Food Network Star
A few weeks back I ranked the contestants on this season’s
Food Network Star, and of course the next day my #1 (Eric) was voted off. So obviously that didn't work out. However, we now have a
better idea of what each potential star is about, so I feel much more confident
in my updated rankings:
1)
Justin (previous rank #5) – the obvious favorite
at this point, Mrs. went as far as to predict he’ll end up with a show even if
he loses. He’s creative, has
personality, can cook and it’s his to lose.
Of course this almost assures he’ll be voted off tonight.
2)
Emily (previous rank #4) – like Justin she combines
creativity and personality (Team Alton is rocking with Justin and Emily). I’m still not completely sold on her “Retro
Rad” thing, but she’s a solid #2 at this point.
3)
Martita (previous rank #7) – it gets a bit
murkier starting here, but I’m going with Martita despite a few missteps by
her. She looks like she’d be good on
camera and has some spunk. The only
question is whether her point of view is unique enough.
4)
Michele (previous rank #6) – I could be talked
into switching her and Martita because Michele has been strong lately. We know she can cook, so the only question is
do people want to watch a show starring her?
5)
Ippy (previous rank #3) – I might have been a
little too optimistic last time with Ippy, but I still think there’s
potential. He might just be too young
and a too laid back. We’ll see how far
he can ride this Hawaiian thing.
6)
Martie (previous rank #11) – I was too down on
Martie in the last rankings, as it does seem like the judges like her. I myself don’t think I’d watch her show, so
she remains towards the bottom.
7)
Nikki (previous rank #2) – I had her too high,
but now I fear she’s too low. She keeps
ending up towards the bottom, but then does well in the pitch room. She’s got a clear idea that the judges embrace,
but for whatever reason she just annoys me. She's the wildcard right now.
8)
Yvan (previous rank #8) – the biggest problem
for Yvan is that he doesn’t seem genuine at all. It’s like he’s trying to say what the judges
want to hear and making stories up if he has to. I can’t put my finger on it, but he grates on
me. I don’t like his chances.
9)
Malcolm (previous rank #10) – best way to not
win: being boring. Six weeks in and Malcolm’s done nothing of
note. I could see him continuing to lay
low and make it a few more weeks, but I don’t see him standing a chance to win.
The Killing
And now on to the finale of (the frustratingly
disappointing) Season 2 of The Killing, where we finally discover who killed
Rosie Larsen. I’ll avoid any major
spoilers in this post (such as revealing the killer). The quick version of my review of the season
is that is sucked and I wished I had never watched the show. But the long version is a little more
complicated.
Season 1 of The Killing started off promising, but quickly
became repetitive and slow. And then it
infuriated me and Mrs. by not revealing the killer in the finale (which was
strongly implied in all of the ads). So
then we had to decide whether to invest (or waste) our time in another 13
episodes of a show that wasn’t that great to begin with. We decided to go for it, mostly to find out
who the killer was, but also in hope that some of the Season 1 problems would
be fixed. We ended up disappointed
again.
So back to the finale (and Season 2 as a whole). The finale itself was actually a reasonably strong
episode. Mrs. in particular liked the
twist they threw at us towards the end (and for my part I agree). Another part I enjoyed was the
flashback scenes where we finally see Rosie involved in the action – at home before
she runs away, at the casino before the attack, and then running from her
attacker in the woods (which we saw in the Season 1 premiere). Since the decision was made to do flashback
scenes, I don’t know why we didn’t get more of them throughout the 26
episodes. It could have gone a long way
to making the viewer care about Rosie and helped fill in some of the gaps of
both Holder and Linden’s lives. Since
there was really no mystery that the viewers could try to solve (I never got
the idea that the viewers were presented with clues to help solve who killed
Rosie) the flashbacks could even have been used to show the viewer things that
the cops don’t know and then we could watch them working to catch up. I should also say that the atmosphere of the
show was good and most of the acting was high quality (I particularly liked the
character of Holder and the actor portraying him). That's the good, but now onto the bad.
The Killing wasn’t a terrible show and like I wrote, the
finale was one of the better episodes. The
problem was that the show aspired to be great (in the AMC tradition of Mad Men
and Breaking Bad), but never came close to that. The idea of doing a cop show where an entire
season (or in this case two seasons) revolves around one case had a lot of
potential. The show could then take its
time to develop the characters, both the cops and the victims. But instead the viewer was subjected to
episode after episode where we learn nothing about the characters and are
instead just presented with potential suspects who are then ruled out by the
end of the episode. Why not introduce
the character and then keep the mystery around for several episodes or the
entire season so that the viewers are kept guessing? It felt like we wasted so much time on minor
characters who had nothing to do with the story. The show wanted to be different from a
typical network police drama (such as Law and Order where the crime is wrapped
up each episode), but instead the writers/directors/producers resorted to
misleading viewers with false suspects, clichéd dialogue and situations that left a ton of holes that made no sense (was there a government conspiracy?).
With a show like this I think you need to have the entire season planned
from the beginning for it to work, and I get the feeling that those in charge
instead made it up as they went along, which resulted in a series that failed
to live up to expectations.
I could go on and on, but I’ll just conclude by saying that
the finale wasn’t bad and at least we have an answer to who killed Rosie. After two seasons and a ton of frustration over
a show that could have been so much better with a few changes, I’m fairly
confident we won’t be back for Season 3 (if there is a Season 3 and it seems
less than likely). And
knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I would have ever started watching the
show. I’m leaning towards no.
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