Food Truck Wars.
Whatever possessed the girls to go along with “Balls on a Roll?” That has to be the most idiotic name ever.
Vic and Jyll work well together. Too bad they don’t do that next week (based on the previews. It looks like Jyll gets schooled by Wolfgang Puck).
Penny still needs to fall into a buffalo chopper.
Penny must go. I don’t care if she’s the best cook ever. Can’t stand her.
Maybe Jeff’s truck could have been called: Great Balls on Tires?
No? Ah, well. Can’t win them ball.
I missed everything but the elimination last night. Based on the recap on the website, I gotta ask WTF is up with the judges and Penny’s behavior. She acts like, well, herself right in front of all the judges and it’s still no problem? The recap doesn’t show Giada’s lecture about FN being a “family” that was shown in the teaser last week, but I suspect that was a general admonishment to Penny and Mary Beth together or to the whole group, instead of a rebuke to the actual source of the problem. In which case, I believe most of Giada’s dishes are smarter than she is.*
FN obviously believes their viewers tune in to see trainwrecks, instead of for the food porn. Hell, maybe they’re right. That’s depressing.
*Or at least better managers. I mean, they’re no ham sandwiches sure, but the bar’s pretty damn low here.
Well, their theme was “Meatballs”… kinda makes you wonder what was wrong with that for a truck name.
Of the bottom three, I knew Orchid would be going. Funny how she seemed like she would go to the top 5 at least in the first couple of weeks but how in the world did Chris not be the loser from his group? He’s a D-bag and his food stunk. I wonder if they didn’t want to eliminate another guy as there are only a few left.
Well, I just watched episode 6 On Demand, and I almost wish I hadn’t. The forcing is getting worse, as is the maneuvering of the judges. Judging has become like a rationalization contest to see who can perform the most impressive grabs and reaches to justify each week’s foregone conclusion.
I agree that Orchid didn’t grab the spotlight effectively, and I’m willing to believe her dish was too sour & bitter. I’ll even go so far as to say her elimination was a fair decision; she’s a Southern cook with a Filipino heritage who followed a failed brisket in the previous ep with the badly done pork adobo this week. What I didn’t enjoy was the heavy handed forcing of the “wallflower being overshadowed” narrative. Yeah, there’s essential truth there, but it’s a small truth made into an essential character flaw by editorial exaggeration.
Worse is the continuance of the Chris-is-an-enthusiastic-manboy-with-potential narrative, which has only a miniscule kernel of truth, if that. No sane impartial observer would’ve selected Mary Beth as the worst performance in that group. MB delivered a passable but “bland” dish (and I have my doubts about the truthfulness of that criticism) and a great sales performance to keep people in line. While Chris perpetrated butter poached lobster tail molecules hidden inside cream cheese within a plain wrap? (Is this the Hot Pockets® version of a lobster roll? WTF?) Leads me to conclude the judges aren’t interested so much in merit (having selected the eventual winner by this point) and just want to punch up the reality show aspects.
So they’re preserving Chris and placing MB in faux peril so they can prolong the Penny Dreadful storyline and strengthen the rivalry there. Feeds my conviction that they’re trying to make Survivor Food Network instead of the cooking show competition the show started out as.
So let’s look at Whitney, the third forced narrative victim here. I don’t really like W much, and I’m not intrigued by her cooking, but am I the only one sort of sickened by the schizophrenic directions from Bob and Giada? Seriously, you’re pissed that she did exactly what you told her to do in episodes 1 through 4? Beat her up over the awful falafels as much as you want, that’s fair. But don’t pull this ‘you can’t win for losing’, ‘don’t be an A student’ garbage – especially after praising her application of your ‘lighten up’ counselling last week.
Looks to me like Susie will be the next one jerked around, just because she’s shown a very small weakness in the communication to the judges (food professionals who really didn’t need exposition) of her otherwise well received offering. Next week, she’ll either “overexplain”/“oversell” or she’ll be “unable to be her own advocate”. (I’m guessing the second scenario.)
Vic did good on his own, but they’re still forcing that narrative too. He’s not that charming, and “Phillyritos” aren’t suddenly inspired cuisine. Really. (Not that I wouldn’t enjoy one right now.) Teaser for next week intimates another foot shooting incident from Vic, which I’m sure he’ll survive, being such a cuddly bear and all. (Did you know that Giada was intimidated by him at first, but then found that he’s just a sweetheart underneath? I don’t know if she mentioned that in episode 6; she may have forgotten. Don’t worry, she’ll tell you about it again next week.)
Jeff is tiring. I’m sure his flaws could be helped by a good producer, but I wonder why the judges aren’t beating him up for an exaggerated persona? Maybe they think he’s genuinely an unruly showboating asshole?
Jyll somehow escaped criticism for being overly slick and controlled. She seems to have accomplished this escape by not changing anything about her performance and letting the judges’ internal pendulums swing back toward her. Don’t worry Jyll, they’ll hate you again soon.
Did I leave anyone out? Oh- the Penbot. So she served filet mignon in a Greek salad wrap with her standard spice mix and everyone liked it. But Chris egged on a fight between P and MB, and MB managed to make herself look petty about the “four red onions” she chopped. Penny then showed her brilliance and poise by imitating a wildcat, in lieu of an articulate argument that she’s been persecuted by the other women contestants. I’m sure though that the bland suggestion to “get along with others behind the scenes” will help her work through these issues. (Great work there, Judge Giada.)
What sort of person does “Vic Vegas” appeal to? The vibe I get when he comes on screen is “I am a complete and total phony.” He gives himself a self-created nickname (phony) which is incidentally from the phoniest city on earth, he’s got the shaved head and he’s all tatted up, but the tattoos are so nerfed and non-threatening that they look like what a middle school girl would doodle in her notebook at lunch. He reminds me of a youth pastor, the epitome of the fake-cool look.
The thing is, he can cook a little bit. I just don’t see how his schtick would appeal to an audience on the Food Network.