Sadly, I gotta say you’re spot on in this analysis. This show could have become so much better - just look at shows like Person of Interest for a clear uptick in quality from first to second season.

This, but cast Flight Time and Big Easy from Amazing Race.

Methinks there was some sort of producer involvement to make that “random pickup game” happen.

YES. Thank you.

“Mirna and Shmirna” might be my all-time favorite team. Love the rest you mentioned too (even Rob and Amber, whom I loathed on Survivor - they just made such a great team with a great attitude on TAR).

“locker room talk”

Oh yeah? Well I used to like Chris Pratt.

Oh god, Coach was one of the most delightfully oblivious megalomaniacs/pathological liars in all of reality TV.

PRESCIENT

And they could have developed a connection with Joan that didn’t involve rape, for that matter.

I know people complained that the weirdness undercut the theme/message, but I couldn’t disagree more. The bizarre shit helps capture how off and dystopian everything feels the past few years.

You know, you actually could read a “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” reference in there. Pointing to Sherlock’s hypocrisy in regard to controlling Joan.

Yeah, the Mycroft appearances this season had diminishing returns. I thought the premiere was great, his second appearance was solid if not terribly memorable, and then this last run of episodes I kind of hated.

Excuse me, but Nic Cage has had TWO good movies this year:
Mandy
Mom & Dad

There are many, many movies that should just never be remade, and Jacob’s Ladder is one of them. I don’t see how it could possibly work divorced from that early 90s grimy aesthetic.

The godawful American remake of Inside (À l’intérieur) followed the same idea - what if we removed the buckets of blood and ramped-up intensity, and instead slowed the pace way down so we can show the audience why we should feel bad for this pregnant woman being stalked in her own home?

Yeah like, I can appreciate the Western trope they were going for with this ep (young wannabe gunslinger who’s too cocky for his own good), but the execution could have been so much better.

Literally anybody who watched The Leftovers.

So, like watching Smallville?

It was such a jarring stylistic choice for this show that I genuinely thought it was a big reveal that Alistair had actually faked his death. And I wasn’t certain until Sherlock said “you’re not really here.”