Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Thursday, June 14, 2012

A fresh drop of True Blood,a Mad Men medley and tastes like team spirit on The Next Food Network Star



The new season of True Blood picked up right where they left off last time,with Bill and Eric looking to make tracks after offing Nan,Arlene and Terry dealing with an unwanted guest and Jason learning that not only is Rev.Newlin a vampire,he also has a thing for him.

However,the biggest plot point to me was the fate of Tara,shot dead in Sookie's kitchen by a vengeful Debbie(who met her own violent end at the hands of Our Miss Stackhouse). Pam happened to pop in as Lafeyette discovered the tragic demise of his cousin and he begged her to turn Tara.

Pam had some serious doubts about doing so,yet upon the promise of a favor or two from Sookie,she reluctantly agreed to give it a try. At first,it seemed as if the transformation had failed but soon enough,Tara rose from her vampire grave in what appears to be a feral state:





Since this new twist is far and away from the books,I'm anxious to see how this addition to Tara's character development works out. Unlike some folks,I like her a lot and am happy to see her back in a potentially more powerful position than ever before.

There's quite a bit to anticipate this season and starting by the next episode,we'll have Christopher Meloni on board as Roman,a major player in the Vampire Authority who isn't too thrilled with Bill and Eric at the moment:





The team challenge this week on The Next Food Network Star was for each group to appear on a TV special with Guy Fieri and demonstrate a few themed recipes. Team Alton had Halloween while Team Giada was given a football party and Team Bobby got kid meals.

Only one team had to face the Producers' Challenge and that was the Alton Brown crew. A map of the U.S. was used as a dartboard and each person had to make a dish that represented the state they landed on,plus a camera presentation.



Then it came down to Judson and Martie for the judges to decide who to send home and Judson was handed his walking papers. That was such a shame for many reasons. First off,Martie has yet to control her babbling brook of speech problem(which cut into one team mate's time during the main challenge)and she pretty much copped out when it came to the Producers' segment.

She wound up with Pennsylvania and wasn't happy to not have a southern state so the best that Martie came up with was a mushroom stuffed with cream cheese(due to a couple of suggestions from her mentor Alton). *sigh*In any competition,you can not always expect to be able to play to your strengths,sometimes you have to roll with the choices given to you. Martie totally dropped the ball,no question about it.

Judson may have had some presentation troubles,but he was finding his way and I truly believe that,allowed the opportunity, he could have made his weight loss POV work. Judge Susie really seemed dead set against Judson but Alton showed a lot of empathy towards him. Maybe Judson will get a show,someday because I'm not the only one that feels he deserved another shot:



Next week,the chef contenders have an Iron Chef style challenge with a very Chopped quality guest judge,so things should definitely get heated in more ways than one:





Mad Men wrapped up their fifth season as most of the characters tried to tie off loose ends as well. Don did his best to ease his guilt over Lane's death while Pete saw the end of his brief affair with poor doomed Beth and Megan struggled to figure out how to make her acting dreams come true.

It was good to see Peggy run into Don(hopefully that will happen often next season) and Joan get more pro-active with her new partnership position. As for what the future may bring,it seems as if Don will go back to his former philandering ways which is not a great progression for him but I'd rather watch a Don Draper tryst than check out Roger Sterling's acid trip end game:



RANDOM NOTES:

BUNHEADS: I watched the debut of ABC Family's new series,helmed by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino,about a Vegas showgirl(Sutton Foster) who ditches her less than stellar lifestyle by marrying a male admirer and possibly getting a gig teaching in his mother's dance school. Kelly Bishop plays her mother-in-law(who is a tad wackier than Emily Gilmore but just as entertainingly intimidating)and the two of them alone are a real treat.

The pilot episode was pretty promising and GG fans as well as folks into dance related tales should like this series,which feels as cozy as a good beach book only it has a beat you can really get up and dance to:







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