riprock

Having Alton as a surprise 3rd judge is almost certainly what cost Lefevre the title. It made the last dish worth 50% more points, and assuming similar judges, magnifies the margin of victory or defeat. The margin was only 2 points! That said, I guess I was never really behind Lefevre, you know? He isn't the most natural person to root for or empathize with. Guarnaschelli is so smarmy about the title that she worked so long for. Iron Chef is the only title that matters? Like someone said upthread, Top Chef is the real prize.

It seemed a little strange to have Alex G judge when she’s also part of the gauntlet. Not that I think it affected the result with a 4-point difference. I think either Baloo or LaFevre makes the gauntlet, but no one wins this year.

Are they already setting up Audra McDonald to leave the show?

I am a sucker for A Few Good Men references and Ronnie in jeans. Nice characterization work by Dylan McDermott, just wanting others to see him as cool and screwing over his crew I think Olivia Macklin has the fastest line deliveries on this show. The line about the topless taco bar sticks out, as does her line a few eps ago about hoping the mom strippers were ready to lose twice.

In hindsight I don’t understand the point of not showing us Adrian's conversation on the air until his clip went viral. Nothing happened in that scene that mattered later, and they had to show us later how the interview got cut together. When we saw the red light turning on for Adrian's remote appearance, I remembered the West Wing episode where Jed “accidentally” talked into a hot mic. I like Marissa as an investigator, I like Maia and Lucca being set up as friends some more, I loved Lucca saying Colin knocked her up as a point of argument, and I don’t get why we need to keep seeing Diane hallucinating about Donald Trump. basically this felt like a process episode. Is this season also going to be 10 episodes? If so, there are only 4 left and I don’t see where the season's coherent storyline is yet.

This show is ambitious occasionally and that's what gets me to watch. But for me it isn't yet at drop-everything, only-pay-attention-to-this status. I love that Dr. Bell's "complication" in the pilot wasn't a one-off, the strong recurring characters haven't happened since the early seasons of House, and the show is well-cast. At the same time, I want more. Dr Okafor still feels one-dimensional, despite the scene with her off-the-books outpatient, and the apparent evil of the senior staff, combined with the storyline we got about max billable expenses, is potentially intriguing but rather simplistically realized. They have set up what should be a watchable story arc for the remainder of the season (thank God we have a"full" 13 episodes!), and I'm really hoping that this show is able to bring some more story nuance to go with the strong acting they've been getting so far.

Yeah, I feel like that needed to be explained in the show. They depict Richard screwing both the Sliceline and Optimoji CEOs. Why he couldn't go all the way and get the deal he originally wanted doesn't make sense.

I had a few laugh-out-loud moments - Gavin accepting his award by comparing Hooli search to the wonders of the world, Patrice getting fired and referred to in the past tense in the same meeting, the recurring standing and gazing at the three programming stallions. There were no extended bits that went on forever, but you gotta earn those. Why couldn't they just fire 38 programmers after buying out Sliceline? pleasantly surprised not to miss Erlich.

The title and the premise limit my ability to get my coworkers to try this show. "LA to Vegas" makes it sound like the show entirely happens on the plane. I have trouble explaining to others that it's about the people who travel between LA and Vegas. The characters mostly transcend their biographies too. They almost never mention that Colin's visiting his son, or whatever Artem is traveling for. It felt like a heads-up for an end-of-season plot twist. I really hope this show sticks around. It's smart, sharp, and creative, and the cast has created a de facto family unit that's a joy to join. I'm engrossed from beginning to end.

So, that's it, I guess? Maia's mom and Maia both go free because Maia stalled for long enough for an overseas paramilitary unit to trace and capture her dad? something about the way that new Reddick leaked all that information about the case lacked poetry. It was more interesting when it was part of Alicia's character arc, going from naive to savvy. Now it's just illegal activity, without commentary, from a new character. I enjoyed Marissa's scene at the bouncy castle, where she showed flashes of being a secret agent.

The editing over the season featured comparatively little Benjamin, so when Nick was eliminated I knew my girl had the win. I don’t think Ramsey is ageist, as alluded to earlier, but it is an astute point that Benjamin still has not found a leader's voice or attitude in the kitchen despite his years over Michelle. It was nice to see him treat Barbie with respect (and it seemed real, because she was calmer during her THs), but in reprimanding Jennifer for underseasoned food and taking Robyn back he had an air of someone unused to asserting himself. I think I could have lived with either Michelle or Nick winning, and now I want even more to have a Ramsey beef Wellington. Elise had clearly not gotten over her elimination while this was being taped, and all of her laughing and teasing during her interviews just rang of someone who didn’t understand that this is still a cooking competition, not solely dependent upon yelling and attitude. I hope Michelle makes it in the GR empire!

I feel like Nick has this in the bag. Gordon's comments about how much he's grown since Season 14 convinced me. Still rooting for my girl Michelle, though, who is really kicking ass for someone so young. Maybe Gordon will find a job for her anyway? I guess Jocky was hiding in the other kitchen to prepare the sabotage proteins? And I loved Christina's talkback when Milly admonished her for making the wrong greens. "Thank you for the feedback, chef." Greatly appreciated that the voiceover didn't call out every single sabotage, like they usually do. I am really unenthused about seeing the returning losing cooks. Seeing Elise and Barbie instantly drops my mood.

I kind of enjoyed seeing Gordon on his best behavior when the non-chefs were in the kitchen. Did you see the stars hugging their chefs as they got kicked off the "throne"? It must have been a lot of fun. I also appreciated how they got a whole 45 minutes to turn out their dishes. Robyn was never going to win, but Milly's behavior at the end was ugly.

Is it mean to say I took pleasure in watching Elise cry? That scene of Robyn, Jennifer, and Elise in the living quarters breaking down was one of the more affecting things I’ve seen on this show. Milly has been so one-note this season. His THs are always of him saying something and sweeping his arms around emphatically. Maybe he hasn’t been giving the editors the depth they need to make him stand out, but his relative lack of thoughtfulness in his interviews compared to, say, Nick, Michelle, Jennifer, or Dana makes it hard for me to see him as a head chef. when Gordon let Elise keep her jacket I was afraid he was about to offer her a job! I hope the finale is Nick and Michelle. Ben is so easy to forget, Robyn is too in her own head, and Milly is less interesting this year than in Season 14.

And the other expert judge has already served as a Top Chef guest judge this season! I'm tired of the fake outs from Gordon when he's telling people to get back in line. Even the contestants aren't sure if this is it for them. Was glad when Michelle called it "Asian-inspired tortellini" at judging. Girl listens.

The atmosphere on the red team seems poisonous; I think in the heat of the kitchen that nearly anyone would make mistakes. The meat temperature being off so many times felt uncharacteristic. It is interesting to me that even with Hell's Kitchen doubling its menu for the all-star season, the cooks are failing on communication, rather than recipes. I wish they wouldn't give Elise so much air time. She is childish and grating.

I really love Michelle. She went for the kill with those choices. And her response to the returning, defensive Elise was terrific. Elise: “It’s on!” Michelle: “It’s been on since the beginning! It’s a f-ing competition!” It kind of feels like Elise will be gone next week out of overconfidence.

As undeserving, obtuse, and impulsive as Josh is, I still sort of respect his decision to go back to the kitchen. Although maybe the time to stand up for himself was before he left the first time. The time-lapse footage of Elise standing around in the kitchen was eye-opening. How did Gordon not see that? If we get to a point where everyone in the kitchen is competent and collected, like they were this ep (save Josh), I'll have no idea how they separate the wheat from the chaff.

I know this show is full of commercial cliffhangers and rough-around-the-edges characters, and they probably keep Ramsay in an isolation chamber between scenes to keep his anger levels high, but was anyone else surprised at the collapse of the red team? Generally speaking, the black jackets are better than the chaff that they bring on for early eliminations, and many of them still work as cooks. I would have thought they'd have the teamwork and skills to pull off one dinner service.

In the post-episode talk, the showrunners said it took weeks to film/CGI the last few minutes. So why is it such an underwhelming, perfunctory thing? It looked expensive, but it was full of jump cuts. I was barely awake when they paused in the middle for Yara to look around at her burning fleet, and I had no sense of what was where on deck. This show should do better. Arya's reunion with Nymeria was underwritten too. Why couldn't they have her say, "THAT’S not you" instead of "it's not you"? That parallels the line exactly and doesn't make me think that maybe Arya's talking to a different direwolf. So this is a significant blow to Daenerys, right? Her fleet is lost; now she has to fight on land? Please tell me the show acknowledges at least that. Overlooking for the moment how her fleet completely misses the oncoming hostile fleet, why wasn't one of the dragons flying escort for Yara? What are dragons for? Also, not buying that Yara should think that Theon's a coward for swimming away. Euron had a knife to her throat, he'd taken over the ship, and the fleet is burning. How is Theon supposed to save her? The battle's already lost.

TJ Miller gave an interview in which he said he didn't decide to leave the show until after reading the script for this episode. So I'm not entirely sure they ever meant for it to be his exit. http://www.thewrap.com/silicon-valley-tj-miller-exit-cliffhanger/

I'm not a huge fan of them pulling out a second deus ex machine in two episodes. First Hooli security guy bails them out at Hoolicon, then Anton's self-replicating onto the smart fridge network? Didn't Gilfoyle say he was going RAID 0? How does that not also disable the smart fridge network? Maybe I'm thinking too hard. On the other hand this was a really solid finale. I loved the sight gag of "Jin Yang" on all the smart fridges in the store, Melcher finding out about his fiancée and Richard, getting confirmation that Jared screws around, the throwback to the Mexican restaurant, and most of all, Jack Barker talking through a window behind a fence at a Hooli plant. When Gilfoyle broke his glasses, that was excellent foreshadowing. Glad they didn't literally kill off Erlich. That would have seemed out of place. Kind of nice of them to give Chris Diamantopaulos space in the credits when I think he made only passing appearances in two episodes. Wouldn't mind seeing more of the other "regulars" now that TJ Miller has departed. Props to Thomas Middleditch for really ratcheting up his manic and crazed side this episode. He was beyond watchable and beyond amusing--he was riveting.

I love me some Flula Borg! He's great when you don't overuse him. So is Richard all good with Dinesh and Gilfoyle for dropping Keenan Feldspar? He seems to have gotten away with a lie. Dinesh's meeting with his ex is easily the highlight for me. "What's your policy on anonymous tips?" "I am going back to Pakistan right after this." Kumail Nanjiani is on fire. I feel like the storytelling is a little muddled. I guess the idea is that their hacked app caused these phones to overheat, and their shadow network is going to get taken down because everyone will delete the hacked app next ep?

much stronger episode than last week's. I busted out laughing at Dinesh at the end. Perfect application of the rule of threes. Jack's model Jack in the Box was an excellent sight gag, and Jared's break-up sweater and all of them facing the back door were excellent callbacks. Can't wait for Hoolicon, and am hoping that Gavin Belson makes his return there.

Maybe TJ's departure will force the showrunners to break the cycle of the last few seasons. In Season 1, he was a stoned, but intelligent businessman ("emphasis on 'business... and on 'man', come to think of it"), but then the dynamic turned into Richard doing brilliant things while TJ nipped at his heels. I would welcome a change to the status quo.