aghst

This is from Jesse Armstrong, the creator of Succession. In fact this is his first project since Succession. So he again writes a story about billionaires?

There was a time when it was suppose to be taboo for the crew to use guest cabins to supposedly get it on. Now it seems to happen every season on every BD show. It's suppose to prove that they’re really having sex, because couples writhing under the covers of the upper bunk in crew cabins is not convincing? When they started having crew go into guest cabins, you’d hear some moaning presumably recorded from the outside. Well that’s no proof because they can always loop in those sounds in post, in editing. But they’re not even bothering to do that any more. It was odd, as they came out of the cabin, supposedly the morning after, Harry and Bri both said thank you to each other. It’s as if they just met and exchanged gifts, not had some passionate night together. If they really got it on it must have been tepid.

If he believed that he should have partnered with some male friend instead of his wife. Might be better for their relationship because if they don't win, you know that he will blame her. Even if they won somehow, she won't be spared his toxic personality. Maybe TAR is less likely to cast two bro types, liked their back story which is why they were cast.

When I researched Bali for a visit, there were accounts about how infamous the taxi mafia was in some towns, especially Ubud. They charged high rates and intimidated some ride shares. I avoided it for the most part, used some Grab ride shares but heard that it's not always easy to find ride shares in popular areas. In this case, it appears they set up a lot of locations which are well away from big tourist sites, except maybe the beach at the end. So they may not have been able to find taxis there, since they didn't appear to be near cities or popular tourist attractions.

If it's true that Wihan was a yacht broker before he came on the show but they cast him to play bosun, it's no wonder he doesn't care about the "job." It's a charade, he's suppose to kiss some young women, pretend to be stud and a department head on a super yacht.

A third party would just result in perpetual Republican wins. GOP is smart or scared enough to band together no matter what. Progressives resent moderate and centrist Democrats for a whole host of reasons, starting with 2016 being rigged against Bernie. IF they split off or start trying to defeat Democrats in primaries, it likely means Republicans win more House seats. Republicans have donated to progressive candidates, just as Democrats have tried to boost some far-right candidates to make them weaker in general elections. Bill Maher famously was vocal about supporting Nader in 2000 and he admitted he was wrong, how it led to the disaster which the Bush administration was, with ill-conceived wars. He criticizes Democrats but he's under no illusions any more that there are only two choices in this country.

To be fair, they've only been at the resort about a week, maybe two weeks tops. Some of the characters had some pivotal things happen to them or in the case of Rick, thought he was at some moment that he'd been waiting for all his life. But really, how often do people have life-changing moments at a luxury resort over the course of a few days? Yes, Chelsea's snake bite could have turned out more serious or Rick might have gone crazy and assaulted or shot the old man. I think part of White's strategy is to show how these privileged and pampered people have some discontent, despite outward appearances, but a lot of their dramas are imagined or mostly in their heads, because of the narcissism some of them have. It's not that they progress or regress during their vacation. It's that not everything is about them. White isn't necessarily trying to have character development so much as character study or observation, how the wealthy behave, how they think.

Don’t know why Nany was freaked out about getting into elimination. They all voted for her and Turbo as they requested. But even if they blocked them, it would have been two teams in elimination with stars so a star would have been freed up. Anyways, Steve and Adam are the best overall, though they did relatively poorly on the daily challenge of transporting the rolls. Maybe some gnarly stages will trip them up. I don’t think All Star Finals have been as grueling as the regular Challenge Finals but with the heat and humidity, who knows what could happen?

Both U-turned teams deserved it. Scott saying he thought of all the other teams like his 8 sons made me laugh. The other teams said they pretended to be non competitive but they were winning legs or placing top 3 and Scott denied it was gameplay to try to come across as uncompetitive. Lori said she didn’t think of the people who voted for them as friends any more, more gaslighting from the couple, though they took their elimination with grace. Jonathan is the most despicable racer this season. Enough said. Surprising that Scott and Lori kept not getting the coral right. But it looked like only Scott got out past the orange buoys, Lori was only half way out? Have to say, the Drivers Seat was a grenade which led right to this Double U-turn. The producers sabotaged the team which had to use it, just to amp up drama. Though eventually Jonathan’s personality would have eventually alienated other teams so even if the U-turn vote came later, they might have gotten the votes. And the live vote format, with each team having to explain their vote to the teams who got the votes, again another blatant way to cause drama between the racers. I hope the show gets better ratings, stays on the or but if they have to resort to these kinds of shenanigans, maybe it’s no longer the TAR which we all came to love.

Someone posted that Wihan didn’t really have more experience than others on the deck crew? But he pulls rank on Harry and is worried about being questioned that he preemptively goes to the captain. Yeah captain is micromanaging. Since Marina is stuck in housekeeping at least let her use the system which has been working all season. Of course it wasn’t wise of her to talk back at him, question his authority. Wihan is on the show to chase the female cast, at least that’s what he seems to believe. He’s not wrong so will he be fired for not doing his bosun job well? It’s been about 2/3 of the season? Can they get another player type to hook up with the women in the cast with the episodes left? Harry and what’s her name said thank you the morning after? I’d hazard a guess that these two didn’t keep in touch after they finished filming.

Greg tells Belinda that he didn't kill Tanya, that they didn't consummate the marriage. But he offers to buy her off for $100k for her silence. It's not that much money considering what Greg got from Tanya and it wouldn't be enough for her to set up her business. In any event, the bribe offer just confirms the suspicions that Belinda had. Tim goes back looking for the gun after Saxon tells him that his job working for Tim is everything to him. So just as Tim imagined shooting Victoria to spare her being poor, now Tim thinks about shooting Saxon, to spare him the loss of his job. Do you need killer instinct to work as security at a posh Thai resort -- or any post resort anywhere in the world? Unless lives are at stake, would these resorts want their security staff to shoot to kill, to stop robberies for instance? You'd think it would bring all kinds of legal issues, though maybe it would be different under Thai laws compared to US laws -- there would be huge lawsuits too, against resorts since they have deep pockets, or people assume they have a lot of money. Even if he wasn't a Buddhist, Gaitok is right, he's just a rent a cop and he's not going to kill people for this job. Nor does he want to be on the resort owners' security detail, to kill or take a bullet for some rich people. But Mook won't have that, she wants him to make more money so it's "natural" for people to fight. Maybe she should get with the bald body guard with the head tattoos. Gaitok may confront Valentin or get him fired and arrested at least. But first, Laurie is going to get her piece, after she falls out with Jaclyn and Kate. Of course he's going to ask her for money with some sob story, even though his back room is full of expensive jewelry -- no pawn shops on that island? Meanwhile, what did Rick expect, to pummel or kill some frail old guy? Killing him isn't going to bring back his father or make him happier for his ruined childhood. He's glad he confronted the guy but instead of feeling zen, he and Frank are going to party before Frank returns to the monastery, or so he says. Some people are getting spiritual enlightenment in Thailand. Now Lochy wants to stay at the monastery with Piper, which of course cools her interest in staying.

But would she get more followers if she was on the show next season? Did Sienna get more followers on her social media after being on the season? Or some of the other women who came on the show?

Have they ever had the old broadcast network convention of 22 or more episodes a season? Usually they'd air like a half dozen to 10 episodes in the spring before going to repeats. But if they're only airing episode 12 of the season at the end of March, looks like they may not even get to 20 episodes for the season.

If she's not doing engineering, instead doing the social influencer, male celebrity girlfriend thing, that degree is just window dressing. She may in fact be able to make a lot more money getting a lot of IG followers. An engineering job a few years out of school wouldn't pay for stays at Ritz Carlton hotels.

Bravo is choosing these outfits for them. At a minimum, they're doing the professional hair and makeup to glam it up for the show. So why wouldn't they "style" the cast who appear on the show? It would be a hassle for them to bring fancy dresses up to NY on a flight. It's even a hassle to transport men's suits, because you may want to use your carryon allowance for other stuff.

Looks like an IG influencer type. Or wannabe. So she pursues celebrities but is downgrading from pro athletes to Craig? Bwahahaha!

They're spending a lot. Second episode featured a plot about watching a tracking shot in a movie. But it features tracking shot of Matt, in his car or walking around the studio. Then they use "You can't get what you want" for the show just like they discussed using it for the movie within the show. Even the first episode featured a lot of fancy camera work, with Matt driving his convertible at dusk on a city street. I guess Rogen got Apple to pony up a huge budget. Scorcese is a better comic actor than one would have expected. Charlize Theron appears at the end of the first episode in the background, just to approach Matt and Sal -- I only recall Barinholtz in The Mindy Project -- and say "get the fuck out."

Leva was on the show because she appeared in the early seasons, was a friend with Cameran, one of the original cast members. Then she had a bigger role one season where they actually had scenes of her at home. Then they turned that into the spinoff show. They probably had her on the show just to keep the tie to the spinoff but they didn't give her anything significant, just a few short scenes where she commented on other people's story lines, not have anything on her own. Maybe she couldn't or wouldn't shoot more scenes than that. She's suppose to be wildly successful with her restaurants and probably the only reason she does any reality TV is it's great promotion for her restaurants. Plus look how big VPR got and it must have made Lisa Vanderpump even richer, probably drives all kinds of business to her restaurants so that's what Leva is aiming for.

The waiting on Brett's scan turned out to be a nothing burger, just another fake story on top of a pile of fake stories on this show. Craig didn't look distraught at all for someone who just got dumped by the woman with whom he wanted to marry and have children. The woman who may have cheated on him leading to his dumping. In fact the bros were yukking it up on Andy Cohen show right after, Craig repeatedly flashing his big whitened teeth smile. Even if he came across as heartbroken there would be little sympathy for him sine he's an unrepentant liar -- the whole JT called Pat a bitch thing. We can only guess whom he voted for president, given his doubling down on lies. Speaking of heartbroken, Shep also claimed to have found the love of his life. What a load of bull that plot was. Now they're trying to sell the JT and Venita thing. Andy referred to people online calling it fake and Venita said "fuck off." Yeah that's not proof that it wasn't fake. She admitted that they didn't even fuck. So she can fuck off with that BS. Really the only response to this show, or all Bravo shows, is to call out the BS they keep trying to shovel.

Yeah unless the husband's asks were fake in the first place, like being near the beach and close to work. So maybe his commute is actually 5 minutes more or whatever. HHI back stories have to be looked at with a side eye. Same with their rationales for moving to another country, the wish list, etc.

Maybe. How often does a guy with a thin resume get his story made into a high budget show? Stiller must have championed it and he’s doing all these interviews and podcasts to promote the show. my guess is Apple never would have bought the show if Stiller wasn’t involved. Stiller could have buried the unknown guy, basically steal the story, but he didn’t. — didn’t do what one of the Eagans would have done, take someone else’s idea and claim it as his own.

Phil tried to stir the pot with every other racer about Jonathan and Ana using the Driver's Seat. It's really not a good look for TAR resorting to such tactics to gin up drama between cast members. Alyssa had a good attitude about having to 25 pounds of the rice but then she threw shade at Scott and Lori for trying to fly under the radar. Yeah fatigue is starting to set in. People are missing obvious clues and nerves are more frayed. Otherwise I liked the designs of the detour and road block and the scenery. It looked like the quads didn't go that fast that there was a chance of one team overtaking another just by driving more aggressively or recklessly, because those things are known to flip over and with inexperienced riders pushing it, it could lead to risky actions. But looks like they got to enjoy a fun ride through a tropical forest. Interesting to see all those taxis. Traffic can be really bad in some parts of Bali with tons of people on scooters kind of preventing cars from moving freely. They hired the taxis and had them at the venues so the racers didn't really have to go looking for any. In the country side, it would probably be difficult, especially with the taxi mafia in some parts. I wonder why they still use travel agencies. The show is sponsored by the biggest online travel agency. Why not use the computers at the hotel? I guess the tickets were already purchased by the show. They must choose departures from the previous pit stop to coincide with certain flight schedules, so that there would only be a finite number of flights right after they depart and maybe a few teams would have to take later flights which depart a couple of hours at the most after the earliest flights.

Some of these challengers take this show too seriously. What is a bigger motivation for Nany, the money or just finally winning? She doesn’t have enough allies left so she saw it coming, the winner of the elimination taking her and Turbo’s star. She was afraid it would be the final elimination before the Final though. All of them say they need the money. But they know only two of them will end up with the money so they have to be honest about their chances. For instance Veronica and Katey thought they could get into the Final and take out more athletic teams along the way. But really everyone is more athletic than them. Katey said she’d put all the money into the House she and her husband are building. But neither of them seem to be counting on winning the money. So when they get eliminated they skip away, not distraught at all. Nany thought they would be eliminated with their star taken and she was going to rant. Truth is that they should all be looking for other ways to get money, not some TV show with too many things beyond their control. Anyways, both the Daily and the elimination games were fun to watch. No big advantage for anyone. It was about as level a playing field as I’ve recalled seeing on this show.

Is she leaving that other show too? Seems like she either filmed only a few scenes or they just kept cutting out scenes with her in them. Too busy with the other show or maybe they didn't want her on this show.

So did the last Avengers movie -- was it Endgame? -- do very well at the box office? Before the pandemic, so maybe the new one will be unaffected by what's happened since to MCU movies, many of them falling vastly short of expectations as far as box office and reception.