mauras

I'm still reeling from Tammy being eliminated instead of the awful, untalented Jennifer. When I saw that they were bringing back eliminated chefs, I was sure Tammy would be among them...but no, we get Cody (ugh), along with Kevin and Andrew, both of whom I liked.and Cody stays. Ugggghhhh. At the beginning, I thought Jon would be annoying, but he won me over with his attitude and cooking chops. Sorry to see him go. I loved that he picked Sabrina to win--she's my pick too, and I think the others underestimate her.

Do we have independent confirmation that ManBun is a real person? He seems to be just a collection of hipster cliches. I cringe every time he's on screen. He can go now, and take Grayson 2.0 and her awful attitude and crappy food with him. I was ovo-lacto vegetarian for about 25 years (pescetarian now), and I still frequently eat delicious meals that happen to be vegan. I would find it challenging to cook interesting vegan food every day, but to cook ONE great vegan dish? Beyond easy. That said, the Mexican pop-up team should be thanking Kwame profusely with every breath. There's so, so much you can do with Mexican food, from seafood to beef to, yes, vegan that there was no excuse for their menu to be so uninspired.

Zach was kinda robbed. His outfit was well made, and the look really was updated '40s. I loved his look. Bridget's dress was much less interesting to me. I thought Tim gave the '60s team some not so great advice. Peter Pan collars on shift dresses, for instance, were all over Swinging London. I didn't like Maya's second collar nearly as much, and it wasn't at all '60s. Glad no one went home. A double elimination is going to be no fun at all.

I wish they could all stay. These kids have real talent (some more than others, obviously), and it would be more interesting to see how they develop over the course of a season than to see them eliminated one by one. I'll keep watching, because the show is much more enjoyable than recent seasons of original recipe PR. But I don't think the eliminations are going to get any easier to watch.

I never ever thought I'd say this, but I think I might be done with PR. The looks this season have by and large been mediocre (or worse), and though I agree that Edmund's look tonight was pretty bad, he was the only designer left who seemed genuinely talented to me. I have no interest in the remaining three--Candice and Ashley are utterly boring designers, and I don't think I've a single thing Kelly has made this season. The creativity and talent that once made this show great are long gone, and my interest in the show is finally following them.

I didn't like much on the runway tonight either. Edmond's dress was bombshell, yes, and I loved the detail at the neckline, but I just couldn't get excited about it. Ashley's was cute, but not for "every girl," as the judges kept insisting. Her jacket was great, though, and I'd have given her the win for that alone. I sort of agreed with Zac that Merline had some interesting ideas in her outfit, though it was a mess. But everything else, ugh. I hated Candace's skirt so much--the way it stood out from the model's body was just awful. I can't stand Kelly's awful '90s aesthetic, and I thought tonight's outfit was just ridiculous. Even Swapnil's dress was bad--animal print and backless, really? No disagreement with Laurie going home, though. I liked her personality, but her designs got worse over time, unfortunately. I don't think hers was the worst garment on the runway, but it was very far from the best.

Yes! A termite is exactly what it looked like. i truly loathe Blake, so I'm probably not being totally objective, but I thought that dress was ridiculous. And he should be embarrassed at how bad the construction was. I didn't like Candace's look either, though it was well made. I just don't like leather garments that aren't jackets. Swapnil's wasn't exactly innovative (none of the outfits were, really) but it was beautiful, and deserved the win. Poor Gabrielle. I liked what we saw of her and her work, but she just lost the plot with this challenge.. She deserved to go, sorry to say.

Jay, the Billy Mays of cooking competition shows, is the fakiest fake who ever faked. And yet he's somehow less annoying than Dom and his tongue-tied-ness. Dom was just excruciating to watch this week, as much so as Alex and almost as much as Emilia. Why is he still there? Pro tip, Emilia: if you're want the audience to go along with you when you're being "edgy," it helps to be witty, or funny. You were far from either.

I love this show, so I'm glad to hear they're still making new episodes--thanks, Totale. I caught a few episodes I hadn't seen before in a marathon on GAC on Saturday and they were teasing new episodes, but I wasn't sure if they were really new or just "new to GAC."

The thing about five spice is that star anise is kind of the key ingredient in it, and even if you can't name a single other component, if you're calling five spice your favorite ingredient, you should know right off the top of your head that it contains star anise. The other ingredients can vary somewhat, but I don't think I've ever seen a five spice blend that didn't include star anise. Alex just looked foolish for not even being able to name that one ingredient. I understand why they sent Rue home--she had multiple opportunities to get her POV across and just never quite succeeded in doing so. But she was one of the few contestants who even had the potential to interest me, and with her gone, my interest in the outcome of the competition has gone from not much to just about none. Emilia's blog is sort of amusing, and if she brought some of that snarky wit to a show, she could be worth watching, though she doesn't seem to be an especially great cook. And Eddie is still very appealing--I'd watch him. The rest of them are forgettable at best. Not that previous seasons have been filled with exceptional talent or anything, but I'm still a little surprised by how mediocre this batch is.

Uncooked bones don't splinter. You should never feed a dog (or cat) cooked bones, but raw ones are fine and stay intact unless you really saw at them with a very sharp, heavy knife or cleaver. (I know this from making raw food for my pets.) My guess is either that the wild dog folks were concerned about dulling the knives, or that the dogs' teeth were too worn down to handle the bones. Or maybe even just that the dogs would fight over them.

I had just decided last week that I was rooting for Aly and Steve because there was nothing to dislike about them and they were excellent racers, so it's probably my fault that they were eliminated. Oh well, guess I'm rooting for Hayley and Blair now, because in some weird way, I love them as a couple(and okay, I think Blair is hot). Aly really did tell Steve he was driving too far to the left at least twice before the flat, so I did have some sympathy for her there. Too bad she just spiraled into more negativity from there, but I think they were doomed anyway, between the flat and the U-turn--another reason to dislike Tyler and Laura, as if I needed any. I was almost sort of beginning to be okay with Matt and Ashley, even though I am inexplicably creeped out by Matt. But then he got all weird and obsessive about U-turning Jelani and Jenny, and I stopped liking them again. Loved seeing Jelani rock the not-skydiving task and Aly and Steve zoom up the sand dune. And the incredible scenery at every turn made up for the various bits of pissiness throughout.

Hayley's voice and the selfie cam were the only things that really bugged me about the episode. The blind date concept is dumb and gimmicky, of course, but we're already seeing the huge potential for unintentional hilarity (Hayley: "I think you're really attractive." Blair: "(crickets).") and for surprisingly good teamwork (Jelani and Jenny, who are my favorite team so far), so I can live with it. Besides, how great was it that both halves of Team Blonde Date had basically the same goofy haircut. I liked the tasks except for the mud race at the beginning. The dance looked like fun--not easy to pick up, but fun. There are too many teams for me to have formed opinions yet, but I didn't dislike any of them on first impression. Then again, there's a lot of season to go.

Everything about Katie annoys me, including her voice. She mugs for the camera constantly, and she kind of wriggles when she's pleased with something, like a six-year-old. She seems to have some talent, but she's just awful personally. (Not as bad as Leslie was, though.)

That was my thought too! Who would want to look back on that as the memory of their wedding day? Are people really that desperate to be on TV? At least the bride didn't have to wear something made by this bunch of "alll stars." I couldn't believe how dull and poorly made most of them were.

When Robbie said that, my response was, "I'm sure as hell going to try." And please, TAR, never bring them back for all-stars or second chances or whatever. Please.I felt a little bit bad for the surfers, but I was thrilled for the scientists. Can't remember ever being quite this happy about a win. Amy and Maya weren't the best racers throughout the race, but they were the best when it mattered most. I loved the container task, partly because I have this weird ability to memorize strings of numbers, and it was thoroughly impressive that Amy got it right on the first try. Yay brainy women!

As much as I understand that u-turning the cyclists made perfect sense, I dislike alliances in general and really didn't like the childish glee that the other teams showed about u-turning Kym and Allie. So I was really hoping the alliance would bite one of the teams in the arse. Instead, it turned out to be a non-issue, but one of my favorite teams in TAR history went out on their own mistakes. I guess I'm rooting for Adam and Bethany now, because she really is amazing, but the fun has gone out of the season for me. I Just hope the cyclists will come back for an all-stars or second chances series.

Totally agree with sending Kate home, but I'm amazed that Sam wasn't on the bottom--that dress didn't say party or romance, and it had serious fit problems. I liked Helen's dress better than other garments she's made this season (mainly because it wasn't taupe), but I'd have given the win to Dimitry, even though neoprene and vinyl is a weird choice for a party dress. Sonjia should have beaten out Helen, at least. I thought the blue underneath the lace made the dress more interesting and less Golden Girls. Best thing about this episode, though? Fewer Michelle comments than usual.

Wow. Entitled much, Korina? On a more positive note, yay Kini! That soccer ball dress was pretty amazing.

It wasn't necessarily laugh-out-loud funny most of the way, but I really enjoyed it and will definitely tune back in next week. (And I did laugh out loud at the Bro Mitzvah and some of Laurence Fishburne's lines.) Some of the "hood = black" and "carrying a book = 'acting white'" stuff troubled me--I know there are people who do think those things, but the show doesn't have to perpetuate them. Still, I like the overall premise. Growing up and finding yourself turning into someone different from who you always thought you were is really a universal theme, and the AA aspect is a variation on the theme that has never been fully explored on TV before. I also thought it was successful as a family show--they felt like a real family, and I found myself wanting to know more about all of them and their dynamic together. And all the acting was good, even the kids. Really looking forward to seeing where they go with it.

I'm hoping this format will be more interesting once it features two chefs I don't completely loathe, because I found this first "duel" boring and completely phoned-in. And it made me root for Marcel, which really bothers me, because I can't stand Marcel. But Blais and his ego are far worse.

For Blais vs Marcel, I'm rooting for a black hole to open in the kitchen, swallow them both, and keep either of them from winning. Two of my least favorite Top Chef contestants ever. Fairly excited about the rest of the match ups, though.

Christopher bored my socks off, so I'm glad Giada apparently threw some sort of tantrum and got him sent home. But almost no one did very well this week, so I'd have been fine with any of them leaving, except Emma, who's the most natural presenter, and Nicole, who's my pick to win the whole thing. Loreal must watch a whole lot of daytime TV. She's got every tell-all talk show cliche down: the raise-the-roof gesture, her endless "what up"s, and the rest. Can't stand her. Sarah is worse because she's so plastic, and Lenny annoys me more, but Loreal is right up there on my Please Go Home Now list.