nice? Generally, it feels kind of sanitized there are little, fleeting bits and pieces here and there this season in which you think, 'Oh! Conflict!'. I love the show with all the marrow in my bones, but there was a rawness and a legitimacy that came through in such a direct manner when this show started. or the season before that and so on and so forth. I don't really feel that much this time around, nor did I last season.

Usually, with only seven or eight cheftestants still in the competition, I am very invested, super excited, often even anxious while watching. While the past five or six seasons or so have been enjoyable and are still classically 'Top Chef,' there's a certain sterility and flatness that the show tends to veer into for me, which feels like it's becoming more and more tepid as time goes by.

but at the end of the day, those episodes are still profoundly more entertaining, if we're being honest. I also have another complaint, if I'm being upfront: While doing a rewatch, it's fun to laugh at the antics of the early seasons, from the yelling and fighting to the early reality show tropes and oftentimes borderline amateurish food. Whenever I settle in for a 'Top Chef' rewatch, Restaurant Wars is one of the episodes I almost always immediately skip.

Clare city of bones