pob_22

A fitting end. Thanks for the journey, it's been a hell of a ride.

My wife just got back from 3 weeks in Zimbabwe and Botswana, so this was an especially special 'special'. In Clarkson's words:

"I know what happened. God did all the other countries in the world, and he'd got to the end of the alphabet, he got to Z, he got to Zimbabwe, and he thought, right, this is gonna be my best work, this is gonna be my greatest hits."

Sometimes the greatest adventures come full circle, and that's exactly what these guys did, and in Africa of all places.

Thanks for the laughs, tears, and reminding us there is still so much beauty in the world. We'll miss you.

This is reality television with a twist! Most reality shows choose extreme personalities, pit them against each other in mild challenges, surfacing drama from the close proximity of big egos. The Traitors picks relatively normal people and pits them against each other in brutal fashion. The ensuing drama is a result of natural paranoia!

I love this show because it feels like a social experiment. It's a real game of cat and mouse, with the traitors lying and scheming in an effort to stay undetected, and the faithfuls clutching as straws as they try to weed out the traitors. It's even more compelling that we, as the audience, know who the traitors are from the beginning.

When the show first starts, most contestants are quite polite, if a little cautious. No one is willing to throw any serious shade on the credibility of their fellows. But as the show goes on, the tension builds, and all sorts of crazy starts to happen. Great tv!

I watched this movie for a 2nd time tonight. Originally I scored the movie 6/10, stating that the first movie was much better and struggled to see how such an "average" movie could score so highly by other reviewers. How wrong I was, and what a pleasant surprise 2 years make to one's positive outlook on life.

Who knows, maybe I was in a tunnel of cynicism when I first watched it the first time. Having enjoyed my childhood in the 80s, I have a great fondness for the original, it's one of the truly iconic movies of that decade. And this sequel has all of the elements required for a great sequel - Cruise is as good as ever as Maverick, less cocky, still vulnerable from Goose's death, but still the top gun we know and love. Miles Teller is convincing as Goose's son, he even looks like him, absolutely perfectly casting. And Glen Powell is another Ice Man. Jennifer Connelly adds a wonderful touch as the love of Mavericks life.

I upgraded my rating from a 6 to a solid 8. Great movie, highly recommended, and apologies for my original review. The good news is, I seem to have navigated myself out of my cynicism tunnel.