Kitchen Hell and Back Again

I have a dirty secret. I find that when circumstance requires you to reveal such things, it is best to do it quick. Like ripping the duct tape off your captive prior to tube feeding her some broth.

So...I watch Hell's Kitchen...and I like it (sort of). So, you know, fuck you.

To be sure, the show has some very rough edges. It is a reality show (reality-based, anyway) and blusters with all the seamy TV elements that such a show normally comes with. Of course, any reality TV watcher will inform you that many of those exact same foibles are why they watch. Yes, the people are fake and awful, the situations are contrived, the story is cut in a way that doesn't always accurately reflect what happened. It's crass, loud and unwholesome. Hell's Kitchen even adds to the mix a brash, foul-mouthed egotist leading the charge. On the whole, though, the cooking makes it interesting for me (though the other cooking challenge shows offer a better version, cooking wise - I rather enjoyed the PBS version, Cooking Under Fire).

Now, I also happen to like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, a BBC program showcasing some of Gordon Ramsay's skills in a way that his efforts on Hell's Kitchen do not (To further that, Ramsay's show, The F Word, even posits that Gordon Ramsay is not actually a charicature. Witness the man attempt to raise pigs with his wife and children). BBC presents to us a passionate man. Someone who tells it straight, but who is also a confidant and a teacher. The concept being that Ramsay, in each episode, assesses and attempts to remedy the various woes of a particular restaurant. Ramsay uses his valuable experience to help people get on the right track. It's interesting. Food, real people, business, the plight of the underdog, etc.

OK, now to the nitty gritty. What is angering me today? The Fox Network is taking Kitchen Nightmares and making it The Fox Way. I haven't seen it yet, I just couldn't bring myself to watch. However, I know that in typical fashion, Fox has taken the unadorned and comfortable BBC show and transformed it into a spectacle. All indications are that the US version of the show will highlight the sorts of things that made Hell's Kitchen a success, while using only the basic template of the BBC version and paring away the more supporting and real nature of that original. Fox also did Ramsay the favor of putting this new venture on Thursdays at 9ET, opposite CSI and Grey's Anatomy.

More innovation in action!