S20.E09: A Game Show From Hell

[jewel21]

One team struggles to work together on its dish; a special charity dinner service.

Airdate: 08/09/2021

[xcrayon2215x]

While I thought Josie should have gone, Victoria hadn't especially been the strongest so I can see it. Steve and Trenton are looking quite strong, Antonio was a lot stronger tonight. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

Sabrina the Teenage Witch next week :) 

[jewel21]

Josie is acting really smug for someone who isn't all that. I'm beyond ready for her to go home. 

[mertensia]

Brad Garrett really didn't seem to like being there. I'm sure he did this for the exposure. I'm also sure he won't do it again.

Won't miss Victoria.

[Chicago Redshirt]

A lot of this episode was pre-empted locally because of weather. What happened in the first half?

[AZChristian]

7 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

A lot of this episode was pre-empted locally because of weather. What happened in the first half?

Not sure.  I fast-forwarded through the "game show" portion to get to the actual cooking.

[preeya]

9 hours ago, jewel21 said:

Josie is acting really smug for someone who isn't all that. I'm beyond ready for her to go home. 

She's definitely not that good and has turned into a real bitch. She complains she's nominated for extinction, yet she always manages to screw something up. Raw fish is almost as bad as raw chicken. Bye, bye, Josie (hopefully next week).

What's up with churning butter by hand and all the innuendos that went along with it. Absolutely unnecessary.

[xcrayon2215x]

Antonio felt he was being funny most likely.

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

9 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

A lot of this episode was pre-empted locally because of weather. What happened in the first half?

They had a word scramble "Game Show" that let teams pick which ingredients they would cook with which proteins. Blue team won in a blowout, which meant Trenton had his first reward of the season.

 

1 hour ago, preeya said:

What's up with churning butter by hand and all the innuendos that went along with it. Absolutely unnecessary.

NOBODY in America except the Amish churns butter by hand. If you want to make your own butter, just dump the cream into a mixer and let er' rip. The punishments on this show are so stupid.

[hurrrz]

The punishments are stupid, but I think there's varying degrees of stupid. These "bake all the bread for all the restaurants, oh and make the most amazing artisan butter" type of punishments at least can be chalked up to some educational punishment. The chefs get to practice and learn new stuff. 

What I find really repulsing is the trash punishments and whatnot. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

43 minutes ago, hurrrz said:

The punishments are stupid, but I think there's varying degrees of stupid. These "bake all the bread for all the restaurants, oh and make the most amazing artisan butter" type of punishments at least can be chalked up to some educational punishment. The chefs get to practice and learn new stuff. 

What I find really repulsing is the trash punishments and whatnot. 

The worst punishments are the "eat/drink something that will make you vomit." At least one can pretend that "hey the trash needs to be taken out, might as well make the chefs do it." On top of how miserable it is to literally sicken someone, there is no need for it.

[Darian]

2 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

The worst punishments are the "eat/drink something that will make you vomit." At least one can pretend that "hey the trash needs to be taken out, might as well make the chefs do it." On top of how miserable it is to literally sicken someone, there is no need for it.

Thank you! I didn't mind the butter churning, because it's a skill and it results in something you can use, but making people eat disgusting stuff is wasteful and when they vomit, it's terrible, because they're suffering and it's gross to watch. I'm a childhood cancer survivor from the 70s, before they had effective anti-emetics, and it was just, "Here's your chemo, there are these pills you won't keep down so go home and puke for five days." It takes a lot to make me cry, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, the one thing that will still make me cry is vomiting. I get really angry over making someone do something that could potentially make them throw up, even if they don't have my kind of issue. Plus, it's preserved on video forever, which...nope. It's just cruel.    

[hurrrz]

Thanks for correcting me. I tend to block those punishments out. And I agree. There's no fun for the audience, and definitely no fun for the contestants. 

[bluepiano]

I thought that this Young Guns season would have lots of drama because of the youth of the chefs, but I think they're actually a more mature and down-to-earth group than in a lot of previous seasons. Looks like now the producers are trying to get some personality conflicts going for more drama.

Has anyone else noticed that during the elimination portion of the show, GR is always constantly looking at his watch, as if his valuable time is being wasted and he can't wait to get out of there? 

How many years has it been since a male chef won? At this point Steve and Trenton look like front runners and none of the women appear that strong. Brynn might be a good chef, but seems too full of herself to be a team player or leader. 

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by bluepiano

[Chicago Redshirt]

24 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

Has anyone else noticed that during the elimination portion of the show, GR is always constantly looking at his watch, as if his valuable time is being wasted and he can't wait to get out of there? 

How many years has it been since a male chef won? At this point Steve and Trenton look like front runners and none of the women appear that strong. Brynn might be a good chef, but seems too full of herself to be a team player or leader. 

 

Yeah, there might be a more innocuous explanation, like contestants have a limited time to defend themselves. But it does give a sense that he's bored and so should we be.

According to the Google, the last male chef to win was S12's Scott, so 6 seasons ago.

I think Brynn has a shot at winning. It seemed like this episode she got a glowup. Maybe her w/o glasses looks nice for her. 

[preeya]

41 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

Brynn might be a good chef, but seems too full of herself to be a team player or leader. 

I had this same thought about Vegan Josie, who is getting on my nerves, big time.

[bluepiano]

1 hour ago, preeya said:

I had this same thought about Vegan Josie, who is getting on my nerves, big time.

Agreed. Though I'm having trouble keeping track of who is vegan or vegetarian. Aren't there a few? Hasn't seemed to come up in recent episodes.

Emily could be a sleeper, though I still think we're going to break the streak and get a male winner. (Though I have noticed Brynn not winning her glasses now).

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Yeah, there might be a more innocuous explanation, like contestants have a limited time to defend themselves. But it does give a sense that he's bored and so should we be. 

That's possible, though I've never heard of any time limit for contestant to defend themselves. Not my favorite part of the show, as they all say the same thing. (I'm a leader, I'm a fighter, I'm not finished yadda yadda). 

 

[AZChristian]

I suspect he either looks at his watch as a habit, or as a reminder to the contestants, "When I ask you a question, keep the answer short."

[EllaWycliffe]

10 hours ago, hurrrz said:

What I find really repulsing is the trash punishments and whatnot. 

I hate the trash punishments because when I worked in the restaurant industry, thankfully briefly, the cooks/chefs NEVER dealt with trash or real clean up or anything other than making food, to the point where it wasn't unusual for someone on the chef line to pointedly say 'get one of the servers/bussers because thats not my job'.

9 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

The worst punishments are the "eat/drink something that will make you vomit." At least one can pretend that "hey the trash needs to be taken out, might as well make the chefs do it." On top of how miserable it is to literally sicken someone, there is no need for it.

It's just disgusting yes. 

Worse, and this is me being a petty bitch about it but there's NEVER any backlash from Gordan over contestants who refuse to drink the gross milk shake du jour and I really hate that. Don't assign a petty bitch punishment if Douchebag X can just fucking fake drink or walk away AND THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO CONSEQUENCES. 

[Yeah No]

When he sent Victoria home I was like "Victoria who?".

Legitimate question:  I have been seeing Gordon's name spelled "Gordan" by others in various places - why?  It's Gordon.

[Chicago Redshirt]

So I did go back and watch the first half on demand. Yes, I need to get a life.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that this was a rare lopsided challenge. Usually, they try to have it that the two teams are basically tied and it comes down to the last person. But this was a blowout. 

I kind of liked the stupid Spells Kitchen thing too. 

There should be reward equalization along with punishment equalization. I don't think getting drunk in a hot tub with appetizers  ranks all that high in terms of cool/fun things to do. 

[LoreliLee]

This is the first show in a long time that I really enjoyed. All challenges were food/cooking centric. Each chef had their time to shine  No rummaging through trash, chasing pigs around, or other non-cooking related physical challenges. Looks like next week though, unfortunately, they are reverting back to form. 

[fishcakes]

It's hilarious to me that Antonio regularly does The Jumble and is apparently really good at it. Now I won't be able to look at him without thinking of the car service driver from Seinfeld: "God forbid you could discuss The Jumble with me!"

What was it Josie said? That she was waiting for her chance to show how "very superior" she is? Ha ha. Good luck with that.

Edited August 12, 2021 by fishcakes

[hacman00]

Brynne and Steve in the finale.  Steve takes it in pretty much a landslide.  Brynne will be stuck with the vegans and Antonio.

[jabRI]

I honestly don't know how people think they can come on this show and compete, without tasting the food you are cooking.  Unless it's something like a seafood/nut allergy.  If you want to be a vegan chef that's fine but after 20 seasons you should realize it's not going to fly on this show.  Just my opinion.

[preeya]

1 hour ago, jabRI said:

I honestly don't know how people think they can come on this show and compete, without tasting the food you are cooking.  Unless it's something like a seafood/nut allergy.  If you want to be a vegan chef that's fine but after 20 seasons you should realize it's not going to fly on this show.  Just my opinion.

In addition to the fact that it results in negative impact on your team. 

[bluepiano]

On 8/10/2021 at 9:43 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that this was a rare lopsided challenge. Usually, they try to have it that the two teams are basically tied and it comes down to the last person. But this was a blowout. 

Interesting point. I actually can't ever remember a team challenge where it wasn't tied or within one point with one dish left to go. Which has always seemed to fake and scripted.

I know this kind of thing is old news, but Gordon throwing a plate of rib eye steak in the garbage can because of how it wasn't sliced correctly rubbed me totally the wrong way. 

[preeya]

1 hour ago, bluepiano said:

I know this kind of thing is old news, but Gordon throwing a plate of rib eye steak in the garbage can because of how it wasn't sliced correctly rubbed me totally the wrong way. 

Totally uncalled for, besides making him look like an asshat.

[DoctorK]

1 hour ago, bluepiano said:

but Gordon throwing a plate of rib eye steak in the garbage can because of how it wasn't sliced correctly rubbed me totally the wrong way

I agree, but I also wonder how much fancy prepared food gets dumped? I wouldn't eat something that was half eaten, but if it has only been tasted once by someone who used clean utensils, to me that is good "doggie bag" leftovers. It may be unrealistic to ding these shows but there is s lot of usable wasted food. There is something like "ugly fruit and veggies" who distribute stuff that is perfectly good but does not look pretty and usually get dumped; wish they were in my area. I grow vegetables occasionally and even the ugly ones were better than most grocery store stuff.

[hookedontv]

It's a bad sign that I've been watching this from the beginning and still don't know anyone's name. 

[Eolivet]

Bye, Purple Victoria! See (or hear from) you never.

I still think Trenton is too immature. Steve and Sam seem like the main male contenders at this point.

Josie and Emily seem like they're on borrowed time. Antonio will likely be the first black jacket casualty (just speculation). But overall, I like the group they've ended up with. They all seem like they're somewhat skilled at various things.

[Such A Flirt]

Victoria was just sorta... there. I never got the feeling that she cared that much one way or another.

[Yeah No]

On 8/12/2021 at 1:58 PM, jabRI said:

I honestly don't know how people think they can come on this show and compete, without tasting the food you are cooking.  Unless it's something like a seafood/nut allergy.  If you want to be a vegan chef that's fine but after 20 seasons you should realize it's not going to fly on this show.  Just my opinion.

I have no problem with someone being a vegan, but if you're going to cook for other people you really need to at least taste the food before serving it.  Otherwise you have no business cooking for other people much less being in a cooking competition that requires you to cook and serve dairy and meat.  Just my opinion!