tominboston

Really, it's looking like they have just let the pregnancy story line go away. That's fine with me. I don't see how a baby would add anything useful to the family dynamic. Speaking of which, I loved Dre's talk with Zoey at the end. Yes, he's often over the top, but he clearly loves his sometimes headstrong kids and wants the best for them.

I know that Stephen Hawking has appeared on BBT a couple times in the past, but every time he shows up I am so amazed at his ability to joke about his situation. He just seems to be so at peace with his life. Does anyone know if he's done any interviews in which he has talked about his comic appearances on BBT, The Simpsons, etc.? Otherwise, I too thought this was a neat episode, and... YES!!!

I thought it was more than alluded to. When Chidi rushed into Michael's office and confessed to "murdering" Janet, he said that Eleanor had confessed to being a mistake specifically to keep Michael from being sent to the Really Bad Place. My take was that this revelation from Chidi was why Michael then pulled Eleanor off the Downbound Train (to reference an old gospel song). Among the many things I love about this show is how well Ted Danson does deadpan comedy. Wonderful stuff.

Hmmm... they really are moving the plot along quickly. OK, so Eleanor did a Good Thing and confessed to being out of place in order to save Chidi and Michael from ongoing distress. We know she won't get kicked down to the Bad Place and this will all be resolved by the final episode of the season, but then what will be the theme of a hoped-for season 2? And I very much hope there is a season 2. This show just makes me smile from beginning to end. Glad that Helpful Janet has rebooted... I would have missed her. I wonder why Michael's penalty for failure would have been so awful. This was his first neighborhood design, right? It sounds like the Good Place doesn't allow for much of a learning curve.

Is it OK to admit that I actually found the crossover gimmick amusing? I also admit that I do watch New Girl, even though the show is now past its prime.The basic concept of the NG characters visiting New York wasn't all that implausible for Sitcomland. I laughed at Hysterical Jess in the car chase scene and also found the bits with Gina, Boyle and his son, and Holt (especially the latter) in New Girl pretty funny. But to each his/her own.

Way back after episode 1, I was wondering where this show was going but figured I'd give it a chance. I'm glad I did because it's now on my weekly must-see list. So we got to see some of Tahani's backstory... wow, what awful parents, and now it's clear why she feels the need to be perfect and please everybody. I guess it explains the mansion too, that it's the sort of house she grew up in. Aww, Eleanor did something really nice for Chidi. The writers do seem to be developing that idea, but why should she be so important? If everybody in the Good Place has some issue to resolve, what makes hers more significant than everyone else's? I guess we'll find out at some point. Also, maybe I'm seeing an inside joke where there wasn't one, but I noticed that the first name on the rankings list was David Arias. That is the birth name of Red Sox slugger and Boston sports hero David Ortiz, whose retirement ceremony occurred last week. I suspect there's a Sox fan among the writers.

I understand that some folks find Gina annoying, and to each his/her own, but I find her amusing. Everyone else at the 99 is highly competent and professionally responsible (well, maybe not Hitchcock and Scully, but you know what I mean). Gina's shallowness, ego, and slacking offer an often funny contrast to all the good detectives she works with. Plus, she does get serious when someone is in danger or otherwise really needs help.

I finally had a chance to watch this episode today and now I guess I'm hooked. The first two episodes had left me reasonably amused but confused; now #3 seemed to nicely set up where the show is going to go. Eleanor wasn't completely awful, and I though there were more good laugh lines, or maybe I was just getting into the right mood. I keep thinking of the first couple seasons of "Lost" as the model for this world, where no one truly knows where they are or why they're there. Overly Helpful Janet is great!

Count me among those who were annoyed by the blatant commercialism of the Disney infomercial. I would have thought this show was too classy for that sort of thing., but I guess not And as someone noted above, why would a family from LA fly 3,000 miles to Orlando rather than just going next door to Anaheim? (Well, because the corporate overlords wanted to promote Disney World rather than Disneyland...) Loved Pops and Ruby, though, and the quick shot of Charlie;s "presentation" to the Microsoft people.

I really like these characters and I enjoyed the season opener, but I too feel that it's time to wrap things up. The Schmidt-CeCe wedding would have been a natural closer had they simply implied that Nick/Jess had a future and let us figure out what happened next. Instead I guess we'll get another season of them dancing around each other until in the end they both decide that it's Meant To Be, which will no douybt coincide with Schmidt and CeCe finally moving into their rehabbed house and Winston (and Furguson!) moving out of the loft and in with Aly, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Those are the colors of the University of Michigan. Eleanor was wearing a Michigan law school t-shirt in that scene and I assume that's where the Good Lawyer got her degree. There's been some great speculation here over the past 24 hours. I do like the various theories that suggest we'll find out that nothing in the Good Place is actually as it has been initially presented and that there are some aspects of "Lost" in this show. We'll see, I guess.

Well, the basic premise is pretty amusing, and I'm happy to put my faith in any Michael Schur project for a few episodes, but I do wonder how they can sustain the story over a full season. As a couple other folks have suggested, this may have made a better movie than a weekly series.

Can anyone explain in the spoiler thread how the mentalists communicated their information? I did notice that P&T didn't bother to check the woman's blindfold since they clearly knew how it was done. Were the audience members plants?

What's the deal with this show and opera singers? My guess is that no more than 1% of the audience ever listens to opera other than on AGT, and yet the opera wailers always get lots of votes. Would more than a tiny handful of viewers actually pay to see them? Maybe it's the novelty factor, but I would much rather vote for singers who produce music with natural human voices.

I agree with the comments above about the shot put winner... absolutely minimal coverage, and we wouldn't have seen even that if she wasn't an American. I haven't seen any coverage at all of discus, javelin, or pole vaulting (although obviously I haven't watched every minute of every channel). I understand that if it's not swimming or gymnastics or women's beach volleyball, NBC won't put it in prime time, but why do we get hours of water polo and such on the cable channels but nothing of the "field" side of track & field? Well, actually, I know why... NBC figures that no one cares. I need to remind myself that NBC sees the Olympics as a soap opera full of tear-jerking stories as much as a sporting event involving noncommercial sports and people that actually come from countries other than the US.

Any archers here who can explain those extreme bows? I understand the optical sights used for aiming, but what is the purpose of those projecting rods and all the other stuff?

Yes, I noticed the same thing and it seemed odd. I too hope to see an explanation of the tattoo trick in the spoiler section since that one had me completely baffled... I have to assume that there was something funny with the cards.

I enjoy AGT for the variety acts, but I have my doubts too. I wouldn't be at all shocked to learn that the yes vote acts are all selected in advance by the producers and that much of the judges' banter is scripted. And the audience is definitely choreographed. Opera Girl was utterly unlistenable, but I loved Tape Face, the gangsta-looking Doo-w** quartet, and also the shtick at the end where the "danger act" guy flopped into a puddle of shaving cream or whatever... he did a great sendup of that genre.

I guess I enjoyed this show more at the beginning when it was strictly a comedy. It got a lot darker this season. The interaction between Tandy and Mike has been thoughtfully written and poignant, but I'm watching for laughs, not to watch a likeable character [probably] get killed off. At least we can be reasonably sure that the sailboat people don't massacre the Malibu gang since that wouldn't leave much of a show for the rest of the season.

Well, that was... OK, I guess. I was rooting for Sheri & Cole since they were one of the more likeable multi-generational teams that have been on the race and I was impressed at Sheri's persistence and toughness in tasks that were hard for her. Glad to see them make second place at least. Dana & Matt had an, uh, interesting personal dynamic -- hey, if they say they love each other that;s good enough for me -- but they were competent racers and I don't begrudge their win. I found Tyler & Korey mildly annoying so I'm fine with them coming in third. The big problem for me as a viewer who discovered TAR way back in Season 3 is that the show just doesn't grab me the way it once did. The locations are still fascinating but in recent seasons I've had trouble getting emotionally invested in teams the way I once did. Too much stunt casting maybe. I want to see teams who are longtime race fans, not folks who are prospective famewhores or people who are trying to grab YouTube clicks or Twitter followers or whatever. I certainly won't stop watching but I wish that TAR still grabbed me the way it used to.

The wedding was an absolute delight... well done, show. In this less than perfect world it was great to see a couple so totally into each other, even if it's only in sitcomland. Did feel awfully sorry for Jess, though, when Nick said he was going off to New Orleans with Regan. I'm one who found the previous Nick/Jess relationship funny and kind of sweet, and I think Take 2 could work out since they're clearly connected with each other and presumably have grown since then. Next season does need a long-running story now that Cece and Schmidt are happily married.

I have generally enjoyed this show since the beginning, but Phil/Tandy has become such a complete self-centered asshole that he's annoying me rather than being funny. Lighten him up a bit, writers.

The scene in the storage room was really poignant as Sheldon was able to bring himself to share his hoarding secret with Amy... credit to Jim and Mayim for pulling it off masterfully. Keeping in mind that this is a sitcom and not a drama, I thought it captured one of the saddest characteristics of metal health issues, that people often keep their illness hidden rather than seeking the help that is available. Sheldon so often comes off as an entitled jerk that it's appropriate for the writers to remind us now and then that there are deeper issues in his brain.

Ah yes! I had been trying to remember where I had recently seen that lovely English actress,. She was great in her role as the spacey, New Age-y head of the school. Has the show been renewed for next season? I do think that a wedding episode would make a perfect finale (just as The Office could have easily wrapped up with the Pam/Jim wedding), but I'm certainly not wishing that NG would go away. I've generally enjoyed this season and I think the last couple episodes since Jess came back have been particularly strong.

I loved the scenes of the enormous Terry holding the tiny fuzzy kittens and professing to hate them. I thought that one of the team -- surely Scully or Hitchcock-- would make a mistake in defusing the dummy bombs and the dummy would make a big "poof". Is Adrian now going to be a regular? His weirdness is an amusing twist but I don't know how long it can go on before he becomes annoying.