...blogging a bit about the finale of Top Chef, because I'm home from work with a sick kid and because I CAN. So there. Kal, if you don't want spoilers, don't read any further.
Jesus, was I ever nauseated to see Betty's creepy self come back, and it only got worse when she started sucking up to Ilan. And he fell for it. Of course, he won, so apparently it was the right choice. God, I hate her so much. Her whining, her shrill and continual bitching about Marcel...GAH. I would love to see her in a Bourdain or Ramsay kitchen, whining about how someone "snapped at her." I would pay cash money to see what happened. Seriously. I hate her like she shot my dog and stole my Bible. And I got like, three Bibles.
I was really disappointed that Marcel didn't pick Mia for his team, because I think she'd have been a huge asset to him and because she was one of the only contestants he didn't have a huge beef with. I was also disappointed in him that he hastened to blame Mike and Sam for everything that went wrong. I've noticed that with him throughout the competition - nothing that goes wrong is ever his fault. It's not a good quality in a chef.
Granted, I'm not a chef, so my opinions are completely uninformed. I think he's got a lot of talent, and I love that he's willing to take risks with food. I don't like that he doesn't want to take responsibility for his mistakes. I don't care if he's the nicest guy in the world or a complete social idiot, so it's not his personality overall that bugs me. It's how he functions in the kitchen that counts, and I think he needs to work on that. I would love to see where his career goes, though. He might not be Mr. Personality, but he's interesting, dammit.
I was also disappointed that Elia got to work on Ilan's team. I'll admit, though, that it's mostly personal. Up until the end, I'd liked her, but she really ended up coming across as whiny and easily goaded into doing stupid shit, like the whining in the first half of the finale about how Marcel "cheated." She claimed to be his only friend in the competition, but didn't hesitate to turn on him with that, "Well, some people haven't been nicey-nicey..." Here's a hint, honey. If there are four people left, and three of them don't like the fourth, when you start slagging on someone, it doesn't matter if you name names or not, he'll know you mean him. Besides, that "some people" shit is just cowardly. If you're going to talk shit about someone, at least have the balls to own your shit-talking.
And I really, really hated what went down with the head-shaving. Bravo's creative editing reached its peak on that one. For anyone who doesn't know, what actually happened was that Elia and Ilan shaved their heads after the failed attempt to shave Marcel's. To me, that changes the entire face of the incident. Rather than, "haha we're so drunk we're being wacky, here, let's try to get Marcel to be wacky too" (which, while twisted, is a sort of inclusion in the group that he hadn't been shown before), it becomes, "Oh, boy, we fucked up big time, we better make it look like it was group wackiness rather than hazing." It was disgusting how the others let Cliff take the fall. Now, I understand that he was sent home because he was the one who actually physically held Marcel. But (at least from what we saw on TV) the others didn't so much as attempt to say, "Yeah, Cliff held him, but none of us tried to stop it/we egged him on/whatever." I agree with Colicchio that every last one of those little fuckers should have been sent home and Marcel given the title by default, but no way was that going to happen. This is TV, after all.
Anyway...was I disappointed that Ilan won? Eh. I think he's more able right now to successfully run his own kitchen. I think that in the long run, it will be better for Marcel as a chef that he lost. If he takes the lessons from this that he's been given, he'll become a better, more soulful chef and his career will be much the better for it.
On the other hand, he might never get any better and end his career doing Wolverine impersonations at science fiction conventions. What the hell do I know?
ETA: This is a great article on how the season slid down the taste slope into Tackyville.
