BobDole12

more personality-driven than food-driven, which could be fine but the personality appears to be of the over-caffeinated daytime food network variety which is very much not my thing

Avinoam bringing Shinji-levels of bitchassness

not as much Anna Torv as I was expecting but the main guy is more than likeable enough to carry the show (big sympathetic cringe when he was doing the Tuesday AM news) and it's always nice to get any amount of Torv on TV. Her coaching him was delightful, there's a warmth between the two of them. all in all a very solid first hour (from someone who gets antsy at full-hour shows) and I'm almost definitely in for the whole season

dragged in parts but a full 20 years later some of its themes still resonate, a slightly retooled version of this wouldn't feel that out of place in the 2020s

run of the mill medical drama(/procedural) with a hook that feels kinda forced

well-shot and wonderfully weird in all the right ways

interview with Harry Garside was delightful, he really seemed to be enjoying himself which is nice as the post-Olympics back-to-back-to-back answering-variations-of-the-same-questions interviews with glossy (often morning) news shows can probably turn into a bit of a slog by the end of it all. Melanie/Tim/The Cheap Seats have really made the interviews with Olympians (Ruby Tui in episode 3) great fun to watch and equally important the Olympians really seemed to get a kick out of it (they might've lucked out by landing such personable athletes)

covers some interesting ground but the host's questions were so mind-numbingly bad, looked him up after the ep and yeah, model & entertainment reporter, makes sense

as someone around the age of the main characters and was googling 'how to stop receding hairline' literally minutes before watching, this ep hit a little too close to home

promising start, easy rapport between Melanie and Tim, each amiable in their own right, breezy pace, solid jokes and good delivery (and affability to shrug off ones that don't quite land) on a range of topics. I coulda done with the whole episode being just Melanie & Tim, if there's a weakness it's the segments with the culture/sports commentators felt lesser than the two co-hosts just feeling like they're shooting the shit with each other. looking like a solid addition to my AUS media diet

best of the series, ever more relevant watching in the age of fake news, alternative facts, deep fakes & photoshop, rapid virility of social media, and the prevalence of celebrity/influencers being go-to interviewees as subject matter experts

Black Mirror S2Ep5 White Bear: Origins

this episode is unfairly maligned

the absolute lack of hesitation between "If 1 girl calls you ugly you start thinking you ugly?" and "yeah of course" :joy:

Steph NEEDS to come back for a Battle of the Duds episode

Mike wincing every time he phrases something inarticulately while talking on the phone and cringing after leaving an awkward voice mail is the most relatable thing about this show

"the cat's ass"
-Barry the old (former) diving guy

how is a show that features an episode about benny blanco trying to blow a bubble with his ass then struggling to get bubble gum disentangled from his butthole hair so good

Favorite show of 2020 and based off just the first episode and even with 6 months of TV left in the year I'm expecting Dave to repeat

looks like the 2 actors weren't in the same location at all during the shooting of this episode: the background behind Uzo looked off (/two-dimensional), lots of over-the-shoulder shots, a bit of uncanny valley going on in spots

some of those scenes were trying to make all the characters look like they were in the same room when, uh, the actors definitely weren't

a week later, still thinking about the line "I thought I heard someone without a hammer talking"

Tom telling the blind girl not to use the word 'watched' because it's insensitive to the visually-impaired is a Hard Quiz moment that will never be beat