After7Only

I believe Eva goes on the Barcelona trip, in place of Kenya.

I find this interesting as well. Rebecca rarely gets labeled a bitch even though she's had some definite bitchy moments. Beth has also had plenty of loving and funny moments, but she's still often labeled a Bitch. Beth doesn't like Kevin for the exact same reason many of us on the boards didn't like him until we learned more about his issues. He always appeared to be superficial and selfish. And as she is not privy to his back story she does not have reason to think otherwise Kevin is ignored because everyone assumes he's fine. But I also think adult Kevin bears some (not all) responsibility for this perception. He doesn't like to talk about his feelings. Kate tried to get him to open up about their father's death, and he shut her down. When he was a struggling actor he didn't let anyone know how much he was struggling. Whenever anyone asks him about anything he says he's fine. Even when he was about to confess his addiction to Randall and chose to keep it to himself when he found out about Kate's miscarriage. Now it might be a chicken/egg thing that he tried to act like everything was fine because that what he believed thats what everyone expected from him

I don't think we've seen anything that shown us Kevin wasn't "that loved" by his parents. What we've seen are 2 parents who were doing their best to raise 3 kids who all happen to be the same age . They made sacrifices for his well being. Supported him in everything he did. Sent him to football camp and made him homemade personalized Halloween costumes, lol... They were never abusive towards him . Didn't purposely withhold affection from him. He just didn't get as much individual attention from his parents as Randall and Kate received. It's a legitimate complaint/issue. It helps us understand why Kevin does what he does, but it's not an excuse for why he does what he does. A true discussion on privilege would take far more time and space than this forum allows. But to discuss someone having privilege does not mean that privilege will protect them from all hardships in life. Just as lack of privilege does not mean a person cannot be successful. It does mean that there are certain things a straight white, good looking man in America are less likely to have to deal with. Kevin is not going to be followed in a store or have store employees assume he couldn't afford things like Randall was. Kevin's neighbors would not be overly concerned if they saw his father walking around the neighborhood, like Randall's were.

I kinda like the concept of this show. The energy is different from the other singing shows which I found refreshing. The song choices felt more relevant to current music than what you see on the other competition shows. I do agree that the original 4 are basically set up to fail. May have been better if the original 4 had each performed a song at the beginning of the show. Or if they the challenger only performed the one song before the audience voted. Seemed a bit unfair that the audience had 2 songs to base their decision on for one contestant and only 1 for the other. Especially like this there's only 4 episodes. It will be over before I can tire of it. And added bonus... no country contestants. Not knocking country. Just not my cup of tea, and they tend to bump my favorites on the other shows : )

I'm thinking it's Rap-unzel for the win, as I do agree that JD will select a girl this season. Bri is the most talented, but I'm well past JD's target audience for the winner's music. Bri, is appealing to fans of old school hip hop, but I don't see her connecting well to a kid audience and what the kids like in hip hop today. Rap-unzel's edit appears to have her being well liked by other kids, having pretty good content, and she's very pretty (without the girls hate me cuz I'm cute attitude that Ricci has).

I don't necessarily have strong feelings on who should have won. I personally respect Chrissy's game a bit more than Ben's. Both Chrissy and Ben made it to the end due to their gameplay. Chrissy's was winning immunities. Ben's was finding idols. I just think winning 4 immunities is a more difficult thing to do and requires a broader skillset than finding idols. I knew there were a lot of strong female players this season, but until Cole(?) mentioned that he was the only man to win a individual immunity this season, I didn't realize how dominant the women had been. Has this ever happened before? If not, it was more than deserving a montage of all of ladies immunity challenge wins and at least some type of mention at the reunion.

I agree that rights shouldn't be terminated just because a well-off family wants the kid. I can definitely see this argument if this was Deja's first stint in foster care. But she's repeatedly been in foster care. So much so that Deja can explain the process of how the social worker should properly reunite them to her mother. In Randall's and Beth's shoes, I wouldn't want Deja to go back to her mother either. Deja's mother didn't really give the impression that was going to change her bad decision making this go round. Just that she was innocent of "this" crime and that she loves her daughter. It's a tricky situation. Maybe her mother will step and stay out of trouble, or maybe Deja ends back up in foster care. This time older, and even less likely to find an adoptive family and definitely not one as cool as the Pearson's. Randall wanted to adopt a newborn. Beth did not and suggested they adopt an older child. Fostering was part of the process. Interesting that Tess was the only one who saw Kevin was in trouble. She's a very empathetic child. The whole big house/ big car/work hard thing felt as if it was a callback to an earlier conversation between Randall/Deja (that may have been cut). Like Deja asked Randall how did he get the big house, big car. And he told her by working hard. Felt like an inside thing between the two, rather than him telling her that's the key to happiness and success.

There's no real stand out in this group of kids. I like the kid with the rainbow locs though. He's probably the weakest lyrically, but his style is pretty on trend with what passes as hip hop today, and he has plenty of 12 year old swag. I can see him doing well on JD's challenges.

I'm not so sure this is true. The reason many kids spent their entire childhoods in foster care was the system was trying to reunite them with their birth families. By the time the system finally realizes the birth family isn't going to get their act together, and the state finally terminates rights, the kid is a lot older and harder to adopt. But healthy black newborn children with no birth family barriers tended to be adopted pretty quickly. The problem with this analogy is that you're assuming the experiences and culture of blacks and whites in America are exactly the same. It is not. The judge's concerns were regarding those differences and the Pearson's ability navigate those differences with Randall. In in the reverse scenario, this would be less of a concern. White Randall raised by Black parents would not run up to every white person he saw thinking they might be his biological parents because he would see white people everywhere he went.

So I can't tell if you love Adrienne or hate her. LOL. I love Keo but he's been a bit of a jinx partner wise. I also spotted Essence Atkins in the audience. Would love to see her on the show. But I don't see it happening. I think it's a combination of things. The show was running long. Plus they tend to ease up on her workload on during football season.

I didn't think it was OOC. Kevin has shown that he has a mean streak when he feels like he doesn't get the attention he feels he "deserves". We've seen it time and time again in his relationship with Randall. He can't seem to help himself from lashing out. He was jealous of his roomie getting the part, so he lashed out. Although you could tell as he was doing it, he felt horrible about himself. He knew he had gone too far. Kate has a sarcastically funny personality that many men find appealing. I will agree that wig and that waitress uniform did her no favors though. But there are plenty of attractive, married and single men who are interested in women of Kate's shape. Not saying it's the norm. But it's definitely not uncommon. I did not find the actor's looks to be distracting the storyline at all.

I hope in a future episode we get to hear all 3 verses of Randall's heal the boo boo antibacterial cream song. The scene of him and Beth cracked me up.

Good to see MJ make a mature decision regarding the embryos with Lee. Old MJ would have kept them and figure out a way to get implanted. Love Kara, but I'm also tired of this Latina huevos mami. Original recipe Kara didn't speak Spanish. She struggled balancing her Latina and more general ". " cultures. It was a perspective I had not seen on tv before and found interesting.

Hey hey now. The Rock is perfect as he is. Spencer in his plaid suit, leaning against the wall watching the 2 brothers argue was the definition of FINE. Plus as much female nudity and women walking around in lingerie (Does Charles's wife own clothes?) packed into every episode, we deserve some male eye candy as well.

Justin's classmate, I think they called her Chatty Kathy, outed her. I agree that Paul Jr. is probably Superfly's son. They made too big a point of repeatedly saying all of this went down 44 years ago. MJ is over 40, so Paul Jr. is the right age for a WTD storyline.

Still catching up with this half of the season. I've always enjoyed Kara as a character, but I'm not feeling how they've changed her back story. I remember in one of the early seasons she was dating a Latino community leader, and she was embarrassed because she didn't speak Spanish. I got the impression she didn't date many Latino men, and wasn't heavily involved in the Latino community. Now it's Papi this and Papi that, yelling about her Mafongo, and fussing at Orlando in Spanish on the phone.

We can all agree that DeMario is a jerk. And just like Rachel, most of us have experienced a DeMario at least once or twice. That being said, I'm not really feeling sorry for Lexi. I don't know if her story is 100% true, 100% false, or somewhere in between, but she went on the show to disparage his character and seek her 15 minutes of fame. She wouldn't need to worry about preconceived ideas about her, if she hadn't gone on the show to confront a man who obviously didn't give two licks about her. That was Lexi's bad choice.

This.... As soon as he said it I knew all of Lee's contrition was an act. A lot of people want to label Lee is ignorant. He even tried to blame his actions on ignorance. But what we saw on the show, was someone who was very calculated. A master of manipulation and passive aggressive tactics. He knew what he was doing, when he kept pushing the Kenny is violent narrative. He knew what he was doing pushing Eric's buttons and labeling him violent. And I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing when he commented on Anthony being well-spoken. Those were not the actions of a culturally ignorant person. Will (I think it was him) even tried during the show to explain to him the racial implications of labeling a black man violent. He didn't seem to be all that receptive to learning cultural sensitivity then. Instead he accused Kenny of playing the race card. But now, we're supposed to believe the poor little ignorant Lee story.... NOPE!

This show is in need of a serious reboot if it's going to continue. The Stevie/Mimi/Joseline story has hopefully fully played itself out. Mona needs to add another big name hip hop cast member vs these social media "celebs" and assorted hoochies she keeps adding. Waka doesn't appear to be that interested in the show, and he and Tami aren't interesting enough to carry a major storyline. Seems like they are pushing the Kurt/Rashida paternity drama into next season. Scrappy's gone to Miami. Karli and Joc are good pot stirrers and comic relief, but I hope we never get a full fledged love triangle story with them. Bring back K Michelle. Heck even the girl from Dirty Money and her husband were even more interesting than this current bunch.

Billy Ocean? Morris Day? Inquiring minds want to know!

I heard her say something along the lines of some men in their family had certain (criminal/relationship) issues because of how their mothers raised them. There are mothers, sometimes single mothers, who raise their sons to be substitute husbands almost. Meaning they overly dote on them and do not teach them accountabilty, responsibility and consequences, etc. Sounds like that was what Eric's mom thought she was trying not to do. But the end result was still "some seriously fucked up bullshit" Dean and his dad - I want Iyanla to come Fix Their Lives...LOL. Both unable to see past their own pain, to be able to relate to the other.

Being uncomfortable, should make a person more aware. So when they see the behavior in their regular life, they recognize it, rather than act like it doesn't exist.

Oh how I wish that was true...LOL..... If Kenny had included a line in his rap about Rachel being from the hood it would be equally head scratching. But he didn't.... I think this season has been plenty fun so far. It is considered a reality show.... And in reality people of color encounter many of things featured on this show on a regular basis. Yes, some of it is producer driven. But not all of it. It's a good thing that it makes people uncomfortable.

That's exactly how I took her breakdown. I assumed it was filmed after production told her she had to keep Lee. Rachel is not dumb. She noticed exactly who Lee was having issues with. She knows exactly what it means when a white man describes a black man as aggressive (especially when no one else does). Last week the show portrayed Lee as a general A-hole. This week they let us know that aspects of his A-holery are racially motivated. So the only satisfying conclusion for this story line next week, is for Lee to be gone. Hopefully with a smack down from Rachel even more epic than the one she gave Demario when he tried to come back. I don't think Rachel is concerned about America's perception of the race of the man she chooses. If she was, she wouldn't have done the show. She knew the show would feature her making out and being romantic with men of a variety of races. And since the majority of the cast are not men of color, chances are pretty decent that the man she chooses won't be either. Rooting for Kenny. Don't think she'll pick him. But I hope she at least gives him some serious consideration. Eric reminds me of a good friend of mine, so I have a soft spot for him. But he has absolutely no physical chemistry with Rachel. Shocked tickle monster is still there. LOL. I wasn't terribly offended by Peter's use of the word "hood". It wasn't a good choice of words But it kinda fit in with his corny rapping skills.

I'm not a fan of Maxine's character, and I've now realized it's because she doesn't fit in with the rest of the family. I too wonder why she would date Jerrod. Both Jerrod and his brother get the side eye for commenting so negatively on Maxine's coworkers appearance. Neither of them will ever end up People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue.....LOL