retrograde

Yaaaaaaay! Man, after more than a month of lockdown, I really need this in my life right now. I like the new judges, but Gordon was really running the show, so will reserve my full judgement until after he's gone. Also I always forget that I quite like Gordon when he's on this show! He did a good job pretending he remembered who any of them were and how they did in the competition previously. I don't know what Ben was arrested for but... he wasn't looking so well compared with three years ago.

You're correct, they are still filming. This seems... incredibly ill advised (I write this from New York, trust me) but there you go.

Yeah it makes no sense that Kat didn't just leak the documents. I mean, in real life, I don't think "head of big media company donates to conservative politician" would really be that big a scoop, but evidently on this show it was. But I also have no doubt she will have her job back within an episode or two next season.

Ice Cream Ben kicked off the show after an arrest "of a personal nature"!? Suggests they haven't taped the whole season yet. Which means it will just... stop at some point, I guess. Unless filming is still allowed under Victoria's lockdown? I wouldn't have thought so.

I can't see why legal would've ever been against the photo. He was photographed in a public place. And so long as the sister was on the record about the conversion therapy and they went to the parents for comment, it would've been sound. If the sister wasn't on record and it seemed like what they wrote was blaming the parents for his death because they sent him to conversion therapy, I can see legal not being thrilled (though, yknow, you could probably get the same stuff by interviewing his friends). But that is a text issue, not a photo one. I mean, clearly they are setting up some larger corporate issue, but I think in the real world, Kat and Adina would've known there was no legal issue with the photos and fought back. Yeah, the term is usually at least a specific section with the broader publication -- like for New York Magazine, Grub Street (food) and The Cut (fashion) and Vulture (culture) would all be verticals -- but the way they talk about it on the show suggests they mean almost like a column. Like her articles would maybe have a page and her photo would run alongside them or something.

30 Under 30 is meaningless, but there's no way Jane would be in there. The media section is a smattering of very high profile writers (ie big on Twitter) and people who have high-up positions (editor or whatever) at media companies before turning 30, and then like 85% is people who've founded media startups no one has ever heard of but somehow have a billion dollars in venture capital. Methinks Jane would need her "vertical" on the "dot com" before she'd be noticed at that level. Why is Adena still here?

This was definitely my biggest gripe with the season. I realize it had a retro vibe but it was supposed to be modern-day, right? There's no way teachers would just let that kid out a fellow student without intervening. At least contrive a reason they couldn't stop him, show! My other biggest issue with the show is that it didn't really sell me that Sydney had this amazing friendship with Dina or why she liked her so much. They jumped into her being a jerk too quickly and never really fleshed the character out. In fact, thanks to the voiceover, this show did a little too much telling where there should've been showing in general, I felt. Nevertheless, I liked it a lot and binged it in one sitting and will be back for season 2.

One hopes, but even on his season, he never got called out for the relative lack of effort compared to the other contestants. It's true that, as the immunity challenges on the regular seasons often prove, many talented chefs have zero charisma on TV. And yes, hopefully this new season will focus more on cooking interesting dishes than service challenges.

I'm glad Jane finally got rebuked for how little work she does. Also though, at no publication can you just completely change your article and not get the OK from your editor first (though some do try). It was a terrible article to begin with anyway: what Scarlet staffers think of weddings. Who cares? More Andrew, please.

Impressed they managed to convince people who've gone onto have legitimately successful post-MC careers like Poh and Reynold to risk going on this and losing. Not looking forward to Ben Ungermann's wacky ice creams every week again. As the only person on the planet who liked the Australian MC: The Professionals, I think I'll like this format, though.

For some reason Australian TV almost never gives concrete airdates until quite close to the actual premiere, I don't know why.

No sympathy for George, but this sucks for his staff. Meanwhile, in the mixed blessings department, there will be no Heston this season, but there will be a whole week of Gordon Ramsay.

Agreed. Love Jane Lynch, but I really got my fill of this character this season. I can see the show going to LA for a bit maybe, that would be a really rich comedy scene to explore. I agree with another poster above that it's inevitable Midge will spend some time performing at Joel's club next season too.

For those who, like me, had no idea about the source material for that Cuban club scene: enjoy.

YES, thank you. Does no one remember Joel squandered their money previously? Maybe Susie doesn't know, I guess, but she at least knows Joel cheated and made a bunch of terrible decisions. In truth, I think Joel is really just the only person she knew to ask. On a related note, I was left confused by Midge's financial situation. Did Susie blow her money or did she still have some saved? What happens to the apartment then? Anyway, I generally enjoyed this season, though the show continues to struggle to make me care about Joel or Midge's family (or Joel's family). I also think it flagged a bit at the end. Midge had a bit of character growth in terms of her career taking off some more, and realizing she doesn't have to be a total itinerant loner to be a comic (or maybe Paris Geller showed her being an itinerant loner is fine? I wasn't sure). But she seems to have ultimately landed at the end of this season pretty much where she was at the end of last season, but with nothing much to look forward to. I just hope they have somewhere more interesting to go next season than "Midge overcomes her hardship by climbing to the top of the NYC comedy scene -- again!"

Lot of reviews out today (seems like the critics were given 5 of the 8 eps): Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, EW, TV Line.

In the comics, there is also

I'm really late to this (by Australian standards), but I just started watching The Chefs' Line on Netflix and highly recommend it. If the reasons you like MC Australia (versus other reality cooking shows) are the positive judges, supportive competitors, lack of ~drama~ and the high standard of cooking -- but wish there was more diversity and fewer OTT "characters" dominating the screen -- check it out. The budget's a bit lower (it comes from one of the public broadcasters) and the pacing can be a little slow sometimes, but I think I like it more than MC now. To me, it's a much better representation of 21st century Australia and the food Australians eat than the often very Euro-centric MC. Also, it has one of the new Masterchef judges, Melissa Leong, and she's good! Really knowledgable and seems very natural in front of a camera.

Matt and Gary are doing a new cooking competition on Channel 7 with Manu Feildel called "Plate of Origin." I tend to agree with this article that it is "the kind of pitch you come up with when you think of the pun-title first and the show second." Three white guys is also a questionable choice for a judging panel on a show purporting to compare different cuisines from around the world, though I can't even pretend to be surprised. (On the plus side, I like Manu but hate MKR, so that's something). George will just have to stay home with his millions of dollars.

I would consider a "slice" just a vague catch-all term for anything cooked in a tray then sliced up, I don't think there are any other rules to it. A brownie is a slice, a mille-feuille is a slice (vanilla slice), a lemon bar is a slice (lemon slice), but also there are savoury slices. On a show like this they probably expect/demand a layered dish, but for example, white christmas is still a slice (a really disgusting slice), despite having no distinct layers.

I agree he was supposed to be overcharging him, but I don't think it was by an insane amount for a Manhattan. $16 would definitely be expensive for a cocktail in Portland. You'd pay $10-$13 at a decent place, maybe less at a non-cocktail bar (hard to tell how good or divey Grey's place is supposed to be).

Interesting! I too am glad they didn't go with bigger names. Would've liked to see even more diversity but still better than the previous three. I think the most important thing is that they have good chemistry together and are good in front of the camera, which I suppose remains to be seen.

I only just started watching, and am still catching up. To answer some old questions on this thread: Yep, a Jack is a cop. A "dog" is general parlance might be used for someone who does something low-down and dirty (more commonly you'd say they did a "dog act"), but I'm told in Australian prison slang it is specifically a snitch. Close. Dim sim. It's a huge pork dumpling, though the word apparently comes from a misspelling of Dim Sum. It's a fried food take-out staple that you'd buy from like a deli/bodega/convenience store equivalent in the US. The audio is fine for me, but I can imagine the accents are tough if you're not used to them. This is actually how a lot of Australians talk but you rarely see it on TV where actors often speak with very polished drama-school accents.

Not sure if this is what that article was about, but for $500,000 (as an investment in certain new businesses) you can get an EB5 visa, which ultimately makes you eligible you a green card, and a green card means you can apply for citizenship after 5 years. So that wouldn't help Jun Ho and Mei Lin, as they're already evidently eligible for citizenship and I'm fairly certain someone still has to fill out paperwork for that. But yes, they could certainly pay someone to do almost all of it (I think attending certain biometrics tests in person is unavoidable), and as many in this forum have pointed out, the actual citizenship test is not especially difficult for two people who speak fluent english. They'd need one prep session. This episode was even less funny than the pilot. I want to like this show!