aradia22

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Final-Sondheim-Musical-HERE-WE-ARE-Will-Get-World-Premiere-This-Fall-20230316

From the articles posted above Good Lord. They really were casting all the pretty people. This makes me like Greg more. It's good to know they did have journals. Ooh, now we know what was in the dossiers. I don't need it to be a reality show but if that's the dynamic they want, I'd prefer seeing hangout time to the talking heads. But it has to be genuine, not the stuff set up for production where they only discuss the game. Let me see the dance party. Greg is genre savvy in a good way. Aha! So that's why Avori lost. WHAT? Confused about this. Did they lose that money?

With the way Will gets frustrated, I think he was lucky to get Kesi on the bank heist. No way he suffered through that for an hour without getting furious with her and it was the first task where her Mole behavior was BLATANT. I continue to be confused how Joi lasted until the end if she was convinced it was Will. Will and Kesi appear to have nothing in common besides maybe age. I agree on Will deserving it and being thankful Joi didn't win. But Will had to BEG her not to take the exemption. That doesn't count for me. I will give her credit for the $10,000 for Mountaineering especially since she said she has some fear of heights. Truly, what is wrong with her? If I look back at every decision Joi made (except for things like the pigeon task) I just... can't even... She was so bad at the game. I do think Kesi made a lot of obvious moves as the Mole but she rarely lost more money than was earned. With Mountaineering, she lost $10,000 but they still made $20,000. She did take the exemption and make them sleep on the floor but technically that wasn't losing money they already made. She was trying though like with the prison break, bank heist, 2 truths and a lie, pigeon task, etc. Other players were able to throw her off with the others but with bank heist she was totally in control and didn't even let them get one box. I'm not convinced that Netflix isn't cheap and perfectly happy to only give away $100,000. I keep coming back to the quizzes but I feel like as an audience member, I know very little about the contestants. The questions meant almost nothing to me unless they were about clothing or which team the Mole was on during challenges. Like, I think Osei said he was from Brooklyn in episode 1 and Sandy mentions she's from Texas. No clue about the others. Who has children? Joi. Anyone else? I have no idea. Pets? No one said anything about pets.

The finale was a little lame. Drones are scary when they're military drones. It was another good location but the actual challenges were meh... especially with them barely trying to secure the canisters. I am truly baffled how the people who seemed to suspect Kesi the most (Greg, Pranav, and Avori) got eliminated. I am satisfied with Will winning. He was one of the contestants who worked the hardest at the challenges. He deserved it. At least it wasn't Joi. Though I call shenanigans on her making it to the end without producer intervention. Noticing Greg in the dress in the finale, I think there's an advantage to casting a woman or someone who is genderfluid as the Mole for some of the clothing questions. You do want a range of contestants but it probably also helps to have some people who have things in common with the Mole. For example, maybe they all live in different states but a few are from the South and a few are from the Northeast. From what I could tell about the quiz, they were asking some narrow questions like what is the name of the Mole's childhood pet? lol, she was not subtle. Maybe it's worse being in the audience because you can always see her reactions (which not all the other players can) but it's very obvious when she throws. Her "oops, ay yi yi" on the train and the "oh my God" during the suction cup task. TAKE ACTING LESSONS. Jesus. I got her from the Bank Heist which is episode 4. You could have noticed her missing the dinghy with Avori in episode 3 or wasting time on the prison break in episode 2. Yes, it's harder but early on, I think you're trying to split your votes between a couple suspicious people anyway. From episode 4 onwards, she couldn't have been more obvious to me. Solid host. She called them all "beautiful" a few too many times but otherwise, I think she struck a good balance of teacher energy and friend energy. Also she seemed to get into it making her voice kind of smoky at certain times when she had to read something out.

I love competence. With Pranav, Greg, etc. gone I'm all in for Will. Joi says she wants this but I will never forget her throwing away $25,000. That's a full prize pot in other games. He hasn't been so unlikable that I've started rooting for anyone else. If Joi wins this, I will throw something. I feel like they could also have more partial wins. I think it's very easy to manipulate the size of the prize pot by the values you assign to each component of the challenge. Like, after a rough challenge, you could make the individual prizes on something like the train challenge worth more so they can pick up a lot by getting at least some of the pieces. But I'm also not convinced that Netflix isn't cheap and fine with this as long as people keep signing up for the show. That, or they need to keep it to easier challenges because people are not going to sign up for 90 minute runs and other grueling physical tasks and sleeping in the freezing cold for weeks for such small sums. I wonder if we're being manipulated by the talking heads and Joi is splitting her vote more than she lets on. Otherwise, I am baffled. What do Will and Kesi possibly have in common?

I think Will is too individualistic. He belongs on a physical challenge show where you just power through the tasks. Arguably The Mole is also a show for individuals because only one person wins and you can't trust the others. BUT you do have to work with people while they're still there on the team challenges. And Will is (to some degree understandably) frustrated by how bad the others are at challenges. I feel like a lot of the season has not been intentional sabotage (only Avori and a few others seem to have tried that strategy). They're just incompetent. I do think Will has gotten more unlikable in the last episodes of the show. Maybe the frustration is coming through more or maybe the editors are keeping in more of the bad stuff. I actually haven't disliked any of the contestants besides Joi for being a terrible player.

INSANITY. Surely, they must be operating by game show rules right? This isn't like a dating show that production can manipulate as much as they want to. If Joi really does think it's Will, HOW IS SHE IN THE FINAL THREE? Also, how did this show manage to get all the smarter players eliminated? Were they just being too clever and splitting their votes? Do people really suck at answering questions on the quiz (even if they have a good guess of who the Mole is). I am truly baffled that we're left with The Mole (Kesi), Will, and JOI. I felt bad for Will after the ice blocks. He was purple. Amazed that he didn't get frostbite. Why was he not wearing gloves. I do think challenge design has been good for the most part. There have been some tough physical challenges. They get them moving with fair but reasonably challenging time limits. The mental games and exemptions are a little Big Brother/Survivor but I don't think it's been too detrimental. I do wonder what the hell the plan was if they were only left with physically weaker players for some of the challenges. Kesi was BLATANT this episode. You could maybe forgive throwing out some of the $1000 blocks (maybe) but her attempt to throw out the one $6000 block feet from the finish? Come on. COME ON. She's a terrible Mole.

Evidence against Kesi: She screwed up the bank heist as the Mastermind which was definitely the easier challenge. She dropped the bag trying to grab it on the train. She eliminated herself and her backpack of money first in the mountain/hiking challenge. She tried to mislead the other two interrogators in 2 truths and a lie. She tried to lead Joi away from the pigeons. When you add up all the evidence, the biggest thing is not just all these incidents but the way she reacts when all these things happen. I try not to read into things too much because neurodivergence but I assume they cast actor-y types and she's an awful actor. I will be very surprised if she's not the Mole.

No... I wanted Greg to make it to the end! He suspected Kesi... what happened? I guess I'm counting on Will or Avori to figure it out then. Dom, Pranav, and Greg have been the biggest losses to me so far. I like people who try to play the game well. If this ends up being all the dumb people and the Mole, I will lose my mind. I wish we knew how well/poorly each contestant did on the quiz each week. They shouldn't know in the game, but I want to know. Kesi is way too obvious trying to distract from the pigeons. They need a better actor next season. Even in her talking heads, I've started noticing how emotionally flat she is while the others express real emotions. Jacob and Will are surrounded by photos on the wall... they keep talking to the woman behind the counter. Also, as the other team was figuring it out, why didn't they use their pigeon-based directions to get to Avori? Was it against the rules for one team to just copy the other team? Also, were there really no better clues than Avori calling the pizza place? How cheap is Netflix? The prizes for some of their shows are kind of low. I am genuinely curious how much money they really want to give away for this show. I don't love the dinner time callouts. Too much forced drama.

I think Greg is right. Kesi is the Mole. Lingering shots with the tea cup. That super obvious line about people trusting her allowing her to lie. Kesi also feels like a good choice for a Mole that would fly under the radar for most of the game. Though OMG, that means Joi is just a terrible player. Both paintings were trash to me. I hate that kind of modern art. I did think the shredder was a cool visual gag/reference to the real art world. I will not be mad if they stay in Australia for the next season. Kesi tried to throw them off and make them reserve judgment on Jacob and think Joi and Avori were both lying. The more episodes go by, the less she is even trying to hide that she's the Mole. It's been increasingly obvious since the bank heist. If the others weren't so incompetent, she'd stand out even more as the Mole. Will calling Jacob useless made me cackle.

The producers will always be the most suspicious to me. Frankenbites would be so easy on this show.

I was sad to see Pranav go. I love competence. Also, what is this team of dummies going to do with one of the smarter players eliminated? They were hoping to sleep in? You mean the girls sleep in a full face of makeup? Shut up, Netflix. $30,000. lol, production must be worried about how little money is in the pot. 2 hour climb? I hate it. But watching from home, I'm enjoying how many different Australian terrains they're showing off. I believe Will's frustration. I really don't think he's the Mole. I think he's a super athletic guy suffering through the incompetence of his teammates. It looked VERY windy. I'm curious about the safety teams they had on hand for the repelling. I'm also surprised they did the final task. It would bad enough as a zipline and they let them pull themselves across? Bananas. tbh, I had no idea who had money in their bags. It's impossible to know if production wants to keep the pot small or wants to make up for the players' incompetence and make the pot attractive enough for potential future contestants to sign up for future seasons. HILARIOUS that the Mole had no faith in Joi. Adding Casey, it seems like the Mole chose the weaker players. Also, Kesi volunteered herself to stay behind. SUSPICIOUS! If she's the Mole, she's playing the game way too hard. They need to make all the money they can. I do not remember so many exemptions on the original show. Mole or not, Kesi dooming them to sleep in the freezing warehouse was SO MEAN.

I am convinced William is not the Mole. He's just a guy taking a leadership position who got injured during a task, lost his bromance, and who works SO HARD while other people sit by and lose money. I feel so bad for him.

I enjoy a player like Sandy getting eliminated so you can confirm that no, it wasn't sabotage... just incompetence. It's tougher when the good players leave. Oh my God. I would never volunteer for Team Foot but I would be FURIOUS if I were on that team and we didn't make any money from the challenge. Did they alter the rules? I could have sworn they said all the teams had to make it there for them to earn money. Team Foot's challenge was way more difficult than any other team's challenge. I don't even know why they volunteered Avori. If you don't have 3 runners, put someone else on Team Car with the two highly sus people. I don't even... why would you put three people on the endurance challenge? I liked the nasty food challenge. It kept things interesting and was a little silly but Christ, when it got down to Joi and William, I almost lost my mind. The prize pot is now $29,500. That's only $1000 more than when Joi lost them all that money. If she's not the Mole, I can't believe she even hesitated to get $15,000. Truly, if she's not the Mole, I will be speechless. If she's not the Mole, the people in casting need a real talking to.

I agree with this logic but, if true, the producers super overestimated the contestants. The rest of them are doing an excellent job losing money without his help. It's really hard to not think it's Joi. If production is as dumb as the contestants, then it's Joi. If they were smart, it's Jacob. I hate it. I binge-watch anyway but it just means I have to watch an extra few minutes of the next episode before I take a break. Dumb. Just let people choose how much they want to watch. They did this for School of Chocolate as well but not for EVERY episode. Also, I hate the little recaps at the start of the next episode. I've started skipping through those parts and some of the quiz section and elimination. They're making amazing use of Australia. Good outdoor locations and good landmarks and they feel like they're genuinely being put to use for the challenges. It's not just a task you could do anywhere that happens to be filmed somewhere scenic. I don't think they wasted too much time counting out all the money and it seemed clear that the more familiar denominations were not going to cover the total so they had to use some unfamiliar currency no matter what. Again, I'm impressed at how close they got considering. I think I'm one of the few people who enjoys Greg even if I find him suspicious. But a factor in that is definitely hoping they're not playing into "the gay one is evil."

It's sad that Dom was exactly who he claimed to be and got eliminated so early. He also had one of the few blue collar jobs of the contestants. I didn't find him annoying. I feel like people on this show are trying to have personalities but no one so far feels thirsty for fame. They are dumb AF for not bringing him back. He's a muscly guy which is good for physical challenges and he evidently wasn't much of a threat on the mental game because he went out early and he played honestly. I was impressed that he managed to narrow it down to 2 choices though. It sucks that no one gave him more clues. Melmore and Seattle are not very close. If he got anything more than the two E's, he would have gotten it. I had zero faith in Team Cash. That's an insane challenge for these dummies. I mean, counting out money is already a challenge on a Netflix show (Awake, the late capitalism sleep deprivation show). And then they had to do conversions? Honestly, I'm impressed they were Team Gold was dumb. I feel like they were mainly showing the last names on screen. I would have gotten Dorado and D'or no question. G. Locks as Goldilocks was trickier. I don't think it would have stood out except for being written in capital letters. To be honest, every time they showed Midas, I thought it said Midao so that's a handwriting issue for someone in production. Kesi seems suspicious for not picking up on a single one of those and/or not reading out every single name within 50 minutes. It's three pages of names. It can't take that long to read and someone else on the team would have gotten at least one of those. It's a bummer to watch them suck at challenges.

I think it made sense to not risk $10,000 but knowing that was lost, to bet under $5000 to save yourself. She said the average was $7000, but we know Joi brought the average up by betting an insane $25,000. I think it was at least somewhat close because neither team seemed to be getting it until hearing the clue to look inside the periodic table. I did like how many decoy passwords production set up for that task.

JESUS CHRIST. If Joi is not the Mole, she is the worst player imaginable. They're also pushing Greg but even people who are slightly sus feel normal next to Joi. I did think the ideas planted in the beginning of the episode were fun. 1) The players are memorizing a lot of useless info about people who are not the Mole. 2) If you draw attention to yourself, you can possibly make someone else do worse on the quiz if they answer questions with you as a suspect. The physical challenge was less compelling to watch (aside from William and Jacob being shirtless) so I actually appreciated how much they played up the dossiers. I do think the challenges seem appropriately difficult. Repeatedly diving is not easy. In hindsight, it wasn't great to search so far from the boat from the beginning. That seems to be what really messed them up. The plane part seemed easier but I think they said there were multiple dinghys so only finding one implies it was at least a little difficult.

I am willing to believe it was at a weird angle. I think Samara and Joi were among the shorter contestants. But I think Sandy is also short and she saw the key? Or maybe Jacob saw it for himself. Now I forget. I do think "person who creates drama by inspiring the other team to start searching" feels like something production would want the Mole to do. I see Erin Gibson.

Everyone is more suspicious than ever. If Joi or Greg is the Mole, production is doing a terrible job of hiding it. But if I've learned anything from mysteries, sometimes it is the most obvious person. The alternative is that Joi is really bad at challenges. I did like the two challenges. The prison break was a good concept. I do kind of wish the rooms weren't sequential (i.e. the person in the upstairs room definitely had to wait for someone in one of the other rooms because there was no way of them getting to the key in the bible on their own). The editing was decent to make it interesting enough to watch 3 tasks that were somewhat repetitive. I also liked that production was doing a kind of Deal or No Deal thing to make them gamble away 10 minutes but also letting them win by paying for 5 minutes back. Weirdly, after this challenge, my attention turned to the competent people like Jacob. Was he uniquely good or did everyone else suck? It was a little funny they made all the pretty people get dolled up for a night out and then gave them a challenge. Though they were nice in not making it too physically taxing. I thought the red button challenge was a little dumb. They really should have just waited it out. But I guess they were too scared about the quiz.

I finally started watching this show tonight. I have no early guesses. It's way too early. Who is the most suspicious? Production, that's who. I was VERY surprised when they actually showed footage of Will and not a PA. I guess no one woke up to catch him. Though I do think it would have been hilarious if they'd caught a contestant or someone on the crew stealing the cargo. Imagine if the mole had gotten caught that early 😂 I feel like they were throwing a lot of heat at Joi, Will, and Greg in the edit. I think the format makes it very easy for production to manipulate this game. It has Big Brother energy but the fact that they're still doing the quiz means the Mole can't be voted out by the house. I think Alex is okay as the host so far. Friendly but not cloying. Professional but not trying to be too harsh or intimidating. I think the light up screen eliminations are dumb (especially if they're always going to leave it down to the final three). I feel like production really wanted us to think this was a diverse cast by emphasizing different careers up front and everyone's home state but I do wish they didn't look like people who could also qualify for Love is Blind. They're all relatively attractive. Like, putting aside face symmetry and whatnot, no one even has like visible acne or notable wrinkles, you know? They're TV normal and some of them could be on The Bachelor/Bachelorette. They're all relatively fit. No one is overweight. No one looks like they're older than their 40s. No one has a visible disability. Maybe they'll grow on me as we learn more about them but I'm ready to eliminate at least 5 of them right now. I agree with this. I expected the Mole to be in Team Up High or Team H2O. Though it's a reminder that you can't always attribute suspicious behavior to malice when it could easily be incompetence. Or production. It didn't look like The Amazing Race. I have no idea what clues they were giving them to navigate. Maybe Team Down Low had the worst clues. Team H2O seemed far from their cargo spot but they did mention that they had 100 yards to search so maybe production were being assholes. Team Up High seemed to get right to that tree by following the map.

Moulin Rouge has frenetic moments but I think the bulk of the love story is actually quite restrained. From what I can remember, Australia was actually rather boring. I've been waiting on Gatsby. I want it to be on Netflix or Amazon Prime so I can watch it on my TV rather than my laptop. Anyway, not lamenting Baz not getting an Oscar (or nomination) for directing. He's fine. Maybe she counts him under "family" but otherwise, no, she didn't acknowledge him in the speech or the backstage thank-you cam, even though he was hovering around backstage at that point. They've been engaged since 2005 which is WILD to me. That's a whole person who can drive and vote. Actually Cate's reaction was also quite flat when the other actresses in the category were instantly excited for Michelle. Even Andrea.

I'll be the dissenting voice on In Bruges (Colin's performance was fine but I hated the movie) but I loved The Lobster. Colin Farrell has been doing interesting work for a while.

I know she's in A Doll's House on Broadway and has to think about the cast/production as well as her family at home. But I'm sure she's not the only one in the theater currently working on a project so kudos to her for continuing to wear a mask.

I don't have MTV. I also don't have the time I used to when I was watching Work of Art and also that interior design Project Runway knockoff. I could see Netflix making something like this work.