Charlesman

Season 2 is coming to Amazon on May 17

Quite well done

It's always fun to spot the Star Trek: The Next Generation connections on this show. The sub captain was named Reginald Barclay.

"Ah, fuck you calling me 'Father' like it doesn't turn you on just to say it." Lordy

This is a great show. And so fucking crazy. I mean the comedy is hilarious, the sexual tension runs high, and then the outright deep human drama it's all revolving around... just pathos. It's awesome.

I wish they would too, but CBS can't anymore because of how Sweeps fall in the calendar. Unless they doubled up TAR and did 2 hours a week for a bunch. But I'm glad we get at least one season of TAR a year.

Natalie was just last season! Haha exactly! I'm glad Reem got voted out early because watching Natalie hang around for as long as she did was definitely exhausting! It was a better show once she was gone, and I'm hoping that Reem doesn't linger either.

I went to college with David, nice guy. We worked on a TV comedy show together for a year. Funny thing, one day I ran into Survivor contestant Aubry at a food truck. I mentioned she looked familiar, but couldn't quite place where I knew her from. She said I probably recognized her from Survivor. Then it clicked. "Were you on Millennials vs Gen X?" I asked. "No, I was on the season before that." "Oh, that's right. My friend David was on the Gen X tribe so that's the one I watched." She instantly knew who David was, and said they'd become friends on the Survivor circuit. Said she'd pass along a hello from me.

I am 99% sure that the landing area where they did the first contact is the quad at CSUN, and the massive building was the same one used as Starfleet Academy in the JJ rebootverse.

It doesn't really matter that one of three is eliminated before the final judging. Despite what Dave says, the judges would make sure that the eventual winner makes it past the stupid jury. Just like the jury is useless when putting someone in the bottom (the judges make sure that the person going home is one of the other three if the jury doesn't pick them), the jury is useless when picking someone for the top. If Tiffer was going to beat Tony, he would have been up there instead.

I felt Teej had the better tag-team tattoo, but I'll give it to Tony having the better master canvas. But I prefer Christian's leg by far over Cleen's muddy piece. If only it wasn't rigged for Cleen from the start. Chris was always going to pick him.

Way early in the season, when Bret won the Punishment Pass and decided to use it right away to "gain inside information on the other team", I couldn't help but make fun of that decision... why do that when you know there is a trip to Vegas coming up at some point in the season? So, right after the girls won and the prize was announced, I loved, loved, Bret's next interview where the editors identified him as 'Bret, 36, used punishment pass in week 3'. Thank you editors!!

Eddie "Money" has taken some heat, but, to be fair... the criticisms for almost all the dishes, and especially those on the bottom, were on poor technique and preparation. Yeah, Justin could have used more ingredients for his dish, but, Tom thought it was fine and he was safe. Eric wanted more blood orange, but, the judges though the dish was great how it was and he wasn't in danger. But there was no fixing it in the grocery store for poorly made biscuits or underbaked food. Also, it is part of "the game" of Top Chef, dealing with the others in a team challenge. Actually, it's part of "the game" I don't usually like, and I'm glad they didn't do in this episode what I've seen done in the past. Sometimes, when the chefs have a team issue... for example, one obstinate teammate wants to just do something completely wrong, like used canned tomato sauce in his pasta dish, and the judges will ding the whole team for not stopping him and having him ruin the whole team's dining experience and being the reason they end up on the bottom... but... when a teammate gets talked out of doing something that might have won it for the team, like, adding more seasoning to a bland dish that became the reason they lost, the judges will ding that chef for "not standing up for what you think is right". So I'm glad that, in this episode, they took in the information about Eddie using up the bulk of the budget, but, seemed to fairly judge everyone for what they presented and how they made do with what they had. All that said, yeah, Eddie deserves some heat. I wouldn't go so far as to say he should have been eliminated for it, and he's not "dead to me" or anything, but, he earned some shade.

Yeah, they know, and the producers are in the edit room sitting next to the editors guiding the cut all season long. Probst and the producers read the votes right at the final TC...as we saw last season they at least need to know if it's a tie so they revote right away. Not many, but, maybe a dozen or so people on the show staff know the winner. The "story producers" will work out what to focus on, what storylines to play up, what maneuvering to highlight, and help the editors craft the narrative. TV is made differently than most people think. There are lots of people involved. It's not a locked room with an editor working alone, he's probably got three guys behind him watching him work all day, talking out ideas and suggestions.

Once again, Amanda does the second-worst tattoo of the day, but this time her luck ran out and they sent her home anyway. I really think the precision failures on either of Team Cleen's should have sent one of them home over her, if judging solely on the work in the challenge itself.