Brooke is the new Blais. But I agree, fuck Blais.

I guess "knowing it would make her look bad" is a no-win situation, then. It's understandable that she knew the TV part of it would force her to do something that was competitively sub-optimal, but I'm still disappointed by it. Brooke is the worst.

This seems very probable. I still wish they could've done more to obscure the eventual winner. I think many people had Brooke winning pretty much as soon as she showed up.

My wife thought that they were giving Brooke a nasty heel edit, so Shirley must be about to win. Turns out she was wrong, you can be nasty and a winner (remember Nick whatshisname from a few seasons ago?)

I agree - I kept liking Alaska even as she got a little nasty (even though I also love Katya), but I have come to truly detest Brooke.

1. Great point on the Brooke/Blais comparison. My distaste for Blais has continued into his reign as a Top Chef, as he seems to have hired an image consultant to transform him from a slightly nerdy chef to some sort of "rockstar" or "badass" (components include that stupid faux-hawk, moving to San Diego, generally…

I like LCK in the sense that it seems like everyone is having fun. Tom, in particular seems quite loose during it. It's also an extra episode's worth of content or so spread out through the season, and I always appreciate more Top Chef. I don't like it for the competitive balance reasons you mentioned, however, and…

My favorite thing is the oddly polished, classy look on the RPG. It had a faux-wood stock, which for some reason tickled me to death.

I'm rooting as heavily for Shirley as I've ever rooted for anyone on this show, but I think Brooke is getting a coronation edit, so I'll be shocked if Brooke doesn't win.

An Always Sunny Magic Mike parody is always welcome in my book. Excellent episode.

Brooke's attitude this entire season has been horrible, and I'm rooting hard for Sheldon and Shirley over her next week. I agree, though, that she's getting a winner's edit.

This is the key, I think. The solid wood stuff is better than the particleboard, though even that can work for stuff like TV stands that you pretty much just stick in a spot and then don't mess around with too much.

I agree, this was great. It was funny. It's Always Sunny—who cares if we maintain strict character and world consistency?

I always chalked it up to having a nuclear-armed maniac for a next door neighbor. Same reason Canadians love to drink.

It's also possible that Tom and the gang learned their lesson from the Josie/Kristen fiasco a few seasons ago (which was checked during a Brooke confessional). I'm not saying that John Tesar is anything close to Kristen Kish, but I am saying that Katsuji is pretty close to Josie—a sometimes-talented but mostly…

Right, I had forgotten that the bullying was also in Texas. I remember Sarah being the worst of it, but that might be because she lasted the longest in the competition. She kept accusing Beverly of "only being able to cook Asian," which is racist garbage that makes my blood boil.

I'm pretty down on this season. Between a bunch of uninspiring veterans (I like Shirley and Sheldon, but most of the others range from Katsuji super-turds to merely boring Brooke) and these terrible challenges, I'm bummed. We've lost probably my two favorite contestants in Silvia and Jim, and now Neck-Tattoo and his…

My wife and I gave this one a shot, but were bored by it. Glad we bailed; sounds like it ended up being terrible.

No, you're not too hard on Blais. He is the worst.

That's an interesting point. I personally love farro, so I'd try it!