Recap 6/24 - 6/26 2009

Top Chef Masters:

I was the most familiar with Rick Bayless out of the 4 Chefs, and I figured that he would probably win. The first challenge had the Chefs make a dish that fit a color that was chosen by random by each. One got red, one yellow, one green and one orange. Rick got green which to me seemed to be the "easiest" color to work with. The French Chef got red and completely botched it. He didn't get all of his ingredients in before time expired, and then the servers forgot his sauce. The judges for this round were 3 women who worked for food publications from a photographer to a writer to an editor (I think.) One of the Chefs was an older woman and she got yellow and I didn't much care for the sound of her dish. One Chef is Puerto Rican, and his was all orange. His sounded good (I believe it was a Salmon tartare) but he forgot to remove the ring mold. At the end of the round, his dish won with 4.5 stars (might have got 5 stars had he removed the ring mold.) Rick was 2nd with 4 stars, the lady was next with 3.5 stars, and finally the French Chef was last with only 3 stars.

For the elimination challenge, the Chefs had to make "street food" using Offal (the usually unused innards of an animal) and serve it to people at the Universal Studios City Walk. I'd been there about 11 years ago, so that was kinda nifty. Anywho, as I mentioned, one Chef is Puerto Rican, while Rick Bayless is famous for taking traditional Mexican food and making it Fine Dining. So, what did the lady and the French guy decide to make for street food? You got it, Mexican dishes! Oy Vey! The lady made a soup which would make for a nice "street food" on a cooler day, which it was that day, as it warms your hands and your insides. The French guy made Enchiladas, having never done it before. Even Rick thought that it was a bad idea. The French guy got ALL of the air time, as he kept writing checks that his abilities couldn't cash. It really was annoying. He was all, "I'm gonna win, I don't care that I'm in last, blah blah blah." And the WORST part was that they had to subtitle him because his accent was so thick.

The lady got tripe, and made a soup that was good (some guy on the street told her it was better than his mother's) but it wasn't properly seasoned, so she got the lowest points and finished last overall. The French guy had Pig Ears, and he did ok, but just not good enough and finished third overall. The Puerto Rican guy had heart and he made Tripeltas which is a PR sandwich of sorts that uses beef, poultry and pork all together...get it, 3 different meats...tripeltas. His went over very well, but Rick just blew everyone away. I think his lowest score from the people on the street and the judges was 4.5 stars. So, as I predicted, he won and moves on. Next week, my favorite John Besh will be competing. I hope he doesn't over think it, but he's amazing.

Burn Notice:

I REALLY enjoyed this episode. Lots of use of the cast, good story, nice plotting, and even a twist!

Michael and Fi went to bring a guy in who owed one of Fi's "clients" $20,000, and so she'd get $5,000 for getting him to pay up. She went in, and Michael was supposed to come in after 3 minutes to help take the guy down if he didn't come peacefully. Unfortunately, Detective Moon Bloodgood showed up and took Michael out of the game. Fi realized too late that Michael wasn't coming, saw him and the Detective thru the window, so she smashed it and jumped out. They pretended that she had drank too much and Michael was there to give her a ride home. The botched mission allowed the badguy to flee to the Bahamas.

Mike decided that he had to get the detective off his @$$, so he tailed her and interrupted her on a stake out. He realized that if he could bring down the guy she'd been watching, she MIGHT leave him alone.

Meanwhile, Sam got audited by the IRS, and the guy was just being a hardass about everything. Turned out, that the guy was the son of a woman Sam had dated when the IRS guy was a young kid. The IRS agent felt that Sam had dumped him and his Mom, and this was his chance to pay him back. Turns out, the guy's Mom dumped Sam and told him to not come around anymore. This got thru to the guy, and so it appeared that he dropped the audit, and now is "friends" with Sam.

Mike & Fi did their own stakeout of the guy Detective Hardass had been following, and found a low level crook was their potential way in. Mike cozied up to the guy at the dog track, by acting much like him and built him up to be some infamous guy from a prison that Mike led him believe they both had stayed. The "mark" was played by Nick Turturro who's career has been in the dumps, and appears to have gained back ALL of the weight he lost a couple of years ago on Celebrity Fit Club.

Nick had them help him rob a Dry Cleaners, and of course Mike was the guy who made it all work. He noticed the hardwiring of the security cams, and figured out to use the Dry Cleaning Rack to power off a dead bolt on the back door. Detective Hardnose showed up the next day and tried to blame Michael for the robbery, and Mike figured that she now was gonna try to link him to EVERYTHING in the area. This meant that they had to speed up the process of getting the real bad guy.

Nick had them meet with his boss, and eventually, the boss agreed to have them help him hit a meth lab and take the money (which is what this guy tended to do...hit drug pushers and mobsters lairs and take their dirty money.) Nick realized that his boss was gonna use them all as cannon fodder since the meth lab guys would have machine guns. He told Mike that Mike and his friends were out, and that he'd do it himself. Mike was blown away, he didn't expect this lowlife to actually be a decent guy. So, he let him in on what they were doing, and Nick agreed to help them take down the boss.

They hit a meth lab and while the boss and his "main guys" were inside, Fi and Mike Superglued the front door and quick dried it using canned air. Nick then used a van to block the front door, trapping the boss and his henchmen inside. Fi, Sam & Michael held off the Meth Lab dudes who had returned using a dumpster as cover, and Fi set off several explosions. Sam called the cops, and once the Meth Lab guys fled the sirens, Mike and all left the boss and his men to be caught, red handed, by Detective Tight Ass. He also left behind the stolen car used as the getaway from the Dry Cleaner theft (they had earlier mailed back the money,) and left some of Fi's C-4 in the trunk. This way, it would link the Boss to the Dry Cleaner theft, as well as 7 explosions that Mike & Fi have caused over the past 2 seasons.

The Detective showed up and hinted around that she realized that Michael had done all of this in order to get a "free pass" from her. Mike wouldn't cop to it, but suggested that if he did do it, it certainly wasn't "free." It seems now that Detective Sweet Tits (thank you Mel Gibson for that one!) will be leaving him alone...at least for now.

At the end, Mike & Fi were having a nice dinner at a nice restaurant. Mike said that now that he's free from the people who burned him and the cops are off his @$$, he could start focusing on getting back into the spy game. Fi said that she had hoped that he would be happy doing what they're doing, and want to stick around with her. Mike said that he was now in the position that he had been hoping for and needing to take advantage of it, while Fi said that he was in the position that SHE had hoped for...but apparently wasn't choosing what she wanted him to do. This made her start crying and focus on the meal.

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here:

Ok, so the episode was an hour long. The first 10 minutes was 8 minutes of recaps of one sort or another, and 2 minutes of new stuff. They brought back the castoffs (except, as predicted here) Frangela. They're only comment about it was, "We're sorry that Frangela couldn't be here tonight," and that was it.

They showed the final 3 had to go thru a "spa" of horrors to earn stars. If they got both stars in their 2 challenges, they'd get a dinner of their favorite food. At first, I thought that LDP had gotten off easy as his first trial was to move some stars along some bars while moving snakes out of his way. But, his second challenge, he got COVERED by some kinda slime. It was hilarious! John had also gotten slimed as he had to immerse his face in a bowl of "vomit fruit" to fish out stars using his mouth. Torrie got off pretty easy. At the end, they all won food, so John got a Tofu Burger, Torrie got Veggie Pizza, and LDP got Fried Chicken.

Then, John got "voted out" and they showed his "journey" and what the other's thought of him...so MORE filler. Then did the same for Torrie and LDP. At the end, LDP won. Did anyone else notice that Spencer and Heidi did NOT come over to congratulate him? Did anyone else notice that Janice ended up sitting ALL ALONE like an OUTCAST at the "reunion" in the campsite? Sheesh.

I think that perhaps this show could help both Sanjaya's and Holly Montag's careers as they both put in a great showing. LDP will be appearing on the new Stargate:Universe tv series on SciFi. John may be going back to The Best Damn Sports Show Ever. I have no idea what Torrie will be doing, as she has left the WWE. The rest will go back to trying to get onto other reality shows. Ugh. Also, someone had posted in an earlier blog that they couldn't understand Myleen. That seemed odd to me, as she doesn't have a thick brogue like a Scottish, Irish, or Cockney accent. The oddest thing for me was that when she was on the British version, she seemed to have bigger boobs. I know she's since had a kid, so I wonder if she had had implants and then had them removed so she could breast feed? She looked really good, and Monday she looked great! Tuesday...not a good look for her. They said at the end that "we'll see you next year," but they also said that at the end of Pirate Masters.

Michael Jackson's Death:

Wow. LOTS of coverage. The most famous person in the world died and everything stopped. Facebook, Twitter, and Google all crashed, and many cell phone services nearly crashed as well.

After having see the deaths of Elvis, Gerald Levert, Anna Nicole Smith AND her son, Heath Ledger and now Michael Jackson...you would THINK that people with the means to over medicate themselves would FINALLY get the message. Dan Akroyd once said that when John Belushi died that it made a generation of actors/comics instantly turn sober because if he went down, they all could. Chris Farley dying didn't seem to affect more than those closest to him. But now with Anna, Heath and Michael ALL dying from bad mixing of prescription meds...and the attention that it's getting (with Dr. Deepak Chopra leading the charge)...maybe, just maybe, there will be some SUBSTANTIAL fall out from this, and maybe people like Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty will wake the FRAK up! But the worst thing is, that thousands, perhaps millions of "regular Americans" have this problem and many die each year from it too. Hopefully, this will help them to get clean.

I leave you this weekend with one of the best pieces of advice that I learned when I was about 13 years old, and it came from the Michael Jackson song, Wanna Be Starting Something; "If you can't feed your baby, then don't have a baby. And don't think 'maybe' if you can't feed your baby." Too bad more people didn't also take that advice. Have a great weekend!

Recap 6/21 - 6/24 2009

Next Food Network Star:

What.The.Frak? I am not sure if I've ever seen a "reality" competition show with a jerk like Teddy. Seriously. Also, how the FRAK could they decide to keep him over Eddie? Because Eddie lacks culinary knowledge (although he seemed to think he was "better" than home cook Melissa,) is THAT why they kept Teddy instead....because he has more knowledge? First, the look on Teddy's face was something else. Go to the NFNS homepage http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-next-food-n...star/index.html and look at the photo of Teddy & Eddie waiting to see who gets sent home. Teddy has this childish, hangdog expression on his face. I mean, it literally is like this emoticon :( What an @$$hat. Teddy hasn't shown me ANYTHING. It was odd that Bobby was so for Eddie going, while Bob wanted Teddy to go. They should have tossed them both. They have had weeks where nobody goes, so 2 go the following week. They could have made it so that the final 3 had to perform an extra task to make the episode count work out. WTFE.

I'm glad that Bobby called Eddie out for his obnoxious behavior toward Melissa. Let's see, Eddie, this is 2 weeks in a row where the judges liked her stuff, yet once again you ended up on the chopping block...and ultimately were sent packing. Next time you think you're $hit doesn't stink, you better make sure that you're food doesn't either.

This is still Jeffrey's to lose, and he even mentioned that he wanted to avoid that from happening. Sorry dude, it's all on you now. From the preview for next week, it looks like he stumbles, but it also looks like nobody will do well. There's NO WAY he'll go this early, unless he poisons the judges.

Kathy Griffin - My Life on the D-List:

The first part of the episode was about Kathy losing the Grammy for Best Comedy Album to the late great George Carlin. She KNEW that would happen. There was no way that they weren't going to give it to George even if it was the worst POS he ever put out (which it wasn't.)

The second part was about her trip to stay with Food Network star Paula Dean. A lot of people don't like Paula in that she often comes across as a drunken old horny hag, but I don't mind her in small doses. I thought she came off particularly well here, and it was funny that her assistant is gay...and a lush! Kathy actually seemed to love her time with PD and PD's family...especially her single son. I LOVED it that he gave Kathy a full on kiss when she left! He had given an interview where he said that he had no interest in Kathy...on any level. I'm sure that was set up for the show, but it was funny none-the-less.

Oh, and while I am STILL gonna cling to hope that Kathy takes pity on me and we start dating (call me Kathy!) I'm thinking that maybe I should focus on Tiffany, who I always thought was pretty, but now that she's slimmed down is SMOKIN'! Tiffany looks a little like Christina Ricci when Ms Ricci gained some weight in her late teens/early 20s. She needs to stop with her constant Pavlov's Dog reactions to laugh at anything Kathy says, she actually seemed to have embarrassed herself in Paula's kitchen when she laughed at one of Kathy's comments...that wasn't even funny. But, I do like it when Kathy does seem to genuinely crack her up.

Spectacular Spiderman:

Yes, I am a superhero mark. Sorry. Currently, I'm watching Batman: The Brave & The Bold, and Wolverine & The X-Men. Now SS has FINALLY returned for its second season. I had been saying that SS had the BEST first season of ANY superhero cartoon ever, and that was true...until Wolverine & The X-Men was released...but I'll keep that for another blog. Suffice to say, the episode of the X-Men that aired on Friday might have been one of the most amazing cartoons that I've ever seen.

Although SS has already aired in March elsewhere, Disney XD delayed airing it until now...for reasons that I'm not quite sure of. The story picked up right where it left off, making it seamless between the 2 seasons. Great idea!

Peter was surprise kissed by Gwen, and found out that Brock is Venom and thought that Venom/Brock was destroyed. Now, he has to try to sort out what is going on with Gwen and find out what has happened to Brock. In the meanwhile, the football QB's on and off GF Liz Allen has developed a real crush on Peter. Mary Jane, so far, is just a spectator.

Peter got a contract from the Daily Bugle, along with a stipend so he was able to buy a new camera...and some much needed skintight longjohns to wear under his costume to contend with the cold New York Winter. Also, at Norman Osborn's urging, Peter got his job back at Dr Connor's lab.

In the first of 2 episodes that aired, Spidey had to take on Mysterio who claims to be anti-technology and a true Master of the Arcane Arts. Turns out, he was the side-kick of The Chameleon from last season, and uses robots and a psychotropic/paralysis gas to affect his victims. At the end of the episode, we learn that Mysterio is working for someone calling himself The Master Planner...who sounded a bit like Tombstone to me.

In the 2nd episode, this huge Russian dude named Kravenov was hired by The Master Planner to hunt Spiderman. He hunts with a pet Lion at times, and the Lion tracked Peter's scent like a bloodhound and went to the Daily Bugle and then to Dr Connor's lab. At the lab, he came across the scientist brother of Peter's science teacher who was trying to perfect Dr Connor's Lizard Rejuvenation formula...against Dr Connor's wishes since it turned him into Lizardman. But this doctor saw an opportunity. He claimed that it was he who gave Spiderman his powers...at a steep price. Kravenov then paid to have himself injected with an electrified serum that mixed the DNA of a lion, cougar, and leopard. The result turned him into a Manimal, and now he calls himself Kraven the Hunter. With his new abilities, he tracked down Spiderman and thought that he'd now be able to beat him. He was wrong.

This series is probably geared to middle school aged kids and up, while Batman:TBTB is mostly geared for younger kids (but not always,) and W:XM is geared for teens and adults, but the writing and characterizations are very good for a cartoon series that is still geared primarily for pre-teens. I'm so glad that this is back, but I wish it was on Tuesdays, not Mondays, as there really isn't much on Tuesdays at the moment.

The Superstars:

ABC has revamped an old favorite. The Superstars used to be a Saturday morning sports show where pro athletes competed against each other in various physical competitions. Everything from races, to weight lifting. This new version features an athlete paired with a "celebrity." Some of the "celebrities" included Maks from DWTS, Ali Landry, and Dan Cortese who the announcer kept calling Dan Cortezzy, but I always thought Dan called himself Cortez? Maybe the Italian pronunciation is correct, and Dan just simplified it, but it was still odd.

Jennifer Capriarti came across as a bumbling idiot. She was not good at anything. But, if I was Terrell Owens, I'd have been livid with the show. First, I can't believe that TO agreed to do this show. Second, here's my issue. The rules stated that after 2 events, the Top 4 would move on, while the Bottom 4 would compete in an obstacle course where they would compete in pairs and the losers of each of the first pairings would then compete against each other with the losing team going home. At the end of the first 2 events, TO was in the Top 4 with 110 points. The teams in 5th and 6th place BOTH had 90 points, but the show was a SET UP and arranged to have the "middle 2" compete to see who would have to compete in the obstacle course. That's total BS. TO's team had 20 more points that the 5th place team, and how did they decide which of the 2 teams with 90 points was the "middle team?" Horse$hit. So, TO's team (he was paired with some model that I've never heard of) lost and went to the obstacle course. During the first race, TO got his foot stuck in a rope net, and his team lost. After which, his "teammate" bitched him out to the cameras..."He calls himself an athlete? He makes millions for what?" What a douchebag. Then, they ended up losing the elimination race...because of HER, and she still went on and on about him. She wouldn't let him speak to her, shake her hand, nothing. She just kept ragging on him. They played a soundbyte of TO saying that he felt sorry for her BF. So do I.

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here:

I still think Stephen wasn't honest about why he left. I think he was told that his house might go to auction just before Father's Day, and so he had hoped to be booted on Thursday, be home to deal with his house, and be home for Father's Day. Saying that the bug bites finally got to him, just seems disingenuous.

For only an hour show, they killed a good 10-15 minutes having the "celebrities" recount their favorite moments out in the jungle...an excuse to air old footage to fill time. Heck, after each of the 2 "celebs" were booted at the end of the episode, they AGAIN showed each clips of their "jungle journey" as well as sentiments from the other remaining "celebs." So, for an hour show, they spent at least 15-20 minutes on "recaps."

2 "celebs" got the boot, and by no surprise the second one booted was Patti. I still am in shock that she lasted so long. But, even more shocking is who was booted first in the episode...SANJAYA! How the Frak did he get booted? I thought for SURE it would be Sanjaya and LDP in the Finals with either John or Torrie as the third. When John was revealed to have had the least amount of votes on Monday and beat Holly, sending her home, I thought that it looked to be a Sanjaya/LDP/Torrie finale. I guess it must have either been one of those things where his fans felt that he was safe and didn't vote for him, or the producers looked at the 2 "celebs" who WOULD have competed (had Stephen not left and Holly came back) and chose John to be the person to compete against Holly...since he's a Vegan and it required him to drink pureed insects. WTFE. I'm miffed that Jungle Boy won't be able to win. They told Sanjaya that out of 12 competitions that he competed in, he won 9 of them! Holy Schnikes! Holly had said when she got the boot last Thursday that she and Sanjaya were "just friends," but when she was back, it seemed to me that perhaps she may have realized that she felt differently after having been away from him. We'll see.

The funniest thing, for me though, is that Frangela seems to have been written out of the show. Since last week when they started promoting that the "celebs" who aren't in the jungle anymore would be back for the finale, they have NEVER, not once, showed their images among the returning "celebs." In fact, last night they showed EVERYONE, including Heidi and Spencer, Janice, Holly, Daniel, even Stephen...but not Frances and Angela. Weird. I would imagine that they WILL be there, as it is probably in their contract, unless they and NBC have agreed for them to not return. Of the "celebs," who were on the show, they were the lowest ranked "celebs" and have done NOTHING to bring ratings...so maybe NBC just doesn't care if they're there or not. Very odd.

Recap 6/14 - 6/18 2009

Next Food Network Star:

I stand by my prediction that Jeffrey will win this season. He'll have to massive collapse to lose. Every time he walks into the room with the judges, their faces light up like they've seen the messiah.

Both challenges this week were for Food magazines. The first challenge they had to prepare a dish with a set of ingredients that were given to them under a cover so they didn't know what they had until they took the cover off. They then had to present it on camera as if it was a segment on a talk show where they only had 30 seconds to present.

Most of the contestants did acceptable when they presented, although Michael finished early and was stuck trying to stretch which is nearly impossible. I read on the FN website that Michael didn't originally make the cut, but when a contestant who had been cast dropped out, he was picked as the replacement. That says to me that he'll have to really step up his game. Melissa the "home cook" screwed up her dish. She was supposed to have a cherry sauce but ran out of time, so she put cherries on top...like a sundae. Eddie won the challenge and seemed to not only make a good dish, but did a nice job presenting.

For the second challenge, they had to make a dish to go along with a holiday. Since Eddie had won the first challenge, he was able to assign which holiday went to which contestant. I think that he also sees Jeffrey as the toughest competitor as he gave him Groundhog Day. WTF dish goes along with Groundhog day? Jeffrey made a nice Mexican style dish that he claimed he made because that kind of food reminds him of Spring which is what we get if the Groundhog doesn't see its shadow. Yep, a reeeeeeal streeeeetch. The committee called him on it that he just made whatever he wanted, but really, I didn't hear any suggestions from them as to what would be better. I mean, someone suggested Ground Pork in place of Groundhog...but come on, how stupid. Ultimately, they loved him and his dish so it didn't matter that they didn't feel like his dish had anything to do with GHD. Eddie crashed and burned by saying some really dumb things about women having different diets and then started telling how he had made the dish for his GF on their first date and that it was intimate because they had the place to themselves...so Bobby told him to stop talking. But THAT wasn't the biggest issue in this challenge.

Melissa was making a dish for Mother's Day, so she made a "breakfast in bed" meal. At some point, Brett asked her if she wanted some help to finish since he was already done. Then, Teddy also came over and helped her out. When they went to the judges after the challenge, the judges told her how much they liked her dish. The whole time, Teddy and especially Brett were making all these dramatic faces and movements, and when the judges were done with their comments, Brett "congratulated" Teddy. The judges asked what was going on, and Brett said that if it hadn't been for them that Melissa wouldn't have finished. The judges asked Teddy if he felt that way too, and he said that he wasn't going to throw anyone under the bus. Melissa was stunned. The judges asked her if she couldn't finish her dishes without help from others. If it had been me, I would have pointed out that they volunteered to help, and that I hadn't asked them for help. She didn't say that, but she did say that putting some food into ramekins does not constitute a significant contribution to her dish.

During the questioning of the contestants after the challenge, Brett had stated that he hadn't signed up for the job on his own, that people had suggested that he give it a go. So when it came time to boot someone the choices were Brett, Eddie and Katie the nutritionist. I felt that Katie would go because her food has been terrible and she can't seem to make or present food without talking about antioxidants and stuff like that. But I'm guessing that because Brett didn't seem to have his heart in it, while at least Katie did, Brett got the boot.

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List:

This episode was filmed in January. Kathy went to a party where the Grammy nominees are announced...via a list...and she got to schmooze with Taylor Swift, LL Cool J, Christina Aguilera, and others. She then found out that she was nominated when a Grammy staffer gave her a copy of the list. How odd.

Then she went to Richmond which is a stone's throw from Vancouver, and performed at a casino the night after Lily Tomlin. So of course she went to Lily's show and yelled from the seats asking Lily to be on her D-List program. Then she and Lily hung out together that night in Lily's room, and then seemed to have a brunch together the next day where they called Jane Fonda and Liza Minnelli. Jane didn't seem to especially like Kathy, but Liza claimed that she loved Kathy.

The funniest part was that the guy who ran the casino's entertainment program was all over Kathy. When Kathy arrived, he had the staff greet her in a line like they were waiting for royalty. He even had a cake for her, and whatever Kathy asked of him, he'd do. But then, he kept showing up at her room, and then in her private box while watching Lily's show. He even showed up when Kathy and Lily were having brunch. WTF dude, she isn't into you.

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here:

This week so far we learned that Janice was backed up and she ended up being taken to the hospital due to various stomach issues. She ended up returning and seemed to be in very good spirits. John Salley was upset that he was in the "Bottom 2," and was saying that he was going to leave because he didn't want people to decide if he's worthy of winning. He then decided to stay which was good because they later had a challenge where the "celebs" were asked which person the public thought was the smartest, hardest working, laziest, etc...and John won most of the "good" awards.

John ended up winning the "camp leader" position as they wouldn't allow Lou Diamond Phillips to compete for a "third term." Janice said that she didn't want it, so she was taken out first. Heck, even Torrie tried to take herself out. It ended up between John and Patti and neither had any strikes against them, but John continued to get answers correct so he won.

They had a segment where people questioned Sanjaya's sexuality because he allowed Janice to have him act effeminate. He also told Holly that many gals consider him like their "gay best friend," even though he isn't gay. Holly told him that he should use a different term then. Sanjaya said that it was unfortunate, but that was the term that people tend to use. He then told Janice and Torrie that it was how he was seen, but he wasn't gay and would go for Torrie. Torrie told him, "Nice try."

The "celebs" were given a camcorder, and decided to make a slasher movie. So the producers gave them some props, and LDP directed the movie. They ended up showing some of it, and I'm sure that they all enjoyed it, but it seemed pretty lame.

John laid down some new rules as camp leader. He told them that nobody could touch the food without first cleaning their hands. He also said that they had to be sure to cover the rice as soon as they dished up their helping so that bugs wouldn't get into the pot. He also assigned tasks that each "celeb" had to perform (he was required to do so,) and he told them that they needed to clean up their "area" and try to keep the camp clean. The importance of that was shown when a snake slithered into camp one night. These 2 wranglers, who Patti called "ninjas" came in and got the snake.

LDP and Torrie competed in a food challenge where they had to retrieve stars from a habitat full of snakes. It was funny in that snakes kept getting out and had to be wrangled back in while they were still competing. LDP ended up beating Torrie by a second. The guys won Italian food.

LDP won the immunity challenge for the second time, and John was given the ability to grant immunity to one other person, including himself. Soo of course, he chose himself. Now, nobody can call him Marcellas.

Top Chef Masters:

As I predicted, Chef Falkner was STOMPED. She finished third in the Quickfire, and then fell all the way to last place with DISMAL scores in the Elimination Challenge. She really should just stick with baking.

The Quickfire Challenge was to make an "Amuse Bouche" out of things from a vending machine, along with stuff in the TC pantry (like aromatics.) An Amuse Bouche is 2 bites or less, although usually on TC they try to say it's a 1 bite dish. To me, most of the stuff the chefs presented looked like they'd take more than 2 bites to eat. TC had the same challenge back in Season 2, so the 3 judges for this round were contestants from that year, including the eventual winner.

Chef Wylie was concerned because he had been a judge in Season 2, but it appeared to me that the judges were judging the dishes "blind," in that it didn't seem that they were told who made each dish, nor who the chefs even were who were competing. Wylie usually makes food working with the chemical reactions, also known as "Molecular Gastronomy." As such, his stuff usually either blows one away, or leaves people scratching their heads. I didn't see him use any of those techniques, and he was unhappy with his dish. He was right, it finished last.

The guy who finished second apparently uses things like Pop Rocks in his menu food in his Chicago restaurant. Also, he and Wylie seem to be friends and this made for a bit of wanting to outdo each other pop up. The woman who won seemed to make a yummy dish, but she came across as very cold as a person.

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs had to make a meal using ingredients that could be found on the LOST island, as the creators and writers of LOST would be the diners for the meal. This meant that they could use stuff found on a tropical island, such as Wild Boar, as well as canned food that the Dharma Initiative would have had lying around. This meant that they couldn't have access to the TC pantry, but what was stoopid was that they were allowed to use the stoves, ovens, and Chef Falkner actually used the immersion unit to make a dish "Sous Vide." I've watched every episode of LOST, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen working stove tops and ovens, let alone an immersion unit.

Falkner started in third but got terrible scores and finished 4th. Wylie started last and finished third. The guy from Chicago started in 2nd, got really good scores, but ended up in second as the other woman (I can't recall her name,) started in first and got amazing scores.

In the public phone poll asking who of the 4 chefs you'd want to be stranded on an island with, Wylie won. That made no sense to me. The guy from Chicago is a great chef and was pretty funny and easy going. He'd be my first pick. My second pick would have been the woman who won since obviously she's a great cook, and of the 2 women, she's the best looking...as well as the only one who is straight.

Gordon Ramsay's The F Word:

This is on BBC America Wednesdays at 9pm. For those unfamiliar with it, here's the description from Wikipedia;
Each episode is based around Ramsay preparing a three-course meal at the F Word restaurant for 50 guests. Diners in the restaurant include celebrities, who participate in conversations, challenges, and cook-offs with Ramsay. Other segments focus on food-related topics, such as alternative foods and healthy eating. Finally, there is a series-long feature on home-reared livestock or poultry that is ultimately served to F Word diners on the season finale.

This is the 5th season of the show, and the first episode was Wednesday. This season, he is having 4 members of a family as the guest cooks. They have an hour for each course, with the first course an appetizer, then a main course, then a dessert. He also had a celebrity from a popular UK show at the restaurant with his family, and also Spice Girl Geri Halliwell. The celebrity made the mistake of letting the show know that Chinese food is his favorite, so they had him blindfolded and try 2 Chinese delicacies. One was chicken feet, which he spit out, and the other was duck tongue which I think he ate. Then with the blindfold off, they had him try a third delicacy, fish eye. He barely got it into his mouth before spitting it out. That reminded me of the recent Man Vs. Wild special where the host went hiking in the Swedish Alps with actor Will Farrell and they had to eat Deer Eyeball for dinner. YUCK!

In a taped segment of the F Word, they showed Ramsay diving for Sea Urchin while riding a fast tide. He didn't find any then, but found some in calmer waters near some rocks. He then challenged a Japanese Brit to a duel with Sea Urchin. The Japanese guy made traditional Uni which is the Urchin done sushi style. I LOVE sushi, but can't stand Uni. My ex loved it though. It looks like baby poo, and that's what we called it. Gordo mixed his urchin into scrambled eggs, and then both fed some people on the streets of London. Most liked Ramsay's dish better.

One of the other unusual things about The F Word beside showing Ramsay getting fresh ingredients, is that he raises his own set of livestock, and then has them slaughtered and served in the season finale. One year, it was turkeys. Once it was pigs. Another it was sheep. This year it is 2 calves being raised for 12 weeks for veal. Usually, Ramsay raises them in 'his garden," but this year they are being raised on a farm by a famous UK journalist. Also, Ramsay usually names each animal after someone famous in the UK, usually that he doesn't like. I think the pigs were named after other UK chefs like Jamie Oliver and Nigella. Thus far, he hasn't named the 2 calves.

In another segment, Ramsay challenged Geri Halliwell to a cook off using her favorite dish, Swedish Meatballs. Each week, Gordo has a celeb make his or her "signature dish" and then Ramsay tries to top it. Each made their own version of Swedish Meatballs, and then fed them to a table of 5 diners. They didn't give the score but Ramsay won. There is a UK series called Top Gear (see review below) and they had a crossover special not too long ago. In the crossover, Ramsay took one of the hosts out to catch fresh lobster, and then showed him a recipe and cooked it for the guy's family. He then took on another of the hosts in a cook-off. The Top Gear guy was a mess, and Ramsay said that if he lost, he'd sell his restaurants and quit the business as he thought the guy's food looked terrible. The guy from Top Gear won 3-2, and Ramsay was incredulous.

Back to this episode, the family in this episode contained 2 sisters who are both actresses and were both in popular UK series, along with their mother and the husband of one of them. The guy was terrible. He apparently can't see things close,took forever to cook, kept messing up the dishes, and even set the stove top on fire! The way this works is prior to each course, there is a taped segment where Ramsay shows people how to make each dish, as the hallmark of The F Word Restaurant is that each dish can easily be made at home. The recipe is also posted on the show's website. Then the four people have an hour to make each course and serve it to the 50 diners. The diners are then asked if they would be willing to pay for each course. For the appetizers, 36 of the 50 said that they'd pay. 45 of the diners said that they'd pay for the Main Course, and 48 of the 50 said that they'd pay for the dessert. This gave the family 129 out of 150 "points."

This is a really odd series, with the family cooking 3 meals, the celeb in the restaurant, the celeb cook-off, showing Ramsay procuring fresh ingredients in odd ways, and the raising of livestock to be cooked in the finale. I'm not sure if I will watch every episode, but it is interesting in that Ramsay is always smiling and laughing throughout the show, and isn't yelling at anyone. I sometimes felt like he was forcing the laughter to prevent himself from yelling at someone, but it's fun to see Gordo in a different frame of mind.

Top Gear:

This is a really fun series that is all about cars. There are 3 hosts; a really big funny journalist, a very short but funny dude, and this old hippy who they call Captain Slow as he is ALWAYS slow in their various fun challenges. They also have a professional driver dressed in an all white racing jump suit, with white boots, white cloves, and a white helmet that he never takes off. They call him The Stig.

The main humor part of the episode was that they had to make their own limos, and then drive a celeb to The Brits, the UK version of the Grammys. The little guy took a MG convertible, and stretched it out, keep it a convertible. he also added an intercom to from the passenger seat to the front, and in between they actually had the other 2 guys bowl and shoot archery. The hippy dude took 2 cars, cut them in half, and then put both front ends together. This way, he said, you could drive off from either direction, or have the passenger help with the steering in tight turns. The Big guy took a tiny 2 liter car, the Fiat Panda, and stretched it to well past 50 feet long! Each car had to be inspected, and the little guy's car had to require that the full size phone be worn on his head with a headband, because they require hands free driving. Worse, the big guy had to make his car 36', so he shortened it and "taped" it together. Driving the celebs to The Brits, the little guy got there first, and in one piece. The hippy dude got lost, and his passenger left in a huff. The big guy's car broke in half, but he arrived at the show with his celeb...dragging the back end along the road. I love this show.

Also in this episode, they compared the 60s classic "Bullit" Mustang vs the 2008 Mustang Shelby GT 500. They determined that it only has 447 HP, not 500. But, to the little guy's chagrin, his own personal "Bullit" Mustang was supposed to have 330 HP, but only had 250. They noted that when Ford amp up the Mustang into the 500 GT, they didn't improve the suspension as it would have cost an additional $5,000. They thought that was really dumb, and when The Stig drove it on their course, it slid and slipped all over the place. They then had The Stig drive the Rousch racing team version of the Mustang GT which did have the suspension improved, so it actually cost $10,000 more than the Shelby version. It also only had 415 HP. But, when The Stig drove it on the course, despite being less powerful, the better handling made it finish the course 2 seconds faster.

Burn Notice:

This was the best episode of the new season so far. An arms dealer who had previously been on the show pretended to be an investor for Michael's brother, but actually was using him as leverage to get Michael to get a bunch of intel and components from various places to get him some valuable equipment. Eventually, they shot the brother in the arm to get Michael to stop trying to take charge. Meanwhile, Michael was able to get Sam, Fi and Barry the money launderer to make it look like Michael had emptied the guy's bank accounts, blow up his safe house, and make it appear that they had their sights on his daughter.

This was a great episode, with all sorts of spy tricks and showed Michael's team working very well together for family, not money. The only bad part was the new detective. I agree with the guy at EW.com that they keep having her confront Michael that she's his worst nightmare and will be all over him, yet she doesn't seem to ACTUALLY do anything other than bluster about. Michael was able to get her partner suspended by making it appear that Michael and an official aid had a joint bank account, and when the partner interrogated her, the Mayor found out it was all a scam and had the detective busted. Funny! I just wish that they give Moon Bloodgood who plays the lead detective more to do than just huff & puff.

Mythbusters:

The primary myth was to see if you were driving in a convertible and it started raining if it's better to stop and put the top up, or drive faster to out run the rain. They used a Porsche convertible as the test car. Using their Hollywood know-how they rigged a device to make it rain even when it wasn't. They had the car driven into the rain, stopped, and then the top raised. They then tested it by driving top down thru the rain at 25, 55 and 90 mph. When they stopped to raise the top, the inside got flooded. At 25 mph, they were much dryer, but still a lot of rain. At 55, only the "head" areas seemed to get wet. At 90 mph...not a drop was found inside. The speed shot the water over the windshield and over the car like a canopy or water. So, they called it "Plausible, but not recommended" as they didn't think it was "right" of them to say it had been "confirmed" as it could lead to people violating speed laws, and having accidents from hydroplaning.

The secondary myth was taken from the 80s movie, Real Genius, where a laser causes a massive amount of popcorn to pop inside a house, and then the popping corn expand so much that the windows blow out, and the house busts open. They found that a laser could pop a kernel of pop corn, but still to this day, no laser is has as many KWs as the one mentioned in the movie. They also found that popping corn didn't produce enough pressure to break windows or bust a house. Myth BUSTED.

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!:

At this point, I'm a little fuzzy on what happened over Wednesday and Thursday. I know that the teams were eliminated, so it's everyone for themselves. They all had to dive into a mud pool full of plastic balls and toys...and baby crocodiles, to find 1 of 3 stars. People with stars would get pizza. Janice stayed in the mud pool for about 30 seconds and then ran all the way back to camp from fear of the baby crocs. It was funny that the hosts were calling after her to come back as she ran away. Someone must have brought her back as she was there at the end. LDP, Patti, and Sanjaya found the stars and had pizza that night. Torrie was bummed. She had been told it was gonna be "mud wrestling" and each "celeb" had to make their own "wrestling outfit" so when it ended up just hunting around in the mud...and she didn't win...she seemed bummed out.

John and Janice argued some more. She seemed to think that veggies were given to them to help her intestinal issues, but John told her that unless they put the food in a bagged marked "Janice" that everything in the food basket was for everyone.

The votes were revealed on Thursday, and Janice and Holly got the boot. They asked Holly about her and Sanjaya and she said that they were just friends. Janice said, "Ha!" Holly thinks Sanjaya will win, and I think Janice said Stephen. I just read today that apparently Stephen has left the jungle. I had read last week that a home of his had been foreclosed and was to be auctioned off. I don't know if that's why he left, but he seemed to be in it until the end if possible. I don't think he would have won, I still think it will be Sanjaya.

I had thought that John and LDP could make a run for it, but John was shown to be wanting to leave, and then kinda mean this past week so that may have hurt him. LDP who "loves his wife so much" actually had been arrested in 2006 on Domestic Violence against her, and sentenced to a TON of Community Service. I hope that it was a one of a time thing brought on by alcohol and that he's straightened out, but I wonder if the talk about it on the internet is hurting him. At this point, I don't know if it actually has had an impact, but it just makes me want Sajaya to win even more. Not that people can't make mistakes and change, but Sanjaya just seems to have shown me nothing but a great attitude throughout. Even when he "told Janice off," he did it in a very "mild" way.

Next week, I think 2 or 3 more "celebs" will get the boot and the Finals will be 3, maybe 4 on the last night. I'm not certain, but that's how it looks from here. Have a great weekend all, and be good to all the fathers in your family!

Recap 6/9 - 6/13 2009

Top Chef Masters:

I finally wised up and looked at the list of chefs who will be competing as noted on Wikipedia. No Ben Ford. LOT'S of familiar names though. I'm still gonna hope for John Besh to win it all since I think he got screwed out of winning Next Iron Chef.

There will be 24 chefs competing in 6 groups of 4, with the winner of each round moving on to the Finals. The first 4 went this week.

The Quick Fire challenge had the chefs make a dessert for "dessert experts" who turned out to be 4 Girl Scouts. One chef's tried to make a cake and the cake didn't set and the frosting didn't work out either...so he kinda dumped it onto a plate thinking it'd be hated. He was right, it got the lowest score. One chef made 3 different desserts using strawberries, one was a shake, one was chocolate covered, but I can't recall the third...I think it was "chicken fried." He ended up tied for 2nd with another chef. The winning chef was from France (of course) so he ended up with 1.5 points more than the 2 chefs in second.

Then they had to prepare a 3 course meal for the elimination round, but could only cook with things found in a college dorm; a microwave, hot plate, and toaster oven. I was really impressed by the ingenuity of the chefs. They all got along and had fun with each other. They had to go shopping for their ingredients, and the French guy said that he never shops for his food, he places orders, so he was a little clueless. One chef ended up accidentally putting all of his ingredients into a freezer because he didn't know it was a freezer, not a fridge. Veggies in a freezer isn't good. He worked around it by creating different dishes, including a dish where he steamed kale so that the liquid from thawing it wouldn't have been as much of an issue. The elimination round was judged by 3 food critics and the host who apparently has won more local Emmys than anyone in New York tv. I didn't much care for her, but probably because she isn't Padma. At the end, the French guy won and his margin of victory was 1.5 points, so the dessert challenge is ultimately what won it for him. I have to say, he was really smart to use the dorm's shower and shower sprayer to drain and rinse his pasta. Although, I hope he made sure that the shower head was clean first.

Burn Notice:

I liked this episode much more than the first one. It was a LOT like the first season, but I was a little disappointed in that the mission involved rescuing a kidnapped child and getting the kidnappers to turn on each other. I think they did something very similar in an earlier season. The big news was the arrival of a Miami cop who is now onto Michael and friends since his "protection" is gone. Michael, Fi, and Sam have caused a lot of mayhem over the past 2 years, and without anyone running interference, Michael is now in the cops crosshairs. The officer is played by Moon Bloodgood. I LOVE that name, and it's her real name. She looks a little like she could be the sister of Summer Glau. Someone should put the 2 together in an action series where they play sisters who kick ass. I'd watch it!

Dinner Impossible:

Chef Irvine had to make dinner for 250 people in honor of Barbie's 50th birthday. he had to drive around in a VW Barbie mobile, and prepare the food outside of a HUGE mansion in...Malibu or course, silly! He got help from 2 Mattel employees, and one wanted to help but wasn't particularly adept, the other seemed to really get into it and really seemed to work and try hard. They had to make appetizers that would fit on Barbie serving ware, so everything was about the size of an olive. I actually thought that it was one of the better shows because although things went wrong with equipment not working and the guests arriving too early, I FINALLY saw Chef Irvine put his foot down. First, they tried to have him add an additional dish (for Ken) and for the first time, he said no. Good for him! Then later, the guests arrived about 20 minutes early and started yapping with the Mattel employees who were helping him, and he had to tell them to back off as they were working. Awesome!

Good Eats:

The goal of this episode was to "hide" veggies in food to get kids to eat them. Alton used Parsnips as the veggie as it is sweet but blends in better than say Carrots or Beets. He made muffins, "potato" chips, and an applesauce like thing using parsnips and pears. Good Eats continues to be the BEST instructional cooking show on tv with it's blend of Bill Nye/Julia Child/History Channel like information and cooking instruction. I'm gonna buy some parsnips at the next trip to the grocery store (probably today!) and see what I can use them to make.

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here:

A LOT went down this week. Spencer and Heidi are GONE due to her gastrointestinal issues. Her sister-in-law, Stephanie, tried to claim that Heidi and Spencer were left alone in a chamber for 3 days without food and that was shown to be a lie. So replacing Heidi and Spencer was Heidi's older sister, Holly. I thought, OH NOSE! Not ANOTHER one! But, she turns out to be a really cool chick (as far as one can tell from the show) and told a story about how she was going to live with her step-brother once he returned from serving in Iraq, but not long after he got back he fell off a roof and died. Tragic. She went out and won the gals their first food comp, and now seems to be having a "showmance" with Sanjaya. Daniel actually pleaded with the show to keep their infrared night cams trained on the 2 of them at night. Hehe. On the show, Holly looks a little like Chelsea Clinton, but I've seen other pictures where she looks very different.

They actually aired a segment about how the stars are all bug bitten, and Sanjaya just looks terrible. I'd noticed that the "celebs" were wearing these tiny patches on their chests, and they turn out to be incense like items to keep the bugs at bay. The "celebs" also get to hose themselves down with some sort of liquid incense, but nothing seems to keep the bugs at bay.

They also had a segment where the "celebs" told about their "big break," and of course Janice went on and on and basically told the story of her from 18 until she got the cover of Vogue in her early 20s. Patti got all upset because she's not on the show as a result of a "big break" but a big fall. Watch me cry. Are you crying? Nope. No tears from me either.

Daniel would suddenly toss out a "where's the powerbar" comment directed at Janice as they KNOW it was her who stole one of the bars that WERE NOT WON by her. Of course, it's all on tape. As is the other repulsive thing Janice did. One night, the night cam caught Janice get out of bed, squat next to her cot, and pee. The next day, Lou came to camp with a note imploring the cast to not pee in camp as it attracts rats which in turn would attract snakes. LDP couldn't BELIEVE that he ACTUALLY had to get a note and read it that said that. Of course, the first thing Janice did was say, "Who could have peed in camp?" What a frakking loon. Later, Lou decided to have a private conversation with her because after the women won food, she was first in line to get some, and then made 3 more trips for more food, while some people hadn't gotten any pick of the food yet. Of course, she responded by claiming that she wouldn't eat anymore and just being a PITA. This lead to the funnies moment of the week. In the "confessional," Lou made his hand look like a gun, opened his eyes wide and stuck the "barrel" into his mouth and then snapped his head back and flailed his arms out onto the confessional couch. I laughed pretty hard at that, and actually rewatched it a couple of times. The camp tried to confront Janice later about her behavior, but she just took it as picking on her.

Daniel got the least amount of votes to stay and had to leave last night. What the heck is wrong with people? He was one of the best things about the show. he wouldn't take Janice's insanity, and ACTUALLY WANTED TO PLAY BY THE RULES! For all of that, he ended up leaving. Well, I'll keep watching, but it just got a WHOLE lot less interesting.

Recap 6/4 - 6/9 2009

I'm going to discuss a bit about the following shows: I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here; Burn Notice; Next Food Network Star; and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. It's gonna be a looooonnnnnggggg blog.

Burn Notice:

The first season was about Michael trying to find out who burned him.
The second season was about Michael being controlled by the people who had him burned, and his wanting to get out from under their thumb.
This season looks to be about how Michael is now no longer "protected" by the people who had him burned and how he adapts to his new situation, all while trying to get his old job and life back.

I liked the first episode, and I figured out very quickly that Michael's "friend" Harlan was going to double cross him. Some of the positive comments that I've read about the episode were that it was more like the first season. Some of the negative comments were that Sam & Fi had nearly nothing to do and there wasn't any sort of "reunion" when Michael returned alive and well. Going forward, this season has the potential to be the best yet as I can see Michael having to watch his ass at all times.

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List:

I was sorry to see that her assistant Jessica left, but it had been rumored and wasn't surprising. Tiffany, who had been Jessica's assistant, is now Kathy's assistant, and she looks GREAT! I think she lost a bunch of weight, and has had a makeover that she keeps up. She had better makeup and her hair looked great. She looks like Christina Ricci during her "heavier" period. The interaction of Kathy and Bette Midler was great. You could tell that Kathy adores Bette, while Bette admires Kathy's abilities but seemed a little put off her behavior at times. Which is weird because Bette's early stuff was VERY raunchy, and she still does burlesque. This season, the theme is Kathy trying to learn from A-List stars so she'll be hanging out with stars in (apparently) every episode.

Next Food Network Star:

I'm not overly enthused with the current crop of contestants. Half of the 10 are exactly 30, which is interesting. More than a few aren't chefs. And really, after only 1 episode, I have already chosen the eventual winner. I'd be VERY surprised if this person doesn't win it all. The first person kicked out called herself a "modern housewife" or "housewife 2.0" or some such. She prepared green beans with walnuts as her dish to impress. Wow. I was shocked when I read her bio on Food Network's website that she went to the French Culinary Institute. I also read the guy who runs programming and is one of the judges posted back in December the good and bad of each finalist, and he said that the Asian gal cooks great, but doesn't seem to know food at all. That showed in the episode. They loved her spicy mayo she made for crab cakes, but her crab cakes were kinda so so. But, she was in charge of the team and failed at shopping for the ingredients, and then failed by allowing a LAME dessert to be presented. I think her sauce saved her. The guy who won the first challenge will be the eventual winner. He is nice looking, good with the essentials, good with the camera, and although the team leader failed to get half of his needed ingredients, he was able to not only remake his intended dish BUT he ended up winning the challenge. This guy will win, take it to the bank.

*** Side Note # 1, prior to watching the episode last night, I saw a FN Sandwich Challenge from 2007 and Ben Ford, son of Harrison Ford, won the contest. *** Side Note # 2, starting Wednesday at 10pm is Top Chef Masters where 24 well known chefs compete in Top Chef challenges. I noticed Oprah's personal chef Art Smith, dessert chef Elizabeth Faulkner, and my favorite chef John Besh of the restaurant August in New Orleans among others that I recognized will be competing. Top Chef is THE BEST food competition and normally is relatively unknown chefs competing. This is like Iron Chef America on steroids where well known chefs (and many who have appeared on ICA) will be competing. I can't wait!

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here:

I watched the version that was on the air a few years ago, and that one tried VERY hard to be just like the original British version, even calling the challenges "Bushtucker Trials." The host of that version is now the creator, writer, and star of a series on TBS called "10 Items of Less" that has aired 5-8 episodes each year for the past 3 years. Howard Stern's flunky, Stuttering John Melendez ended up getting hired to be the announcer for the Tonight Show due to his appearance on that first version. Yep, Jay Leno's announcer is a stutterer. Moving on.

This new version has very little to do with the old version. They are in Costa Rica, not the Australian Outback, there are 2 hosts, and the challenges are just called challenges. They also seem to have far fewer challenges than the prior series, and that seems to be its biggest downfall. Well, that and Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag Pratt.

I had no prior experience with the Pratt brats. I'd heard of them, and I'd seen pictures of her, but I've never seen The Hills or Laguna Beach and I'd never seen Spencer before and I'd never heard either of them speak. I wasn't missing much. She seems to be someone who had it rough in life, but came into money later in life. She also seems VERY caught up in Jesus. Look, people and their beliefs are their beliefs, but I am not a fan of "Jesus Freaks" especially people who espouse Jesus yet (a) seem to get the details wrong, and (b) don't seem to live their life being kind to others. Spencer apparently is a recent convert, but boy, what an a-hole.

The first week of this series, the 2 of them were insufferable. He was ALWAYS shooting crazy eyes and going off on people, and she just seemed clueless. They couldn't handle living in the jungle and left after 2 nights and 3 days. They spent the next three nights in a hotel before deciding to return. The conditions for their return were that they'd have to spend the night in a "chamber" full of spiders and possibly other critters like rats and snakes. Then the other "celebs" had to vote them back. As the show went off the air last Thursday, the "celebs" voted on their return and only 2 voted yes (John Salley and Janice Dickinson.)

By the time last night's episode aired, the "celebs" changed their minds (in other words, the producers got them to change their minds) and Heidi and Spencer were allowed back into the camp. Back in camp, they seemed much more reasonable, although they were still caught up with Jesus. They were trying to say that their previous behavior was the Devil and Demons tricking them, and then when Heidi got ill they blamed it on Demons. Oy. I know there are some people who buy into "spiritual warfare" where everything bad that happens to them is because of demons working against them, but I just don't buy it. I won't go into it any further than that. Long and short of it, Heidi was evacuated to a hospital and now it appears that she and Spencer are off the show for good.

There has been allegations from them and Heidi's sister that NBC mistreated them, left them in that chamber for too long, denied them food, and all this other horseshit. The video last night told the tale. They spent 1 night in the chamber. They left in very good spirits. At camp, they were offered food by the other contestants, but Spencer and Heidi said that they were going on a "religious fast" and weren't going to eat. Also, they were shown being told by the others that they need to drink more water. One of the other "celebs" noted that Heidi was told to drink at least 4 bottles of water a day, but had only been drinking 1. So at the hospital, the first thing they treated Heidi for was dehydration. Shocker.

I will give Heidi credit in that she claims to want to become a missionary, and said that she's wanted to do so since she was 8. I hope that she follows through with it, because right now she and Spencer just seem like shallow media whores. As of the episode to air tomorrow, Heidi's sister will join the camp in her place. Oy.

You may have noticed that I haven't really mentioned the other "celebs." That's because up until the last half of last night's episode, the series had been mostly about Heidi and Spencer. The other "celebs" are former NBA (and Detroit Piston Bad Boy!) John Salley; Janice Dickinson (who was on the British version just 18 months ago,) Sanjaya from American Idol Season 6; Torrie Wilson, a former WWE Diva/Wrestler who was in Playboy during her stint in the WWE; Stephen Baldwin; these 2 women known as a comedy team called Frangela since one is Francis and the other is Angela; Lou Diamond Philips; and Patti Blagojevich, the wife of the impeached governor of Illinois.

I will always like John Salley for his time with the Pistons and he was funny on The Best Damn Sports Show, but he lost his cool over Janice and her BS, but he felt really badly about it afterward and tried to apologize. Angela was the first person actually voted out by "America," and that led to Francis leaving on her own not too long later. After Heidi and Spencer left the first time, the show added Daniel Baldwin, Stephen's brother. Daniel has had a LOT of problems with substance abuse. He was on Celebrity Fit Club and ended up leaving due to his issues. He was once arrested in a hotel room full of cocaine. So, it wasn't surprising to see that he was still overweight (as is Stephen,) but what has been surprising is that he's often been the voice of reason, and the one person who ACTUALLY WANTS to play the contest the way that it's SUPPOSED to be played. You know you're in trouble when Daniel Baldwin is the voice of reason among the other people around him. Although, Lou Diamond Philips also has been reasonable, but he hasn't been "playing the game" until Daniel seemed to have pushed him in that direction. Sanjaya has turned out to be a very cool dude. he's up for almost anything, and has attacked the challenges with a fury. He looks like he has Small Pox, he has been DEVOURED by bug bites! Torrie Wilson also seems like a pretty cool chick, but she hasn't done much or gotten much airtime. Stephen who actually baptized Spencer has seemed like a more reasonable Jesus Freak compared to Spencer and Heidi. Janice Dickinson is still fake and manipulative and Diva like as ever. Patti is a joke. She's on there saying that they've lost their jobs, are losing their house, and still have to feed their kids and get them to school, and saying how "special interests" who her husband fought against got him fired without his chance to defend himself and that the truth will come out... Listen honey, we've seen the tapes, heard the audio (including Patti spouting vile obscenities while being a diva,) plus all of the other things that have since come out. I mean, come on lady, you and your husband got caught being the "King & Queen of Illinois" and not the people's servants. And living here in Michigan, I know a LOT of people who lost their jobs and houses and did NOTHING wrong. Heck, I'm fighting to survive myself, so the crocodile tears have no affect on me.

The episode that aired last night was probably the best one yet, but this series just isn't that good. They need to have the "celebs" do more challenges, and STOP having the live challenges begin 1 minute before the show goes off the air. If the "celebs" weren't playing for charities, this show would have virtually no value. Which isn't to say that I'll stop watching it.

At this point, I hope that Sanjaya wins. He and Daniel seem to be the most into the contest, but Sanjaya has embraced the show like nobody else. I really like his attitude and not only how he's handled himself, but how he's tolerated the others and been more than hardworking and generous. Good for him.