Thursday, January 18, 2007

Top Bully

Over at Eek's place she has a very funny post about the shaved-head episode of Top Chef (I especially like how she referred to the cooks as 'cheftestants').

But what she doesn't mention is how disturbing it is to watch some of the cooks (yes, I'm talking about YOU Ilan and Cliff) bully Marcel. "Mean Chefs" is more like it. It's gotten way out of hand.

Wikipedia says: "Bullying involves the tormenting of others through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation."

Marcel
If we were in middle school we could all see why Marcel would get picked on. But why has the show decided to focus on this behavior? It's crass and not at all entertaining. I feel bad for Marcel. (Note to producers: Human interaction under stress is fascinating. Allowing your contestants to do THAT [won't spoil it] is not.) At least some of the judges are also disturbed by this.

(Sigh) I'm still hoping that Elia will stop falling apart long enough to win the title of Top Chef for this season. Cliff, Ilan and Sam: I have lost all respect for you guys.

3 comments:

Thommy said...

After last nights episode I was thinking ... wouldn't it be cool if Marcel and Elia end up in the final 2? I kind of feel bad for Marcel, except when he uses hip-hop slang and tries to rap? What is he thinking?

EEK! said...

I didn't coin "cheftestants," it's a Television Without Pity term. I hate that Ilan is such a weasel, because I do think he's cute. Bummer. They're all idiots, though Marcel has not been an actual disgrace like the rest of them, to his credit. And once they lost Mikey? They lost the heart of the show. Bad move - who cares about any of the remaining personalities? Mikey was Chunk and Dave all rolled into one. Harold was the soul of Season 1 - none of the remaining Season 2 chefs have any soul.

Dott Comments said...

Maybe they'll bring Jerry Springer in as a guest judge.

I can hear him now, "I think Sam gets points for his verbal insults and petulant 'I'm not helping HIM' tirade but Cliff totally wins for wrestling Marcel to the floor and jumping on top of him."