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Never had borscht. Never been to Russia either but it seems like American fast food had a certain amount of popularity there. Not surprising, even in countries like France and Italy which have great cuisines, McDonalds and other American fast food brands are fairly popular. So why wouldn't they be in Russia? The show itself depicted how life in the USSR had become difficult, with lack of reliable quality food. Not that they were starving but they showed all those empty shelves in markets. I don't recall if they showed the bread queues but that was probably a real thing. Certain number of Russians, especially men in their 20s to 40s who could be drafted, had good university education and marketable skills in fields like engineering. Those were among the first to flee Russia, because they knew the Ukraine war was BS and they didn't want to be conscripted to be cannon fodder. For these people, who could probably find jobs in other countries, including those more affluent than Russia, I believe Western goods and services would be a big draw to them, because they earn higher incomes so what are they going to spend money on? Elizabeth casually dismissed things like reliable electricity and modern conveniences while Philip said things worked better in the US and life could be more enjoyable. But they were both loyal soldiers, with memories of the sacrifices their countrymen, including their relatives, made during WWII so they were always going to choose their homeland. But it was a bad choice for their children, who'd only known life in the US. The boy for instance was showing aptitude with computers and they were at the dawn of the PC revolution closely to be followed by the web. He would have thrived in American universities. It's strange, I grew up in a family of modest means, obviously nothing like how Philip and Elizabeth grew up. I would never volunteer to trade for a lower standard of living. If I ran out of money, there would be no choice but the Jennings could have thrived here, though in a decade or so, they'd have to find another business than owning a travel agency. But Henry would probably be out of college by the turn of the century and who knows, he might have put their agency online. Not that it would have beat out Expedia but it might have been big enough to get acquired by Expedia or Travelocity for millions. Some Americans do move to countries with lower cost of living. They live well but not with the same comforts as in the US. Obviously if they moved to these places due to cost, they don't have as much as others.

Colin wasn't hiding his feelings. "You f'ed him twice?" He left Daisy right then and there. Yeah considering that they're not too much alike, Daisy can't be too surprised Colin is aghast that she could be drawn to both of them, since he probably thinks he's nothing like Gary.

It seems like in the interviews, especially after the first season, Hader and Berg were taking bows for what an inspired show they'd created. It's doubtful he believed at the time that he though Barry should have turned himself in and he learns about acting while in prison, as he said on the podcast -- not sure how serious he was about that, maybe just an offhand comment. I still get the sense that the further they got into the show, they felt some responsibility to have the character or characters pay for the acts depicted in the show. There were several times when Barry could have been caught and put away but they found a humorous way to keep him free, like when the detective offered to let him go if he killed his ex-wife's boyfriend and Barry's reaction was "What!?!" But that led to some inventive filmmaking, like when he had to fight this guy who was a martial arts expert and then his little daughter came in and she was some ninja, able to climb trees and jump across the air at him. Or the time they had the long chase sequence, with the motorcycle gang after him while he was on a motorcycle just trying to get to a dinner party with some beignets from that baker who doled out wisdom. This final season though seemed like all the pigeons coming home to roost, with Barry escaping prison and then living on the run, in a bleak place. But that wasn't punishment enough, he had to be drawn back, with Moss and the cops still after him and now Hank wanting him dead. Just wasn't as fun any more.

Wow, fascinating stuff. I think some people posted some of those articles over the years in the old SATC thread. Nice to have it all summarized in one place.

I recognize DCS Ian St. Clair as the Governor from Walking Dead. But a bunch of other British shows over the years. Other members of the cast too. BBC generates so many good shows but seems a limited set of actors being cast.

They are 3 self-contained episodes. The characters are the same but the cases are different and there's no sustained plots through them. I don't think the cases are too interesting. The third one was kind of melodramatic as they came face to face with the murderer while in the other episodes they caught up to the perpetrator without TV dramatics. They have these languorous shots and sequences which conjure a very romantic sense of place. Very good use of establishing shots, of landscape and terrain. It's jarring though, English cast playing French characters and they use all kinds of anglicisms.

Well season 1 may have taken place over a couple of weeks, depending on how often they shot. So maybe they planned to shoot at least a couple of seasons over however long they leased that villa.

Well Levinson probably had a lot of buzz off Euphoria. So either he lost it all of a sudden or maybe his previous work will have to be seen in a new light somewhat.

When the Ukraine war started, almost all American and European companies left Russia. McDonalds left, for instance. Elizabeth would probably say good riddance but even crappy Western fast food is probably better than the Russian option. But it's mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where they have some amount of the population able to access Western goods and services. Funny thing is that obesity is growing in the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia because fast food chains have went in big in those countries. They sell us oil and we sell them processed food. Probably similar in Russia as well.

Podcast with Hader talking about finale is now out, The Ringer Prestige TV podcast. Seems mostly content with it. Says Barry realizes he should turn himself in before Gene shoots him. But says Barry should have turned himself in after the first scene in the pilot, when he’s in the bedroom. Then he’d take acting classes in prison. Does Hader think that would have been as good a show? He acknowledges the feedback about this season being so “bleak.” He doesn’t say he rejects fan service out of hand but when they tried some things which could be considered fan service, they pulled it because they didn’t think they were good. Obviously too soon for him to express any regrets. After all he’s still trying to promote the show, to maximize viewership. But I wonder if he’ll be as self satisfied in a year or two. I want to see what he does next but hope that he recaptures the feeling, the right balance of comedy and drama, of the first two seasons.

I think the London to Sunshine Coast house hunter was a real performer, probably playing up wanting to live alone but only the shared apt. was viable for her. She could have pretended to stick strictly to budget if the producers wanted her to. She says she came out of her shell when she came to Australia, would never have tried to get a job being a radio on-air personality back in London? Somehow I doubt she could make a radical personality change just like that. But how would she get a first-time radio job? Easier to get an opportunity in a small market but to be natural and comfortable on the air? She also wasn’t self conscious on camera either. In fact not sure her personality lends itself to living alone. Back in London she lived with mum and sis so she’s never lived alone? And she chose that specific town in Australia presumably because her father is there or at least told her about the place.

Pat also said he doesn't know how to do it right so it wasn't a great experience for her.

Hader sat down for the Prestige Podcast from The Ringer about episodes 6 and 7. He said the fact that Gene took the money made him culpable. You can argue that the looming conviction on the false premise that he hired Barry to kill Janice made him feel he had nothing to lose so he came out firing and killed Barry. I still don't get how Cousineau's fate is suppose to represent some kind of justice, poetic or actual. He tried to better himself by going to the kibbutz. He was tempted back because of the movie and the chance of some big hitters being involved. So he was fallible which is a personality shortcoming but hardly deserving of being falsely convicted of conspiracy to murder.

Other thing is, how did they get visas to reside there? It doesn't sound like either of them would have Australian citizenship. Mother didn't talk about work so maybe she doesn't have to work, which would make the visa situation easier to deal with. Where would the daughter go to college, in Australia or back in the US? Hmm, could it be a home school situation? That would allow them to live in remote areas, if they didn't have to worry about her having to get to school.

My recollection is that the HHI episode featured more shots of the villa than the entire season of Ciao House. I don't recall them ever showing the bedrooms, which were rather nice IIRC on the HHI episode. Instead they showed landscape shots of Tuscany and city shots of Florence. The villa was near Florence but I think they even showed shots of Val d'Orcia, which is about an hour south. I wonder if they were cooking every day or they had some time of their own. They might want to shoot as often as possible so that they don't pay the camera and production crew over a longer stretch of days. But maybe before or after the shooting schedule they had some time. Or maybe once they got eliminated, those other chefs were chilling in other parts of the villa or going sightseeing or just hanging out by the pool so that is why they didn't show those different parts of the villa.

Maybe first season airing during pandemic wasn’t representative. Or tHe long delay for tHe second season, airing on Mondays while more popular HBO shows like TLOU, Succession and Barry didn’t help, not to mention shows on other networks or streamers.

What’s the story, why doesn’t KC want to deal with t(e other cast or the show runner guy? I didn’t see the first season because of the poor reviews, think I saw at least the first movie. Maybe they will deliver a quality season? Though it’s hard to see them having the same kind of influence on the culture as SATC.

She seemed wistful when she saw a double sink in one of the properties, like she wasn't expecting to have to share that with someone any time soon. Also, the daughter asked for a brother or sister from very early on and when she was told "emphatically" no, she asked for a dog. Hmm, there may actually be an interesting back story there. If not a biological sibling, what about adopting? Mother really wanted isolation, not have to see neighbors. So more in the bush rather than near the coast and town where the daughter wanted to be. The girl is 15. She's going to want to drive on her own, not rely on mom to drive her from their remote home. It's not just going to be two of them forever as she will want to spend more time with friends. They only showed one house near town but it was so over budget, it wasn't a realistic option. But she asked for 3 bedroom, 3 bathrooms and yet settled for the 2 bedroom 1 bathroom home? The home on the nature reserve was huge, a lot of home for the money. But no dogs allowed. Too isolated though so the daughter vetoed it.

My recollection of Ryan in previous seasons was this willful, defiant kid. Catherine worried that he might be too much like his father. So I had the sense that he was a brat who might turn into a criminal when in the first episode of season 3 he’s wisecracking about his coach and then bellowing about being wronged. Then of course it turns out he was going behind Catherine’s back. I don’t know if the plan was to show what kind of man he’d become, whether Catherine was right to worry or her fears would be allayed. But it’s one advantage of the long period between seasons 2 and 3.

They clearly cast for people who are single and DTF, willing to get drunk on camera, etc. It's not inconceivable that the older crew develop feelings for each other over the course of time, even though these are just 6-week stints each year. Gary may be repressing his feelings by chasing the young stews. Madison supposedly likes Alex, waiting for him to make a move but in the mean time she'll have "just casual sex" with Gary. Did she perhaps think that even just making out with Gary is going to push Alex away? But they're all living on top of each other -- if they do really sleep on the boat for the entirety of the shooting schedule -- so there are few secrets. Unless they're being paid a lot more than we thought, I don't think Gary, Colin and Daisy are acting out for the cameras. There are real feelings involved. They might think twice about putting it out for the cameras, though as Colin said, they should be professional, not put out PDA and so forth but every time they are alone, he and Daisy are caressing and kissing.

Maybe it didn't do so great ratings-wise in season 1 so they put it on Mondays, without much expectations. Whatever the reason they didn't want to pair it with the tail end of TLOU or Succession. That would have helped with ratings. Instead they put Barry on with Succession, which makes sense, two big draws. Oh well, it would have been interesting if the show lasted long enough to get beyond the Depression.

Alberta to Puerto Morales. This time it's a family of 5 escaping the bitter cold to the same Mexican town, this time with $225k budget. Same realtor, forget her name, who showed properties to the Vermont couple is showing properties in this episode. Wife is standing firm on budget, says husband doesn't know how much they have. House 1 was okay but too close to the highway and they could hear road noise, a big no-no for the husband. House 2 is in a resort like place but $10k over the budget, which makes the wife balk. House 3 is the luxe choice, with a rooftop pool. Like a lot of other Mexican construction, these are tall buildings with relatively small footprints. But it blows out the budget, $25k over. They end up with House 2. Of course all is well 3 months after.

Shiv could rationalize her emotional decision as saying the Gojo deal delivers the best value for the shares owned by family members. But even Jesse Armstrong seems to be hinting in interviews that Shiv still has some tie to power, however tenuous. Still, it's not some master stroke of strategy on her part. It seems in the moment all the previous resentments and the reality of Kendall getting the throne hit her.

Thing about the market shopping segment, which I liked seeing, is that they all piled into this tiny red car -- looked like a Fiat 500 -- and they were going to bring back 1200 Euros of groceries back with the three of them. Then Natalia is going around barking out orders in a mix of Spanish, English and a few Italian words tossed in to these Italian merchants. Lamb isn't really an Italian staple is it? It's more Greek than Italian. Polenta is Northern Italian or at least that's what Stanley Tucci said when he featured it in his Milano episode of Searching for Italy. It wasn't in his Tuscan or Florence episode. Also pork, besides not being elegante, is again not something you associate with Tuscany? Maybe cinghiale is more Tuscan?

It seemed like they liked the story they could tell about Natalia. Had the foot tendon transplant and then she talks about the dreams her mother had of coming to learn to cook in Italy but couldn't because she became pregnant with Natalia, then her mother planting sunflowers and Natalia using that inspiration for her sunflower pasta. I don't recall as much backstory for any of the other chefs so for whatever reason they seemed to have latched onto hers. The dishes all looked good and sounded like great, on paper. It's interesting the way they described their dishes and why they wanted to make them but it all comes down to one main mistake that the judges use as a reason to eliminate them. For Cory it was not cutting the pork right so that it was cooked a certain way. Of course they caught him stressing because he had to baby the pork in the oven until almost the end of the timer. So they focused on the pork. Preston struggled with boiling the cabbage and that also was cited so it seems like the judges and producers were looking for reasons to eliminate chefs around what narrative they could shape. Or what they could plausibly sell to viewers. At the end of it all, food is so subjective. Sure these people's lives center around food so they've got trained palates but it all comes down to the preferences of the judges and producers, who have to try to tell a story. I'm not sure this is a big ratings winner so there may not be any more seasons. Or if any of the chefs can make viewers want to see more of them on other FN shows.