RealityGal

Thank you for saying this, I'm watching right now and I'm feeling like a monster for feeling the exact same way you do. My eyes almost rolled out of my head. Although I will say that telling someone to kill themselves is way extreme, I certainly hope that was an exaggeration or misrepresentation.

Its all a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, he wants whatever little money and resources she has, so he has to encourage her attention. But he has to watch out that she doesn't kill him and eat him so that he will be with her forever. And the good lord help whatever poor foolish young american girl he convinces that he is single and decides to date him.

This is why I get annoyed at the constant focus on KeriAnn. Because there are other chefs who seem much more interesting than her and whatever sort of nonsense she is talking about at any given time. Melissa is one of those, I suspect there may be even more than the culinary dreams that her parents disapprove of, and I find that more interesting than the old tired "I'm doing this so my kids can see that I can do it! or for their future! or whatever" I realize thats important, but that is the story of almost every working mom, we get it, kids want role models and sometimes you have to sacrifice for them. Gregory's story was entirely more interesting than KeriAnn's, and I suspect Melissa's is too. I would also like to know a little more about Mei Lin, and Stacy. And how the hell did that guy end up with a Swayze tattoo?

I agree with this statement completely. I think he did single her out as the weakest runner in the pack, and also someone who was laid back enough to subconsciously take a backseat knowing that she couldn't be kicked off in this challenge. As for the city, I think they would have caught flack if they didn't do a Cheers episode, and it may be part of them getting discounts to film in the city. I mean what better for a city like Boston to start showcasing their tourist attractions through a show as popular as Top Chef. But I wouldn't be surprised if they did something with a duck tour and the Boston walking trail and those guys that wear the costumes and give tours. I'm shocked they haven't done more with lobsters because I do remember the delicious lobster dishes of boston, especially the lobster rolls, which were superb. New Orleans is a different beast entirely, and I just don't think anything can possibly compare. Anything after New Orleans is going to be a bit of a letdown because its such a rich and diverse culture that is historically old. LA has a ton of different cultures, but the blending of cultures and the development of the foods aren't as historically old as New Orleans. I really enjoyed eating in Boston, but I can still taste the food from Mothers if I think about it, thats how good it was. And I don't know, I don't mind a season of Top Chef being a little bit of a love letter to the city they are in, I think its great for viewers from the city to get to see their city showcased, and its a good way for people to learn about the city. I hope as they go further into the competition they will start to focus on the parts of the city that have different cultures. Like the North End, or all of these other immigrant communities I'm now hearing about, that would be interesting.

I thought the tea challenge was kinda cool, especially because they got some funky ass teas. But I don't remember them doing the same city twice in a row, and I can't imagine that Vegas had more food culture than Boston. Not every place can have the same amazing and rich food history/culture that New Orleans does, but I think Boston had some wonderful foods. I pretty much gorged on lobster and pastry, but I remember it all being really good. I think the baseball snacks challenge has been done in some iteration in quite a few seasons where a chef had to elevate junk food of some sort.

Perhaps, or they figured the price was too high for what would probably be marginal returns. I mean if you have to pay 100k to be featured on the show, and you only sell an additional 10 boxes of cracker jacks from it, it might be hard to justify the cost. Although, now that you've said it, I don't think I've ever in my life seen a cracker jacks commercial. I used to eat cracker jacks all the time, and religiously wear those temporary tattoos. Good times :)

That falls on the upper end of moderate. :)

No, in the sudden death quickfire, the loser challenges anyone in the kitchen. If the loser loses...they go home, if the person they challenged loses....they both stay. Ron is a nice guy, but word up to not being camera ready. This is why I assumed his food would be off the charts good. All I was thinking was that it looked like she was headed off to a time machine so she could be a backup dancer in a prince video circa 1984. I haven't seen a full chocolate brown outfit in that long. The crackerjack people were probably not willing to pay to be on the show :)

Poor Thee Thee. All that work she put in to get onto the show and she never even got to be in the opening credits, and Benzino has that ridiculous tattoo. Fail's for everyone!

Sarah is getting camera time, and honestly, I think that all that matters to Sarah. She seemed to have the same mission on her season, she was in fights with everyone. She knew Mimi was going to be the centerpiece of the show, because she had some sort of Justin Bieber romance, so the first thing she did was get into it with Mimi. And damn near ended up getting her eye poked out.

I ordered the episode on Amazon, when did Aaron say something to Katie about crying about her dad? I wonder if Amazon doesn't show the entire show. If so, thats kind of a waste of $2.00 I know right? It was the sportscaster, I was shocked. It is one of the few times I thought an opinion was objectively wrong, like maybe he just didn't know what a pretzel is.

First - too much KeriAnn. Too much KeriAnn. I don't need her constant commentary on everything. Her voice annoys me and I want to get to know the other chefs, so please, please, less KeriAnn. Second - while Aaron isn't my favorite, in some things I get where he is coming from. Katie (the instructor) seems to constantly fall back on "things she knows" and doesn't seem to like to really experiment with new techniques. She chose to do what appeared to be a basic pasta dish for the quickfire. The judges, generally, when faced with two things that are equally good, will go with the one that is a little more inventive. I think this is why some contestant (Marcel) used to do all sorts of ridiculous mousses, and people will use nitrogen even when its not really necessary. She has also been in the bottom, and she seems to get anxiety, that might be the person I would want to take on in a timed challenge. And I know he wants to prove himself or whatever. KeriAnn seems to be one of the most annoying people on the show, and it may all be editing, but damn. And others have made comments about Katsji not exactly being a saint, and talking all the time. And I have to think those comments are real, because they all were pulling against Aaron, so its not like they were calling Katsuji an asshole just to make Aaron look better. Someone said that he will poke, and poke and poke at you, and someone said he never shuts up. Thats a bad combination when someone is interrupting you while you are trying to talk, especially when they are making asshole comments like "well, I thought you were going to blame someone else" when you're trying to talk about what the judges said about your dish and how you fucked it up. I don't think its unexpected to get upset with someone picking and picking and picking at you. Aaron certainly isn't my favorite person, right now I like Gregory, and I think his backstory is interesting. Lets hear more from Gregory, and less from KeriAnn. I don't need her narrating this season.

It feels like Christmas and all my presents are ice cream!

so this shits is like co-signing on a car for someone who has bad credit? Does she know people this stupid? I'm shocked they didn't get married, I wonder who stepped in and stopped that. Maybe he realized he would really have to have sex with her at some point, or maybe she foolishly gave him an ultimatum of some sort and he took off. What an honor that would be for you! You would be powerless in the face of all that charm. Powerless!

if she wants to save calories, don't judge a cooking competition. The portions are relatively small, but if she is that concerned about her figure she should have just stuck to modelling, or hosted another type of competition. She is no special food expert, so its not like Top Chef is getting some high level culinary knowledge with her. I also don't think having to choke down something gross is suffering. And I say that having eaten my sisters food when she just started cooking. Some of that stuff was disgusting, but I was able to eat it. I have eaten a pure glob of fat, probably about that size, when I've eaten certain cuts of meat, and oxtail, the fat glob was not tasty, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world, and I got through to the other side. If she can't handle a glob of fat in a sauce that everyone else at least thought wasn't the worst thing, how is she going to be able to taste and judge the truly worst food there is out there? Every week, the judges are called upon to perhaps taste, and judge outright train wrecks, especially at quickfire because it is a limited time competition and the chef may not have time to taste the final product. If you can't judge the worst dishes you're an ineffective judge, because you aren't judging on the taste of the food, or the taste of the sauce, you're judging primarily on the fact that there is a piece of fat you didn't like. And honestly a glob of fat isn't the worst thing out there. And Richard, ostensibly got the same piece of fatty meat and was able to eat it. The only one who had a moment was Princess Padma.

You know, I think I just have a tendancy to forget the anger I had at Gillian, or at really any of the characters. I know from season to season I hated Narcisse, loved Chalky, was somewhat invested in Nucky and floved Richard. But I think because there was such a wait time between seasons, and I don't go back and watch, each season, including this was was almost fresh for me. So while I had always known that Nucky had sold Gillian to the Commodore, but I had never really thought of the age for some reason, or the specifics. Since I had mostly forgotten all the terrible shit she had done (or I wasn't as emotionally invested in all the horrible shit she had done) I didn't have that same burning hate for her I had had previous seasons. This allowed me to focus more on just how very fucked up her situation was. She had run, and run and run all her young life and had done fine. She finally saw some kindness and was so hungry for it that she finally trusted someone....completely. And was totally betrayed. These Gillian flashbacks have made me hate Nucky. She was just a little girl, and I don't buy that he was so blinded by being fired or whatever, he wouldn't have handed over Mabel, he wouldn't have handed over Eli, but it was worth a young girl getting raped so he could get some badge. And if I remember anything throughout the years its that Nucky has never made amends or apologies for what he did. But it was truly terrible, she trusted him, and she was just a little girl.

Whomp whomp Natalie, I guess you ran the house like you ran LA and ran yourself right out. Judi is so whack right now, I don't even know what to say. You're mad that people think you stole shit....after you just got done stealing shit? Oh and you "have your own Newports?" bitch that proves nothing because you said you had your own lashes and you stole those too. I also notice how Judi refused to stop drinking when her friends begged her to quit, but now that the producers have told her she could be kicked off the show suddenly she is barely drinking. Judi and Sarah are both super whack. If you think you did the right thing in taking down the pictures, than admit to it. Don't lie, hide and deny. A bad girl shouldn't have to hide what she did, admit it and stand by your actions. Are they going to have replacements? If so I wonder who they will be????

Whatever the side effects, I'm sure they are "mild to moderate" ;)

and with her close relationship to Montoya. I can't remember at what point she told him Montoya had come over, but I don't remember her sharing every single thing Montoya said to her. If she is okay calling a newspaper just to help a case along, I can understand him thinking she will go to Montoya with everything he has told her in an effort to clear his name. My feeling is that knowing everything she wants to know is going to put her in a bad situation at some point.

I don't mind the mug with the question mark, or any of the signposts. The characters that are going to be villians are going to have a lot of strong quirks, if they were perfectly normal people they probably wouldn't become villians. I'm not sure how else the characters should act, and as time has gone by they have integrated them more into the show. I also think Nygma is so very adorable, its hard for me to hate him too much. I'm left to wonder what the tipping point is going to be for each of them to turn them into the villian/character they become.

Thats how you know its so good....... achingly sad is a good phrase for it. I still think about the ending of Six Feet Under and it makes me so sad. Richard's death was beautiful, and so haunting. Because for a while, I was really, really hoping against hope that he was alive. And the first scene of him on the train you're like "oh, he made it! hooray" and then as the scene goes on, you're like "well, this could still be reality, he could still have made it" and then you're like "wait a minute...." and then, when you see his full beautiful face, you just know, and all your hope is gone and then they flash to him under the boardwalk.

Ha ha. There have been so many questions/speculations about the ability to sue. I haven't seen a contract, so its all supposition, but here are my two cents. I think the show/producers/Mona probably draws up the contract to protect themselves, and themselves only. I'm betting that you can't sue the show or the producers for negligent supervision, but I don't see why they would or how they could contract around you suing someone else. Actually, I guess you could contract around it, if everyone signs a contract agreeing to indemnify the other parties for any suit they bring in connection with the show. But I don't think a production company would want to get involved in any of that because I can easily imagine a court voiding that contract as being unconscionable. I mean you don't want to encourage people to sign away their rights to sue someone for beating their ass and so if they get injured they become a problem for the state health care system because you can't sue the person responsible for the injury. Additionally IIRC, assault and battery are crimes and torts, so while you may be able to contract around tort liability (although I think a judge would void that contract), you couldn't really contract around a crime because that is a charge brought by the state, although if you're not willing to cooperate they most often won't bring the charge. Well, that explanation was as clear as mud. Sorry.

LOL, well you're the mod and I can tell you're getting tired of this topic. So I will say one last thing in defense of my ex and perhaps other guys like Brett and then I think I'm done. I do think that my ex behaved this way almost subconsciously (not absolute and always, but almost) because I don't think he was a bad person per se. I remember when I first met him he basically told me that he didn't really have any friends and was estranged from most of his family. I thought it was so strange, because he seemed like such a nice guy. I don't have a ton of friends but a lot of that is by choice. I know he wanted friends, but I think his behavior ran off most of the people who would have been friends with him, and maybe some of his family members (although that situation was already weird, so that may not have been his fault). I look at Brett, and I notice that there don't seem to be many male friends around, so far, it seems like he has his mother, the older women who are his roomates, and an older woman from work. I think those are great, but I might have expected to see one male friend in the mix, but I'm not sure how many men want a friend who has some of the character traits Brett has. ETA: I do think Daya may have found her match in Brett's daughter, it looks like the little girl locks her out with the sliding glass door.

Thats what I was thinking, Yamir is a little long in the tooth for boy band status anyways. Didn't they switch up members of Menudo as soon as they got facial hair?

Thats not it though, you're not treating them bad just because you can, they are sometimes on the look out to set you up to be upset with them. And then you're the bad guy, and thats how they like it. They want to look like a victim, and for the most part they are nice, but there are times when they are passive aggressive, and will push you so that they can claim victim status. Saying "just leave" paints it in very black and white terms, and I don't think its a black and white issue. No one ever has to ever be mean or ever act any certain way towards anyone else, but I understand that sometimes people know exactly what buttons to push, and they push them with abandon, and then start crying when they want to be a victim. I assure you Brett has made it on time to things. He probably knows that tardiness drives Daya up the wall and pushes all of her buttons. She seems very particular. She is already in a stressful situation, coming here all the way from another country, she is jet lagged, tired, adrenaline pumping. So he can't push off a little early so he doesn't end up being half an hour late? But he probably knows it pushes every button she has, and so he shows up late and now she looks like a bitch because she is upset, and pissy about the flowers. But when you're already tired, jet lagged, and now pissed that someone decided to pick you up half an hour late (and by the way, did he text or call to even let her know? it didn't look like it to me) they are going to not be in the frame of mind to be grateful for some flowers that frankly aren't even the ones you said you would get! For a particular girl, who has told you she likes roses, and to whom you have said you are going to get roses its gonna rub them wrong. And to me, those people do deserve to be kicked, because thats not just them being nice, thats them being sneaky so they can curry sympathy.