JessDVD

I just heard that commercial for the first time this week, which was the first time I've heard "love on" outside of Christian circles. I think it's supposed to communicate more "show love by caring for the physical needs of the person", or in the case of the St Judes commercial, something like "devote my full attention to" than "love" on its own does, but it evokes a lot of mental pictures (for me anyway) that I do NOT think were intended by whatever person came up with the phrase. Love offering can DIAF. For awhile, I was writing the announcements script at my church for people to read to record videos, and every time the office manager would put that phrase in there if we had a missionary in or someone who deserved a special offering, I would edit it to be just "an offering will be taken". I saw a video once where people were told Christian-ese phrases and asked what they think they mean, and everyone said "sex" for "love offering" so I will never, ever be able to say, hear, or read that phrase again. Anyway, back to the Duggalos - whether they are doing life or doing a life sentence together (I mean, sometimes marriage is a bit of column A, a bit of column B, let's be honest), despite their flaws, they seem to me like a generally happily married couple and when so many of these couples seem unhappy even despite their carefully curating their posts, I'll call that a good thing.

Doing life together is a Christian-ese phrase that's come into vogue in the last maybe 5-6 years. Sort of like "love on". The sentiment is meant to communicate sharing the highs and lows of life with someone else - can be spouse or friends. I've never been a huge fan of that phrase (or any Christian-ese phrase, I don't like love on either and I really really hate love offering) but the comparisons here to doing life in a prison have permanently ruined it for me. 🤣🤣

I live nowhere near the Bates/Romeikes, but my local news affiliate apparently saw fit to share this on their FB page, so it hit my news feed: https://wwmt.com/news/nation-world/tennessee-family-which-fled-germany-over-homeschooling-granted-temporary-deportation-reprieve-home-school-legal-defense-association-immigration-customs-enforcement-ice-nashville-knoxville-christian-values-obama-biden tl;dr their ICE officer is indicating they will get a 1-year extension.

MOC stands for my own creation, so using LEGO to create your own thing rather than following the directions and leaving the sets built. My husband as a child would build the set and then play with them, built, and then take them apart and put them back in the boxes, like some kind of crazy person. My brother as a kid and my kids now, build the set, then break it up and build other things. This hurt my husband a lot when they first started doing it. Anyway, yes, building MOCs is the whole point of the show. So I don't see them being too successful if freestyling isn't their jam.

I was only half paying attention for this episode but I agree the right people went home. I was really surprised they did an elimination on the first week because at least once before, they didn't. The first week isn't my favorite in general because there are so many teams and it's hard to identify anything about any of them, know who they are, and pick out favorites. Whichever team it was that mentioned MOCs, then said specifically that that's not their strength... ummm why are you here then because literally creating MOCs is the entire activity of the show???? I didn't catch which creation was that team's, so can't speak to if they were being modest or not. I'm beginning this season with some trepidation because the continued efforts from the producers to come up with parameters that are bigger, badder, more interesting and whatever, rather than focusing on, make us a really amazing piece on this theme, is by far the biggest weakness of this show, to the detriment of the competitors' ability to build. And now that we're on season 4, I hope we're not really going to be looking at the bottom of the barrel ideas. The boat theme was cool, even we did have to sit through two segments of, will the boats float?!, which is what I don't enjoy. And I think I heard someone say something about the boat base that made me think it's available to just buy, which is cool too. Will continues to annoyingly chew the scenery and I continue to not be a huge fan of judge Amy. My kids lost their minds at the winning build being made into a Lego set you can buy, which is actually brilliant marketing and I'm really surprised they haven't done that yet. My kids also lost their minds at the preview for next week and the cats. That one looks fun. Still too much "make your creation do things" over "look really good" but the cats look cute at least...

What I find so weird about Rachel kissing Ross after finding out that he was prepared to take her to the prom so she wouldn't miss it - is that I've seen interviews with Marta Kauffman talking about what a wonderful moment that was, giving everyone tingles and good feelings and it's such a mountaintop time in the story of Friends. I saw that before I watched through Friends, and when I got to it, I thought "oh, here we are in actual Ross and Rachel" and then it was like 4 episodes later that they were broken up. WTF?

After a few days of seeing "Jackson and Emerson: Needs a Title" in the list, I think I kinda like that with no changes. My other suggestion is "Jackson and Emerson: Who?" but that's also my suggestion for all the kids after about the first 8 for any mega family...

It's going to take me literally the entire season, if I even do get there, to separate QE from Umbridge (the 80s/90s glasses in the scenes when she's wearing them, help) but that aside, the trailer looks amazing and I am super excited for The Crown Season [I actually remember as it was happening].

Nitpick alert: title should be Trace and Lydia, Bates kid first, to match the other threads. I apologize for my pedantic tendencies.

Every single episode of this show, I say "That would have been a lot more interesting if...", finished with something like, the defendant were actually guilty and Bull's people had to figure out a justifiable reason. For the first time, they actually did it! And it was a lot more interesting when they made the likable guy turn out to be a stone-cold killer. My only complaint is that what tipped Bull off was the guy kind of burying his head in his hand when Chunk was waxing eloquent about his finer qualities, like he felt ashamed that Chunk was saying all that untrue stuff. The guy clearly felt not one single bit of remorse about any of those people dying, and was a superb liar, choking at the end like that is a cheap play. The only expression on his face should have been "You bet your ass I'm a good guy and y'all are going to exonerate me". I don't find smarmy Rob to be an enjoyable character at all. Could not care less about Taylor and her kid, and cannot stand when parents are shown being all, not MY kid, even if I do sometimes wonder if ADHD is over diagnosed. Marisa's bit was hard to follow but I think it went that the group that was actually being sued was paying the other lady's group for their services, and when they discovered that they overpaid by 20 million since they didn't settle, and that lady didn't take Marisa's advice, they decided to pull their account from that lady's group and hire TAC instead.

Not surprising. This whole season has felt like a wind down. Better to do it now then try to limp along (and yes, I know some of you have thought we've been there for several seasons already). I've enjoyed this show despite its issues, hope it goes out well.

Caroline was our family favorite so this was a bummer but I can contend that chocolate and piña colada don't need to go together so I guess we'll allow it. My kids have been watching the show for years, and my older three are now the age range of the kids on the show. The 12 and 11 in particular kept saying this whole episode, "Always toast your nuts!". Yep, they get it.

My subtitles on Paramount+ said Mandarin.

Looking at next week's show description,

I actually remembered it was Thursday night and Bull is on for the first time in forever. Could they possibly have troweled on the cheesy music making it clear that inevitably they will be investigating Marisa's new company or some other such shenanigans that will result in Marisa back at TAC, any harder? I mean, really now. I've been a SAHM for 95+% of my adult life so excuse my lack of experience here, but Bull's arrogance and obvious cluelessness aside, how much is it on a boss to promote an employee versus an employee to seek out advancement? If Marisa wanted to be a partner (which I totally believe the writers ALWAYS had in mind and didn't just invent for this plotline), is that on Bull or her? Also, I totally believe that rando company invented for this plotline would just put her on the letterhead out of the gate without working with her for ten minutes or so to see if she's, you know, a non-lunatic. As a mother, I am familiar with the concept of maternal instinct even if I hate the phrase mama bear, but it bugs how not-Cable (I still have no idea what her name is) practically goes postal whenever the ex brings up anything about Mauricio, whose name apparently I do know, and the possibility that as his, I don't know, FATHER, he does actually have some say in the raising of said Mauricio, and let's be honest... he kind of has a point about her always being at work. Whatever point they were trying to make there, they made the opposite one. I'm not saying it's the right call as a divorced parent to announce that you're moving to Hawaii - at the very least, it's really unfair to the child in question who through no fault of his/her own is now living stuck between two worlds, who now has to choose between parents or be forced to live very far from one parent - but it's not like not-Cable is the only one who's allowed to have an opinion about the situation either. Didn't catch nor much care about all the Gen Z hacker lady stuff. Asshole FBI agent can eff off. Case of the week? I thought we were going to find out that dead guy attacked her or something but the last minute discovery to exonerate the plaintiff/defendant space was taken up by custody arguments and that ridiculous music playing as Marisa strolls down the hallway with the view of the city with her hair streaming back behind her as her skin-tight creates a belly that she doesn't even have dress flows in the breeze except it can't flow because she's sewn into it.

Mr. DVD and I watched and enjoyed, in that sick twisted watching a train wreck in slow motion sort of way, LuLaRich, so we'll be tuning into this one for sure.

This Bull jury tampering thing would be a lot more interesting if Bull actually did pay off the guy from the last episode, which TBH is my primary criticism of this show. Most of the episodes would be more interesting if the person actually were guilty and we were trying to figure out how to keep them out of a life sentence. I like Taylor but I want the ex to either go away forever or stay permanently. If you need a sub-plot for Taylor because the actress playing Danny is on furlough or something, then find something else other than the old, tired, on-again off-again thing. Speaking of liking Taylor, four for her for being the first person ever in the history of procedurals (at least that I've watched) to point out that just because you like someone and think they're a good person, doesn't mean they're innocent of whatever dumb thing. I realize these are TV characters, but you'd think that writers who are routinely writing about the base of society, would realize that ANYONE is capable of doing something dumb and/or illegal. Also, you'd think Marisa would realize this after all those shenanigans with her ex or is he still an ex who can remember. Of all the places to cavort with a non-husband male, an exclusive club is at least a notch above the local bar, but still seems like an odd place to be borderline making out. I mean, there are other people there and some of them might be Taylor taking pictures to use against you in court. If you had just been sitting there smiling at each other, you might have gotten away with it. Criticisms aside, I'm glad this show is mostly normal (although they could get rid of the masks on the jurors at any time... so dumb)

I mean we all knew it was a foregone conclusion - although yes, probably deserved - that the Overalls Girls were gone. I say probably only because I feel this episode yet again illustrated what I've already said probably a few times. I think it's entirely possible that Overalls would have been best, or at least better, if they had been told to build a castle, period. Not one that can suspend from the ceiling, or hang off a wall, or stand up to a wind tunnel. At the very least, I'd like to see their cardboard moving box castle in THAT format. This business of hamstringing the contestants' design skills because they have to make their creation be able to do handsprings or whatever, seems to pick off the people who just have less skill in engineering versus skill in designing Lego creations. Z&W (I do agree, they have mellowed some, so I'm retiring "Arrogant Bros") continue to be great at structure, and overdo that to the detriment of their design. Their building was really well-done, but it does strain the definition of castle, and I don't know why we need to spend all this time on their AHmadg/ohMAHDG. As well as all that about the Castle Bros. Dude, don't care, show me their Lego creations. Next week's seems to be a little closer to what I'd like to see.

My kids are watching the newest episode right now and they are actually laughing at Will chewing the scenery, so I guess if they're trying to market this thing to the elementary and middle school age demographic, they're succeeding. I had no idea how many episodes were left but if the contestants know that there are 2 left after this and there would be no elimination on this one, then Viking bros giving up the golden brick makes no sense? All of the talking heads make it sound like they didn't know, although those are filmed afterward so who knows. The show never addresses them using it when they didn't really need to. Geek twin and the last second piece thing was random and felt contrived... Was it supposed to be some random piece from the original house that they somehow realized they had forgotten? I like the flying pig more on a rewatch but the wings and their motion are so overbearing that they hide the actual house parts underneath. Viking bros' movement was much more subtle but it brought more to the story than LOOK WE CONNECTED TEN MOTORS AND WINGS TO THE BODY. I still want, by which I mean am fully aware it's not going to happen, Overalls Girls to get a spot in the finale, but I still don't much care for their circus. Nobody seems to be all that confident in their builds today, that's for sure. My kids' consensus is that the Geek Twins are going home.

I didn't like any of those houses and thought they should have done a 4-way elimination, in the interest of bringing back some of the previous teams. Geek Twins' story was my favorite but the build was underwhelming. Pig build had a lot of movement but was ugly. Viking bros, I've already forgotten. Overalls girls was fine, but not great movement or really cool looking. Choosing not to eliminate anyone was dumb and they already did that once this season. The one really good thing about this episode though, was that the terms of the build weren't weird or dumb, just build something cool using these pieces and whatever else you need. Next week looks awful again.

I zoned out for most of this one. A couple observations: It is even more very, VERY clear that we are teeing up for the Bro Down that some of us predicted a few weeks ago. Overalls are likely out next week, and MAYBE Chicago/Brooklyn will pull out an upset the following week and edge out over one of the others for a spot in the final. While it is (somewhat) fun to see Lego creations that can do things in addition to looking great, the problem with this concept is that too often, the creations end up doing neither particularly well. I don't know about the rest of you, but for me, just seeing a really amazing Lego creation that **those people came up with out of their own creativity** is enough for me. I don't need them to ALSO be able to stand up to a wind tunnel or be a puppet or whatever. I think some of the earlier eliminations were really due more to their not managing to do the "looks good" AND the "stands up to whatever ridiculous gimmick we're doing this week", than lack of Lego skills in general. The thing about Arrogant Bros, I think I finally realized, in addition to what blackwing said, is that it seems like every week they're masters at whatever the thing is this week. A Lambo? Oh, I've driven one of those every weekend for years. Fencing - in addition to being archery masters, we are also highly skilled in fencing. It reminds me of when I asked my rising 7th grader a few weeks ago if she had any idea about what she thinks she wants to do post-secondary, and she started listing off all the things she's "really good" at, which, well, was more indicative of an overabundance of self-confidence than an excess of talent. That said, I did really like Arrogant Bros' creation this week, I think it might have been my favorite character. I also liked Chicago/Brooklyn's, and while I get the criticism about the motion, Bro/Sis' dog was adorable. The editing is just bad. So bad. Bad bad bad. Why in the world did we have to spend the first five or so episodes focusing so much on the Bros, that we barely got to see teams like Bro/Sis, Married w/ Children - and then the episodes they're eliminated, it's telegraphed immediately because those teams actually get to show up on screen. It's not like the editors had to make the first few episodes before they knew how it was going to turn out. (They filmed in March, in case you were wondering) Next week's creations all look bad from the preview, so I'm not really bummed that my family is going to be completely unable to watch it live. My kids also seem to have totally lost interest in the show since Married w/ Children (the ones I know IRL) have been eliminated, even though they've never really met them - they apparently forgot to ask my husband to put it on last night while I was at a meeting.

https://bricknerd.com/home/inside-lego-masters-the-end-of-the-beginning-8-12-21?fbclid=IwAR3pYsW8BeH9NPT8NLmXtZpGKEVPTyhfbE2Kc9AKiDPSE9gJFicsbSU587Y - Maria's post about this week's Lego Masters - although it's more about the process that got them on the show.

I'd agree with that. It's a good challenge once or twice to make something that looks good and is strong, but considering we only get 42 minutes of the footage (minus however many of them are taken up by Will Arnett chewing the scenery), I'd rather just see how good they can make it look. And this is, what, the fourth one like this? Demo derby, earthquake, explosion (That one, at least, was good), and now the wind tunnel. I thought challenges like last week's were better, and next week's concept looks cool too.

Wind tunnel: It was telegraphed about 8 seconds in that either Maria and Philip were going to stun us all or go home, and it didn't take long upon seeing the final build to see it was go home. That's such bad editing, when they finally decide to give a lot of screen time to a team on the week they go home, especially when they've been giving endless fawning edits to the Geek Twins and Arrogant Bros (who mercifully were tolerable this week) in particular. I thought the criticism that their techniques were too simplistic was a little odd, or at least I didn't see anything on it that made me think that, compared to anyone else's. Otherwise, I didn't feel like any particular build wowed me or fell flat. I didn't <love> the Less-Arrogant-This-Week Bros', I felt like it didn't look like much until you looked up close. Bro/Sis's main issue was that their sea creatures were all looking inward. Overalls Girls was simple, but I thought the toys were all really cute. I can't even remember what anyone else's looked like and it was only an hour ago so yeah, I'm going to call this one an unmemorable week in general.

What happened with Sam and Jessica? (I only watched one or two episodes of the first season)