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Michele and Jay agonized over the decision. Maybe they weren't allowed to pick the people they really wanted? Certainly caused a lot of drama and extended the whole deliberations/interrogation segment, all the way up to the Zone.

Seems to be getting lukewarm reviews at best.

How many border crossings are so easy, just walk across a bridge and you're in another country. You would think they'd at least have that place under video surveillance, so as soon as Nick walks across to talk to Tuello, his cover is gone. At that point, he might as well have defected right then and there. Because if he cared enough to risk being caught, having his pregnant wife taken away, it's clear he doesn't value his wife and unborn child as much as June. Instead he goes and slugs Lawrence right in front of everyone? But they won't kill him off, like Lawrence did worst to betray Gilead and now he runs the place. As for Canadian zealots being soldiers for Gilead, they're making it up as they go along. Probably didn't know if they'd have multiple seasons, let alone make it to season 5. So they had to improvise. Now they're probably going to wrap it up with redemption arcs for Serena and Lydia. They learned the hard way how little Gilead cares for women, literally knocking them down. So they along with June and Janine will take down Gilead. The women will conquer that horrible place!

Yeah the tasks weren't that exciting. The navigation challenges were probably once they got into Toulouse. That barrier that Quinton and Mattie came up against, they're there deliberately to keep the general public out of certain pedestrian-only areas. The trucks or delivery vans which need to enter have their remote controls to lower the barrier. It was kind of them to lower it for them but basically there must be a route around the barrier to get to their destination. Presumably in a city like that, TAR cordon off some parking spots because normally, they'd be looking for parking all the time and that would come down to pure chance, unless they entered a parking garage like the twins and paid out of pocket. The one twin with the knee problem, she's bravely soldiering on and talking about setting a good example for her daughter. Well that's true but she could be irritating it more, causing it to swell up. Or even worse, she could be risking more structural damage, which makes rehabilitation even harder. When she talked about needing more support for her knee cap, I wondered if she had dislocated the patella, in which she really shouldn't put weight on it. Quinton and Mattie always put on a happy face but they seem pretty crushed that they didn't survive. Low drama so you want them to succeed but they probably have less experience traveling overseas and dealing with foreign languages than others. Obviously navigation with paper maps was also a problem, the younger you are.

Um, I don't think it's premiering in a month. They shot in the second half of last year but apparently haven't announced plans of when to premiere yet. Haven't seen it in any of the promos either so it may not be until at least a couple of months into next year.

What did they do starve them for a day before the BK feast? I don't buy that all of them were so excited about having some mediocre fast food as a "feast." Good Daily to win though, for the $5k cash per person. But it was about pure athletic ability or stamina. The Elimination was interesting, seemed pretty close. Did Laurel even ask for the check or did TJ just watch and then when she had it right, he blew the horn? Darrell and Veronica, they're probably still at the bottom of the vet pack. And there aren't too many rookie teams or teams not affiliated with the vets left. If they didn't add 3 vet teams after the first leg, it might be more even between the rookies and the vets but I think B-M thought that would be too risky, getting rid of vet teams early, for ratings. Hell I'd keep watching if vets like Bananas, Laurel, Jordan, Devin went home early.

Cambodia wasn't too different from the Vietnam episodes they've had, except the house hunters were a young couple with her being a native there. I believe these SE Asian countries really shut down for the pandemic, or at least Vietnam did. That might have kept prices down, instead of the growth these countries were seeing before the pandemic. But he found a job so he's got good reasons to stay in Cambodia for awhile.

Seems pretty obvious they're setting Kyle up for the rapid ejection. If they're able to replace him quickly, you have to wonder if the plan was to have him say and do outlandish things and then quickly replace him for a bit less, not too much less drama. Also a good way to establish Captain Kerry's bona fides as a chain of command, propriety manager. Yeah Lewis seems indecisive, unwilling to confront subordinates who are misbehaving, while Kerry is not going to let the situation fester, like we've seen other BD captains do. But again, if they have a ready replacement, then the plan probably was to have Kyle start out, generate some awfulness on film, then move on. But kind of a tough situation if Lewis is like Captain's pet, suppose to report to him. That undermines Lewis' authority in the eyes of his charges. I thought the caves sounded boring but for extreme sports types, they got to do some repelling. Still a yawner, you often see caves near these beautiful landscapes. I prefer the latter. The one time I visited Norway, I didn't see any sign of water sports. I think kayaks would be one thing but jet skis and slides or dragging along inflatables via tender? You don't get that vibe up there. There are huge cruise ships but not these private yacht charters. Still it wouldn't be surprising if there are things like zip lines and paragliding up there, licensed to operate in what must be national parks. Unless Bravo paid them a lot to be able to set up these things for the show.

I don't think the guy cared that much about pancakes, especially for what, 2 days of meals? Come on this is another fake issue. If he was really having pancakes all the time, why would he seek out the same while he's on vacation with a chef preparing his meals? I'd think you'd want things which are hard to prepare well, like lobster or some kind of cooking process which takes hours to do. Or they'd want something that is executed a lot differently, which could be a sous-vide steak with hand-browned exterior and some fancy sauce.

What kind of a pussy chicken lets a woman swim and climb a ladder faster than him?😄

Sandy explained her background. She had drug and alcohol problems in school, was sentenced? to clean boats. Then someone there sent her to school, some kind of a formal program with a path to becoming captain. She doesn't impart a lot of wisdom to crew members about hard work and dedication, though she could certainly share some. There probably aren't too many female captains. Truth is, the crew members on this show are drawn as much by reality show celebrity as by interest in a nautical career. Probably moreso the former.

UK paper has spotted Damian Lewis on the set. No official word yet, maybe CBS/Showtime is holding the new until they're ready to announce a premier date. Show wasn't in a great place when he left, supposedly the character was in legal jeopardy that he couldn't get out of so he ran. Sure they will find a way out if the character is really coming back. Maybe the ratings of the season without DL were so bad that they backed up a truck full of money at DL. Succession was already eclipsing Billions before DL left. Would be interesting if they schedule the next season to avoid overlapping with Succession. But Billions is coming up on its 7th season, so they're kind of running out of fumes. What can they do to show how awful billionaires are that earlier seasons of Billions and now Succession haven't already depicted? Maybe Bobby will buy a social media network ...

Horgan was being canny. Probably she had a certain figure in mind and Apple met it. Thinking more about this, they probably wouldn't go back to some other odious character that they'd want to kill. So they could maybe create plot arcs based on the personal failings of each of the sisters. They feel bad about the guy losing his eye or Minna being killed. But "bad sisters" could now mean these personal foibles, not their homicidal plotting of season 1. It might be hard to create and sustain momentum through a season though, without a murder plot or mystery which probably helped keep up viewer interest.

She just can't win. If she hovers over the chef and the meals, she's too nosey and a micromanager. She stops doing that and people are demanding what happened to the micromanager?

Some episodes of Mediterranean Life featured Spanish villas with lot of bedrooms and expansive outdoor spaces. They weren't in a city though.

Those beautiful streets Ethan was running in are not typical of Sicily. Taormina draws a lot of affluence and it's a tiny town so with the money coming in, they keep it pristine. Go to Palermo and it looks worn out.

He told the other person on the phone that Tanya is clueless and then I love you too. I don’t think he was talking to a child. it could be an adult child, someone at least in his or her late teens.

Tasha thinks she's grown? Well at least she knows part of the problem is that she has to always be with someone, though maybe she's been fed those lines. The two newbies were barely around to register. Ellie was 2 hours late for her shift but nobody complained. What are they going to do, fire her? I didn't realize chefs used that torch so much, to give it probably some browning as a finishing look. He's there sculpting the food on the plate with his bare hands. Maybe fancy plating is overrated. Who knows how many or if any of these people will be back other than Kyle. The locale was gorgeous but it seemed like it was too frequently windy, making docking operations difficult. Maybe they filmed in the wrong time of the year. Is there going to be a reunion? We will see if Storm and Natalya kept in touch or others. They probably want to be around the Bravo orbit and attend those fan conventions and such.

I don't see a budding romance between Albie and Portia. She told her friend over the phone that she wanted some Italian guy to throw her around and then told Albie she wanted a cave man. Albie said she can aim higher than a caveman but it doesn't seem like she wants to, at this point in her life at least. Albie is trying to be good, the antithesis of Dominic, his philandering father who hurt his wife and daughter enough that they didn't want to come on the trip. He asks for permission to kiss her goodnight and if they want to hang out tomorrow -- she has nothing better to do, otherwise she has to hide in her hotel room from her boss. He could either be like that throughout the season and get nowhere or he might flip and be the asshole that Portia says she wants. Yeah something is off with Harper and Ethan and it's not their daily rhythms. They're doing the good thing with their windfall wealth, helping family and others. Instead of Harper offering to do porny stuff, she may want to be thrown around -- she may want a caveman, at least for awhile. Cameron and Daphne did reveal some depth, about the difficult birth of one of their children, how they survived the ordeal together. Everyone seems to be anticipating that Cameron has some ulterior motives. Sounds like they spent a lot on new clothes for Cameron so maybe they're not so cash poor. Dominic is suppose to be out of control, he's in the doghouse so he doubles down? Bert is just inappropriate, first episode he was flirting with every female he came across, this episode he's talking about rape in mythology, can't stop saying how Hades raped Persephone. I don't recall how Tanya came to meet Greg in season 1. So he has a girlfriend on the side and he came to this trip to what, put in enough time with Tanya to get some more money from her? He may be a grifter but he's right that she discards people, like the concierge from season 1. BTW, this season is suppose to feature more sex. They brought back the jungle sounds with echoes of monkeys screeching from season 1. The opening credits do show a fair amount of sexually graphic imagery. I wonder if they're from actual works or they were designed for the opening sequence. There's a swan having sex with a woman, the myth about Leda and the Swan, who was Zeus, who took the form of a swan so that his wife Hera wouldn't catch him. The swan seems to be going to town. There have been many paintings over the centuries but if you Google Leda and the swan, there isn't a well-known paining quite like the one in the credits. Maybe it was some imagery from antiquity or just made to look like something out of a paining or maybe something from an urn or some other artifact.

One of my favorite places that I've seen. They're not going to get any Alhambra views for their modest budget. In the end they choose the cheapest one and further out from center so more commute. Neither of them are doing what they went to college for, so I wonder if this was really about exploring a new place or getting relatively easy jobs. Will they have a budget to see other places in Europe? The husband mentioned something about being there for years but they said they're taking less pay than they were earning in Oregon. May be a short term adventure.

Buenos Aires can get plenty hot but they chose to go there in the winter. Or maybe it was our spring, which would be their fall/winter. Challenge USA was filmed in BA, maybe they did that around Dec/January, which would be their summer.

Yeah maybe the WBD politics is one thing. But the declining ratings didn't help. Fact that Casey Bloys was noncommittal on renewal shortly after season 4 started airing might have been a tipoff. They were said to be negotiating season 5. But the show runners having a deal with Amazon Prime probably didn't help either.

Couple to the hinterlands in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. I'm actually leaving for Brisbane soon, will spend some time in Noosa as well. I don't understand the appeal of the hinterlands, at least for tourists, but I saw the lookout they showed, out to the plains. Looked nice but I assume the coastal areas are more congested and expensive. I assume their budget was USD, which right now would go a long ways in Australia. The home they chose was the best, fully updated. It's interesting, first lesbian relationship for the Canadian woman and the Australian woman had never paid rent before, usually getting accommodations as part of the various jobs she did. In fact she had to share things like bathrooms and living spaces, she said. Now they have a home that she only shares with her partner and they have two sinks in the main bathroom! They talked about having the kids over so they apparently plan to entertain and they now have a swanky space. Kind of odd, that home is right next to a caravan park -- RV park I guess. And the windows are quite open to the outside. Good for bright rooms, not so much for privacy. Window coverings may not be cheap to install.

So some other hip hop stars bought farms, this isn't something that Al came up with on his own or just to grow his own weed? Seemed pretty boring but he had his big screen TV, surround sound and he probably made sure there was good service for his iPhone. And Amazon delivered out there. I can identify with his exultation after he finally got the tractor to start. But I don't know, I think the gentleman farmer, the rich city guy who buys a farm for himself to "get back to basics" or "get real" has been done before. Billions did that last season. His confrontation with the feral hog is suppose to show the terror which lurks beneath the idyllic patina of farm life, I suppose -- with all the crops out in the open, why would the hog go after cannabis plants in a shed? Either that or they're playing for the comic and the absurd, with Al going through his ordeals and then trying to play it off to Earn like everything is cool and he's loving it up there. His ankle might have been mangled but he just put ice on it? With only one episode left, this is where we end up, Earn, Van and Lottie are moving to LA, Al is at some farm but is about to book another tour and Darius?

Why would Rose be sent to the Colonies? She's the wife of a commander and the daughter of another commander. If she can't deliver a healthy boy, they would be expected to take a Handmaid. If she refused, she might be sent off. But privilege has to count for something right? Serena got in trouble for trying to read or some other made up BS. Why does any woman with half a clue want to stay in Gilead?