Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
This week the guest judge was Rick Moonan who competed on Top Chef Masters and is all about "sustainable foods."
The Quickfire involved everyone drawing knives. 6 were blank. 1 said "first choice," and 1 said "second choice." Jen drew 1st choice and they were told to pick people for teams so she chose Kevin, then MIke I, then Laurine. Brother Michael had "second choice" so he chose his brother bryan, then Eli and got stuck with Robin. For the quickfire, they had to see how well they could be a team by having 1 chef start a dish and work on it for 10 minutes while the other 3 were blindfolded (so they couldn't see what was going on) and NO TALKING was allowed. After 10 minutes, the second chef would whip off their blindfold, and then try to continue the dish and so on down the line. Both teams put their weakest 2nd as that was the easiest to fix with the final 2 chefs. Jen's team went Jen, Laurine, Mike I, then Kevin. Michael's team went Bryan, Robin, Eli and finally Michael. Rick liked both dishes, and although Jen oddly called her fish Trout, although it was Sablefish...which she SHOULD know since SHE was the one who got it since SHE went first and CHOSE the ingredient...her team won. By winning, they got a $10,000 chip which they could split 4 ways ($2,500 each,) or "let it ride" and if her team won the Elimination Challenge, they each would win $10,000! They decided to gamble, and put the chip on the line.
The Elimination Challenge was the much loved "Restaurant Wars!" This time it was different. usually, each team is given a small space side by side that they have to create a restaurant from scratch, including decor. This time, they were able to take over Rick's 2 story restaurant in Vegas, because each floor had its own kitchen and decor. Jen's team took the top floor which was more "fine dining" and their restaurant plan was supposed to fit that more. Michael's team got the first floor which had a more casual look. So, instead of decor and food, they split up to get food and restaurant equipment and odds and ends not at Whole Foods. The 4 good chefs, Bryan, Michael, Kevin and Jen, all went for the food while the other 4 went to get the other stuff.
The judges went to Michael's restuarant first, which they named Revolt as in Robin, Eli, and the Voltaggio brothers. But of course, the judges instantly thought "Revolting" which isn't a good pairing with food. Eli was the "front of the house" guy, but in another twist, he HAD to come up with 1 dish. He and Michael did first courses, Michael and Bryan did second courses, and Bryan and Robin did desserts. The judges LOVED the food. They weren't especially fond of Eli's dish (which was incorrectly labeled on screen as someone else's (I think Bryan.) Bu they really loved Michael's first course chicken, and also his second course a fish dish. Robin's dessert also got high marks, although she and Michael fought in the back because he was trying to improve it while she took it as him messing with her dish. Bryan had to step in and settle them both down. They also loved Bryan's beef dish and mostly loved his dessert. While Eli's dish was the weakest of all the dishes, it was passable and his hosting was very good.
Jen's team was fail. Laurine was terrible as a hostess. She put out food and then walked away without explaining the dishes. It wasn't until the 2nd course that Padma had to stop her and ask her to tell them what they were having and who made what. She also seemed to disappear for long periods of time. The food did not go over well. For some reason, instead of having the chefs cook 1 dish per course, they had them do both dishes per course. First course were both Mike I's dishes. They were so so, but they got the highest marks for this team. Second course were 2 seafood dishes from Jen, and for reasons unknown, she cooked shellfish to order....which is dumb, time consuming, and easily undercooked. Finally, Kevin had a beef dish and also had to finish Laurine's Lamb dish that she prepped all the way up to the actual cooking process.
Needless to say, Michael's team won. That meant that his team now got the $10,000 chip that Jen's team had "let ride." Michael offered to split it 4 ways, but when they got to the back, Bryan told him to keep his portion. He felt that (a) Michael had won it, and (b) Michael was such a jerk in the kitchen that his bad behavior shouldn't be rewarded.
Jen's team had all decided to NOT make a dessert because they said in past seasons, the team who made desserts lost. The judges pounced on them for no dessert. In the end, Laurine got the boot even though her dish was undercooked by Kevin. Laurine had told Tom that SHE would send back ANY dish not made properly, but then said that because there was such a long wait in between the 1st and 2nd courses (due to Jen cooking the clams and such to order) that she just tried to get the food out. So, she went due to that and due to her poor front of the house performance. While Tom has said time and again that each chef is ONLY judged by THAT week's elimination, I don't think that is what happened. Jen made 2 terrible dishes. Both were called out for how bad they were. Had she precooked the clams, oysters, and etc, and maybe made one as the first course and 1 as the second, she might have been able to stay on top of them. Same with all the chefs and their dishes on her team.
For me though, it SHOULD have been Jen because it was her team, and BOTH of her dishes were terrible. Afterwards, Kevin was pissed and wouldn't talk about it. I wonder if it was guilt for undercooking Laurine's dish and her going home, or because he felt that Jen was given a pass due to her prior good performances. Once again, Jen's dour, pouty, poor self esteem caught up with her. She really is her own worst enemy.
This was a great week in tv! Many shows had some of their best episodes ever!
Survivor:
Chief Russell passed out at the reward challenge and at one point had "cold dead eyes." Jeff stopped the challenge, and then cancelled it outright and sent the tribes back to their camps. he had announced that reward was for pizza, but that BOTH tribes would go to tribal where the winning tribe would eat in front of the losing tribe, but BOTH tribes would vote off someone. Snake bitten Foa Foa looked to be about to win when Chief Russell faceplanted on Galu's puzzle table. Russell's heart rate dropped from like 98 bpm to 67 bpm, so they pulled him from the game. Russell was pissed and reading interviews with him now, he was a jerk to medical and the Survivor people. He didn't realize how bad it was as he was out of it. He just thought he was dehydrated and passed out and would have been fine after some water. Watching it with his wife, he said seeing his cold dead eyes would haunt him his whole life and made his wife breakdown next to him. She thought that she had just seen him die before coming back. Thankfully, this has apparently brought them closer together. Jeff blogged that it was about 45 minutes before Russell was fully conscious and aware. He also responded to comments on his blog and said that both tribes got pizza because of what had happened. Neither tribe voted anyone out so Galu now has 8 and Foa Foa still has 5.
Smallville:
I thought that this was one of the best episodes of Smallville in a LOOOONG time.
It was kind of like that Michael Douglas movie "The Game" where he's a rich guy and for his birthday gift he is thrust into a "game" where his life and lifestyle are put to risk. That happens to Oliver who is on a self destructive binge, and essentially tried to kill himself last week when he stepped off the Toyman's bomb platform, not knowing that it was a fake.
He is at a gambling house when an Asian woman with a dragon tattoo offers him some "real fun." She give him a pill and he wakes up in a coffin. he gets out and finds himself in a room with another coffin, this one locked and someone inside pounding to get out. On the top of the coffin it says, "Alexander Luthor" who Ollie believes he killed last season. Ollie opens it and it's just speakers. He's then taunted by the game makers.
He escapes to a car, that gets hit by a semi. He wakes up on the ground and makes his way back to the gambling place where he finds the scared Asian woman. She tells him that her life is in danger too, and they both get attacked and she gets shot. Cops show up and taser Ollie. He wakes up handcuffed to a table and a cop yelling at him. An FBI agent comes in, and tells Ollie that they've been tracking this group and that they raid his accounts. He gives Oliver a laptop, and Ollie checks his accounts. He has over $3 billion, but it's all there. The FBI agent leaves the room, and suddenly the money disappears. Clark busts in, and takes him to see Chloe.
Chole is shocked at Oliver's appearance. Ollie tries to get to the bottom of it, while Chloe sends Clark to see Jor El as they find out that nearly 100 Kandorians have arrived on earth, and 1 was at the event where Oliver was standing on the "bomb" platform. Clark later returns to say that Jor El recognized the symbol as a house from Kandor and that her presence there means big trouble.
Oliver goes back to the gambling place and finds a bound Lois in the Asian woman's dress. Lois saw the footage of Ollie stepping off the platform, and was made that Clark both hid it from her and lied that Ollie was ok. She found Oliver's lambo, and the Asian woman was in possession of it. She and Lois fought until Asian woman (now known as Roulette,) pulled a gun on her. Roulette told Ollie that he had a choice, save Lois from the fire she was about to start, or try to stop her. She knocked out Lois (actually, it seemed quite lame,) and as she left, the fire caused an explosion in the other room. Ollie left Lois to save a trapped Roulette, telling her that despite all that she's done, he won't leave her to burn alive. Suddenly, she gets up and all the fires go out. It was all a set up. She tells Ollie that she kept asking him, "Who did he destroy?" Suddenly mirrors appear and the answer is obvious...Ollie "destroyed" himself.
Ollie confronts Chloe. He figured out that only SHE could have put it all together and used the League to prevent him from serious harm. Chloe admitted it, and said that Clark and Lois only became involved by accident. She knew he was still a good man and a hero, but had lost sight of it after what he did to Lex. Oliver now was "reborn" and the episode ended with him and Clark on a rooftop, looking to stop crime together.
Dollhouse:
Dollhouse told how Sierra (born Priya) was an artist found by a brilliant Noble nominated doctor. He used the Dollhouse to throw her an art gallery showing mixed with real art people and Dolls. He wanted her to be with him, but she fell for "Victor." It was then that he used his pull to have her drugged with psychotics and committed to a mental institution. He then arranged for her to be picked up by the Dollhouse and made into a Doll...where she would become his unknowing personal sex slave as she was programmed to be his "girlfriend."
Acting on a tip from Echo, Topher looked into it and found out that the Dollhouse had been had. DeWitt was NOT amused and told him that they would no longer be sending her to him. he told her that as a major contributor to the Rossum Foundation, HE not she called the shots. Sure enough, her job and life were threatened by her higher ups to make Sierra PERMANENTLY his girlfriend.
Topher instead gave her back her real mind, and she ended up killing him. She called Topher who came to help her and they'd BOTH have to run away. Until Langton showed up with a plan. He had followed Topher and sent him to his car for some tools and acid. Topher had to cut up the loser's body in the tub, and fill the tub with the acid. Priya then came back with them and knew that she had to go back to being Sierra again. She saw Victor, and realized that somehoe, the 2 of them were in love. She told Topher that if she were to be returned to Priya again, to restore her to where she was when he woke her up, without any knowledge of what has happened and what she did.
By all accounts from fans and reviewers, this was one of the best episodes ever!
Other shows that were really good this week include Spectacular Spiderman which saw a battle between 3 crimelords and then Spiderman, only to find that the Green Goblin had returned and had set the whole thing in motion. Batman the Brave & the Bold also was surprisingly good. It was a musical, with Neil Patrick Harris in the role of the Music Meister, a villain who can control minds with his singing. Good guys and bad all end up doing his bidding while Black Canary and others sing his twisted songs. Very interesting songs, and especially the Black Canary pining for Batman song.
Other shows:
Sanctuary was pretty decent, but I STILL want to know why they killed off Ashley and replaced her with a new character. Stargate:Universe is much more like BSG than Star Trek:Voyager, and NOTHING like the other Stargates. Medium was a good episode on the whole, but I HATE episodes where they make Allison look crazy.
In other news, it was my birthday on Friday (10/23.) Not a good day on the whole, but could have been worse.
Showing posts with label Spectacular Spiderman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spectacular Spiderman. Show all posts
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Catching up
Sorry that it's been so long, work has been nuts.
Anywho, I'll do short recaps of Warehouse 13's final 2 episodes and the last 3 eps of Top Chef: Vegas, plus a few comments about other shows this season.
Suffice to say, I probably won't be blogging any shows for the time being, but I will try to keep posting on Top Chef until it finishes.
Anything else, tv shows, movies, wtfe, will come as I can.
Warehouse 13:
Ok, so I was wrong in that Mrs Frederic didn't turn Artie and the team loose to get MacPherson. The second to last episode started with Myka in Europe in a hotel room they traced to MacPherson. She discovered that special hand cymbals that he had were not in their storage box in the room, so he must have them on him. At the same time, Pete was chasing MacPherson down a street in Montreal when 2 cops showed up. MacPherson used the cymbals which blasted a sonic wave that knocked Pete over and killed the 2 cops (Pete had been warned to cover his ears, the cops weren't so lucky.) Mrs. Frederic was NOT pleased at what they had been up to.
Myka's father, who runs an old new & used book store and lives above it with her mother was sent an old Edgar Allen Poe book. Upon touching it, words from the pages ran up his arm causing him to scream in pain. Myka's mom called and told her that he had some sort of seizure, so Myka went to check on him...although they never got along. Pete showed up unexpectedly to offer his support. Later, the father read the book again (not knowing what had happened) only this time he went into some trance/coma like state and the words could be seen all over his body.
At the same time, a college student with a crush on a pretty gal "hears" Edgar Allen Poe's pne "calling" to him. He breaks into a display case with it, and by writing a word down anyone who reads it is affected by it. He writes "fire" on paper and puts it in a rivals locker and the guy bursts into flames (survives.) Then his professor confronts him about the pen and the kid shows him "wall" and the wall grabs the prof and buries him alive inside. Luckily, by now Pete and Claudia have arrived and they get the prof out of the wall. The kid entralls the gal and when Pete & Claudia show up he shows them "Pendulum" and suddenly they're lying prone on the ground with a giant pendulum swinging above them. They're able to break the spell from them and the gal, and take the pen into their custody.
Back at Myka's parent's place, the reunite the pen and book and the words leave her dad and go back into the book. As Myka and Pete leave, they realize that something isn't right. They go back inside and fine Myka's parents entralled by a lantern (Jack the Ripper's) and MacPherson is there. He agrees to free her parents and spare their lives in exchange for the book and pen. He takes them and leaves.
Ok decent episode, it resolved Myka and her father's estrangement when Myka finds out that he wrote and rewrote a book about her and how great she is. He never published it, but Myka and her mom encourage him to do so. Myka's parents were played by real life husband and wife Michael and Susan Hogan. Michael played the eye patch wearing Colonel Tigh on the recent BSG remake series.
The final episode of the season had the whole team hunting MacPherson who possessed a Phoenix pendant that allows the wearer to survive being in a fire, but by killing double the amount of lives it saves. This is what caused MacPherson to be banished from the Warehouse and imprisoned. Years earlier, he used it to save the life of the woman he and Artie both loved, but it killed 4 firemen. Banishment from the Warehouse means adding an element to his blood that should he step into the Warehouse, the magically enhanced elements in the Warehouse would cause him to explode. He somehow had managed to not only escape prison some time ago, but had managed to get the Phoenix pendant as well as other items from within the Warehouse. Doing an investigation, the team used the item's tracking device that records anyone who removes an item from a shelf. In all cases, the person was Claudia.
Turns out that MacPherson had a shape changing artifact, and had one of his henchmen wear it to "become"Artie to try to frame Artie as a major criminal. It was also revealed that Leena, the Bohemian woman who runs the Bed & Breakfast where the agents live, was working with MacPherson and stole the items for him while looking like Claudia. The point was to get the agent's to capture MacPherson and bring him to the Warehouse to be encased in copper for all time. In order to do that, he was given an item that neutralized the chemicals in his body so that he could go inside. Once inside, Leena (as Claudia) freed him from the copper and he stole some items and set the tunnel that connects the Warehouse to the outside to explode...which it did...with Artie inside.
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The last 3 episodes-
Episode 5:
Guest Judge: Tim Love who competed and lost in the first rounds of Top Chef Masters.
Quickfire Challenge: make something with cactus. Winner: Mike I who won a $15,000 chip
Elimination Challenge: Camping cooking out in the desert with fire pits.
Winner: Brother Bryan for his second in a row, and third overall.
Eliminated: Mattin who made ceviche...out in the dessert...and it was raw.
Episode 6:
Guest Judges: Michelle Bernstein and Penn & Teller.
Quickfire Challenge: Make something that represents Angel on one shoulder and Devil on the other. Winner: Robin who made a dish that represented what she could eat and couldn't eat due to her cancer diagnosis. The cheftestants were NOT happy as Robin is considered a light weight and they though Michelle gave it to her because she's a woman and her cancer story. Chef Tom disputed that in his online blog. BTW, Michelle Bernstein is SMOKING HOT now!
Elimination Challenge: Use their own "magic" to deconstruct and recreate a dish.
Winner: Kevin who had made a similar dish in the previous challenge but failed...he just happened to get some of the same ingredients by chance.
Eliminated: Ron who tried to make a Paella but neither successfully or correctly made a paella, and didn't even get the concept of deconstructing it as it was essentially just his trying to actually make a paella using the normal ingredients.
Episode7:
Guest Judge: Tyler Florence of Food Network (huh? how was he able to do this?) aka my "celebrity look-alike." I don't think I look like him, but he's the only celebrity who is even close. I think he was able to be on this show as it was all to benefit a feed the hungry program that he's seriously involved with.
Quickfire Challenge: The pulled a slot machine and it gave them 3 random ingredients based upon "mood" "taste/texture" and "origin of cuisine"
Winner: Kevin who could take a $15,000 chip, or have immunity in the Elimination Challenge. He chose the chip (good call!)
Elimination Challenge: They had to draw knives to pair up and make a dinner using ingredients given to them from a well regarded restaurateur who also were members of Tyler's organization. The ingredients represented that restaurateur's "style" but they didn't have to make the dish like the restaurateur, they could make something of their own using that person's ingredients in a new and different way.
Winner: Jennifer who had been sick and was in the bottom in the Quickfire Challenge.
Eliminated: Ashley Brother Michael almost got the boot, but since he wins more than not and Ashley's in the bottom more than not, I think that's why she went.
At this point, the only really "weak" cheftestant left is Robin. She SHOULD go this week, and if not her then maybe Laurine.
Other Shows:
Survivor:
They spent waaaay too much time hyping Evil White Russell and yet nothing he has said is really true. He keeps gloating that he's "calling the shots" yet the first to go was a young gal who didn't get along with the tribe, and the next to go was an over 40 woman. These are the types who USUALLY go first anyway. His first real challenge was when Jaison wanted to get rid of Ben but EWR didn't. Jaison got his way as EVERYONE (including EWR) voted out Ben. I will give EWR credit for finding the Hidden Immunity Idol without a single clue, but for me, it was hidden very lazy. I was more impressed when Eirk was told the 2 clues by Shambo and he went and found it just using what she had told him. Their HII was also in a tree, but it seemed MUCH harder to find.
The Amazing Race:
It would SUCK to have been Philiminated before the start of the race as the "hippie" couple was, but at least it's not as bad as when they've done it on Top Chef where they had traveled across the country only to be eliminated before it began, or Survivor where people had traveled across the planet only to be eliminated before tribes were even formed. I had hpp[ed byond hope that the annoying lawyer couple would be the ones to go, but alas.
Right now, I like the young couple who have been together since Elementary school, the father and son team, and the Globetrotters (these 3 teams finished 1, 2 & 3 on the last episode!)
I didn't like the poker playing gals, but they redeemed themselves a bit when the gay brothers had stopped to help them and they told them to continue on so that they wouldn't fall behind trying to help them.
Smallville:
So, they made Clark "Batman" for the first 2 episodes and he's now "The Blur" instead of the "Red Blue Blur" as he now wears black and not red & blue. They're also making Green Arrow have the "addict" storyline...much like the Tony Stark drunk storyline in Ironman. I think they had a GA storyline that was similar in the comics, but I'm not 100% sure. Also, Zod and MANY Kandorians are on Earth, but NONE of them have powers...yet. They now know that Clark exists, but for the moment, they think it's Jor El. I'm also not sure I like what they're doing, but I'll reserve judgment until I see how it all plays out.
Stargate-Universe:
This certainly isn't the "old" Stargate, and also isn't Star Trek:Voyager. MUCH darker. MUCH more conflict. Also, MUCH more adult and has really "deep" themes.
Fringe:
Pretty good, glad it's back. Hope it does well.
Heroes:
I haven't watched ANY of the episodes, and apparently neither has America as it's ratings are terrible. I doubt it will make it.
Dollhouse:
Somewhat better, but still glad it's back.
Sanctuary:
Very different than last season so far. I like the change, and the effects seem even better, so perhaps they increased the budget. So far, so good!
Wolverine & The X-Men:
Wow, this series has continued to impress me. If you're not watching it, you're missing the best first season of a cartoon series ever...even better than Spectacular Spiderman from last year.
Spectacular Spiderman:
It took a LOOONG break recently for no reason after having FINALLY come back on, but it's back and it's still good.
Next Iron Chef America:
Why?
I know Batali is gone, but I recognize NONE of these people. Why not wait and maybe bring back some of the other NICA people from last time, or some of the TCM folks. Who are these people? So far the first episode might as well have been called Top Iron Chef America as it was virtually IDENTICAL to Top Chef and NOT like the previous NICA that Michael Symon won.
Anywho, I'll do short recaps of Warehouse 13's final 2 episodes and the last 3 eps of Top Chef: Vegas, plus a few comments about other shows this season.
Suffice to say, I probably won't be blogging any shows for the time being, but I will try to keep posting on Top Chef until it finishes.
Anything else, tv shows, movies, wtfe, will come as I can.
Warehouse 13:
Ok, so I was wrong in that Mrs Frederic didn't turn Artie and the team loose to get MacPherson. The second to last episode started with Myka in Europe in a hotel room they traced to MacPherson. She discovered that special hand cymbals that he had were not in their storage box in the room, so he must have them on him. At the same time, Pete was chasing MacPherson down a street in Montreal when 2 cops showed up. MacPherson used the cymbals which blasted a sonic wave that knocked Pete over and killed the 2 cops (Pete had been warned to cover his ears, the cops weren't so lucky.) Mrs. Frederic was NOT pleased at what they had been up to.
Myka's father, who runs an old new & used book store and lives above it with her mother was sent an old Edgar Allen Poe book. Upon touching it, words from the pages ran up his arm causing him to scream in pain. Myka's mom called and told her that he had some sort of seizure, so Myka went to check on him...although they never got along. Pete showed up unexpectedly to offer his support. Later, the father read the book again (not knowing what had happened) only this time he went into some trance/coma like state and the words could be seen all over his body.
At the same time, a college student with a crush on a pretty gal "hears" Edgar Allen Poe's pne "calling" to him. He breaks into a display case with it, and by writing a word down anyone who reads it is affected by it. He writes "fire" on paper and puts it in a rivals locker and the guy bursts into flames (survives.) Then his professor confronts him about the pen and the kid shows him "wall" and the wall grabs the prof and buries him alive inside. Luckily, by now Pete and Claudia have arrived and they get the prof out of the wall. The kid entralls the gal and when Pete & Claudia show up he shows them "Pendulum" and suddenly they're lying prone on the ground with a giant pendulum swinging above them. They're able to break the spell from them and the gal, and take the pen into their custody.
Back at Myka's parent's place, the reunite the pen and book and the words leave her dad and go back into the book. As Myka and Pete leave, they realize that something isn't right. They go back inside and fine Myka's parents entralled by a lantern (Jack the Ripper's) and MacPherson is there. He agrees to free her parents and spare their lives in exchange for the book and pen. He takes them and leaves.
Ok decent episode, it resolved Myka and her father's estrangement when Myka finds out that he wrote and rewrote a book about her and how great she is. He never published it, but Myka and her mom encourage him to do so. Myka's parents were played by real life husband and wife Michael and Susan Hogan. Michael played the eye patch wearing Colonel Tigh on the recent BSG remake series.
The final episode of the season had the whole team hunting MacPherson who possessed a Phoenix pendant that allows the wearer to survive being in a fire, but by killing double the amount of lives it saves. This is what caused MacPherson to be banished from the Warehouse and imprisoned. Years earlier, he used it to save the life of the woman he and Artie both loved, but it killed 4 firemen. Banishment from the Warehouse means adding an element to his blood that should he step into the Warehouse, the magically enhanced elements in the Warehouse would cause him to explode. He somehow had managed to not only escape prison some time ago, but had managed to get the Phoenix pendant as well as other items from within the Warehouse. Doing an investigation, the team used the item's tracking device that records anyone who removes an item from a shelf. In all cases, the person was Claudia.
Turns out that MacPherson had a shape changing artifact, and had one of his henchmen wear it to "become"Artie to try to frame Artie as a major criminal. It was also revealed that Leena, the Bohemian woman who runs the Bed & Breakfast where the agents live, was working with MacPherson and stole the items for him while looking like Claudia. The point was to get the agent's to capture MacPherson and bring him to the Warehouse to be encased in copper for all time. In order to do that, he was given an item that neutralized the chemicals in his body so that he could go inside. Once inside, Leena (as Claudia) freed him from the copper and he stole some items and set the tunnel that connects the Warehouse to the outside to explode...which it did...with Artie inside.
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The last 3 episodes-
Episode 5:
Guest Judge: Tim Love who competed and lost in the first rounds of Top Chef Masters.
Quickfire Challenge: make something with cactus. Winner: Mike I who won a $15,000 chip
Elimination Challenge: Camping cooking out in the desert with fire pits.
Winner: Brother Bryan for his second in a row, and third overall.
Eliminated: Mattin who made ceviche...out in the dessert...and it was raw.
Episode 6:
Guest Judges: Michelle Bernstein and Penn & Teller.
Quickfire Challenge: Make something that represents Angel on one shoulder and Devil on the other. Winner: Robin who made a dish that represented what she could eat and couldn't eat due to her cancer diagnosis. The cheftestants were NOT happy as Robin is considered a light weight and they though Michelle gave it to her because she's a woman and her cancer story. Chef Tom disputed that in his online blog. BTW, Michelle Bernstein is SMOKING HOT now!
Elimination Challenge: Use their own "magic" to deconstruct and recreate a dish.
Winner: Kevin who had made a similar dish in the previous challenge but failed...he just happened to get some of the same ingredients by chance.
Eliminated: Ron who tried to make a Paella but neither successfully or correctly made a paella, and didn't even get the concept of deconstructing it as it was essentially just his trying to actually make a paella using the normal ingredients.
Episode7:
Guest Judge: Tyler Florence of Food Network (huh? how was he able to do this?) aka my "celebrity look-alike." I don't think I look like him, but he's the only celebrity who is even close. I think he was able to be on this show as it was all to benefit a feed the hungry program that he's seriously involved with.
Quickfire Challenge: The pulled a slot machine and it gave them 3 random ingredients based upon "mood" "taste/texture" and "origin of cuisine"
Winner: Kevin who could take a $15,000 chip, or have immunity in the Elimination Challenge. He chose the chip (good call!)
Elimination Challenge: They had to draw knives to pair up and make a dinner using ingredients given to them from a well regarded restaurateur who also were members of Tyler's organization. The ingredients represented that restaurateur's "style" but they didn't have to make the dish like the restaurateur, they could make something of their own using that person's ingredients in a new and different way.
Winner: Jennifer who had been sick and was in the bottom in the Quickfire Challenge.
Eliminated: Ashley Brother Michael almost got the boot, but since he wins more than not and Ashley's in the bottom more than not, I think that's why she went.
At this point, the only really "weak" cheftestant left is Robin. She SHOULD go this week, and if not her then maybe Laurine.
Other Shows:
Survivor:
They spent waaaay too much time hyping Evil White Russell and yet nothing he has said is really true. He keeps gloating that he's "calling the shots" yet the first to go was a young gal who didn't get along with the tribe, and the next to go was an over 40 woman. These are the types who USUALLY go first anyway. His first real challenge was when Jaison wanted to get rid of Ben but EWR didn't. Jaison got his way as EVERYONE (including EWR) voted out Ben. I will give EWR credit for finding the Hidden Immunity Idol without a single clue, but for me, it was hidden very lazy. I was more impressed when Eirk was told the 2 clues by Shambo and he went and found it just using what she had told him. Their HII was also in a tree, but it seemed MUCH harder to find.
The Amazing Race:
It would SUCK to have been Philiminated before the start of the race as the "hippie" couple was, but at least it's not as bad as when they've done it on Top Chef where they had traveled across the country only to be eliminated before it began, or Survivor where people had traveled across the planet only to be eliminated before tribes were even formed. I had hpp[ed byond hope that the annoying lawyer couple would be the ones to go, but alas.
Right now, I like the young couple who have been together since Elementary school, the father and son team, and the Globetrotters (these 3 teams finished 1, 2 & 3 on the last episode!)
I didn't like the poker playing gals, but they redeemed themselves a bit when the gay brothers had stopped to help them and they told them to continue on so that they wouldn't fall behind trying to help them.
Smallville:
So, they made Clark "Batman" for the first 2 episodes and he's now "The Blur" instead of the "Red Blue Blur" as he now wears black and not red & blue. They're also making Green Arrow have the "addict" storyline...much like the Tony Stark drunk storyline in Ironman. I think they had a GA storyline that was similar in the comics, but I'm not 100% sure. Also, Zod and MANY Kandorians are on Earth, but NONE of them have powers...yet. They now know that Clark exists, but for the moment, they think it's Jor El. I'm also not sure I like what they're doing, but I'll reserve judgment until I see how it all plays out.
Stargate-Universe:
This certainly isn't the "old" Stargate, and also isn't Star Trek:Voyager. MUCH darker. MUCH more conflict. Also, MUCH more adult and has really "deep" themes.
Fringe:
Pretty good, glad it's back. Hope it does well.
Heroes:
I haven't watched ANY of the episodes, and apparently neither has America as it's ratings are terrible. I doubt it will make it.
Dollhouse:
Somewhat better, but still glad it's back.
Sanctuary:
Very different than last season so far. I like the change, and the effects seem even better, so perhaps they increased the budget. So far, so good!
Wolverine & The X-Men:
Wow, this series has continued to impress me. If you're not watching it, you're missing the best first season of a cartoon series ever...even better than Spectacular Spiderman from last year.
Spectacular Spiderman:
It took a LOOONG break recently for no reason after having FINALLY come back on, but it's back and it's still good.
Next Iron Chef America:
Why?
I know Batali is gone, but I recognize NONE of these people. Why not wait and maybe bring back some of the other NICA people from last time, or some of the TCM folks. Who are these people? So far the first episode might as well have been called Top Iron Chef America as it was virtually IDENTICAL to Top Chef and NOT like the previous NICA that Michael Symon won.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Recap 6/29 - 7/3 2009
Next Food Network Star:
Well, it's about time. Seriously.
Anyway, this week the first challenge was to make the "ultimate burger" that represented a region of the US, and then present it on camera in a 30 second spot. Most of the contestants did about the same on camera as they have in the past with Melissa setting the bar high when she went first, and Jeffrey and Debbie also doing well while Michael and Teddy weren't so hot. Katie was somewhere in the middle as usual, but Jameka was the surprise by crashing and burning when she's done well on camera before. While Michael wasn't that great on camera, Bobby loved his burger and will feature it on the menu at his new Bobby's Burger Palace in Connecticut. Katie made a Turkey burger and as it takes longer to cook than the time that they were given, she served it not completely cooked. This is the 2nd time that she's served undercooked food.
The second challenge also was about regional cuisine, and the contestants had to make a dish using all of the ingredients that they were given that represented a specific area. They then had to present their food to service people who had just returned from the Middle East, along with their families...and Guy Fieri who won NFNS in Season 2, and is one of FN's biggest stars.
I think the NFN PTB decided to make the show stop being a runaway by sabotaging Jeffrey. They NEVER showed how each contestant was assigned their region, and Jeffrey ended up with Lobster, Cheese and Blueberries to represent Maine. Now, WTF could you do with all three of those ingredients in one dish? So, not surprisingly, his dish sucked. He knew it sucked, and his presentation also suffered because of it. However, Jameka made glue. She at least went out and tried to sell herself, to try to cover her food with smoke and mirrors. It didn't work, but she survived. Michael clocked Debbie with a sheet pan and it threw her off. Both her food and her presentation were bland, but she also survived. Melissa won the challenge, easily, but I still didn't get her presentation. She mentioned that her Mom had been in the service, and then said that she had died when Melissa was 20. It seemed unnecessary to add that. She didn't say that she died while serving, so it just seemed kinda gratuitous. The bottom turned out to be Katie (shocker,) Teddy (shocker,) Jameka, and the only real shocker was that Jeffrey also was in the bottom. But, there was NFW that Jeffrey or Jameka were gonna go home ahead of Teddy and Katie who are ALWAYS in the bottom. And finally, after should have gotten booted last week, Teddy went bye bye. Please NEVER show up on my tv again.
BET Awards:
They did a pretty impressive job of turning the awards into a Michael Jackson tribute. Jamie Foxx did a pretty decent job as host, and did a decent job doing the Beat It dance and then Moonwalking. He came out and did one of his songs in Auto-Tune...which is funny because Jay-Z came out and performed his new song called Death of Auto-Tune.
New Edition started the show by performing as The Jacksons, complete with outfits, dance routines, and sang a medley of their songs. They weren't announced, but EVERYONE knew who they were.
Ciara sang "Heal the World," and Ne-Yo proved that he got his sound right from Michael with a very good version of "Lady In My Life."
But the biggest shock was right at the end, without any introduction, Jamie Foxx escorted Janet Jackson onto the stage. You could see her trying to get the words out before finally giving a very short speech. They cut to the crowd and there were LOTS of tears...but that was ONLY the start as Jamie Foxx (without auto-tune) and Ne-Yo performed a very good version of "I'll Be There" which pretty much got all the women crying...and looked to have choked up many of the men.
It really wasn't that great of a show on the whole. They chose not to announce the nominees (except in Best Female R&B) in order to allow for all of the MJ stuff, and it seemed to make much of the show out of context. Also, it was odd when performers sang non-MJ songs as you know that they ALL could have done SOMETHING. But the beginning and the ending made it worth watching.
Kathy Griffin:
In this episode, the first part dealt with KG trying to appeal to "Young Hollywood" and younger fans. She tried to get a part on "Gossip Girl," but failed. She did get a small part on "Privileged" as a wedding planner for a wedding between 2 gay characters. She had trouble with her lines and her acting as she hasn't done much acting over the last several years, but she ended up getting it together.
The second part dealt with her hanging out with Paris Hilton, going shopping, dealing with the Paps, and then hanging out at a pool. KG showed off her newly fabulous 48 year old body in a bikini. Earlier, she kept embarrassing Tom who was in her walk-in closet while she was trying on some of Paris' clothes, and she kept practicing showing her crotch (with panties) and Tom had to keep turning away.
The storyline that ran through the whole episode dealt with Kathy putting her Mom in charge of her Facebook and MySpace pages (created also to attract younger fans) and her Mom having a hard time posting what Kathy wanted (as Mom was supposed to post things as though SHE were Kathy) and not post things like "2 buck chuck on sale at Trader Joe's." Kathy fired her at the end of the episode.
Spectacular Spiderman:
This wasn't one of the better episodes as though not much "really" happened, although it did mark the return of the Sinister Six which replaced 2 members. Doc Oc has had a mental breakdown and is in an insane asylum, and was there along with Shocker. The Master Planner broke Shocker out of prison, but Doc Oc wouldn't go.
A very wiped out Spidey ended up defeating the revised SS, but the police were only able to hang onto Mysterio as the Master Planner was able to extract the other 5 from where Spidey had left them. This left an opening in the SS, so MP sent Doc Oc's robot tentacles to kidnap him from the insane asylum.
The other storyline dealt with Peter's girl Issues. Liz Allen still seems to be crushing on him, but drops him whenever the QB (now on crutches) shows up. So, Peter tried to talk with Gwen who said that it's obvious that she isn't his first choice...and WON'T be his 2nd. Peter then went to get Mary Jane a Hot Chocolate when the Sinister Six showed up. He explained his absence by saying that the vendor was out, so he went down the street to get the drinks. This lead to the gals thinking that Peter just can't stay focused.
Superstars:
Last week, TO and his model teammate were screwed over and got booted. Jennifer Capriati, who sucked in all of the challenges last week, ended up reaggravating an old injury and had to drop out. This meant that her teammate, David Charvet, also was gone. This allowed TO's team back into the competition.
So, what was the first task? A relay race in sand. And TO, a NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver was now going to be running in it. Hoo boy. There were to be 6 heats, with the slowest team cut after each heat. This meant that the winning pair had to run 6 times. They could only run either the 1st or 2nd leg 3 times each.
Bode Miller's team devised a strategy to false start each race, because the rules stated that once any team false started in a heat, if it happened again (even if the 2nd time wasn't the same team as the first time) the team that false started would be eliminated. This meant that each race had added pressure to not jump the gun.
TO's team won the event easily. Bode Miller's team wound up in the second to last race, and when the gun went off, they both sat down. They did this to pretend that whoever left first (TO) jumped the gun. The other racer, NBA player Robert Horry, got confused and at first didn't run, but then took off when he found out that TO didn't false start. Bode's team decided that they couldn't win anyway, so they wanted to rest up for the next event. Probably a good idea as Dan Cortese pulled his hamstring during on of the later heats. Dan had to leave the competition, so they brought David Charvet back to replace him on Lisa Leslie's team. They wrote DAN on their arms (but not Jen.)
The 2nd event was a running long jump over a styrofoam bar in the water. Each person got to practice jump once, and TO cleared 20' for the longest jump of the day. They had the "celebs" jump first, so by the time it was the athlete's turn to jump, the tide had come in which raised the bar 3' up, making it harder to clear. Sure enough, the athletes kept hitting the bar. TO tried 20' again, but should have gone with 17' or 18' as he would have made it. Instead, he hit the bar. Estella Warren and the NBA guy finished last in both the relay race and the long jump, as BOTH of them hit the bar.
Once again, they screwed a team in order to have the "rubber match." While not as bad as last week's, there were 4 bottom teams, and the team in third had 10 more points than the team in 4th. It didn't matter, so Bode Miller's team had to compete against Julio Iglesias's team. Julio stumbled at the end of the runway and faceplanted onto the styrofoam bar, sending his team into the obstacle course, which is how it should have been anyway. Estella Warren and Robert Horry sucked the entire day, finishing last in all three events and they got the boot. Estella had once been an Olympic level synchronized swimmer, but she had a belly and looked much more "doughy" and out of shape compared to the other contestants, and Robert wasn't much better. They deserved to go.
Top Gear:
I actually watched 2 episodes this week.
The first aired Monday or Tuesday and involved the guys driving American Muscle Cars from San Francisco to the Salt Flats in Utah.
They joked that their Visas allowed for them to make "factual" tv, not "entertainment" as that was a different type of Visa. They said that they didn't realize the difference and didn't have time to change their Visas. The last time they were here, Jeremy apparently put a cow on the roof of his car or somesuch, so that didn't qualify as "factual" and the State Department gave them some lip when they came over this time. They allegedly were told that they could film here as long as it "wasn't entertaining."
The guys started by saying that American Muscle cars just don't make sense as they use too much gas, and can't be driven in Europe because the roads there aren't designed for them, and they're just not practical.
Jeremy drove a Corvette ZR-1, and at first didn't think he'd like it but ended up LOVING it. He said that Ferrari should take a drive in it and learn something from it. He said that it had a LOT of power, making it fun, but it also road well, and when taking it though a road that had a lot of turns, it handled even better. One segment that cracked me up was while they were in Reno, James went to a casino while Jeremy and Richard dragged raced and then both pulled alongside several parked cars and revved their engines so loudly that they set off the car alarms on all the cars that had them. Fun!
James started out by hating his Cadillac CTS-V. He actually owns a Cadillac, but a luxury one, not a muscle car. He hated that it had all this "needless" power when a Cadillac "should" be all about luxury. Once they hit the curvy roadway, though, he fell in love with how it handled the road with agility, power, and surprising grace.
Richard was supposed to drive a Dodge Challenger, but Chrysler wouldn't lend them one to drive because they claimed that Top Gear has "trashed" their cars in the past. So, "The Hamster" (who LOVES muscle cars and actually owns a "Bullitt" Mustang) allegedly bought a Challenger. He said that they normally cost about $45K, but because they were rare and in demand that he had to pay about $55K for his. He loved driving it on the open road, and loved the sound of the engine. On the curvy road, though, it didn't handle as well as the others. In the end though, Jeremy showed footage of all 3 of them smiling while driving and said that "American failed to make a practical muscle car...it made 3."
The second episode was on Thursday, I believe, and was the sequel to an earlier episode where the guys were supposed to make "aquatic" cars and sail them across a river. In that episode, Jeremy took a pickup truck and slapped an outboard motor on it. He was doing well until it took in water due to not being water proof, and it rolled over in the water. Richard tried to make a "cabin cruiser" but his also failed. James actually made it across in one of those cars that were designed to be driven in the water, but Jeremy claimed that he didn't quite make it since he wasn't able to drive it out of the river.
So this time, they modified their earlier ideas. Jeremy used foam and other stuff to seal up the insides of the truck, the wheel wells, and the engine. Richard did much the same, but his vehicle this time was pretty much a boat placed on a truck frame. James used the same car, but added a mast. This time, however, they were told to cross the English Channel into France. 22 miles!
On the first attempt, James couldn't steer correctly and he nearly crashed into a breaker wall, but was saved by the Coast Guard. Jeremy did ok, but the rough waters caused his truck to sink. Richard also couldn't survive the rough waters and turned around. On the second attempt, the waters were calmer but James' car sank and he ended up with Richard. Jeremy tried to make it out in the calmer waters, but also failed. Finally, they all piled into Jeremy's truck and tried to break Richard Branson's record of driving a car across the Channel in 100 minutes. They failed. But, they actually did make it across the Channel and drove out onto the shore...to the applause of dumbfounded French folks.
Pitchmen:
I've never seen this before, but it followed Billy Mays and his partner Anthony "Sully" Sullivan and how people would pitch them ideas and then if Billy and "Sully" believed in the product, Billy would do an infomercial about it.
The episode I saw was the "season finale" (which may now be the series finale) and it gave a recap of some of the products that didn't pass muster, and gave an update on some that had. A fireman invented a "dual saw" that cuts through just about anything and has sold $5 million worth! WOW! Another guy invented a magnetic tool belt that you wear on your arm, and he's sold millions as well. They also showed the Awesome Auger which has sold over $9 Million worth! Holy schnikes!
The first part of the episode dealt with them upset over the Sham-wow and the Slap-chop as both are similar to products that Billy has supported in the past...the Zorbeez and the Quick-Chop. It didn't help that both products Billy pitched were several years ago, while the 2 new ones were within that last 2 years. It also didn't help that some writer for Popular Mechanics compared the Zorbeez to the Sham-wow and said that the Sham-wow won "by a mile." Billy spent his own money (the product makers weren't initially behind a new infomercial) and made new spots for both products. At the shoot, Billy's dad and his son were all there, and all are named Billy Mays (Sr, Jr, and III.) The product infomercials were successful and led to a lot of new sales of both products.
The next part dealt with a contest between Billy and Sully who each had an hour at the Philadelphia Trade Show to pitch old products to the people there and see who could make the most money. Sully doesn't do much pitching, so he decided to cheat. He gave money to people walking around the show to act as "marks" to come up and buy the product (a shammy type mop that Sully had pitched on tv 15 years ago) to draw a crowd. He also sent 2 friends (a man and a woman) both disguised as bearded vagrant types to try to throw Billy off his game. None of it mattered as Sully sold just over $600 worth (including the "Marks") while Billy sold over $900 worth of a salsa maker that he also hasn't pitched in over 15 years.
The end of the show offered a tribute to Billy. So that was impressive to have the episode re-edited added onto to deal with Billy's death earlier this week. They'll also have a special tribute episode about him next Thursday.
I really didn't even know the name Billy Mays until last year. I'd seen the guy, but didn't pay attention to his name. I wasn't a big fan of his "shouting" style either, but it was effective. I will say that I give both of these guys a LOT of credit. They weren't just shills out there pushing anything. They cared about their reputations, and wouldn't pitch anything if it didn't work as advertised and wouldn't have a market. For instance, the magnetic arm toolbelt is one of those, "Why didn't I think of that" type of products, but OxyClean is what put Billy on the map and that was one of those "does it really work" things. I've read reviews of it, and yep, I guess it does. Anyway, Billy came across as intense, passionate, but a decent guy. In a week where the iconic "side man," "beauty," and "superstar" all died, Billy was the iconic "salesman" and his death at 50 also was much too soon. I don't know if this series will return, unless maybe "Sully" steps out from behind the camera, or Billy's son takes over for him...or they hire "Vince" who pitched the Sham-wow and the Slap-chop. Although that recent run in with the law probably wouldn't put Vince high on the list to succeed Billy.
Well, it's about time. Seriously.
Anyway, this week the first challenge was to make the "ultimate burger" that represented a region of the US, and then present it on camera in a 30 second spot. Most of the contestants did about the same on camera as they have in the past with Melissa setting the bar high when she went first, and Jeffrey and Debbie also doing well while Michael and Teddy weren't so hot. Katie was somewhere in the middle as usual, but Jameka was the surprise by crashing and burning when she's done well on camera before. While Michael wasn't that great on camera, Bobby loved his burger and will feature it on the menu at his new Bobby's Burger Palace in Connecticut. Katie made a Turkey burger and as it takes longer to cook than the time that they were given, she served it not completely cooked. This is the 2nd time that she's served undercooked food.
The second challenge also was about regional cuisine, and the contestants had to make a dish using all of the ingredients that they were given that represented a specific area. They then had to present their food to service people who had just returned from the Middle East, along with their families...and Guy Fieri who won NFNS in Season 2, and is one of FN's biggest stars.
I think the NFN PTB decided to make the show stop being a runaway by sabotaging Jeffrey. They NEVER showed how each contestant was assigned their region, and Jeffrey ended up with Lobster, Cheese and Blueberries to represent Maine. Now, WTF could you do with all three of those ingredients in one dish? So, not surprisingly, his dish sucked. He knew it sucked, and his presentation also suffered because of it. However, Jameka made glue. She at least went out and tried to sell herself, to try to cover her food with smoke and mirrors. It didn't work, but she survived. Michael clocked Debbie with a sheet pan and it threw her off. Both her food and her presentation were bland, but she also survived. Melissa won the challenge, easily, but I still didn't get her presentation. She mentioned that her Mom had been in the service, and then said that she had died when Melissa was 20. It seemed unnecessary to add that. She didn't say that she died while serving, so it just seemed kinda gratuitous. The bottom turned out to be Katie (shocker,) Teddy (shocker,) Jameka, and the only real shocker was that Jeffrey also was in the bottom. But, there was NFW that Jeffrey or Jameka were gonna go home ahead of Teddy and Katie who are ALWAYS in the bottom. And finally, after should have gotten booted last week, Teddy went bye bye. Please NEVER show up on my tv again.
BET Awards:
They did a pretty impressive job of turning the awards into a Michael Jackson tribute. Jamie Foxx did a pretty decent job as host, and did a decent job doing the Beat It dance and then Moonwalking. He came out and did one of his songs in Auto-Tune...which is funny because Jay-Z came out and performed his new song called Death of Auto-Tune.
New Edition started the show by performing as The Jacksons, complete with outfits, dance routines, and sang a medley of their songs. They weren't announced, but EVERYONE knew who they were.
Ciara sang "Heal the World," and Ne-Yo proved that he got his sound right from Michael with a very good version of "Lady In My Life."
But the biggest shock was right at the end, without any introduction, Jamie Foxx escorted Janet Jackson onto the stage. You could see her trying to get the words out before finally giving a very short speech. They cut to the crowd and there were LOTS of tears...but that was ONLY the start as Jamie Foxx (without auto-tune) and Ne-Yo performed a very good version of "I'll Be There" which pretty much got all the women crying...and looked to have choked up many of the men.
It really wasn't that great of a show on the whole. They chose not to announce the nominees (except in Best Female R&B) in order to allow for all of the MJ stuff, and it seemed to make much of the show out of context. Also, it was odd when performers sang non-MJ songs as you know that they ALL could have done SOMETHING. But the beginning and the ending made it worth watching.
Kathy Griffin:
In this episode, the first part dealt with KG trying to appeal to "Young Hollywood" and younger fans. She tried to get a part on "Gossip Girl," but failed. She did get a small part on "Privileged" as a wedding planner for a wedding between 2 gay characters. She had trouble with her lines and her acting as she hasn't done much acting over the last several years, but she ended up getting it together.
The second part dealt with her hanging out with Paris Hilton, going shopping, dealing with the Paps, and then hanging out at a pool. KG showed off her newly fabulous 48 year old body in a bikini. Earlier, she kept embarrassing Tom who was in her walk-in closet while she was trying on some of Paris' clothes, and she kept practicing showing her crotch (with panties) and Tom had to keep turning away.
The storyline that ran through the whole episode dealt with Kathy putting her Mom in charge of her Facebook and MySpace pages (created also to attract younger fans) and her Mom having a hard time posting what Kathy wanted (as Mom was supposed to post things as though SHE were Kathy) and not post things like "2 buck chuck on sale at Trader Joe's." Kathy fired her at the end of the episode.
Spectacular Spiderman:
This wasn't one of the better episodes as though not much "really" happened, although it did mark the return of the Sinister Six which replaced 2 members. Doc Oc has had a mental breakdown and is in an insane asylum, and was there along with Shocker. The Master Planner broke Shocker out of prison, but Doc Oc wouldn't go.
A very wiped out Spidey ended up defeating the revised SS, but the police were only able to hang onto Mysterio as the Master Planner was able to extract the other 5 from where Spidey had left them. This left an opening in the SS, so MP sent Doc Oc's robot tentacles to kidnap him from the insane asylum.
The other storyline dealt with Peter's girl Issues. Liz Allen still seems to be crushing on him, but drops him whenever the QB (now on crutches) shows up. So, Peter tried to talk with Gwen who said that it's obvious that she isn't his first choice...and WON'T be his 2nd. Peter then went to get Mary Jane a Hot Chocolate when the Sinister Six showed up. He explained his absence by saying that the vendor was out, so he went down the street to get the drinks. This lead to the gals thinking that Peter just can't stay focused.
Superstars:
Last week, TO and his model teammate were screwed over and got booted. Jennifer Capriati, who sucked in all of the challenges last week, ended up reaggravating an old injury and had to drop out. This meant that her teammate, David Charvet, also was gone. This allowed TO's team back into the competition.
So, what was the first task? A relay race in sand. And TO, a NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver was now going to be running in it. Hoo boy. There were to be 6 heats, with the slowest team cut after each heat. This meant that the winning pair had to run 6 times. They could only run either the 1st or 2nd leg 3 times each.
Bode Miller's team devised a strategy to false start each race, because the rules stated that once any team false started in a heat, if it happened again (even if the 2nd time wasn't the same team as the first time) the team that false started would be eliminated. This meant that each race had added pressure to not jump the gun.
TO's team won the event easily. Bode Miller's team wound up in the second to last race, and when the gun went off, they both sat down. They did this to pretend that whoever left first (TO) jumped the gun. The other racer, NBA player Robert Horry, got confused and at first didn't run, but then took off when he found out that TO didn't false start. Bode's team decided that they couldn't win anyway, so they wanted to rest up for the next event. Probably a good idea as Dan Cortese pulled his hamstring during on of the later heats. Dan had to leave the competition, so they brought David Charvet back to replace him on Lisa Leslie's team. They wrote DAN on their arms (but not Jen.)
The 2nd event was a running long jump over a styrofoam bar in the water. Each person got to practice jump once, and TO cleared 20' for the longest jump of the day. They had the "celebs" jump first, so by the time it was the athlete's turn to jump, the tide had come in which raised the bar 3' up, making it harder to clear. Sure enough, the athletes kept hitting the bar. TO tried 20' again, but should have gone with 17' or 18' as he would have made it. Instead, he hit the bar. Estella Warren and the NBA guy finished last in both the relay race and the long jump, as BOTH of them hit the bar.
Once again, they screwed a team in order to have the "rubber match." While not as bad as last week's, there were 4 bottom teams, and the team in third had 10 more points than the team in 4th. It didn't matter, so Bode Miller's team had to compete against Julio Iglesias's team. Julio stumbled at the end of the runway and faceplanted onto the styrofoam bar, sending his team into the obstacle course, which is how it should have been anyway. Estella Warren and Robert Horry sucked the entire day, finishing last in all three events and they got the boot. Estella had once been an Olympic level synchronized swimmer, but she had a belly and looked much more "doughy" and out of shape compared to the other contestants, and Robert wasn't much better. They deserved to go.
Top Gear:
I actually watched 2 episodes this week.
The first aired Monday or Tuesday and involved the guys driving American Muscle Cars from San Francisco to the Salt Flats in Utah.
They joked that their Visas allowed for them to make "factual" tv, not "entertainment" as that was a different type of Visa. They said that they didn't realize the difference and didn't have time to change their Visas. The last time they were here, Jeremy apparently put a cow on the roof of his car or somesuch, so that didn't qualify as "factual" and the State Department gave them some lip when they came over this time. They allegedly were told that they could film here as long as it "wasn't entertaining."
The guys started by saying that American Muscle cars just don't make sense as they use too much gas, and can't be driven in Europe because the roads there aren't designed for them, and they're just not practical.
Jeremy drove a Corvette ZR-1, and at first didn't think he'd like it but ended up LOVING it. He said that Ferrari should take a drive in it and learn something from it. He said that it had a LOT of power, making it fun, but it also road well, and when taking it though a road that had a lot of turns, it handled even better. One segment that cracked me up was while they were in Reno, James went to a casino while Jeremy and Richard dragged raced and then both pulled alongside several parked cars and revved their engines so loudly that they set off the car alarms on all the cars that had them. Fun!
James started out by hating his Cadillac CTS-V. He actually owns a Cadillac, but a luxury one, not a muscle car. He hated that it had all this "needless" power when a Cadillac "should" be all about luxury. Once they hit the curvy roadway, though, he fell in love with how it handled the road with agility, power, and surprising grace.
Richard was supposed to drive a Dodge Challenger, but Chrysler wouldn't lend them one to drive because they claimed that Top Gear has "trashed" their cars in the past. So, "The Hamster" (who LOVES muscle cars and actually owns a "Bullitt" Mustang) allegedly bought a Challenger. He said that they normally cost about $45K, but because they were rare and in demand that he had to pay about $55K for his. He loved driving it on the open road, and loved the sound of the engine. On the curvy road, though, it didn't handle as well as the others. In the end though, Jeremy showed footage of all 3 of them smiling while driving and said that "American failed to make a practical muscle car...it made 3."
The second episode was on Thursday, I believe, and was the sequel to an earlier episode where the guys were supposed to make "aquatic" cars and sail them across a river. In that episode, Jeremy took a pickup truck and slapped an outboard motor on it. He was doing well until it took in water due to not being water proof, and it rolled over in the water. Richard tried to make a "cabin cruiser" but his also failed. James actually made it across in one of those cars that were designed to be driven in the water, but Jeremy claimed that he didn't quite make it since he wasn't able to drive it out of the river.
So this time, they modified their earlier ideas. Jeremy used foam and other stuff to seal up the insides of the truck, the wheel wells, and the engine. Richard did much the same, but his vehicle this time was pretty much a boat placed on a truck frame. James used the same car, but added a mast. This time, however, they were told to cross the English Channel into France. 22 miles!
On the first attempt, James couldn't steer correctly and he nearly crashed into a breaker wall, but was saved by the Coast Guard. Jeremy did ok, but the rough waters caused his truck to sink. Richard also couldn't survive the rough waters and turned around. On the second attempt, the waters were calmer but James' car sank and he ended up with Richard. Jeremy tried to make it out in the calmer waters, but also failed. Finally, they all piled into Jeremy's truck and tried to break Richard Branson's record of driving a car across the Channel in 100 minutes. They failed. But, they actually did make it across the Channel and drove out onto the shore...to the applause of dumbfounded French folks.
Pitchmen:
I've never seen this before, but it followed Billy Mays and his partner Anthony "Sully" Sullivan and how people would pitch them ideas and then if Billy and "Sully" believed in the product, Billy would do an infomercial about it.
The episode I saw was the "season finale" (which may now be the series finale) and it gave a recap of some of the products that didn't pass muster, and gave an update on some that had. A fireman invented a "dual saw" that cuts through just about anything and has sold $5 million worth! WOW! Another guy invented a magnetic tool belt that you wear on your arm, and he's sold millions as well. They also showed the Awesome Auger which has sold over $9 Million worth! Holy schnikes!
The first part of the episode dealt with them upset over the Sham-wow and the Slap-chop as both are similar to products that Billy has supported in the past...the Zorbeez and the Quick-Chop. It didn't help that both products Billy pitched were several years ago, while the 2 new ones were within that last 2 years. It also didn't help that some writer for Popular Mechanics compared the Zorbeez to the Sham-wow and said that the Sham-wow won "by a mile." Billy spent his own money (the product makers weren't initially behind a new infomercial) and made new spots for both products. At the shoot, Billy's dad and his son were all there, and all are named Billy Mays (Sr, Jr, and III.) The product infomercials were successful and led to a lot of new sales of both products.
The next part dealt with a contest between Billy and Sully who each had an hour at the Philadelphia Trade Show to pitch old products to the people there and see who could make the most money. Sully doesn't do much pitching, so he decided to cheat. He gave money to people walking around the show to act as "marks" to come up and buy the product (a shammy type mop that Sully had pitched on tv 15 years ago) to draw a crowd. He also sent 2 friends (a man and a woman) both disguised as bearded vagrant types to try to throw Billy off his game. None of it mattered as Sully sold just over $600 worth (including the "Marks") while Billy sold over $900 worth of a salsa maker that he also hasn't pitched in over 15 years.
The end of the show offered a tribute to Billy. So that was impressive to have the episode re-edited added onto to deal with Billy's death earlier this week. They'll also have a special tribute episode about him next Thursday.
I really didn't even know the name Billy Mays until last year. I'd seen the guy, but didn't pay attention to his name. I wasn't a big fan of his "shouting" style either, but it was effective. I will say that I give both of these guys a LOT of credit. They weren't just shills out there pushing anything. They cared about their reputations, and wouldn't pitch anything if it didn't work as advertised and wouldn't have a market. For instance, the magnetic arm toolbelt is one of those, "Why didn't I think of that" type of products, but OxyClean is what put Billy on the map and that was one of those "does it really work" things. I've read reviews of it, and yep, I guess it does. Anyway, Billy came across as intense, passionate, but a decent guy. In a week where the iconic "side man," "beauty," and "superstar" all died, Billy was the iconic "salesman" and his death at 50 also was much too soon. I don't know if this series will return, unless maybe "Sully" steps out from behind the camera, or Billy's son takes over for him...or they hire "Vince" who pitched the Sham-wow and the Slap-chop. Although that recent run in with the law probably wouldn't put Vince high on the list to succeed Billy.
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.
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.
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