Only competitive dating shows draw more passionate and indignant online commentary than competitive cooking shows.
Take this comment: "We already know that Elizabeth will stab some kittens if Courtney wins, so here we are almost at their finale to see it happen, or not." Indeed. That refers to tonight's season finale of MasterChef (Fox, CTV, 8 p.m.), which features the last three cooks standing, Leslie, Courtney and Elizabeth.
It's been a so-so season for the original MasterChef franchise, a show I put on the DVR and watch later as a pleasant distraction from the pressures of the world. Never did take to the Canadian version, finding Alvin Leung – the self-proclaimed "Demon Chef," according to CTV – a tad dreary in his repetitive posturing as grumpy guy. The original is still the best and it's where the ubiquitous Gordon Ramsay is at his most incisive about food.
MasterChef is one of those series that finds committed viewers season after season because, for all the reality-TV fakery, it remains compelling. First there's the food, and in particular the so-called "pressure tests" wherein contestants – all home cooks, not professionals – have to use their knowledge and skills at top speed, with ingredients just presented to them. Sometimes one is awed by the inventiveness (finalist Leslie is brilliant at the pressure tests) and sometimes stunned by the ineptitude.
But there is also the matter of the social context. The three finalists tonight are distinct representative types. Leslie, in his 50s, with long grey hair, is a "stay-at-home dad" and this has drawn derision from other male contestants. The subtext of outbursts by the contestant Cutter, who left last week, is that a stay-at-home dad isn't a real man. Why, this Leslie guy is cooking dinner for his family each night. Leslie's response has been a constant stream of sarcasm, something that bothers the final two women on the show much more than his stay-at-home-dad status.
Courtney, who wears heels and tends to smile a lot, is a very accomplished home cook. But what generates a lot of heat about her is the fact that she was an "aerial dancer" at the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City. For a lot of viewers nattering about MasterChef, that translates into "stripper." Actually, she was a dance student earning money for her tuition. As far as the other contests were concerned this season, the verdict on Courtney was, "She's fake, not real." Which means, "Who does that floozie think she is?"
Elizabeth, who works in advertising in New York, is the quiet one in this mix. Very bourgeois. A good cook in certain areas but somewhat testy when required to work with others, in a passive-aggressive way. Recently, working alongside Courtney, the seething agitation almost went from simmer to boil. Courtney told Elizabeth to hurry. Elizabeth said she was hurrying. Courtney apologized. Elizabeth got into it again about "hurrying" and muttered under her breath.
Notice how I haven't said much about the food for a while? At this stage, the series becomes less about the food and more about the contestants. Last year the inevitable winner was Luca, whose story was: "I am an Italian who left his home country just out of his 20s and came to the States to follow the American dream." A gifted cook, but his charm and backstory made him the winner.
You do learn a lot about food on MasterChef. Watching people deal with simple dishes, in particular, is an education. But the meat of the show is the matter of which distinct representative type comes out on top. It means something. Which is why you should watch. No kittens will be stabbed, I'd guess.
Also airing tonight
Terror at the Mall (HBO Canada, 9 p.m.) is an unnerving HBO documentary about the siege of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, which unfolded a year ago this month. The terrorist group al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked group from Somalia, entered the large mall on a Saturday afternoon, threw grenades and began shooting. The siege lasted 49 hours, leaving 71 dead and hundreds wounded. The doc uses footage from 100 security cameras in the mall and interviews with survivors. It is deeply disquieting to hear people describe what unfolded and simultaneously see the same person's actions in the security footage. One survivor says, "There was a lot of blood and a lot of anguish as people lay there dying." Not for the faint of heart, this chronicle of terror.