Rickster

Watch Seasons 2 & 3 for some answers. (The book series is really worth it. Better than the TV series, IMO)

I don’t remember the movie very well and never read the books. I thought the first episode very slow paced and way too much in love with its admittedly artful black and white photography. It seemed to me the photographic choices were driving the narrative rather than being in service to telling the story.

Watched the first two episodes yesterday. Really enjoying it, but I’m very wary of where this is heading, based on the teasing of a shocking plot twist in all the publicity.

Well, they did unmask one of the final three…

I will confess I haven’t read the book. While I am enjoying the show, dramatically something seems off, with Blackthorne largely being a spectator to all the machinations going on around him. He effectively has close to zero involvement in the plot, especially given that there are only two episodes left. I guess there are intended to be additional seasons in which he is more involved.

Interesting article about the show and the real “John Blackthorne” The English Samurai

Yeah, I thought the amount of smoking on this show kinda weird. Maybe the producers got a subsidy from the tobacco industry. 😉

Given the hype for this series, I thought the first episode sort of dull and disappointing. I’m about halfway through the second and don’t think it improves. Did not see the previews.

Joe Bastianich sang better than Robin, at least for a Billy Joel song. I pretty much knew the back stories of all the chefs plus Tucci, so I knew they were all wrong guesses, since none worked on Wall Street.

I don’t like him either, but I’m torn on whether the fault lies with the actor or the scriptwriters. They seem to have written him as a boorish one-note character.

I made it through 15, mostly because I found Alice totally annoying and I said, “why bother?”

A different article I saw on this mentioned that the production will be coming to Broadway. Didn’t say when, or if Nicole will be part of the cast.

Interesting to see that Ruth will continue to be on the show.

I admit to being cynical, but I always thought that most of the guesses were fed to the panel by the producers anyway. If that’s the case, she should have no problem.

I sort of liked this, but wished that they had dialed it down a little, mainly the character of the eldest son.

Since the clock is running down, I would think answering fast gives you more of a time cushion if you run into difficult questions and have to pass.

With the people, I think it was a bit like Jeopardy when you answer Roosevelt or Bush, you'll be asked to be more specific. It would have been nice if they could have had Rob play that role of asking for more information, rather than contestants flailing around with limited time, thinking they gave a wrong answer.

I find it odd that Blackthorne would be fluent in Portuguese, or at least I would have appreciated a line or two establishing the fact somewhere in the episode.

Saw the first two episodes tonight and am confused on the translating. Are we to assume all the English we are hearing is actually Blackthorne speaking Portuguese to the translators (and they to him)? For example, we have no indication that the Japanese woman speaks English yet she is his translator.

I hope it happens. I was not the biggest fan of how the plot unfolded, but the two lead actors were great.

I think they said the ear lady was born without part of her jawbone, too, which was the cause of the asymmetry, but they didn’t fully explain her condition. Pretty good show last night. Even the person in the traditional wacko slot was better than usual.

Yes, but funny things can happen under stress.

You’re right, it was a European robin. I thought it was very odd at the time. I didn’t know there were Euro versions of the show. Last night they showed a strange orange colored picture of Venus, which seemed purposely inserted to fool a contestant, who guessed Mars.

This puzzled me too. Also, in the argument June has with Leo later, she calls Jacob “my” son, not “our” son. I assumed Leo was his father, but probably not (if this was pointed out in the show earlier, I missed it). Maybe they're not that close from the kid’s view.

I think "Singeon" is one of those British slurred pronunciations, similar to the way that Magdalene College Oxford is pronounced "Maudlin", or Worcester "Wooster". I've seen St. John pronounced that way in other places. I am also having trouble with following this show, although I'm not exactly sure why.