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I don't think people particularly want to see people drinking on TV. It's the over the top behavior which can come from binge drinking. Then people argue, fight, hookup, etc. That's what the production team is about, filming all that. And Bravo is about airing all that. If they did a documentary about the behind the scenes of working on a yacht, most of it would be boring action, very little time featuring the guests and little time featuring the whole crew going out together to dine and drink. Would be boring I guess. The formula is to move the Real World onto boats. Not the early RW seasons, the late ones where the cast had to go out to clubs and binge drink.

I don't mean the song itself, the whole number or performances, even with minor characters like the Feng Shui guy.

They've never shown why the show is called Better Things. You can kind of make an argument for it. Sam has plenty of family and friends, has an artistically and financially rewarding career. Despite the messiness of some of these friends and family, including her own daughters being miserable to her, she lets it rolls off her shoulders and while it seems like she's being a doormat, she doesn't care. And she realizes she's happy. She's past a bitter divorce, doesn't want to be swept off her feet, at least for now. Otherwise this show tries so much to be liked. That opening video showed how creative Sam and her friends and family are, though there was a self-congratulatory stench in the air as they celebrated. These are her golden years? The ending song, it's cutesy. More and more shows seem to be going this route, to have the cast do a musical performance and/or a choreographed dance. Some are so-so, like the ending of The Affair. Others are awesome, like the opening credits of The Peacemaker. Lasting impression for me is one of befuddlement at the raves this show has gotten and kind of a shrug, probably something I will quickly forget, have little interest in watching again.

Saw a promo for a new season to start on May 9th.

What did she say?

Interesting a first-time filmmaker, Pippa Erlich, got good reviews. Maybe not satirizing the doc, though the end with the close up of tears welling up in Lisa's eyes seem mocking.

So is there a body of salt water near Springfield? Doesn't octopi have to live in salt water? Questionable it could live long in a bottle or especially outside, the way Molly get jumping around. I haven't watched enough docs in recent years but Lisa's doc has to be satirizing a particular doc filmmaker? You know, someone who puts his or herself in her docs and gets emo about the subject of the doc?

Barry feeling alone and rudderless seems a jarring change from most of season 2. OK, Fuches betrayed him and he had to kill Chris. But the loss of the acting class dashed all hopes of changing his life? Now he's in limbo as a struggling actor, going on auditions but not getting jobs which would presumably make him feel more hopeful about his life. He's taking hitman jobs just so he has something to do, a purpose? He had to know acting can be like that, rarely or maybe never getting roles before he has to give up. Working at the clothing store in season 2 wasn't enough to distract him. I don't think he has a money issue, presumably he earned and saved a lot when he was working for Fuches. Winkler is knocking it out of the park, first confronting Barry, then begging for his life. I missed the bit about it being a gift from Rip Torn. I thought it was like some vintage, museum piece, that Cousineau wouldn't put up with modern semi-automatics, he went old school, though old school in this case was a POS revolver. NoHo Hank had a big role this episode, more screen time than I can recall him ever having. He's of course a highly likable character. I know that characters who's dropped a lot of bodies has to be judged on whether he's redeemable. But I'm hoping they can kind of avoid or delay this question because I think of Barry as way more light and joyful than BB. Barry does get heavy and dark may times, but Walter White's descent was orchestrated, almost each step of the way. They probably can't avoid the question, because if the show ended and he's not dead or locked up, people will be upset that a mass murderer isn't punished. He's been trying to turn over a new leaf, get out of the hired assassin vocation. The backsliding depicted in this episode is depressing and heavy. Still had some great comic moments but anguished Barry is not fun. No Inside the Episode. Why would they drop it after doing it for two seasons. Berg and Hader are so great at those, kind of lightens the mood.

Ultimately Elena may regret leaving her family for Nino. But one thing was clear, with Pietro, she would not have been encouraged to write. She probably would have written more books even if she stayed with Pietro but her second book didn't turn out well whereas for this new book, she got a lot of encouragement from Pietro's sister and mother and of course Nino. You would think Lenu wouldn't want to end up a wife and mother, with no career of her own, given what she observed about life of older generations of women back in Napoli. She did most of the research on her own and had pretty much finished the book, after her sister in law's encouragement, and Nino just showered her with a lot of praise, which she craved because she wanted to see him. Nino is certainly not her muse but his presence and the affair basically brought out her animal spirits. However her decision turns out, will we see the effects on her as a writer? Well next season, an older actress will take over as Elena -- and presumably the same with Lila's character. So will it be some years after these events depicted in the finale for Season 3? She's actually suppose to be around 30 because at least 8 years have passed since she graduated from university. So the older actress will be playing Elena who's around 40? Or will it pick up almost right after these events but the older actress will start as Elena in her early 30s?

Yeah remember, TV shows never try to match the socioeconomic class of the characters with a plausible environment. You can walk by the outside of Monica and Rachel’s apartment in Greenwich Village. They’re suppose to be struggling in life but that spacious Manhattan apartment is in a neighborhood full of 8-figure homes. The production designers must be charged with coming up with distinctive looks, something that pops up the screen, whether clothing or interior design. Probably great for their professional portfolios. Plus they probably get a fat production budget and/or they get comped or lent for free fancy clothes. Also product placement, though you wonder how many expensive clothes designers need product placement. OTOH, Kaley became a bigger star because of this show so the designers probably wants her to wear their clothes, kind of like how they lend clothes for the Oscars, knowing the stars will be photographed and asked what they’re wearing.

Hamm was all about "they lied at the beginning of the pandemic about masks!" so they can't be trusted any more. No it was expediency because of mask shortages. They didn't want a run on masks like the way people were hoarding TP and disinfectants. Why, because doctors and nurses needed them, so it was OBVIOUS that they had some protective value. They still do all the studies show some level of protection. Not as much as we'd like or hope for but it's not nothing. Vaccines have also proved less effective at preventing infection with Delta and Omicron. But these idiots think vaccination is all you need. Maybe but having more layers of protection is better than having fewer ones. Maher has been saying if you want to mask you can, though it makes no sense to do it outdoors. Now he said on this show he wants to punch the people who mask. Hamm was going on about how kids least need protection. Recently there was an estimate that as many as 200,000 American children lost a parent or both parents to covid. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/12/well/family/covid-deaths-parents-grandparents.html Children may not develop severe disease with anywhere near the frequency of adults but they've lost parents and some believe they may have infected their parents. There is still no definitive word on the long-term impacts of covid. Not just long covid but loss of brain and heart tissue. We know these conditions can affect adults who've had "mild" or asymptomatic infections. Covid is still way more deadly than the flu. We've lost 90k people since early February, despite this "mild" Omicron variant. https://www.statnews.com/2022/04/19/six-covid-mysteries-including-how-it-will-evolve/ Bill isn't an outright covid denier nor has he compared covid to the flu like the idiots in early 2020 (like Dr. Drew, colleague of Adam Corolla who's been angling to get on the show again and is suppose to appear in May). But he's repeatedly trying to minimize the dangerousness of this pathogen.

You can say the plot is too convoluted or what are the odds she's going to get into more intrigue? Well she did take on the job for the CIA so this isn't going to be some SATC romp about life and love with Cassie and her friends and coworkers. There is always going to be some plot revolving around her. You can say she is trying to fill some hole in her life pursuing these suspenseful scenarios or she's driven by FOMO or is a kind of adrenaline junkie, drawn to possible danger. So she shouldn't be going well beyond her CIA assignments or follow Grace around. OTOH, she observes suspicious things and it's also clear she's being targeted, by the mysterious couple as well as the CIA not letting her know there's more going on than the simple assignments they give her. The Megan plot has been building since season 1. She's also involved in a lot more than she's let on and now she's trying to make some poison as part of an effort to exonerate herself? That sounds more than one woman who was recruited by the North Koreans to spy on her husband's computer. Seems like she's pretty deep in the spy game. Inside the Episode went into some depth about the Mind Palace, where Cassie's alter egos reside and where she has these convos with them. There may be 5 or 7 alter egos. I can see Cassie being conflicted with doing all these extra curricular things. What seems to be missing so far is a governor to rein in her impulses, because she doesn't seem that skillful or stealthy when she was right behind Grace in broad daylight. She should have some fear or PTSD after the events of last season and now the explosion. There has to be at least one instance of an inner voice telling her to pursue safety, damn her curiosity or need for thrills. OTOH, if the couple are running some kind of operation to target her, she has to try to find out as much as possible, because the CIA seems to be keeping her in the dark. If she simply got out of the game, like stopped working for the CIA, would she be left alone? Or did she somehow witness something without realizing the significance. Well she thinks the guy was bombed by the suitcase and the CIA is telling her it was a gas line accident. BTW, you would think there's more to Brenda than meets the eye. They don't cast that actress to play a background part.

Magda and Ryan are the slackers and they bristle at direction or pointing out their mistakes. The Prom lasted only for the dress up to take photos and then the crew had to go back to work, only the captain got to dine? But everyone seemed to enjoy the theme. Magda has a chip on her shoulder when Aesha tried to explain her preoccupation with what her bf was doing was affecting her work and disrupting her sleep. She works hard but is often distracted. Then she talks about how Eastern European models are viewed but would that be true from Americans or Australians? Ryan doesn’t think the captain’s opinion matters. Well it’s a TV show but who else would be his boss? Can’t be more stupidly defiant unless he was encouraged to cop this attitude. Aesha just cleans toilets and captain is just another guest sitting at one dinner. Does he think guests would ultimately back him? Because some have complained about some of his food.

Very interesting. Know little about the street fashion world or ethnic food becoming instantly subsumed into some mainstreamed take on cultural genuineness. Obviously from the start, the advisory board was all about damage control for the fashion brand, with celebrity black artists and social activists lending a patina of permission for people to buy the brand without feeling back about whatever offense the designer committed -- though the Central Park 5 shirt is about what, the infamous "wilding" case and the piece of clothing trivializes how a certain racist narrative was pushed in the prosecution of the defendants who were later proven innocent? Alfred mocked or belittled Earn's ideas for helping the black community. Earn actually called it the "Reinvest in our Hood" campaign but Alfred said they kill him, referring to MLK. Yet inside that board meeting, he regurgitates everything Earn said and then filmed a little Reinvest in your Hood video, which as he noted they "All Lives Matter'd" his shit. At least he gets all that free designer stuff. Everyone in the board meeting just wanted tickets to Black Panther 2. And Khalil said racism would be done by 2024.😒 Good social satire. As for Darius' plot, it wouldn't happen exactly like that. The woman could have just copied the ideas and marketed the hell out of it, push it on social media, probably become a hit, even without driving the original or authentic place out of business. But Darius was being a bit of a hipster about the jollof rice and insisting on tap water. He probably did too good a job of selling Nigerian cuisine to the woman, helped lead to the demise of Auntie Mimi's place. He throws the copycat Nigerian food away and a passerby tells him he should recycle.😄 They all have awareness but they're all hypocrites in their own way. Alfred just wanted free stuff and was softening in his outrage by the end when Khalil suggested on ways to play the game as he has played it. Earn, who talked Alfred into trying to do good after calling it an Uncle Tom photo op couldn't search for Apple Store on his iPhone to get a nick on his Apple Watch taken care of, had to ask the black concierge at a fancy hotel, to get a free night at the suite. Van joined to spend the night but was gone in the morning.

Some of her reluctance to become a mother seemed to be about vanity. She used to work out with Chelsea and was commenting on how good her ass or abs looked while she said her ass had gotten a bit flabby.

Inside the Episode, I think Kaley called it that and maybe one of the show runners (there are two) or producers or director.

But was her reluctance to be a mother or fully in her marriage a real thing or a concocted narrative for the show? Even if she really did have some doubt about her marriage and becoming a mother, would she air it out on the air? Or did she tell her husband "don't worry, they wanted me to have a dramatic story line so I'm just playing along." She did say on the show, can't recall whom she was talking to, that it was important for women to have their own money. Is that just her general philosophy or because she wanted the ability to get out of the marriage without ending up in a financially precarious position, which is often what happens to some women? I think she was playing that narrative for the show, because how would Jason feel if she had doubts about the marriage in general and in having children? If she had doubts, she wouldn't let the show play that up.

OK, only seen the first episode. I don't remember everything from the first season. The scenes helped but I do recall that she was only saved by an undercover CIA agent, who happened to be one of her coworkers. Seems a little too deus ex machina but I guess it's based on a book and she does become as asset for the CIA? Cassie doesn't say FOMO but she describes the feeling of not wanting to miss out on anything. Inside the Episode, one of the show runners or the director says that Cassie is essentially trying to replace her drunken fun times with the CIA intrigue. (Now I forget her backstory on how she got into drinking, doing something with her father who gave her beer as a little girl and her drinking problems as an adult had to do with her bond to her father?) Yet in the Pink Clouds portion of this episode, which was the montage of her jogging, eating sushi, having a more healthy lifestyle without drinking, she's in AA, has a new boyfriend -- doesn't AA try to discourage you from having relationships during recovery? Later she admits that the CIA side gig is the best thing in her life. Sorry Marco. As for her spy work, as soon as the guy said don't follow, don't engage, you knew she was going to break every one of those rules. But going around in a fuchsia coat while spying? They admitted it didn't make sense but they wanted to contrast the grayish backgrounds in Berlin. So Cassie sees a double of herself having sex with that mark -- it is Kaley's real tattoo, says it's to cover up names and dates which she no longer wanted to show to others and now a ghost double is pestering her. Not a fan of using the device again but it could work well if Cuoco could carry off the repartee between them. She tells the ghost to "fuck off" and then has to tell the receptionist "not you, you're great." Of course these interior convos are not only for comedy but also to show what she's thinking at given moments. Cheryl Hines as Dot, the CIA boss, overrules her handler Benjamin so Cassie gets to keep spying, yay! But if a trail of bodies follow her as one might expect, it may stretch credulity.

She's trying to parlay reality TV into some kind of social media influencer or endorser I suppose. But if she's no longer on reality TV, how many sponsors will pay for these campaigns? Probably good to have her own money. Wonder if she's put money aside from being a realtor. Probably come back to reality TV eventually, if she's still photogenic and in a cast of women in their mid 30s and older, if these other ventures don't bring her enough income as she wants.

It was great but I think I’m going to have to rewatch because I’ve forgotten all these backstories, like how Nacho came to betray the Salamancas — I guess they threatened his father at one point or wanted to use his modest restaurant for money laundering. Or how Mike went from being a security guard at the parking lot to being Fring’s main security guy. Yeah I know he was real police back in Philly but why come out of retirement other than to provide for grand daughter? too long between seasons, all these people have aged and look 10 years older than they were on BB.

What's the deal, when is the next regular season? Probably overlapping towards the end of this Paramount + All Stars season, which are typically 10 episodes? So maybe towards the end of May, beginning of June?

The guy with Natasha, they couldn't get Duchovny. Probably just a little favor for her former cast mate from Californication to do a cameo.

Any more than the other BD shows or other Bravo shows in general? Or reality TV shows?

Riviera Maya - 4 bedrooms she didn't want but realtor said it wouldn't be expensive to hire someone to take care of the pool and yard. No concerns about electricity bills once they learn they have solar. That long pool in property #2 looked interesting but maybe not so enticing. What do you do at a swim up restaurant, dine while in waist deep water or something? Fine for drinks but for food? Is that old folk wisdom about not going swimming after eating true? Sounds like as insurance brokers, they have a lot of clients so they're collecting commissions and they really don't have to try to find more clients.

I thought this was the finale. Kind of wrapping some things up. Parts of it looked like a rock video. Or a Nike commercial. Marion had Sam pegged. Once all the girls leave, Sam will be restless and bothering him and the dragon lady.