Rickster

I’m only part way through the first episode and my impression is that there’s a huge amount of CGI enhancement to the backgrounds, to the extent it’s distracting me.

I don’t think the entire “bake” is a well known traditional thing, but when asked to make a “breton tart base”, yes, they were expected to know what the base should look like.

My theory is that Village People woman is the missing adoptee sister(?) of psychic dad and travels back and forth to modern day LA via some sort of portal. Which is why she’s up on modern lingo.

I would like them to show a second or so of them punching coordinates into a GPS, or using Waze, as they zoom around Paris, a city they don’t live in and which has a complicated layout.

My subscription is directly with Britbox

Britbox sends me regular emails on “what’s new” and “what to watch” for new and returning series, which is how I knew Shetland was coming back. I noticed that there is a “watchlist” function on the site, maybe if you add a show to it you get more notifications on your favorites? - I don’t use it. Otherwise, if a show, like Shetland, says new episodes weekly, I’m pretty sure they drop on the same day every week. This season started Tuesday, so every episode will drop on Tuesday.

I would have sworn when they introduced the unmask buzzer in the first show, they said the contestant would immediately be unmasked, not just say “no that’s not right”.

Probably too late, but be aware Shetland drops one episode per week on Britbox, so I’d guess any free trial will run out before the end of the season.

Early on today, Heileman looked like a hostile witness at a murder trial. Seemed to loosen up later.

As mentioned, given the difficulty and spotty financial success of past efforts to film Dune, it could have been a choice from the financial backers of filming it in two parts or not filming it at all. Covid might have affected the timetable for this, too. In hindsight, of course they should have filmed the whole book, even if it was released in two parts.

Interesting. I know my hearing is going, but we had to really crank up the volume and eventually put the subtitles on to watch this on HBO, too. I think one of the issues with the messiah storyline is that while it was innovative at the time the book came out, it’s been done multiple times since then. I read the first two books many many years ago and only remember bits and pieces. Still, we really enjoyed this (absent the sound problems). I would definitely recommend seeing this in a theater.

Given some of the disasters we’ve seen in the technicals, I was a bit amazed they all did so well on something a bit more complicated than a toffee pudding. I thought all the cakes looked good.

After reading a lot lately about subtitles vs. dubbed and talking to some friends who will not read subtitles, I think I've come to realize that a lot of the preference may depend on how fast you read. I never feel like I'm missing anything on the screen by reading. That said, I tend to do stuff like read other things while watching shows, so I find having to focus on the subtitles a little annoying sometimes. I preferred seeing subtitled movies in theaters where you are forced to watch the screen.

Maybe some of them should have figured out the Marble game in advance, but I thought the set up was devilishly clever. They had just finished the Tug of War, where good teamwork was essential. Then they were told, in my recollection, “The next game will be played in teams of two”, so the obvious reaction is to pick who you think will be the best person you also trust, to avoid the fate of the Tug of War losers. Not sure why they should assume the game would be anything other than two against two. I hated the strobe light scene too. Out of character with the rest of the show.

Does that rule out casting a German (or Italian) baker when the production staff knows what the challenges are in advance, and might think watching a German baker competing in a German challenge would make for good TV? Of course he would still have to be well qualified in other aspects of baking. The only way to have blind casting is for the people in charge of casting to have no idea what the challenges will be.

In general, I agree with the points made about the time to do technicals being too short and the dishes too complex (I thought doing tuiles with what appeared to be sesame seeds in them was weird for sticky toffee pudding). However, there is a point to be made about testing time management. If 90 minutes is enough time to bake the pudding, isn't the problem not focusing on getting the pudding in the oven first before moving on to the accoutrements? Or it could be possible this week that, given how vague the instructions for technicals apparently are, they just didn't know how long to bake the puddings.

The other problem is she’s the only person on TV using the same phone ringtone as me. Gives me a start several times each episode. i’ve seen a few first season episodes via downloads from my public library. A bit disappointed I can’t see the NZ ones yet.

Whoever wrote the writeup doesn’t understand geography. Interestingly, the restaurant used in a couple of scenes looks very similar in interior and external setting to one I went to in Digby, Nova Scotia years ago. I’ve coincidentally also been to a few of the suburban NY locations used in prior seasons. I agree the season has gotten off to the usual good start. Keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t go downhill like the last one. I do wish they would dial down the tortured soul aspect of Ambrose a few notches.

Another Netflix show I enjoyed was Bake Squad, where 4 professional bakers compete against each other to make cakes for a specific event (wedding, birthday, etc.). The host is a well known baker, Christina Tosi. There are no judges - the client picks the winner and the same group of bakers are on each show.

“Northern Maine” always means to me somewhere inland up near the Quebec border, like Presque Isle or Caribou. This takes place somewhere on the coast.

I was impressed with how resourceful the team was to come up with formal wear to attend the ambassador’s ball on a couple of hours notice in a foreign (to them) country… It seems these NCIS/FBI shows like to have a funky office setting, but putting the team’s office in what appears to be an abandoned building with peeling paint and broken windows really bothers me. I’ve spent a little time in offices in a couple of Eastern European cities (not Budapest) and they’re not like this. I didn’t see the first episode of the show so maybe this was explained. I think an issue with this show is coming up with plots that have a reasonable amount of action/tension but are also somewhat accurate about how a team like this would operate. In this week’s episode, I couldn’t figure out what the justification was for the team to muscle in on a local police investigation of a straightforward murder case, even if an American was involved . In reality, I’m sure they would just have some boring liaison role, if they were involved at all.

I find it odd to listen to the judges compliment the singers on the qualities of their avatars, when it’s some offstage visual artists who are responsible for them. Otherwise, we find the singing entertaining enough.

Previous seasons have been on Discovery. Of course, they could put it on streaming Discovery+, or start it there before putting it on broadcast.

Yeah, we tried to watch episode 4 last night and were surprised/disappointed. However, no way is this interesting enough to sign up for Premium Peacock. In general, I’ve found the Dan Brown books better than the movies made from them (had not read this one though).

I was not a huge fan of the reveal at the end either. I also thought the one misstep the show made earlier was the introduction of the VIPs, who were poorly acted and tonally didn't seem to fit with the rest of the show. Maybe they have some resonance in Korea as symbols of exploitation by foreign countries, since they were all foreigners? I also thought the policeman's cell phone data might be a plot point in a season 2.