lavenderblue

Going in I was sort of rooting for Joel, but Manny did such lovely work in both rounds that I was pulling for him to get the win and happy he did. His cake was so elegant in contrast to....a lot of the other things we've seen this season (and this episode). I don't think Hollie or the producers quite got the memo on the werewolf theme. First, I think the idea of the werewolf in history as a pop culture concept is more popularly associated with the early modern period, so while this is not the sort of show that's going to use terminology like that, you could still ask for "17th century werewolf" or "European village werewolf" or something. But that nitpick aside, Hollie also realllllllly missed the brief on making something that resembled an ancient village...

To be fair, she did have that with Jason Mraz last season and I still think they should've won. But I probably would have paired her with Stephen this season. He'd be more of a challenge than Jason was, but the height difference would be favorable and with her experience, she'd probably have a better idea of how to balance his athletic ability and willingness to learn with his actual current capabilities week by week as a dancer. He and Rylee are very cute on a personality level, but some of the issues the judges have noted don't seem to be improving.

Oh Gleb, I really appreciated that comic relief after the tears from Derek and Hayley's story and dance. Thanks!

If people are looking for this show, it's on Netflix in the US now; I just watched it there. It wasn't the greatest thing ever but I have no familiarity with the books, so found it an entertaining enough diversion for a few weeks. I like Matthew Goode and have a soft spot for Teresa Palmer because of Warm Bodies so decided to give it a go though I don't tend to watch much in the vampire/witch media realm. I liked the twists on some of the genre tropes (grounding creatures' existence in genetics, vampires being Catholic, etc.) and the supporting cast was pretty solid. Also the scenery was lovely and I enjoyed Diana's 1590s wardrobe. That said, I so hoped someone here would say that the books went into great detail on what daemons are and I am very disappointed to learn that the ball was dropped on that everywhere! It did sort of work as a meta-commentary on their perceived insignificance next to vampires and witches, but it's kind of a terrible choice narratively since the daemon characters, while nice, were never presented as having any unique skills or abilities (aside from Sophie's visions, would could also relate to her being the descendant of witches, and TJ Watson's musical skill and eccentricities, I....guess).

Yeah, who is the audience for this?? I hated the Rylee/Harry business last year,* but you kind of understand that it's a trope that a segment of viewers, and Rylee and Harry's own fans outside the show, ate up (sweet girl tames bad boy blah blah blah). This is just "dance pro notorious for sleazy choreo and an allegedly checkered romantic history" + "Sports Illustrated model who might be dating Tom Brady." Who among the DWTS demographic has asked for this? Who has wanted this? *Which, on that note, I'm glad she's getting a more normal experience this season, with a nice, enthusiastic, and capable guy (who's firmly unavailable) and to whom she can actually give challenging material. I think that was actually a minor issue in the paso last night -- there was a lot in there, and it may have distracted from focusing more on just nailing the finesse. Stephen should have plenty of time to develop over the season, though.

I saw some chatter indicating that they did want Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, and only didn't cast her because she's pregnant. Which wouldn't even surprise me.

I didn't initially recognize the chefs in the Alex vs. Fruit episode until Eric said that Kyle won $25,000 on Cutthroat Kitchen -- and then I knew him! As a consequence of my years-long respect for his truly epic victory there, I was rooting for him here. Would've been nice if he'd pulled off the win, but Alex had good gamesmanship going with a tomato-based soup.

I don't doubt that some of the material we've seen has been staged/reenacted -- there have been some very clunky "wow, did you see THAT?" "Golly, I sure did!" type exchanges. But no one else this season, after the first couple of episodes, has given the show as much consistently unflattering material as Empanadas which, at a certain point, probably tells you something...

Wasn't it Wally's Waffles with the storebought chocolate? Bao Bei didn't make any dessert items this episode. Anyway, my bigger issue with Wally's in that challenge was that I thought they used storebought cones, which.....defeats the purpose of being a waffle truck. Filling cones with topping and whipped cream is, like Tyler said, something his kids could do. Bao Bei absolutely deserved that win. Which brought me around to the boostering Bao Bei has received in challenges this season. I don't think they've deserved all of them -- for example, the one with the kids made zero sense to me because making kid-friendly food should have been a factor in the reward. But in this episode, I got it. Wally's waffles are probably good, because waffles, but they seem to get mixed responses; I don't get the sense they're as good as Waffle Love's or require the same technique. And Empanadas, well, we know their reliance on packaged ingredients. If Tyler wanted a truck with some degree of unique technical cred to make it to the final, this was his last shot to do so via Bao Bei. Also, Empanadas whinging about how mean and personal it was to be shut down for an hour despite being the most obvious truck strategically to close. 🙄

I thought it was a little rich for Tyler to criticize Fishnet for calling out Empanadas' processed ingredients considering that I don't think he bothered to intervene any time Khana got nastier about rival trucks last season (or any of the other many, many times trucks have called out another while promoting their own business). File it alongside his sudden and temporary concern for price gouging! Is the show pretty blatantly bolstering Bao Bei? Seems that way. Do I still prefer them to Empanadas? Yes, very much so. And sorry to see Fishnet go; they did actually seem concerned about putting out a decent product, although risotto was a terrible choice of a challenge dish.

Yeah.....if Alex had nailed her cone, I would accept her win. But Adelberto seemed to nail every aspect of the challenge, aside from not mixing his flavors sufficiently or something, and "cone" was one of the core components of the challenge. I'm a longtime _____ Baking Championship viewer so I did also have a soft spot for those contestants and hoped to see one of them beat her, as well.

I thought both spouses(?) on the empanada truck were horrible. The wife was immature but in her defense, I wouldn't generally react well to the language he was hurling at her, either. Naturally they won. I didn't get Fishnet's strategy to skip the first challenge. If any truck might've been justified in that call it would've been Wally's, but if they could make it work on a mostly sweet-oriented menu, Fishnet certainly could have spared a few minutes to whip up a sauce and add it some variation of one of their existing concepts.

Weird conflicts between different parties each episode. I guess this is how they've decided to avoid a repeat of last year's season-long Khana fiasco while still incorporating ~~~~~~drama~~~~~. You know what's really compelling, producers? Shopping. I was so optimistic for like three seconds when Wally's left to restock, then they were back to the truck before my thought even had a chance to complete itself. I don't think this season is as bad as last, but it's also not something I look forward to watching much at this point.

So I do feel like this is more promising than the last couple of seasons have been. I like that they're finally traveling again, both because that's more fun to watch and because it presents a challenge for the teams, versus one truck being allowed to park at the same location every episode and establish a customer base. Also, no one seems loathsome yet, which is also a huge step up from last season! I kind of wanted Bao Bei to stay simply because I want to know if they're actually going to manage to make bao at some point. If they didn't have time to make the buns properly on this first stop, well.....the schedule's not getting easier, guys.... I kept thinking they should've called themselves The Night Market or something instead. I did like them overall, though. The part where the K-pop fan girls discovered them was amusing.

I don't know who else here watches Ciao House, but the prickly pear twist provided some absolutely hilarious Food Network synergy.