It seems like every week there’s some new TV shows premiering on TV. So for this week’s Geek Alabama TV reviews, let’s talk about Heroes of Cosplay on Syfy and Cutthroat Kitchen on Food Network.
Heroes of Cosplay
To be honest, I was surprised that it took this long to have a reality show about people who dresses in costume and cosplay. For the folks who have no idea what cosplay or costume play is, it’s a hobby that blends costume-making and role-playing. Cosplayers portray their favorite characters from genre movies and television, video games, anime, comic books and more, wearing handmade costumes to comic conventions and sometimes competing for prizes in costume contests.
This series follows nine costume designers who really knows how to do their costumes. In the series, you will see Riki LeCotey, Monika Lee, Victoria Schmidt, Becky Young, Jesse Lagers, Holly Conrad, Jessica Merizan, Chloe Dykstra, and Yaya Han creating different costumes each week at different conventions. And yes, these conventions have the costume contest in which the winners can win some money.
From Syfy.
These designers spend thousands of dollars and take months to create the perfect costume to show off at conventions. Cosplay used to be an underground hobby that few people did, but due to the explosion of the geek culture in movies and TV, you are seeing many people cosplaying. Many people cosplay for self-expression, individuality, and expressing yourself creatively and artistically through costuming and photography. Sadly, some people have complained that cosplay has turned into a contest grabbing hobby and features people who has had the most cosmetic surgery. The people featured in Heroes of Cosplay are wanting to bring the costuming world “back on track.” And I think the first episode did that!
In the first episode, the profiled people are getting ready for Wizard World Portland in Portland Oregon. You see the people getting their costumes made, and even practicing their roles like practicing archery for the role of Merida from the Pixar movie “Brave.” One moment I liked is seeing the small girl actually believing that Merida is real! Sadly, one part of the show that I did not like was the girls talking smack to each other. I want to watch this show to see the costumes, not watch the girls fighting each other.
From Syfy.
In the show, you see how hard and time-consuming it takes to make the costumes perfect. You see a head cast being made, plenty of sewing, spray painting parts of the costume, sculpting parts of a costume, and much more! The costume contest featured some really cool designs and the crowd loved it! So yes, I am looking forward to seeing more episodes of this show. Anything to make the cosplay community more hip and cool is great!
New episodes of Heroes of Cosplay air on Syfy on Tuesday nights at 10/9 pm central. To learn more about Heroes of Cosplay, go to: http://www.syfy.com/heroesofcosplay Follow Heroes of Cosplay on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/HeroesofCosplay and on Twitter @HeroesofCosplay
Cutthroat Kitchen
I don’t know if Food Network is getting desperate for programming or something, but they have another new TV show, and it involves backstabbing. Cutthroat Kitchen is hosted by Alton Brown and the rules are simple. There are three rounds which involves cooking a certain dish, the chefs have 60 seconds in the pantry to get everything that they need. Then there is an auction and each chef starts with $25,000. After the pantry, the chefs bids on certain items that would hurt the other chefs. In the first round which was turkey dinner, the items in the auction included an empty basket where the winning chef got to take one item from each other chef. The second item was processed deli turkey to replace the fresh turkey and the third item was a swiss knife to replace the real knife and other hand utensils.
During each round, the chefs have a chance to inflict more pain on another chef by bidding on another item. The item for round one was a butane burner to replace the professional cooking equipment. How fun! After the round was over, one chef was eliminated and then it was round two which was a french toast theme. The items up for bid was powdered milk and eggs to replace the real stuff, burnt bread and bread crusts, and the requirement to serve a frozen component in the dish. During the round, the item for bid was bleu cheese and red wine which had to be incorporated into the dish. After the round was over, another chef was eliminated.
The final round was all about lobster rolls. After the 60 seconds in the pantry, the cooking began. During the final round, there were several auction items including requiring their opponents to make their bread from scratch in under 30 minutes and a basket to take the opponents utensils. At the end, one chef won over $11,000. At the end of the game, the winning chef gets to keep whatever is left from the original $25,000 while the other three chefs have to return the money before taking the walk of shame. I thought that Cutthroat Kitchen was an okay show and yes there was a lot of backstabbing talk. Alton Brown was a great host, and the backstabbing and sabotage was hot. Remember, don’t try any sabotaging at home!
New episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen airs on Food Network on Sunday nights at 10/9 pm central. To learn more about Cutthroat Kitchen go to: http://www.foodnetwork.com/cutthroat-kitchen/index.html
Related articles
- Cosplay gets reality TV treatment in Syfy’s ‘Heroes of Cosplay’ (theshortsmagazine.com)
- Review of “Heroes of Cosplay” premiere (prosandconventions.wordpress.com)
- Heroes of Cosplay debuts on SyFy Channel tonight (destructoid.com)
- ‘Cutthroat Kitchen’ Is ‘Chopped’ For Jerks (waitwhatsadial.wordpress.com)
- ‘Cutthroat Kitchen’ premiere: Sabotage with care (popwatch.ew.com)
Categories: Movie And TV Talk / Trailers Stuff
