PR recaps; Top Chef; Top Chef: Just Desserts

Because of the length of time it takes me to write a recap like the one I did for S8 E1—it's a good 5-6 hours of watching for a few seconds, pausing, and writing something, then starting the video up again—I'm clearly not going to get caught up. I'm going to try to finish up the one for E2 anyhow, since I was near the end of it, but then I'm going to try to find a way to write much leaner recaps for the rest. No promises, though; my painkillers aren't, lately.

On Top Chef DC: Totally disappointing season. I didn't really ever connect with someone I wanted to root for—the closest I came was deciding to root for Tiffany, and then she got eliminated right after I decided that—and one of the people I thought was not all that strong a chef won. Whoopie-doo. And apparently the next season of Top Chef is going to be an "All-Stars", starting in December. I haven't decided how I feel about that. It includes people from every season, many of whom made it near or into the finale but didn't win. (Thank goodness it doesn't include winners, or I might have to see that cockmeister Ilan again. Seriously, guys: stop inviting that douchebag back, okay?)

Top Chef: Just Desserts is probably not going to hold my attention. Basically, most of the contestants annoy me, and of the few I kinda liked, two are already gone. But I'll give it another couple episodes. And that's... seriously all I have to say about it.

The official lineup of Top Chef: All-Stars has already been announced, and I have some opinions:

From Season 1: Stephen and Tiffani. I don't really like Stephen, although the last time I saw him on Top Chef he didn't annoy me nearly as much, probably because it was just one episode. I'm really not looking forward to hearing him pontificate again. I didn't like Tiffani at all during her season, but she seems to have mellowed since then, and become more tolerable. Incidentally, I frankly think that Tom is going to be really biased in her favor, and frankly I think the reason she's been invited back to so many specials is so he can keep trying to give her the prize she didn't win for Season 1. Luckily, he'll apparently have Anthony Bourdain to keep him in check.

From Season 2: Elia and Marcel. Elia was someone I liked until she lost all credibility with me by joining in the harassment and bullying of Marcel. I don't know if she ever patched things up with Marcel or not, so it could be interesting to see them in the same kitchen again, but in no way do I feel a desire to root for her. Marcel, well... on the one hand, he's arrogant and undersocialized. On the other hand, I kinda felt that he had his likeable moments, and I gave him props for dealing more with the food part of the competition than with the stupid bullying and drama. On the gripping hand, his post-S2 appearances have left me feeling he hasn't learned anything about how to deal with people and, in fact, may have gotten worse. So... yeah.

From Season 3: Dale L., Casey, and Tre. Oh, good, some people I genuinely like. I'm surprised Dale agreed, since I know he's got a relatively-new restaurant, but presumably he trusts his partner (and fellow S3 contestant) to run it for a few weeks. Casey... well, okay, "like" may be an overstatement, but I certainly don't dislike her. She's fine. Tre got kicked off earlier than anyone expected, sadly, so I'd love to see what he can bring this time around. In general, not a bad set of folks.

From Season 4: Richard, Antonia, Spike, and Dale T. That splits neatly into "two people I kinda like, or at least have no issue with", and "two people I can't stand". Richard's a food geek, only a kosh arrogant, and makes interesting dishes, so not bad. Antonia I basically liked, although I still rooted for Stephanie over her (S4 is the only season where the person I rooted for most won), so seeing her again doesn't suck. Spike is an asshat. Dale is an angry jerk. Unfortunately, Dale is also a talented angry jerk, so he'll probably stick around a while.

From Season 5: Carla, Jamie, Fabio. I didn't watch Season 5. I did read recaps of it, plus got introduced vaguely to a few of its contestants via one of the Top Chef specials, so I do have some vague opinions on people, but nothing solid. Fabio rubs me the wrong way, which considering how many people seem to like him is interesting. Carla seems to be goofy and interesting and apparently a fairly good chef. Jamie I don't have much of an opinion on, though from recaps I read, she wasn't very popular with the fans. We'll see how I feel once the show itself starts.

From Season 6: Jen C. and Mike I. If Jen can keep her shit together this time around, it'll be interesting to watch how she does, but she went from "one of my favorites" to "okay, this is just sad" in the course of her season, so... yeah. Mike I. holds the distinction of being my second-least-favorite contestant in Top Chef history. Only Ilan exceeds him in my dislike. I hope he's first off. I wish they'd gotten Kevin G., but alas, they did not.

From Season 7: Tiffany and Angelo. I'm down with these choices. Tiffany is a fairly solid chef, and while I find her boisterous personality a little off-putting, she seems like a nice person overall. Angelo is very weird, and I eventually came to the opinion the original arrogance he showed was more a "trying to keep himself psyched up" thing. He wins a lot of points with me for being a gracious loser, too.

I'm not sure yet who I'm going to root for. I'd like to see how they have changed (or not) since their seasons. I do know who I'm likely to root against, but I'll give it an episode or two before deciding for sure.