Padma Lakshmi’s ‘Top Chef’ Legacy Is One for the Ages

This week:

• The TV landscape right now is utter chaos.

• All hail the queen, Padma Lakshmi.

• The most delightful TV clip of the week.

• The funniest joke from the funniest show on TV.

• Another round of celebrity headline Mad Libs.

Pack Up Your Legacy and Go

The longest, healthiest, and most intimate relationships I’ve had in my life are with my beloved reality TV hosts.

Some of them have been with me, week after week, going on 20 years. I have cried in front of them. I have been at my worst in front of them: sobbing into a pint of Ben & Jerry’s while watching Cat Deeley hug a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance. I have experienced my highest highs before them, like just recently, applauding ecstatically when Jeff Probst announced Yam Yam as the winner of Survivor.

They have made me feel safe and secure—there is no greater comfort than Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum appearing together on a TV screen. And they have been foundational to the very fabric of who I am as a person, as I’m reminded each of the 20 to 30 times a year I rewatch the clip of Ryan Seacrest announcing Kelly Clarkson as the first winner of American Idol.

Then there’s Padma Lakshmi, who for the last 17 years has presided over the convergence of the two greatest loves of my life: reality TV and food.

By virtue of my job, I get asked all the time what is the best show on TV, or what is my favorite. The answer to both questions, reliably over at least the last decade, has been Top Chef. It is exquisite. I won’t miss an episode. It is thrilling, emotional, and stunning to look at. It is educational about cultures and traditions, often quite funny, and has managed to evolve in a way that never betrays what the show is at its core.

Lakshmi is crucial to that long-running success. This week, Bravo aired what will be her last episode as host and judge of the series. It’s an impressive legacy, one that deserves being memorialized.

She epitomizes the tricky balance of what makes Top Chef work.

She is incredibly knowledgeable about food and cooking techniques from all over the world, and of a spectrum of skill sets from home cooking to fine dining. She brings that authority and warranted gravity to her presenting and judging, but she also understands the direct pathway from the heart to the plate that the chefs create with. When Top Chef began embracing the emotion, memories, and life experience—tangible and intangible—that are inextricable from food, the series elevated to an unmatched level of reality TV competition.

You can tell that Lakshmi was a driving force of that. Her interactions with the contestants and their food are approached from a place of curiosity and, often, great humor. Like any long-running, committed relationship, like the ones I fancy myself in with my cherished hosts, it’s hard to imagine going on without her—excuse me, the show going on without her. But she’s earned this new chapter. And, by the way, if you haven’t watched her other series Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, do so immediately. It’s one of the best non-fiction series on TV.

This Is Me

Sometimes you go through life lost, feeling alone, wondering, “Does anyone really know me? Do I even know myself?”

And then a meme account will surface a video of Sarah Jessica Parker being interviewed on The Rosie O’Donnell Show before the first season premiere of Sex and the City, during which she and O’Donnell duet to a song from Annie, with new lyrics about Parker’s no-nudity clause. (Watch it here.)

Eleven different people sent me that video. It occupied space in five different group chats.

Now, more than ever, I feel seen. (Also, Parker has always been—and still is—the most charming talk show guest.)

A Perfect Joke

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…probably three to four times a day, usually out loud to no one. But I’ll say it anyway: The Other Two is the funniest show on TV right now.

This week’s new episode has what may be my favorite joke of the season so far, which is high praise. On the biting showbiz satire, talentless pop superstar Chase Dreams (Case Walker) expresses his distrust that his manager, Chuly (Wanda Sykes), and his sister/co-manager, Brooke (Heléne Yorke), know what they’re doing. They released his last album on Jan. 6, the day of the insurrection, after all.

Then the truth comes out. “We didn’t release your album on the day of the insurrection,” Chuly says. “Your album was so bad, I created the insurrection!” She explains that she knew the album would ruin his career, so she “spent months radicalizing people to storm the Capitol on the day it dropped.”

“Chase,” she says, pointing at herself, “I’m Q.”

Everything, from the surrealist lunacy of the bit to Sykes’ line delivery, is perfect. (Watch it here.)

Now It Makes Sense

When I first learned that Kelis and Bill Murray were reportedly dating, I didn’t know what to make of it. Thankfully, this tweet from Bossip explains it perfectly.

What to watch this week:

Never Have I Ever: A touching end to one of modern TV’s great teen shows. (Now on Netflix)

Based on a True Story: Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina in a series together as charming as you’d imagine. (Now on Peacock)

What to skip this week:

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: It takes a really bad movie to make you think, “I miss Michael Bay.” (Now in theaters)

The Crowded Room: To squander this many talented, very famous stars is truly an accomplishment! (Now on Apple TV+)

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