Rickster

My suspicion is that they know the challenges in advance and get the pantry stocked with the ingredients they want to use, even if they don’t know if they will be in the second challenge.

While I’ve read a few Clancy books and seen all the movies, I’m not that concerned about fidelity to the source and knew nothing about this character. That said, I’d give it a B+/A- for action scenes, although the last shoot out went on far too long, and a D for the overall plot, script and acting, except for Jordan who did a good job. Overall disappointing. I don’t think they ever said what Clay was Secretary of, but I assumed Defense.

He mentioned growing up in Costa Rica a few weeks ago, too.

Pretty much negates the whole concept of the show for the home viewer, doesn’t it? This really surprised me.

This, I can believe, but they should realize the show gets cancelled sooner if they never leave the bunker.

I agree Joe and Mika are in Florida for tax reasons, but they only have to be there half the year plus a day to claim residence. They could be in a studio elsewhere, say, one week a month.

They could definitely benefit from better lighting, but I don’t think the appeal of a Palm Beach studio would be enough incentive for guests to trek down there, unless it’s an author hitting Miami on a book tour. They really need to be in NY or Washington, or somewhere on the Acela express line to get any interesting guests.

Looking at the Discovery+ schedule, it seems there should be one more 2 hour episode. But it doesn’t look like it’s on next Thursday, according to my DVR.

Apparently Beat Shazam is coming back in early June, so maybe there is promo reason for Foxx to be on this show...

I wondered from the beginning whether the political/topical aspects of the show were encouraged by CNN to keep it aligned with the CNN “brand” and what it thinks its viewers want to see. My vague recollection is that in later years Bourdain went in the same direction. When I said I didn’t want Tucci to become another Bourdain, I was thinking of Bourdain as the global adventurer. I don’t see eating live cobra hearts in Vietnam as Stanley’s sort of thing.

For the money? Actually, I agree his heart and soul are with Italy, and given the pandemic, they might get another 2 seasons before they are done, and that might be enough for him. But he has been an excellent host, and I could see him hosting a show traveling around regions of France, where food is similarly a big part of the culture and heritage. It would be a mistake though to try to make him into another Bourdain.

It was the Yankees network, YES.

An example of the increased commercialization of baseball. I noticed the Yankees are superimposing sponsors logos on the pitchers mound this year, changing with almost every inning. Don’t know if other teams are doing this too.

I’m always intrigued by the mechanics of the judging. Does one chef’s dish go in the warming oven while the other is judged, and how do they decide who is on hold? Or do they recook the dish for later judging, which would seem unfair if the original was under or over cooked. If the randomizer gave us the same protein for two competitions in a night, would they go with 4 beef chuck dishes, for example, or edit and respin?

I saw Tony Danza in a Broadway musical and he was a pretty good singer. No way was he going to be the raccoon. I was pretty sure it was going to be Trejo, except I couldn’t believe he was that short. edit: I think robopine is Harry Shum Jr.

It was her. We looked for more info last night but could only find a gofundme page for her cremation expenses. Sounded like it was sudden, but no details.

There’s another episode next Thursday already set up on my DVR. No idea how many in total.

Me too. I was pretty surprised to see this show up on regular cable, given all the ads on the regular show.

I’m always puzzled why Mika’s brother seems to have a bit of a foreign accent, almost like a faint version of his father’s.

I know Adams, although it’s pretty far from me. Stew Leonards had it once, but they sold it in slices, like thin steaks. I just think it’s odd to have a regional cut of meat in this day and age.

There was a disclaimer at the beginning. The timing and number of shows in a second season at this point will be dependent on Italy’s covid recovery. Maybe they can film later this year. I do wonder if each of the 20 regions is unique enough foodwise to warrant a separate show.

Me neither. I don’t remember this from last season. I’m wondering if it was just a time slot filler since they had only three short competitions. I assume it might disappear next week they will do four matches and they might be longer and more involved. I turned off the show when the recap came on.

It seems like the only protein they can use is what comes up on the first wheel, while they’re flexible on the vegs. Otherwise, you could cook a filet mignon and throw a slice of sausage on top. I don’t see tri-tip in stores in the Northeast.

I made this into a game too. Sometimes it was just a specific word or two that had an Aussie twang. Although I was confused because there’s a linked interview somewhere where Jane says some contestants were flown from the US. Pretty sure there was one other $100,000 winner, about 2/3 through the run of shows.

Absolutely. That's why the costume was the odd shape of a snail, so there was room for a puppeteer. We spend a lot of time googling the heights of some of the guesses relative to the height of the host. For reference, Niecy Nash is supposed to be 5'4".