Comments on: Fox and the theater of cruelty

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:43:21 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with your observations. I’m reminded of a candidate from a previous season — a kid named “Dewberry” whose chubby face and placid demeanor marked him immediately as the doomed prey of Hunter Ramsey. Really, the show is like one of those straight-to-video nature programs where the audience watches a lion tear into the flesh of a sick, hobbled animal who has been separated from the pack.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:52:57 +0000

I was watching American Idol tuesday night – not exactly reality TV I know – and it is interesting to see how hard they are working to go beyond today’s reality for the contestants. Perhaps 25% of the show was on the stories of each contestant, where they have been; versus the reality of life as an AI contestant.

By: LK

LK — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:11:41 +0000

i only watched the show last night because of this blog post; otherwise i would have flipped past. i laughed out loud at various points, and i’m not an easy laugh. it was so ridiculous as to only be comparable to, as tom pointed out, wrestling. in the barthesian sense…it is spectacle, it is excess, it is grandiloquence, everything is so obviously done for performative reasons. this is not a sport or a competition, this is all for show. even the contestants themselves were laughing. and the division of the teams into men vs women made it even more perfect in that pedestrian way. i can’t think of another reality show that divides along gender lines. this one is such a parody of itself that i can’t imagine what SNL’s darrell hammond (who most resembles chef ramsay) would even do with it.

By: Tom Asacker

Tom Asacker — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:07:40 +0000

I don’t know Grant. I think you’re taking the show too literally. It’s not reality. It’s drama. Like pro wrestling.

By: piersy

piersy — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:07:33 +0000

I’ve been (admittedly hopefully) predicting the imminent decline of reality TV every year for the last 4, and sadly have yet to be proved right.

Hells Kitchen 3, Big Brother 11 *sobs*. Sadly it’s cheap and continues to get the ratings, Leona Lewis has even broken the States meaning Cowell will be pushing that money spinning vehicle until it stops …err.. spinning money I guess.

2011 probably still somewhat optimistic (I sense, deep down inside you feel like I do, and yeah I’ve had my guilty pleasure out of it on occasion too) ho hum *sighs*

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:50:55 +0000

I haven’t seen the recent seasons of Hell’s Kitchen, but the first two seasons were good television. One of the essential problems of reality tv is that the shows are often about amateurs competing at professional activities; Project Runway was the first show to feature professionals (albeit junior) in competition. Hell’s Kitchen directly addresses this problem: amateurs and underskilled professionals are taken to task as they would be if dropped into a starred kitchen in the real world.

Ramsey’s behaviour is not unrealistic of a chef, a lot of them really do act that way to their staff. The culinary industry is more like the army than any other service industry.