Tonight marks the return of Bravo's Top Chef, a maddeningly inconsistent show that can be (1) solidly classy and semi-educational, when people make really good food in interesting ways; (2) entertainingly goofy, when people try hard and their food comes out as undistinguished goo; (3) tame and boring, when people are very earnest about yet another seared scallop; or (4) trashy and irritating, when people fight and swear at each other.

And in keeping with this tendency to be either a lot of fun or really embarrassing, this season is going to Vegas.

In the clip above, the new batch of participants take on the first quickfire challenge, which is the mise-en-place relay. Now, without saying too much about how this goes — the preview clip doesn't show very much of it — it doesn't speak well of this set of contestants that four of them put together can't come up with the idea that if you are going to try to be the person who can shuck clams the fastest, you should have shucked a clam before at some point in your life, ever.

"Let's have the non-clam-shucker shuck the clams!" Let us all now clap sarcastically.