added: Linda Holmes, "'Top Chef': How Did Such A Great Season Lead To Such An Uninspiring Finale?" My answer, which I posted over there:
The constraints on too many of the challenges have prevented the contestants from demonstrating greatness. Instead it's been more a matter of surviving from week to week in cooking stuff at Target, with mediocre equipment, or from other chef's favorites (among others). When given the freedom to just do what they do well -- the Restaurant Wars and Family History episodes in particular -- the show has been great. There just hasn't been enough of it.
I did not know Padma was a stoner. It makes sense, I should have suspected, but I just didn't.
ReplyDeleteThis is a defensible order, though I actually slightly prefer season 4 to season 6. Much better overall quality of chesf in season 6, but much more interesting personalities and differences in cooking styles in season 4. Blais, Lofaso, Izard, Mendelson, Talde - that's a real range, and people I really enjoyed watching. There's a reason so many season 4 folks were on the All-Stars season. That said, I can't really object to season 6 coming out on top, as it was a fabulous season.
ReplyDeleteSeasons 5 and 7 should simply disappear from memory, and they should stop giving us non-stop Top Chef. No reason to have the whole year filled up with TC, TC:JD, and TC:M. give us a little breathing room, spread out the seasons, and maybe you can get better talent in each season.
<p>There are things out there that change the way we enjoy a narrative completly. Sometimes it's built into the work (i.e. Fight Club or The Sixth Sense) and sometimes those things are external to the work (Lindsay Lohan w/Mean Girls, Chris Brown and any of his music, etc). Finding out Padma is a pothead isn't a surprise, but it completely changes the way I view her ouevre for the better. And I already REALLY liked Padma.
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Really liked Padma or really liked what Padma looks like? I agree, thinking she might be stoned makes her foibles endearing rather than annoying.
ReplyDeleteIs both a valid answer? Top Chef All-Stars is the first season I've watched in full, so I didn't have to suffer through the years where Padma was learning on the job. I think it's tough to be a host on a show that's cast just as much by personality as skill, so if you think about Padma as the straightman it's a lot easier to forgive the accusations of dullness against her. I don't think she's boring, just boringin comparison to the wackadoo shenanigans of the chefs around her. That said, it wasn't until she lost it trying to rein in The Muppets that she won me over completely.
ReplyDeleteWhich, you know, probably should've been my first clue that she was baked.
Sort of like how Sucker Punch made me re-think the quality of all previous Zack Snyder movies? (Sorry, off topic, I know). That said, I agree. And I think Padma is adorable, stoned or not. She's just loopy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Adam's statement in the post - too much "cook for this specific challenge" or - my bete noire - "do this challenge on zero hours of sleep" (the museum challenge that felled Jen, who could have been a finalist if things were otherwise, also the Target challenge). I'd like to see who comes out on top when just cooking. Maybe keep the kooky challenges for the Quickfires but try to make the elimination challenges a bit more open?
ReplyDeleteI think the "changed it for me forever" quandry is something that could be expanded into a whole different discussion, but suffice to say Zak Snyder's M.O. has pretty much always been the same. It's just that this time around he wrote the story himself, rather than adapted some beloved source material. It appears he's a genius when it comes to visual style and not so great when it comes to writing. I'll still hold that Watchmen was better than the general decided-upon consensus, that Dawn Of The Dead was a near-perfectly executed update/remake, and that 300 has already changed the way we look at action movies.
ReplyDeleteI wish the final episodes this season had been more straight-up and open, and that the producers would generally take a closer read of Bourdain's memo about challenges where contestants use only the contents of a vending machine / have to cook in the back of a Toyota / wear a glad family of bags on their heads.
ReplyDeleteWatching the all-star finalists race to complete their food before the third-hand deep fryer exploded, and then remake everything in the wee hours after it exploded anyway, as a big "twist" after they'd been told to plan a meal for "royalty", was just depressing. Diving for conch placed in neat rows in four feet of water added nothing.
I know it must be hard, especially on Bravo, but they have to resist the urge to default to Ye Olde Reality TV Playbook if this show is going to be at its best.
Oh, I don't think Padma's boring. I think she sometimes sounds a little pretentious and I think her diction and cadence can be a little stilted, but it's not boring to me. Every time she introduces Gail as "the luscious Gail Simmonw," I laugh. Sometimes I think her, "Hello, chefs," sounds a lot like Hannibal Lecter greeting Clarice. But if she's just suffering from a slow, dry mouth, that makes it all the wackier.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it seems like he's taking a pretty strong hand in the Superman script. Hopefully Nolan will rein him in a bit/oversee the story so it doesn't suck, but I'm concerned. (Sorry, everyone else who's talking about Top Chef :) ).
ReplyDelete"Wear a glad family of bags on their heads" just made me spit out the water I was drinking. If my computer keyboard now breaks I'm sending Phil the bill. I 100% agree. (And as long as we're talking about changes to the TC format, how about this one: ALL BOURDAIN ALL THE TIME.)
ReplyDeleteAlways happy to help with a spit-take, but that characterization of the more obtuse challenges is from Bourdain verbatim and I take no credit.
ReplyDeleteBella wilfer, I totally agree. Too much Bourdain is like saying "too rich" or "too thin"!
ReplyDeleteFunny about the conch placed in neat rows...my coworker totally suspected that, but I was too trusting. I'll wake up now.
I hope Mike wins tonight. Richard's self-pity is getting tired. It's been a long season, yet I've watched all of it.
I've really enjoyed the whole All-Stars season... right up until the finale. For one thing, it's just been so drawn out (what has it been now, four episodes?) that it just feels like an extension of the regular season. And for another, I'll echo what others have said here - too many wacky challenges. (Diving for conch, then making it on the beach over a flame, etc.) What I've always liked about TC finales is the sense that after all the crazy challenges of the season, the top three (or four or two) are now there to simply make their best food. And this finale has just felt like more of the same.
ReplyDelete<span>She also comes off a lot better in interviews or features written about her. She's pretty self-effacing and reasonable-seeming, which is something that can't often be said about high-society types.
ReplyDeletePlus: She married Salman Rushdie. Look at that guy. It gives hope to well-spoken nerds and dorky-looking guys everywhere, and I'd be lying if I didn't put myself at the crossroads of both camps.</span>
Surely I'm not the only person who did not think that Marcel being wrestled to the ground so he could have his head shaved was a "highlight" of his season. It was appalling then, it's still appalling now, and to have it mentioned it as a highlight makes me think the person or people who put that list together are lacking in understanding of how our great social contract actually works.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the season is too long. How many Restaurant Wars and Family Ties challenges can they really do? How many different ways can they say cook the best food you are good at? I don't think there have been many seasons where we aren't totally bored at this point, right? Or, are we missing a true bad guy? There is no Lisa, no one to really root against. I'm kind of sick of both of the finalists, I'm sure we all are at this point.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know what happened to Top Chef Junior?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef#Top_Chef_Junior
I think Bravo took it out back and shot it.
ReplyDelete