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Seems like they'd have quite a head start for the next leg. So there could be bunching or some other team beats them to the U-TUrn which is after a Road Block or something. But U-Turn is mandatory, the first team must use it, and it's anonymous? Why the anonymity? AL dominated that dance with the head balancing. They got a lead the others couldn't overcome. That one team switched tasks after 2 hours did she say of not being able to figure out the tableau? But kind of blasted through the dolls. I guess that's another advantage for AL and her father, that doll task seemed to go much faster. Must have been fatigue that prevented the eliminated team from seeing the differences between the smaller picture and the tableau.

So this is Croatia again? They must have filmed USA and then filmed this right after as the rainy season hit over there. It was either fortuitous that it rained and got that pit muddy or they did some good planning in designing and scheduling that Daily. The group dynamics and crowd psychology are interesting. They call it the social game but here, you just don’t want to stand out, like Berna was doing, before Jessica dug her own grave and kept digging and digging. Just made it easier for everyone to vote for her, not stand out from the crowd. Did TJ call them puzzle pieces in the Arena? Just regular tiles to remove and expose the glass floor. Was there more than one hammer or the first one to get it won?

Slate Culture Gabfest wades a bit into the Buffyverse with a discussion of Slayers, a set of podcasts written and performed by some of the minor cast members. https://slate.com/podcasts/culture-gabfest/2023/10/is-killers-of-the-flower-moon-scorsese-at-his-best The clip they play is pretty bad and amateurish, big contrast from how terrific the original series was. But they go on to see some of the series through the lens of Wheadon's creepy "fantasies" about the young female cast. I knew there were allegations against Wheadon by a couple of the former female cast members. It makes it sound like he sexually harassed them but some of it seemed more like tyranny and creating a toxic workplace, making it stressful for Charisma Carpenter and Amber Benson.

I don't understand the reason for the move. The teacher found out he has English ancestry so that allowed him to move and work in England. So they give up dual income, with the lawyer probably making a lot more? So they have to downsize a family of 5 into 1 bathroom? How easy is it for an American lawyer to get license in the UK? Sure both countries have legal systems based on Common Law. But all he needs is to study a bit and pass a licensing exam? Or does he need a lot of time to re-train? Plus, in the US, his job is based on having billable clients. Maybe less entrepreneurial in the UK for lawyers but still, he's leaving a client base behind so where would he work? One of them says something about kids having the experience abroad. But it's not like other house hunters who talk up wanting their children to have an international perspective. So it seems like the teacher guy really is driving this move and the lawyer is going along with it and of course the kids don't have much say. None of the places is going to have enough room for them. They complain that the places are too small. Well when you have to downsize, you're going to have less space. Then their dogs need backyard space because they don't want to have to walk them to a park all the time. What happens if and when the lawyer gets his job. Commute 40 miles every day by train? Who takes care of the kids? They will have to spend some of the lawyer's income for child care. Financially it's questionable unless the teaching job offers something that teaching in Dallas couldn't provide.

Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan were snarking the dog POV and narration mercilessly. Even if it's a key part of the book, Andy suggests they shouldn't have done it because it just disrupts the narrative flow which had already been established in the previous episodes. BTW, the voice of the dog is BJ Novak.

For congressional races, it mostly comes down to how the district was drawn because gerrymandering is the rule, not the exception. So if the district she's targeting has overwhelmingly residents of one party or another, she's not going to have a chance as an independent. I believe there are 1 or 2 independents in the Senate, though they caucus with one of the parties. But there aren't any House members who are independent because of gerrymandering -- which obviously doesn't come into play for Senate races or the presidential election. So that makes the decision portrayed on the show even dumber, she has less chance than even Prince winning the presidency as an independent. Beyond the composition of the district, it's which candidate has the most funds. She should be rich that she can put a couple million into her campaign on her own, even if she breaks it off with Prince and can't count on him funding her campaign.

In previous seasons, they showed that Sacker came from this good background, which lined her up for politics. Unless she's implicated in a big scandal at MPC, why would she have problems? She was going to leave to run and she can point to her time at SDNY, because people in that office have gone on to political office, though usually the US Attorney becoming mayor or governor. That is what they were talking about in early seasons for Chuck, that he'd go on to the governor's office and then maybe a run at the WH. Or at least that's what Chuck Sr. was talking about.

Just like that the feud is squashed instantly. Because they went out to dine and drink together? It's as if they turned off the switch. You hear about booze making some people angry drunks. So Natalya is a kumbaya drunk? Because Tumi was hoping for peace. On WWHL, Tumi said something like "even in real life it isn't done." Which tells you all you need to know about how scripted the show is. Oh Roy Orbison's son again as guest. Now the kids are louder. Max seeing how far he can push Luka. Not deliberately but being 45 minutes late to start work and then asking for a break. Or doing those poor handstands and doing pushups while his coworkers are trying to work.

Trying to remember Austen's timeline. He was introduced as Shep's friend. Had Chelsea been on previous seasons but they played up them developing a relationship? Were they together one season or more than one season? At some point, between seasons, the sex video came out. Was it after his first season on the show or had he been on a couple of seasons? Of course that video was like chum for the Bravo sharks and they made all or most of the following season about the video, with that season ending with Shep bringing the two women in the video to some gala event to troll Austen. Then at some point, after however many seasons they were supposedly together, Madison cursed him out and made a big show of breaking up with him and demeaning him, emasculating him verbally. Chelsea didn't badmouth him, though was she on the show after they supposedly had broken up or she just quit the show? But Madison and now Olivia has badmouthed him.

Georgia tells her story about being victim of revenge porn from Bear. She's an advocate for this issue, especially looking for greater penalties for the crime. She's also promoting a book. But she tells the story about how she met Bear on The Challenge and how she was victimized. She still might not have gotten any justice if not for Bear's dumb behavior during the trial. Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/A3Yig1S0IToKKlPAurGfyTw

I wonder if they would base it on one of the characters in the original series or just set it in the Billions universe. Maybe they refer to some of the Billions characters but they never appear or at best make cameos. Even if they're completely different characters, if they start dropping references like a Rolling Stone rock critic or some characters are boasting about how they not only make a lot of money but defeat or ruin their enemies, then you have to wonder if it's any different, but maybe without actors like Lewis or Giamatti. May also depend on how many spinoffs they have in production. If they have more than one, they would probably need more writers and possibly show runners who weren't involved with this show. So they may be free to use the name but produce a different kind of show than this one. I'm sure Koppleman and his production company will at least get paid some from the spinoffs, if not still be involved in creative decisions like which actors are cast, who are the show runners. But at a minimum, they get paid just for creating the original show and concept used to produce these spinoffs. Hopefully it's the latter and they get some fresh blood making all the creative decisions because this show is limping to the finish, battered and bruised by all the acclaim Succession received, another show about billionaires and plutocrats which came along later and finished sooner with worldwide adulation.

I would be surprised if Axe and Chuck didn't win somehow over Prince. But do they just prevent him from becoming president or do they ruin him while Axe becomes even richer and still is the big money guy -- "What's the point of having Fuck You Money if you never say 'fuck you!'?" (BTW, list of best Axe quotes: https://screenrant.com/billions-bobby-axelrod-best-quotes/#the-greats-never-sacrifice-the-important-for-the-urgent) The character is always boasting and taunting his enemies and his underlings are always boosting his ego. So why would they change that for the series finale? Can't see the writers having him foiled, not get what he wants or win.

She's a former beauty pageant contestant? So maybe she's used to batting her pretty eyelashes and getting others to help her.

That's right, everyone on that list of Ivy league alums were Republicans. Yet he was complaining about Harvard indoctrination or some such nonsense.

AL hated that the team whose character she questioned because of the tile thing beat them to the mat for first place for the leg.

If it wasn't her, she should drop the dime on whoever committed a hit and run with her car.

Yeah and for New Rules, Bill doubled down on "don't send kids to college, and not to elite universities" because he doesn't like their politics. Those must be the audiences who tend to groan the most at his stupid jokes. OK Cornell alum, whatever. It's as if he thinks the "best and brightest" students would be so easily influenced by college professors. Of course the pro Palestinian protests is influencing his dim view of college students but he conveniently ignores the two decades of Israeli repressive policies, particularly enabling settlers who go around lynching Palestinians and taking their land. A lot of people who have condemned the Hamas attacks also point out the horrible Israeli politics and policies of the Netanyahu governments for the past 20 years or so, essentially the same period since they partitioned Gaza, choking it economically. That didn't have anything to do with Hamas gaining support there from a beaten down population.

Regardless of whether she has the legal training or the ability to pass the bar, Harriet shows composure and ability to persuasively argue for her position in public. More than most graduates fresh out of law school, whether or not they've passed the bar. You don't see her code switch because we don't see her conversing with other black people. She may not be in the show any longer as Elizabeth transitions to her TV show job though. Maybe she becomes a politician or an advocate for the community.

It makes no sense. She's the leading Democratic Party candidate and she chooses to be VP to Prince, an independent candidate? It would never happen. This is some alternate universe US political system. They can certainly bribe her, just give her some lucrative job after she steps away from politics. A deal like that wouldn't be illegal but it would be scandalous and some ambitious reporter would try to uncover it. People who run for president don't give up until they've lost several primary elections and another candidate has won most of the delegates. If she's already the nominee, no way she gives up. She's been winning Democratic primaries or she leads in the polls and Prince leads in the national polls. But polls are not that reliable. So this inevitability of Prince winning isn't convincing. Also not convincing is why he is such an existential threat to democracy as they're trying to depict. Prince in fact rattles off a litany of things Axe has done, many of which are worse things than Prince has done. It's as if the writers realize it's absurd to pretend that Prince is worse than Axe. Also why would he be going to Camp David? Only the president and his guests go there. The idea that he'd be cut off from any communications is absurd. That place is for presidents to run a war from if necessary so he wouldn't be cut off. They already used this device, Prince and Scooter spending all day to get Killer Mike's endorsement and willingly giving up their phones. That wasn't believable either, because no serious candidate is trying to get some rapper's endorsement. That scene with them facing each other across the long table was ridiculous. It wouldn't the first time some characters pretended to be defeated by their antagonists in a show or a movie. They had the dramatic entrance by Dunlop, announcing that she was teaming up with Prince. We'd sooner see real peace in the Middle East than the leading candidate of one of the main two parties in the US stepping back to yield to an independent candidate. Writers didn't want to associate Prince with either party so they had him be an independent candidate for the presidency, as ridiculous as that notion is.

I would think he'd be interested in doing full seasons because he'd get paid more than appearing here and there. He says he reached out to them and nobody responded. They didn't want to be associated with his domestic violence problems -- how did he get custody with DV arrest and substance abuse history? Was it Jenny who worried that Ronnie's problems would end the show? Someone else agreed and didn't seem happy at the prospect of losing the show and their incomes. Deena said "who invited him?" Well it doesn't seem like they had the choice to opt out of sitting down with him, though I guess the producers are sparing Sammie from having to do so. They sure played it up like she'd have to talk to him a bit. If MTV believed that Ronnie would help ratings, they would find a way. One of the early seasons of this Family Vacation show heavily featured all his social media viral videos. So they would use that as an easy way to build a season story line. Who knows, maybe all the bad stuff he was involved in got some people to tune in and they had high ratings in those seasons than now.

I guess the "risk" was if they failed to succeed in the tasks and not get the shortcuts. No way to win because several other players got both shortcuts so anyone who didn't get both were probably not going to be able to win. I wonder how long they were taking to load up the balances. Couldn't have been that long, seemed like they were loading up at most 10 rocks. Michaela made a bad decision, because there was no way she was completing a mile before they could load up the scale and pull a lever. Especially if that extra mile was uphill and/or on uneven terrain so she couldn't really go as fast as she would on flat and even terrain.

Some couples do use the bathrooms at the same time in the mornings. There must be some demand for them or they wouldn't keep building or renovating homes that way. Or they have additional bathrooms so they can just use both bathrooms at the same time. But the Iceland episode showed that in some places a second bathroom was rare.

They weren't saying it would be better for Elizabeth or for a woman in the '50s who paired to do more with her life than marry and raise a family or some other traditional role for women in that era. They were saying it might have made a better show than Elizabeth having to adjust to the loss and move in a direction she otherwise may not have taken if Calvin didn't die and they were able to collaborate on their research.

Wow if that is her, talk about rock bottom.

Auckland husband my have been playing up the alternate choices, to make it appear like they or at least he was really interested in them. He may have had a job all along or he expected to get one soon. The wife could be sponsored by her employer or NZ is giving visas in certain fields. Didn’t hear what kind of work he did and “logistics” seem pretty broad.