I think my point was, why does he have to use BLACKMAIL to do it? Couldn't he just have a conversation with any one of his employers about what he might have to do to move up? Didn't he impress Tom? Hasn't he impressed Eileen? Has he learned nothing from watching the war between Eileen and her husband to realize that…

I disagree. There are plenty of things that can stop Kim. Kim has a solid alliance of three women, so if any of the men can convince the *other* three women that Kim is going to be coming for them when they get down to six (outing the fact that she has an idol, perhaps), or if they can make the argument Kim put into…

Did anybody else think of Spartacus when they saw the title of this episode? ("Kill Them All") I kept waiting for Tarzan to snap and stab someone through the belly, or for Mike to somehow stay alive by hiding under a bunch of other corpses. (I'm being vague to avoid spoilers, but really, go watch Spartacus, you guys….)

I don't think he's building a Dr. Moreau-like ship, so much as he's genetically engineering a herd of new animals so that he might then trigger a flood-like event and usher them to the new world, Noah style.

Why does Ellis always have to attempt to blackmail himself into different positions? Just how low is his self-esteem, such that he's afraid (rightfully so, at this point) that nobody likes him?

I'm torn between the camp that is going to love this episode and the camp that's going to hate it, but goddamn, can we all just agree that Norbert Leo Butz deserves to be the star of Season 2? (If you want to bump Alex Wong up, sure, do that, too.)

I sort of wish Aaron Sorkin didn't have his own show in development right now, because he'd be the perfect writer to reel in the book of Smash . . . and he's no stranger to theater, both musical and straight, to say nothing of his ability to write COMPELLING, PLAUSIBLE, backstage stuff. (Rag on Studio 60's more…

But this episode, and NBC's recent choices, only re-enforces my fears and problems with Broadway. The idea of needing a star, no matter how tenuous (McPhee, really?),  is why so many shows end up missing out on their potential (not that it can't be done, but that it's hard to DO), and while I agree with the director…

Agreed. But at this point, I'm actually loving the fact that Brian D'Arcy James isn't getting to sing at all. He's almost as underutilized here as he was in Shrek: The Musical!

"Rock Star"-esque Wii game? You mean, Rock Band, the multiplatform best-selling game that more-or-less created/refined the whole "be your own band" genre?

I have nothing against bald honesty, as when you let someone know that they're going next rather than blindside them. But being antagonistic on top of that, rubbing *in* their helplessness and suggesting that they jump into the fire? Man, if we find out that Christina *did* poison him somehow, I don't think there's a…

I was actually thinking the same thing — but realistically, what Survivor needs to do is just continue to find ways to constantly shake up the numbers game and make people adapt. The idea that Colton and Alicia could be so awful to a fellow castaway simply because they knew she was doomed . . . that was straight-up…

No, only the heathens ever suffer the wrath of god, like all of those awful poor people in New Orleans who were absolutely begging for divine judgement. Should a rich person fall ill, however, they're fine . . . because they've got science on their side. Nope, no irony here.

Ever the contrarian, rather than be snarky or off-topic as the Internet Gods demand, I'll say this TVDW: I enjoyed this read immensely. The idea of just jumping into a convention for something you're not familiar with (or only through hearsay) sounds great, and to then distill it into an essay-length piece that…

Here's the problem; if McPhee's character were really so am-AH-zing, she wouldn't be on Smash, right?

And Jason Grote wrote this episode; I didn't think he was a musical guy, but I'm glad to see him get some higher-level exposure that will hopefully get his plays produced more often. (I felt the same way watching Sheila Callaghan go to United States of Tara.)

Yeah, the book he recently wrote — tangentially about atheism, but really simply about belief — won me over to him far more than Bullshit, his magic, and his new spin on two truths and a lie. He also seems like a sincere and direct guy; if he's pissing you off, it's only because you can't handle personal honesty or…

I'm not a Clay superfan, but I have to admit that he's impressing me this season, simply as a person with a real awareness of his own celebrity and humanity.

I'm watching mainly to see how savvy Penn — who I greatly respect — can be under these conditions, and out of increasing respect for Clay, who is this year's Lil Jon: i.e., the stealth candidate, or far more than he appears to be.

I feel like that replay was making its point really well, then, in that it replayed the one moment it was pretty sure its audience *would* replay: the cheapest, most on-the-nose laugh it could have gotten. Sort of the same way that "Funny Games" cheated to make its points.