Monday, July 18, 2005

Ending with a whimper

On the plus side, tonight marked the end of the rather dull ABC unscripted show The Scholar, where the dramatic granting of a full ride scholarship was undermined by (a) an unbelievably slow final episode, full of sound and scholarship committee "fury" that signified nothing as the vast majority of the competitors wound up going to the college of their choice, and (b) the drawn-out nature of the episode, unusual given how much they chopped up the students' final Q&A session with the committee.

I would not look for a second installment.

On the minus side, Hell's Kitchen rewarded typical unscripted show behavior by seeing three competitors plot against a fourth, and succeeded in getting that fourth removed from the show. It was a little frustrating; Ramsay clearly knew that Elsie (the removed contestant) was hung out to dry, Elsie wouldn't confirm that, so off she went. I now do not care for any of the remaining contestants, and only find solace in the high failure rate of new restaurants. Odds are the winner will be back toiling in someone else's kitchen by New Year's Eve 2006.

No comments: