Blackthorne teaches them how to use muskets. But the show consulted a scholar who said they’d have been familiar with muskets for at least 50 years. So they changed it to Blackthorne teaching them how to use the cannons. OK, I didn’t know that they shot cannon balls with chains attached which would slice through people. I thought they were siege weapons, to break through castles and other fortifications. The Japanese seem to have range weapons, such as legions of expert archers. The muskets may pack power but didn’t they have to be reloaded often? So the swords would be useful but they have a much higher learning curve. Mariko’s free now, since her husband died an honorable death — have we seen any shameful deaths? She also seems to have more agency than other women in Japanese society. Blackthorne didn’t have much of a bath but the “consort” didn’t seem to mind or waste much time getting down, to business.

Well some theaters these days would have fancier chairs. Not that I'd know, I haven't been in at least a decade probably. But Larry missed a chance to do a callback to the first episode of the season when he lost it cursing Siri out. In the theaters these days, the issue isn't people encroaching in other people's space with their coats hanging. It's people looking at their phones all the time, so that you see these bright spots distracting your attention on the main screen.

Well when Fraser got into the latest tiff with Barbie, they flashed back to the last season with Camille, defying him and drinking on the job. Is it a fair edit? Barbie clearly triggers him. Maybe not as blatantly defiant but still challenges to his authority. Respect Ma-h Authori-ay! /Cartman. Jared is spiraling when he can't call his daughter or when Barbie ignores him. So his go to is his drink. And now he said he felt good about the docking when he wasn't giving Kerry the information he wanted. Why did they not repeat the previous docking? In any event, he seems to be the sacrificial lamb firing, which they hinted at in the season premier and have been dropping breadcrumbs in every episode since.

Maybe Elena would get bored of Zubak if they slept together a few times. So Elena is well-educated and politically savvy. She dismisses the message Holt is delivering and sets Zubak on her to break her confidence. Well after this episode, as with the pilot episode, you have both Winslet and Will Tracy saying how politically sophisticated, more than any of the Americans they’ve introduced. If they have to keep saying how brilliant the Elena character is, maybe the story isn’t as well told as they think it is. Maybe we’re suppose to get what this small country is suppose to be in real life, from things like potato steam and black beets? And how deftly it’s playing the Americans off vs. the Chinese?

Again, Larry probably isn't going to an all you can eat buffet in real life. Looks like he watches his diet so probably has a private chef and goes to expensive restaurants. At some point, they were talking about someone having $1 billion in wealth. LD may not be far off from that, unless he was really generous in his divorce.

I guess these actresses really want to be on CYE. Lori Loughlin being depicted as a cheat, especially after Larry had to adopt the Gettysburg Address to get her admitted to his club despite the infamy she acquired for the college admissions scandal involving her daughter. Siena Miller wearing those ridiculous wigs and stuffing her out with bites of fruit and then the billboard graffiti. Good to know Larry gets story inspiration from online porn. Jeff and him were riffing on porn scenario ideas to depict on the billboard. Each of these subplots all lead to good comic payoffs but they don't really go along with each other. They're like parallel plots and they each have their own endings. They could be like different sketches from a sketch-centric show like SNL. They're not like the best of CYE with episodes like the Palestinian Chicken or or even Pants Tent, where everything converges at the end of the episode on the one punchline. Still, Pretty Pretty-tay good!

Watched the first two episodes of season 2. He's doing Europe, from top to bottom as he says. No longer talks about being "out of my comfort zone" as much as he did in the first season. They're not abandoning that he hasn't traveled much. The photography is great, especially in north Sweden near the Arctic Circle. Interesting choice, to go there rather than Stockholm, but it lets them film these gorgeous outdoor scenes. So much brilliant color for people who enjoy scenery porn. He's game for pretty much everything, with few complaints. They paddle up a creek and he says "I've been up a creek before but at least I have a paddle this time." They go try to spot a moose in a forest, doesn't work. But he seemed to really enjoy paddling on a serene lake. Scotland is where his mother was born and raised until she eventually moved to Canada with her family. But he notes that at 76, he's finally visiting the birthplace of his mother. He starts off at a $12,000 a night castle in the Highlands, which has hosted Hollywood celebrities and the Royal Family. Yeah the place in Sweden was expensive too, about $1000 night to be in the middle of nowhere. So the show continues to choose these unique places out of the reach of most of its viewers but which photograph well, including the surroundings, especially from the air. His mother's family emigrated from Poland, lived in some crowded tenements for about 30 years, eventually moved to Canada. They show what these places look like, a dozen people crammed into one room with beds in the same room as the kitchen and the tub underneath the beds which they'd bathe in maybe once a week. They could have done more with the interesting contrast between the lifestyles of Polish immigrants in the early 20th century with the fancy castle attracting the international rich and famous clientele. But they mostly had Eugene sipping fancy scotch and getting a custom kilt made for them. I learned that the plaid patterns used for almost everything in Scotland is called tartan. Eugene seems much more relaxed, convivial with the folks he meets, though I would suspect most of them are associated with these fancy places and their job is to entertain clients who pay a lot of money for these bespoke experiences. I think it would be interesting if they have him stay at nice hotels but which would have a greater mix of clients. No travel show really has the host interacting with random people. Even if they tried, they might not get interesting footage worth airing. So usually they meet up with people in the hospitality business, like concierges, tour guides, restaurant owners, museum docents, etc. I don't know if Eugene is always affable or gets on with common folks but compared to other travel show hosts, it seems like he'd most likely be able to pull it off. In any event, the scenery is great on this show and the host seems to be settling into a groove. Probably they shot this over a 3 or 4 week period and he hit all the countries at once so maybe towards the end or the last-shot episodes of the season, he won't quite have the same energy.

A retired American couple sailed their boat to Grenada from Washington DC or something. Somehow, some escaped prisoners got on their boat, brutalized them and now the couple are presumed dead, probably thrown overboard. The prisoners were caught when they sailed to nearby island. So Grenada looks beautiful but maybe not so safe.

She was clearly playing for the cameras, repeated the line about bringing Sammy back and she can take her out again. Did that twice while looking straight at the camera. Sammi was playing along so they'd have a little confrontation. It wasn't going to be some low drama return to Seaside so they ginned up something out of nothing. And it was the producers and MTV who pushed to get Sammy back. Angelina has nothing to do with the big salary Sammy must be getting to buy a new home right away and a new Mercedes SUV -- maybe that's a lease. Yeah I'm sure the camera crew just happened to be at Mike's home when Laurens decided to do a pregnancy test. They knew she was pregnant so they re-enacted the little testing scene. Do Vinny and Pauly not get paid when they're AWOL in this episode? Snookie has a much nicer shore house so the women weren't going to sleep in that house, though that black light to look for stains was schitk.

I remember at the time it aired, fans were annoyed, because it was just soap opera, unworthy of the gangster plots they'd shown. Very little sympathy for Carmela. She was crimping Tony's style, according to the viewers who thought it's been too long for some whacking.

So black pilots fly smaller planes, don't get promoted like their white counterparts, are sent out in small groups of 4 planes where they're easily outgunned. Then on missions where they know they're going to run out of fuel before returning so they're told to blend in with the local people. That's around Italy and France. So of course the German interrogator is going to talk about how they're being mistreated by America. At first, the black POWs keep to themselves and the white POWs don't even engage with them. Then for their escape plan, they realize they need them so Buck makes an overture.

On the 25th anniversary of the debut of Felicity, a podcast looking back at the series, presumably to track a rewatch. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dear-felicity/id1734828150 Starts March 13th.

They could be parked in some generic bar and they wouldn't know the difference. Time on a luxury yacht, in a very beautiful setting, is wasted on them. But this is the kind of guests they want on the show, because when they can't think of better things to put on TV, they can always get "good TV" by putting on people acting out while drunk. It's really a double standard, when Hannah on BDM got in trouble for having some drugs which supposedly could make people impaired when performing duties which involve safety. But the crew is going out every couple of days and getting absolutely plastered and then showing up the next morning, most of the time just cleaning the yacht. Would be a good option if passengers and crew just smoked marijuana in places where it's legal instead. But stoned people aren't likely to say dumb things or act out, like hook up with people, get into fights as often as drunk people.

Ethan was definitely an annoyance but there were a couple of tense scenes where he'd interject himself and I couldn't help but to laugh. Somehow, Elliot and Helen managed not to lose it with him hovering over them.

Did they say whether they got a car? Looked like al the places required 10 or 15 minute drives. Wife wanted to be in the center, live in a walkable place. Supposedly the husband agreed they'd live in a city, after living in more suburban or rural place in the US. The southern coast of Spain does have a lot of homes overlooking the ocean from hills. I think there have been previous HHI episodes with such homes and also in the Mediterranean Life show. It seems one of the most affordable places for homes with sea views. In CA, homes with ocean views would be millions.

Ramy is coming back on TV, Ramy Youssef that is, not Ramy Hassan, the character he created for his Hulu show. HBO comedy special which is part of a tour, called More Feelings. I don't know if he's done with the show. Otherwise, the next project he seems to be working on is an animated show about a Muslim-American family in the early 2000s, trying to "code-switch" in America. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18566094/?ref_=nm_flmg_unrel_2_act

You need to cut Elena a break. She's been breathing through a mask and breathing in all the mold spores!

So the cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode made it seem like Fraser and Barbie were going to butt heads again but she says she's spoiled and used to getting her way but she won't challenge his authority any more. Fraser is hopeful and does recognize that she's a great stew, especially in service. Of course at the end, when Fraser awards second stew to Xandi, who wants to fly under the radar, Barbie's glare gave away the game. You didn't have to see her saying "in my mind, I'm the real Second Stew." Barbie wants to eventually convert to judaism but is she talking about the religion or adopting the culture? One trip to Jerusalem did all that, give her the epiphany to change one's cultural identity? There was a time when some celebrities were dabbling with some Jewish mysticism. I forget what it was called but supposedly Madonna was into it and got all her trendy friends to get into it too, you know kind of like how young actors used to feign interest in Scientology to get cast in Tom Cruise movies. Otherwise, it just seems odd to talk about adopting a foreign culture like one might try on a shirt or something. Jared is easily set off, like he couldn't talk to his daughter at the appointed time so he gets drunk and is freaking out about not having cell service. Kerry is trying to be supportive, says if after this next charter, he can't deal, he'd understand if he had to leave. Meanwhile, Ben is looking at Jared having problems ordering towels and smirking, because he thinks it gets him closer to taking over. Cat doesn't give a fuck about folding the towels and bed sheets a certain way. But she doesn't care about actually cleaning the cabins either. So her problems fitting in may become moot soon enough. The preference sheet had some more fraud, another theme party and another guest with very particular demands. Why not get guests pretending that they're Van Halen and demanding M&Ms but not brown ones? But hey they can show a few scenes next episode of the demanding guest making the crew curse her out.

So this season, like the first is about discovery of Elliot's past life. He's a tourist in his own biography. Even the last scene of the season finale, he's discovering something about himself, like hearing Swan Lake brings out his love of ballet and he rediscovers the muscle memory. But the file that burns in the Dutch oven reveals another layer, another identity, than the one which unfolded in this season. The process involves both Elliot and Helen having doubts about his character, his core being, whether he was a monster, as his family and their arch rivals say that he was, as much of a gangster as they show themselves to be. They could have been content just being together, not learn anything more about his past. But Helen pushes or encourages him to go back to Ireland, based on the message, which turns out to be a ruse or bait to lure him back into a life he doesn't want to be a part of. The seasons are short so maybe they can do this for another season, maybe two at most to reveal more and more of his biography. If there are additional seasons, that would seem to be the plan. The supporting characters are crazy. Ethan actually provides comic relief at key moments and Ruairi, I guess it was suppose to be genuine grief and some emotional issues but in the end he didn't harm anyone. Both Elliot and Helen get abducted, could have been killed, but survive. Maybe that was the point of the Ruairi character, to show both of them enduring all kinds of stress and yet they return to each other? Helen apparently loved being a cop, even in the middle of nowhere in rural Australia and had aspirations to be a detective. So her inclination is to dig, to unearth things, like those letters which Niamh buried. So once they find out about this new identity from Elliot's past, she's probably going to be more driven than he is to find out more about it.