Something's funky in the kitchen

Ok, so what's going on with Hell's Kitchen? Don't get me wrong, I like the show... it's good, cheesy fun with a lot of overblown drama and theatrics, but this season feels like it's been going on Forever and at the end of last night's episode there were still 4 "chefs" left! At this rate we should have a winner by mid-February.

Maybe I wouldn't mind so much if it only aired in the summer (with all of the other good, mindless entertainment where it belongs) but right now I just wish it would end already. And what was with the last punishment? usually the punishments for losing a challenge would be at least tangentially related to cooking somehow... loading the stock room, cutting huge stacks of potatoes or cleaning out the dumpsters so they can fully appreciate just how much risotto they'd ruined. This time? They were dressed in orange prison jumpsuits and made to clean trash off the side of the road. Were the producers trying to give them "The Chris Brown Experience" or what? And what will their punishment be next time... cleaning elephant dung out of a circus tent? Painting over graffiti on the sides of buildings?

And yet no matter What the next punishment will be, I'll still watch...