Tango64

1. I’m thirsty. Bring me a bottle of water! 2. My whole body is collapsing. I think you guys should come get me. 3. I haven’t talked to my family in a few days. Come get me!

The Polish acrobats at first had me rolling my eyes at yet another pair of buff dudes moving each other around. But then I realized they were showing an extreme version of this art, with ultra smooth precision movements that were astounding. They weren’t just able to do the moves; they did them with incredible grace and fluidity. No trembling, no “can they hold it?” They were a level above the other acts we’ve seen Nice abs, too.

The audience sing-along was only that. Nobody was paying attention to the high, middle, low voice prompts. They were just singing along to the projected lyrics of a familiar song that’s pretty singable. The act was predisposed to make the (primed, hyped up) audience support it. But it’s just a sing along, probably fun in person but not a real act.

After previous criticism, I have to be fair and say the latest episode was more like a good Kitchen Nightmares where GR actually achieves a good improvement. The gimmicky exercise with the staff play fighting was just a side event, not the whole focus.

“I can’t believe I’m freaking cooking a chicken!” ”Oh my god, I’m freaking using chicken stock!” I really dislike the vegan pair. (I think they’re animal ER nurses or something like that???) Live vegan if you want, but it’s ridiculous to go on Masterchef and act all amazed that you need to cook protein.

I hate to blast a magic act, but there is zero chance those audience members chose those words randomly. They were odd words, not anything people would think of off hand, but they sound like wow, how would you match that.

Oh man, baboons? I would not want to deal with baboons out there. Seems like so much more of a threat than they’ve faced before. Kudos to Kelsey for getting the warthog right away. But she was only smoking small little bits. Shouldn’t she have started smoking a lot more of it right away? It will be a shame if it spoils.

We need more of that. It seems like they've gotten softer and it's rare to hear a blunt, useful criticism. It's not entertaining to see the judges avoid confrontation, and ultimately it's not good for the chefs' performance.

Okay, I don’t think I can watch this anymore. Steamrolling some basement junk won’t stop her from serving canned seafood, spoiled food, and cross-contaminated food. Just stupid. Is Gordon tired of cooking and now wants to be the world’s worst therapist?

Who responds to “elevated, restaurant quality dinner party” with a hamburger? Even without those instructions, who goes on Masterchef and thinks a hamburger will wow them? And then the hamburger was terrible, too.

I agree the singer starting "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was just a setup for Simon to stop her. What idiot comes on with that song anymore? She had that second song ready to go. Call me cynical, but I also wondered if the fainting robot dog was planned all along. It was in the back and the other robots were not tripping over it. Everyone was sympathetic as if it was a sentient being, then thrilled when it popped up again at the end. It humanized (or at least animalized) the machines. Probably better for the act than if all the robots had performed flawlessly.

The look on Tom’s face when they served him rice-less risotto is the whole reason I watch this show.

I'm waiting for the challenge where they have to feature Saratoga water as their main ingredient.

I just wish when the judges ask, “What cook were you going for?,” the contestant would say, “Well done. Very, very well done, chef.” Everyone knows it should be medium rare. Why ask?

This is a big turnoff to me. I've watched every GR series, and the one with the 24 hour deadline was so gimmicky I almost gave up. But this one is just silly with the faux Mission Impossible stuff that leads to nothing. Just go in the restaurant, taste the food, look around the kitchen, do what you need to do. This feels like he thinks we're toddlers who need a fun setup to keep our attention.

Aside from whether it tasted good or not, I was put off by the plating of Massimo’s cracker with herb stuff. It was just jammed in next to the bowl, like I’d do with a piece of garlic bread and a bowl of low effort spaghetti. That probably played into the judges not realizing it was better when dipped in the sauce.

It’s just cheesy family therapy. He doesn’t care about the restaurant except as a set for his contrived family intervention.

Simon’s golden buzzer act is the latest example of a “crazy tech dance crew” that mostly consists of a mediocre CGI projection and some minimal dancing. Are we just putting through video projections now? I’m glad to see Mel B back and handing out Xs with glee. What’s the point of judging if you’re just going to gush and fawn over every act?

Though I snarked hard on Tom putting his face in the plate, now I’m wondering if he does that to smell the dish. The aroma of a dish is a huge part of understanding the flavors and appreciating the complexity, so maybe that’s what he’s doing. I often pause to smell the food before I eat it, but I usually smell the forkful rather than leaning into the plate.

I don't think Joe will ever say it out loud to anyone, but that look on his face made clear that he felt duped and used. Makes me wonder if there is a man in every facet of Eva's life, education, and career that understands Joe's reaction -- or will later.

Tom really puts his face in the plate when he eats. Can he not lift his arms?

I think the scenario you outline is completely plausible. If the producers told her she didn’t have to wait it out, that likely had no effect on the outcome. But it would have helped if they’d shown that somehow so it didn’t look like she just violated the rules. My comment about affecting the outcome was in reply to an earlier post suggesting the scene had been staged and did not represent what actually happened. I don’t think that’s the case.

It still surprises me when chefs of this caliber make really dumb mistakes, like sending out frozen meat to the judges. The whole reason for using dry ice is that it gets super cold, so you didn't figure putting some thinly sliced raw meat on dry ice would freeze it? You didn't try it in the kitchen first to see how it would work?

But that's exactly what they did, according to your theory of the aired scene being staged. They changed a portion of the contest that affects the outcome, so the viewer is left thinking one thing happened when apparently another thing happened. I don't have any illusions that everything we see is real and without intentional viewer manipulation, but if they're going to just flat out stage a scene to show a different outcome that kills the last bit of entertainment value for me. However, I don't actually think that's what happened. I think it happened as shown on screen, with Eva knocking down the tiles before the time was up, and the producers didn't want to hold her accountable.

With that reasoning, we can’t trust anything in the show. If they are staging key scenes in such a way as to make the stated rules superfluous, there’s no point in watching. I rewatched the tile stacking and freeze framed on the rules. They are slightly ambiguous in saying your vote remains safe if you complete four levels but also saying you lose your vote if you don’t have four levels when the timer ends. I could understand her thinking her vote is safe once she has four levels. But the other part is very clear that the end of the timer determines that. Eva knocking down the tiles is like a running back dropping the football on the 2 yard line instead of carrying it in for a touchdown. An act of ego and showboating that costs you. Unless you’re Jeff’s chosen one. if it were anyone else, Jeff would be giddy with delight in telling her at the next tribal council, “You know when you knocked over those tiles? Well….”