TV in the Lounge, Fall 07 Edition

[sethypooh21]

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It's very satisfying to see someone you don't like make a complete ass of themselves on national television.

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One of my good friends from college was on multiple reality shows (S2 of For Love or Money and the Melana Scanlon ep of "Meet my folks." He won because the other two contestants were an e-porn sexaholic and something similarly repellant for the other dude. She is in fact hot), and I can say that it's even more fun to see someone you DO like make a complete ass of himself on national TV.

Of course, he confirmed that the other 'contestants' were all wannabe actor D-bags...

[katyseagull]

Kitchen Nightmares

Anyone watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares? Ewww. This episode is turning my stomach. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I would think that agreeing to go on this show would completely put a restaurant out of business.

Lol at the way Gordon Ramsey chewed out the general manager. Now that was actually funny. (One thing I like about the English is the way they pronounce the word "massage". They are so superior in their pronunciation.)

I was thinking that I would never set foot in that restaurant but I have to admit the new menu sounds wonderful. I luv Indian food [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[tarheeljks]

i would be surprised if floyd didn't go far since boxers have such great coordination/footwork (esp at his weight class)

edit: also, anyone catch the bionic woman?

[Blarg]

I am bummed because I am missing out on either or both of these due to working late tonight. Argggg!!!! This really sucks.

[katyseagull]

Blarg you work ALL THE TIME. Can't you tell your bosses that you deserve a little time in the evening to watch your cooking shows? What is wrong with those bosses?

[shane88888]

[ QUOTE ]
Kitchen Nightmares

Anyone watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares? Ewww. This episode is turning my stomach. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I would think that agreeing to go on this show would completely put a restaurant out of business.

Lol at the way Gordon Ramsey chewed out the general manager. Now that was actually funny. (One thing I like about the English is the way they pronounce the word "massage". They are so superior in their pronunciation.)

I was thinking that I would never set foot in that restaurant but I have to admit the new menu sounds wonderful. I luv Indian food [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

If you get BBCAmerica, watch the British version of the show. It's far superior, and I'm certainly not one of those twits that always claims the British original is superior.

In the Brit version, Ramsay behaves like himself, which is to say he is charming and inspiring while magnificently profane. The original doesn't feel the need for the constant and distracting background music and effects that Fox is so famous for, and Ramsay works with a short budget. Turning a joint around with a professional cleaning, a $20,000 makeover, and a top-notch hired-gun food consultant isn't very impressive. Inspiring improvement in people, namely a staff's skills and attitude, is impressive.

Also, I find the forced drama, another Fox hallmark, entirely off-putting. The Brit version generally does without, and provides a better sense of actual improvements made. For example, if the British producers were to showing a kitchen cleaning, Ramsay will scour the kitchen himself and force the in-house staff to follow suit. Then, they'll actually show the difference a good cleaning makes. Fox, instead, shows Ramsay monkeying for the camera in a clean suit, glosses over the actual steam-cleaning, and then just moves along like nothing happened.

[shane88888]

Another nice touch about the British show, which I'll doubt Fox will follow, are the Kitchen Nightmare Revisited episodes.

These are exactly what they sound like; Ramsay returns, usually 4-6 months later but sometimes sooner, to see what lasting effects his influence may or may not have had. He seems to genuinely care about the people he encounters, and really is a likable guy.

I don't get why Fox feels the need to make him seem like such a one-dimensional ass.

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]
Another nice touch about the British show, which I'll doubt Fox will follow, are the Kitchen Nightmare Revisited episodes.

These are exactly what they sound like; Ramsay returns, usually 4-6 months later but sometimes sooner, to see what lasting effects his influence may or may not have had. He seems to genuinely care about the people he encounters, and really is a likable guy.

I don't get why Fox feels the need to make him seem like such a one-dimensional ass.

[/ QUOTE ]


The British version sounds cool! I was actually hoping to see Ramsay portrayed in a lower key, more realistic way, doing more of the cleaning up and hands-on training. You're right about the forced drama being off-putting. (And god so much drama! Geez.)

It's interesting you mention how Fox portrays Ramsay as one-dimensional. I caught about 15 minutes of his interview with Larry King last night and was pleasantly surprised. The guy seemed really sharp and worldly. Fascinating to listen to him. I wish Fox wouldn't edit him so much.

[shane88888]

Check YouTube. His instructional stuff is great.

My List of Improvements:

1. Let him be himself. They guy is more charismatic than most movie stars, and also very funny. No need to force the yelling. He's facing plently of incompetence; the explosions will come naturally.

2. Stop with the dramatic music. A good program has a natural ebb and flow of emotions. If drama is constantly forced, then eventually it has little effect. This can be applied to every non-animated show on Fox, with the exception of House.

3. Calm down with filth. We get it; the restaurant has insects, rodents, filthy surfaces, rotten produce, and spoiled meat. This can all be established in three mintues, not 25, and nobody wants to look at any of these things for great length.

4. More of Gordon working with the chefs, though I understand why he brought in outside help in this episode. Though Ramsay is probably even skilled in Indian cuisine, he can't teach a cook who can't speak English. I'd prefer if they cut out the consultants in all future episodes. Ramsay is most entertaining while turning a [censored] chef or manager into a new, motivated man.

5. Focus on the clean. I guarantee it will always be interesting, and he will do this in most every episode. The transformation of a good cleaning is only amazing if you bother to actually show the results.

6. Focus more on staff improvements. In the American episode, most of the show was spent on establishing the horror. Then, too much time was spent on conflict. I can guarantee that he tried to make things work with that manager, but this was never shown. Ramsay gives everyone a chance. Gordon's work, if any, with the Indian manager was rushed, and they never even showed any interaction between Ramsay and the bald manager. If either of these guys were competent all along, the British version would have pointed this out. At least give me the illusion of growth.

7. No more overnight, magical renovations. If they're going to do this, then establish that the money's coming from the owner's pocket. One man making a difference is far more compelling than a massive corporation financing complete overhauls.

8. More of Ramsay and the waitresses. This is for my own amusement. He is a shameless, shameless gash hound. Watch this closely - the guy will relentlessly flirt with EVERY under-40 woman he meets. I do find this really amusing.

[Blarg]

I can see past the forced drama pretty easily, because a true make-over of a business, and the reshaping of staff attitudes, can be so complex, prolonged, and difficult, and prone to so many false starts and misfires. To convey anything of it at all, you are working in shorthand. It's not Faulkner, not even Hemingway, it's shorthand. It's a guy on an aircraft carrier deck with two flags. The truth is, there's so much drama involved that you can't portray a tenth of it. All you can do is wow people with the prettiest colors, for the most part.

Fox isn't usually gifted with a subtle palette, granted. But Ramsay is almost certainly not choosing restaurants lacking drama, either. And it is t.v., after all. What are our alternatives -- to show the frustrating politics in depth?

What would really happen in most organizations is that incompetent people would be fired sooner rather than later. The high artificiality of the show concept is that he is going to turn a restaurant around without changing its personnel roster fundamentally. That is a prodigious and unrealistic, and often self-defeating, handicap. And most people are probably not interested why.

I think a fairer critique of the show is that the successes of the restaurant, despite the crippling handicap of trying to retain grossly incompetent staff, is to a great extent a "gimme" from Ramsay. It is he who comes up with the new menus and concepts, and teaches them to what I imagine must often be the nonplussed staff and addle-brained owners scrambling to catch up. The new vision and its implementation does not grow up organically from the core competencies and understanding of the owners and staff, but is bestowed as a gift from someone who is himself gifted and experienced far beyond what they or most others could muster. And therefore, the transformation lacks some essential drama. Everyone loves an underdog, but who is an underdog when Ramsay comes along to wipe the peppery drool off their bleeding netherholes? There is undoubtedly some growth, but it is so undercut by Ramsay's removal of the central tragedy of incompetence in the face of ambition and its horrible repercussions, despite a brief bit of drama and objection on his part.

The truth is, Ramsay is a terrific pussycat in this show. Which in fact matches something I was reading in a collection of short pieces of Anthony Bourdain, who took great pains to point out in both a particular piece and in his end notes on that piece that Ramsay is actually a total pussycat and is ridiculously over-hyped as someone loud or cruel or disrespectful of kitchen staff. Bourdain was quite, and repeatedly, insistent on this fact, and seemed almost personally offended that Ramsay could be accused of being anything else.

Of course, this is what made Ramsay's career, not as a chef and restaurant entrepreneur, because that is a done deal, but as a t.v. star. So you can't feel too bad for him. He's hardly been forced to continue to pop up on the small screen.

But the truth is, I wish he would step back a little bit and that there could ever be a chance for a project he took on to require a drastic change of personnel or for it to fail. The struggle is more poignant when it is not Ramsay's attempt to succeed, which is kind of fore-ordained, but the attempts of the unwashed, like you and me, to succeed. Maybe even despite our heinous selves.

I would love for the hero to be someone besides Ramsay himself.