Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "Six seasons and a movie!" -Abed Nadir "Paradigms of Human Memory" picks up with the study group and Chang (Ken Jeong) finishing their 20th and final diorama for Anthropology class, which is a diorama of them making their 19th diorama.  Troy's (Donald Glover) escaped monkey, Annie's Boobs, suddenly reappears and steals Troy's paintbrush before disappearing into the school's vents.  Chang goes in after the monkey and discovers a pile of items that the monkey has stolen from the study group, including all of Annie's (Alison Brie) purple pens.  Chang brings everything back, but then goes back into the vents to chase the monkey who has run off with his spoon. The missing items send the study group down memory lane and the episode becomes a clip show.  We flashback to many different exciting adventures that we've never seen before.  Jeff (Joel McHale) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) reminiscent fondly, but the rest of the group points out that most o...

 "We already had a boat today!" -Alex Moore We just had a normal merge!  Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the Earn the Merge format with half of the castaways getting Immunity, but if everyone is living on one beach, it's a merge.  Sometimes it may have extra steps, but it's just a merge.  It was nice to have it be so straightforward for the first time in forever.  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked! Who Played Well: Jawan and Sage both did a good job of selling their reasoning for voting out Shannon to the rest of Uli.  I thought they might have oversold it at first.  All they really had to say was that Shannon had thrown out everybody else's name.  They added a bit of embellishment, but Nate, Savannah, and Rizo all bought it.  They also formed the Bottom's Up Alliance with Steven and took out a massive threat in Nate.  It was a really good night for both of them, though I am afraid Savannah might murder them. Sophie...

 "Jawan wants me to stop talking." -Jeff Probst Well this episode was quite the roller coaster of emotions for me.  On one hand, Knowledge is Power is back, which is an advantage I loathe with every fiber of my being.  I wish Jeff would take a hint and stop trying to make KiP happen.  On the other hand, Shannon went home and I straight up cheered.  Each episode, I've liked Shannon less and less and I hit my breaking point in this episode when she claimed she can remember being in the womb.  I wanted her off my screen at this moment and away she went!  I've never been so happy that we don't have a reunion show!  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Starting over on the new Hina, I have to give props to the entire tribe.  Each and every one of them did a fantastic job in the Immunity Challenge.  They honestly made it look easy.  Really impressive stuff. I also really love that MC told Rizo that Sage ...

It's that time again: The Snubby Awards!  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determine if the best film won or if another was snubbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award! This time we'll be taking a look at the 2025 Oscars, which was a pretty unique set of movies.  I enjoyed all of them to some extent, but that enjoyment was wide ranging.  We go from one of my all-time favorite nominees, to a film that was somehow nominated despite it being a so-bad-it's-good movie, to a film that got only the most mild enjoyment out of me. The nominees were: The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, I'm Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, & Wicked  with the winner being Anora.   Did Anora  deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out! #10. A Complete Unknown I've discovered that my least favori...

 "My emotions!  My emotions!" -Troy Barnes "Competitive Wine Tasting" picks up with the study group taking their spring elective classes.  Troy (Donald Glover) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) take an acting class at the request of their dance instructor.  In class, Professor Garrity (Kevin Corrigan) explains that to be a successful actor, they have to be able to express their inner pain to the audience.  As the class expresses painful memories, Troy realizes he doesn't have one, so he makes up a story about being molested by his uncle, which impresses the class and gets him a lot of attention from Britta. Abed takes a film studies class which is a critical analysis of the show, Who's The Boss?   The class is  taught by Professor Sheffield (Stephen Tobolowsky), who literally wrote the book on the subject.  When he asks the class a rhetorical question, "Who was the boss?" Abed says it was Angela and is mocked by Sheffield and the class for his answ...

 "Jesus got high off God." -Shannon Fairweather Another day, another pretty straightforward episode of Survivor 49 .  I've heard some people say this season has been boring recently.  I think I've realized that I don't mind boring gameplay if the moves make sense, so I've been mostly fine with 49 .  Sometimes the best moves in Survivor are boring ones.  Boring or not, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Starting over on Hina, Nate had an absolutely stellar episode.  He volunteered to go on the Journey to prevent Jason from going, which worked, he managed to keep his vote by completing the Journey Challenge, while bonding with MC, he managed to prevent her from getting an Advantage, and he voted out Jason, which was absolutely the right move. Rizo, Savannah, and Sophi B all made the right call as well to take out Jason over Jawan.  Savannah played with her head, not her emotions, and made the smart call.  I also like tha...

 "The ocean took my shoe." -Sophi Balerdi It was nice to get a tribe swap from three to two tribes.  It's been a minute since we've had one of those, so it was a nice change of pace.  Other than that, this is what I would describe as a perfectly average episode of Survivor .  We were presented with two people on the chopping block, given reasons for both of them to go, and then one of them was voted out.  It isn't flashy, but this is baseline Survivor , and even baseline Survivor is interesting enough.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: We'll start on the new Hina tribe.  Nate, Rizo, and Savannah all did a good job of making Sophi B feel secure with them and cleanly split the vote to take out a member of original Hina.  They might not have all agreed on who the primary target should have been, but it was really just splitting hairs and they got the job done.  I also like that Rizo told Sophi B about his Beware Ad...

 "I probably mentioned in the past my fondness for a TV program called Cougar Town ." -Abed Nadir "Critical Film Studies" picks up with Jeff (Joel McHale) on his way to a birthday dinner for Abed (Danny Pudi).  Strangely, Abed requested dinner at a very high-end restaurant, with just Jeff and no one else.  When they meet at the restaurant, Abed acts very differently.  He's very personable, makes physical and eye contact, and doesn't make any pop culture references.  When Jeff suggests going to a burger place instead, Abed declines.  He doesn't even seem to like Jeff's gift, a wallet that Samuel L. Jackson's character has in the movie Pulp Fiction , which is one of Abed's favorite movies. It's revealed that Jeff had set up a Pulp Fiction- themed surprise party for Abed at the diner where Britta (Gillian Jacobs) works.  The study group and Chang (Ken Jeong) are all dressed as characters from the movie and waiting for Jeff and Abed to arrive...

 "Insert action music." -Jawan Pitts Wow.  What a wild episode.  I don't think I've ever felt as bad for a single tribe in all of Survivor as I do for the Kele tribe.  This was a brutal episode for them and for Canada, as we lose both of our Canadian castaways in this episode.  It was cool to get such a behind-the-scenes look at the show, but it's a bummer we lose Jake this way.  At least he made it home for the birth of his kid.   Medical evacuation aside, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Starting over on Hina, I only have one person to talk about here and that's Steven.  He formed a close enough bond with MC that she told him that she found the Beware Advantage.  Best case scenario with the Beware Advantage is that you don't have it, but you know who does.  That gives Steven a lot of room to work going forward. Over on poor Kele, Sophi B did the best on the tribe.  She got Alex and Jeremiah to t...

 "The aura was great." -Rizo Velovic This episode confirmed what I suspected last week; this cast is full of Looney Tunes.  What a goofy bunch and a really fun episode.  There was a lot of bad gameplay this week, but I enjoyed ever minute of it.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: We'll start over on Hina.  I have to give major props to the entire tribe for not only overcoming the Challenge Disadvantage played on them by Jawan, but getting 1st place.  It was extremely impressive all around. Steven, Kristina, and MC all got into a potential majority alliance of four.  If they want to go this route, they have the numbers to do so. I'm not sure how I feel about MC telling so much information to Sophie S.  She could use that info and turn the game on MC.  I guess it depends on MC's read of and relationship with Sophie S, so I'll trust her and leave her in the net positive.  Good job for Sophie S though for having...