Stars On Mars - General Discussion

[Madding crowd]

Ariel acts like they are actually on Mars and she is the lone scientist on the mission. She doesn’t need to give advice to anyone, they are reading from a darn script! Can’t stand her or snotty Adam.

[rmontro]

I'm starting to think Ronda Rousey had the right idea.  Get out of this show while it was still half interesting.  

I was sorry to see Andy go, but I guess he kind of deserved it for buying into Adam's manipulating last week about who to put in the bottom three.  He thought it would help him probably, but it came back and bit him.

[Johannah]

On 8/2/2023 at 5:43 PM, Madding crowd said:

Ariel acts like they are actually on Mars and she is the lone scientist on the mission. She doesn’t need to give advice to anyone, they are reading from a darn script! Can’t stand her or snotty Adam.

Yeah, she's kind of appointed herself mission specialist expert, hasn't she?

While getting them together to join hands and make it back to the habitat made sense, why move one person at a time?  You had two people in the command center.  "Person 1, you listen to Cat and person 2, you listen to Lance, and we'll walk you to the anchor person two at a time."  I would say they could do them all at once, "Person 1 10 steps forward, then stop..."  and give the next person instructions while they are walking slowly, but I think they couldn't tell who was who on the monitor, so I can understand not jumping from person to person.  But two at a time would have worked and cut the time so that it wasn't down to the last second.

Glad Andy got kicked off for following Adam, thinking it made him one of the cool kids and especially for his pitiful backtracking explanation to Cat for his reasoning - which didn't make sense.

Adam can go next and then maybe I can enjoy this show more.

[KeithJ]

And, another quitter.  This just doesn't feel like the same show it was when it premiered.  I record it and then pretty much just FF to the end to see who gets kicked off (or now leaves).

[peachmangosteen]

On 8/1/2023 at 9:52 PM, ladle said:

I remain confused about the root of Ariel and Lance’s conflict. I know they disagreed about trans athletes but there wasn’t a ton of overt conflict over that, that we saw. Then later Lance told the newcomers something like, “It was really bad - we were ready to rip each other’s faces off” (paraphrasing) Was there an altercation that we didn’t see? Very confusing. 

My sister told me she read that sometime, off-camera, Ariel brought up Lance's doping past. And I guess he didn't like that. If he didn't want people to talk about it maybe he shouldn't have done it lol. And he's lucky she did it off-camera. I would have done it when I knew I was being filmed!

[Madding crowd]

Lance knew he wasn’t liked and would have been voted off anyway. I don’t like the guy but also don’t like how he was treated on the show. He should have been the most mission critical because he got the vent open quickly and he was one who got the intruder. What made Marshawn and Adam the top two? Portia liked them. I didn’t expect this level of childish likes and dislikes on the show and thought it might be more like the Special Forces show where there were no cliques but the stars had to survive tasks. 

[milkyaqua]

Oh, I didn't watch the voting portion after the mission.  I figured Paul was a goner.

[LakeGal]

Adam and Ariel are ruining this show for me.  They both think so highly of themselves.  They will probably be the last 2 standing and I don't know if I care to watch that.  I wish there was a more fair way to pick people for the jobs and then the eliminations.  But it is all about popularity.  

[peachmangosteen]

Lance and Ariel got the vent open quickly. Adam found the button to stop the fan. MarShawn told them where to check for the intruder.

Lance quit because he’d rather quit (he already threatened to what at least twice) than give them the satisfaction of voting him off. He’s a baby lol.

[Johannah]

I haven't seen this episode, yet.  Another quitter?  Damn, Mars is tougher than I thought.

 

48 minutes ago, LakeGal said:

Adam and Ariel are ruining this show for me.  They both think so highly of themselves.  They will probably be the last 2 standing and I don't know if I care to watch that.  I wish there was a more fair way to pick people for the jobs and then the eliminations.  But it is all about popularity.  

If it gets to that, I'll probably quit watching, too.

Oh, look, I can be a quitter, too.  I can be a star on Mars!

4 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

My sister told me she read that sometime, off-camera, Ariel brought up Lance's doping past. And I guess he didn't like that. If he didn't want people to talk about it maybe he shouldn't have done it lol. And he's lucky she did it off-camera. I would have done it when I knew I was being filmed!

How did she do that?  She didn't even know who he really was.  She thought he was Neil Armstrong.  She probably also thought, at some point, he was Louis Armstrong.

Damn, I wish I could think of another Armstrong.  I was on a roll..

[peachmangosteen]

We’ll presumably someone told her who he was and probably his history.

[snarts]

@peachmangosteen I couldn't agree with you more. Lance was a huge baby with a decidedly fragile ego who expected everyone bow down to him. Ariel dared disagree with once (maybe twice) and he branded her an enemy.  

Yes, Ariel's a bit odd but I haven't seen her do anything to warrant that reaction. She may be overacting on the missions but I'd rather that than the constant whining and threats to quit. 

[seacliffsal]

Porshia stated that she would choose her mission specialist based on the mission.  We all know she was going to choose who she wanted to choose.  But, it didn't make sense to have Paul on the mission itself as he couldn't fit into the vents (and the two teams had to go through some small vents-I would have freaked out as I'm a bit claustrophobic.  This has really turned into social alliance competition.  At some point the elimination should change so that the base commander and mission specialist could also be up for elimination-it didn't seem like they really did much during this mission.

This was so fun at the beginning, but now it just...isn't...

[Grizzly]

I still think if Lance hadn't voted himself out, Paul would have gone home. Lance has been fairly critical on all the missions. He's reliable muscle. Yes, his social attitude sucks. He will always be known as a cheater. But I will give him credit for trying new things. I thought he'd go outside and play football with the guys. He decided instead to get a facial because he'd never had one before. Marshawn can go anytime. He marches to the beat of his own drum. A drum no one else can hear.

[rmontro]

6 hours ago, LakeGal said:

Adam and Ariel are ruining this show for me.  They both think so highly of themselves.  They will probably be the last 2 standing and I don't know if I care to watch that.

I'm sticking this out until the bitter end, but I doubt that I would subject myself to another season of this, if there is one.  Things are dragging, badly.  The only way I would tune in is if there were a group of celebs that were especially interesting to me for whatever reason.

I thought it was dirty that they put Lance in the bottom three for non-mission related reasons.  But we'll probably see the social game come more to the fore as the season winds down.  I think if they chose the base commander and/or mission specialist randomly it would be an improvement.  And everyone should get a turn.

[LakeGal]

It would help if they did not let anyone repeat as the base commander/mission specialist until everyone had a turn.  

[kikicat]

I'm late to the party. Thought this show would be the dumbest thing ever, but the campy fun is great. Caught up to all episodes but the last. Hulu hasn't posted it yet, but I do know Lance is gone. Boohoo (not).

Excuse me for making one big post. I'm reading aallll the comments at once.

On 6/12/2023 at 9:11 PM, Grizzly said:

So they all take showers and use up their water. Then what?

Right? Perhaps little green men employed by Fox came and refilled the tanks in the dead of night. I really want there to be Martians on this show to threaten the "celebrinauts". The air duct intruder? So Alienesque. C'mon.

On 7/14/2023 at 8:52 PM, ladle said:

100%. 

I keep wondering if there's something we haven't seen between Lance and Ariel that makes him dislike her so much. He told the new cast members that "last night" there was "a lot of drama" and that it was "really bad." I haven't seen anything remotely dramatic occur between them though? 

The transgender convo was confusing to me. So cut up and edited. Ariel didn't even speak much, it was Tinashe (not familiar with her; thought her name was Tin-ash) who talked back to Lance. Ariel was shooting looks, then later said she was the only one who confronted him, so it seems they left a lot of that talk on the cutting room floor.

I pretty much hate Lance, but not really for that conversation. It was the way he's been so nasty with Ariel since. Immediately throwing her under the bus when the new contestants came in. Calling her "this one", and "I won't live with some people", him and Paul bonding over their MCP poison.

I'm just going by what the audience sees. The truth is usually more complicated.

On 7/18/2023 at 12:46 PM, milkyaqua said:

 So long Ashley (I'm amazed at all the makeup some of the contestants brought with them).

She looked like she was wearing a mask. Joker vibes.

 

[kikicat]

23 hours ago, Grizzly said:

I still think if Lance hadn't voted himself out, Paul would have gone home. Lance has been fairly critical on all the missions. He's reliable muscle. Yes, his social attitude sucks. He will always be known as a cheater. But I will give him credit for trying new things. I thought he'd go outside and play football with the guys. He decided instead to get a facial because he'd never had one before. Marshawn can go anytime. He marches to the beat of his own drum. A drum no one else can hear.

Marshawn makes me laugh. He's kind of dumb but funny.

Bye-bye, Lance. You were good on the missions, I'll give ya that.

[rmontro]

2 hours ago, kikicat said:

The transgender convo was confusing to me. So cut up and edited.

I wish they hadn't even shown that conversation, I don't really care to get politics mixed with my entertainment, even if it isn't that entertaining.  I guess they needed to show it if that was the cause of the friction between them.  Which is exactly why you're not supposed to discuss politics in polite company.

[JH Lipton]

 

On 8/8/2023 at 2:27 PM, Grizzly said:

Marshawn can go anytime. He marches to the beat of his own drum. A drum no one else can hear.

On 8/8/2023 at 11:55 AM, snarts said:

@peachmangosteen I couldn't agree with you more. Lance was a huge baby with a decidedly fragile ego who expected everyone bow down to him. Ariel dared disagree with once (maybe twice) and he branded her an enemy. 

Marshawn (and to a lesser degree Lance and Paul) marches to the Toxic Masculinity drumbeat.  From the second episode where he felt entitled to the Base Commander's unit, to his disparaging comments to and about the women (his misogynoir towards Porshia is especially irritating) to ordering Porshia to make Paul mission specialist (I love that she said "I'll think about it -- hell, nah!")  I think Marshawn got Paul pushed out by his arrogance.  But neither of them will realize that and just think that Porshia was being mean.

I love Porshia and Tenishe (and, to a lesser extent Ariel) -- they are always good at their assignments and are good at the social aspect, in spite of Marshawn.  I hope that they come in first and second.

[Grizzly]

Well that sucked/was anticlimactic. Why make things easy for the others by taking yourself out? I was hoping the mission failed so they could vote out Paul. Hate how Marshawn and Paul treated Porsha. Wish Cat had hitched her wagon to other people. Guess I'm rooting for Tinashe.

[KeithJ]

Now that's three quitters in the last four eliminations. These people are really beginning to suck.

[seacliffsal]

I was really surprised that Ariel self-eliminated as I thought she felt entitled to win.  I guess the fact that she had to go out on the mission changed her perspective about the competition.  Maybe after Lance left she lost incentive to outlast anyone.  Or, maybe there's the whole 'I'll self-eliminate rather than be voted out' idea.  I do believe she gave it her all though and I will admit she was a good mission specialist when she filled that role.

This show is kind of fizzling out.  Maybe it's the contestants they chose or maybe the uniqueness of the show is losing appeal.  I would like either Tanishe or Prosha to win as I think they have had positive attitudes throughout and are entertaining.  No matter who wins though, I hope the dogs find new homes...

[milkyaqua]

Yes, Ariel annoyed me but I did appreciate her realizing she hadn't performed well during the mission and seemed fine with going.

Paul and Marshawn can get over themselves anytime now.  Adam can go either way.

It'll be interesting to see what happens now that they no longer will have base commanders and will just all have to work together.

Also, how do you not realize your dog has gotten loose?  The AI didn't think to alert them (I mean obviously it was done deliberately but still).

[rmontro]

i was very surprised to see Ariel take herself out, I thought she had a solid place in the main alliance.

11 hours ago, KeithJ said:

Now that's three quitters in the last four eliminations. These people are really beginning to suck.

You misspelled "jumped the shark".  

Arf. Arf.

[jabRI]

As someone mentioned earlier, there should be like a cash prize like Celebrity Mole.  No one for people to stay once they think it won't help their 'brand' (don't get me started on that stupid concept).  Not sorry to see Ariel go, she was pretty insufferable.  Rooting for Cat, Paul or Marshawn at this point.

[rmontro]

I wanted a better look at the scrambled eggs Cat was making.  I know Gordon Ramsey likes them very creamy.  One of the fellas was putting hot sauce on them.  I eat hot sauce on my scrambled eggs at times.  Pretty tasty.  Better than ketchup and mustard on potato chips, I'm sure.

I noticed when Cat cracked the eggs, she dropped a piece of shell into the bowl and had to pick it out.  Nice to know an Iron Chef also has to do this.

[JH Lipton]

On 8/14/2023 at 6:42 PM, Grizzly said:

Hate how Marshawn and Paul treated Porsha.

Some man are very intimidated by strong women, especially Black women.  Check Paul saying that he would have kicked Porscha out for no good reason  Marshawn has been like this since the get-go, finding fault with all the women, especially Porscha and Tineshe.

 

On 8/15/2023 at 10:32 PM, rmontro said:

I wanted a better look at the scrambled eggs Cat was makings.

"I'd like my eggs over easy." Then Mardhawn says "I want mine scrambled, so Cat only makes scrambled eggs because she bows down to an "alpha: male.

 

On 8/15/2023 at 5:54 PM, jabRI said:

Rooting for Cat, Paul or Marshawn at this point.

Those are my least favorites, especially Marshawn -- hate him with a passion.  Unfortunately, the alliances are three and three -- Marshawn, Pauk and Cat vs Porscha, Tinesha and Adam.  It could go either way.

[rmontro]

4 hours ago, JH Lipton said:

"I'd like my eggs over easy." Then Mardhawn says "I want mine scrambled, so Cat only makes scrambled eggs because she bows down to an "alpha: male.

I can't remember who said that about eggs over easy, was it Paul?  IIRC Paul said he wanted them over easy, but then said either way, it didn't matter.  Then Marshawn said he wanted scrambled, so Cat said she's make a bowl of scrambled.  

I used to like to make my scrambled eggs a little crispy, with a little crisp on it.  But I guess that's the wrong way to make them, they're supposed to be fluffy.  Now I can make them either way, depending on my mood, but usually I go with fluffy.  I don't think cooking them more ruins them though.  The hot sauce covers it anyway  :)

[ladle]

As others have suggested, I feel like this show needs some tinkering with. First, the contestants need some reason to actually want to stay there, like a monetary prize. Also, it's never clear to me what will happen if they don't complete the missions. In missions like the last one, I get that they just wouldn't rescue the dog and then the base commander would be up for elimination. But in the past there have been missions that are supposedly life or death -- e.g. where they literally wouldn't have food or oxygen f they didn't complete it -- what if they hadn't? I'm also not sure what's to prevent this show from becoming 100% a social game. In the end, the missions almost seem incidental, as people will be voting along alliance lines. Like maybe "the Hab"/production could decide who's in the bottom 3 based on their performances in the mission and then the contestants could vote. Or maybe there's some way to "earn" immunity by being the mission's MVP. I agree that the show was fun at first but it's kind of losing its luster (and I actually find most of the contestants likeable and interesting!). 

[KeithJ]

17 hours ago, ladle said:

As others have suggested, I feel like this show needs some tinkering with. First, the contestants need some reason to actually want to stay there, like a monetary prize. 

Make them play for a charity.  Then they would really look like tools when they quit.  lol

Edited August 19, 2023 by KeithJ

[Grizzly]

These were some good twists tonight. Production doesn't seem as interested in keeping up the pretext that they're on Mars. Cat made the right decision from my perspective but I want to hear her reasoning. How does she think that decision will help her game? Because from her perspective, I think she made the wrong choice.

[KeithJ]

OMG, they couldn't do anything to keep the bugs off Shatner when he showed up? lol

Glad to see Marshawn gone though.  Now Paul just needs to be next.

Edited August 22, 2023 by KeithJ

[seacliffsal]

Was impressed that Shatner showed up.  He does really well for his age (well, for any age).  However, I think it was more fun for him to be at "mission control" and somehow it feels 'less' that he is now with them.  I was glad that they kept Porsha.  But, really, Cat?  A copy of your cookbook as a momento for the 'hab'?  Seems more like blatant self-promotion to me.

[rmontro]

I think Cat made the same wrong decision Andy Richter made, sucking up to the majority alliance.  If she would have picked Marshawn, it could have at least been 3-3.  Now it's 4-2, with her on the outside.  Not sure what her reasoning is.

If they're leaving mementos in the hab, I guess that means there will be another season.  Pretty sure I won't be there.

[ladle]

Marshawn was an original cast member, right? So I assume he was in the same alliance as Portia, as all of the OGs seem pretty tight. The show seemed to be putting too much weight on Cat's decision.

I couldn't believe how few of them knew the order of the planets! Was nobody else forced to learn "My Very Educated Mother Served Us Nine [Pizzas]" in school? 

 

[rmontro]

So the original, predominant alliance votes themselves into the final three.  What a surprise - not.  Yawn.  I won't be watching another season of this if there is one.  Unless there's a celebrity that interests me for some reason.

Funny, I don't remember seeing Adam's broadcast on the news.  I would have thought that would have been a big deal.  Oh well.

[KeithJ]

Not a surprising result but I'm not disappointed with it.  I still love how everyone pretty much played along like they were actually on Mars (until Shatner showed up outside with no suit).  I'm not sure I could have kept up with that saying things like "here on Mars", blah blah blah.

Edited August 29, 2023 by KeithJ

[rmontro]

13 minutes ago, KeithJ said:

 (until Shatner showed up outside with no suit). 

I think the point was that Shatner was some sort of supernatural being, or had spent so much time in space that he was immune to the Mars environment.  Which admittedly makes no sense, but what are you going to do?

[seacliffsal]

Well, a show and season that started with a bang went out with a whimper.  And, really, the winner gets to send a message?  

I think they should have kept Shatner as the remote commander and sent someone else in (Shatner's 'mission specialist'?) to oversee the finale.  Shatner is best in small doses and there were times he just seemed awkward.  He does great for his age, but keep him a bit more mysterious.

I wasn't surprised that the final 3 were original participants.  I don't know, it just felt like the creativity petered out and they didn't really have a dynamic finale.  But, why, oh why, did they just abandon the 'dogs' why were they left behind???

[milkyaqua]

That was completely anti-climatic and yes, the final three was no surprise.  And agree, don't know if I'd watch this again.  Though I will miss the dogs.

Meh, bring on Special Forces: World's Toughest.

[rmontro]

2 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

But, why, oh why, did they just abandon the 'dogs' why were they left behind???

To watch the place until next season, probably.

[JH Lipton]

[Psst.. Adam, we can't have 2 strong Black women as the final 2, let alone winner (no matter how much either deserved 10 times more than you. A white gay guy is much more palatable.  So rather than have the winner determined solely by skills (which everyone knows you'd fail at), we're going to have a trivia quiz.  Here's a cheat sheet to make sure you win.  Thanks, buddy.]

That was an awful, horrid, despicable way to treat Tinashe and Portchia.  Misogynoir runs deep. 

Edited August 30, 2023 by JH Lipton

[Madding crowd]

This show was awful. All about popularity and no real way to switch things up. The base commander was chosen by popularity and they picked people for the assignments. On shows like Big Brother or Survivor they at least have challenges that can give a person an advantage or an immunity. It is also was silly pretending they were running out of air or that any of these missions would fail.

They also shouldn’t have brought people in later if there was no chance for them against the first group. As far as the ending, I assume they gave them the answers in the manual but Adam was the only one who read it so it made sense that he won.

[rmontro]

53 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

As far as the ending, I assume they gave them the answers in the manual but Adam was the only one who read it so it made sense that he won.

I wonder if someone told them at some point or other, "Study the hab manual, it may come in handy"?  Or if they just gave it to them and let them do what they wanted with it.  Only Adam made any mention of studying the manual whenever he had the chance.  Also, did they each have a copy or was there just one laying around?

[snarts]

The show started off fun and quickly became a drudgery. In the end, I was hate watching just to see who won.

It would've been much better with some tweaks: voting off based on alliances/popularity is old and tired, come up with an objective way to score performance; don't add people halfway through the season; if they're going to crown a winner, there'd better be some prize, etc.

[Ms Lark]

I was pretty disappointed with this. I like Adam as a skater but didn't care for him here. (Not competitive? You're an Olympic Athlete, of course you're competitive! Sheesh.) I seriously felt one of the two women should have won. I'm an advocate of RTFM, but it shouldn't have been the final.

I have a feeling this won't get a second season, but who knows how long the strike will go on? It just devolved into Big Brother on Mars (or Coober Pedy, which translates as "man in a hole"). Since it was all so-called celebs, they should have been competing for their favorite (legit) charities, not just bragging rights.

[JH Lipton]

8 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

I'm an advocate of RTFM, but it shouldn't have been the final.

I just find extremely sus that Adam knew to RTFM just before the quiz.

[Ms Lark]

20 minutes ago, JH Lipton said:

I just find extremely sus that Adam knew to RTFM just before the quiz.

Especially since he said not long after (looking at the schematic for the wiring) that he doesn't read instructions. Hmm? WTF?

[Johannah]

I FF-ed through most of the final ep after I read on here that Adam won.  Yuk.

I have no idea how they got down to three, but while FF-ing, all I saw was talking.  I think someone here said they voted so I'm glad I didn't watch.  Like someone said, this turned into a popularity contest - such a tired premise.

BUT, the final 3 having to answer questions (and I have to give Adam credit for actually studying the manual) and then racing to perform a challenge, was probably the highlight of the show (I'm not into conspiracies, so I'm assuming he won fair - of the final 3, not necessarily how he got there).  Finally, someone had to work to "win" something on this show, although, I wish one of the ladies would have won, preferably Tinashe.

And, like much of you, I won't watch any new episodes unless someone I really like is on.