aghst

I guess they weren't shooting at the time this occurred or they'd have made an episode about it.

When they did a commercial to promote the WWHL episode right after this episode, they showed Craig smiling broadly. Kind o weird, this is suppose to be a sad episode, everyone showing grim faces but Craig is smiling and going to yuk it up with Andy, who also was smiling. Maybe things weren't as mournful as they depicted in the episode. Craig apparently doesn't seem sad any more, though the episode and the events depicted happened months ago.

Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan discuss the show, specifically the first two episodes, in the latest The Watch podcast episode. They said regardless of the book, it might be a better show if they kept the couple together instead of killing Calvin off. Instead they would both do their work and beat the patriarchy. But then Greenwald says he doesn't like period shows where a current mindset is imposed on some distant past to win moral victories over history when attitudes were not as progressive. They joke about the dog killing Calvin. They wonder about how Brie Larson chooses projects and what Apple is trying to do overall with the Apple TV+ service. One thing I meant to mention, the flashback to the sexual assault reveals the significance of the pencil used in the opening credit sequence. Elizabeth was gripping the pencil in the scene where Calvin closes the lab door and she's having a panic attack, ready to use the pencil again to defend herself. So that credit sequence featuring pencils is a curious choice. On the surface, it could be about how academically or intellectually-inclined Elizabeth is. The pencils draw formulas and curves and Elizabeth is writing down notes often in the first two episodes. But it's also associated with the trauma and what kind of defines the character in these first two episodes.

Interesting so the race wasn't close, once Johnny missed the scale. Even then, Fessy reckoned that he and Chris would be the best at running/hiking up the mountain, assuming they both performed equally at the risk stations. It would also imply that Chris outperformed Cory by a good margin in the running/hiking climb since they both got both shortcuts. It will be interesting to see how they deal with Chris in future seasons if Chris does more Challenges. They will likely try to pull him into an alliance because they don't want to risk going into eliminations against him. OTOH, he only won one Daily so maybe they'd be incentivized to eliminate him sooner than later, maybe put him into the elimination as often as possible to prevent him making the Final.

Only Bananas missed the rocks on the scale thing. I would have expected that he'd do better than others. Cory passed Bananas and Fessy because he got both shortcuts, while they missed both -- Fessy didn't even get to attempt the scales. Only chance he had of overcoming the 5-minute deficit is if Chris missed at least one of the shortcuts or he really struggled to climb the mountain. Would be nice to know how much later Cory completed the race. If it was less than 5 minutes, he would probably beat himself over it. He's got to work on puzzles and eating.

Yes, she did say that she hoped it would take care of itself. Was she rowing fiercely to induce a miscarriage?

I guess it was to show that she knew the science and was self-reliant. She eventually sees the doctor who asks her why she didn't see a doctor earlier about her pregnancy. There appears to be an element of wanting to hide her condition. It turns out she had reasons to fear how her employer and coworkers might react. But the bigger reason is wanting to deny the pregnancy, because she believed it would be the end of her professional aspirations, because parenting, especially by herself, would be too demanding. So Harriet is suppose to show her a way as a single mother. It's not clear what Harriet does for work though. She seems to be knowledgeable about laws and has time and energy to contest the plans to run a highway through her neighborhood. But she was speaking for other people who'd be affected, mostly black neighbors, probably because the decision-makers thought they could roll over them. Maybe they were paying her to be their advocate.

Don't forget that Elizabeth found an engagement ring when Calvin's belongings were returned to her from Hastings. So he may have been hoping to change her mind. But it's hard to understand the timeline. They were only together within episode 2 but that could have been maybe weeks or months or years. It seemed abrupt though, like they progressed very quickly, from them meeting, then her going to work for him, then him making her not feel threatened by him, then them becoming couple, then they moved in together, then he dies. It all happened within episode 2 or maybe the tail end of episode 1 as well. No montages showing passage of time, so it seemed sudden. And she found out she was pregnant after he died and before she was showing. I don't know if there were no good diagnostics, even with doctors, to determine if she was pregnant or she avoided going to the doctor because she was trying to hide it from her employers and coworkers. But it seems like when she killed that frog, she was still in the first or second trimester, not showing at all. So at most she and Calvin were together a couple of months, at least intimately? If they were together only a few months, would he have changed his will? Whether he changed the will or not, you would think some family member would have turned up. Also I forgot to say, why do shows and movies use the trope of a character being killed walking into the street while distracted. It happens so often, you'd think there would be a name for it by now. I guess the abrupt death of a supporting character is a device to trigger changes in the lives of the main characters, maybe just to accelerate the plot. But one would think some writers wouldn't want to do the same thing over and over?

That more or less decided the race, at least for them, both got eliminated at the second station, didn't even get a chance to do the rock balance thing to get on the ATV. Cory seemed foolish, doubling down on the rock on sled task. It looked like Chris won by only taking two boxes at a time and others may have tried to take more than 2 so it slowed them down? The women seemed to do only one box at a time. The spelling bee was embarrassing for many of them. The eating challenge, you could see that all the vets were prepared and used to it, had an actual strategy -- I thought they had to eat and drink in the order TJ listed the ingredients but that wasn't the case. So not surprised Johnny and Tori won. Cory being 5 minutes down was bad and he likely wouldn't have caught up if not for the shortcuts. But 5 minutes is nothing compared to not getting shortcuts to avoid the over 1-mile stretches. One mile even on flat terrain, if they ran the fastest they could, without worrying about running several miles after that, would take at least 6-7 minutes for the most fit of them. Obviously they couldn't go at full speed because they were going uphill, on uneven terrain and carrying rocks and they had to pace themselves. So 5 minutes penalty wasn't that bad. Cory passed Bananas and Fessy because they both failed the axe task, which was mostly luck. I don't know if 5 attempts is enough to develop a consistent throwing technique, accounting for having the axe spin at a certain rate so that it hit the board with the blade side. That was Fessy's problem, he couldn't get the spin right and it basically prevented him from being able to compete. But they were all rushing and just taking their chances. If they really thought about it, even that one shortcut was a huge deal so they maybe should have taken their time, be more methodical. So of all the finishers, they all got both shortcuts so it was 8 miles for them and Bananas missed on both tasks so he ended up running 10 miles.

They're going to keep showing how much sexism there was in the '50s in each episode. Latest outrage, they are going to fire her for being pregnant, especially as an unmarried woman. Is that why Elizabeth tried to hide it? But the fact that Elizabeth and Calvin were living together would have also raised eyebrows then because living together before marriage didn't become common until the '70s or even later I believe -- there used to be polls showing gradually increasing social acceptance of unmarried couples living together first. So she arranged the funeral and inherited the home? Because she's demolishing it as if it's hers to do as she pleases. Yeah I didn't feel the dog soliloquies or narration. Maybe if he revealed that he deliberately distracted Calvin because he wanted him out of the way, wanted all of Elizabeth's attention or something like that. It seems likely that she's not going to be able to complete her research or have her work validated and be recognized and praised as a scientist. So she's going to leave Hastings but are they going to drag it out until the end of the season? This is suppose to be a one and done limited series so how much is the Hastings phase of the story going to last? Though now there's a subplot about Donatti trying to steal their research, to get the credit and the grant.

This show is making me appreciate Trying and Bad Sisters a lot more. Also Platonic and even Shrinking, which was just okay for me.

Two demerits for Anna Leigh on this last leg. First she was suspicious of the way the fish market judge was giving them thumbs down the first couple of times. That judge was awesome BTW but AL wasn't feeling her. Turns out they missed the bucket of eels and thought it was one of the other fish trays that was wrong but no other team had the same problems. Seemed like most of them got it on the first try. Then at the tile task, she was there the longest and talked to one of the other racers about working together. The other racer didn't say anything and AL judged them, something about their true colors. Then the other team beat them to the mat and that was AL's "nightmare." Some beauty pageant mean girls vibes?

Yeah that fish market judge was fun. Maybe hamming it up for the cameras a bit but maybe her demeanor buoyed some of the racers.

Olivia must have consented to them shooting scenes about it. Probably after some period of mourning. She didn’t seem that emotional when they got together at Venita’s house. That can’t be a real therapist and Austen could it? Would a therapist consent to a session with a client being filmed and put on TV? Would even Austen agree to it? But it doesn’t appear like those scenes revealed really personal info, just something about how he might not be ready to marry and have a family because he might fear losing a child like he lost his sister. That seemed like a dime store psychological observation. Some of the cast do things together in real life but my sense is that the entire cast are not that close. But almost everyone weighed in on Olivia losing her brother, as if they knew him. Venita’s reaction, opening her mouth wide, didn’t look real. Oh JT is postponing his little launch event for his latest Airbnb because of Olivia. What a loss, seriously, his mother mocked him on camera and he was hoping to get coverage on the show or something. How big of him.

The families had slipped letters in their packs that they brought on the race. The racers knew about them and they were suppose to choose a good time so they did after submitting their wish card.

The detour tasks both seem to take about the same amount of time, but the mattress seemed more physically demanding. It's funny the observation made by that one team, that working out in some air-conditioned Manhattan gym is not the same as doing something physical in the heat and humidity of Vietnam. If not for having to carry the mattresses up 3 flights in that narrow staircase, it might not have been too bad. As for the tile task, I would think there's some kind of a pattern that the racers didn't see or try to figure out. The design layout of the monument obviously had deliberate patterns and symmetry so you'd think the tiles were laid in some pattern rather than randomly. But maybe trying to map out a pattern would have taken just as long as walking up and down the aisles. The bearded guy and his partner got emotional reading the little notes from his family. The one guy was mopping tears with his beard!😁

So preview show, introducing the challengers for this season?

People seem skeptical when Imbroglio was released. Her ex husband was the true love of her life and whatever Charles and CPB had wasn’t real. Yet they chose to get together after years or decades despite being pushed apart through meddling by his family. He certainly could have chosen someone else after Diana died. So at least to him it was real enough? How many men would still want a woman who married someone else after they had a relationship?

So many stories around the team. The producers have done a good job of developing little segments, like the super fan who got notoriety in the first season and now gets recognized in public but he's trying to quit drinking to take care of his young sons. Or the young player who had to leave the club because his brother has leukemia and his wife, mother of their toddler, has a brain tumor. But they kind of go about in a haphazard way to feature the players. They've done maybe about a half dozen of the players over the course of what now a couple dozen episodes? They happened to feature a little of the home life of the backup goalie, who's been covering for the main guy hurt last season, only to come back and get hurt again. So the backup guy, who's in his mid 30s and hoping to play a few more years, hopes to finish the season and help the team get promoted. Only to have some big name goalie decide to come out of retirement and offer to play for the last 7 matches or so but he doesn't want to be backup, he wants to be the main guy. Not only that, he signs for "peanuts" as Rob and Ryan are eager to point out. OK, I think the guy is doing it for his Youtube channel, because he knows the club is a huge cultural phenomenon. So he actually films with his GoPro camera after the match and on the pitch? He is hoping to get thousands more subscribers and more than make up the kind of money he could have made if he went to a Premier League club instead of Wrexham.

Yeah the writers are being inconsistent. But really if a candidate had been separated for a long time from his wife and the campaign was putting them up as a traditional couple, the reporters would be digging and would find out that they lived separate lives for a long time with each having other partners. Derek understandably might want to get back at Prince for getting him arrested by the Chinese but would he really give out private details about his and Andy's sexual encounters? That is what Prince was alleging. It would be one thing to acknowledge that they had an intimate relationship but go into details which are suppose to humiliate Prince? That's also not credible.

Things are suppose to be very expensive in Iceland. Maybe very difficult and expensive to park car in the city. But even 20 minutes in the dark cold would be a lot of walking. Yeah it seems like she really wanted to move, was searching for jobs for him in other countries. Or maybe her quitting her job was a part of it too. Maybe they settled on Iceland because it was the closest they could get to Europe? They seemed to have gone away a lot. It's interesting that they visited Europe more than explore the wild landscapes of Iceland. Maybe more attracted to culture. At one point she talks about wanting her sons to be more exposed to diversity. I've not been to any part of Michigan or Iceland but I would think ethnically they're similar unless they lived near Detroit or some other big city with a big Afro-American population But it appears the boys are going to an Icelandic school, not an international school where English would be the primary language? The Icelanders are suppose to speak English well -- obviously the husband can take a job there not knowing how to speak Icelandic.

I didn't know breaded tofu deep fried was a thing. Still seems uncharacteristic for Tumi to tell Natalya right after they met that the ship was a "shit show." You really have to have contempt for a person you just met to talk like that. Sure she wasn't talking about Tumi but it's understandable that Natalya would take offense, not because she's prudish about cursing but it comes across as dismissive of her, since she set up the ship for the first charter. Natalya also decided to get aggressive and hasn't toned it down since. Things should calm down naturally so I'd be especially suspicious if things remain heated for days later. They just met and this is their first charter together so it's been within 2-3 days at most since they met. Of course we're talking about meeting on camera. Maybe the crew/cast met off-camera too, before they started shooting. Could something have happened off camera? More than whatever Kyle and Tumi discussed or whatever messaging was going on among the 3. Because the behavior can't really be explained by what they've shown so far. She was giving scores on each dish, at each meal. The other guests were prompting her to give a score. That has to be a put on or they were encouraged to express opinions often and bluntly.

Yeah I was going to say they haven't been in the Liguria area before. I believe they went up to a castle for a picnic setup on the island of Ischia, in central/southern Italy, near Naples.

Loved the Guardian scenes. That writer took the piss out of the Royals. The sarcasm was brilliant and showed Philip out of touch asking for more money from the government when the economy overall was struggling. But he had something of an open mind, was willing to interview Anne and wrote not only an honest account of his interview with Alice but justly lauded the good, selfless things she'd done all her life, without any rancor or bitterness about how she was treated. In fact this episode might make me actually give The Guardian a donation.

This episode made me go look up Montbatten's Wiki. First of all, Charles Dance looks exactly like an official photograph taken in 1976. But the coup plot is something alleged in a documentary. It's not clear that it was a real thing. It's amazing, Wilson and Labour being accused of being socialists or Soviet sympathizers, not only by the group around Montbatten but also something said by Philip or someone else in the Royal Family. But it was amusing, Wilson's cabinet being so ideological and anti-royalty.