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SourK

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Everything posted by SourK

  1. This was frustrating to watch -- for me, it was just a repetitive argument between people who are all kind of wrong. YMMV. I thought Peppermint spoke well when she was talking about how she felt hurt and disappointed and, for her, it was about more than the show and had to do with past experiences she'd had and her fears about the current political situation, etc. I think it's understandable that MJ is also hurt and disappointed, maybe for reasons that go beyond what happened in the show -- like, she had mentioned knowing what it was like to feel left out of a group, for example. I get why she would be upset to get to the end of the game and think, "We're all on the same team, we all like each other, everything's cool," and then have the other two people vote her out, basically just because they like each other more. I think the issue she had at the reunion is just that she didn't know how to express any of that in the same way that Peppermint did, so she did the passive-aggressive thing where she was like, "I'm mad at you; I'm interrupting to show I'm still mad at you; I'm mad at you; acknowledge me; show me that you care about how I feel." And then the response she got was the least helpful response, which is people saying, "Well, U shouldn't B mad." I've said it in other Traitor's threads, and I'll say it again: this show is basically designed to hurt people's feelings and make them feel bad, and that's one aspect of it that maybe isn't awesome. I think it's fair to share that, if that's what your experience was -- I just don't think she knew how. As far as Dan/Phaedra, I actually believe he thought he could throw Phaedra under the bus to save himself. It was a move that didn't work, and it was a move that tanked her game unnecessarily because it didn't work, but I don't think he did it out of spite. I think he was just bad at being a Traitor.
  2. This season kind of sucked, but the last ten minutes were shocking and hilarious. Like, suddenly it turned into this weird, misguided Hallmark movie about how Trishelle and CT healed their toxic friendship by throwing MJ under the bus.
  3. Oof. For a show that's so much about talking to people, we don't have a lot of great talkers this season. LOL at the scene were Trishelle made such a huge deal of confronting the Bravo alliance and then she just kind of stood there going, "I don't know you, you know. I feel like you have a group." I was pleasantly surprised that MJ voted for Peter, just because I think it's more interesting if Peter gets banished instead of the obvious Traitor and I thought, by the way the show was dragging it out, that she'd pick Phaedra. I had forgotten, though, that Peter hurt her feelings -- and that's a good motivation for wanting it to be him and not being terribly sorry to get rid of him if it isn't. The pontoon task was kind of sad. I feel like, if your challenge is so hard that most of the cast can't do it, maybe the challenge should be easier. Those platforms looked really far apart. Also, I noticed that Trishelle and CT both did well in that challenge and won it by themselves, but, at least in the edit we saw, the reaction to Trishelle doing well was, "Yeah, well, she has long legs," and the reaction to CT doing well was, "Oooo CT, he's the hero of the challenge!" (I'm paraphrasing.) I don't have any pre-existing feelings about Trishelle and I've never seen her other show, but I feel like her narrative on this show is that she's playing pretty well but everyone ignores her.
  4. I found it interesting that Peter came out and said that the way to win is to take a known Traitor to the finals with you because "no one will vote to end the game if Parvati's there." To a certain extent that's true, but I think it only works if a) you're sure that it's not you and TWO Traitors in the final, and b) the Traitors don't know that you know who they are. The problem with this season is that the Traitors all got exposed, so now you need a different play style. I also thought it was interesting that Kate said she was disappointed that Phaedra was the only Traitor -- which means they were at least entertaining the idea that someone got recruited. Dan definitely blew things up for everyone when he pushed to murder someone with a shield and then started going after Phaedra, and I would be annoyed if I were on team Traitor with him. But also there were three people in that tower and the other two could have put their feet down and refused to murder someone who could have a shield. They all made that mistake together. I think the same. If she had voted for Peter that would be a huge upset in the way things have been going, and very exciting TV, so I feel like they wouldn't have cut. I think they ended the episode here because they know it's boring if the Faithful pick off the last obvious Traitor so they're trying to create suspense where there is none. I hope I'm wrong. Yeah, I was always confused about where the line was. I the first season, they seemed to play as if they were forbidden from directly accusing another Traitor ever, but this season it seems do be, "Don't stand in the circle and say 'these are the other Traitors.'" And, to be fair, if you WERE forbidden from ever accusing another Traitor, that could become a quick way to find out who the Traitors are because you could just go around the table and see who refuses to accuse the obvious Traitor.
  5. I don't think Phaedra's the best ever Traitor, but I respect how well she defends herself at the round table. When Trishelle was like, "I'll start with the least convincing reason and move to the most," and then Phaedra immediately started making nitpicky arguments about the least convincing reason, I was like, "OMG, this is the chef's kiss of stalling and hoping everyone gets bored." I didn't think that John was fooled by Parvati, but I thought it was socially skillful of him to be like, "You know what? You play really hard," in that moment. I get a slightly different vibe, like Alan's opinion of John might not be totally friendly. I know nothing about John -- to me, he's just some guy -- but, during the bird call task, there was a moment where I was like, "Shit, imagine if this was a politician in your country." I do think that, when the two of them interact, I'm more consciously aware that this is Alan's job and he's working -- whether it's good or bad, the mood certainly changes.
  6. I still don't love that we're playing this like it's Survivor, but LOL at Sandra using billiard balls to explain how vote against an enemy alliance, and double LOL at the shot of Kate's mouth hanging open in amazement while she did that. For the purpose of maintaining Phaedra's cover, it would have been a bad move, but, for the purpose of getting rid of Peter -- which is all Parvati seems to care about, now -- it would have been a good move, because it would be another person who definitely wouldn't save Peter. That reaction made sense to me, but I can't explain what it is. I've met people with that personality type before where it's like, even if they feel annoyed or insulted, they're just like, "Oh? Tell me more," in a very pragmatic way. Like, they're still angry, but they're gathering information. I think Dan and Parvati are both playing this -- or played this, in Dan's case -- like you can argue your way out of banishment on a technicality. The vibe Parvati's giving off is like, "Okay, we all know I'm a Traitor, but, if I can give you a good enough argument that some other random person is a Traitor, then you should pick that one instead." Which is also the vibe Dan was giving off toward the end. She's actually benefiting more from Sandra explaining to everyone that they need to guard against a scenario where the Traitor is actually in the other alliance, as unlikely as that may be. I'm sure Sandra fully knows that it's probably Parvati, but this is their way of making a temporary alliance with Parvati while they protect themselves. Speaking of temporary alliances, I'm very curious about what Parvati and Peter had to say to each other in the creepy coat closet room. I feel like we didn't see the whole conversation. I agree. If they get caught in a scenario where, every week, a new person gets blackmailed to be a Traitor and then one of the Traitors gets voted off, that's also interesting to see because of how it would change the game. I understand why she didn't, but I wish MJ had refused to leave the room. If you're so desperate to have a private conversation, you can be the ones who leave the room each time. Same. She didn't say it directly, but I think she was reading the situation correctly -- she thought they respected each other as competitors and he's like, "She's okay or whatever, but I'd rather have this random guy as a teammate."
  7. I never watched Big Brother, but I read an article this week about the Dan's Funeral thing: https://ew.com/tv/2019/08/29/big-brother-14-oral-history-dan-funeral/ What's interesting about it, in light of how he tried to save himself on this show, is that they're describing a situation where he made a big speech and threw one of his allies under the bus, but half of the people there weren't really convinced by the speech, and the thing that really improved his standing in the game was a one-on-one conversation with someone who had strategic reasons for making an alliance with him. Which, IIRC, was what Phaedra suggested Dan do to take some of the heat off of himself. There's a trend this season that I don't like where the competitive reality show vets are treating this as a pure numbers game where you just group up and eliminate someone from an opposing alliance. It might be a smart way to play -- I'm not sure yet -- but it's boring, because it's just like every other show. I'm finding it a lot more fun to watch seasons where no one has been on a reality show before and they're learning to play Traitors as its own thing.
  8. I am late, but this is important: I loved Alan's funeral outfit so much!
  9. Spoilers for season 2 finale. Anyway, I enjoyed this season and I'm curious to see how the gameplay evolves as we start seeing more contestants who have already watched the show and been able to think about strategies.
  10. This season has made me think a lot more about the strategy in the game, beyond the surface level of traitors vs faithfuls. Because the game takes place over a set number of rounds, and the traitors keep getting replenished during those rounds, and the contestants get a bigger prize if they have fewer teammates standing at the end -- there's also a traitors vs traitors and faithfuls vs faithfuls element. If you're a faithful and you think you know who the traitors are, I'm genuinely unsure of whether it's in your interest to vote them out -- knowing that a) they will be replaced by someone who you might NOT know is a traitor, and b) you have to eliminate the other faithfuls anyway in order to get the prize. (Also, you could end up being forced to be a traitor, and it could mess up your game.) If you genuinely think you've clocked the traitors, the smarter strategy might be to keep that to yourself and focus on trying to not get murdered/banished before the final rounds. Not that I think anyone's doing that. Just, the traitors this season are not subtle, and people are starting to clock them -- so it just makes me think, "What's the optimal thing to do with that information, if you're faithful?"
  11. I'm watching, too. Maybe we should start a thread for the second season. It seems like we can just do that, now? IDK. It feels sacrilegious or something. For now:
  12. Well, I was surprised. I thought for sure we were headed into an anti-climactic ending where Leroy and Gurleen eliminated the other players and Mike and split the prize two ways, but Gurleen surprised me. I feel for her. She went against her instincts and over-thought what she should do, and it's hard to feel like you failed yourself that way. I also get that Leroy's upset that they lost, but it's not really fair to try to shame her for making a bad play. It's not like she deliberately screwed him over -- she made what she thought was the correct move and the consequence of choosing wrong was just as bad for her. Same. It seemed like the contestants had a pretty good idea that there had to be one Traitor left, so I get why revealing who they banished would actually be giving them a lot of information... but then why reveal who they've banished during the fire segment? Why not just say, "No reveals from here until the end?" The contestants also use their circle moment as a chance to say goodbye and have closure, and it feels kind of mean to me not to let Trevon have that.
  13. I've been reading guides about Werewolf strategy to try to figure out how you would identify the Traitor in this situation, and it's interesting because, once you know to look for it, you can see that Mike's making what is apparently a classic Werewolf mistake: when he's talking to other people, he's clearly trying to get the numbers to vote someone out, but he doesn't seem to care too much who it is. (Whereas, if you're a Faithful, you don't just want to vote for someone who's not you -- you want to vote for the Traitor, specifically.) I don't know if he's getting sloppier because it's the end or I just notice it more because I'm studying, but it's interesting to see.
  14. I agree that it's boring to watch people do the same challenges over and over again, but the one thing I like about this season is that most people don't seem to be on the "Traitors are the scum of the earth" train -- they mostly seem to remember they're playing a game. Even as Kuzie and Mike have slowly been turning on each other, they've kind of done it respectfully? IDK. I liked Kuzie -- IMO, it seemed like she sometimes played up her villainy to give a more entertaining interview, but she didn't seem mean-spirited about it. I do kind of wonder if she and Mike just... forgot that they were targeting the shield team? Because that one seemed like a pretty big mistake. I think part of the problem with this show is that the only real game play happens in the debate about who to banish -- in which case, the play is the same as Werewolf -- you're observing how people participate in that debate and trying to make inferences about their goals without tipping your hand so much that you get murdered. But then we spend half of the episode watching them do a prize challenge that literally has nothing to do with the game. (And I die a little inside each time one of them says, "A traitor would try to sabotage the challenge!" -- it's such a common misunderstanding that it points to how this is a problem with the game.)
  15. I'm finished now. I know this is not the focus the documentary chose to take, but I found it really interesting that: David was one of the best players in the world, but the price to get there was that he basically had to be a robot that did nothing but learn soccer for his whole childhood and then, once he was an adult, it's not clear to me that he actually felt fulfilled by playing soccer. The soccer teams get a bunch of talented kids right as they're transitioning to adulthood and then continue to treat them like children and exercise a weird amount of control over their lives. David was able to resist because he was so famous, but most people wouldn't have that option. Being one of the best players in the world wasn't worth very much once he was on a team with people who weren't at the same level -- like, David got the glory for a lot of games he played in, but it was the team that won. There is definitely a pattern where David gets restless and then his life blows up and then he moves away and changes his appearance. (I relate to this.)
  16. I'm half-way through, and I am so mystified by the idea that people got so mad because he didn't do a good job at his sportsgame. Like, you would think that Argentina won Buckingham Palace.
  17. This is the first season I watched in real time, and I kind of wish I hadn't tried so hard to guess? Not that it wasn't fun -- just, I think I would have been less underwhelmed by this if I seen it all back to back and hadn't spent so long trying to think of a twist between episodes. And Tobert really was there for no reason. Bless. On the one hand, it was funny and in-character for Oliver hear all of Howard's hinting and still not be able to think of anyone but himself (in every sense). On the other hand, I genuinely felt bad for Howard. I was confused by that sequence. Not in the way they wanted me to be -- just in a way where it felt clumsy. If Sazz said she wanted to talk to Charles, and Charles said he was going to get the wine, there are lots of ways to edit what happened after so that we think Charles is in the apartment alone, and then it's not him without retroactively making it so Sazz got the wine instead. Like, for example, maybe Charles goes to get the wine and, unbeknownst to us, he gets waylaid somewhere and Sazz gets to the apartment first, trying to talk to him. Having them suddenly say, "Never mind, someone else went to get the wine," just felt like a weird way to do it. I'm wondering about that, too. I mean, call me selfish and stressed out by the housing crisis but, when Tobert said he was leaving town, I was like, "What happens to his apartment, though?" (I jest -- I know it gets turned into an Airbnb). I have mixed feelings about it. I liked Jan the cold-blooded serial killer in season one, but I also liked what's-his-name who accidentally pushed that girl -- and I thought it was a nice balance to have both. There was part of me that was pleased that Cliff wasn't a cold-blooded killer, and that it just happened in the heat of the moment, because I think that's more interesting. And it's easier for me to buy than believing that he was secretly a psychopath the whole time or something. At the same time, there's a tonal issue where it's more of a downer when the murders seem more realistic. So I'm conflicted.
  18. It's a good question. I'm unsure of how realistic we're supposed to assume their depiction of rat poison is. IIRC, it also shreds your intestines in a pretty brutal way that should have been obvious at the hospital.
  19. For some reason, when I saw the scene, I immediately thought cookies instead of people and it's hard to say why -- I think maybe because whoever he was talking to wasn't answering, and it just felt like a frozen cake commercial from the 90s or something where you think they're talking about romance but no -- it's the frozen cake. I think this is the most likely outcome. It's possible Ben went to the white room and accidentally killed himself, but I feel like that would be too dark for this show.
  20. I think Tobert did the push and either Loretta or the producers did the poison. There's a theory in the episode thread that Only Murders is referencing The Producers in that the producers are trying to make the play fail for financial reasons. Loretta being the poisoner would be a good fake-out, though, because we know she's covering for Dickie, but maybe the twist is that she's covering for him by confessing to a crime she attempted but didn't succeed at. Same, but I don't think he planned it with Ben. I think someone else tried and failed to poison Ben and, when that happened, Tobert got excited because it seemed like his documentary was going to bring him a lot of attention. Then, when Ben survived, he was disappointed, so he pushed him to make him dead again.
  21. I think this could be right. We've all been suspicious of everyone with screen time, but the characters are locked into the idea that it's someone from the play. Maybe it's not. (My bet's on Tobert right now, but my bet changes a lot.) I like Meryl Streep in this -- I've liked her in a few things in the past few years, much more than I used to. I also think the tone and style of this show is a good fit for her. However. I always find it kind of weird when I watch a movie or TV show about characters who failed to have a career in the entertainment industry. Because the story is obviously always being told by people who succeeded. And there's part of me that can't get that out of my head, and I'm just like, "Nice of you to have empathy for your unlucky peers, I guess?" but it still feels weird. I like both of those ideas.
  22. I feel like, so far, the solution has to involve: A plate of cookies Someone blacking out under stress Frustrated ambition Possibly one person tried to poison him and then another person pushed him down the elevator shaft. Maybe Loretta will turn out to be the poisoner, but she messed up because she can't cook, and then it will be revealed that Tobert or Dickie pushed him. That's my current guess, but it doesn't feel totally right.
  23. Okay, I'm coming to this super late and only got to this episode now, but I was so impressed by the first season of this show. It's well-written, it's well-acted -- and in this episode, in particular, there's this close-up where you just watch Amy Ryan cycle through reactions with her eyes as Jan decides whether or not to tell Charles the truth, and it was mesmerizing. There are so many series these days where it seems like the writers are just making it up as they go, and lurching from plot twist to plot twist -- but this had a structure and a plan, and weird bassoon cleaner that showed up in such an understated way that I completely forgot about it until it came back later. I'm really glad I gave this a chance, because it was great.
  24. I really feel like they could have set this up so that Angel Tabitha had to tell the future to young Betty for some reason instead of making it so old Betty has to become young Betty and then not remember what happened after the previous episode. Anyway. I was confused about why Reggie wasn't part of their poly utopia, since three of them were attracted to him already. I laughed when Archie tried to say something nice to Betty about how they might end up together, and she was like, "No, Archie, you're going to move to California and die an old man." Like, imagine that from his POV, where he doesn't know she's a time traveler and he just thinks she's being weird. I literally don't care about the thing where they tell us everyone lived an awesome life, because I don't feel super invested, but I liked the scene where Archie read the poem because people's reactions looked genuine, and I couldn't tell if it was the actors being emotional about the end of the show or the characters. I'm excited to see what these people do next now that they're finally free.
  25. I get that it's black and white because TV and movies were black and white in the 50s. What I don't get is why this episode, specifically, as opposed to any other episode, was black and white, or what that changed about how someone would interpret it. I also don't get why only one episode was black and white instead of the whole season. If they were only going to do one episode this way, why not the one where Veronica was actually showing B-movies at her theatre? Or why not a scary episode? I was more into the Betty/Veronica story line, or the story line where Veronica's a horndog and no one wants to date her (which I liked because that's not a dynamic you usually see for female characters).
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