The Week That Was 040225: Top 5 Posts & Top Chef!

Top 5 Posts in March

1. Game of Thrones 5x07: The Gift 

2. Game of Thrones 3x07: The Bear and the Maiden Fair

3. X-amining X-Man #28

4. X-amining X-Factor #135

5. X-amining New Mutants #87

Kind of a weird top 2 for March, with a pair of (seemingly random) old Game of Thrones reviews taking the top spots, a season five review from Doctor Bitz and a season three review from me. Maybe some kind of weird "seventh episodes of a season" algorithm got ahold of them? 

Then a pair of new reviews for the month, no surprise there. And rounding out the top 5, my review of the first appearance of Cable. Still somewhat random, but the kind of issue that likely comes up in a lot Google searches and whatnot, so not entirely out of nowhere. 

Top Chef: Destination Canada 

As of this writing, we're three episodes deep into the new season of Top Chef, set in Canada. It's a little bit of an odd setting, given there's already a Canadian version of Top Chef, Top Chef Canada (which is presumably why this season is titled "Destination Canada"). But judge Gail Simmons is a Toronto native, and the show has done an international/cross-spinoff season before, so it's not completely out of left field. To its credit, it's leaning into the Canadian theme in its early goings, with challenges built around poutine, maple syrup, and hockey already come and gone (seriously, outside of a Tim Horton's challenge, what other Canadian stereotypes are left?). 

It's also a season where, just three episodes in, we're routinely hearing the judges rave about the quality of the food they're getting, both directly, and in terms of consistently seeing challenges play out where there's one or two obviously bad dishes and everything else earns praise. This has been a common refrain across many of the later seasons of the show, and it speaks to the ways the show has changed over the years. Once upon a time, it was a place for up-and-coming chefs to make a name for themselves. Nowadays, nearly all the contestants in every season are well-established, winners of awards and running their own kitchens or owning their own restaurants. It's less about making a name for themselves as it is building up their own brand. So of course, it makes sense that the overall quality of the food being put out, even within the unique confines and challenges of the show's format, would consistently be "the best ever". 

With the Top Chef mothership turning more and more into some akin to the old Top Chef Masters spinoff (where accomplished/celebrity chefs competed), it makes me wonder if a season or two where the show specifically sets out to cast only chefs still coming into their own (Top Chef Breakouts, or something like that) wouldn't both be fun, and capture some of the show's earlier energy. 

Though Tom Colicchio probably wouldn't want to willingly give up getting better food. 

Review Round-Up

It's been a bit since I did one of these, so there's a ton of reviews out there I haven't shared. Rather than link to them, here's a link to my author page on Comicon.com. 

A couple highlights there include Previously On X-Men, a new column in which me and a few other writers break down the week's new X-books, giving each a brief bullet point-laden rundown that is part high level review, part annotation, and part humorous observations. Check it out every Friday! 

Over at ComicsXF, my X-Chat reviews of Uncanny X-Men with Adam Reck continue. I also contributed to the jam review of the frustrating and bewildering "X-Manhunt" conclusion. And I wrote up a short little review of the first issue of Oni Press' Out of Alcatraz. 

What Else? 

What I'm Watching

I finished Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It ended the way it should, with me wanting to watch more episodes right away, having built to a really fun conclusion. I'm still not sure if having Spider-Man's origin in this iteration be the result of a bootstrap paradox makes sense for the character thematically, but I also can't deny I love a good boostrap paradox. 

More uneven is Daredevil: Born Again. I didn't watch much of the Netflix version of this show, but decided to check it out anyway. Ironically, one of the reasons I didn't get into the Netflix show was that it seemed allergic to actually having an in-costume Daredevil appear in it, and that remains my biggest beef with Born Again. I'm five episodes in and, aside from the opening scene that was added on after the show got reworked, I feel like Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, wondering if there's going to be any Daredevil in this Daredevil show. 

What I'm Reading

Marvel's Star Wars comics has gone through another of its periodic relaunches, and the most enjoyable of the new bunch thus far is Legacy of Vader, a Kylo Ren-centric book set between Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, the premise of which seems to be pointing out how much of a poseur Kylo Ren is compared to Vader. It also features some really gorgeous art from Luke Ross.