TeleChimp

‘Project Runway’ needs a little something to “make it work” again, and the fashion competition would benefit from taking a page from the ‘American Idol’ book by shaking up its judges panel. (Sorry, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors, but where are the fireworks?)

All the ‘American Idol’ speculation has created even more buzz around the show. That’s one benefit, but hopefully new judges will also take the show to a whole new entertainment level.

And ‘Idol’ is not alone when it comes to reality shows that have gotten stale. Far from it, actually. From ‘Project Runway’ to various dance competitions, here are six shows that could use some new blood.

1. Project Runway
Be honest, have you kept up with this once mega-popular show after it moved to Lifetime? Thought so. A move to Los Angeles didn’t inject any life into this flailing fashion competition, but maybe getting rid of Nina Garcia and Michael Kors would. ‘Project Runway’ suffers from a common reality show ailment: The audiences know exactly what each judge will say about a specific garment. To make ‘Runway’ more relevant, why not add Karl Lagerfeld to the panel? He has well-documented beef with Heidi Klum (hello, drama!), serious fashion credentials and he’s pretty darn sassy.

2. Dancing With the Stars
Yes, Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli have dance cred, but similarly to ‘Runway,’ they’ve all become very predictable. A typical ‘DWTS’ contestant will receive nice, pleasant compliments from Carrie and disgruntled gruff from Len, while Bruno will either jump on the table while speaking incredibly fast in a fit of joy or frustration. It’s tired. Guest judges would help make the show more interesting, especially if the judges choreographed that week’s dance routines for the contestants.

3. Top Chef Masters
Original flavor ‘Top Chef’ has made household names out of Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons. ‘Masters’ has not only failed to find a gripping panel of judges, but it also needs a new host. It’s fun to watch seasoned chefs get their cooking on, but all that enjoyment gets sucked out by the boring judges/host combo. Past ‘Masters’ winners Ricky Bayless and Marcus Samuelsson would be more than welcome on the judging panel. As for host, Nigella Lawson would be divine.

4. America’s Got Talent
This panel has never made sense. Piers Morgan is there because … he’s on the British version? Sharon Osbourne because … she managed Ozzy’s career for so long? Howie Mandel because … he helped out NBC stay afloat with ‘Deal or No Deal’? We failed to find real legitimate reasons as to why the current judging panel exists. ‘AGT’ is such a bizarre talent competition that the panel needs to be more eclectic. Where’s the dance expert? It just seems completely out of balance. Bigger names that actually make sense to be on the judging panel would elevate this competition to new levels.

5. America’s Next Top Model
After 1410518539 cycles, maybe it’s time to rein in Tyra Banks — if that’s even possible. We’re not saying get rid of her altogether, but restrict her presence. ‘Top Model’ certainly needs some sort of invigoration. Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley made the show more respectable in the fashion world, but the stakes need to be higher and the show needs to be hipper. Why not add a relevant model like Brooklyn Decker to the judging panel? She’s young, experienced and becoming a household name.

6. So You Think You Can Dance
Did you ever think you’d miss Mary Murphy’s screeching? This season, not only do judges Mia Michaels and Adam Shankman talk for too long, but they also say the same things. Where’s the variety? ‘SYTYCD’ used to benefit from a great rotating cast of guest judges, please let them come back. (Lil C, we miss your weird metaphors and allusions!)

7. Chopped
The challenge of cooking with absurd ingredients is what draws audiences to this show, but the judging panel has the ability to make even the biggest foodie change the channel. The judges are boring and too mean. They’re sort of the second-stringers of the Food Network, which is why it’s weird when big names such as Mark Bittman and Marcus Samuelsson show up. The Food Network should lend some of its top talent to the series. It’d be fun to watch Bobby Flay be utterly disgusted by pork crusted with Fruit Loops and cauliflower marinated in tequila. Some heavy-hitters would do this show good.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Um. Hi there. How are you? Yeah, we should probably discuss what we all just saw. Everything’s going to be okay.

I mean, who hasn’t had angry rage-filled sex with their own arch enemy? And if you’re pounding away on them and you, you know, don’t exactly want them looking at you then… it’s academic, right? Natural even.

By the way, if you didn’t get the chance to read True Blood Stars Spill Their Guts!, then check it out. I got a chance to speak with Mariana Klaveno, the lovely actress who plays Lorena, at the True Blood red carpet premiere a few weeks ago and I specfically asked her about the… Well, we’ll just call it the scene. Yes, it’s true. We had a chance to see this episode before the rest of y’all and we’ve been simply dying for you guys to catch up! It’s been rough. My own fun story regarding “It Hurts Me Too” involves IGN Features Editor Phil Pirrello, the TV at my desk and me saying “Hey, Phil, come here and watch this.” Eye-trauma ensued as poor Phil, who pretty much hates the show to begin with, had to watch the scene cold; with no context. Hell, even with context, watching undead corkscrew sex is enough to make anyone do a “spit take” of the soul. “Damn you, Fowler,” he said intermittently throughout the rest of the day.

In “It Hurt Me Too,” we finally saw Sookie head out on an actual search for Bill, accompanied by the towering Eric-surrogate, Alcide the werewolf (Joe Manganiello). Alcide is a hulking, seemingly-gentle giant, who sort of fits this show’s bill at what a bad boy is supposed to be. Both he and Eric (and this is nothing against the performances of Alexander Skarsgard and Manganiello really) are mostly soft-spoken and tame in demeanor even though they’re supposed to represent, for all intents and purposes, Bill’s competition. They both dangerously border on *gasp* being bland. While Bill, who one might think, as the “nice vamp,” would be the bland one is the one who seems to be showing the most rage and passion these days. I mean, hell, we just saw him turn Lorena into a Pez Dispenser. Considering how bereft I thought Bill was back in Season 1, I never thought he’d wind up being the most brutally animated of the bunch. Alcide was fine, but his misadventures with Sookie in the werewolf bar, Lou Pines (har har), wound up making me want to meet his ex, Debbie, more than follow him on his adventures with Sookie.

It’s unclear at this point whether Bill really believes in his actions at the end of the episode, or if he’s taking it upon himself to go undercover (deeep undercover!) to work with Russell to see what The King’s grand scheme is. Bill’s heart-wrenching flashbacks were great – as they usually are – and it just might be true that Bill has now taken Lorena’s message to heart: That “the only way to show your love for a human is to stay away.

Forever.” We shall see. Even if Bill is “hereby renouncing his fealty for the Kingdom of Louisiana” as a ruse to try and thwart whatever devious plan Russell has up his sleeve, we can be damn sure that Sookie will NOT be happy about it. Or be happy with Bill’s desperate “punish f***” with Lorena. Bill’s now operating under the luxury of not knowing how determined Sookie is to find him. Meanwhile, Dennis O’Hare’s King Russell continues to delight. “In Mississippi, our appetite for unprovoked violence is nil,” he practically yawns at Bill.

The werewolf that Eric and Sookie wound up killing at the beginning of the episode seemed like a bit more of a threat than what we’ve encountered so far. Eric seems to be pretty worried about them so that’s a good sign that we might wind up seeing them as a threat as well. “I’ve got your rug all wet,” Eric says to Sookie, blood dripping from his chin, as we discover that the “Operation Werewolf” gang are a new group of wolves making trouble in the area. V seems to give these wolves an extra dose of wolf-iness that makes them more of a challenge, but I’m still waiting for them to seem as big of a threat as, hell, even those Fellowship of the Sun idiots back in Season 2. Eric winds up placing Sookie with Alcide and then he, kind of, checks out of the story. Will he wind up circling back into Sookie’s storyline or will he be off on his own adventures for the rest of the season?

Tara received her first taste of heightened vampire eroticism. I’m interested to see where her story with Franklin winds up going. Not interested in her, mind, you. It’s mostly him. After two episodes, he’s already more appealing than Eggs and Maryanne. I particularly liked his scene with Jessica where she, once again, didn’t know a crucial “vampire rule.” Franklin seems like he might be a “fixer.” “I find things,” is all he really offers up. Franklin describes Jessica as annoying, which is what we all thought of her back at the outset. But she’s now become funny and sweet, and the more I watch her fumble, the more I realize how neglectful Bill has been as her maker.

I’m afraid we’re going to have to put up with Jason’s lame meanderings for a little bit longer. I liked his soft scene with Tara at Merlotte’s, but his whole bone-headed notion about becoming a cop was dumb. Most what he’s doing right now just isn’t working. Especially when we, as viewers, could totally get behind a life-decision like that. But then he goes and refuses to study for the cop exam. So it’s not really a newer, focused and re-dedicated Jason, which is what we’d all love to see. He’s also still seeing those bullet holes in people’s foreheads, which continues to be overtly goofy. I did appreciated Sheriff Dearborn’s decision to say “eff this” and quit however. could this pave the way for Sheriff Bellefleur and Deputy Stackhouse?

Sam’s earnest quest to discover his birth-kin seems to have wound up biting him in the ass a bit. I won’t go so far as to say that this should serve as a warning to anyone trying to find their real parents, but maybe stay away from the kind that sit around drinking Old Milwaukee in their tighty-whities when you’ve got a successful business that they might want in on. Eggs’ lonely funeral made for a solid scene, even if I never cared about his character. It was nice that they, once again, showed us how he really had no one in his life.

The highlight of this episode were Bill’s flashbacks and the pox-ridden tragedy that befell his young children. I think we all just assumed — after he watched Carolyn and his kids through the window in the flashback scene back in “Sparks Fly Out” — that Bill never returned home. The story was well-told and it just might have been there to help us viewers believe that Bill bought into Russell and Lorena’s advice about leaving the human world behind. Then again, Bill only boner-pounced on Lorena when she told him that she didn’t buy his act. So it really did seem like he did it as a way to convince her of his, ahem, dedication to the cause.

Popularity: 45% [?]

Advance Review: Seven years after being cancelled by Fox, Futurama makes a return to broadcast television this Thursday night. Well, seven years and four straight-to-DVD movies. When you have a show as smart and hilarious as Futurama, it’s difficult to keep it down. I cursed the day the series was cancelled and was thrilled to learn Comedy Central would be bring the show back. But will it be worth it? After watching the first of two new episodes, the answer is “maybe.”

A good series in its original run usually has a decent, propelling momentum going. It may take a little time, but that series will eventually find its groove and its unique voice and really start producing its best episodes. Futurama had found that groove and was seemingly at the top of its game when Fox gave it the boot. It’s those episodes that fans have watched and loved over and over again on Adult Swim and Comedy Central. The four movies were an extension of the series, but aren’t as revered as those original episodes. I found them to be hit and miss, enjoying them as a visit with old friends that never quite lives up to the good times we once had. So Futurama no longer had that momentum. Trying to reclaim it or restart it may be a fruitless effort, but we fans can’t help but hope the return of Futurama might actually mean the return of Futurama.

As the first of the new episodes to air on Comedy Central, “Rebirth” has the difficult responsibility of picking up where the DVD movies left off, while still reestablishing itself as a weekly series. And the episode does follow the ending of Into the Wild Green Yonder. Throughout the episode, but especially at the beginning, there are plenty of self-referential jokes about the series returning. There’s a fantastic exchange early on between the crew of the Planet Express ship that ends with Amy delivering one the funniest, perfectly-timed lines of the entire half-hour. But once we get past these funny bits, the comedy of the episode flounders a bit. Bender is given a great set-up for some excessive partying, but the remaining stories seem oddly familiar, with some jokes lifted from earlier episodes of the series and even one or two I recall from The Simpsons.

While the big laughs may be few, “Rebirth” still delivers an interesting story — the details of which I’ll avoid to keep away from spoilers — using many of the familiar tropes of this amazingly well rounded sci-fi world. Futurama was always great when taking science-fiction conventions (time travel, aliens, robots, etc.) and making them work in smart, satirical and very relatable ways. “Rebirth” continues this with some fun twists of storytelling and makes it all worthwhile.

It’s too early to tell if “Rebirth” is, in fact, the return of the Futurama we know and love, but it’s a worthy first episode after such a long time without episodic stories. Here’s hoping this new season only makes the series better and that in some far off future, people will look back at Futurama’s entire collection of episodes and never realize there was a seven year gap.

Check back Thursday night for our review of the second episode of the season, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela.”

Popularity: 80% [?]

Season 4 of House, M.D. is nearing to a close. The basic formula of the show has stayed the same, but the main characters have changed. The show’s nucleus still includes Dr. Greg House (Hugh Laurie), administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) and House’s best friend Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). But as the end of Season 3 promised, a plot shake-up has relegated House’s team (Drs. Foreman, Cameron and Chase) to the background.

What’s Happened So Far in Season 4

The season began with Dr. House on his own, but since he the doctor needs to bounce his ideas off others, he “deputized” a janitor and used him as his sounding board. Forced by Dr. Cuddy to hire a new team, Dr. House brought in forty potential fellowship candidates, most of whom he fired right away. From there it was down to ten, with fierce competition and mind games to play alongside diagnosing the mysterious illnesses. In true House fashion, candidates are not called by their names. Some started with numbers (and kept them in 13’s case), others were given coarsely honest nicknames (“Big Love” for the Mormon, “Cutthroat Bitch” for, well, the cutthroat bitch).

Sometimes the diseases, as well as House’s old team, seemed to take a backseat to the drama between the new candidates. The episodes were also spiced up by plot turns like: sending House off to the CIA and almost hiring an ex-CIA doctor and a documentary film being shot of a craniofacial surgery. All this, don’t forget, set against the brutal rush for the candidates to have great ideas, the answer, or at the very least, the gumption to show House just how far they’ll go for the position. The competition was so relentless that it almost jeopardized the health of the patient being treated, but it made for great entertainment.

Wanting the Old Team Back

While some may be miffed to see House’s old team no longer working beside him, it’s actually one of the best steps the show has taken. After all, the team positions are fellowships (originally slated to be a three-year position), so it’s both logical and creativity savvy for the show to move on. The original team are fantastic characters worthy of remaining on the show. Whether the new three will prove to be as interesting remains to be seen. Drs. Cameron and Chase are still working in different departments in the hospital and are often consulted for their opinions (mostly on House himself). Dr. Foreman, not surprisingly, was fired from a different department for being too much like House, a fear he seems to have come to terms with. He now works, at Dr. Cuddy’s request, with House and his team, with interesting results.

The Writer’s Strike and What’s To Come

Like nearly every show, House, M.D. will be having a truncated season due to the WGA’s strike. This season is slated to have 12 episodes. With nine having aired, only three remain, beginning with January 15th’s It’s a Wonderful Lie. In addition to suffering from the shortened seasons, many shows this fall have had a real feeling of rushed writing, no doubt in anticipation of the impending strike. House, M.D., on the other hand, really has the feeling of being thought through, whether or not the fans like the choices.

Popularity: 32% [?]

returns tonight in the eighth season premiere of one of the most influential shows of the ’00s, the often-brilliant “24”. At its best, FOX’s “24” is visceral

Jack may have tried to retire from life in the anti-terrorism game but, as someone says to Bauer in the first episode, “You’re the guy who always does the right thing.” That’s clearly the main charm and draw of the show and always has been. If our safety is on the line, we all want to think we have “the guy who always does the right thing” on our side. “24” opens with a calm, family-oriented Jack but he’s back in full form before the bottom of the first hour.

How does a show that has had as many explosive opening arcs as “24” top itself this late into its run? Wisely, the writers of “24” realize that this is not the goal. If every day was crazier and more over-the-top, Jack Bauer would be fighting terrorists on the moon by now. Instead of merely turning up the volume, the writers of “24” have created very individually contained seasons, much like each James stands as its own adventure. The influence of “24” is in the way the producers have never delivered something that looks “like TV”. With theatrical film quality production values and storytelling, each season of “24” has been practically like a feature film in serial form.

One of the more interesting aspects of “24,” and a way that the creators of the show have been able to keep it fresh, has always been the revolving door of the supporting cast with great performances from actors like Dennis Haysbert, Gregory Itzin, and Carlos Bernard in past seasons. Really, the only ensemble members guaranteed to stay the same are Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe. Another familiar face or two may pop up (Elisha Cuthbert guest stars in the premiere), but an influx of new stars always injects life into the start of a new season.

This year’s new faces include Mykelti Williamson (“Forrest Gump”) as the head of CTU New York and Katee Sackhoff (“Battlestar Galactica”) and Freddie Prinze Jr. (“Scooby Doo”) as CTU employees. Benito Martinez (“The Shield”) appears as an informant who sets the plot for the eighth very long day into motion. He arrives with intel about a potential assassination plan for a Middle Eastern leader who is on the verge of signing a peace agreement with the U.S. President (Cherry Jones). The quality in the new ensemble varies with Kapoor easily making the most initial impact while Prinze Jr. is still a bit unconvincing as a member of the CTU team. Sackhoff plays a woman with a mysterious past, but sometimes appears to be a bit of a distraction to the main plot, but one assumes she will play a bigger role as the season advances.

The level of detail in just the first hour of this season of “24” is nearly overwhelming. There are so many new faces this season with their own subplots – including a strident new advisor for the President, family problems for her foreign counterpart, and new work subplots among the characters at CTU – that one practically has to take notes to keep up. Action junkies may be turned off by the first hour, one that is ridiculously dense with new characters and conversation, but, of course, they need not wait long until Jack is dodging gunfire and returning his own. And you won’t have to wait until 5pm (this season starts at 4pm) to see something big go boom.

What’s most remarkable to this critic about the opening quartet of “24” is the screenwriting juggling act that this show maintains at its best. The season premiere introduces multiple characters and arcs and yet never feels overcrowded or rushed. “24” is still one of the most expertly paced programs in the history of television, always keeping the viewer entertained but not overwhelmed.

Overall, this is one of the best opening quartets in the legacy of “24”. As we’ve learned in the past, it can be tough to predict how a season of this show will progress. Some have opened strongly and sagged in the middle. Some have taken time to develop after limping out of the gate. But the opening of the eighth season feature such confident writing, interesting new characters, and perfect pacing that I’m personally amped for hour five of this day more than most seasons past. How many shows are even remotely near their peak in their eighth season much less arguably at it? “24” continues to defy expectations.

Popularity: 33% [?]

While Simon and Tyra get their share of attention, competitive reality shows are usually about the participants. As with everything else in his endlessly fascinating life, however, Hell’s Kitchen is all about Gordon Ramsay. So let’s take a walk on his wild side.

Ramsay was raised in a dysfunctional Scottish family. His father was an abusive drunk and PE teacher obsessed with seeing his children play professional football for his hometown club, the mighty Glasgow Rangers. While Gordon’s brother Ronnie ended up addicted to heroin, he proved a good enough footballer to sign for Rangers at the age of 17. Unfortunately, he suffered knee injuries, and was released by Rangers at the age of 19.

Who likes being told at 19 you’re not good enough? So I suppose when people say, “You’re so focused and driven now,” I could never afford to fail.
— Gordon Ramsay

When the Rangers offered to find him a place with a lower division side, his father said yes. But Ramsay said no. Instead, he took his mother’s advice and went to catering college. His father never forgave him and soon afterwards abandoned his family.

Following a couple of years at Marco Pierre White’s renowned South London restaurant, Harvey’s, Ramsay moved to Le Gavroche to work alongside the acclaimed Albert Roux. He then left London to spend three years continuing to learn in some of the best kitchens in France. In late 1993, at 26, he returned to the British capital to launch his own restaurant, Aubergine, winning two Michelin stars within three years of opening. However, after a serious falling out with his financial backers, he walked out and, three weeks later, opened a new restaurant entirely his own, in upmarket Chelsea. He called this venture Gordon Ramsay.

A year later, he opened a second, Pétrus, in the even more prestigious St. James’s district. Soon after came Amaryllis in Glasgow and a second Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s Hotel in Mayfair. As he has built an empire with his company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, and cultivated protégés such as Marcus Wareing and Angela Hartnett, it’s clear Ramsay has had his anal-retentive perfectionist nose into every little nook and cranny of each of his restaurants, including those in Dubai and Tokyo. Later this year, Ramsay plans to open restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, and Florida.

Along with his nine books and regular column for the Times Saturday Magazine, Ramsay has also conquered TV. After two British fly-on-the-wall documentaries that revealed him to be a bad-tempered, foul-mouthed genius in the kitchen, in 2004 he starred in two British television series. The first was Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, in which he attempted to save failing restaurants, each over a two-week period. The second was the original Hell’s Kitchen, a London-based reality show that saw him training celebrities to be chefs.

Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen retains the original’s format, but replaces the slebs with “real people”. Season One saw tattooed punk chef Michael Wray turn down his advertised prize of a “million dollar” restaurant in return for the opportunity to learn from Ramsay in London. Wray is now back is Los Angeles and planning to open a restaurant in Las Vegas, reportedly backed by Gordon Ramsay Holdings. Season Two of Hell’s Kitchen is a last chef standing competition where the prize is a position as executive chef — with a financial interest — at the new Red Rock Resort Spa and Casino in Las Vegas.

This time around, it’s girls against boys, six of each. The Blue Team initially included Tom, ex-stockbroker and graduate of New York’s French Culinary Institute, who sweats profusely into his cooking; Giacomo, whose family runs a pizza restaurant in Dallas and whose poodle-rock hair will surely have to go; and Garrett, who learned everything he knows about cooking in the kitchen of the prison where he served time for passing stolen checks. With five years served, Garrett is probably the most experienced competitor in Hell’s Kitchen. He’s also the only one with a thousand yard stare and a shiv in his back pocket. The Red Team included Rachel, a personal chef from Dallas, who looks tough enough to take out Garrett in her sleep; garde manger (salad chef) Veronica; and sous chef Heather, who actually appears to know how to cook.

Just as it sounds, Hell’s Kitchen is boot camp with saucepans. Each day begins with Sergeant Major Ramsay setting the teams a morning challenge, cutting 10oz. steaks, for example. The victors get prizes, like a helicopter ride and lunch with Gordon for the winners in the Great Steak Challenge of 2006. The losing team gets extra kitchen duties. In the evenings, they compete while serving obnoxious, camera-hungry “paying customers,” cast by Fox and paid to play.

During this season’s two-hour premiere, one customer who was lucky enough to get his food complained to Ramsay that his pumpkin risotto didn’t have enough pumpkin. The well-heeled equivalent of the comedy contestants on Americyawn Idol, this chinless wonder knew exactly what Ramsay’s reaction would be. Of course, the customer could have some more pumpkin. Whole. And shoved right up… well, you get the point. Ramsay also took aim at the contestants. When the kitchen fell behind, he declared the restaurant closed for the night. He also fired Polly, middle-aged mother of six, who had no professional cooking experience.

The second hour offered a couple of unscripted, value-add moments. First, there was the trouble with Larry. Having partied in a hot tub with the girls when all right-thinking chefs were already in bed, he was awake again at 4:20am, wheezing and tingling, and on the phone to 911. When the teams rose to shine, they were surprised to learn that Larry has disappeared. The girls were worried. The boys couldn’t give a damn. Larry called from the hospital, saying the stress of the competition was too much for him. Score one for Gordon Ramsay. On second thought, make that two, because after just one day in Hell’s Kitchen, the contestants were already so tired that Larry could get carted off to hospital without anyone else even waking up. Way to go, Gordo.

Ramsay is Simon Cowell on angel dust, and it’s funny to watch him lose it with lesser mortals. But he can also be kind: lunching with the girls after they won the steak-cutting competition, Ramsay was charm itself, and naturally so. He wants his contestants to thrive in the heat of Hell’s Kitchen, just like he did when he turned his back on a second-rate career in professional football and found his way into Marco Pierre White’s South London kitchen. Unlike Donald Trump, who is about as natural as his hair and as unsuccessful as any man with a billionaire father could be, Ramsay started with nothing and has reached the very top of his profession, fired only by his passion for cooking and his passion for success.

Alternately warm and foul, Ramsay is equally driven in private life: he recently completed his seventh consecutive London Marathon and aims to finish 10 in 10 years. And he is as unforgiving with high profile food critics as he is with the contestants on Hell’s Kitchen: he once kicked the Sunday Times‘ A.A. Gill out of his restaurant (along with his companion Joan Collins) because Gill had written a piece that focused on his football career and early life.

An accident during the season’s premiere exposed Ramsay’s softer side for all to see. When Heather burned herself badly, Ramsay leapt immediately into the breach, calming her down, preventing hyperventilation, keeping her hand in ice until she could be rushed to the emergency room. Before she left, Heather impressed Ramsay by taking the time to tell people she had extra quail in her oven and delegating her station. When she returned, Ramsay complimented her professionalism under… ahem… fire. He was less impressed with Garrett, who tried to play a strategic game when asked to select two candidates for firing. Ramsay rejected one of his selections straightaway, called out a third chef and fired him instead.

If you want to learn about cooking, you might give Hell’s Kitchen a miss. If you want to learn about the business of running a restaurant, you should probably check it out. But if you want to explore the complex character of one of the world’s most successful restaurateurs, then this show is essential viewing.

Popularity: 83% [?]

This is one of those episodes that just hurt to watch. Not just because it was bad (and it was), but mainly because it seems that someone understood that it was bad, and gave it a proper burial back during season one. But for some reason somebody decided to desecrate its grave, exhume the body, and parade the corpse for all the world to see.

This was a “lost” episode from season one. If you didn’t know that, you might have been confused as to why Charlie Francis was magically back from the dead. It would’ve been nice if Fox had explained that better in the build up to this oddly placed, Monday night episode.

The story starts with the apparent death of a young girl, which then leads to fairly typical TV hospital drama. Then things turn a little freaky when the young lady pops up during her own organ removal surgery, but in the world of Fringe openings, this is rather mundane.

The story slowly evolves into the spiritual possession of our young victim, Lisa, by Andrew Rusk, a dead military man with a dark past and a vengeful wife (who had a big hand in making him dead). The Fringe team goes about an “exorcism” to get the spirit of the dead dude out of the body of the formerly dead girl.

Yes, that’s right…an exorcism…on Fringe.

This episode is cheesy, with mediocre writing and some fairly bad performances from the guest supporting cast. I’m not even going to go into the whole “seventeen-year-old-girl-doing-middle-aged-man-voice” because it’s something I’d rather erase from my memory completely.

There’s nothing special at all about this episode. One small glimmer of goodness is the old home video of a young Walter Bishop poking in some poor guy’s brain. We get to see John Noble in an entertaining wig, and there’s a casual mention of some poor test subjects who got fat settlements from the university, but that’s one of the very few bright spots of this story. One area that could have been interesting is the story’s dabbling in the topic of the intersection of faith and science. This could have been a thought-provoking sub-plot to all this talk of spirits and resurrection, but instead it was just random bits of theology thrown in with some out-of-character moments from Walter.

Is Fox trying to test the waters for a schedule change to move Fringe from the highly competitive Thursday slot that has killed its ratings? Or was someone just looking for something to fill some empty air time with?

Regardless of the reasons, this was a bad decision. This episode should have stayed buried, buried in a hole so deep it would never see the light of day. If you’re a Fringe fan, this episode brought you nothing. If you weren’t a Fringe fan, and just happened upon the show after watching House, you probably didn’t see anything that would make you interested in the series. This is a lose-lose deal.

So let’s all forget this ever happened. We’ve got what appears to be a perfectly fine Fringe episode coming in our regularly scheduled but perhaps ill-fated Thursday slot. Though it seems like this will be another standalone story, it can’t be possibly be worse than this one.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Scrubs focuses on the unique point of view of its main character and narrator, Dr. John Michael “J.D.” Dorian (Zach Braff). The series follows the lives of the employees at Sacred Heart Hospital:  Dr. Elliot Reid, Dr. Chris Turk, The Janitor, Dr. Bob Kelso, Dr. Perry Cox, Nurse Carla Espinosa and J.D. himself. Season 8 sees the replacement of Dr. Kelso by Dr. Taylor Maddox (Courteney Cox-Arquette).

When Dr. Maddox arrives on the scene, she brings about a lot of changes that will affect the way doctors treat patients. Elliot and J.D. confess their feelings for another and are back together as a couple. They then prepare to leave Sacred Heart, so that J.D. can be closer to his son.

In the meanwhile, Janitor gets married to Lady and Dr. Cox is promoted to chief of medicine and Turk is promoted to chief of surgery.

Popularity: 32% [?]

In six quick episodes, BBC’s Being Human managed to give us a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf we could care about. For the most part, it bucked trends, steered reasonably clear of cliche and tackled tough topics including vampire snuff films and suspected (but unfounded) paedophilia.

But for us, the episode that epitomises the nature of this show about supernaturals put the focus on Annie, pining across the preceeding episodes for a wedding that would never be, for it to be revealed in the third it was her abusive fiance who’d killed her.

This obstinacy to see through rose coloured glasses even when she herself was see-through and to deny the truth even in death, was a biting comment on the too common abusive situations people find themselves in and was handled deftly in a fantasy show with very ordinary, often brutal roots.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Published on May 27, 2010

From today, you can see the pilot of BBC3’s horror/drama Pulse in its full goodness on the Internet. This is quite a bold move for the BBC, which is making a trio of pilots available prior to them being broadcast, and Pulse is the first out of the bag.

Why should you be interested in Pulse? An assortment of reasons. Firstly, it’s from the mighty pen of Mr Paul Cornell, a man whose television work alone has brought us the terrific Doctor Who two-parter Human Nature/The Family Of Blood. He’s the same Paul Cornell who gave the world Bernice Summerfield, and whose name you can find alongside Captain Britain and MI-13. And now, he’s turned his hands to Pulse.

The BBC has also put out a trailer for what’s easily the bloodiest show it’ll put out on any of its channels this year, and having seen this pilot, we can attest to its quality.

Pulse is shown on BBC Three on Thursday June 3rd, and if all goes to a plan, a six-episode season will be commissioned for broadcast in 2011. Please give the show your support: it’s not often we get a horror-themed television show on British television, especially not one as good as this.

Popularity: 41% [?]