dahling

Whatever this show is selling, I'm buying. I'm not quite sure they've properly nailed down certain things like challenge criteria or judging criteria, but I don't really care. It's sweet and gentle and self-aware. And the hosts make puns. I watched the end of the finale with the biggest, goofiest smile on my face, and I am a curmudgeon. This is not a joke, my heart is made of stone when it comes to TV shows. Khiem to me was the clear winner, and of course it always helps when the winner is "correct" in my eyes. Amber and Jo's structures looked like nothing more than arches with stuff from Michael's glommed all over them. I like the Barney's guy but echo pretty much every other comment on Etsy lady. I have faith that Amy and Nick are smart enough EP's to see that she didn't work, and they will fix it before the next run.

A false positive with a pregnancy test is very unlikely. False negative is the most common wrong result. A positive result followed by a "period" is an early miscarriage. Or Sheila was just lying. Or, the writers are dumb. Also dumb, Louis and Sheila for never discussing something major like the child's religion in the months they have been actively trying. I don't know why I care.

I loved that Amy and Nick told Khiem he needed a better story for the judges about his "connection" to the lamp project. Like how on Food Network Star you can never cook anything because it tastes good, you have to cook it because it reminds you of summers at your abuela's house. Then they're outside dying over the fact that they TOLD him what to say and all he could come up with was "I liked what the machine was doing." Hahahaha. Reality show trope totally busted wide open. This show makes me happy.

Exactly. There's no "5% Rule". Which is why the spidey-sense tingling over .3% made no sense. I think the writers thought they were demonstrating just what an intuitive, astute bad-ass Samantha is. Instead I spent the whole plot going "wha...?"

UnFortunately, her death frees her children and grandchildren to go on with their lives. Fixed that for you. This woman was irredeemably loathsome. Now maybe the rest of her family has a chance.

When the face cream client showed up, I thought for a moment we were going to have a legal story. On a legal show. But alas, no. Harvey yelled at a 16 year old girl and stormed out of a meeting, and then a spat between Louis and Harvey over who "gets" the case. I didn't care who got it, I just wanted to see how it turned out. Instead I got to see Harvey and Louis in therapy. This show is so lost. I could not follow and did not care about the ladies' plot with the girls charity. Where did 5 million dollars magically come from? Who gets to yank it away like a candy bar? The charity could have a case for breach of contract under the theory of promissory estoppel if they were relying on that money for a purpose. How does .3% prove anything? Mean CEO folded like a tent in less than 30 seconds. Stupid.

If looks could kill, the judges would have died from Amber's death glare after her pizza costume was deemed same ol' same ol'. Girlfriend needs to work on her game face.

Usually right after New Year's, when we're all feeling bloated, gluttonous, and regretful after the holidays. It meshes nicely with those New Year's resolutions.

When a show makes me want to throw a scone at the TV and say, "bugger off, Paul", I am glad I have a place to talk about it.

Yes.

Harvey Going Back on His Word is becoming a drinking game designed to kill us all with alcohol poisoning. This show is not really enjoyable any longer, but my DVR keeps picking it up, so I keep watching it. I always tell my husband that it's time to watch "that goddamn show" and then I laugh and laugh.

He had his issues and I don't disagree with any of this. However, I found his enthusiasm and genuine quality both infectious and charming. Infectious and charming are not two words I could apply to the other two. Well, infectious maybe for Christian and his nasty tattoos. Jess's segment was terrible with her sashaying and flirting and sexual innuendos. It made me uncomfortable. How humiliating for FN to make him the only loser of the night. Besides the viewers, I mean. I don't know how this show is so popular yet almost always manages to get it totally wrong.

From a lifelong sweet potato hater, I can emphatically say that they do not taste alike. One year spending Thanksgiving at Epcot, I was served "sweet potato pumpkin pie". I grimaced, and then decided not to be a big baby and try new things because I was on vacation, and after all it was Disney, and how bad could it be? Well, I don't know if it was ... bad... but it was not pumpkin pie. It was sweet potato. I did not finish it, and it did nothing to change my mind that sweet potatoes are unfit for human consumption. Your mileage may vary, of course. Possibly this is similar to a couple of my good friends who love chocolate but hate coffee. You know that trick that all the good chefs say, to add coffee to your chocolate product, and it won't taste like coffee, they swear! It will just intensify the chocolate! My friends eat those things and taste nothing but coffee. Ptooey. Me, I love both and just taste all kinds of heaven in my mouth. So tastes definitely differ.

Here are a couple articles not from the NY Times. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/6-years-after-the-biggest-loser-metabolism-is-slower-and-weight-is-back-up/ https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2012/01/06/tara-parker-pope-do-you-have-to-be-superhuman-to-lose-weight Of course there is always a risk of returning to old eating habits. But when you're burning 25% fewer calories than a person your size who has never been overweight, the pounds tend to come back despite best efforts. Dieting is hard. It's a hard life to constantly eat less than your body needs. Now imagine doing that for the rest of your life. Humans aren't wired like that.

Here are some articles on how easy it is to regain weight after weight loss (brought over from Sean & Dottie's thread). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html "When the show began, the contestants, though hugely overweight, had normal metabolisms for their size, meaning they were burning a normal number of calories for people of their weight. When it ended, their metabolisms had slowed radically and their bodies were not burning enough calories to maintain their thinner sizes." https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html "Scientists are still learning why a weight-reduced body behaves so differently from a similar-size body that has not dieted. Muscle biopsies taken before, during and after weight loss show that once a person drops weight, their muscle fibers undergo a transformation, making them more like highly efficient “slow twitch” muscle fibers. A result is that after losing weight, your muscles burn 20 to 25 percent fewer calories during everyday activity and moderate aerobic exercise than those of a person who is naturally at the same weight. That means a dieter who thinks she is burning 200 calories during a brisk half-hour walk is probably using closer to 150 to 160 calories." https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/health/biological-changes-thwart-weight-loss-efforts-study-finds.html The results show, once again, Dr. Leibel said, that losing weight “is not a neutral event,” and that it is no accident that more than 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight gain it back. “You are putting your body into a circumstance it will resist,” he said. “You are, in a sense, more metabolically normal when you are at a higher body weight.”

Assuming the man in question didn't gain back any weight, he kind of is a mystical unicorn. I'm going to post a couple of articles in the small talk thread since they're clearly off topic for this episode.

Most of the WATN shows start right where we last saw our subject. Usually this is with some post-surgery success, but a long way from maintenance. A common theme is the subject wanting to lose enough to qualify for skin surgery - this was what Doug was trying to do, he was still over 400 lbs. Very few subjects have reached "maintenance". In fact in recent memory, I think Diana is the only one in the past couple of seasons. Dr. Now even said to her, "I'm going to tell you something I don't get to say very often. It's time to stop losing weight." (This was one of those rare times I got a happy lump in my throat. YOU GO DIANA.)

I'm not sure it's realistic to apply normal standards of behavior to Sean. It's easy to sneer that he's a big baby and he should get up, put on some pants, and get a job. But, he literally - can't. He can't put on pants. There are no pants for him, and even if there were, he couldn't get them on. He can't get a job. Crocheting seems to be his only skill. He can't lose weight because he can't take care of himself and knows nothing about nutrition. He is physically and mentally incapable of the things we consider normal. The truth is, to have a chance at what we consider a normal life, he needs many thousands, possibly millions, of dollars worth of therapy, support, and resources. He can't pay for any of it. So the larger question, beyond the scope of this discussion board, is, who should? Should anyone? How do we choose who gets what they need and who doesn't? There are finite resources for these things, and he "needs" more than his fair share. It truly is one of the saddest stories we've seen on this show. I share the earlier poster's feeling of wanting to cry for him when he, draped in a hospital gown, is dropped off at his apartment by a taxi only to discover that he is homeless.

Sean is just about the most pitiable human being I've ever seen. His mother infantilized him and taught him nothing. He spent his life as her prisoner and and doesn't know how to cook or keep house, or even throw things away. Whatever income he has from whatever source, it's not much. He's physically helpless and we watched him becoming more so as he slipped into full Assanti mode toward the end, draped in a sheet, crapping in a bucket, and eating a pizza for dinner. At one point earlier they showed him eating a microwaveable Healthy Choice Steamers meal (I have some experience with these.... 7 Weight Watchers points) and even though they have a bit of rice, they're around 300 calories. I wonder what happened to eating those? Maybe it was too hard to get groceries, or even to stand up to microwave them. And of course, pizza is more fun. Much more fun. He says he didn't want to have to have a personal care assistant, but I think he was quite pleased to have someone coming in and taking care of him. Dr. Now told him he had to lose weight to be admitted to a care facility, but I think what Dr. Now hoped would happen was that Sean would lose weight and start becoming more independent and realize he doesn't need one. Doesn't look like that's going to work out. His quality of life is appalling, both mentally and physically. I half expected this episode to end with his suicide. That neighbor was something of a saint to help a guy he barely knows. Nothing was packed. The movers showed up to a hoarder's den, and they were only paid for 4 hours? How did that move even happen? Add me to the "Dottie is a sweetheart" fan club. I felt so sorry for her alone in her hotel room. Yeah she screwed up with the smoking (and lying about it) and gaining weight, but I still think she has a good heart, and I remember how hard she worked to take care of her disabled son. Also, she is extremely, extremely pretty. What the hell was with the ending of this episode? It was kind of like Empire Strikes Back. Luke's hand is chopped off by his father, the dark lord of the galaxy, Hans is captured and encased in carbonite, everybody is in the worst position they could possibly be in...and...SCENE. When do we see the end?

I wonder if Lupe and Gilbert 2 just sit in the same room staring at each other all day, punctuated occasionally by fits of awkward conversation. Brittani is still sweet. Her poor legs. Sometimes I think I want to have surgery on my loose skin, and then I watch an episode like this and I'm like, "I'm good. Nothanks."

I imagine that before filming starts, they have some kind of questionnaire with questions like, "What is your signature dish?" and "What is your traditional family dish?" and "What is your most hated food?" Therefore when the challenge pops up for them to prepare their signature dish, or their traditional family dish, or a dish containing their most hated ingredient, they're already locked into it. Damn this episode was boring. Katie didn't have a partner to take the fall this week, so it was all on her.

Interesting. Didn't someone once get kicked off The Next Food Network star for making a "key lime pie" with sweetened condensed milk? The Food Network, the lowest of all common denominators, required something with a little more culinary finesse. But what do I know, I'm American.

I'd like to invite Paul to kiss my rosy pink American behind. And also, if you're going to start throwing shade on American pies, could you make sure you're talking about pies? 'Cause those were tarts. Pies use pie crust and are baked in a pie tin. Tarts use sweet shortbread crusts and are baked in a fluted shallow pan. "You keep saying that word. I don't think it means what you think it means." I guess this was early in the series when people hadn't figured out yet that Paul hates peanut butter. In the previews it showed Paul saying, "I don't like that" and I spent the rest of the episode trying to predict who he would say it to. When girlfriend pulled out the peanut butter, I knew I had my winner. That chicken-apricot-gelatin abomination was beyond revolting, like something from the gallery of regrettable food, especially in the same episode that they want to sneer at another culture's food. And I can't even with the slimy eels pulled from the polluted Thames baked up in a pie. I'm glad this wasn't the first episode of this show I've seen, otherwise I would have been sorely tempted to never watch again.

The only thing this documentary changed my mind about was the fact that she probably didn't get a fair trial and deserves a new one. However, if she gets the new one, they'll still have to present the only evidence that exists, and all the evidence that exists points to Darlie. What DNA testing has been completed doesn't implicate anyone besides Darlie. I've always thought she was guilty. Those two little boys were stabbed with such force that the concrete foundation was chipped where the knife went through their bodies, and the carpet, and the pad, and hit foundation. And yet the only person in the room capable of fighting back received only superficial wounds to her front side? I know her neck wound came perilously close to her carotid, but I think that was just an accident, or maybe she wanted to die, too. Who knows? I can't even begin to speculate. But there's no evidence that points to an outside intruder. I found the defense theories thrown around during the last episode ludicrous, honestly. It's possible the husband knows more than he let on. Is anybody buying his creepy explanation that he signed the affidavit about his attempted staged robbery/insurance scam simply to "help Darlie"? 20 years later he decided to "help" her? The Michael Morton case proves that horrific, random home invasion crimes can happen. I guess it's within the realm of possibility that someone broke into the Routier house, grabbed a knife from the kitchen knife block and decided to stab two little boys to death. But there needs to be evidence, not a bunch of what-ifs.

It's a franchise. There are more than two.