We thought we’d take a few moments to discuss the recent competition final that has legions of fans around the world crying foul. No, not the Ice Dancing Gold in Sochi, although that outcome has not surprisingly raised some eyebrows (to the novice judges viewing from our living room, we had the Canadians at least even with the Americans). No, we’re not talking about the world of sports here, but the culinary world, and, more specifically, the results of the Top Chef:New Orleanstravesty finale.
We just thought of this randomly one day, but let’s just say this is in anticipation of Sunday’s Girls premiere. At the very least, it gives us a coule extra tags.
We sincerely apologize for the absence of Redemption Island recaps the last month; Gawker.TV ceased publishing weekly recaps and our day job has been monopolizing our time. But, with the finale airing tonight night, we felt it was our responsibility (and our pleasure) to give some thoughts on what’s transpired since our last recap and what is still to come.
Before we delve into the eliminations, duels, blindsides and bonehead moves of the past month, it’s come to our attention that we’ve been going easy on Matt and his love of Jesus. So, to right that wrong, we’re going to go ahead and dedicate the first part this post to Matt and his savior.
“Are you there, God? It’s me, Matt. Why have you abandoned me?”
“Because, Matt, I don’t care about reality television. I’m the almighty creator, and I have infinitely more important things to do than interfere with or preordain some reality show competition. And if I were to get involved with any of these shows, it wouldn’t be Survivor, hands down it’d be Top Chef, because a) I fancy myself as a bit of a foodie and b) have you seen the rack on Padma? One of my finest creations.”
“Oh, so that one set of footprints. That wasn’t you carrying me on your back?”
Two weeks ago on Top Chef they pulled the old bait and switch and you get a car and you get a car and you get a car and you’re all going to the Bahamas! So last week it was off to the tropical islands to get cookin’.
But before they can get to the Quickfire, everyone is just blown away by Richard’s beard.
Over the last couple years we’ve become ardent devotees to the concept of “Occam’s Razor,” the tenet that the “simplest explanation is most likely the correct one.” There’s a similar paradigm that works itself into any season of Survivor, but focuses less on the simplest explanation and more on the theory that players will make their moves based on the belief that the other competitors will make the correct, smartest decisions. Unfortunately, as the show as often proved, playing that way does not always lead to the best results. And we saw an example of this again last night.
But more on that later. First, (as teased last week) Matt arrives on Redemption Island and Francesca is shocked (shocked!) it wasn’t Phillip who was voted out by the Ometepe tribe earlier in the night. He had no allies, posed no threat, and basically begged for mercy, so why would Ometepe (and its leader, Boston Rob) want to keep him around? Oh, yeah, for those very reasons. Phillip may be a loose cannon, intolerable, and borderline bipolar, but right now, as Rob says, he’s a loyal solider. Plus, he’s endlessly entertaining. Back at Ometepe camp Rob breaks down the alliance, explicitly telling Phil that he’s the fifth person on a five-person alliance and Phil is basically responds “Cool! Just happy to be here! Thanks, Rob!” And then they seal Phil’s blind allegiance with a first bump, which in the three federal agencies that Phil used to serve in is tantamount to swearing on one’s parents’ graves.
A new Top Chef in just a few hours. But can anything top last week’s episode with featuring Sesame Street AND Target? Probably not!
A few highlights!
COOKIE MONSTER. DUH!
Elmo suggests perhaps making a cookie out of zucchini and daikon and dirt and cobwebs and rice cakes and Canadian pennies. Luckily, Cookie Monster tells him to shut the fuck up.
Cookie Monster invokes the five second rule and is pretty much just the best.
A short, fun Muppet Tuesday inspired by a video referred to us by The Geoff Man and last week’s Top Chef.
As far as Sesame Street characters go, we don’t remember being particularly enamored with Cookie Monster as a child. Certainly, we weren’t fans of that red menace Elmo, but our allegiances laid more with Ernie and that other blue monster, Grover (probably because of his aural resemblance to Yoda, his brother in Frank Oz-helmed arms). And, of course, we appreciated and admired Kermit, not just for being the straight man who tolerated all the zany creatures on Sesame Street, but because we were thoroughly impressed that he managed to moonlight as the “Muppet News” reporter while managing the Muppets full-time. That guy was basically the 70s and 80s version of Joel McHale (But really, Kermit can’t count as a favorite, because he’s a given, it’s like saying the Beatles are your favorite band (which they are not). Hall of Fame members are not options)). But for some reason, while not disliking Cookie Monster, he never struck the same chord as the others. Perhaps because he wasn’t as silly-mean as Grover, or childlike and mischievous as Ernie. He seemed rather one-note, heck bent on one thing and one thing alone, and that obscured a rather winning personality. But with his SNL audition tape, his appearance on the show with Jeff Bridges, and his guest-judging on Top Chef last week, our opinion towards the pastry pouncer began to change. With hs newly discovered nuanced sense of humor Cookie Monster was evolving into our favorite Sesame Street Muppet . Except that, as this vintage video shows, that sharp sensibility was there all along. We just missed it until now. Somehow, Cookie Monster might actually be the subtlest monster on Sesame Street.
And, as usual, we plan to recap last week’s Top Chef just before the new one airs tomorrow night, but take a look at this behind the scenes clip from featuring Cookie Monster, along with Telly and, yes, Elmo, hilariously kinda being dicks to the crew.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
And we now realize where Barbara Walters got it from…
And if just one, just one, 3 year-old decides they prefer Cookie Monster to Elmo then we’ll be happy.
If you thought we couldn’t keep up our habit of recapping Top Chef just before the new episode premieres, then you were wrong. DEAD WRONG. So here we go! (note: our DVR ran out of space when recording this episode so we cannot provide our usual primary source materials. Sorry!)
For the Quickfire challenge they made fondue! Just like a party my parents might have! But Carla was struggling and lamented the fact that there was never any time.
Time to sample the dishes! Padma seemed to particularly enjoy Tiffany’s entry.
Jumped The Snark 