TV round-up

1) The Chef Jeff Project is awesome. This series just ended on the Food Network. I think it was only a total of 6 or so episodes. I know this series was cheesy, but it was awesome. Basically, Chef Jeff served 10 years in federal prison on drug charges, got out, became a famous chef, and now is giving back by sponsoring 6 troubled youth through a quick training course. At the end they all got scholarships to a culinary institute. In between, you got to see these kids struggle to stay with the program. I'm amazed by Chef Jeff's patience and these kids' perseverance. There's also some pretty funny moments, like when Adam tries oysters for the first time and subsequently threw up on the street at a farmer's market.

2) I'm addicted to Jericho. Ummm, this series is also cheesy, but I love that post-apocalyptic thing. I had a dream a while ago that everyone in Chicago had to flee to the western suburbs. No cars. The dream consisted of me packing--trying to figure out my warmest clothes and also determine what would be good for the black market later. In my dream the black market list was brandy (but not beer; too heavy); batteries; cigarettes; and bottled water. I'm not that impressed with my dream black market list. There's lots more stuff in this house that would be good for the black market. And also we don't have any cigarettes.

3) Pushing Daisies is cancelled. I'm really bummed about this. I love this show anyway, and then they added two kids from my high school as Ned's twin half-brothers. They were a year behind me, and very popular in the musical theater crowd. Thanks My Plaid Pants for the image. Boo ABC!!! I hate you.

4) Season 4 of the Wire, while not my favorite, is still amazing. Alan Sepinwall of What's Alan Watching has an amazing analysis of the season as a whole here. I'm sad to hear that season 5 is not as good, because I can't imagine a less worthy ending to what is probably the best tv series ever.

Otherwise, tv is pretty standard. I'm still enjoying 30 Rock, the Office, How I Met Your Mother (though please stop forcing everyone to have a family), and Top Chef. Life On Mars seems good so far, but we gave up on Heroes and Terminator.