Cress

I think it's more that Kneedling had a gun to them and also he could give a hint/look to Passepartout that he could tell Fogg about the bribe and the poison, if Passepartout dared tried to resist. Something, "don't lose your life over a rich men's bet." Passepartout could acquiesce or explain it away to the others by saying he was sick of guns, after his brother's death, and having to kill a man in the desert. Oh, I also forgot to comment about how much shirtless Passepartout we got in this episode. Nice. Abigail even got to cuddle with him, although he was unwell at the time.

I rewatched the 1st episode now that we know the story of Estella. The postcards must have been sent from her during her world tour, to let Phileas know she was having a good time without him. But the latest postcard with "Coward" on it had no postmark, so I wonder if that was from Bellamy instead, since Estella's not around. I'm not sure why he'd do that, just that he enjoys belittling Fogg. I think that's another reason why they made Passepartout start out as a waiter in the Reform Club, so that he would witness how Bellamy treats Fogg even though they're supposedly friends. And if he's the one that destroyed Fogg's confidence so much that he abandoned Estella at Victoria Station, maybe Bellamy had some ulterior motive there too. But with all this buildup, I think the show must have Estella show up at some point during the trip. Surely, wherever she is now, she must have seen the news accounts of the bet.

Oh I didn't know they were going on a long winter break. I was worried when I didn't see any new shows in January. She's gonna miss most of February too. I guess that's what I get for not being on Twitter.

Well, with Pam and Renee going to Coryana, I guess they can help revive the Desert Rose plant? Who's currently in charge there? That reminds me, what did Alice do with Safiyah after she stabbed her with the special dagger? Is she still stashed somewhere in Gotham, or did someone take her back to Coryana? I thought Mary already ran over somebody with a car while she was Poison Mary? Then Alice told her to drive away from that guy because they need to escape. How do we know whether that guy survived? So this hunter guy makes it clear she definitely killed somebody? Oh, is that insurance CEO guy still trapped in that greenhouse? I mean, there's a lot of loose ends about Mary.

There was also a dispute about payment and the paternity of his (the vault-maker's) child.

Why do they feel tired and sleep at night? They mentioned this in the episode with the hole in the wall, as Flower asked "why do we sleep?" Hetty just responded "I don't know." Why are they able to have sex, but not finish? Maybe Sam can start writing a Death Manual for them, since none of them can write. (Although, Trevor got good enough at texting that he could sext with Jay's sister. Maybe he's a faster typer now.)

I like both shows too. I saw the UK one first when I saw it on HBO Max, and that made me excited when I saw CBS ads for their version. I don't understand people who have to keep talking up how one version is better than the other. They're both funny and charming in different ways. I just recently saw the Christmas Special and was surprised to learn more about Fanny's backstory, and how she came to Button House. Loved Kitty being excited about Santa. But stupid annoying Thomas and the painting! At least the basement ghosts got to enjoy it.

Verne's book focused less on "why" go round the world than on the adventures along the way. Plus in addition to the bet, the book's plot also had a bank thief plot, with Inspector Fix constantly trying to arrest Fogg or at least sabotage him. But I do agree that giving a better motivation to the journey does make it more compelling. The Jackie Chan version of 80 Days had a scientific motive, that Fogg had to quit being an inventor if he lost. If he won he would be head of the Royal Academy, or whatever knockoff it was called. Having a motive beyond money makes you care more about whether Fogg will win the bet. I'm going to try to reread the whole book again before this show is over, just to refresh my memory and to enjoy the show's interesting changes.

No there's no Estella or any backstory really for Fogg. I am very curious about when they'll explain this. There's a Princess Aouda in the book, whom they rescued from suttee; they've reused the name Aouda for the mother of the bride here. I did like how assertive she was, when Fogg tried to talk up what the British brought to India.

omigod! Just when I was wondering how to get rid of Elias--I thought the ghosts would find some way to lure him back to the vault and lock him in--he went to Hell. I was screaming along with the ghosts! Wow. What a fun episode.

wow, pretty.

I was expecting that Poison Ivy would suck the life essence out of Mary, maybe killing her like Alice feared. But it seems that Ivy's strength is restored while Mary seems okay for now. Don't know if it will stay that way.

I like how Fix is developing a friendship with Passepartout. She could totally sense that he was still grieving for his brother, and she suspected that he planned to leave them and runaway from his problems, just like he ran from France, and London. She knows why he's getting drunk and starting fights. I don't know if they'll stay just friends or become something more. I hope the show doesn't try to do a love triangle including Fogg, but I don't know what the show will do with the book's plot about Princess Aouda in India.

I like the Cholera guy in the 2nd episode, with Jay trying to fix the water heater "I know we're dead, but he's trying to kill us!"

Masterpiece shows short "behind the scenes" videos after each episode. This time they showed a video of them filming on the real bridge. It was not damaged at all, so yeah, I assume that they used CGI to make it look like there was a gap in the bridge. Nothing in-depth, though.

I don't think they said anything of his background. We just got the vague hints from the postcards and the Club members saying he was supposed to go on a trip before. But he must be interested in technological marvels, because he did know about the balloon inventor. The book is mysterious about what Fogg does; other characters say they have no idea where he gets his money from, and that's why everyone thinks he's a bank thief for a while. The Jackie Chan movie has Fogg be a steampunk inventor. This bridge seems to be a nod to a bridge scene in the 1956 film where they cross a collapsing bridge in the United States. That scene though was a fast paced feat where they raced and "jumped" the gap in the bridge. Tonight's episode instead was slow and intense, with all the drama of the boy. Then they raced to Brindisi by destroying the train! I liked it. Even Passeportout was able to help keep the boy awake with questions about Jules Verne. Yeah, Captain Speedy's boat! Also, there has been a previous movie that did the train dismantling. It's a Sherlock Holmes meets Sigmund Freud movie called "The Seven Per-Cent Solution" in which they are trying to catch up to a faster train and rescue someone. I thought Fogg would allow Passepartout to stay in his spacious cabin with him, but him going to the crowded third class car and interacting with other people was good. Gives you a real feel for train travel for rich and poor. I'm a little confused because I thought Abigail Fix, reporter, was supposed to substitute for Inspector Fix, the Scotland Yard detective who kept trying to arrest Fogg as the bank thief. But now they're introducing a saboteur funded by Bellamy, so isn't that just Inspector Fix again?

No we don't know what happened to him since he lost his head. Well, we did see his headless body walking around in the background of the Halloween episode, but nothing else. I do hope the show will someday give more story on him, like how he got beheaded. Most of the other ghosts have had backstories and flashbacks.

Yes, Fogg is very much a character of routine and precise habits. He even fires his valet for not heating his bath to the correct temperature. I was pleased in this episode to see Fogg tolerate his old valet's shaky coffee and not fire him. It is a better idea to let the old guy stay in London taking care of the house while Fogg and Passepartout travel the world. I like the sneaky way that Passepartout talked his way into the job.

Ok, I'll move some of my comparisons here. The 1956 film adaptation starring David Nivens and Cantinflas won Oscars and was extra long, over 3 hours. The producer Michael Todd also wanted to showcase his new film format, so he began the film with a 30 minute prologue of Edward R. Murrow showing footage of "A Trip to the Moon" in a different aspect ratio. This is the prologue I hate because it's boring, unnecessary, and unrelated to the main story. If he'd cut that part, the film would be a more reasonable length This film also introduced the idea of Fogg and company taking a hot air balloon ride, which was not in the book. Sure, Verne may have loved balloons in other works, but he didn't use it in this book. The exciting travel mishaps and such didn't start until after they left Europe. So if anyone tells you this is a faithful adaption of the book, they're wrong. In fact, the film introduced the balloon to allow Fogg and Passepartout to land in Spain by accident, so Cantinflas could show his bullfighting skills. Most adaptations will add or delete countries on the travelogue to suit the actors or the story, or even the famous guest cameos they want to feature. In that way, Verne's book plot just becomes a loose framework that the writers will change as they wish. Take for example the TV miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan, Eric Idle, and Julia Nickson. Fogg and Passepartout start on their journey, only to get stuck on the ferry to cross the English Channel. They stop all action to have a big cameo from actress Sarah Bernhardt before finally moving on with the adventure In this version Inspector Fix is a private detective trying to earn reward money for the capture of the bank thief. He's also used for comic relief since he often has to stowaway in uncomfortable situations to follow Fogg and company, but weirdly Fix starts to feel sorry for his actions and wants to become friends by the end. He keeps saying "wait for me" while not really helping them progress in any way. This leads to the bizarre triple wedding. Meanwhile, Princess Aouda is written as more feminist in this version and she speaks against Imperial Britain taking over India. And though Fogg and Passepartout save her from suttee, Aouda saves Fogg's life more than once during the story, so that she's not just a damsel in distress. It is an improvement, and I did like her not wanting to shoot the Native Americans in the Wild West portion of the story. Then there's Disney's kids film from 2004 starring Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan, which was criticized for changing the story too much. But I don't mind the radical changes, because I don't think previous adaptations were very faithful to the book either. The whole "bank thief" plot in the book is too much of a coincidence that someone else just happens to rob the bank, Fogg is mistaken for him, and the thief just happens to finally get caught as Fogg returns to England. So by making Jackie Chan's character Lau Xing the thief, it removes the coincidence, and it gives Passepartout a reason to trick the club members into making the bet, so that Fogg will travel to China with him. It also gives an excuse for Jackie Chan to fight a Chinese warlord and have martial arts fights. I just recently rewatched this movie and it is mostly fun, though it has bad cameos too like Arnold Schwartzenegger as a Turkish prince who tries to force Monique to become his wife.

I'm enjoying this show so far, and am excited to see where they go. I don't mind the departures from the book, because every adaptation has changed the story, basically just using it as a framework to tell episodic adventures and do cameos from famous Victorians. The 1956 David Niven one, for example, introduced the whole hot air balloon ride, which wasn't in the book, and other versions since then have stuck with that tradition. I've seen the Niven one, the TV miniseries with Pierce Brosnan, and the Disney film with Jackie Chan. None of them are perfect to me because I like parts of all of them, while I get annoyed with other parts. Like, Niven's version opens with a boring, unrelated prologue that I hated. But I loved Cantinflas as Passepartout--he's the best version of this character, sly and charming and putting up with Fogg's eccentricities. That movie also did a detour to Spain just so Cantinflas could do bullfighting. Shirley MacLaine is charming at times, but still I side-eye them casting a white woman as the Indian princess. Pierce Brosnan was charming, but I hated Eric Idle doing a terrible French accent; he wasn't funny at all, and he's the worst Passepartout by far. This also has the strangest version of Inspector Fix who tries to befriend the group and redeem himself. Ghastly. At least Aouda wasn't white, though she wasn't really Indian either. Interestingly, this version had Fogg encounter the Paris Commune as well, and they did a sidetrip to China to meet the Empress, so Jackie Chan's movie is not the first adaptation to do a stop in China. In Jackie Chan's version, I loved the innovation that Passepartout actually IS the bank thief, and that Fogg is a steampunk inventor. It makes things much more fun, and the bet is not just for money but for scientific stakes that makes it more meaningful. They write out Princess Aouda though, because I'm sure they didn't want an Indian suttee ritual in a kids film, so they made up their own female character. In all versions of 80 Days, I find that Inspector Fix and the plot about the bank thief is too contrived and coincidental. So I totally welcome Abigail Fix as a Nellie Bly substitute for the policeman. Will she be a substitute for Princess Aouda as well, or will we forgo love interests in favor of friendships? I also am very curious about how this new Passepartout will deal with racism, and if he will look for a higher purpose for himself instead of simply running away like has for 10 years since his father's death.

I imagine that when Sam learned all of their names, that she might have googled them to see if any were famous. At least she would have done it while researching Isaac for the book she's writing. Then she might show any available pictures to Jay to let him see what the ghosts look like. So in that case, Jay might have got a chance to see Alberta's image before. Other ghosts, though, probably were not famous enough for pictures, or were too early for photography.

At first I didn't like this episode because they kept complaining about the Caribbean menu for dinner, but it started to grow on me when they tried to cheer up their Mom. Starting the fire in the kitchen and trying to put it out with sand was funny. She actually was glad she had to save Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know why they had to go the tiny apartment to make dinner instead, and they brought the steel drum player with them. Denise made up with her sister, but Jojo talked herself into staying through Christmas. That's going to be crowded.

In the promo for the next episode, it looks like Jay gets electrocuted. Maybe that means he'll be able to see and hear the ghosts?

Cool. I hope season 4 will be on HBO Max also so I can still watch. I do miss seeing Kitty.

Little David is the son of the contractor Mark. He's the one they talk to about construction work, such as in Viking Funeral, and when they discovered the shed full of British soldiers. Mark brought his child to work because his wife is out of town for a few days. I guess the kid just hangs out where no dangerous construction is taking place. I did like Hetty and Thorfinn's story, and him turning out to be "Gordon." I love that Alberta is now famous and that she made those comments about racism to remind us how hard life would have been in the 1920s. She's apparently right about being murdered, if Todd's comment about strychnine in the moonshine is right.