After her breakthrough performances in Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect, no one would question why Rebel Wilson has become a sought-after star, or why ABC would want to build a show around her ample and fearlessly outrageous talents. But Super Fun Night hasn't been much of a joyride so far.
The original pilot, which has been replaced by another episode for its official premiere (9:31/8:31c), elicited this reaction from me in the Fall Preview issue: "The grotesque extremes to which Wilson stoops to get laughs in this frenetic vehicle have a whiff of desperation. It might also be more fun if she used her authentic Aussie accent." The objection stands about her Americanized speech (her choice), and while the new opener is a little less degrading — instead of exposing her body on a city street with flashing lights on her underwear, a new gag involves an office elevator door shredding her dress, revealing her Spanx at work — it's not much funnier.
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What unbecomes a legend most? Look no further than this long weekend's well-timed candidate for the TV Turkey Hall of Fame: Liz & Dick (Lifetime, Sunday at 9/8c), an epic of stunningly cynical and pathetic miscasting, a TV-movie so laughably inept it doesn't deserve to be on a first-name basis with anything resembling humanity.
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We're sensing some smoked salmon in our future. Top Chef: Seattle will premiere...
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Sarah Grueneberg came up short to Paul on the Top Chef finale, but if you ask her, she did win. "I feel like I won too," she tells TVGuide.com. "I truly believe that. I woke up [the day after the finale aired] with this great calm. There is no more nervousness and nothing to be ashamed about. I'm really excited for my career now. It was overall a positive experience. I can't be more proud of how I did. If I'm going to be second, I couldn't think of a better way and a better place to be." But what part of her final meal cost her the title and $125,000? See what she thinks below. Plus: What's up with her and Beverly?
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They say "Everything's Bigger in Texas," which happens to be the episode title for the premiere of Bravo's Texas-set ninth season of Top Chef (10/9c). And it also may explain why a ginormous platoon of 29 chef-testants descends on the historic Alamo for the first round of competition, and why the process of narrowing the field to a Top 16 can't even be contained within the first pulse-pounding episode.
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