Tag: Ben (Page 2 of 3)

Hell’s Kitchen: making short work of Season 7

June 30, 2010 /

The producers and suits at Fox are annoying me. I am and have been a fan of “Hell’s Kitchen” for several years now, but I don’t need to see 2 hours of it every Tuesday night. It just seems like they are trying to get the season over with. I mean, we started on June 1 and now there are just 8 contestants left, meaning this season will wrap up way before the fall TV slate is close to beginning. I’m not sure what they’re thinking, but they probably have their reasons. Anyway, I’m committed to this blog, so here we go….

EPISODE 1

This episode began with Chef Ramsay introducing a couple that was about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, Sal and Marcy. Hell’s Kitchen would be catering the party, and the chefs would have to update the menu that Sal and Marcy had for their wedding reception–chicken Kiev, steak Diane, and trout almondine. So far, Ben, new to the red team, was getting along with his teammates. So far.

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External TV, Hell's Kitchen, Reality TV, TV

Hell’s Kitchen: two much again

June 23, 2010 /

I’m not sure if the people who run Fox are just running out of shows, or if they are trying to speed up the season of “Hell’s Kitchen” so that its finale airs before the fall shows begin. But two hours of this show on a Tuesday night is just too much, or, should we say, two much. Still, I have committed to covering the show, so here is how it went down last night….

EPISODE 1

Last week ended with Scott and Autumn switching teams. Scott then declared that he would no longer try to “help” his teammates, but focus more on the actual “team” concept. Yeah, right. Scott looks to me like a duck that quacks like a duck.

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External TV, Hell's Kitchen, Reality TV, TV

Hell’s Kitchen: weeding out the riff raff

June 9, 2010 /

In the early part of the season on reality shows such as “Hell’s Kitchen,” there are usually a few fringe contestants who really don’t belong there in the first place. And these are usually the first ones to go home. Last night two went home, one by choice and one by Gordon Ramsay. Here is how it all went down….

They began with a 5am wake up call, as chefs Scott and Andrea attached an amplifying device to a standard alarm clock. Yikes. Ramsay met them in the kitchen where he asked them to cook eggs for him four ways–soft boiled, poached, scrambled and sunny side up. They would work in groups of two except for Siobhan, who for some reason was singled out to work alone.

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External TV, Hell's Kitchen, Reality TV, TV

“Ben” — a Michael Jackson movie moment

July 7, 2009 /

There’s no point in ignoring the posthumous Michael Jackson mania sweeping Movietown today. So, here’s a  creepily sentimental movie moment with a lot of poignant subtext which also happens to feature the late singer’s first solo hit. “Ben” was a sequel to the earlier “Willard” which was remade in 2003. I’ve seen neither film, but they were horror flicks featuring nasty but (I guess) lovable killer rats. It looks like the first film tried to combine “Psycho” and “The Birds,” but “Ben” appears to be going for something more like “Rattie Come Home.”

The song, by Walter Scharf and Don Black, was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe, and there’s no denying the awe-inspiring vocal abilities of the eleven or twelve-year old Jackson. He sells the song with delicacy and emotion, and it saves the final scene below. However, it probably helped with the Top 40 success of the song that most listeners had no idea it was about a rat.

Embedding has been disabled, but YouTube also has a powerful video of Jackson performing the song on the Oscars in 1973.

Horror Movies, Movies, News

Hell’s Kitchen: the Velvet Hammer swings

May 15, 2009 /

Last night was the season finale of “Hell’s Kitchen” on FOX, and one of the stiffest competitions yet on the show between two low-key but talented Floridians, Danny and Paula. At the end of last week’s episode, they had just chosen their teams for their big dinner service, and Danny chose first since he won the challenge back at the Borgata in Atlantic City. His team was Ben, Giovanni and Carol; Paula had Andrea, L.A., and Lacey. Giovanni didn’t want to be there, and Carol admitted she had been pulling for Paula. But the biggest issue was that Paula got stuck with Lacey. Danny knew he had a decided edge already.

During prep, Lacey was at it already, just being Lacey…as she ruined an entire batch of creme brulee. Then Gordon Ramsay wanted to see the design of each restaurant. Paula went first, with her brightly themed “Sunergy” very impressive to the boss. Then Danny, who couldn’t resist
hanging fish on the wall and calling his restaurant “Velvet Hammer,” a reference to his sexual prowess in high school. I can’t believe he actually went through with that name!

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External TV, Hell's Kitchen, Reality TV, TV

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