aghst

So it’s all a nice story, the underdog rookie women pulling off a move to eliminate one of the two vet women who are larger than them. But so many chances for producers shenanigans such as them saying CT and Big T won or maybe the ballast mechanism on Toris cart being tighter. Big T hamming it up as the queen. Tori is right that being bigger is an advantage. But it’s not necessarily the fault of the smaller women. It’s poor casting to have so many physical mismatches in this “fifth national sport.” Or maybe the smaller women don’t accept the invitation to participate knowing they don’t have a realistic chance. Or they don’t care, they get to be on TV and get a trip for a couple of weeks. TJ said one of the most beautiful settings on The Challenge but they don’t show a wide shot of the cliff and the waterfall on the other side. In the crater it seemed like it wasn’t that hard to figure out which squares to target. The higher squares they had to throw over their heads because they couldn’t throw the balls high enough otherwise. When Tori finally got her cart to release the balls, she was walking back to get more balls. Seemed like a preordained elimination. Fessy not happy to be paired with Aneesa again, jus in time for a challenge with a 5 mile run. There’s only been a couple of puzzles or memorization challenges, the first one with the circuits and then the drone challenge to decode the numbers? Nothing other than physical contests in the Crater? I guess they had no choice but to bring Ashley back because of the quarantining requirements that all the players had to go through. So being the first to be eliminated worked out and she’s dying to avoid being a target like she was at the start of the season.

Season 5 to be the last for the series. Issa and other cast members must be getting some lucrative TV opportunities. Or maybe HBO/AT&T was unwilling to increase salaries. I haven't watched any of the movies done by Issa and other cast members. But the impression I get is that they're not as good as the show has been.

Interview with an author on a book about the racist history of the filibuster. Turns out Kathryn's famous ancestor is the father of the Senate filibuster. He mainly came up with the filibuster to push back against the growing abolitionist sentiment in the country and to justify and glorify slavery. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/12/955970922/kill-switch-examines-the-racist-history-of-the-senate-filibuster

They probably aren't that uncommon among Uber drivers, in case they get into an accident or have some problem with a customer. Not too expensive. The one thing they skipped over is Michael finding out Trevor was using the Camry for Uber and how he found him, claiming his phone wasn't working. Neither Uber nor Lyft lets you see where the drivers are. You have to select a destination and then tap confirm, meaning you're committed to paying for the ride. You don't get to select which driver or even see their names, at least not before you confirm. I think Uber lets the driver choose whether to do the pick up and then connects you with that driver. So no way would Michael be able to track Trevor dropping off someone and then him just jumping on like that. Jimmy and Frank did some detective work to track down the gas station and now Michael tracks down Trevor, first fooling Detective Nancy into searching the license plate and then somehow finding Trevor in real time? OK, well it moved the story along, though the blackmail plot didn't last. I guess they had to come up with 10-episodes (or however many episodes there are) worth of content.

Captain dining with the guests has to be a show thing. Lee's not that interesting as a host. You'd think there would be some conversation but he seems like a prop in his uniform. No doubt the Caribbean is scenic but I'm missing them setting up picnic lunches at castles and such. Pony rides on the beach? Guess they had to have something to film besides the usual shots of them on jet skis or going down the slides.

SATC ended its original run in 2004, so it's been about 20 years. The movies came out over 10 years ago? These characters would presumably be retired by now or very close to it. If they were going to marry and have families, it would have been done by now, the kids left the nest? The 3 of them are reportedly getting $1 million each an episode so very good opportunity for older actresses.

I thought he ate something. But the whole break-in scene was kind of pointless. All he did was look around, kind of mark his territory (literally with the toilet) and then once he found the inhaler, he was convinced he found the driver who hit his son, only he thinks it's Michael, not Adam. It's surprising that Jimmy would get hands-on. He's wearing a nice suit and presumably his days of violence are in the past. He has a public profile as a businessman. Would he have killed Michael or Adam if they came home? Or when Michael saw the polaroid that Jimmy left, he was wondering about it and then saw someone at the door and was panicking a bit but it turned out to be Adam. Jimmy was going to have Frank kill Michael but then Adam shows up and they have to reconsider if they want to kill both. Then at the harbor, he was going to kill Michael and then he ends up killing Trevor. Again, nice suit and Frank, his henchman is there. But he does it himself. If he shot Michael at such close range, it would have splattered blood all over himself. Frank can't be the only guy who is in his mob. He was willing to risk war with Desire, with Gina egging him on. So he better have some soldiers. Looks like Carlo is getting involved with Desire so there's going to be potential conflict there too. Tony Soprano got his hands dirty but most of the time it was his underlings who did the killing. And he's pretending to be in "waste management" but otherwise a suburban dad and husband.

The boat payment comment was meant to be flippant. Michael was willing to put up with the arrangement but of course he didn't want to be blackmailed. Yet he wasn't going to kill or hire some hit man to kill Trevor. But when the opportunity presented itself, Michael basically gave Jimmy the permission to kill. It's a milestone in Micheal breaking bad. His attempts to cover up the incident has gotten Kofi and now Trevor killed. He's suppose to be a good judge but he offered to fix Carlo's case for Jimmy. He's gone a long way down the road from just trying to keep Adam and himself safe. It's cost the lives of others. Michael took a picture of the screen from the video feed with his phone before he deleted the video.

I don't think anyone in the cast wants to socialize with Kathryn. They do so on camera because the show requires it. But it seems unlikely they go out of their way to seek out her company when the cameras are not rolling.

Part 6: Michael comes up with some fake story and gets Detective Nancy to identify the car at the gas station which was behind Adam. Just as with Walter White, Michael keeps digging deeper and deeper when he's already in the hole. Jimmy Baxter, with the fancy suit, decides to break into Michael's home and look around, sees the inhaler that they found bits of at the crash site. So he thinks Michael killed Rocco and leaves him a little calling card, a Polaroid of Django. Also pisses in the toilet with the seat down. Michael finally figures out who's blackmailing him, a no good son who stole his father's Camry and uses it to Uber people around. Michael spends some time with Edward, the father of Trevor, the blackmailer. Then the next thing you know it, Michael is riding in Trevor's stolen Camry as an Uber customer though he just jumps in the car, says his phone wasn't working. He leaves a burner phone in the back seat and then later calls Trevor to set up a meeting. Trevor was going to use the blackmail money for a boat so what does Michael do, finance the boat for him and offer to make payments as long as Trevor doesn't drop the dime on him. Trevor says Michael should really come out on his boat with him some time and then Jimmy and Frank confront him. Jimmy has a gun while Frank the henchman just knocks Trevor into a rudder and knocks him out. Jimmy is about to end Michael right then and there but then Michael blurts out that Carlo is going to be arrested for murdering Kofi. Lee had found out Carlo killed Kofi and got DNA evidence. Michael says he can make sure he gets the case and have Carlo go free. Finally, Walter White is in the house! Adam and Fia are getting close. She has a VW bug which has been immaculately restored. OK unique looking car but in a crash with a typical modern SUV, she's instant roadkill. Jimmy and his gifts to his children! But who knew gangsters would raise hipsters? Fia tells Adam that the newspaper stories about her father aren't true, that he's a self-made man and he's kind. But when the subject turns to Carlo, her older brother, she screams. OK so Carlo is a POS but Jimmy's a saint, the one who kills poor Trevor without a second thought? Yes Trevor has a very short visit in this show and basically Michael gave Jimmy the OK to kill Trevor. No more boat payments!

OK I know Starfleet isn't a military organization and people have to live for months or years at a time in space, on duty on a ship or on the space station. But they seem so casual often. You always see them with some hot beverage -- apparently replicator can do Earl Grey well -- even while on duty, like while piloting the runabout. And of course the conversations are casual. Chief was talking to one of his colleagues about his relationship issues with Keiko. And then I just watched an ep, skipping around to find Dominion-specific episodes, and Worf and Dax are a thing? And they're making out in public spaces! But everyone is often holding a mug -- in the future, mugs look like 20th century mugs.

Because Kathryn is the star of the show. So if you want to get air time, you have to get into it with Kathryn. Her wreck of a life is what the show has chosen to highlight so she's always going to be feuding with someone. Leva isn't going to stay on the show too long if she minds her business and the show is just showing her at her restaurants, at home with her kids, etc. She has to interact with the other cast. Maybe they'll try to make more out of the shouting match with Austen but he's going to have his hands full being called out as a pussy and so on. Lot of mansplaining this episode. Where are Shep and Craig to put little Craigie in his place?

It was for the show, they were going to get these people together, get them drunk, hope for some shouting matches at least. They probably didn't anticipate the wind but the show probably paid for the caterer, made it look like Madison arranged it all. But you had people arrive in different groups so they could film their convos. Of course Austen was going to go. If he wants that paycheck he does what he's told.

At the start, this was suppose to be Southern Charm, you know the gentility of the well-heeled? Ply them with wine and stir up old antagonisms, shouting match ensues, profit! At least there was a jet stream on Capers Island. Which, what they showed of it wasn't too charming, unless one is going for the wild, undeveloped nature vibe. I suspect they catered a party out there because they couldn't find other indoor venues for this TV get together. Austen gets mad at Leva but he didn't get mad at Craig for meddling in his relationship with Madison? If it wasn't a fake setup for the show, he should be beating up Craig for being such a meddling bitch. He also probably has displaced anger from Madison belittling him. She told him you come in with this big dick energy but you don't have it (a big dick?). In the previews, she's calling him a beta and a pussy. Come on, she's either a very horrible person or it's classic producers egging her on, giving her things to say. Then you have Kathryn and the girls. The Gwynn's boss must want publicity for her store so she's going to play out some melodrama on the show. Danni is suppose to be Kathryn's BFF but why? They must be almost 10 years apart in age. Doubtful she and Kathryn spend a lot of time off camera. She didn't seem to know Kathryn was dating someone for awhile. Yeah people are right to be skeptical of Kathryn dating a black man. There was some other reality show cast member who got in trouble for saying something racist on social media and her retort was how she'd slept with black men.

I'm guessing it was filmed before the pandemic. Otherwise they wouldn't have crowded into that tiny elevator. Oslo doesn't seem to be the place where you'd save a lot of money. Norway is suppose to be one of the most expensive places in which to live. I don't know what the square footage of the apts. but the prices weren't bad. Not a bad location in Paris. Not as expensive as the Marais, which most Paris episodes seem to feature. BTW, if anyone want to see some gorgeous photography of Paris, check out Emily in Paris. The show itself is so-so but they capture some beautiful cinematography. I wonder what kind of events they're holding. Is he giving seminars or some motivational schtick? Or maybe he wanted a large house with all those beds so he can rent out the rooms for Airbnb for people visiting for his events.

The drone challenge was dumb. They didn't get to practice flying and they have to fly blind because most of the partners gave bad instructions. So yet another physical elimination, that seems like most of the eliminations have been physical. At least the Hall Challenge is out of the way. I mean visually interesting but again, a big mismatch in size and weight. And they're changing the rules as they go along. TJ wouldn't tell him which gender elimination it was. Maybe they withheld the information to see which way Tori and Devin would vote so that they can set up this villain story line for Fessy. Was Fessy putting his hand into Nelson's face while they were piled up?

Ashling and Eddie were on WWHL. Ashling said Elizabeth just wasn't getting the job done. Because of miscommunication from Elizabeth, Ashling changed 6 or 7 bedsheets when she only needed to do one. She also said Francesca told Elizabeth to write things down on a note pad but she didn't comply. Says Elizabeth is 30 and she is almost 26. Andy referred to Izzy recently coming out as lesbian on social media. Eddie said she is brave.

Why are all the crew so bothered that Elizabeth and James may have hooked up? Bravo encourages this kind of thing. Izzy referenced James' j--- in the hot tub and didn't want to have them hookup in the bunk below hers. Ashling and Rachel were both disapproving, but why? James was flirting with everyone so maybe they liked the attention. When the guests were asking for several different things, it seemed like they might not go with whatever was scheduled, like riding horses on the beach or whatever. Shopping would not make for good TV and they probably wouldn't be able to take camera crew into the shops. That's why the charter agendas is probably controlled by production, so that they could film what they want, not leave it to the guests, in case the guests go where cameras can't go or they want to just relax on deck, not do anything but drink and eat. They can't have a normal dinner, it always has to be theme dinners or else it might get boring to show them dining and going "Ummm, so good" repeatedly. They also have to do food porn because standard food, without much presentation, wouldn't go over well on TV. These guests like the theatrics though, getting excited every time a champagne bottle was uncorked. They even requested to have them opened in their presence so they could see. There was these guests who kept sabering champagne bottles on another season of one of these BD shows. They were horrible guests too, but they must have loved them slicing the bottles off the champagnes with a big knife.

Yeah the wiki doesn't list every episode touching on the Gem'Hardar or Dominion. For instance, I just watched in S4 an episode where a renegade Gem'Hadar attack the station to steal some equipment because they are rebuilding the Gateway from the Iconians. That isn't listed on the Dominion Wars Wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_War But Sisko and the crew on the Defiant rescues survivors of a Gem'Hadar ship attacked by the same renegades so they work together to defeat the renegades and defeat the Gateway. The episode illustrate the fanatic loyalty of the Gem'Hadar to the Founders, even if there are renegades. But so far in S3 and S4, episodes on the Dominion are sprinkled here and there. I think there are several reasons why they didn't go all Dominon all the time. 1. Back in the '90s, I don't think shows did one major plot arc, like they do today. There were 25 or 26 episodes in these seasons, so that's a lot of content to produce and like I said above, if they make it all about the wars, it probably becomes expensive with much more CGI. 2. Concentrating on the Dominion would have crowded out all the other themes and stories and character development. With a large cast, there are many episodes featuring one or two characters, more about Dax's past, more about Kira's dealings with the Cardassians, etc. Plus if DS9 was only about Dominion, other ST shows and movies might have had to go that way as well. Because if the Dominion are an existential threat to the Federation, how can you have other stories in the ST universe, unless DS9 was occurring in a completely different timeline than other ST shows and movies? Yet to me, Dominion did seem like an existential threat to the Federation and any other races which were not a part of the Federation, such as the Klingons and Romulans. Klingons were building up bases in the sector. They may have used the Dominion threat as an excuse to expand their empire but they were treating it as a potential threat. After they destroyed that star ship, on their first contact with the Gem'Hadar, you'd think the Federation would be alarmed, maybe have PTSD, kind of like how we felt after the 9/11 attacks. You would think Star Fleet would become prepare for potential war or an invasion into the Alpha quadrant. But instead, the very next episode, at the start of season 3, the crew on the DS9 don't seem that much on edge. Of course Sisko returns with the Defiant and his plan is to try to approach the Founders, to make a peace pact. So they do prepare for war but try to avoid it. Yet when the Founders make clear they're not interested in peace with the Federation, business seems to return to normal, with many of the episodes in S3 and S4 being these character-focused stories. But as I said above, it may have been difficult for them to pivot entirely to one big story arc for the rest of the series, because it would impact not just this series but other ST series and movies. It certainly would have changed the nature of the show and the ST universe if DS9 focused on a very destructive, protracted war. It would have made the show more gritty and changed its optimistic view of humanity, because a lot of their stories are metaphors for how humans deal with each other, so while there is conflict and some battles, the Federation always seem to maintain peace.

I started a rewatch, mainly because I never did watch through the end of the series, in particular the whole Dominion War saga. When I saw the Dominion destroying that star ship, it was one of the most memorable and shocking moments I'd seen on the ST universe, if not on TV. I'm not sure where in the ST cannon this event occurred, whether other star ships had been destroyed yet in other ST series or movies. Certainly the Wolf359 scenes of the Borg Cube swatting down star ships like flies is one of the signature ship battle scene in the ST universe. But for some reason, I had a stronger visceral reaction to this kamikaze attack for some reason. Part of it was that the Dominion was a big surprise at this point in the ST universe. Star Fleet didn't know anything about the Dominion but apparently they knew about SF. Plus they used a spy, that telekinetic character pretending to be a Gem'Hadar prisoner and turning out to be a very loyal Dominion agent. Dominion technology seemed superior, the way they just cut through star ship shields with attacks from those smaller ships, while being mostly unaffected by the star ship's weapons. Or the way they transported in and out, walked through force fields, without any nearby ship, suggesting they had long-range transporters. I watched most of the episodes through the first two seasons and then found the Dominion Wars wiki, which highlights the specific episodes dealing with the Dominion and their various races in their empire. So I skipped forward and started watching Dominion-specific episodes only, starting with that first encounter. The kamikaze scene on this watch didn't quite seem as menacing for some reason. Guess Sisko called out how they were retreating back to the wormhole and the Gem'Hadar decided to sacrifice one of their ships to make sure the star ship didn't get back out alive. It was to send a message and for some reason, I recall Sisko's reaction being more angry than it turned out to be on second watch -- I don't know that the actor playing Sisko is that good as some of the line readings in the early episodes for some reason are cringe-inducing to me. Now I'm going through the Dominion episodes in S4, just finished the two-part about the Star Fleet conspiracy to impose martial law which was fomented by Changeling infiltrators to trick SF into a civil war. Have very little recollection of these episodes so my guess is I stopped watching around S3 or S4 back in the '90s. It will be interesting to see if they go to all-out war. One of the things I thought was lacking in the ST shows and movies is action and protracted war. I attributed it partly to Roddenbury's reported anti-war stance. We forget that ST the original series was right in the peak of the Vietnam War but I'd heard Roddenbury was generally pacifist as well. The Dominion Wars wiki references some research that a war theme would appeal more to younger male viewers (maybe because Star Wars had stoked such an appetite) so the show runners moved it in that direction, a departure from other ST shows and movies. My interest was that it's unlikely a big Federation would be forged without hostilities. Plus they represented hostile races, such as the Klingons and the Romulans -- the very first Romulan episode, when the Enterprise first encountered the cloaking Romulans, was one of my favorites -- yet there was rarely protracted war with them or any other alien races. The other thing was that advances in CGI made more ship battles possible to render but it's also probably the reason ST shows didn't feature space battles all the time, because CGI is expensive and takes a long time to produce, more appropriate for movie budgets and production schedules than TV show budgets and schedules. I'm not a warmonger at all but for escapist entertainment, I enjoyed seeing more depictions of battles. The possible civil war scenario, with that rogue Admiral trying to take over the earth and Star Fleet, seems pretty mild compared to plots involving infiltration and internal SF wars which occur in later movies and shows. For instance, I recently watched the first season of Picard and by now it seems far more likely that SF has been infiltrated and there are hostile forces at Star Fleet than not.

Yeah I watched a bit of it but it seems Bravo is doing it for other shows, to have this joint rewatch thing. They did it for Southern Charm too, with some cast members rewatching with VPR cast. I deleted it. I don't like those Behind the Scenes episodes of the last week's episode either. Bravo shows are disposable. You watch once, maybe snark about them online, then forget them. They're not deep enough for behind the scenes details.

Episode 5 thoughts: Dumbass Adam is at it again. Now he's stalking Fia, the sister of the guy whom he killed? He won't tell her his last name, like she won't be able to find out. At least he didn't use a dumb pseudonym like Dylan Thomas. If they hook up, you know he will unburden himself, like he did with Frannie. To top it off, he forgets to give Django his meds and Michael has to rush the dog to the vet. Yeah Michael is being blackmailed but how does a random guy at the gas station put it together that Adam is the one who hit Rocco? Did they publicize the Volvo in the media or just show photo of Kofi? And this guy sneaks into the court room to hide a burner phone? Also, if burner phones can be traced, why would people keep buying burner phones? I am pretty sure the SIM card ID or any unique number tied to the device or the SIM card are not registered to individual phone stores. They sell burners at random convenience stores so the manufacturers aren't going to tie those devices to some specific stores. Desire is now going to take care of Eugene but guess they want to avoid the war so the boss lady (don't know if they called her by name) is telling Baxter that Kofi wasn't the driver. She's going to be a player the rest of the season. Not sure why Baxter really cares. Gina is satisfied with him killing Kofi's family except for Eugene. He's been avoiding actions which might cause a gang war but now he wants to stir things up again? And come on, mobsters are doing "due diligence" which in this case is active detective legwork that the NOPD didn't bother with? How do they know which tower the 911 call came from? I guess they have a corrupt judge now issuing court orders to telephone companies. But in any event, they figure out there was a call from a gas station and they narrow it down? They'd be good detectives but most of the time, they don't care that much to get the truth, they would just torture people to tell them. This is where the Dylan Thomas gambit backfires on Michael. Baxter is asking the gas station owner about Kofi but the owner recognizes Michael's picture instead. I don't know how security camera systems work but some of them only keep recordings going back a limited period of time, because they run out of tape or hard drive space. Or cloud storage space. Unless something happened like a robbery, most of the recordings don't show anything important so the systems record over previous recording. If something happens, they have a few days or a week to go review and save permanently the event recorded. I thought the owner would say something like "well it got recorded over because it's been x weeks" but somehow he knows Dylan/Michael deleted his recording? Now Jimmy knows it was Michael who deleted the security tape from the gas station where Rocco's phone was when the 911 call was recorded. He also knows the car belonged to Michael. That is probably all the "due diligence" evidence that most mobsters would care about, to beat up Michael and get him to talk. Soon, he's going to see that Adam is dating Fia. Too many coincidences and you don't need "due diligence." The Desire boss lady should have straight up told Jimmy that it was Michael or Adam who probably hit Rocco. Meanwhile, Lee is getting a second autopsy on Kofi so Michael hasn't been controlling her with sex very well, as Charlie recommended that he do.

Probably a day trader, not working for a company. How can he have time to film if he has a FT job which typically requires a lot of hours?

I've seen it in Vietnam too. Worry about the safety of those things, in a big storm or if there was a big fire. I guess they won't invest in trenching those lines under the street or running conduits there.

Yeah I wondered about the cryptocurrency reference for the HH in Bangkok. Looks like he stopped working, has been traveling for a good while now. He's going to start a business in Thailand to bring in some kind of income so maybe not that loaded. The agent wasn't Lala but she's also done at least one previous episode in Thailand. Did they drive to the homes with the agent like they've been doing in the Europe episodes? They had a wide shot of the couple next to each other and the agent a few feet from them. Maybe they couldn't have them space further apart and still get all of them in one shot