aghst

That Thailand island was beautiful. They were willing to spend so her retreats seem to be solid business. Of course, Thailand has blocked tourism for most of the pandemic so maybe she caters to expats already there? In the scene where they list their requirements, she's saying a mosquito is trying to give her Dengue. That's a real issue is SE Asia it seems. None of the beds shown had mosquito nets. But those big opening doors to the terrace and the outside are not sealed and you open them for any length of time, you're dealing with mosquitos. Especially on a small island, you have to wonder about pest control.

I don't think they'll do it but I wouldn't mind seeing their back story. It's easy to conclude that she dominates the relationship because any status he has comes through her. But while Tom says and does dumb things, I don't think Logan would give him high positions if Tom didn't have at least some clue. He's not like Roman, who is unpolished or doesn't try to be polished in his presentation.

Been re-watching season 2 and just listened to the Official Succession podcast where Jeremy Strong is interviewed. Strong said he thinks Kendall turn on Logan when Kendall was saying he deserves to take the fall for cruises because he got that kid killed in England and Logan tries to comfort him by saying NRPI or not a real person involved, which is the acronym used internally to refer to people who died in cruises. Waystar execs dismissed these casualties by labeling them NRPI -- who are low-paid workers and unimportant people generally to them. So Strong thinks this is the moment Kendall sees his father as evil, as dismissive of the people who suffered or died at the hands of Waystar and the Roy family. Same way uncle Ewan sees Logan. So when he throws Logan under the bus, Kendall refers to Logan's malignant presence at Waystar.

There are going to be a lot of podcasts on the show this season. That's just among the podcasts I already subscribe to. There seems to be anticipation that this new season will take the show to a new level ratings-wise and generate much greater buzz than previous seasons. In fact, higher buzz and more online engagement than shows like Mare of Easttown and White Lotus has in the past year, is my prediction.

So the egg panic cliffhanger was bullshit. Maybe the guests didn’t love their eggs but it wasn’t some huge deal. Was Mat really that much a spazz about what to serve on the last meals or playing it up for the cameras? Honestly has their ever been really poor tips, like under $500 or even $1000 on all the BD shows? I don’t recall so I tend to think it really doesn’t matter that much how the crew does or how good or bad the meals are. The crew always ends up with a good amount of money for the season, which makes it appear like it was a worthwhile experience for all the crew members who make it to the end. They also get words of praise and talk about how they see a future in the industry. Then many of them are not yachties any more. Oh that meet and greet with Luka was fake drama too. The cast was polite and cordial except Mat was going to have this big moment. Why would he? The season was over and he was going to hang out with the rest of the cast in Split. They also make it sound like they had some crazy time together in Split. Probably at most, they had some big drinking nights. Otherwise as lame as them dancing in shorts on that Lazy Susan.

That may be one of the takeaways we're suppose to get out of this. They can't quit each other so they will always be on again, off again. Co-parenting of Ava will mean they have reason to always be with each other. Poli could detect she was seeing someone but he probably was disgusted at the notion that she's sleeping with Jonathan again -- it appears to be 4 years after she signed the divorce papers after blocking the front door so that he couldn't leave in Episode 4. So let's diagram this shall we? Episode 1 - They're apparently a "successful" married couple with a young daughter, he a professor and she a high tech executive. But when they have to verbalize why their marriage works, they can't do it or at least to the satisfaction of the other. She becomes pregnant but they decide to terminate the pregnancy. Episode 2 - She tells them that she's having an affair at first, then says she plans to go away to live with her lover for a few months. He begs her to stay, to talk about it. She says she's been miserable, wanting to get away from him for months. In fact she runs out early in the morning, hurriedly stuffing clothes in suitcases because she doesn't want to stay in that house any longer than she has to. Episode 3 - About a year later, she comes to visit with him, with a new hair do. She says she's not happy with Poli, tries to have sex with him and he rebuffs, even though he makes a show of breaking up with his gf in front of Mira. Turns out her relationship with Poli isn't going great and Jonathan knows about it. Episode 4 - They again come together at the house. He presses her to sign the divorce papers while she tries to delay and says she wants her life with him back. He tries to leave the house and they fight at the door. Finally she signs the papers. Episode 5 - It's about 4 years later. They are sleeping with each other. He's married to another woman and has a toddler son. He books their former home as an Airbnb -- BTW, do Airbnbs have wines, clothes of the host if they're renting it without the hosts present? Jon says he doesn't love his new wife the way he did Mira. Says he will never love another woman the same way. Then he has a nightmare and says maybe he's never loved anyone or been loved. She assures him she will always love him and he love her. 🙄 So they hold each other, both naked and the episode ends. Then you have the fourth wall breaking again, except its at the end of the episode and this limited series rather than at the beginning. They both put on robes and walk down the hall with their arms around each other and split to their dressing rooms. Is it really breaking the fourth wall though? It's kind of a performance too, they're showing their actors, not like the character they portrayed, who are kind of screwed up. They're only pals, not lovers and they can easily shed the onscreen personas. There are couples who divorce and keep going back to each other years after. But not sure this particular couple is worth watching. Great actors but the dialog is exhausting, with both characters contradicting themselves or at various times holding back what they were really feeling. The affair they're having in episode 5 could have occurred in episode 3, they could have reunited. Now, years later, he at least is entangled in another relationship involving a young child so the best they can say is "I will always love you" or "I will never love anyone like I loved you" while breaking up and reconciling over and over again.

I mean it's unlikely they wear their regular clothes to come and film. You're going to at least dress up a bit, like you would going to church or something. They at least have their hair done. Maybe HHI pays for hair and makeup.

Has Cory even won second or third place money? But he's been doing the Challenge for around 10 years? So he must still have a real job, unless MTV pays some players behind the scenes to keep coming. Even if you win once, say a million, after taxes, it's not going to last that long, especially for people under 40. It won't be life changing, though maybe for some they can pay off some debts and give them a little breathing room. But they're going to have to keep working.

I don't for one minute think the guests on BDM are paying anywhere close to 6 figures to appear on the show. Especially minor celebrities. I don't think they're flying out to Croatia to get on a yacht. They could do that in more glamorous locales or closer ones like the Bahamas.

I was going to watch season 10, maybe season 9, before the new season premiere. But there isn't really continuity from season to season. So I've started watching from the beginning. The pilot episode is brilliant. LD is so natural on camera, far more than I remember him being. Probably better than he is in the most recent seasons. Amazing how long ago they started too.

Trying to re-watch season 2 before the new season. When it aired, it seemed to be a lot about how crushed Kendall was, how he was trying to get life back. But at least through the first two episodes, the other arc is about the siblings jockeying for the keys to the kingdom. You have Logan asking them about what he should do, sell to Sandy and Stewy, because tech is going to make newspapers obsolete, or try to retain control but to convince the board, he'd have to tell him who will succeed him. So he has them one after the other come in and pitch him. You have Roman being so thirsty for it while Shiv tries to play it cool. She does admit she'd be interested but tells Tom that she doesn't really know if she wants it. By the second episode, she tells Gil to fuck off so she's giving up her career, her identity outside the family that she had worked hard to establish. Then she tells Logan she's in (for taking over Waystar) but Logan tells her he will be in touch. This whole dance is very Game of Thrones and King Lear. Everyone wants to get theirs when the King is gone, not just the siblings but all the distant hangers on. Greg is just trying to get a decent place to live in and Ken gives him a huge apartment to use but only if he hosts party so Ken can try to hoover up pussy when he's not doing park coke and stealing batteries from convenience stores for no reason.

Just to have drama. If that clip of the replacement guy taunting Mat is representative.

Hmm, I don't recall which episodes JJ has done in the past. But looks like he's based near Brisbane so maybe all the ones in Brisbane and most of the Gold Coast? There have been several based around Noosa but it appears Noosa is about 2 hours north of Brisbane and JJ is based south of Brisbane. So it would be a stretch for him to go all the way up there, but since this is a TV show ...

Yes she was that quirky girl/woman, with that voice and those posed photos they took. Then the thing about the tree and a dedicated dressing room/salon for her. I also wonder about Jesse's name if it's real and if he goes around in cowboy outfit and hat when he's not filming HHI.

Paris is definitely part of the draw of this show. I don't know where else the Lupin books take place -- I want to visit Étretat. They got some kind of access to Paris, like the scenes in the Louvre and even crashing that car into one of the pyramids there (though that part is probably done in a studio somewhere). But most or all of those scenes were shot at night, probably to avoid disrupting a lot of foot and car traffic during the day. In the finale, he drives a speedboat on the Seine, much faster than boats are allowed to go on the river probably. I don't know if the City of Paris would be accommodating again for those shoots but if they pay enough money, they might. As far as the overall arc of the 10 episodes, it's amazing the lengths to which A went to acquire skills. He could do a lot of damage just being a computer hacker, steal a huge fortune and provide for his son and Claire. But yes he only takes from the people who deserve to be got? So A lives by a code but he doesn't really spell it out. Though it's interesting that he had Benjamin pay off the restaurant where they dined and dashed and pay off the delivery driver for him taking the scooter. He doesn't want to victimize some people but they don't show him compensating the owner of the car he stole in Étretat. I guess they can't show him stealing from innocent bystanders or else it would be hard to sustain sympathy for the character. A has reason to lash out since he was victim of a huge injustice. But he concentrated all his desire for vengeance on Pelligrini though at first he confronted Anne, whom he thought had framed his father. He collected enough evidence to get not just Dumont but Pelligrini busted on that hidden thumb drive in the Jewish Lamp. You'd think the drone and the stolen briefcase from his investment manager would have incriminating evidence as well.

I doubt Zemele is paying that much. She was on BD a couple of seasons ago and then she flew to Croatia to be on BDM and she paid $200k on top? If she wants to keep up her public profile, she may be willing to pay some money, just to appear on a reality TV show. But it's doubtful they'd pay $200k Again, I believe Bravo would be motivated to have charter guests with some level of celebrity on. It would not surprise me if they paid to cover their expenses, to fly out there. I think I posted an ad for a yacht charter in Croatia in one of the BD media threads. It was a few thousand, not tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, to go from one part of Croatia to another, over a couple of days. Yes, here it is, a 7-night charter, Split to Dubrovnik, for $1700 for a couple in a cabin. That doesn't include dinners on board. But it's still a far cry from $200k.

Yeah I wouldn't have thought that HGTV would be thirsty like Bravo to stir up drama or BS, to make "good television." I don't really watch other HGTV shows but the promos during HHI seems to indicate that they're following the trend of other reality shows. Probably the pressure to have popular content on Discovery + but they were probably pulling shenanigans years ago.

She seemed like she went from reality show to reality show. So maybe she wanted to become a regular on the Challenge but has only been on one season. Maybe Johnny as her ticket to becoming a Challenge regular didn't work out so she soured on the relationship.

They had visited London before so they probably had an idea. And did they both quit jobs or did he have a pretty good idea that he could find another job? Richard said it must be tough to come to London with no jobs and enough money for a few months. He seemed annoyed at their insistence on being in the most expensive neighborhoods of central London. He called it prime international real estate because they’re competing against renters with money from all over the world. She’s hoping to hit it big as an IG influencer but that’s got to be very competitive with a small percentage making big money. What’s kind of absurd is that they set a target in US dollars since HHI is an American show. But they’re used to Australian dollars and they would of course be paying in pound Sterling.

The mud battle daily could have been a lot better. Not creative but the bowl shape made it difficult to have a winner without a deal, unless they were willing to fight until one guy outlasted the other. Very unlikely it would work that way. In the early rounds, the quicker teams got to their silver ball without contention but in the last round, it was either make a deal or have some grueling wrestling and people eventually giving up. Cory is right, people are looking for bullshit reasons to vote someone in. Ashley was in tears about being targeted early but maybe bragging about winning probably isn't a good strategy. Devin talking about taking out previous champions first among the vets may either be a brilliant stroke or something that comes back to bite them. There are more vets who haven't won before than those who have though. Elimination was certainly interesting. Were they required to both carry the pieces? Why not have them straddle the beam, one after the other? Not sure it would have been allowed. Cory and Bettina found the right way. Amber and Jermiah should have copied it, though it's harder because he's much taller but him having to bear Ambers weight was too much, they ran out of gas. The twist at the end, they love throwing in twists all the time. But it's just rife with potential for producer manipulation, because they're essentially changing the rules, seemingly on a whim or maybe to engineer certain results.

She seemed to know Paris well enough, having visited many times. But her wish list reflected unrealistic expectations, like a view of the Eiffel Tower yet she wanted to be in the Marais. The stiletto heels was obviously for show. She’s going to do a lot of walking in comfortable shoes. She knows this when she lived and worked in Chicago. She achieved her dream though, at a relatively young age.

I just rewatched the pilot. I was going to watch season 10 before season 11 but there's really not a lot of continuity from season to season, IIRC. So I went back to the beginning. Just brilliant, and LD is so relaxed and comfortable as a performer, which no doubt was due in many ways to the improvised lines. Not only makes you laugh but lifts your whole mood.

Well they wrap it up with Jessica's ordeal. I guess her experience is suppose to hint at why Laetitia was depressed and reckless at the end, going from one abusive father to another abusive parental figure. Jessica was so afraid of taking agency. When she finally confronted her father, telling him that she heard him brutalizing her mother and that she never wanted to see him again, it was odd, she was freeing herself from one abuser but not the other. She was willing to let Patron has his way with her, as long as she could feel a part of their family. Even when they rejected her request to adopt her or take her to Tahiti with them, she couldn't turn in Patron. Fortunately the other girls forced the issue. Another horrific aspect of the French system, she was forced to testify with him sitting right next to her? Must have been a legal proceeding and they have a similar principle as the American system where the accused have a right to face their accuser? Jessica is 19 so she's no longer a minor but you could see how difficult it was for her to get the words out. Overall they start with a murder and just expanded it to the victim's life until the fateful day that she was murdered. Not so much a mystery but an exploration of how she may have become a victim. Some people might consider it a bit of victim-blaming. There is a case in the UK where a woman was raped and murdered by a London policeman, who tried to burn her body to hide the evidence. He pulled her over and just abducted her. It's highly unlikely that her life or what she went through somehow led to her being killed. It was random and she was killed by a stranger, whereas a lot or maybe most murderers involve murderers and victims who knew each other. In the case of Laetitia, the girls had the misfortune of being born to a horrible father and then the system failed them, first putting them with the rapist father and then finally placing them in a foster home with a predator. Kind of a bleak view not just of the system for children's welfare but of life in general. Before watching this episode, I re-watched the pilot for Curb Your Enthusiasm, which really lifted my mood. Going to watch more CYE.

Stanley is flogging a book on his passion for food: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043295823/stanley-tucci-food-cancer-memoir-taste He talks about his career and life. Way more articulate than on Searching for Italy -- he really needs to step up his game when reacting to foods he tastes on the show. Hope he found time to film some of season 2, not just write the book.

Early reviews seem to be positive on the new season. Hope that they can turn it around and film season 4 quickly.