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Dec 10 2009

The finals

Published by japadamus under tv

Season 6 of Top Chef ends tonight with a 3 man finale between Bryan, Mike and Kevin. For those who watched this season, the contestants in this finale shouldn’t come as a surprise – throughout the 13 episodes this season Bryan, Mike and Kevin have won all but one of the elimination challenges (Jennifer, who was eliminated in 4th place, won that challenge).

There will be a couple of interesting battles tonight. The first is between Kevin and Mike. Several times this season Mike has called out Kevin for making food that is too simple. At one point, Mike said Kevin’s food was something he’d make in his free time – not at a restaurant. But Kevin has won consistently. He’s won more quickfires and ellimination challenges than Mike. And last week, Kevin’s simplicity was praised by Judge Tom Colicchio for its hidden complexity.

The other interesting battle tonight will be between the Voltaggio brothers, Mike and Bryan. These two have traded jabs during the year, and although they are mostly civil, it’s clear that there is a strong sibling rivalry at work here.

So who’s the favorite?

I think Kevin is the better chef here, and I want him to win. As mentioned his dishes are simple, but you can tell that he does an incredible job of building flavor. Kevin’s Southern background helps here, but he’s not just a one trick ribs and fried chicken pony. Kevin has consistently won challenges and impressed judges, including chefs like Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud.

Mike also has performed well this season. While his arrogance is annoying, Mike is still clearly very skilled and has strong technique. At the same time though, Mike’s focus on complexity has sometimes got him in trouble. For example, he lost the Culinary Olympics challenge for simple errors like the doneness of lamb.

Bryan is coming off a win last week, and he impressed guest judge Michael Chiarello. Bryan is definitely the more humble and level-headed of the Voltaggio brothers, and I think his maturity will be an asset in the finals.

If Bryan does win, he will be the first contestant to win Top Chef without winning a quickfire challenge. Interestingly though, in the show’s first 5 seasons only one winner, Hung, also most the most quickfires during the season.

This season, Kevin has won 4 quickfires, while Mike has won 2. Kevin has also won 5 elimination challenges, the most in Top Chef history, while Bryan has won 4, and Mike has won 3.

At the end of the day, I gotta put my money on Kevin. He’s been consistently successful throughout the season, and he’s a very likeable contestant which will help him if finalists are forced to work with eliminated contestants.

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Dec 07 2009

The Real World: Jersey Shore is wonderful

Published by japadamus under tv

I haven’t been into The Real World for years – the last interesting season to me was probably when they were in Hawaii. But this year’s RW really intrigued me. Instead of putting a mixed bunch of people in a random location, it put a bunch of guidos in their natural habitat, the Jersey Shore.

Guidos, if you’re not familiar, are Italians that typically have heavily molded hair, tans that are often orange, and a juice head style body. The female counterpart to a guido is a guidette, and this year’s RW packs 8 of these kids into a house on the Jersey Shore.

The premier this week was everything I hoped for. You have the disaster drunk, slutty girl named Nicole aka Snooki, a couple of girls that cheated on their boyfriends by the 2nd episode, Angelina and Jenni aka J-WOWW, and, well, a bunch of douchey guidos that totally fit the bill.

Now, being from Hawaii I had no idea that these people existed. Not only that, but it’s incredible to see a whole town of these people, all of which have similar hair, tans and personalities. It’s almost like they’re working off of the same book and come to congregate in the Jersey Shore at the same time – it’s similar to a Star Trek convention it that respect, although Star Trek has a more diverse cast of characters.

I think part of the problem with past episodes of the Real World is that you get a bunch of people that are too over the top to be believable and put them in a house. But this year’s RW is more like going to an African safari than going to the zoo – you really do get to experience the natural habitat of these people.

The first two episodes are available online now, and they’re great. MTV does have a few commercials, but they’re nowhere nearly as long as the commercials in the real show.

Sure, this isn’t the most intelligent show on air, but it’s entertaining, and I love it.

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Nov 22 2009

The rout

Published by japadamus under tv

I’m on episode 12 of this year’s Top Chef, and so far this season hasn’t been much of a competition. As far as I can remember, all of the elimination challenges have been won by one of three players: the Voltaggio brothers or Kevin. I would say of these three Kevin has been the most consistent, winning a number of Quickfires and elimination challenges, while Bryan and Mike Voltaggio have been going back and forth.

At this point, the other three chefs left, Robin, Eli and Jennifer don’t really have a chance – their skill level is clearly much lower than the other chefs. I would say of those three, Eli is the best, but still he’s not making it into the top 3.

Robin has gone much farther than I would have imagined. She seems lost all the time, her food is usually very poorly received, and she doesn’t work well with her peers. I think however, Bravo may be keeping Robin in the game because she is such an irritating character. Really, it’s not as interesting to see 6 chefs who all like each other and get along – Robin has added a ton of conflict and lets face it, that’s interesting.

Halfway through episode 12 though, it is clear that Robin will be eliminated very soon.

My guess would be that Kevin walks away with the win here. He has been the most successful in terms of winning challenges, and he has has been able to work through the various curve balls that Top Chef threw. Additionally, I don’t think he has ever been in the lower end of an elimination, and he hasn’t been close to being eliminated at all. Kevin is also a very likeable character. He’s humble, and he works well with others.

Mike Voltaggio has kind of picked up the douche tag after Mike I. was eliminated. Mike V. is cocky, domineering and condescending. He is talented though, so Mike has been very successful despite the negative aspects of his personality. But in the finals, Mike will be in trouble if he gets stuck with Robin, or if he isn’t able to control his temper with other chefs.

Bryan has been laying pretty low – he does pretty well, but doesn’t win that many challenges. He also has avoided being in the bottom of challenges for the most part.

It would be interesting to see a final of brothers with Mike and Bryan, but I think it’ll end up being Mike and Kevin, with Kevin taking the win.

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Nov 21 2009

Top Chef Season 6: Laaaaaaasssssss Vegas

Published by japadamus under tv

I’m 4 episodes into the sixth season of Top Chef, and so far it’s one of the better seasons I’ve seen so far. The big benefit here is of course the location – Las Vegas. Many of the best chefs in the world have restaurants in Vegas, including Daniel Boulud, Joel Robuchon, and even Top Chef head judge Tom Colicchio.

Early on, I think the favorites are the Voltaggio brothers, with Kevin and Jennifer in the running as well. The Voltaggios have been dominating so far, while Kevin won the quick fire with Daniel Boulud, which was impressive.

I don’t think Ron, Robin, Mike Isabella, Hector, Eli or Ashley stand a chance. These guys seem way out of their league this season – most are just too limited in their ability to compete with the more experienced chefs.

The most annoying players so far are Mike Isabella, who pretty much defines douche, and Ashley, who defines angry lesbian.

Ashley, in particular, made a ridiculous objection to cooking for an engaged couple because gays can’t get married. I don’t get why gays feel they have to make everything into a political forum, but this was incredibly annoying. And of course, at the end of the day Ashley sold out and cooked for the challenge to win what, $100,000? If you’re gonna complain and you want to make a statement, then do so. Don’t complain, then ditch your cause in order to play a chef’s game.

Still, I’m liking how this season is turning out. After just four episodes there have been a bunch of great competitions and great judges. With all the other incredible restaurants in Vegas, I think this season is only gonna get better.

Oh yeah, and Padme continues to be incredibly f’ing hot.

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Oct 07 2009

Shark Tank – a better American Inventor

Published by japadamus under tv

Remember American Inventor? It was an American Idol-style show where contestants put their inventions up against each other to win $100,000. It was an interesting idea, but conceptually the show failed because the world of inventions are too broad, making an apples to apples winner difficult, and often frustrating to find.

Shark Tank also puts inventors on TV, but instead of competing for a single prize each year, they compete for financing from a panel of five sharks. The sharks include founders of Internet and software companies, Daymond, who co-founded Fubu, a real estate mogul and a vendor of ‘as seen on tv’ products.

You get the good of American Inventor, because you see the steady flow of both good and bad inventions. Plus, you get to see the negotiating process between the sharks and inventors, which is often pretty exciting.

It’s really a solid take on the inventor concept. Check it out on ABC Tuesday nights.

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Jul 01 2009

Hulu Desktop is a winner

Published by japadamus under tv

Hulu is a great idea. It’s amazing that so many networks got together to do something…well…useful.

Previously you could only access Hulu through a web browser. That wasn’t bad, but it’s kind of inconvenient to watch full TV shows in your web browser. It was also pretty slow.

Well, a month or so ago Hulu came out with a downloadable application for PCs and Macs. I’ve been using it for a while now, and I have to say it’s mostly good.

The interface of the desktop app is similar to the web browser interface. That’s not a good thing, by the way. But it does seem to be a lot faster than the web client, and it frees up your browser so you can surf and watch TV at the same time.

It’s great for lunch breaks, or trips out of town. And, if you watch a lot of TV on your computer at home then it is really a pretty quick way to access a ton of shows. It doesn’t work well with remotes though, so you do tend to need access to a mouse.

You can download hulu desktop here. It’s free, but you do get the normal hulu ads. I don’t really mind the ads – they’re short and not really intrusive.

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Jun 02 2009

Susan Boyle, runner up

Published by japadamus under tv

This was a tough week for Susan Boyle. The favorite to win Britain’s Got Talent was all over the tabloids for cursing at cops and threatening to leave the show. It did appear at times that Boyle was close to, or in the middle of, a complete breakdown.

Still, she performed on Saturday in this season’s finale of BGT. She came back with ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’ the song that got her so much attention to begin with. Every time I hear her sing the line “I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I’m living” I get the chills…not only because she sings it so well, but because it does seem to be quite appropriate for her life story.

Unfortunately, Boyle came in second to the dance crew Diversity. It was probably a huge letdown for Boyle, and the next day she checked herself into a hospital for fatigue. There were rumors of her yelling, throwing things, and cursing BGT producers as well.

I know Boyle was the favorite and all, but I think we have to face a reality here: She was a better than average singer, but she only got so much attention because of her…well…frumpy looks. A normal looking singer wouldn’t have got half the attention that Boyle did.

It at first seems amazing that she was hidden away in some small town, but the reality is she probably had many chances to make something of herself, but came up crazy like she did in BGT. She’s a single old woman with cats…she probably doesn’t have a great personality, or to put it another way her voice isn’t good enough to compensate for her personality.

In any case, you gotta wish the woman well, and hope she finds some sort of good out of all her sudden fame. The way she’s been acting though, it looks like she’s really handling fame poorly and will probably be a casualty of her success, rather than a beneficiary of it.

A vid of her final performance is below:

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Apr 28 2009

Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series on Blu Ray

Published by japadamus under tv

If you do contract the swine flu and are bored while you live out your final days in the hospital I suggest you pick up the full Battlestar Galactica series on Blu Ray.

This box set has all four BSG seasons, plus over 13 hours of extras that include deleted scenes, insight from actors and directors and unaired extended extras…all on beautiful high def Blu Ray discs. Hear that? That was the sound of just a smidgen of semen escaping from the tip of my penis.

I have to say, the set looks pretty incredible. 20 discs of BSG, all in a cool box with pop-up cylons?

The set will be available on July 28, 2009, so don’t go contracting swine flu just yet. However, this will be a good last purchase to make, because it’s not cheap – Amazon is selling it for $245 – certainly worth it…but kinda rough on the wallet.

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Mar 25 2009

The end of Battlestar Galactica

Published by japadamus under tv

Spoiler alert.

The series finale of BSG was last friday. With tons of questions still remaining, the show ended in a two hour episode that tied up a lot of loose ends.

The episode starts with a classic BSG battle scene. Adama sends BSG to the Cylon Colony in order to rescue Hera. The humans and renegade cylons use a multi-layered attack that involves BSG crashing through the side of the Cylon Colony.

The battle scene was pretty well done. The special effects were captivating, and although you kind of assumed that Hera would be rescued, there was still tons of suspense.

Without giving away too much, the humans win of course, and leave with Hera to a unknown destination that was chosen by Kara’s interpretation of musical notes. The destination turns out to be a habitable planet inhabited by early humans.

The humans and renegade cylons agree to populate the new planet without their technology in order to start all over again. They send their space ships into the sun, and go along their way.

As it turns out, the planet that they inhabited is earth 150,000 before the present day. The show implies that Hera is mitochondrial eve.

Oh yeah, Roslin dies. Kara turns out to be a ghost. And the Baltar and 6 that seemed to be hallucinations turn out to be gods of some sort.

At the end of the day, it was a satisfying ending in many ways. It was good to see the humans end up in a good place, and it was cool how the show tied things back to humans…particularly after finding the previous earth that was destroyed by nuclear war.

I didn’t really get the purpose of Kara being a ghost and just disappearing at the end. It was almost the show ran out of time and wasn’t able to do a better job of explaining Kara away.

I’m also kind of divided with the humans destroying their technology. I mean, that seemed kind of like a forced way to tie things into the present day. But with that said, the humans were decimated by cylons over the past 4 seasons – so their aversion to technology is also somewhat understandable.

The implication that humans mate with early humans is a little off-putting. I mean, these were really early humans…almost like chimpanzees.

All things considered, BSG was a great, great show. The show really went beyond the basic sci-fi, fights in spaceships, themes. At times, BSG was a political drama that just happened to be in space. The show touched on religion, philosophy, while still doing a good job with basics like romance and humor. I highly recommend this series, and I can’t wait until it comes out on Blu-Ray.

Also, look out for the BSG TV movie that is slated to come out in fall 2009, and a BSG spinoff called ‘Caprica’ that is set to premiere in early 2010.

Oh wait, did I forget to include a picture of Grace Park looking hot? Here you go.

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Feb 20 2009

I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you

Published by japadamus under tv

When I was just starting to come to grips with the emptiness left in my heart after The Wire was taken off the air. I never thought there would be something to fill the intense void until I found Mad Men.

The screenwriting is simply genius. The plot takes place in a Madison Ave advertising agency during the 1960s. The characters are rich and complicated as a Shakespeare play. In case you are not familiar with the stereotype of a 1960s Ad man, but they are white males who tend to drink copious amounts of scotch all day long, smoke enormous amounts of cigarettes and devise slogans and campaigns to push product. Its a work hard, play hard culture all wrapped into one workday.

I’m intensely addicted to the show. I’ve just finished watching the first two seasons and frankly I can’t wait for the new episodes to come back on the air. Trust me, watch a few episodes and you definitely won’t be disappointed. This is definitely a series that people are going to be talking about for a long time.

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Feb 15 2009

Dollhouse live blogging

Published by japadamus under tv

You’ve probably heard about Dollhouse. It’s one of the hotter new shows this season, and stars Eliza Dushku – the chick from Bring it On.

I just finished downloaded the first episode and it’s time to live blog:

-Episode opens with Dushku looking pretty f’ed up. Tired, kind of worn out…not hot. She’s talking to a woman who looks like she’s recruting Dushku.

-Dushku is a lot of things…but she’s not a great actress. Everything’s still very bring-it-on-y.

-Motorcycle scene to establish Dushku as a tough chick. Feels like they’re trying too hard here.

-Dushku in a short white dress dancing looks wonderful. That scene bought the show at least half a season.

-We’re five minutes into the show and I still have no idea what the fuck is going on.

-So, Dushku left the party and hopped into a van filled with computers. She’s getting some sort of medical treatment now. She appears to be some sort of android?

-Dushku’s name is Echo. Apparently they erased her memory. It looks like some organization is using her to spy on people. Check that – it almost appears that she is working in some sort of brothel.

-Some random kid is being kidnapped…finally the title montage. Lots of video of Dushku looking hot.

-The kid that was kidnapped is being held for ransom. Who knows who the kid is.

-Ok – I still don’t know what Dushku is, but she isn’t a hooker. She appears to be some sort of robotic operative.

-Dushku doesn’t really know what she is either. It looks like she’s going to find out soon though. Or maybe Dushku does know what’s going on. Really, who knows what is happening here. It’s confusing as fuck.

-Ok, so now we’re at some police station. Apparently the Dollhouse – Dushku’s home - is being investigated for human trafficking. The cop who is investigating the Dollhouse has ruffled some feathers and other cops are telling him to lay off. It appears the Dollhouse takes normal people, erases their memory, and then reprograms them for various tasks. Dushku is one of these.

-Dushku is now taking the form of some sort of negotiator that is trying to get the kidnapped girl back. She has been programmed to be a negotiator, apparently. They can make Dushku into whatever they want. They use ‘personality imprints’ to make the Dollhouse girls into whatever they want.

-So, Dushku is pushing the kidnappers around and setting her terms.

-It looks like the process of uploading things to Dushku’s head is not perfect. She’s freaking out when she thinks of her fake past. Very Johnny Neumonic.

-The cop is continuing to investigate the dollhouse. Looks like this will be an ongoing plotline of the series.

-At the money drop Echo sees the kidnappers and freaks out again. She blows it and the father of the kidnapped girl is shot. Echo says that they weren’t going to give the girl back. Apparently the kidnapper was the one who had previously kidnapped the negotiator personality that Echo is using. Not only that, but the kidnapper abused the personality that Echo is using, and it’s making Echo feel pretty bad.

-Now there’s some debate over whether Echo’s memory should be erased, or if she should be allowed to continue to pursue the kidnappers. It looks like the Dollhouse girls are available for hire, and they are operating illegally.

-Echo confronts the kidnappers and gets the girl. She confronts the guy who previously kidnapped and abused her. She turns the kidnappers against each other. Another Dollhouse girl comes in and kills the rest of the kidnappers.

-The show ends with some guy looking at videos of Dushku’s past. It looks like he killed several people to get the video. And that’s it.

Ok – it wasn’t a horrible first episode. Dollhouse reminds me a bit of Dark Angel and Sarah Connor Chronicles. Dushku is not a great actress, but she is hot. And the series is clearly focusing on her hotness to carry a large portion of the show.

The novelty here is that Dushku will likely be a new character in every show. That will help to keep things fresh. But you can also tell how there will be the underlying plot of the cop investigating the dollhouse and Dushku seeking out her past.

All of that is interesting, but not very unique. I’d give it a few more episodes, but I can see the show burning out rather quickly.

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Dec 13 2008

Who is 13?

Published by japadamus under tv

So those of you House fans out there have probably noticed that Cameron has been replaced as the hot girl on the show by a new chick called ‘13’. Well, Cameron is still on the show, but her role has been severely reduced. And when you see 13 you know why.

She is hot. Super hot.

Not that Cameron is bad looking…she’s just more girl-next-door looking while 13 is flat out hot.

So, in any case, 13 is played by this chick Olivia Wilde. She’s had kind of a so-so career so far, and has played characters on The Black Donnellys and The O.C. She was also in Turistas, but other than that she hasn’t really been in anything notable.

In House though she fits the role well…and although she’s not a great actress she plays the role of 13 more or less believably.

The one ongoing joke is that her name hasn’t been revealed – everyone refers to her as 13, which was her number while being interviewed.

The 13 character is kind of a mess – she has Huntington’s and that makes her kind of f’ed up in the head. She’s also a lesbo, or bi. I’m guessing bi.

In any case, Olivia has been a great addition to House and I’m glad her role in the show has increased this year. She’s 24 and married…sadly. But I think she is slowly creeping up the hottest chicks on TV list.

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Sep 13 2008

Chuck Bass: America’s new bad boy

Published by japadamus under tv

I’ve just started watching the new season of Gossip Girl. So far its pretty awesome, sex, drugs, gossip and intrigue. The first season is a must see for all you teen drama fans, a la The OC, One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek, and 90210. Watch a few episodes, download a torrent or two and tell me how much you love it.

Many of the characters are similar to past shows you’ve seen. You’ll love it all.

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Sep 13 2008

Addicted to Kitchen Nightmares

Published by japadamus under tv, food

While I spend the weekend hiding indoors from the rain. I’ve been up on Hulu.com watching all I can eat of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Seriously that show is genius

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Sep 10 2008

Fringe

Published by japadamus under tv

J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and Alias has another show out on Fox called Fringe. The first episode, which was budgeted at $10 million, premiered recently…and it was good.

Fringe deals with fringe science, such as regeneration, telepathy, time travel, etc. Like Lost, the first episode takes place on a plane in distress. But in Fringe a chemical compound is released on the plane that basically destroys the skin on all the passengers. The plane lands on autopilot, with blood and flesh on the windows.

The show has an x-files-like feel. Lots of mystery and science…maybe science fiction. I won’t go too far into the plot of the first episode, but it involves a mad scientist, his genius kid and a government agency with knowledge of supernatural events.

What I like about Finge, compared to Lost, is that it appears that each episode will be a somewhat complete story. You won’t be strung along for years, but will instead get some resolution of at least a minor mystery in each episode. And if Abrams is doing it, I’m on board.

Like X-files, there is also a corporate and perhaps government conspiracy plot as well. This seems like it will be the element that ties together individual episodes…again, a lot like X-Files.

The acting was decent. Joshua Jackson from the Mighty Ducks plays the role of the genius kid who is kind of cocky and sarcastic, a nice tough. Blair Brown is the lead. I’ve never heard of her, but so far she appears to fit the role nicely. She is intelligent and persistent, yet mildly attractive in a Scully sort of way.

I think this show will be popular…but that’s not a difficult call considering Abrams prints hits. The premier had a good mix of elements, a compelling mystery that actually gets resolved, and overhanging conspiracy theory that involves some pretty creepy stuff, and enough character development to connect the science with actual people.

Check the premier out, it’s available on bittorrent.

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