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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Maybe a lot of footage has been left on the cutting room floor, but all the animosity toward Marcel on "Top Chef" is strange to many of the people I've talked to who watch the show. We keep (constantly) being told how arrogant and nasty Marcel is, but the footage that's been left in the show rarely shows Marcel as a contestant who's any more annoying or full of himself than any of the rest of the bunch. Really, what we've seen has often made the other contestants look more like a gang of belligerent bullies (for example, the other contestants seemed really fond of Betty, who came across to home viewers as mean and incredibly shrill). What gives? It seems like a deliberate construction on "Top Chef" to cast Marcel as this season's "villain" (just like "Project Runway" is doing with a "villain" every season, and the way they suddenly cast the lesbian as a "villain" at the end of last season on "Top Chef") and I start to wonder whether it was the producers and not just the other contestants who set up this atmosphere in the first place.
Frequently, we've seen Marcel offer to help other contestants, and there was really only one elimination where he actually seemed noticeably more pompous than the other contestants, all of whom are egoists. As another poster pointed out, Cliff talked about punching Marcel out and several of the other male contestants threatened Marcel with violence on earlier shows. Is there something missing, or is there some reason why it devolved to that level? Even if Marcel was annoying, we sure never saw him threatening to hurt someone, so why was this acceptable behavior from the other contestants? (It's hard to imagine "Top Chef's" sister-show "Project Runway" letting threats of physical violence to another contestant go without Tim Gunn stepping in and telling them to cool it). Why did the producers of "Top Chef" let what was obviously a threatening atmosphere get to that point (and then punish a contestant who followed through on what had been building)? "Project Runway" and "Top Chef" are supposed to be a little more high-scale and based on talent than shows like, say, Fox's "Hell's Kitchen." The producers of "Top Chef" weren't very responsible here, and they ended up with a situation that was bad for Marcel, Cliff, and, really, the audience.
You fucktards actually watch a TV show about cooks (scripted, with plot, camera angles, publicists...just like 'pro wrestling') and then get online to argue about it.
No wonder you worship HH.
When the revolution comes, you'll be the first up against the wall. And you still won't have a clue what happened.
Heather,
Though I personaly found Cliff to be quite likable, your comments about him getting kicked off top chef are extremely off base. Cliff's conduct was way out of line. He woke a man from his sleep and battered him by placing his hands upon him in an unwelcome fashion. This is not a race issue! Imagine if you were in Marcel's shoes.
Cliff's actions amount to an unacceptable breach of the rules of the show, and criminal and civil law. The consequences could have been much more severe and probably should have been.
Cliff's remorseful tone was indicative of the fact that he knew he had done wrong. Your apologist comments respecting his actions do no one any favors - black, white, etc.
Accountability is a key ingredient to responsibility. You'd do well to learn that.
HH,
I don't usually bother to write messages about this kind of thing, but you are so wrong on the Cliff thing I have to say something. Sure, Marcel comes off a little fussy and he can complain too much, etc., but what exactly is the basis for you and everyone HATING him? He's just a kid! The middle-aged bearded guy (forgot his name) threatened him with physical violence for moving his toiletries, and Sam-who-can-do-no-wrong screamed at him that he was a "piece of shit" in a store --in front of strangers, friends, and, oh yeah, a tv audience. He's been a collective pinata since he got there. Now he gets dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, headlocked, humiliated, rugburned by a drunk guy twice his size who he knows hates him . . . Have you noticed that he's actually friends with Elia? Maybe because she doesn't have a testosterone-driven rage to smear the queer. (No, I'm not saying Marcel's gay, I'm saying that the Mob loves to abuse the weakest person).
No one needs to love or even like Marcel, but the idea that it's common sense that everyone should hate him to the point that he deserves constant verbal and, hey, why not, maybe a little physical abuse, is ridiculous. You do remember this is a cooking contest, right?
All that's well and good --we can agree to disagree--but to suggest that Cliff's ejection was somehow racially motivated is really gross, like some kind of creepy neo-con defense of violence that exploits race as a justification for violence. Do you honestly think that if a large, drunk white man had pulled much smaller, younger black contestant out of his bad, dragged him around in a headlock while the crowd egged him on, etc. that that would have been fine with everyone? On the contrary, it would have felt like a lynching and Top Chef would now be experiencing the kind of issues facing the British Celebrity Big Brother.
It's really sad to me that even the pages of Salon have adopted a pro-bully attitude; this goes into the file of little bits of pop culture representing the Bush-era Zeitgeist.
I am glad to see I am not the only one who has been feeling that the attacks on Marcel have been over-the-top and unmerited. The producers are so obviously trying to shape this story line of Marcel-the-villain without being critical of the fact that the rest of the bunch had taken their dislike to unnecessary lengths. I have really disliked this whole group of contestants for weeks now, mostly because of their constant and unrelenting mean-spiritedness towards Marcel. Betty was the worst, I thought, because the show tried to make her like this fan favorite, and I thought the whole time that she was just a bad cook and just petty and vindictive.
I kind of hope this is the last Top Chef. While last season had drama, at least they had good chefs. This bunch is filled with rank amatuers. The real top chefs in this country aren't playing juvenile games on reality television, though.
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