MagneticMediaFed

I’m trying to adjust to a new work schedule and so my daily television regiment has been thrown for a loop. (Eight to five? Have to wear a tie? What kind of madness is this?) And since I currently don’t own an actual set and have to wait for content to be loaded online I’ve been at least a day behind on everything. That being said, I wanted to make sure I hit a few points before the weekend:

• Gossip Girl — OMFG. There are cliffhangers, and then there are CLIFFHANGERS. In a way I’m surprised this wasn’t the season finale, but I’m also completely relieved. Since the strike-break, this show has gone from being more or less awesome to unquestionably fantastic.
• Reaper — Speaking of a post-strike resurgence, this show has completely solved its problem with being wildly inconsistent (and sadly predictable) in terms of storytelling and it doesn’t hurt that its also funnier than its ever been.
• Top Chef — Love Stephaine. Love Richard (which is odd since I used to hate Richard… though I still find his hair objectionable on every level. Love Andrew. Like Spike. Like Antonia. Dale? Well Dale is in a gotsa-go situation. I mean Jesus Christ man, RELAX!
• 30 Rock — The Jack in Washington plot line was perhaps the funniest thing that show has ever done. (The rest of the episode wasn’t so bad either.) “It’s not a leak, you can see the report.”

Last week I said that Stephanie was pick to win this season’s Top Chef, a decision that I’m OK with even though I now realize it should probably be Spike, and not because he seems to have the best assortment of hats. Plus, when you see your pick sitting there on the chopping block you can’t help but feel a little squeamish.

But that is not what I wanted to say this week. No, I wanted to take this particular post to say — for the record — that I HATE Lisa. I hate her stupid eyebrow ring. I hate her Complainy McComplainerson disposition. I hate how dismissive she was of Polish Sausage. I’m sorry, but this is the way I feel.

It should also be noted that I no longer hate Richard because despite his obvious superiority to everyone else in the competition and his desire to often remind us of all of this you have to kind of like a guy who is willing to do a bad Seinfeld impression. Right? Well, maybe. Still, he isn’t as bad as Lisa. She has GOT to go.

Last, I want to let it be known that this week’s episode might be in my top five. It seemed to have everything: twists, turns, deadpan line readings by the Kiwi, more than one team that excelled and teams on the bottom that were equally at fault but for completely different reasons. All that was missing was a Tony Bourdain guest-spot and some general inter-group screaming.

Alright, enough with the dancing about. Let’s draw some lines in the sand. But before we do that an quick observation: Ryan is one cheesy mother-scratcher, and I’m thrilled (though shocked) that he got the boot this week (especially given the massive fumbles by both our Hobbit-looking Australian friend and Nikki. Luckily, none of those three are my dog, to borrow a phrase from the once rotund Randy Jackson.

The way I see it, the best chefs are Spike, Richard, Andrew, Stephanie and Dale, with Andrew being far and away the most fun to watch on screen because you always get the feeling he’s one forgotten Ritalin away from the nut house (or at the very least detention somewhere). My favorite Andrewism is when one of the judges criticizes his food and he immediately gets this look of complete puzzlement and then cocks his head slightly to the right while tapping his lips with his index finger as if to say, “Ah, what you are proposing I was not aware of, though I could see how something like that could certainly be the case.” I love it. That being said, Andrew is not getting the full-fledged MMF-endorsement. No, that distinction goes to another. Find out who after the break…

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BLEEP

As you may or may not know, I love Top Chef. This is of little surprise. Somewhat ironically, Top Chef itself has become a show of little surprise. Like all reality fare, you can set your watch to Top Chef. Milling about. Guest judge. Quickfire. Elimination. Faux-drama. Serving. Actual drama. Judges table. Winners. Losers. That’s the show every week and I love it.

This week something different happened, and I’m curious if anyone else thought it was odd. In every season there is that point where the contestants start getting familiar with one another then start screaming at one another. Usually this happens during the meat of the episode — maybe while buying supplies at the grocer or something. This week the episode was ostensibly over. The winner was announced and the loser was told by the Preposterously Hot™ Padma Lakshmi to pack their knives and go. Credits should have rolled, but they didn’t and there was still two minutes left in the broadcast.

Cue: screaming. Spike yells at Antonia. Dale yells at Lisa. Jennifer yells at someone (honestly the whole thing was cut together so haphazard it was hard to tell where the bleeping was supposed to be directed). There was no music and it wasn’t part of the “coming up” — don’t get me wrong, I loved it. It was just oddly placed.

I don’t have a lot to say about the current season of Top Chef as we’re still in that awkward stage when there are far too many contestants to get attached to any one in particular (unless we’re talking about Andrew, who I see as a *slightly* more profane version of myself, except that he can apparently, y’know, cook), but I absolutely had to use this screen-grab of the preposterously hot Padma Lakshmi.

As for the show itself I do feel like we’re in for a potentially great season as the cast has a hellova lot going for it (and Chicago just strikes me as a better food city than Miami). For starters the producers seem to have cast not just one token asshole, but several. I guess I shouldn’t say “asshole” but instead “super-competitive.” My favorite characters to root against are the ones who get overly into the whole “I’m better than you so get the frak out of my way” game show mentality. Let’s think about this. If the show is essentially a series about picking the head of a new restaurant its really much more about finding someone who you’d actually want to work for than just whoever can cook the best tartare. So yeah, there are a lot of them. As we start burning through contestants I suspect that things will really amp up in the drama department (which I felt was missing from much of last season).

And of course there’s Padma, and the increasingly likelihood of Chef Tom wearing a beret.

I don’t understand those people who can watch whole sporting events on ESPN Classic from years ago, knowing full-well what the outcome of said event is going to be. I guess for die-hard fans it’s all about the journey, not the outcome, but one has to appreciate a certain level of the unknown in competition. Last night by the time I got around to watching Top Chef it was 4:30 in the morning and I could barley keep my eyes open. I opted to go to sleep and watch it in the morning. Once I got up I started downloading the episode so I wouldn’t have to watch it on television and run into the problem I had last week where since I was recording a later showing the DVR would catch the end of the original broadcast right off the top and thus spoil the outcome. That being said, I couldn’t really do anything on my computer for fear of accidentally finding a spoiler-filled news headline on my homepage. Growing impatient with the download, I opted to just watch it on TV but to be ultra careful. More after the jump…

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A very reliable source e-mailed me this morning with truly awesome news: HBO has posted the first six episodes The Wire on HBO On-Demand. You hear that kids? No more excuses, the episodes are right there in easily digestable chunks. These first six are going to be up until the end of the month and we should probably expect the rest to follow every couple weeks leading to the new season’s premiere in January.

Here’s how it all began.

Enough of this malarkey!

Last night I was already recording two shows at 10:00pm and thus had to catch a later airing of Top Chef. To my great dismay, when I pressed play this morning the first thing I saw was one of the final four packing their knives and leaving. In short, I knew who was getting kicked off. Luckily, it wasn’t much of a surprise. More after the jump…

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My dear, you look absolutely perplexed.

It just doesn’t seem to end, does it? Tonight three new shows are premiering, along with new episodes from a couple gems from last week… and Top Chef. It’s OK. Sleep is overrated.

Bionic Woman — NBC 9:00pm
A so-so remake of a cheesy show about a robot-woman not called Small Wonder, though I haven’t seen the reworked pilot. I can guarantee lots of robot-woman fighting, if that’s your thing.

Life — NBC 10:00pm
Honestly, I know very little of this show. I know it’s about a guy who was wrongly imprisoned and then joins the police force. I’ve also heard the pilot is quite good.

Private Practice — ABC 9:00pm
It’s the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff. I won’t be watching (thank god!), though I assume many will. Let me know how it is.

Dirty Sexy Money — ABC 10:00pm
I really liked this show. It’s funny, has the always awesome Peter Krause, is briskly paced and kind of reminds me of a dramatic version of Arrested Development. That being said most the hour is dedicated to exposition, so who knows where it goes. Still, it’s the most interesting hour of the night.

Let’s also not forget we have new episodes of the awesome Kid Nation (8:00pm CBS) and Gossip Girl (9:00pm CW) as well as the (pen?)ultimate Top Chef.

Good luck!

Early in this week’s episode Dale said that he thought Casey was the person to beat adding, “Hung’s the best technical cook. But in my world food has heart and when you don’t have one it doesn’t taste as good” which I figured was certainly the kiss of death. The Top Chef editors like to award plenty of clues as to who will be eliminated. I was pleased that this wasn’t the case. In fact, it appears that he’s correct. Sure, Dale and Brian are still in the game, but this is a battle between Casey and Hung, which in a way is really a battle between skill and heart or the empire and the jedi or whatever other comparison you’d like to make

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“Your eggs in a hole were heavenly.”

Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to be awaken at 6:00am than by a perky (and preposterously attractive) Padma Lakshmi, even if it meant I was going to have to prepare her breakfast while running around in a robe — hell, especially if I was going to have to prepare her breakfast while running around in a robe. More after the jump…

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It seems like the last time we had a new episode of Top Chef Planters Cheese Balls were still in production. Needless to say it’s been a long time. Too long. You hear me, Bravo? I’m displeased with your scheduling techniques!

A quick refresher: Tre said he could make a bread pudding in his sleep, then, it turns out, revealed that he had never made bread pudding before and thus was kicked out. There is no excuse for a lousy bread pudding. NONE. It also hurt matters that he took on a ton of responsibility and couldn’t quite live up to the challenge. The full (very full) breakdown after the jump…

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You know you’re going to be in for a hell of an episode when you start with CJ saying to the camera, “I only have one testicle, but I have more balls than those other guys have combined.” Way to spell it out, CJ. You’re a champion in my book. Immediately after the teams find two letters that had been slipped under the door of the loft (a reality show staple as time tested as “tonight, we’re eliminated TWO people”). The letters were the full critiques written by that blogger from the restaurant previews the previous night. Ooooooh, the blogger! Everybody run! Actually, we’d later learn that her criticisms would play a key role in both restaurants’ futures: The Garage took the advice and made the appropriate changes. Restaurant April figured since they had already succeeded that would be enough to get them through the next night’s service. (Spoiler: it didn’t). More after the break…

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Whenever the contestants gather at the beginning of the episode for the Quickfire Challenge there’s always the same reaction to the presence of the guest judge: unrivaled awe. While there is no doubt that the presence of these titans of the kitchen should elicit such thunderous praise, I sometimes question whether everyone immediately recognizes the chef, or if they need to be told who it is by producers. The thing is a chef, even a great one, is not a movie star. They are an invisible force behind the metal doors preparing your meal. Sure, if they have a food network show or an endless line of cookbooks the face suddenly becomes recognizable (it also marks the point at which the chef becomes a brand). Then again, maybe it’s because I don’t hang with a lot of top-tier kitchen talent. Still, if I walked into a room and P.T. Anderson were there, I wonder if I’d immediately know it was him.

Whatever. Let’s get to the goods.

Right off the bat, the preposterously attractive Padma Lakshmi tells our fine cast that the winner of the Quickfire will no longer be given immunity. Cue: lightening, thunder and organ music. More after the jump…

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It’s always fun to see how long it takes in a given episode of Top Chef for the very first product to be placed. This week we started out with some quick reflections of the departure of Joey before — COLD STONE CREAMERY!

The Quickfire seemed almost a little too simple: create something to mix into the Cold Stone ice cream. Obviously those that tried something a little off the wall (Hung with his chocolate cauliflower foam, and Casey with her sriracha sauce) would be expected to have an edge, though as the judge was going from table to table he seemed most inclined to react positively to those flavors that — get this– tasted good. Howie and Dale scored big for doing things simply. Good and simple seems to really deliver this season, which is why I’m putting early money on Howie, despite the fact that he is the most uneven of all the chefs. If Howie were an era of Woody Allen films he’d be “Hannah and Her Sisters” through “Alice.” More thoughts after the jump…

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