this week in tv

[jlh]

So. No Monday night shows, I'm meh about this week's White Collar and Top Chef, and then blown away by Community. Next week, though, sweeps! Everything is new and Justified is back!

White Collar, "What Happens in Burma." White Collar never does well when it strays into international politics, so that was a bit clunky, as was the whole "he's my son" aspect. Diana working her diplomatic connections was a nice call back, and Mozzie making a ruby was fun, but Neal's dirty-cop dad felt a little on-the-nose. I didn't mind having just a straight-forward case this week, but usually there would be at least one call back to the ongoing storyline, however small, and I missed that this week.

Top Chef, "An Offer They Can't Refuse." So the quickfire was lame, and the chefs were less than enthused by Antonia's win. The way the ep was cut didn't really make me care that much, though I think that's just going to be true until the really dead end, as we burn through a few chefs that are very, very good but probably aren't going to get to the end. Also, they didn't really make the whole Italian American food experience come alive, perhaps because they were too busy with all the jokey mob film references.

Community, "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons." So how brilliant was that? So brilliant that I can't even capture it in words. From the cleaning-lady narrator to the changed opening sequence and theme song to the characters and everything that was done in montage and Neil being heartbroken and then being awesome and omg of course it was Jeff, didn't we know that from last week and also, is this the influence of Rich? I'm on the fence about villainous Pierce, though.

Comments

[kittenspyjamas]

awww, but I felt like the ending suggested that Pierce isn't villainous, not really, just deeply pitiable. To me it felt like the payoff from the previous episode where he sits alone watching the commercial his father wouldn't let him be part of.

I had not thought that it might be Rich's influence on Jeff that made him propose the game! Just when I thought that episode was already too clever and brilliant, that would make it even more brilliant! I would totally agree that it was an A++ all the way through, especially including all the aspects you mentioned. Cheered me up enormously. :D

[jlh]

It's more that for the last two weeks he's been the clear antagonist. And yeah, he has a big reason, and I'm sort of like, "show, are you going to pay this off, or are you being a little lazy?" So I'm not sure which direction they're going to go in, though I would guess the paying-it-off direction since (1) a sitcom is too short to put in scenes for no reason and (2) Community tends to pay off their stuff. That said, we haven't really heard more about Shirley's whole weird backstory, so.

Rich, and the whole bit at the beginning of last week's episode where Abed said to Jeff, "we should really learn people's names." It's as though last week and this week are two parts of a larger episode, even though they had very strong plots of their own. Bodes well for the second half of the season!

[havocthecat]

I was just glad that they acknowledged that there's an Italian-American food experience that's not limited to fine dining. Because, I don't know, IRL, I find far too many people who don't get that one exists. Which frustrates me, given that it's my main food experience.

Also, with last week's ep? Anthony Bourdain's blog. He said he married an Italian-American woman who keeps telling him he puts too much stuff in his food. I can relate with his wife. Mr. Havoc keeps telling me I put need to put more stuff in my food. He keeps saying, "You know, this needs [three extra, totally unnecessary ingredients that would totally ruin the flavor of everything else in there.]"

So. Anyway. I was all kinds of excited about last week's Top Chef, because they finally talked about my cooking experience, which they never do more than touch on. Though the jokey mob references need to go. So annoying and overused.

[jlh]

Well, and as Tom said in his blog, an Italian-American food experience that is separate from Italian food as, say, Fabio understands it. The whole calling-red sauce-gravy thing.

So many food cultures, first they get disrespected, then dicovered perhaps as street food first, then someone realizes that they actually have a fine dining aspect (or possibility) that often traces back to some kind of court cuisine, and then it has to get pulled back down to something someone eats at home. So you have the whole red-sauce Italian American Big Night 50s thing, and then you have the Tuscany/Northern Italian/travel to Italy crowd of the 70s/80s, then Mario Batali yammering about authenticity and pretty much rejecting the Italian-American experience entirely, and then you have fine chefs circling back and making things more homey, like Colicchio or Rocco DiSpirito with that failed restaurant he tried using his mother's recipes. Tom has a big hard on for that kind of thing anyway--meals at Craft were all served family style on big platters.

I wish they'd focused more on the food and less on the mob references, definitely. It was cute maybe the first time, and after that I didn't care. Though I think probably part of the reason the episode was so lackluster was that three guys made bad pasta and two made mediocre meat, and the girls on the show are all pretty lowkey.

[havocthecat]

then Mario Batali yammering about authenticity and pretty much rejecting the Italian-American experience entirely

Ah, Mario Batali. I have a special annoyance reserved just for his attitude about Italian food and authenticity for exactly the reason you just described.

wish they'd focused more on the food and less on the mob references, definitely. It was cute maybe the first time, and after that I didn't care.

It was cute in grade school, maybe, but after a while, the joke-but-not-really-a-joke of "OMG, is your family IN THE MOB?!?!?" gets really old. And offensive. I mean, seriously, must we act like all Italian-Americans are in organized crime? Plus the Italian-Americans who try to be all ~mysterious~ about their ~mob contacts~. Dude, if you had family that was actually Family, you wouldn't be yapping about it. Everyone would just know. (I find this almost as annoying as the hypersexualized Italian/Italian-American stereotype that, frankly, Fabio sometimes plays into.)

and the girls on the show are all pretty lowkey.

I know! But I would LOVE to see a Carla, Antonia, and Tiffany finale. It would be the nicest damn finale ever, while still being competitive. Also, they're all three damn talented. I don't think they'll all make it there, but I really want them to.

The stunned looks at Antonia winning and the delayed and stuttering applause had me rolling my eyes at the guys. (Not that we talked about that at all, but I felt like pointing it out.)

[jlh]

So years ago, I'm watching Mario on the Food Network, back when he had that daytime dump&stir show, and he's doing something or other with hazelnuts and he says, "Now, when you talk to your nut guy ..." and I was like, "nut guy? NUT GUY?" I lived in Manhattan at the time and I didn't have a nut guy; I didn't even know if there was a store in manhattan where there WAS a nut guy. Never mind being you know, a typical American shopping at one of those enormo supermarkets and then maybe a specialty store. And he wants people to have a nut guy?

That was when I was like, okay dude, you are 100% out of touch with your audience. Evs!

It seems that the lack of reaction to Antonia was less about her and more about the chef's opinion that she "just made mussels." They like it more when people do really complicated shit. It took a while for Mike V to respect Kevin last season, too, even though he won a ton of challenges. And you'd think they'd learn, because Colicchio was one of the founders of New American cuisine and very consistently responds to simple food cooked very well. I mean, they seem to not have even noticed that Carla has two wins--two SOLO wins, that is, which is more than anyone other than Dale. And she's been in the top a ton, too.

Ugh, whatever, rock star chefs. I mean, I like Dale but he's still kind of an ass and Angelo and Mike don't even get me started. But at least generally when Blais gets around to calling someone out, it's time for them to be called out.