“Kitchen Nightmares” — Peter’s
Why don’t you —- yourself you —— —- —-
I’ve been debating on whether or not to watch this show. I love food-based television, and I’ve seen the British version of this show, but Wednesday is getting to be a particularly packed night of television. With Top Chef ending a couple weeks, I had initially thought I could probably squeeze it in. Having watched an entire episode last night, the decision was made for me: Kitchen Nightmares is borderline unwatchable. Thank you TV Gods for keeping my Wednesday from spiraling completely out of control.
Fans of the British version, or of Hell’s Kitchen will probably find enough to enjoy about this show to continue tuning in. I’ve seen a few episodes of the former, don’t particularly care for the latter and am completely indifferent to Ramsey as a personality so I’m not surprised I could barely stomach this first episode of his new series. The first act had so much screaming in it, I almost bailed by the first commercial break. In hindsight that might have been a good idea.
I can’t tell if the series is helped or hurt by the insanity of the restaurant employees. Would it be a better show if it was just about fixing the restaurant without all the drama? Thirty minutes into last night’s episode and there had been very little of Gordon actually doing anything, and then when he did start making changes they all seemed pretty obvious. A new kitchen. A family style menu. The telling off of an idiot owner. The fact of the matter is this restaurant was already having a problem with bill collectors, they couldn’t afford repairs even if they wanted to make then (well, maybe if Peter hadn’t been using the place as his personal ATM).
“Peter’s†idiocy was so extreme I could barely believe he was an actual human. Hell, he might not have been. Perhaps too extreme. It wreaked of FOX producer-tinkering. It seemed… dare I say… fake. He was such preposterous character it came off as nothing shy of shocking that he would all of sudden see the light and mend his evil ways.
Bottom line: I can’t watch this show. It’s too much. Too loud. Too aggravating. It’s sixty minutes of people screaming. It’s like when you’re younger and thought Chasing Amy was a really honest movie and then years later realized all of that raw, emotion was really just two characters screaming at each other and not nearly as poignant as you once thought. Screaming and actual drama are two completely different things. I’ll take Anthony Bourdain and Padma any day over Kitchen Nightmares any day of the week.
