Delwyn

I costume designed the stage show of Rocky Horror twice within one year, so this movie holds a very special place in my heart - I'm not kidding when I say I have it memorized. We incorporated the character of The Usherette: an actress to sing Science Fiction - Double Feature and to encourage a lot of the famous shout outs from the movie from the edge of the stage. After getting the performers ready for the first act, they would often plant me in the audience to help with the shout outs. Of course the cast were in on the joke: it was a nice way of breaking the fourth wall without disturbing the pacing. Weirdly enough, I find participation viewings of the film itself tiresome now, because I know what it can be like with live actors. I could definitely sing every song from the show/movie by heart, though. Most fun I will probably ever have on a production. And I love everything that Tim Curry chooses to be. A couple years later on November 1st, a friend of mine was telling me about her work on some random set the previous day and how nice Barry Bostwick is and blah blah blah. I smacked her on the arm like ten times and told her she was an idiot because she spent all of Halloween with Brad Majors and never even noticed. Wasted moment!

My favourite moments of Monday's show were more or less just quotes: "As long as we're reporting breaking up to the minute fanfiction..." CNN demonstrates next-level spec reporting complete with sexy cars and Top Gun accessories. Wow. "And a dog washed up on the beach but my dad said it was okay because it was asleep." So dark, but whoever wrote this monologue exactly nailed what events would make it on a little boy's summer vacation highlight reel.

Maybe everyone is busy celebrating Columbus Day?

Except there was another shooting and one killed at an Arizona University the same day and only hours apart, so it might be worth a mention? I have faith that Colbert can find the fine balance of the entertainment mission of his show, while giving us serious food for thought about these issues without having to take political sides.

"Half the colonial army were after my Bedfordshire Clanger!" Ahahahahaha! I think I am on board with them having a Big Bad that basically generates Monster of the Week episodes out of a box like pieces of paper pulled from a hat. It sounds uninspired, but I feel so burned by last season "keep it simple stupid" seems like a good motto? Something I am NOT on board with is Betsy Ross. Is she going to turn out to be a robot from the future? Because that's what the actress' line readings would seem to indicate. I have zero problem with Ichabod love interest stories, but I feel like Mison is busy trying to act while she is doing bad (robot) cosplay.

Hopefully this is the spot for this. Spoiler or speculation TBD, I guess. I read today on Twitter that S2 is not returning for Vancouver location filming because they are going to sea and will be shooting in LA and Mexico. It would certainly explain the wide shot of the ocean in the finale. And since Strand has a boat...

I completely agree with you, in the sense that he very accurately portrayed all the facts and good on them for bringing up stuff no one wants to acknowledge or deal with. I have a great deal of experience with the mental health system (in Canada at least, so I can't really speak to the mass shooting blame aspect as much), so it wasn't at all confusing to me - just a disjointedly assembled story. I applaud the show for tackling the topic, but what I was getting at (maybe not clearly, sorry) is that in the past they put more care, obsessive research and overall production value into topics like Miss America and FIFA. Any attention at all for this serious problem is very welcome. I just think it deserved the same kind of deep-dive treatment topics usually get: John generally walks us through the how, the why, the repercussions, etc. I personally felt like someone who didn't have their own stake in these awful facts wouldn't walk away feeling more connected and involved, like so many people did with Food Waste. I guess I'm complaining that LWT didn't do enough to focus my rage? I'll shut up now.

What a weirdly paced show. The Mental Illness piece felt like a grab bag of issues that never came together into anything: gun control; prisons; institutions; aftercare; the fact that first responders are not trained in mental health but are usually the first point of contact for those in need of help; the lack of any reform. Lots of rage inducing things with no follow through, broken up by almost unrelated jokes. It was all over the place and probably would have benefited from focusing on a single aspect in order to do it any kind of justice. And then it just kind of ended and started making fun of Peeple. Not great, show. Maybe another story fell through? I did laugh really loudly (maybe in relief?) at the line about the taxi driver's reaction to Peeple, and how maybe the sound of a person's soul leaving their body is not the endorsement they think it is.

This is probably a weird thing to notice (costume designer, sorry) but was Thursday's show the first time Stephen's suit was not a shade of blue? I always thought it was a nice tie in to his general color scheme and kind of amazing he had so many variations of blue on hand. The graphite was jarring. I'm worried that the delight of having Colbert back on my TV all the time is not wearing off, because I can't possible devote this much time to watching. Strange to hope I will get a bit sick of him, even as the show improves and finds its stride. Days later I am still chuckling over Stephen's glee that he found a fellow person who is not "waterproof".

From the BBC: Since it was an article including the headline "US soap star back from the dead", I don't feel so shallow in saying: That's amazing! Wonderful news! But...did she get to see the clip? It's really nice to see any show humanizing this crisis. Who can't relate to preferring to live another day, wanting to be an astronaut when you grow up and being into ridiculous soap plotlines as a teenager? It seems like the issue should have nothing to do with mosques and more to do with human kindness. LWT can be kind of a bummer sometimes, but it gives me hope that someone cares enough to go to quite a lot of trouble putting the spotlight on important things that get overlooked. Sure, paychecks are involved, but plenty of productions get paid a lot of money and don't have anything to show for it. For me, LWT is a "leave it better than you found it" situation. They could just show us things that make us outraged. Instead, they also give an option of a positive outlet. UPDATE: Noujain has seen the video and posted a YouTube of her own from Germany.

I thought it was on the side of the UN building because of the Global Citizens Festival, but I could be mistaken. ETA: 6 Fail-Proof Tips for Launching a Men's Lifestyle Site. It's all very haha, we're playing along, until goop suggests Stephen could really benefit from some anal bleaching and they would like to treat him to a complimentary colon steam. Reminds me of when Pom juice sent John Oliver a case of their juice and told him exactly where to shove it.

I was watching on Global Go (mobile app) and had the same thing. Did the full thing air in the U.S.?

After reading the CNN article over in the media thread, I was finally able to put my finger on what has been bugging me so much about people complaining that Colbert didn’t go after Trump hard enough. I personally came away thinking that it had been a very intelligent demonstration of the phrase hoist with one's own petard. Stephen gives Trump a chance to take back his comments on Obama’s birthplace - he declines to commit to an answer despite being loud mouthed about it previously and I don’t think the NY subway rat reference is a coincidence. Stephen does an offensive racial stereotype and the Donald doesn’t really seem to mind. Stephen lets Trump run his mouth about the Iran deal and follows it with a rational segment featuring the nuclear physicist who might actually know a thing or two about it. He never has to be confrontational because like a Boss, Stephen made Trump carry his own shovel out to the desert next to the Mexican border and dig that grave himself, happily thinking he was starting construction on a wall. Maybe I watch Colbert through rose-tinted glasses, but I feel that in the way that he let Trump show off his ridiculousness, he also let Cruz show off his insincerity and lack of humanity. All he needs to do is be a gentleman and it seems like his guest's character ends up being fairly accurately represented.

Thanks guys! The Gellars were perfect. As much as I love that idea, I think I would also really enjoy Ichabod and Headless (Original Badass Flavour, not Abraham - now with an extra helping of wussy head). Their team subtitle could be something like "Blood Brothers" and Ichabod would always give inspirational end of leg interviews about how everyone underestimates Headless because of his disability; Headless would kill all physical tasks with superhuman strength; Ichabod would instantly solve all puzzles with his eidetic memory and Phil would have an endless source of Pit Stop Puns. And Ichabod constantly having to explain his teammate's condition to the terrified locals would be a gold mine for the sound editors and all their gongs and rattles they like to add when things get crazy.

It seems to me that you usually see very high dollar amounts in legs that involve an obligatory long/multiple stop taxi ride, especially in European and North American locations. I find it easy to predict if the leg will be all self-drive or walking distance when they get a very small amount of cash at the start of the leg. I don't have any inside knowledge that it's an indisputable fact, just something that I've noticed over the years.

I have read every recap for Under The Dome this season, even though I would never, in a million years, watch the actual show. Tara's recaps are like the WTF of listening to a little kid tell an outlandish story that they are making up as they go along. You just kind of roll with the water-skiing unicorns and talking camels because sure, why not? They must have moved Minority Report from Toronto after the pilot, because you can't go anywhere in Vancouver right now without stumbling across one of their sets. They've even filmed on weekends I think.

It would seem that regardless of what kind of person Trevor Noah is in real life, he is now in a lose/lose situation with The Daily Show. It doesn't help that Comedy Central doesn't really seem to be doing anything to salvage things. Some well crafted web content would probably go a long way.

If I'm not mistaken, they just had two weeks off for his Sydney shows and next week for the Emmys. I'm sure he said back in two weeks, not two more weeks without shows. I was sorry they didn't include the loss of show mockery target Australia PM Tony Dumb-Dumb. The final segment including the words "rub this for the seed you seek" and "when someone sends you jizz through the mail, it's time to stop doing what you're doing" was a welcome juvenile laugh after the public defender piece, which was a depressing extension of the Bail report (maybe the groundwork was laid during research for that?) The results of the seed campaign reminded me of the Bugle episode when listeners signed up their email for all the crazy dating sites they could get their hands on. Be careful what suggestions you put out there, John: your audience has the same twisted sense of humour as you and the anonymity to act on it via FedExed semen (just mark "gift" on the declaration form).

Leilani was already shaking at the wakeboard. I would bet that ages in a cold lake, being dragged by a speedboat while holding a bar, severely limits any chance you have of using your hands for anything at all the rest of the day. Never mind racing with plastic shards in your leg while hanging from monkey bars in the pouring rain. Leilani seemed to be the stronger of the two during other physical tasks. She was the one flipping Dujean around like a rag doll during the India wrestling challenge. He was an insufferable partner during this whole leg and said some shockingly mean spirited things about her abilities. She was a lot calmer about his poor behaviour than I would have been. Maybe they didn't show the rest of their leg because she brained him with a potato slingshot and buried him under the manure pile before the production came to his rescue. It only would have been fair. A well reasoned use of the W-Turn (Nick and Matt said themselves they would have done the same) and I would be happy with any of the final four winning. TARCAN seems so much harder physically than the U.S. version, with much harder working racers. I appreciate that the tasks are often linked to the specific location as well. The geographic connection to tasks on TARUS often seem tenuous at best in its later years. Didn't they recently have a wakeboard challenge, only it was simulated? And everyone gave up?

Thanks for the heads up. I fixed the YouTube link. Not sure why it stopped working. There are so many articles about Colbert out there right now, I had to stop reading them. My mom brought me one from TV Week Canada, and I was like "No, I'm good. Possibly forever." Can't wait to see how tonight goes!

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who clocked that. I was watching with my mom and said "you're not in Thailand, guys" and complained that one of the teams was taking a rickshaw instead of an autorickshaw because it was too slow. She gave me a weird look, but it's one of those things you learn from osmosis after a decade of watching TAR, I think. Like the fact that you should never leave your passport in a Russian taxi or assume that a food task is something you will actually want to consume. We were both confused that Matt & Nick (the Wrestlers) were allowed to run away from the clue box to read their clue. I thought it was a rule they had to read it right there for the camera, but maybe that was only in my head. SO delighted for their win, though. Even with their fondness for "bar shirts", they appear so guileless and without a mean spirit. I am rooting for them or Brent and Sean (thank the gods of NEL). I enjoy all the other teams now that Brian is gone (for so many reasons that will probably hurt his feelings) as well as all the "this is impossible"/quitter teams. I would be happy with any current team taking the prize. I know Ope sometimes gets a bit down on his ability at the beginning of the tasks, but he always pulls through and I would definitely invited Ope and Simi over for a barbeque since they live in my city. I don't really see why people don't like Gino and Jesse. They seem perfectly nice, although competitive. But it's a race? Any faults we've seen from them have certainly been present in other likeable teams. To me, their race style is a bit like the TARUS Cowboys. They tend to get turned around getting from place to place, but are pretty good at tasks once they get there and have displayed some strategic thinking. Anyway, some NEL eps feel like a waste of time, but this one had a great pace.

Since S1 contestants don't have their own thread, I thought I'd post this here. I saw a lovely article in The Vancouver Sun yesterday about Jody (of "Brothers" team Jody and Cory Mitic) regarding his life post-Afghanistan and how his now-wife was one of the people who saved his life. They were the team I was rooting for in S1 and reading this confirmed what a swell guy he (and Cory) seem to be. Possible tissue warning for tender-hearted readers.

I daresay that Jeb!'s Twitter reply to Stephen's scolding strongly suggests that he does not have a clue. You're not in on the joke - you are the joke. I wonder if they even clocked the penis nickname parodies of Woody Johnson.

Stephen's video response to Jeb's VIP ticket shenanigans. Satisfying and classy. I salute you, sir.

I really hope we get to see Stephen Colbert rake Jeb Bush over the coals for this bit of news.