Top Chef, the Oscars and Good-bye Conesy

I haven't written anything about this season of Top Chef, but I thought I'd just weigh in with a few thoughts on that and other happenings this last week in TV.

I have to say, this season of TC has been pretty awesome. The number of really top-notch, world-class chefs that they've had as guest judges....it's unbelievable. I was initially irked by the fact that they started with 157 freaking chef-testants, but once they narrowed it down to 8 or so, it started to be more manageable. T and I have been loving Fabio. We think he clearly deserves his own show. So that being said, we were both more than a little crushed when he got eliminated. I really thought that Stefan deserved to go, but I suspect that they wanted to maintain the "asshole" factor for the finale (see: Lisa).

I also think that despite what they keep saying about it not being a cumulative competition, that's really impossible for them to maintain. Stefan has been crushing almost the whole season, and I've been saying for weeks now that it's pretty much his prize to lose. However, that being said, I think that Carla is definitely a dark horse. T said numerous times during the course of the last episode that if you'd told him 2 months ago that Big Bird (that's what he calls her) would be in the finale, he would've fallen down laughing. Who knew she would come on so strong at the end?

I also felt a little bad for Richard, who was kind of up against impossible odds to make it to the finale. But hopefully this comeback will shave some time off of the 10 years that he said it'll take him to get over being booted. Man, talk about taking it hard....

I'm annoyed that Hosea has made it this far. He's come across as mediocre through most of the show, and the whole "romance" with Leah...bleh. I'm rooting for Carla, but I think Stefan will win.

Briefly, about the Oscars:
I watched most of it on delay on my DVR and let me just say, that was definitely the way to go! I skipped most of the boring speeches (sorry, costume design and documentary short award winners) and got through the show quickly enough that I barely noticed that it went 30 minutes late. Although, even with the ability to skip most of the commercials, I still couldn't help but notice the 8,342 ads for JC Penney! What was up with that? And what happened to the ads overall? Didn't the Oscars used to have good ads? Didn't it used to be considered the "Superbowl for women?" The few commercials I did watch were all old, or just plain garbage.

I thought Hugh Jackman did a respectable job, even if some of the song-and-dance numbers were on the cheesy side, and I also thought the set design and production quality overall was quite lovely. I kinda dug the whole retro-glamour thing. I was excited that Kate Winslet finally got the win, even though I haven't seen The Reader. I've just always loved her though. And I was also very happy that Slumdog Millionaire ruled the evening. Even though I didn't see all the nominees for Best Picture, I did see that one, and it's an amazing film.

Last, but not least, I wanted to comment on Conan O'Brien's last week on Late Night. I've long been a big fan of Conan, and he really did not disappoint last week. He showed many, if not all, of my favorite bits (many of my friends and I still quote lines from the olde-timey baseball bit), and the chopping up of his set was priceless.

T and I have wondered more than once how watered down Conan's going to be when he goes to the Tonight Show, and I have to say, the speech he gave at the very end of his show last Friday night was a nice reassurance that he plans on staying exactly the same (here's a link to watch the last show). I really really hope that's true, since I particularly love his brand of zany nonsense. Oh, and that being said, I was surprised and delighted to see this story today. I was happy to see Andy on the last show, and I'm very curious to see how it'll be to have him back.

Now if only they would take that hack, Leno, off the air for good...