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[Rolan7]

Um.  Someone asked why I hate Kitchen Nightmares and Gordon Ramsay, and what I wrote isn't appropriate for the dream thread, so here:
The "drama" and straight up screaming arguments seem manufactured.  A lot of these restaurants have very, VERY serious sanitation issues - I like that the show exposes that - but I just don't "buy" the rest.

Ramsay almost spends the first part of the show ordering several things and taking a bite out of each, or just poking them around, and making complaints that I have no reason to believe.  My brother says there are exceptions, but to me it seems oddly convenient that EVERY SINGLE THING he eats, he hates.  Sometimes there are concrete complaints about consistency, but usually he just calls it "bad" or "the worst ever".  Or "realizes" that it's frozen, something he obviously would know going in.  It's all performative, and it seems like remarkably lazy food criticism.  I'm not learning anything about flavor profiles by him calling it bad/disgusting/gross/dog poo.  Even unfresh, oversalted, or greasy are grade school judgements - and largely subjective!

Uh.  Anyway, more importantly, that initial "taste test" leads to him tearing down the cooks.  He mocks their life's work, raising his voice and punishing them specifically for ANY attempt to explain or defend themselves.  He destroys their egos and they have to take it meekly or be labelled villains by the musical score.  I don't know if he's an abuser, many people say so, but his character on this show sure is.

Sometimes the stress from all this drives people crazy.  That's the goal of the show.  Screaming breakdowns, people fleeing the set, relationships of many years occasionally being lost.  Sometimes Gordon's solution is to sit with an emotionally broken owner and convince them that their chef, who spoke back to him and is now a villain, is the source of all the problems.  Other times he makes a show of forcefully "repairing" relationships he just shattered.

And the victims take it all, because they are in financial hardship - and sure enough, for participating in his little games, they're rewarded with MATERIAL AID at the end.  New equipment, remodeling, etc.  Sometimes even this gets melancholy as people try to adjust to restaurants which are wildly revamped in style and menu.  Ramsay once had a "hoarder" crush his accumulated antiques in a garbage truck.  The editing of the show depicts it as a victory, because that's the abuser's narrative.  It's fucking sick and manipulative and I'm tearing up a bit.

It... emotionally exploits impoverished food service people by dangling a money carrot.  I guess that's literally his entire fucking career in a nutshell.  Fuck, sorry.

Edit:  also I know this is stupid but I really really don't like seeing perfectly good food being thrown away, regarding the initial taste-test.

[bloop_bleep]

I've heard online that Gordon Ramsay is actually really nice in person. And that his character on his own cooking segments is closer to his real self.

[MrRoboto75]

I've heard online that Gordon Ramsay is actually really nice in person. And that his character on his own cooking segments is closer to his real self.

Consider his masterchef show where he works with kids, he's a decent person.  Also see if you can find the british version of Nightmares, the editing is less shitty.

A lot of the times (perhaps not all) he gets mad with people is because they end up butting heads.  They think they're better than a multi Michelin star chef, or that they can get away with lying to him.  Same with Hell's Kitchen, it's clashing of egos.  There's usually genuine issues with management or the owner that really explains why these businesses are failing, and often enough why they end up failing again when he leaves.

[George_Chickens]

I feel the US version, at least, is highly scripted. Every single episode has the exact same 'beat', every single time. There were also multiple lawsuits over faked footage, though I'm not sure if they were successful.

[King Zultan]

I always preferred the UK version of the show.

[Caz]

Yeah, the UK version is pretty good. The USA version is just 90% people screaming at each other and that horror door squeak sound effect.

[MrRoboto75]

that horror door squeak sound effect.

*vuuurrrreeeee*

[Jopax]

Yeah, US versions of anything amp up the drama to retarded levels, because heaven forbid someone wants to watch a cooking show for the cooking and not fabricated drama and conflict. And don't get me started on the artificial time limits and everything that goes with that shit, how the interesting parts of the craft (whatever it might be) get buried under unnecessary drama and bullshit.

Ah the good old days of Discovery and Nat Geo where you watched shit to learn and not watch garbage 'reality' shows.

[Rolan7]

Thanks for letting me rant about it!  I got pretty... judgemental there, but the American version had just given me a pretty bad nightmare.  Sounds like the British version is more what I'm looking for, like actual food criticism and learning how restaurants work.

I seem to remember Hotel Hell being more pleasant than American Kitchen Nightmares too.  Though I had to stop watching that because of... _{bed bugs}... which wasn't the show's fault at all.

[MrRoboto75]

the American version had just given me a pretty bad nightmare.

A kitchen nightmare

[Naturegirl1999]

Ah the good old days of Discovery and Nat Geo where you watched shit to learn and not watch garbage 'reality' shows.

I miss when Animal Planet played educational shows about non human animals, like the Best 10 of some trait, or Monsters Inside Me

[TamerVirus]

Member when the History channel was the Hitler and related topics channel and not the pawn shop extreme fishlogtrucker aliens channel?

[Naturegirl1999]

I remember, it was long ago thiugh

[Rolan7]

Dad just called me to say he's lost feeling in half his body, maybe a stroke or something, but he's definitely not seeing a doctor.  But someone needs to climb a ladder to plug a leak in the roof, and he *could* do it, but...

2021 continuing to come out strong, huh.  I worry about him a lot, between this and his chronic coughing.  It'll feel good to help out though, and also I'm not changing out of my coder socks or favorite ratty t-shirt.

Edit:  (It's been a couple hours and he has his SO there looking after him, so I'm not any more worried about him dying than usual.  But obviously I'm not letting him climb on the roof)

[Iduno]

Security holes I think is the big thing. Also they might feel obligated to release security patches or other patches if problems crop up while the player is technically no longer supported but still used in some places.

I think the unofficial description is "internet security's screen door" due to the number of holes.

This program is not a program of honor...

The future generations must be warned of the toxicity of Adobe Flash

I mean, Flash was dangerous and repulsive to us.