Rickster

I think this show lost me with the team’s glee at shooting down that helicopter.

I've only seen a couple of these episodes, but as a Northeasterner, I was surprised that the garage renovation was classed as a ADU. We have those here too, but without something like a separate entrance, this would have been just a standard renovation. I also thought this couple just smashed a few holes in the wall/floor in order to get on the show. Not really wrecking the house.

The tool faceoff set very low expectations for me for the quality of the competition, but it did get better.

Seasons 1 & 2 were filmed back to back too and were released about 8 months apart. It’s all up to how Apple wants to plan its schedule.

I think the last two episodes would have benefited by cutting back on the gunplay and leaving more room for the bureaucratic fallout. I liked the changes from the books in Season 2, but not so much in this season. The exception would be setting up Cartwright Sr.’s possible dementia.

I agree. I thought the character might have been thrown in for some comic relief, and was really out of sync with the tone of the rest of the series.

I've seen the first two episodes and I'll chime in to agree that this season isn't grabbing me like the last one.I preferred watching Reacher as the mysterious lone wolf, not the leader of of an old army unit.

One benefit of reading the books are the glimpses into Roddy’s mind, which are some of the funniest parts of the books and can’t really be communicated on screen.. One really odd error in the latest episode was the reference to the embassy in Istanbul. Embassies are in the nation’s capital and the capital of Turkey is Ankara. I’m sure there is a British consulate in Istanbul, but I have no idea why they called it an embassy.

I thought the look of all three showstoppers were underwhelming for a final, but I thought it unfair that Josh was criticized for his decoration when his was the only one decently decorated. I can’t really comment on the quality of the bakes vs. prior seasons, but for me, this was the most enjoyable season since the BBC days, and one of the few seasons I’ve made it all the way through since then. I’d put the improvement down to the addition of Allison and the personalities of all the bakers.

The Istanbul intro was not in the book, interested to see how it will be woven into the plot. On a different note, as someone whose knowledge of British Intelligence is based on James Bond movies, we know (or will find out) that Lamb and some other characters have a history in Berlin. We saw in the first episode an apparent MI-5 agent operating in Istanbul. Why are Mi-5 agents operating overseas? Shouldn’t this be the responsibility of MI-6? I’m confused.

What seemed odd to me is that, if I remember correctly, she starting only signing in the second half of the show. If it was a choice, why not do it for the whole episode.

I’m also a very amateur and only occasional bread baker, but I’m thinking the cold refrigerator temperature would cause the steam in the hot bread to condense and make it soggy, vs. evaporating at room temperature.

I’ve seen lots of recipes for pecan pie with some bourbon in it, but not whisky. Might have even made one or two…

I’ve noticed Paul and Pru wearing coats in some of their segments, but didn’t notice anything about the temperature in the tent. I assumed (maybe wrongly) that the drawers used for proofing were heated, like the proofing cycle in my oven.

Has the benefit of originality. Some of the prizes seemed sort of wacky. Also, since there are no cash winning, I wonder how you pay the taxes on $100,000 of merchandise. I’ve noticed that a lot of these shows tend to run a really successful episode first to suck you in. We’ll see what future ones are like. Yet another game show that is apparently filmed outside the US. Pretty sure the credits said Mexico City.

Season 2 starts this weekend (Sunday) on New York area PBS stations.

I ended up thinking this season was constructed to make a number of socio-political points, somewhat heavy handedly, rather than being focused on delivering an intriguing/satisfying mystery.

I found it a bit funny that making a custard filling in a baking competition required using custard powder (probably something like Birds) instead of making it from scratch, but I guess it was the way to get the right consistency and texture. I’m very impressed with the skills of this group of bakers so far. But they might be impressive because they’re easing up on the ridiculous challenges of past seasons.

I might be confused or misunderstood, but I thought the bank told Hume about having to reveal “the two accounts established in the late 80’s”. So too early to be going to Joseph or Jay.

The new host seems to be bringing a “kinder gentler” vibe to the show than any of the previous hosts, even back to the BBC days, which I appreciated. My only complaint with the first episode was that either the bakers are too skilled or the technical was too easy. I don’t want to see contestants scratching their heads over some obscure pastry they’ve never heard of, but watching them being nit picked over the right shade of their ganache in order to find a winner doesn’t seem right either.

The afternoon didn’t go much better. I had watched snippets of some of the European tournaments on the Golf Channel over the past few weeks and noticed that a number of the Euro team members were playing in them. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to give the US team a few weeks off.

Were we the only ones who noticed Alfonso announced Jason (I think) at the top of the leaderboard before the judges revealed their votes? And amazingly, he had the right vote total?

I think the car was a Karmann Ghia, was made by Volkswagen as their sports car. Would check, but we deleted this off the DVR. My girlfriend and I found the show sort of meh.

I’d guess that while the lack of muscle mass is an advantage in the regular competition and stages 1-3 in the Finals for the reasons you say, Stage 4 is different. There you need more upper body muscle mass to haul yourself up the rope in 30 seconds. So it’s an interesting balancing act between the training and body type that gets you to stage 4 and where you have to focus to win $1 million.

Looks like Nicole is starring in a London revival of Sunset Boulevard, limited 4 month run starting next week.