bluepiano

It's similar with health issues. People like the way restaurant food tastes but have no idea the amount of fat and sugar that's been added to their dish. Maybe that's part of the attraction of eating out. You can be blissfully ignorant that you're eating stuff made in way you'd never cook at home. At that same famous fine dining restaurant I mentioned, my relative told me that their secret ingredient was duck fat. They used gobs of it. No wonder every sauce tasted so rich.

I have an in-law who worked at a famous fine dining restaurant in New York. He always said that the diners would be shocked if they saw what went on in the kitchen. This was several years ago, so maybe standards have been raised, but my guess is that chain restaurants are probably a lot more by the book when it comes to hygiene. After not having made it through the past few seasons, I was ready to give this one a try based on the change in format. But now back to the same old same old. I guess GR missed yelling about the men vs. the women. Rookies vs. veterans wasn't doing it for him. Or maybe that was the plan from the beginning. Whatever, I was disappointed. Now we have to wait for him to make his usual changes to break up single gender teams. Same old same old. In the opening episode she said it a nickname for Elizabeth, but it does sound like a name a child would make up as an insult. It is horrible name. But my main issue with her is that tattoo sleeve, with ink so dark it make her whole arm look black and diseased. I just don't get it.

I was always certain that "Hell's Kitchen" was a studio set and not a real restaurant open to actual human beings walking in off the street. (As opposed to all those "VIP diners." Translation. SAG extras). So the first Hell's Kitchen restaurant will be the one GR is opening in Vegas, with this season's winner as Head Chef. But with so many dining options in Vegas, it's hard for to understand who would actually choose to eat there. It would be pretty funny if they made it a dining-theater experience that replicated the show, with someone playing Gordon Ramsey berating the staff. I doubt that will happen, but they at least will need to have Beef Wellington on the menu for some authenticity.

Great minds, and all that. These are the two things I was coming to the forum to write about. Actually, maybe just one thing, because it was Kelly who clearly chose Tyke because of his looks. She was also the one who also saved 14 year old Anthony after gushing "he's beautiful." It's absolutely correct that in this day and age a man has to completely avoid commenting on a woman's appearance. I get why there might be historical reasons for a double standard, but Kelly is openly lusting after guys in their early teens, and to me that's inexcusable and super creepy. It's not like arrests of female teachers for inappropriate behavior with male students don't happen. (I also watch America's Got Talent, where I'm so over the cougar act from Mel and Heidi when there are young male dancers or acrobats.) Unlike a previous poster, I thought the guy Tyke was up against had an interesting voice, and I remember really liking his blind audition. But he clearly had no chance against Kelly's "Tarzan." I felt bad that we only got to hear about five seconds of him singing given how the battle was edited. The same thing happened to Yoddler Girl, who much to my surprise, could actually sing. She wasn't going to beat Katrina, but I wish they'd let us hear more., She had a little of that vulnerable Dolly quiver in her voice. I guess she had her 15 minutes of fame, but it would've been nice for her family to hear her sing a bit during the battle. Steve (Ben Affleck) Wedding Singer got lucky because the guy he was paired against was super weak. I guess Adam did that to keep him around. Each season he seems to get attached to some "super cool dude" and try to push him further than his talent merits. Apparently the only battles we got to hear in full were the ones in which the two sides try to outscream each other.

I'm actually surprised that Jen is gone this early, considering HK's history of keeping contestants around solely for their ability to be a big time s--t stirrer. Elise would be example number one. I guess Jen crossed some kind of line that even Gordon Ramsey could not tolerate, even for the sake of the drama this show loves. Still, I half expected some kind of last second reprieve for Jen, given how many times we thought for sure that Elise had to be toast and she was kept around. (But then, her attacks were against other contestants, not the Almighty GR himself).

That's it!! I kept thinking he looked super familiar. Almost a dead ringer. Even some of the same expressions.

Totally agree about Kelly. Her theatrics sometimes border on hysteria. She has a very natural likeable quality when she's just being herself, but the manic stuff is grating. As someone posted earlier, her "fighting" with Blake has dominated the show this season, replacing the Adam vs. Blake feud. I'm fine with having less of the Adam vs. Blake insults, but the Kelly vs. Blake thing is getting old fast. Adam has been sort of pushed into the background this year. He's wisely just letting that happen, but at some point his ego may kick in and he'll fight for more air time. Considering the success of so many very young singers (14-15) on this show and others, there's really no reason to wait. Being that young actually helps you, because then the judges (and America in the voting) are willing to overlook flaws. If she'd waited a couple of years, even if she were a more polished singer, she wouldn't get all that "you're so amazing for 15" gushing.

I'm with you. I thought it was a bad night. Actually, that's how I've felt about the whole season so far. Usually (well, at least until last season), the first three blinds have at least five or six singers I'm excited about. So far for me, not a one. I think this show has become like American Idol. It's been on for so long that you have all these young singers who grew up wanting to be on this show and it's their entire musical frame of reference I thought the song selection was really boing. The best choice for me by far was the Sam Cooke tune. Even though the vocal was not that strong, I was still surprised the guy didn't get at least one chair turn. I guess he needed to do some screaming, because apparently that's what the judges are looking for, when they say "I was waiting for you take it somewhere." So even if it's doesn't fit the song, you're supposed to throw in some gratuitous and meaningless runs just to show off your voice. Also, hate to say this, but this season is dividing along racial lines. I believe all the black singers have gone with Jennifer, except the gospel singer who had to go with Kelly because Jennifer was blocked. I think that when you have judges who are so particularly identified with a particular genre of music it makes the show a lot less interesting, because you know who every contestant is going to pick. Blake and Kelly battle for the country singers (and man, there are ALOT of them), the soul and r&b singers go to Jennifer, and Adam picks up the occasional pop or rock singer. It's all so predictable. I thought Chevel's wobbly tune was painful to listen to. I think she got chair turns because they could tell she was really young and this show seems to have become all about the young female singers. Rachel was a little better, but I think the reason she got the immediate chair turns was because she was doing the kind of old school country and western tune you rarely hear now. (And while I'm generally a stickler for good grammar, I thought that when she talked about "the judges behind them chairs" it was adorable.) I agree with you about Sammy. Cheesy, but more fun to listen to than many of the others. The guy who is "America's number one livestreaming singer" was a total snooze. Makes you wonder about the standards for internet music. Well, I guess if someone has an actual musical career and is out there performing they wouldn't have all that time to sit in their house live streaming. Not to be a meanie, but I was glad he didn't get a chair turn. He seemed pretty full of himself.

Making fun of someone who is in a subordinate position and can't talk back for fear of losing their job (or getting booted off a TV show) is the very definition of bullying. I don't think GR would ever comment on a woman's appearance, because given today's PC culture and sensitivity, that would be a huge no-no and not a place even he would want to go. But another definition of bullying is that you pick on safe targets. That's what GR does, and it shows him to be a coward, as most bullies are.

Judging from this show, Chopped, and Top Chef, just about every young(ish) chef in America is tatted. But at least when they're in the kitchen you don't see them. I've had servers who are heavily tatted, and sometime it make them look unclean. Especially neck tats. (This past season of Master Chef, Aaron Sanchez's hand tats were creepy. Every time there was a close-up of him with food it made me think he needs to wash). Anything would be better than the recently ended Master Chef season. At least Hell's Kitchen doesn't take itself so seriously, unlike MC, the most important, prestigious, amazing cooking competition in the entire galaxy. I was totally thinking Vin Diesel as well. And he reminded me a bit of Vic Vegas, a former NFS contestant, who also got the Vin Diesel comparisons. Not seeing Brad Garrett at all. Unless Brad Garrett's fallen on some really hard times since the last time I saw him in something. Gordon's "stand up, oh you are standing up" joke aimed at the short chef from Boston was a cheap shot and not funny. It reminded me of him calling the MC contestant with the glasses "Clark Kent." Yelling at people about their performance in the kitchen is one thing. Making jokes about a person's appearance should be off limits.

That would be stupid, but par for the course on this show. The coming attractions narration referred to "handling another loss so soon," and then showed clips of Brett (who recently lost both his parents) freaking out. So the implication was that it was something personal to him. But likely that's a complete red herring and it has nothing to do with him. Again, typical HK misleading nonsense. The conflict between Brett and Jen is this year's manufactured drama. Even though I know it's manufactured, I do find Jen genuinely annoying. I didn't watch the season she was previously on, but apparently she was a real piece of work. So she claimed to have changed but the story line will be that she goes back to her old ways. So far, all the drama seems to be with the veterans, though I'm sure we'll have it on both teams. I know it's non-PC to comment on people's looks, but Roe and Heather side-by-side with their enormous tattooed arms was not fun to look at. (While I'm being superficial and non-PC, there are some attractive women on the newbie team. Not so much on the vet's side). Yes. I don't remember any past HK contestants having the impressive resumes of some of these people. They seem more like people you'd see on Chopped. I had to laugh about the HK veterans being in disguise, as if they were recognizable celebrities. Apparently Gordon loves the disguise thing, because he disguises himself at the beginning of every episode of his "To Hell and Back" show.

That's part of what I meant about not finding them interesting. I appreciate that the very young singers are in a tough spot, in terms of finding age appropriate material. They don't want to limit themselves to Disney songs or other songs that would highlight their age. But on the other hand, it's weird to hear a 15 year old singing "you make me feel like a natural woman," or any of the countless songs about lost love and heartache. Or what happened on AGT with 14 year old Courtney Hadwin singing, "I can give you good good loving but you gotta come home with me."

Hopefully The Voice employs someone who checks the facts. I agree that she seemed way older than 13.

Yeah, I was thinking while watching that although all the judges can be annoying (especially Jennifer Hudson, with her giant ego and "JHud Productions" crap) at least they are engaged and enthusiastic. The AGT judges barely seem to be paying attention half the time, and then just regurgitate the same mindless comments they've made a hundred times before. But for me this show has the same problem as AGT, namely the infatuation with very young contestants. The 15 year old who won last year was just not that good, if you judged her objectively as a singer instead of through the lens of "you're so amazing for a 15 year old." The very young contestants are all graded on a curve that makes it hard for an "older" contestant to compete. ("Older" can even mean someone in their early 20s) The original concept of The Voice was to provide a forum for experienced singers who had not yet broken through professionally. That was the territory they staked out in order to be different from American Idol. Over the years that difference has really gotten blurred. Since The Voice doesn't have an age maximum like Idol we get the occasional "older" performer, but so many finalists and winners have been teenagers. With very rare exceptions they are never as interesting to me as the older singers, because they haven't yet developed their own musical personality and are imitating current popular singers. It's like high level karaoke. I generally fast forward though a lot of the pre and post performance babble, so did not hear that Kennedy was only 13. So yes, she's obviously talented, but again we get the "you're so amazing for a 13 year old." Given what happened last year, she could indeed be very hard to beat. No matter how good an "adult" singer may be, they're not going to have the wow factor of a 13 or 14 year old. We hear it from the judges every time they ask a young singer their age. "OMG, you're only ____, you're incredible." You'll never hear that level of enthusiasm for a 30 year old.

I never liked Michael, but in this particular case I cut him some slack. I can't blame home for being confused because of the excitement with which Tyra shouted "Michael Ketererrrrr!!" For most of the season she's been announcing people who are moving on, not leaving the show, so maybe she got mixed up. Or maybe since she's announced him so many times as going though that when she saw his name she just automatically went into "super excited" mode. Whatever the reason, that was really bad announcing.

Are they really bringing back contestants from the season that JUST ENDED? What a truly terrible idea. As if we didn't get enough of Michael Ketterer and Courtney Hadwin being shoved down throats. Will Daniel Emmett get yet another "second chance?" Will we have to see Vicki Barbolak naked as she gets more and more desperate? Even if they use acts that were eliminated before the finals, it was a horrible season and there isn't anyone I feel a need to see again so soon. Or ever. Presenting acts from other Got Talent franchises is a much better idea. Hopefully they will not all be singers. Over the years, AGY has actually had a number of performers who have made the international Got Talent circuit, including Sacred Rhianna and the Philippine dance troupe from this season. The Professional Regurgitator is another one that comes to mind, as I remember reading that AGT was his fourth or fifth Got Talent show. So we might as well see them here first before they get to AGT.

I didn't make the original post, but I agreed, based on some vibe I was picking up, and the fact that in my experience people who seem too good to be true usually aren't. And his reaction to coming in fifth was pretty far saintly. But regarding this domestic abuse revelation, I do agree with that we shouldn't rush to judgement based on the bare bones of a story. I guess my dislike of Michael was to some extent a reaction to all the pimping, especially from Simon. I said a social media headline earlier today that Simon is publicly bitching about the results, because he was so invested in Michael winning. I think it's bad for the show when it becomes so obvious that the judges (especially Simon, who's also a producer) are so biased towards a particular contestant. "It's all up to you, America," is what we hear over and over from the judges. Except when America shows some independent thought, instead of allowing itself to be led around by the nose, the judges tell us how stupid we are. I think that Simon publicly mourning that Michael didn't win is disrespectful to the audience (which helps make him rich) and to Shin Lim, who won fair and square. If TPTB want to completely control the outcome than I guess they need to get rid of audience voting.

The KristStef Brothers, great hand balancing act that had humor and personality. Would love to see them back, but have little to zero hope. Despite the recent finals results, I still think they will load the line-up with singers. It's what Simon's comfortable with. Please Lord, no Vickie Barbolak. Way too soon to hear "Trailer Nasty" again. (Actually, never would be too soon). Never underestimate the bag of tricks available to record producers to cover up a singer's deficiencies, including electronic pitch adjustment and smothering them with back-up singers. It isn't like we haven't had huge recording starts with limited singing ability. If there's a profit to be made, someone will invest the time and money. But outside of a few hard core fans of her AGT performances (young girls?) I agree that I can't imagine she would be a concert draw. I only hope that she has not spawned an army of imitators, for the sake of parents everywhere who have to attend middle school talent contents.

But yet they still couldn't push him past fifth place. Shin winning rescued this dreadful season for me, but so did the two most pimped contestants coming in fifth and sixth. (Actually, I guess we don't really know where Courtney finished, do we? She could possibly have been even lower). Interesting choice by the producers to pair them together for the elimination to produce a big WTF? moment. Do we think the judges were truly shocked or did they have advance notice? I'm with you. I get that same feeling that Ketterer is not all he's cracked up to be. Maybe it's just because I'm old and cynical, but in my experience, when someone seems too good to be true it's because they really aren't. Although you're right. It was very kind of him to give Garth Brooks a much needed career boost.

Thanks for digging that up. He definitely gave the impression that it was his show. My exact thought. The announcement of the winner is the pay off for a very long season and it should be played for all it's worth. Instead, after two hours of filler, much of it cringeworthy (Mel B in a onesie reading jokes), we have to watch the reaction of the winner as the credits are rolling. No time for interviews or comments. Terrible planning and time management. All the results shows are boring, so thank goodness I tape them and can fast forward through to the elimination announcements. Considering that the final announcement show is two hours, they could've reserved at least five minutes to celebrate the winner.

Umm, she's pretty. That's it. Oh, and she brings international flavor to the judges' panel. Wait, none of the judges on "America's Got Talent" is American, so scratch that. When Heidi attempts to be funny it always ends up being embarrassing. I know that there are many women who are beautiful, smart, and funny. But Heidi is like the advertisement for, "just sit there and look pretty." She can single-handedly set the women's lib movement back thirty years. Come to think of it, Mel B. isn't any better. Do these two women being on the show mean that Simon and the other producers really hate women?

I guess he started believing all the hype, and expected to be handed the title, while bathed in white light and lifted heavenward by a team of angels. For a saint he looked pretty pissed. I also thought it was weird that on the finals show he was the only one who performed alone. Like no mere mortal was worthy of sharing the stage with him. They were pimping him right to the end. I didn't mind the golf cart crack, but otherwise I think you really nailed it about Vickie. That "am I right" shtick is something you expect from an amateur or young comic who lacks confidence. It's pretty lame coming from someone who's supposed to be a 20 year veteran stand-up. Along with the other things you mentioned (especially the bathing suit) it all reeked of desperation. And the "Trailer Nasty" bit didn't seem appropriate coming from a woman who burst into tears every time she got a compliment.

When the two comedians were paired, leaving Michael and Courtney, I had a thought that they might be pulling a fake out and saying neither comedian was going through. That would've been really cruel, but I just could not believe that one of the two Chosen Ones wasn't making the Top 5. Courtney Hadwin, coming soon to a Holiday Inn lounge in Scotland (or whatever their equivalent is.) Because I think not even making the Top Five puts the kibosh on whatever big career plans her handlers had. Hopefully now she can have a normal adolescence. She's still young, and maybe some day she will actually learn to sing instead of being exhibited as some kind of freak. (Sorry, it's an ugly word, but to me that's how she was marketed. It was never about her singing or dancing. It was about a shy 14 year old who goes crazy when the music starts). Michael Ketterer is not a good singer. Period. Hope he enjoys his appearance at Notre Dame. I mean his "sold out" appearance. (He sure sounded a little cocky for a saint). I never saw the charm or magic or awe-inspiring love for all humanity that Zucaroh is supposed to have. To me it was an average dance troupe with a lot of little girls getting thrown in the air. (Or maybe the same little girl getting thrown in the air a lot of times. I couldn't follow much of what was happening). Glad Brian King Joseph finished higher than the two unfunny comedians, but his music bored me. I felt like he played the same pseudo-Yanni number every week, overwhelmed with light effects and background music. I thought the trick Shin did tonight was one of his best, because it didn't rely on sleight-of-hand cards appearing and disappearing, which though amazing, was getting repetitive. I think he's up there with the three or four most deserving winners of this show ever. (And thankfully breaks the string of little girl winners, which in a way Zucaroh would not have). It's probably too much to hope for, but maybe the finals results will be a wake-up call to AGT to go back to being something like a real talent competition, and not a soap opera with endless producer manipulation around sob stories. (Often a complete invention, like Glennis being torn from her child). That would make this show watchable again. As would getting some new judges, because this group is so played out and going through the motions. Was Mel B. really unsure whether Daniel was singing in Spanish or Italian? Jeez. She had a really rough season.

He was also a better singer.

So Shin Lim starts his act by playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Even without magic he's more talented than Courtney. I'll say again what I say about Courtney every time. This is a joke, right? Does anyone remember John Belushi's impersonation of Joe Cocker on early SNL? Courtney's whole act feels like a comedy take-off on a bad rock singer, including the screaming, the s****** "dance" moves, and the pelvis thrusting electric guitarists. Tonight she desecrated Tina Turner's version of "River Deep, Mountain High," an all-time iconic performance. Do any of the judges know the original? Though I'm sure they would say it's unfair to compare a 14 year old to Tina Turner. But that's the point. As long as they allow kids on the show, they will never get judged fairly. They have an enormous advantage over adult performers, because whatever their shortcoming, it's judged as "wow, but for a ____ year old that's amazing." Vicki Barbolak brought this show down to an all-time low. A comedy routine about oral sex. Really? On a "family show." And thanks Heidi for bringing it down even further. Being a football fan, I looked up her father on Wikipedia. Turns out he died in 2006. So I guess she didn't take him to Hooters. Anything for a laugh, Like stripping down to a bathing suit. Why is that funny? Millions of women look like that. Are we supposed to laugh at all of them too? What a laugh fest you can have by going to the beach. I've never found Samuel Comroe to be funny, and his bravado about being the first comic to win AGT ("I think I gave myself a chance to win this") seemed really out of place, given his whole humble, nice guy persona. Duo Transcend was good as always, but they still haven't figured out how to shoot the act. I felt like the camera needed to be in tighter. They gave us occasional super close-ups, but for the most part it felt like we were watching from too far away to really appreciate what they were doing. Shin Lim absolutely deserves to win this show. It shouldn't even be close. But probably the best he can hope for is third place, behind Saint Michael and Courtney Has Been. (which she will be by the time she's about 16).