Yes, I've been watching it (and very much enjoyed Conant's delight in Nonna's cooking during the battle of the Italian restaurants last night). It's "Restaurant Wars" meets Last Restaurant Standing, and I am certainly finding it more entertaining than Top Chef these days.
About Top Chef, I'm hoping from here on out it will improve. Not because all the dead weight is gone, for it surely is not, but because, with fewer contestants, more attention can be focused on the food.
Work of Art talk below; highlight to view.
[Work of Art was, as usual, more fun, though not as good as some episodes. People were surprisingly stymied by the challenge (one that reminded me of that late challenge in Top Chef Masters: cook a first course that shows how you started, a second that shows where you are, and a third that shows where you hope to be). For supposed artistes, they seem to have little imagination. Maybe they're just constipated by their need to impress.
As to the results, I was not wowed by Peregrine's piece (I preferred Nicole's), but it was certainly one of the better efforts. Miles definitely cheated. Mark was workmanlike, as usual. Abdi's paralysis was unexpected. Jacqui was pathetic, especially when she randomly threw in pipe cleaners and pom-poms because Simon liked them (at least Miles acknowledged that his rubber-band balls were added in a conscious attempt to bamboozle the judges into thinking his crossword grid had something to do with the challenge; Jacqui, as seems to be her wont, claimed her embellishments sprang from inspiration, not asskissery), and I'm sorry she lived to pout another day. But, though I will miss Ryan's combination of good nature and snark, he really did deserve to go; he's even more of a one-trick pony than the resident exhibitionist. Still, I will worry about him: estranged from his family, apparently a drinker, with only $24 (or less) to his name. Quite the little Pagliaccio, when you come down to it.
