Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Welcome!
Pretty basic idea here: I put all my TV writing here rather than in the main blog, so I don't alienate anyone who doesn't want to see extended recaps or the like. I'm sure some TV stuff will wind up on the main blog from time to time, but I'll try to take it easy on you all.
New on TV: Hell's Kitchen
If you've watched any of the Gordon Ramsay shows that have aired on BBC America - Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Boiling Point, or Beyond Boiling Point - then you'd have some idea of what the Fox summer unscripted show Hell's Kitchen is going to be like. Ramsay berates kitchen staff at volume and with words not normally associated with prime time network TV (even on Fox). The twist this time is that one of the 12 staffers will wind up winning a restaurant for surviving his or her time as the object of Ramsay's wrath.
The process looks pretty straightforward: the 12 staffers are split into two teams of six (red and blue), and if the first show is anything to measure by each week they'll serve in the Hell's Kitchen restaurant with comment cards being the key to which team wins. The best staffer on the losing team (best as judged by Ramsay, apparently) gets to nominate two people for firing. Ramsay makes the decision on who to let go. An added similarity to The Apprentice is that each team has a sous chef, kind of a culinary George and Carolyn, though neither gave much input last night.
The staffers represent a mix of experience in the kitchen, from active chefs to novices who've never cooked professionally. Interestingly, the first challenge - to make a signature dish for Ramsay - proved most successful for two of the novices. Those with experience tended to be judged harshly, perhaps moreso given that Ramsay knew of their background.
The second challenge was the surprise opening of the Hell's Kitchen restaurant, with each team having to learn the menu in scant hours. As you can imagine, chaos ensues, and Ramsay winds up shutting things down rather than compounding the disaster at hand (with some people waiting more than an hour for entrees).
As realistic as this was presented, it's hard to see the second challenge as anything more than a staged opening. The idea that anyone, never mind a chef of Ramsay's character, would open in such a fashion with these teams and expect anything more than the train wreck that came to pass. The staffers didn't seem to process it in this manner, which I'd chalk up to naivete if it weren't for the prospect of Ramsay boring down on you for mistakes. Given the wrath of his ire, I'd be treating this task as the real deal without question.
Scenes with the customers seemed pretty staged as well, in that way that the interactions on The Restaurant never seemed to ring true. Even so, the rejoinder "Lead these women back to plastic surgery" was pretty funny.
In the end, one of the novices who elicited one of the few positive comments from Ramsay during the signature dish challenge got bounced, mostly for not helping out when her team got backed up (she was on the dessert station, and gamely waited for dessert orders rather than help process dishes that would actually get diners towards ordering dessert).
The first episode did a good job in getting us to connect names to faces, but the personalities didn't come out as much. We did get hear some from Andrew (whose "absolute penne" you saw Ramsay spit out during an oft-repeated promo), a guy who seems like a good candidate for The Onion's infographic on "Who Needs a Good Cock Punching?" based on his general attitude. There's also a pastry chef named Dewberry (seriously) who may be a little thin-skinned (it didn't help that he was nominated for firing after being assured he wasn't going anywhere). Everyone else is kind of a blur.
Production-wise, it's pretty typical for an unscripted show. There was a great moment of mismatched voice-over in the first half-hour. I do like that commercial breaks are given short bumpers rather than a quick cut to black, though using them for every break is a little much. The narrator sounds like the guy from The Weakest Link.
For now I plan to keep watching. Given how things came together for the restaurants in Kitchen Nightmares there's hope that future episodes will have something other than Ramsay's screaming and pushing of plates into the chests of his male staffers (notable that he did not push an offending plate of risotto into the chest of a female staffer, though I think he'd like to just to keep everyone on the same level).
The process looks pretty straightforward: the 12 staffers are split into two teams of six (red and blue), and if the first show is anything to measure by each week they'll serve in the Hell's Kitchen restaurant with comment cards being the key to which team wins. The best staffer on the losing team (best as judged by Ramsay, apparently) gets to nominate two people for firing. Ramsay makes the decision on who to let go. An added similarity to The Apprentice is that each team has a sous chef, kind of a culinary George and Carolyn, though neither gave much input last night.
The staffers represent a mix of experience in the kitchen, from active chefs to novices who've never cooked professionally. Interestingly, the first challenge - to make a signature dish for Ramsay - proved most successful for two of the novices. Those with experience tended to be judged harshly, perhaps moreso given that Ramsay knew of their background.
The second challenge was the surprise opening of the Hell's Kitchen restaurant, with each team having to learn the menu in scant hours. As you can imagine, chaos ensues, and Ramsay winds up shutting things down rather than compounding the disaster at hand (with some people waiting more than an hour for entrees).
As realistic as this was presented, it's hard to see the second challenge as anything more than a staged opening. The idea that anyone, never mind a chef of Ramsay's character, would open in such a fashion with these teams and expect anything more than the train wreck that came to pass. The staffers didn't seem to process it in this manner, which I'd chalk up to naivete if it weren't for the prospect of Ramsay boring down on you for mistakes. Given the wrath of his ire, I'd be treating this task as the real deal without question.
Scenes with the customers seemed pretty staged as well, in that way that the interactions on The Restaurant never seemed to ring true. Even so, the rejoinder "Lead these women back to plastic surgery" was pretty funny.
In the end, one of the novices who elicited one of the few positive comments from Ramsay during the signature dish challenge got bounced, mostly for not helping out when her team got backed up (she was on the dessert station, and gamely waited for dessert orders rather than help process dishes that would actually get diners towards ordering dessert).
The first episode did a good job in getting us to connect names to faces, but the personalities didn't come out as much. We did get hear some from Andrew (whose "absolute penne" you saw Ramsay spit out during an oft-repeated promo), a guy who seems like a good candidate for The Onion's infographic on "Who Needs a Good Cock Punching?" based on his general attitude. There's also a pastry chef named Dewberry (seriously) who may be a little thin-skinned (it didn't help that he was nominated for firing after being assured he wasn't going anywhere). Everyone else is kind of a blur.
Production-wise, it's pretty typical for an unscripted show. There was a great moment of mismatched voice-over in the first half-hour. I do like that commercial breaks are given short bumpers rather than a quick cut to black, though using them for every break is a little much. The narrator sounds like the guy from The Weakest Link.
For now I plan to keep watching. Given how things came together for the restaurants in Kitchen Nightmares there's hope that future episodes will have something other than Ramsay's screaming and pushing of plates into the chests of his male staffers (notable that he did not push an offending plate of risotto into the chest of a female staffer, though I think he'd like to just to keep everyone on the same level).
Paris Hilton's Unmeaning Genius
Among the listings for tonight's programs on Boston's UPN 38: Britney & Keith: Chaotic.
The future Mrs. Latsis will never have this problem.
The future Mrs. Latsis will never have this problem.
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