Imagine this: we are introduced to a nice little business. It has its problems, like every other business, but it seems fine and managable. But we look under the hood, and BAM! The chicken is so raw it's bleeding, the walls sweating mold, the freezer is full of rotten, maggot-ridden gooey animal corpses begging you to end their suffering, the kitchen is on fire and the building is about to explode into a big puddle of grease and dirt, the menu is an amateurish mess, the vile and disgusting selection of food makes no koherent sense and way overprised, the unrealistically loyal employees are about to have a mental breakdown and kill each other with overcooked scallops, the disfunctional owners have no effing clue about anything and are about to divorce and would commit suicide before admitting that anything is wrong, guests hate everything about the place and they will only come back with a lawsuit or the staff of the public health office, and the business makes minus 15.000 dollars per day (not counting the $1,000 worth of food they throw away in the evening). Looks like all is lost, but BAM! Here comes Gordon "Christ" Ramsay, the redeemer of culinary tragedies! In a week or so, he not only saves the business and make a 5 star fine dining restaurant out of it, but he changes the whole live of everyone, handing out salvation with every snarky comment. He is not just a pro chef and a successful business person in this "of course not scripted" (winky face) mess of a show, he is an angel sent by God who will save not only your business, but also your soul. For the love of all raw scallops, in one episode (S2E6) Ramsey takes the owners and the manager to a church where he confesses them himself! Do you need any more proof of his total role confusion and shameless delusion?! I mean yeah, the guy is charismatic, famous, rich, bloody successfull, and as far as we can tell a damn good chef too, but that's about it! He is neither a priest, nor a therapist, and certainly not a philanthropist. But who cares, because gotta show that pure, manipulated and manufactured human drama, baby! They will fight back, but God damn, they'll get their happy ending (and their very own state of the art POS system) in the end! It's an absolute joke.
Grab that #totallynotscripted, #onehundredpercentreal scenario, multiply it by 92, and you get Kitchen Nightmares (minus Amy's Baking Company, not even Jesus can save those nutjobs...). It's a guilty pleasure to watch, but still very bad. Let's assume for a second that what we see in this show is perfectly valid and real! Then Gordon Ramsey makes a show of the most vulnerable, most downtrodden, most desperate restaurant owners, who let themselves be humiliated in front of the country and the world for the lifeline of a financial injection from Fox, naturally for the most noble purpose. No, not for our entertainment, you silly donkey! This is about saving lives! It's a noble cause, you see! A shame that these so-called success stories only work until Ramsey and his crew leave the restaurants: in most cases, the heartwarming miracle bubble bursts in about a year, leaving nothing but disappointment, a huge debt, and a potential tragedy with the loss of reputation as a cherry on top, since this diaperstain can never be erased from the internet, but of course this fact is hardly ever mentioned, because it spoils the pink fairy tale.
Grab that #totallynotscripted, #onehundredpercentreal scenario, multiply it by 92, and you get Kitchen Nightmares (minus Amy's Baking Company, not even Jesus can save those nutjobs...). It's a guilty pleasure to watch, but still very bad. Let's assume for a second that what we see in this show is perfectly valid and real! Then Gordon Ramsey makes a show of the most vulnerable, most downtrodden, most desperate restaurant owners, who let themselves be humiliated in front of the country and the world for the lifeline of a financial injection from Fox, naturally for the most noble purpose. No, not for our entertainment, you silly donkey! This is about saving lives! It's a noble cause, you see! A shame that these so-called success stories only work until Ramsey and his crew leave the restaurants: in most cases, the heartwarming miracle bubble bursts in about a year, leaving nothing but disappointment, a huge debt, and a potential tragedy with the loss of reputation as a cherry on top, since this diaperstain can never be erased from the internet, but of course this fact is hardly ever mentioned, because it spoils the pink fairy tale.