Showing posts with label Top Chef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Chef. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Keep watching this space for a BIG blog soon
I'll be posting a MEGA blog about my thoughts on a number of tv series from this past season. Included in the blog will be Amazing Race, American Idol, Archer, Big Bang Theory, Fringe, Justified, Smallville, Stargate:Universe, Survivor, Top Chef, Top Chef:Masters, The Voice, and possibly more! Should be within the next week or so depending on my work schedule.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Recap week ending 11/22/2009
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The guest judge this week was Gavin Kaysen who competed in the 2007 "culinary Olympics" called the Bocuse d'Or. Sorry, not impressed. The footage of that event looked like it was filmed in a high school gymnasium by a local municipal access cable company. Seriously, it looked like a joke.
Anywho, for the Quickfire Challenge, the 5 remaining cheftestants were to try to recreate in their own style Chef Kaysen's dish that he made in 2007 which was a Ballotine of Chicken, Chicken Liver and Crayfish. It is essentially a protein inside of a protein inside of a protein...think turducken.
While the instruction were to make a "version" of it, brother Michael apparently took a little too much license and made a terrine. I'd always thought of a terrine as a cooking dish (and it is) but in food it's essentially several items pressed together and shaped and cut. It kinda looks like a sushi roll. So, his dish didn't go over too well. Surprisingly, Jen won! It was her first win in a looong time, and maybe finally will get her confidence back up. Her win got her 30 minutes extra time in the Elimination Challenge.
The Elimination Challenge of course was to make something in the style of the Bocuse d'Orusing one protein (either Salmon or Lamb,) and 2 garnishes. Kevin (who I agree with) said that while the Bocuse d'Or is all about presentation (you present your dishes on a mirror...oy,) he wanted to focus on complex flavors. I mean, leave it to the French to come up with a food competition that is more about looks than taste. What is it for, a magazine cover? Ridiculous. Anyway, Brian was the one who everyone thought had the best technique and complicated dish, but his lamb was undercooked. If he had Jen's extra 30 minutes, he probably would have won. All of them received some praise, and all of them received some criticism. Kevin won, which I'm SURE pissed off Michael because he keeps saying that Kevin cooks what he cooks on his day off. WTFE a-hole. Kevin not only focused more on taste than appearance, but he sous vide his meat, which he'd never done, and he had asked brother Bryan the night before on some tips for doing it. Bryan said that he'd have been an a-hole to not tall Kevin...and that he doubted that his brother would have told Kevin. He's probably right, and Kevin is probably lucky that Michael went to sleep early, so he didn't know about his brother "helping" a competitor. Eli ended up going home so as predicted here after the 1st or 2nd show, the Final Four are the brothers (Bryan and Michael,) Kevin, and Jen.
Next Iron Chef America:
This started with 10 chefs, and I only knew 2 of them. Amanda Freitag and Jose Garces. Both had competed on ICA before (and Garces won as I recall.) The final 2 chefs were Jose and Chef Mehta who was born in India. So, the new Iron Chef would be a minority (either Hispanic or Indian.)
The final round was a head to head ICA battle in Kitchen Stadium and the "secret ingedient" was "ribs and racks." So it was ribs from pig, cow & buffalo. Unlike the first NICA 2 years ago, the 3 judges who had been judging all along actually got to be judges for the finals. The last time, there was a LOT of issues where the 3 judges throughout the show weren't the judges for the ICA battle (3 Iron Chefs were instead,) and the 3 judges who had been there all along thought that Symon probably would not have won had they been the judges. So, this time not only were the 2 judges there, but also 3 current Iron Chefs (Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Morimoto.) To me, that made the most sense, and both the Chairman and Alton Brown also were served dishes. I bet if there had been a tie that Alton would have been the tie breaker.
It seemed pretty apparent to me who would win. The 3 judges of the series made noise that Chef Mehta took more risks and that maybe led to more failures but also led to the single best dish. The Iron Chefs seemed to say that Chef Garces might have been more "conservative" but nearly everything was technically correct, cooked correctly, and he didn't produce 5 "Latin" dishes, so it wasn't "really" conservative for him. In the end, Chef Garces won and is the new Iron Chef to replace Mario Batali who has had a falling out with Food Network...although he WILL compete in the Iron Chef Battle with the White House Official Chef along with Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse (who also has had a falling out with FN.) This special episode of Iron Chef America will air in January.
Detroit Lions vs Cleveland Browns:
While this game was blacked out locally, I listened to it on the radio.
What the heck was that on Sunday?
The guest judge this week was Gavin Kaysen who competed in the 2007 "culinary Olympics" called the Bocuse d'Or. Sorry, not impressed. The footage of that event looked like it was filmed in a high school gymnasium by a local municipal access cable company. Seriously, it looked like a joke.
Anywho, for the Quickfire Challenge, the 5 remaining cheftestants were to try to recreate in their own style Chef Kaysen's dish that he made in 2007 which was a Ballotine of Chicken, Chicken Liver and Crayfish. It is essentially a protein inside of a protein inside of a protein...think turducken.
While the instruction were to make a "version" of it, brother Michael apparently took a little too much license and made a terrine. I'd always thought of a terrine as a cooking dish (and it is) but in food it's essentially several items pressed together and shaped and cut. It kinda looks like a sushi roll. So, his dish didn't go over too well. Surprisingly, Jen won! It was her first win in a looong time, and maybe finally will get her confidence back up. Her win got her 30 minutes extra time in the Elimination Challenge.
The Elimination Challenge of course was to make something in the style of the Bocuse d'Orusing one protein (either Salmon or Lamb,) and 2 garnishes. Kevin (who I agree with) said that while the Bocuse d'Or is all about presentation (you present your dishes on a mirror...oy,) he wanted to focus on complex flavors. I mean, leave it to the French to come up with a food competition that is more about looks than taste. What is it for, a magazine cover? Ridiculous. Anyway, Brian was the one who everyone thought had the best technique and complicated dish, but his lamb was undercooked. If he had Jen's extra 30 minutes, he probably would have won. All of them received some praise, and all of them received some criticism. Kevin won, which I'm SURE pissed off Michael because he keeps saying that Kevin cooks what he cooks on his day off. WTFE a-hole. Kevin not only focused more on taste than appearance, but he sous vide his meat, which he'd never done, and he had asked brother Bryan the night before on some tips for doing it. Bryan said that he'd have been an a-hole to not tall Kevin...and that he doubted that his brother would have told Kevin. He's probably right, and Kevin is probably lucky that Michael went to sleep early, so he didn't know about his brother "helping" a competitor. Eli ended up going home so as predicted here after the 1st or 2nd show, the Final Four are the brothers (Bryan and Michael,) Kevin, and Jen.
Next Iron Chef America:
This started with 10 chefs, and I only knew 2 of them. Amanda Freitag and Jose Garces. Both had competed on ICA before (and Garces won as I recall.) The final 2 chefs were Jose and Chef Mehta who was born in India. So, the new Iron Chef would be a minority (either Hispanic or Indian.)
The final round was a head to head ICA battle in Kitchen Stadium and the "secret ingedient" was "ribs and racks." So it was ribs from pig, cow & buffalo. Unlike the first NICA 2 years ago, the 3 judges who had been judging all along actually got to be judges for the finals. The last time, there was a LOT of issues where the 3 judges throughout the show weren't the judges for the ICA battle (3 Iron Chefs were instead,) and the 3 judges who had been there all along thought that Symon probably would not have won had they been the judges. So, this time not only were the 2 judges there, but also 3 current Iron Chefs (Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Morimoto.) To me, that made the most sense, and both the Chairman and Alton Brown also were served dishes. I bet if there had been a tie that Alton would have been the tie breaker.
It seemed pretty apparent to me who would win. The 3 judges of the series made noise that Chef Mehta took more risks and that maybe led to more failures but also led to the single best dish. The Iron Chefs seemed to say that Chef Garces might have been more "conservative" but nearly everything was technically correct, cooked correctly, and he didn't produce 5 "Latin" dishes, so it wasn't "really" conservative for him. In the end, Chef Garces won and is the new Iron Chef to replace Mario Batali who has had a falling out with Food Network...although he WILL compete in the Iron Chef Battle with the White House Official Chef along with Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse (who also has had a falling out with FN.) This special episode of Iron Chef America will air in January.
Detroit Lions vs Cleveland Browns:
While this game was blacked out locally, I listened to it on the radio.
What the heck was that on Sunday?
The Lions are at home against another 1 win team. A team that had ONLY had 5 TDs for the ENTIRE SEASON so far, and of those 5, only 1 player who was directly involved in ANY of them was actually in the game. The Browns are imploding from within with players calling out the coach, the coach calling out players, and the owner working to replace the GM and coach. ANd they're imploding from without with fans hoping they lose all the rest of their games, that the QBs get hurt, that the owner fires everyone and/or sells the team. You think it's been bad here? At least the Lions team are on the same page and trying to get wins.
So, what happens? The Browns roll up a 24-3 lead.
In the first quarter.
WTF?
But, as I contended last season...these Lions aren't quitters. Last season, had we played Cleveland or St Louis, or Cincy, or a couple other teams, we probably would have beaten them. The Lions were motivated to not go 0-16 while those other teams just wanted the season to end...and they lucked out because each one of those 4 win or less teams played other 4 win or less teams while the Lions did not.
So, the Lions get it back tied at 24 at halftime. Then they took the lead! Then, like the Lions, they not only lost the lead, but turned the ball over late in the 4th quarter by a bad decision by StafFORD. Calvin had triple coverage, yet Matt tossed the ball his way regardless. Dumb. Typical Lions QB. But wait! The Browns fail and kick the ball back to the Lions. What does StafFORD do? He marches them down the field to around the 30. Then he heaves a last second desperation toss towards Bryant Johnson in the end zone, and is promptly flattened onto his left (non-throwing) shoulder. Johnson was essentially frisked like he was a dope smuggler, so after a pass interference call, the Lions had 1st and goal from the 1 with 0.0 showing on the game clock. Daunte Culpepper, who hadn't even been warming up, had to run onto the field to run the last play. So what does the genius coach of Cleveland do? He calls time out. Many say that he didn't have a choice. They were winning and they had to get their defense set. BS! Let the ice cold Daunte try to run a game that he had absolutely no handle on and take the chance that the Lions, as usual, would fail. Instead, out runs StafFORD, lame arm and all, and tosses the winning TD to rookie TE Pettigrew! HOLY SCHNIKES!!!! This isn't Joey Harrington. This isn't Scott Mitchell. Those clowns would have been writing in pain on the bench, watching the game on the jumbotron.
What did I learn from this game?
That the Lions are absolutely terrible. Their defense couldn't stop a check, and their special teams must be full of "special" people. Durr durr.
But, the offense isn't horrible, and StafFORD tossed TDs to 5 different players. 2 rookies, one a 2nd year player, and one a 3rd year player, and the 5th the backup TE. That shows that perhaps there is a nucleus to build upon. StafFORD has shown that he could be "the real deal" and prior to the game HE took all the blame for the multiple dropped passes over the prior few games. That sends a signal to his offense that HE is the leader, and that builds respect. StafFORD got 422 yards and 5 TDs, the first time a rookie has done that since the 1930s! HOLY SCHNIKES! Does this mean that the Lions "turned a corner?" Hells no. But it does show that perhaps, just maybe, they got the right guy last draft. The offense needs LINEMEN, not skill players or StafFORD will get killed. But the guy's got the heart of a winner and the toughness and guts to get him through the bad times.
The Lions will be lucky to win 1 more game (Chicago at home on the last week is their best bet) but that was a nice win and a nice boost to the offense and showed that the Lions may FINALLY have a true leader in the locker room. They had better spend the entire off season bringing in veteran defensive linemen and secondary as well as o-linemen, and target those positions with EVERY pick in the next draft.
Oh, and I happened to pick up StafFORD for my Fantasy Football team and he got me over 55 points! W00t!!
I played my brother's team, and he's a HUUUUGE Lions fan. Must have sucked for him knowing that although the Lions would win, he was getting killed. Sorry about that, bro.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Week Ending 11/15/2009
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The guest judge this week was Nigella Lawson who is sexy but I've never been a big fan of her cooking shows. The Quickfire Challenge had the 6 remaining cheftestants prepare breakfast in bed for Padma and Nigella (they were in separate beds, perve.) Robin's breakfast of course sucked and as usual she was all "I was unhappy with my dish." Of course you were, you blow. Bryan's dish also ended up in the bottom but only because he added vanilla to it which Nigella didn't like. I dunno, it looked and sounded great and I'm not sure how vanilla could have ruined it. For reasons unknown, Jen made "Shit on a Shingle" and actually CALLED it that! WTF!?! Michael made a nice dish, and Kevin made an interesting twist on "steak and eggs" by adding coffee beans, but it was Eli's Reuben/Eggs Benedict sandwich that won the Quickfire, and earned him the one and only slot from this season to be including in the new Top Chef Quickfire Challenge Cookbook. Good for Eli, as that will probably be his last honor in this season.
For the Elimination challenge, the chefs were each sent to various casino/hotels in Vegas to be "inspired" and then turn their inspiration into a dish for 250 guests. That's a LOT of work for each chef, but you just knew who would do well and who wouldn't.
Jen again tried to sabotage herself and in the "stewing room" where they wait to find out their fate she just kept saying, "Just send me home already." Nice. Nothing like giving up.
Eli went to "Circus Circus" and somehow decided that meant peanut and popcorn soup. WTF? Sounds gross. Chef Tom blogged that he actually kinda liked it, but ultimately Eli failed to pull it all together. Padma said that she NEVER wanted to try to eat it again. Nigella was afraid to even try, but ultimately did after the other judges gave it a go.
Michael won by making a nifty chicken wing dish inspired by firefighters of NYC. It had a little sweetness and a little heat and had a semi-frozen blue chees mousse on top.
FINALLY getting the boot was Robin who tried to make things that she'd never done before (again) and failed at it (as usual.) She claimed that she had been an artist and I think she should do everyone a favor and go back to doing that as she just sucks as a chef.
*******
I went and saw Michael Jackson: This Is It and it shows how he was involved with all aspects of the show from auditioning backup dancers to watching the shoots of the little videos that would appear on stage during the different songs. He looked to be in good shape, danced well, and for the most part his voice was in fine shape. I do think they "augmented" his voice by playing the album version of the song at times 9probably as the audio was poorly recorded when he sang it live (remember, these rehearsals weren't supposed to see the light of day) but when he did sing live that were obviously live, he sounded really good.
*******
Fringe was pretty decent although I saw the first "twist" a mile away. Next week should be amazing as it is about the "Observers." Yes, that's an "s" at the end. Stargate:Universe was kinda boring, and Sanctuary wasn't very good (again.) Smallville was quite good although the "Wonder Twins" weren't really given much to do. Lois believed Clark to be "The Blur" and showed him that she was ok with the idea (so why Clark continued to lie to her is a little odd) but this episode did mark the appearance of "Clark with spectacles." Lois also realized, fully, that she is madly in love with Clark and when he risked her life (or so she believed) to try to save her, that just cemented it. Survivor had one of the best Tribals ever as Evil Russell found a Hidden Immunity Idol for the second time WITHOUT A CLUE! Amazing. It led to a great tribal where the "other tribe" cast 7 votes to evict him (although Shambo's was a sham vote...just for looks) and they were all nullified by Russell playing the HII. It was awesome.
The guest judge this week was Nigella Lawson who is sexy but I've never been a big fan of her cooking shows. The Quickfire Challenge had the 6 remaining cheftestants prepare breakfast in bed for Padma and Nigella (they were in separate beds, perve.) Robin's breakfast of course sucked and as usual she was all "I was unhappy with my dish." Of course you were, you blow. Bryan's dish also ended up in the bottom but only because he added vanilla to it which Nigella didn't like. I dunno, it looked and sounded great and I'm not sure how vanilla could have ruined it. For reasons unknown, Jen made "Shit on a Shingle" and actually CALLED it that! WTF!?! Michael made a nice dish, and Kevin made an interesting twist on "steak and eggs" by adding coffee beans, but it was Eli's Reuben/Eggs Benedict sandwich that won the Quickfire, and earned him the one and only slot from this season to be including in the new Top Chef Quickfire Challenge Cookbook. Good for Eli, as that will probably be his last honor in this season.
For the Elimination challenge, the chefs were each sent to various casino/hotels in Vegas to be "inspired" and then turn their inspiration into a dish for 250 guests. That's a LOT of work for each chef, but you just knew who would do well and who wouldn't.
Jen again tried to sabotage herself and in the "stewing room" where they wait to find out their fate she just kept saying, "Just send me home already." Nice. Nothing like giving up.
Eli went to "Circus Circus" and somehow decided that meant peanut and popcorn soup. WTF? Sounds gross. Chef Tom blogged that he actually kinda liked it, but ultimately Eli failed to pull it all together. Padma said that she NEVER wanted to try to eat it again. Nigella was afraid to even try, but ultimately did after the other judges gave it a go.
Michael won by making a nifty chicken wing dish inspired by firefighters of NYC. It had a little sweetness and a little heat and had a semi-frozen blue chees mousse on top.
FINALLY getting the boot was Robin who tried to make things that she'd never done before (again) and failed at it (as usual.) She claimed that she had been an artist and I think she should do everyone a favor and go back to doing that as she just sucks as a chef.
*******
I went and saw Michael Jackson: This Is It and it shows how he was involved with all aspects of the show from auditioning backup dancers to watching the shoots of the little videos that would appear on stage during the different songs. He looked to be in good shape, danced well, and for the most part his voice was in fine shape. I do think they "augmented" his voice by playing the album version of the song at times 9probably as the audio was poorly recorded when he sang it live (remember, these rehearsals weren't supposed to see the light of day) but when he did sing live that were obviously live, he sounded really good.
*******
Fringe was pretty decent although I saw the first "twist" a mile away. Next week should be amazing as it is about the "Observers." Yes, that's an "s" at the end. Stargate:Universe was kinda boring, and Sanctuary wasn't very good (again.) Smallville was quite good although the "Wonder Twins" weren't really given much to do. Lois believed Clark to be "The Blur" and showed him that she was ok with the idea (so why Clark continued to lie to her is a little odd) but this episode did mark the appearance of "Clark with spectacles." Lois also realized, fully, that she is madly in love with Clark and when he risked her life (or so she believed) to try to save her, that just cemented it. Survivor had one of the best Tribals ever as Evil Russell found a Hidden Immunity Idol for the second time WITHOUT A CLUE! Amazing. It led to a great tribal where the "other tribe" cast 7 votes to evict him (although Shambo's was a sham vote...just for looks) and they were all nullified by Russell playing the HII. It was awesome.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Recaps and a little more 10/28-11/1/2009
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
First I want to correct myself from last week.
Although it seemed at the time that the judges weren't happy with either seafood dish from Jen last week, I read Tom's blog and he stated that her Halibut dish was good, the shellfish dish (the one she cooked to order like a dumbass) was terrible. So, Mike I. had 2 acceptable dishes; Jen had 1 good and 1 bad; Kevin had 1 good (his dish,) and 1 bad (Laurine's dish that he cooked;) and Laurine had a bad dish (her lamb dish that she prepped, Kevin cooked, and she allowed to be served undercooked,) and did a terrible job as hostess. So, I now agree that she did deserve to go over Jen last week.
Now, on to this week...
This was one of those Quickfire Challenges that had NOTHING to do with the guest judge. The guest judge was Paul Bartolotta, who has one of the top Italian restaurants in Vegas. The challenge, though, was sponsored by TV Guide and was "tv dinners." The challenge was misnamed because instead of making a dish to be frozen and then served tv dinner style, they were asked to make a dinner to eat fresh that was inspired by a classic tv show. What Chef Bartolotta's connection to any of this escapes me. It just seems that they were able to get a paying sponsor (TV Guide) and "crowbarred" the guest judge into the challenge.
The shows that were to "inspire" the chefs were MASH, Flintstones, Gilligan's Island, Sesame Street, Soprano's, Seinfeld, & Cheers. For me, none of the dishes really had ANYTHING to do with the shows. Kevin at least made an Italian dish (meatballs) for the Soprano's, but pretty much everything else could have been for any tv show...or heck, just any movie, radio program, or even book. I will give Robin props for being a non-tv watcher and used to eating only "healthy foods," yet knew Big Bird and Cookie Monster. Unfortunately, she made a cookie and some mess with an egg on top. It looked terrible and she wound up in the bottom 2 along with Jen who is Hell Bent on crashing and burning. For MASH, why didn't Bryan make something inspired by Korean cooking like Korean Ribs and a Korean style veggie side? Instead, he made meat and potatoes which he said would have been something American Servicemen would have considered "comfort food." Ok, I'll give him that, but the Korean Ribs would have been great, especially since there was an episode where Klinger had ribs sent from Toledo. For the Flintstones, why didn't Jen make a GIANT CUT OF BEEF with the bone in, and call it "Brontosaurus Style?" For Gilligan's Island, Eli went "tropical" but why not a mini coconut pie, or even coconut custard? Why not something with "Ginger?" Anyway, Bryan and Kevin were the Top 2 and Kevin won.
For the Elimination Challenge, they were going to take over Tom's Vegas restaurant, Craftsteak. The Cheftestants were all excited and mulling the proteins when Tom brought in Padme Amidala herself, Natalie Portman. Oh, did they mention that Natalie is Vegetarian? I don't understand why chefs go nuts over having to cook for vegetarians. A few weeks back, Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen called the the "biggest pains in the ass in the world." Kevin made some snide comments too, but at least not as bad. Chef Tom acknowledged that although he understand why vegetarians/vegans choose to not eat meat, he went on to say that there are stomach acids that ONLY exist to break down meat...so in other words, Vegetarians/Vegans are going against nature. Well, at least he tried.
I go to a Vegetarian restaurant all the time, and there is PLENTY that can be made vegetarian. Heck, every Indian and Ethiopian restaurant have a big vegetarian menu, as does most Mexican and many Italian. Not including odd things like Seitan, they can use beans, lentils, and soy for protein, but pasta dishes, rice dishes...so many dishes are out there that are already vegetarian, let alone any number of dishes that can be made. Robin was excited because she cooks and eats vegetarian all the time. Mike I. also cooks vegetarian all the time and his own mother is Vegan. The rest mentioned that they have vegetarian dishes or make them special at their restaurants...but they all seemed to whine a bit.
Well, whatever. Michael, Kevin and Eli were in the top, and Kevin's sloppy looking mushroom dish won. I think this made him the first to win both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges with the same guest judge. Michael bitched that Kevin's dish may have been tasty (he didn't try it,) but it was pedestrian and could be made by any young chef in cooking school, while his was much more complicated. Chef Tom admonished this on his blog and that technique and presentation don't exceed taste, and Kevin's tasted better...although I think he actually wanted Michael's to win inspite of Kevin's dish tasting better, and was out voted.
Jen, Robin & Mike I. were in the bottom (this meant Brother Bryan was alone in "no man's land,) and all of them were pretty terrible. I think the judges are cutting Jen slack, but her dish did seem to be the least offensive of the 3. Robin's was a bunch of disparate veggies that had no connection to each other, and the dish was not balanced in terms of seasoning, acidity, and so forth. But surprisingly, it was Mike I. who got the boot. He didn't cook his leeks properly...and for whatever reason tried to make them a "pretend protein" rather than actually incorporate a real protein. His dish fell apart and he just was like, "oh well, whatever," because rather than try to fix it, he figured that Robin would fail worse and she'd go. He was wrong. In Chef Tom's blog, he seem to imply that one of the brothers or Kevin will go earlier than expected, and in the promo for next week, judge Toby is heard to say, "he" in relation to someone totally failing.
Random Thoughts:
After one of the best Smallville's in a loooong time, they followed up with another good one. Oliver is back and has recruited a gal to be his "Speedy" of sorts. He also got into a love triangle with Clark and Lois, but the episode ended with Clark taking matters into his own hands (although Lois already had told Oliver that she loved him as a friend but Clark has her heart) and Clark kissed Lois.
Sanctuary was one of those episodes to show that the "new person" is part of the team. It didn't work. She still sucks.
Stargate:Universe was one of those "needs of one outweigh the needs of the many" episodes. It was so so.
Ghost Hunters was semi-live with 5 "scariest" episodes as voted by "fans," but hosted live and included Steve and Tango and people from their spinoff series Ghost Hunter Academy. It was ok, more good humor from host Josh, but after they were spoofed on South Park a couple of weeks ago, I'd have rather seen a full episode made by South Park than this sort of semi-live "best of."
Personal Notes:
With my birthday so close to Halloween, I've always had a special place for it. Also, it fits me much more than say Christmas, or 4th of July. I've always looked forward to it...
Until a bad combination of factors over the past few years.
My ex and I wanted to get married on Halloween. We couldn't get the date, so we settled on November 1. It was great, and everyone who was there still talks about how unique and fun it was. The theme was Halloween during the Renaissance. She made her Renaissance style wedding dress, my Renaissance style outfit, her son's outfit that was like a junior version of mine, the 3 little flower girl's dresses, and altered the matron of honor's gown.
We made most of the decor ourselves. The card box looked like a castle. The bride's cake looked like a castle, and the groom's cake was dark chocolate ganache over a red velvet cake...so it looked like a "blood cake." The groom's cake had a little gazebo painted black with black roses on it, and little figurines of Dracula and The Bride of Frankenstein. All of the tables had artificial leaves on them. We took all of our carved pumpkins (my family and my brother's) from Halloween and spread them around the reception hall. We had a table set up for kids after dinner and hired the 2 gals who operated the after school facility at my stepson's school. People were encouraged to dress up...either Renaissance or Halloween costumes. Not everyone did, but many did dress up. It was a LOT of fun.
But now, I see that day just after Halloween, and it makes me a little sad. Before it was over, I had a little family of me, my wife, my stepson, and our 2 dogs. Worse, 2 years ago on 10/29 I had to put my girl dog to sleep (the other one lives with my ex several hundred miles away down south.) So now I've "bookended" my favorite day of the year with "sadness."
This year, it's kinda hitting me differently. Last year, I had no desire to decorate for Halloween as it was the first year anniversary since my little girl had to be put down. I went Trick or Treating with my niece and nephew...and I will again this year. Having just turned 40 and still single...and then these 2 dates all in a row...I'm just not feeling much joy or having the kind of fun that I usually have. Add to that the fact that I'm still having money problems and know that until I get that improved, I won't even THINK about trying to date anyone...
Well, it's all left me more than a little melancholy.
Yeah, yeah, I know...waaaaah.
I know it could be worse. A LOT worse. But the weight of the "blahs" is keeping me down. As I've written before, I'm not a "rah rah" type of person, so when I get the blahs...oy. But, I'm muddling through and hanging in there. At any rate...I just wanted to try and put how I'm feeling into words as it seems to help to "get rid" of those feelings.
I went to my brother's to carve pumpkins, then went Trick or Treating with them on Halloween. It was fun.
But I miss my little girl.
And I miss my little family.
First I want to correct myself from last week.
Although it seemed at the time that the judges weren't happy with either seafood dish from Jen last week, I read Tom's blog and he stated that her Halibut dish was good, the shellfish dish (the one she cooked to order like a dumbass) was terrible. So, Mike I. had 2 acceptable dishes; Jen had 1 good and 1 bad; Kevin had 1 good (his dish,) and 1 bad (Laurine's dish that he cooked;) and Laurine had a bad dish (her lamb dish that she prepped, Kevin cooked, and she allowed to be served undercooked,) and did a terrible job as hostess. So, I now agree that she did deserve to go over Jen last week.
Now, on to this week...
This was one of those Quickfire Challenges that had NOTHING to do with the guest judge. The guest judge was Paul Bartolotta, who has one of the top Italian restaurants in Vegas. The challenge, though, was sponsored by TV Guide and was "tv dinners." The challenge was misnamed because instead of making a dish to be frozen and then served tv dinner style, they were asked to make a dinner to eat fresh that was inspired by a classic tv show. What Chef Bartolotta's connection to any of this escapes me. It just seems that they were able to get a paying sponsor (TV Guide) and "crowbarred" the guest judge into the challenge.
The shows that were to "inspire" the chefs were MASH, Flintstones, Gilligan's Island, Sesame Street, Soprano's, Seinfeld, & Cheers. For me, none of the dishes really had ANYTHING to do with the shows. Kevin at least made an Italian dish (meatballs) for the Soprano's, but pretty much everything else could have been for any tv show...or heck, just any movie, radio program, or even book. I will give Robin props for being a non-tv watcher and used to eating only "healthy foods," yet knew Big Bird and Cookie Monster. Unfortunately, she made a cookie and some mess with an egg on top. It looked terrible and she wound up in the bottom 2 along with Jen who is Hell Bent on crashing and burning. For MASH, why didn't Bryan make something inspired by Korean cooking like Korean Ribs and a Korean style veggie side? Instead, he made meat and potatoes which he said would have been something American Servicemen would have considered "comfort food." Ok, I'll give him that, but the Korean Ribs would have been great, especially since there was an episode where Klinger had ribs sent from Toledo. For the Flintstones, why didn't Jen make a GIANT CUT OF BEEF with the bone in, and call it "Brontosaurus Style?" For Gilligan's Island, Eli went "tropical" but why not a mini coconut pie, or even coconut custard? Why not something with "Ginger?" Anyway, Bryan and Kevin were the Top 2 and Kevin won.
For the Elimination Challenge, they were going to take over Tom's Vegas restaurant, Craftsteak. The Cheftestants were all excited and mulling the proteins when Tom brought in Padme Amidala herself, Natalie Portman. Oh, did they mention that Natalie is Vegetarian? I don't understand why chefs go nuts over having to cook for vegetarians. A few weeks back, Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen called the the "biggest pains in the ass in the world." Kevin made some snide comments too, but at least not as bad. Chef Tom acknowledged that although he understand why vegetarians/vegans choose to not eat meat, he went on to say that there are stomach acids that ONLY exist to break down meat...so in other words, Vegetarians/Vegans are going against nature. Well, at least he tried.
I go to a Vegetarian restaurant all the time, and there is PLENTY that can be made vegetarian. Heck, every Indian and Ethiopian restaurant have a big vegetarian menu, as does most Mexican and many Italian. Not including odd things like Seitan, they can use beans, lentils, and soy for protein, but pasta dishes, rice dishes...so many dishes are out there that are already vegetarian, let alone any number of dishes that can be made. Robin was excited because she cooks and eats vegetarian all the time. Mike I. also cooks vegetarian all the time and his own mother is Vegan. The rest mentioned that they have vegetarian dishes or make them special at their restaurants...but they all seemed to whine a bit.
Well, whatever. Michael, Kevin and Eli were in the top, and Kevin's sloppy looking mushroom dish won. I think this made him the first to win both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges with the same guest judge. Michael bitched that Kevin's dish may have been tasty (he didn't try it,) but it was pedestrian and could be made by any young chef in cooking school, while his was much more complicated. Chef Tom admonished this on his blog and that technique and presentation don't exceed taste, and Kevin's tasted better...although I think he actually wanted Michael's to win inspite of Kevin's dish tasting better, and was out voted.
Jen, Robin & Mike I. were in the bottom (this meant Brother Bryan was alone in "no man's land,) and all of them were pretty terrible. I think the judges are cutting Jen slack, but her dish did seem to be the least offensive of the 3. Robin's was a bunch of disparate veggies that had no connection to each other, and the dish was not balanced in terms of seasoning, acidity, and so forth. But surprisingly, it was Mike I. who got the boot. He didn't cook his leeks properly...and for whatever reason tried to make them a "pretend protein" rather than actually incorporate a real protein. His dish fell apart and he just was like, "oh well, whatever," because rather than try to fix it, he figured that Robin would fail worse and she'd go. He was wrong. In Chef Tom's blog, he seem to imply that one of the brothers or Kevin will go earlier than expected, and in the promo for next week, judge Toby is heard to say, "he" in relation to someone totally failing.
Random Thoughts:
After one of the best Smallville's in a loooong time, they followed up with another good one. Oliver is back and has recruited a gal to be his "Speedy" of sorts. He also got into a love triangle with Clark and Lois, but the episode ended with Clark taking matters into his own hands (although Lois already had told Oliver that she loved him as a friend but Clark has her heart) and Clark kissed Lois.
Sanctuary was one of those episodes to show that the "new person" is part of the team. It didn't work. She still sucks.
Stargate:Universe was one of those "needs of one outweigh the needs of the many" episodes. It was so so.
Ghost Hunters was semi-live with 5 "scariest" episodes as voted by "fans," but hosted live and included Steve and Tango and people from their spinoff series Ghost Hunter Academy. It was ok, more good humor from host Josh, but after they were spoofed on South Park a couple of weeks ago, I'd have rather seen a full episode made by South Park than this sort of semi-live "best of."
Personal Notes:
With my birthday so close to Halloween, I've always had a special place for it. Also, it fits me much more than say Christmas, or 4th of July. I've always looked forward to it...
Until a bad combination of factors over the past few years.
My ex and I wanted to get married on Halloween. We couldn't get the date, so we settled on November 1. It was great, and everyone who was there still talks about how unique and fun it was. The theme was Halloween during the Renaissance. She made her Renaissance style wedding dress, my Renaissance style outfit, her son's outfit that was like a junior version of mine, the 3 little flower girl's dresses, and altered the matron of honor's gown.
We made most of the decor ourselves. The card box looked like a castle. The bride's cake looked like a castle, and the groom's cake was dark chocolate ganache over a red velvet cake...so it looked like a "blood cake." The groom's cake had a little gazebo painted black with black roses on it, and little figurines of Dracula and The Bride of Frankenstein. All of the tables had artificial leaves on them. We took all of our carved pumpkins (my family and my brother's) from Halloween and spread them around the reception hall. We had a table set up for kids after dinner and hired the 2 gals who operated the after school facility at my stepson's school. People were encouraged to dress up...either Renaissance or Halloween costumes. Not everyone did, but many did dress up. It was a LOT of fun.
But now, I see that day just after Halloween, and it makes me a little sad. Before it was over, I had a little family of me, my wife, my stepson, and our 2 dogs. Worse, 2 years ago on 10/29 I had to put my girl dog to sleep (the other one lives with my ex several hundred miles away down south.) So now I've "bookended" my favorite day of the year with "sadness."
This year, it's kinda hitting me differently. Last year, I had no desire to decorate for Halloween as it was the first year anniversary since my little girl had to be put down. I went Trick or Treating with my niece and nephew...and I will again this year. Having just turned 40 and still single...and then these 2 dates all in a row...I'm just not feeling much joy or having the kind of fun that I usually have. Add to that the fact that I'm still having money problems and know that until I get that improved, I won't even THINK about trying to date anyone...
Well, it's all left me more than a little melancholy.
Yeah, yeah, I know...waaaaah.
I know it could be worse. A LOT worse. But the weight of the "blahs" is keeping me down. As I've written before, I'm not a "rah rah" type of person, so when I get the blahs...oy. But, I'm muddling through and hanging in there. At any rate...I just wanted to try and put how I'm feeling into words as it seems to help to "get rid" of those feelings.
I went to my brother's to carve pumpkins, then went Trick or Treating with them on Halloween. It was fun.
But I miss my little girl.
And I miss my little family.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Recaps 10/20-10/25
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Recaps and Comments 10/20/2009
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The guest judge was Charlie Palmer, who is sometimes credited with making "American Food" a "Cuisine" and not just a derided joke.
Brothers Bryan and Michael had both worked for him. Bryan for about 10 years, and Michael for about a year. Charlie said that he wouldn't give them any special treatment.
The Quickfire Challenge was that they had to pair a new company's (ie sponsor) brand of snack food with something else to make a nice dish. The snacks were 1 of 6 flavors of Alexia Crunchy Snacks that are made from veggies. The chefs had all been eating the snacks back at the apartment they've been living in, so they were all familiar with the flavors of the snacks. Some seemed really good, while others were kinda meh. Poor Jen, she cooked her tenderloin too early, and Charlie and Padma got to her last, so while her meat sat all that time, it continued to cook. Tenderloin has less fat and is easy to dry out, and by cooking it too early and having it sit, by the time it was tasted, it was overdone. Jen, Ash and Robin were in the bottom. The tops were Bryan, Eli and Kevin and Eli got the win. No $15,000 or immunity for him though, his only reward was that he got to pick first in the Elimination challenge.
The Elimination challenge began with everyone drawing knives. On each knife was a type of cut of pork. Shank, shoulder, butt, loin, tenderloin, leg, etc... Jen got "Wild Boar" which was the "wild card" so she could pick whatever cut she wanted. She wisely chose pork belly which is the juiciest, tastiest, and least likely to get dried out. One they had their pig part, they had to pick a brand of Pinot Noir to pair their dish with for Charlie's "Pigs & Pinot" annual charity fundraiser.
The result was a microcosm of this season as a whole (and clearly of the remaining cheftestants.) The Top 4 were the usual 4 that are in the top. Brothers Bryan & Michael, Kevin, and Jen. Kevin got the well deserved win, and he get talking about how much he loves pork that he even has a tattoo of a pig, and once he won, he proceeded in showing it off to the judges. The bottom 3 were the usual bottom feeders, Robin, Ash and Laurine. That meant that Eli and Mike I were where they usually are...somewhere in the middle. Laurine's dish was called "catfood" by Dana Cowen, another Food & Wine person (like Gail) who also is a regular on Top Chef and I think she's been on Iron Chef America too.
For me, anyone who has a dish called "cat food" should be the one sent home. Especially after she explained how she cooked it, and Charlie informed her that her cooking method wasn't even the way the dish is SUPPOSED to be prepared. So, let's see, she didn't even know how to cook the dish she made, and the final product was like cat food. So she went home right? Wrong! Ash who YET AGAIN changed his mind after talking to one of the other cheftestants, and prepared the dish the way the other person suggested, instead of his original idea. He told Charlie what his original plan was, and Charlie thought that it sounded yummy. I think Ash got the boot because Tom was tired of Ash always cooking someone else's idea, and not his own...even after telling Tom that "this time it would be all him." Ash would contend that Padma had a LOT to do with him going. He claimed that she NEVER liked ANY of his dishes, and was ALWAYS critical of him. When he was in front of the judges explaining his latest disaster, she asked him in a VERY condescending tone, "Did you taste the dish?"
Regardless, The Top 4 will most likely always be in the top and SHOULD be the Final Four, the bottom 2 should go next, and Mike and Eli may win another Quickfire or so, but I don't see either winning an Elimination round.
Paranormal Activity:
Odds and Ends...
Adam, who won Big Brother 9 (the ONLY Spring edition) was arrested for selling Oxycodone.
http://www.silive.com/entertainment/tvfilm/index.ssf/2009/10/adam_jasinski_big_brother_9_wi.html
The headline that lead me to that search for the above article (as that one has a photo) was "Big Brother Winner Arrested for selling Oxycodone." I thought, oh no, Dr Will!?!
I had thought that Adam was a basically decent guy, despite his well known "retard" comment. I guess not. He used his winnings to fund his life of crime. As Bugs Bunny would say, what a maroon.
The guest judge was Charlie Palmer, who is sometimes credited with making "American Food" a "Cuisine" and not just a derided joke.
Brothers Bryan and Michael had both worked for him. Bryan for about 10 years, and Michael for about a year. Charlie said that he wouldn't give them any special treatment.
The Quickfire Challenge was that they had to pair a new company's (ie sponsor) brand of snack food with something else to make a nice dish. The snacks were 1 of 6 flavors of Alexia Crunchy Snacks that are made from veggies. The chefs had all been eating the snacks back at the apartment they've been living in, so they were all familiar with the flavors of the snacks. Some seemed really good, while others were kinda meh. Poor Jen, she cooked her tenderloin too early, and Charlie and Padma got to her last, so while her meat sat all that time, it continued to cook. Tenderloin has less fat and is easy to dry out, and by cooking it too early and having it sit, by the time it was tasted, it was overdone. Jen, Ash and Robin were in the bottom. The tops were Bryan, Eli and Kevin and Eli got the win. No $15,000 or immunity for him though, his only reward was that he got to pick first in the Elimination challenge.
The Elimination challenge began with everyone drawing knives. On each knife was a type of cut of pork. Shank, shoulder, butt, loin, tenderloin, leg, etc... Jen got "Wild Boar" which was the "wild card" so she could pick whatever cut she wanted. She wisely chose pork belly which is the juiciest, tastiest, and least likely to get dried out. One they had their pig part, they had to pick a brand of Pinot Noir to pair their dish with for Charlie's "Pigs & Pinot" annual charity fundraiser.
The result was a microcosm of this season as a whole (and clearly of the remaining cheftestants.) The Top 4 were the usual 4 that are in the top. Brothers Bryan & Michael, Kevin, and Jen. Kevin got the well deserved win, and he get talking about how much he loves pork that he even has a tattoo of a pig, and once he won, he proceeded in showing it off to the judges. The bottom 3 were the usual bottom feeders, Robin, Ash and Laurine. That meant that Eli and Mike I were where they usually are...somewhere in the middle. Laurine's dish was called "catfood" by Dana Cowen, another Food & Wine person (like Gail) who also is a regular on Top Chef and I think she's been on Iron Chef America too.
For me, anyone who has a dish called "cat food" should be the one sent home. Especially after she explained how she cooked it, and Charlie informed her that her cooking method wasn't even the way the dish is SUPPOSED to be prepared. So, let's see, she didn't even know how to cook the dish she made, and the final product was like cat food. So she went home right? Wrong! Ash who YET AGAIN changed his mind after talking to one of the other cheftestants, and prepared the dish the way the other person suggested, instead of his original idea. He told Charlie what his original plan was, and Charlie thought that it sounded yummy. I think Ash got the boot because Tom was tired of Ash always cooking someone else's idea, and not his own...even after telling Tom that "this time it would be all him." Ash would contend that Padma had a LOT to do with him going. He claimed that she NEVER liked ANY of his dishes, and was ALWAYS critical of him. When he was in front of the judges explaining his latest disaster, she asked him in a VERY condescending tone, "Did you taste the dish?"
Regardless, The Top 4 will most likely always be in the top and SHOULD be the Final Four, the bottom 2 should go next, and Mike and Eli may win another Quickfire or so, but I don't see either winning an Elimination round.
Paranormal Activity:
I am not a horror movie fan.
That said, if a movie comes along that looks interesting, I might try to see it. 10 years ago, it was Blair Witch. That was not really a "horror" movie as we know them these days, but more of a scary movie...like a throwback. It was ok, but by the time I had seen it, the "cat was out of the bag" that it was a movie and not "found footage." I also happened to see the fake documentary (aka mockumentary) that presented all this back story. I think it was called "Curse of the Blair Witch." I've read where some people saw the mockumentary first and then were disappointed that NONE of that info makes it into the film. For me though, I think it enhanced the experience because I understood some of what was happening. Perhaps it would have been better to see the movie first, and then the fake documentary. I dunno, hard to say.
It's been surprising at how few "scary" movies have been made since, and how many gory horror movies have come out. I suppose there have been a few, some would say 28 days later.
Most would say [REC] which was remade as Quarantine. I haven't seen any of them.
I am trying to see "Let the Right One In," but I've heard that the DVD has poor ad misleading subtitles. Like some of the dialogue was misinterpreted or made not as full as seen in the theaters. So, I guess I'll wait for the revised DVD. I also want to see Trick r Treat, which like Paranormal Activity was a small budget film (although it does have some known actors) and for whatever reason, it was never given a proper release. I've heard it's scary as Hell, and I see it's On Demand, so I'll probably try to order it soon.
At any rate, Paranormal Activity, like Blair Witch and Cloverfield, is supposed to be a movie made from footage from a personal camcorder.
I won't give anything away, but the gist is that a young 20 something unmarried couple move in and odd things start happening. The guy doesn't think much of it, but decides to buy a really nice video camera, with great resolution and an expensive mic, to let the thing run at night and see if it picks up anything. He does it more or less to appease his girlfriend.
As such, while the entire movie is filmed from this camera, the main thrust of the film is told while the camera runs during the night while the couple sleep. Watching darkess and a time counter run in the bottom right corner of the screen may not seem very interesting, but trust me, it is.
There isn't any gore. This movie is 100% creepy, suspenseful, scariness. Sitting there watching them sleep and wondering if something is going to happen is pull out your hair, look thru your fingers, bite off your nails creepy. I would say that I found this to be 10 times creepier than Blair Witch because while that took place in the woods, this takes place in their home. I find that to be MUCH creepier. The main problem that people had with Blair Witch was that you really don't see anything. If you like creepy, scary, terrifying, non-gory horror movies, this is for you.
I have NEVER been in a theater with so many people screaming their faces off. Even Sixth Sense was more people being startled than actually terrified. This movie could very well make you lose your shit...both figuratively and literally.
I saw this by myself.
I do not recommend that.
While I personally didn't have any problems sleeping, alone, that night or since, I've read where a LOT of people have had problems. Even those not sleeping alone.
I encourage people to go see this movie. It's the perfect time of the year for it. Also, it's a great story of a movie made for less than $20,000 doing good. In very limited release (still in less than 800 theaters) it's made over $20 million this past weekend, and has topped $30 million total.
If it's not showing in your area, call your local theaters and request it. Go see this movie, and see it with an audience as that is really part of the experience.
That said, if a movie comes along that looks interesting, I might try to see it. 10 years ago, it was Blair Witch. That was not really a "horror" movie as we know them these days, but more of a scary movie...like a throwback. It was ok, but by the time I had seen it, the "cat was out of the bag" that it was a movie and not "found footage." I also happened to see the fake documentary (aka mockumentary) that presented all this back story. I think it was called "Curse of the Blair Witch." I've read where some people saw the mockumentary first and then were disappointed that NONE of that info makes it into the film. For me though, I think it enhanced the experience because I understood some of what was happening. Perhaps it would have been better to see the movie first, and then the fake documentary. I dunno, hard to say.
It's been surprising at how few "scary" movies have been made since, and how many gory horror movies have come out. I suppose there have been a few, some would say 28 days later.
Most would say [REC] which was remade as Quarantine. I haven't seen any of them.
I am trying to see "Let the Right One In," but I've heard that the DVD has poor ad misleading subtitles. Like some of the dialogue was misinterpreted or made not as full as seen in the theaters. So, I guess I'll wait for the revised DVD. I also want to see Trick r Treat, which like Paranormal Activity was a small budget film (although it does have some known actors) and for whatever reason, it was never given a proper release. I've heard it's scary as Hell, and I see it's On Demand, so I'll probably try to order it soon.
At any rate, Paranormal Activity, like Blair Witch and Cloverfield, is supposed to be a movie made from footage from a personal camcorder.
I won't give anything away, but the gist is that a young 20 something unmarried couple move in and odd things start happening. The guy doesn't think much of it, but decides to buy a really nice video camera, with great resolution and an expensive mic, to let the thing run at night and see if it picks up anything. He does it more or less to appease his girlfriend.
As such, while the entire movie is filmed from this camera, the main thrust of the film is told while the camera runs during the night while the couple sleep. Watching darkess and a time counter run in the bottom right corner of the screen may not seem very interesting, but trust me, it is.
There isn't any gore. This movie is 100% creepy, suspenseful, scariness. Sitting there watching them sleep and wondering if something is going to happen is pull out your hair, look thru your fingers, bite off your nails creepy. I would say that I found this to be 10 times creepier than Blair Witch because while that took place in the woods, this takes place in their home. I find that to be MUCH creepier. The main problem that people had with Blair Witch was that you really don't see anything. If you like creepy, scary, terrifying, non-gory horror movies, this is for you.
I have NEVER been in a theater with so many people screaming their faces off. Even Sixth Sense was more people being startled than actually terrified. This movie could very well make you lose your shit...both figuratively and literally.
I saw this by myself.
I do not recommend that.
While I personally didn't have any problems sleeping, alone, that night or since, I've read where a LOT of people have had problems. Even those not sleeping alone.
If it's not showing in your area, call your local theaters and request it. Go see this movie, and see it with an audience as that is really part of the experience.
Odds and Ends...
Adam, who won Big Brother 9 (the ONLY Spring edition) was arrested for selling Oxycodone.
http://www.silive.com/entertainment/tvfilm/index.ssf/2009/10/adam_jasinski_big_brother_9_wi.html
The headline that lead me to that search for the above article (as that one has a photo) was "Big Brother Winner Arrested for selling Oxycodone." I thought, oh no, Dr Will!?!
I had thought that Adam was a basically decent guy, despite his well known "retard" comment. I guess not. He used his winnings to fund his life of crime. As Bugs Bunny would say, what a maroon.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Recap 9/7 - 9/12
Warehouse 13:
The agents got trapped in the Warehouse which almost had an overload, while Artie faced that "sci fi" cliché, the performance review.
Claudia decided to play with the zip line, but it snapped. She ended up crashing into a full scale replica of the Bed & Breakfast that the Warehouse employees live. The wire, meanwhile, knocked a can of silly string into some mechanical cogs, and it glued it to a stop. Bad news as the cogs pump the Purple Gunk throughout the Warehouse, and it's the gunk that makes the artifacts inert. With the wheels not turning, the artifacts start to interact, and the gunk starts to build up back pressure. The whole place is gonna blow unless they can fix it.
Unfortunately, while tracking down Claudia, Pete & Myka enter the fake B&B and once they close the door they find that they can't leave. Whenever they try to go out a door, window, or hole in the wall, they just find themselves back inside. With the Mrs. Frederic's recorded voice now giving a countdown to boomsday, the agent's finally realize that the only thing different in this B&B is a painting on the wall that is of the living room. They realize that if things in the LR get moved, they get moved in the painting. After some trial and error, they use the painting to open a hole in the B&B to get out. Once out, they see a nasty storm cloud, inside the Warehouse, and some very powerful artifact charge dispersals crackling around.
They decide that the fastest way to the Gunk Room, is through the Dark Room, where the most powerful and dangerous artifacts are stored. Unfortunately, despite Myka's warnings, Pete ends up interacting with an artifact and gets stuck as it sucks the life out of him. Myka tells Claudia that she trusts her (aww) and sends Claudia to the Gunk Room to fix the problem, while she fixes Pete. Eventually, Myka uses a push broom to shove Pete away from the artifact, but now he's too drained to go right away, so Myka runs off to help Claudia.
Good thing, because Claudia had been removing the silly string while wearing their special purple artifact safe gloves, but decided to take them off...so the silly string is now wrapped around her arm. Myka shows up to try to help pull Claudia away, and also gets stuck. The gears are now pulling both women towards them and will grind them up. Pete shows up and uses the snowglobe artifact in Claudia's bag to freeze the string, and then smashes it. The gals are now free, and so are the cogs, with less than 30 seconds to spare.
Meanwhile, Artie delivered paperwork and payroll to a courier who he meets car to car out in the desert in front of a little diner. The courier pulls away, and there is Mrs. Frederic's bodyguard in front of Artie's car who tells him to go into the diner. Artie sits with Mrs. Frederic and they both order a pie homemade by the waitress. After a bit, some patrons leave and suddenly the diner is closed for business. It turns out that all the remaining diners, including the waitress, are the "regents" who oversee the Warehouse. Artie is under review because of some foul-ups including the destruction of artifacts, the letting loose of "Alice," and the return of McPherson. This is a tired gimmick in a lot of Sci Fi shows, but thankfully, they didn't make it a "clip show" as is usually done.
Artie gets reamed by the guy who played Baltar's lawyer on BSG, and the FBI agent's co-worker on Dollhouse. Artie realizes that the regents are just "regular people" like the waitress, which surprises him. He also realizes that they are terrified of McPherson and are essentially "in hiding" from him. Artie tells them that they have prevented him from going after McPherson, and if they want him stopped, that they need to untie his hands as he feels that the team he has now is the best ever, with the 2 best agents ever. He then goes outside to sit on the porch and cool off and let them talk. Bye the bye, Mrs. Frederic joins him and tells him that HE is the best agent the Warehouse has ever had, and that the regents approve of him and as for McPherson, she said, "Happy hunting." With 2 episodes to go, it looks like stopping McPherson will be the Season Finalé, if not both of the next 2 episodes.
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The chefs go to Daniel Boulud's restaurant at the Wynn and have to create something unique using snails (as that is a French specialty) for their quickfire. Added twist is that the winner will not only be immune, but will also get a "special prize," while the loser gets sent home. Ouch.
Not real surprise, but Kevin, Jen and Misogynist Mike I. are the tops with Kevin winning. Instead of a $15,000 chip (that's no chips for the last 2 Quickfires...what are they, cheapos?) he gets to dine with 4 of the best French Chefs in the world. Daniel Boulud, Hubert Keller (who finished third in Top Chef Masters,) Jean Joho, Laurent Tourondel, and Joel Rubochon who was named the "Chef of the Century" in France and his restaurants have a combined 25 Michelin Stars...more than ANYONE else. Chef Tom thinks that Tom Keller, and American, is also one of the best French Chefs in the world, BTW. Kevin felt honored, while the cheftestants who were to compete all looked like they wanted to throw up. Ashley even admitted that she did. In some ways, to these chefs, it'd be like cooking for God as these guys are leaders and inspiration to chefs all over the world.
The chefs drew knives. Some had a protein, while others had a classic French sauce. The chefs then had to decide which "protein chef" would pair up with which "sauce chef" to make a single dish to serve. Once again, the tops remain at the top with the pair of Jen and brother Michael as one top team, and brother Bryan and Mike I. the other top team. Actually though, Mike I.'s dish was explained to him by Bryan, and although they didn't show it on tv, Chef Tom said that the judges figured it out because the style and technique had "Bryan" written all over it and not "Mike I." So, Bryan won the challenge. Bryan now has 2 Elimination Challenge wins while his brother Michael has 1 Elimination win, 1 Quickfire win, and 2 other Top Finishes in other Elimination Challenges.
The bottom dishes were Hector and Ash, and Ashley and Mattin. A bit of a surprise since Mattin is French...although he is from Basque which is more Spanish than French. Mattin lied to the judges that he didn't shoot down Ashley's idea to add asparagus to his sauce. He very nearly got the boot. Had they known he lied, maybe he would have. Instead, Hector got the axe which is what they though he used to cut his meat with. It wasn't cooked properly and it was hacked, not sliced. So after 4 women got booted, Hector became the first guy to go.
Eureka:
Jo's current and former boyfriends both returned to town after Zane had been gone a month while Taggert has been gone for 2 years. They brought back the longest single intact ice core sample ever successfully recovered. However, it's from Russia, so a Russian has to sign it over to GD before they can start working on it.
Taggert and Jo talk it out, finally, because he left without saying goodbye. They wish to remain friends. Zane, meanwhile, is acting like an emotionless zombie. Jo was VERY excited for his return, but he seemed to not give 2 shits.
Zoe, meanwhile, has decided that after delivering Allison's baby that she wants to become a doctor. Perhaps and OB/GYN or a pediatrician. She took the Eureka version of the SAT and doesn't want to know what it says. Her boyfriend tells her that it is 99.8% accurate in picking the best field for someone's aptitude. It says that Zoe should be a robotics engineer. She wants none of it, while her boyfriend gets her a beginner's robotics kit to try out.
Very soon, the cooling system that Zane designed to keep the ice core frozen starts to spread it's icy cold all over town, trapping Zoe, her BF, and other people in the diner. They learn that it has gotten into Zane, and is affecting the emotion center of his brain, thus the zombie behavior. The problem is that the ice regros faster than they can eliminate it, and they still don't understand what's going on. The Sheriff, (SHOCKER,) figures out that the special high tech insulation suit that Zane wears is why it affected him and not Taggert. As the whole town is wrapped in it, that's why it's spreading. The Russian finally concedes to sign off on the ice core so that they can test it, and they find that it has mold like spores that are using the high tech fabric to incubate. They come up with a mist that will dissolve the ice and ill the bacteria and use a little used emergency communication tube network throughout the town to spread the mist. Just in time too as the diner falls to 30 below zero before the Sheriff and Taggert can break through the ice wall at the door.
Zoe, it turns out, figured out that the diner's GIANT freezer will block out the cold so they all hide in there until they're rescued. Afterwards, her BF finds that she finished the robot kit, but he tells her to put it away and focus on what she wants to do. It was her instinct that led her to decide to become a doctor and it was her instinct that saved all of the townspeople in the diner.
The Sheriff and Tess, who in her first day as head of GD in Allison's absence due to maternity leave had to watch the town freeze under her watch, have a nice dinner at the Sheriff's house. Zoe scoots out past them and tells them that she's staying the night with a friend. Earlier, she alluded to the Sheriff that she'd leave so he could bang Tess, which creeped him out. Looks like she made good on the offer because although Tess was about to leave, after Zoe took off, Tess decided to stay. Baum chicka baum baum.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Recap 8/31 - 9/6 including Big Brother Spoilers!!!
Warehouse 13:
The 2 agents were sent to a prison in Florida as a number of inmates had recently killed themselves, and none were considered to be "at risk." The agents tried to find an artifact that would cause people to despair, but they were unable to find anything. They did happen upon a prisoner who had killed his wife but was now somewhat of a spiritual leader, and they thought that perhaps his medallion was the culprit. They learned that decades earlier there had been similar accounts and then on the night of a bad storm (as the prison is near the coast) there was a full scale riot. As it turns out, another bad storm is approaching and the ionic charges are known to be able to amp up the effects of most artifacts.
They soon realize that the mostly steel prison is built on top of an old quartz mine. Quartz also acts as a magnifier for artifacts, so a metal building atop of a quartz foundation surrounded by an electrical storm is a recipe for doom. Worse, both agents are experiencing hallucinations. Pete sees his father who died on the job in a fire when Pete was young and Pete had one of his "hunches" before his Dad left for work but didn't act on it. Myka, meanwhile, sees her previous partner who died on the job and she blames herself. She had just received the Final Report on the "incident" before she left for the prison, but she didn't open the package to read the report.
The agents discover that the violence and suicides were way down during the reign of the prior warden who had died about a month earlier and that's about when the activity flared up. Artie guessed that he must have had something that could cancel the effects of the quartz underneath, which also would have to be something of quartz that was attached to the building in some way.
The Warden also flipped out and barricaded herself in her office while the staff and prisoners also had been severely affected and a riot broke out. Pete found a large quartz cross amongst the prior Warden's stuff that had been put into storage. Pete remembered seeing a photo on the wall of past Warden's that the cross had been on the wall of his office. Pete and the spiritual leader broke down the Warden's door, but in her frenzy, she shot the inmate. Pete got the gun away from her, but then he and Myka both had intense visions. Pete was able to tell his father that even had he tried, he wouldn't have been able to stop his father from going to work that day as his father was duty and honor bound to work and wouldn't have just blown off work because his son had a bad feeling. his guilt resolved, he tried to tell Myka to do the same. In her vision, she was able to tell her dead partner that his recklessness that day is what got him killed. He didn't wait like he was supposed to, and if he had, the killer might have been stopped but since he rushed in early, he walked right into the trap that had been set.
Guilt resolved, the agents hung the cross back where it was, and suddenly all the mayhem ceased. The Warden didn't understand what had happened, and was horrified to realize that she had shot the spiritual inmate. The inmate was not sorry, he felt that he had made peace with what he had done and was "forgiven" and now it was time for his "journey" to continue "elsewhere."
The other storyline concerned Claudia. She was still doing inventory, when a flickering light was bothering her. She complained to Artie that it needed to be changed, and he said that those bulbs never needed changing and had been invented 109 years ago. Back to inventory, Claudia just couldn't get past the flickering bulb. She found a lab coat and goggles amongst the artifacts that once worn together, they attracted to metal. Claudia used the outfit to Spiderman climb up a steel girder and tighten the bulb. It then blew out and Claudia noted that apparently, 109 years was the limit. She then changed the bulb, and found that she was stuck, and dropped the old bulb.
Suddenly, metal objects from all over started flying up and sticking to her...like an old bike amongst others. She knew she'd be in trouble, but she began yelling for Artie, and then began banging in Morse code. Artie finally heard the code and tracked her down. By now, the effects of the coat, which increase the longer it's connected to metal, had started dragging a large Hummer towards her, and was causing the metal frame of the warehouse to buckle.
Artie tried several ways to get her down, but finally was able to harpoon her and got her down. They quickly got her out of the coat and goggles and the effects ended. Later, she was shown writing over and over on a blackboard. I couldn't quite make out what she was writing, but after filling both sides of the board, Artie erased one side and had her continue.
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The Quickfire involved making a dish with potatoes, and the guest judge was Mark Peel who had competed in Top Chef Masters...and mentioned that to the cheftestants to let them know that he understood the limits of the challenge, especially "time." Ashley, Ash, and Jen were the favorites with Jen winning, but alas, no $15,000 casino chip.
The Elimination Challenge was for the full group, as a group, to prepare a meal for 300 Air Force Servicepeople and their families. Some had just returned from war, and some were heading off, so they were implored to try their hardest and do their best.
Since Jen won the Quickfire and had immunity, the Cheftestants was decided that she'd run the kitchen. The rest would be paired off and be responsible for ONLY 1 dish per pair, but they could do 2 if they wanted and had the time. It was a smart decision by the Cheftestants as it allowed for the kitchen to be managed more efficiently as they'd soon find that they'd need.
They arrived at the Air Base and found that the kitchen was stocked with bulk foods, mostly in bags or cans, and there weren't any pots, pans, or burners...only large scale boilers, fryers, and skillet like surfaces. Jen kept them on task and figured out the order that each "team" would get in using the various equipment. So the Cheftestants actually did the right thing and made it much easier on themselves. When they paired up, though, the sad thing was that Jesse and Ron, who hadn't been doing so well, ended up with each other when nobody wanted to work with them. Ouch. So, in the Nevada heat, they decided to make Clam Chowder. Oy boy.
Actually, the Air Force Personnel liked the chowder and for some of the "east coasters" it was like "comfort food." The judges were less thrilled, and weren't sure it was a good idea, but ultimately decided that it was decent. They also noted that spicy chili had been made, so the "hot" argument would have to apply for both, and chili is very much cooked even in Summer in Nevada.
The tops, no surprise, were Kevin and Eli who made southern food including a potato salad that got raves. Michael V, one of the brothers, took Slab Bacon and turned it into a sort of taco inside a lettuce cup with some nuts. it proved to be the winning dish and in their blogs for this episode, Tom and Gail raved about it, especially Gail.
In the bottom, again no surprise, were Preeti and Laurine who made a weak and uninspired pasta salad, and loud moth Mike I. who was paired with winner Michael V. Mike I was pissed, thinking that if his "partner" won, then he should be safe. But, the judges pointed out that the challenge didn't pair up the cheftestants, they did it themselves. As such, Michael was judged for his dish which Mike I admitted was Michael's while his dish was an uninspired Greek salad. Tom accused Mike as just making a "throw away' dish and didn't put any effort into it, and it was bland. The women, though, were ravaged. Not only was it a weak dish for a competition of this level, but it was just poorly made, bland, underseasoned, poorly presented, just terrible. Preeti said she thought it was good and it seemed to be a "crowd pleaser." The judges noted that it wasn't a "judge pleaser." Laurine noted that she realized where they went wrong and was embarrassed by having put it out. In the end, to the shock of nobody, Preeti was kicked off...making her the third woman in a row to go.
At this point, it's clear that the Final Four SHOULD be the 2 brothers, Kevin, and Jen. Either Jesse or Ron will probably be the next to go, and if they're both in the bottom, I see them booting Ron only because just woman have gotten the axe so far. Pretty much everyone else is just somewhere in the middle, they may win a Quickfire or Challenge here and there, but as Tom alluded to in one of his blogs, the chefs stay pretty consistent with the best near the top, the worst near the bottom, and the rest just middling through.
Big Brother Soilers!!!:
That's right, this week these are Big Brother SOILERS not SPOILERS because I feel dirty just typing them. Ick.
NataLIE won HOH because Jordan sucks at comps and Michele choked, and then as HOH she nominated Michele & Kevin. She wore a robe, a crown, and carried a pool cue bridge as a scepter for the nomination ceremony. She laid into Michele, calling her evil and said that Michele "caused" Chima to throw her mic pack and get expelled. Again shows that neither Chima nor NataLIE accept personal responsibility. NataLIE also went on and on about how she never lied...yeah, like she's really 18, and Big Brother just gave her Mike's Hard Lemonade for her HOH fridge. Pandora's box allowed her to have 20 minutes with her boyfriend, who proposed to her. There are reports that Kevin told her to make something up so that she had "something" to tell the others, so the boyfriend and engagement may all be another NataLIE. But, by opening Pandora's box, that meant that she couldn't play in the Veto comp. Whoever wins the Veto, will have the sole vote to evict. Kevin is acting like he's not happy that she put him on the block but is mad that now he HAS to win Veto since NataLIE isn't playing. NataLIE might actually be less intelligent than Jordan since it made no sense to nominate Kevin and tick him off (if he really was mad) since it all comes down to whoever wins Veto...and by electing to not play, she ticked him off even more. Kevin won Veto. Now he has to decide to vote out Michele and make NataLIE happy, or vote out Jordan and keep Michele in the game and hope that she eliminates NataLIE for him because he doesn't think he can beat NatLIE in the Final 2. He will most likely boot Michele because he thinks he can beat Jordan in the final 3 part HOH, while Michele has a much better chance to win. Also, he wants to take Jordan to Final 2 because he doesn't think she could win the Jury since she's only won 1 Veto comp (Jeff "gave" her the HOH she had.)
End SOILERS!!!
Big Brother Soilers!!!:
That's right, this week these are Big Brother SOILERS not SPOILERS because I feel dirty just typing them. Ick.
NataLIE won HOH because Jordan sucks at comps and Michele choked, and then as HOH she nominated Michele & Kevin. She wore a robe, a crown, and carried a pool cue bridge as a scepter for the nomination ceremony. She laid into Michele, calling her evil and said that Michele "caused" Chima to throw her mic pack and get expelled. Again shows that neither Chima nor NataLIE accept personal responsibility. NataLIE also went on and on about how she never lied...yeah, like she's really 18, and Big Brother just gave her Mike's Hard Lemonade for her HOH fridge. Pandora's box allowed her to have 20 minutes with her boyfriend, who proposed to her. There are reports that Kevin told her to make something up so that she had "something" to tell the others, so the boyfriend and engagement may all be another NataLIE. But, by opening Pandora's box, that meant that she couldn't play in the Veto comp. Whoever wins the Veto, will have the sole vote to evict. Kevin is acting like he's not happy that she put him on the block but is mad that now he HAS to win Veto since NataLIE isn't playing. NataLIE might actually be less intelligent than Jordan since it made no sense to nominate Kevin and tick him off (if he really was mad) since it all comes down to whoever wins Veto...and by electing to not play, she ticked him off even more. Kevin won Veto. Now he has to decide to vote out Michele and make NataLIE happy, or vote out Jordan and keep Michele in the game and hope that she eliminates NataLIE for him because he doesn't think he can beat NatLIE in the Final 2. He will most likely boot Michele because he thinks he can beat Jordan in the final 3 part HOH, while Michele has a much better chance to win. Also, he wants to take Jordan to Final 2 because he doesn't think she could win the Jury since she's only won 1 Veto comp (Jeff "gave" her the HOH she had.)
End SOILERS!!!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Recap 8/24 - 8/30
Warehouse 13:
This episode contained issues from not one, not 2, but 3 different artifacts.
Artie was following the movements of 2 small time cons who had suddenly been winning sizeable amounts of money at casinos all across the US and were now in Vegas, apparently for the "big time." Artie wasn't sure what known or unknown artifact that they might have to help them out as he said there are plenty of artifacts "in the wild" that could help them win. He also noted that they weren't winning enough to set off any alarms, but its enough to add up to a very good amount of money.
While Artie was working out what to do about the cons, he had the agents, Mika and Pete, doing inventory with Claudia. Pete was playing ping pong with himself using Lewis Carroll's magical "Alice" mirror. Mika showed up and playfully shoved Pete who fell onto the mirror causing it to rock back and knock a giant mirror ball off the shelf behind it, and then it rocked forward, but before it crashed, Mika caught it. Big mistake. The mirror ball turned out to be from Studio 54, and when it hit the ground, it activated playing Gloria Gayner's "I Will Survive" and shot lights out in all directions from the mirrors on the ball. The lights reflected off "Alice's" Magical Mirror which Mika was holding. Unknown at the time, the interaction of the 2 artifacts caused the spirit of "Alice" which had been trapped in the mirror to enter Mika's body, while her spirit was now trapped in the mirror. When it was over, "Mika" set the mirror face down on the ground and walked away.
Artie sent the 2 agents to Vegas to find out how the 2 cons were winning, and retrieve any artifact that they might have. "Mika" was acting slightly odd, but not enough to set off alarms. Staking out the 2, "Mika" stayed at the Roulette wheel while Pete ransacked their room. "Mika" saw that before each bet, they rubbed a coin. When Pete came back and said that he didn't find anything in their room so it must be on them, "Mika" lied and said that she hadn't noticed anything. Later, they followed the 2 cons back to their room, but as the cons walked past, "Mika" grabbed Pete and kissed him to "keep their cover."
Back at the warehouse, Artie and Claudia put the mirror ball back (the mirror ball grants the deepest desires) and set "Alice's" mirror back up. That's when Artie saw the image of Mika trapped within. Claudia wanted to help her out, but Artie said that entities within mirrors like to fool people into releasing them, and he wouldn't even try to communicate. Later, he, Claudia and Leena were discussing what happened and decided to try to communicate just to see if there was any chance she was Mika due to the interaction of the 2 artifacts. Claudia modified some stuff found in the Warehouse to act like the CIA's "sonic vibration" readers that reads vibrations off glass to "hear" what people on the other side are saying. Sure enough, it sounded like Mika and she plead her case. Artie would have none of it, and covered the mirror. He called Pete (but "Mika" could hear due to their connected earpieces,) and asked him if Mika showed any effects from the event at the Warehouse. He said that all was normal (this was before the kiss) and that they were still investigating. Artie seemed satisfied. Claudia and Leena weren't. They got Artie to try again, and the real Mika revealed that she doesn't trust Artie but wants to and has issues in her past that are creating friction with her and Artie but she wants to try to move past them. Artie was convinced, but the only way to put the right Mika back was to get the fake Mika back to the mirror and something can only get out if something else goes in.
Instead of calling Pete on the Farnsworth communicator, which was now with "Mika/Alice," Artie called the hotel and had him paged. Pete had just convinced the woman con to give him the coin, but that she and her husband could keep all of the money, but to leave town, leave crime, and settle down. Using the coin "burns" the hand from rubbing it, and the more it's used, the worse the hand gets. So, she gave up the coin and went to collect their winnings. Meanwhile, "Mika" had gone to the con's room and beat up the guy only to learn that he didn't have the coin. She shot him with the Tesla just as Pete showed up. Pete told her that she had killed the guy (she hadn't, it only stuns) so the guy pretended to be dead. He revealed that he knew she was "Alice" and that Mika would never ever kiss him for any reason. She then got the drop on him and shot him too, and then took the coin from him. She decided that the only way to stay free within Mika was to destroy the mirror.
She arrived back at the Warehouse, to "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane (I had forgotten how amazing that song is...one of the best ever.) When she got to the mirror, the Warehouse staff sprung their trap. Caludia hit the Studio 54 Mirror Ball with a laser, the lights shot out, "Mika/Alice" screamed and she and the real Mika traded places again. Within the mirror was now the creepy image of a demonic looking child in 1800s clothing...and everything within the mirror had an old fashioned sepia tone to it. They covered the mirror and Artie said that he'd have to place it in the "Dark Room." The real Mika was back, but the Mirror Ball lights twinkled as they left. Hmm. Feed your head.
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
The Quickfire Challenge had the cheftestants roll dice and whatever number the 2 die added up to was the number of ingredients that they could use from the pantry to make a dish. Nobody wanted snake eyes, but nobody wanted 12 either. Several got 10. One person got 3. Eve and Jesse who had both been in the bottom of the previous Elimination challenge also were in the bottom here along with Brother Bryan. Kevin, Jen and Brother Michael were in the top and Michael won the $15,000 casino chip...much to his brother Bryan's dismay because he had used liquid nitrogen to make gazpacho.
The Elimination Challenge had the cheftestants team up, men vs. women, and prepare a due bachelor/bachelorette party. The men met with the bride-to-be and the women with the groom to figure out what they wanted. One thing that they BOTH wanted was to have dishes paired up with one of 3 shots of alcohol that they both love. From the cheftestants, the shots were pretty nasty, so not a good sign. Many women were upset with the whole "men vs. women" theme, but Ashley was more upset about having to cater for a bachelor/bachelorette party yet she would not be allowed to have one since she's a lesbian. She was mad that Preeti who also is a lesbian didn't seem to be bothered by it. Preeti said that it just didn't work her up as much, and that regardless, people get married and she has a job to do. Ash, the only gay man, wasn't really even mentioned. It seemed like Ashley was just using this challenge to get air time and to trumpet gay rights, both are her right to do, but it seemed almost a bit overboard. She even acknowledged that since the show was taking place in Vegas, that she figured there'd be at least one wedding themed challenge.
The men won the day with brothers Michael and Bryan along with Hector and Eli as the tops. This time it was brother Bryan who won, and while winning $15,000 might be great, it's probably ultimately more important to win the bigger Elimination challenges than the Quickfires.
Preeti, and once again Jesse and Eve were in the bottom. Eve got the boot, thank God, because I can't stand to look at her or to listen to her odd voice and annoying "Fargo" accent. I live in Michigan and NOBODY I've ever known talks like that, although it's been spoofed from time to time, but I think it's maybe a Northern and Western Michigan accent as it certainly isn't heard around here.
Eureka:
Ok, when did Tess with the 3 doctorates have one in a memory related field? Wasn't she brought in from CETI to deal with the returning spacecraft, and to head up Level 5? I didn't realize that one of her doctorates had anything to do with the mind. Regardless, she had made a "memory time capsule" that would record people's memories directly from their mind in a visual way. Yep, looks like a "flashback" episode to me. Thankfully, the flashbacks were mostly short and very few.
Fargo gets upset that memories of him may make him look badly, so he deletes them. Only he causes the central device to delete not only the memories of him from the system, but anyone who used the memory device found many of their memories deleted. Odd that once people started losing their memories that it took the Sheriff, once again, to be the one to point out that hey, maybe it's connected to this new memory device that just started being used. Oy.
The Sheriff and Allison go to GD to try to reverse the problem only to get trapped inside during a lockdown for a special "sonic cleansing" of the facility that will vaporize any organic material whether a virus or a person. Then, of course, Allison loses much of her memory. The Sheriff uses the device in reverse to "show" her memories and then has her call up memories hoping to stir emotions as those are often stronger memories in the hopes that she'll be able to "wake up" and get them out of there. Oh, and now she's in labor.
The Sheriff is able to use a special pager that Allison had given him so that if she went into labor, she could contact him even if he was deep in a cave in China. Tess and the Sheriff's daughter are the only people so far unaffected by the memory loss (the daughter had never used the device as she couldn't think of a memory that was important enough.) They went to GD and the daughter freed the Sheriff and Allison, but Tess hadn't shut down the cleansing. The Sheriff finds her in Allison's office, only now she's lost her memory too. Oh, come on. At this point, EVERYONE had lost their memory a long time ago, but they make Allison and Tess lose theirs just at the "wrong" time. Of course, to get hers back quickly, she has to kiss the Sheriff long enough to realize how to stop the cleansing from killing them all. Uh huh. The system stopped, and the Sheriff's daughter delivers Allison's baby while Fargo returns everyone's memory...and then faints from the childbirth. The daughter now thinks that she's found her "calling" in life.
Special note, the actress who plays deputy Jo and the actor who plays her boyfriend on Eureka were the married couple on Warehouse 13 who were using the coin to win in casinos. Despite playing couples on 2 different tv series, they are not a couple in real life.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Recap 8/17 - 8/21 2009
Big Brother Spoilers at the end!
Warehouse 13:
Ths episode started out with them playing the song Queen B by Puscifer (the lead singer from Tool's other side band.) I have no idea as to why as it didn't fit what was going on in the scene, but I'll take a gratuitous use of that song any day.
The episode was about an ancient Samurai sword that was going to be presented to the President of the US by Japan after having been uncovered in a dig about a year earlier. To me that made no sense. The sword was supposed to have been from the most powerful dynasty in Japan's history and it had been lost for hundreds of years. So it finally turns up underground, and now they're going to give it to the US President? Huh?
Anyway, it is said to be able to bend light around the user, rendering him invisible. So they are supposed to swap a duplicate that Artie made and store the actual sword in the warehouse.
The 2 agents go to the Japanese consulate and there is a powerful event that takes place. The 2 agents are sucked into a wall. Just as he's falling unconscious, the male agent sees someone leave the room where the "event" was located. After waking up, they tell Artie that it was more like an implosion than an explosion. Artie freaks out.
Artie travels to an electronics store where a guy who he knows has made implosion grenades is located. Only he finds him turned to dust (earlier we saw someone collect a briefcase of grenades and then fry the poor guy.) Artie finds a clue that appears to have been left purposely for him. He now believes that it is a guy from his past. The agents also think that whoever is doing it has Warehouse tech as they catch a masked theif trying to steal the sword's Tsuba (which is the disc like part, usually decorative, that is between the blade and the handle) who has a Tesla gun. They end up being caught by the Secret Service with the Tsuba and are implicated. The Japanese liason also gives a file to their old boss at the Service that alleges that Artie is wanted for treason. It's not looking good for the 2 agents.
The agents are let go but given the file. They don't know what to think. Later, Artie is nabbed while trying to steal the Tsuba away from the Secret Service boss's safe. The agents want to know the truth, but Artie says that Mrs Frederick (who didn't believe that the person who Artie thinks is behind all the commotion is actually the right guy and that Artie is making it personal) had long ago buried all of that information about him and the alleged espionage against the US. It seems that Artie (with a different last name) was once a code breaker, but ultimately got accused of selling secrets to the Russians. So Artie knows that if the file got out, only somoeone who knew about it and had it in for Artie coould have dug it up...meaning that he is correct with his suspicions. Mrs Frederick gets Artie freed and now she admits that she was wrong and Artie as right.
The suspect once worked with Artie and there was a fallout over a woman and their work. The guy, named MacPherson, ran off with a woman Artie cared about, and then went rogue. Artie tracked down the woman who wasn't happy with him and also felt that Artie was wrong, but ultimately didn't care. Now freed, Artie tracks the sword which has been reunited with the Tsuba (making it whole and allowing the power to work) as the Japanese liason turns out to have been working with Artie's nemesis. The guy kills the liason by lopping off his head while invisible, and then stabs Artie. Artie holds onto the sword, inside him, as the 2 agents arrive. MacPherson gets away.
At the end, they show the 2 agents stashing the real sword in the warehouse while a recovering Artie talks with Mrs Frederick about the danger that MacPherson presents to them all.
Top Chef Masters:
This was the season finale. The final 3 were Classic French Chef Hubert Keller, Italian influenced Californian Chef Michael Chiarello, and Traditional Mexican Chef Rick Bayless.
They started by treating the Final 3 by taking them to the Getty House where they got to relax and dine in elegance.
Then they had to made a 4 course dinner that told their "history" as chefs. The first course would be their oldest food memory. The second course would be the dish that made them want to be a chef. The third course would represent their first restaurant. And the fourth course would be where they are and where they are heading.
The diners were the 3 Top Chef Master judges, the TC:M host, the 3 judges from "regular" Top Chef (Tom, Padma and Gail,) and the 5 winners of the 5 seasons of Top Chef. Good mix! Padma seemed very quiet, and didn't seem like she wanted to be there and hardly said anything.
Michael took note that the one judge from Saveur Magazine was always hard on him, never giving him anything over 3.5 stars. So, Michael took pages of his magazine, and burned the edges, and made them a "doiley" for his second course. Everyone laughed...but the judge was still a putz.
Hubert's courses: 1 - Great, 2 - Hit & Miss, 3 - Miss, 4 - Hit
Michael's courses: 1 - Hit, 2 - HUGE Hit (Gail wanted to bathe in it,) 3 - Well cooked but boring, 4 - Collassal hit (Padma said that he had won her heart with that dish, and Tom was impressed by how complex it was to make yet seemed so simple.
Rick's courses: 1 - Hit, 2 - Probably the biggest HIT of the night out of all of them, 3 - Hit & Miss, 4 - Miss (especially the Chorizo Foam.)
So, looking at that, who won? Michael, right?
Wrongo friendo!
Rick won with 18 stars, Michael had 17, and Hubert had 16.5
As much as the jerk from Saveur magazine bagged on Rick's 4th course and loved Michael's 2nd and 4th course, he STILL only gave him 3.5 stars and gave Rick 4.
I knew it.
Everyone just LOVES Rick Bayless. He's so soft spoken, so friendly, and has such passion for Mexico and Mexican food, and his charity benefits Midwestern farmers. I picked him to win from the start.
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
17 Chefs (Is that the most ever?)
They are the most qualified and respected they've ever had as a group. Many are executive chefs. Some are James Beard nominees (and I think even a winner,) 1 woman is the head chef for one of Eric Ripert's restaurants, and TC thinks of Daniel Boulud and Eric Ripert as like "The Gods."
2 are brothers.
1 guy always dresses like he's about to run with the bulls. I think he's from France.
1 Indian (as in the nation) woman looked like a guy, but this gal named Ashley looks just like musician Beck. I mean, I can't see anything "feminine" about her at all. She seems to cook well.
Oh, and the oldest gal has 2 forms of cancer.
For the Quickfire, they had to pull out poker chips to see who would be on the same team, and the cancer woman pulled a gold chip which meant that she didn't have to compete in the race (17 is uneven as they had 4 teams of 4,) and it also meant that she had immunity from elimination. She also got to pick which group she would compete with in the Elimination challenge.
The Quickfire was the dreaded mise-en-lace relay race, and the poor Indian gal was told to open clams (she didn't ask for it, they all picked the other 3 items and she got stuck with it.) It was the first part of the race, and she'd never opened clams before and tried to do it liek they were oysters (which is wrong.) I'm not sure she ever finished by the time that the first team had finished all 4. One gal cut her fingers and was bleeding all over the place, and then suddenly I saw her wearing a purple sanitary glove. I bet they stopped everyone while they put that on her so that she didn't get blood everywhere as the winning team then had to each cook the items that they prepared so that only 1 person would win a $15,000 poker chip!
The Elimination challenge had each group from the Quickfire compete against each other as a group. The best of each group would go to a winner's judging where one would win the week. The worst of each group would go to the bottom where the worst of the worst would be eliminated. Wolfgang Puck was the guest judge.
The dish they had to create had to represent a "vice" of theirs. Some chose drinking, some procrastination, etc. The guy from Haiti chose the memory of his 21 days at sea when coming to America. Tom didn't see how it was a "vice" but he ended up as the best from his group. This one guy with a big red beard (looks like Kris Kringle from the old Santa Claus Is Coming To Town puppet Christmas classic) ended up winning.
I thought for sure the only person from Michigan, Eve, would be booted. They TRASHED her dish as though she was someone who had just began to learn to cook. But, they sent packing this Hispanic woman with tats all over her, including this big one at the base of her neck. She wasn't very good either, but as a viewer, I thought that her dish was better than Eve's.
Eureka:
This episode had a lot going on.
Kim 2.0 was degrading and all of her data would die with her. Billy Campbell guest starred as an expert at extracting data, and showed that just one lock of her hair was FULL of data, but that his laser and radiation combo could extract all of it quickly. When they tried to run the laser/radiation scan on her, it wasn't working and it was harming her. So they tried putting her into a bath of anti-biotics and nutrients, and while it worked briefly, ultimately Kim shut herself down (essentially killed herself.) They brought her back but she knew that her existence was to bring back data so if she must die to do it, then so be it. They ran the laser/radiation scan on her again, but this time in a vat of acid which would cause all of her cells to disperse, allowing the laser scan to read all of the data more efficiently. Henry cried while watching "Kim" "die" for a second time. They got all of the data.
3 women in charge of varying baby items of the future threw a baby shower for Allison. One gave her a superabsorbant diaper, one gave her a special bottle that allows all of the liquid inside to come out (nothing clings to the bottle,) and the third gave her a device that connects the mother to the unborn baby in a unique way.
The day after the party, the monitor woman is found drowned in her car that is full of water. The next day, the bottle woman drowns in the Cafe's bathroom. A third person, a cleaning woman, is found drowned ni the sauna at GD. Since Henry is dealing with Kim 2.0, Fargo does the autopsies and discovers that the water each woman drowned in is a synthetic water made at GD intended for space colonization. The water compresses and so an ocean could fit into a drinking bottle...that's how the women drowned, the water decompressed inside them and spilled out.
Tess and the diaper lady are found to also be full of the water, and are now slowly drowning. They are in the GD infirmary where their lungs are being drained as quickly as possible, but even then it would take a month to drain out all of the syn water...and both women would die of organ failure before that. Carter (!) realizes that perhaps the syn water lady and Billy Campbell's laser/radiation device could be made to work together to remove the compressed water as if it were data. They put it together and tell Tess that it will feel like she's drowning but it should work...unless it causes all of the water to decompress all at once. They try it out and at first nothing seems to be happening and she struggles like she's drowning. Eventually, they get the water out.
Now, Carter is supposed to be about the least intelligent person in Eureka, and yet with every crisis, HE seems to be the person who comes up with the solution...usually by thinking of combining 2 or more GD techs together. I mean, come on. Also, how many times is that going to happen before the writers come up with something new?
Big Brother Spoilers:
I'll update the Veto winner Sunday, and if any replacement nominees are made it won't be until late Monday. To see spoilers, hold down the left mouse button and drag it down to where it says End Spoilers. That will highlight the "inviso text."
It seems to be much quieter in the BB house, but there still has been some tension and little fights. Jeff is HOH, Russell & Michele are Have Nots, Kevin & Natalie are nominated but depending on the outcome of the Veto (all 6 remaining HGs get to play) Russell could be the true target to be backdoored, although Kevin seems to be the primary target for now.
End Spoilers. Check back Sunday for Veto winner and late Monday for the outcome of the Veto Ceremony.
Veto Winner Spoiler!!!
The veto competition was yesterday, and all 6 HGs got to play. Jeff won. It now looks very likely that he will "backdoor" Russell which has both pros and cons.
End Veto Spoiler!!!
Veto results spoilers!!!
Veto meeting was held. As expected, Jeff used the Veto to remove Kevin and put up Russell. Russell is PISSED. Jordan was screaming at him that he's just mad because Jeff was able to "get" him before Russell "got" Jeff. Kevin and Natalie are laughing their butts off. They call it the Last Minute Lie (LML) that they believe will now cost Jeff the game and perhaps win it for one of them. They laughed that they told Jeff & Jordan that they'd be in Final Four with them, but if either of them wins, they're going to nominate both Jeff & Jordan so that if either wins Veto, they'll remove themself and then the other will go.
End Veto results spoilers!!!
Warehouse 13:
Ths episode started out with them playing the song Queen B by Puscifer (the lead singer from Tool's other side band.) I have no idea as to why as it didn't fit what was going on in the scene, but I'll take a gratuitous use of that song any day.
The episode was about an ancient Samurai sword that was going to be presented to the President of the US by Japan after having been uncovered in a dig about a year earlier. To me that made no sense. The sword was supposed to have been from the most powerful dynasty in Japan's history and it had been lost for hundreds of years. So it finally turns up underground, and now they're going to give it to the US President? Huh?
Anyway, it is said to be able to bend light around the user, rendering him invisible. So they are supposed to swap a duplicate that Artie made and store the actual sword in the warehouse.
The 2 agents go to the Japanese consulate and there is a powerful event that takes place. The 2 agents are sucked into a wall. Just as he's falling unconscious, the male agent sees someone leave the room where the "event" was located. After waking up, they tell Artie that it was more like an implosion than an explosion. Artie freaks out.
Artie travels to an electronics store where a guy who he knows has made implosion grenades is located. Only he finds him turned to dust (earlier we saw someone collect a briefcase of grenades and then fry the poor guy.) Artie finds a clue that appears to have been left purposely for him. He now believes that it is a guy from his past. The agents also think that whoever is doing it has Warehouse tech as they catch a masked theif trying to steal the sword's Tsuba (which is the disc like part, usually decorative, that is between the blade and the handle) who has a Tesla gun. They end up being caught by the Secret Service with the Tsuba and are implicated. The Japanese liason also gives a file to their old boss at the Service that alleges that Artie is wanted for treason. It's not looking good for the 2 agents.
The agents are let go but given the file. They don't know what to think. Later, Artie is nabbed while trying to steal the Tsuba away from the Secret Service boss's safe. The agents want to know the truth, but Artie says that Mrs Frederick (who didn't believe that the person who Artie thinks is behind all the commotion is actually the right guy and that Artie is making it personal) had long ago buried all of that information about him and the alleged espionage against the US. It seems that Artie (with a different last name) was once a code breaker, but ultimately got accused of selling secrets to the Russians. So Artie knows that if the file got out, only somoeone who knew about it and had it in for Artie coould have dug it up...meaning that he is correct with his suspicions. Mrs Frederick gets Artie freed and now she admits that she was wrong and Artie as right.
The suspect once worked with Artie and there was a fallout over a woman and their work. The guy, named MacPherson, ran off with a woman Artie cared about, and then went rogue. Artie tracked down the woman who wasn't happy with him and also felt that Artie was wrong, but ultimately didn't care. Now freed, Artie tracks the sword which has been reunited with the Tsuba (making it whole and allowing the power to work) as the Japanese liason turns out to have been working with Artie's nemesis. The guy kills the liason by lopping off his head while invisible, and then stabs Artie. Artie holds onto the sword, inside him, as the 2 agents arrive. MacPherson gets away.
At the end, they show the 2 agents stashing the real sword in the warehouse while a recovering Artie talks with Mrs Frederick about the danger that MacPherson presents to them all.
Top Chef Masters:
This was the season finale. The final 3 were Classic French Chef Hubert Keller, Italian influenced Californian Chef Michael Chiarello, and Traditional Mexican Chef Rick Bayless.
They started by treating the Final 3 by taking them to the Getty House where they got to relax and dine in elegance.
Then they had to made a 4 course dinner that told their "history" as chefs. The first course would be their oldest food memory. The second course would be the dish that made them want to be a chef. The third course would represent their first restaurant. And the fourth course would be where they are and where they are heading.
The diners were the 3 Top Chef Master judges, the TC:M host, the 3 judges from "regular" Top Chef (Tom, Padma and Gail,) and the 5 winners of the 5 seasons of Top Chef. Good mix! Padma seemed very quiet, and didn't seem like she wanted to be there and hardly said anything.
Michael took note that the one judge from Saveur Magazine was always hard on him, never giving him anything over 3.5 stars. So, Michael took pages of his magazine, and burned the edges, and made them a "doiley" for his second course. Everyone laughed...but the judge was still a putz.
Hubert's courses: 1 - Great, 2 - Hit & Miss, 3 - Miss, 4 - Hit
Michael's courses: 1 - Hit, 2 - HUGE Hit (Gail wanted to bathe in it,) 3 - Well cooked but boring, 4 - Collassal hit (Padma said that he had won her heart with that dish, and Tom was impressed by how complex it was to make yet seemed so simple.
Rick's courses: 1 - Hit, 2 - Probably the biggest HIT of the night out of all of them, 3 - Hit & Miss, 4 - Miss (especially the Chorizo Foam.)
So, looking at that, who won? Michael, right?
Wrongo friendo!
Rick won with 18 stars, Michael had 17, and Hubert had 16.5
As much as the jerk from Saveur magazine bagged on Rick's 4th course and loved Michael's 2nd and 4th course, he STILL only gave him 3.5 stars and gave Rick 4.
I knew it.
Everyone just LOVES Rick Bayless. He's so soft spoken, so friendly, and has such passion for Mexico and Mexican food, and his charity benefits Midwestern farmers. I picked him to win from the start.
Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:
17 Chefs (Is that the most ever?)
They are the most qualified and respected they've ever had as a group. Many are executive chefs. Some are James Beard nominees (and I think even a winner,) 1 woman is the head chef for one of Eric Ripert's restaurants, and TC thinks of Daniel Boulud and Eric Ripert as like "The Gods."
2 are brothers.
1 guy always dresses like he's about to run with the bulls. I think he's from France.
1 Indian (as in the nation) woman looked like a guy, but this gal named Ashley looks just like musician Beck. I mean, I can't see anything "feminine" about her at all. She seems to cook well.
Oh, and the oldest gal has 2 forms of cancer.
For the Quickfire, they had to pull out poker chips to see who would be on the same team, and the cancer woman pulled a gold chip which meant that she didn't have to compete in the race (17 is uneven as they had 4 teams of 4,) and it also meant that she had immunity from elimination. She also got to pick which group she would compete with in the Elimination challenge.
The Quickfire was the dreaded mise-en-lace relay race, and the poor Indian gal was told to open clams (she didn't ask for it, they all picked the other 3 items and she got stuck with it.) It was the first part of the race, and she'd never opened clams before and tried to do it liek they were oysters (which is wrong.) I'm not sure she ever finished by the time that the first team had finished all 4. One gal cut her fingers and was bleeding all over the place, and then suddenly I saw her wearing a purple sanitary glove. I bet they stopped everyone while they put that on her so that she didn't get blood everywhere as the winning team then had to each cook the items that they prepared so that only 1 person would win a $15,000 poker chip!
The Elimination challenge had each group from the Quickfire compete against each other as a group. The best of each group would go to a winner's judging where one would win the week. The worst of each group would go to the bottom where the worst of the worst would be eliminated. Wolfgang Puck was the guest judge.
The dish they had to create had to represent a "vice" of theirs. Some chose drinking, some procrastination, etc. The guy from Haiti chose the memory of his 21 days at sea when coming to America. Tom didn't see how it was a "vice" but he ended up as the best from his group. This one guy with a big red beard (looks like Kris Kringle from the old Santa Claus Is Coming To Town puppet Christmas classic) ended up winning.
I thought for sure the only person from Michigan, Eve, would be booted. They TRASHED her dish as though she was someone who had just began to learn to cook. But, they sent packing this Hispanic woman with tats all over her, including this big one at the base of her neck. She wasn't very good either, but as a viewer, I thought that her dish was better than Eve's.
Eureka:
This episode had a lot going on.
Kim 2.0 was degrading and all of her data would die with her. Billy Campbell guest starred as an expert at extracting data, and showed that just one lock of her hair was FULL of data, but that his laser and radiation combo could extract all of it quickly. When they tried to run the laser/radiation scan on her, it wasn't working and it was harming her. So they tried putting her into a bath of anti-biotics and nutrients, and while it worked briefly, ultimately Kim shut herself down (essentially killed herself.) They brought her back but she knew that her existence was to bring back data so if she must die to do it, then so be it. They ran the laser/radiation scan on her again, but this time in a vat of acid which would cause all of her cells to disperse, allowing the laser scan to read all of the data more efficiently. Henry cried while watching "Kim" "die" for a second time. They got all of the data.
3 women in charge of varying baby items of the future threw a baby shower for Allison. One gave her a superabsorbant diaper, one gave her a special bottle that allows all of the liquid inside to come out (nothing clings to the bottle,) and the third gave her a device that connects the mother to the unborn baby in a unique way.
The day after the party, the monitor woman is found drowned in her car that is full of water. The next day, the bottle woman drowns in the Cafe's bathroom. A third person, a cleaning woman, is found drowned ni the sauna at GD. Since Henry is dealing with Kim 2.0, Fargo does the autopsies and discovers that the water each woman drowned in is a synthetic water made at GD intended for space colonization. The water compresses and so an ocean could fit into a drinking bottle...that's how the women drowned, the water decompressed inside them and spilled out.
Tess and the diaper lady are found to also be full of the water, and are now slowly drowning. They are in the GD infirmary where their lungs are being drained as quickly as possible, but even then it would take a month to drain out all of the syn water...and both women would die of organ failure before that. Carter (!) realizes that perhaps the syn water lady and Billy Campbell's laser/radiation device could be made to work together to remove the compressed water as if it were data. They put it together and tell Tess that it will feel like she's drowning but it should work...unless it causes all of the water to decompress all at once. They try it out and at first nothing seems to be happening and she struggles like she's drowning. Eventually, they get the water out.
Now, Carter is supposed to be about the least intelligent person in Eureka, and yet with every crisis, HE seems to be the person who comes up with the solution...usually by thinking of combining 2 or more GD techs together. I mean, come on. Also, how many times is that going to happen before the writers come up with something new?
Big Brother Spoilers:
I'll update the Veto winner Sunday, and if any replacement nominees are made it won't be until late Monday. To see spoilers, hold down the left mouse button and drag it down to where it says End Spoilers. That will highlight the "inviso text."
It seems to be much quieter in the BB house, but there still has been some tension and little fights. Jeff is HOH, Russell & Michele are Have Nots, Kevin & Natalie are nominated but depending on the outcome of the Veto (all 6 remaining HGs get to play) Russell could be the true target to be backdoored, although Kevin seems to be the primary target for now.
End Spoilers. Check back Sunday for Veto winner and late Monday for the outcome of the Veto Ceremony.
Veto Winner Spoiler!!!
The veto competition was yesterday, and all 6 HGs got to play. Jeff won. It now looks very likely that he will "backdoor" Russell which has both pros and cons.
End Veto Spoiler!!!
Veto results spoilers!!!
Veto meeting was held. As expected, Jeff used the Veto to remove Kevin and put up Russell. Russell is PISSED. Jordan was screaming at him that he's just mad because Jeff was able to "get" him before Russell "got" Jeff. Kevin and Natalie are laughing their butts off. They call it the Last Minute Lie (LML) that they believe will now cost Jeff the game and perhaps win it for one of them. They laughed that they told Jeff & Jordan that they'd be in Final Four with them, but if either of them wins, they're going to nominate both Jeff & Jordan so that if either wins Veto, they'll remove themself and then the other will go.
End Veto results spoilers!!!
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