Joseph

The IRENE/CDS/NOTE/ROD/DYNE cluster was pretty sticky but the rest I quite enjoyed

Enjoyed the theme at first but soured by the end with some dicey cluing and phrases in the theme entries. GOODYCOPY was particularly unsatisfying.

Don't tell me how to look at my sundae

This puzzle was wretched and PTUI is the single most forced entry I've ever encountered. And that's not even the clue I gave up on. So many nouns and naticks, just a slog

Just enough names, nouns, and specific knowledge to spoil some otherwise fun clues. SRO crossing NAIRAS was my eventual downfall. And even as a marine biologist I've never ever heard of a GAM. Bit of a shrug on this one

Theme was clever but didn't like the phonetic tricks needed to make some work. Hard enough with North American proper nouns, an even higher barrier to need the accent to make the solves make sense. A few too many trivia on top. Not the worst, not the best.

TREY, SHAG, CUBER were the standout bummers but me and this puzzle just weren't on the same page. Also, NERD ALERT isn't really sarcastic.. just kinda rude

Wonderful puzzle, very nicely done. Favorite fill in recent memory and the theme was excellent! Five stars

Fun solve although I didn't get the theme until it was over. Love a bit of sperm whale trivia!

Didn't love KALE for moolah, bit of a stretch. But otherwise quite fun. And Go Dodgers

Weak theme, mostly inoffensive cluing but just never really got on the puzzle's wavelength. Onwards!

Weak theme with some sketchy cluing. QUEST was probably my least favorite, centerpiece was an odd descriptor. Onwards

Too cute by half. This one needed more time in the oven from the theme to the cluing

Interesting to see some differing opinions, but this was my smoothest Friday in a while. Enjoyed it!

Pretty breezy and mostly fun, but KAYO and DUNZO are gross. Also MINOR TEAM makes sense in context but isn't really a phrase. Bit forced overall

Enjoyed this one, decent crunch but flowed well and no obvious clunkers for clues. More of these please!

So many proper nouns... Mostly fair but the end was a slog. Also take issue with the FORCE CHOKE clue, the force isn't strictly telekinetic and the choke isn't always used for intimidation. Easy enough in context but bit of a stretch

Theme was begrudgingly fun, even coming from someone who is pretty grinchy about Christmas being everywhere all the time. Just means I can pass my annoyance onto the unreal number of proper nouns and naticks.

Pretty breezy for a Friday. Mostly enjoyed the fill, OENOPHILIA crossed with GINSLING was gross though

I'm perhaps being over sensitive, but I found the two fire themed clues/answers (for SINGED and FAINT), especially next to INRUINS in somewhat poor taste today. Sending thoughts to any solvers in LA

A few dicey clues, but mostly redeemed by a fun theme and enough low hanging fruit to guess the proper nouns I didn't know.

Pretty mellow theme for a Thursday, middling fill. Mostly inoffensive but AMSCRAY especially earned an eye roll

Crunchy but satisfying, with mostly guessable crosses. Almost snagged on scarfing vs. SNARFING crossed with ARNIE but got there in the end.

Meh. Think there was more juice to squeeze from the theme, didn't end up needing one half of the theme clues most of the time so kind of felt like a bit of wasted potential. Some iffy cluing in there too and I'm not even talking about AHNOLD, which I originally bumped on but think is ultimately fair game. Also - nobody says sea crab. Simply not a phrase

Great fill, got lucky on the long crosses. Very flowy, maybe soft for a Friday but I'll take it! Enjoyed this one

What an absolute slog. Can hardly remember a puzzle with so many obscura. Simply not a good time

Some really forced clueing on this one, especially the "punny" entries (AMNESIACS, OPEN MARRIAGES). Not a huge fan

Tough but fair! Second in as many days. Take notes constructors and editors, more like these

Really weak theme for a Thursday, more of a Wednesday IMO. Bit of an unsatisfying fill

Avengers Endgame cluing was terrible, I'm a big MCU fan and even I barely followed the logic. Needed some nod to the specific saga. Don't understand WONT either. Otherwise fine?

Not for me, paper thin theme and some iffy clues. Was a miracle that GUN LAP was the right guess, would have given up if not to avoid running the alphabet on all the proper noun/trivia crosses

Cool theme but undercooked. So many puzzles recently where the solve leads to some clues reading nonsensically. Makes them ugly and unsatisfying. Rest of the fill was pretty breezy for a Thursday

XES OUT just looks gross and is never satisfying and should be banned from crosswordese. Not the worst Thursday by any stretch but also not the best

Tough but mostly fair. The fun of BABY SHOWER and FAKE PLANTS made up for some of the grind

Best theme execution in while, screamed through most of the fill but hit a mental block in the northeast corner. Gritted through to steal the gold star! Nicely done

Second puzzle in a row where the clues were either easy or just kind of off. Lots of ? style clues where the solution isn't a good misdirect, just an odd turn of phrase. Wasn't the worst, but didn't find a lot to love here either

It's spelled Māori, with the macron. And the moko (face tattoos) don't necessarily indicate "rank". Reducing a cultural touchstone to "facetats" feels off, especially coming from a US institution where face tattoos have a completely different association, often negative. Also this puzzle was truly terrible. But I'm more fired up about the first thing

As a massive star wars fan I'm bummed this puzzle wasn't a more satisfying fill, Egyptian sun god and PRELL probably being my two least favorite. Undercooked, this puzzle was, hmmmm?

Woof

Delightful and breezy. Favorite Sunday in a while

Tough one! Fell into place after a really sparse first pass in a way that was mostly satisfying except for a pair of noun-crossed alphabet runs. Here as a scientist to say that GENUS AND SPECIES is a pretty dubious fill for that clue though, not incorrect just not a phrase used often in the field.

FLAT EARTHERS and MINNESOTA NICE were delightful, kind of came apart at the seams with some dicey obscura. Settled out to a better than average (but not excellent) hard Friday

Some dodgy clueing left a bit of a sour taste (CAREER, IRED, ONEL, LOCATE) but the theme salvaged this to a mostly enjoyable fill

As with other similar themes in the past, it should have been coded to accept the proper rebus or non-rebus answers. Just hard to know whether there's anything else missing and frustrating when you've already figured out the theme. Thought it was a pretty tough puzzle on top of that with a bit of spotty cluing. Not my favorite Sunday

Two obscure names crossed with SERAPES was pretty rude. Uneven fill between the naticks and the easier than usual Saturday clues. Onward

Pretty rough outing, flowed well enough but so many proper nouns. Not a disaster but not much fun either

Had me most of the way, lost me at FRIEND MATERIAL, TIMES, and SCENES. Not even hard necessarily, but cluing felt pretty loose for a Friday.

Too clever by half. Clueing was pretty iffy on this one