TAR26, Recap Leg 1, 2/25/15

Welcome to Leg 1! Welcome to The Amazing Race: YDC Edition!  This time around, the producers have found six dating couples that have been going out from anywhere from 7 months to 10 years, as well as 10 singles who will be paired into five blind date teams to round out the cast.  The show begins with a montage of all the “wonderful” couples we’ve gotten to know over the years.  (Toyouke: “Wow, thanks for this montage reminding me of how much I hate YDCs generally.  The more you tell me how awesome this idea is, the more I hate it and assume you KNOW it sucks and are trying to ram it down my throat anyway.”)  Anyway, instead of having the teams arrive in some wacky manner, they just have them standing ready to go.  Or at least the six dating couples and half of the singles.  How boring, TAR producers.  So the eleven teams are: (click for more)

King of the Nerds 2/27/15--"Murder at Nerdvana!?" summary

Previously on “King of the Nerds”: we had party games that were actually kind of fun. Hooloovoo won, which seemed lame but whatever. The secret alliance knew someone would have to be in the Nerd-Off because there are not enough other people left, but then Heather was all “Oh, I could never choose between Amanda and Jonathan! You guys choose!” And then she went right over to the other team to tell them to vote for Jonathan. When he found out he flipped on his alliance (along with Raychelle) and brought Kaitlin into his plans. Kaitlin got her team to vote for Heather, meaning she got Lily and Ben to ignore the girls. Heather went up against Colby (of course he got voted in because he could win this whole thing) and then Heather lost so now she’s gone! Yay! (click for more)

TAR26, Recap Leg 0, 2/25/15

Welcome back to the Amazing Race!  Season twenty-six brings us The Amazing Race: YDC Edition.  All of the teams are in the dating process. Toyouke, on board as always, with her two cents.  (Toyouke: “I make no guarantees about being able to finish this carnival of nonsense.  I am watching the general "Meet the Cast" video and I can't find anyone that I even sort of can tolerate. I already hate all these people.“)  The eleven teams for TAR26 are: (click for more)

King of the Nerds 2/20/15--"Nuclear Nerd Games" summary

Previously on “King of the Nerds”: the teams had to make up songs about being nerds. This season actually wasn’t as painful as previous seasons have been. Colby knows how to rap and I thought Team SMASH did really well. However when guest judge Moby was obnoxious Heather yelled at him which was probably a stupid move. Or they wanted to keep the teams even. Team Hooloovoo won.  Kaitlin approached Jonathan about having a cross-teams alliance, because Amanda, Ben, and Lily suck ass at keeping their secret alliance a secret. Jonathan told Kaitlin that she and Raychelle could team up with him and Colby, and then he would have an alliance with every single person playing this game. No one mentioned how Raychelle reacted to being put in this situation, or if Kaitlin even mentioned to her that she was apparently double crossing the secret alliance. SMASH voted for Ori, and Hooloovoo voted for Colby. Ori even voted for himself which was weird. The Nerd-Off involved putting busts of scientists in order by birthdate so of course Colby won. Bye Ori. (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 2/19/15--"Season 4 Reunion" summary

Previously on Project Runway All-Stars: Dmitry won, which means that he’s now won this show twice which is ridiculous. Past winners should be banned from all All-Stars seasons of anything. You already won. Go do something with your winnings or whatever. In other news, I thought the season was finally over but no! We have to have a reunion! At least it’s only an hour. (click for more)

King of the Nerds 2/14/15--"Do They Choose Wisely...Or Poorly?" summary

Previously on “King of the Nerds”: the teams had to make cardboard boats and then solve geometry problems. Team SMASH did really well at this, even though Ori continued to be useless. Team Hooloovoo told Todd he would be up for elimination if they lost, and then made good on that. Todd totally lost it and yelled at Lily, which made everyone decide he needed to go. Especially Heather, who got on her moral high horse about how he was a terrible person for making someone else feel bad. Except for the part where she yelled at Ori during the challenge and literally slapped his hands away. That’s totally different. Todd and Kaitlin went to the Nerd-Off, which was about mythology, and Todd stunk it up so badly that I think he threw the challenge. I saw an interview with him where he said he went off on Lily for fully twenty minutes, which means that Kaitlin left right away and then didn’t get anyone? Everyone took their time showing up? Not sure. He also says part of it was to try to convince people that they should vote for Lily instead of for him. I guess he was trying to change people’s minds, and was mad to boot, so he thought it would work? To his credit he fully admits it did not work and he was a dick. (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 2/12/15--"Four Seasons in One Finale" summary

Previously on Project Runway All-Stars: a bunch of stuff happened. Everyone had to make a red carpet gown and it was supposed to be memorable. They said “remembered for years to come” and some people heard “timeless” while some heard “memorable”. Helen talked and talked about how great she was, but then her dress was boring and terrible. Also there was some BS with dogs. Dmitry made an art deco dress with fringe that was awesome so he won. Then Helen and Michelle were the bottom, but I guess Helen’s dressed sucked so horribly they had to make up one of those stupid “last minute challenges” where you tear up other clothes to make something in an hour. Helen fake cried about ripping up other people’s work, but then she made a black dress and the judges fell over themselves to praise it so she survived and Michelle went home. Because Helen didn’t make the finale her season so clearly she has to make it now. At least this show is over tonight. (click for more)

Top Chef 2/11/15--"Mano a Mano" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire had the three finalists running around a farm and making both a savory and a sweet dish with chocolate. Doug had no idea what to do with his dessert and just melted some chocolate and put it in a bowl. Sigh. Gregory won with sweet carrots, and got the advantage to pick his sous chef first for the Elimination challenge. It’s a weird prize since it’s pretty unlikely there would be a fight about sous chefs. The Elimination challenge involved Mexican “delicacies” such as avocado and corn smut. Doug just stood around and didn’t get it together in time, leaving him with queso and ant eggs. Oops. Gregory made wonderful dishes with guava and poblano, so he is in the finale. Mei made a great dish out of corn fungus but then made guacamole. It seemed bleak, especially since Doug made decent dishes out of his weird stuff, but then he was sent home so Mei could make the finale. I hate that this show is suddenly showing all the signs of producer-chosen outcomes. NOT a spoiler, but I feel like Mei is going to win since they’ve shown so many interviews with her talking about how there should be another female winner. (click for more)

King of the Nerds 2/6/15--"The Gods Are Angry" summary

Previously on “King of the Nerds”: the cosplay competition involved also making up a story with a good moral. Lily (and clearly the rest of her team) felt that she would be so great with the costumes that their story and acting didn’t have to be that great. Team SMASH knew they’d have crap costumes, so they worked very hard on their story. And then they won, causing Lily to cry and then be a brat when people tried to stop her crying. The secret girls’ alliance brought in Ben and Jonathan, mostly because Jonathan had his own idea for a cross-teams alliance and went looking for people to join him. This alliance sent Kaitlin to the Nerd-Off as Team SMASH’s vote. Team Hooloovoo sent Thomas, and never really explained why or what that reasoning was. At least Kaitlin is clearly a threat. The Nerd-Off involved answering riddles and Kaitlin was better, so Thomas was sent home. (click for more)

King of the Nerds 1/30/15--"And Now for Something Different" summary

Previously on “King of the Nerds”: the nerds all met each other and were placed into teams. Then they were given 24 hours to make a steampunk Rube Goldberg machine to reveal their team flag and name. Team SMASH melted a wire and had some cool stuff, but Team Hooloovoo made up a whole story and lifted their flag instead of dropping it, which was much more impressive, so they won. Team SMASH quickly decided to send Ori to the Nerd-Off, because he is immature and useless. All the girls in Nerdvana (except Kaitlin for some reason) made an alliance and worked to nominate only boys. Team Hooloovoo nominated Jacob, which was a shock to everyone, and as far as I can tell was only done to create chaos and freak everyone out. Jacob can keep the team together while Ori cannot. Sadly Ori won the Nerd-Off, a trivia/destruction game about anime and manga. Jacob was the first one eliminated. (click for more)

King of the Nerds 1/23/15--"Judgment Day" summary

I have been watching this show since it started, in the hopes it would fill the void left by “Beauty and the Geek”. It sort of does, but without condescending hot people so that’s good right? I like that they cast a wide variety of nerds, from comic book geeks to NASA scientists. And the challenges are cool. (I’m a little behind, so recaps will come more often at first until I can catch up, and then it’ll be once a week as usual.) (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 2/5/15--"Some Like It Hot Dog" summary

Previously on Project Runway All-Stars: make bridesmaids gowns for some woman who was buying her wedding gown at Marchesa. Not the most exciting challenge, plus you supposedly have to be able to wear this thing again which we all know never happens. Helen won, even though her dress was really boring. But I guess boring means you can wear it again. Fabio had a jacked-up hem and I guess picked the wrong fabric and he was sent home. Sad times. (click for more)

Top Chef 2/4/15--"Holy Escamoly!" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: Doug rejoined the competition, because clearly he belongs in there more than George. The chefs have to make dishes with xoconostle, which is a special prickly pear fruit. Doug won that partially because he went vegetarian. The Elimination challenge was to make a dish that matched an artist’s visual style. Everyone magically got paired with an artist that created the same way they cook. In other words, I smell producer interference in the “random” artist assignments. Whatever, it’s not like one person got screwed, everyone did well. Doug won by making Texas chili, a simple dish that was perfect. Even though all the dishes were fantastic, Melissa was sent home. Aww, she really grew on me. Back in the beginning of the season I would forget she existed but she is really an excellent chef. (click for more)