Love Is Blind Season 9: This was a trainwreck. From the beginning to the end. This was a waste of time. From strange men, who find new ways to be deceptive, to the women who seem to be focused on things like their botox injections it just didn’t get any better. The wedding episode was dropped this past week with predictable results. For me, I have to admit that I just fast forwarded through talking to cut to the chase. Yawn. Not worth your time. I am hopeful that producers find a way to screen better “contestants”.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey: I saw the trailers for this starring Margot Robbie (playing Sarah) and Colin Farrell (playing David) in the romantic comedy with some fantasy undertones. By fantasy undertones I am meaning that a mythical car rental agency (manned by Kevin Kline and Phoebe Waller-Bridge – go figure!) and they are looking to help out Colin Farrell. They rent David a 1994 Saturn, and they insist on him taking their version of GPS guidance, and he proceeds to head towards a wedding. At the wedding he sees across the aisle in the church Sarah. They have a first conversation later outside the church. Romantic comedies live and die with your connection to the couple and how much that you cheer for them. For me, my initial reservation about this couple was the age discrepancy (he is 49yo and she is 35yo). Yes, it’s a movie, but it was a first impression. She early on says to him “I am afraid of hurting you. No matter how this plays out, I’ll end up hurting you”. They part but not before she asks “do you want to marry me?” That was very weird. Especially after what she had just said to him.

The initial premise seemed to work as the GPS within the car seems to know a lot more about David than you would expect. He later is asked about whether he is interested in a “big bold beautiful journey” to which he hesitantly responds “yes” is a maybe voice. Then he is taken to a Burger King and meets Sarah one more time, and then her 1994 Saturn won’t start. It seems that Sarah ended up at the same car rental agency. They start to travel together and have stops along the way that have random doors, like pictured above which takes them to various places in time and place. Over the visits we learn about some of the life issues that these people have experienced. They, like everyone, are flawed and we learn about both David’s idealism and Sarah’s issues. One stop is with David in high school, with him performing in the school play as the lead. David reveals there one of the early romantic relationships that he had and how it has impacted his life going forward. The rest of the scene for me was just too contrived. The story continues.

In the final act, they decide to take this in an unusual direction involving parents which is as far as I will describe it. One involves going to a place with an unusual view as seen above. Where exactly are they – clearly it appears to be from space – but is this necessary and does it make sense? The scenes with the parents don’t really work for me, save for the one conversation where a parent suggests to an adult child (who they THINK is MUCH younger) that they need to be “content”. I think that is sage advice where consideration should be made towards how you yourself feels with a potential partner. So you need contentment with you, how you feel in your life, in order to be able to bring someone else into your world. I will make a further comment that I am not so sure how one can fully embody another person without a full knowledge of that person’s life experience. But in the end, despite things concluding as you would expect, it still falls flat for me.

The Diplomat Season 3: I finished this latest season on Sunday. I think that this is one of the most well written series out there currently. The actors are universally good, and notably Rufus Sewell as Hal, Allison Janney, Ato Essandoh (as Stuart) and Ali Ahn (as Eldra Park) in addition to star Keri Russell.

The level of drama between the US and Britain grows in each episode. In culminates with the cliff hanger. I will note that there is time that passes between some early episodes of half a year. This will explain the new romantic relationship for Kate as the US Ambassador to UK. One of the things that troubles me is how Kate as the Ambassador is put in a position and meetings where she becomes a rogue element. More senior people than her voice concerns and make decisions and then she does her level best to look to influence those decisions in other ways. As a senior leader herself, she should know the value of people who work for her doing what she asks them to do. An actor who is actively working to countermand your decisions, would ensure that you are not viewed as reliable nor a team player. There is a point in this season when a comment is made to Kate that “if you are trying to do two jobs at the same time, you can only do them poorly”. I also feel as though Kate in her position should not be viewed, nor the implication made that she has gotten into her position by “sleeping her way to the top.” There are many women in power in this show which I embrace, but I do think that Kate has shown her affections along with men who provide her with status or inside information. It’s not necessary but keeps the story moving. But I still regard this as an excellent season and some of the best TV out there. Worth your time to watch, and certainly worth the time to catch up if this isn’t a series that you have watched before, and catching up for two seasons is not an inordinate amount of time to spend. I had slowed down my watching of Season 3 since I didn’t want it to end. Enjoy.