Author: Shane

Hell’s Kitchen Season 5 Episode 11

Giovanni was sent home in Hell’s Kitchen 5 Episode 10, although I’m still not sure why. After that was done, Ramsay pretended to shut down Hell’s Kitchen. Yeah, we really believed that.

They’re all going to Atlantic City. Yeah, he really left us with a cliffhanger that lame. They are all taken to the Borgata via private jet. This is the resort that will become home to the winner’s own restaurant. They’re having a great day seeing the space for the winner’s restaurant and getting spa treatment and a dip in the pool.

Then they get a fancy dinner. About 10 minutes through dinner, Robert gets up and seeks medical attention. His blood pressure is 160/100. He’s instructed to go to the hospital. The ambulance drives him off, although the other contestants have no idea anything’s even wrong. He calls Ben to let him know. They’re not sure what’s wrong. It may have been a heart attack.

The remaining chefs all return to Hell’s Kitchen, minus Robert. After a couple days without any word on Robert’s progress, Ramsay calls them for a meeting. Robert is back, but he’s not feeling well. He has periocarditus, which is a swelling around the sack that leads to heart disease. He will not be returning to the competition. This is the type of scene I’d expect from The Biggest Loser, rather than a cooking competition, although it’s not entirely surprising to see a chef this overweight. That said, hopefully Robert uses this as a wake up call to drop the weight.

The show must go on. The challenge is for the chefs to prepare what would be their signature dish at their restaurant. They can use any ingredients they want from the kitchen.

Danny: pan-seared sea scallop with citrus basil champagne sauce, not the most creative dish in terms of presentation but delivers in taste
Andrea: green tea crusted tuna, delicious and goes very well together
Paula: smoke salmon seviche, delicious with perfect seasoning
Ben: pan-roasted tiger prawns, pretty dish but definitely not safe

Andrea is the winner, which means she’s in the final three. Oh, now that’s just ridiculous.

That night, the final four will have to work together on a service, which hopefully will be better than the final six service was.

Danny is told his food is very nice.

Andrea’s scallops are raw. Yet she’s safe tonight. She doesn’t like to cook on high because the kitchen’s too hot. Her next attempt is rubber scallops.

Ben’s struggling to keep up. When he delivers his dish, it’s cold.

Paula’s food is ready, but she’s waiting for Andrea’s fish to be finished. Ramsay basically tells her to go ahead and let Andrea fall on her face.

Ben continues to fall apart. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s slowly but surely accepting that he can’t please Ramsay.

Andrea’s raw salmon has been returned.

Ben has finally woke up. As for Andrea, she’s still asleep, so Danny has to give her a hand on the fish. Yet she’s still delivering raw fish. Perhaps if Paula helps her, too.

As a team, they’ll need to pick two people to nominate. Can they pick Andrea? They all want to pick the other two and not themselves. So Andrea’s the tie breaker.

Ben is the first nominee due to his performance. Paula is the second nominee due to lack of communication.

Paula can get back in line. Andrea can now step forward. She couldn’t handle her station, and she sunk Ben in the process. Nonetheless, she’s still safe. Because someone already went home and Ben’s performance was not as bad as Andrea’s, Ben will get one last chance.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Hell’s Kitchen Season 5 Episode 12, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on Fox.

Survivor: Tocantins Episode 9

His infection from the prior episode got progressively worse, and Joe was ultimately eliminated for medical reasons in Survivor: Tocantins Episode 8, making all the post-merge scheming moot.

Coach wants the others to know that, no matter how bad things may seem, they could always get worse. Well, isn’t he just a ray of sunshine? He tells a story about how some people tried to kill him. Or something.

Coach is doing some exercises that he claims to have gotten from some ancient tribe or something. Sierra says he looks hilarious. He responds that he doesn’t care what anybody says. Then he tells us that she has to go because she made fun of him.

Erinn tells JT she likes their tribe more than she likes her own.

In the challenge, teams of three will toss metal balls trying to break tiles from the other teams. The winning team will be taken white water rafting and then get a picnic.

Black team: Debbie, Brendan, JT
Red team: Tyson, Taj, Coach
White team: Stephen, Sierra, Erinn

In the first round, Debbie takes out a red tile, while Stephen and Coach both hit black. Brendan breaks a white tile, Sierra breaks a red tile, and Tyson misses black. Then we fast forward and skip past most of the rest of the challenge. Red has one tile left, while the other two teams have two. Coach takes out a black tile. Erinn knocks out the red team. Brendan takes out a white tile, leaving one left for black and white. Erinn and JT both miss. Debbie and Stephen both miss. Sierra misses, and Brendan only chips the white tile. JT misses, and Erinn chips the black tile. Now down to two broken tiles left. Stephen and Debbie both miss. Sierra misses as Coach knocks out the final white tile. Black team wins reward. Stephen will be going to Exile Island alone.

Stephen knows he won’t be finding an idol, so he can focus on creating fire, which he’s failed to do despite having been out there for a few weeks already. As darkness comes, he manages to make fire for the first time.

JT’s surprised to find himself enjoying Brendan’s company. Brendan has a couple ideas how they can advance in this game. He knows JT would beat him if they go against each other in the end, but he claims he wouldn’t mind that. He might change his mind when it comes to a difference of $900,000.

The next morning, Brendan tells Sierra that they should keep JT around. She agrees that she’d like to keep JT around, so they can take out Coach and Tyson. She’s okay with this idea, then he approaches his one time ally Taj. Taj is fine with this. That tribe can try to knock out each other if they want.

At the immunity challenge, each player will be tied to a rope threaded through a series of obstacles. The first three to move on will work their way through another obstacle that’s three levels high. Taj and Stephen are out of it. Tyson and JT are the first to get to the second obstacle. They are the first ones to the final obstacle as well. Brendan and Sierra are in third and fourth and will be battling for the final spot. JT finishes first. Tyson is close behind him. Brendan finishes third. Brendan catches up to the others and manages to take the lead. JT falls behind as Tyson chases Brendan and retakes the lead. Tyson wins immunity.

Coach wants to take out Brendan, and Brendan wants to take out Coach. One of them will get their way.

JT and Stephen now have a decision to make. Which side do they want to flip to?

As for Coach and Brendan, they’re pretending to each others’ faces that they’ll vote out JT.

At tribal council, Coach continues to tell about how he almost died. A lot of times. Everybody points out that JT’s probably the biggest threat in the game. Taj doesn’t have an idol. Erinn doesn’t have an idol. Stephen doesn’t have an idol. Brendan willingly acknowledges he does have one, though.

Votes
Coach
Coach
Brendan
Brendan
Brendan
Sierra
Sierra
Sierra
Brendan

With 4 votes, Brendan has been eliminated. As smart moves go, that was not one. Brendan sealed his own fate, though. He shouldn’t have let his potentially game changing alliance simmer like that.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Tocantins episode 10, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Amazing Race 15

CBS has ordered season 15 of the six-time Emmy Award-winning reality series THE AMAZING RACE, hosted by Phil Keoghan, for broadcast during the 2009-2010 season.

The Amazing Race 14 is currently averaging 10.94 million viewers, 3.4/08 in adults 18-49 and 4.3/10 in adults 25-54, winning its time period in all these measures in four of its last five broadcasts.

American Idol Season 8 Episode 30

The top 7 sang in American Idol 8 Episode 29, and now one more will go home.

Allison Iraheta is safe.

Adam Lambert is safe.

Anoop Desai returns to the bottom three again. Paula’s a little surprised to see Anoop in the bottom, but Simon thinks he deserves to be there.

Kris Allen and Lil Rounds stand up. Simon and Paula thought Kris was brilliant last night. From what I understand, Lil argued with the judges last night. If only my Tivo didn’t cut out due to the producers’ incompetence (or if they offered episodes to watch online and/or stopped considering every single clip that even mentions this show to be copyright infringement), I’d actually be able to see that for myself. Kris is safe. Lil joins the bottom three.

That brings us down to Matt Giraud and Danny Gokey. Danny is safe. Matt is the last one to join the bottom three.

Kara believes this is the correct bottom three. Paula agrees. I think.

Anoop is safe.

That brings us down to Matt or Lil.

Before we find out who is eliminated, Miley Cyrus is doing another promotion for the Hannah Montana movie. I suppose I’ll watch this, unlike when I fast forwarded past the chick who considered American Idol to be nothing but a stepping stone.

Simon thinks he would consider saving one of these people, and it might be a surprise to that person.

Lil is safe. Matt Giraud has been eliminated. Simon doesn’t see him having any chance of winning the competition. He’s correct. Nonetheless, they will be using their only save on him. They’re going to regret that in a week or two.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of American Idol Season 8 episode 31, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.

Lost Season 5 Episode 13

Lost Season 5 Episode 12 was the story of Ben (a lot of Bens). It all led up to him being judged for his daughter’s death and being told by “the monster” to do whatever John Locke tells him to do.

Now it’s Miles’ turn, starting off when he was a little boy. He could already see dead people.

Sawyer wants Miles to accidentally erase security tapes from the feeds that are watching him and Kate. If anyone asks, he’s looking for an escaped hostile, his pal Sayid.

Since Lafleur’s off the grid, Miles will have to be brought into the circle. Horace instructs him to go to hostile territory and exchange something with Radzinsky, without asking questions. When he arrives, he sees a body. The guy has a bullet hole in his head. He fell into a ditch. Once alone with the dead guy, he can ask him what really happened.

Miles goes to see his mom on her deathbed. Why is he that way? What about his father? He’s dead. His body is somewhere he could never go.

Miles will be bringing the package (aka the corpse) out to Dr. Chang at the Orchid. Hurley wants to go for a ride.

Roger arrives to find that his son Ben has disappeared.

On the ride over, Hurley smells something not quite right. Yeah, it’s probably the dead guy in the back of the van. Miles tells the story of Alvarez, who had a filling yanked out of his mouth and right through his head. Then he was dead. Naturally, Hurley assumes this must mean that Miles can talk to dead people.

Naomi meets Miles while he’s on a gig. Her employer is interested in retaining his services.

Miles has managed to locate his father after all. It’s Dr. Chang.

Naomi knows that, for the right price, this is exactly his thing. The dead body leads him to find out about empty graves and a purchase order for an old airplane. She’ll be heading to an island, and she wants Miles to go with her. He’ll pass… until he finds out the fee is $1.6 million.

Roger’s beginning to think Kate has something to do with all this, since she said that his son is going to be okay.

Dr. Chang can’t tell anybody what he does there. Not even his wife or his son, who’s only three months old and happens to also be named Miles.

They go somewhere, and Hurley knows what’s going on. They’re building the hatch. The one that crashed the plane.

Back on the mainland, Bram pays Miles a visit and wants to talk him out of working for Charles Widmore. He’ll not go. If they pay him. They won’t be paying him, though, and they won’t give him a new fish taco either.

Hurley says that perhaps now is an opportunity for Miles to get to know his father. Miles doesn’t want to hang out with his dad. And stuff. As for Hurley, he’s writing Empire Strikes Back. He’ll be sending it to George Lucas.

For all their trying to cover their tracks, it seems Sawyer was seen taking the kid anyway. Looks like now they’ll need to be holding a hostage.

Hurley says that, if Miles doesn’t just communicate with his father, he’ll end up like Luke Skywalker, destroying a deathstar and being overrun by ewoks.

Miles sees that his dad did, indeed, spend some time with him. At least he tried when he was three months old anyway.

Then he and his dad head to the docks, reuniting him with Faraday.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Lost Season 5 Episode 14 The Variable, which airs Wednesday at 9/8c on ABC.

American Idol Season 8 Episode 29

Scott MacIntyre was voted out in American Idol 8 Episode 28, and now we’re down to the top 7.

Tonight is movie night, and the contestants will be guided by Quentin Tarantino. What does he know about music?

Allison Iraheta
Song: I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith from Armageddon
Paula: Same special sauce as Adam Lambert. Authentic.
Simon: The girls’ only hope left in the competition.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-01

Anoop Desai
Song: Everything I Do I Do for You by Bryan Adams from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Randy: Found your zone. Rocking the house.
Kara: Found your place: pop songs with soul. Probably one of his best vocals.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-02

Due to the incompetent production last week, they’ve decided to reduce the judges’ comments to two per song. Surely they could have come up with a plan that detracted less from the show. You’d think they would want to let Simon speak more since they’re paying him $29 million a year. I’d rather see them just not have Quentin.

Adam Lambert
Song: Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf from Easy Rider
Paula: Dare to dance in the path of greatness. One of the bravest contestants ever.
Simon: Incredible vocally. A little like watching Rocky Horror in parts. Won’t be as popular as last week’s.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-03

Matt Giraud
Song: Have You Ever Loved a Woman by Bryan Adams from Don Juan DeMarco (playing piano)
Randy: Started out kinda cool but a little rough toward the middle. Tried to do too much. Fell down more places than you won.
Kara: Took away some of the core melodies that made the song so great.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-04

Danny Gokey
Song: Endless Love by Lionel Richie from Endless Love
Paula: Pulled together from midway to the end. Beautiful rendition.
Simon: Brilliant singer. But a disappointing traditional version.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-05

Kris Allen
Song: Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from Once
Randy: Never quite caught on for me. Pitchy from note one.
Kara: Difficult to pick an obscure song like that, but one of your best moments ever.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-06

Lil Rounds
Song: The Rose by Bette Midler from The Rose
Paula: Blah blah blah.
Simon: Getting this completely wrong. Too soft for you. Too middle of the road. Some nice moments. No excuses any more. Not the artist we met at first.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of American Idol Season 8 episode 30, which airs Wednesday at 9/8c on Fox.

The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 15

Having won the temptation, Laura was given the sole vote in The Biggest Loser Couples 2 Episode 14. With it, she voted out Sione.

Filipe’s sick of seeing finales and watching Jillian win. Mostly because he hates her.

When they get to the challenge, they know they’re in trouble. Each player will cross 700 feet suspended above a canyon up to 110 feet in the air. The winner will receive a $25,000 kitchen makeover and a restocked fridge (apparently, the restocked fridge was worth mentioning). Ron calls it quits within about two seconds. Tara’s the first one to fall off, allowing Filipe to take a large lead. Tara finally recovers and retakes second place from Mike. She’s slowly getting the hang of things and starts catching up to Filipe, still a blue shirt she’s chasing just a different person wearing that blue shirt than usual. As they approach the finish line, Tara takes the lead. Tara wins the challenge in 9:14. Filipe’s a quitter and doesn’t bother finishing despite only having about 20 feet left to go. The others want to reach the end, though.

Tara’s not the only one getting a makeover. Everybody will be since this is makeover week. They’re greeted by Tim Gunn when they arrive at Macy’s, and for some reason they’re surprised by this. They’ll be dressing for a Hollywood movie premiere.

Mike will be okay as long as he doesn’t have to wear pink. Tara is reluctantly okay with the suggestion of showing a little more skin. Helen doesn’t remember the last time she got dressed up to go out. They all receive a $1,000 gift card in their bags. Once they’re done shopping, they go to Warren-Tricomi Salon in LA to get their hair done. The stylists want to get them out of their old habits.

When they arrive at the movie premiere, the contestants are surprised to see their families waiting for them. Helen feels beautiful for the first time in a long time. Tara is happy to see that her mom has been inspired by her, as her mother has lost 40 pounds. Tara’s gone blonder, while Laura’s gone red. Ron’s freshly shaved for the first time since his wife has known him. Their other son Max will hopefully be inspired by their success, as he’s got a few hundred pounds to drop at age 17. Mike promises they’ll help him out when they get back home.

The movie they’re watching is The Biggest Loser Movie. Not exactly what you would call a Hollywood movie premiere, but it’s nice for them to see their journey so far.

As much fun as they’ve had this week, they haven’t had a lot of time to get in workouts.

Jillian has a weird feeling about Laura, so she sends her to the doctor to check out her hip. She has a very early stress fracture, the most severe sports related they’ve ever seen on this show. If it gets worse, she’ll have to go into surgery. The doctor rules out anything that causes pain. She won’t be able to run for three months, and any other significant calorie burning exercise is probably out.

The final 7 have lost 765 pounds so far.

Mike: 243 pounds (-5, 2.02%), a new record

Ron: 302 pounds (-6, 1.95%)

Tara: 182 pounds (-4, 2.15%)

Filipe: 247 pounds (-5, 1.98%)

Helen: 162 pounds (-7, 4.14%)

Kristin: 243 pounds (-2, 0.82%)

Laura: 208 pounds (+3, 1.46%)

Kristin and Laura, who’s not even allowed to walk up to the scale, are below the yellow line. While voting out Kristin would make the most strategic sense, I’d assume the contestants will make the humane decision and vote out Laura. This close to the finish line, though, that makes a lot less sense than going with strategy. Despite the injury, Laura asks the others to vote as if she were not injured. Kristin knows she’s a bigger threat and begs the others to not vote her out because of that.

Votes
Tara: Kristin
Ron: Laura
Mike: Laura
Helen: Kristin
Filipe: Laura

With three votes, Laura has been eliminated. Despite her very slow start as the weakest link, Laura was doing well until her injury. She will be going home with the care of The Biggest Loser doctors. She meets with the doctor again and sees that everything is going in the right direction. She’s also working with a physical therapist. Laura is down from her starting weight of 285 pounds to 208 pounds today.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 7 Episode 16, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Tudors Renewed… and Cancelled

Showtime has renewed The Tudors for season 4, which will also be its last season. The final season will consist of 10 one-hour episodes and will begin airing in spring 2010.

“I’m thrilled to complete the saga of Henry VIII as reconceived by Michael Hirst. He and Jonathan Rhys Meyers have breathed new life into the costume drama by making it both modern in sensibility but also faithful to history. I think we proved that even after 500 years this is a great story,” said Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment for Showtime.