Author: Mike Farley (Page 68 of 117)

Hell’s Kitchen: It’s getting catty in here

Last night on “Hell’s Kitchen,” the red team began bickering more than ever, with Andrea and Carol really going at it. This usually leads to a lack of teamwork, which is exactly what happened. Anyway, the show began with the teams learning that they would face off for a Bar Mitzvah dinner service. Ben kept going off about how he was Jewish and he would help his team win and that these were “his people.” Ugh…easy, dude. Anyway, the kid, Max, was there with his mom and grandma, and the teams had to make fine dining versions of Max’s favorite foods–hamburger, chicken soup and brisket.

The blue team won the soup challenge, thanks to Giovanni; the red team won the brisket challenge thanks to L.A.; and the blue team won the burger part, with Robert using a simple Kobe beef burger over Carol’s blue-cheese infested foo-foo burger. Come on Carol, it’s a 12 year old kid! So the blue team won a day of pampering at a spa, and we saw way too much skin, including the many folds of Lacey and part of Robert’s butt crack…..really now, was that necessary? Meanwhile, the red team had to set the dining room up for the Bar Mitzvah celebration later that day. Also, the party planner, Francisco, showed up and annoyed Jean Phillippe, and the two of them engaged in some incredibly fake reality show acting.

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American Idol: Judges can’t save these two

Last night’s “American Idol” results show began with another new twist of rules announcement. I was afraid of the judges throwing themselves more into the mix, but what they announced was something pretty cool. They flashed on a big screen folks like Tamyra Grey, Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson, and Ryan Seacrest asked what they all had in common. That would be that they finished third or fourth in the voting in past seasons, and subsquently went on to have huge careers. The judges will have the option this season to “save” one eliminated contestant and give them another chance, to make up for a bad week, or because they feel so strongly about the contestant. Keep in mind they can only do this once in the next 10 or 11 weeks.

They then showed the finalists in their new digs at the American Idol mansion…are you kidding me? And then they showed the new Ford video, where the group covered Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” And then there was another awful group performance of The Jackson Five’s’ “I Want You Back.” Blech.

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The Biggest Loser: Black team drinks, smokes, dominates

So last week “The Biggest Loser” left us all hanging with Mikey about to get on the scale. If he lost 10 pounds or more, everyone would be staying another week. Well, did you think they were going to start a show with someone being eliminated? Nope, Mikey lost 11. But then Alison Sweeney had them all go outside where there would be a pop challenge in which everyone had to lean against a wall with a medicine ball in his/her lap and stay there. Also, this week, the blue and black teams would be facing off individually, with the winner of this challenge setting the matchups. Of course, Tara won. I mean, she wins all these things unless Laura brings her down. So since the black team has an extra contestant, Tara had to sit out one person from her team at the weigh in, and she chose herself since she had been losing double-digits every single week so far. I thought it was a smart move. The matchups were Mike/Cathy, Sione/Mandi, Filipe/Kristin, Helen/Ron and Aubrey/Laura.

Then came the challenge, a relay race in which the teams had to drag medicine balls through water, up stairs and onto a basketball court while doing squats. My legs hurt just thinking about it all. The winner would have 24 hours of luxury at a spa resort. Of course, the black team has Tara so they won, but barely. And the entire team started getting into trouble at dinner, eating badly, drinking tequila shots and even smoking (I’m not sure if anyone but Helen was smoking, but still…). Anyway, the black team knew they shouldn’t have done this, as they consumed like 15,000 calories as a team and the blue team only consumed 1600 calories at their meal. The black team was also incredibly cocky. But when they returned to the ranch and Jillian gave them an earful, Filipe flipped out and he and Sione went running back to Bob, or as Jillian said, “running back to Daddy.” Pretty funny, but sad and weird. Those guys need to loosen up and get over it. Maybe Jillian is harsh, but she wants to win too.

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American Idol: baker’s dozen perform

Last night began the finals of “American Idol” and Fox beefed things up by having the judges and host Ryan Seacrest come out onto the stage in grand fashion. It was really self-indulgent and hideous, to use a couple of Simon Cowell terms. I mean, was that really necessary? Then the judges wielded their mighty power a bit with some of the contestants, and they said there will be a rules change they will announce tonight as well that will also involve the judges. That scares me, because they already have too much influence on the outcome and are already anointing winners. Anyway, here were the good, bad and in-between from last night, with the theme being songs of Michael Jackson, and keep in mind that these are my opinions and not that of the judges:

THE GOOD

Lil Rounds kicked things off last night, and that’s always a tough position to be in. But Lil sang “The Way You Make Me Feel” and while it wasn’t her best performance, it was good enough to be better than most of the other finalists. Randy said it was a great way to kick things off, Kara said Lil scared everyone with that performance, Paula said Lil looked great and is a force, and Siomon said he did not like her outfit and that he was a bit disappointed with the performance but that it was still very good.

Danny Gokey sang “PYT (Pretty Young Thing” and dude just showed why he is in the finals yet again. This guy can sing anything, and despite some awkward dance moves that he admitted to just being natural, Danny’s voice will carry him far. Paula said Danny has a gift and is on his way to the “finals”…um, isn’t he there already?…..Simon said Danny has brilliant vocals but that the dancing was hideous, Randy said “you got IT” and that he’s passionate, and Kara said Danny has such joy when he’s on stage.

Kris Allen sang “Remember the Time” with his guitar in hand, and not only was it a super cool version, but Kris just knocked it out of the park, in my humble opinion. They showed a clip of his wife before he started and Simon didn’t think this was a good idea, because it might take away from the female voters. Kara said girls are going to love Kris, Paula said he was engaging, adorable and sexy, Simon said the vocals were just okay but that Kris is likeable, and Randy said it was “kinda cool.” I don’t think they gave the kid enough credit, I really don’t.

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The Chopping Block debuts Wednesday on NBC

It seems like cooking/restaurant reality based shows are popping up on every network. You’ve got Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox, and Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Then, of course, there are The Food Network’s “Chopped” and “Ultimate Recipe Showdown,” among others. Now NBC is getting into the action, with their new show, “The Chopping Block,” set to debut this Wednesday at 8pm/7pm central. The premise is that renowned British chef Marco Pierre White will direct two teams of four couples each in taking a restaurant from the ground up, with one couple being eliminated per week and the grand prize winner taking home $250,000.

We must now be so enamored with crass British reality TV talent judges that we now have to build shows around them. Along with Ramsay, “American Idol’s” Simon Cowell also comes immediately to mind. But while White seems to have Ramsay’s values, he has Cowell’s soft-spoken delivery and looks more like Howard Stern. Regardless, we caught a screener of the first two episodes and the show, which takes place in the restaurant hotbed of New York City, is definitely entertaining. The restaurant business is pressure-packed enough, but add TV cameras and celebrity food critics as well as some volatile contestants, and you’ve got some great natural drama. If you like any of the shows mentioned, you’re going to love this one too, provided you have time in your busy reality TV-watching schedule.

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