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The wedding was probably another thing instigated by producers and the guests were willing to play along. So they can film the crew being busy and Kerry preparing or obsessing over marrying people for the first time. The guests were chilling on board while the crew went back and forth to prepare the venue. Kerry put on a suit but the guests were in their comfortable vacation clothes. They didn’t dress up, that’s how you know renewing vows or the one couple choosing to get married wasn’t that important to the guests. Obviously they’d have their friends and family attending, rather than being witnessed by the cast of a reality TV show. After the ceremony was over, they were ready t9 go back to the yacht, which was more comfortable than the folding chairs the crew set up. Not to mention air conditioned cabins and more food and drink options. Sunny was calling Ben out for gaslighting her when he tried to say he didn’t throw her under the bus about driving the jet ski without a life vest on the radio. I’m cheeky, I’m spontaneous, I’m Australian! But Sunny admitted that she often picks assholes who mistreat her, so Ben should fit right in.

They can't stay away can they? All Stars have been generally less competitive field but they're also older too and after going through parenthood, maybe not the beasts they used to be. The Challenge, offering financial hope for young parents for over 4 decades!

All Star seasons have been only 10 episodes compared to the original ones which can be around double the number. Will they keep the prize money to $500k or will they lower it, since Season 39 went down to under $500k total?

Larry can afford to be at any country club, which would cater to his every demand. He can hire a private chef to make him eggs any time, any way he wants it. In fact, why not open a spite country club and golf course? But for all his money, he's going to continue being a member of a club which gives him agita because he wants to be in a perpetual Disgruntled state. However, that discontent, especially over picayune matters, gave him a infinitely lucrative career and fortune. He could easily dump Irma, get some woman 1/3 or 1/4 his age to tend to his every desire but he can't quit Disgruntled. Why not Curb Your Enthusiasm? What's there to be gruntled or content about?

Another article with Lulu Wang explaining the trajectory of the characters after the finale. Ominously it ends with: https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/expats-ending-explained-rcna139303# If the viewing numbers were strong and maybe just better reviews, Amazon would probably be offering her a new deal. Also depends on how busy NK is with other projects.

Swiss mountains are beautiful but those gondola rides aren’t cheap, unless there’s some kind of automatic discount for residents. Sensible choice, the wife was tolerating the husband talk about Swiss this, Swiss that or it’s again an HHI ruse and she is playing long. Yeah mountain roads take longer travel times, especially if there’s snow. Best thing is if she can take a commute train. Swiss train system is awesome too, you can look up schedules in an app and buy the tickets right there and just board the train.

Yeah in life, there isn't always a clear resolution. Not just for missing kids but how Mercy's narration at the end, where she says she will try to be happy for her daughter. People don't simply decide whether they're going to be happy or not, though I guess she's been driving and moping since the incident. David is a very well-paid lawyer who apparently has a lot of time on his hands. I don't think Margaret or Hilary reached out to Mercy (in Margaret's case) or apologized for getting her fired (Hilary apologized to Mercy) was so much about just trying to make Mercy feel better. For their own sake, they had to let go of the hate, for the young woman. Margaret isn't going to chase Gus forever. A part of her probably suspects that Gus is gone forever. She isn't going to find him in HK or in China, which has over a billion people and is vast. She will probably at some point rejoin her children. I guess Essie followed them to the US, felt some obligation to the family instead of her own back in the Philippines. Hilary resented both her father and mother, didn't want to be around either. But she forgives David. Rug is suppose to make her happy, for the time being? Throughout the series we've seen her driven around in a chauffeured Mercedes. But now she carries a run and walks through the streets of HK? Yes the whole thing about the protests was worth it just for Charly calling Mercy a tourist, pointing out that it's not her struggle, it's theirs and she could just go back to the US, which pointedly many of the young HK protesters can't, go to some Western nation to escape the oncoming Chinese takeover. At some point, you'd think Mercy would want to go through the professional doors which her Columbia education might open up. Otherwise, she can't even keep low-level catering or wait staff jobs in HK -- which is surprising that she's allowed to work there at all, since she's a US citizen and shouldn't have a work visa.

So here is a description of this limited series and the creative team behind it. https://deadline.com/2022/07/kate-winslet-authoritarian-limited-series-the-palace-hbo-1235077969/ On paper it should be good. Winslett and HBO have a great track record with Mildred Pierce and Mare of Easttown. Who knows, maybe after this airs, people will wish she'd done another season of Mare of Easttown, even though that show was always conceived of as a limited series, one season and done.

Ron is suppose to come back though right? I noticed Sammy already has a new Mercedes SUV. It didn't take her long. Vinny talking about settling down, whatever. Pauly says he's happy with Nikki and they showed clips from the past but apparently she has decided not to do any reality TV for now. Last time she was on it was that water fight with Angelina. They showed clips of the cast, even from just 2020, they look so much younger.

Specifically Issa Lopez will be show runner again. So Nic Pizzolatto can bite it.

I didn't want Emanuel to win during the season when he helped Jay and Michelle get rid of Horacio and Kyland. But he was smart, just didn't want to be the last two that everyone in the big alliance would target. So he drafted behind all the ones who were controlling the game, rather than band with the smaller group to try to equalize both sides. Then he pounced when he got the chance, getting rid of Jay. Looked for a second like he was going to blow it on the sudoku and he did squander a lot of his lead. But for the most part, he didn't let the puzzles completely negate the lead he got from running and swimming faster than the others. Horacio and Kyland may be better athletes -- well definitely in the case of Horacio. But the puzzles would have equalized so he might still have won. Turns out Jay should have been trying to eliminate Emanuel, who might not have survived as many eliminations. It's not a bad story, his grandparents don't have heaters and his mother has to work in England. It's good money but after taxes, it may not change his life as much as he thinks, especially if he's helping everyone else. He took advantage of Colleen and he's going to have to try to make amends with the girlfriend back home. $60k isn't bad for Nurys either. Sounds like she carries some financial burden for her family as well. Colleen seemed happy with $30k but she said she never had that much money? Well they're all pretty young but that's not a lot of money. But she's studying to be a therapist so maybe she's still living on a student's budget.

Andy Greenwald and Mina Kimes revisit the finale and the show as a whole in the Stick the Landing podcast. https://www.theringer.com/2024/2/21/24079022/did-the-leftovers-stick-the-landing Both rave about the show, though they say you have to get through season 1 to love the show. They both conclude that the show is about continuing with life in the face of loss, uncertainty. Like that's some unique existential nugget of wisdom. But I guess all the weird events of the show is suppose to demonstrate to the characters and us viewers that "shit happens, move on?"

I'm sure we will like some teams, not so much others, as in every season. Just happy that we're getting two TAR seasons without one year.

How did men end up in non combat support roles? If they had specialized skills like they were doctors, they could avoid combat? So mechanics, maybe people who had logistics knowledge and experience and some others?

It's a bad look for Pizzolatto. I don't think he was known for anything until TD season 1. There was great anticipation for more seasons but later seasons didn't live up to the first and one common observation was that maybe a lot of the brilliance of season 1 had to do with Cary Fukunaga, the director, than Pizzolatto. Now he's sniping when season 4, on which he didn't have any creative input, gets a little attention? Curious if HBO took him off TD permanently. He's had a couple of other projects since TD but not clear if he's EP or show runner or just a writer.

Barbie is shown as muttering and insulting Fraser several times in this episode as she's walking away. That could easily have been faked to create drama. But maybe there was a scene where she goes into her cabin, upset after a testy exchange with Fraser. First she wasn't too receptive to Fraser asking her to get along better with Cat. Then it was this stupid nitpicking about whether margarita's had orange juice or not. Apparently she has a binder of drink recipes, not some recipe book, and she uses it as proof that she made it with OJ in her previous jobs and thus she's right. But Fraser going to the captain at the end seems like a staged thing, to keep up this narrative that she could be the one fired. Cat is shown slacking, like the way she folds hand towels in the cabins. Then she has to be shown that towels have to be hung in certain direction. Remember, 5-star service! Kerry did briefly look around the cabins and the deck. They must have gotten the sink stops consistent this time because he didn't say a word about it this time. Speaking of different standards, Frenchie makes Cordon Bleu chicken filets, get the crust just right. Not only does he make it a main for one of the guest meals, he makes some extra filets for the crew meal. But he doesn't make enough of them and by the time Captain Kerry goes to grab some bite, the last chicken filet is gone and one of the stews is eating the last one in front of him -- she offers to share but he says no. Kerry tells the chef that the crew needs fuel, not necessarily haute cuisine. And fuel means more volume not smaller quantities of dishes which take long time to cook. At least neither the guests nor the crew -- those who got a piece before they were gone -- complained about the chicken. "Chicken is for poor people." "Chicken is unacceptable!" On the crew night out, not too much action or drunken antics but Barbie takes a little shine to Jared talking about trying to connect to his daughter, whom he's never met and only found out about after she was born. Sunny put herself out there or at least on text to Ben to make out. Ben puts her on blast the next day for going out on a jet ski without a vest or other safety measures -- on the radio for Kerry to hear. Sunny may not warm up further to Ben. Ben BTW notes that Jared is not making mistakes on this second charter, seems to be on top of things. He wonders out loud whether that will continue. Well did the producers prompt him in his talking head to talk shit again about Jared? Will they make this another thing, Ben undermining or trying to angle for taking over as bosun?

First there was the spite store. In Vertical Drop, Horizontal Tug episode we now get spite Wordle and spite wills. Also balls shorts, the return of Takahashi, stolen golf lessons and pinch inseminators. The only narrative strand seems to be Larry for championing voting rights — except he really didn’t or only did so accidentally. Looks like Larry is only minimally civil to Cheryl and Ted now. Danson and Mary Steenburgen are still married IRL so why did she stop appearing on the show? In any event LD is competing against them, particularly Ted, who feels he should be on TV and getting praised. Larry also found a way to degift the massage gun. It wasn’t getting any love compared to the puppy anyways. Once he used it on his groin injury, it was as good as un-gifted. Freddie and then Leon tried to pinch-gift the gift of life this episode while Richard tried to pre-gift his estate to Larry who suspected an anterior motive. But he kind of self-gifted free golf tips, including for teeing off, hence the name of the episode, which had a lot of giving.

BTW, check out the IMDB ratings for all 4 seasons of TD. Also notice the gap between the Tomatometer and Audience scores on RT for season 4. The review-bombing is real -- women leads, woman show runner.

Would it have been a more satisfying end for Navarro if she returned the Sponge Bob tooth brush in person and moved in with Qavik? Or maybe it would have been too much fan service because it looks like Liz, Leah, Pete and most others are in a better place, not to mention Alaska in the spring and summer.

From Reddit: the cleaning women gave the game away by neatly folding the scientists clothes near where they were frozen to death. Or it's a variation of "the butler did it" where some minor characters briefly introduced and mostly in the background end up having a leading role in the mystery. It's one of the clear takeaways from this season, those indigenous women in Alaska are not to be messed with -- even though Ennis is a fictional place so who knows what life is really like north of the Arctic Circle. The young ones like Leah and Kayla bring a lot of drama and if they don't walk off into the distance like Julia or Evangeline, they age into that angry mob meting out tundra justice. I can't tell if Lopez felt obliged to maintain the Lovecraftian or supernatural elements through the end. Or did she lean into it? Clark saying time is a flat circle at the end seemed like a line that was forced in at that point. I liked it better when Jodie Foster joked that time is a spiral -- which is a flattened circle, like Liz inadvertently peeling an orange with a knife and the resulting peel being a spiral. Then there's the symmetry of Pete putting his father into a hole in the ice, after Hank pulled him out of a hole in the ice when he was a boy. Or Liz hearing voices and seeing Holden under the ice, after angrily telling Navarro not to talk about Holden communicating from the afterlife. Then Navarro has to Danvers out of the ice. Finally, Evangeline walking off into the distance, as Julia had, as the reindeer had jumped off into the distance. If they in fact wrapped everything up like a procedural with rational explanations for every event previously shown, it would feel like a CSI show. But this is True Detective so of course there has to be some mythology at the end too.

Sepinwall: season 4 finale the best in the history of the series. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/true-detective-night-country-series-finale-recap-jodie-foster-1234967345/

With Olivia, she seemed on a verge of packing her bags and leaving. I don't recall if she pulled out the suitcases and gathering clothes to pack up before or after she patched up the ceiling. I also missed what caused her to put her stuff back and decide to endure more of her unhappy marriage. Maybe the point is that like her friends Margaret and Hilary, it's difficult to make a big change. The director is a woman so while these are all women of means -- though I'm not sure how Olivia, a HK woman, would fare in a divorce compared to Hilary, an expat whose husband doesn't seem like he'd punish her financially, where as Olivia's husband appears to be a prick. Of course the bigger challenges for women facing change involve the underclass characters. Puri doesn't know what will happen if Hilary divorces and Essie also faces similar uncertainty if Margaret and Clarke leave HK. The mother of the arrested protester is fearful that she will lose her son, so again, a big potential change in her life that she would have little control over.

I swear a lot. But not sure if I wouldn't be a bit more self-conscious in front of TV cameras. These guests certainly made some choices about how they want to appear on TV. Apparently not too worried about how their relatives, especially young children, or friends and coworkers would react or feel about how they come across.

My point is that it's a way to give his brother and other family members jobs. He probably enjoys a lot of the trips he's taking. Seems to be game for just about anything and seems to be a bit of a people-pleaser so he plays to them -- the influencers and chefs who film segments with him -- as much as the audience in his reactions. He ate the raw squid parts which were still moving in the Seoul episode. The producers do a good job of finding some serious issues, so that the whole thing isn't some frivolous adventure for a guy who has the means and the opportunity to travel all over the world and probably dine on a budget which would be out of reach to many people. For instance, in Chicago they addressed food desserts. In Seoul, they sat down with someone who'd escaped North Korea and found joy at seeing a food that she hadn't seen since she was a child back in North Korea, which brought back a flood of memories to her. This potato dumpling is like her Proustian madeleine, the way taste and smell are tied to some of our most powerful memories.

Denver to Mexico City. She said after the first date they both realized each other were “the person” for each other. They traveled a lot together and visited MC many times. In fact he proposed with plane tickets to MC. They decided to move there after returning from a trip to see deserted streets in Denver while MC was “lively” with streets full of people. She grew up in Brooklyn while he grew up in a smaller town. They want 2 bedrooms because he will be doing his software engineering job remotely. She wants open layout kitchen. He wants city views and sticking to a $1700 budget, she wants easy commute to her office because she pointedly says no car for them. House 1 is $2000 but offers everything on their wish list other than price and the views he wants. House 2 is $1800 and roomy but is on the ground floor. No views for him, which he points out over and over again. It is close to her work and will allow her to walk through a very popular park to her office. House 3 is $1600, very stylish but smaller rooms. It is far from her office. But it has a roof terrace with the views he wants. She questions how much he will go up there and he says he’d use it a lot, take his computer and work up there, repeatedly enjoying the views. They rule out house 1 and she convinces him that House 2 is better long term because of the space and her commute. He accedes.