We're in love. We're ... lovers. We're lesbian, gay-type lovers.

Willow ,'Potential'


Non-Fiction TV: I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

This thread is for non-fiction TV, including but not limited to reality television (So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef: Masters, Project Runway), documentaries (The History Channel, The Discovery Channel), and sundry (Expedition Africa, Mythbusters), et al. [NAFDA]


Vortex - Mar 29, 2008 11:30:15 am PDT #4168 of 23273
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

true, true. He's the poster child for what NOT to do.


Lee - Mar 29, 2008 2:25:05 pm PDT #4169 of 23273
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.

I thought that was the Different Strokes kids.


Vortex - Mar 29, 2008 2:43:49 pm PDT #4170 of 23273
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

or Leif Garrett even.


Fred Pete - Mar 31, 2008 6:23:45 am PDT #4171 of 23273
Ann, that's a ferret.

I don't know -- none of them would be the worst person in the world to give advice on how to become a child star. They were pretty good at that. For advice on what to do once a child star grows up, yeah, any one of our cats could do better.


brenda m - Mar 31, 2008 6:32:36 am PDT #4172 of 23273
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

That's the Waldorf Salad I know, not one with chicken in it! If you put chicken in Waldorf Salad, then it is chicken salad with fruit and nuts.

I don't see a problem with modifying classics for a challenge like this - just do it well. Colicchio was laughing at them for thinking their great innovation was not putting mayo in it so it would keep (urban legend alert) but the problem wasn't that, it was that their modifications didn't result in something good.

I was pretty disgusted all the way through this ep. And Jesus - I felt embarrassed for Rick Bayless when they saw those Quickfire things (and thought how fucking lucky they all were that it was Bayless judging and not Bourdain - if you'd treated a challenge of his with such disrespect you'd still be waking up in the middle of the night screaming from flashbacks.)

It was a badly designed challenge, I think, coming right after another catering type event. But their attitudes were appalling, and the general level of crap they put out there.

(Aside - did they not have grills at the party? I'll bet you could have put those corn dogs on the grill for a few minutes and come up with something worth eating. Idiots. But if they didn't have grills, why not? Has there ever been a block party without one?)


lisah - Mar 31, 2008 6:36:56 am PDT #4173 of 23273
Punishingly Intricate

(Aside - did they not have grills at the party? I'll bet you could have put those corn dogs on the grill for a few minutes and come up with something worth eating. Idiots. But if they didn't have grills, why not? Has there ever been a block party without one?)

They showed some of the neighborhood folk working some grills. But I guess they didn't tell the chefs that would be an option for cooking onsite?


Vortex - Mar 31, 2008 6:38:25 am PDT #4174 of 23273
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

Or maybe the chefs weren't allowed to have grills.


Jessica - Mar 31, 2008 6:39:48 am PDT #4175 of 23273
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

I don't see a problem with modifying classics for a challenge like this - just do it well.

At a certain point, though, you're not making a Waldorf salad any more, and you should stop calling it that. It's like when a movie studio buys a book property they don't know what to do with and winds up releasing something totally unrelated to the original source material with the same title - why bother keeping the title if you've completely rewritten the story? All it does is annoy the fans of the original, no matter how good the thing you actually made was.

Or people on epicurious.com who feel the need to review recipes by saying "Well, I used shrimp instead of pork loin and Old Bay instead of chili powder, and I left out the jalapenos, and grilled everything instead of poaching it. I wouldn't make this again."


Kristen - Mar 31, 2008 8:52:24 am PDT #4176 of 23273

At a certain point, though, you're not making a Waldorf salad any more, and you should stop calling it that.

This. What you choose to call something leads to a certain expectation. It's like Casey's coq au vin last season. (It was Casey, right?) The judges seemed to think the chicken was good but it wasn't coq au vin. When you do something radical, you run the risk of appearing to not know what you're talking about.

Though sometimes it really is because you don't know what you're talking about. The worst offender ever of clueless chefness (even this TC season's "piccata" is a distant second) was the "cassoulet" on Hell's Kitchen. It was mac and cheese, which isn't even remotely close to cassoulet except for the occasional letters those words have in common.


beekaytee - Apr 01, 2008 10:33:50 am PDT #4177 of 23273
Compassionately intolerant

Random Dancing with the Stars thought.

How is it that the judged never blame anything on the music being off? Despite the good comments from the judges, I didn't think Shannon Elizabeth did a great job with the jive, but jeebus, the band may have been the worst I've ever heard them.

Feh.