Work of Art s2: week 4 power rankings

OUT: Tewz, whose piece wasn't terrible but could've connected to the original work better.

1. Kymia - On a hot streak.
2. Michelle - Has cooled since early success but had a solid piece this week. Took Simon's advice to heart.
3. Dusty - Last week's piece, which the judges didn't like, has grown on me.
4. Young Sun - Last week's piece, which won, has not grown on me.
5. Sara - Spelling "divorce" with an S was her most egregious decision. She can do better than to pander.
6. Sarah - Truly middle of the pack; the only artist who hasn't been up for a crit yet.
7. Lola - Fairly uninspired this week.
8. Bayete - Liked his re-drawing of the original piece but the accompanying video wasn't necessary.
9. The Sucklord - He's not that bad but nobody else has been up for elimination twice.

Premiere League: Top Chef, "Everything's Bigger in Texas"

I skipped out on Top Chef franchise overkill this year. Other than the odd episode here and there of Masters and Just Desserts (which to be fair, was much improved on the terrible first season), I haven't watched regularly since the all-star season. As Top Chef seasons go, it was excellent, but it was an anomaly given that all the contestants - even Mike Isabella! - were the real deal. It was all wheat and no chaff, as opposed to most seasons where the first five episodes (minimum) are devoted to eliminating the schmos. Compare All-Stars to the especially woeful DC season, with only two or three half-decent chefs and a total non-entity as champion and you'll see why I'm nervous about this season.

Even the producers knew they had to shake things up, so this season starts with a staggering 29 chefs, who are whittled down to 16 in a process reminiscent of the audition episodes of MasterChef. I'm not particularly a fan of the new gimmick - too many cooks spoil the broth, ho ho ho. And some chefs aren't even eliminated outright but rather live to cook another day for a final chance at a spot in the final (initial?) 16. But it does lead to satisfying moments like the world's smuggest babyfaced jerkwad being PYKAG'd by Tom before he even plates a dish. The rest of the preliminary eliminations, "preliminations" if you will, are more in line with your usual episode, but it's nice to see some spontaneity in a now-familiar format.

There's not much else to say about the episode, since it's largely a bunch of chefs we don't know and barely care about presenting one after another. New guest judge Emeril Lagasse adds some schlubby authority to the proceedings, whereas other new judge Hugh Acheson won't appear until the second episode. Given how sparingly Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain were used in previous seasons, though, they likely won't make much of an impression overall.

Of course, I'm pleased that Chicago is doing well; five chefs from the Windy City presented dishes this episode and all five advanced. Suck it, East/West Coast!

No power rankings yet, of course, and I'm hard pressed to even come up with an early favorite. It's good to see Top Chef back, but will the good vibes last once the new gimmickry is over?

Work of Art s2: week 3 power rankings

OUT: Leon and Jazz-Minh. Of the four contestants up for elimination, they were the two who deserved to go, although Jazz-Minh was pretty cute. Quit voting off the hot chicks!

Rankings are still a bit all over the place week-to-week. There aren't any clear favorites yet.

1. Young Sun - Not my favorite piece of the night but the judges gave him the win and he's performed well so far.
2. Kymia - Again, not my favorite, but the judges like her piece and she hasn't done badly yet.
3. Sara - I liked her piece more than the two favorites'.
4. Tewz - Ditto.
5. Michelle - This week she proves that she's mortal. Can't decide whether her work was too derivative or appropriately Warholian for the 2010s.
6. Dusty - The judges had valid critiques but Dusty deserved much better than being up for elimination.
7. The Sucklord - Not a bad piece, but unfortunately dated by the episode's air date.
8. Sarah - Would have preferred to see it in person to gauge its impact.
9. Lola - The subject had tons of potential but it didn't inspire me.
10. Bayete - Decent idea, horrid execution. The judges were right that he was lucky to have immunity.

Work of Art s2 Power Rankings: Week Two

OUT: Kathryn, duh, because she's a one trick pony even if she's art-school hipster hot and I hate myself for being attracted to her.

1. Michelle - The judges have taken to her so far, even if I haven't. I liked this piece better than last week's, though.
2. Leon - I totally looked up how to curse in ASL.
3. Sara - Creepy, in a good way.
4. The Sucklord - Seems like it was a lot of fun.
5. Jazz-Minh - Wish I could've seen it in person to get a good look at it.
6. Sarah - Another I wish I could have seen in person.
7. Dusty - A little too convincing as a creep, don't you think?
8. Young Sun - Very pedestrian considering how much I liked his piece last week.
9. Kymia - I liked the idea but the execution wasn't quite there.
10. Lola - See above, only even more lacking in execution.
11. Bayete - Seriously, he won for this? Maybe you had to watch it for a while.
12. Tewz - Totally uninspired.

Work of Art s2 Power Rankings: Week One

As opposed to Top Chef power rankings, my views may not parrot the judges' since I can appraise the art for myself.

OUT: Ugo, even though I didn't think his piece was that bad.

1. Young Sun - So help me, I liked his performance piece.
2. Jazz-Minh - Even though I hate her name.
3. Michelle - Not my favorite but I'll give her points because she won.
4. Lola - Not my favorite but I'll give her points because the judges liked it.
5. Tewz - Initial vision sounded cooler than the end product.
6. Leon - No thoughts either way.
7. Kymia - Ditto.
8. Dusty - His piece was less than the sum of its parts.
9. Sarah - Meh.
10. Sara - The judges liked it. I didn't.
11. The Sucklord - Not a good piece but at least he realizes how to improve.
12. Bayete - The dollar bills were overkill and ruined what could've been a passable piece. I would have voted him out.
13. Kathryn - She's got that hot art girl look that slays me but I didn't care for her piece and between that and her self-portrait, seems one-note.

Premiere League: Work of Art, "Kitsch Me If You Can"

God, that's a terribly punny episode title.

Work of Art isn't a huge Bravo hit on the level of a Real Housewives series or Top Chef, but I enjoy it. In a sense, it's a tough show to talk about. On Top Chef, you can't personally taste a dish to appraise it but can trust that if the judges didn't like it, it was rubbish. On Work of Art, however, you can definitively say if you liked or hated what the contestants made, even if art is so subjective that evaluating artistic talent in a reality show competition format is laughable.

The first episode of a reality show is never good. There are too many characters, too much exposition, and no narratives. That said, it's good to see the show back. Simon is as lovable as ever, the contestants are as interesting as they are talented, and Jerry had some killer lines and reaction shots. One of the show's weaknesses in its first season was that it's judges and hosts were non-entities. Jerry showing some life gives the panel some sorely-needed credibility.

I would have given Bayeté the boot - his piece really was overkill, with the money serving absolutely no purpose other than to bludgeon the viewer. Ugo's piece didn't work, but I felt he had more to offer. Then again, with him gone we won't hear Keith Haring's name dropped again (SAY HAS ANYONE EVER HEARD OF THIS GUY AND HOW MUCH UGO'S ART RESEMBLES HIS? NO WAY). As for The Sucklord... the show is obviously marking him as the breakout star and/or villain, and even he knows it. He does have some charm but the routine could get really old really fast.

As for the winner, Michelle, good for her. Not much else to say other than I liked it. I was surprised I liked Young Sun's piece as much as I did, given that it was - shudder - performance art. But it was cheeky and not too pretentious. Big fan of Jazz-Minh's piece, too, if not her name (worse than The Sucklord). Kathryn, though, could be a one-trick pony. Enough with the guts already.

Power rankings to follow in a separate post, incidentally.

Premiere League: Person of Interest, "Pilot"

It's been a few years since I've watched something on CBS that wasn't sports, an awards show, or Letterman. 2007, to be exact, when I watched Jericho because I thought that surely all those fans sending nuts to the network execs in order to save the show couldn't possibly be wrong (they were). However, Person of Interest stars Michael Emerson, whose Ben Linus was one of the best things about Lost for several seasons. His presence merits at least 44-minutes-plus-commercials of my time, if only for one night.

It's probably going to stay at one night. While Person of Interest has some sci-fi intrigue and decent action scenes, it's a police procedural at heart, and that's a genre I've never taken to. Even then, the particulars of the show don't work for me. It tries to create vague uneasiness about the surveillance state while claiming that eavesdropping is okay when done by the right people - for instance, the heroes hack into somebody's phone without qualms. Jim Caviezel, the show's lead actor, is portrayed as a badass but also a white hat good guy, which means he shoots a lot of people in the leg. By the eighth person, it becomes comical (the fate of one antagonist is left ambiguous, probably because the show is chickening out). It's also ludicrous how Caviezel's character goes from suicidal bum to Bruce Wayne/Batman hybrid in the span of a few hours, and one of the episode's plot twists is telegraphed a mile away because otherwise the story would be too straightforward.

Person of Interest isn't without merit; the action scenes are good, Caviezel is a convincing asskicker, and Emerson can play the role of the mysterious man pulling all the strings in his sleep. But as long as the stories lag behind the production and acting, I have no time for this show.