Big Brother Spoilers at the end!
Next Food Network Star:
As I predicted the past few weeks, Melissa won. Her show starts tonight. Rachael Ray is probably PISSED! Melissa's show was called "Kitchen Survival Guide" in the demo that she made for the finale, but is now called "Ten Dollar Dinners," which sounds like a combination of Rachael's 2 shows "30 Minute Meals" and "$40 a day." For her demo, Melissa showed a 4 step cooking process to make chicken, but her technique is easily interchangeable so that you could use different proteins and different veggies but follow the same method and get a good dish. The thing was, she didn't show how she made her side dish. It was like, "Oh, and here's a mixture of potatoes and cheese that I cooked at 450 for 15 minutes in a cupcake pan, but didn't show HOW she made it.
Jeffrey's demo called "Ingredient Smuggler" was FAR superior to Melissa's. He brought out a West Africa spice called Harissa and he showed how to make everything he cooked, why he was cooking it that way, and made everything look and sound yummy. I'm going to head out and look for Harissa the next time I go spice shopping.
I stated after the first episode that Jeffrey SHOULD win, and I stand by that. He won the most challenges and is just more interesting. He'd also be FN's only host of Arabic descent. So like last year, the person who won the most didn't win the big prize. At least this time that person made it to the finals. Melissa hits their demographic better, and most of the NFNS winners have been men. I also think that had Rachael been one of the judges instead of Bobby that Jeffrey would have won. Throughout the series, Jeffrey cooked in a Southwestern flavor mode...and that's Bobby's gig. Had Rachael been the judge, she would have seen Melissa as a threat and pushed for Jeffrey to win. I'm pretty sure of that. I also am CERTAIN that Jeffrey will get hired.
Kathy Griffin:
This episode dealt with Kathy's book. She did the photo shoot for the cover and then picked out the cover photo. She also met with Jackie Collins for advice on how to maximize sales, and Salmun Rushdie for advice on how to turn controversy into sales. She also was photographed and measured for a wax figure for Madame Tussaud's in Vegas. The end result looked JUST like her, except it didn't have ANY wrinkles or Crow's Feet (Kathy mentioned it too.)
Warehouse 13:
This episode dealt with a guy who could walk through walls to steal objects. The way he did it was an ancient magical Native America cloak. The agents found a feather from the cloak stuck partially through a wall and they realized that just by holding the feather they could put part of their arm through solid objects.
The first item noticed to be stolen was a sculpture by a Native American artist. It was said to depict one of the 4 prime elements. The agents found that there had been a bidding war between an older Billionaire and a younger Billionaire who inherited his money from his unscrupulous father. The younger guy was played by Joe Flannigan from Stargate:Atlantis. The female agent was attracted to Joe. Shocker.
It turns out that all 4 sculptures would point to a cave hidden under Manhattan that would give the person who found it great powers. The agent's realized too late that the older guy was the thief and they arrived at the cave after the guy had absorbed 3 of the 4 powers. The male agent killed the old guy by stabbing him with a magical arrow (one of the items that had imbued the guy with a power) while he was receiving the final power. The resulting clash in power incinerated him.
Oh, and the young girl who infiltrated the warehouse in the last episode was staying with them until she and her brother figured out what to do, so when he left to pursue his life, she was left behind. She helped them find the cave and now it appears that she's been offered a job at the warehouse.
Superstars:
This was the final episode. They had to kayak around 3 buoys and try to pass another team to eliminate them. Bode and Paige passed David and Lisa and then quit to save their strength so Maks and Kristi won.
In the next event, they had to pull 3 buoys out of the water. One weight 100 pounds, 1 was 200, and the 3rd was 250. As David's wrist was still messed up, they basically quit early to save their strength for the "rubber match." Kristi pulled the 100 pounder while Maks pulled the 200 pounder. Then they both worked on the 250. Paige pulled the 100 pounder while Bode pulled BOTH the heavy buoys at the same time. Once he got them to the beach, he pulled up on, and then Paige helped him pull in the last one. Bode and Paige won, sending Maks and Kristi to the "rubber match" for the first time (as they have won more challenges than anyone and never been at risk of going home.
In the rubber match the gals had to run then swim to a bridge where the guys dove off, swam around a buoy and then swam to shore. At shore, the teammates would join up and body board across the lagoon. Kristi and Maks kicked their ass, but what was funny was that Maks was on the board right behind Kristi's ass. She held her legs in the air so that Maks could use his arms to paddle better. From the front view, we see Kristi moaning and gasping while Maks looks like he's behind her and his head would bob up and down and side to side while her legs were in the air. Discuss amongst yourselves what that looked like.
They had a LOT of filler and showed behind the scenes stuff and DRAGGED out the start to each competition. For the final, they had to run the obstacle course and the best 2 of 3 would win. Maks & Krist had never run it, so they must have asked them 5 times about how they felt about that fact. Ugh! It didn't matter, Maks & Kristi won both heats and won 2-0. In fact, their last heat was the fastest time of ANY team the entire season. Wow. They TRULY deserved to win.
Top Chef Masters:
The Quickfire Challenge had them make their version of burger and side. All of them looked really good but Anita made a "cheeseburger soup." She got 1.5 stars. Hubert made a burger he sells at his restaurant (he also is famous for selling the most expensive burger...like $10,000!) He got 3 stars. Art got 3.5 stars. Michael and Rick both got 4 stars.
For the elimination challenge, they had to make a 5 course meal for actress/singer Zooey Deschannel (her sister Emily is the star of Bones, her mother was an actress, and her father was a cinematographer.) Zooey is a vegetarian with a vegan diet. She also is gluten intolerant, and doesn't eat soy. I had to think, I guess she only gets protein from Beans and Lentils. She said that NOBODY ever cooks for her (shocker) and she usually just eats fruits and veggies.
Beans are a staple of Mexican so I figured that Rick would do well and he ended up with the second best score. Lentils are big in Indian cooking,and since India is in Asia, I figured that Anita would do well. She did make an Indian inspired dish, but still flopped. Michael cooks Italian and a LOT of Italian food is vegetarian. He got around the gluten issue (since it's a BIG part of pasta) by finding noodles made from Quinoa. Hubert made a gazpacho inspired dish that looked better than it tasted apparently. Art made a dessert and used store bought rice ice cream. he either should have found coconut ice cream or made it, or made a sorbet. In the end Anita and Art had the lowest scores and as predicted here, Art was sent home as he was the lowest by 1/2 star.
Burn Notice:
This was the "Summer finale" and it had been teased that Michael & Fi's relationship would be put to the test. After last episode, she was going to leave Miami to return to Ireland. Instead, her brother showed up and said that a radical Irish nationalist bomber (terrorist) was in town hunting Fi. He thought that Michael was Irish from his cover when he met Fi, so Michael had to speak in an Irish Brogue much of the episode.
The gang took Fi and her brother to a safe house that Sam procured after the baddies showed up at Fi's place. Michael tried to work an angel with the guy where he'd turn over Fi if the guy delivered some weapons for him. The plan was to get him caught with the weapons and a bomb that matched bombs that the guy has used but has never been pinned with. Instead, they attacked the safehouse, shot the brother, knocked out Michael, and kidnapped Fi. They had planned to take her by boat to a plane and then fly her to Ireland to "sell" her to people with a grudge against her.
Turns out that Strickler, the "Spy Agent" is the one who let the guy know where Fi was and set the whole thing up to get Fi away from Michael as he thought that it would help Michael's case with the CIA, as well as pull Michael more towards him. Michael shot the shit out of him. Michael then planted the guy's body and the bomb on the terrorist's boat and Sam called in the Coast Guard.
The episode ended with the brother telling Michael that although he lied and was actually an American, he was still the great guy that he respected and was glad that Fi had found him...but that the terrorist had told people of Michael's true identity so Michael can never go back to Ireland as his Irish cover. Fi and Michael also had a moment, unspoken as it was, but a moment none-the-less.
Eureka:
Things were disappearing all over town and it was found that teens, while sleeping, were building a device out in a field using the missing items. It was found that they were being controlled via some remote calling but nobody knew from where or by whom or what the device was. Later as the teens were contained and prevented from going out to build, the control started affecting other people, even elderly.
Meanwhile, product placement abounds as Joe got a suped up Subaru and then Fargo traded in his old clunker, with it's on board AI, for the same new Subaru. His car didn't like being "dumped" and kidnapped Fargo just as he had figured out what the device was.
The Eureka folks realized that the signal was affecting the automated traffic system and that's how people were being affected. Anyone who had a "remote controlled car" was being controlled by the signal. They shut down the traffic grid, but not long after the people were still being affected. The Sheriff realized that the signal from outer space was probably the cause and it was confirmed that as the object was so close, the signal was exponentially growing and now they had no way to stop it.
Allison was ready to destroy the object coming towards them when the car finally released Fargo and he was able to tell them what the device was. Essentially, it was going to use the clouds and atmosphere to "catch" the object, like in a catcher's mit. So they let it arrive, and Henry walked up to it and wiped off some grime on the bottom...and there was an America Flag!
In order to see the "hidden or inviso text" hold down the left mouse button and drag it to the end.
Big Brother Spoilers:
Actor Jeremy Piven was in the house and some of the HGs would get to see his new comedy movie. Jeff, Michele, Kevin and Lydia are the Have Nots. Jordan, Russell, Jessie, Natalie and Chima won the movie. As predicted here, Chima nominated Russell and Lydia. Kevin won Veto and wants to use it to take off Lydia but Chima told him no that she was safe and she wanted to have ALL THE POWER. The HGs believe that Jeff or Jordan (probably Jeff) has the Coup d'Etat which they call the "Wizard Power" since they don't know for sure what it is. Process of elimination. Neither Ronnie nor Lydia had it or they would have taken themselves off the nomination block last week. Jessie, Natalie and Chima don't have it as they would have taken down Ronnie. Kevin doesn't have it as he would have taken down Lydia. That leaves Russell, Michele, Jeff & Jordan. They doubt people would have given it to Russell since he was HOH, and they doubt people like Michele. Chima has said that if CBS "ruins" her HOH reign by allowing someone to use some power that she will "ruin" the live show by yelling and screaming and swearing all throughout the next HOH competition and going nuts if her nominees are changed. Wow. I can't wait! I just hope that Jeff DOES use it to put up Jessie and Natalie, and I hope they are encouraging him to use it when they talk to him in the DR.
I'm going to pull back on my recaps as I've gotten so busy lately that I'm having trouble keeping up. I'll post BB spoilers, but probably not much else. At some point when we finish watching Torchwood: Children of Earth I'll post about that, plus maybe some movie and DVD reviews if I can.
Next Food Network Star:
As I predicted the past few weeks, Melissa won. Her show starts tonight. Rachael Ray is probably PISSED! Melissa's show was called "Kitchen Survival Guide" in the demo that she made for the finale, but is now called "Ten Dollar Dinners," which sounds like a combination of Rachael's 2 shows "30 Minute Meals" and "$40 a day." For her demo, Melissa showed a 4 step cooking process to make chicken, but her technique is easily interchangeable so that you could use different proteins and different veggies but follow the same method and get a good dish. The thing was, she didn't show how she made her side dish. It was like, "Oh, and here's a mixture of potatoes and cheese that I cooked at 450 for 15 minutes in a cupcake pan, but didn't show HOW she made it.
Jeffrey's demo called "Ingredient Smuggler" was FAR superior to Melissa's. He brought out a West Africa spice called Harissa and he showed how to make everything he cooked, why he was cooking it that way, and made everything look and sound yummy. I'm going to head out and look for Harissa the next time I go spice shopping.
I stated after the first episode that Jeffrey SHOULD win, and I stand by that. He won the most challenges and is just more interesting. He'd also be FN's only host of Arabic descent. So like last year, the person who won the most didn't win the big prize. At least this time that person made it to the finals. Melissa hits their demographic better, and most of the NFNS winners have been men. I also think that had Rachael been one of the judges instead of Bobby that Jeffrey would have won. Throughout the series, Jeffrey cooked in a Southwestern flavor mode...and that's Bobby's gig. Had Rachael been the judge, she would have seen Melissa as a threat and pushed for Jeffrey to win. I'm pretty sure of that. I also am CERTAIN that Jeffrey will get hired.
Kathy Griffin:
This episode dealt with Kathy's book. She did the photo shoot for the cover and then picked out the cover photo. She also met with Jackie Collins for advice on how to maximize sales, and Salmun Rushdie for advice on how to turn controversy into sales. She also was photographed and measured for a wax figure for Madame Tussaud's in Vegas. The end result looked JUST like her, except it didn't have ANY wrinkles or Crow's Feet (Kathy mentioned it too.)
Warehouse 13:
This episode dealt with a guy who could walk through walls to steal objects. The way he did it was an ancient magical Native America cloak. The agents found a feather from the cloak stuck partially through a wall and they realized that just by holding the feather they could put part of their arm through solid objects.
The first item noticed to be stolen was a sculpture by a Native American artist. It was said to depict one of the 4 prime elements. The agents found that there had been a bidding war between an older Billionaire and a younger Billionaire who inherited his money from his unscrupulous father. The younger guy was played by Joe Flannigan from Stargate:Atlantis. The female agent was attracted to Joe. Shocker.
It turns out that all 4 sculptures would point to a cave hidden under Manhattan that would give the person who found it great powers. The agent's realized too late that the older guy was the thief and they arrived at the cave after the guy had absorbed 3 of the 4 powers. The male agent killed the old guy by stabbing him with a magical arrow (one of the items that had imbued the guy with a power) while he was receiving the final power. The resulting clash in power incinerated him.
Oh, and the young girl who infiltrated the warehouse in the last episode was staying with them until she and her brother figured out what to do, so when he left to pursue his life, she was left behind. She helped them find the cave and now it appears that she's been offered a job at the warehouse.
Superstars:
This was the final episode. They had to kayak around 3 buoys and try to pass another team to eliminate them. Bode and Paige passed David and Lisa and then quit to save their strength so Maks and Kristi won.
In the next event, they had to pull 3 buoys out of the water. One weight 100 pounds, 1 was 200, and the 3rd was 250. As David's wrist was still messed up, they basically quit early to save their strength for the "rubber match." Kristi pulled the 100 pounder while Maks pulled the 200 pounder. Then they both worked on the 250. Paige pulled the 100 pounder while Bode pulled BOTH the heavy buoys at the same time. Once he got them to the beach, he pulled up on, and then Paige helped him pull in the last one. Bode and Paige won, sending Maks and Kristi to the "rubber match" for the first time (as they have won more challenges than anyone and never been at risk of going home.
In the rubber match the gals had to run then swim to a bridge where the guys dove off, swam around a buoy and then swam to shore. At shore, the teammates would join up and body board across the lagoon. Kristi and Maks kicked their ass, but what was funny was that Maks was on the board right behind Kristi's ass. She held her legs in the air so that Maks could use his arms to paddle better. From the front view, we see Kristi moaning and gasping while Maks looks like he's behind her and his head would bob up and down and side to side while her legs were in the air. Discuss amongst yourselves what that looked like.
They had a LOT of filler and showed behind the scenes stuff and DRAGGED out the start to each competition. For the final, they had to run the obstacle course and the best 2 of 3 would win. Maks & Krist had never run it, so they must have asked them 5 times about how they felt about that fact. Ugh! It didn't matter, Maks & Kristi won both heats and won 2-0. In fact, their last heat was the fastest time of ANY team the entire season. Wow. They TRULY deserved to win.
Top Chef Masters:
The Quickfire Challenge had them make their version of burger and side. All of them looked really good but Anita made a "cheeseburger soup." She got 1.5 stars. Hubert made a burger he sells at his restaurant (he also is famous for selling the most expensive burger...like $10,000!) He got 3 stars. Art got 3.5 stars. Michael and Rick both got 4 stars.
For the elimination challenge, they had to make a 5 course meal for actress/singer Zooey Deschannel (her sister Emily is the star of Bones, her mother was an actress, and her father was a cinematographer.) Zooey is a vegetarian with a vegan diet. She also is gluten intolerant, and doesn't eat soy. I had to think, I guess she only gets protein from Beans and Lentils. She said that NOBODY ever cooks for her (shocker) and she usually just eats fruits and veggies.
Beans are a staple of Mexican so I figured that Rick would do well and he ended up with the second best score. Lentils are big in Indian cooking,and since India is in Asia, I figured that Anita would do well. She did make an Indian inspired dish, but still flopped. Michael cooks Italian and a LOT of Italian food is vegetarian. He got around the gluten issue (since it's a BIG part of pasta) by finding noodles made from Quinoa. Hubert made a gazpacho inspired dish that looked better than it tasted apparently. Art made a dessert and used store bought rice ice cream. he either should have found coconut ice cream or made it, or made a sorbet. In the end Anita and Art had the lowest scores and as predicted here, Art was sent home as he was the lowest by 1/2 star.
Burn Notice:
This was the "Summer finale" and it had been teased that Michael & Fi's relationship would be put to the test. After last episode, she was going to leave Miami to return to Ireland. Instead, her brother showed up and said that a radical Irish nationalist bomber (terrorist) was in town hunting Fi. He thought that Michael was Irish from his cover when he met Fi, so Michael had to speak in an Irish Brogue much of the episode.
The gang took Fi and her brother to a safe house that Sam procured after the baddies showed up at Fi's place. Michael tried to work an angel with the guy where he'd turn over Fi if the guy delivered some weapons for him. The plan was to get him caught with the weapons and a bomb that matched bombs that the guy has used but has never been pinned with. Instead, they attacked the safehouse, shot the brother, knocked out Michael, and kidnapped Fi. They had planned to take her by boat to a plane and then fly her to Ireland to "sell" her to people with a grudge against her.
Turns out that Strickler, the "Spy Agent" is the one who let the guy know where Fi was and set the whole thing up to get Fi away from Michael as he thought that it would help Michael's case with the CIA, as well as pull Michael more towards him. Michael shot the shit out of him. Michael then planted the guy's body and the bomb on the terrorist's boat and Sam called in the Coast Guard.
The episode ended with the brother telling Michael that although he lied and was actually an American, he was still the great guy that he respected and was glad that Fi had found him...but that the terrorist had told people of Michael's true identity so Michael can never go back to Ireland as his Irish cover. Fi and Michael also had a moment, unspoken as it was, but a moment none-the-less.
Eureka:
Things were disappearing all over town and it was found that teens, while sleeping, were building a device out in a field using the missing items. It was found that they were being controlled via some remote calling but nobody knew from where or by whom or what the device was. Later as the teens were contained and prevented from going out to build, the control started affecting other people, even elderly.
Meanwhile, product placement abounds as Joe got a suped up Subaru and then Fargo traded in his old clunker, with it's on board AI, for the same new Subaru. His car didn't like being "dumped" and kidnapped Fargo just as he had figured out what the device was.
The Eureka folks realized that the signal was affecting the automated traffic system and that's how people were being affected. Anyone who had a "remote controlled car" was being controlled by the signal. They shut down the traffic grid, but not long after the people were still being affected. The Sheriff realized that the signal from outer space was probably the cause and it was confirmed that as the object was so close, the signal was exponentially growing and now they had no way to stop it.
Allison was ready to destroy the object coming towards them when the car finally released Fargo and he was able to tell them what the device was. Essentially, it was going to use the clouds and atmosphere to "catch" the object, like in a catcher's mit. So they let it arrive, and Henry walked up to it and wiped off some grime on the bottom...and there was an America Flag!
In order to see the "hidden or inviso text" hold down the left mouse button and drag it to the end.
Big Brother Spoilers:
Actor Jeremy Piven was in the house and some of the HGs would get to see his new comedy movie. Jeff, Michele, Kevin and Lydia are the Have Nots. Jordan, Russell, Jessie, Natalie and Chima won the movie. As predicted here, Chima nominated Russell and Lydia. Kevin won Veto and wants to use it to take off Lydia but Chima told him no that she was safe and she wanted to have ALL THE POWER. The HGs believe that Jeff or Jordan (probably Jeff) has the Coup d'Etat which they call the "Wizard Power" since they don't know for sure what it is. Process of elimination. Neither Ronnie nor Lydia had it or they would have taken themselves off the nomination block last week. Jessie, Natalie and Chima don't have it as they would have taken down Ronnie. Kevin doesn't have it as he would have taken down Lydia. That leaves Russell, Michele, Jeff & Jordan. They doubt people would have given it to Russell since he was HOH, and they doubt people like Michele. Chima has said that if CBS "ruins" her HOH reign by allowing someone to use some power that she will "ruin" the live show by yelling and screaming and swearing all throughout the next HOH competition and going nuts if her nominees are changed. Wow. I can't wait! I just hope that Jeff DOES use it to put up Jessie and Natalie, and I hope they are encouraging him to use it when they talk to him in the DR.
I'm going to pull back on my recaps as I've gotten so busy lately that I'm having trouble keeping up. I'll post BB spoilers, but probably not much else. At some point when we finish watching Torchwood: Children of Earth I'll post about that, plus maybe some movie and DVD reviews if I can.
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