Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "I want some subtitles." -Yam Yam Arocho This was another fun episode of Survivor , even if I could do without the rice negotiation.  I just loved the strategizing after the challenge and thinking about all of the different ways it could go.  This is why I love Survivor .  Take notes, Jeff!  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: To start off, I do think the members of Soka and Tika made the right move in going after Ratu.  Ratu just had too much hardware to ignore with the Extra Vote and Jaime's Idol, even though it was fake, literally no one in the game knew that.  It needed to be treated as real.  I like that Frannie pointed out that Tika is playing both sides, but I do think Danny was right in that Ratu needed to be dealt with first. Carolyn, Frannie, and Heidi were particularly good from that group of 6.  Carolyn really worked her social game and I loved watching her connect with everybody.  Frannie...

 "Mommy's with the maggots now." -Ellie Deadite After an earthquake damages his apartment building, Danny (Morgan Davies) finds a copy of the Necronomicon and some recordings in a hidden basement vault.  He brings it backs to his family's apartment and accidently summons a Deadite that possesses his mother, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland).  Now Danny, his sisters, his aunt, and the other residents of the building have to fight to survive and escape from the Deadites. What Works: I love when horror movies don't pull their punches.  The last Evil Dead movie is one of the goriest movies I've ever seen and Evil Dead Rise follows in its predecessors bloody footsteps.  However, we have teenage and child characters in this movie and they aren't spared from the death and dismemberment.  Honestly, I love to see it.  No one should be safe in a horror movie.  It adds to the tension. The gore itself is absolutely insane.  The amount of blood is absurd and over...

 "We'll meet and raise a glass again together, in Valhalla." -Judge Sternwood "Laura's Secret Diary" picks up with Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) confessing to killing Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz).  Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) calls in a judge and the state prosecutor. Deputy Andy (Harry Goaz) wants to get his sperm rechecked and gives a sample to Dr. Hayward (Warren Frost).  Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) catches him getting ready to prepare a sample with a copy of Flesh World  and gets mad at him.  Later, Dick Tremayne (Ian Buchanan) approaches Lucy and offers to pay for an abortion.  She gets furious, rejects his money, and kicks him out of the police station. Word gets around town that a famous travel writer, M. T. Wentz, whose identity is unknown, is coming to Twin Peaks.  Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) has his staff keep a careful eye out, while Norma (Peggy Lipton) and Hank (Chris Mulkey) spruce up the Double R Diner. Jean Renault (Michael Parks) visits...

 "Thanks for covering us in mud first, Jeff." -Kane Fritzler Well, would you look at that.  Finally, we got a regular-ass Tribal Council.  What a breath of fresh air!  We haven't had one of these since Sarah got voted out.  That's actually insane.  We spent too much time at the Challenge in this episode and not enough time with the pre-Tribal strategy, but I still enjoyed the episode.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked! Who Played Well: Let's start with the original Ratu members.  Their plan didn't work, but that isn't the fault of Lauren, Jaime, or Kane.  They made the right move for their game and Lauren even won Immunity, which probably saved her.  Someone else blew the vote for them, but I refuse to put any of the blame on these three. The Tika three played this brilliantly.  Danny played his Idol and a member of Ratu went home.  I don't think this could have cone any better for Carson, Yam Yam, and Carolyn....

 "Obviously we're dealing with a little bit more than just narcissism here." -Mark Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) has been stuck serving Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage) for decades.  An encounter with a brave cop (Awkwafina) encourages Renfield to seek help and end his relationship with Dracula.  The vampire doesn't appreciate that and becomes determined to destroy everyone Renfield cares about. What Works: I love how the movie begins.  We get recreations of shots from the 1931 Dracula  with Hoult and Cage in black-and-white footage.  It's really cool and makes this movie really feel like a sequel to a movie that's over 90 years old.   I'm a huge Nicolas Cage fan and he's probably the actor that I get most excited to see on screen.  When I heard he was playing Dracula, I was beyond excited and Cage absolutely delivers.  He hams it up the way only Cage can.  He's wonderfully evil and it's an absolute joy whenever he is on screen. The other a...

 "May I offer you a papaya in this trying time." -Matt Blankinship If I wanted to watch a reality with a bunch of garbage twists, I would watch Big Brother .  I'm getting pretty sick of Survivor pulling this crap.  I don't like seeing people in this cast get screwed over.  This is a great cast!  Let them play!  Can we at least get a normal Tribal Council at some point?!  Whatever...let's figure out who played well and who sucked...besides production. Who Played Well: Brandon, Jaime, and Lauren all made the right move in taking out Matt.  He's an incredibly likable guy and in the tightest duo in the game.  Voting him out is a no-brainer.  Brandon also won Immunity.  I will say I think Lauren should have played her Extra Vote.  Sure, she didn't need to, especially because they knew Matt didn't have his Shot in the Dark, but she's gotta get that target off her back.  If everyone knows you have an advantage, play it sooner rat...

 "I love you, Sheriff Truman." -Albert Rosenfield "The Man Behind Glass" picks up with Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine) thrashing wildly after her I.V. liquid was replaced with dye by someone.  As she is restrained and sedated, Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) finds a small letter "B" under her fingernail.  They have Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer) do more analysis.  He discovers the "B" came from a copy of Flesh World .  He also confirms the cocaine planted on James Hurley's (James Marshall) bike was from Leo Johnson's (Eric Da Re) stash, which allows the police to release James.  As Albert prepares to leave, he insults Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) again.  When the Sheriff threatens to punch him again, Albert refuses to retaliate due to his pacifism.  He says he loves Sheriff Truman before leaving. Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) arrives at the police station and tells them that he recognizes BOB (Frank Silva).  He lived next door to his g...

 "Let's-a go!" -Mario When a pipe bursts in New York City, struggling plumbers, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) head underground to fix it.  However, they find themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom.  When Luigi is captured by the evil Bowser (Jack Black), Mario teams up with Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) to save Luigi and the Mushroom Kingdom. What Works: This movie has a lot of problems.  And believe me, I'll get into all of those, but one thing it does have going for it is that it's fun.  I had fun watching it and it was enjoyable to see these characters and setting on the screen.  It's not a good movie narratively, but it's a fun cinematic experience. This movie is filled to the brim with Easter eggs and references to the series.  A lot of them are fun and I'm excited they included them.  There are plenty of extremely subtle references that are so quick that you could easily miss them.  The movie relies too heavily on them, but...

 "Just pay them with magic." -Holga Kilgore After a heist goes wrong, two thieves, Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), manage to escape from prison.  Desperate to get back to his daughter, Edgin puts together a team of adventurers to go on a series of quests that involves both dungeons and dragons.  Mild spoilers below... What Works: My favorite part of games like Dungeons & Dragons  is how the players come up with the most insane and stupid ways to get through the quest.  I love bullshit plans people manage to pull off and even when they fail miserably.  This movie captures that part of the game perfectly.  The characters are constantly coming up with hairbrained schemes and give the film a wonderful creative energy.  This kind of stuff makes the game worth playing and the movie worth watching. I love the core cast of characters.  Everyone is really funny and gets plenty of time to shine.  Chris Pine is my favorite of...

 "Bag." -Carolyn Wiger This was a pretty straightforward episode of Survivor , but it was still very fun.  I have a lot of questions about why Carolyn had a mace growing up, that's for sure.  In the meantime, we need to figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Everyone knew Josh was going home (except Josh) and I think it was a good move for everyone.  It was definitely better for the original members of Ratu and Tika, but since everyone on Soka wanted Josh out as well, I'm going to assume he was simply incredibly untrustworthy. Carson told everyone that his Idol expired, which was a good idea.  It helps get the target off his back.  I also like that he helped get Yam Yam and Carolyn back on the same page with him.  He was also incredible in the Immunity Challenge and single-handedly won it for his team.  His decisions to tell Kane that he was the backup vote was questionable and probably not a good call, but he played it off wi...