Welcome to Last Night on TV, our daily column that looks back at what happened on television the night before. If we’re going to stay up all night and watch TV, we might as well talk about it the next day.
Last night on TV, Christopher talks Top Chef and Portlandia, while Alisha catches up with Wednesday night’s Supernatural.
Top Chef
Christopher Campbell: Let’s take a moment to mourn the loss of the greatest, most interesting cheftestant of this season. Maybe Kwame isn’t the “Top Chef” among these people, but in my heart he was the “Top Top Chef Cast Member.” Every single week, he’s had something more fascinating to add about his back story. And he may have had the classiest goodbye statement to the judges ever on this show. Of course, Tom was right, he has accomplished a lot in four years, and he will continue to be impressive. Even if he’s never a renowned chef, he’s a remarkable guy. And chef. I’m going to miss him a lot during the time until he (better) returns for Top Chef All-Stars.
Well, Marjorie’s hopes panned out. Kwame probably would have done just as badly without having Phillip assigned to him as a sous chef, though. I think he got penalized more than was being let on for not making his own waffles. Otherwise, Jeremy surely would have been out. Then again, it was difficult to read the true interests of the judges this week. They seemed a whole lot more critical of Jeremy and his unfocused “Taco Dudes” idea. But it’s always hard to get a good read on the judges when the challenge isn’t totally about the taste of the food. This was about business ideas, as well, and frankly I personally kind of hated everyone’s concept anyway.
So, the loser was a big surprise in the end, and so was the winner. Who could foresee that no-wins Carl was going to take this contest of Fast-Casual creativity? The one the judges discussed most favorably as far as the food and the idea was concerned was Marjorie’s “Pasta Mama.” I thought guest judge Adam Fleischmann was going to hand her an investment right on the spot to help create the brand for real. I guess it was just a lot of red herrings. Meanwhile, the episode was so lacking in flavor as it played out, without drama or big obstacles in the prep and cooking section that, until the end reveals, it was one of the most boring I’ve ever seen.
The tone was flat from the start with a Chinese food Quickfire Challenge that had judge Martin Yan offering the most bland and vague and ambivalent comments about the dishes that he seemed barely invested in his guest appearance. But the show couldn’t have scrapped it and reshot another more exciting opening, because they just had to go and follow an episode titled “Hammer Time” with one titled “Wok This Way.” Surprisingly none of these were used for next week: “Lettuce Wrappers Delight,” “Fight the Flour,” “Rump Roast Shaker,” “No Kwame Mo Problems” and the very California-appropriate “Straight Outta Consommé.”
Supernatural
Alisha Grauso: Eleven seasons in, Supernatural shows why it continues to go strong year after year, long past the point where most series would have completely jumped the shark. It’s strength is that it’s not ever truly been story-driven, but character-driven, and the writers still find ways to continually surprise us with what the characters do, to plumb their depths and give us new facets to their personalities that resonates.
Wednesday night’s episode, “Beyond the Mat,” chased down two storylines, the first being Sam and Dean heading to a traveling wrestling show after Dean finally admitted to Sam that he was burned out and needed a break. It was a nostalgic trip for Dean, who looked back fondly on the times their dad brought them to a wrestling show. For Sam, not so much. But when he made a snarky comment about remembering their dad’s beer consumption, Dean immediately snapped at him: “Could you please try not to ruin one of the few nice things Dad ever did for us?” It was a rare moment of vulnerability from the normally flippant Dean, and gave us a glimpse of just how close to his breaking point he is.
The second storyline finally gave fans what we’ve been waiting for ever since the series returned from its midseason hiatus: Crowley. More specifically, the real Crowley, King of Hell and scheming, diabolical trickster, able to weasel his way out of any bad situation, not the whipped, degraded “puppy” in chains at Lucifer’s bidding that we’ve gotten in the last handful of episodes. The moment that Crowley dropped the cowering sycophant act and I realized he’d been pretending the entire time legitimately made me want to cheer: “You really think you could double cross me? ME? I perfected the double cross. Like, literally.” That’s the Crowley we know, and oh man, was it a fun moment.
The only questionable aspect of the episode was that, once again, the Darkness storyline seemed to be mostly put on the back burner for a standalone episode, but I’m not complaining. Amara hasn’t been particularly compelling as the big bad of this season. It’s been much more fun watching Sam and Dean getting back to their roots, Castiel and Lucifer (a.k.a. Casifer) battle for control of one body, and Crowley scheme to get back to the top of Hell’s food chain. The fun in Supernatural is very rarely the big bad, but when the Winchesters are forced to team up with lesser enemies in order to defeat them. At the moment, I’m envisioning a season ending showdown of the Winchesters, Lucifer, Crowley, and Rowena all teaming up to take down the Darkness. Expect double and triple crossings and strategic alliances to abound. It will be glorious.
Portlandia
Christopher Campbell: “Sand in the pone, dry as a bone.” That’s all I really have to say this week. And I can’t stop saying it. Actually, this week’s episode was full of repeatable goodness. “TADA!” And, here in full: “Jack, Jack, he goes about, he mines all he can; he picks away at rocks and stone, he is a mining man.” Also, some memorable and repeatable facial expressions that of course can’t be replicated in words, here. Most of them came from Carrie’s cab driver, though. All of the disabled extras in their group meeting were also wonderful in their reactions to all the nonsense from Kath and Dave.
That said, the episode (“TADA”) wasn’t perfect. As brilliant as some sketches were, particularly the look at what we’ve done to cab companies with our preference for Uber and such, there was at least one that was quite weak. The silent retreat bit was a little longer than its one-note idea could handle. Ironically, it left me silent. I also didn’t love the opening with the science lab furniture for men, at least not in its concept. The delivery was great, at least. Also, I grew up with a barber’s chair in the living room of my dad’s house (meanwhile, his couch was a very uncomfortable church pew), so I feel so marginalized now. TADA!
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