hkalex

I think professional was the wrong word, sorry. Determined would be better, or goal-oriented, yeah. Then again, GR tends to like those type of people - remember when Meghan pulled her team out last year for being terrible? Ramsay didn't berate her, he just claimed she was being a leader...and then she won. I don't particularly like Christina as a sous chef. Andi was good, she said little but when she spoke, it was hardly ever good. Christina, I think, is just trying to appear harsh and trying to fill Andi's shoes. She's a great chef, but she demands respect when she doesn't need.

I don't mean she'll screw her finale team, I meant that in the past, before the finale, she would probably screw her team over (like she did with Meese) to make herself look better. She's just professional to the nth degree. Like how she kept barking at sous chef Christina? She's good, but she just needs to be more "human" I guess. On another note, who does everyone think will be on the final teams? My guesses (assuming Kristin wins the challenge even though I have no idea): Kristin: Ashley, Manda, Joe, Frank (over Jackie) Ariel: Jared, Chad, Dannie, left with Jackie I'll assume Dannie's the one who walks out.

I'm on team Kristin. I also thought her dress was horrible (which, as a sixteen year old male, is quite something) but there's a certain fight to her that I like. She doesn't go down without a fight. Ariel's good, and I think she's a great chef, but there's something missing. Like she's so focused on professionalism that she would screw over her team to be the sole winner. It also looks like one of her team walks out next time, which could either help or hinder her. In terms of winner arcs, I'd say Kristin's had the better one - she started off in the middle of the pack, good, but not outstanding, but she's grown to be a contender. Ariel's been more sporadic - she started off okay (she did bring Meese's fish up and nominated Vanessa even though she wasn't the consensus), and she has got better, but around the time the black jackets were given out, she seemed to be very unter the radar, and before that, made the mistake with scallops. I want Kristin to win because I really like her and I think she deserves it, but I won't be surprised if Ariel wins.

there has in season 6, I think. I thought the Kristin/Ashley thing was staged. Obviously it would make more sense for Jared to pick Ashley so I'm presuming one of the production crew said something like "if you win the reward, you can't take Ashley" or something like that, and Ashley wasn't told to add to the drama. Not sure where that came from either. Maybe it's because of the four women, Kristin had the most appealing looks and personality combo - Ariel was about as smiley as a Headteacher on the first day of school, Manda's a single mom of three, and of Ashley and Kristin, Kristin seemed to warm more to the students.

Remember last year's challenge - Milly won with 55% of the votes and picked T - who came last with 3% - to go on the reward? It's unfair, but it's reality TV. You don't just get rewarded for being a great chef, you also get rewarded for making good TV. T was quite popular, though, if I remember rightly. Meghan also picked her the week after for the challenge. I think Ramsay was abiding by the Hell's Kitchen rules of "there's no reward for second place" - which is especially true if you look at the overall outcome.

Tough.

I kinda liked Manda because even when she was frustrated, she was always respectful of her team, and was kind of the mother figure of the groups. She was the weakest chef and was like Nick last season, she never made any overwhelming mistakes but it was obvious her skill level was so much lower than everyone elses. Jared's just been going downhill the past few weeks. Kinda interesting that both the last placed and first placed people in the challenge went home the same week. Obviously producers wanted to create drama by inviting Kristin instead of Ashley. I still want Kristin to win. I don't know what it is; she has such a strong level of professionalism in the kitchen but doesn't come across as the Meghan-type from last season who had zero personality - she's fun. Ashley's good, but I think she always seems to make small mistakes week-on-week. Ariel's kind of been edited to be good but never outstanding - like tonight, she was shown as a strong sous chef, but she was never mentioned apart from that. If it's an Ashley/Ariel final I think I'll just die. Kristin deserves to be in the final, and I think I'd take Ariel over Ashley.

The formula for creating a successful baking show is keeping it similar in format to the British version, but making it about said country. I.e - the first season of the Aussie one wasn't liked very much as Kerry Vincent was pretty much about as far as you could get from Mary Berry, and the contestants swore their way through challenges because they were so competetive. The second season was better - Maggie Beer and Matt Moran are great judges, and it's similar to the British version but with hints of Australian (it takes place in a shed, they often incorporate pavlovas). The American one just didn't really work. It was overtly competetive (i.e - if a contestant does well in GBBO, the others applaud them) and the contestants were overtly confident. They added unnecessary drama, and the people at CBS were probably sat there thinking "why isn't this working?" The challenges weren't very "American" and the judges weren't necessarily a counterpart of Mary and Paul - it was just Paul with someone who they obviously wanted to have chemistry with. Even though we have the worst cuisine, us Brits know how to do cookery shows. Bake Off, Masterchef, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, etc.

I'm not really enjoying this, to be honest. I think when we saw "bake off" in the title, we were assuming it'd have the same warmth and charm as the original. But instead, it's got about as much warmth as one of the blast freezers they use. When someone succeeds in a challange, we're happy for them. Here, they look so smug they've just beaten the other two teams. The points system fails totally too. We want to have a clear record of who's doing best - and the points rarely seem to be doing that. Not enjoying the judges either. They've got as much character as a sack of potatoes. Criticising them on the smallest of things - having a messy apron? WHAT'S THE POINT IN EVEN HAVING AN APRON THEN? Basically, they've taken "bake off" and removed everything "bake off" about it. Mel and Sue would probably walk in and awkwardly leave.

Haha, six months on and I'm still annoyed at Flora's elimination. Tamal should've been star baker - he was a solid second in all three challenges, whilst Nadiya was too sporadic. No way Flora should've gone home. Ian's showstopper wasn't so much about baking as it was modelling. He clearly went for the Frances-of-season-four "style over substance" thing. There was pretty much no baking in there whatsoever. Flora's had lots of it, but it was all kind of meh. The judging does seem a bit inconsistent at times, if I do say so myself. They've said it's "all about that week", yet clearly Ian was the poorest baker that week. I think they rank the showstopper more highly among the three challenges, then the signature, then the technical. Usually the technical's just used as a decider. But if someone's good in the first two bakes and poor in the showstopper they won't be SB. On another note, Flora is the first contestant to be eliminated despite having come first in the technical challenge, which totally sucks. She was my favourite *sigh*

In retrospect, I do think Kristin could be a winner. Last week they had the small "this experience has built me up" section, which might be a little thing, but it plants the seed, especially as none of the other have had it. She's still my favourite. No BS but she doesn't be unneccessarily harsh. From the beginning, I seeded Hassan, Dannie, Jared, Ashley, Ariel and Kristin to be black jackets. Four of them have been. I think Jared's gone next week and Manda's the weakest chef left - Dannie was a stronger chef, but if you don't communicate, that's where you fail in service. I quite like Manda, but I think she'll be fourth place. The final three is gonna be Ashley, Ariel and Kristin methinks, with Kristin preferably being the winner. Most consistent. If you mess up near the beginning, then there's usually a redemption arc going on, and Kristin started off UTR but is now at the top. Ashley's been consistent, but she still makes mistakes. Ariel's a weird one. She's clearly good, but in the past few episodes, they've not called her out as being particularly good or bad, so I'm thinking possibly runner-up. Then again, T from last year was miles better than these chefs. Shame she didn't apply for this season. Oh yeah, if you want to see what happened to Frank, check the HK wikipedia page. I think it was either Manda's, or Jared planted it there from the cleaning earlier as a sneaky tactic. Notice how quickly he said "must be Manda's?" He knew it wasn't his so he blamed others.

Oh yeah, how desperate have the "next time" pieces become? "Jackie. Versus. Kristin." (is only shown in a three minute slot at the beginning) "Ashley Jared Romance story" (is hardly shown at all, Ashley even insults Jared later on). And the blue team will come fourth, fifth and sixth. I think Ashley and Ariel will be finalists, but I want it to be Kristin.

I don't want to play Devil's Advocate here, but... I'm not sure if Frank was playing up to being a marine, and that's why people were scared to nominate him. He kept boasting about being a marine and all, but was he a soldier? He was described as a "Marine Chef", so I doubt he actually fought in wars and stuff, he just cooked for the soldiers. Not sure if it's been mentioned and sorry if I'm being really thick, but I just saw it as "I worked with Marines. I am a Marine. Bow down to me." He was playing up to patriotism, lying about how important he actually was. What's worse is that he was no chef, he was a delegator, hence why he never got nominated. He'd be *this* close to fucking something up, then he'd ask someone else to watch it for him whilst he pretended to look busy, and would later blame them for his mistake. Then, when it came to nominations, it'd look as if he was the bloody saviour or something and everyone else miraculously made mistakes apart from him. Kristin's still my favourite. She really does remind me of Jewel and I don't even know why. I don't think she's the best chef, but she's still my favourite. Dannie can cook but unless she can get on with people she's screwed - she was probably the best performer on the blue team, which is why she stayed, but her lies will be caught out in the future. Jared's similar. Manda's the weakest chef left, and I think she'll fail to get a black jacket. Ashley and Ariel are top three I think, though Ariel has the maturity of a three year old. Remember when she stropped because her dish wasn't chosen? Remember when she chose to nominate Kristin purely because she "didn't know who else to choose", didn't even ask for her to defend herself, and Kristin wasn't even brought up by Ramsey? Remember when she brought up someone else's dish even though it wasn't ready? I don't want her to win, but I have a feeling she might. As I said - Kristin's the best.

"Marino, open Hell's Kitchen" - time to bring the lambs to the slaughter. "Garnish" - blame everyone else for your mistakes. "Entrees and appetisers" - do it wrong and you've got everyone dobbing you in. Do it right, and you dob everyone else in. "Meat and fish" - you're not bringing up the ratings, bye. "Desserts and tableside" - hey, it never gets to you anyway, take the night off. "Nomination" - you're screwed...in a later episode. "Take off your jacket" - somehow, you were worse than everyone else. "Very special guest/VIP" - no longer relevent, but we paid them big bucks to eat expensive food.

Manda and Frank are kind of like Nick from last year - they're okay, but given the chance to run the service, they'll likely screw up. Dannie might be too, but she had a strong signature dish in week one, and that's a pretty good tell (apart from La Tasha, lol). Jared, Kristin, Ariel and Ashley are most likely the semi finalists. I was hoping for a male winner this year but I'm seriously doubting it. Oh yeah, is this the first time in which EVERY chef has been up for nomination at least once?

FINALLY. Strangely I didn't hate Jackie as much this episode, but I think it finally settled in that even though Jackie was a rating's booster, she could end up winning this thing at this rate, so she had to go. Now it appears Frank is the hate figure. Frank's problem isn't that he's a bad chef or anything like that - quite the opposite. He's a great chef, but it's like as soon as he's done what's expected of him, he doesn't have to do anything else. He works on his station and his station only, nothing else, and that's why he peeves off everyone. Dannie's had the weirdest edit I've seen. She started off well, took a serious nosedive and then slowly built herself up again. Kristin's my favourite, for some reason she reminds me of that 90's country chick, and I quite like Oh yeah, and I seriously dislike SC Christina. Andi never felt the need to be as abrasive or unkind. Black jackets: Ashley Ariel Jared Dannie Kristin Manda If Frank gets a black jacket I swear I don't know what I'll do.

Ramsay's running out of excuses to keep Jackie for the drama. She wasn't the worst tonight, granted, but she is the weakest chef. Kristin is my favourite now - I liked her from the beginning, but she's grown on me as the only likeable chef here. Ashley and Ariel really screwed the pooch here, Chad, Jared, Dannie and Manda are way inconsistent. Frank is like Nick from last year - he's not a bad chef, but he does largely rely on his team to win things, and he'll struggle later on. Jackie's just a lost cause. She can't stay until the black jackets. I was mad last year that Alison got booted before black jackets, but if Jackie gets one, then god damn. Black jacket contenders: *Ariel *Ashley *Jared *Chad *Kirstin *Dannie Does it not annoy anyone else that Ramsay still says "Gerard" instead of "Jared"? :p

"It's RAW" - it's very slightly undercooked, it doesn't look good enough for the cameras. "It's BURNT" - it's very slightly overcooked, it doesn't look good enough for the cameras. "Hey, all of you, come here!" - if one of you failed, it was a team effort. "Taste that. What's wrong with it?" - say something and that's what we'll say is the problem. The viewers don't know. "Take off your jacket...and put on a (red/blue) jacket!" - I'm giving you another chance to screw up.

Well, as Ramsey would say, f**k me. Every year they have picked the finalists from the word "go", and everyone else is just fodder. When they go is down to chance. Hassan only went this week to keep ratings high. Can't see anyone doing really well, to be honest. Jared, Ashley or Ariel maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it. Dannie started off so well and then went fifty miles in the wrong direction. Frank's just sexist and overconfident. Manda's not the strongest cook and neither is Kristen, though I do like her. I won't even mention Jackie. Potential finalists - Ashley, Ariel, Jared.

This show's long run it's course, I think. I've watched a few seasons on YouTube, and the first few I thought were good, but now it's just not. Contestants like Jackie and Monique last year were kept on long past their expiration dates purely because they made good television. There are some really talented chefs, as there always are. From episode one, I seeded Dannie, Jared and Hassan as my top three (last year I picked T, Meghan and Milly, which was pretty good). I'm not so sure this year, though. Dannie started off as a contender, but really has declined in the past couple episodes. Jared could be a winner, but he does seem to alienate people on his team. Hassan's a bit erratic - sometimes he's really good, sometimes he's not. Ashley and Ariel will go far, and even though they're not the best chefs, I quite like Kristin and Manda too. The rest are destined to go in the next few weeks. Chad's been good, but under the radar since day one, Joe's screwing up all over the place and Frank's attitude will eventually get the better of him. Manda's bound to go sometime soon, as is Jackie. Top 6 predictions: Jared Hassan Ashley Ariel Dannie (maybe) Chad (but he won't get much further)