TakomaSnark

I watched an episode. It didn't interest me, thus I didn't continue on with any more of it - and honestly, I don't think a challenge on Top Chef should require the regular viewer to watch a niche show on a streamer to understand the assigned challenge. Even Kristen didn't understand the challenge and she's the host.

That's an ongoing issue with HBO originals. Before they cancelled Real Sports, it frustrated me to no end that you couldn't peruse the back catalogue - that show had an amazing archive of stories and investigations. But paying subscribers could only find the current and prior season only.

Right? I could understand her being a bit freaked out by something you don't see in Central Park on a regular basis (like a wolf) but freaking out over a squirrel? They may as well have had her melting down over the sight of a pigeon.

I don’t mean to suggest that Kristen’s win was engineered but I absolutely believe the Magical Elves would love a parallel path to success for someone in Kristen’s first year of hosting. I think Tom very much wants this LCK twist to work and that’s why there was little question Soo would win five straight to go into the competition. Otherwise, why do this? Viewers would have no incentive to root for a random chef brought into LCK going up against chefs we are asked to be interested in on the show, especially if the former would be knocked off in one or two LCK challenges.

I don't think this speculation is truly spoilery, but wanted to err on the safe side from putting it elsewhere. I have seen it suggested in other forums that having a ringer come barnstorming out of LCK seems like a reference to Kristen and would obviously be even moreso should he win. I hope that TC would not resort to such an obvious attempt at a planned narrative but given the overall mediocrity of this James Beard-nominee heavy crowd, it's hard to shake. It would be one way to make sure the first post-Padma season clearly has put Padma in the rearview mirror by making it so much about Kristen and her history. (On a side note... I'm starting to wonder what the value of a Beard Award or nomination is anymore. Perhaps they give out too many.)

Last Chance Kitchen has its own thread, here. All other spoilers should be discussed in this thread.

Add to that, the wife was trying to protect her husband's reputation/money/future judgeship, correct? So why on earth did she dress in her husband's conspicuous green jacket and Islanders hat, that would point to/be easily tied to her husband? Seems like something you'd do if you wanted to frame him and ruin his life.

Well that is some major BS, in my opinion. Not once but twice Tom has the chance to pick someone over Soo and no, by golly, they are both so good they get to continue on - this time back (or introduced into, finally) the Top Chef Kitchen. I generally avoid conspiracies but the sense that the fix was in to get Soo into the competition at all costs is just unshakeable for me.

At this point, Maroun has my vote for the worst ADA in mothership history. From the character to the performance, she's the absolute pits.

Exactly. There was no excuse for them not having known about her existence early on, just from looking at the security footage from inside the subway station at who got off that train/exited that station in a window of time surrounding the victim's death. I mean, we know they looked at security footage because that's how they found their first suspect! These writers are a disgrace.

So far it seems like Tony Goldwyn is ending up in the same boat as Camryn Manheim - they should be a perfect fit and are doing their part to elevate crappy writing but in the end, the writing is just really, really dreadful. And the decline in guest turns is severe. We'll never see the likes of a Joe Seneca ('Profile'), Paul Benjamin ('Identity') or Ty Burrell (thinking specifically of his appearance as the husband in 'Turnstile Justice' more than the John Muhammad stand-in in 'Sheltered') again it seems, a performer who shows up in what could have been a throwaway role as a victim/perpetrator/family member and steals the who dang show with how they run with the material. The acting tonight - particularly the white nationalist and the surprise eyewitness - was beyond wooden.

From Screen Rant: No TV and no beer make Truman something something.

Well, I just watched the finale. I've seen a lot of television in my life. A lot of good television and a heckuva lot of bad. And this one? This is a Mount Rushmore of absolute pointless, time-killing, self-indulgent garbage television.

Four Hours At The Capitol was a magnificient piece of work. Looking forward to this, though Jones is a magnificient piece of garbage.

The difference, in my opinion, is that Hopkins/Lecter still felt tangible throughout almost all two hours of TSOTL, whether or not he was on screen. It's only after the fact, when one goes back and counts the literal screen time, is it an astonishing fact and accomplishment. Lily disappears for two hours of a nearly four hour movie. And that absence was noticeable.

Many (myself included) have said for years they need to back the money truck up to the team who does it every year for TCM. And NO LIVE PERFORMANCES to take away from the reel. Thanks for the information, I knew Michelle was on the scheduled list of presenters and expected her to be Best Picture. Was wondering what happened.

Truman's drawn out death sequence was excruciating. Elaine Benes was in my head screaming, 'Just DIE already! Finish telling your stupid story and die!' And the trailer for the finale has even MORE ridiculous swan imagery. We. Get. It. This series has been the poster child for what it is when there's no 'there' there in a show. What have I been watching? Truman Capote getting drunk and crying every week. Women getting together for years and having nothing to talk about but whether or not they should be friends with him again. I am that SpongeBob gif: Nobody cares!

I don't know why I can't stop watching. This series is so, so bad. Last night's episode was up there with the James Baldwin segment for sheer... You're not really doing this fantasyland garbage are you? Retreading the SAME BEATS for the umpteenth time, no less.

‘They Play Nice’: Inside the Tensions and Tumult at ‘Queer Eye’ Ugh, a toxic narcissist - and the show clearly rewarded him for that behavor by awarding him the most camera time instead of curtailing it in favor of the others.

Well, L&T still made it 22 years longer than Bonwit! 😁

Lord & Taylor (still in business) got the last laugh (Bonwit Teller going out in bankruptcy in 2000). As Janet Malcom wrote in The Journalist And The Murderer - in regard to Joe McGinniss, author of Fatal Vision about the murderer Jeffrey MacDonald: To be honest, Malcolm nailed way back in 1990 what this series was trying to express (most explicitly through Fake James Baldwin last week). Agree, I'm just irritated with what seems like an extended SNL characterization of Capote by this point. I was guffawing at the (again, completely fictional) seduction and subsequent relationship with the hunky AC guy (played by Vito Schnabel, son of Julian). The failure of the series to do any kind of world building for these women - independently, as high society ladies and becoming intimate friends of Capote - is just plain old storytelling malpractice.

What was with that weird edit between the first foray into 'Poindexter's' living room in the daytime and the sudden switch to night, with patrol lights in the background outside... And suddenly then they discover the map covered with pins?

It reminded me a LOT of that episode as well, though that one had the benefit of Michael S. Chernuchin penning the script. Totally agree, I think he elevated this one to the point where I'd call it the most interesting of the reboot. If only they'd kill the Criminal Minds-esque flourishes - the overbearing dramatic music, the weird cutaways (during the chase with Shaw and Riley, that sudden jump/zoom in to the speedometer just in case we weren't sure the cops were driving really really fast!), the terrible green screen (again, that chase).

Interesting premise undone by such dumb dialogue. 'You mean a jumper jumper? Did you talk him down?' No, Riley, he jumped. Then I got a coffee and came into the precinct.

Where's the eyeroll reaction emoji???????