I think TAR needs a new post-production team - both DH and I called the nonelim last night about halfway through the ep.

Anyone else watching Next Great Restaurant? HOORAY THE GRILLBILLIES ARE FINALLY GONE! I'm rooting for Spice Coast on the premise that everyone else left in the competition is terrible, but honestly, I can get better Indian food for lunch already at the Biryani Cart.

There was nothing hard on that leg, right? I appreciated that the food thing was just 12 minutes and done (successfully or not), because I kind of hate watching people throw up, but the chimney sweep thing was just doing it, right? I mean, there was nothing to screw up, as far as I could tell. And moving the sofa is also whatever.

TAR: how many watchers were shouting "Use the dolly!" at the screen during the couch-moving sequence?

Never choose an eating task if you have any choice in the matter. Even though for once the entree wasn't something disgusting, and the view was probably amazing.

Jessica, we sure haven't had a whole lot of challenges that involved serious physical challenges like rappelling or shooting the rapids -- more like following a chimney sweep around or carrying a couch for a mile.

Not that I necessarily miss the seasons where if you landed in a strange country, you could just look around for the tallest structure and suspect you were going to have to climb it, jump off it, or climb & jump off it.

That chimney sweep thing was just stupid.

With the couch, at least in theory there was a navigation element to it, though we didn't see anyone have an issue with that except at the stairs. The real challenge with that detour turned out to be whether you jumped at the option that was ostensibly quick and easy - which, really, should have raised a red flag.

Anyone who goes into a food challenge thinking it's going to be easy is fooling themselves - I couldn't believe so many teams went for it, especially having run the race before!

Anyone else watching Next Great Restaurant? HOORAY THE GRILLBILLIES ARE FINALLY GONE!

Wait, so you're saying condescending hipsterism isn't a great concept for a restaurant?

I've just been catching an ep here and there so I may be missing something, but I think along with Spice Coast the soul food guy has possibilities. (Also, you may have a surfeit of quick Indian in your area, but others are not so blessed. Just sayin'.)

(Also, you may have a surfeit of quick Indian in your area, but others are not so blessed. Just sayin'.)

True, but their test markets are New York, LA, and Miami - I think he'll encounter some competition for Indian fast food in all of those.

I think Minneapolis, not Miami. But yeah, point stands for the other two at least - no idea about Mps.

The AV Club has a terrific recap: [link]

From one angle, Bobby Flay’s seemingly adorable daughter, Sophie, who spent most of the hour pettily crushing dreams and offering insincere laughter when the contestants tried to butter up, was the best character this show has ever had, the only person who could possibly stop Steve Ells in hand-to-hand combat. From another angle, she was a desperation move. “Fuck it. What do we have left? I guess we could throw in Flay’s kid?”

The whole thing smacked of the producers suddenly realizing just how stagnant and boring the show has been in the last few weeks and trying to come up with something—ANYthing—designed to bring back the sense of fun the show had in its first few episodes. The contest was essentially pointless, including several scenes where the contestants sat around with a panel of experts on toys and/or childhood (I guess?) to try and design an awesome toy. But what all of this resulted in was some of the most unintentionally hilarious TV of the season, from Stephenie’s random Pete the Pita figure, designed to, uh, teach kids about how voracious pitas are, to Greg and Krystal just giving up and tossing out a lightning bug that looked like the sort of creature you’d find crawling all over your food at a picnic. But his bottom lit up, Krystal offered weakly. Also, Jamawn had—I shit you not—a cornbread muffin man, and Joey decided that what the kids liked, what would really get them into meatballs, was a giant-ass version of Connect Four. (Joey appears to have no fucking clue how money works, since every business scheme he’s come up with would have involved losing lots of it.)