“Top Chef”
Wednesday 10pm, Bravo
We’re down to the final four, and I find myself torn. Not about who should win—the answer is obviously Stefan, who has been a dominating force since day one. But about how I feel about the season as a whole. I prefer the contestants as people to the obnoxious batch that populated Season 4, but the cooking just hasn’t been there. Swapping out Gail Simmons for pompous food critic Toby Young halfway through hasn’t helped (the man is a buffoon), and there have been some truly baffling eliminations the past few weeks. Hosea arguably deserves a shot at the title, but as much as I like them, Fabio and Carla make better TV than they do food. Any non-Stefan win would be a shock, and in Carla’s case, it would be the upset of the century.
“Battlestar Galactica”
Friday 10pm, Sci-Fi
Only five episodes left before this fantastic sci-fi drama wraps for good, and the answers are coming fast and furious. The final Cylon was revealed (and, oops—she’s dead!). The fate of Earth was brutally, soul-crushingly sealed. And we now know that Laura Roslin and Bill Adama are the cutest sci-fi couple ever. The season seems to have a pattern—all the odd-numbered episodes frakkin’ rock while the even-numbered ones are a little…less exciting—but things should be picking up soon once Cavill and the rest of the Cylon fleet show up and finish what they started back on the 12 colonies. Until someone explains that all of the “humans” are really descendents of Cylons themselves. At least that’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.
“81st Annual Academy Awards”
Sunday 8pm, ABC
I am so not feeling this year’s Oscar nominees. It has nothing to do with the Dark Knight snub—great movie, not a Best Picture. It just has to do with how…predictable they all feel. Benjamin Button is one of those sweeping historical epics the Oscar voters cream over. Milk fills the tragic biopic slot. The Reader gets your Holocaust bid. Slumdog Millionaire rewards your indie-but-not-really-indie flick. And Frost/Nixon is yet another industry handjob to Ron Howard. Not for nothing, but Wall-E shoulda been a contender. At any rate, Hugh Jackman’s hosting, and it’s not like I can resist the promise of Wolverine in a tux.
