I'm a fan of -- gasp! -- a reality show

And oddly, you'd think that Bravo would have a more well-educated crowd that wouldn't need the point driven home with a steam shovel every five minutes like a Chick tract. In fact, they should have a pretty good handle on the specific audience that tunes in to TC based on Nielsens and demographic studies. And granted, you have to make it more accessable for laymen like me to get into it; otherwise it'd probably be a lot more stuffy and less interesting if they went solely on the basis of food quality without emphasizing their personalities in the process. But they veered too far in the other director; chalk it up to American Idol teaching the world that curmudgeonly judges are funny and ratings winners.

The lack of a scoring system tends to back you up on the rigged claim, since they can pretty much 180 themselves at any given point. They could still rig a point system, but it'd be harder.

And it's funny (except that it's so pathetic) that the judges pretty much acknowledged that Sam and Ilan were the cream of the crop as they were deciding which one to kick out (and it was painfully obvious they were well ahead of Elia and Marcel last week, though I don't care how much you tease it, anyone with foresight knows you're not going to kick them both off and have two episodes of Sam v. Ilan). So they're the two strongest, but one goes home because Marcel finally finds the proper context for his molecular gastronomy bullshit? I guess they were kind of painted in a corner by that point, becuase if he had the strongest dish, he shouldn't have been sent home, but it never should have gotten to that point.

EDIT: I just checked out Tom's blog, and he has this -- Finally, Marcel had found a context for his molecular gastronomy that made sense. Spooky. I think bullshit is more appropriate a modifier, though.

 

Pretty unsatisfying to me, and while I liked Ilan early, I don't so much anymore. Very hard to root for either of them in the final.

And if that's the most excitement they could find for the "Next Top Chef" trailer, I'm not holding out a great deal of hope for the last episode.

 

i can't believe sam didn't win the whole thing

 

Well, that's because you thought they were looking for the best cook, rather than the biggest clusterfuck.

I made the same mistake.

 

I'm starting to think the same thing....And while we're at it, was it my imagination or were Ilan and Sam TRYING to goad Elia into ratting on Marcel? And in the end, she choked (as would be expected...she has demonstrated throughout that she *really* does not have the stomach for confrontation).

I did enjoy seeing the chefs at work in their normal environments at the beginning of the show before they hopped the plane to Hawaii. Thought that added perspective considering the kitchen and the lofts/apartments/dorms were the only place they were shown when they were not in the heat of competition.

Also, I am not sure a Marcel win equals a rigged contest. Don't know why. Just not sure that it does.

ALERT: Amazing Race All-Stars begins Feb. 18.

 

I'd argue at this point, the rigging is done.

Marcel shouldn't have been around to pick up this win. But they kept him around because he was instant drama.

 

Judging by the reactions on the blogs, if they did this on purpose, it wasn't very smart. That's why I almost think it was honest, just completely inconsistent.

 

Well, it's over, and Foamboy didn't win. Kind of a boring episode, but the food looked pretty. I actually thought Marcel did the better job picking sous chefs (Ilan must have been fucking Elia; I can't imagine why you'd think she'd be a good team player otherwise). That salad was pretty damned blah for the main event, even if he got those vinagrette teardrops off, and that's probably what clinched it. But Sam still should have won.

 

And Marcel was just on The View.

I think we've just climbed the highest peak of the Gay Mountains.

 

i thought marcel was going to win -- i thought ilan going to the well of spanish stuff once again was going to hurt him, plus i didn't think his main course was up to par. the salad killed marcel

if i had to choose someone to cook me a meal, it'd be sam. he was the best. i thought he was going to put marcel over the top, and nearly did

 

Why did Marcel pick Mikey?

 

Ditto. Marcel got screwed. Never liked the guy, but thought he did the better job. He took more chances. Ilan was a one-trick pony. Ilan may have been more seasoned as an overall chef, but Marcel may be the bigger force to be reckoned with in the future of Cooking World.