18 Scary Movies That Will Teach Children To Appreciate A Good Scare – News Lagoon

What has Netflixs fascination with barbecue lately been about?The American Barbecue Showdown andChefs Table: BBQ were planned before the pandemic started, so its not about comfort in these troubled times. Maybe its just because chefs leaning over artistically-plated dishes is something thats been played out and we just want piles of smoked meat and sides that are creamy, gooey or sweet. We welcome this change of pace, and are ready to consume all eight parts of theShowdown.

Opening Shot: The shows two hosts comedian Lyric Lewis andFloor Is Lava host Rutledge Wood and two judges Kevin Bludso and Melissa Cookston come out of the barn/pantry as the eight pitmaster contestants get their smokers ready.

The Gist: The American Barbecue Showdownconsists of eight challenges, where pitmasters are given tasks that are designed to shake them out of their barbecue comfort zones as well as allow them to tell their story via their cue. As both award-winning judges say, they want to taste the story of your influences, family, etc, in the smoke and spices that you use.

The eight contestants are from all of the barbecue meccas of the country the Carolinas, Texas, Georgia, Missouri, and elsewhere applying recipes that have been handed down for generations. In the first challenge, the pitmasters are tasked with making a classic combo platter, with two proteins and two sides. And theyre only given five and a half hours to do it.

It sounds like thats a lot of time, but in the world of low-and-slow, five-and-a-half-hours is a speed round. One of the contestants, Tina Cannon, questions the time, given the fact that she takes seven-to-twelve hours to smoke her meat. But everyone steps up to the challenge, some making pork butt (did you know that its really the pigs shoulder?) One contestant, Michael Shotgun Collins, makes a personal favorite of ours: Beer can chicken, where the contents of a pierced beer can, stuffed into the chicken, slowly bastes it from the inside. One contestant, nicknamed Grubbs, smokes homemade sausage on a cedar plank, an unusual move.

About 90 minutes before the end of the contest, the pitmasters are thrown a mid-smoke challenge: Make a bread to go with the combo plate. It could be biscuits, cornbread, or anything else the teams had in mind. One contestant, Rasheed Phillips, who has never been in competition before, makes a simple pan-baked butter biscuit and something else as a backup.

After the judges have a taste of all the combo platters, one pitmaster wins the challenge, and another is sent home.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Think of an amped-upBritish Bake-Off format, married to Top Chef-style challenges.

Our Take: Were unabashed barbecue fanatics, so we were hoping to see lots of innovative barbecue using some interesting proteins, and sides that would make our mouths water. We got that in the first episode ofThe American Barbecue Showdown,but were a teeny bit let down by the fact that the food porn we were hoping for gave way to more of a personality parade.

For sure, like in most cooking competition shows, some contestants got more attention than others. How could the camerasnot focus on Shotgun, complete with Mohawk and the notion that he cooks better when hes drinking? He was all over the place with his smokers, something that damn near offended Cookston as she watched him in action. We also heard a lot from Tina, who seemed to make excuses all the way through the challenge, and Rasheed, who really brought his Jamaican and Latin background to the challenge. He also managed to make four proteins and more than two sides and nail all of them, which is amazing given he never competed before.

Of course we want to hear the stories behind the recipes, but were also excited to see challenges where theyre given game meat like racoon to cook (We bet Grubbs, who calls his cooking Grubbacue, will excel at that if hes still around). We want to see the ribs, the burnt ends, the brisket, pork belly, sausages, etc. And we also want to see how people do less-traditional barbecue like cedar plank salmon, like Sylvie Curry did in the first challenge.

One thing we know were going to do is make sure we eat well before watching each episode, because the first one sure made us hungry.

Sex and Skin: Nothing besides the usual food porn.

Parting Shot: The remaining contestants have a toast with the hosts and judges, ready for the next challenge.

Sleeper Star: Well call this a reverse sleeper; while we love the sensitive tastebuds and school-principal manner of Cookston and the down-home expertise of Bludso, were not 100% sure what function Wood and Lewis serve. They didnt have a ton to do in the first episode, but maybe theyll do more later on.

Most Pilot-y Line: It was unfortunate to hear some of the contestants and Bludso say that sides were usually what the contestants wives do. One guy, nicknamed Boatright, didnt even know how to use the stove. Its a fact of life but makes us men look like Neanderthal idiots, and its more than vaguely sexist to boot.

Our Call:STREAM IT. The contestants onThe American Barbecue Showdown are fun to watch and it seems like theyre all great at what they do. But its going to be the food thats the determining factor, and after one episode, so far, so good.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesnt kid himself: hes a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

StreamThe American Barbecue Showdown On Netflix

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18 Scary Movies That Will Teach Children To Appreciate A Good Scare - News Lagoon

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero