@avclub-3be42d8a3412057f79af152555e39bd4:disqus I've already given that show way too much thought.  This was the first season my wife convinced me to watch with her and I thought the whole thing was such a waste of a potentially good concept.

Absolutely.

Food Network Star shouldn't even be a simulacrum of a cooking show.  Their format is all wrong and that show could be MUCH better if they'd actually focus on the interesting aspects of the show.

@avclub-6e716efd1ac524bbccbb5b57ee0e452a:disqus Considering there were apparently actual death threats made, I'm backing off that criticism.

The problem is that they gave the team captains too much power over who was safe from the elimination challenges in the hopes of artificially creating some drama.

Well that definitely throws it in a different light.

@avclub-6e716efd1ac524bbccbb5b57ee0e452a:disqus Would you accept "somewhat less classy and sweet than she previously appeared"?

@InterplanetJanet:disqus It would be nice if Fox would at least offer the contestant cooking classes and informational parts of the show as an on-line series.

Weird small town names are the best.  When I used to live in NE Iowa the local news always had weather updates for What Cheer, Iowa.  Still makes me chuckle.

Yea, that was kind of sad.  She kept it together to appear like a nice person almost all the way to the end, but I think some true mean girl colors shown through last night.

I don't think it redeems her or anything, it's just something I wondered about.  If it was almost completely an act than real-life Krissi goes from "monster bitch" to "tragically insecure with some grating tendencies".

I'm also assuming the editing was deceptive and they had criticisms of Jessie's dish that didn't air.  They talked a lot about the technical skills required to make Luca's dish work, whereas Jessie's most technical element got left off the plate.  That's the knock on her that I would guess didn't end up in the episode.

Yes!  Luca was in top-form all around tonight.  Even if he hadn't gotten through to the finale, I would have been happy that he got a real good last chance to shine in these episodes.

I can only assume that you are talking about the near-universal Krissi hate.  I'd be curious to see what your defense is.  Maybe she is a wonderful person in real life, but her television persona was nothing but grating.

Assuming that what was presented to the judges was relatively equal (and how do you objectively compare two dishes that are so different?), I don't have a problem with it.  You're going to be nitpicking to make your choice anyway, and being able to point to someone making a decision between two sides to put on a plate…

The end of the first hour really made me wonder again how much of Krissi was an act (a horribly off-putting, show-killing act).  There seemed to be some genuine fondness shown by the judges, and even the remaining contestants, during her farewell.

Usually you get a lot more episodes like that closer to the end, but of course you had Krissi mucking up the works this year.  I really hope the producers take notice of the overly bad vibes the show got from her presence this year and go back to what made the show different and better than Hell's Kitchen.

They'd also let him win for the strong possibility that it results in some sort of "Roberto Benigni at the Oscars" moment.

But Natasha is the hot one!  Does she need to remind you again?!

I've got a potentially amazing wedding this weekend for a couple I'm friends with from college.