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"I won my new eyeball cooking eyeballs on Chopped!" doesn't have quite the ring of "I won my choppers on Chopped!", but it will do. (I'm going to hell, too.) I still don't think the sob stories themselves are influencing the outcomes, but there seems to be a disturbing new trend in setting up rivalries that do. If brothers are both on the show, guess what, they end up in the finals. Now we have a couple of exes. Me not like.

Except that the Muslim was not required to be on the show, he chose to. I doubt they changed the meat at the last minute; it doesn't generate enough drama. I would argue that not eating pork is not that much of a disadvantage, though. They could use a dish that they would use for eggplant or chicken, couldn't they, except use the pork? They can tell by the color how done it is or isn't, and can taste the sauce separately from the meat. Might be a slight disadvantage if seasonings don't always transfer well, but not a huge one. But I'm not a cook, so I don't know for sure.

Hee. I see they added subtitles for Ludo during the scream off. I don't like the cook-off at all, not in concept or execution. The guy with two red stars gets a pass? Boo. At least it didn't seem like the time Natasha spent helping Jen was the reason for her dish being in the bottom.

I don't think the show can afford to let George get higher than top four. It would piss off too many fans. If by some miracle he wins the whole thing, he'll have a mental asterisk after his name forever.

I also thought he was saying doctor. I figured I was mistaken, as "doctor" made no sense in the context, but it did sound like that word to me.

I was thinking sick bay on the Starship Enterprise from the first Star Trek: The Movie. No way did someone not deserve to go home. The bottom three were really bad. What a waste of an hour.

Mustard she didn't understand at all. I can't remember what the word was that sounded like doctor, but it wasn't mustard.

I loved that someone finally told Ludo they can't understand what he's saying (even though I thought Jen should have been out). I was right with Jen, thinking he said "doctor" for what-ever it was. And I didn't understand "mustard" either. I felt bad for Joe. I think there should have been more of a penalty for not producing four spoons, such as four red stars.

What was the white stuff that Mei put on her vegetables to resemble snow? It looked like powdered sugar, but I don't think that would have tasted good. Her dish was very pretty.

This is one reality show that I believe still has integrity (unlike Project Runway, which has become a travesty). I still believe that Tom, etal., think the best interests of the show and their own reputations lies in letting the chefs cook and let cream rise to the top, pun intended. The bring-back-George thing I just see as an attempt to keep the show fresh by adding new twists, like LCK was a few years ago. I personally don't think it's necessary, as I would still enjoy the original format, but as long as I can believe the judging of LCK is not engineered to produce a desired result, I'm okay with it. Look at the quality of guest judges they are still getting after all these seasons (as opposed to PR again!). I think that reflects a general belief in the culinary community that the contest is still legit.

She gave them some leeway last week, but this week was back to micromanaging, down to the specific broth and specific seafood. I wonder why she keeps doing that? It's not a proven formula for her. Although I can understand Lindsay's frustration, I thought she was unnecessarily bitchy for someone who chose to come on this show, knowing this could happen.

I can't get too upset over things like George going out partly due to his slow teamates, or coming back due to the latest gimmick. This show, and others in the same vein, have been on long enough for the contestants to know they pull stuff like this all the time. This isn't the Pillsbury bake-off, where it really is all about the food. They know, or should know, what they have signed up for. I roll my eyes more when chefs complain about the all nighters other things they throw in there.

Even though I agree that Dmitri's was a skoosh dated-looking, I loved it. Loved the color, the neckline, everything. I liked Michelle's idea of layering lace (I don't remember ever seeing that before), but it needed reworking in the bottom. The completely inexplicable sliding of Sam's horrible (IMO) outfit makes me worry there is some master plan at work. I can't think of any other reason that got a pass over Gunnar and Fabio. Gunnar and Fabio at least tried to design something within the parameters. I thought the Fabio's necklace on the head was a good reference to a mask, and an odd-ball (no pun intended) outfit was right for a masquerade. The same with Gunnar; he at least was thinking conceptually about an animal or bird costumey feel. Even disregarding that, though, both were miles above Sam's.

I just wish they would stop with the "tell us who should go home/be in the cookoff" stuff. I don't believe for a minute that what the contestants say about each other factors in at all--they just want exactly what they got last night, cat fights and hurt feelings. Plus it just drags things out. It was pretty much a forgone conclusion that neither Natasha nor Mia would be in the cookoff, but how long did it take to get there? I just wish one of the four with red stars had said, "Well, I can't pick Natasha, because she's a shoo-in. I can't pick Mia because they will want to keep her even if her dish is awful because Nigella can't be down to only one person, so I'll go with Jen."

Ludo called one of the dishes ca ca and told Jen he didn't care if she burned herself. Nice. Not. Yeesh, he's as hyper as my neighbour's blue heeler. The cookoff was weird. The mentors were literally screaming at them step by step and telling them exactly what to do.

I wish more of the chefs would step out of their wheelhouse. How predictable to get curry chowder (Gregory), Thai chowder (Melissa), etc. At least Adam stepped out for both QF and EC. I hoping he's the one coming back from LCK. I like him. Re Melissa and the clams: That was a really sh*tty thing to do. Even if she thought Mei had hogged a whole bucket, she had to know how few she left her after grabbing them. Bad form.

If the entire team has immunity, but only team members got red stars, they'd just have to eliminate no one and double up another week.

This is a game show, not a serious cooking competition, IMO. I think they set up the judging to try to generate the most drama, not necessarily to always have the best funnel up to the top. I actually don't mind it, because it does put some burden on the mentors in trying to pick which dish would beat the other teams' and they have to share in the loss if they didn't pick well. As a viewer, I don't mind this. As a competitor, I think I'd HATE it.

Yes. Jersey Girl's dish was the worst of the best, or best of the worst, depending how you looked at it. Renee's was the worst of the worst. Simple. :-)

I liked it for the most part, at least so far. I'm trying not to compare it to the book all the time because of course it will suffer. In only about 3 hours running time, it can't get into the richness of detail about what life was like back then for women that the book had. But I like the characterizations of all the women except Ruti, who looks like a high school cheerleader. Where I'm less forgiving is in the modernization of Dinah. I guess TV writers just can't help themselves and have to make protaganists have modern-day sensibilities at times. Dinah expressed ideas about slavery that were anacronistic, and with her "well, pitch in an help" regarding first meeting Ra-nefer struck an incongruous note. I can't tell any of the brothers apart, except for Joseph, who looks completely different, and has a salon hair cut to boot.

I like the movie a lot. Both the leads were spectacular. I found Elaine rather creepy, though, for some reason. It seemed she just moved right in and pushed Jane out. I'm sure it wasn't that simplistic, but I didn't like her as she was portrayed. Bet those scientistics who called it poppycock and left Hawking's lecture(?) regretted that.

People wear waist-length Eisenhower jackets in the winter so I don't see what's wrong with Justin's. I thought it was interesting, although it might flare out too much for anyone with hips (any non-size 2 model, that is). I liked that there was a specific directive: make a coat. I just wish they had had two days so they could have wowed us. DON'T THE PRODUCERS GET THAT?!? Benjamin's was really cute, but way too juvenile for the Duchess. I would have loved Fabio's if he had substituted something else for that awful neoprene. Helen's made her model look like she had no shoulders and a huge butt. Michelle's: Good God. I will say no more. Sonjia's looked like she was trying to make a pod for the S1 2055 challenge.

I thought the pacing of showing us the auditions was odd--lots of time spent on several people then zipping through a bunch. No certifiable asshats in the group as yet, IMO. They seem like a pretty talented bunch, so we'll see. They could have cut out the judge's trying to sell themselves as to why they should be picked after the second time. They just kept saying variations on the same stuff. I bet everyone going into the audition already had a favorite they'd like to work with and were unlikely to change their mind. Nigella did seem to be less micromanagey than last year. Although she started off saying, "Make my mac-and-cheese", she really did let them develop their own versions (unlike the fish and chips). I thought the fried ball looked delicious. It probably was, but it seemed like very strong showings from all four.

It's interesting the Katie does popup restaurants. Isn't that basically what RW are, albeit in a limited time frame? One would think she'd have experience in being an EC in that situation.

I didn't mind The Family Stone because I didn't get the impression that I was supposed to agree with the Stones. I think they were purposely shown as self-congratulatory and hypocritical. What I absolutely hate are movies that glorify criminals, where I get the sense that I'm supposed to be rooting for them. Two examples are Point Break and Set It Off. I wanted Patrick Swayze to rot in jail, not go out in a surfer's dream wave like some misunderstood knight on a quest. The women in Set It Off made stupid choices, but were supposed to be sympathetic? YMMV.