snarktini

(This was about Corey's title, something something client strategy and analytics.) I have Strategy in my title, my colleagues have Analytics, and all our work is client/account based...and about the last thing we do is Sales! Of course I can't speak for what he actually does but I doubt it's that. Data is a good guess. 100% agree. They are flat-out impressive, and have clearly had a broad and rich education in their lives. Language, music, technology, even kayaking. They are so smart and have their shit together. Good for them. Rob and Corey have my heart vote, they are just pure joy. They were called goody two shoes above -- why is that bad?! They are so kind, and I love that. But I can't say a bad word about the any of the final teams. They are all great pairs, supportive and capable.

He definitely said that he has never been a server. Watching him I was sure he had been, by how easily he slid into that hospitality patter when greeting the table and and setting down each course, and how quickly he knew to create a circular serving order around the table. But nope! He's just an observant person. (And likely one who's eaten in a bunch of nice restaurants.) This is the most likeable cast we've seen in a long time. Ever? I tried to watch the earliest seasons last year and the screaming and bickering chased me away pretty fast. It's rare to have multiple teams that are so likable AND so competent. Pulling for the brothers or Corey and Rob, and would also be happy for the friends. I love how steady they all are -- just plain good people having a great time. AL & Steve are my last pick and the least likeable but damn if they aren't good racers. They get the job done even with major setbacks. In other seasons, they wouldn't be anywhere close to the most irritating ones.

Finished my season rewatch. I think Sara might actually have won this if it weren't for the liver. I will never not think it's mean to have the last chefs eliminated be the sous in the finale! Even propelled by professional pride and camaraderie, it's got to be hard. Your dreams have been dashed, you're tired, but instead of recovering and feeling your feelings on you have to bust your butt to help someone else win something you were hoping would be yours.

I am often sympathetic to chefs like Buddha who are incredibly talented and meticulous but can be perceived as sore losers or arrogant or even faking humility as noted elsewhere. (I'll put Blaise into this category. And Ruby from GBBO who was sure she sucked even when she was winning.) Overachievers are driven to be perfect / the best and what's hiding behind that -- what is doing the driving -- is often anxiety. A fear that you really aren't good enough. So it's not unusual to find a mix of confidence and anxiety. Yes, I've won a lot and that proves something objectively, but what if it's not enough? What if this is the time I fail? In the creative world, that's always possible! (And if it does go poorly I interpret their sour faces as being upset with themselves for being imperfect, not directed at others.)

Definitely underwhelming style across the board, but I thought Matty's was way better, decoration-wise, than Josh! Matty's was more modern and and had a stronger, more professional aesthetic IMO. No one won for decoration in this finale, it must have come down to flavor -- and Matty had that. After their initial tasting comments it seemed likely to break his way. Have we ever had an all-men final before?

To your first point: definitely! To your second, for sure the veggies pushed their creativity and they did a fantastic job. Proves something about veggies as the star. But worth noting those were decent ingredients -- peas, red peppers, and avocado can all be the center of a savory dish. Not to mention they are vegetables! Getting stuck with prickly pear and orange is a disadvantage. Dessert or salad is about it? Sweet, watery fruit is not very versatile and they didn't have access to something like fish or chicken.

I didn't like it at all, frankly. Too disturbing, too violent, too torture-y, not enough humor. The other films had disturbing violence too but on balance it tilted a lot more toward light-hearted space opera. This was a slog of pain and grotesque human & animal experimentation. I was really excited for a fun Saturday night flick and ended up needing to take a couple hours afterwards to regulate my nervous system before I could go to sleep. And honestly I'm not even that sensitive to animal cruelty, it's not a big trigger for me. So, I don't know, this just wasn't the right movie or the right day for me.

Mimi's superpower is her "cat that ate the canary" look. She always looks like she knows something delicious that you don't. It's in the eyes. Tyra would approve. I did appreciate having a native speaker say avant garde! Somehow it's less pretentious that way. I haven't always been a fan but this time I liked Laurence best. By a mile.

It's not the best movie, plot/screenplay wise, but it's visually stunning! The color palette (especially the color palette), the sunlight, the staging and blocking, the quirky details like the ramp to nowhere. It's just gorgeous.

Oh dear. I'm doing a rewatch and it has been my happy place! I often stay up a little too late because I'm having so much fun watching. It's been total joy (except Gina, but the rest is awesome enough to overcome). Very sad to find out I've reached the point in the series where Adrien Pimento enters. His manic energy is grating.

Strong evidence toward "loon": There's a blink-and-you-miss-it scene where Patty and Francey walk in front of Margaret's office, and Patty explains to Francey "This is Margaret Wright's office." (Cue Francey raising eyebrows at being told where her own boss's office is.) Patty continues: "The glass was my idea. She wanted brick. There's asbestos in them." There's also a moment where Margaret asks Todd if he remembers when Aunt Patty suggested that the best way to get rid of their Christmas tree was to eat it. Loon city.

I sensed that too, especially compared to how enthusiastic they were about his Tucson finale meal. It didn't sound like they emotionally connected to the food. That said, it's impossible to know if this is due to editing monkeys, what the judges chose to verbalize, or if they genuinely were less enthusiastic. Tho IMO the first two courses got subdued reactions across the board. Great elements, but also flaws and no runaway winners. Things really picked up in courses 3 and 4 but until then the dinner seemed shaky. As she was tearing up the cake to put on plates, she said that's exactly how her mom does it! I do think his resting face can be interpreted in ways that work against him and may not be fair. It's just his face. Also he has a way of tilting his head back and looking down that probably influences how people interpret him. But because I identify a lot with him, I'll project another angle that could apply: When I get critical feedback or my competitor gets a rave review, I may look "off" because I'm in my head! I may even agree with the criticism and be happy for the competitor, but I'm frustrated with myself for not being perfect / the very best and thinking about how I could have done things better. In a competition I'm also wondering what the feedback means for where I stand -- every "best dish" comment that goes to someone else takes me farther from the win. They are tired, stressed, and competitive with a lot at stake. It's a lot to ask them to be vigilant about what their faces are saying at all times.

It was patently unfair challenge. The wall challenge is already meant to make communication hard - adding in strong accents is just mean. Either rework the challenge, or pair them with someone who speaks the chef's preferred language. However, it didn't affect the outcome of the show. Yeah, it's unfortunate that the competition was always going to favor the chefs who are the most comfortable with English and who know the norms / challenges / judges of US Top Chef. Language on top of fatigue and stress must be brutal. I don't know what the fix would be. I was confused in that interaction. How does green mean shape? Why did he think one green pepper was more obvious than the other? That was such an understandable mistake, he should have noticed there were two green peppers and said something about size. Good point! I wasn't sure which would go home or which I thought deserved to go home -- after all, I didn't get to taste the food -- but this really cements why they would keep Gabri.

I would absolutely take (and have taken) a niçoise salad on a picnic and I wouldn't take fried chicken or potato salad. I'm more of a Barefoot Contessa Hamptons picnic type vs a down-home one. My go-to picnic contribution is a tomato tart. And when the cues are Highclere Castle and Fortnam & Mason (as noted, the Queen's store), the fancy bites were the right thinking. They understood the brief even if they missed on execution. They only had an hour and a half to prep then it had to sit all night, which could explain some of their choices. There's been no insistence on cohesive meals -- even when they were told to be cohesive in the family meal, it was 6 mains 2 salads and 1 side I think with no comment -- so there's also no incentive for anyone to take on something like a potato salad or to make their dishes work together as a main with sides. If potato salad has yellow mustard (or egg) I am not touching it! My preference is vinegar-based potato salads. For a picnic, the french type -- potatoes soaked in vinaigrette with dill and green onions. Or german, a warm salad with salty/sweet/vinegar dressing with bacon.

I'd argue that if Dale met the challenge, it was barely -- "don't be ignorant" isn't much of a message! It was barely coherent. I think she got through on a better message. Both had execution problems. Tom was safe IMO because he had the presentation AND flavors, he at least hit strong on two criteria. "Trouble with thinking in English" sounds like a possibility. Perhaps she's just a very literal person or struggling with being so far out of her context (which is beyond understandable), but we haven't seen her be creative or conceptual. She is so impressive, but she doesn't seem set up to thrive here. During judging sometimes it's clear she can't quite parse what guest judges are saying -- I wonder if they do anything to fill that gap for contestants? The sushi was too literal and too limiting -- there was nowhere to go with that. Considering "emotion" was part of it I'd have gone with something more abstract (of what remained) like the rainbow and told a story of vibrance or rain or something! I noticed, but honestly I think the world would be a better place if we avoiding commenting on bodies. Positive or negative. And I don't give a fig if our chefs look unkempt! I do notice, but set it aside because it truly doesn't matter. It's not a moral failing to have messy hair.

I came back a day later to rewatch the ending because I was confused. So Laura basically just cracks up under the guilt/stress at the party, before they even show the red light clip? She only thinks she saw Arthur in the audience because of her guilty conscience? She hallucinates Max running and jumping again? On first watch it felt like an elaborate sting where she'd been drugged and tricked by body doubles in the audience and the Orpheus props (like the little dude with the red lightbulb head) to drive her over the edge. But I guess the only thing Raoul and Charlie did was get the film footage, everything else was her losing it all on her own. Definitely not one of my favorites. The episodes are getting creepier.

I believe she barfed because the alcohol caught up with her, it wasn't about him at all. The problem with the tub is that it was backed up and didn't drain her vom. That's one of the things he fixed in the morning, after he constructed her furniture. (Why she didn't throw up in the toilet I don't know.) I recognized Tasha Smith's voice immediately but not her face.

I'm so happy I finally got to see this! I moved halfway through this season, and lost my Bravo access. Just now getting Peacock and catching up Why do I care so much? Because I grew up in Tucson and wanted to see the chefs work with carne seca, of course. That is such a hyper-local food -- while it does show up in some Mexican/Central American cultures (Evelyn said she grew up with it) it really is quite localized. You can barely find it in Phoenix even. After they moved away, my parents used to drive to AZ and come back with coolers full of it. El Charro is legendary. I rewound searching for logos and when I didn't find any, looked up the location. It was built after my time and I didn't recognize it. Yeah, I don't do nopales. Too slimy. I like the flavor of cactus like in a drink or jam, but that's usually prickly pear fruit. That's my vote too. You don't waste that kind of backdrop. I miss that scenery. I was in Tucson right around the time this was filming, and most people were masked most places, which was surprising in the best way. But I doubt that drove the decision. (It never hurts though, right?) I was legit surprised she had experience with all the ingredients. I have never even heard of that pepper. Lucky for her! I like her a lot. I also like Buddha, but they are so different. He reminds me of Hung more than Blaise -- cheffy, technical, focused, confident, doesn't go out of his way to be liked. (Blaise REALLY wanted approval.) When he said he quadrupled his friend group with the chefs in the room, that sounded right!

Me, too. In the challenges that involve/evoke family, there is always someone who is at a disadvantage. In Kwame's season, he was so thrown by a challenge that brought up family trauma that he melted down and even cut himself. Luckily while it was a bummer for Damarr, it didn't hold him back. It does make wonder -- if he didn't have an appropriate family/friend substitute who could step in, what would the show have done? Would they change the challenge? I take this personally because that would be a problem if I were on! I only have two living family members, and neither would go on TV. No partner. No mentor. It would have to be a friend.

When she walked out and asked "did you 'spiel' them?", meaning did he explain the dessert, he automatically replied yes even though he hadn't! And even with that prompt he STILL didn't say more than a few words. Weird. He seemed anxious, like he was afraid of or avoiding the judges. It's like his whole brain short-circuited. He got fixated on something and plum forgot how to do a job I'm pretty sure he knows how to do. The interview backs up the only way his confession made sense to me -- he was sure he was going home and felt like he had to get it out. (Maybe because he knew they'd find out when it aired, and wanted to get ahead of that reveal.) I don't fault him for holding this info back to this point in the competition, but he owed it to them at the beginning of RW to come clean. Doing it when he did was (IMO) the worst of all worlds. Especially since his ability to taste (or not taste) their food was not a big factor in why they lost.

Everyone was familiar in this one! I knew her face but didn't know from where without help. All the times she called it hateful / asshole / fascist made me laugh. She never ran out of names! I would never ever have started the car and driven off with that non-stop barking. But it provided comedy for us :) Lil Rey Howery was the guest star I was compelled to look up. It was bugging me! I've only seen him in one thing, Free Guy, but he made an impression.

I think about that every so often. It used to be possible to just move somewhere with a made-up name and start a new life. No forged papers needed. Certainly in the 1960s, but even more so farther back when there were no databases at all. You were who you said you were. You could live a life with cash, because cash/trade was literally all there was! There are under-the-table jobs and ways to live off the grid today but there are serious limitations to what you can do without credit and a verifiable identity. Especially if you don't start with a stockpile of cash. Sandwich guy had good instincts about the killer -- he was a lot more dangerous than he seemed at first glance. Dude didn't even blink before shoving him off the roof.

I do feel sorry for Allison! She has an overbearing, interfering mom constantly criticizing her choices. My god, Margaret couldn't even go on a covert mission in her grown daughter's house without rearranging the furniture because it was wrong. So, yeah, Allison should have had agency in her life. But I feel for how she has no idea who she is or what she wants, because she followed the script that was pushed on her -- a high-status job, a perfect marriage, stability and success above all else -- but it wasn't hers. I know a LOT of women like this. They were told if they made the "right" choices that's what would bring happiness. They don't even know they can do something else. If you're wired to people-please (and raised by someone who reinforced that) it's a heavy weight to throw off. The older brother, for me, brought into focus that Margaret had no intention of letting them be their own selves. Because he wasn't "smart enough" to be the doctor they wanted him to be, they shipped him to military school, which he resents to this day. So then all focus turns to making sure Allison fulfilled that destiny instead. And as is often the case, the daughter was the most vulnerable to parental pressure. Todd was the one who broke free (and he never hears the end of it either)

Agree totally, having a mustache twirling Big Bad like her is a totally different show. Psych was mentioned recently as the two shows share a producer (?)...The Yin/Yang episodes also struck me as "totally different show". The tone was completely different. When I rewatch Psych I always skip those.

Margaret is understandably wary and she kvetches about him but...it's also clear to me why she's interested. He's a lot like her son! Infuriating, rumpled, not following "the rules", but also charming and fun. I'm glad she took the risk to text him, and also glad that she's pulling back now. Those are both positives. That probably explains why I like it! Is it completely unrealistic? Absolutely. But I still enjoy spending time with the show, it's light and funny. It helps that I'm bingeing it on Prime, it shines next to most made-for-streaming content. I like that everyone is flawed in understandable ways. Todd is presented as the screw-up, but over time we learn that they are all unhappy, a lot due to Margaret's over-parenting. Todd is struggling but at least he broke out and defied expectations. Can't believe it took me most of a season to figure out that Todd is Max from Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.