By KERRI FLEMING
Friday, May 24, 2013
It's that time of year, where we relegate evil Chef Ramsay to the drawn-out cliffhangerfest that is Hell's Kitchen and welcome the warm and cuddly Gordon of MasterChef. For a show that is not nearly the phenomenon of other Ramsay reality shows, I have to say that MasterChef is one of my favorites and I'm eager for Junior MasterChef later this summer. But I digress. As is often the case, the first episode was a series of auditions, with home chefs good (ancho chile tostada!), mediocre
By Kerri Fleming
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Meet Chef Grant Banks, solver of all of life's problems. Except poorly cooked meat. It was a rough night for the manly men of Hell's Kitchen. The double episode saw not one, not two, but THREE members of the blue team get eliminated, not to mention yet another challenge loss (eight out of nine total). The three remaining guys better figure something out quick if they're going to prevent someone like Nedra or Susan from making the final leg, and I'm guessing that something is not
By KERRI FLEMING
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
The man...the myth...the legend...the Cochran As a former unpopular high school nerd who spends her free time watching and then writing about reality shows, you might say that I feel a connection with famed Survivor superfan Cochran, who spent his teen years watching Jeff Probst with his parents while wearing his own official buff, who wrote a paper in law school about the show, who drops references to Colby Donaldson and Rob Mariano the way Dennis Miller drops 1960s pop culture references in a football game.
By KERRI FLEMING
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Adorable, with still the glint of unstable craziness in his eyes. After three straight episodes, you can stop holding your breath and get back to holding your breath because, ladies and gents, IT'S BACK. It's hard to believe that we've been able to survive three episodes in a row of Hell's Kitchen without the trusty TO BE CONTINUED..., but we persevered and now, look at us. Rewarded for all our patience. And good thing we have that patience because our reward is going to require a
By KERRI FLEMING
Thursday, May 9, 2013
And it's official: the Battaglia brothers did to their Amazing Race competition what Bates did to then-Senator, now-Bruin Wade Redden (sorry, Wade) and completely smashed them in the face. Kudos to the producers for attempting to make the final four, and then the final three, as even as possible with the help of limited flight options, and kudos to the good-natured brothers for still making the run to the finish line completely undramatic. It's nice to see a likeable team win and I can't wait
By KERRI FLEMING
Sunday, May 5, 2013
By keeping its number of medevac victims and quitters comparatively low this season, Survivor was faced with too many remaining contestants and too few episodes left. Which means we get the always enjoyable double episode - complete with two Immunity Challenges, two scrambles for votes and threats of blindsides at camp and two Tribal Councils. It was double pleasure, double fun and double shirtless Cochran. And it's not even my birthday! After Malcolm was eliminated last week, Reynold and Eddie returned to camp knowing they
By KERRI FLEMING
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
It's Steak Night at Hell's Kitchen and you know what that means: undercooked meat and awkward dissections of fairly intact animal carcasses. Yum! After last week, Barret was thankful he was still around and did all the right things: He vowed to be better. He accepted his teammates' criticisms and peptalks. He shaved his head, playing Don Mattingly to Gordon Ramsay's Mr. Burns. He was ready to rock. The women, meanwhile, were confident - rightfully so - and bordering on cocky. Sideburns Magoo and Old Man Ray
By KERRI FLEMING
Sunday, April 28, 2013
And so we have our final four teams going into next week's two-hour season finale of the Amazing Race: the self-anointed sexy six of Max, Katie, Bates, Anthony, Caroline and Jennifer and tough-as-nails roller derby moms Mona and Beth. Will Fiona Grapple and co. be able to bounce back from an hours-long deficit? Will Max and Katie continue their run of first-place finishes right up until the end? Will Bates and/or Anthony FINALLY get somewhere with Caroline and/or Jennifer? Before we get there, we have to
By Kerri Fleming
Saturday, April 27, 2013
"I am the greatest challenge competitor in Survivor: Caramoan. There's no debate. If you look at the scoreboard, I'm demolishing everybody." - John Cochran Is Cochran's performance this season one of the greatest of all time? I suppose it all depends. Others have been slightly more dominant in challenges (I know, hard to believe) - I'm thinking of Tom Westman and even Malcolm's performance from last season. Others have been more obviously strategic (Boston Rob, Coach from last year). Others have been more social, of course.
By KERRI FLEMING
Friday, April 26, 2013
If you're a Western Massachusetts Hell's Kitchen fan with ears and eyes, this might have been the greatest episode of Gordon Ramsay's funhouse yet. First, you had the pride of Belchertown, Mary Poehnelt, bounce back from some dicey services to completely dominate not one but TWO kitchens' meat stations. DO NOT MESS WITH THIS WOMAN AND HER MEAT-COOKING ABILITIES. She is trained with very sharp knives. Secondly, we said good-bye to the world's least sympathetic team punching bag, Dan, whose poutiness and inability to stick pizzas
