In past years TNFNS was a guilty viewing pleasure, despite the silly, irrelevant challenges (cooking for Girl Scouts, tight time limits, as if FN were live TV) and inconsistent judging criteria (contestants slammed for relying on formal training or for not having enough). But this year's been painful, thanks to a really dull group of contestants. Hard to believe these were the 10 best out of presumably thousands of applicants. Not a single one impressed with either their culinary skills or on-camera personality, let alone a combination of the two. But at least now I can breathe a sigh of relief that Debbie is gone. Many felt she was this year's pre-selected winner, in order to fill a FN demographic niche. But no amount of highly biased judging could cover her flaws - chief of which was a very shakey relationship with the truth. On a show in which the judges blather incessantly about "integrity" and "trust," how could they have kept her for so long when she was caught in some major lie virtually every week - several of them aimed intentionally at undercutting other contestants. Two years ago a finalist was booted off when it was discovered he misrepresented his military record. Not cool, but it had nothing specifically to do with his behavior on the show. I think FN finally realized people were tired of Debbie's drama queen act. (As well as her reminding us she was Korean every other sentence.) Oh yeah, right, the final two - Melissa and Jeffrey. Best of a lame lot, with my preference for Jeffrey. More relaxed, less drama. Melissa's no Debbie, but she seems to come up with a story for every occassion - she was raised poor, yet her mother was a Navy Commander, and a maid taught her Spanish. Now the "stay-at-home mom" turns out to have gone to business school and lived in Paris. And mentioning her mother's suicide the other night seemed a desperate grab for sympathy. Enough already with the personal stories. Can a Food Network show just be about food? What a concept.
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