I hated the deliberations on TV in the stew room experiment. However, I think they kind of wrung all the drama possible from "are we on the top… or bottom?" over the years. The instant feedback feels more honest, in the sense that you can't slant it based on the future dishes and how good or terrible they will be.

I like that they didn't make Rajan evil—that he's a perfectly nice guy, good partner, listens to and cares about her.

I'm of two minds on that. Because it did effectively convey what it became for Lito and Hernando—this huge looming thing they couldn't escape, popping up and demanding attention in every corner of their lives.

Still clutching his nutcracker and gnome. Because you never know when you might need them.

I thought he had talked to his wife, and this wasn't getting anywhere.

You quickly run into the problem where the swapping characters need to all speak perfect Korean/Spanish etc, and don't. (Or the accents don't match.)

I still love the team-ups. Capheus… hard to say. It's just a limit of the visual medium (as opposed to a book) that you have to adjust to losing an actor when the plot can't kill them off, and so all answers will be awkward and break the fourth wall. (Like the audience acknowledges that a plot-turn, awkward on its…

I think he has potential. Notably missing the gentleness/innocence of the S1 version, but I like the seriousness.

Great:
• Sun's arc. She continues to be awesome when crushing opponents, had some lovely quiet dialogue scenes with Kala and Nomi, and the scenes with the other prisoners were beautiful.

It's totally illogical, but can we just bring her cell mates?

I thought the dueling stewed tomatoes were doomed for sure.

Tackling green bean casserole takes nerves.

I really don't remember anyone ever losing immunity, and I've seen every season but the first.

John, however, was pretty darn funny by the final Katsuji-cuddle.

It was a weird situation for Brooke, where Amanda is tactically right not to say "I just said yes to everything Brooke suggested"—should be a guaranteed trip home, but also looks like you're trying to blame everything on the person who had ideas—and Brooke also doesn't want to say "this lame-o didn't do anything but…

At first I felt sorry for her, because almost anyone can be edited to seem frazzled and chatty over the course of several hours of footage condensed to a few seconds. But it kept going on, and other people were commenting on it.

I'm not usually a fan of villiany and its faux drama, but every time John doubled down again on "I love you" and snuggled Katsuji and kissed him on the cheek, it got funnier. If only they all had the thick skin and steel nerves to pull it off. (Reminds me of Dale who went to anger management between seasons, and was…

I'm sorry about that; it is a good thing that my parents are of Medicare age.

Hawaii Five-O.